This is my first "serious" grow. My ladies are now 3 weeks since flipping to 12/12 and I'm so pleased with the results and the set up I thought I would start a journal and share. I spent so many hours stressing out over soil recipes, ph, room size and location that I almost didn't grow. The following Journal will recap the first couple months and pick up mid-flowering and may serve as some help for other novice growers who get overwhelmed by the pros in here. If you know what you are doing you may cringe at my work here but for those looking to find a simple path to an acceptable grow may find this interesting. Details of the grow space: Light: 600w Cool Tube with 600w MH and HPS capable ballast (I have never used the dimming feature) Room: 4' deep x 4' wide x7' tall Constructed with 1/2 inch foam wall insulation with reflective coating. Joined and sealed with duct tape. Location: Attic. It get's over 110 degrees in my attic during the day and this was a serious concern for me. Suprisingly the simple room construction and ventilation have proven VERY effective for my needs. Ventilation: Input is simply the 4" hose coming from my bathroom fan that I leave on 24/7. This brings air in at 72 degrees all day every day. Output is 6" flex hose drawing air from the grow room, through the cool tube and out the attic vent. Strains: AK Gold Feminized, Dance Hall Feminized
My seeds soaked in water for 24 hours and then went into a wet paper towel for another 24 hours. I was excruciatingly meticulous witht he germ process but I'm convinced i got bad seeds. The AK gold only germed one seed out 5 after a week, the Dance hall germed all 3 right away. The girls went into compressed peat starters and under cheap 20w CFLs for 2 weeks while i fretted and moaned about what I was going to do about the soil mix. The soil was the first big question and I spent weeks looking for the perfect recipe. In the end I got frustrated with all the confusion and insane number of ingredients and mixed the following soil myself. 50% Fox Farms Ocean Forrest 50% nute free potting soil, my nursey called it mix #3 1 cup Tomato Tone fertilizer per 7 gallon pot Thats it. Once the girls showed roots after about 2 weeks they went into 1 gal pots with my super custom soil mix. At this point, one dance hall was tall and lanky, one was short and full and one was severly stunted and still hadn't shown more the the first "false" leaves. The AK gold was short and full and distincly differnt from the other 3. At this point they went into the room under 600w MH for 24 hours/day. I've read about 18 hours being better but left under 24 because in my brilliant planning had neglected to get a timer and this procrastination lasted until flowering time required the purchase.
2 weeks under the 600 watt MH and my ladies were looking great. We're now 4 weeks into the grow from seed. The stunted plant remained puny but she wasn't taking up space so I left her in. 3 weeks in the room and at this point my next big stress point came. Topping, fiming, mainlining, supercropping, lst, aahhhhhhhh. I couldn't decide which was best and I've never pruned anythign except the occasional manscaping session. To save you the suspense, I topped. I topped after the 4th node. In hindsight, this could have been done earlier but it was an ass-puckering experience for me to cut my girls so I waited until they were really rocking and growing fast before I did this. The plants still looked very different the three dance halls all looked like different strains. One was very sativa-like, one more tight and bushy while the stunted one was just starting to take off about 3 weeks behind the others. The AK was EXTREMELY bushy and very tightly packed, curtly leaves. I waited a couple days after topping and then the girls graduated to 7 gallon pots. These are just the cheapos from your local big box store. Nothing fancy here folks. Also at this point I started taking photos of the process and will pick this journal up later with some pix.
at six weeks the girls were topped again. At 7 weeks veg, they went to 12/12. At this point they have recieved nothing but light and water. The tomato tone was plenty to see them through. This photo below is the first I have and is the day they switched to 12/12. The girls all have 4 true "tops" at this point but the lower nodes have nearly caught up in height from the topping. They are about 18" tall and quite dense. the top of the frame is the ak gold, the other three are the dance hall with the runt in the bottom. I decided to run my light cycle at night as it gets VERY hot in the attic during the day. Despite the attic getting over 110 mid day the bathroom vent running in to the grow space keeps the room at or below 82 degrees give or take during the day and by the time the attic is cooling down in the evening the light comes on and the room hovers around 78 during the light period. With the bathroom vent running in 24/7 and the cool tube drawing air out of the room during the light period I haven't felt the need for a fan yet.
This is one of the dance hall plants that came out for watering and inspection just before switching to flowering. She has been topped twice. Once at about 4 weeks and once at about 6 weeks.
The girls went bonkers a couple days into flowering. This photo is about 10 days since the light switch. The plants were rotated at this point leaving the Ak Gold on the right. It's at this point that I realized that I was going to have a problem with growing different strains this space. The dance halls were stretching like mad and the Ak gold wasn't.
Also at 10 days into flowering I decided to pull them for a good look, some really minor pruning and their first dose of nutes. I decided to go with the fox farm grow big concentrate at 1/2 strenth. The tomato tone seems to have done a great job but I wanted to be sure they weren't starved for anything. It's hard to see scale in the room so i took a snap shot next to chair for rough reference.
