Photoperiod First Photo Attempt: Green Crack and Bubba Kush

[tronN00dles]

Hey folks,

DAY 1

And I have two babies!

Both seeds were germinated using the paper-towel method (I know, I know, but it works for me). The Green Crack's taproot emerged in 24 hours. The Bubba Kush was closer to 48 hours, which did stress me out a little bit - but all is well. Both were planted in pint-size fabric nursery pots at the same time, although the Green Crack had a much longer tap-root when they were plopped into the coco.

Anyway, it's clear the Bubba Kush is a day behind the Green Crack, but no big deal. The Green Crack's cotyledons opened yesterday morning, and the Bubba Kush's opened this morning. There's still a tiny piece of membrane stuck to the end of the BK cotyledon, but I'm thinking that will probably shed by tomorrow.

I've been keeping the coco in my 7 gallon fabric pots wet with the GH 10-part scaled to around 200ppm with a pH of 6.1, with my run-off being around 300ppm. I halved this for the pint-size nursery pots until the run-off was closer to 200ppm before planting the germinated seeds. CFC recommends plain pH water with no nutes until the cotyledons have been opened for 24 hours. As such, the Green Crack received 30mL of 200ppm nute solution this morning as per GH week 1. The BK will stay on plain water until tomorrow morning as well.

I'm mixing 3 days worth of nutes at a time and keeping the mix aerated with an air stone.

Temp around 23 deg C, humidity around 70%.

Lights are currently on 24/0, but I'll switch to 18/6 probably tomorrow. Originally, I had these on around 120 PPFD, but the Green Crack stretched a little much for my liking and outgrew it's dome a little quick, so I bumped it closer to 200 PPFD. Once the dome comes off the BK and I switch to 18/6, I'll probably keep the lights around 250 PPFD for the remainder of the seedling stage, then probably 500 PPFD in veg, then 1000 PPFD in flower. This is my general thinking at the moment, but this could very well change as the grow goes on.

In terms of lessons learned, CFC recommends starting germinated seeds in jiffy pellets. Since I've only ever grown autoflowers where I plant germinated seeds directly into my final container, I didn't bother with this. However, I think I'll try that going forward. I used my final mix (50/50 coco/perlite) in the fabric nursery pots, but I don't like this ratio for such small seedlings. I think it will be fine for bigger/more mature plants, but it's almost too airy for young seedlings. Sometimes I'll pick up the fabric nursery pots and the mix will "split" and I was afraid the root/seed would fall straight through - hence me putting rubber bands around the fabric as below. Anyway, I think I made it safely through this hurdle, but I'll keep this in mind for next time.

Here's some pics:

-tronN00dles

 

[tronN00dles]

WEEK 1

Hey folks,

Today is day 7 since sprout. Time is flying. I'll keep this short and sweet with a recap of Week 1. Growth is looking good. Here's some data:

• Fertigating twice daily @ 230ppm (GH Week 1 Medium), around 60mL or so
• PPFD @ 250
• Lights on 18/6
• VPD within 0.4-0.8, temps usually between 19-25 deg C, RH between 64-73%

I'm thinking they'll stay in these nursery bags for another week or so until they move into 1 gallon pots. I've also been keeping the coco in my final 7 gallon pots wet with the same nute mixes I've been giving to the seedlings.

Here's some pics:

The one on the left is Green Crack; the one on the right is Bubba Kush. The GC is definitely growing faster, as I mentioned, even it's taproot growth was substantially quicker. The BK was 24 hours behind opening her cotyledons. I also had a little mishap with the BK, as some membrane remained after she shed her helmet. I tried to pull this off, but ended up tearing a little bit of cotyledon off. Anyway, she seems to have recovered nicely, just a little behind her sister.

Anyway, I'm pleased with how things are looking so far. Tomorrow I'll be starting them on Week 2 nutes and will be bumping up my feeds.

