Diary Complete Ill_Evan's 2022 Grow Room Boogaloo

[Ill_Evan]

Welcome to the thunderdome, boijies. 

In this diary I will be recording my grow for the year 2022, blunders, wins, alas. I have recently made some very nice improvements to my overall setup since my last diary and I think equipment wise there won't be much else to upgrade, so from this point on the focus is going to be on refinement of the setup, efficiency of the process and perfecting the strains in my stable. 

Speaking of strains, my stable/veg tent currently consists of the following strains which I have collected over the years:

• Zkittlez x Purple Punch - Ripper Seeds (ZxP)
• KmintZ - Ripper Seeds (KM)
• Gorilla Zkittlez - Barneys Farm (GZ)
• Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds (AI)
• Grand Daddy Purple - Blimburn Seeds (GDP)
• Tortoni F1 - Totemic (T1)
• Wedding Cake - 1000 Hills Nursery (WC)

A solid seven strains. At the moment if I wanted another strain, I would try my best to swap it out rather than accommodate it. The space in the veg tent is comfortable enough to hold at least one mother plant of each strain, enough plants for the next round in the flower tent, and also enough unrooted clones to replace the plants that go into the flower tent. 

It's called perpetual growing, china. 

 

The veg tent is a 1.2mx1.2mx2m LiteHouse LITE grow tent with a 120W QB LED (set to 80W) at about 1.2m high from the ground, light schedule is 18/6 from 6pm to 12pm. I have found this to be the sweet spot all year round for all the veg plants, mothers, clones, they all good. I can get my plants to a nice 1m height before popping them in the flower tent. In addition, I also have a 59W 4 inch extraction fan set on low which exhausts air from inside the tent to outside the room through a window. The window has a custom fitted duct port which allows the room to remain sealed even with the exhaust venting outside.

Lastly I have a 425W heat panel which I fixed to a wooden frame to allow it to sit upright at the back of the tent. This heater is connected to a Sonoff switch which is connected to the WiFi and regulates the heat within the tent automatically at a minimum of 22C. The average currently is about 25C (mid Jan) but sometimes, especially with the rains lately, the temp can dip but it will never dip below 22C in this tent. Humidity sits at an average of 70%. 

 

The flower tent is a 1.2mx2.4mx2m LiteHouse LITE grow tent. I have also upgraded to AutoPots. From what used to take me 1-2 hours every 2-3 days to water my plants by hand now takes me 20mins once a week. This has been an absolute gamechanger as I can now really focus on timing my veg tent and perfecting the strains going into the flower tent. Not getting absolutely sticky with resin every time I water is a nice plus too 

I have harvested 6 plants (ZxP) once already about two weeks ago as a test run using the AutoPots. I have another 6 plants (ZxP) currently going which are due to be harvested by the end of this month and I have also just recently planted 6 more ZxP which are the younger looking plants to the left of the flowering plants. 

First impressions have been fantastic. Compared to using fabric pots, I can see all the benefits and more. I have also installed each AutoPot with an airdome and I pump fresh warm air to the root zone for 12 hours a day following the same time as the light time schedule. I can see the same kind of growth that I used to see back when I grew using DWC. When I investigated the roots after the first harvest, the airdomes were just smothered in healthy white roots. Very nice. 

Unfortunately, I recently discovered that my pH pen was whack and I fear the last harvest may have been deficient during the ripening stage due to incorrect pH of the feeding nutrient. This will be one area of focus going forward to improve the overall grow. I have also invested in two new 35W Sansui Box Fans which I have attached to the ceiling of the flower tent. I had a few spots of bud rot due to the fokin heavy rains in the Highveld this Summer so improvements needed to be made to make it through humid times. 

I obtained a 450W GMC 26 Litre Dehumidifier that I keep running within the grow room outside of the tents. From these upgrades, my flower tent humidity has gone from 70%+ to sub 49%. I can also run my 62W 6 inch extraction fan on low (same setup as veg tent i.e. exhaust outside via duct in window) just to simply move stale air from inside the flower tent to outside and slowly bring fresh air in via the gaps in the door to the room through negative pressure created from the flower and veg tent fans exhausting air outside. 

