Otto’s (Hopefully) Perpetual Grow

Otto_Gelato · October 30, 2021, 3:39pm

Hey folks, I’m new to OG. This will be my first diary here. Hopefully it’s of interest to somebody. I’ve been growing a few years now. I’m just changing and expanding my setup a bit.

My goal is to grow more plants in smaller containers. I was previously in big pots that could easily lead to unruly plants.

I’m growing from seed this time, looking for some moms and breeding studs.

This room is what will be the flower room, but this whole run will be in this 8x8 tent, from seed to flower. I also have a 5x5, a 4x4 and a 4x2 that will be set up over the next couple of weeks. These will be used for veg, nursery and breeding purposes.

The flower room is set up with 3 tables. Each has it’s own 25 gallon reservoir. The water distribution is through a nine outlet Orbit manifold on each table, fed by a 400GPH aquarium pump. I’m using GH FloraPro this run.

The medium is coco in FloraFlex EasyFill bags.

Each table has a 480w LED with additional deep red bar, on separate timer, for bloom boost/flower initiation.

This time around, I have several seed strains going. I have them in a Mammoth Micro Propagation tent right now, under T5 fluorescent. They are:

Two Strains from Fem seeds, my son will be growing on the front table:

Kosher Kush (DNA)
Violator Kush (Seeds Online)

Regulars that I’ll be taking care of on the back two tables
Kraken (7 East Genetics)
Pakistan Valley (World of Seeds)
Afghan Poison F1 [Afghan Hash Plant x Durban Poison] (Me)

Neb · October 30, 2021, 3:46pm

Looks awesome best of luck I’ll be checking in to see how it goes

Currently working on a similar setup myself!

Sasquatch · October 30, 2021, 7:57pm

Looks like you have some good, independent areas to play with!!! Pulling up a chair for the sho…Welcome to OG @Otto_Gelato !!!

Otto_Gelato · November 3, 2021, 2:39pm

Added a second light ( I had a t5 fluorescent. Added a 24w t5 LED) to the micro-propagation tent, as I thought they could use a bit more light. Also dropped another 10 of my Afghan Poison F1s, as I realized I’d have a lot of empty space if I have a lot of males. All of them popped a radicle, now we’ll see what kind of vigour they have.

These are my first cross, so I have high hopes. I’m going to run them in 1 gallon Quick Fill bags, rather than 2 gallon.

Unfortunately only 4 out of ten of the Pakistan Valley germinated. But those 4 look strong so far. Hopefully I get a female. out of those four who is worthy of being hit with the PCK pollen I have.

The Kraken from 7 East is strong - 8 for 8 germinating, but I screwed up and damaged one transplanting to plugs. One seems pretty runty, but the rest look good.

The Kosher Kush and Violator Kush are my son’s, so I won’t update on those too much, but it looks like he has 7 plants to work with - KK x 4 VK x 3. The VK are quite vigorous.

Otto_Gelato · November 8, 2021, 12:18am

Moved the first table of seedlings into their Quick Fill pots and onto the drip system today. So far, so good.

I’m doing frequent fertigation. I have the system running 3x daily. For 2 minutes on the first watering, 1 minute for the next two. So far I’m getting enough runoff to get a reading, but not so much it would be a pain to manage.

There are two Pakistan Valley and seven Afghan Poison F1’s. I’m happy my F1s are so hardy.

I gotta say. I love the quick fill bags. No more mixing medium, just pop in the emitters and turn them on. 10 minutes later you have a pot ready to plant in.

Otto_Gelato · November 9, 2021, 4:24pm

Everything is up and running now. Culled it down to:

10x Afghan Poison
4x Pakistan Valley
4x Kraken
4x Violator Kush
3x Kosher Kush

I’ve automated lights and pumps, using smart plugs. I’m monitoring temperature and humidity remotely. I want to put the new WiFi controller on my AC infinity, so I can control that remotely too.

Otto_Gelato · November 11, 2021, 9:23pm

So my air stones seem to be pushing up my PH. I went to bed with 5.8 ph and woke up to around 7. The plants should be fine for a day until I can get a bottle of PH Down. I’ve never really had to adjust PH much in the past, even with an aerated reservoir.

GramTorino · November 11, 2021, 10:34pm

Nice setup @Otto_Gelato
I like the easyfill bag concept. Simple.
Never used the GH FloraPro powders. What kind of mix are you doing, feed ec?

Great variety.

On the PH. Just my experience - starting with RO water and using Jacks nutes.
I quit aerating my res, and started using a mini submersible pump to keep the surface water moving. Very stable PH now. I had similar issues in the past using GH Trio and tap.

Otto_Gelato · November 11, 2021, 11:31pm

Thanks. Right now I’m just following GH formula for light feed with Remo CalMag, which puts my ppm at about 900. I use municipal water, but I live in a small town with really good, non chlorinated water that tests around 180 ppm. I’ve never had any issues with it in 3 years. Usually, my ph starts around 5.7 and rises to about 6.2 - 6.3 over the course of a week.