Cheers,

-tronN00dles
PS. @Death The Cultivator , I settled on a scrog after

 

[tronN00dles]

Week 2

Hey everybody,

Today is Day 14 of my grow, and things are coming along nicely. Both plants have transplanted into their intermediary 1-gallon pots: the Green Crack ("GC") on Day 11, and the Bubba Kush ("BK") on Day 12. I watered the plants before transplanting, and I'm glad I did. Because I'm using 50/50 coco/perlite, the mix is super loose and airy. I feel if these had not been watered, they would have fell apart in my hands. Fortunately, the transplants went off without a hitch and the plants didn't seem to notice.

I've been bumping my lights up around 2,500 lux per day, although I didn't do this for a 48 window around the transplants so as to not push them too hard. Anyway, as today is the last day of week 2, the lights are currently sitting at around 32,000 lux, which is around 500 PPFD for my HLG's. They'll stay around here for the rest of veg. I plan on doubling this for flower. Total power draw from both lights right now is around 220W from the wall, plus another 14W or so from my Red and Blue pucks.

Feeds have been twice daily at around 550ppm, pH around 5.8-6.2. Early seedling feeds were closer to 6.2, but more recently I've been bringing this down closer to 5.8.

VPD has been around 0.7, but now as I enter veg, I'll be pushing this up to around 0.8-1.0. Today, I removed the warm-mist humidifier from my tent and replaced it with a cool-mist humidifier, which I'll use for the rest of veg.

Without further ado, here are some pics

The bigger girl is the GC.

-tronN00dles

 

[tronN00dles]

Week 3 Update

Hey everybody,

Today is Day 21. This is been an eventful week. If you haven't caught the few posts above, let me get you up to speed :smoking:

The Topping Debacle
Originally I intended on manifolding. Then I decided on scrogging. Now we're back to manifolding lol. You'll find I'm an indecisive fella

For manifolding, I was following the tutorial on CocoForCannabis. For scrogging, I was following the tutorial on GrowWeedEasy. The manifolding tutorial recommended topping down to the 3rd node; the scogging tutotrial recommended topping down to the 4th node. I realize these are merely suggestions, but I'm a bit of a nervous-nelly. I had already topped my Green Crack down to the 4th node, then 24 hours later, decided to top down to the 3rd node. A "re-topping" of sorts.

I asked around and the opinions on this were split between "oh god no" and "sure why not". Anyway, I bit the bullet and "re-topped" my Green Crack on day 20 (it was topped originally on day 19). I also went ahead and topped the Bubba Kush down to it's 3rd node yesterday, day 20, as well. This was the first topping procedure done to the Bubba Kush. Recall, this one is growing a little slower. I was kind of hoping the second topping of the Green Crack would slow it down a bit so the Bubba Kush could catch up.... wrong! The Green Crack did not mind the second topping and has grown noticeably in the last 24 hours

Anyway, back to the movie....

Week 3 Stats

For the first couple of days of Week 3, I continued to follow the GH 10-part "medium" feedchart, amended as follows:

• CalMag boosted from 1.7 mL/gal to 2.5 mL/gal,
• Added Diamond Nectar (humic acid) at 2.5mL/gal,
• Added yucca powder at 150-170mg/gal.

However, I was noticing that my run-off was less than my intake on several fertigations, and the leaves started looking a little light for my liking. So I upgraded to the "aggressive" formula, and started feeding at around 900ppm (1.8ec). This is substantially higher than I ever fed autos, but goodness gracious the plants seem to love it. They are proving to be hungry girls!

I'm still fertigating twice daily in the 1 gallon pots, always at a pH of 5.8, and to 10-20% run-off.

Lights are at 500 PPFD, 18/6. Currently drawing around ~200W or so from the wall. VPD around 0.8.

So at the time of this writing, the plants have been topped (re-topped in the case of the Green Crack), and I've removed growth tips below the third node. I'm going to keep the fan leaves below the third node for now, at least until I start to get further into my manifold.

