Blue Mystic & Purple#1 Closet Grow

Hi All

After reading through most of the recent grow diaries on here I was inspired to write my own. I have been keeping my own detailed diary so I'll give a short summary of where I'm at...

Details~
Plants: 2 Blue Mystic (Nirvana) and 4 Purple#1 (Dutch Passion)
Grow Medium: Soil (Bio-Bizz All Mix) + 30% Perlite added
Nutes: Bio-Bizz Grow and Bio-Bizz Bloom, with some Liquid Carbo Load for later when the buds form
Lighting: 400W HPS with reflector
Ventilation: 4" extractor fan (with carbon filter in reserve for when the smell starts), two 6" clip-on fans, 4" PC fan over part of the intake to bring in extra fresh air
Temp/Humidity: 80-83f day, 69-72f night, 50-60%
Grow Area: Closet - 3ft deep, 2.5ft wide, 6ft tall


I'm currently on day 44 since germination and have just begun 12/12 lighting, with the plants just about to come to the end of their first 12hr dark cycle. The plants began life under my 400W HPS with 24/0 lighting but have been on 20/4 for the last 2 weeks. I have 6 plants, all between 13"-19" and should very soon see how many girls I have.

I have had some problems as this is the first time I've grown on this scale before (previous experience limited to a couple of micro cfl grows in an old speaker). I've overwatered at times and have had PH problems that have obnly been resolved during this last week. The plants had been getting water of around PH 7.2 but have now had a full flush (4 days ago) with 6.8 water and will only be getting corrected water from now on.

Things are on the up now, all problems have been corrected and the plants are looking reasonably healthy....so now for flowering!! It should make for quite a colorful grow room with some nice purple hues from the Purple#1s and hopefuly a bit of blue from the BMs. I'm hoping to get 3-4 females from my 6 remaining, but would be happy with 2.

Photos: 1) Close up of one of the Blue Mystics; 2) View of the Grow room with plants in; 3) Close up of one of the Purple#1s with the others


All comments/criticism welcome ...I'm open to any suggestions to get the most out of this grow

 

Day 3 of 12/12

Well after 2 lots of 12hr dark periods only 1 plant has shown sex so far...and its female

I'm glad as she's the best looking of the Purple#1s. She's covered in pre-flowers with white hairs stickin out. There is one of the Purples that is taller, but this one has chunkier stems and has filled out more so I'm glad its this one above all else.

Strangely though, none of the others seem to be showing anything yet.

 

True, she is perhaps an early bloomer But I hope the others don't take 2 weeks.... I'm hoping to have something smokeable by Christmas.

The Purples should be around 8 weeks to mature and the BMs 8-9 weeks (according to the company websites) so I think around 12 weeks from now is a good estimate for a harvest date.

 

Hi, thanks for your interest

I didn't do any tying down or fimming, but I did 'top' all of the Purple#1s. I've left the Blue Mystics natural as I want one or two plants grown naturally with a bid central 'cola'. I've got around 6' of vertical space to play with so I doubt I'll run out of space vertically. The problem will be if they get too bushy as I don't have much in the way of square feet.

As for the pots they are 10". I might re-pot after I've weeded the males out. I can't yet as I simply don't have the floorspace for bigger pots at the moment.


When I checked last night it looked like my biggest Purple#1 might be male I saw a very small ball on a stick around the main stem, but its really hard to tell. I certainly can't see any pistils with white hairs on like the other plant.

The other 4 aren't giving any indication yet, but if it keeps up at this 50/50 rate I'll end up with 3 girls which would be fine by me

 

Day 5 of 12/12 (temporarily 11.5/12.5)

Damn!!

Looks like both of my Blue Mystics are male. I can see 2 or 3 tiny clusters of balls around the stems near the tops on each plant. I'll give them a couple of days more to make absolutley sure.

I've swiched the time down to 11.5/12.5 to give them that little extra nudge, which has pretty much brought those balls out overnight

So far then, out of the 6 I have ... 1 definite female , 2 probable males , 1 I think might be male and 2 unknowns. The 2 unknowns do have growths, but they are far too small to tell if they are balls or hairs yet.

Not looking good so far.

 

I've given them an extra 1/2 hr of darkness each day just to get them all flowering now. Apparently it speeds them up by a few days.

Had to do it really as they are now all fighting for space so I need to know who my males are so I can kill em and give the remaining females the space they need. I'll go back to the propper 12/12 when I've weeded the males out.

Looks like I do have one more girl at least. When I checked last night it looked like I might have one more girl, one more male and a hermie.

So it looks like I've got 2 girls out of the 6, which isn't great, but should do.

 

Day 7 of 12/12

3 confirmed males

The two Blue Mystics that I thought probably were males, definitely are. Saw loads of ball clusters all around the tops and around virtually every node. Also my shortest Purple#1 is male as well. That one was looking very bushy with plenty of tops... but its no use to me now

So I'm down to 3 now. 1 is obviously female. I think I've just seen the start of a couple of white hairs on one of the others, but it also has 1 growth that looks more like a ball (really too small to tell yet). The 3rd plant isn't showing any signs yet.

Now that I have weeded out 3 males and cleared plenty of room I'm going back to the full 12/12 now.

Attached is a pic of the 3 males, chopped at the base of the stems and bagged ready for disposal.

 

Spike_Weed : Looking good there Your plants look a lot like my remaining Purple#1s in that they have thin leaves, must be Sativa genes in there. What are the genetics of your strain? ie. are they Indica or Sativa dominant? I think mine are mostly Indica, but the sativa element is plain to see (probably 60% Indica / 40% sativa).

Mr Noob : I think its probably best to just stick with 24/24 for veg and then 12/12 for flower rather than the variations I have given them. Mine started under 24/24 then after 2 weeks I went down to 20/4, but only because I have having temp issues - getting up to about 95f at times. The 4 hrs dark at least gave them some break time from the heat. And with the 11.5/12.5 cycle I only did this as I was running out of space and wanted those males to identify themselves so I could use their space for the girl(s). Under normal circumstances I would have just gone with the standard timings.

 

Tomrrow, I promise! Having a bit of trouble with the camera at the moment

Checked the 3 remaning plants again tonight and...... 2nd baby girl!!!

Looks likes my tallest plant is a female as well. She's a bit straggly, but any female is a bonus right?

The other one looks to be a hermie. I can definitely see pistils with white hairs now, but I can also see some balls lower down on one branch. they could yet turn out to be female bits, but I doubt it...they look just like the males from before, but not in clusters yet.

Pics tomorrow night