By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
Tent 4‘ x 2‘ x 6‘
Homemade 1x3 wood frame with 2 layers of panda plastic. Hinged door with latch.
Two 5“ fans at bottom rear feeding fresh air in. One 5“ exhaust fan from top fed though ducting to another window mounted 5“ fan exhausting outside (8th floor). Absolutely no smell in room while budding Super Skunk unless you opened the tent door. Maintains 26° C. with all lights on.
Lights used for both veg and budding are 2 x 150 watt Full Spectrum LED cobs (8“ x 1“) no lens, on individual heatsinks with fans. All LEDs, heatsinks and fans are in an adjustable height 36 inch long box with ducting to exhaust fan. Each LED and bank of LEDs on own switches.
Hung on heavy cord with pulley and cam lock system for height adjustment at each end, all 3D printed.
Different colours are used during various phases of growth.
120 watts of 620 nm Red LED tape along walls about bud height (10 meters total length),
30 watts of 460nm Blue tape (5 meters)
9 watts - 400nm UV
39 watts - 445nm Royal Blue
18 watts - 460nm Blue
27 watts - 520nm Green
9 watts - 660nm Deep Red
18 watts - 720nm Far Red, all 3 watt LEDs seperately switched.
LEDs mounted on heatsinks inside 2 long square boxes, one for each side with a 2“ fan in each. That is pretty much 570 watts total.
The idea with the colours all on switches is so the Red and IR can be used for budding, the blue works good for slowing stretch in early flower. Green I am just experimenting with.
75 watts per sq ft in bud mode , 56 watts in veg.
Grow medium is 50 - 50 potting soil and perlite in 5 gallon buckets
Nutrients - General Hydroponics MaxiGrow, MaxiBloom and CaliMagic on their Medium Feed Schedule
Average tap water ph is from 5.4 to 8.8, 87 ppm, EC 165 µs/cm
I use vinegar or lemon juice as phdown.
150 watt heatsinks are made from scrap sheet steel, all fans are 4 or 5 inch fans salvaged from electronics. Infrared red and UV LEDs also salvaged. 1x3 wood recycled from old futon frame. Electrical panel near ceiling inside tent with all 120 and 12 volt supples with surge protectors, switches and timer.
Total cost of the whole setup before the seeds and nutrients was 140 Can., thats tent, lights, buckets and grow medium and all the little extras. I happen to have electricity included in my rent so there is no cost there. For the next few years I will only need to buy seeds. I recycle the grow medium by just heavy repeated flushing after each harvest and have used this batch for 5 or 6 years with no problems. I consider it to be pretty much inert by now other than all the small roots in the mix that compost naturally.
The reason I am posting this grow is to show that a reasonable setup need not cost a small fortune. I drooled over some nice tent kits but they are far more than my budget can afford.
Topped all three yesterday. No sign of stress from it. They grew about 4 inches in a week. Very hearty strain and I love these General Hydroponics MaxiGrow and CaliMagic. Amazing growth. Slow branch development but bushy and thick stemmed.
The true colours of their aroma is just starting to come out, Skunky. It kind of makes me drool.
Well poop. I got nute lockout on one, over fert on another with the third close behind and I am having fun with drainage. I gave them the Royal Flush twice to start fresh.
I am finished with using buckets, I am going with fabric bags next crop, in fact I am tempted to transplant these into bags although it would slow down growth for a while. I will be using 3 gallon instead of 5 simply because of the weight difference. Moving 5 gallon buckets is too hard on my back.
If I water with enough to flow out the bottom of the buckets then they stay wet far too long and the leaves start canoeing. If I don’t give enough water to start draining then the nutes build up too fast. I figured that a 50/50 mix of perlite and soil would breath and drain well. I am pondering on making the mix 75% perlite.
I really flubbed up with these poor girls. What is the most common rookie mistake? Ya, overwatering which led to nute lockout. At least the lockout wasn't too progressed so did a royal flush on them until TDS matched the local water. Local water averages 160ppm, the run off was over 4900. Ouch.
Now I am waiting for them to dry out again. I hate using buckets, will be transplanting to bags soon.
They are recovering quite rapidly so should handle a transplant ok in a week or two.
Cancel that statement about transplanting. I just checked the root system and they are far too big and deep to transplant. Buckets are about 70% roots already. I guess I will have to live with it and keep my watering under control.
