Third grow: Blueberry from HGS

[chiefton8]

UPDATE (3/08/09): Still on 18/6 veg cycle, plants at 4, 3 and 2 weeks since sprout. Plant 1 is showing female pistols!

UPDATE (3/15/09): Still on 18/6 veg. Plant 1 is female, and I just found out that plant 2 is also female! Plant 3 is going in the garbage...no room or need for it. I'll start flowering in the next day or two.

UPDATE (3/23/09): 1 week into flowering!

UPDATE (3/26/09): 1.5 weeks into flowering. Added another 65w CFL for a total of 405w (250w HPS + 2x45w CFL's + 65w CFL).

UPDATE (3/30/09): 2 weeks into flowering!

UPDATE (4/2/09): 2.5 weeks into flowering!



Start of journal:

This is my third grow...my first two grows were White Widow and Jock Horror from Nirvana seeds. I have started with three plants that sprouted, and I'm probably just going to take 1 female to maturity due to space and light limitations. Hopefully I'll update this journal at least once every week from now until smoke.

Background:

Strain: Blueberry from High Grade Seeds
Soil: FoxFarm's Ocean Forest (Organic)
Lighting: 250w MH conversion bulb on an HPS ballast for veg. 250w HPS bulb plus 2x45w CFL's for flowering. 18/6 for veg, then switching to 12/12 for flowering.
Nutrients: FoxFarm's Grow Big (6-4-4) for veg and Tiger Bloom (2-8-4) for flowering.


These are the three plants at 3.5, 2.5 and 1.5 weeks since sprout.

Plant #1: 3.5 weeks old, showing definite female preflowers...early it seems but i'm positive!



Plant #2: Sex still unknown.



Plant 3: I'm not really sure why I have this thing growing, but I couldn't throw away a viable sprout right?

[chiefton8]

UPDATE: plant 1 is at 4 weeks since sprout, plant 2 at 3 weeks and the 3rd plant is at 2 weeks. Plant 1 is definitely female (see pic)!!!

I'm still on 18/6, hoping to switch to 12/12 in about a week or week and a half. I gave them their first dose of FoxFarm's GrowBig (1 tsp per gallon) and they seem to be responding well to it. Soil pH still steady around 6.8 or so. Here are some pics.

Plant 1: 4 weeks since sprout. FEMALE!




Pistols from plant 1...




Plant 2: 3 weeks since sprout. Sex is still unknown.



Plant 3: Not sure why I have it honestly. I don't intend to transplant it because I don't have the room for more than just a single female, and since I already know plant 1 is a female, this plant doesn't have much use. I just couldn't throw it out, so i'll just keep it and see how it goes.

[chiefton8]

3/15/09: UPDATE!

Plant 1 is at 5 weeks veg, and plant 2 is at 4 weeks of veg. I've known now for a week that plant 1 is female, but just today i've found this plant is indeed female! Given my space and light limitations, i was only hoping for 1 female plant, but now I'm not sure what to do with the second...my plan is to buy another couple CFL's to supplement the 250w HPS that i'll use for flowering. So my final plan will be to use a 250w HPS with 4x45w CFL's, which I think should be good to take two full females to harvest. What do you think, should that be sufficient??

I just gave them their last dose of veg nutes (2 tsp each of FoxFarm's Grow Big, 6-4-4, in 1 gal of water with pH adjusted to 6.5-7). Tomorrow (or the day after) I'm going to switch to 12/12 and start the bud growing.

Comments? Suggestions?

See pics!

Plant 1: Female, at 5 weeks veg! Soil pH is steady at ~6.8.



Plant 2: Female at 4 weeks veg! Soil pH is steady at ~6.6.

[I<3Trichomes]

Just read through the journal, looks good so far and that's great you have 2 BIG females now.

That 5 week-veg'd is very healthy (as are your others) and looks like it is going to be a monster.

As far as the 250w HPS + 180w CFL, that will be 430 watts which is plenty for 2 plants. The nice thing is the 180w CFL will be variable in location if you find need some shadows or something.

I'm pulling up a chair.

[chiefton8]

Originally Posted by I<3Trichomes

Just read through the journal, looks good so far and that's great you have 2 BIG females now.

That 5 week-veg'd is very healthy (as are your others) and looks like it is going to be a monster.

As far as the 250w HPS + 180w CFL, that will be 430 watts which is plenty for 2 plants. The nice thing is the 180w CFL will be variable in location if you find need some shadows or something.

