AugustWest: Thanks. Honestly these are the healthiest plants I've ever grown, however I believe there's always room for improvement. I'm about to start training the tops and branches with a method similar to a SCROG. My goal is to make a flat and even canopy of colas. doob3r: Right on doob. I'm using my gfs camera and it takes great pictures. All I do, pretty much, is point and shoot but I'll try to keep the shots interesting. xelatoth: I'll be checkin' out your grow for sure. As to the effectiveness of the UVB bulb it will be really hard for me to tell as I wont have anything to compare my results to. What I am expecting to see though,is a more defined expression of the trichome life cycle, ie: Clear -> Cloudy -> Amber, along with a dreamy and stoney high. Also, no need for crossing any more fingers. I found 1 more male, and 1 more female so I'm right where I hoped I'd be at this point, with 2 females gonejah17: Thanks gonejah, this thread's fun for me. I'm just happy knowin there are people I could get some help from if I should ever need it. And yes, there are some 11 finger leaves on these babies. stuckinschool: Good luck with your grows stuck, I would so be growing outdoors if it was even remotely possible. Unfortunately, the high dessert climate I live in makes it near impossible. As for your question about UVB... you can get a crash course on it's effect on Marijuana right HERE. Also below is an excerpt from a writeup on the topic, found HERE. MARIJUANA OPTICS An elaboration on the phytochemical process that makes THC: by Joe Knuc "Pate (1983) indicated that in areas of high ultraviolet radiation exposure, the UVB (280-320 nm) absorption properties of THC may have conferred an evolutionary advantage to Cannabis capable of greater production of this compound from biogenetic precursor CBD. The extent to which this production is also influenced by environmental UVB has also been experimentally determined by Lydon et al. (1987)." The writer's own experience allow for a more specific conclusion: If the UVB photon is missing from the light stream(a), or the intensity as expressed in µW/cm2 falls below a certain level(b), the phytochemical process will not be completely energized with only UVA photons which are more penetrating but less energetic, and the harvested resin spheres will have mostly precursor compounds and not fully realized THC(c). (a)Examples of an environment where the UVB photon would be missing from the light stream include all indoor cultivation illuminated by HID bulbs and in glass or corrugated fiberglass covered greenhouses. (b)"The maximum UVB irradiance near the equator (solar elevation angle less than 25 deg.) under clear, sunny skies is about 250 µW/cm2. It was observed that the daily solar UVB in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (N24.4Lat.) decreased from September to December by about 40% (Hannan et al. 1984). The further a person is from the tropics, the less UVB radiation there is: the average annual exposure of a person living in Hawaii is approximately four times that of someone living in northern Europe." Below are some UVB readings taken in Hoyleton, Illinois, on a clear sunny day in June by David Krughoff as reported in Reptile Lighting 2000. 7am: 12 microwatts/cm2 8am: 74 microwatts/cm2 9am: 142 microwatts/cm2 10am: 192 microwatts/cm2 11am: 233 microwatts/cm2 12pm: 256 microwatts/cm2 1pm: 269 microwatts/cm2 2pm: 262 microwatts/cm2 3pm: 239 microwatts/cm2 4pm: 187 microwatts/cm2 5pm: 131 microwatts/cm2 6pm: 61 microwatts/cm2 (c)Cannabinoid pathway: Anywhere in this pathway UVB (320 nm - 290 nm) does a better job than UVA (400 nm - 320 nm) in energizing a phytochemical reaction that will produce more fully realized THC because "all cannabinolic compounds show an absorption maximum between 270 and 280 nm in the ultraviolet region." ** Basically the way I translate all the research I've done on this topic is that: Up to a point determined by genetics, UVB increases the level of fully realized THC molecules inside the resin gland. Which in turn translates to... Stonier Buds! CaliGrower: You've got the right idea. I don't think it's so much the amount of resin that increases as it is the amount of THC produced. GROW UPDATE: It's a girl! Of the 2 remaining un-sexed plants 1 is male and 1 is female. Leaving me with exactly what I had planned to grow from the very start, 2 lovely females. I pulled the male this morning just before lights out so I didn't have time to take any pictures, but I'll do that tonight and then post them in the morning. Also, I installed the lines (screen) that I'm going to use to train the tops which will begin tonight. Thanks again for all your kind words, support and encouragement.
nice man.. i'm kinda trying to do the same thing. It's in my journal if ya wanna check it out. Glad ya ended up w/ the 2 girls you wanted. peace.
Even with just 2 female Purple Cindy plants it looks to me you'll have one heck of a harvest SmoOve. Apparently Purple Cindy really produces and judging by Earl's Space Shuttle Grow posted here on GC your small grow space will quickly be overcome by the size of your 2 Purple Cindys by mid flowering. Can't wait to see the results at harvest time! Keep those pics coming!!
