16oz dutch buckets - Cali Snow

My first seed didn't make it due to technical difficulties, so I popped another to try to maximize the output from the mini machine. She is growing well at day 7. Seeing some leaf curling from her adjusting to the environment, but she is still showing steady growth. She is a week behind the 2 plants that were originally germinated. She will be topped around day 10 or 12 as soon as the third node comes up enough to pinch off. I 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 irrigated 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.

Day 14 and the Cali snow is growing pretty 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.

We are at day 21 on this Cali snow and she is doing well. Takes training great and she hit a nice growth spurt at the beginning of the week. The girls are getting crowded but the setup is running like a well oiled machine. I will have to get them spread further apart somehow and they will be going under the QB lights soon. If I can keep the momentum going as smooth as it has been we might just get some late summer snow! Happy growing everyone.

Day 28 for the Cali snow and she is doing well. Looks like she might be hitting preflower but not sure yet. Got her spread out a little so some more of those branches have a chance to make it to the top. The system is performing great and all the girls look pretty happy.

This cali snow is having s little issue with leaf coloration. She doesn't seem the be taking the root bound situation as well as the other plants, but she is hanging in there and has hit flower. She has a really pleasant mango aroma. Really hope she keeps that going until the end. I am going to give her a half gallon flush today then hook her back up to her feed tube. Just hoping I can keep her alive long enough to taste some ripe buds off her

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.