First time grow, dwc dp blueberry

Hi guys. This is my first post, and my first grow, been lurking a while though. I started my first grow on aug28 with some seeds from Dutch Passion, blueberry. I realize there's a lot of negativity surrounding this strain as far as growing goes, but I like a challenge and it happens to be my favourite smoke. So here it goes...

I picked up 5 feminized seeds and germinated three of them in soil, ( just like do recommends) and I have to say that they germinate much quicker this way than using the paper towel method. Once I got my first set of real leaves, I transplanted them into 6" baskets in my dwc setup.

My setup consists of two 6" net pots with a hydroton medium. I realize the transplant was early, but it seems to have worked well for me so far.

I'm growing the third plant in a 3 gallon bucket of soil with layered hydroton just to be able to compare growth rates as well as general plant health.

The plants have responded really well to the dwc compared to the soil as far as growth rate goes, but the soil is definitely more stable. Anyway,

I'm using a 400w mh light for veg, and hps for bloom, sensi grow ab/sensi bloom ab. The only additives to that so far have been cal mag and silicate. Ph is running about 5.5-6.5 but I have had spikes as high as 7.5 due to inadequate bubbling.( I'll get to that later)

Today I switched my plants to 12/12 and bloom nutes. I will post more later when I figure out how to post pictures.

One question though, how to you experienced bb growers induce the blueberry colour? I've read that u need proper conditions to garuntee that nice purple bud.

Thanks!

mr.jinks said:

View attachment 4014281 View attachment 4014279 View attachment 4014279 Hi guys. This is my first post, and my first grow, been lurking a while though. I started my first grow on aug28 with some seeds from Dutch Passion, blueberry. I realize there's a lot of negativity surrounding this strain as far as growing goes, but I like a challenge and it happens to be my favourite smoke. So here it goes...

I picked up 5 feminized seeds and germinated three of them in soil, ( just like do recommends) and I have to say that they germinate much quicker this way than using the paper towel method. Once I got my first set of real leaves, I transplanted them into 6" baskets in my dwc setup.

My setup consists of two 6" net pots with a hydroton medium. I realize the transplant was early, but it seems to have worked well for me so far.

I'm growing the third plant in a 3 gallon bucket of soil with layered hydroton just to be able to compare growth rates as well as general plant health.

The plants have responded really well to the dwc compared to the soil as far as growth rate goes, but the soil is definitely more stable. Anyway,

I'm using a 400w mh light for veg, and hps for bloom, sensi grow ab/sensi bloom ab. The only additives to that so far have been cal mag and silicate. Ph is running about 5.5-6.5 but I have had spikes as high as 7.5 due to inadequate bubbling.( I'll get to that later)

Today I switched my plants to 12/12 and bloom nutes. I will post more later when I figure out how to post pictures.

One question though, how to you experienced bb growers induce the blueberry colour? I've read that u need proper conditions to garuntee that nice purple bud.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Lower the temps in the last half of flower during the dark period. But realistically it's a pheno/strain characteristic. Not always in your control.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for.

I found these ladies to be quite hardy so far. I had a lockout situation early in my grow, I believe it was caused by those shitty flexible bubblers in my res. once I got a good airstone the plants have since been real healthy. I'm running about 3/4 strength nutes with cal mag and silicate.

I feel like I should have started flowering about a week earlier, I didn't really realize how big my plants were because I have them lst'd. I also fimmed them when the 5th node was popping. I might have to get a 600w light if these things stretch too much.


I'm really hoping they don't go Hermie on me!

Day 3 of flower, I filled a new res up with water yesterday. I'm using a new reservoir so I can just transplant my roots asap. Anyway, I added cal-mag and silicate first, waited a couple hours than added my sense bloom ab nutes at just over half the recommended strength. I put a little bit of sensi grow in for the added nitrogen (5ml each into a 45l solution). Then I ph'd it after about two hours, was at 6.7, so I added some ph down to bring it down to 5.8.

Today I went out at around hour 10 of light time and noticed my ph jumped up to 7.3. So I added more ph down to bring it back to 5.8. I think maybe my reservoir being new and I didn't clean it properly or maybe me adding a new airstone caused the spike? I'm not sure. I'm hoping the ph stabilizes on its own. I will check it tomorrow morning.

The reason I'm taking it down to 5.8 is ive noticed as my plants eat, the ph in my reservoir goes up, so i figured if I bring it down as low as reccomended, the plants will get the max nutrients as it allows the ph to fluctuate in the proper range in a controlled manner.

I have removed a few fan leaves here and there as the plant grows to allow bud sites to grow uninhibited. I have no reason for this other than it seems to make sense to me. And so far it seems to be working well. As soon as I remove the fan leave from an area that is blocking light to aspiring buds, they explode in growth! It's pretty amazing actually. From morning to night, you can see those little fuckers grow a bit and stretch their leaves to take over the available light.

Again, this is my first time grow, so my experience is pretty much zero.

Feel free to comment. I appreciate feed back.

Day 6 in bloom.

Things are getting bushy. I might have to defoliate. Ph is stable and the roots are still lookin excellent. I will get a pic of them when I change my res. I need to pickup a tds meter too. I'm just feeding 3/4 strength.

