kaos.underwave's Arjan's Ultra Haze coco gro

Hi

I just got a nice harvest of 412 wet grams from 7 of these girls,
2 of which yielded almost nothing cos they took so damn long to flower.
Assuming a loss of between 50% and 75% in weight as they dry,
that's between 6.4 and 12.7 oz,
or at the prices I've been paying recently [begrudgingly][£20/8th]
between £1000 and £2000s worth of dense, crystally green.
And its chunky! I never knew green could be chunky until now.

Over half of the yield came from one plant alone, who had three massive tentacles of bud, one of which was an absolute monster.

Details below, scroll to the end for the good part with loads of bud pics,
List of equipment and final dry weight to be included when I can be bothered, check it out

Grow 5 : Crop 1

Total time 7th September – 18th December
109 days
[15.6 weeks]
[3.6 months]

7 Arjan’s Ultra Haze [greenhouse seeds]

Electric Veg £27 [paid]
Electric flower £13.50 + £30 [£33.50 paid][£10 remains]
Total electric £70.50

Total equipment £600
10 feminised Seeds £50

Yield to even out 4.5 OZ
Per plant 3/4

Lights 250w MH for veg
250w HPS for flowering weeks 1-4
600w HPS for flowering weeks 5-10

Medium
Canna coco professional plus
Nutrients
Hesi TNT complex during veg
Hesi Supervit throughout
Hesi coco bloom during flower
Hesi PK 13/14 during flower


WK 0 Germination 18:00 Sunday 7th September 2008

10 Arjan’s Ultra Haze Seeds soaking; 10 White Widow or Skunk #1 seeds soaking.

19:00 8th September
7 sunken seeds transferred from each cup to jars with damp cotton wool, placed in the cupboard. Ambient temps 20C. Perhaps two seeds awakened [AUH].

18:00 9th September
7 AUH seeds germinated [100% / 48hrs], planted in coir cups. No activity in the other jar.

Dry weight of cups
100g

Damp weight of cups
200g

Cups given 100ml of water each.

02:39 12th September
2, probably 3, W/S seeds germinated, planted in coir cups. 6 of 7 AUH seedlings above surface. AUH cup weight ~ 160g.

Reflector and ventilation installed. System temperature without light 20C.

WK 1 Veg Saturday 13th September
[Feed every two days 1.2ml TNT / litre]

18:00
Mh lighted system temperature test
[tested in shade at 15 inches]

18:00 19.9C
18:15 29.2C
18:30 32.4C
[gauge removed from shade]
22:00 37.5C
[tested at ground level]

Seed weight test ~160g

Roots appearing from bottom of cups, seedlings stretching for light. Ready to transplant, feed and vegetate. Reservoir installed.

03:00 15th September
7 AUH girls fed [100ml/plant]. Seemed quite dry.

5:00 17th September
Large fan installed to cool light. Temps now steady 31C at 30cm high. 7 AUH girls fed [100ml/plant]. Need to regulate feeding time; next feed at 14:00, 18/9. Girls beginning their 3 bladed leaves; pots arriving today, transplanting today; roots may have been ‘air pruned’ due to delay in transplanting. Humidity 40%. W/S seeds still not above soil, have been re-watered, may have dried out.

18:00
Girls transplanted into wet coco. Drip system installed, tested, configured. Drips for 30 mins each day at 14:00. Girls seem much happier, growing quicker. Humidity ~55%.

14:00 19th September
Plants developing well.

WK 2 Veg Saturday 20th September
Reservoir change [Feed daily 62ml TNT, 0.35ml Supervit]
[14:00] EC: 0.3 PPM: 150

All doing well, responding nicely to regular feed and light times. Greenfly infestation on windowsill; cleaned up today. Temps in box should get cooler as autumn develops. Reservoir change on 21st, down to 10l in 4 feeds. Need to top up after 3 days this week, may need to search for larger capacity res, plenty of space for expansion.

8:30 22nd September
Average leafspan:
1 spear 8
3 spear 8.5

13:20 24th September
Three feeds since res. change; res. topped up with water.