I planted my PC on the 26th of Dec 07. It will definately grow tall, like a sativa. My leaves are skinny now, I am starting week 6 of flower tomorrow. Check out my growfile. .
Your girls are looking very nicely filled out, especially for a Sativa strain smoove! I am salivating at the thought of the Purple Cindy bud.. hehe My seeds are supposed to be here by 2pm today Now that you cleared out so much room, you will have a lot of space to do the training you planned on... should = out to quite a yield increase and really max your space! It just goes to show you though... with proper care and planning and a bit o' luck... even an outdoor loving sativa can be grown nice and bushy indoors in limited space! Cheers to you for paving the way with this strain! I was concerned it would be finicky to grow, but it seems pretty resilient! Keep it up! Excellent!
Mordecai: ...that's exactly what I plan to do AugustWest: Like I mentioned in your thread, you've got some sweet lookin plants and your LST work is quality. I'm hoping I can train these ladies to a point where I have nothing but bud spears side by side by side, but I know making that happen isn't going to be easy. Hopefully through trial and error, a little patience and a LOT of luck I can make it work. CaliGrower: I think you're right and I am little concerned about overgrowing the space. My hope is that the SCROG training takes full advantage of that growth. Also something to consider... Earl actually has 3 Purple Cindy's growing in his Space Shuttle, but only 1 of them has the "grow really tall" pheno (sativa?). The other 2 are shorter bushes. Either way, I'm prepared and looking forward to the challenge. Earl: I've been following your threads (in many different forums) since day 1. You're actually the reason I'm growing DWC. I read your tutorial on how to setup a DWC system back in like... 2003 or 2004, I can't remember what forum it was (I have it archived on my computer at home) I never gave you credit for that, so thanks... and then more recently right after I bought my Purple Cindy seeds, I googled for any info on the strain and your post at planet skunk came up. It was the very first post of your PC grow. I was like... hmm that name sounds familiar... funny how things come around like that. ANYWAYS... My leaves are actually starting to get skinny now too and I was wondering if there are any other peculiarities you've noticed about this strain? A couple weeks ago when the smell was at it's strongest... there was this really distinct, very deep and dark coffee/coco kind of smell on top of the sweet and skunky herb smell. Are you getting that from yours? and one last question, how long did your stretch last? xelatoth: You're doing your Purple Cindy in soil for sure right? cuz I really want to see how that works out. I'm thinking about switching over to soil myself. We shall see. GROW UPDATE: As I mentioned in the previous post, I set up some tie lines and started training the tops. At this point it's hard to tell where everything is going to end up. I can estimate where I want them to be but I know I'm gonna have to wing it as the plants do what they do. Basically all I've done so far is place 6 loop screws into the walls and run wire across them, then bent the tops to spread out into a more flat and even canopy. I'll add more wire wherever needed, as needed. At some point I'll stop training and let the tops grow upward. I'll just be guessing when the best time is to do that. March 31 - This was yesterday morning. I began training the tops Sunday night and only a few hadn't turned themselves right side up yet. The main top was literally laying down sideways (like it is in the last picture) Question: I've seen many photos of plants with lighter colored tops during the stretch phase. Do you guys believe this a sign that the plant is less than healthy? I can't seem to find it now, but I've read before that ideally you want to maintain the normal deep green growth color even throughout the stretch, and to see yellowing in the tops indicates a loss of peak health. Does that make sense to you guys? March 31 - This was 8 hours later. All the tops had righted themselves up at this point. I let them go through the night cycle like this and all the tops shot up a good couple inches over night. April 1 - This pic was taken right after I trained some of the larger tops back down this morning. Like I said, nothing too exciting yet.
toight, toight . . . looks like the leaves might be starting to thin out already tho its hard to tell yet
nice work man!.. just keep tucking the big ones under till the little ones catch up. i don't think those tops are yellowing, looks like totally normal new growth to me.
Hey SmoOve, the lighter colored tops are evident just as the lights turn back on. That's because the plants have been in darkness for the last 12 hours and no photosynthesis in the dark hence the light color. This color vanishes during the light part of the 12/12 cycle and the leaves become green again due to photosynthesis. Then the cycle repeats itself. You will notice the lighter green only when the plants come out of the dark cycle.
Yo thats some dope info man!! Ur sure about that right?? + rep for that one homie Ive wondered about this too.
