Dinafem Critical Kush +G/-M2 Test

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by For A Better LifE, May 23, 2014.

  1. Figured I'd do something useful around here and make one of these start-to-finish grow reports :)
     
    This will be a test to see how much bud I can push out of 2 plants in an enclosed space without CO2.
    A real test of my ScrOG technique, and it'll be a good chance to see how close their quoted flowering time is as a bonus!
     
     
    This is Dinafem's Feminized Critical Kush
    Canna's Aqua Line & PK13
    Essential Hydroponics PHup, PHdown, Silicon+
    Prop-o-gator
    DIY 4gallon DWC bucket (x2)
    * I'm not affiliated to these or any other companies
    * I'm by no means a professional grower, I'm actually only completing my 2nd truly successful grow.
     
    Stated yield for this strain is 550g/m2  or 1.8oz/ft2
    I'm hoping to destroy that number
    I believe using a tall ScrOG approach it is possible to reach 1/4lb/ft2 over an 8ft2 area with a single 600w Dual-spectrum HPS in flowering. That's 1.5g/watt
    Whether I believe I can actually pull it off is another matter!
     
    Pushing such high density, some sacrifices have to be expected:
    Lots of screen work and manicuring time
    Lot's of popcorn
    Small colas
    I expect to lose some tops to bleaching/burning (these will not included in the final total)
    I expect some environmentally driven variegation (white buds) in the undergrowth due to lack of light (this will be counted in the yield if 'mids' quality or better. Otherwise it goes in the butter!)
     
    This is actually a semi-stealth grow also. I say semi because while it just looks like a large wardrobe, fans and pumps make it sure as hell not sound like a wardrobe...
     
    I wasn't going to bother doing another journal, but I realized I probably wouldn't keep track of my shit if I didn't, so might as well do it right! Expect a lot of pics
    FABLE
     

     
  2. #2 For A Better LifE, May 23, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2014
    Day 1
     
    View attachment 139516
    Seeds went from paper towel to starter blocks yesterday afternoon. One taproot broke the bottom of it's starter this afternoon. Both heads broke surface late tonight. 
     
    View attachment 139515
    They're under a 125w 6400k CFL with a cheap reflector re-purposed from an older HPS build.
     
    View attachment 139513
    In a comically ramshackle seedling box I slapped together from an apple box and some scrap boxes.
     
    View attachment 139514
    A 120mm PC fan circulates air via some poorly lightproofed vents.
     
     
    The box runs between 82-91*F when the light is on. I'm happy with these high temperatures.
    While the flowering cab has better temp control, the plants will be very crowded in there and I want them to acclimatize to somewhat stressful air conditions while very young.

     
  3. :D  Looking good!........I have a somewhat similar setup and can tell you that I pulled 12 ounces with 2 plants....but.......I have upgraded my tent since then.....(bigger air pump...more airflow).....and am currently running 2 different Cream of the Crop Auto's...Black Gold and Cash Crop......I started a journal on them here and please feel free to check it out.......BTW...totally subbed to your grow! ;)
     
    I am attaching a pic of my last auto grow that yielded the 12 ounces from 2 Cream Mandarine DWC plants from Sweet Seeds......I got one sativa pheno and one indica pheno................great meds!
     
    CreamMandarineAutoGrow 087.jpg
    CreamMandarineAutoGrow 084.jpg CreamMandarineAutoGrow 095.jpg
     
  4. #4 For A Better LifE, May 23, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2014
    Wow phillow, look at that beautiful bud/foliage ratio!
    What are the dimension of your tent?
     
    I pulled 2oz/ft2 of Pineapple Chunk out of mine first proper run http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1244778-pineapple-chunk-scrog.html?hl=pineapple%20chunk%20scrog
    and those plants really suffered from my inexperience. There was quite a bit of vacant screen space as well.
     
    Since then I've switched to DWC and improved temp/air control.
    You cant really see it from the pictures, but my current Power Kush run has crazy amounts of bud.
    Just underneath those big canopy leaves are countless minor colas Bic sized or larger.
    http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1282846-power-kush-dwc-scrog.html/page-4?hl=power+kush+scrog#entry20054881
     
    I find it really difficult to eyeball a yield still on the stem, but I'm guessing I'm getting pretty close to my 4oz/ft2 target already. lol watch now I don't get 1/2 that!
     
  5. Nice!!...just subbed to your power kush grow!...looking awesome!!...My tent is 40"X40"X70"....not bad.......and I actually pulled those 12 with a 400watt electronic ballast...pushes 430watt at its boost setting.........just a side note....I have noticed that (with auto's) by pulling bigger fan leaves that shade the buds, the yield will actually increase...now I know that everyone says the opposite and I would agree when doing photo's but I have tried it with auto's and it works great!......as long as you are in DWC and everything is dialed in...pulling some of those bigger SHADE leaves to let light get to the bud is a good thing.......I didn't believe it at first either until I tried it......just make sure you are only doing it on auto's that are not too far along into flowering...........BTW...you look to yield very well!!....keep your system dialed!!!.......... :smoking: gotta go take care of my ladies now....... :bolt:
     
  6. Subbing in man, growing crit kush myself in soilless.
     
    12oz from 2 plants  mother-of-god.jpg
     
  7. Day 2
     
    Stems, cotelydons,and 1st true leaves all look normal.
    View attachment 139567 View attachment 139568
     
    These 1/2 tubs are filled mostly with easy-blocks, with a bit of red clay pellets and perlite.
    The bottoms are standing in 1/2" of plain water (as Ironhead taught me to do).
    I use an eyedropper to make sure the very top stays moist.
     