Dec 19
One bad thing about a heavy flush with a soil mix is it compacts it down pretty dense. I removed some loose soil from around the plants and reached down and fluffed up the soil under the root ball just so it would dry out. Surprised to see no stress at all, in fact lots of new healthy growth. Fresh ph'ed water and a light shot of MaxiGrow tomorrow.
All 3 Skunks will be transplanted into bags next week. So I trimmed off the lower 3 nodes to give them time to recoup before the transplant. Hopefully one week after transplant they will go into bud.
The root balls are about 1 gallon in size and not as deep as first thought. They have shown no stress from the flush and should transplant quite well.
This is one strain that takes a licking and keeps going. Lots of new healthy growth. An easy plant to grow as long as you keep the rookie mistakes to a minimum.
No Skunky aromas yet, in fact the Fruity OG is smelling more than them right now. A lovely smell for sure.
The 3 of them are now in bud life. Thanks to Amazon I received the 3 gallon grow bags yesterday and already transplanted. Only one was showing a bit of droop earlier today but picked up already. I would have liked to keep these in veg another couple of weeks but the Fruity OG is not going to cooperate by getting too big for the tent.
As for the Super Skunk I think I will grow this one again considering I trimmed off a bunch of lower branches, overwatered them, nute lockout then a super flush then transplanted all within 2 weeks. Now I just put them into bud. And they keep on growing. I hope they stretch some before getting heavy.
I am planning my next crop already, a CBD White Widow and Super Skunk again the crop after that. Plus there is always a nice freebie of 3 seeds each order of their choice from QCS. The Fruity OG was the freebie with the Skunks.
These poor girls have had a rough couple of weeks but are picking up and growing new stuff.
A few yellow leaves from lack of nutes from when I super flushed them, They took up the new nutrients right away. A damn nice strain that I will grow again just so I can do it right and get the best possible. These ones will be lacking somewhat from all the mistreatment.
I love the grow bags, it takes some adjustment to the watering schedule since they dry out much faster. The next crop will be all in 3 gallon bags with 5 of them in my little tent.
I have always used tap water in a big bucket that I scoop from to water. I am using Root Farm phDown. The tap water is 7.6 to 8.
If I ph the bucket the ph rises again within a day.
Is it Root Farm or should I ph only the amount I need per watering?
Do other ph down's do this?
That seems to be pretty typical, I have to say... I use General Hydroponics PH-Down and the same thing happens to me if, for some reason, I don't use all the water I've pH'd... so I only pH the water I'm going to use if I'm growing in soil.... I happen to grow in DWC and it takes a couple of days, when I change out my bucket, to get the pH stablized... for me, growing the way I grow (DWC), it's all a balance between nutes and water and pH down...
Good luck!
These three stretched a fair bit in the first week, Extra Blue LEDs seem to slow the stretch down so far.
Lots of LST and and some trimming. 4 tops on one and 6 tops on the other two. Buds filling out slowly compared to Fruity.
I will train the tops back into closer to the center in a week.
A bit spindly and slow growing. Long internodes.
But they are healthy.
I put them into flower sooner than I wanted but the Fruity is a month older and she would have gotten too big for the tent.
Next crop all plants will be the same age.
These poor things slowed down a lot after the punishment of nute lockout, flushing, transplanting then triggering all within a few weeks. One is still not quite as robust. Buds are forming up slowly right now. The last feeding they got a half shot of MaxiGrow and a half shot of MaxiBloom and they picked up since. When they need water again they will get some CaliMagic.
I have installed a bunch of extra 3 watt LEDs, Running Blue, Deep Red, Far Red and Green. They all perked up their leaves a little.
Also without all the extra LEDs lit up, the tops do not look that light or bleached, likely the green spectrum mostly effecting the camera.
I need more LST but will wait until they perk up lots then bring the tops in closer over the pots.
Next crop I will be much more careful when thinning as well, I know I plucked too much too early.
Does anyone believe in talking to their plants? I do, I always say goodnight and good morning as well as while tending to them, Heavily on the encouragement.
Considering how well Fruity is doing, these three girls are still hurting. I have been getting used to bags and have not been watering near enough, enough to keep them alive and growing until the nutes built up. Again.
Flushed yesterday. Again. First run off was scary at 1600 µs/cm and 1200 ppm. Got the readings down to clear water levels then ph'ed a little lower than normal 5.2 and hit them with MaxiBloom. Then Calmag in a couple of days.
They had stopped taking up water completely but have already perked up since the flush. Despite all the problems, the buds are developing about equal in size to the Fruity, just not as many.