I'm pulling up a chair.

thanks dude! i think they are going to be monsters indeed, but that's cool. better too much than too little (wait...can you have too much weed?? ) i'm pretty sure i've got the space, light and odor control to handle two big plants. i just started flowering today. 9 weeks and counting...

yeah I think the CFL's will be good to round out the dark spots when they start to get bigger. i'll play it by ear...maybe i'll only need 3 CFL's.

[newgrowNY]

looking good, how are the FF nutes working out for you?

[chiefton8]

Originally Posted by newgrowNY

looking good, how are the FF nutes working out for you?

thanks man. the FF nutes have been great so far...no signs of nute def. or burn. the last dose i gave was two days ago at 2 tsp per gallon. i've use miracle grow in the past with good results, but i think this stuff will be much better and more forgiving. time will tell.

[I<3Trichomes]

What odor control set-up are you running?

[newgrowNY]

I like the FF products and they have been good to my plants... I did start off very light on the Grow Big. I have been supplementing my Tiger Bloom at 1tspn/gallon with GH Kool Bloom at 1tspn/gallon...its higher in P/K w/ no N.

[chiefton8]

Originally Posted by I<3Trichomes

What odor control set-up are you running?

a carbon scrubber with about 200 cfm, similar to this one. it's a simple set up...i have it just hanging about 1 foot down from the ceiling acting as the primary air outlet from the closet. there is still some residual smell, but it takes care of about 90% of it which is good since all i am really concerned about is the neighbors.

Originally Posted by newgrowNY

I like the FF products and they have been good to my plants... I did start off very light on the Grow Big. I have been supplementing my Tiger Bloom at 1tspn/gallon with GH Kool Bloom at 1tspn/gallon...its higher in P/K w/ no N.

i started off light on the Grow Big as well. Today i gave them their first dose of Tiger Bloom (1 tsp per gallon), but upped the pH to ~6.5 before giving it to the plants. I was surprised to see that the Tiger Bloom lowered the pH so much (1 tsp per gallon gave a final pH of ~4-5), which I figured was too low. the soil pH for both plants is hanging steady around 6.6-6.8 right now.

i noticed the Tiger Bloom doesn't have any sulfur in it. do you supplement any nutes with sulfur in it?

[newgrowNY]

I never noticed the Tiger didn't have sulfur in it, havent been giving it anything to supliment, and haven't seen a problem.

Just looked at my GH Kool Bloom and one of the things its made up of is Potassium Sulphate, not sure if that counts.

[chiefton8]

Originally Posted by newgrowNY

I never noticed the Tiger didn't have sulfur in it, havent been giving it anything to supliment, and haven't seen a problem.

Just looked at my GH Kool Bloom and one of the things its made up of is Potassium Sulphate, not sure if that counts.

i suspect the GH Kool Bloom is doing it for sulfur requirements. i will probably go out to my local hydro store and see if i can't pick up something with sulfur to supplement.

[I<3Trichomes]

Originally Posted by chiefton8

a carbon scrubber with about 200 cfm, similar to this one. it's a simple set up...i have it just hanging about 1 foot down from the ceiling acting as the primary air outlet from the closet. there is still some residual smell, but it takes care of about 90% of it which is good since all i am really concerned about is the neighbors.

That's awesome, you linked to the person I bought my carbon scrubber off of.

I was going to get that 8", but only needed 130CFM for my application so I bought the 6 inch one. I'm impressed by the quality of it, and 5 pounds of activated carbon leaves 0 smell in my room.

[newgrowNY]

Originally Posted by I<3Trichomes

That's awesome, you linked to the person I bought my carbon scrubber off of.

I was going to get that 8", but only needed 130CFM for my application so I bought the 6 inch one. I'm impressed by the quality of it, and 5 pounds of activated carbon leaves 0 smell in my room.

thats good to hear on no smell at 5 lbs.... I'm getting ready to hookup my 6" Carbonaire with 40lbs... and also have another 5x25 in my tent

[chiefton8]

Originally Posted by I<3Trichomes

That's awesome, you linked to the person I bought my carbon scrubber off of.

I was going to get that 8", but only needed 130CFM for my application so I bought the 6 inch one. I'm impressed by the quality of it, and 5 pounds of activated carbon leaves 0 smell in my room.

they really are good quality scrubbers. i remember my very first grow (or attempt to grow) when i had 3 plants growing (all turned out to be male) without a carbon scrubber. i think my neighbors around the block could smell those bastards...scrubbers are worth their weight in gold.