Tomorrow, on day 22, I plan on transplanting both plants into their final 7 gallon containers, after which I will start fertigating once daily. I'm seeing roots emerge out of the 1 gallon pots now as well

Anyway, enough of me blabering -- here are some pictures:

Bubba Kush (left); Green Crack (right)

Green Crack topped down to node #3; note the 4-finger mutation

Root emerging out of the bottom of the 1 gallon pot

That's all for now. Thanks for reading

-tronN00dles

 

[tronN00dles]

WEEKS 4-5: Stunted!

Hey everybody,

It's been a little while since my last update, so here we go again! I must say, the past two weeks have been eventful. In retrospect, the plants were just subjected to excesses: too much stress, nutrients and light! I probably lost a good ~7 days or so of growth. Fortunately, they seem to have recovered and they're back on a good groove here now :smoking:.

As I said, I'm not in a rush with this so I'm happy enough to let these plants veg for as long as they need to.

Neither the BK nor the GC seemed to have responded great to the second transplant, and they didn't seem to thrive after the topping either. The GC continues to be the faster growing of the two. Anyway, my plan was to mainline these plants, i.e., 3 rounds of topping. So far, the GC has been topped twice, and the BK has be topped once.

Since they stopped growing for a few days after the toppings, I wont subject them to any more. Besides, they remain very short in general. In hindsight, I should have considered the final height of the plants before jumping on a 3-top strategy lol. Lesson learned!

I was also heavy-handed with the defoliating -- not only low growth tips but fan leaves as well. This definitely slowed growth down. I removed everything below the third node on the main stem; then everything from the third node on the main two arms that resulted from the first topping. This is where I stopped with the BK, but continued for one more round of topping on the GC, effectively manifolding it.

So to recap, I have a four-cola GC (left) from an incomplete mainline, and a two-cola BK (right) from an incomplete manifold:

Note the difference in size between the BK and GC! Both planted at the same time, under the same light intensity, and the same fertigation frequencies and concentrations.

In addition to them not loving the HST, I also got a little brazen with my nutrients. Cocoforcannabis recommends ~600ppm at this stage; the GH Feedcharts range from 650-950 for this week depending on light/medium/aggressive feeds.

Back toward the end of Week 3 when I transplanted them into their final containers, I boosted feeds to 950 after foolishly thinking they could handle it based on their run-off. Anyway, the run-off starting exceeding the input by a good several hundred points and I got a bit of a salt build up going on. It took several days to get my run-off in check. I'm currently feeding around 650ppm and getting 720ppm out the bottom. They seem to be thriving now, especially since I stopped with the HST.

I should also say, my Dinafem Autoflowers seem to handle topping better than these Canuk photoperiods....

Fortunately, I have time for them to recover, which is certainly a nice plus with the photos. If these were autos, they'd be fucked.

Anyway, there's one new issue currently poking it' head up.... Is my Bubba Kush a male? I'm seeing little nubby balls that I have never seen on any of my feminized auto grows. These are supposed to be feminized photos, but maybe the stress has hermied them, or perhaps they weren't actually feminized?

Anyway, here are the little balls coming out on the Bubba Kush. It has been in veg for 5 weeks under 18/6. I realize it still may be too early to tell, but if anyone has any commentary it would be much appreciated:

(Excuse the dog hair -- it's not a web lol)

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on the balls and hope they get a little pointy. Am I correct that even if it was a male, there shouldn't be a risk of pollen yet?

That's all for now!

-tronN00dles

 

[tronN00dles]

WEEK 6: Happy Growth

Hey folks,

Back again with a summary of week 6 of veg. growth. I'm happy to report the plants seem to have fully recovered from the rough-handedness in week 4. I haven't done any more topping or defoliation, and boy, they are short, fat, bushy ladies .

To recap, the Green Crack is a poorly executed manifold with 4 colas (main stems at 45 degrees rather than flat), and the Bubba Kush is a half-manifold with 2 colas, also with 45 degree angles lol.

