JerryInDFWs Perpetual Grow - DWC + LED + HPS

 
 I really cannot understand why it it you cannot refrain from telling others what to do or not do with their plants.
 
I understand you need to feel you're the center of attention and have your sycophants who hang one your every word. However I'm not one of them. You can pontificate all you like in the group forums like the one for the APDxA's, but please don't do it in my forum. If you don't like what I do with my plants that's just fine, but don't criticize me in my own forum. And TBQH, that Cheese Candy is absolutely none of your business, buddy.
 
I wouldn't dream of being so rude as to go into yours or any other forum and finding what I perceive to be faults, and I demand the same courtesy in this forum.
 
 
 
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Let me clarify the facts a bit. I didn't state I "Wanted a plant like Telbel's," but was merely using her plant as a sort of ad hoc reference point since her plants are like 9 days ahead of mine and the best one in the thread for comparison for me. Seeing she's in a medium versus my DWC, I wouldn't expect identical results, and would be very surprised to match or surpass hers. I wish she had popped a couple three for comparison, but it is what it is. You did assume a bit there, and that more than anything makes my shit itch when someone puts words in my mouth. As I tell others, I'm not competing with anyone other than myself and my past grows. Having said all that, I sure do hope you're right that if I don't screw something up, they'll be nice chunky girls.
 
FTR, there's very little additional info here about my APDxA's that I don't put in a weekly update in the other forum. I think about the only thing I forgot to mention in either forum was dialing the hours from 20/4 to 18/6. I've pretty much got the growing part and gear sorted out, and that lollipopping of the CC isn't going to hurt her. There should be a half dozen or so very nice heavy colas on her in however many more weeks she'll need to finish flowering. The APDxA's are at least a week or more away from any defoliation, and will be done a lot more gradually than the CC got. The bigger problem I have it pulling the trigger on a plant at the right time. I know all the theory, guidelines, voodoo and other stuff, but it seems I still let 'em go too long and wind up with anesthesia when I'm looking for trippy. Got closer on the last NLxBB, but I need to shift away from the indica heavy crosses next bean I pop.
 

 

4-26-2015
 
Was pleasantly surprised to have my evening open up with absolutely fuck all to do. So I thought I'd play with my little Fuji camera. I've been meaning to do a video for ages. Anyhow, this one is pretty crappy. I'll get it set up better next time, and maybe even RTFM for the movie mode. It works fine outdoors, and there's a way to get it to do macro, but I forgot how.
 
Anyhow, it was just for fun, and I don't think I'll post this one over in the APDxA forum since it's so bad.
 
As for making a clone of an auto I mentioned, I know you really can't do it well, but I'm only testing for any rooting speed improvement. It'll get tossed out after I see how fast it roots.
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN2w6AFL4Bo
 
 

 

4-26-2015
 
Just noticed that one of the APDxA's was beginning to show a little light stress at the upper leaf tips. The difference in height between the two girls is 5-6", but it was enough to start the process, and the visible change appeared virtually overnight, although I thought I might have seen some of the tips getting lighter a couple of days ago. Anyhow, she stretched fast enough to get away from me in only a couple of days.
 
This is just one of those things where when you try and listen to others advice and keep the light source close to the plants to "Minimize stretching." Well, yeah, but IMO the fuckers are going to stretch when they flip, regardless of how close or far your light is, or an auto or photo type. I've yet to see a documented scientific study about it, but I'm back at 10" above the tall girl, and will likely up that to 12-14". One of the minor nuisances of growing your own.
 

 
Short pheno:          Taller pheno: 
 
The Cheese Candy seems none the worse for wear after that radical lollipopping:
 

 
The "Mini-DWC" test as a single cutting cloning device is in progress. Gotta say that the cutting I put in there looks far better off than the ones I'd do in the solo cups without an air feed.
 

 

 

4-27-2015
 
Wondered how the cloning experiment was going. Nothing yet and didn't expect any roots so soon, but she sure looks nice, happy and healthy. I'm thinking at least 7-10 days for anything like decent roots.
 

