400w HPS DWC Cataract Kush

Hey guys, it's been a while since i've actually posted something but that doesn't take away from the fact that i've been lurking around pretty much everywhere. This is my third legit grow, but in my opinion my first REAL grow.

Specs:
Dimensions: 4ft W, 2ft L, 5ft H
Lighting: 400 w HPS + 120w LED
Medium: Hydroton, rockwool cubes, 10 Gallon bucket,
Strain: 2 Cataract Kush (DNA Genetics)
Nutrients: DNF Base Nutrients (Dutch Nutrient Formula for all hydroponics growing and flowering stages)
Additives: H202(hydrogen peroxide), PH down, rooting powder
Vegging period: 5 weeks from seed
Flowering period: TBA but approximately 8.5 weeks
Techniques: LST, Supercrop, SCROG, Foliation, Topping/fimming
Airflow: Input, Output, Circulating fan

Now that that is all out of the way and you have an idea of what's going on in this grow i can start finally talking about these beasts. I heard this strain is suppose to be too potent even for the more frequent smokers... HA i say. It caught my eye so i figured i'd give'r a try. This grow is half way done so my journal will start about half way through but ill have pics up of earlier progress to show its life history. If anybody has any questions let me know i have no problem answering them, and no question is a dumb question.

The first 2 pictures are about 10 days from seed. This strain has grown faster than any other i've seen although im still new. The leaves are ridiculously fat and thick when touched. The first pic is the monster, watch how she takes off.

The third and fourth pic are about 20 days from seed. As you can see the third pic is of the one that takes off. I feel like her name should be Helga.

The fifth and sixth pic are roughly about 30 days just as i changed it to flower. They are tied down in a circular fashion and they have been topped twice.

The seventh and eighth plant are at like day 3 of flower, and they just started to stretch now. As you can see on the 8th pic, i 'supercroped' the branch in a way so that it would grow outwards. Technically it isn't a super crop because the tear in the branch wasnt enough to cause a knuckle which was the plan. I also left the plants for a week by themselves, and the monster drank up every drop of water in its buckets. It's root mass is incredible and ive never been so happy seeing something grow. The craziest part about it is i've been slacking on their ph levels and their nutrient doseage.

The last pic is of my scrog net being put up finally, and the most recent pic of the plants which is 7 days flower.

Let me know what ya think!

 

Anybody else have experience with this strain? If not, i guess this can be a good grow to compare with, given similar conditions.

 

Not much too update on, everything is pretty much the same. Plants are continuing to thrive and drink up like 2 L a day. Every other day i top up the water with a quarter strength added nutrients to keep them fed. Ill have a pic update in a couple days following her third installments of flower nutes.

 

Not sure if anybody is watching but here is the update i said i'd do. I figured out that i only vegged them for about 35 days. The confusion came from my auto flowers who were planted in the same month which got their germination times mixed.

Day 13 Flower, Day 49 in total
I decided to get rid of my ghetto scrog net i had up as it was made it really hard to get anything done in there. In the end, it was more of a hassle having it up so i just took it down and tied down almost every branch to help widen out the canopy. There looking really good, not much to say for pistils yet but they'll come soon enough. These pics don't do justice for how they actually look, they're big lil girls. The root mass on the bigger one drinks about 2l of water every 2 days or so, its crazy. If anybody's curious to know what im expecting, im going to say 4 zips minimum total. That's if things go like they've been.

First two pics are the same plant, the bigger one. Third pic is the other one. Fourth pic is of root system of first plant. Last pic is bud porn from my last harvest to maybe reel in some viewers.

 

Thanks dude, i was beginning to think nobody was watching so I've been slacking on posting updates. But now that i know i have at least one person interested ill throw an update with pics tomorrow.

To answer your question: At first during veg, i wasn't nuting the plants untill about 3 weeks old from seedling. It was just living off ph down'd water, straight from the tap. Then my first set of nutes was half of what it should of been, just to make sure they could handle it. Sure enough they did, and after that i just upped the nutrients by half until where they're taking almost double the nutrients they should be talking, with no signs of over nuting them. I change my reservoir water in my bucket once a week, and usually clean the buckets before i refill them up. Until the plants are big enough to handle more, you should only be giving them it once a week. Once they get massive enough, they'll be drinking all the water in the bucket so hopefully once your at this point you'll have a feel of how your plants work.