8:30 25th September
Girls building 5spears and 7spears, looking good. 10cm high max. One plant is showing a few small rust coloured spots in the centre of her 3spears, the plant most directly under the lamp. It could be heat problems or wind problems, but judging by proximity to the bulb it is probably heat. Breeze fan speed increased to medium setting, will check impact on temps next light cycle. Another plant is showing slight nutrient problems, in the yellowing of leaf edges, limited to the 1spears. Ambient temps still high due to sunny days. Plants starting to smell nice, and
to produce branching leaf tips.

[WW/SS seeds did not germinate. One seed was found to be cracked but dead, another lost in the coir, another had larvae inside eating the
embryo[!]. Coir cups infested with variety of bugs, thrown out. Better to stick to one strain anyway in this kind of system.]

WK 3 Veg Saturday 27th September
Reservoir change [Feed twice daily 125ml TNT, 0.35ml Supervit]
[14:00, 2:00] EC: 0.5 PPM: 250

21:00
Plants still growing at great rate. The nutrient issues have not progressed, nor manifested in any of the others. Temps are still ~31C, breeze fan switched to highest setting. Burn only apparent on one pair of 3spears, but subtle discolouration appearing on new set and on a couple of other girls. Definitely heat problems [other girls more windswept are fine]. Fan speed controller ordered, should be here by Wednesday at the latest. Plan is to install RVK behind fireplace, use the controller to lower the speed and noise right down to the minimum needed to lower the temps to 28C. The power of the RVK should be more than enough to provide breeze and acceptable temps, so the current breeze fan can be uninstalled.

Green mould growing on coco surface, I disturbed the growth, covered most of the surface with mylar. This should prevent most of the mould from getting light, cool the rootzone a bit, and reflect light back up to the leaves, but may also reflect even more heat onto the girls.

Branch leaves developing all over; girls still short and bushy; leafspans extending beyond the borders of the pots. Even the burned girls look happy.

19:00 28th September
Res. changed. Hosepipe idea [use hosepipe to fill res] didn’t work, made a big mess…oops. Girls grown plenty overnight, timer broken, might need a timer contactor after all. Side branches starting up properly. Temps 31.7C even with breeze fan on max; waiting impatiently for fan speed controller to upgrade intake.

Res. water yellow/brown and down to 10l when changed, bit of foam the size of a 10p piece. At least if I’m not using the hose to empty and refill the res. it means I can clean it weekly.

02:00 2nd October
Res topped up. Girls still looking nice, starting to get a bit of height on them, so far heat problems limited to a few sets of leaves on one plant, slight discolouration on new leaves and leaves of one other plant, but seems to have been just one hot day. Still waiting for the damn fan speed controller so I can cool it all down. Side branches getting big,
they’re all smelling gorgeous. Whole house smells nice hehehe. The smallest plant furthest away from the light had her drip come loose, maybe from this morning, I adjusted in time for tonight’s feeding; she
doesn’t seem to have suffered.

Best looking plants I’ve ever grown, housemates are pleased, girls still seem to be growing every day. Temps in the day reached 34C, now 29
C.

Week 4 Veg Saturday 4th October
Reservoir change [Feed twice daily 125ml TNT, 0.35ml Supervit]
[14:00, 2:00] EC: 0.5 PPM: 250

03:00 5th October
Res changed a day late again. Girls look fantastic. Bloom supplies ordered. Pretty even canopy developed, no space wasted. One of the girls taller and less bushy than the others; on the girl with the heat damage, there is noticeable lightness of colour in the new shoots, light green; in fact on all girls the very newest shoots seemed to be thinner and lighter green than usual. I’m thinking they used most if not all of the nutrient in the res, because of the speed they’re growing now. Might need to start thinking about a bigger reservoir if this continues. No foam in res this time, but quite oily on top. Circulation pump hardly circulating at all; the filter was blocked up with coco/slime, so I cleaned it all out; need to look for an aquarium filter bag to keep it in. Roots showing from bottom of pots. Took ages to get the girls back in the cab after res. change, due to size and having to rearrange leaves when moving and installing drippers. Best looking plants I have ever seen though, still short and bushy, but getting a bit more height on them.

02:00 7th October
Some slight heat damage perpetuating on the three tallest; all others are fine, all branches under the uppermost shoots are fine, shielded from the light. The temp.gauge read 24C in the shade of the leaves [I now have nowhere to place it near canopy level] so I decided it was just a matter of space, and decided to get on with the LST plan. Didn’t bother anchoring them: they seem quite sturdy already, didn’t give much resistance when I bent them slightly. I used soft twine, and made sure it wasn’t too tight; as I’m new to this training thing I’m not sure how much the plants are going to pull back as they grow, but I can always adjust accordingly. I tied the 3 tallest plants in the horizontal direction that took them furthest away from the light, because logically that should take the tips furthest from the heat source, and at the same time expose the greatest part of the lower branches to the light [as opposed to bending them towards the light or parallel, which would only open a smaller surface of lower foliage, I guess].

I’m amazed at how much they’ve grown in 1 week. Starting to get some yellowing of the very first pair of spears, and cotyledons, but nowhere else. The stringy plant on the front left has some yellowing and thinness at her growing tip, which looks like nutrient deficiency, but since she’s less developed and as well fed as the others I’m thinking heat damage due to her height. She was tied down at the steepest angle, both to get that tip away from the heat and to open up her comparatively undeveloped lower branches for development.

Pictures before
LST
:

And after LST:





This last pic shows just how much of the skinniest plant is opened up to the light. [pics missing because my isp are shit and cannot handle basic upload bandwidth]



18:00 8th October
Grown overnight again, at a phenomenal rate. The girls under the breeze fan are now pressed against it, and those that were tied down have bounced back, requiring further tying. They are so bushy now, I can hardly reach the pins through all that foliage. The skinny girl has bushed out overnight, looking much leafier. I have decided they shall be flowered tonight, as they are extremely large already, larger than any other plant I have flowered - even the ones that were left to veg for 8 weeks. The bloom supplies are not yet here, so I will only change the light cycle; at least they will start to flower quicker this way. The plant directly under the light is still showing heat stress on her uppermost leaves, I’m thinking about shifting their positions in the chamber, to the effect that the taller plants [after tying all down to the heights I planned] will reside at the edge, with the shorter girls under the bulb. This should give me enough room to get the girls out from under the breeze fan as well.

01:00 9th October
Photoperiod change to 12/12 [13:00 – 01:00 on]

04:30 11th October
Spent a few hours LSTing the girls. Gave them names to help make the notes easier, although they all have distinct characteristics at this point:

Amy Previously furthest from the bulb, she is less developed than the rest, particularly in terms of branches.

Bailey The tallest and bushiest of all. Gorgeous. Enough said.

Claire Big fan leaves, an extremely thick mainstem, and branches as tall as her head; this one has suffered the most heat damage from her close position under the bulb and has distinct discolouration on the edges of her larger fans.

Dixie Previously trapped under the breeze fan, she has grown quite well, until she hit the fan cage and slowed down a bit.

Emily Em was the tallest and stringiest of all until I started to apply LST; then her branches exploded with growth. Showing the most Sativa characteristics to date.

Freya She was short and bushy, now she’s tall and bushy, the second most healthy plant, well developed. Because the intake fan blows cool air directly through her foliage, she managed to get big and stay cool.

Gabriel Previously half-trapped under the breeze fan and in the front-right corner, she has performed surprisingly well, the third most healthy plant [a close third].

I changed the res. as I hadn’t refreshed it this week, and I figured the girls wouldn’t mind a fresh pool of water and nutrients in their last days of vegetation / first days of flowering. In the process I tied them down at right angles, or as far as was necessary. By the time I finished it was 04:30, and they need their beauty sleep. I guess I’ll wake them up at 14:00 [10 hours darkness]. The bloom supplies have been ordered and will arrive by Monday. The girls looked thirsty and hungry, so I changed their feeding schedule to 14:00, 22:00, 06:00, prematurely. I found the old screws which I used previously and fixed the wonky cab door, which may improve light retention / protection; I also fixed up some Mylar on the roof to the left of the reflector, where I had forgot to install any.