 
Keeping an close eye out for any more light stress with the APDxA's. Raised the lights yesterday evening, but it seems as if they almost grew enough overnight to make up the distance.  Since I shot that video Saturday evening, they've filled in and don't look quite as scrawny, and there's going to be a lot of nice bud sites. I think as stretchy as this strain is, it might be a good scrog candidate. The height difference is even more pronounced than yesterday, and the split-level effect should please the Knights Who Say ‘Ni'! They're sucking down the water, and I'll give 'em both fresh buckets later and add some Terpinator and start carbo loading lightly.
 

 
The Cheese Candy looked pretty bad after I went to town on it a couple of days ago, but looks soooo much better today! Think she's going to be a beauty.
 

 

 

4-27-2015
 
Just back from a sneak peek at "The Avengers: Age of Ultron." I don't want to give anything away, but everyone dies. Just kidding! It's a VERY busy film with something going on seemingly most of the time. The plot doesn't drag too much, but there's the whole psych aspect brought on by the Scarlet Witch character that a few will find tedious. As usual the CGI is superb, but  It's tough to keep up when they're jumping from character to character every three seconds. It's one of those movies you need to watch a couple-three of times to really take in everything. And I'll definitely go see it again when the crowds thin out.

Was it better than the first one? Difficult to say. At the end, Bruce Banner has disappeared because they're after him for going nuts and tearing up Johannesburg(?) or somewhere. Tony burns off, and Thor goes back to Asgard. They would lose a lot of tech without Stark, and Hulk is a pretty good ace to have in the hole. Thor's helpful, but it turns out Vision can wield his hammer. In the end, it Captain America, Black Widow, the new Vision character, Scarlet Witch, the Iron Patriot/War Machine from the Iron Man trilogy, and that guy with the flying suit called Falcon from the Captain America films. Seems pretty unbalanced. The Falcon is only an ex Special Ops guy with a nicked experimental flying suit, while Vision and Scarlet Witch seem incredibly strong in comparison. You get the impression that a real "S.H.I.E.L.D" is reforming too, since Fury showed up with an intact flying carrier.

IMO, gotta say  the first one was a "Purer" version, closer to the original comics concepts. This new one is engulfing more of the Marvel cosmology, and may get too character heavy if they try to add anyone more. And, this one didn't have Tom Hiddleston as Loki, who's worth the price of a ticket just to watch him act, he's that good.

Go see it. You know you wanna.
 
 
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4-28-2015
 
Cleared the decks early this morning and got around to parking fresh buckets under the APDxA's. I wanted to rearrange things a bit in there, and as they were out took a few pics. They're the two in the rear of the tent.
 

 
 
Easy to see the pronounced height difference between the two. The taller pheno has caught up to the Cheese Candy and I'm sure she'll be surpassed in another day. The APDxA's are spreading out big time, and nearly 20" across. The tall APD is around 17" in height. They're in the back of the tent since I'm focusing a little on the Cheese Candy for the next few days.
 

 
These pics show the effect I'm trying for with the CC. Still a bigger diameter than my goal, but once the ends turn up a bit I'll start bringing the outer circle in to minimize space and the diameter of that outer circle. The concept is a nice tight circle of colas.
 
Ordinarily I wouldn't like to have three at this stage on this small tent tent. Didn't want to pop just one of the APD's, but I need to do more plant management than I'd like to keep everyone happy in there. As it was, I had to snatch a couple of the big leaves overlapping the CC.
 
And if anyone cares, the ppm is ~1200, about 250 of which comes with the local water supply. That probably seems low to some, but my girls don't show and deficiencies when I follow my program with the FloraSeries. I've tried the Lucas Formula, but the plants don't look as good to me without the FloraGro component. Since you're going to buy 2x of one of the components, might as well just use the set. pH is 5.95. Temps still ~80.
 
