New Grower First Grow - GCS Bubble Gum and Cheese

[Fermented_Fruitz]

Well, boys and girls, it's Thursday! And you know what that means, update day!

This has been a rough week, both for me and the girls. As you know, bubbles has been looking droopy, and we've been fighting nute deficiencies. I think I figured out the nute/droopy problem, we'll see over the next few days. I discovered my pH pen had fallen out of calibration, and so I retested what I had left, and both were at 5.1! I know I checked this feed because I added new flowering nutes to the mix, and I know it was a little low, because that's what I shoot for with the soil pH, but not 5.1! I had some ph up, so I brought them both up to 6.2, and I'll raise it to 6.4 on the next gallon. I also did a pretty heavy defoliation on both of them, since in spite of the conditions they both have been putting out tons of new growth.

On to the pics. As usual, we'll do the group shot:
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And a few of Bubbles:
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As you can see, she's definitely stretching, and she's really starting to pack on the bud sites. I went a lot heavier on the defoliation, primarily to clear out some of the dying leaves as well as to open up some new bud sites.

On to The Mayor:
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She's really trying to work that top cola, lol. She's really pumping out the bud sites, and I'm really loving watching them grow up, there's a part of me that's going to be a little sad to chop them in a month or so.

The temps have dropped a lot over the last few days, and it's killing the rh, it was at 29% this evening. So I got the brilliant idea that since the thing is over humidifing, maybe I should take it out of the tent and treat the room (I know, big brain moment) we'll see how that does over the next few days.

And rather then making another post in 5 minutes, I already made the collage pics

Bubbles:
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And The Mayor:
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And sorry for multiple questions but your statement about testing what was left of nute mixture u aren’t mixing more than u use each feed and holding it til next watering are u?? If so the ph up will start going BLAH and ph will fall back down! Also some nutes take longer to break down and can do the same! Just checking cuz was curious after reading that!

 

[Puff Puff Pat]

I got lazy and skipped a ton of reading bro but wondered how humidity is doing? When mine were that size I had to leave a jug of water open in tent to keep it over 45% but now even with dehumidifier mine is high 60% with top of tent unzipped a lil bit! I gotta get me a good in-line fan that’ll control temp n humidity for mine! Damn dry Tx air! And next time think about topping! 1st time growing anything myself and happy with how it’s turning out now!
View attachment 1136067 I’m a backwards lefty so qqq! Keep em lit bro!

Humidity has been a constant battle this grow! I live in SW PA, and summers are super high humidity, whereas in winter it's dry as a desert. When I started this in late October, I had to run a dehumidifier to get humidity below 65-70%, by mid November I was stuck in 40s, now I'm in the low to mid 30s. I bought a humidifier but its humidistat can't read for shit, so when it was in the tent, it would run constant and crank the humidity to 80%. I pulled it out of the tent, and set it for 50 since I pull my environment from the surrounding room, and it cut out when the humidity was at 40 in the tent, so still not working.

I'm ready to junk it and get one with manual controls so I can use it in the tent with the ink bird. I've been setting the humidifier next to the open tent, and that seems to be helping.

My biggest concern is yo-yoing them, I just can't see that being good for them, so I'm trying to keep swings to a minimum, be it temp, RH or pH. I'm confident they'll make it to the finish line, but there's a lot of areas that I could regulate better that will probably help size and yield for my next grow.

ya, i too have noticed with me indicaz even, that once they get a couple weekz into flower time, their leavez do start "thinning", for lack of a better term, lol idk for sure, but i've alwayz guessed it has sumthin to do with the plant puttin more energy & focus into the budz at that point & itz solar panelz don't need to be as wide sumhow...or sumthin like that hey, it soundz good anyway ppp

Thanks bro! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who's observed this.

 

[Puff Puff Pat]

And sorry for multiple questions but your statement about testing what was left of nute mixture u aren’t mixing more than u use each feed and holding it til next watering are u?? If so the ph up will start going BLAH and ph will fall back down! Also some nutes take longer to break down and can do the same! Just checking cuz was curious after reading that!

