I am starting this journal today but my plants are already 26 days into flower today. I have tooken pictures pretty much from day one and will attempt to post in order with the best descriptions possible. So to start, I never considered myself a "plant person", and had no desire to either. With that being said, a buddy of mine was moving out of state and asked me if I wanted to take his plants off his hands seeing as he would be unable to care for them. Me, being a smoker, who spends way too much money on bud, immediately saw the benefits lol! Anyways they were a couple of weeks old and he had them under a 40w cfl. I bought 8 23w 6500k cfl's to start with and put them in a closet. They weren't in the best shape when I first got them. Strains were N.L. & O.G. Kush...both feminized seeds, and were in Miracle Grow soil when they were given to me. Pics following...This is about a week after I recieved them, and you can see the lower growth that was damaged.
Update 2: 3.5 weeks Veg I added a 250w mh/hps combo cool tube and kept the cfl's surrounding all sides to total around 450w. The plants absolutely loved it and started growing into bush monsters. Still hadn't started Nutes yet. Also added a fan to the cool tube and a box fan blowing the air out of the closet with the door always cracked if not fully open. View attachment 148631 View attachment 148924 View attachment 148922 View attachment 148920 View attachment 148921 View attachment 148923
Update 3: 4.5 weeks They started getting so bushy that they looked like Cousin It! The leaves inside were turning yellow and moist from lack of light and air. After doing too much research I decided to clip some fan leaves, I don't know what exactly happened, but I ended up taking off waaaay too many and the results are below. They looked pretty ugly immediately after! View attachment 148929 View attachment 148928 View attachment 148927 View attachment 148927 View attachment 148926 View attachment 148925
Update 4: 6 weeks Veg I decided to take a try at Lst, with one of the plants with the idea to get more tops in the canopy. I am sure now that I waited too long to start, but I started by tieing down the top and pulling it down a few inches every few days. This is what it looked like at first! They seemed to take well to the taking of the fan leaves. View attachment 148931 View attachment 148930
Update 5: 6.5 weeks Veg Just 3 days after the initial Lst, and you can also see the growth taking off from the defoliating. I also started using nutes...GH Grow @ 1/4 strength. The Lst did in fact create quite a bit more tops! Oh, and I transplanted one of the plants to a 3 gal pot and the other is in a 1.5. View attachment 148936 View attachment 148935 View attachment 148934 View attachment 148933 View attachment 148933 View attachment 148932
Update 6: almost 8 weeks Veg It's been ten days since last update and quite a bit has happened. I took the nutes up to 1/2 strength, bought a amoire to use for growing and lined it with the mylar window blockers and 2 120mm pc fans for intake and exhaust and painted everything else flat white. Also have a little oscillating fan blowing over plants. After seeing satisfying results with the lst in the one plant decided to start doing the other as well! Purchased 8 2700k cfl's & busting out the hps to prepare for the "BiG SwItCh". Started seeing seeing signs of female around 6 weeks. Also just defoliated again (3rd time per plant with the occasional fan leaf removal here and there) View attachment 148942 View attachment 148941 View attachment 148941 View attachment 148940 View attachment 148939 View attachment 148938 View attachment 148937 View attachment 148936 View attachment 148943 View attachment 148943
Update 7: 8 Weeks..First Day of 12/12 Replaced all the cfls with 2700's and screwed in the Hps and switched the timer to 12/12. I didn't know at the time but read it's best to keep the lights "on time" the same for an easier transition. Switched Nutes to 50/50 veg and bloom...both GH. Also did one last defoliation about 4 days before the switch on one plant and the other I let grow wild to see the difference in them both View attachment 148949 View attachment 148948 View attachment 148946 View attachment 148944 View attachment 148945 View attachment 148947 View attachment 148950
Update 8: 3 days Flowering Not too much change, just a bunch more white hairs sprouting and can start seeing the bud sites forming..barely. View attachment 148957 View attachment 148956 View attachment 148955 View attachment 148954 View attachment 148953 View attachment 148952 View attachment 148951
Update 9: 1 week Flowering They are changing pretty much everyday at this point. Nutes are straight GH Bloom 50%, ppm always between 600-900 (the 900 I found is a little hot for the bigger plant) & ph always between 5.5-6.5. I also found a bunch of crawlies in my soil after watering. After extensive research, I concluded that they were springtails. General consensus was that they were a sign of healthy soil, but there was just so many, I couldn't stand it. It was also stated that they were hard to get rid of. I had some diatamaceous earth laying around (food grade) and sprinkled a thin layer on top soil and let it dry out an extra day, and I haven't seen one since. Didn't seem to harm the plants either. View attachment 148975 View attachment 148974 View attachment 148971 View attachment 148972 View attachment 148969 View attachment 148966
Update 10: 2nd week Flowering Can easily see the bud sites now, and bigger by the day! View attachment 148985 View attachment 148981 View attachment 148982 View attachment 148984 View attachment 148984 View attachment 148980 View attachment 148979 View attachment 148978 View attachment 148978 View attachment 148976 View attachment 148977
