Maui Waui ScroG, 2 x125W CFLs, Flood & Drain, Cabinet Grow

Sorry dude. Just fixed it.

Hey there SunnyJim, been a while but shit does your afghan look good. Looks like you shaped her in that space perfectly! Well done my friend. So it took my afghan x nl 8 1/2 weeks to finish up. Buds got pretty damn chunky, ill have the final weight here in a few days. Smoked a smaller nug that was dry enough earlier today, and shit was I high. I didnt let the trichs turn too amber so its a damn good smoke, just the high I was looking for. Good body buzz but I was really "up" at the same time. I would definitely grow this strain again, cant wait to hear what you think SunnyJim. Hope you enjoy the bud porn!!

Wow ganja Guy, def bud porn lol. Looks like some def premium thick chunk buds there brotha. Nice mix being the aphgan n n.l.. can't go wrong there. Congrats.. what did you grow it under lights wise??? Seems like they loved it.

DKellner47 said:

Wow ganja Guy, def bud porn lol. Looks like some def premium thick chunk buds there brotha. Nice mix being the aphgan n n.l.. can't go wrong there. Congrats.. what did you grow it under lights wise??? Seems like they loved it.

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Thank you Dkellner, I grew these under a 250 watt mh, and for flower I threw a 600 watt hortilux on em. Only my 2nd grow with the 600 and I love it.

Oh man! Those are some amazing looking buds! I'm still about a month away from harvest with mine, but it's already getting sticky. So, you suggest not letting the trichs turn too amber for a better buzz?

SunnyJim said:

Oh man! Those are some amazing looking buds! I'm still about a month away from harvest with mine, but it's already getting sticky. So, you suggest not letting the trichs turn too amber for a better buzz?

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Yeah I bet, they're lookin pretty frosty in your pics. By a buzz do you mean more of a body stone? My thought on it was, aurora indica is already a body high, heavy indica strain. Personally I don't like to be put to sleep smoking, because I smoke pretty often. So by not letting the trichs turn amber, and cut when they're all cloudy; got me a great mix of the two. This bud makes me super productive and wakes me up, with a noticeable body high in the mix. Not to mention it tastes great, first run at organics and no cured. Shit I'd have it made into a drink if I could, leaves a great taste in your mouth.

Wow look awesome dude. I just startet my first closet grow aswell, and im runnin 1x125w cfl for veg, and im planing to flower with 2x125w or 1x125 and 1x250. But ur grow just made me more comfident. What distance do u have between light and plants? And what temp are u runnin with when the light is on?

Happy growing.

JayStillan said:

Wow look awesome dude. I just startet my first closet grow aswell, and im runnin 1x125w cfl for veg, and im planing to flower with 2x125w or 1x125 and 1x250. But ur grow just made me more comfident. What distance do u have between light and plants? And what temp are u runnin with when the light is on?

Happy growing.

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I'm unsure if this question is directed towards me or SunnyJim. Either way ill do my best to help. Thank you for the kind words tho JayStillan. I keep my metal halide about 5-6" away from the tops of the plants. For my high pressure sodium I keep it about 8-10" away. My temps sit at about 82 F. The thing is, is I have 2 mounted fans blowing right through the tops of the plants. And for my lights I have a 125 cfm attached to the fixture and a 400 cfm fan outside of the tent. 2 fans just to cool the light. But considering your using cfl you would ideally only go a couple inches from the tops, depending on temp, ventilation, etc. But whether my grow or SunnyJims gave you the confidence, that's great to hear. Growing is a very rewarding hobby, with never ending complications. No better feeling then your first harvest! Good luck to you man, happy growing!!!

JayStillan said:

Wow look awesome dude. I just startet my first closet grow aswell, and im runnin 1x125w cfl for veg, and im planing to flower with 2x125w or 1x125 and 1x250. But ur grow just made me more comfident. What distance do u have between light and plants? And what temp are u runnin with when the light is on?

Happy growing.

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If that was directed at me, then I'm glad my grow gives you confidence. You don't need to go out and spunk a bunch of cash on commercial grow products if you're a hobby grower like I am. For small (under 4 Oz total yield per crop) grows, CFLs work pretty well. Depending on your ambitions, and if you can manage the heat, throw as many CFL watts into your growing environment as you can afford.

Throughout the grow, I keep both my 125 watters at no more than 2 inches from the top of the plant. They have really poor penetration, and the light is virtually useless to the plant at more than 8 inches from the bulb, so it's important to adopt techniques (LST or Scrog) to maximize light exposure to as many bud sites as possible.

With both bulbs on, the temperature in my box peaks at about 85F.

