Thanks, bunnyslaer! I am so stoked right now! I have had fat root balls in all of my successful hydro grows, but this is--by far--the largest root ball I have ever personally produced....and I'm still 8 or so weeks away from completion! At harvest during my 400W grow, the rootball was just about half this size. -TPM
DAY 37 (DAY 9 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12 on 12 off) CURRENT PPM: 1020 +/- CURRENT PH: 6.2 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: 0 CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full. CURRENT TEMPS: RH: 60%, 70F. Nice, cool weather for the next week at least. HEIGHT: Jungle sized. JOURNAL ENTRY I added a few gallons back to the res last night. I forgot how much the plants drink during flower! It's hard to determine how much water is in the buckets because of the huge rootballs that are displacing the water. I also added some nutes, bringing my PPM's up to 1,020. This morning it had already dropped to 1017, so I might bump it up to 1,100 during my next top off if the PPM's continue to drift down. I am always cautious when dealing with the PPM level. In regards to my pictures, I tend to start posting large/high def pics during my flower. Veg is pretty boring and there's not much to see, but flower deserves better quality images, so I will be posting those from now on. . . . . . . . -TPM
Lookin' Good PurpleMonkey, I'm liking the idea of the support strings, I may have to do that in my tent. I'm wondering how you are getting fresh air in and maintaining full light blockage, I have a bit of light leaking out of the tent through the lower flaps but need them open slightly to allow air flow. The tent is in a dark room so hopefully that won't be an issue. Pahly
Hi Pahly, Yeah, this is the first time I am trying out a support net/structure like the one I installed earlier. I think it will help because as the plants grow around and through it, they can lean on it from various levels of height when they get weighted down. During my last grow I was having problems with top heavy plants leaning and falling over each other. With this net setup, it should prevent that from happening again. At least, that's the plan. In terms of light penetration, that's a good question! My tent has a few side vents and the flaps don;t cover them very well. I went simple/ghetto and took some cardboard and simply placed them flush against the tent to block out the light. Other areas that allow light in--such as the meeting points between the door zippers--I cover with metallic tape. That's about it really. I figure enough air gets in with my powerful suction and the various zipper joints and openings of the tent so I don;t really have any open ports or holes to take in air. My tent is located in my home office, so it's in a somewhat well ventilated room. I have an oscillating fan and two open windows with a cross breeze in my office. My cool tube/intake vent right out to a window. -TPM
Hey PM, i posted this on my journal but wanted to get your input. So i have a question. I was recently wondering if there is a difference between plants that go from veg to 12/12 and plants that have a 48 hr dark period. Think purplemonkey and i were recently pondering that notion. Since all my babies are in the table, i can't do a side by side with them. However, i have two big girls in buckets that I'm gonna finish out. Would it be accurate to compare the difference if there is one between the two??? There is a school of thought that the 48 hr dark period kicks in flowering faster . I have two big girls but one is blue dream and the other is purple train wreck so doing one of each technique isn't really a side by side being that they are of different genetics. Any ideas??
Hi jerryg420, My buddy and I both grew the same strain (from the same mother: Blue Dream, come to think of it) and he tried the 48 hours of darkness trick. Neither of us noticed any difference between our two grows (I used the straight 12/12 switch over: no period of darkness) Honestly, I don't think there is a difference. Both of our crops looked about the same and began flowering at the same time. For my current grow, I have seen the earliest and fastest formation of buds appear during my flower stage (I think it has to do with the more powerful light) EVER, and I did a simple 12/12 changeover: no 48 hour darkness. I think the lights, genetics, environmental conditions, and of course LUCK all play a role in when those lovely ladies begin to bloom. I suppose if you were to try an experiment, a few things would need to be known: 1. In previous grows, under ideal conditions (and the same strain), what was the earliest bud formation during flower? 2. What is the measurement you would use to determine weather or not a 48 hour dark period was more effective at inducing flowers/flowering than just turning the lights to 12/12? In other words, if you noticed bud formation at 1 week during a previous grow where you went 12/12, but notice bud formation at 6 days when using the 48 hour technique, is that really a measurable difference or is it just an environmental/genetic/lucky quirk? I can understand if you gain a full week (12/12 starts flower at 2 weeks, but 48 off starts flower at one week, for example), as that would be significant in terms of time gained. But beyond something really significant (i.e: a week gained in flowering), it might be too close to rule out environmental/plant conditions that vary slightly. I think you would need to do this experiment a few times in order to get some good data and really determine what is mother nature (and her quirks) and what is really potentially beneficial (48 hours off). Even if you did notice a HUGE gain in early flower production using the 48 hour trick on the plants you mention in your above post , only multiple experiments (with similar results) would narrow down the data to suggest it's the light inducing earlier flowers. My PERSONAL opinion: flowering begins as soon as you switch to 12/12. 48 hours of darkness does nothing beyond perhaps gaining a day (and I am highly skeptical of even that). I CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE JUST A NOVICE, so there may be expert growers on here with decades of experience under their belt that know a HELL of a lot more than I do that may refute my opinion (and of course, their input is valued and appreciated so please feel free to post/comment on this).....but having seen a buddy do this with the same strain I was growing, I don't believe there is any significant benefit Keep in mind I come from an extremely skeptical position having bought into a LOT of hype during my first few years of growing. For example, I used the RO water, the expensive foxfarm nutes (and other fancy nutes), and tried all kinds of fancy tricks and solutions to increase yield and production. HOGWASH, says I! Pure HOGWASH! Using straight up tap water and ONE SINGLE dry nute, I've been able to produce medical grade bud and lots of it. SO...I am always skeptical when I hear someone make some crazy claim about a product or technique that does something miraculous because a lot of that is completely unnecessary. Again, just my opinion -TPM