     
     
  8. Day 3
     
    Now that the roots have got a little start, I'm going to start keeping the medium relatively dry. I want to encourage as much root spread throughout the pot as possible. This little growbox is more about creating a good rootplug to go into the DWC than producing much vegetation above the soil.
    View attachment 139660
    View attachment 139661
     
  9. Those first few weeks are so painful just watching and waiting for them to take off! I'm gonna have a semi-perpetual grow going from now on, so that the first few weeks aren't so slowwwwwwwww in my head!  Have a look at my journal if you get bored sometime man,  I've just updated a load of bud porn, at week 6!
     
  10. Day 7
    Been entering these photos on a 1 day delay. Decided it wasn't a good idea to store photos on my phone, so I'm catching up with this post.
     
    Also decided calling them 'left''right' would get confusing. Now labeled 'A''B'
     
    B is growing a little faster than A. B's pot has also stayed drier. Don't know if that is the cause.
    View attachment 139970
    View attachment 139971
     
     
  11. All totally natural man, looking good so far. I kinda wish I had done daily pics on my journals, it's amazing to look back and see how fast they grow once they establish some roots!
     
  12. Day 8
    \n2nd true leaf sets coming along nicely. I'm letting the pots dry out for awhile now, encourage the roots to 'go searching'.
    These seedlings are coming along a little faster than any I've sprouted before.
    I don't know if that's due to genetics, medium, or environmental factors.
    View attachment 139995
    View attachment 139996
     
  13. Day 18
     
    Topped the seedlings today. 4 sets of nodes, 8 branches each plant to fill 2' x 2' areas of screen.
    View attachment 140488
     
    Some roots have peeked out the bottom of the pots. I've let them dry out and die. They'd only get torn off during transplant, and I want the roots to concentrate on filling out the pots.with big rootballs.
     
    I'm surprised to see my cotyledons yellowing already. Just one of these starter blocks is meant to have whatever nutes a sapling needs, and these pots have several of the blocks each. 
     
     
  14. Day 40 (Lights flipped to 12/12)
     
    This was originally meant to be a test of Critical Kush's performance. However some experimental changes combined with unusually hot weather put an end to that experiment.
    Both plants are still going, but I can't consider the results of this grow to be a true reflection of Dinafem's product so much as a reflection of my inexperience.
    But I'll continue this log, should still be a decent run. 
     
    These plants have been in the DWC tubs for 12 days
    View attachment 141898
     
     
    Root growth is phenomenal for < 2wks in the DWC
    View attachment 141895
     
     
    I've multi-topped them, so while they aren't that big on top, they have a lot of primary nodes.
    View attachment 141896
     
     
    One plant accidentally got a bath in 9.1ph water. I'm not sure how this happened (I suspect residue on a measuring spoon). It was only for 1/2hr, but it is looking a little frazzled in the new growth because of it.
    View attachment 141897
     
     
    I broke 2 branches while training today. I've pinned them back into place with sewing needles. Hopefully they heal. Not the end of the world if they do not.
     
  15. Day 59 (Flower day 9)(19 days from flip)
     
    Strong sign showed 10days after flip. Both female. I'm pretty happy with how they're behaving despite somewhat high temps. Stretched a few inches higher than I'd have liked.
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  16. #20 For A Better LifE, Aug 9, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 9, 2014
    Day 79 (Flower day 29)(39 days from flip)
    This entry is 1day behind schedule
     
    I'm really liking the physical characteristics of this strain so far.
    The leaves are smallish and thin fingered, very handy traits in a dense scrog
    View attachment 143589
    The branches finished their stretch and basically maintain that height. No continuously-creeping-nodes (if you've ever had a creeper you know what a troublemaker they are in a restricted height cab), and a reasonably uniform canopy. Stretched about 5inches more than I wanted, but quite acceptable all-in-all. I should have allowed a little more stretch space tbh.
    Branches have fairly uniform alternating bud-node patterns. Initially I'd thought they were quite leggy, but as the buds fill in the stems appear less excessive. The calyxes do not over-dominate the cab, I think the small/thin leaves allows light to penetrate deeper causing this. I expect this to finish in Twist Sticks form.
    View attachment 143590
    Proximity of my light has been a problem in the past, I've tied a lot of the branches out toward the rim and trained a few of the central branches sideways to create a stadium effect. I'm still really pushing it however, the tallest bud is only a few inches from the cooltube and reaching 95F, it seems pretty happy there to be fair. And just 5inches below that it's 82F. If these buds choose to fatten I'm gonna have a killer run. If the buds decide to rise more instead I'm probably gonna have some problems.
    Since buds are forming all along the length of the branches there is a lot of undergrowth. I'd like to prevent that from becoming wispy&pale. So I threw some a small cfl in homemade popcan reflector in under each side of the screen just to see what would happen. Despite being really low output bulbs, the undergrowth does seem to have accelerated bulking up since installing them. There hasn't been any impact on canopy temperature (where it matters), and the plants haven't behaved confused from the light coming from the wrong direction (though that might be because of the relatively low output of the cfls). I'm considering replacing the 2 small side cfls with a single 125w 8k lumen cfl under the screen. I suspect even this will have no recognizable impact on the high canopy temperature, which I believe is almost entirely caused by proximity to the HPS. It would certainly have quite an impact on available light underneath the canopy.
    View attachment 143592
    I tried out some Royal Haze additive at 1/2 maximum doseage. It sent me on a ph adventure. I should have let the new additive stabilize overnight in my new nutrients before adjusting the ph. Felt it safest to replace the reservoirs to get things back into balance.
    My next reservoir change will probably have a PK13 dose. I'll probably run a weak concentration of the Royal Haze from then until maybe a week before harvest. I don't feel dwc needs any more flush than that.
     

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