Super Skunk is supposed to be a 45 to 55 days flower. That finish line is 3 to 4 weeks away. I hope I can extend that a bit to allow them to build up in size.
Now I just have to get used to watering bags, I put down a splash tray of panda plastic and have a small electric water pump to suck up the drainage.
These poor girls are recovering slowly, Fresh nutes fed yesterday. Yellow from lack of nutes from the royal flush. I should have added nutes sooner. Buds continue to fatten up and generally healthy. I know I will be disappointed in the yield but all I can do is kick myself in the butt for all the dumb mistakes and do better next crop.
They are slowly fattening up. Somewhat of a slowdown. A little lacking in N so just got fed.
Plenty of yellow leaf, trimming later today. Tricome count is increasing nicely.
According to stated bud time they could be done in 1 to 2 weeks. I will be stretching that out as far as I can just so I can get some weight.
These started out as healthy as the Fruity but my screw-ups really hurt them. I don't expect much of a yield but want to grow it again a few crops down the road. With the proper conditions I think it would be a good producer.
Well they are still growing and fattening buds. The bud fattening is actually speeding up. Too bad they are so close to finish.
These are very close to finish. Lots of brown pistils and mostly cloudy tricomes with maybe 10% amber. This would be the ideal time to harvest but I will let them go as long as I can. If I end up with mostly amber is not a concern, I want some weed to knock me out at night instead of waking me up. I will be lucky to get an ounce of wet buds off all three anyway.
They continue to yellow the lower leaves which looks like a lack of nitrogen but I don't think they will get any more nutes. They are at 49 days in bud which falls right into the stated bud time of 45 to 55 days. Next week should/could be harvest.
Update
Took a close look with the digital microscope and find that the tricomes are not cloudy afterall, mostly clear so it looks like another week or two. That is good cause the buds can fatten up lots more. I will be using the microscope for tricomes from now on.
The Skunks are fattening up considerably since I added more LEDs. The yield will be embarrassing but it should be tasty.
I got my first wiff of the roadkill skunk smell yesterday so the buds are coming along. They should curl the nose hairs once cured.
I have had the following LEDs on for the last week and the plants seem to love it.
2 x 150 watt Full Spectrum LED
60 watts of 620 nm Red LED tape
9 watts - 400nm UV
39 watts - 445nm Royal Blue
18 watts - 460nm Blue
27 watts - 520nm Green
9 watts - 660nm Deep Red
18 watts - 720nm Far Red,
I checked the trichomes today and found they are about 80% cloudy. Close enough for me. They will be finished after two days of Blue only.
I'm trying the method described by VVord_Alchemist in his last harvest with an all Blue light for the last 2 days.
There is 30 watts of 460nm Blue LED tape and 9 watts of 400nm UVa, 39 watts of 440nm Royal Blue and 18 watts of 460nm Blue. 96 watts total, no other lights.
The yield will be very disappointing from these 3 plants. I put these 3 girls through hell and they came back better than I expected. I will try this strain again in a crop or two. I love that skunky smell and high. Can't wait for this to be cured.
Chop in TWO days.
Oh these poor Skunks. I did not do them justice at all. They started out as healthy as the Fruity OG with beautiful shape and foliage. I messed them up by getting too happy with the trimming shears. And nute locking them twice at the wrong time. And transplanting them from buckets into bags a week before budding when they were already too big to transplant.
Plus the lights were only 300 watts of white full spectrum for most of the grow with me gradually adding 170 watts of coloured LEDs in the final month. The plants would have been much better if they had gotten that extra 170 watts for their full life.
I gave the plants 2 x 12 hour days of nothing but Blue light. I noticed the buds developed a little purple colour and the frost looked thicker. The aromas got really strong by tonight.
I got a hint of that roadkill skunk in the last week so if this cures with that strong aroma I will grow this one again. Again, with proper care this could be a nice producer.
Dry, cure then PUFF.
Notice the photo. The 3 skunks are hanging from the 2 hooks on the left. Ya, the smallest bunches. I will be lucky if there is a 1/4 oz.
Oh well, next time.
Weight when dried. Smoke report when cured
They dried out a lot faster than I wanted.
A whopping 12 grams so 4 grams per plant. Now hurry up and cure damn it.
After a sample of near cured bud I am not really impressed. Very little of that roadkill skunk aroma or taste. Super Skunk is a cross of Northern Lights and Skunk #1. It tastes more like Northern Lights.
