DTW Coco- Learning by doing - 600HPS multi strain SCROG

Thank u sir. U answered a lot of my questions in one sentence lol. i can't lower the plants as there is just enough space under the table for the tank.
 
I'm wondering though, if I should just dim my HPS to 400w the entire time. I've read somewhere that in a 1m x 1m area, 400w will be enough for the plants, and everything above will be wasted energy and unnecessary heat. But because I don't really understand the science behind that theory, I switch my ballast to 600w every time I'm done my daily maintenance and ready to close the tent for the night. The light is just so much brighter with 600w, i like to believe that the extra watts will penetrates the canopy better. On the other hand I have to raise the lights about 2 inches. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

 

Day 72 from seed / Day 23 bloom

Seeing papaducs impressive results i decided it's worth a try. I clipped methodically all the leaves that were blocking other bud sites. Many lower buds are now much more exposed to the light. I didn't go in as much as papaduc would have wanted, but i'm sure i took enough to increase air circulation inside the scrog. There were couple decent established buds squeezed in between taller buds. I was able to free them and give em space. It was all enough to fill a shopping bag and everything smelt like i harvested. My hands were extremely sticky and smelly afterwards.

I won't be surprised if the plants will get into some kind of shock but they look pretty normal today, a half day later. I plan to repeat the process after 2 weeks, depending on the results.

The bud sites are now starting to show more bud formation. It's like their stacking. Especially the headband 3 on the top right exploded after a slow start. The Humboldt Seeds strains are pretty smelly up to this point, while the Reserva Privadas smell milder, more floral and a bit citrusy.

As the plants approach their 4th week of flowering, i will introduce them to some PK 13. I've heard it affects taste when used late in flowering so i'll go moderately. Has anyone used PK 13 before? What were the results?

 

Cool.. do u got a journal? Remember, I don't count the flowering days at the switch. I count once I see more pistils...

 

Day 81 from seed - Day 32 in bloom

So it seems that the stacking phase is done and the buds are beginning to swell.
The Headband #3 on the upper right corner is already forming some decent colas. I think she's going to be a huge producer.
The OG#18 located just under the headband3 is obviously behind and appears to produce golf ball looking buds.

From the looks of it, they're going to finish sooner than I thought. I actually want them to take 70-77 days of flowering, only because of the pesticide issue. If the plants live longer, there will be less traces of residue. At least that's what I hope. Maybe switching to MH for the last 20 days or so will slow em down.

I now started to add PK13 but everything still half dose. The last feed was was at 1.0 EC, 5.8pH. I just started to run the drippers 4 times per light cycle. Recently I noticed a few edges curling, looking like taco leaves. I took a pic of it up close which u can see below. Hope someone can tell me what it is... I suck at recognizing symptoms.
 
Another weird thing that I recently noticed is at the bottom of the pots. I used to see healthy roots poking out there, but now it has some kind of white foamy looking substance on it. When I touch it it crumbles, like salt? I'm pretty sure I get enough run off, so I have no idea why it's happening, or if it's normal. Took a picture of that too.

As it gets colder outside, the hottest spot in the tent rarely exceeds 75F. And that's when the ballast is set to 600w. But a lot of leaves aren't looking so juicy anymore, they rather look crispy. Maybe it's the same issue that's causing the taco leaves....

However, all in all, i think they're doing good. I see a shitload of trichomes and the plants don't seem all too bothered from the defoliation. I will continue to do some more in a couple days. Perhaps I'll defoliate one plant completely.

So far, the HSO strains are very impressive in regards to smell. Every one, the Lost Coast, Green Crack and the Trainwreck are smelling pretty dank up to this point. And so does the Fruity Chronic Juice from Delicious Seeds. The Headbands have a very faint, fuel like smell while the OG#18 has a little floral odor. Hope they get smellier though.

 

Wwwwell... i know that one time during the week, the temp peaked at 93 lol.... Something went wrong with the ventilation. Never happend again. But I kinda remember seeing those crispy taco leaves before that incident, but i'm not 100% sure.