New heights of plants [cm] above coco after 3 LST sessions:

A 26
B 32
C 25
D 25
E 33
F 25
G 25

Old positions:
[w=edge x=middle y=under bulb z=under breeze fan]
w x y z

A B C D
E F G

New positions:
B A F
E C D G

I moved the tallest girls to the edge, and the shortest to the centre. Possible problems might be encountered with Bailey, who has huge leaf mass, and may not like being removed from the bulb, even one pots length. The heights are not far off what I had planned, between 5 and 10cm too high, but that can’t be helped now; I’m going to try and keep them as horizontal as possible from now on, and after the ‘flowering stretch’, they should quieten down and bud up nicely. Looks like a flat canopy of green on top now, just like a screen of green, but without the screen, and the lower branches and leaves are fine.

Week 5 Flower Monday 13th October
Reservoir change [Feed three times daily 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit][14:00, 22:00. 06:00]
EC: 1.3 PPM: 650
Light type change to 250w HPS

00:00 The HPS light is extremely orange, much more so than the 600w. Girls unruly and growing against their binds, up and away, getting very tall. The growth on lower branches and shoots has been very impressive, Gabriel now has two chief growing tips, as if she had been topped, except the other stem comes not from the top of the plant but is one of the very lowest branches, grown tall above the rest. Plenty more underneath, starting to really bush out, yet still plenty of potential room if the stems are bent again. A few of the girls have grown into the fans this week; the extractor, and the intake fan have no cages, so leaves just get hit repeatedly, although none have been cut so far. Slightly alarmed about fire risk or risk to the plants if one gets caught in a fan completely; will look into cheap grills for the fans [cage or chicken wire].

Claire is extremely tall, now tied three times, with one huge fat stem at the base, twisting and curving like a powerful snake.

The others have also benefitted from the LST in terms of branch growth, and Claire and Bailey have almost recovered from their heat stress, the discolouration is on low leaves. Fans are bigger than my hands this week; 11 nodes on Bailey, who is the tallest now. This second round of tying has exposed tiers of branches on their way to the canopy, all without becoming too crowded. I tied Bailey and Gabriel so that the fan still had space to blow into/from without damaging the plants. I believe Freya is showing signs of sex, two pairs of small thin pistils right at the top of the plant, about time. They have had flowering light schedule for 5 days, now starting it for real, controlled by a working timer with timer contactor, instead of manual labour, at last. The great contrast between the former cool blue of the mh and the fiery orange of this particular hps should convince the girls to get blooming soon, they’ve only had 5 days of different time anyway, and one day of different spectrum. Tonight the flower nutrients will go into them, and for any other plants I might expect up to 2 weeks for a real response; because these are supposed to be pure sativas, maybe even longer; but these plants are performing so well, I’m going to give them a week and see if they can make it. They have done everything else so quickly and vigorously, I think it’s possible they just might flower perfectly in one week as well, and start some massive bud production. Fingers crossed, stage one down, 33% complete, some mistakes, but almost perfect results at this point. T – 8 weeks.

250w mh bulb retired after 560 hours of use [4 weeks]

19:00 17th October
Mini-disaster this week, as when I changed the plants around they swapped drippers, and one of the drip lines decided to bounce right back out again overnight, and repeated this action after I put it back in the next night. So, loads of water and feed were spilled all over the floor, causing a massive puddle to form that still isn’t quite dry. Fixed it by swapping the drip with another plant’s. As a result of that, when I checked the res today it was down to 5l [!] after only 3-4 days. So I refreshed the whole thing, because I had to tie the girls down anyway.

They are still shooting up! Claire, Emily and Amy have reached the top of the cab, and are trying to just push it out of the way or burst through the top. Some leaves have been fried on the tips from touching the damn bulb. Leaves look a little droopy, claw-like, with some white patches on the leaf tips and edges; I thought a little too much water, but the depletion of the tank this week can’t be due only to the leakage, I think they were drinking and eating more too. Some signs of nutrient deficiency, very slight yellowing of lower leaves, and yellow tips, although the lighter new growth might be caused by the position in the hottest areas; they have gotten much closer to the HPS than to the MH without getting burned, but an inch away from the bulb is pushing it.