Otto_Gelato · November 15, 2021, 1:36pm

I’ll do an update on the plants later, when I have a bit of time. But I just took a quick look in on them and thought it might be a good time to mention that I was using Royal Blue enhancement pucks:

The idea is to add some blue spectrum that LEDs might be missing to help with node spacing, etc. I have also been leaving them on during light out, which is supposed to promote even canopy. Anyways, I just wanted to show the room in lights out. Just because I think it looks cool. Lol.

Otto_Gelato · November 16, 2021, 2:45pm

I adjusted the ph a couple of days ago and it’s holding in range. I don’t know if that’s cause or coincidence, but I’m seeing pretty explosive growth suddenly.

Two of the Kraken have really blown up over the past couple of days:

And I’m super excited about the F1’s I created last summer. They’re kind of like my firstborns. I’m really looking to find something that give good pain relief for joint and neuropathy pain, without serious couch lock. I think the Durban /Afghan combo may just deliver. Hopefully I’ll find a keeper mom and a stud male for f2s :

My son’s Violator Kush are looking great:

But sadly, only one of his Kosher Kush wasn’t a runt:

I’m hoping that one turns out nicely, as I’d really like a good mother of that strain.

Some of the Afghan Poison are a little taller, with nodes that aren’t as tightly spaced and reddish stems:

I’m guessing these will lean Durban. The Durban mom (sorry no pics) had red stems and pinkish hues in the bud, with a really clean cerebral high.

Anyways, that’s all for now. I know there’s only a few people reading any of this, but it’s a good self exercise. Any audience is gravy. Thanks to those few btw. Please feel free to let me know if you have any advice. I’m always down to learn…

Otto_Gelato · November 23, 2021, 9:27pm

What a difference a week makes! Most of the plants are ready to be topped.

Unfortunately, it looks like one of my Afghan poison F1s is a herm. It started showing sex early, but appears to be non-committal about which one.

My question to OGers is. Since I’m hoping to go to F2 with keepers, should I be worried that the whole line is susceptible to herming. Or can I stress test keepers and and carry on the line if they don’t herm?

Sasquatch · November 24, 2021, 1:13am

I would say carry on and see what the others do. If many herm, then you will have your answer!

Otto_Gelato · November 25, 2021, 3:49pm

Tossed the herm this morning. It was weird. It was auto flowering. Nobody else seems to be, so hopefully all will be well.

But one of my Kraken seems to have some root level issues. It really looks quite miserable.

So I’ve flushed until the runoff was low ppm, around 300 which is about 70 higher than the tap water I used. I’m hoping that fixes whatever the issue is. If it persists, I’ll flush again tomorrow and add H2O2 to clean the root zone.

Otto_Gelato · December 1, 2021, 8:29pm

That was an eventful week…I had the herm, as previously noted. And the sad look that one plant had decided to show up in other plants. Eventually I figured out that I was watering too much.

This was entirely avoidable…but I was doing frequent fertigation, which I’ve done successfully in coco before, and I forgot to account for the fact that a) QuickFill Pots are pure coco, where in the past I’ve used a coco/perlite mix that was heavy on perlite and b) these are 2 gallons vs. 5 gallon pots I used in the past.

Everything has been topped and cloned now and I should flip some time this week.

The structure of one of my Kraken is quite amazing. All of its branches have tops at the same height, without any training at all. Based on the pictures I’ve seen of other folks growing this, it should have some serious colas.

Moving forward, one watering event a day. I’ll increase to two if needed, when they really start to suck up water in flower.

Oh, and when I was taking clones I noticed that one of my F1s is starting to display some incredible pineapple terpenes right now! Like canned pineapple with a spicy funk in the background. I can honestly say it made my mouth water. I know this might change through flower, but I have my fingers crossed. If those terps hang on or improve, that plant is a keeper. And if it turns out to be a male it will definitely be doing some stud work.

Goat · December 1, 2021, 8:56pm

Cool set up, I’m newish here as well. Just finished my first grow in a long time, everything is chopped and hanging. Tagging along, really pulling for your afghan poison, two of my favorite flavors!

Otto_Gelato · December 21, 2021, 2:43pm

I’ve been a little remiss posting. I got sick for a week and then had a week of catching up on all the stuff I didn’t do that week. Lol.

So we’re 1 week into flower now and all the males have been removed to the man cave tent, where I’ll eventually collect pollen. I ended up with five males, one Kraken, four AP. There are 2 Kraken females that look great. The one I thought was a runt is my biggest plant. There is a Pakistan Valley that isn’t showing sex yet and two that are definitely female. None of my PV clones survived, so I have to wait until that last one shows. The AP is showing two phenos: an Afghan leaning pheno that’s short and sturdy, and a Durban pheno that’s taller and shows red stems, like it’s Durban mom. These Durban types are showing a really musky dankness, with rotten fruit and flower smells that are just incredible.

We had a cold snap here and my tent was going down to the low 50’s, so I added a heater. Now we’re dropping to mid sixties, with a daytime high in the high seventies. Humidity is consistent in the mid forties.

Everybody seems happy!