 

The lighting power is three 240W QB LEDs (set to 160W) that I pair with 6 plants each on a 12/12 light schedule from 9pm to 9am. Initially when I transplant into the flower tent I will start at about 60cm from the canopy and over a week or two move the LEDs closer to about 30cm to the canopy. I find this enough to give the plants used to the higher light intensity without having to change my wattage settings every time I do a transplant. 

The idea is to grow and harvest in sets of six. Each set of 6 AutoPots have their own 46L reservoir containers so I can regulate the food to each set of six independently, which allows me to do plants at different stages and also different strains. Harvests are also only 6 plants at a time and not a solid 18 at a time. I am still getting the timing right to get a harvest consistently timed between each other, so that will be fun also to figure out. Something like once a month or so would be hot. 

 

The flowers have gotten big enough in the last few harvests that they flop around like big 'ol dicks, so I will be adding a net across the tent after I have harvested these last 6 plants and have planted new plants into all the empty AutoPots. Tying up the buds has been a mission so I'm hoping the net will help in that regard. I haven't gotten a chance to fully utilise the nets yet so that will be a first. 

In the empty set of six AutoPots I have at the moment I will be doing a round of Gorilla Zkittlez. To replace the current 6 flowering ZxP that will be harvested soon I have 4x KmintZ which are being grown for the first time from seed and are the latest addition to the stable. I will also substitute 2x ZxP plants to total that set of 6. The KmintZ are a supposed 'upgrade' to the lineage associated with ZxP, so pairing them shouldn't be a problem. 

I just recently took another batch of ZxP clones to replace the Gorilla Zkittlez when those harvest. After that however, it's a roll of the dice. Maybe we decide together what comes next from the stable, maybe I throw a dart on a board, who knows. Whatever is decided, I need to take those clones in at least 3 weeks time from now in order to be ready to plant into the flower tent come harvest time. 

I'll have a good idea of how to really time everything perfectly as we go so that as I harvest I already have a batch ready to go to replace those plants. Right now, taking at least 6+ clones every 3 weeks has worked out quite well. When I have things dialed in, I will write up a rough formula for all to enjoy! Or perish! 

It's ya boi.

 

***Harvest Dates - Weigh-Ins***

            2022

• 05 January - 87g ZxP
• 18 January - 136g ZxP
• 28 February - 257g ZxP
• 04 March - 173g GZ
• 12 April - 65g ZxP
• 12 April - 159g KM
• 06 May - 188g ZxP
• 12 May - 215g WC
• 06 June - 168g ZxP
• 27 August - 796g ZxP
• 21 October - 377g ZxP - 80g WC - 135g OMG
• 28 November - 827g ZxP

Edited December 7, 2022 by Ill_Evan
Harvest dates/weigh-ins

[Ill_Evan]

..and here we have some lekker bud rot, courtesy of the rains. This current batch has been struggling with bud rot in its attempts to flower this Summer. The batch before was almost perfect except for the deficiency at the end, no bud rot though  I've been keeping a really close eye every evening to chop any bad buds. I've picked maybe 6 buds so far. Bit of an eish but at least the entire batch isn't lost. 

I don't think there was saving these buds in-time with the recent purchases to reduce humidity. The real test will be from here on out during this high humidity period 

 

[CreX]

very lekker man, you have some nice tech in your setup now!!

but my boet, where the hell are you living that you have a 70% rh in the air as standard? sounds like you living in the ocean! but i know youre up north somewhere

[Ill_Evan]

4 minutes ago, CreX said:

very lekker man, you have some nice tech in your setup now!!

but my boet, where the hell are you living that you have a 70% rh in the air as standard? sounds like you living in the ocean! but i know youre up north somewhere

It's literally raining once every second to third day here in the Highveld my dude   it's the first Summer in the last 7 years that it's rained this much according to my memory. Usually it will piss down in the first few weeks of Summer and then chill out to like once a week or so. 

