Lockedin's 4X4 First(ish) Grow

WEEK 2 12/12 (almost)
Well, the Saturday updates seem to have gone away - getting busy...

Anyway, still not a lot to report - vegetation is exploding nicely, broke & repaired a branch.
I know they're still stretching, but I think I could have put another two plants in the tent.
They're drinking about 2/3 of a gallon each every 3-4 days.

Sorry for the lights on shot - still busy lol.

Got everyone settled in for the night, and got to spend some time in the tent tonight!

Finally pruned the big fans that were touching the soil and blocking air circulation - 4-6 leaves each plant.

Adjusted LST on all mains except for two - the other day I almost broke one in half, the other had a decent crack. Taped both.
Taped branches don't seem to care and are still growing fast - but I'm not touching them tonight!

Started light LST on secondary branches to maximize light exposure.

Bent & tucked leaves blocking growth sites - pruned 2 leaves; couldn't bend them without blocking another growth site.

Took before & after shots of one plant (all 7 would get boring quick!), a group top shot & a canopy shot.

Tallest growth site (after LST) is appx. 1.5ft. (excluding the two I didn't touch)
Widest plant is appx 2 ft.

Quick update - looked in the tent before lights off this morning.

Growth sites that were in shade are perked up & showing signs of new growth. Hopefully the extra light exposure will wake them up a bit.

Amazing how just bending a few leaves can make such a difference!

Note:

Adding this thread link to @Budzbuddha 's FFOF thread.


Highly recommended reading - I'm putting it here as a bookmark for my own reference.
It says it's for autoflowers, but it seems to be just good practice in general.

Small update - plants 1, 2, 4, 5 & 7 are showing pistils.
Plants 3 & 6 haven't given me reason to worry yet - "legs" are crossed and growths look "girly" and not ball shaped.

Small update:
All 7 plants are female!
VERY bushy
Over 100 budsites on the canopy.
Lights are appx. 20" from average canopy plane.
Tallest main cola is 28", shortest is about 20" - even canopy is escaping me...
Temp / RH meter is lost somewhere on the soil - the girls swallowed it yesterday. I'll find and hang it tonight...
My old school, analog pin timer shuts the lights off about 10 min. early - I went to snap a pic for this post at 6:50am and heard the lights click off before I could get it.

Update with pics

All plants are looking healthy thru the stretch. I was concerned that I wasn't going to fill my tent....
Hairy budlets are everywhere!
Canopy density is a concern - I have a lot of leaves laying on top of each other.
Canopy height has been a challenge too - but as long as I have healthy plants, I'll figure the rest later.
Drinking 1/2 gal of water every 3-4 days, or when my finger goes to the second knuckle in the soil - whichever comes first. Appx 5-15% runoff.

Finally hooked up the filter after I opened the office door and received a delicious smell.

3.5 weeks from flip

Nothing much to report - everybody looks good - though I did drop my phone on plant #3; The main crotch split a bit, so I taped it up.
Hope doesn't stress it too much...

Tucked leaves for exposure.

Minor notes - when increasing circulation, expect increased evaporation & increased watering:
I placed another fan in the back of my tent a few weeks ago - apparently the additional circulation evaporated the water more quickly.
So, when I went in to water last night, 3 of the plants were definitely wilting.

Total water for 7 plants - 4.25 gal.

Pistil production is going nicely and the buds are already stacking.
Trichomes spotted.

UPDATE - pic heavy
61 days from seed
3 weeks of flower complete.

Added a White Rose light bar.

***** RIP plant #6 - it hermed on me..... no idea why - looked fine last watering, then --- balls!

6 of 6 plants received 1/2"-1" FFOF top dressing
4 of 6 plants received 2 Tbsp of Dr. Earth Flower girl beneath the FFOF top dress.
Plants 1 & 4 are running FFOF only.

Pics -
One plant, top, bottom & bud shots (didn't want to bore with all 6)
Canopy shot
Herm shots

Quick update:

I did not touch my plants last night.
But I did spend well over an hour laying on the floor of my tent inspecting each and every bud-site for boy parts with a flashlight.
REALLY hoping the herm was just genetic and didn't spread any pollen - two pods had spilled on the leaf below, but I THINK I got it out of the tent without distributing more.

ALL CLEAR (so far).

The remaining 6 are still growing nicely
They seem to like the new light.
24 hours is too soon to tell if the Flower Girl is making any difference, but I'm excited to see if it has an effect.

Can't stand looking at those herm pics anymore....

The remaining six are looking good - not sure how tall they really are; top dressing has buried them to node 3, so there's a lot of stalk underground.
Just before the last top-dressing, I noticed that nodes 1&2 (chopped in veg for quadline) turned into roots - such a cool plant!

Here's a shot of some frost forming to help chase away the herm from above.
Note - is this decent size? Hope they're going to swell a lot more than this....

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Looking good Lockedin!

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Hobbes said:

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Looking good Lockedin!

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Click to expand...