Gonejah, the leaves are definitely narrowing out sativa stylie more and more every day. They're also pointier and sharper with more pronounced edges. Who'd a thunk. August I don't know why I had that intro scene from Super Troopers in my head after reading your post... only they were saying "but he's already tucked them under! He can't tuck them in any farther!" LOL I'm weird. Cali that makes perfect sense bro. In fact the first picture from my last post was taken in the morning and I can see lighter yellow tops... then in the second photo 8 hours laters the tops are much more green. Good call. eleven I can't wait to see them either!! Question: Do your guys' plants sweat a lot? like you know where leaves are overlapping there's that kind of condensation sometimes? Well I'm getting that on some leaves that aren't covered and in direct light.
As far as the light green tops having to do with the lighting.... This is not exactly the case. See, when the lights turn off the plants will take all of the pyruvate that it was busy producing via its light reactions and will transfer that and its primary electron carrier, (NADPH), to the Calvin Cycle (i.e. dark reactionns). Now, the plant will use the pyruvate and reduce the NADPH to NADP+ and ATP. The atp will do cellular work and the electrons create a proton gradient. This gradient and the pyruvate will power the Calvin Cycle in the dark to produce simple sugars, (i.e. C6H12O6) Of course, for the dark reactions to occur in the 1st place, carbon is fixated from CO2 in the air to the eventual sugars. The photophosphorylation does not cause any change in apparent green coloration at all. In my experience, the lighter color is very normal in new growth in hydro applications at first, and barring any major nute f ups, will quickly "grow out".
Oh, Smoove... How long did your PC seeds take to germinate? I put 3 Blue widow and 4 PC seeds in to germ (paper towel method), and 2 days later ALL the Blue Widows were good to go, but none of the 4 PC had cracked yet??? lol By the By - you grow looks sweet. You are gonna get a lot of buds for that space! Niiiice
Sorry... did not see the question. Yes, I changed over to soil and love it so far. SO easy! Yes, it is slower going in veg so far, but I never have to actually do a damn thing. I just water every 3 days or so and feed with water every 5-6 days ro so and watch em' grow....lol I do not even use my PPM/PH meter anymore as my tap is already about 7.0 and I follow fox farm's feeding schedule B-) I will get more hands on as they get bigger because I plan to top and lst most of the plants, but for now... just chillin'
Now Im more confused than ever about the light green thing, was caligrower way off then or what?? Can we get some mods or some highranking members to chime in on this?? No offense to anyone, just the more angles we can get on this, the better. IMO theres no need for all the confusing terminolgy. If someone has a confident grasp on the concept maybe they wont need to use such scientific acronyms and such??? Also, Id be careful following the FF shedule man, MJ plants dont need many nutes Im finding. Im digging this PC strain yo, I love the morphing of leaf characteristics as Ive stated and Earl's looks monster!! Cant wait to see her go, go baby go!!!
It is true that I am not a high ranking member, or anything even close, but I do understand plant physiology (as it is a major requirement for my specified B.S. degree in Bio), but all I was trying to say was this: Plants have 2 major steps in photosynthesis: 1) Light reactions 2) Dark reactions The "GREEN" color is not affected by anything other then what spectrum of light is reflected by the plant's thylakoid membrane (leaf part). Plants absorb blue-violet and red through the chlorophyl a molecule and absorb the same + orange through chlorophyl b molecule. They REFLECT green (why the leaves are green) They obviously do this during the light hours (when the plant is actively shuttling electrons from light around and splitting water). This is when oxygen is released. However, when it is dark, the calvin cycle (dark reaction) still continues to work towards making the final products (sugar and technically water via respiration) by fixing carbon. * I only meant to try and clarify that Cali was NOT wrong at all - I was simply trying to lend some science to this hobby is all ** The light green is most often attributed to new growth (when conditions are favorable) because the plant has not had a chance to fully develop its photosystems in the newest leaves yet.
Yeah nah man, I wasnt trying to offend u at all, ur 1st explanation was just a little too technical for me, but obviously u knew ur shit, (its like me trying to explain audio engineering {my field} to someone and talking about -10dbv, common mode rejection and 44.1 Khz word clock syncing lol) which is why I thought maybe someone who had a grasp on it could explain it in lamens terms, which u did. You dumbed it down as much as u could for me lol and I thank u for that. So CALI's not wrong, the leaves are ALWAYS lighter when lights come on, due to a specific part of the Calvin Process, is that the jist?? Because Im pretty sure I see this in all my plants, even the ones that are under 24hr light. So when u say its primarily just a sign of new growth that hasnt been able to fully green up yet that makes sense too. Its not a huge deal I just dont want to spread bad info if someone asks ME the question someday. PS its GREAT to have someone with a degree in the field of plant biology on here!! good shit and plus rep. And I just asked for a high ranking member cuz thats USUALLY a PRETTY good bullshit filter, especially if its someone I know. PPS so do u think the MK plant "likes" to have a dark period, even in veg?? (18/6) Lemme know cuz theres differeing opinions on the boards about that too.