First grow, Rainforest 66, Secret Jardin

Yeah I need to get a thermometer for my reservoir next time I head to my supply house. Well, I am off to Florida for 7 days, and I have to leave my babies in the care of my girl. I pray they are still alive when I get back...

kristus015 said:

Yeah I need to get a thermometer for my reservoir next time I head to my supply house. Well, I am off to Florida for 7 days, and I have to leave my babies in the care of my girl. I pray they are still alive when I get back...

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if all goes well - you'll be in for a nice surprise when you return - 7 days will make a very noticeable difference! especially at this age!

Glad you both liked my idea. Look forward to seeing the rest of your grow!

It has been a while since my last update. I should be back tomorrow to take some picture and get some stats for an update, but my girl did give me a progress report. So...it seems some of the plants are doing a bit worse while others seemed to have gone through a growth spurt. The average height was measured to be about a foot (some a bit over, some just under). I have decided that when I get back tomorrow I am going to switch to 12/12 and start flowering. That should give me 2 solid months before I need to move.

I was told that the ppm's havent really changed since I left except for lowering due to topping off with clean water. Also, the PH has been shifting very rapidly down to the lower 4's (5.8 to 4.2 in 48hrs) so that is something that will have to be closely monitored. Not sure why the ppm's havent dropped unless the plants are nute locked, but they went through one of the biggest growth spurts during this time. There is some damage to some leaves, and one upper (not top) node of a single plant has the leaves severely curled.

All in all if these can survive my girl's care then they are some resiliant little fuckers.

here is a quick cheat sheet i stole from some other poster (sorry but can't recall who so if this is yours - let me know)... NOTE: EC = PPM

Basic cheat sheet:
Ec goes up, PH goes down=plants require less nutes.
Ec goes down, PH goes up=Plants require more nutes
Ec stable, PH goes up=Equilibrium=Good thang.

That cheat sheet is makes sense now that I see it written out like that. Unfortunately my EC was stable and the PH was dropping. I suppose that could mean they need less nutes, but it has already been less than half strength nutes (from my last update on nute additions) for days and days. I figure they got nute locked because of how much I added at once. Although they then started growing like mad and all new foliage looked pretty healthy. It seems to me that so far I have been using considerably less nutes then what I find listed in charts on the net and from the nute manufacturers. They didnt seem to care about the low levels, and they definately bitched if I tried to be more generous. I just need to get a feel for what the plants want and need, and that is just going to take time. I am back home, but its the dark period so I will have to wait to get update information.

Today is the first day of flowering, and I swapped to a Sunmaster HPS 600w bulb. The entire inside of the tent is like looking at the sun, and when I step back out my eyes see nothing but blue which was interesting. It seems like this bulb is a bit hotter than the MH so I am about to lower the reservoir a little as soon as I find something shorter for it to sit on. Right now the shortest plant is 12" tall, and the tallest is 19" putting it at 12" from the hood glass. Temperatures will vary more through out the day because I am adjusting the additional A/C unit according to whether the grow light is on. It was nice when I could keep the room and tent pretty much the exact same temp for days.

Last night I added 4 mL each of micro hard water, grow and bloom when I topped off the reservoir to ease them back after the previous nute issues. The PH was also 4.2 dropping from 5.6 in 24 hours. The same thing happened 2 nights ago, and again before that. They look fairly well givin the circumstances, though.

DAY 30 - DAY 1 BLOOM - 7.2.08
================
Ambient Temps = 73.7/76.1
Tent Temps = 73.2/80.1
Humidity = 58%
Original PH = 5.8
Adjusted PH = not adjusted
PPM = 460

They grow up fast:

Those stats look just about perfect. They could probably even stand a higher PPM - but don't burn them!

There is something else important to understand about pH and nutrient burn. Nutrients are absorbed by the plant at different pH settings. For example: Nitrogen can be absorbed by the plant with the pH range of 5.6 to 9.0! But Magnesium can be absorbed with a pH of 5.9 to 9.0. So if you keep your pH steady at 5.8 (which is great!) - Magnesium can NOT be absorbed and you will suffer a Mg deficiency caused by pH lockout - not over nuting!

what i am saying is not only is it OK but it is actually better for your pH to fluctuate a little bit (as long as it stays within reasonable boundaries) say from around 5.5 - 6.3 (or thereabouts - weed is very forgiving).