Well, came home today and I had to raise my light 2 inches, that's almost 5 inches in the last three days... I'm starting to worry I'm not going to have enough light, or may have to loose a plant.

How long do these things stretch for?

Also, after reading countless threads last night, I've decided not to defoliate unless it becomes an issue later on with mold.

I did lst and fimming this go around and I underestimated the size my girls would get.

I did notice a few of the leaves are showing minor nute burn, I guess I'll dial it back a bit.
;p

mr.jinks said:

Well, came home today and I had to raise my light 2 inches, that's almost 5 inches in the last three days... I'm starting to worry I'm not going to have enough light, or may have to loose a plant.

How long do these things stretch for?

Also, after reading countless threads last night, I've decided not to defoliate unless it becomes an issue later on with mold.

I did lst and fimming this go around and I underestimated the size my girls would get.

I did notice a few of the leaves are showing minor nute burn, I guess I'll dial it back a bit.
;p

Click to expand...

Stretch is strain dependent. Its typically 2 weeks give or take. You read right, do not defoliate unless you have to. The leaves are what absorb the light to fuel the bud's growth. Buds don't get bigger by removing leaves, the opposite occurs really. 400w for 3 plants isn't enough light in my opinion, but its not like you won't have enough to take em' to harvest. Vegging with a t5 light or LED would allow you to manage the size of your plants better since you can get the lights closer to the plants and that spectrum tends to produce shorter/bushier plants. Just remember this, its your first grow. Observe as much as you can, make note of any mistakes you think you've made and improvements you can make for the second run, and if you harvest bud it will be a success.

You're in flower, you're going to harvest and be ready for another cycle soon. Now is the time to think about your next run, not after you've got everything from the 1st jarred up.

Good job bro,
CCC

Thanks! Not much to report here. Everything looks to be comming along nicely.

Well, due to the plant on the left out growing everything else, I super cropped a couple of the stems to even out the height of the canopy. Hopefully it doesn't hurt my Heike too much, but I felt it was necessary. I have a 180w led light on the way, advanced platinum p300 I believe is what the model is. I will be using it for supplemental light this time. Likely placed mid canopy horizontal. Or beside my 400 hps. I haven't figured it out yet.

If anyone is doing their first grow and is still in veg, start supercropping now. Lst wasn't enough for me, or I under estimated the stretch stage. My plants went from 18" at flip, to almost 4'. I was apprehensive to do any high stress training in veg because I didn't want to kill my plants and I also was too eager to flip them to bloom.

Next time I will be doing one plant per reservoir and using scrog, along with manifolding, lst, and supercropping. Also, I found topping to be more reliable for a newb like myself than fimming.

Pics will be comming soon if you're interested.

But.. anyway. I've learned a buttload so far
Aside from the basics,
Here's some stuff I can't stress enough;

1- light will fuck your reservoir real quick. Specifically in the beginning when it's close to the lid and reservoir temps are at their highest.

2- once you get your light leaks and temps under control, PH will look after itself ( in using advanced nutes)

3- don't rush veg. Get your canopy under control, even if it takes an extra week or two

4- watch your roots and make sure they're getting lots of air.

5- you will learn a shit ton on here if you read the right stuff. There are a few idiots. one is completely out to lunch.

I'm sure this is common sense for most of you, but it kind of caught me off guard.

Before crop

After


Two days later

.. I wouldn't really call that a success.

Here's a non hps bud pic, there's little trichs showing up on some


I need to learn how to take pictures it seems.

Changed reservoir tonight, I went three weeks give or take. Everything seemed ok after a week so I pushed it further. My roots looked great ( I wish I had have taken a pic, but the root ball and plant weight is too heavy to move around single handed)

I had to adjust my light to hit the buds as equidistant as possible untill my backup light arrives. It seems as the the stretch is over as the plants haven't grown much in the last two days.

I have one plant that is growing pistils out of the fan leaves.... weird

mr.jinks said:

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I have one plant that is growing pistils out of the fan leaves.... weird

Click to expand...

That's really cool!
I wonder if my leaves will do that also?

I'm growing Blueberry Cough from Jordan of the Islands in DWC. My reservoir totes let look almost identical to yours. Even wrapped in mylar too.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/blueberry-cough-acmpr-grow.948760/page-5#post-13855656

Changed res again today, they pretty much drink 10gallons in 7 days, so changes are easy, I top up once after 4 days and I’m left with about 3 gallons of waste water. I also had my cheap hps bulb go on me, so I replaced it with a better quality Ushio bulb.

120ml per 40L of AN sensi bloom a and b
Cal mag plus
4ml drip clean
Ph 5.8

Here’s some pics, I downloaded a magnifier app for my phone, but it sucks.


The smell is still fairly mild. But they have a nice earth berry smell to them.

mr.jinks said:

View attachment 4032212 View attachment 4032215 View attachment 4032217 View attachment 4032218
The smell is still fairly mild. But they have a nice earth berry smell to them.

Click to expand...

Nice, do you have any more pics of the whole plant? I bet she's swelling up a lot since you took these

Do all the fan leaves have calyxes growing in the middle? That is quite a plant, hope you have a clone of her for a future grow

No, just random leaves had calyxes. I removed them because I figured they were taking away from the main buds.

Hey how is your grow going?
Here is a pic of mine: