smallttruth
Member
These pics are from about ten days ago, in the first few days of flowering. Buds are now 4 to 5 times as plentiful..
I have a very fruitful grow right now in a 3 x 3 grow closet/ tent lined with Mylar. I am using a 240 watt LED (mostly red, some orange, blue and white) from Dr. Grow-Right and 4 65 watt CFLs, 3x 2700 CT, 1x 6500 CT. They're suspended on splitters on the outer areas of the cabinet while the LED is in the center about 12" above. In total I have 500 watts in use in 9 square feet. Strain growing is Sour Diesel. I am in my second week of flowering and already have a hefty amount of bud forming on the tops, and many strong starts, plenty of nice, fuzzy pistols forming at every node. I started with 13 plants but selected 9 of the healthiest plants (to stay in the SOG area of 1 per Sq. foot). Does anyone have a lot of experience with this strain? Would love any insights or tips for the last couple weeks. They're getting tons of nutrients, (though I stay within the 1.4- 1.7 EC range) and plenty of supplements like B-1, amino acids, silica, beneficial bacteria and fungi. I keep my nutrient solution in a 3 gallon bucket, constantly oxygenated by two pumps and further supplemented with small doses of food grade H2O2. The plants are in a soilless mix with some added worm castings, kelp, guano and bone, blood and feather meals. The circulation is facilitated by a 425cfm fan running through a large carbon filter (I live in a crowded walk-up in NYC, so odor is a major concern). Aside from supplementing with CO2, is there anything an experienced grower of this strain might recommend to help me with the flowering stage? They look great for my first grow.... I am an avid grower, and have studied botany for awhile, but this is my first real grow of cannabis. Given the circumstances, I am very pleased so far with the results. I am looking to maximize total weight, (unfortunately I can't afford to focus purely on quality). I have additional lights I can add (T5 Fluorescents, and 1 smaller LED) which I want to place in the lower part of the cabinet, as these girls have stretched quite tall, and consequently are not getting as much light in the lower areas. I realize that the majority of bud will develop up high, but does anyone have an opinion on whether I should focus on the upper regions, (trimming the lower branches to allow energy to be directed toward the top) or try to save the lower branches? Again, its nine plants in nine square feet, so pretty crowded (SOG) but looking great at the top 2 feet. Sorry to go on so long, just wanted to provide as much info as possible so anyone reading the post could know as many of the factors as possible before commenting. I know that is what I would want. Thank you in advance. Happy growing....
BTW: The soilless mix is a mixture of Coco Coir, Shagnum Moss, Turface (a hard baked natural volcanic clay similar to Hydro-Clay but smaller in size, used largely for bonsai) and Perlite. The organic additives mentioned above constitute about 10 to 15% of the total soil mass. I made my own worm castings, first putting the organic components through thermo-composting, then adding red-wrigglers and feeding them with a mixture of vegetable matter, kelp and a carbon rich mixture of paper, dried leaves and straw. I added lots of egg shells, and dolomite lime to get a neutral ph. I started all of this for verma-compost tea for my bonsai, the growing method I largely 'cut my teeth on'. It was later that I finally had a chance to start a cannabis grow from seed.... I grew only females. I assume the grower I got them from had feminized plants, but ended up with a lone male somewhere. At any rate, out of 14 plants, 13 grew healthy and female. I took the best nine for flowering. I doubt they ended up female simply because I followed basic rules for encouraging feminine characteristics.... 14 for 14 seems a bit too good for that. Still, and as much as I've learned about growing 'in general' I am new to cannabis. I know that I am growing a 90% sativa strain, and that I probably got lucky in large part with the genetics. I still feel out at sea with this grow, and would really appreciate any advise for the flowering stage I can get. I am using Sensi Bloom A&B, Big Bud, Bud Factor X, Superthrive, Nirvana, Earth Juice Micro-Blast and some minor organic additives (un-sulphured molasses, for instance, to feed the bacterial and fungal colonies in the reservoir). I feel I am going over-board on details at this point.... But really, I would love advice from an experienced grower. After all the work I've put into this grow, I would hate to spoil it at the end....