Thanks for the input - I planned to start around 4th or 5th node. The Herijuana were ready for it on Saturday, so I tied them down with some rubber-coated wire and have been adjusting slightly for the last few days. I wanted to give the Jack a few extra days of growth since they were both growing a bit slower, so I waited til today for those. I'll try to post a few pictures of them all tomorrow.
3 of the 4 took really well to the LST. Jack #2 (the one with the leaf mutation) is taking much longer to fill in - I'm guessing that all the extra leaves are blocking more of the light, so I've been trying to tie them down out of the way. It's funny that the one I was super excited about now looks like the runt. Anyway, here are some pics from today, day 25 veg: All Four Jack #1 Jack #2 Herijuana #1 Herijuana #2 I also started to notice some mite-looking bugs in my soil a few days ago - not many, just a few. At first, I just assumed they were beneficial since I'm doing organic, but then I started to question it. It seems they are staying in the soil - haven't seen any on the plants/leaves, and there hasn't been any signs of damage. I've also only noticed them in 2 of my containers, but I haven't really been seeking them out. They are about the size of a pinhead and move pretty quick. Haven't seen any jump yet either. I haven't been able to find out exactly what they are, but I also am not of the mindset that I need to kill everything. They are too small to get a good picture, but I tried to take one anyway (see below) - I got one to crawl on a piece of black fabric then zoomed in on the pic. Most of the research I've done has lead me to believe they're springtails, but I'm not 100% certain. And with that said, some folks say they're beneficial, some folks say otherwise. My plan is to let them be for now, especially since I don't know what they are and since there's been no visible signs of damage on the plants. What do you all think?
They all filled in quite nicely and started their vertical ascent again. I did notice a couple of those mite-looking bugs crawling on the lower part of a main stem a few days ago, but I still haven't seen any on the leaves. I also haven't seen any above the soil since I last watered a few days ago. There are still no signs of damage to the plants, so I'll continue to let them be for now. I just realized that I never mentioned that I started using nutes again a few waterings ago - been doing half strength, but I think I may try full dosage next time. I turned on the "boost" feature of my ballast and changed my light cycle to 18/6 on Saturday night. I had been planning to do that 1-2 weeks before switching to flower, and I feel like flowering might come a little sooner than I originally expected. All the plants are 9-10 inches tall right now, and I'm planning to flip 'em once the Jacks get to ~14 inches - they've all grown a few inches in the last couple days alone, so I might be flipping them as early as this weekend (which would be a week before my original estimate of 42 days veg). It looks like they'll all have 7 or 8 colas, which I'm getting excited about. Some pics (day 30 veg): All Four Jack #1 Jack #2 Herijuana #1 Herijuana #2
nope, must be on an old phone... but i got curious and started to check out my own plants, and my bag seed plant has the same thing going on, and now it is half way into flowering. just one other thing on the LST, try to avoid wires or any metal it has no flexibility in it and can cause damage to the stem if it is to tight. overall your plants are looking good!
Subbed up, can't wait to see how jack#2 turns out! Sensi silver haze: http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1355262-take-look-any-comments.html The only good is knowledge, the only evil, ignorance.
No worries - thanks for checking. I actually just started to notice the same mutation on Jack #1 and Herijuana #2 (only some of the branches though). Seeming more and more like it was/is caused by stress, but as long as they all turn out female, I'm okay with that. The rubber-coated wire I used was pretty flexible - made sure of that when I got it. I also "tied" them with pretty loose hooks to allow the stems to grow into it. Some of the stems actually pushed the wire off altogether. At what point do you take the ties off, if at all? I've seen some comments about removing them all after the stretch period of flowering, though it appears some folks just leave them on til harvest. I'm certain I'll have to get some stakes to support the gals after the stretch, so I'm guessing once I do that, I can remove the other ties used for LST. Any thoughts? Thanks for coming along! Always glad to have more eyes. I've been really excited to see how Jack #2 turns out as well because of the mutation, but since a few more plants are showing it now, I'm going to have a little more worry in the back of my mind til I start to see some flowers - fingers crossed! I checked out your grow too - looking good so far. I'll try to get some pictures up of my gals (hopefully!!) later today or tomorrow. Happy growing!
as long as it is not restricting any growth you can just leave it tied up, if you're planning to to remove it just make sure it is done stretching and focusing on budsss. its a personal preference, as long as you LST the proper way you won't have any issues till harvest with the tie downs! happy growing!
