Time for a new grow thread! This is the 3rd grow for me. The first 2 were each better than the last. This one will be even better yet! Unfortunately I'm not using the same variety on every grow, so each one is a new experience. This time around the strain is "Daddy's Girls". I know it is a Sativa/Indica hybrid, that's it. Time to jump in! I picked up 3 clones last weekend from a local club. They were potted in 4" plastic and looked to me like the best in the crop. It's tough to make a choice when looking at a bed of green plants! I had some help, and they obviously looked best to me. I picked up my soil from the local Hydro store. I went with the popular one, FoxFarm Ocean Forrest. Last time I used something different, so this will be another little change. I decided not to re-pot them right away into the soil. I wanted them to get a little more established in soil before dropping them in the mix. I left them in their 4" containers under the T5 lights for the week. They really responded well, turning into lush little monsters! By this morning they were ready to be transplanted. I decided to follow the directions on the soil bag with regard to potting method. I have always done it "my may" and never had problems, but this time a little change can't hurt. Besides I varied a little as i went. I am using Mykos again to stimulate growth. This time mixing into the soil. 1/3 dirt and a sprinkle of the Mykos mixed in well, then another layer sprinkled and mixed, then a last layer of just soil. This is when i applied a bit of water, just to hold things together. I then dug out the hole for the plant, enough to accommodate the entire 4" mass. I sprinkled the Mykos into the hole, inserted the clone, covered with dirt and watered. The plants are currently looking very nice under the lights! I'm planning on doing little pruning to these plants. I'm not going to top them, just train them to grow were they need to go. I'll be using the BioThrive nutrients again, grow for the veg stage and bloom for the flowering. As for lighting, I'm using a 24", 4-bulb, T5 fixture for veg, and a 600W HPS for flowering. I'm planning on vegging for at least 30 days, maybe more, it will depend on the growth that happens. I want to pull 2-3 ounces per plant, so size matters! Well, here are some starting pictures. I'll be updating weekly! See you next time!
A quick mid-week update. The weather is getting pretty hot, the tent is holding 80-87. The humidity is running 45-53, not bad. Really affected by watering. The soil is very loose looking, i usually pack it a bit more during potting. Perhaps I'm learning another lesson? Watering is also tricky to judge with this soil, it seems to always look moist. I'll learn as i go. At this point, I'm hoping the loose soil pack will allow more root growth. The girls have already grown quite a bit, I've had to raise the light twice already. The new growth is looking great as well! Nice and green!! I'll probably start training branches down this weekend. Some are already on their 3rd or 4th split. I'll take pic's this weekend!
First Saturday-morning photo shoot with the girls!! All three plants are dong great. Lots of fresh green growth!! They have probably doubled in overall size. The temps are holding between 80-85 on some days due to outside weather, but the plants LOVE it! The humidity is holding below %50 at about 45-49. That's perfect! Only after a water it spikes up to about 52-53. I am really liking the bushed looked of these plants. Already they look like they be nice flowering plants! I'm going to wait a bit before training any branches. I want them to WELL established in the tent. One side has a larger fan, and it is pushing that plant into a lean. I'm rotating to avoid any strange growth, but the plants just need to strengthen a bit. Hopefully by next week I'll be tying branches down. Enough jabber... Pic's:
i found you! beautiful plants, but on the verge of nitrogen toxicity. fox farms soil can feed by itself for about 4 weeks.
So i have been lagging on any updates here... My BAD! I have had lots of life happening lately... Anyhow... I have been fighting off PM. One leaf at a time. Finally broke down and purchased some Mildew Cure. Mixed a gallon and gave the plants a shower outside. Covered the entire plant with liquid and let it drip. Then I misted the entire plant with a spray bottle and brought each one in. 3 days later applied a heavy misting to each plant, covering it! Now things seem to be in control. I'll continue to apply once a week until i start flowering. Here are a few pictures. I'm in a rush to get to work, but wanted to post something. I'll be back...
Ok, some time to answer a few questions... Today was the first application of fertilizer. I've been on just water and the nutrients in the soil until now. As for the light, it is T5. But just for the veg stage. Then I'll switch to the 600W HPS. I'm liking the growing characteristics of this batch. Plants are growing nice and tight. I'm going to try and fill the space this time. The plants are going to be allowed to grow wildly till flower time. Last time I gained maybe 20% height after switching to flower. So that means these girls are going to be allowed to grow at least twice the size they are now. I'm just afraid the light will become less effective if they get too tall. Maybe flowering with the 600HPS for a few weeks could help? I'll have to read up on that... Any thoughts? Thanks for reading.
it will be less effective, thats why people lollipop. no biggie though. just do a bit of lollipopping. when i lollipop i dont even remove fan leaves, i just pick off the lower flower sights right after the stretch. stretch will last 2 weeks from first pistil sighting.