Still at 10 days into flower. At this point all three were showing early flowers. This was the last time I could get them out of the room. They no longer fit through doors.
3 weeks into flower and the girls are getting fed every other watering. The runt has caught up in height but is very sparse compared to the others. Got under the canopy and decided to clear out some of the lower scrap. This was painful for me as I i'm still novice and just am not confident in removing healthy material. I decided what to cut by comparing bud site development. at this point anything that looked weak got the axe. I read a lot of material that suggested not cutting after 2 weeks in flower but I took the risk. As long as they don't herm i think it was the right call. It's way easier to water them and I didn't take much. This is the same angle as the previous photo of the room. Each of the dance halls has shot up a couple of tall tops but the bulk of the canopy remains quite a bit lower. Ideally would have controled this better but to be honest I kind of like the variation. the tall shoots don't seem to shade much and the colas are at my eyeballs for easy viewing. At this point, the light is just about out of room to go up. The tallest tops are about 6" form the light and I'll have to take it off the pullies to go any higher. These plants were 18" from the soil when I flipped the switch and in 3 weeks they have gone to 5'. I'm really hoping the stretch had ended. It certainly has slowed.
I'm not thrilled with my node spacing but every day the buds seem to get closer so I'm hopefull i'm going to end up with a several large colas. The canopy has really filled in. This photo is one plant. You can see the AK gold in the right corner but everything else in this image is one of the dancehall girls. I don't know what technically qualifies as a top but this plant has about 15 really strong bud sites at the canopy. I had to put the AK gold on a 5 gallon bucket to bring it up to the light.
This is a shot of the bud development on one of the taller tops. Interestingly, the node spacing is much much tighter down on the canopy. These tops that stretched so much keep pushing the light up higher. I'm considering pulling them back or trying to gently bend them down a bit but they look so damn good I'd hate to mess with them. What do you guys think of the node spacing here? Do you think they'll pack in snug? Those nodes in this image are about 4-5 inches apart at the furthest gap. Each Dance Hall girl has 3 or 4 of these tops with another 10-15 sites at the canopy.
Expense Report: I thought it might be handy for those interested to see a cost breakdown so far: Room: $100 for foam panels and tape Light: $250 for pullies, ballast, hood and bulbs and timer Ventilation: $40 for fan and hose Containers: $25 Soils: $75 thermometer: $15 tomato tone and fox farm Nutes: $40 Electricty: 600 w x 24 hours for about 6 weeks and 600w x 12 hours for an estimated 8 weeks. This is just over 1000 KW/h for which i pay about 9 cents each. That means I should expect to pay about $90 for electricity. This doesn't include ventilation but it's close enought for me. Total Estimated Cost: $635
I decided to do a little bud survey today just for fun so I took one plant and photographed the best looking buds at the canopy. The following images are from one dance hall girl 3 weeks into flower. There are many other bud sites on this plant but these are the best looking ones which i think have the best potential.
It's been 11 days since the photos above were taken. I've been busy and had a friend looking after the girls. I broke the rules and had to sneak a peak during their dark cycle today. I just couldn't wait. I'm pretty psyched with what I saw. I only nabbed one photo as I didn't want to expose them to light for more than a second. I'll take some better shots when the light is on. How do you guys think they look? They seem to be filling in pretty well despite the node spacing.
Got a chance to to snap a few when the lights came on. Also seeing the first sign of anything negative. Two of my tops have begun to tightly curly the outermost edges of the leaves. I believe it's thier proximity to the light. They seem to have significantly fewer trichs than the rest of the tops. I'm adding a fan for circulation and have pulled these tops further from the light by taping a fan leave to the wall. You can see the curling in this shot.
If the next 11 days are anything like the last these plants are going to be ridiculous. There are still some gaps between the nodes but they have filled in really well. Oddly enough the runt looks like she is going to be a rock star now. Maybe not a rock star, but a one hit wonder. I can clearly see almost 2 feet of spiraling bud on her main stem. She was never topped so she is sporting one potentially giant cola and she is all triched out. If the spiral fills in she'll be the hands down winner for top size but the other girls will trounce her yeild. The buds have grown pretty dense and heavy and the branches are sagging under the weight. I'll be adding some stakes and tying them up for support. I've also decided to give them one more feeding and then stop with the supplimental nutes. I can't get the plants out of the room, nor can i get a bucket under them making a true flush impossible so I'll simply be switching back to water for the remainder of the grow. They only recieved very light feedings 2x a week for 4 weeks so I don't think i have too much to worry about in regards to build up in the soil. With apporximatley 3 weeks left in flower and A LOT of foliage I don't expect any lack of nutrients as they finish up.