 

Day 93 from Seed - Day 44 in Bloom

So i did a solid flush on the plants couple days ago and a mild flush again last night. It washed the salt in the bottom of the pots right off. Just a day after the first flush i noticed that the Headbands and Skywalker started giving off slightly more smell. It was pretty much non existent before. I then increased the running time of each feed to create more runoff.

Now going into week 6 of bloom (started counting 16 days after the switch), the HeBa3 and Skywalker show impressive colas, full of swollen calyxes. The yield of those two seem promising. The others 6 plants are noticeably smaller but none of them appear to be low yielders. I'm expecting some of them to gain some weight soon. Perhaps the flush will help get things going too.

In the past few days the yellowing around the scrog has increased. I'm not sure if they need more nutes now or if it's just a reaction to the flush. I bought a bottle of Canna Mono Magnesium and plan on adding a lil bit of that in the next feed. The Lost Coast OG has got the most yellow leaves, followed by the Fruity Chronic Juice and Trainwreck. The other plants have just a lil bit, however the HeBa3 and Skywalker have practically none.

Also I bought a 400w MH bulb which i'm going to use in about week 9 of flowering. I read that MH grown buds produce more resin. So I'll give it a try and let it run for about the last 10 days before harvest.

Another issue I'm facing now are hermies. Just today I saw a set of nanners laying on a leaf. It already fell off the plant, so i don't know which of the 8 plants is threw it. I checked most buds in the scrog and couldn't find anymore, however, i found 2 seeds near by. This isn't the first time dealing with a hermie, but before I noticed it happen much later in the flowering phase. I never had more than maybe 5 seeds in the entire crop. This grow still has 3.5 weeks to go and i just gotta hope that it wont produce another banana.

 

 
They stretched to about 175%. Pretty manageable.

 

Day 101 from Seed - Day 52 in bloom

The buds are finally continuing to swell, after a period of barely any growth.

I'm not sure what my plants are lacking, so I'm feeding them an EC of 1.0 to 1.1 and make sure I get enough run off to avoid salt build up.

The Headband 3 and Skywalker are getting that done look. There are very few amber trichomes the Headband 3.

The Hermie issue seems to have died down. I havent spotted any more seeds or nanners since then.

I may have to take back my statement regarding the lack of smell. The odor has increased in the last couple days. Even the carbon filter is having difficulties masking the smell completely.

Both Headbands smell very similar. It reminds me of gasoline and a lil bit of pine and hash. The odor is rather mild but pungent when u come near it.

The OG18 and Skywalker OG have a similar odor as well. It could be the OG in it, although i'm not all too familiar with any OG strains. They are kinda sweet and hashy. The O18 also has some undertones of a citrus scented air freshener.

The rest, Lost Coast, Green Crack, Fruity Chronic and the Trainwreck have a stronger odor. They all smell fruity and sweet. The Green Crack and some sour undertones, while the Trainwreck has an incredible orange smell going on.

I'll be using the 600w HPS only for approx 8 days more then i'm going to finish with the 400w MH. All buds are already frosty as hell and some are so thick that I can't even wrap my hand around. So I gotta look out for bud rot. I also may do one final defoliation session in a couple days.

Any tips on what to feed my plants in the final week? pH water only or a weak nute solution?

 

Day 108 from Seed / Day 59 in flowering

In the middle of this week a couple buds started to look ripe. For the first time i got my pocket miscroscope and inspected the trichomes. Some buds indeed got some amber trichomes already. But mostly there's 50-60% cloudy and 15-25 % clear, some milky, a few with no heads...
Lots of pistils are getting crispy too. The Green Crack and Lost Coast OG are losing their smell a lil bit. I would say the harvest window is open now.

I just switched to MH yesterday as the buds arent growing much anymore. I'm trying to find out if the MH really adds to trichome production, as some side by side comparisons are claiming. The blue light allows me to take better picture toos. The close up pics are just macro shots that i zoomed in using adobe photoshop.

To start the flushing period I backed off with the feed, gave em very lil nutes, 0.6 ec, 5.8.
The runoff still came out at 1.3. This tells me the plants are again dealing with some build up. Hope I finish them in the next 7 - 10 days max. I'll be doing 36 hrs of darkness in the end.