Here's a root shot. Don't be fooled by the color shift caused by the shadow. They're pristine.
 

 
My little cloner experiment is working I suppose. Still the best looking clone I've taken, especially after a few days in a solo cup. Need to get set up with a photo and a feminized strain and do some controlled comparisons and documentation.
 

 
 

 

4-29-2015
 
Seriously considering blowing off further updates on those fucking APDxA's over in the related forum. Not for any particular dislike of the plants, but some of the mouth breathers in the "Comparison Grow" thread.
 
It's supposed to be a comparison grow, which I thought meant that everyone does their own thing to compare their results to others, mistakes and all. Yet there are still those usual suspects who persist offering criticism and unsolicited advice on what one should and should  not do. Apparently the thinking is it's a "Competitive Grow." My current attitude is if I want to water my plants by pissing on them and trim them down to two leaves, that's on me. Unfortunately when you post in a group, you're open to all of that input
 
May just wait until they finish before I update there again. I really don't deal well with know-it-alls.
 
 
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Thanks, Dingus!  
 
It gets discouraging when there's always someone who believes they know so much more and feel you're doing something wrong - and wants to tell you whether you asked or not. It's hard to be an iconoclast, but I despise dogmatic opinion on a subject with so many variables such as growing your own provides. And if something is written in stone and pings my BS meter, I want to see for myself. Pardon me if I don't want to take their word for it. Some of those how-to lists of dos and don'ts frost my ass at times. For example, there's one of those bouncing around for growing autos, which states that you shouldn't feed an auto seedling in the first 21 days. Ever. Absolutely not. But... that was written for planting in a solid media. If I went 21 days without any sort of food with hydro, I'd have dead 21 day old seedlings. Beware self-appointed experts who can't keep in mind that everyone doesn't grow the way they do. To be somewhat fair, most have never done any technical writing and don't understand it's improper to write in such absolute terms without mentioning variations.
 
I don't break all the rules, but just the ones that make me say "WTF?" For example, I know pH must be kept within a certain range, that's a real standard. Temps need to be moderate in your environment, but I don't believe for one millisecond that my plants will suffer if I run them at 82 degrees versus 78 degrees. But when I see "Don't top an auto ever" I ask why and get a bunch of stonerbabble. I really don't care it it slows things down a couple three days. If I do it at the right time in the veg phase and don't overdo it, the plant should compensate for anything within reason I did in the stretch when she flips.
 
Anyway, they're all working on proper bud structure now, and should have some very nice colas on all three. Thought the APD's would take longer, and I was surprised how slow the Cheese Candy was before I even thought of lollipopping her. "The horror! He's lollipopped an auto!! Blasphemy!!! Blasphemer!! Stone him!!" Sometimes I feel as if I'm in a Python movie when on GC.
 
So here's some random pics of the cola structures developing, and I'm happy. There's plenty of time left in both strains to make some very nice colas. I'll still get in there and do something to the APD's probably after the weekend. I want to watch 'em for a while longer before I decide.
 
For the dogma police on GC, none of these plants have been topped, FIM'ed or anything like that. The CC was lollipopped as a fun experiment since it was sort of my first real auto after the NLxBB, which I topped in veg and which handled some LST and defoliation just fine. Hard to remember it's supposed to be fun first and foremost.
 
So the CC was an experiment to see if radical HST would have any negative effects. Well, it took her two days to shake off the HST, and she's fixing to build colas from here on out. It was one of those things I wanted to see for myself. So far, with my limited experience, auto aren't all that different, and once they've flipped they're pretty much ordinary pot plants with a dumbed down strain crossed in for speed.
 
These are unsorted. The full plants in the rear of the tent are the APD's @Day 26. Video sometime this weekend.
 

 
Sorry about getting back on the soapbox.    
 
 

 

5-1-2015
 
Had a problem uploading the original video I made yesterday, and ended up having to redo it (Sorry Fester - I'll give you a shout out in the next one!).
 