Daddys Girls are doing great! I am just letting them do what they want, and they seem to like it. Get taller everyday, and the branches are crawling up right there too. I'll be switching lights soon, based on how quickly they are climbing. Maybe a few more weeks...? I'll expect about 6-8 inches in height growth after switching the light. I'm thinking that if they get too tall, at that point I'll tie things down. So, maybe another week or two... Here are some shots from today...
awesome! how do you get the photos to appear this size? do you use the attachments button? what size do you make the photos. as always, your plants are a great green color. a little too green, but its no big deal at all. this strain is a nice uniform hybrid.
I use photobucket to upload my photo's. Then they have simple copy and paste links. very easy to use...
It's been a few weeks now since any updates... I began to have some strange problems. Nothing i thought was major, but I inquired with a few different resources locally. I learned that i may have a few issues, but not having eyes on the problem it was hard to describe and pinpoint. Ultimately I was pointed to a supplement called CalMag. I can not believe the response the plants have had. Within a day they all perked up. The drying leaves stopped. The color of the plant stabilized. Everything seemed to come into harmony. I'm applying about 1/2 teaspoon per gallon on every watering. Great stuff! So I have since moved forward... I have begun to stake down the branches. Some of them are pretty damn long and stubborn already. I'll remember that for next time, and stake from the Veg stage again. I cracked one branch trying to pull it down, it is now being held to heal and looks fine. Now the difficulty is puzzling the plants next to one-another. However the work is paying off. The branches are all beginning to show flowers along the lengths and the light is getting in! I am happy with the height so far. They are about as tall, now, as the mature plants from my last grow. I anticipate a few more inches, but the staking is going to help. And it should be all flower at this point. If the light gets in the way I'll bend the tops over a bit. However, I don't see it being a problem. The light can go up another 4-6 inches, and the plants still have about 4-6 before I have to move the light again. I've switched to "Bloom", from "Grow". I have only applied once so far. They are going to get a strick fertilizing schedule. I typically use about 2 gallons per watering, so the plan is to alternate. One watering will contain 1 gallon fertiled water and 1 gallon clean water, the next will be just 2 gallon of clean water, repeat. I'll keep an eye on things as we go. I switched the lights on the 9th, so it should be about 65-70 days to harvest. This is week one. Enjoy the pic's.
she looks really happy man. but the nute stress might catch up with her if you know what i mean..you and i dont want a repeat of nute burn LOL right now they are standing strong friend grow good meds
Had an interesting close call last night... I got home and, as usual, peeked inside the tent. Things looked ok, but then i noticed something. The plant nearest the large fan was wilting MAJORLY. From the bottom up. Then I noticed that the soil looked dry. I lifted the pot to find it was light as a feather! The soil had dried out completely... So a heavy watering before bedtime was in order. After thinking about it I realized why this had happened. I had relocated the two smaller fans on the left, higher. So I increased the speed of the large fan on the right, since it was blowing across at soil height and no longer had any help from the left. The increase dried out the dirt, duh!?! So this morning everybody is looking amazing again. Buds are forming!! I'm going to start shuffling the plants in a rotation daily. That way no single plant sits in front of the big fan for too long. As well, the re-arranging will help the light hit the hidden areas. I just need to pay closer attention to moisture now.. I have also thought about the fertilizer plan. Maybe 2 "water only" watering between fert's. This additional drying problem has led to a more rapid watering plan now. More frequent application could certainly be a problem! This will spread things out a bit more.
Things are going much better now. Keeping a watchful eye on the soil. I WAS letting the pots dry out a bit, but that led to over dry. So now I'm cycling the plants in a rotation giving them all equal time in each spot. They have responded robustly! Lot's of buds! LOTS! I need to train down the higher branches this weekend, but otherwise AMAZING! At first I was not too sure about these plants, and this strain. They just looked liked bonsai, very small. Now that I'm balls deep in this grow, I have no regrets! These "girls" have grown into nice strong ladies!
In no particular order. Maybe even more than one shot of each plant. Just some shots of the buds forming. 2 WEEKS since flipping the light!
It has been a while since updating this grow thread. I took some pictures today, the progress is killer! I maintaining a pretty strict watering schedule. The temperatures have been real hot lately, causing the tent to spike too! I'm running about 90-95 max on some days. Plants seem to be doing ok, they just need more water more often. Since my dry out, water is not missed! As i was taking pictures I noticed one plant has a pretty heavy pattern of spotting/yellow occurring. See the pic's... I'm used to leaves yellowing and falling towards the end of flowering, but this seems a bit early. I'm 21 days into flowering since flipping the light. I have added the CalMag to my watering regime. Every time I water, clean or fertilized, I'm adding about 3/4 teaspoon per gallon. This was to supply trace amounts....? Any advise? Well, here are the pictures...