12/12 From Seed Experiment - 21 Strains

Alaric

Well-Known Member
Hey HDS,

Congrats on the "Skunk works"----- big improvement over 1st round.

Curious about the final yield (weight).

Have you decided on a plan of attack for the next round? Still planning to switch to LEDs?

A~~~
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Quick Update.

Today is Day 58 flower and the official harvest day has been set for this Sunday. I've managed to get 2 helper which is going to be awesome...I'm going to need it. I expect Chapter 4 bounty to be my best by far. Much improved weight and the quality is on par with what I got in Chapter 1...excellent.

Here are a few pictures of some small buds I took on or around day 53. They will be manicured tomorrow and then begin the cure process.
(I should have waited until Lights out...sorry for the sub par quality)

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@Alaric
I will finally be able to get official weights and pictures of Chapter 3 harvest tomorrow afternoon :)
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
If anyone would like to chime in and give feedback on the end strategy, please feel free to do so.

There are 2 things I've never done:
A) Given them an extended period of darkness leading up to harvest
B) "Flushed". I spent countless hours studying this topic way back in Chapter 1 and decided that flushing made no sense to me.

My current nutrient strength is on the upper band of what I've been running...~580 PPM.

I generally add about 5 gallons of fresh water per day with A&B. Any thoughts on simply doing my final top-offs with water only? A water only top-off will reduce the PPM by roughly 50 to 60 PPM's.

My current light schedule is on at 7:15 AM and off at 6:45 PM (11.5 on, 12.5 off). Harvest time is noon Sunday so my initial thought is just unplug the lights when they turn off Saturday night and come sunday, I will harvest after they have had roughly 17 hours of darkness. But I'm considering adding 1 more full day of darkness to this...any thoughts?
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Damn... Now that is some attractive looking Skunk #1. Those with the blue background are Frostiest bud thread material.

Isn't it amazing what base nutes in an efficient nft system can do...
Sure is man...sure is. And I have you to thank for that. I was skeptical but trusted you and stuck with it. I also did not stick a MH bulb in once during flowering...as tempting as it was :)
Those pictures don't even do the resin justice...I will get much better pictures...I promise.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
It's been very rewarding to see you have success with your system especially considering the work and thought you put in to it. I look forward to seeing more pics.

I would not do A because they won't be just in the dark, they would be in the dark with their feet wet. They will soak up water to the max but not transpire it as much as under light. For me, it would be a quick way to get budrot (though I got to add that shit is just in the air here). So I don't turn off the light until they are chopped, and then they go into the dark and don't abruptly stop just because they are chopped. I do think it's best to harvest after a night but multiple days I would avoid in hydroponic anyway.

As for B, during both the high ppm and low ppm runs I always ended very low, letting the res (nutes) deplete or help that by adding water.

There's flushing and there's flushing... Which is still an understatement. Flushing, one of the acts that could be described as flushing anyway, in nft works rather well. If you would empty the rez, fill it with RO water, and recirculate through that root mass it definitely won't come out at 0ppm. So you can effectively flush nutrients from the root space, much more effective than trying to leach nutrient elements from soil or any other medium. That will force it to use its reserves, of which they got plenty to last to sunday.

Long story short, I would no longer add nutes and would let the ppm drop towards 300 or less for the past 2-3 days. Not because otherwise the bud will taste harsh or w/e, but because I'm cheap and it saves nutes and it won't cost a gram.

I usually don't put a lot of value in what nutrient manufacturers say but H&G does recommend a flushing period of 2-3 days if I remember correctly for the hydro and aquaflakes. Whether it helps anything is up for debate, but giving them only water for the past several days isn't going to affect yield or quality negatively either.
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
It's been very rewarding to see you have success with your system especially considering the work and thought you put in to it. I look forward to seeing more pics.