Update 11: Third Week Flowering Seeing BIG changes from week to week. Still using GH Bloom @ 50% and floralicious @ 50% also. Went through and took all the fan leaves that were blocking bud sites (which was quite a bit), @ the end of the third week. Didn't really see a stretch, during the three weeks, but had quite a bit of new green show up. Don't know if the "no stretch was a bad or good thing yet". View attachment 149006 View attachment 149007 View attachment 149008 View attachment 149009 View attachment 149010 View attachment 149017 View attachment 149015 View attachment 149014 View attachment 149013 View attachment 149022 View attachment 149021 View attachment 149020 View attachment 149026 View attachment 149027 View attachment 149023
Update 12: 4th Week Flowering (Current) The smaller plant's buds are really forming well, but the larger plant seems to have slowed down the last 3-5 days. I say smaller and larger because even though I know one is Northern Lights, and the other OG Kush, I do not know which is which? If anybody looking at my journal can tell from my pics please enlighten me. I know one is a fairly quick flower and the other is closer to 10 weeks so maybe the one that seemed to slow down is the Kush? Hell, I don't know! I flush every third watering, and I started seeing small (very small only on the tips of maybe 5 leaves...newer growth) signs of nute burn and the ppm of both I had just raised to around 1000 (run off...soil is around 300 on its own and water is the same so I added only enough nutes to raise the water to around 650 and the run off was around 980). Anyways I flushed the large plant today (Black Pot), but added a tsp of black strap molasses & tsp of white sugar, hoping it may help to fatten up the buds. Oh and the trichomes have started showing up EVERYWHERE! View attachment 149035 View attachment 149038 View attachment 149042 View attachment 149045 View attachment 149046 View attachment 149052 View attachment 149051 View attachment 149048 View attachment 149060 View attachment 149056 View attachment 149058 View attachment 149059 View attachment 149064 View attachment 149066 View attachment 149071 View attachment 149068 View attachment 149077 View attachment 149078 View attachment 149079 View attachment 149080 View attachment 149081
Update 13: Week 5 Flowering - A week since my last update and am learning from my mistakes. Bud internodes are connecting and forming large buds. As stated before one plant is fattening up at a faster rate, and this I assume is the Northern Lights. Last watering I flushed with ph'd water and molasses only, and both plants started showing signs of reddish, bronze on the tips and outside edges, with a upward curl on the tips. I chalked it up to a potassium deficiency (I maybe wrong though). I was watering this whole time using tap water with a ppm in the mid 300's (mainly magnesium, and calcium), and I used this number in my calculations for recommended ppm plus the 300 odd some ppm that the soil is, to get a total of 800-900ppm (runoff). This means that only about 200pm of this total is actually bloom nutrient, and the rest Im assuming is a calcium, magnesium present in the tap water and salt build up in the soil. Anyways I get my drinking water delivered and have 5 gal jugs full of purified water, so I took a glass and ppm'd it....low and behold, the ppm was a steady 50! So when I watered today, I used this water and was able to add the actual recommended dosage of bloom nutes instead of a 1/5 of it, and the ppm of the water was only 600. Point is, I think I was undernuting this whole time and when I flushed I washed out the little bit of potassium the soil had which caused a deficiency? Please, if Im wrong anybody...correct me. From researching I have learned that you are not supposed to count the ppm of the water in your total. I think what I thought was the beginning of nute burn last week was really a deficiency and me flushing, just helped it out a little. Oh and it might be important to note that my plants take about 4-5 days to dry out before watering, use to take 2-3 when the temps were hotter in the amoire (high 80's), but since the weather change, it never goes above 80 with lights on, and at night stays at around 68-72. So alot can happen between waterings. Anyways that's all that's new....updated photos below... View attachment 149552 View attachment 149551 View attachment 149550 View attachment 149549 View attachment 149548 View attachment 149547 View attachment 149546 View attachment 149545 View attachment 149544 View attachment 149543
Update 14: Week 6 Flowering - Been a week since last update, and they were approximately 6 weeks from 12/12 yesterday. Both plants have started showing quite a bit of orange and purple hairs. Plant 1 (smaller one), is turning purple...leaves, stems, and even hairs. Since I started using RO water last week, I have seen both plants' buds fatten and have been able to use full nutes. New white hairs sprouted up everywhere within a day of using the ro water with full strength nutes. The same plant (plant 1) has also been slowly turning lighter and lighter green with purple. I was worried at first, but am now just chalking it up to advanced stage flowering. The tips are also curling up still. Trichomes are mostly cloudy with a few amber and clear scattered throughout. Pics below! If anybody knows if the lightening of the leaves is normal please chime in. Other then the lightening, the leaves are standing up and are full and look healthy other then the color which has been lightening gradually for the past week or two. View attachment 149898 View attachment 149897 View attachment 149896 View attachment 149895 View attachment 149894 View attachment 149893 View attachment 149892 View attachment 149891 View attachment 149890 View attachment 149885 View attachment 149886 View attachment 149887 View attachment 149888 View attachment 149889 View attachment 149884 View attachment 149883 View attachment 149881 View attachment 149882 View attachment 149823