It does hit pretty good, like Northern Lights, nothing wrong with the buzz.
This is a pretty good strain, just not what I was looking for.
After an email to QCS they recommended Skunk #1 so once the CBD run is finished I will do Skunk #1 and maybe Acapulco Gold.
A special Thank You to all the fellow Growmee's that responded to my questions.
A great help and resource. The best damn social media site I have even been in.
Photos of this light are in the first week of both my diaries.
Supplemental LED lighting I am adding to my grow tent. Main lights are 3 x 150 watt White Full Spectrum.
One box is finished and in use, Another mirror image box is ready for wiring up LEDs to be mounted on the other side of the tent.
12 volt input. 1.6 amps draw. Each box puts out 55 watts total using 18 x 3 watt LEDs mounted on 24 inch heatsink. 2 inch square box with 2 inch fan in one end for cooling.
Colours in this box are IR 720nm, Deep Red 660nm, Green 520nm, Blue 460nm.
Colours in other box will be Blue 460nm, Royal Blue 440nm, UVa 400nm, IR 850nm and more Green 520nm.
Each colour has its own switch so the spectrum can be completely controlled.
There are 3 spaces left on the first one so I will add 3 Royal Blue. Note 3 extra switches, One will be for the Royal Blue and the other two switches will control 30 watts each of Red and Blue LED tape on walls below these.
Note simple wire loops for hanging allowing aiming LEDs where I want them.
This growing experience has been a very sharp learning curve for me. I grew in soil and hydro back when MH and HPS 1000 watt were the norm (80‘s and 90‘s). We didn’t worry about ph or ppm or EC. There wasn’ much around for measuring those. Portable EC meters were just coming out @ stupid prices of 300 so I never had one.
I learned how too grow from a buddy and an early copy of The Marijuana Grower's Guide by Ed Rosenthal since there was no internet then. We made up our own fertilizer from base elements, NPK, weighing each element on an old triple beam scale. 50 pound bags of each last a long time.
I hadn’t planted a seed or cut a clone in 30 years when I started again. I tried setting up pretty much the way I used too, smaller HPS, buckets and soil and could not get a decent crop finished. Then I gave up for a few years and got interested in LEDs which led me back to growing with all the same old tecniques. It wasn’t until I got hit hard by spider mites that I started researching to find the whole industry has exploded in every direction. Legalizing also helped my decision to give it another try.
One thing that has changed for me is that now I am retired and on a pension so I can not afford to invest in equipment like I did back in the HPS days. This is why I made my own tent, light system and setup mostly from salvaged materials. Over a span of one year I have spent less than 200 including all the recent LED additions. Comparing the wattage and spectrum of what I have with other systems I expect to be able to get decent harvests. ONCE I have polished my growing skills. Many of my problems lately has been making too many changes (upgrades) too often. BUT, now I have the system running how I want so I have to chaulk this grow up as a building experience and expect much better in the next crop and onward.
Those poor Super Skunks are coming but struggling from being transplanted too late and right before triggering. Grow bags are a great idea once you learn how to use them properly.
Seeds were hardly available in the 80‘s, I hadn’t heard about Marc Emery yet. I started from a half dozen clones and kept that strain going for 14 years. I had one room for soil pots and another for hydro plus a mother room. My hydro system consisted of 8 x 12 foot lengths of aluminum gutter troughs filled with pea gravel, water & nutes continuously pumped to one end and collected at the other. 2 x 1000 watt HPS on a motorized track supplied the lighting. Basically a sea of green. One week veg of clones then triggered, harvesting every two months. One to two ounce colas with not much else to the plant. I usually started with 100 clones and usually ended up with around 90 plants at harvest. Needless to say it wasn’t all for personal.
The soil room was kept going for a cheaper weed that lots liked, same strain just smaller buds and lighter taste. A dozen plants at most. I would say the strain was similar to OG Kush in taste but grew more like a sativa.
So after all this rambling all I have left to say is I really enjoy having a group like Grow Diaries available. I had given up on any social media because of the personal bashing that some like engage in but Grow Diaries is a pleasant place to learn and share info. Everyone respects what the others are doing and are very willing to help if asked.
@Ju_Bps,
Thanks Bud. They could be a heck of a lot better but these are chalked down to learning experience. They will be tried again a few crops later.
@love_2_grow,
Thank you. I am hoping for some big sugary buds that will make the nose hairs curl. The last Skunk crop was stunted from poor lighting.
I love your grows, Nice job on them.
Zappdoggy