My RH is at least sitting at a constant 50% inside the grow room now but I was a bit late in sorting that out to prevent any rot on the flowering plants right now. 

These flowers are on exactly week 8 of flower now and I've just finished a flush, so I'll be harvesting what's survived within this week. 

[Ill_Evan]

This morning I potted up 6x Gorilla Zkittlez to go into the empty space in the flower tent tonight after the pots have dried a bit on the deck. 

I am still playing around with what's the best height to grow the plants in the veg tent before transferring into the flower tent. Previously I got the plants to about no more than 80cm before transferring and they didn't stretch much and only ended at about a meter in height come harvest.

 

 

With these Gorilla Zkittlez I've gotten them to a solid meter already before transferring into the flower tent. I think this will result in some bigger plants, which means bigger stems, which equals more food for bigger buds! There was a lot of space left in the ceiling of the tent for some more growth, so I am hoping to fill some of that space up with this batch. 

I also like to at this time remove the last of any lower branches that will definitely not be going through to harvest. I count 5 branches from the top and chop anything left below that. I hover between 4-5 branches depending on how big the internodal spacing is or how much stretch I think there is going to be. Then in the first week in the flower tent I will check how the lowest branches perform and if I like what I see and the vegetation isn't overwhelming the branches will be kept. If not, they get the chop. I like to make these decisions slowly because once you chop, it's decided. 

[Ill_Evan]

I spent the rest of the day trimming a harvest I had drying for the last week. This was the first run I did in the AutoPots and consisted of 6x ZxP. I won't sugarcoat it (although there was still plenty of sugar), but there managed to be more bud rot again, but it didn't spread. I think it developed as far as it did while flowering and mostly stayed at the center of the buds most affected. I'm going to be honest and say I probably lost half the yield to bud rot. 

 

 

 

The buds mostly affected were the large, main colas () positioned at the tops of the plants. I don't think I had very good ventilation in the tent at the time. I've managed to save a good portion of buds so not all was lost, but we gotta get this shit pristine now. The unaffected buds are frosty and nice, I managed to get about 2/3rds of a 3 liter jar. I am going to log the weight of all my harvests for the year and present a grand total, try and set myself some baselines/future goals. 

 

 

[Ill_Evan]

Here is the flower tent, full at last after putting the Gorilla Zkittlez into their trays. The clones I have going in the veg tent that are supposed to replace the plants that are to be harvested soon are taking really long to root, and I might have missed the mark with regards to the timing... oops. So there will be an empty spot in the middle of the flower tent for a little while until the clones are ready. 

 

[CreX]

10 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

full at last after putting the Gorilla Zkittlez into their trays

nice man! i also have a gorilla Zkittlez plant, it produces some nice large nugs and has a amazing cereal milk\ Blueberry berry scent to it.

 

its a real pity about the bud rot man, what steps have you taken to improve that? bigger extractor? and dehumidifier you said... i think?

[Ill_Evan]

9 minutes ago, CreX said:

nice man! i also have a gorilla Zkittlez plant, it produces some nice large nugs and has a amazing cereal milk\ Blueberry berry scent to it.

Can't wait! I've been just growing the ZxP for a long while. 

 

13 minutes ago, CreX said:

its a real pity about the bud rot man, what steps have you taken to improve that? bigger extractor? and dehumidifier you said... i think?

Kept the extractor the same, added the two new box fans on the ceiling so that air is always circulating the tops and bottom of the plants as they push air down and then lastly the dehumidifier. 

[CreX]

3 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

Can't wait! I've been just growing the ZxP for a long while. 

 

Kept the extractor the same, added the two new box fans on the ceiling so that air is always circulating the tops and bottom of the plants as they push air down and then lastly the dehumidifier. 

i rate the dehumidifier will play the biggest role

nice work man

[Ill_Evan]

I decided to give the trimmed bud a weigh-in before I start taking cheeky samples. First bud of the year comes in at 87g of ZxP.

