My first grow and Journal (leap year bud) - Page 6

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #51 05-27-2008, 02:08 PM

Day 32 flower / 86 days into grow
Lights = 400w HPS 12/12
Min Temp/Humidity = 63.3*F / 29% RH
Max Temp/Humidity = 80.2*F / 75% RH
pH of water/nute mix = 6.3
ppm of water/nute mix = 1695 ppm / 125 ppm from water

Well howdy,

It's been a long time. Did ya' miss me?

So the plants keep growing right along. They are frosty as hell now and I can see just a few red hairs starting to show on the colas. No new news to report. It seems that I've gotten everything in line and it's been smooth sailing.

On the electrical/circuit breaker drama, long story short, I got all of my money back from those guys (since they never really fixed it.) I got the problem taken care of for much cheaper.

So now that some pics for your pleasure. I took a lot because my plants are so damn beautiful.

If you look closely, you can see some tiny hairs on the buds. Air draws into my grow space from under the door, which seems to suck up all the fur shed from my cat and promptly sticks it to the bud. That's kinda gross. I guess I need to find a different source for fresh air on my next grow.

Hope you are all doing well.

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #52 05-28-2008, 02:32 PM

I've been playing around with some magnifying lenses I have lying around, trying to see my trichomes and trying to take pictures. Again, my appologies for all the damn cat hair.

FatTony420 · #53 06-01-2008, 05:25 PM

oh wow. those magnified shots are amazing. kick ass man, keep it up.

how bad is the stink so far man? Is it controllable as of yet?

cheetah2007 · #54 06-01-2008, 11:22 PM

looks sugarized, man

cooooool

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #55 06-10-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatTony420

how bad is the stink so far man? Is it controllable as of yet?

Thanks for your comments guys.

The smell isn't all that bad actually. Certainly when I open up the closet there is an overwhelming smell of awesome, but it doesn't creep out of the closet into the house. I have a pretty strong negative airflow through the closet into the attic which has enough air space in it to diffuse the scent. If it gets noticeable, I will put in a scrubber. I've always built my own computers and I find it interesting how much grow rooms and computer cases have in comon in regards to designing airflow through them.

I need to play a bit of catch up in my journal as Iv'e gotten a week or two behind. Don't pay attention to the dates of the posts but the date at the top of the text.

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #56 06-10-2008, 02:06 PM

6/02/08
Day 38 flower / 92 days into grow
Lights = 400w HPS 12/12
Max Temp/Humidity = 77.4*F / 72% RH
Min Temp/Humidity = 62.2*F / 38% RH
pH of water/nute mix = 6.3
ppm of water/nute mix = 945 ppm / 125 ppm from water

This was an interesting week. The plants seemed to stop drinking. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but my moisture meter was reading that the soil was moist four days since I had watered last. I had to leave town for the weekend, so it wound up being six days since my last water. I was curious as to why the soil dried in the first place. Was it mainly due to evaporation or did the plants actually 'drink' most of the water? I posted a thread about it here, and got the opinion that most of the water is used by the plant. I never really figured out the reason as to why this was happening. Maybe I was overwatering, maybe it's a part of the plants natural life cycle, who knows?

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #57 06-10-2008, 02:11 PM

6/06/08
Day 42 flower / 96 days into grow
Lights = 400w HPS 12/12
Max Temp/Humidity = 79.1*F / 77% RH
Min Temp/Humidity = 63.6*F / 36% RH

Four days later and it's obvious the plants have started 'drinking' again normally. It's kind of a big relief actually. It's hard for me to tell at this point if they've been growing bigger. It was much easier to tell when they gained height, but girth is harder to measure and remember. I keep comparing pictures of the colas from today to those of last week. I think the gaps between the bud sites on the colas are almost all filled in. I'm always the nervous parent. I'm just starting week six of flowering, but I'm still only seeing clear trichs. I'm hoping that is normal for this mystery strain.

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #58 06-10-2008, 02:15 PM

6/07/08
Day 43 flower / 97 days into grow
Lights = 400w HPS 12/12
Max Temp/Humidity = 78.6*F / 62% RH
Min Temp/Humidity = 64.7*F / 35% RH
pH of water/nute mix = 6.4
ppm of water/nute mix =863 ppm / 125 ppm from water

One day later and the plants have already dried out. It must have been thirsty. I normally don't water every day, but when they need it, I give it to 'em.

I also decided to tie up some of the branches on the tall plant. The stems were bowing under the weight of the bud and getting further and further away from the light. I had to put a bamboo pole running alongside the center of the plant. It's not a thick pole, but even still I had to push it through what I can only assume are roots. It made me cringe. I need to figure out a way of doing that without hurting the roots of the plant. I keep trying to tell myself that it's probably only a super small portion of the root mass and that it was only the smaller roots as I didn't have to push that hard to get through. I will know more once I chop and get a chance to peak under the dirt as to what is going on down there.

Anyways, once I got it tied, the buds were much closer to the light. It's probably a little late in the game for something like this, but I want to get as much experience during this first grow as I can.

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #59 06-10-2008, 02:21 PM

6/10/08
Day 46 flower / 100 days into grow
Lights = 400w HPS 12/12
Max Temp/Humidity = 87.1*F / 59% RH
Min Temp/Humidity = 66.2*F / 30% RH
pH of water/nute mix = 6.3

I got one of those magnifiers from radioshack and they are a bitch to use. I guess my hands aren't steady enough for 60x magnification. Today I noticed that the trichs on the colas are turning milky. They are about 35-50%, I think. But it seems to be happening only on the colas at this point. The lower buds still have 100% clear trichs.

My plan is to harvest one plant with no amber and one with 50/50 amber cloudy mix. That way I can mix and match bud from them to give me the high that I'm in the mood for. What more could a grower want? I'm feeling a little disappointed that they didn't fatten up any more by this point. I'm still hoping that they will put on some mass in the next two weeks.

As you can see from the first two shots, the leaves are also starting to yellow in a way that I haven't seen before. I've read that the plant will sort of 'canabalize' the nitrogen in it's leaves in late flowering and I can only assume that is what is happening. I'm trying my best not to worry about it.

So now I'm wrestling with the question of when to start flushing. I'm also wrestling with what flushing means at this point means. I've read that some people seem to think that it means giving nothing but water for the last two weeks of your grow. Others seem to think that it means giving your plants pH'ed water equal to three times the amount your pots hold every day (as if your plants had nute burn.) The later seems excesive to me. The idea is to get the chemical taste out of your plant, so perhaps its just water here on out for one of these lucky ladies. Please feel free to help me out by leaving a comment on when you think I should start my flush and what that means. Thanks.

GrowBigOrGrowHome · #60 06-16-2008, 12:28 AM

I gave my plants molasses the first time three days ago. It went pretty well, although I worry about ants. Damn those ants.

I saw my first amber trichs on the cola of the shorter plant yesterday. Whoohoooo!!!

It's been a week since I gave nutes last so that means only a week to go before the chop. That means that it's nothing but water and molasses here on out for that little gal. Can't wait to get the buds off of this one as I'm totally out. I took off a lower nug for a small sample and it smoked just fine.

Just as an additional note on the radioshack magnifier...I look at the plants just about every day going hand held with the magnification at 60x. I thought that I could see the trichs clearly enough to tell what was going on. But just to make sure, I took a small bit of leaf off from near the bud and sure enough at 100x it was plain as day that there were amber trichs there. So lesson learned. I'm going to take a tiny leaf sample every other day to determine when to harvest the next one. Tomorrows sample will determine if I give the tall plant more nutes or not.