My Return to Growing by BudRanger!

[BudRanger1919]

Reducing hours of light progressively for starting flower doesnt speed up the process, its safer but it makes it slower. Swaping directly to 12/12 makes the plant produce chemicals that tell her its flower time so all that time youre reducing from 18 to 13 or 12, youre wasting it in my opinion.

Hey there! Thanks for your input man, I have always been doing the flip suddenly, I was surprised to hear there were other options. I'm going to keep doing research before I have my next seeds in pots, but for now I just did the sudden flip 2 days ago.

By the way, any form of kelp is very effective against stress. If youre not using kelp during your swap you should, it has 11 vitamins, natural hormones, a ton of minerals and a ton of aminoacids, its the ultimate stress killer. You can top dress it (not as effective but good), mix it in liquid form with the water (more effective) or, even better, if the liquid you have says you can use it foliar, definetely use it foliar (the most effective but only can be done until the pistils show up).

Well that is good news I am using High Powered Organics living soil, an Australian brand of soil and I went with their line of powdered products to mix with water, as well as top dressing etc. Once per week I add a dose of "seaweed/kelp/algae" extract called Green Supreme which they claim is great for stress. It also can be used as a foliar spray, and they recommend its use as a spray. There is a version for veg (Green Supreme) and a version for flower (Ocean Potion) and they both have kelp amongst other things. For the next 2-3 weeks I am going to be tucking and weaving, so I think I might mix up a batch of Green Supreme as a foliar spray. I never usually do foliar sprays outside of clones, but I would like to give it a go.

Oof sorry for the third post, I swear its my last for now hahaha but you guys in the USA have very shitty seeds Im sorry to say.

Haha man, its even worse than you think.. Its even worse you can trust me on that lol. I'm in Australia, and would you like to know how well our seed banks are doing? Get a load of this..

About 10 years ago or more, they all of a sudden started hunting down seed banks operating with online stores within the country. One day it was just ON and the cops were cracking down hard. They are illegal in this country, but, they never went after them. One day for whatever reason it becomes a LOT easier for them to find these people and arrest them, and they do. They find the top major seed banks owners, where they operated from, where their stock was, you name it. They arrest them and seize all of their financial records with all their past customers (yes that really happened!) and ever since then "seed banks" in Australia have been a joke. If you research Australian seed banks you'll notice mostly unhappy customers people in Aus now would rather risk pissing off customs by importing seeds than trust an Australian seed bank.

I had to get my seeds off a trusted breeder who works with other vendors all over the world and orders in their stock personally for re-sale. He also releases crosses with other breeders as little collaborations. It took me about 2 weeks to even find out where to buy good seeds in this country there were 3 good vendors to choose from but only 1 of those vendors had a stellar record so I went with him.

and what that one entire day of darkness is doing exactly?

Id like to know this too actually! I have never really been a part of a community like this before so I never knew why some people did this and I never asked.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Went in to do a bit of net tucking. Before I tuck some of the branches I will need to wait for them to grow a little longer, but I managed to tuck 2 branches and fixed a 3rd, one of the tucks in the picture below. A tuck I did at the back was being shaded by a fan leaf so I removed the leaf.

I was also a bit unhappy with the clutter below the canopy, so I removed a number of large fan leaves that were blocking airflow, though I could have removed more. I prefer to wait until a few weeks so I can remove it all at the same time.

I am very happy with the pictures my camera is taking now! Every image looks the same and in correct colour and light! I fixed it!

 

[Eledin]

and what that one entire day of darkness is doing exactly?



wait- are w still in BudRanger diary?

I think all I said except the shitty seeds part is something he might wanna know.
"and what that one entire day of darkness is doing exactly?"
I explained it in the post, but if you want it I can explain it differently. Why do you reduce hours of light at the end of the grow? Because you wanna speed up maturity right? So the 1 day of darkness before flower follows the same principle. During the first day of flower they will have twice as much darkness which will make it very apparent to them that is flower time and some plants that might be a bit lazy when going into flower speed up (Thats because when theyre in the dark for 12 hours or MORE theyre CONSTANTLY sending signals to the plant to start with the flowering process. Is it scientifically proven that theyre constantly sending those signals as long as theyre in the dark for 12 hours or more? Yes. Is it good? Depends, if your plant is already stressed or is not healthy then probably not. Mine didnt seem to mind the 1 day of darkness.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Its all good I love conversation happening I used to just run a journal in a wordpad document and this is way better lol!! Its nice to be in a place where people can go back and forth on ideas.