I dont have pictures or stats on this update because life has been busy lately. I just wanted to announce that it looks like all 6 plants are showing a definitive sex. The results are....3 female, 3 male. The largest, healthiest plant (plant 4) is a female which is awesome. Also, the two following it (5 and 6) are also female. I could tell the sex on plant 4 after the first flowering day, and it is only more obvious now. Plants 1-3 arent exactly showing definitive balls yet, but I am pretty confident that is what they are going to be. Definately no hairs like the other 3. Once I can make 200% sure I will rip up the males.
My one concern is the HUGE root masses hanging in the reservoir. Every plant is tangled with the plants on either side, and when I remove the 3 males it looks like I am going to have a problem with this. My two options seem to be A) cut room masses above tangle which leaves a lot in there. B) try to untangle them which seems like a more grim prospect. I dont want to leave plant matter in the reservoir that can decay, but I also dont want to fuck up the female plants by trying to seperate root masses. Any ideas?

kristus015 said:

I dont have pictures or stats on this update because life has been busy lately. I just wanted to announce that it looks like all 6 plants are showing a definitive sex. The results are....3 female, 3 male. The largest, healthiest plant (plant 4) is a female which is awesome. Also, the two following it (5 and 6) are also female. I could tell the sex on plant 4 after the first flowering day, and it is only more obvious now. Plants 1-3 arent exactly showing definitive balls yet, but I am pretty confident that is what they are going to be. Definately no hairs like the other 3. Once I can make 200% sure I will rip up the males.
My one concern is the HUGE root masses hanging in the reservoir. Every plant is tangled with the plants on either side, and when I remove the 3 males it looks like I am going to have a problem with this. My two options seem to be A) cut room masses above tangle which leaves a lot in there. B) try to untangle them which seems like a more grim prospect. I dont want to leave plant matter in the reservoir that can decay, but I also dont want to fuck up the female plants by trying to seperate root masses. Any ideas?

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Cut the males leaving about 3 inches of stem or so - don't mess with the root mass! The males will continue to survive and sprout (just make sure they don't flower) until the females are ready to harvest!

No pollen but no rotten root mass either.

Problem solved and one more reason i use feminized seeds.

Its good to see another RainForest grower. When I had to cull my males, I trimmed the roots. I reached into the res and cut down the middle of the root mass half way between the male and female plants. It didn't seem to hurt the one lady I had left. She yielded over 160 g.

Your grow looks great. Post some more pics when you have time.

kristus015 said:

I dont have pictures or stats on this update because life has been busy lately. I just wanted to announce that it looks like all 6 plants are showing a definitive sex. The results are....3 female, 3 male. The largest, healthiest plant (plant 4) is a female which is awesome. Also, the two following it (5 and 6) are also female. I could tell the sex on plant 4 after the first flowering day, and it is only more obvious now. Plants 1-3 arent exactly showing definitive balls yet, but I am pretty confident that is what they are going to be. Definately no hairs like the other 3. Once I can make 200% sure I will rip up the males.
My one concern is the HUGE root masses hanging in the reservoir. Every plant is tangled with the plants on either side, and when I remove the 3 males it looks like I am going to have a problem with this. My two options seem to be A) cut room masses above tangle which leaves a lot in there. B) try to untangle them which seems like a more grim prospect. I dont want to leave plant matter in the reservoir that can decay, but I also dont want to fuck up the female plants by trying to seperate root masses. Any ideas?

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nice, i have always wanted to see the results of a rainforest 66 with six plants.

Added 4mL each of floramicro hard water, floragrow, florabloom, Canna Boost and 8mL PH Up to one gallon water to top off reservoir.