Jerryg420, I think one way--if you have the time and patience--to determine an answer to this 48 hour question would be to start 6 - 12 clones of one strain. Get them all to about a week or two in veg, same size, etc. Then, cover one half of the plants completely for 48 hours and leave the rest alone. If ALL of the 48 hour plants show significant bud development long before the 12/12 plants, you have (more or less) your answer BUT, it would take some work/effort to do this. I'm interested in the opinions/stories/experience of master growers on here who have used this technique themselves and can HONESTLY say they have seen a major difference in growth. Good discussion! -TPM
DAY 38 (DAY 10 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12 on 12 off) CURRENT PPM: 1007 +/- CURRENT PH: 6.2 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: .01 (from 6.2 to 6.3) CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Good. CURRENT TEMPS: RH: 50%, 71F. HEIGHT: Jungle sized. JOURNAL ENTRY I took a (brand new/unused) toilet scrubber and gently brushed the intake of my underweater pump last night. It was needed and I did not want to reach in and remove the pump to clean it. The brush worked like a charm, but I did have to turn the pump off for a minute to properly clean it. There are about 4 – 5 distinct tops from each plant; not sure if the pictures capture them quite yet. The tent smells sweet! Not skunky, but sweet. I'm noticing a small decrease in PPM's on a daily basis. This means I need to bump them up slightly until the PH stops rising. The PH rises about .01 every 2 days. That's not bad at all, but I do need to raise the PPM's as the plants are telling me they are gobbling up what is available. So I'll up them to 1100 – 1150 when I get home tonight J I have just under 2 feet of space left to raise my light. I think the tops are now rising much faster than the other parts of the plant so the bulk of my stretch may be over. Either way, I have a jungle in the cab which is actually NOT what I wanted (difficult for me to manage and a lot of work for ONE person to maintain, chop, trim, dry, and cure), but I'm happy with what I have. . . . . . . . . -TPM
Love the under canopy shots it really shows how they start to fill in. I don't know how you feel about hst but I'll be beating the $h!t out of my ladies until about day 21 ish. Never had anything but success. What I'm getting at is do a little cleaning up. i.e. Lower none yielding bud sites and sun leaves that soon enough will choke themselves out. I feel it loosens up the rest of the plant to crank out full buds on the upper sites. And if your concerned about that light just tuck your top buds under you netting or snap them over. If you break them adjust until it's whet you want it and duct tape splint it. They like it rough. Do it in portions over the next week it will pay off with full heavy buds. My rule of thumb. After week three leave it be!! Grow journal aero 4400 watt scrog
bunnyslayer, awesome tips that are very much appreciated. I was thinking about trimming away some of the excess branches, especially the lower ones, but I was afraid of doing it 9 days into flower. Do you think I can still chop some of these branches off? What is HST? I am familiar with LST and LOVE it, I just need a better tent with better access in order to utilize it. I'm guessing HST is HIGH stress training? I do intend to bend those ladies beneath the netting. Lots of work to do this weekend -TPM
No I actually mentioned it bc I figured you'd be happy to slow it down a little beef it up some hst is high stress training some bend the stalk all the way over some pinch and lean it a little I like the Indian burn technique bc my PPP is hollow so when I snap her all the way over im always splinting. Which is ok but it takes a little longer, easily the strongest most dense stalk sites. When i Indian burn the result should be subtle at first work it in slow then after you soften it up I bend her over and I like to do it three to four nodes down depending on spacing from tops of ALL SITES I plan to have buds on where I can manage them with as close to equal light distance. Your a little far for really getting after it but a trim and some stress will work wonders. Go for it!! Grow journal aero 4400 watt scrog
You can definitely still go to work on those lower branches. Chop the shit outta them!! It will pay off later.
DAY 39 (DAY 11 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12 on 12 off) CURRENT PPM: 1005 +/- CURRENT PH: 6.2 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: 0 CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Good. I added some more last night. CURRENT TEMPS: RH: 50%, 71F. HEIGHT: Jungle sized. JOURNAL ENTRY I took the advice to heart and bent all of the tops underneath the trellace. It's always amazing how QUICKLY these plants respond, as some of the bent branches have already turned themselves back up and twisted around the netting. Pretty darn amazing. I did manage to accidentaly snap off one of the tops, but it was on the far left and not one of the “main†tops dominating the center of the tent. I might also note here that I was unable to reach the very back of my tent-where there are 4 foot tall (or more) branches sticking straight up and past the light-so I could not bend those. In the past, the back branches tended to have some F A T buds, so I'm not too concerned with those. It's very hard to get clear pics with the flower light, but hopefully you can make out the bent branches. . . . . . . . -TPM