marijuana journal

[vatoloco]

What's going on guys and gals? I stayed up late last night and took a bunch of pics of my biggest plant (#2). It will be 6 weeks old (from sprout) tomorrow. It might seem somewhat small but I buried the root up to the 1st set of "true" leaves to make the stem stronger.
To keep my grow on track I'll post pics in here as often as I can. I'm totally open to suggestions/comments so feel free.

[vatoloco]

Sorry the pics are crappy.
I switched the lights over to 24/7. I had them on 22/2 but I hear that with flouros it's best to have them on 24/7. I have to move the bulbs up about an inch a day.
BTW...I forgot to mention that the fan was blowing from the left side...in the next pic.

[vatoloco]

Here's my 2 biggest...#2 on the right and #3 on the left.

[Big Poppa Puff]

It looks like you've got 6 nodes at 6 weeks already. Are you going to top them off now or start flowering by going to 12/12 on the lights?

[the rainman!]

try never to add more hours to your lighting time after going to less!i go two weeks at 24 hours and after that thin 20 for a week or 2 and slow them with ferts and remember to keep the light with in a inch or closer for the frist three weeks ,it works for me but others may try other ways,turn the plants every now and then to stop the fan from blowing on them from only one side ,now i know some ones going to say why? have you seen trees that bend with the wind all ways comeing from one direction!if your is to strong this happen to them sas well.i like to see them littlely shake like their danceing this makes for great stems!and leafs,try to spay the top of soil now and then so it stays wet! this way the leafs well not dry out to bad from the fan!let them get to 10 or 12 inches and go 12 ,if your not leaf feeding !that is!what ferts are you useing ! i try to stay to sea bird for the frist two stages!why,they are high in natral organics and lest chemical shock,the last 4-5 days before i go to flowering i give them a little liquid plant food to lessen the shock of going to leafing and stay with it till the two days before they come off the leaf feeding and i go to monster bloom for the remaining time 3-4 weeks and stop giveing them any 3-4 weeks before i plan to cut this gives me time to water them with just freash water to flush them and give them the last week in darkness,i also like to keep them in a pale of water for a few days after to take any ferts that would be comeing from the soil out!i try to roll the fuck out of them into joints and smoke them after that! good luck tazz11

[vatoloco]

Originally posted by Big Poppa Puff
It looks like you've got 6 nodes at 6 weeks already. Are you going to top them off now or start flowering by going to 12/12 on the lights?

I really don't know what to do. I was thinking about topping them but then I seen some pics of plants that hadn't been topped and the 1 main cola was humongous! Do you think I should top them? I should take some clones off #2. The other plants (7 total) are mediocre compared to these 2 and it will save me some height vertically if I do decide to top them. I won't switch it to 12/12 until I get a 400W HPS kit with Son-Agro or Hortilux bulb, remote ballast, and a Diamond Luminarc III reflector.

rainman: The lights have never been more than a couple inches from the tops. I never switched from more light to less light...only more. I started out with the lights on 18/6 but now that they are on 24/7 they're taking off like there's no tomorrow. Remember I'm using 240W fluoros for now. In a couple weeks I'll switch the lights back to 22/2 and when I get the HPS I'll have it on 18/6 at 1st and then a week later go to 12/12. I rotate the plants once a day so don't worry...the fan isn't blowing on only one side all day. As for ferts...I haven't used any yet. For now I've just been using my morning piss once a week but on Sunday I'll start them off with Peter's 20-20-20 at 1/8 strength and ween them up to what is recommended on the box. I'll add some Epsom salts when I induce flowering and be following a water, water:urine, fert, water method. For flowering I've got Miracle-Gro Bloom Buster (12-52-12 or somethin) which worked wonders on my outdoor grow.

Thanks for the replies fellas!

[Big Poppa Puff]

If you are going to wait three to four more weeks before switching to 12/12 I would go head and top some of your plants. You have good secondary growth ( Is till call them suckers from raising tobacc as a kid) which will take off after you top the main stem.

Make sure that if you decide to clone, take them from various plants to ensure that you aren't cloning from males. There is no hard and fast rule, but I've seen the plant that jumps out there the fastest and grows best at first turn out to be male, too many times.

For indoor growth in pots, watch out for salt build-up with urine, epsom salts, and miracle-gro. All of them will contribute to salt build-up but espicially the miracle-gro. unless you have a big supply of miracle-gro that you want to use think about Schulz 10-60-10 (I think that's the ratio) or Peters version of your miracle gro. M-gro can be pretty hard on indoor crops.

That's my two cents, but you look like you are doing a good job. Next time instead of soil try a hydro method (like bubble bucket) and see what you think.

[vatoloco]

I went ahead and topped the 2 biggest since I'm going back to Vancouver tomorrow. My mom lives in Portland and has a MM card so everything is cool with her. She'll rotate the plants once a day while I'm gone for the weekend. Hopefully the leaves won't be hitting the bulbs by the time I return!

[vatoloco]

topped

[vatoloco]

I went ahead and cut off the uppermost fan leaves too so more light will be getting to the new growth on the central stalk. I also cut off the 1st set of "true" leaves since they started yellowing and wilting.
As for keeping deposits of salt from building up I've leeched twice now with 4x what I normally water with. I'll flush the soil when I start 12/12 and again at a couple weeks before harvest.
BTW...I was thinking about growing hydroponically a couple grows from now. I know very little about that way of growing so you'd have to help me out with it Big Poppa!

[the rainman!]

bpp is right, we all try lots of things ,i like 6-20-20 and monster bloom,but i leaf feed and yes bpp is right about toping them,if time is not a factor ! a few weeks longer is a higher yeld!a good fact .know we all three cannt all see eye to eye on how to grow them ,look, we all grow other types! indoor ,out door ,and hydroponics, it just goes to show you we all try are best!and your doing fine ,good luck tazz11

[vatoloco]

Today is Monday, Martin Luther King Day. When I got home from Vancouver today the 1st thing I did was check on my plants. Come to find out that my mom forgot to rotate them yesterday and had already rotated them for today! Other than that everything couldn't be better! The new growth is doing well and I DID have to take another link out of the chains that hold the lamps up (leaves touching bulbs again).
I finally ferted for the very 1st time today! I used 1/4 of a teaspoon per gallon. I watered them with 1/4 what I usually water them with and then let the soil sit for an hour. Then I added the nutes.
I think I could've and maybe should've topped my plants a lot sooner.
At the grocery store I bought 4 poster boards for reflectors. I put aluminum foil on one side of them and stapled them to this styrofoam-type insulation. I finally got my credit card balance down to $0 so sometime in the near future I'll be ordering a 400W HPS kit.
Here's a pic of #3 with the most new growth in the past couple days.

[vatoloco]

top of #3

[vatoloco]

My oldest #2 is approaching 7 weeks and is a foot. Here's the top.

[the rainman!]

see some of your leafs bowing down ward,thats what happens if your plants are give 20 then given 24 hours we dont realy see the streaching but its there even at 20 hours!they look good ,next thing you know they'll be trees,