I keep lowering the plants, but they just keep getting taller. The reservoir is 9" above the ground and the largest plant is about 35" tall. That makes it about 7.5" from the light. I am going to lower the plants the last 9", but I can already tell I am going to have height issues.

I tried to get some closer shots on the nodes of the plants to capture the sex, but one or two of the pics didnt come out great. My initial thought of 3 males and 3 females is in question right now. I took a pretty close look at all of the plants and I think I may have some hermephrodites. The ones I thought were males were assumed to be because they had no obvious hairs, but now all of them have possible hairs. Only one of the 3 believed males is showing obvious balls right now, and it may also have possible hairs at the top node. Pictures below.

DAY 40 - DAY 10 BLOOM - 7.12.08
================
Ambient Temp = 72.9
Tent Temps = 77.6
Humidity = 55%
Original PH = 5.2
Adjusted PH = 6.0
Original PPM = 530
Adjusted PPM = 630


PICTURE INDEX
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1) All plants
2) Plant 1 (balls?)
3) Plant 1 (hairs?)
4) Plant 2 hairs
5) Plant 2 hairs
6) Plant 3 ?
7) Plant 4 hairs
Plant 4 different angle
9) Plant 5 (bad picture)
10) Plant 6 (bad picture)

i checked back to see what kind of seed you are growing and see that it is bag seed which explains the hermaphroditism. That second picture is one of the best examples of a hermie i've seen.

Subscribed. Do you think that the rainforest 66 would be good in a perpetual harvest? Like having 4 of the systems in the same room? Or do you think there are better systems for doing that? I like that 4 rainforest 66's only = 24 plants. Pretty low # but still thinking you can get 3/4 lbs or more every 2 weeks.

Why do people stop these beautiful threads, please come back w/ some update pics

murtymaker said:

Why do people stop these beautiful threads, please come back w/ some update pics

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I stopped posting on the thread mostly because I suck. Also...my girls kept having problems and I was getting rather frustrated.

I did finish these through to harvest, though. Buds were airy, but smoke was only alright. Definately better than the bagseed I got the seeds from, but not really worth the time and effort. On top of that I ended up with mold on about half the harvested bud. Rookie mistakes. I will see what I have in the way of pictures that were taken from after I stopped doing the the thread.

The good thing is that I am currently in the middle of my second grow. Exact same setup, but I am using white widow seeds from marijuana-seeds.nl. If you like I can snap some pictures every now and then of them. Currently the buds are starting to really flesh out. Lots of white hairs.

murtymaker said:

Subscribed. Do you think that the rainforest 66 would be good in a perpetual harvest? Like having 4 of the systems in the same room? Or do you think there are better systems for doing that? I like that 4 rainforest 66's only = 24 plants. Pretty low # but still thinking you can get 3/4 lbs or more every 2 weeks.

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Would a rainforest be good for a perpetual harvest...hmmm. Personally I wouldn't do it. On my next grow (after the one I am currently on) I am going to be using the rainforest for mothers, and I will start cutting clones for the first time. Then I will be going to a bucket system for the clones.

I have all of the parts necessary to build a 12 bucket system with a controller and reservoir. I just need to build it. This will probably be as close to a perpetual harvest as I am going to get for a while. It isnt really perpetual, but I will always have clones in the buckets after each harvest.

is it difficult to change out the water on this system?

i have 4 rain forests under 2 1000ws..( i normaly dont run all 2000 watts do to height) the rainforests are amazing!! except oldschooltofu, yes they are hard to drain. each holds 17 gallons.. and if the system isnt elevated then it takes alot of 5 gallon bucket trips, each only a quarter full, due to how i have to tilt the bucket to get it under the blue drain hose.. very time consuming and painfull to stay squated for about 2 hours just waiting for water to flow. However i fixed the problem by removing their drain hose and linking all 4 rainforests together, then added a valve..with a hose that runs to a floor drain... all i do now is switch the valve... 30 mins later the 4 resivoirs are empty... then i have a hose that i turn on and it fills them with fresh RO water, at the perfect temp 18-22 C. I added a airstone into each to make sure the water is oxygenated when the aero pumps are off..