That makes sense with the 24 hours of darkness, Ill give it a shot on my next run. Wont be far away, about 4 weeks until I pop those seeds.

Speaking of conversation! With soil, when do you guys give the first top dress in flower? Some people say at week 2, some say at week 3. My guide says to put it in at week 2, and its a "balanced" top dress so a bit of veg, not "flowering" top dress yet.

 

[Eledin]

Hey there! Thanks for your input man, I have always been doing the flip suddenly, I was surprised to hear there were other options. I'm going to keep doing research before I have my next seeds in pots, but for now I just did the sudden flip 2 days ago.

Well that is good news I am using High Powered Organics living soil, an Australian brand of soil and I went with their line of powdered products to mix with water, as well as top dressing etc. Once per week I add a dose of "seaweed/kelp/algae" extract called Green Supreme which they claim is great for stress. It also can be used as a foliar spray, and they recommend its use as a spray. There is a version for veg (Green Supreme) and a version for flower (Ocean Potion) and they both have kelp amongst other things. For the next 2-3 weeks I am going to be tucking and weaving, so I think I might mix up a batch of Green Supreme as a foliar spray. I never usually do foliar sprays outside of clones, but I would like to give it a go.

Haha man, its even worse than you think.. Its even worse you can trust me on that lol. I'm in Australia, and would you like to know how well our seed banks are doing? Get a load of this..

About 10 years ago or more, they all of a sudden started hunting down seed banks operating with online stores within the country. One day it was just ON and the cops were cracking down hard. They are illegal in this country, but, they never went after them. One day for whatever reason it becomes a LOT easier for them to find these people and arrest them, and they do. They find the top major seed banks owners, where they operated from, where their stock was, you name it. They arrest them and seize all of their financial records with all their past customers (yes that really happened!) and ever since then "seed banks" in Australia have been a joke. If you research Australian seed banks you'll notice mostly unhappy customers people in Aus now would rather risk pissing off customs by importing seeds than trust an Australian seed bank.

I had to get my seeds off a trusted breeder who works with other vendors all over the world and orders in their stock personally for re-sale. He also releases crosses with other breeders as little collaborations. It took me about 2 weeks to even find out where to buy good seeds in this country there were 3 good vendors to choose from but only 1 of those vendors had a stellar record so I went with him.

Id like to know this too actually! I have never really been a part of a community like this before so I never knew why some people did this and I never asked.

Same here, I always done the swap suddenly and never had a problem. I only tried the 1 day of darkness once so I will need to try it a few times before I determine if its worth doing it.
Heck yeah! Jackpot then if your kelp can be used foliar!
About the australian seed banks situation, I had no idea thats sad, I hope it gets better and Im glad you had a plug to get good seeds.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Heck yeah! Jackpot then if your kelp can be used foliar!

I will do this then, I have seen lots of people use kelp products as foliar sprays too. On the website there are dosages etc so I will check their before I make it, and Ill do it at lights out.

About the australian seed banks situation, I had no idea thats sad, I hope it gets better and Im glad you had a plug to get good seeds.

Yeah I hope one day it will be easier to secure seeds. Thankfully I did a bit of research before I made my purchase this time and I used the opportunity well. I spent quite a bit, and I secured good seeds, but I have them stored correctly this time they are in packets, in a mason jar with a cup of rice. I still need to buy a bar fridge to keep 1/2 of them in as I wont be using them for 3+ years. I have regs that I plan to do breeding with but wont be touching for a while.

 

[Eledin]

Its all good I love conversation happening I used to just run a journal in a wordpad document and this is way better lol!! Its nice to be in a place where people can go back and forth on ideas.

