New Grower First Grow - 4 Different Auto Strains in Coco

[Exivious]

Day 34: It's a mess alright.

I'm trying to tuck as best I can and am still doing a lot of defoliating. I've got the RH down to 60% now and temps around 74f, so VPD is considerably higher as desired--too much leaf overlap to risk it being like it was. I'd like to throw one plant outside despite the wind/rain, but am having too many people over to my house throughout the next week or two to do that safely--maybe later, or maybe after stretch I can get this situation under wraps... If I put it outside now, I'd have to swear a bunch of people into the omerta and arrange contingency plans to have their children/parents/siblings killed should they break their oaths, so I'd really rather not.

Waira thinks that was just algae on top of the coco the other day. I haven't seen anymore of it. I'm not concerned. Next time I'll have reflective film over the pot(s) like ex-reader ManOGreen suggested. It's too late this time--a few of the plants have multiple stems coming up from beneath the coco, so I wouldn't be able to fit a mylar-wrapped cardboard donut with a slit on one side of it around just the 'trunk'. Possibly related, I've had to cover quite a few exposed roots on the surface of the coco. I'll have to look into how that all happened for next time. I think the exposed roots on the surface are probably due to me feeding too often and not letting the surface layer dry up. I'm feeding less often now.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Day 34: It's a mess alright.

View attachment 943613
View attachment 943614
View attachment 943615
View attachment 943616

I'm trying to tuck as best I can and am still doing a lot of defoliating. I've got the RH down to 60% now and temps around 74f, so VPD is considerably higher as desired--too much leaf overlap to risk it being like it was. I'd like to throw one plant outside despite the wind/rain, but am having too many people over to my house throughout the next week or two to do that safely--maybe later, or maybe after stretch I can get this situation under wraps... If I put it outside now, I'd have to swear a bunch of people into the omerta and arrange contingency plans to have their children/parents/siblings killed should they break their oaths, so I'd really rather not.

Waira thinks that was just algae on top of the coco the other day. I haven't seen anymore of it. I'm not concerned. Next time I'll have reflective film over the pot(s) like ex-reader ManOGreen suggested. It's too late this time--a few of the plants have multiple stems coming up from beneath the coco, so I wouldn't be able to fit a mylar-wrapped cardboard donut with a slit on one side of it around just the 'trunk'. Possibly related, I've had to cover quite a few exposed roots on the surface of the coco. I'll have to look into how that all happened for next time. I think the exposed roots on the surface are probably due to me feeding too often and not letting the surface layer dry up. I'm feeding less often now.

Those are turf roots I think. I wish I had an idea for your space situation but I can only think lst and super cropping but you're into the stretch so... could you Scrog? That might be your best best.

Next time hydroton pebbles to keep coco moist longer and keep light off your coco. They are reusable just rinse well.

 

[Exivious]

Definitely going to have perlite in the mix next time and probably some expanded clay or similar pebbles on top, with mylar cover. It's too late to get a net set up this time (I'll be making my own, and I'm now a 24/7 caretaker for a dying family member, so I can't go buy supplies until she's gone), but it'll almost certainly be my approach next time when I start fresh in October.

I think I should just barely be okay with this tent--these strains grow to a max of 36-40" tall according to Mephisto (three strains are 24-36" and one is 28-40" IIRC), and considering they have all been topped and LST'd, and they had a rough first 9-14 days, I am thinking they won't reach their max potential height. As long as they max out at 32" or less, I will have enough tent headroom to maintain the lights at 14" from the highest cola without doing anything drastic.

If they get taller, I'll supercrop, and if it's a situation where I have a bunch of colas that are too tall and I can't bend them all out the way, I'll just have to accept a bit of light burn. It'll be okay.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

That's a winning plan, man! Bring it home!

 

[Exivious]

Day 35: Don't have time to post much but I noticed a funny thing: One of the lowest big fan leaves on Sour Crack looked like this:

All the other leaves are perfectly green. Sour Crack has never had any problems. Just this one perfectly gold leaf near the bottom.

And another busy tent shot, now even more crammed due to a new and much-needed oscillating tower fan:

And some flowering:

All the strains pretty much smell the same. That should change shortly.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

Looking good, man! Good work! Strange about the leaf. I wouldn't give it a second thought beyond a nice souveneir!

 

[Exivious]

Day 40: Phosphorous deficiency on Forum Stomper, the plant that suffered the most from the early pH problems I had. That's weird as I was using what I thought was more than enough flowering nutrients--4 mL per gallon Bloom, 1.5 mL per gallon KoolBloom. It's possible I just haven't been feeding enough lately and didn't realize I'd let the coco get dry, what with waiting for my relative to die (that finally happened, by the way, so now I have more time ). I further boosted P and K today.

I'm really seeing how much bigger my plants could have been without the seedling problems I had--the youngest plant, Fugue State (a replacement for a nonviable Fugue State, if you recall), at 35 days, is by far the tallest and has also flowered the most. All the plants look pretty good, though, except White Crack which has the fewest primary colas. Maybe they will turn out denser than I expect, though...

I had quite a significant height discrepancy, so I shimmed up three of the plants to get closer to Fugue State's height.

I want this grow to hurry up and finish so I can decide which strain is my favorite, then focus on growing just one pot of whatever that is next time.

 

[Dudeski]

One or two is a good number for me. You get variety and have room in case one gets big!

Looking good bud

 

[Exivious]

Day 42: So much for stunted growth... Fugue State is now 42". That's beyond the max height expectancy listed by Mephisto (39.3"). Its main colas are all 39-42" above the surface of the coco. That means the tallest is a mere 11" from the light, which I can't bring any higher: it's now ratcheted all the way against the crossbar in the center of the tent. This plant has been topped so I don't have a single dominant cola I can supercrop. If I supercrop, I'll be bending 4-6 stems. This sounds like a LOT of stress... Not sure what to do here except hope the flowers don't bleach and end up light on the cannabinoids. Unfortunate situation as I was the most excited to smoke Fugue State's fruits out of all of them.

If I'm going to supercrop, should I go ahead and do it now, even though it will involve several stems?

Other plants are doing well, though White Crack is definitely behind the others in height and flower development. I may have to shim it to be even taller.

Edit: So I bent some stems. 4 on Fugue State, 1 on Forum Stomper. I'll take some pics tomorrow to see if they've totally straightened up already...

 

[Dudeski]

It should be good, necessary sometimes!