Growing with Gas
Featured, Gardening Tips — By NUG Magazine on September 29, 2011 at 11:29 am
By: Mel the Bumbling Gardener
Part 3 “50 day harvest”
As you might remember from last month’s story, I have been moving my new clones from the “Veg” side of the Quick Grow’s Q-9 Greenhouse to the “Bloom” side with the 12-on and 12-off light cycle as soon as they reached the magic 7-inch size. Like I said last month, I have never tried to bloom a plant that small; I always thought the plant should be at least 12 inches tall before the bloom cycle should be started.
The first clones to reach their size were moved and encouraged to bloom on June 1st, an easy date to remember. This grow was on track in every way I could measure: size, color, leaf size, root mass; and just the overall look of what was growing in the chamber was great. The only thing that still puzzled me was “the gas.” I still couldn’t see or smell it at all and the gauge on the tank didn’t really move much; but what the heck, the plants that were moved to bloom seemed to grow like crazy and everyone looked really healthy. As the days passed, I watched in true amazement as to how fast the clones turned into plants, all the while reaching for the light at the top of the chamber, growing like the magic seeds Jack planted in the story we all read when we were kids.
It was fun to watch the growing stages of the different rows of plants put into bloom at different times. As the days marched on, each strain started to show its own personality and ability to bloom with the 12-on and 12-off light cycle. By the end of June, I had all 9 blooming plants well on their way to the finish line. I had rows of plants all growing at the same time in different stages of finish just like I wanted…Very cool.
With 30 days down, I had only (+ or -) 30 more days of growing to get that “Harvest Every 60 Days” claim from Quick Grow. The first planted, 7-inch clones are now about 18 inches tall with the rest of the pack not too far behind. The plants on this grow look very different from what had come out of my other chambers (Spinner and Phototron). This greenhouse grows a very “Sea of Green” kind of plant; taller, not as bushy and with more distance between the buds…Very tasty looking.
It’s now July 8th. The first planted are just full of white hairs, sticky and dank with that smell…You know that sweet smell of success. I have been trimming my first row of ladies just to show the younger plants what they have to aspire to in the up-and-coming days ahead. From what I could tell, my first row of planted was starting to show signs that it was finished growing and was now in the finishing days of flower. Did I say I hadn’t seen the gauge on the tank go down? Tap, tap…Nope, I can’t really say that the gas gauge is any different today than it was the day I hooked it up; I think I may have a problem.
“Hello Gus, (Quick Grow Hydroponics) I think I may have a problem with the gas on the Q-9 you sent me…I did just as you said to do when I got the unit…plug it in and set the time. The greenhouse has shown great success with very tasty looking buds in a very short amount of time, but…I thought the size of the buds would be much bigger than plants grown without gas.” In less than 2 seconds Gus asked me if I had remembered to turn the gas on. Turn the gas on? Yes, yes I did. Right after I hooked up the filled CO2 tank to the regulator, I turned on the gas. “Good job, but did you ‘set the timer’ to ‘Gas ON’?” Now you know why I’m called the “Bumbling Gardener.” No, I never set the timer to turn on the CO2 gas and that’s why the tank gauge never moved. All I could do was shake my head; this was a real disappointment. I just realized that “Growing with Gas” just went “up in smoke.” Oh well, Gus talked me through the timer adjustment. He even made sure the gas came on, and the vent fans were off long enough to let the gas settle on the plants before the vents powered back up. I thanked Gus for his help and went back to counting the days until harvest.
July 15th – The first planted row looks like it’s really in flower with rows 2 and 3 not very far behind. I was surprised at how fast the 2nd and 3rd planted rows were catching up with row 1. I am beginning to think that if I want to harvest plants all year long, I need to space the planting further apart. Maybe even 2 weeks or longer would work better, and I still think larger clones; maybe 10 to 12 inches would finish closer to the top of the chamber.
July 20th – Just 50 days into the grow and row 1 is finished…Nice size buds, very sticky with that great red/orange hair appeal; they look just great. If what you’re looking for is a fast turn, this chamber kicks ass; and with a few more adjustments on the planting times and size of clones, I should be able to harvest every 60 to 65 days with a bigger “gassed up” bud size.
Unlike my other chambers, the Quick Grow keeps me on the grow with 2 sides to this chamber. Clones turn into plants all the time, it never stops. If it’s not 18/6, it’s 12/12. All you have to do is move the plants 1 time and trim, trim, trim until harvest.
Come back next month to see what else I found in my new Quick Grow Greenhouse.
Tags: gas, Grow, indoor, quick grow, Tips