Honestly man, i spent about 60 bucks on this homemade set up which my buddy helped me with. You can customize it to your liking, and it looks like a normal wardrobe, minus the noise coming from it. Output = input , biggest piece of advice i can give ya haha. Let me know if you need anything bud.

 

Okay here is the update with pics... Day 26 Flower - (Day 62 total)

In that past two weeks, these two have stretched like crazy as you can see from the pics. The white pistils started coming out about a week after i began flower which is normal at their age in my opinion. The plants have stretched so much that they've grown into the lights and many leaves have been burned/damaged because of it. The tops of some of them have curled down leaves showing clear signs of heat stress, as well as random build ups of water under some leaves. I need to somehow get another fan to circulate air in there as well as find a way to keep the branches from stretching into the light. I've tried tying them down with twine and duct tape but these things are so beast they just rip the tape right off the top. The bigger one on left continues to lead the way with way more pistils, plus shes been drinking 10% more water than the other one. Ill post root pics tonight probably, but here are a few of what things look like.

I believe in the next week or so, i should start seeing buds developing. Root size is tremendous, the buckets are almost too small for these roots which to me is nuts. I've been removing a leaf or two every day, just to help with circulation and focusing energy to bud sites (although i know that is debatable). Going to give another full dosage of nutrients tomorrow, along with a nice cleaning of the bucket, tubes, stones and what not. I haven't really been checking my PH for those who are wondering cause for some reason the water, plus the nutes and the way the plants use it rarely ever fluctuates the ph. I check ph maybe once a week at most, and it has never been over 5.9. Smooth and steady so far, lets keep er rolling.

 

Yeah, i was planning and hoping to have the scrog up the whole time but i didn't spend enough time fitting everything it in so i had to pull it out. Just gave them another full set of nutes today after finding the buckets pretty much empty again. Gave them 30 ml instead of the normal 20 ml, so in the next few days i'll judge if it was too much. The pistils on the bigger one are much fuller than the other one, although it has dealt with a lot more heat stress/burn. Took off about 7 leaves off of each plant today to help with circulation, plus i through my led back up n switched up the set up a bit. Check it out

 

Chief, are you talking about every week when i give them their nutes or how much i top them off with mid week? If its the second one, it really depends on how the plants responded to the last feeding. Usually i throw in another 2 litres mid week with about 1/4 of what i gave them at the beginning of the week. Second question, the genetics on these hoes are 99% indica and 1% sativa. The parents are OG Kush and LA Confidential. I've looked around and heard pretty good things about this strain, mainly its ability to put people on their ass which is exactly what i'm looking over.

Thanks kushavelli, nice to see others are lurking around and keeping an eye out. Ya man, out of all the strains i've grown in the past this is number 1. It's easy to grow, resistant to illness and can't seem to get enough nutrients. Only another 4 weeks and its chopping time for me. Will update with pics in a few days when any major changes start happening. Pezeace

 

Thats pretty damn sweet man. They look really full and healthy, good job on keeping em happy too. I heard that tend to turn purple some times near the end of their life cycle so you'll help me get a good idea of what to expect. Did you do anything special to em?

 

No prob Kushavelli, and thanks Chief.

Update: Day 42 Flower/ Week 6 Flower

I gave these plants their last dosage of nutrients yesterday. Normally i would be flushing with plain water for the last 2 weeks but i decided against that. This week is half dosage, and next week will be plain water just cause i wanted to smooth the transition. Hopefully they will fatten up just a tad bit more before they are ready to chop. I've continued to remove leaves every few days to allow for more light penetration to the lower branches, as well as to increase air flow because things seem really hot in their with that hps. Also i removed a few bud sites near the bottom of the plants that are in my opinion wasting energy that could be used for the top nugs. I threw in a 28w cfl near the base of the plants to try and give those lower nugs more light as well.

The smell is increasingly becoming stronger and stronger, and i'm seriously debating buying some ONA gel to help control it a bit. Nugs are increasing in density as well, and the hidden nugs that kushavelli was talking about are really starting to fatten up.