I would not do A because they won't be just in the dark, they would be in the dark with their feet wet. They will soak up water to the max but not transpire it as much as under light. For me, it would be a quick way to get budrot (though I got to add that shit is just in the air here). So I don't turn off the light until they are chopped, and then they go into the dark and don't abruptly stop just because they are chopped. I do think it's best to harvest after a night but multiple days I would avoid in hydroponic anyway.

As for B, during both the high ppm and low ppm runs I always ended very low, letting the res (nutes) deplete or help that by adding water.

There's flushing and there's flushing... Which is still an understatement. Flushing, one of the acts that could be described as flushing anyway, in nft works rather well. If you would empty the rez, fill it with RO water, and recirculate through that root mass it definitely won't come out at 0ppm. So you can effectively flush nutrients from the root space, much more effective than trying to leach nutrient elements from soil or any other medium. That will force it to use its reserves, of which they got plenty to last to sunday.

Long story short, I would no longer add nutes and would let the ppm drop towards 300 or less for the past 2-3 days. Not because otherwise the bud will taste harsh or w/e, but because I'm cheap and it saves nutes and it won't cost a gram.

I usually don't put a lot of value in what nutrient manufacturers say but H&G does recommend a flushing period of 2-3 days if I remember correctly for the hydro and aquaflakes. Whether it helps anything is up for debate, but giving them only water for the past several days isn't going to affect yield or quality negatively either.
Sweet...thanks! My last rez change was Tuesday. I'll go ahead and do another one tomorrow with no nutes and PH'd only. I'll probably skip the ZONE too then. My well water comes in around ~250.
I had not considered the "Wet Feet" comment so I definitely won't do that then. I can't wait...I haven't been as excited about this harvest since Chapter 1 :)
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
I've never done the dark period thing, as sativied mentioned I worried I'd get rot with them sitting in the dark for a long time.

I have always flushed, aka used only water late in the cycle. I've never seen any problems with it. I don't know that it helps either, but in my head why keep using nutrients that cost me money on my plants that seem to already have all the goodies they need for the last week or so.

When I 'flush' I still use zone and silica.

Great job so far. :)
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
I just did a full reservoir change and used only plain water. My well water comes in around ~250PPM and after the change, we're sitting at 380PPM. I decided not to add anything at all to the water including ZONE. Water temps remain in the mid to high 60's and with only 2 days to go I just did not feel it was needed.
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
I know the feeling. It's such a shitty job. I've only had help twice and both times they didn't trim well enough for my tastes. Granted I've never harvested anything like the mountain you are facing. And it doesn't look like it will be very easy as everything looks as frosty as possible. Lots of scissor hash in your future. It's funny because i'm running 16 strains too, which at the beginning seemed like so much fun, and now I'm intimidated by the job ahead of not only trimming it all, but testing it all as well. :) I'm sure that part wont be so bad. haha
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Neither of my helpers has ever trimmed before so I'm still formulating my plan. I'm capable of doing a great job but usually do a shitty job partly because I'm lazy and partly because I just hate trimming. I might pose the task in a similar way that detasseling corn is done. Person A will do all of the big fans and all of the easy secondary fans. Pass it off to person 2 who digs in a little deeper to get those harder to find stems. And then pass them off to me for the final manicure and hang.
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Chapter 4 Update - Harvest Time!

Harvesting took place over Saturday and Sunday...days 104/105 and flowering days 60/61. It was a huge undertaking and the amount is staggering! After 21 man hours, here is what the room looks like right after we stopped. I ran out of hangers but have more coming on Wednesday. Ended up with ( 8 ) 26 site hangers, (3) 12 site hangers and then 5 layers of hanging racks. Most of what is in the hanging racks is yet to be trimmed...that will be dealt with over the next 2 days.

Temps in the room are 59 degrees and RH is at 40%. I'm going to bring in a 1K heater and get the room up into the mid 60's. My goal is to get a 8 to 9 day hang time and I should be able to get this with low to mid 60's. I'll use my dehumidifier as needed. The sheer quantity and quality of this harvest is breathtaking. Easily my best effort.

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