I'll post some pics tonight when the lights come on.

Peace

Her buds are getting more dense by the day, looking pretty frosty, and feeling really sticky.

Another two to three weeks max and she'll be ready for the chop.

My Ketama broke through her rockwool cube yesterday, so hopefully she'll have a few nodes by the time the Kush is harvested. The Ketama is only under a single 125W bulb, so I'm not expecting much more than an inch or two of vertical growth from her in those three weeks. When I cut the Kush out of the bigger cabinet, the Ketama will be put in there under two 125 watters.

Pics of the Afghan Kush x Skunk:



Peace

Not long now. A week to 10 days tops.

The buds have packed on some weight, and are super frosty and sticky. I've been checking the trichs with a jewellers loupe, and they're starting to turn milky.

Looking at this plant, I'm hoping for something around 70g dry. Started flushing today.



Peace

Chopped my Afghan Kush x Skunk today.

She was on day 59 of her 12/12 light cycle. A small percentage of the trichs had turned amber, so I figured I would just do it. I can now move my little Ketama seedling into the cabinet from which I just liberated my Kush.

Pics of the plant right before I chopped her, then the after-shots. The manicured buds should be ready to go into jars for curing in 5 days or so.



At first glance, it looks to be roughly the same yield as my Maui Waui - in the region of 2 ounces when it's dried. It seems I haven't managed to replicate the yield of 87g dry from my Original Amnesia. That strain was a massive yielder. Still, I can't complain with 2 zips from a single plant under 250 watts of CFL, and a pretty short flowering time.

I'll wrap this thread up in a week when the buds are dry with an update on the dry weight and a smoke report.

Peace

Now that's a fuckin efficient use of space. You sir have definitely have turned me toward a scrog grow even more..

Sppoc said:

Now that's a fuckin efficient use of space. You sir have definitely have turned me toward a scrog grow even more..

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Thanks man. Most CFL growers use either the LST method, or ScrOG, or a combination of the two. I've found those two techniques to be essential to maximising my yield, especially since I don't use any side lighting. Both my bulbs are positioned at the top of the plant, and any buds further than 8 inches from the bulbs are totally under-developed and useless for anything other than making hash (imho). That's why it's imperative (with my setup) to expose as many buds as possible to as much light as I have available from those two bulbs. Plus I love the way we can totally flatten the plant's canopy with a screen - it looks great seeing a carpet of buds forming throughout the flowering process.

The hardest part of ScrOGing for me is deciding when to flip the switch from 18/6 to 12/12, and when to stop tucking the tops back under the screen (usually about two weeks into 12/12). You don't want the plant too big or too small before flipping the switch, and you don't want the tops to stretch more than a few inches through the screen during flower. Because each strain has different growing characteristics, it's really a guessing game until you get used to reading the rate at which the plant grows, and how much time you'll have until the grow box is full to capacity.

In any event, all that tinkering and guessing keeps my interest in growing fresh, and helps me improve grow-on-grow.

re: the Kush - I pulled the buds from the stalks, weighed and jar'd them. The weight came to 58g, which is just over 2 zips. I probably have another 15g of underdeveloped 'popcorn' buds which I'll freeze and put through a screen to make hash (I might get a few grams of quality hash out of it if I'm lucky). I'll post a smoke report this evening sometime. I'll invite a few friends over for some unbiased opinions too, maybe roll a few Maui Wauis and a few Kushes, smoke them blind and see if anyone can detect the supposed obvious characteristics of each strain.

Peace

SunnyJim said:

In any event, all that tinkering and guessing keeps my interest in growing fresh, and helps me improve grow-on-grow.

re: the Kush - I pulled the buds from the stalks, weighed and jar'd them. The weight came to 58g, which is just over 2 zips. I probably have another 15g of underdeveloped 'popcorn' buds which I'll freeze and put through a screen to make hash (I might get a few grams of quality hash out of it if I'm lucky). I'll post a smoke report this evening sometime. I'll invite a few friends over for some unbiased opinions too, maybe roll a few Maui Wauis and a few Kushes, smoke them blind and see if anyone can detect the supposed obvious characteristics of each strain.

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Man that's the beauty of it. I love how growing can just basically consume you at times. Countless times when I just spent hours upon hours researching because I just wanted to. Because it was fun, and it still is fun. I'm on my first grow right now, due to instant gratification I built a box from a janky-ass book shelf. haha I just started it though on like day 4. But I am 420% looking to keep my interest and skills evolving.

