One Foot in Three Dimensions

 The old tent was 4'X4'X~7'. That works out to ~112cf of volume. The new tent is 5'X5'X~8' giving ~200cf of volume. My expectations was for not much difference, just a little extra room to work around what I expected to be pretty much the same number of plants in a grow and a little more head room so I could move some of the air handling inside the tent vs. outside. What I didn't expect was the difference the extra volume makes in temperature control. 

The last grow had all the fans working close to 100% all the time and they still did not keep the temp in control. Even with drawing in night air the tent stayed in the high 80'sF to low 90'sF. Much too hot for optimum Cannabis flower even with extra CO2. The crop came in with close to 28g/plant, all loose air buds with mid teen or lower THC content. That's the bad news, not worth a damn for smoking but the OK news they will make FECO that works.

When I first turned the lights and fans on I spent a little time scratching my butt because with the fans running on low the tent temp stayed in the mid to upper 70'sF. Then que flat head syndrome, as per above the new tent has almost twice the volume as the old tent and the lights are hanging almost a foot higher. Bottom line volume makes a big difference. I have an AC unit in the tent now for use if/when the temps increase but it may be used very little. 

ken

Ready for Next Crop

 It is a PITA to go from one tent to another, it was a surprising amount of work and time to get the new tent and grow environment ready for a new crop. 

  It is finally ready, there are 10 GG4 Autos in the seedling tray getting ready to plant. Four plants will be grown via DWC, four in Coco Coir both will be fed with Ventana VPS Nutrients per Ventana's chart. At the end of the day we'll see which four plants yield the most top shelf flower. 

If all 10 GG4 Auto seeds sprout the last two will go in Coco Coir and outside to continue my test of growing Cannabis Autoflower plants outside, in Tucson, AZ, over the winter months. 

BTW, Merry Winter Solstice and a Happy New Year. May peace and love be with you.

ken and MsBubba 

Tucson on the Last day of Fall

 Today, tomorrow and the next are the shortest days of the year. in other words the start of Winter and the WX couldn't be nicer.

I will put ten GG4 auto seeds in water tomorrow, four for the DWC and four for Coco Coir to see which works best. Two are backup and will go outside if they sprout.

MsBubba and I have been getting our ass kicked by Covit for the last week or so. I hope it ends soon.

Gorilla Grow Tent

 My office is like working aboard ship with the new 5'X5' Gorilla grow tent. The Gorilla tent is one foot bigger than the old AC Infinity 4'X4' in all three dimensions. I wanted it for the extra foot in height but the extra 9sq feet will also be nice for keeping more things in the tent vs. hanging everything outside. I've also added a AC unit inside the tent. Odds are there will be little extra grow room with all the extra stuff but the biggie is the AC unit. The last crop suffered because I was unable to control temp inside the tent even with opening the tent up and running the fans on high speed. If you can't close the tent up there ain't no way to grow photoperiod plants and I've around 100 photo seeds that need to be used.

One other advantage, with everything inside the tent, a quiet AC unit and less need to run the intake and exhaust fans at high speed the noise level should be way down. That's my plan, I hope it works.

BTW, you can't see it in the photo but there is just a couple of inches between the ceiling and the top of the tent. If I had the ceiling for it there is another 1' extension available.

I'll start a new crop of GG4 Autos after MsBubba's B-Day on the 22nd. The Afghani Landrace and the Durban Poison Landrace Photos will wait till the 24-25 grow season. 

Did I ever mention how great it is to be retired? I keep in touch with a couple of Flight Safety friends and the job has turned into a shit show. It's a shame because it was a pretty good job for about 14 of the 15 years I worked there.

See you on down the road,

ken

First Harvest 23-24 Grow Season

 First Harvest of the grow season; Skywalker Haze Auto:

Not the greatest, not terrible but...

Temperature control was a problem for most of the grow, only in the last two weeks did I get it under control and under the high 80's/low 90'sF. Even with added CO2 the plants suffered. The other problem was soil pH, it was also running too high and I couldn't seem to get it down to the pH6.5 range and keep it there. 

What can I say other than low production and airy buds. Once dry we will see how much flower weight and test for THC. No hope for production but sometimes the THC content will surprise you, both good and bad are possible.

Big changes are in store for the next crop. First a new tent, going to a 5'X5' Gorilla vs. the current 4'X4' AC Infinity. There is a lot to like about the AC Infinity tent and I thought about going to the 5'X5' AC Infinity instead of the Gorilla 5'X5' but the Gorilla is heavier, has stronger zippers, better light/dark control and most important it has an additional foot or two of height available. Plus the 5'X5' Gorilla tent is on sale for almost the same price as the AC Infinity.  

The other big change is going from soil to ?. I'm going to run six autos, four Do-Se-Dos Cookies in 5 gal DWC buckets, and two Do-Si-Dos in 5gal fabric pots with Coco Coir for the last crop of the 23-24 season. I hope to answer which works best for me: Soil, Coco Coir, or DWC.

If I can get the inside tent temperature under control (Add a small portable AC unit inside the tent) next season I will grow some Photoperiod plants. I have 20 Afghani (Landrace Indica) and 20 Durban Poison (Landrace Sativa) seeds that need to be used before they get too old.

See you on down the road,

ken

Using the ExtractCraft Source

Busy morning made easier with the new ExtractCraft Source doing most of the work making FECO for the carts and gummies.

The biggest advantage of the Source is it recovers 90% or more of the alcohol used to make the tincture where the old double boiler method burned it off. You go thru a ton of "EverClear" for just a gram or two of FECO.

ken

Margarita Gummies and Filling Refillable 510 Carts

 Like most things in life there are two or more ways to do things, an easy way that usually costs a few bucks, one that is a little harder, cheaper up front but usually ends up costing more in the end, and then if you are skilled a way to do it with stuff you have on hand.

When I'm smart, I will usually pick throwing money at the problem. I've learned over time without the skill, throwing money at it is cheaper in the long run. Hence my new ExtractCraft tincture extraction machine. BTW, works a treat with little chance of fucking up the extraction and saves about 90% of the used Alcohol for re-use in making new tinctures. I can't tell you how much money and weed I've wasted trying to make workable tinctures with use of a liter or so of 190 proof alcohol on each screwed up attempt plus 10g to 20g of good flower.  Ain't cheep to screw up. The only saving grace is most of the Cannabis lost has been homegrown.

I wanted some gummies with a slight alcohol content vs. oil for better 'tooth'. I could just extract almost all the way down to FECO but leave a little of the alcohol in the extraction which would be easy to do but the taste is not good. Then I got the bright idea to use Tequila and make Margarita gummies. A look at the Jello box told me I needed a little more sugar than gelatin so as a WAG I used 3 gelatin packs to ½ cup sugar with ½ cup of a 1 part Tequila, 1 part lime juice + juice of ½ orange, 1 part Triple Sec. I also "bloomed" three gelatin packs in the other ½ cup of the Margarita mix.  That all went into a pot and brought to a low boil before adding it to the FECO, Lecithin, and a shot of Tequila in the double boiler. Once everything is in the double boiler it is mixed either by whisking for 10 minutes or a couple or three minutes with an immersion blender. Mixed and still hot transfer to gummy molds to set.

I tested one of the small ones and damn if it didn't kinda taste like a Margarita:

 The next question is: do I dust them in the usual citric acid/sugar or drop one on the margarita salt to eat?

I also used some of the FECO to fill a couple of re-usable 510 Carts. They work a treat as well, much smoother and better tasting than store bought:

 Just one in the rack, the other is connected to its battery.

ken