Today will be last day of veg - plan on starting 12/12 with tonight's dark cycle. I've considered starting out flower with 36 hours of darkness then 12/12, but I'm not sure. I've never done it before, but I've read a decent amount of information about it and have seen quite a few folks who do it. Any thoughts? I'm also planning to keep the 600w MH bulb in for now - read that keeping the MH bulb during first week or two of flowering will help reduce the stretch. My current plan is to keep it in for first 2 weeks, but I may switch it sooner if the stretch stops earlier than that. Forgot to mention in my last update that I whipped up a new batch of homemade co2. I'm also starting to worry more and more about the humidity spikes at night, especially since I'm about to go into flowering. I'm looking into some dehumidifiers now and will probably end up getting one this weekend. My temps have been low 80s F during light and low 60s during dark - still not a fan of the big swings, but the plants don't seem to be suffering from it. Though that is almost definitely what is causing the humidity spikes. I'm afraid that could cause more of a problem during flower, but I'll just have to see how it plays out. I'm also afraid that my temps are going to skyrocket once I get that 1000w bulb in, but we'll see - the light will be much closer to the exhaust vent at that point, so I'm hoping that will help. Also figured I should mention the mite-looking bugs in case others stumble across this thread in their search for the same thing. So far, still no problems with them. I've let them be, and they've mostly stayed in the soil. I do see them come up sometimes, primarily when the soil is pretty dry, but still no visible damage to the plants. I've been doing light defoliation the last few days - pretty much just removing lower leaves that were either overly-shadowed or had a lot of damage. Still have a handful of leaves on each plant with some spots - all the plants react a bit differently to nutes, but I haven't had the time/patience to make different batches for each, so I've had to find a happy-medium. And now some pictures from earlier today - day 35 (and last day of) veg: All Four - I rearranged a bit, and spaced out the plants a bit since they started to shadow each other. Light has been consistently about 12-14in above plants, and I've been moving it every few days lately. Jack #1 - Looking really good overall. She's ~13 inches tall now, and started showing some preflowers on some branches! Jack #2 - Went from being the runt to being the fastest growing. She's just under 14 inches tall now, and is also showing some preflowers on some branches. Herijuana #1 - Still consistent and pretty healthy. She's about 13 inches tall now. Has what appear to be some preflowers on some branches, but no pistils yet. Herijuana #2 - Probably the healthiest looking plant. She's about 14 inches tall as well and also showing signs of preflowers without pistils yet.
Subbed! Your grow looks very bushy and healthy! For my new grow I'm going to try to do the same type of LST early on and tie them down like you did, not make the same mistake and let my plant outgrow my tent I don't know what the "rule" is, but I had 4 big branches tied up to the corners of my tent, and I just recently let them loose (late flower), It may be better to leave them on, in case the plant can't support itself at that point. In my case, I could have left them on, as the strings I used to tie kind of just adjusted itself as the plant was growing. Well, some adjustment on my end as well. It'll be exciting to see what they'll look like in some weeks of flower!
Looking good man, looks like you'll have a nice big harvest. My plant was about that size when I flipped the lights, and she's about 3 ft tall now, the Jacks might be a bit stretchier than that though... Sensi silver haze: http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1355262-take-look-any-comments.html The only good is knowledge, the only evil, ignorance.
Thanks! Glad to have you along! I had no intention to LST when I popped the seeds, but in hindsight, it was a great decision - I'm thinking I'll get the same yields (or even more) compared to topping instead, and without the added stress. It might take more veg time to get same amount of tops with LST vs. topping (would love anyone to chime in whose done both or tried side-by-side), but in my case, I'm still a week ahead of schedule. I'm definitely excited, but a bit nervous, about the stretch on those Jacks. That's why I planned to flip 'em at 14 inches max - I'll be perfectly happy if they end up at 3 feet tall. The Herijuana will probably end up around 2 - 2.5 feet, so I'll probably put something under them to make them level with the Jacks. We'll see how the next few weeks go. Still would love any input on straight to 12/12 vs. 36 hours darkness - you all have until 10am tomorrow to chime in. I have a feeling I'll end up going straight to 12/12, primarily due to the low temp & extreme humidity in my dark period right now (plus it's what I've always done in the past), but still would love to hear your thoughts.
I did some reading about the dark period before changing the light cycle and I guess it increases resin production if it's done just before harvest but where there is no buds yet it just stresses them out before they flower. I salon read somewhere that if there is a dark cycle at the beginning it can shorten flower time by up to a week. I wasn't sure what to believe so this time I just went to 12/12 and next time I will have a dark period before that way I can find outfit myself. There seams to be a ton of debate on topics like this so there is only one way to find out. Hope this helps
Thanks for the input. I've done 24-48 hours of total darkness before harvest before - didn't really see any difference, but they also weren't the best grows to begin with. I'll likely do it this time around, at least with the Jack - not sure I'll be able to with the Herijuana since the Jack will still be going strong at that point. I've read that doing a longer period of darkness at beginning of flowering will kick-start the plants flowering hormones, so buds would start forming quicker. I read an article a few weeks ago with the actual science behind it, but I can't find the link right now. With that said, I'm not sure if it would make a big difference with plants that have vegged for 5+ weeks - I understand how it could make a big impact with plants that haven't matured yet (e.g. not showing preflowers or alternate branching), as those would likely benefit from a kick-start of hormones. I feel like plants that are a bit more mature will transition pretty quickly/smoothly on their own with 12/12. Either way, I ended up going straight to 12/12. Well, I guess I only did 11 hours of darkness last night (damn daylight savings!). Totally forgot about the time change, but I was pretty set on having a 10am-10pm light cycle, so I just flipped them on after 11 hours of darkness - not too worried about that though. I was too afraid of leaving them for an extra 24 hours with the humidity so high. I think I might give the longer initial dark period a try on my next grow once I have a better control on my nighttime humidity. Bring on the stretch! Happy growing, all.
i have been experimenting with light cycles for the past couple of weeks, to find which light cycle is optimum for growing in veggie state, well basically if you give the plant 24 hours of light you don't give them a chance to stretch (perfect cuz you don't want that), due to it receiving light always it grows slowly and bushy which what you want. if you give them a 36 hour dark period, the plant is just going to stretch out to look for light. if i were you i would just switch it straight to 12/12, and safe yourself a day and a half. happy growing!
I ordered a dehumidifier on Sunday - should be here tomorrow. I regret not buying it a few weeks ago when I initially planned to. When I opened the grow room yesterday morning (very shortly after lights turned on), it smelled musty. There was also some condensation on the walls. The smell pretty much went away after a few hours with the exhaust on, but still is a bit nerve wrecking. I ended up not being able to sleep well last night, so I decided to turn the exhaust on a few times throughout the night for 5-10 minutes. I think it helped a bit since the musty smell wasn't as strong this morning, but I could still smell it a bit. For reference, my exhaust is based on a temp gauge, so it hasn't been turning on at all throughout the dark cycle since the temps drop below the threshold. I've decided to bypass the temp gauge and just leave the exhaust fan on throughout the dark cycle tonight. I figure a night of lower temps is much better than getting mildew. I thoroughly inspected all the plants (both yesterday and today) and I didn't see any signs of mold/mildew. I did remove some more of the lower fan leaves on all the plants though to promote better air movement under the canopy. I also took all the plants out of the box for a bit and cleaned the walls with some disinfecting spray. We'll see how the smell is over the next few days and go from there. Overall, plants are looking pretty good and healthy - they haven't stretched as much as I thought they would by now, but maybe I'm just not noticing it as much since I've been checking on them frequently the last few days. I'll try to get some pics up in the next day or two.
Leaving the fan on all night seemed to help a lot - no moisture on the walls and no smell this morning. It also looks like my temp only dropped to 61F, so I was pleased about that (big thanks to the warmer weather in the midwest right now!). My dehumidifier arrived today and I set that up in the box. It has built-in humidistat, so I set it to 65%. My humidity is pretty consistently 40-50% during the light period, so the dehumidifier will likely only kick on at night. I also started thinking about stale air in the box during dark. Since my exhaust has been temp-triggered, it never kicks on at night, so the air sits in there for 12 hours. I didn't think it was too big of a deal during the 4 or 6 hours of dark for veg, but I'm thinking it is/will become a bigger deal during the 12 hour dark cycles now. I've decided to rearrange my setup and will be using my timer to control the fan. It pretty much runs non-stop during light cycle already, so I'm going to have it run during the entire light cycle, and flip on for 15-minutes every 1.5 hours during the dark. I think that will help the overall air quality. Didn't get any pictures taken today, but I'll try to get some up tomorrow for you all. Happy growing!
Had to scratch the exhaust on the timer idea - forgot that my timer isn't grounded, so I can't plug the exhaust into it. Decided that I'll just leave the fan on continuously for now - outdoor temps are starting to warm up, so I'm not too worried about my nighttime lows at the moment. I might look into another timer that is grounded, but I'm in no rush. Today was the last feeding of veg nutes - I'm still mostly following the Gen. Organics schedule, and it indicates to keep doing veg nutes during first week of flowering. I think that coupled with the MH bulb are why I'm not seeing as much stretch as I expected at this point. They're all definitely growing though - didn't take any pics with a measure, but they're all 16-18 inches right now. Here are some pics from just a bit ago, right after I watered. Day 5 of flowering: All Four Jack #1 Jack #2 Herijuana #1 Herijuana #2
Can't wait to see some frosty, frosty buds. Sensi silver haze: http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1355262-take-look-any-comments.html The only good is knowledge, the only evil, ignorance.
Just got a new macro lens attachment for my phone, so I tested it out on some close-up shots of the preflowers/pistils and figured I'd share. I'm still getting the hang of it, so the pictures aren't great, but I hope you enjoy. By the way, I'm seeing more and more pistils every day now, and they're showing up on all four plants - haven't seen any signs of males/herms, so most of my previous worries about the potential stress-caused mutation are gone.