Operation Ivy

So how old are they now?

They're 3 weeks old (since putting in to germinate) exactly BTT.
Ordered myself a more blue spectrum bulb that'll run from my HPS ballast this evening, hoping that'll help decrease internode spacing on future growth keeping them bushy (on the advice of babygro). Also got a pH tester kit

Hi all.
Just thought i'd post some pics showing the growth my babies have been doing over the weekend. I popped home, came back and they'd noticeably gotten bigger - love that.









So, do they look alright to you? I'm also wondering when to start nutes again. I had an incident with nute burn so stopped as I discovered my medium had nutes in. When do people think the nutes will have leached out by?
Thanks for looking

Hi everyone.
I had a bit of a fuck up today (not really through any fault of my own). Basically i've got a nasty bit of tonsilitis so have been bed bound for the last 2 days. Last night my housemates caused a powercut, but i was infever-land so had no idea til 5pm today when I finally managed to get out of bed to check on the garden. Because of the trip switch on the power, when the cut happened, the trip went, so basically the garden's had no light til 5pm today. I'm REALLY hoping that this won't cause flowering. Once the flowering process has begun, can you stop it? When i was looking at the plants today I saw a couple of what looked like the little spikes that appear when flowering begins. I hope they're just new growth tips, but I don't know...
So can anyone tell me if this will have started them flowering, and if it's reversible? Cheers

its no prob at all just continue with your old schedule and everything will be fine, if a plant is flowering and has too much light for too long a period it will revert back to vegetation stage

Thanks nongreenthumb, you've really put my mind to rest! Thank Jah for that - I was worried i'd be having to flower plants that were only about a month old! Gonna watch Borat now, thake my mind off the fact that my throat feels like someone's taken a rusty cheese-grater to it...

My home made light hood to add a lil extra light



A young bud shot

wow nice girls, they look pretty hapy.

Looks great man, you must be growing a predominately sativa plant...I'm sure the smoke will be primo keep up the good work

It's funny you say that Shoot, i'm not too sure. The info about it from Sensi says it's a mix, but the plants have a lot of phenotypic variation, by which I mean some are short and squat with fat leaves, and some are tall and thin with thin leaves. I guess that's what you get for buying the cheaper strains! They're starting to stink the place out - gonna nip out and get some air freshener...

Lookin well nice, so ur over a month into flowerin, yeah best way to stop virtical grow at this stage would be LST, but watch out cos the stems will b tough and therefore will snap rather than bend. Dont think it will b a gd idea to top them at this stage, guessin u dont want to lose all ur top cola's.

Keep up the good work, Jim

Hi Jim. I agree, and haven't used topping for weeks just in case it stunted the buds. Bending has been my saviour, yes I can safely say i'm a big bender.
This is why I decided to post a few pics on bending alongside this update.
So, the technique:
You take the stem at the level you want to be a couple of inches below top level, squeeze firmly and roll between finger and thumb - you'll feel fibres breaking but fear not! These weeds are pretty hardy. Now the top will bend over 90* or further, allowing you to grow too-tall plants in a small space withour topping them and losing colas.
Pics:
This is what it'll look like where you bent it


and here's one of the resulting branches


As you can see the buds don't seem to have been badly affected!

In fact, if you're low on vertical headroom I think this is a really good solution, as it exposes budding sites to potentially more light than they would've got from a vertical light.

Here are some pics I took yesterday - I did some serious maintenance on the grow chamber, and it's paid off - no more mylar peeling off the plastic walls - gaffer tape ain't much use in hot humid places!



here's a view of the whole canopy, as you can see there's not a lot of light getting past that, which is why I thought after i'd harvested the top colas and thinned out the canopy i'd lower the lights to mature the lower buds better.
One thing i've learnt on this grow is that more is not necessarily better when it concerns the number of plants. What I mean is that I think if i'd had, say 4 plants in the same space, and had known what I know now, I reckon i'd get the same amount of bud in the end. Problem was this was my first grow so I didn't know shit! but now, thanks to experience and of course the good people of this forum, I'll do better next time.









So here it is for the moment, watch this space, cos harvest time's a comin - good timing too. I'm revising for a massive exam at the moment, so have given up weed for 3 weeks beforehand - these babies will be donating their first colas just after the exam hopefully!

Thanks for looking

I think you're doing a top notch job for your first grow my man. They look healthy and happy, and I'm sure you are!
I must say, you've got balls trying all your seeds at once and so many plants for your first run! A big Fuckin A for first efforts!
Congrats and all the best.

Thanks very much Stan, very kind words.
Any yes, I am indeed healthy and happy
As for my balls, well it was more out of ignorance that I put them all in - I didn't realize they could be kept as seeds for a long time, and also I thought i'd have killed more in the process than in fact I did!
Cheers

I hear ya there bro. I see you've got the clone thing going on. How is that working out? You could keep one of those girls going in the veg. room as use it as a mother plant.

true true, I have 3 clones that are about 6 inches high with really good roots, and 3 that are about an inch high and are just taking root.
In fact that reminds me, I just wanted to report a couple of unconventional findings with clones. I tried babying them, in rockwool, in a temperature controlled CFL lit environment, and had about a 25% success rate. Now I put them in potting soil, and leave them outside (in the UK bear in mind) and they're happy as larry! And also, I took some very successful clones from my plants when they'd been vegging for 3 weeks, so it can be done!
I'm experimenting with the clones at the mo - gonna put them in the main grow room when my current plants are all harvested, giving one to my friend, and might see how one fares in the british summer.
Back to work...

Fucking useless Swedish bastards.
Bought some timers from IKEA, have been using one on my grow room for the entire flowering period, and now i've discovered it's fucking faulty, so half the time my plants have basically been getting 24hrs of light. Piece of shit! I wondered why they were flowering slowly, just thought it was the strain.
The moral of the story is IKEA sucks, dammit
[/end RANT]

Nice grow to date,

these are the timers i run on now, and havent had a single problem with them. Only ones so far

eBay.co.uk: 3 xDIGITAL TIMERS - 24-HR 7-DAY DIGITAL "PLUG-IN TIMER" (item 230116633132 end time 22-Apr-07 18:22:22 BST)

man i cant wait to see some big ol bud shots, hhmmmm mmm.