That makes sense with the 24 hours of darkness, Ill give it a shot on my next run. Wont be far away, about 4 weeks until I pop those seeds.

Speaking of conversation! With soil, when do you guys give the first top dress in flower? Some people say at week 2, some say at week 3. My guide says to put it in at week 2, and its a "balanced" top dress so a bit of veg, not "flowering" top dress yet.

Great! The more people that try the 24 hour method the sooner we will know if its worth doing or not. My friend swears by it and he works with clones, so it should be even more noticeable with seeds since they are different phenotypes and hence not all go at the same pace necessarily. (Not even clones but its way more likely that most of them are gonna go at the same pace)
About the top dressing well it depends when you gave the last one I would say and how often its recommended by your brand. The thing I can help you with is this, during the first 3 weeks of flower they stretch a lot like I told you so thats why people give them either veg nutes or 50-50 veg bloom nutes during that time.

 

[Eledin]

Oh and about the top dressing at week 2 or 3 I wouldnt put much veg nutes. at week 2 they only have 1 week to use them and top dressing will keep releasing those nutes for 3 weeks more or less. So it makes no sense to me to give her veg nutes for 3 weeks when she only has 1 week or a couple of days of stretching.
EDIT: My bad I thought I explained initially what the 24 hours of dark do before but I probably deleted it when I was doing the post before I posted it because it was already too long. Sorry.

 

[BudRanger1919]

About the top dressing well it depends when you gave the last one I would say and how often its recommended by your brand. The thing I can help you with is this, during the first 3 weeks of flower they stretch a lot like I told you so thats why people give them either veg nutes or 50-50 veg bloom nutes during that time.

Oh and about the top dressing at week 2 or 3 I wouldnt put much veg nutes. at week 2 they only have 1 week to use them and top dressing will keep releasing those nutes for 3 weeks more or less. So it makes no sense to me to give her veg nutes for 3 weeks when she only has 1 week or a couple of days of growth.

Well I gave them a veg top dress 2 weeks ago. The top dress I have for week 2 is meant to be half veg-flower blend. It has less N, more P and K than veg version. Its an inbetween that I guess is meant to be used for the stretch, so maybe I should put it in this week?

 

[Eledin]

Well I gave them a veg top dress 2 weeks ago. The top dress I have for week 2 is meant to be half veg-flower blend. It has less N, more P and K than veg version. Its an inbetween that I guess is meant to be used for the stretch, so maybe I should put it in this week?

Well they still have 1 week more or less of your last top dress nutes, but since top dressing usually lasts for 3 weeks if you wanna add it now do it, just extract 1/3 of the dose (because you still have 1 week from the last top dressing out of 3) and then after the 3 weeks go full bloom. Thats what I would do. That way youre way less likely to over feed them and if theyre hungry you can always add more. But for corrections like that I would use liquid nutrients as they act way faster. I do super soil, then top dressing and then I push to the max with organic liquid nutes. If you only top dress it is very difficult to find the maxium ammount of nutes the plant can tolerate, it takes a bit to show if the plants liked it or not and is more risky to overfertilize with top dressing as flushes are not gonna be nearly as effective if you fuck up with too much. With liquid nutes I augment slowly until I burn a couple of tips then I know she had a bit too much last time I adjust to the previous dose. Same if I see any leaf with signs of too much nitrogen.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Oh I think I missunderstood, I thought you were gonna mix 50-50. So its a blend that is already prepared for the initial phase of flower? In that case yeah go ahead, I assume the brand knows what theyre doing.

Yeah that is my bad sorry! Yeah there are 2 main versions, veg and flower. But they also had available an "early flower" version at the store which is balanced for the stretch of early flower, and as I got a good price I put it in the cart lol.

Well they still have 1 week more or less of your last top dress nutes, but since top dressing usually lasts for 3 weeks if you wanna add it now do it, just extract 1/3 of the dose (because you still have 1 week from the last top dressing out of 3) and then after the 3 weeks go full bloom. Thats what I would do. That way youre way less likely to over feed them and if theyre hungry you can always add more.