Thanks @Hobbes - you and many others have been extremely helpful!

I think I should have defoliated more - I wasn't brave enough this round and have patches of jungle here & there.
Aside from that, I'm really happy with how they're coming along - a few more weeks and I can start lurking the "are they done?" threads! lol

In the tent:
Growth has slowed almost to a halt
Trich. formation is fun to watch - frost is getting thicker and I'm seeing it on every bud & fan leaf.
Pistils are still forming and it looks like a lot of them are going to join.
My first tent grow - I know they'll stack & fatten considerably, but they look a bit small to me.

07/26 update - a bit longish, collating some notes for myself.
4 wks, 5 days 12/12
9 wks, 5 days from seed

Added yet another burple from my friend.
Three "300w" burples (150w-215 true), One "1200w" (265 true), and a 105w bar --- very nice coverage now, and a bit of a drag race between these lights as I look towards upgrading.
Temps / Rh are (surprisingly) spot on. I think the last fan reconfiguration stabilized it a bit
All 6 looking good! --- Drinking 96-128 oz water every 3 days - no maintenance, just watering.
Main colas are starting to join on top. One looks like it will be 10-12" long - hope it gets fat too!
Secondaries and lowers are throwing pistils like crazy - trichs noted on fan leaves - a lot of these will fatten, but the rest will make (hopefully) good hash.
I googled "cannabis week 4 flower" and was happy to see plants that look similar to mine!

FEEDING - still might be too early to say for sure - but I do think I see some marginal difference between the 2 FFOF only and the 4 FFOF+ Flower Girl. There do seem to be fatter flowers and more trichs on the FG. I only fed 1/4 strength, so that may explain.

Watering has stepped up - they were drinking every 3-4 days. Now they're light on the 3rd day.
Here is how the feeding looks:
1 FFOF, Baseline soil only (taller pheno)
2 FFOF, 2Tbsp Flower Girl
3 FFOF, 2Tbsp Flower Girl --- considering and addt'l 2-Tbsp in a week or so. (shorter pheno)
4 FFOF, Baseline soil only (shorter pheno)
5 FFOF, 2Tbsp Flower Girl
6 DQ - HERM
7 FFOF, 2Tbsp Flower Girl --- considering and addt'l 2-Tbsp in a week or so. (taller pheno)

The thought is that I will have a baseline, soil only grow to know what FFOF can do on it's own (A LOT).
4 plants that received Flower Girl are doing well - I didn't burn 'em. I do think it works; but we're not to the end yet.
2 of the 4 plants above will likely get an additional feeding (2-Tbsp) - I'll know if more is better.
MAYBE - if that goes well, 1 of the final 2 will be fed a 3rd time.
I think that method will give me a fair sample of how Flower Girl works.

Update - pics to come tonight.
Plant #3 is throwing less pistils, appx. 70% have turned orange. Seems like she's winding down.
Plants # 1 & 4 (FFOF only, no nutes) are still throwing pistils and look great. A bit thinner colas than 2,3,5 & 7.
Flower Girl fed plants:
Plants # 3 & 5 (1 feed top dress) 3 is looking like a week or two will finish her, 5 is still fattening.
Plants # 2 & 7 (2 feed top dress) both are throwing pistils like crazy buds are noticeably larger than 1 & 4. Nowhere near done.

Trichomes are all over, even on the fan leaves close to buds - hoping for a really good hash run!

Here's a lights on canopy shot.

Buds are MUCH fatter than above pics

Lockedin said:

Here's a lights on canopy shot.

Buds are MUCH fatter than above picsView attachment 4651362

Click to expand...

Looking good

Pics coming tonight, but I wanted to jot a few notes down from last night.

Water - 5 gallons for 6 plants --- I missed a water day and my plants show it, a bit wilted and droopy, some extra dead leaves.

Feeding - As I'm a new grower, I feel that I need a baseline grow - soil only (FFOF).
However, I also want to try using fertilizers/nutes etc.,
Plants #2, #3, #5 & #7 get top dressed with 4 Tbsp. of Dr Earth Flower Girl, every third watering.
All 6 are healthy and flowering nicely, but the unfed plants have slightly smaller buds. Interestingly, plant #1 (unfed) is one of the frostier plants in the
tent. The fed plants are showing larger, fatter colas overall, and more linking down the branches - some are roughly 10" long.

Other - I'm drying a branch that fell victim to a falling clip fan. VERY early, but smells pretty nice - smoke report soon!

Plants #1 & #4 are soil only. They're on the left side of the pictures in the canopy shot.

Bud rot!!! (Plant 2)

Sorry, no pics. I went into the tent last night and found that one of my colas had bud rot. I cut off the affected area and discarded.

Considering hacking the plant even though she's still throwing some pistils...


Edit --- trying to figure out what happened. That cola is in a dead spot circulation-wise; another clip fan should fix that. What else?

Is your humidity too high? The lack of air circulation would do it. Shame she got bud rot.