Scotty's 2nd Run

I've been slacking on my updates again, but with the holidays and a new puppy I'm pretty busy lately. And I honestly underestimated the amount of work running the 2nd tent was going to be.

We're 8 weeks into flower, the plant showing the deficiencies early is definitely doing it again. Probably should have given it some more epsom salt at some point,but it's too late now. Also the front right one is showing some slight deficiencies too, not sure what it is, but at this point we're coming down the home stretch.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to chop the Coffee Crisps in the back right corner (the really tall one) it's starting to fall over and the trucks were looking pretty cloudy as far as I could tell with my digital microscope. I actually have a jeweler's loupe arriving today to get a better look. Going to give the rest at least another week.

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The girls in the veg tent just went into their 5 gallon bags. Of course I somehow managed to miscalculate my soil again and ended up like a gallon short. And of course I discovered this Saturday night and their isn't a grow shop open anywhere close to me open from Sunday to Tuesday. Fortunately the nursery bags I use allowed me to just move into the new pot with the dirt I had and then fill in when I got more.

Think I may have waited to long to up pot and let them get a little hungry. (I don't start feeding until I up pot) Actually looks like it's about time to top them.
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Once again with a random update, so I ended up getting super sick right after I posted my last update & was basically pretty much stuck in bed for about 3 days. So after I was finally able to get back down & check on my plants the big one had completely bent over & a couple others were about to fall over as well, so I just went ahead & chopped them all. Been hanging for about 3-4 days now. I failed to get any pictures before I chopped, so after what looks like a bit of a stay in trim jail I'll post some pictures of the final product sometime next week.

Also after I recovered the girls in the veg tent had actually grown into the lights. Actually did some damage to the tops from light burn, but they were overdue for a topping anyway so no harm done. Just did my first feeding on them last night, seem to be in good shape so far. Once the flower tent is done serving as a drying room I'll move them over & do a short veg in there before I flip again.
 
Glad you're feeling better man~! 👊
Thanks, it was rough for sure. Basically threw up for a whole day & then took me about 2 days to build up to where I could even think about eating solid foods. (drinking small amounts of liquids would make me feel like I was going to start vomiting again) Then I smoked a nice blunt & my appetite came back. 🤣
 
Thanks, it was rough for sure. Basically threw up for a whole day & then took me about 2 days to build up to where I could even think about eating solid foods. (drinking small amounts of liquids would make me feel like I was going to start vomiting again) Then I smoked a nice blunt & my appetite came back. 🤣
Weed always helps an upset stomach just gotta take one hits or something small to get over the initial queazy feeling.

Enjoy that break in trim jail
 
Finally got everybody all trimmed up & into Grove bags to cure. I actually ran out from my previous harvest so we started in on some of it without curing. I've sampled the grape jelly and the onyx cookies and both have had a nice flavor & a nice buzz.

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Got the girls out of the veg tent into the flower tent & gave them a 2nd topping. Planning on doing my soil amendments/tea this weekend and flipping to flower in 2 weeks. Definitely nice not having to start from scratch and just being able to roll right into flowering after harvest.
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Last week for some strange reason a guy dropped off a perfectly working mini fridge that he didn't want because he found out it contains flammable refrigerant (I'm pretty sure all modern refrigerators do). He was afraid it was going to blow up his house so he just wanted it out of there. So I went ahead and took it home to experiment with making a curing fridge. It's too small to really dry in, but I'm planning on storing my Grove bags in there for curing/long term storage.

The OEM thermostat had way too wide of a temperature swing & wouldn't really run above about 40 degrees. So I found a temp/humidity controller that I can control to tenths of a degree and have gotten it to where it maintains 55-60 degrees. However I'm surprised by how much humidity builds up in there, considering it's empty at this point. It will hover around in the low 80% range. So my next plan is to order a peltier cooling unit to use as a dehumidifier. I should have taken some pictures of the project in it's current state, but I didn't think about it when I was down there taking pictures. I'll try to get some tonight and update
 
Hell yea cheers to a successful harvest man 🍻

Interested in your cure box...bud builders means ya kinda gotta show off your build haha...do it
 
Ok I swung by the house on lunch break & took a couple pictures of the mini fridge.
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Not a whole lot to it at this point. Here's the temp/humidity controller

I'm planning on using this peltier unit/power supply, which will hook to the 2 wire nutted wires to act as a dehumidifier. Think I'm going to order the other parts this weekend, will update when I have some results.