I can see at least one reason why a flat manifold is ideal - to keep the colas far apart. Mine are going to require some regular LST to keep them separated. All good though :smoking:

Also got the nutes dialed in. They seem to thrive at 600ppm each, and I'm getting around 680ppm from my run-off. I've been pH'ing at around 5.7, watering once a day to 10-20% run-off.

PPFD at 400, still at 18/6. I'm thinking 10-14 more days in veg. I guess I'll make the switch when some leaves start to reach a tent wall? Any recommendations here?

It's crazy to think I was trying to give these plants 900ppm of nutes with a PPFD at 500, especially so soon after topping + transplanting. They did not like that all. But fortunately, these really seem to enjoy this less intense environment.

Anyways, here's some pics:

^Green Crack

^Bubba Kush

Up until now, I've been using pipe cleaners to tie branches down, but I've been following @Suki813 's awesome grows and as such, I've decided to retire the pipe cleaners for something a little better....


Here they are today after a bit of training:

^ Bubba Kush. Notice the indent on the main stem on the pic on the right. I cracked these arms accidentally by bending too close the main stem back in week 4 and had to hold them together with a tie-wrap. I left this on a little too long, as we can see from the pic on the right...

^ Green Crack

^Back in the tent.

That's all for now.

-tronN00dles

 

[tronN00dles]

WEEK 7 Update

Hey everybody,

The plants are now 7 weeks old, and I'm gonna let 'em go for another week or so before flipping to flower.

Growth has definitely been healthy, and they're really enjoying the 600ppm nute solutions. I think the Green Crack probably wants ~625,ppm and the Bubba Kush might prefer ~575ppm, but they seem to be happy enough with the 600ppm compromise.

I also had a bit of a dumb-dumb/eureka moment and realized why these plants are so short.... the friggin Blue RapidLED. This thing has always been at maximum power while my HLG QB's are dimmed to around 50%. I'm only just realizing the Blue puck doesn't really register much on my lux meter, so I've been thinking "oh well, my lux/ppfd is in order... good enough". In retrospect, these plants have been just getting blasted with too much blue light, hence their stature and heavy-greenness. I unplugged the blue puck around a week ago and I'm already noticing them getting a little taller. On my next grow, I think I'll put this light up higher in the tent, maybe above my QB's, that or invest in a dimmer.

I also did a pretty heavy handed shaping/defoliation this week. I figure 'in for a penny, in for a pound' lol. On my next grow, I think I'll do virtually no pruning until it's time to stretch. Shoutout to @Suki813 for her awesome pointers.

Anyway, I'm very pleased with the shape of the Green Crack. It looks pretty cool

The Bubba Kush is more of a bastardized version, but she's come a long way too. She'll have two main colas trained with three primary tops each. A little less symmetrical than the GC, but we'll see how this goes!

Some pics:

Pre-shaping:

Post-shaping:

-tron

 

[tronN00dles]

Weeks 8-9 Update: End of Veg

Well folks, yesterday was the end of Week 9 of vegetative growth. Today is day 64 from sprout, and I'm pleased to say that the plants were flipped to 12/12 just moments ago. I wish I was here 2-3 weeks sooner, but it is what it is.... The plants look healthy, so I'm happy :smoking:

I have a few pics above between this and the Week 7 threadmark. To recap, I accidentally cut a fairly hefty growth tip off a main trunk of the Bubba Kush, and then stupidly panicked and decided to "even things out". This was a dumb impulse move that I regret, but again, life is all about making happy little accidents. Anyway, I let them go another week or so to recover.