No worries about the questions! I've been mixing it a gallon at a time, which covers about 4 days now that they have separate feed amounts. I didn't know that about not mixing more then they need at a time. Keep in mind, I'm in soil, so I don't feed to runoff, so I'm never 100% sure how much they'll need each night, that and I'm lazy and find it easier to mix enough for most of the week. Looks like I'll have to change my routine up a bit.

 

[Fermented_Fruitz]

No worries about the questions! I've been mixing it a gallon at a time, which covers about 4 days now that they have separate feed amounts. I didn't know that about not mixing more then they need at a time. Keep in mind, I'm in soil, so I don't feed to runoff, so I'm never 100% sure how much they'll need each night, that and I'm lazy and find it easier to mix enough for most of the week. Looks like I'll have to change my routine up a bit.

Don’t do that as some nutes break down over time just sitting idle! Figure out how much u need and then do the math to see what is needed so u r mixing as u go! Depending on the nute brand if not organic it’s not good to have to keep adding more ph up and u will have to if u mix extra! Plants were much happier when I translated tsp/tbsp into ML and then only make it is a need it! Will save tons of headaches bro! Why your ph swung down to low 5’s in between feeds! Good luck n looking good! qqq

 

[ManWithWrench]

Nice plants. I learned about the water thing two days ago. I had a five gallon bucket of water that I had pH'd to 6.4 and within a few days it was back up to 7.1 Now I just use the bucket to fill my watering jug then pH what is in the jug.

 

[Puff Puff Pat]

Glad to have you along for the ride, @ManWithWrench! Yep, there's definitely a learning curve with this, but with forgiving plants, they still seem to make it through my myriad of fuck ups, so I'm a happy camper...grower...whatever :smoking:

Well folks, it's Friday eve, so that means another long winded rambling update from yours truly. It doesn't feel like there's much to report, the girls are rolling along on cruise control, and not really needing much of anything from me. I'm still having these blasted humidity issues. I'm not at all happy that I'm in the very high 20s low 30s. I can fix that a bit by running the humidifier and leaving the tent open, but that blows any chance of stealth (not that I'm worried about that, too much), plus reduces the amount of light being reflected to the girls, and let's a bunch of smell out. I'm basically leaving it open when I'm home and awake, and closing it when I'm out. It at least moderates the situation, but fixing this is going to be a priority before my next grow.

Based on feedback from @TxRebel I've altered my feeding routine. I'm giving them the same nutes now (4g MC, 10ml Tiger Bloom, 60ml Big Bloom, and 5ml calmag) on a FWWF schedule, and making the nutes on an as needed basis. To my surprise, I'm not seeing any deficiencies, so I guess I've been overfeeding them. This could have contributed to the lockout I was experiencing earlier.

I'm still defoliating them about once a week. I know this a hotly debated topic, but to be honest I feel it helps me for watering them and keeping any eye on things. And, frankly, it's keeping me and the missus in smokables until we can have the good stuff, so it's a win-win in my book.

Anyways, enough of the rambling, on to what you really wanted... pics!!!11!one!eleven

As always, the group shot first;

First up is Bubbles, I undid her ties after I took the photos, and I also noticed she's starting to frost up:

And a couple of bud shots

And The Mayor, she's showing more and more frost every day:

And the bud shots:

And just to show the one week progress:
Bubbles:

The Mayor:

And, since I didn't really feel like the buds were getting bigger:

Well, I think that wraps up this week, took me long enough, huh?

 

[420Forever]

lookin good path! ppp

 

[Fermented_Fruitz]

Ready for mine to start the final fattening up process! Gonna have some donkey buds!

 

[Garage_Grower]

Looking good @Path1976! Happy n healthy, only a few more weeks to go! :smoking:

 

[Iriee Vibez]

Nice first grow, Path! You are going to have some premium buds to smoke in a few weeks for sure! The only I would contribute is to note that I am also a believer in defoliation. Anything that is blocking a bud from direct light gets clipped in my cabinet. I live in the Sacramento CA area, and we are almost always dry through most of the year (very low humidity), so I have to use a dependable cool mist humidifier throughout most of the year. I find that fan leaf volume increase humidity, so you may want to consider that, while you consider environmental changes in between grows.