UPDATE: Plants are doing well. The girls are now into week 4 of 12/12. The two plants in the back of the grow tent have a lot of curling, twisting, and interveinal browning. I am not sure what is causing this but it's most likely related to nutrients. It's possible since the smaller plant don't receive as much light, they're being overfed. I have tried to slowly increase the nutes as the plants get further into flowering, but everytime I try even by 1/2 tsp per bucket the plants show claws on the leaves, weak easily foldable stems, or brownish dead leaves that fall off. The plants are drinking such large amounts of water that I'm beginning to consider emptying the buckets twice per week instead of only once cause I have no PPM meter and it's easier to just start fresh with a nute amount I know works. Also because the plants are getting so big, I had to cut window flaps into the mylar which really cuts down on it's reflectivity but I don't want to risk kicking over a plant or bucket while clumsily trying to maneuver into the back of the tent to add more water. Buds are developing nicely, mostly all white hairs at this point. The stems are starting to fill in with bud, it looks like they'll be some nice fat colas. It looks like if I gave up and chopped now I'd have at least an oz. dry, not that I'd ever be dumb and impatient enough for that after all this work and struggle so far. My Smallest Plant, practice clone of some plant I had back in Aug. that has since died. Less than 1 ft. tall, will maybe get 3 grams off her: http://forum.grasscity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=508931&stc=1&d=1293415098 More Bud Shots
UPDATE: Began week 5 of 12/12 today, did weekly bucket reservoir changes. I am doing 2 tsp. of Grow and Micro and 2.5 tsp of Bloom in 3.5 gallons of RO water. With no PPM meter to do exact measurements, this seems to work best. Buds are looking reeeaaaal nice and covered in crystals. The plants in the rear of the tent are now boosted up closer to the light, they're a little behind and I might give them an extra week or two after harvesting the big plant. I'm guessing another 4-6 weeks to go?
I love the T5 setup, I've always been a fan of Fluorescent grows. I'm going to be starting week 4 of 12/12 and i was curious, over the next two weeks will i see the most dramatic increase in bud size or will that be weeks 6,7,8?
UPDATE: Week 7 of 12/12 is underway. Some bad news, one of my "girls" is a hermaphrodite, I should've seen this coming. On the lower branches I found open male pollen sacs that have long dispersed their loads of pollen. I already found several seeds being formed in the hermie plants buds. Because of my hermie problems and fear the whole crop could be seeded, I'm pulling the plug at 8 weeks instead of the 10 I was originally gonna wait it out for. I started a flush with FloraKleen last Friday when week 7 began. I put in 2 tsp per gallon of RO water, nothing else and let it run. I emptied the buckets again today and refilled with fresh RO water and more FloraKleen. Next Friday, I will do pure RO water for the final week. I can already see the plants responding to the flush and the leaves are beginning to lose their luster and yellow. It makes me kinda sad that their time is almost up. I did take some clones from my big non-hermied plant during week 5 of flower, I know it's late but if it works they can live on. I also cloned my clone I have growing since in my opinion it's bud look the dankest and I thought it would be a fun experiment. So far no rooting after one week, but we'll see. Despite the herms I still think I had an excellent first proper grow. It's definitely a step up from my old days of throwing shwagseed off my parents back porch and seeing what would sprout up. I'll probably be taking an extended break from growing after this op in order to improve the system so I get the most out of what I put in. The T-5 lights are good but I think next time I'll just use them for veg and upgrade to HPS for flowering. I also will probably invest in a light-proof grow tent. I am for sure grateful for these forums though, I'd probably be nowhere without advice from the pros. I have no good pics as of now unfortunately, but once harvest comes along I will post some new shots. Thanks for the kind comments and rep everyone!!!
I saw a big increase in bud size during weeks 4-5, right now I'm in some sort of mid-bloom stall where nothing seems to happen. Now I'm in week 7 so we shall see if the buds do swell in the last 2 weeks.