4 X 4 First Run With Photo-period Strains

[gwheels]

Hello and good day.

As soon as my autos are harvested I will be putting 4 plants in my 4 x 4 tent.

2 Sour Kush (Canuck Seeds)

2 King Tut (Canuck Seeds).

I will veg them for 4 to 6 weeks until I top them a couple of times to fill the tent better.

I have a fusion 4 X 4 x 6.5 tent

6 inch 450 CFM ventilation through a charcoal scrubber. Running it on low keeps the temps at 72 to 82 (cool to peak).

A growthstar scorpion 550 watt cob light (24 X 24 inch light with 9 cobs on it)

And my latest addition

A 4 pot autopot system that I will use to feed my plants.

It is a 13 gallon reservoir that gravity feeds 4 plants with a float system to keep them the right level. The pots a 3.9 gallons each.

All pots will have 1 inch of clay pebbles. Those are phing out right now.

They will be 50/50 perlite and coco. I might do two with 1 inch rockwell cubes and clay pellets and 2 with 50/50 perlite and coco just to see if one is better than the other.

I will post a pic in the next 4 weeks after I get my autoflower harvest finished. Then I am really looking forward to seeing how this works. I hate watering 6 plants in a tent. 4 good photos and an easier way of watering them is going to work out better. And I think it is more idiot proof than DWC or RWDC would be for me.

 

[HerbN.Legend]

Your setup sounds real similar to mine, Do you know the footprint on your light? I might have over read that part

 

[gwheels]

I would say 3 x 3. It gives me room for fans, reservoir and cords

 

[gwheels]

Here is the plan. The reservoir will go on that little bench and I might have to get a smaller oscillating fan to give a bit of room but I think it will work ok. These plants have to get harvested first. 5 should be ready in 3 weeks and the last one can finish while I am vegging the others. :)

 

[HerbN.Legend]

Beautiful! Nothing better than getting the old out and the new in, looks like youre running out of room buddy! Lol

 

[justiceman]

Cool man I've been wondering about those atuo pot systems. I'm along for the ride again!

 

[gwheels]

First time with coco too :) That baby is the auto that will grow while I veg me 4 awesome plants. This time I learn about cropping them to make 4 or 8 bud sites on each of the 4 plants :). I think the learning is the part i like the most. Because I am stocked up on green for the next 6 months it is good to experiment :)

I set the ph on my clay pellets to 4.5. I will use 1 inch of clay pellets in each container and do coco/perlite 50-5o. If i have pellets leftover i might try one 50 50 pellets and rockwool cubes. I have a giant bag of 1 inchers and i have no freaking idea what to do with them anyway.

I have PH down and up to last me forever. And nutes to last me about 1 year of growing. No more expenses for me except electric and water and I am going to get a RO system to make the water part easier. I will put it in the basement so it is where i need it.

In April when they legalize it maybe I can just be a consultant on what not to do. Regardless my summer garden will be within the restrictions (4 plants no more than 4 feet high). All of the cropping and LST training will make those ridonkulous. Or that is my plan at least.

 

[justiceman]

hell ya man! Hahaha they think they are limiting your yield with height restrictions. LOL YA RIGHT! Dude I love coco. I usually run it pure, but I hear 50/50 blends can kick some serious but. Don't let em dry out!

I always wanted to try a rockwoolfloc grow. It's just a huge bag of shredded rockwool kind of like your bag of 1" cubes. I've seen some trees off of pure rockwool grows in pots it was pretty neat.

 

[gwheels]

For the autopot they recommend 50/50 of both of those mixes. coco and perlite or clay pellets and rockwool. There are others too but I have tons of perlite kicking around (I killed them in a hempy). I also have a bag that looks like 50 pounds of grain but its rockwell cubes so it weighs about 5. So lets see what this bad boy can do. I think the auto pot will work for me because I can not stop the over watering. And the auto grow screwed up because I learned PH on that one. I think I am going to have my biggest grow ever but stuff was way too nitrogen starved due to lockout that i finally understood. I am dialing it in now. Constantly variable with precision (5.5 to 6.5 with both mediums).

I have a blue pen and a TDS meter and every damned thing I need to make it work.

I will run the RAW nutrients GROW and BLOOM and some calmag+ from holland I will supplement with bio root and some bud maxxer when I get around to it. I have organic biobud but I would rather get a mineral one and i drive by a hydro shop for grief counseling. It will be the only non sucky part of the whole thing :). The bio root is enough organics. I want to make this as easy as possible for myself. I am thinking about putting the reservoir outside of the tent all altogether . Just a line coming in. I have space beside it and it would be easier to maintain a closed weed environment.

And I am a very big man. The 4 x 4 is cramped with nothing in it :p

My next research project is finding a natural CO2 maker. OR I am making the prison beer kind. I can run those lines in the tent with no bs and keep the stuff outside. With the mars light I might be able to fill more of the tent.

