Indoor Journal-White Widow (Ministry of Cannabis)-Second Grow

[Bayes]

I grew this strain for my first and only grow with pretty good results despite making a couple of pretty significant mistakes, specifically regarding nutes (poor ph control, too early feeding of bloom nutes, and a nitrogen deficiency caused by lockout which waira was instrumental in correcting. Despite these errors, I managed to harvest 4.7 oz in 63 days of pretty righteous weed.

As an old fart, I'm lucky if I can "do it" once in a row anymore. But this is different ... I wanted to do this identical grow again eliminating these mistakes and hopefully avoiding new ones (good luck with that!). The journal for my first grow is here:

www.autoflower.org/f5/journal-white-widow-ministry-cannabis-first-grow-31968.html


So I started two Ministry of Cannabis White Widow plants for my converted wine cabinet which I've tweaked since the last grow. I may at some point do a lengthy technical post on the underlying concept(s) of the cabinet and, perhaps more importantly, some important findings regarding air flow, CFL heat (different manufacturers' twisties have different heat signatures), and a bunch of other stuff about small space growing which was counter-intuitive and quite surprising at least for me.


Details of Grow:

Soil: OF, HF, perlite 40/40/20 in two 3 gallon pots
Cabinet: 53cm x 53cm, cabinet height is variable up to 8o cm or so
Nutes: Trio
Hanna Combo Tester: (I don't know how people grow w/o a digital tester. Ph drop testing at least for me during my first grow was terrible once colored nutes began. The accuracy of ph drop testing is poor to begin with and became completely unworkable once colored nutes began.

Lighting: TODAY, 202 total watts of twisties spilt evenly in 2 4-way horizontal fixtures. Tomorrow, I'll start gradually swapping out 23W 6500K for 46 watt 2700K bulbs. I don't know what the total wattage will end up being but 250 watts would be the absolute minimum depending on heat.

24/0 is planned for the duration of the grow

(I float my seeds before planting directly in pots. One was a reluctant sinker and despite gentle agitation refused to sink. I finally resorted to waterboarding the seed and it sort of sank. However, it did not germinate, so another was floated/started. The germination date for the first was JULY 7, the second was JULY 10 but for the sake of this journal July 7 is the start of both seeds.


Okay the, here are my plants at DAY 19:








Notice this strain is shrub-like and appears to be of compact form like my first grow.


IMO and for me, It is difficult to take the dominant leader on a shrub form and bend it over w/o crunching other (potential) bud sites. So my first LST effort is to bend the side branches to allow greater light penetration but also to do it in such a way as to clear a space in advance for where the bent main leader is going to "fall" a few days later when I bend the main leader (to manipulate auxin flow.) Analogy: felling a tree.


The following images show how I do LST on shrub forms (yeah, a lot of experience here, NOT!) .


DAY 23 The next two images are of the younger plant with just the side branches trained w/pipe cleaners:







The next two images are of the older plant with the main leader bent down a few days after I did the side branches. Note the sharp bend in the main leader (center of first image) and the resulting even canopy in the second image.





Is this the right way to do it? Is it the only way? Most certainly not but it is the way I do it at this point. More training will follow...

The goals for my first grow was to learn, yield wasn't important.
For this grow, I'm still a newbie so learning is just as important as before.
However, this time I have a aggressive yield objective. My plan is to push these hard paying VERY close attention to eC.

So far, I'm pretty pleased ...but the most challenging part of the grow (for me) has just begun.


Thanks for reading--

Bayes

 

[Bayes]

Day 28

Since the first post, I've been feeding pretty aggressively. (I also started nutes Day 15, earlier than my first grow.) When the eC runoff hit 1.8 (Day 24?), I decided to back off and do a rinse (pH water only) which was a bit earlier than planned. No real tip burning, only 4 or 5 leaves had the slightest brown on the very tip. But I think 1.8 is about the eC (fert.) limit for this strain at this stage of development. I'll resume fertilization (probably .5 tsp Grow Big, .5 tsp of Big Bloom and perhaps .5 (?) tsp of Cal-mag plus as a preventative measure) next watering. I may begin Tiger Bloom around Day 33 depending on completion of stretch.

Lighting is transitioning to 2700k, now the cabinet has over each plant 3 23w 2700K and one 33w 6500 for a total of 204w.

Although I want to increase wattage, I cannot until I raise the ceiling of the cabinet to accommodate plant growth. The closer the lights (heat source) are to the filter (typically), the more effective heat removal is. In fact, thinking outside the box for a moment, an effective heat management strategy particularly for small grow spaces may be to have fixed lights (close to exhaust filter) and raise and lower the plants instead of the opposite,. Hmmmm ...interesting thought


Okay, here they are at Day 28. What do you think of my girls???








I'll have images of the individual plants next time I feed ...

 

[Griever]

looking good bro a little yellowing but doing well

 

[Bayes]

Thanks ... yellowing isn't the leaves; it is the mixed 2700k/6500k lighting. Both plants are actually lush green.