New heights,

A 30
B 28
C 44
D 27
E 39
F 24
G 29

New positions,

E B G
C A F D

Week 6 Flower Monday 20th October
Reservoir change [Feed three times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit, 5ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 22:00. 06:00]

04:00 22nd October
Renewed the res. on the 21st at 20:00. Girls needed tying down again after growing straight into the light, surrounding it. I trimmed off the lowest branches that showed no signs of competing with the others, the old yellowing leaves down there, and took off a few fans that had excessive heat damage. A few fans came off when I had to literally stuff the girls back in, and I pruned a couple that were shading too many lower branches. Claire and Emily are looking much stringier, much taller, and the leaves are droopy, unhappy. Most of the girls show pre-flowers now, compared to none at the beginning of this week, but are still producing leaf at the tips. I think they want to fight for more space and light before flowering properly. The internodes of the branches are now appearing on alternate sides instead of in pairs, but nothing different at the main tips. Gabriel now has 9 tips about the same size at the top of the plant, looking like a proper shrub.

It is time to upgrade. I will order the cupboard tomorrow. They just won’t last in this space, though if they had remained as small as my other efforts, they would have done just fine. The success of the drip/coco combo was completely unforeseen, so the new box will be 2m [h] x 60cm [d] x 90cm [l]. Plenty more upgrades planned. The new positions are

C B A
E F G D

The new heights

A 30
B 35.5
C 45
D 30
E 45
F 30
G 27

After they get a better light spread from the bulb being higher, and room to breathe, they should all look happier and get flowering properly. I’m going to upgrade to a 600w HPS on the 9th week of growth, which is when I can afford it. The new box should be tall and spacey enough to keep the temps down, and the penetration and intensity should work wonders for them just when they need it.

Week 7 Flower Monday 27th October
Reservoir change [Feed three times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit]
[14:00, 22:00. 06:00]

12:30 29th October Upgrade 1 installed
The new shell is brilliant. Everything is tidy and simple, nice pine finish inside, easy on the eyes. Girls flowering happily, flower heads forming at the tips. Emily looking very skinny, but ok. Light seems hotter, I left out the breeze fan because I thought the extra volume and raised bulb would be enough to keep things cooler than when the bulb was 1 inch away from them [now 8 inches]. Installed the 12cm extraction fan right on top instead of at the side this time. Another small leakage, guess a drip line escaped last night when I moved them all in; they all have more access to the light now that it’s higher. Reckon I can make everything innocuous and safe in an hour if I have to. Looking for lightproofing material soon, not anywhere near lightproof yet. The catches and handles need to be installed today, and the venting on top to stop the light escaping / intruding. Want to show it off, looks awesome!

Week 8 Flower Monday 3rd November
Reservoir change [Feed three times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit, 6.2ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 22:00. 06:00]

Week 9 Flower Monday 10th November
Reservoir change [Feed four times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit 12.5ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 19:00, 00:00, 07:00]

01:00 11th November
Most girls are getting some impressive flowering action underway, with the exception of Claire and Emily, who are only just getting started. They are the tallest, and while Claire is growing horizontally now she keeps getting taller. I believe the stretching and prolonged response time to the change in photoperiod is related to the amount of light they are receiving; they were both placed the furthest from the bulb as their height dictated. Claire has a good spot now, and Emma has worked her way towards the centre of the canopy, which remains more or less flat. Two plants have stretched under the reflector to the same height as the light; these girls have really started to bud all along the exposed stem, showing more developed buds and even some crystal building up at this early stage due to the heat and low humidity up near the bulb.

Lightproof seals have been installed around the doors, and handles and one catch have been added. The seals make it so tight that only one catch is necessary to keep the doors shut. Renewed the reservoir and changed the feeding times just before they went to sleep [water was freezing cold after renewal, should check temps during lights on]. They seem to have been quiescent throughout the flowering stage so far, but now they are kicking off. There are plenty of small bud sites building underneath the canopy on the best plants. Released a few of the ties to enable the outside girls to get a bit closer to the light. Will order the 600w HPS bulb tonight. Already raised the light a few times to avoid toasting too many leaves, so much easier than in the box.

Spotted a few aphids yesterday, not a huge infestation, I killed maybe 6, but there must be more. They have migrated from the nearby chilli pepper plant, maybe before the seals were installed. As my efforts to remove them from pepper have only been temporarily successful, I will order ladybug larvae tonight. They can feast on the aphid population on pepper, any remaining bastards on the windowsill, and kill all the mealybugs on the money plant; then, if there is a problem in the shell, they can move in and dominate the aphids in there. Hopefully the problem will be finished and dealt with after this sortie.

