It Begins!!!

It's either over water, under water, too much nutes, not enough nutes or not enough light.

Water is under control
Light is 400W MH at about 12" away 24/7
nutes... hmmm

probably better to lay off the nutes rather than add more. I've put 2tbs of Start-N-Grow (18-6-12) in all the pots, once - 6 days ago when I planted.

Should I get some differnt nutes? Mine is soil based, meaning I mix it into the soil as opposed to mixing it in water. I dunno.

You usually don't need to nute the soil for a couple of weeks. Personally i prefer the ones you put straight into feed.

DAY 8

Transplanted my siamese babies into separate pots today. Actually I moved the smaller one and left the bigger. Mixed the soil really well with organic nutes and a time-release nitrogen 1/2 strength mix that goes at the bottom of the plant hole before transplanting.

Found out that Top 44 is called Top 44 because it apparantly can flower in 44 days and be ready to harvest. Sounds good to me!

Here's a sweet pic of Top 44 in full bloom:

DAY 10

My transplanted baby is doing very well. I'm going to post some pics tomorrow if I can. They are about three inches with two definate leaf sets and plenty more on the way.

I started the first 1/2 nute strength semi-soak today. Went well. Bought a multi-test soil kit for $12.95 that tests Ph, Nitro, Potass, Phosph. I've only tested the Ph so far and is is neutral.

I've been reading up on tying and low-stress-tying vs. high stress tying. I'm going to start young with one plant just to get some practice in, hopefully it'll be a female and turn out nice. I'm really interested in the effects of tying on tall sativas, which are going to be my next grow (January).

then there is one more thing. After some calculations I've determined that Dec 22nd is the last day I can stay in the state that I'm in, before driving 7 hours away to my parents home for x-mas (i'm old, i'm out of the house, but i have to go - long story). So in honor of growing the first (that i know of...) batch of Top 44 on rollitup, I will attempt to prove that this strain can flower and be harvested 44 days after flowering

I planted over-germinated sprouts on Sept. 22 - they are now approx - 3" tall. I will veg untill Nov. 1st and then force flower until about the weekend of Dec. 16th, at which time I will harvest and dry/cure till Dec 22nd and then smoke joints all the way to mammas' house

That gives me 1 month of veg time

Plants have some upcurling of the leaves, no other noticable discoloration, patches, etc.

Used the weedfarmer nutrient disorders site to establish the deficiency of Magnesium. This can apparantly be leveled up with Epsom Salts - which i'll be getting and adding tomorrow. If anyone has had experience, would love to hear from ya

I'll add pictures for before/after comparison.

DAY 20

My smallest plant is 5" and my tallest is 10". They are looking great, I'm going to get some pics up this weekend. They are on about 3/4 strength nutes.

FIMed the smallest one last week and it didn't work The leaves just grew like normal except they are jagged from being cut and look weird.

The plan is I need the plants to all be around the same size when I flower. So I'm going to "top" my two tallest plants this weekend so hopefully their growth will slow and the other two can catch up!

20 days ago I never would have guessed that my plants would be growing too fast for me

After consulting with some local grower friends, they advised to flower at about 4.5 weeks (Oct. 25th-ish) instead of waiting till Nov 1st. It's good advice, I don't want to be rushed into a premature harvest*.

* for those who don't know I have to leave the state on Dec. 22 and must be finished drying/curing by that time.

So I'll have between 44-50 days to flower, then about a solid week to dry/cure.

DAY 25

As promised here is the Top 44 crop as of today. After more research I've decided to start flowering on Friday the 22nd instead of the 1st of Nov. I'm doing this so I'm not rushed to harvest early before Dec 22nd.



The little one (bottom right corner) is pissing me off because she's not growing as fast as the others. I'm thinking of tying her down to promote more budsites during flowering. What do you guys think?

Here is a wierd shot of one of my leaves with 10 leafs instead of 9-11...

DAY 29

• 
  NEW LIGHT
  NEW SETUP
  

Unplugged the Metal Halide today and replaced it with a 400w HPS. It's lightweight so I just hung it from the laundry pole in my closet, and placed the ballast on a metal filing cabinet. I watered the plants today also, one gallon each with a 1 1/4 tsp of nutes.

The plant on the top closest to the light is under LST (Low Stress Tying) and is doing very well - like a little weed bonsai : )




Going to start the flowering light cycle @ 12/12 - midnight (Day 30). Hope to see sex (of the plants )in a week or so...

verve, thank u 4 the update, and i will be following your progress, as it mirrors that which I would like to start soon as well. However, if I am not too presumptuous, may i offer my (admitedly) unsolicited comment on your Hicksian quotation. When u say, that you can do everything as well but it's not worth the fucking effort, it belies a certain evasiveness, evidenced by the use of the obscenity. Obscenity usually denotes lack of confidence, or in the complete breakdown of dignity, a submergence into sarcasm, the language of the fool. Here it appears as merely an excuse to stay unabled and paralyzed to do those things that can bring about change. After all, you drive when you're stoned. So that's worth the effort. Is being a "winner" an unnecessary effort, or is being a wiener? That is the Zen question.

DAY 30

Plants are going to sleep for the 2nd time tonight at midnight. The bud sites have turned a bright green color which is kinda cool. No sign of sex yet, but I'm not holding my breath till next week.

