KGB Grow

[KGBSkunky]

I took everything I learned here and from my experiments and put it all together. After this I may decide to make some seeds or just call it quits until late summer. The grow is put together with a fully automated water supply as long as I check it at least every other day and all the fertilizer is in the soil which is Dr Earth tomato fertilizer. The strains are Maui Waui, Jock Horror, OG Kush and Pineapple Express. They are all autos and all I have done is minor trimming of fan leaves.

The point, for me, was to build a process that gives outstanding organic buds and I feel I have accomplished that. It really just runs on automatic and allows me go do other things. This is at 38 days from dropping the germinated seeds in the soil.

The 5 gallon bucket feeds the water which is manually pumped from the HD garbage can. The water reservoir has an airstone in it to keep it oxygenated and the dowel pin shows me the water level so I don't run the pump dry

 

[Joseph Fontaine]

What is the medium your using

 

[KGBSkunky]

What is the medium your using

I am using half Promix organic and half straight peat moss

 

[Joseph Fontaine]

Nothing else ? The promix must balance the pH ?????

 

[KGBSkunky]

Nothing else ? The promix must balance the pH ?????

When I mixed the soil, 4.4 cubic yards total, it required a total of 10 gallons of water as both were purchased dried and pressed. The water had a PH of almost 7 after adding PH down. When I got it all mixed the soil checked in at 6.5

 

[Joseph Fontaine]

I never thought about checking my soil before I use it im a newby you checked the runoff ? Thephdown is liquid?

 

[KGBSkunky]

I never thought about checking my soil before I use it im a newby you checked the runoff ? Thephdown is liquid?

No I just used a cheap dual prong soil PH meter on the mixed soil and I set the PH for all the water that I feed to the plants at 6.5. I don't have runoff as I am not using growbags. The water goes in and is completely used by the plants.

The PH down is a liquid I used to lower the water I use to the PH level I need. I treat about 20 gallons of water at a time and fill my reservoir with a water hose with a filter attached. Easy

 

[Flower]

No I just used a cheap dual prong soil PH meter on the mixed soil and I set the PH for all the water that I feed to the plants at 6.5. I don't have runoff as I am not using growbags. The water goes in and is completely used by the plants.

The PH down is a liquid I used to lower the water I use to the PH level I need. I treat about 20 gallons of water at a time and fill my reservoir with a water hose with a filter attached. Easy

I had to adjust PH levels when I used FF nutes. I mixed 5 gallons at a time, until I realized that the PH level of the premix would rise over time.
I then only mixed as needed.

 

[KGBSkunky]

I had to adjust PH levels when I used FF nutes. I mixed 5 gallons at a time, until I realized that the PH level of the premix would rise over time.
I then only mixed as needed.

True and why I created this method. My goal from the start was to create an automatic process that’s incredibly simple and will produce magnificent results every time and all I would add is PH balanced water at 6.5 and the watering system has to be fully automatic. You should see the stalks on these guys at the soil level. They are huge. And as you can see I have a decent amount of budding sites by pulling the fan leaves back. I did cut the bottom ones off for airflow and some of the top ones to uncover bud sites. I check on it once a day as I walk by but that’s about it

I probably won’t post another picture until buds are formed

 

[Bugus_Monkey]

Nice.

 

[KGBSkunky]

I should explain that when mixing the water into the dry soil I also added the proper amount of calmag per gallon so it would evenly distribute in the soil. Now that sex has shown and buds are about to form I will be adding calmag to the incoming water. I just kinda preloaded it.

Also note that dried and pressed soil….my thinking is it will always be bug free. I hate gnats

 

[KGBSkunky]

Considering that my hands cramp while trimming and this is a long term thing I decided to invest in a trimmer. I looked at and read reviews of bowl trimmers which are on the low end of the trimmers. The high end running at $200 and up allow much less movement and have trays instead of bowls allowing me to collect trichomes easier than from a bowl and because the blade mechanism is more secure technically I should have the best trim. Drawback is it’s only 12 inches but that should be fine for what I harvest.

 

[CrashMagnet]

I looked at that one a while back. I really like the grate since the wire versions tend to have the blades mounted uneven. It also has what looks like the identical gear mechanism riveted to the grate.

The one thing that concerned me was I couldn't find any listing of replacement blades for a 12 inch bowl. They look identical to all the other bowl trimmer blades, so I bet you could get the iPower 16" blades and cut them down with an angle grinder or similar.

 

[KGBSkunky]

I looked at that one a while back. I really like the grate since the wire versions tend to have the blades mounted uneven. It also has what looks like the identical gear mechanism riveted to the grate.

The one thing that concerned me was I couldn't find any listing of replacement blades for a 12 inch bowl. They look identical to all the other bowl trimmer blades, so I bet you could get the iPower 16" blades and cut them down with an angle grinder or similar.

Got it in to look at it. It's exactly what I wanted and having the mechanism riveted to the body is what makes the commercial units so awesome. It's solid and I checked the spacing as the blade moves .... spot on. After use I plan on cleaning the blade with alcohol each time by taking it off and cleaning it with a tooth brush on a flat surface. I think some people damage how true their blade is by cleaning it mounted. Comes with a spare blade. The base is wire for wet cutting and a removable plate drops in for dry which is the option I want. Also note the blade distance from the grate to the blade can be changed.

The one issue I have with it is the bottom pan is silicone. I am looking for flat metal to better collect the trichomes.

However overall I say best choice in the price range by a lot

 

[Flower]

The bowl trimmer I bought is 13”, and it is plenty big enough for my needs.
I believe you will be perfectly happy with the 12”.

 

[KGBSkunky]

The bowl trimmer I bought is 13”, and it is plenty big enough for my needs.
I believe you will be perfectly happy with the 12”.

Honestly I thought it would be smaller than it is in reality. And I am warming up to the silicon base. I believe I may line the bottom with parchment paper to make it easy to collect trichomes if necessary. It’s hard for me to see how I can get trichomes off the silicone but for all I know it’s easy and it glues the trimmer solidly to the table. Looking forward to trying it out in about 60 days. I saved the box to store it between grows and protect it.

Today I plan on trying my new decarb / infusion gadget. This way I can sit it on my deck and hit the decarb preset and zero smell in the house. Then I add oil or butter and in a few hours I have perfectly infused product. Gonna make some brownies

 

[Hippie420]

I wonder if you could get the trics off of the silicone the same way you do your fingers; use your finger to roll it into little hash balls? I don't wear gloves when I hand trim just for that reason.

My old buddy Mark (RIP) used to keep a bottle of alcohol and some paper towels handy for clean up until I showed him how I did it. Those little hash balls are the trimmer's treat.

 

[Jan Borrego]

Those little hash balls look like boogers

 

[KGBSkunky]

Day 45 for these autos

I can’t cut enough vegetation off these beasts. I have already filled a waste can with fan leaves and it doesn’t look like I made a dent. At 45 days I am starting to see some decent bud formation

 

[Jan Borrego]

Day 45 for these autos

I can’t cut enough vegetation off these beasts. I have already filled a waste can with fan leaves and it doesn’t look like I made a dent. At 45 days I am starting to see some decent bud formation

View attachment 351940

Nice I like when you get good solid buds from all of your hard work in a grow.