21:40 13th November
Light type change to 600w HPS

Just installed the 600w Sunmaster HPS bulb with my old 600w ballast, ballast only used for one year previously. Temps are fucking hot. Even raised to ?15? inches its still hot at the canopy. Two shoots stick way beyond the canopy, so it will be easier to spot heat damage on them first. Will check every 20 mins to assess heat. Thermometer installed on the right side, reading 31C, fan speed at maximum. Girls looking good, more buds than I’d realised popping up here and there. Some crystal getting about. Still moisture on the leaves from transpiration. Light output extremely strong, may be visible from outside when the doors are opened. Doesn’t seem to be many aphids about yet.

22:00 Moved the reflector up again, temps soaring. Thermometer reads 37C. Starting to doubt this will work as well without better extraction. No signs of damage yet. Re-installing the breeze fan. Bulb is 13 inches from nearest tips, 18 inches from the canopy. Claire is 77cm tall from the pot, plus 5cm out of the coco. Without ties she would be 115cm. Truly awesome.

23:15 Temps 24C, bulb at 13 inches from tips. Temps down now breeze fan is going. Buds look solid and sparkly. Trimmed a few shoots far down below the canopy at the front, ones that wouldn’t produce much; they were mostly green and healthy looking but slow and weak. Almost none had developed any real flowers. Alternative internodes on the mainstems of most. Need lightproof curtains.

250w ballast retired after 896 hours of use [8 weeks]
250w HPS bulb retired after 560 hours of use [4 weeks]

22:00 16th November
Tallest budding shoots have developed well, nice crystal and bud leaf production around plentiful flowers. Some slight heat stress, involving some weird looking leaves, but the exposed stem has put out loads of mini flowering sites. The tips were 10 inches away, while the canopy was 18 inches from the bulb. The breeze fan made a huge difference in temps, even on the lowest setting. Tied the two buds at the back to screws on the side of the shell, will lower the bulb tomorrow to 13 inches above canopy, then the next day to 10. Breeze can be increased if there is too much trouble. Looking tasty, but unsure when they will finish.

Week 10 Flower Monday 17th November
Reservoir change [Feed four times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit 18.7ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 19:00, 00:00, 07:00]

Week 11 Flower Monday 24th November
Reservoir change [Feed four times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit, 37.5ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 19:00, 00:00, 07:00]

01:00 24th November
I trimmed off all the shoots that didn’t have significant flower action on Monday. The girls look good, apart from one who hasn’t flowered yet. Claire is like a vine now, she has flowered at last in style, nice flower growth at every site, and there are loads. Resin production is at full throttle close to the light, and the buds up there are looking like a foot or two long, though they have yet to fill out properly. Haven’t seen any aphids at all since that one day a few weeks ago, I think the plants ate them for breakfast. I have noticed some strange things going on, apart from the leaf retardation and insane resin production caused by the heat at the top. One plant has a fan leaf that was receiving so much light that she kicked out flowers all along the leaf stem, and right into the centre of the leaf. The tallest plants that are receiving huge amounts of light have small bud leaves where the small pairs of calyxes usually are on the stem, covered in crystal. A few of plants I tied down pulled so vigorously at their ties that they performed the supercropping technique on themselves by accident; they must have restricted the flow to certain branches, which have now grown huge balls of material around those points where the tie is looped round the stem above a branch. Those branches grew fat and tall. When I was trimming my hands got sticky just from brushing past the buds, and they look gorgeous; everywhere seems to be covered in flowers, even deep into the canopy there are still flowers doing surprisingly well, hiding in there. The main colas have flowers going right down, a couple of feet deep.

As long as they pack out, it’s going to be a good harvest. I can’t wait! And I can’t wait till next year, next crop so I can flower them for as long as I can! The schedule will be:

Week 12 flower 1/12
Week 13 flower 8/12 No nutrients
Harvest and dry 15/12
Pack up 18/12

Only 2 weeks until I cut them down! Only 2 and a half weeks till I can smoke my reward.

