What's good GC. It's been a while sense I've been around, but I finally got myself a new location, which will allow me to grow again once more. This time I have some help as well, so I'm hoping for big, and beautiful results this harvest. Background: This will be the fourth journal I have done on GC, and my 5th harvest. My roommate, who is also a medical marijuana patient, has about the same number of successful harvests as myself. In the state of Maine, each person with their card is allowed 6 "mature" plants at a time. This basically mans as soon as a plant get's flipped into flowering cycle (12/12). This allows us to legally grow 12 mature plants at a time in our residence. We obtained about 25, very nice, dark brown, tiger stripped Blue Dream seeds, and germinated 15 of them. 14 of the 15 sprouted, and 12 of the 14 flourished. We are working on building another room for flowering, but at the moment we are using a large walk-in closet. Long story short, we decided that 9 was the most amount of plants we could fit in the closet, so after two week from germination, we took the 3 weakest looking plants, and tossed them. Unfortunately, these seeds aren't feminized, we do not know how many males / females there will be. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that we have a good ratio. Our Current Setup: (Updated: 9/27/14) Light: 600w High Pressure Sodium (HPS) ----> We wont break out the Air Cooled Hood, or the 1000w until Flower Soil: Fox Farm Ocean Forest Nutrients: Fox Farm Big Bloom & Fox Farm Grow Big ---- (While Vegging) Today, the plants are 15 days old from when I planted them in the soil. The seeds were already germinated before I did so. Here are pictures of the first two weeks of life. This is the best start to my grow's that I have had so far. We are topping the plants as much as we can, we want to keep them as short, and bushy as possible. When they start getting bigger, we will be using the Sea Of Green (SOG) method, to keep an even canopy for the cola bud's to flourish. The attached pictures are of Day 4, Day 10, Day 12, and Today (Day 15) Enjoy!!
Did you top them already?, When (maybe what day) did you do so. U have a grow as well, my first, with a similar setup sog at 400w Hps. just beginning. so u top, when u do, do u just pinch off, or do you ever tie down main stem so that alternate grows? Great pics and Healthy looking plants! are those 1 gallon, 2 gallon pots? will you finish in those?
Awesome start man. I am also a maine med patient, good to see more people growing from our state in here. I wish I had as much room as you have for your grow I am trying to make do with a 4x4 flower room and 3x3 veg room. I started with 6 plants and quickly figured out that I barely had room for 4. Are you going to be low stress training? How do you plan to keep your canopy flat? I used super cropping to keep mine flat. Every time one tried to shadow the rest I bent the branches over to keep them same height. How long are you planning to veg your babies? Is cloning in your future or are you going to restart from seed. With unknown sex seeds cloning asap and then sexing them out could really save you some time, light and nutrients. Also Imo topping should only be done twice, for a total of 4 main tops. Super cropping is a good way to force your plant to grow more tops without over topping. Of course super cropping or bending is high stress training. Maybe you even meant topping side branches and not over topping main stems. I think height control by super cropping and or touting down should definitely be used in conjunrtion with topping. I am sure you probably know all this just wanted to throw my two cents down.
Welcome We topped at our 4th leaf set ... as soon as the maine stem popped out, we would top it. First 4 days were under a 250w MH bulb ... then we switched to the 600w HPS. Ideally we would have used a Metal Halide bulb, but we only have an HPS for the 600w at the moment. I would day about day 5-7 was when we started doing the agressive topping. We aren't sure if we will have the other room ready by the time we flower, so we need to make these as short and bushy as possible, due to the height restriction ... and this is a 60% sativa strain. Everytime a new branch, or node would start, the second it showed it main stem we chopped it. Our selected for a tool was sharp tweezers, works perfectly. Be careful not to snip the two that will pop out right next to it. 3 Gallon Buckets.
Glad to see other Mainer's growing as well! We top main stem from about day 7-16, give or take a day or so .... and then the rest is either tying them down from there, or going with a SCROG. I've done 1 SCROG grow before, and it came out wonderfully ... we just have to figure out a system for in the closet, where there is only one entry point. We have probably 10-12 cola's per plant in there ... we will be lollipopping them, due to the fact the canopy will be so thick, the buds down below will get no light. We will do this right before flower, and label / clone them. I have never actually successfully cloned before, with two attempts ... even with cloner buckets, and my buddy has never tried ... so hopefully we can figure it out this time. At the rate they are growing right now .... 35 days MAX veg .... although without knowing how many females, we dont want to flower too early, incase we get a bad ratio.
They are certainly bushy for day 17. I have been cloning in my run using a homemade aeroponic cloner. I had never really grown anything before let alone cloned. I think I am 9 for 22 with cuttings now, not great but hey fittings are free right. Clone buckets are aeroponics as well right? If so most likely the trouble was with your rooting hormone, clone x gel works best imo. I also use a cloning solution in my reservoir. Making sure everything is clean and you get cuttings into a cup of water as soon as you cut them is also vital. Once u get an air bubble in the stem it's all over. Sorry for the ramble I just feel that in house cloning is the answer for a continued viable grow.
We have decided to do two different sets of clones, this way if our first attempt doesnt go right, we can at least try again before we flip them into flower. Will be getting a new cloner bucket tomorrow ... Debating whether or not to use my T5 flouro light for the clones, or use the 250w MH. http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-8-Site-Cloner-Bucket This is the cloner bucket that we will be using ... it looks like HTG supply has upgraded it from the first version I had before. Hopefully I will experience better results
Just re-arranged all the plants, get the ones on the sides some time in the middle. They are looking absolutely fantastic. Unfortunatly, they are growing way faster and taller than we had expected.Even with the aggressive topping, the plants are shooting up to the sky .... With this being said, we have to be realistic in the sense that, if we cant move to our other grow room before we flower these girls .. we need to flower these plants within the next week.