Essentially, I thought it would be slightly more interesting to show the gear as well as listing it in a post. This just covers the basics, and is geared toward those who may not be familiar with some of the things in that APDxA forum.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEQRVLQHsO8&feature=youtu.be
 
 
Edit: Forgot to trim the background music in the first try. Republished correctly

 

5-2-2015
 
Here's  a couple shots of the Cheese Candy Auto on Day 38. She's sporting 16 branch ends/cola sites around the circle, and one in the center, so 17 in all. Two or three of those branches are what I"d consider suckers, but I'm leaving them there for production samples and testing. I have a product arriving on Monday that will hopefully allow me to better set the spacing. I'll take a few of the shadowing leaves off as well then.
 

 
What a shame I fucked this auto up by lollipopping her, eh?   <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', times, serif;"> </span></span>
 
 
 
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5-2-2015
 
Taking a break while the camera battery recharges. Had to reset the smaller APDxA because it wasn't sitting in the basket as securely as it should have been. She's 17" tall and needed more stability than she had. Not a plant fault, but mine for not setting her low enough to begin with. Hoping it isn't going to cause too much of a slow down, if any. Had to remove some of the bottom rubbish to see WTF I was doing.
 
The taller APD is all of 24" tall, but that was 30 minutes ago. She's a very lanky plant with a piss-poor structure IMO, but she's budding nicely at the moment.
 
Now I need to decide whether to get busy with some training.
 
Personally, and this is just my opinion and philosophy, I feel that once a plant has flipped, regardless of whether it's a regular, feminized or an auto, it's just another pot plant. Anything "Unnatural" you do to it will likely take an initial toll to some degree but like with any plant, it very often helps the final outcome. What I believe scares some about autos is that there's that mental "Time gun" pointing at them. Not sure I understand the reason for the manufactured drama. You still have at least 5-6 weeks of flower. These APD's are in flower, have their structure established, and I know where the things I'd like to keep are sited. If someone wanted to do this and is worried about trauma, do it gradually and not all at once, and the plant should hardly notice if all the other factors are fine and there's no other sources of stress. These girls in the pics are absolutely not stressed. Another reason I like the control and ease of DWC.
 
There's a very good reason that plant suckers are called that. Sure, you might get a bit of fluff or a buds on them, but they suck the energy from the real fruit on the branch cola ends where you want it packed on and getting all the light possible. IMO, they can go right after they're finished stretching
 
And that's why I don't have a problem with modding these autos. Yeah, there are very touchy strains out there, and those are usually hybrids and would have issues growing in the wild if they even existed out there. The few genuine, pure landrace strains I've seen can handle abuse and neglect very well usually.
 
 
The small APDxA and some of the bud:  

 

5-4-2015
 
The APDxA's are still alive and the tall one continues its stretching, mostly at the branch ends. Not thrilled with the structure of either. The height difference is very pronounced now as visible in the two plants in the rear of the tent.
 

 
These two are of the future central cola of the Cheese Candy, and a tent view..
 

 
 

 

5-4-2015
 
After looking around this morning, and taking a few pics, I really didn't like how big that one APD was getting, and decided to slow her down and finish up the shorter one as well. Yeah, the big one had a zillion future bud sites, but so many would have ended up as fluff or scrap nugs. And much of that crap was overshadowing my Cheese Candy.
 
So they got the scissors. Not ideal, but it's one of those compromises you need to do when growing in a small tent IMO, and they'll be absolutely fine.
 
 
 
Before:          After:   
 
 
The only reason I popped two of the APDxA's was to try and repay @The Vault a little for the generous giveaway I won. I'm not an auto fan yet, but I was just as curious about that Pink Diesel x Amnesia cross as many others, so I popped a couple of the 10 I won. Otherwise, they would still be in the package, and may have stayed there for years.
 
None of these three are getting any sort of dank yet. I expected the CC to put a bit out any day.
 
 
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NOTE: Don't do any of the shit I do.