Week 12 Flower Monday 1st December
Reservoir change [Feed four times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit, 25ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 19:00, 00:00, 07:00]

01:00 4th December
Looking nice, but I think they couldn’t handle the huge amount of nutrients. There are slight signs of overfeeding on most plants, on new as well as old leaves, close to and far from the light. I did only change the res on Wednesday 3rd, when the EC was 2.1. I have lowered the PK dose to 10ml/10l, a small step down from the maximum dose. This should allow them time to recover; depending on their reaction, I will continue to dose at this rate, maybe pushing it slightly higher, until the second last week, when I will up it to maximum again. I think that replenishing the reservoir with water halfway through the week may prevent this problem, but I’m lowering the dose just to be sure. I have now decided to crop only one plant before Christmas;

Week 13 flower 8/12
Week 14 flower 15/12 [extra res change 19/12]
Week 15 flower 22/12 [res change 27/12]
Week 16 flower 29/12 [res change 3/1, no nutrients]
Week 17 flower 5/1
Darkness 10/1
Harvest 12/1
Finish and smoke 17/1

I found out that the two massive buds at the back and one smaller one in the middle all belong to the same plant, an absolute beast! Incredible. I trimmed off all the undeveloped shoots and smaller flowers I could find, and topped Claire because she kept getting longer. I will tie her up tomorrow to take some stress off her, since she is at such a strange angle, and getting heavier.

01:30 6th December
Topping worked like a charm, Claire is no longer than she was, and her other bud sites have been boosted. Signs of overfeeding are disappearing from the other girls. I topped one of the buds at the back left, as it was extremely stretchy. Seems to be filling out a bit more now. I also trimmed a few more flowers I found that were low and undeveloped.

01:30 9th December
I have topped Emily [the plant that has only just begun to flower] because she was putting too much energy into getting taller rather than budding out. I raised the light a few inches as some of the leaves were getting a bit toasted; it is a 600w bulb after all, and even now the canopy is really only 8 or 9 inches away. One of the colas directly under the bulb is showing some serious heat damage on the bud leaf, which is profuse here I think as a measure to protect the bud itself from the heat. I really cleaned up the underside of the canopy, cutting any flowers that were below a certain height and hadn’t developed much. I got rid of some new smaller bud sites that were pretty pointless, and I tried to take as much as possible to allow the plants time to recover from all this pruning before I see some more I want to take off. The densest bud [Dixie] is starting to show a few brown hairs in there, at last, and seems the most ready. I plan to change the photoperiod to 10/14 in the last week of flowering, to encourage resin production. There were a few aphids sneaking about in the flowers I removed, no more than a few over 30 small flowers, I don’t think they will really affect the crop, but I do hate the bastards. The pepper plant the aphids were thriving on has been clean for a week or so now, after this harvest all the bugs will be dead and gone.

Week 13 Flower Monday 8th December
Reservoir change [Feed four times daily, 125ml Coco, 0.35ml Supervit, 25ml PK 13/14]
[14:00, 19:00, 00:00, 07:00]

17:00 10th December
Carried out this week’s reservoir change today. I have disconnected the feed line to Dixie, and have prepared a bucket of water to stand and dechlorinate for her to drink. I will cut her down on the 14th, which is just in time, as Claire the super vine has really come into power and budded up all over the place, completely overshadowing the girl I want to cut down; so she will have the room she needs after this mini-crop. I will feed the Dixie by hand at 14:00 and 2:00, daily.

05:00 12th December
After careful consideration, leaving the girls here over x-mas is not a good idea. With me in a different part of the country, and the landlords about this year, it just doesn’t feel smart. It wouldn’t leave me with many options if something random went wrong; I’ve grown so attached to this lovely crop that I don’t want to let it out of my sight. This is unfortunate because they will miss out on the extra 3 or 4 weeks of budding which would have been nice, but it means I don’t have to worry over the holidays, I don’t have to buy more electric, and I’ll have loads of smoke.

A lot of the trichomes are still white, but I’m sure there’s enough crystal about. At least, I will know that the next crop will be bigger and better, and I can take my time with it. These plants and this system have performed much better than I could have imagined, and I’ve learned loads, so I’m ready to take what I’ve got and call it a day until next time, rather than go for broke, get greedy and risk the entire crop and the next one too.