I am going to update the original post with the dates of harvest as well as the weight per harvest as we go throughout the year.

 

[Ill_Evan]

Check the frost on this bad girl; ZxP

 

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

sjew!! fokken naaaas, boet! 

[Ill_Evan]

Veg tent update. I've come to a realisation and have acted upon it. I don't believe I will get a chance to go back to certain strains that are in my stable for a long while and it is eating at my resources a bit to keep preserving them in the small space that I currently have. I am happy though with all the cloning I had to do in order to preserve the mothers so at least my cloning game got an upgrade...or so I thought.

So we remain with;

• Zkittlez x Purple Punch - Ripper Seeds (ZxP)
• KmintZ - Ripper Seeds (KM)
• Gorilla Zkittlez - Barneys Farm (GZ)
• Wedding Cake - 1000 Hills Nursery (WC)

 

 

The four KmintZ seedlings are doing really well, although I have noticed a small deficiency developing and gave them a healthy dose of nutrients. In general I try not to max out the nutes right away and try work my way up slowly so maybe I started a bit too light. The leaves are looking nice and chonky, fat indica vibes, but as you can see there is some hints of yellow developing on the edges and centre points of the leaves. I saw @CreX mention having similar issues with potassium deficiency and the leaves looking something like this, so I'm keeping that in mind. The coco is not reused.

 

 

 

The ZxP clones are coming on nicely. Although they take much longer to root than I had initially planned for. These clones rooted only after like close to a month. Bananas. You can imagine what utter delight it was to finally see roots pop out. As far as I understand I do everything correctly; 45 degree cuts near or on the nodes, double dip (gel + powder), trim the leaves, soaked Jiffys in warm water, vents closed for first three days, vents open until roots appear, spray only leaves from top once a day, if Jiffys get too dry I dip the bottoms of the Jiffys in extremely weak pH'd nutrient feed.

I mean they look pretty healthy for sitting in a propagator with no supposed roots for more than 3 weeks so I'm not sure what's not triggering the root growth sooner. My initial thoughts are maybe that the Jiffys are too wet in the beginning, so the clones are waterlogged. On the next run I am going to gently squeeze out a little of the water out the Jiffys before planting the clones. I'm also thinking I need to take some bigger clones. 

 

[Marzcanna]

3 minutes ago, Ill_Evan said:

Veg tent update. I've come to a realisation and have acted upon it. I don't believe I will get a chance to go back to certain strains that are in my stable for a long while and it is eating at my resources a bit to keep preserving them in the small space that I currently have. I am happy though with all the cloning I had to do in order to preserve the mothers so at least my cloning game got an upgrade...or so I thought.

So we remain with;

• Zkittlez x Purple Punch - Ripper Seeds (ZxP)
• KmintZ - Ripper Seeds (KM)
• Gorilla Zkittlez - Barneys Farm (GZ)
• Wedding Cake - 1000 Hills Nursery (WC)

 

 

The four KmintZ seedlings are doing really well, although I have noticed a small deficiency developing and gave them a healthy dose of nutrients. In general I try not to max out the nutes right away and try work my way up slowly so maybe I started a bit too light. The leaves are looking nice and chonky, fat indica vibes, but as you can see there is some hints of yellow developing on the edges and centre points of the leaves. I saw @CreX mention having similar issues with potassium deficiency and the leaves looking something like this, so I'm keeping that in mind. The coco is not reused.

 

 

 

The ZxP clones are coming on nicely. Although they take much longer to root than I had initially planned for. These clones rooted only after like close to a month. Bananas. You can imagine what utter delight it was to finally see roots pop out. As far as I understand I do everything correctly; 45 degree cuts near or on the nodes, double dip (gel + powder), trim the leaves, soaked Jiffys in warm water, vents closed for first three days, vents open until roots appear, spray only leaves from top once a day, if Jiffys get too dry I dip the bottoms of the Jiffys in extremely weak pH'd nutrient feed.