Holy shit i just got excited.

 

[gwheels]

And if I advertise a service (I CAN HELP YOU GROW MONSTER WEED WITHIN THE LAW)

And I charge for that service. I think the customers would be WAY better off than if they had to take my education. I like hard knocks and you pay for beans and stupid but eventually you learn. I think I am on to something.

 

[justiceman]

lmao! I hear you. I am also a big man in a 4x4. Space is tight for sure! I see definitely best to go with the recommended medium choices for the system. Cool man I just looked up RAW so they are basically individual salts that you balance yourself? That's badass. This should be good.

 

[gwheels]

We had a strain change. My sour kush seeds decided to commit suicide. So I cracked out 2 jack herer seeds and they are sprouted and in coco. 3 plants will be 50-50 perlite/coco and one will be 33-33-34 (roughly :) ) perlite/coco/rockwell cubes, because I ran out of perlite and i have a bag of those damned things :).

I have also added my Mars reflector 48 to my lighting. Actual power draw on that light is 100 watts to go with the 550 watt mcob. I think it will fill the space even better.

We are about 2 to 3 weeks away from autopots. The photos are in beer cups at the moment. And lucky me i had yellow and red ones so i can tell which is which. :) This will be my best grow ever because that happens every time. I am taking baby steps. Or I prefer to say no one has ever received a free education. I pay in seeds and yield but things are shaping up.

This round I am going to manifold all 4 plants with 8 tops. I think that is going to work out better. Do you think I need something to support them? I will go get some tinker toys or tomato baskets if I need to. I never had that problem.

:)

 

[justiceman]

Do you think I need something to support them? I will go get some tinker toys or tomato baskets if I need to. I never had that problem.

:)

I literally have thought this every single grow. Sometimes I think "ya I don't need to support them this time" and then some colas fall over. Then another time I'll say "sure I'll put up a screen or small tomato cages" and then they didn't need it lmao.

 

[gwheels]

When do you transplant out of the beer cup?

Transplanting is new to me. Autos don't like it.

One just hit the third node and I am going to manifold it at the fifth.

 

[gwheels]

The future of my tent,,.2 x king tuts (ak47 crossed with ruderalis for quicker flower) 1 X white widow and 1 x jack herer. I am aiming for 8 tops per plant. Let's see what this light and autopot setuo can do.

 

[gwheels]

Here is the Friday update of the photos. The autopot system is installed and ready for when i transplant. I topped the two bigger plants (king tut) and the other two are starting to grow. I also got a vortex fan and my vibration problems are gone. It is considerably better than the cheapo i had before.

The autos are almost done (1 gets jarred tonight, 2 just went in the cold room, 1 should be ready in a week and the other in about 3 weeks. Just in time for the photos to get all of the attention.

 

[justiceman]

When do you transplant out of the beer cup?

Transplanting is new to me. Autos don't like it.

One just hit the third node and I am going to manifold it at the fifth.

Sorry I thought I answered this question haha. I keep em in the beer cups until I see a few signs. Roots coming out of the bottom holes, and the beer cup feeling dense from the mass of roots is what I look for as well as them drinking more often than before. I'm more concerned with a good root system so they can take off when I transplant. I don't pay as much attention to the amount of nodes they have.

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Looking good though man. Glad that vortex isn't annoying like your other fan. I hate excess noise or rattling. I have a vortex myself for exhaust and it's been running strong for a LONG time. That autopot system looks great. I can't wait to see it in action!

 

[gwheels]

I have 1 king tut that just got topped the 2nd time. I topped it and it produced 4 bud sights and i topped them all again and we should have 8. I have one that is at 4 and a white widow that is small and a jack herer that was topped the first time. Should I wait after topping to do a transplant? because I am going to set up the pots to run 2 for now for the king tuts. They are getting big for their cups. The other two have a week or so so I will put a shut off valve in the middle :) Awesome sauce they came with it. So how long after topping would you do before transplant? I dont want to shock the crap out of them but the biggest one would be fine. It is going to be a monster.

 

[justiceman]

That's a pretty good question actually. A lot of people would probably say wait a week after topping, but I'd say it depends on your root system. If the roots are everywhere pot up. If they aren't wait.

 

[jipp]

Sorry I thought I answered this question haha. I keep em in the beer cups until I see a few signs. Roots coming out of the bottom holes, and the beer cup feeling dense from the mass of roots is what I look for as well as them drinking more often than before. I'm more concerned with a good root system so they can take off when I transplant. I don't pay as much attention to the amount of nodes they have.

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Looking good though man. Glad that vortex isn't annoying like your other fan. I hate excess noise or rattling. I have a vortex myself for exhaust and it's been running strong for a LONG time. That autopot system looks great. I can't wait to see it in action!

i just put 4 bb size holes in the bottom of the solo cups.. that should be good for drainage?? or should i do more?

chris.