I know how you feel on the growing to fast to bushy front. My four girls were 26in when I flipped the light 13days ago. Last night they were coming in at like 42". I am out of head room and I have to tuck the Bush in to shut my cabinet door. I think as long as you have some alternating nodes, and some pre flowers you should definitely flip the light asap.you still have seeds right? Would you guys still be switching the 600 out for a 1000watt air cooled? I am personally of the view that two 600's are way better than the 1000 watt. 1000 watt hid tend to be less efficient than the 600watt. Also the more points of light origin the better. You already have the 1000watt setup though right? What's to stop you from running the 600 and 1000 really juicing them up with light. What's holding back the finishing if flower cabinet? You could always flip the girls you got now and if you do manage to get your second space up and running use that to start plants until other room is done flowering right? He cloned bucket has a real decent price tag on it. Part they used seem pretty good. I hope that clone bucket does work for you. Are you still planning to try an clone with the push in time table? If so what are you using for rooting gel, and rooting hormone in bucket reservoir?
I actually went threw all of my equipment and found my old cloner ,,, its a 24 site cloner .... I thought I had lost it somewhere in moving. So thats good, I dont have to buy they 8 site cloner that I posted. I just purchased Clonex for the reservoir, and then I got clonex gel as well to apply to the cuttings. What's stopping me from the flowering room, is that my landlord is still finishing up the basement ... and we have all the 2x4's up for the wall supports, but we still need to actually build the room downstairs. We could put them down there now, but then they would be out in the open, no lock, and no environment controls (its damp down there right now) And I agree, that 2 600w lights would be better than the 1 1000w ... but I dont have another 600w ... I have a 250, 400, 600, and 1000. I have that wing reflector thats in there now, an XTRASUN hood, but its not air cooled / no glass on bottom .... then i have an ULTRASUN air-cooled hood that I will put putting the 1000w in, and then i have a HUGE hood, called the Big Kahuna, which is normally for the 1000w, but on this case, its too big to fit in there. So long story short, the 1000w isnt my first choice, but its better than the 600w, and i can only get 1 light in there. Just bought a new 1000w HPS bulb today. We have decided that we need to flower, now. So much for 35 days max, we only made it to day 20 before we gotta flip these bushes. We will change the light cycle to 12/12 tonight, and then we will rig up the 1000w and the air cooled hood tomorrow. Fortunately, I also found my old SCROG screen, so we will be setting that up in the closet, so we can weave the branches, so they dont get so tall. I really wish that we didnt have a serious height restriction at the moment. Will post pictures shortly.
Getting cramped in there for sure. The clone machine looks nice finding that was like cashing in on a two hundred dollar search ticket. Worth its weight in gold if it makes clones work for you. In aeroponic cloners remember to keep ph at like 5.5. Or obv whatever ph is recommended by your clone solution. I use a different brand so not sure what the clone x brand recommends. Interested to see how the scrog improves those already very bushy plants. What is the flower time on those blue dream?
The height issues really does suck I feel your pain on that for sure. Seems like that damn unfinished ment is really holding back your grow. All those lights, all those pretty beans and no place to go. Of course no matter how much room we get its never enough right?
Flower time is quoted at 9-10 weeks .. We both said that until we can get downstairs, if we can get 1.5oz off every female from that small ass closet, we will be happy. I dont currently have a pH tester ... I've gone through so many of them. Never have found a good one.
I just bought a cheaply, like $20 on Amazon. I have the ph color test drops that I use if I ever question the digital meter. Shockingly enough mine has seemed to be pretty much right on after first calibration. Even when I didn't want it be right. Using Fox farm nutrients lowers ph of water craZy from a 7 to a 4.3 by the time I have all the nutes in my water for hand watering. Pain in the rear balancing it out, I am overly worried about ph and ppm. I test going in and I test run off water from my soil every time I water. The ph drop kits are only like $5-7 bucks I think they are worth the investment to let you know where your water is at.
I have the kit still, i have pH up, pH down, and the electrode storage solution. Maybe I'll try another cheap one ... UPDATE: So we decided to try to stretch another week out of these plants ... we started to tie them down ... will finish with the process today. The branches are very strong already so this LST so late in the game, will only buy us an extra few days .... but its better then having to flip to 12/12 after only 20 days.
How real were the hopeful ladies? I would have tied mine to the ground, but I ran out of room in every direction. I mostly super cropped to get my canopy flat. When I flipped to flower though they had ideas of their own though and now some colas are taller than others. What are you using to tie then down?
My buddy started to tie thm down for us while I was at work late night ... he just used some thin rope ... Pretty sure we are just going to use zip ties ... just have to go purchase some. And we have had fans blowing on these from ll directions, the branches are extremely strong, they dont like to bench down very much ... By doing so, we only took about 6 inches from the height of the plants. Instead of going down, im goign to try to go around the pot as well ... gunna get real creative with how to get these plants so stay down!
UPDATE: So, we decided that we didn't want to stop vegging ... and the basement could take a while .... So I went and bought, yet another, grow tent .... which will make it my fourth, haha. Unfortunatly, in all my grow setting, I have needed somethign different ... at least now I will have it all ... I have a 4x2x2 Mother Keeper, a 3x3x7 Veg Tent, and a 7x7x7 Flower Tent. The 3x3x7 is too small to flower in, and the 7x7x7 wont fit anywhere in our new place .... So with that being said, I have purchased another tent, at 5x5x7. This is what we will use to flower in, for now .... This way we can access all the plants from all angles, and wont have a 4 foot height restriction on them. It was a small price to pay for a much better grow. Cant wait to hook up the 1000w in there !