Dutch Passion Auto White Widow Grow Diary - planted 26-10-13

[SmokyD]

This is a grow diary for Auto White Widow from Dutch Passion.

Planted: 26-Oct-13
Lights: Various. started under 150W HPS (24h) for 1 week, then moved under a 600W HPS (12h) for 2 weeks. They are now under a 190W LED.

est. harvest date: 11-Jan-14
Area: A little more than 1 sq. m, 1 m tall.
Top-feed hydro, 25 ltr tank feeding six plants
Canna nutrients as recommended for normal feeding
Goal: 300-350g of grade B+ bud.

7 seeds were germinated in water on 26-10-13, for 24h and then transferred directly into peat pellets in a mini- (2 ltr) DWC system, under 1x150W HPS light. 6 seeds rooted.



Given the experience I had with the Think Different / BAM (here), I decided to try to stunt the vegging period of the AWWs a little, because I only have about 1m of height in my tent. My last autos were over 1m tall which caused me no end of difficulties and ruined the final crop, so with this grow I am trying to limit the height.

After 7 days I transferred the 6 seedlings into an 8-ltr container and put them in my main flowering room, under 600W HPS light (12 hours). The plants were about 2m away from the bulb and most of their light was being blocked by the much taller flowering plants that were in the room at the time. So they were just getting enough light to survive but they didn't grow much, just what I wanted.

During this period I also didn't check the PH or EC. A bit mean I know, but again my main aim was to keep the plants alive but not allow them to gain height.

After day 14 my tent became free and I moved the seedlings in there and placed them under my new Dutch Passion LED:



In the corner is a humdifier which maintains the humidity at between 55-65%.

 

[SmokyD]

Day 22 - transfer to main DWC bucket

On 16-Nov I transplanted all of the AWWs to a 25ltr DWC, which has a top-feed system.

The nutrient solution is as recommended by Canna here Grow Guide | CANNA UK

This will be my third grow using this system and so far the results have been very good. But it has a major drawback: the root system grows directly into the reservoir where the water pump and air block are located and generally tends to cause havoc blocking the pump and pulling the airstone apart, not to mention making it very difficult to control the pH. On my next grow I will modify the system to make it a flood and drain, using mapito or rockwool as the medium. The roots will remain separated from the main reservoir and potential problems can hopefully be avoided.

 

[SmokyD]

Day 29

The AWW are looking great under the Dutch Passion LED:



pH is stable at 6.0, don't know what the EC is because my meter is broken...

I'm really happy with the LED, it's saving me about 56 euro a month in electricity and has solved my over-heating problems. In the future I am going to use it only for vegging, but with this grow I will flower the plants under the LED just to see how it turns out. If the quality is good I will consider buying three more to replace my 2x 600W HPS, otherwise I will stick with my current setup. I reckon it costs me about 590 euro a year to run 1x 600W HPS for 12 hours a day.

LED can be be found here

 

[SmokyD]

Day 37

Some pics at day 37:



I flushed and filled the reservoir this morning. Apart from this I have not added extra nutrients or adjusted the pH, which began at 5.2 and remained between 5.9 and 6.2 over one week.

A few brown spots on one or two leaves but otherwise a healthy but small canopy. I don't think the plants will gain much more height now, so hopefully the bud size won't be in proportion to the height of the plants! The stems are small and without much more veg time they probably won't fatten up much more and this will affect the size of the buds.


On the other hand, there are plenty of main colas developing and all getting plenty of access to light, and the garden is small and very easy to keep clean and manage. Happy with how things are going so far.

 

[SmokyD]

Day 38 - moved to HPS

I moved the AWW under a 600W HPS light. I have some photos that I want to veg under the LED for a few weeks, mainly because the screen fits well under the LED and I like to use this method for molding the plants into a canopy before they go into the flowering room.

Yesterday I set the pH to 5.3; after about 30 hours it has risen to 5.8, requiring no further adjustment. It will probably remain around 5.8 - 6.0 for a few days now. I'm very happy with the Canna nutes in this respect, if you are looking for a nute program which stabilises the pH I can confidently recommend Canna.

I may have to finish the AWW off under the LED tho depending on how things develop and how much space I have. I don't know what the effect of all this reshuffling might be, hopefully it won't stress them out too much. For now I'm sure they won't mind the HPS.

 

[DWCocha]

lookin good smokey :smokebuds::munchies:

 

[SmokyD]

lookin good smokey :smokebuds::munchies:

thanks man!

 

[SmokyD]

Day 40 - Scroggin it

I noticed that all the work the screen had done leveling out the canopy quickly became undone as soon as I removed it. I had assumed that the plants would keep their uniform shape and simply continue to grow upwards, alas this was not the case! They tended back to their original shape, only now with a u-bend in the stem.
So I've installed screens on all my grows now.



I say it again, the EUR8.50 for that screen was some of the best money i've ever spent. I will never grow without one again. I've tried all sorts of methods to even the canopy - chicken wire as a trellis, tying branches with string, topping, super-cropping - all requiring a lot of effort and observation and without ever producing exactly the result I wanted. but it seems the simplest solution was right in front of me in the grow shop all along.

 

[TaNg]

I was hitting balls into a golf net a few weeks ago a I was imagining it as a huge ScrOG,plants look great bro plus rep for that.

 

[SmokyD]

Some close-ups

a few more pics: