TGA Vortex, Dynagrow. dwc/ebb&flo Medical Grow --420 ppm or less

The buds work just fine, but lack of nice size buds is taking some of the fun out of it. none of these buds dry out thicker than a bick lighter. They only seem to get a few caylexes thick. They look bigger in a flash photo, cause everything is frosty. I might also try using some well water, .5 ec out of the tap. I feel like I need some empty ppm, like calcium carbonate to slow transpiration without over feeding. I may raise the light even higher than the 14" I am at now. If it is possible to get bigger buds out of this pheno I hope to find out how in the next few rounds.

homebrewer said:

Oh, so you're getting beans from the dispensary? How many vortex beans have you grown out so far? I've heard you can get a lot of variation with subcool's seeds which I think is less than ideal.

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I've grown 3 beans, and this was my one female. I stored the remaining beans on top of my fridge and dried them out, they failed to germ for me.

Tga is in lots of Colorado dispensarys, distributed by twirling hippy confections. they probably have a few different packs in stock right now. If I make it to Denver I'll pick up some 303 beans, I hear good things about them too.

Here's my list of things to slow down the whole budding/ripening sequence. reduce temp swings, increase nitrogen ratio, raise light, cool peak temp to mid 70's, reduce co2 to 1000ppm,raise the light higher, maybe flower with a MH light in the mix,.... what else could I do to get some leafy material on these little nugs.

burrr said:

... what else could I do to get some leafy material on these little nugs.

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Try trimming off some of the lower branches so instead of say 10 branches for buds to grow on, you've got 5. I actually do the opposite in effort to get smaller buds (my larger buds need harvested early to avoid mold). I top, supercrop and train for a more even distribution of flowers.

from most of the pics of vortex i have seen those look pretty spot on but im pretty sure vortex isnt a very high yielder u could always try and ask subcool in his thread

I've got a feeling that I'll be able to dial in on some top notch nugs, even with this pheno. We'll see

I can't wait to see what you can do here. You really know your shit man

Vortex is some good stuff and yours doesn't look bad at all. Yes it doesn't yield too well but that has never been an issue with me as I am always for quality over quantity.

Here is my current attempt, 7 days into 12/12. I was trying to get a little leafyer bud development, and generally slow things down. I've swapped to a fresh 600 hps, added a little grow to the mix for more N, added a heater to keep dark cycle temps above 70 and thats about it. I really think this round is gonna be the winner. I predict decent size buds this time around.

I am in for the ride lookin good man.

Looks great to me. I have three vortex at 51 days flowering. Two look simaler to yours although the buds are fat (1000 watt) and one pheno is sativa. Lots of long spears that are throwing foxtails and look to take another week or more to finish.

Nice job!

I wonder if more blue spectrum wouldn't keep that stretch down too? I was looking at the cmh and dual arc bulbs and thought of you Just a thought.

johny1212 said:

I wonder if more blue spectrum wouldn't keep that stretch down too? I was looking at the cmh and dual arc bulbs and thought of you Just a thought.

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Johny, I was thinking the same thing. I swapped in a broader spectrum 600 hps than was in previously. I'm getting the impression that cold nights were my main issue. I was dropping down to 63 at night, and thought that this was OK, but I don't think the vortex liked it. I am at 70-75 at night now, and they look very happy.

Yeah, that temp will make a big difference in stretch. The dual arc look pretty cool if you need more blue spectrum. I ordered some agromax 600w dual arc this week to try them out. Hearing great things about these in particular. they are just a 300w hps and 300w mh in the same bulb. Anyway, i just thought of the vortex when I was doing the research. I hope those temps do the trick!

johny1212 said:

Yeah, that temp will make a big difference in stretch. The dual arc look pretty cool if you need more blue spectrum. I ordered some agromax 600w dual arc this week to try them out. Hearing great things about these in particular. they are just a 300w hps and 300w mh in the same bulb. Anyway, i just thought of the vortex when I was doing the research. I hope those temps do the trick!

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keep nodes tight first 3 weeks of 12/12 by adding heat when lights are off ppm 800 this will bring out the indica dna of the vortex strain after three weeks cut back to 75 degree night temp

roomtogrow said:

keep nodes tight first 3 weeks of 12/12 by adding heat when lights are off ppm 800 this will bring out the indica dna of the vortex strain after three weeks cut back to 75 degree night temp

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Thanks for sharing I've been running 1.1 EC this last week, the highest i've run any strains in a while. The warm nights are making a big difference.

These 2 vortex girls have had warm nights, and about 1.0EC. they are at day 16 of bloom, feeding on grow bloom magpro mix. they love the warm nights and lucalox bulb.

Here they are on day 2 of bloom, the 2 plants on the right. and again 2 weeks later. Its been an explosive 2 weeks of growth. Even had a little def. of some sort try to surface, but it seems to be going away after raising the light.

Lookin good burrr! Those suckers are exploding. Can't wait to see the difference from last run

You've got some pretty bushy plants there which is normally I good thing. Though if you're trying to increase your bud size, might I suggest trimming off some lower branches and budding sites from deep inside the plant? This wont increase yield (for me) though it does seem to make make the remaining budding sites more productive.

I agree HB, I've been trimming a little from the bottom, and some of the tiny limbs mid way. just started though, didn't want to stress them with too much trimming all at once. i'll clear out a little more day by day.