That is a good plan, I like it, I will do this! Thanks a lot for your help. It was 2 weeks + a few days, so they will probably appreciate it. Ill give them 2/3 of a dose before their next water and make sure to work it into the top soil.

 

[Eledin]

Sorry I have a bad tendency of editing my posts a lot, not only because my grammar is bad and I realize after reading it 2 or 3 times but also because I keep forgetting details. Anyway hahaha yes that sounds good but if the last top dressing has more than 2 weeks (I thought it was more like 2 exact weeks) I dont think youre gonna overfeed them with a full dosage, but if you wanna be careful thats fine too, you can always add the next top dressing sooner if you start seeing yellowing on the lower leaves. (Not the ones that the plant discards because theyre old and they get no light but the healthy ones that get light)

 

[BudRanger1919]

But for corrections like that I would use liquid nutrients as they act way faster. I do super soil, then top dressing and then I push to the max with organic liquid nutes. If you only top dress it is very difficult to find the maxium ammount of nutes the plant can tolerate, it takes a bit to show if the plants liked it or not and is more risky to overfertilize with top dressing as flushes are not gonna be nearly as effective if you fuck up with too much. With liquid nutes I augment slowly until I burn a couple of tips then I know she had a bit too much last time I adjust to the previous dose. Same if I see any leaf with signs of too much nitrogen.

Yeah I have the soil brand powdered products (fertilizers, rhizos) that I feed every other water for the soil, but they are just food for the soil mostly. Although I give them a full dose, I only give them those products every other water. Its meant to keep the soil providing food for your plant, I am still learning it all haha.

Sorry I have a bad tendency of editing my posts a lot, not only because my grammar is bad and I realize after reading it 2 or 3 times but also because I keep forgetting details. Anyway hahaha yes that sounds good but if the last top dressing has more than 2 weeks (I thought it was more like 2 exact weeks) I dont think youre gonna overfeed them with a full dosage, but if you wanna be careful thats fine too, you can always add the next top dressing sooner if you start seeing yellowing on the lower leaves.

LOL Its okay! Well it is week 1 of flower, and I gave them water 2 days ago. I think by the time they dry out they will be the nearish the end of week 1, so it will have been over 3 weeks, so maybe a full dose will be all good in that case. Thanks for your help man, my strain I am running at the moment will be a stretcher so I think getting ahead of it will be best.

 

[Eledin]

Yeah I have the soil brand powdered products (fertilizers, rhizos) that I feed every other water for the soil, but they are just food for the soil mostly. Although I give them a full dose, I only give them those products every other water. Its meant to keep the soil providing food for your plant, I am still learning it all haha.

LOL Its okay! Well it is week 1 of flower, and I gave them water 2 days ago. I think by the time they dry out they will be the nearish the end of week 1, so it will have been over 3 weeks, so maybe a full dose will be all good in that case. Thanks for your help man, my strain I am running at the moment will be a stretcher so I think getting ahead of it will be best.

Sounds good! And no problem, as you can tell I like talking about weed hahaha and I learned a lot in this forum thanks to more experienced growers than me and also while trying to help other people and doing research when needed.

 

[Sunin]

and I like reading you talking about weed
I have kelp in sensicalmag+ - just loaded 25L with water into greedy piglets. Kelp good sztuff

I used to just run a journal in a wordpad document and this is way better lol!! Its nice to be in a place where people can go back and

I am the same- stopped physical form of journal. just major things marked in calendar. For rest of info what I did & when I come here

I secured good seeds

I was looking at Kyphi V2 from the guy that bred your ladies. Did you ever grow it?

I explained it in the post, but if you want it I can explain it differently.

I understand that it is to induce the response. Still- in nature 24h eclipse doesn't happen before flowering
I shall research that. Seen here and there about 24h of darkness before flower. Mixed feelings. Had friend that was swearing by it at the end of the cycle not start
And you say- time of flowering is shorter with this 24 according to you? by how much comparing?