I mean they look pretty healthy for sitting in a propagator with no supposed roots for more than 3 weeks so I'm not sure what's not triggering the root growth sooner. My initial thoughts are maybe that the Jiffys are too wet in the beginning, so the clones are waterlogged. On the next run I am going to gently squeeze out a little of the water out the Jiffys before planting the clones. I'm also thinking I need to take some bigger clones. 

 

Don't know if this is related or if it works. But it's said that if you spray them with bloom nutes it helps them root faster. I've only started trying this so I still don't know how true it is 

[The_StonedTrooper]

Just now, Marzcanna said:

Don't know if this is related or if it works. But it's said that if you spray them with bloom nutes it helps them root faster. I've only started trying this so I still don't know how true it is 

Similar said about feeding the plant bloom the day before taking clones, it make sense to me.

Dont do what I heard last month, and give them 24h dark after cutting, I heard this from a grower who was told to do this by a pro grower apparently 

[Ill_Evan]

3 minutes ago, Marzcanna said:

Don't know if this is related or if it works. But it's said that if you spray them with bloom nutes it helps them root faster. I've only started trying this so I still don't know how true it is 

Might also help with that deficiency too 

 

1 minute ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

Dont do what I heard last month, and give them 24h dark after cutting, I heard this from a grower who was told to do this by a pro grower apparently 

What happened 

[Marzcanna]

1 minute ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

Similar said about feeding the plant bloom the day before taking clones, it make sense to me.

Dont do what I heard last month, and give them 24h dark after cutting, I heard this from a grower who was told to do this by a pro grower apparently 

The bloom does make sense, worth a try, as for the darkness I'm not too sure. What's the theory behind it? 

[The_StonedTrooper]

17 minutes ago, Ill_Evan said:

What happened 

Their clones went to flower, then reveg, then root, took weeks, like 4 or so.

Crazy

On the bloom nute...Yes that would help with deficiency and give the rooting a boost 

Edited January 18, 2022 by The_StonedTrooper

[The_StonedTrooper]

12 minutes ago, Marzcanna said:

What's the theory behind it? 

In their theory, I guess they thought, if you flip to flower, the plant stretches and the roots grow, so maybe they thought, it would make cloning easier with faster roots...

Not sure,

But please, Do Not Try it.

[Ill_Evan]

I am busy harvesting the ripe ZxP that have been ripening up for the last week where I have also cut off the water supply for the last 7 days. The buds are looking real good. I am about half way through the chop and I am on a break. Here are a few pics of the preharvest: 

 

 

 

 

[PsyCLown]

Looking very good!  

Is nice. I like.

[THCSA]

Buds look dank AF. The humidity is killer though. Busy harvesting seeds, but buds won't get nice and crispy.

[Ill_Evan]

Flower tent update. The ZxP below are about a week and a bit into flower. Looking healthy and happy. I have since switched on the reservoirs for the AutoPots and tonight I also switched on the air domes for them. I have also setup the stretch nets for the tent in preparation for maximum nugs. 

 

 

Below are the Gorilla Zkittlez that went in a week ago. They are already developing their preflowers, mmm  I haven't switched on the air domes yet but the reservoir was switched on yesterday. 

 

[Ill_Evan]

Veg tent update. I have taken 6 clones of the Wedding Cake mother. I made sure to take some chonkier clones this time around and I left a little bit more foliage on them. I also gave the Jiffy pellets a little squeeze to reduce the amount of water in them. 

The KmintZ plants seem to have sprung back from their deficiency. The marks of the deficiency are still faintly visible but the new growth and the overall health of the plants are much better. I also potted them up into slightly bigger pots as they were getting really thirsty, I was beginning to water them nearly everyday. 

I still have four ZxP clones taking their time to root, followed by another 6 in the center propagator. Please, clone gods...just, please  give me a chance.