First Indoor Grow - Gorilla Girl and White Widow - T5 and 1000w HPS

Well I was wrong about them slowing down. I was running out of room to raise the light so I had to put new screws in as far up the joists as I could and that bought me another 6 inches. Good problem to have, I suppose. My buddy came over and showed me how to top a few branches and gave me some pointers on cloning. I'm ordering solution and starter trays for the plugs and will end up taking as many clones as I can off one of the Gorilla Girls that has been growing like a beast.

They're so close to being ready for the flip I'm starting to get impatient! No sign of needing any nutes at all yet, either. FFOF is loaded!

Day 42 veg

 

Hell yeah, thanks man! I'm lucky to have received this t5 ballast as a gift. I've only vegged under CFLs before and am thoroughly impressed with fluorescent lighting for vegging.

The plan is to keep a steady and heavy perpetual grow so I'm currently flowering under a 1000w hps and am contemplating doubling that in the future if I can mitigate the heat.

You gotta keep the light about 4 inches away from the top of the canopy from the first week of veg to encourage dense nodes. My buddy discourages that but I figure they stretch during the first couple weeks of flower so they should have the most growth established from the beginning to support that.

Pics of the rooms.


I'm just waiting on the rest of the cloning supplies to start my next batch then I'll throw these in the flower room once they've reached about 2 feet.

Day 43 veg

Preflowers

 

I cant wait any longer! All advice I've been given has been to flip these bitches so it's happening TONIGHT!

When I ran the electrical for my grow room I made a potentially fatal mistake. I used 14awg on a 20 amp circuit and that is a big no no. The main reason being is that 20 amps requires a 12awg wire (thicker wire than 14 awg for those without body piercings) and had I ran close to 20 amps it would have resulted in the wire getting too hot because it wasn't thick enough to carry the load (my handy skills are a bit rusty). So I replaced the 20 amp breakers with 15 amp breakers to ensure that the breaker will trip before the wire ever carries a load that is too strong for the wire. I also ensured all smoke alarms in the house were functioning and installed two fire extinguishers in critical locations in the house. Safety is GOD, PEOPLE.

Now, I'm taking clones immediately before tossing the ladies into the flower room. Preparation is key so I measured cloning solution to soak the plugs in and sterilized a container for the cloning gel. Here's where we're at.

 

Dude, the law of entropy is always working against us. Go hard or go home, right?

Week 6 Day 1 Flower/Clone

Clones


Flower

 

One of my White Widows was looking hungry so I mixed up some half strength nutes, 1 tsp of Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom per gallon of water. Ph was 5.5 and ppm was 750. The ph of the soil was a bit high at 7 so I'm hoping this feed brought it down to the ideal range of 6.5. I'm worried about burning and nutrient lockouts so I need to get some ph chemicals and keep the feeding light.

Day 45 (day 2 flower)

 

Day 46 (day 3 flower)

Without shades:


With shades:

 

I've been doing a bit of reading on training and defoliating and I definitely need to clean up some fan leaves near the middle and bottom of the plants. I've managed to tuck leaves under new growth to assist with light penetration but now that they're going into flower I need to make sure the bud sites have plenty of access to light. I want to try manifolding next time now that I've learned about it.

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Looks like about 3 out of my 9 clones are wilting a lot more than the others. I think I left too much vegetation on them.



I made some curing jars with hygrometers in the lids. Thanks to 918 Autogrower for the inspiration!



I exfoliated the ladies last night to open the canopy a bit and met light get to the lower branches. I hope I didn't overdo it.

Day 48 (day 5 flower)

 

Day 49 (day 6 flower)

 

Yeah man! I'm wondering if I have enough space! I'll have to keep a close watch over them for training. I've been slowly defoliating with a purpose to try and maximize light penetration to help with yields. This is my first rodeo so I know I wont achieve ideal yields but my goal is to maximize what I can.

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Day 50 (day 7 flower)

 

I'm doing my best to be patient and conservative with defoliating. I want to manifold my next grow to see the difference in yields and learn something new. I'm gonna dig up my first grow outdoors to post the results here. They were 7 foot beasts that yielded me over a pound from two plants.

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I had to do a bit of butchering but I've installed a 6 inch duct in my veg room above the drying rack. Judgement understood and welcomed.




Since half-assing it was hard enough I decided to take a temporary measure in the flower room.



A few of the clones look like shit but 6 of them have sturdy stems and look to be on the upswing!



Day 51 (day 8 flower)


I have no idea what to expect but I'm hoping for at least a pound. Very excite!!!