So, revisions again, the new plan is:

Week 9 flower Mon 8th x
Fresh water for Dixie Wed 10th x
Fresh water for all and 10/14 photoperiod 15:00 Fri 12th x
Darkness for Dixie 01:00 Saturday x
Harvest Dixie and darkness for all 01:00 Mon 15th x
Final Harvest 01:00 Thurs 18th x
18:00 Reservoir change [Feed four times daily, just water]
[14:00, 19:00, 00:00, 07:00]
Photoperiod change to 10/14 [15:00 – 01:00 on]

04:00 15th December
Photoperiod change to Eclipse [for 72 hours] First harvest

I harvested Dixie today! After trimming, the top cola weighed in at 28g, whilst the smaller buds were 15.7g together. Given a loss of between 50% and 75% in moisture, that works out at between 11 and 21.9 dry grams in total. There is also some bud leaf and trim which I saved, especially the stuff from the top cola as there is substantial crystal formation. There were mini buds growing up the stems of the fan leaves and right into the centre of the leaf. The top cola looks like corn cob, it’s massive and really sticky! And I know there are bigger ones still in the cab! I have hanged the buds to dry in the other cupboard, and placed the trim on the drying rack with some smaller flowers. Brought in the final eclipse for the cab, no light for three days until harvest; the fans will still be on to bring in the chill winter air, and without the bulb keeping them warm, I think they are going to react to the change quickly and visibly, I’m expecting crystal all over the place! Just 72 hours until the final harvest.

The details of the smaller buds [wet grams]:

2.2
3.3
2.2
0.8
1.0
2.9
1.4
1.9

600w HPS bulb retired after 380 hours of use [32 days]
600w ballast retired after 380 hours of use [32 days]

03:13 17th December
Some of the smaller buds are now dry enough smoke, after a few 10 second blasts in the microwave. The taste of the nutrient has gone from these, after only 5 days of water flushing; I will compare the taste to the others as they will be flushed for 6 days. The smoke is good, though you can tell it was taken earlier than it should have been, very active head high, typical sativa, no real lethargy or sleepiness to speak of.

Final Harvest Thursday 18th December

01:00 Beginning.

02:50 Claire finished. Mostly small buds, some crystal growth, all very milky pistils, couldn’t help thinking she would have been twice as big given a bit longer. Really put on some weight in the last few days though.

63.3 wet grams total = 15.8 - 31.7g dry grams

03:40 Freya finished. One massive bud weighing in at 46.8g wet! Quite leafy and not so much visible crystal but quite sticky.
8.9
8.8
2.5
Big bud 46.8
67 wet grams total = 16.8 - 33.5 dry grams

Gabriel finished. Slightly disappointing because I thought Gabriel looked one of the strongest at the end of veg, but she got shaded out by the stretchy girls. Still pleasing to see some nice bud on there.
30.8
11.2
42 wet grams total = 10.5 – 21 dry grams

Amy finished. Even though Amy looked one of the smallest at the end of veg, she has turned out loads of tasty looking mature bud!
11.4
8.5
Big bud 54
73.9 wet grams total = 18.5 – 37 dry grams

Emily finished. Poor Emily yielded almost nothing, though the small flowers I did take were sticky, she just needed more time to get going – it looked like the potential for a big bud was there, but she took too long to get it on.
9.7 wet grams total = 2.4 – 4.9 dry grams

Bailey finished. And Fuck ME she is massive. Incredible plant has made more than all the others put together on three massive long dense ultra sticky king buds! Fucking awesome! Three trophy buds that are sweet as can be! What a plant. I’m literally lost for words to describe the awesomeness of this plant. Even all the trim of bud leaf I took was sticky and resin covered, so now I’ve got shitloads of bud leaf that’s covered in crystal.
13.9
4.2

King bud 1 16.4+13.9+39.1 69.4 wet grams

King bud 2 34.6+11.4+21.9+111.6 179.5 wet grams

King bud 3 28.6+8.8+48.4+12.2+47.4 145.4 wet grams

412.4 wet grams total = 103.1 - 206.2 dry grams

GRAND TOTAL 178.1 – 356.2 dry grams
6.4 – 12.7 Oz
£1020 – £2040 worth

I lied to you, no pics of buds here, instead just take this link to the gallery and check em out

https://www.rollitup.org/members/kaos-underwave-albums-grow-5-crop-1.html

pics every 24hrs next time!