 
Just a quick update on my mini fridge project. So I got everything & it's up & running, what I will say is that it's not perfect. The peltier unit does a good job keeping the humidity down, but my issue with the unit is just a downside of the compressor driven refrigeration system & exactly how it works. Cannatrols are made using peltier coolers & I now see why. As part of the cooling process dehumidification takes place. The way these mini fridges work cause them to over dehumidify (and technically over cool too).

Basically when the thermostat calls the compressor comes on & charges the cooling coil at which point cool starts to radiate off it. This process takes a minute or two and then it starts to cool. The problem is this process works in reverse when it shuts off, the box hits it's bottom temp & the compressor shuts off, but because the coils is already charged that cooling (& dehumidification by default) continues until the refrigerant all leaves the coil. Plus with the peltier dehumidifier keeping the humidity lower on the off cycle its starting at 60% instead of about 85% without the dehumidifier. So now it's really pulling down to pretty low humidity (about 30-35%). At this point I'm just storing grove bags in there so I'm hoping that will somewhat buffer the fluctuating humidity. In order to really get it perfectly right I'll need a Peltier wine cooler, but this mini fridge was free so it'll do for now.20240214_213005.jpg
 
Can you use external air exchange to flatten the hills and valleys? At tiny blower like on a 3D printer head might not be too bad to add in and will help keep your lung room drier at bit maybe?
 
Just a quick update on my mini fridge project. So I got everything & it's up & running, what I will say is that it's not perfect. The peltier unit does a good job keeping the humidity down, but my issue with the unit is just a downside of the compressor driven refrigeration system & exactly how it works. Cannatrols are made using peltier coolers & I now see why. As part of the cooling process dehumidification takes place. The way these mini fridges work cause them to over dehumidify (and technically over cool too).

Basically when the thermostat calls the compressor comes on & charges the cooling coil at which point cool starts to radiate off it. This process takes a minute or two and then it starts to cool. The problem is this process works in reverse when it shuts off, the box hits it's bottom temp & the compressor shuts off, but because the coils is already charged that cooling (& dehumidification by default) continues until the refrigerant all leaves the coil. Plus with the peltier dehumidifier keeping the humidity lower on the off cycle its starting at 60% instead of about 85% without the dehumidifier. So now it's really pulling down to pretty low humidity (about 30-35%). At this point I'm just storing grove bags in there so I'm hoping that will somewhat buffer the fluctuating humidity. In order to really get it perfectly right I'll need a Peltier wine cooler, but this mini fridge was free so it'll do for now.View attachment 45331
The thermo electric humidors work good. It's hard to find a larger thermo electric whine cooler.i had the same problem with the compressor driven ones.
 
Can you use external air exchange to flatten the hills and valleys? At tiny blower like on a 3D printer head might not be too bad to add in and will help keep your lung room drier at bit maybe?
That could work, but would require cutting a pretty decent size hole in the side of a mini fridge. I also considered a small humidifier but that would either take up already limited space in the box or also need to be piped in from outside & I was trying to avoid drilling holes in this thing at all, much less the sizes I would need to vent in air or humidity from the outside.
 
I just grabbed this one .looks just like my buddies canatroler. I can't bring myself to dump 1800 on a canatroler they work good though.im gona put small dehu in it.should work about the same.
 
I just grabbed this one .looks just like my buddies canatroler. I can't bring myself to dump 1800 on a canatroler they work good though.im gona put small dehu in it.should work about the same.
Literally I don't think there's any difference other that their control screen which could pretty easily be replaced by a controller 69. Otherwise it's just their proprietary software as far as what temps & humidities to maintain for drying/curing. But I'm the same way I want a Cannatrol but given what it actually is I can justify over $1500 for it.
 
