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I am excited to try out this new gorilla cookies from fastbuds.
I originally started this setup to compete in the solo cup challenge, but I needed something that will be minimal maintainence and doesn't require hand watering. So this is what I ended up with. I will not be entering since I know it will bring controversy, but I am going to follow the rules and treat this grow as if I am competing.
I didn't want to use regular solo cups because last time I had a lot of algae growing in the root zone when I harvested. I opted to use a black light proof cup. These cups were 27 oz originally so I filled them with 16 oz of water, marked the level, then cut them down to 16 oz. I set the drain pipes about an inch from the bottom so they have a little reserve if I have pump or power issues. I know people will see the drains as a way for roots to grow out of the cup but in reality I have to keep the entire pipe free of roots or it will clog and overflow. So I am actually losing a little volume due to this.
I filled the bottom inch or so of the cups with river gravel to stop the perlite from washing into the reservoir.
I am running a 5 gallon reservoir with a small air pump and the plants will be getting irritated 24 hours a day from an aquarium power head pump. I set the system up to be totally self contained and easily portable. It was all built from things I had laying around other than 97¢ for the cups. I will be keeping the feed simple as always feeding maxigro and maxibloom with a couple flower boosters.
Well we are at the end of week 2 and this gorilla cookies is doing well. I topped her on day 10 and it didn't slow her down at all. I attempted to start a little training on day 13 and that didn't go as planned. One of the mains snapped clean off as soon as I put pressure on it. Oops! She wasn't ready... Oh well, we are still early enough in the game that she should be able to overcome my brutality 👹. Other than that she is growing well and looking pretty happy. I'm hoping to get them moved into a better room in the next week or so when I can free up some space. Still giving them 24 hour light and 24 hour irrigation.
We are at day 21 on this gorilla cookies. I think she would be quite a bit bigger if I didn't break one of the mains on week 2 but she is still chugging along and growing well. I upped the maxigro to .5 tsp per gallon and started them on a little armor si so they can build some strong branches. Still running them on 24 hour light and 24 hour irrigation. They are going to stay under the blurple lights for a few more weeks until I can get them in the big room under the quantum boards. I'm hoping they will flower around 4 weeks but my autos seem to enjoy staying in veg so we will see what happens.
Gorilla Cookies is growing well. Making some nice progress. I had to give them some organic calmag because that is all I could get locally but it seems to be working. pH has held steady and the leaf color is looking great on all the plants. Haven't had to do any maintainence this week other than defoliate a few bottom leaves and spread some branches out a little. Plants are growing bigger than I thought they would so I will have to figure something out to get them spread further apart soon. Just going to keep the juice pumping and the lights beaming. Hoping to get them under the QB lights soon. She is 28 days old in a 16 oz cup. No roots have grown out of the cup at any time. No roots have been trimmed or touched. Happy growing everyone!
Not going to call flower on this one yet, but it looks like she is starting to stretch and switching to flower. She has really strong branches and everything is running smooth. Tried to spread her branches out a little but she fights every bend. Probably just do some defoliation on her and let do her thing.
This girl has stretched like crazy the structure looks heavy sativa. She is building some buds but slowly compared to the other plants. Still amazed at the general health of her. Got them switched over to maxibloom. Just going to keep the nutrients pumping and see how long I can keep them happy.
Well we got problems with these girls. Noticed some light deficiencies starting the end of last week and they progressed fast. Yellowing from the bottom of the plants like nitrogen deficiency but their stretch is over so I wouldn't expect them to want much. I increased the feed a little but it didnt seem to help. And after checking everything out I noticed that the cups were staying about 3/4 full of water. So I'm thinking this might be part of the issue. I am working on a setup that might solve this issue but wont be able to get it finished up until tomorrow. Either way, these plants are huge. Crazy how big they can get with such a small amount of roots. I expected issues midflower so everything is right on schedule. The only question is....can they survive? I was going to transplant them and move them outside because I need the space, but I am going to try to push on and see what happens.
Get the fuck outta here with that bush. Are you kidding me? I started same day, have the benefit of the FUCKING sun, and you are bigger than when I switch my indo to 12/12. Im withdrawing
@BudXs, Haha🤣 I slowed her down a little by breaking one of the mains on week 2. This little setup is working way better than I expected. I am going to run 14 or 16 cups in my big system. Going to be using 27oz cups
@GrowGuy97, it really doesn't take much if you can do a little diy. I get my buckets free from an animal shelter. They are cat litter buckets.
Submersible pump $15
Air pump $15
1/8" tubing $5
1/8 fittings $4
PVC pipe/elbows $10
Cups $1
Perlite $10
And I used a left over piece of wood flooring to sit the cups on. So about $60 if you don't have any of the supplies. The beauty of making your own stuff is you can use things you have around and make it work. I spent about $100 on my big system since a lot of the stuff is recycled materials.
@Wicked_Stix, totally agree with that. Still, if you can make it work without any major binding issues (and hopefully not too much root pruning) then this is a prototype recipe for a wicked sample system. I’d run this in my smaller closet any day👍
@TheBudWhisperer, Thanks man. I think this is going to be a great way to sample strains without taking up a lot of space. Mid flower to harvest will be the true test though
@WildeWeed, I am pretty surprised with them myself. They are moving a little faster than they do in the big buckets. I think the 24 hour light is promoting faster growth.
Really nice looking setup, i think you should enter and get the controversy out of the way, worst that can happen is they don't accept your entry, but being soil, soilless or hydro, as long as its solo cup it should qualify, unless some roots go thru the pvc but that can be prevented with a small diameter net, or some piece cloth as long as it doesn't add too much resistance.
Best of luck, wish you plenty big buds from there.
Wicked_Stix