Enough of that though man, I know you want a little higher but 2 zips? Damn. Imho thats a fuckin great yield. For my future scrog grow I'll have with 4x 105watters @ 6.2-8k lumens or possibly just 2x 200watters @ 10-12k lumens. 4 clones goin scrog. My ultimate goal would be 4 zips total..but I'd shoot for 3.5. Think that's definitely possible or not enough lights? But nice grows man ill definitely be rolling on through.

Ps I like that you say "zip", I feel a lot of people don't haha.

Totally - doing the homework before growing is way fun. I'm at the stage where I need to be pushing the limits of my grow environment. 2 zips is the low end of what I feel I should be producing, so although it doesn't feel like a loss, I'm not completely satisfied with the result either. I know I can squeeze another zip out of it at least, so I'm shooting for 3 zips from my current grow (Ketama, a Moroccan hash plant) in about 90 days time.

400 watts is definitely sufficient cfl lighting to produce 3.5 zips of dried bud. Once you get your growing formula down, and you're totally comfortable growing healthy plants from seed/clone to harvest, you should easily be pulling a zip a plant. I'd go with the four 100 watters rather than two 200 watters for sure. You'll have more control over the light exposure to different areas of the plants, and I think you get a better lumen to watt ratio with the 100 watters.

I love the term 'zip' as well. I got it from these forums when I joined a few years ago. Some pretty cool people hang around here.

Definitely man well I hope you pull that. That is a lot of light for one plant so I know what you mean.

I was also leaning towards the 4x 105 watters. A light directly above each plant seems better than 2 plants for 1 light.

Im in the Midwest of USA and I picked it up from people around here haha.

Hey SunniJim,
I am building a setup pretty close to what you have here and I had a coupe of questions on your first post. What is the material that you put under the clay balls and what do you use for nutrients and where did you buy the Maui Waui seeds? One more question, what size pump are you using or do you feel is a minimum gph for a small system like this?

Thanks so much for you time and information,

Jack

Hey Joe,

Thanks for digging this up! Maui Waui has got to be one of my top 5 favourite strains. I think I got the seeds from Attitude. It's a terrific daytime smoke, nice and mellow, not couch-locky at all.

The material at the bottom of the tray is called spreader mat, which I get off ebay. I use Vitalink Max hydroponic nutrients, and I don't mess around with any advanced nutes.

I use a Maxi-Jet 1000 water pump, but before I knew anything about constructing a hydroponic system, I originally bought a Micro Jet 320. The Micro Jet isn't strong enough to push water up the distance and diameter of the tubing in my Flood & Drain setup, so before I could get started, I went out and bought the Maxi-Jet, which moves much more water. I now use the smaller pump to push water though small drip-feeders for my seedlings.

You'll be happy with a pump which moves about 1000L (264 Galllons) per hour, or a little less. Anything less than 150 gph and it might struggle to move the water. The only weakness of these pumps is that once the waterline in the tank drops below a couple inches, the pump stops moving water. The nozzle which sucks the water through the pump sits an inch or two high, and needs to be completely submerged for it to work, so when it isn't totally submerged, it just gargles.

Giving you some 1st post +Rep. Welcome to RIU.

SunnyJim said:

Hey Joe,

Thanks for digging this up! Maui Waui has got to be one of my top 5 favourite strains. I think I got the seeds from Attitude. It's a terrific daytime smoke, nice and mellow, not couch-locky at all.

The material at the bottom of the tray is called spreader mat, which I get off ebay. I use Vitalink Max hydroponic nutrients, and I don't mess around with any advanced nutes.

I use a Maxi-Jet 1000 water pump, but before I knew anything about constructing a hydroponic system, I originally bought a Micro Jet 320. The Micro Jet isn't strong enough to push water up the distance and diameter of the tubing in my Flood & Drain setup, so before I could get started, I went out and bought the Maxi-Jet, which moves much more water. I now use the smaller pump to push water though small drip-feeders for my seedlings.

You'll be happy with a pump which moves about 1000L (264 Galllons) per hour, or a little less. Anything less than 150 gph and it might struggle to move the water. The only weakness of these pumps is that once the waterline in the tank drops below a couple inches, the pump stops moving water. The nozzle which sucks the water through the pump sits an inch or two high, and needs to be completely submerged for it to work, so when it isn't totally submerged, it just gargles.

Giving you some 1st post +Rep. Welcome to RIU.

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Thanks for the info and rep, very much appreciated. There is a chance that I will start out with a really good OC Kush that friend offered me a clone of. But the rest of the setup is going to be the same as yours. My lights are on their way as is my media and bulk heads. Is that a computer fan on the side? How many CFMs and is it drawing air into the cabinet or blowing it out?

Thanks again.