 

[BudRanger1919]

I was looking at Kyphi V2 from the guy that bred your ladies. Did you ever grow it?

This is my first run from Heavy Dayze, but I DO have that strain! I have not run it yet, but my next grow will be his Kir Royale and I am hoping to find a "Ribena" pheno they speak of. I have 8 other strains from him, but the Kir Royale is gonna be my next one. I have heard his Kyphi's are the bomb though!!! I see a LOTS of posts in his discord about Lane Cove and Kyphi.

 

[Sunin]

This is my first run from Heavy Dayze, but I DO have that strain! I have not run it yet, but my next grow will be his Kir Royale and I am hoping to find a "Ribena" pheno they speak of. I have 8 other strains from him, but the Kir Royale is gonna be my next one. I have heard his Kyphi's are the bomb though!!! I see a LOTS of posts in his discord about Lane Cove and Kyphi.

Got nice dried bud from my friend and it did knock the socks off me. Would be nice to have a jar with note- "not when you have to do something!"
Then I looked at the plant and it's so beautiful Kir Royale too.
Thinking about running purple next time

 

[BudRanger1919]

Got nice dried bud from my friend and it did knock the socks out of me. Would be nice to have a jar with note- "not when you have to do something!"

I have 1 jar of that kind of stuff right now I cant touch it before bed. My medical script runs out around the time I should be dried and cured my current grow, and I am hoping his Grifter can put me to sleep!

Then I looked at the plant and it's so beautiful Kir Royale too.

I am pretty happy with his seeds so far, I did a lot of looking on his community discord to see people growing out his strains and now I am looking forward to dropping those seeds a lot more. But I only have 1 flower tent and Ill be vegging 10 seeds in my veg 4x4, so I have to wait until week 3 of flower before I pop them or I will run out of room lol. I am probably going to grow 2 more of Heavy Dayze strains before I try another breeder of which I have a few to choose from now.

 

[Eledin]

I understand that it is to induce the response. Still- in nature 24h eclipse doesn't happen before flowering
I shall research that. Seen here and there about 24h of darkness before flower. Mixed feelings. Had friend that was swearing by it at the end of the cycle not start
And you say- time of flowering is shorter with this 24 according to you? by how much comparing?

More than making flowering faster (a few days at most) is so they all start at the same time (so you dont have plants with different harvest times occupying your indoors preventing you to start the next badge). The 1 to 3 days of dark before harvest is suposed to boost terpenes since the plant uses the dark cycle to restore terpenes that evaporate during the day. I do that aswell, does it work? Im not sure but I could swear they are smellier after 1-2 days of dark before harvest. Meantime, the beforementioned friend says he notices nothing different with that technique, so I dont know for sure either. Going back to the 1 day of dark before the change of cycle, the plants will do what they do at dark as long as they are at dark, they recognize that light should have appeared but since they cant do day activities they keep doing night activities. In the case of realizing its time to swap, that night activity is basically triggering flower with chemicals. You can easily tell that they keep doing night activities if you for example forget to put the timer in auto and they dont have light, if you open the tent even if they were suposed to be doing day activities they will be "sleeping" with the caracteristic slightly droopy leaves. Also I never said it works , I said my friend uses that technique and I used it in my current grow and only one is slightly behind and they didnt get stunted or anything, not overly stressed, eating as usual too. That said, it could have been pure luck, with just 1 try I cant tell you it works, he swears by it and I trust him enough to try it, his weed is really, really good. Perhaps its just in his mind, but I figured its worth the shot.

 

[Eledin]

Ah yes, what I said is scientifically proven is just that, that plants will keep doing night activities if they lack light. Im not saying this method is scientifically proven but since the previous thing is, this must have some truth in it. And besides the chemicals they release when they realize they have to swap to flower, the fact that light is not present makes them also work faster the same way that if you reduce 1 or 2 hours of light they will mature faster. Thats what you do aswell, tricking them into thinking they have less time than they actually do so they hurry up. Im not a fan of reducing lights at the end because that can impact the quality of the buds BUT Ive done it when Ive been in a hurry.