Thanks for stoppin' by

 

[Bayes]

Day 29:

My camera's batteries died after only two shots, so I only have pictures of one plant. I can't tell them apart anymore, anyway. Here you go...

View attachment 371923



The other plant began to show VERY early signs of lower/mid (older leaves) turning SLIGHTLY pale green with a tinge of light brown on a few leaves. I think this is magnesium deficiency so today I fed Cal-Mag Plus

Feeding consisted of:

1 tsp Cal-Mag Plus
.75 tsp Tiger Bloom (first feeding of bloom nutes)
.5 tsp of Grow Big
1 tsp of Big Bloom

pH of feeding solution: 6.75
eC: 1.0

Runoff:
pH: 6.5
eC: 1.4

FWIW, I estimate each of my plants lowered its eC by about .3 over a two and a half day period. On my meter, this translates into about 600 ppm TDS.

Although this calculation is a result of math and one or two w.a.g.s, its a workable guess as how much THIS STRAIN "eats". Assuming you are a meter grower and you have a "minor" nutrient burn, this might help you make a decision as to whether to flush (3X pH water) or whether you pH rinse and let the plant consume the surplus on its own. (I think flushing if at all possible, should be avoided --it simply wipes out the soil, particularly the good microbes.)

The lighting continues to be transitioned over to 2700K. Currently 6 @ 23w and 1 @43w all at 2700K, and 1 33w at 6500K. Total wattage in the cabinet is 214w and will continue to be increased as heat management allows.

Still running 24/0 but I'm thinking of switching to 20/4 for a few days and then to 18/6. Do you think this is a good idea, mid grow?

BTW, in my experience and as measured in my cabinet ( w/ careful control over intake temperature), not all CFL's of different manufacturers give off the same amount of heat. For example, of the 23w bulbs, the Sylvania "mini" compact CFL runs noticeably hotter than EcoSmart and other bulbs I've tested. Using 8 Sylvanias raised the canopy eight temperature .8 degrees over 8 EcoSmarts (same intake temp.) I fight higher temps (81-85F) than I would like and swapping out the Sylvanias gave me a bit of breathing room.

I'm interested to see the effect of the cal-mag plus. In hindsight, I think that my problems in my first grow actually began as a mg issue which morphed into a nitrogen deficiency. Interesting that it occurred at exactly the same point in each grow.

I really think this strain is really, really good from both cultivation and medicine (potency) perspectives but my suggestion to a grower would be to begin feeding Cal-mag Plus (or other) pre-flower.

That's it for now. Happy growing!

 

[Bayes]

Day-33

The magnesium deficiency I thought I detected on Day-29 was joined by a nitrogen deficiency on Day 30. This was on one plant only. It came on so sudden and spread so fast. When I was feeding them on Day 31, it became clear to me that my meter was not calibrating correctly and that in reality, my problem was actually being caused by too low pH. I will do a flush as a last resort but the affected plant seems to be responding well to pH increase and some Cal-mag Plus.

Here they are. The first image is of the healthy plant, the second two images are of the recuperating plant.


Comments and/or constructive criticism is always welcome --and appreciated.

 

[Bayes]

Day 51

Although I've been active on the forum, I certainly have not done a good job of staying current with my journal. My bad.

This has been an interesting grow that has had a few problems along the way. The most difficult was salt build-up which can be easily remedied IF you recognize it for what it is and quickly. If you don't (I didn't) you see the appearance of the FIRST deficiency and you jump all over it. Then the second deficiency presents itself and since the events are separated by 5-6 days, you think it is an unrelated deficiency and you jump all over THAT. And so it goes until you've royally screwed up your soil as you over-nuted and screwed up your soil but good. OK, I'm just a novice but my take on flushing is that it should be the last tool reached for in your tool kit. As the grow progresses, I'm much less likely to flush (3X ph water) if the deficiency isn't going to kill the plant in short order and prefer to do a series of heavy rinsing w/light nutes. This is what I did on this grow ...



Here they are at Day 51 (leaf color rarely recovers after a major problem

Plant #1





Plant #2




I like my grow cabinet, it works very well. I've even designed a light trap so I can dry virtually light free at the same time I have a early grow stage grow underway.

The biggest problem I have with the cabinet is its size. Although additional height would be nice, the killer is the square footage. At three square feet, I can only grow at most 2 plants at once and many strains would be a single plant grow. Here they are in situ.



I used to be a wine collector and in many ways, I would like to replicate on a smaller scale, the ability to offer choices in strains for my guests/friends. Unfortunately, my usage and limited space means I never will buildup the inventory to do this. I have to find additional space...

BTW, the reason why I converted a completely functional (and expensive) wine cabinet is that it was just sitting out in the garage unused.

Today is the fifth anniversary of my going sober. No slips whatsoever. So its a good day ...



Peace.

 

[faded187]

lookin good... AND HEY!!!! happy 5th anniversary brotha

 

[Bayes]

Thanks for stopping by, and a special thanks for your thoughtful congratulations regarding the personal side of things.

 

[GreenMahn]

Nice grow buddy! loving the look of your plants