Pics as soon as they show, good vibes for girls please

DAY 31

After only two dark cycles I'm finding sex signs on some plants. I took a couple pics but they didn't turn out at all.

The runt of the bunch, that I ended up tying down is definately female with dual hairs emerging out of a small bulbous nub.

Another plant that I grew naturally has a few nubs with no hairs on it, I'm thinking this one may be male but its only been two days so I'll wait a week to be sure.

The other two plants have not shown any signs yet.

So the unofficial count is 1 female, 1 unsure and 2 unknowns.

But I have a female!!!

DAY 36



7 days into flowering. My lst'd shrub has about 10 budsites AND a thick 5" untopped main stem that will make a small, bud dense and thc-packed cola

The other plants are not looking good at all unless you like dudes... Not that there is anything wrong with that

One is already developing a cluster-like pod structure.

They were good to grow even if I get no bud because I was able to experiment with different stuff like topping and tying and regulating water/nutes.

- I'm at a 1/4 tsp OVER the 1tsb/gallon normal miracle gro dosage and I'm watering each plant roughly 1.75 gallons twice a week.

- Next time I will probably flower EARLIER, rather than wait for 12"-16" of height because of the continued rapid growth during the 12/12 cycle. Obviously this would vary from strain to strain.

DAY 38

9 DAYS of FLOWERING

40 more days till I have to harvest

Chopped up and killed a male plant today. It was the far left one in the pic above ^. I was going to do something with the leaves like make tea or dry the little leaves and smoke em. But the gf reminded me that they are soaked with nutes, so I had to nix that idea.

My little shrub girl is doing fine and after a very close examination, I can't conclude the sex of the other two plants - which is weird because they should be showing signs pretty soon.

Hopefully next week I'll know for sure!

Soaked the three remaining plants today with 1.5X recommended Miracle Grow dosage.

The biggest plant is now just under 2.5', the other is 2' and the shrub is well, a shrub; short and sweet!

What size pots you using? The plants look great but they look like they are outgrowing the pots.

skunkushybrid said:

What size pots you using? The plants look great but they look like they are outgrowing the pots.

Click to expand...

The plants may be outgrowing them indeed. They are 12" in diameter and about 12" tall too. I don't know how to convert that into gallons though...

When I destroyed the male, I pulled him out of the pot and noticed the "root ball" had reached the entire pot - everything was held together by the root structure (this male was the biggest of the whole bunch though).

Could root restriction at this point be a big deal? Anyone can jump in here and answer this, I figure since I'm flowering I'd rather them be a little restricted so energy goes into flowers and not stretchy growth.

I found another 100% male today. Another plant STILL has no signs of sex and that has me worried. My 100% female is a tiny gal, so I'm not as worried about her cramping.

I also found that with more and more waterings, the soil level has markedly decreased in the past month. I don't know if I should add soil to the top, or gently lift out the plants and add soil to the bottom of the pot; what do you all think?

Thanks for the comment Skunkush

I was thinking you should lift the pots up and put soil underneath-definetly not on top cuz that wont do shiit 2 the roots below. One concern though would be that if u try and lift the plantz up you might stress the plant somehow-LOL-last time i tried that i dropped the whole plant on accident and she died one me! It shouldn't be a prob if the roots are that attached to the soil though.

I did that to about 7 of my plants about 3 weeks into flower. You're not really supposed to do it, but if you do it now they'll have time to recover, also more room to develop root.

If your pots are 12 12 they sound fine and are probably about 3 gallons or 12 litres.

DAY 43
14th DAY OF FLOWERING
35 DAYS TILL HARVEST

Only one female plant remains. Today I transplanted her into a pot that I filled with a little more soil, as you can see in the pic - the soil level is nice and high now. She came out of the old pot with no problems.

I noticed a little nute burn crustiness on the male as I was chopping him up, so after transplanting the female I watered her in with 4 gallons of fresh water (no nutrients added). This should help her recover just fine. She has plenty of space in the growroom.



The hairs are popping out more and more each day, the growth rate is steady (at least an inch a day still), light is 4" from the main cola. I "untied" her while transplanting so I'm wondering if I should retie, or just leave her be at this point? The "stress" is pretty well-formed and I doubt she will bend back, but I was curious so any suggestions would be welcome.

The soil is Ferti-Lome from Canada with a bend of Sphagnum Peat Moss, Horticultural Perlite, Dolomitic and Calcitic Limestone (Both fast release and sustained long-term). It also has a "wetting agent" and water soluble ferts N(.3%), P(.02%), K(.2%).

I'm going to be setting up a very small flouraecent light to grow some clones of the female.

Thanks for reading, I'll try to get some good flower shots to post soon!

Things are looking good. the plant will love the new growth room. In another 2 weeks those buds are going to be creeping up the stem.

What makes you think you'll be harvesting at 49 days, only 7 weeks?

If I were you I'd only harvest a couple of the lower branches, this has the advantage of providing you with a smoke while you wait for the rest to mature and also the buds that are left will recieve more of the light. Does you're flowering area have a de-humidifier? For pucka, dank bud you want your plant to produce as much resin as it can. Are you in a hot climate, even in winter?