Yeah that's basically what I need. The good thing is once I get one I can just reuse the stuff I got to set this one up. But again someone dropped a free mini fridge off at my work & so I decided to experiment. :cool:
I dried my last run in a whine cooler it turned out good.i just didn't like the humidity swinging from 40 to 70 every time the compressor kicked on.i will let you know how this new deal works im gona harvest In about a week.
 
So I have a vacation coming up, we'll be gone for a week so there's no way my plants are going to make it until we get back without water. I could possibly get someone to water for me but my usual go to (my brother, who also grows) is going on the trip with us. On top of that the plants generally take me about 2-3 hours to water & it could need to be done twice while I'm gone so I really feel bad asking anybody to do all of that. So I started looking at alternatives. I actually made my existing stand/water trays into auto pots, which did actually work, but at best it's going to buy me another day or two, in order for them to last as long as I need I would have to have a massive reservoir under each plant.

As I was scouring Amazon for a solution I came across a Vivosun drip irrigation system for pretty cheap, looked like it might fit the bill so I ordered it. It actually worked OK, but the way it's set up the emitters have to be set up 4 at a time & in order to get anywhere close to the full pot watered they recommend 2 emitters per pot which can't be worked out with my 5 plants. So I decided to reinvent their system. I found a drip emitter fitting kit, 1/4" hose & some 5/8' to 1/4" taps on Amazon & went to improving. So I basically have like $70 in this thing & I have been pretty impressed with how it works. Even when I'm here I can set it up on a timer to run for a certain time period & can go & do other things while the plants water themselves. I should have done this months ago.

Here's a list of what I have in the project if anyone wants to try to replicate. You could also skip the Vivosun kit & just add some 5/16" hose & a pump. I will say the pump is tiny & doesn't deliver much pressure but for a drip application with at least 10 sites it seems to work well enough.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B96R2RC3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 
Very cool.
I used Blumats for my vacation and hooked them up for full time use on last grow [just finished].
Very similar to what you got but they run on/off by how dry the pot is.
I'll use them again.
I use a Rubbermaid Brute 32g for my res.
 
Just realized I haven't updated with plant pics in quite a while. We're exactly 4 weeks from switch to 12:12. I think from now on I'm going to wait a bit longer after flipping to flower before I start the next round of seeds. I waited 3 weeks this time & I've been fighting height for the entire grow. At this point the two plants in the back have forced me to hang the lights directly on the tent poles & the front right is about needing the same, but it's sharing a light with the one short bushy plant. Due to my vacation I'll be starting the next round as soon as I get back which will put me at about 6 weeks. Probably longer than I'll want to wait normally, maybe 4-5 weeks feels like it should about be the sweet spot. I really need to get into training to limit height. With all that said on to the bud porn:
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Thanks!! Although I've been around, just don't have as much time to post as I used to. I was looking through my phone & realized I hadn't taken any plant pics in a couple weeks, so I figured I should stop in with an update.
I made it back into the Sierra Cup in May, so I’m going to be in your area. We have got to get together!
 
I made it back into the Sierra Cup in May, so I’m going to be in your area. We have got to get together!
Awesome, congrats!! And definitely down to meet up. Like I said if you're staying at the holiday inn you're like 2 blocks from my house. Love to have you stop by & sample some of the goods. Just hit me up with the exact dates & we'll make it happen.
 
Another quick update. My drip system worked well enough while I was on vacation that nobody died. In fact I had to rig in some hangers because the buds we're getting big enough that they were starting to fall over. Seems like I always have that problem, maybe I need to look into adding silica in the future. We're 7 weeks into flower so probably looking at another couple weeks or so before we're ready to harvest.

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Man I'm slacking on updates. Big tent is going to be ready to chop at about any day now, just waiting for some trics to start ambering. However I have one plant (the one in the back right) that still has white hairs flying around everywhere, it's grown past the lights (which are already attached directly to the ceiling poles in my tent) & it just won't finish up. I read somewhere that some people went to 18/6 to finish up some plants. I may have to move the babies into the tent with it & dry the rest in the veg tent.
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