Here's a few of those pics again. Apologies for the repeat but I’d like these to show up in Reader Mode as this journal is thread marked…

Pretty well status quo during Week 9:

• Still fertigating once per day near lights-on, around 1.2ec @ pH of 5.7, 10-20% run-off.
• Run-off EC has pretty well been lower than my input. CocoForCannabis (CFC) says this is usually an anomaly and corrects itself after a week, which doesn't really make sense to me, but sure... The main thing is it's not substantially higher than my input.
• I've also been comparing 3 feedcharts: the 'new/improved' GH charts, the 'old' GH charts, and the CFC charts. I made a spreadsheet to compare their NPK ratios as well as their elemental ppms. Up until now, I've been using a hybrid of the CFC and 'new/improved' GH charts, but after messing around with the spreadsheet, it seems the "old" GH feedcharts pretty well accomplish what my custom feedchart has been trying to do! Lol. So I've switched to the "old" GH charts, if for nothing else to use up some of the Flora Blend and Flora Nectar on my shelf (the "new/imroved" and CFC charts don't include these).
• Lights at 450-500 PPFD
• Temp/RH as per VPD charts. Usually around 55% and 22 deg C.
• No ties on the Green Crack, just rocking her half-mainline structure
• 2 ties on the Bubba Kush. She's tight af, so I have the tips of the two main growths tied down to open her up a bit.

Anyway, prior to flipping to 12/12, I prepped my grow space by dealing with potential light sources during the dark period. My tent does have a few light leaks, but the tent is inside a walk-in closet which I will keep dark. I may have to stick warning signs on the closet door reminding me and the wife to stay out during lights-out lol.

I also stuck a dehumidifier in my closet which I plan on keeping running continuously, pending RH observations over the coming weeks. I always had the best results with dehumidifiers being outside but near my tent.

Thanks for reading

tron

 

[tronN00dles]

Transition-to-Bloom Week

Hey everybody,

It's been 7 days since I flipped them to 12/12. And things are going excellent. A few notes:

• As I mentioned previously, I switched back to the "old" GH Drain-to-Waste Expert feedchart. After messing around with Excel and considering @Mañ'O'Green's target ranges for N-P-K-Ca-Mg, it seems that the OG charts better align with those targets compared to the "new" GH charts and the CocoForCannabis charts.
• I'm still using CFC's target ppm/EC ranges for high-frequency fertigation, although I took about 10% off to account for my bigger pots with longer drybacks as he suggests. This week, I fed at around 525ppm (Hanna). I should have been doing this sooner, as the plants are now probably healthier than they've ever looked. Still once a day to 10-20% run-off. Run-of is measuring around 620ppm.
• Brought my pH up a smidge. Prior weeks I was aiming for 5.8. Now running closer to 5.9-6.0.
• PPFD around 500, currently drawing 250W from the wall.
• Temps around 22C, RH around 50%

This is my first time with the trellis, and I think next time I'll use something more rigid, at least anchored all the way across. I'm using a flimsy net of string that is fasted to 4 corners, but has sort of been "lifting" in the middle as the plant grows lol. Oh well.

Some pics (Green Crack on left; Bubba Kush on right):

 

[tronN00dles]

Week 1 of Flower

Hi everyone.

Thus concludes the first week of flowering. Specifically, it has been one week since observing pistils, and two weeks since flipping to 12/12. Not sure if that's the correct convention for counting flower weeks, but it is what it is.

Anyway, plants are healthy. Lights are on max, feeding as per early bloom nutes on the GH Flora Series Expert Drain-to-Waste lineup. Watering to 20% run-off every 24 hours. The Green Crack is drinking 6L a day; the Bubba Kush around 5L a day. I'm going through crazy amounts of nutrient solutions here. I've been mixing in a a 5 gallon bucket and it's barely lasting me 2 days. Probably going to get a bigger bucket the weekend lol.

I also retired the turkey baster and got a fuel siphon to deal with the run-off. Much better, but I think an electric pump would be ideal.

Training and pruning wise, I'm continuing to tuck under the trellis as the plants are still stretching. I mitigated the hump in the middle by wrapping some pipe-cleaners around screws and hanging them on the trellis at a few locations. I've been very conservatively removing a few leaves here and there, but I haven't done any major haircuts. I'm thinking I'll give them another week or so then remove all or most of the growth underneath that won't be getting any light for the remainder of flowering.

Any pointers in that regard would be much appreciated.

Some pics: