Day #36 - Yesterday I decided to start removing lower branches that aren’t going to produce much. Planning to only remove 2-3 branches a day so the plant doesn’t freak out and continues focusing on bud production. Have removed six little lower branches so far and the plant hasn’t seemed to notice. These are the very lowest branches that only had a few bud sites and are a few feet down from the top of the canopy. Also continuing to remove upper fan leaves that are blocking bud sites up top. At this point I’ve got some pretty damn good light penetration on the upper canopy. Feeling good about this, I would also like to see these bud sites start to swell a little more but I think I’m just getting into that period of time with this GMO strain. From what I’ve read it should start to swell sometime during weeks 5-7 and I think I’m looking at an 11-12 wk total flower time with this one and it appears to be on track to produce some super sticky buds. Crossing my fingers.
Oh also, increased my light output today. Went from 850 to 875. I was at 750 at the end of my extended veg cycle. But the light is lower now, about 12” above the canopy, I’m outta height, along with the output being increased by 125 umol. Approaching the upper end of what this plant will be able to handle without added CO2. We’ll see how it does at 875 for a week.
Howdy Everyone. Been awhile since I’ve posted on the site. Have a grow room that I’m putting together. Room is a work in progress but it’s useable. Anyway, I started my first grow in there two months ago. And veg’d it that entire two months. The reasons for the extended veg had to do with setting up the automation system and learning to clone so that I could confidently throw it into flower knowing I had a mother and a few other clones to play around with. But I digress so back to this grow. It’s a single GMO clone from Archive in Portland. This is my first time growing inside, and only the 2nd time I’ve ever grown period.
Looks like you’ve put in a ton of effort into your grow room setup! That extended veg period really paid off—the plant sounds super robust with those dimensions! Nice choice with the GMO clone, too. Excited to see how she turns out in flower! Keep us posted on the progress!
Thank you! . Just finished tucking it again about 10 hrs ago. I’m gonna run outta space if I don’t keep it under control. I’m really not sure how much taller she’ll get but I’ve got less than a foot of vertical space left before my light will be way too close. Any advice is appreciated.
Today I cleaned the reservoir, water pump and small recirc pump that kicks on thirty minutes before each watering. Cleaned it all and then let it sit in a mild bleach water solution filly submerged for 15 min. Then I ran the solution through each pump and followed it all with plenty of clean water rinses and running clean water back through the pumps multiple times. Finished it by scrubbing some of the harder stuff off the sides of the reservoir with rubbing alcohol because it evaporates right off and no rinsing.
I also flushed the plant to correct some salt/buffer buildup in the coco. My run off was way low, 4.7, with an input of about 6.2 today. Not what I want. The two readings were way off. knew it must be from the buildup in the root zone which I do not want. I want my runoff to be super close to what I’m feeding it with regard to ph. Well I ran about nine gallons of RO water, didn’t ph balance it because I don’t believe you actually need to on a flush using RO water in my situation. The base ph of the RO water, before any additives, is 7.0. And I don’t really care that it’s a little high. I’m correcting a low reading and just flushing till I get the run off back in the sweet spot. Well I got it to 5.8 and when I ran my first new batch of solution through, starting with a ph of 5.8 my run off came in at 6.0. Most of these little differences in ph are due to the varying buffer concentrations in the coco medium. They always affect your input solution. Just needed to get them to a sweet spot again and I think I’m there. We’ll see how the plant reacts over the next few days. I put this off for a few too many days and probably should have done it sooner. Just takes so much damn work to flush the plant and properly clean the reservoir and equipment. But the roots should love living in their new ph balanced environment.
Removed some more leaves that were covering upper bud sites. Probably about 50 leaves total. Sounds like a lot but it’s not. The plant is huge. So in relation to total leaves it’s really not much. But I think I’m pretty much done removing upper leaves at this point. It’s pretty clear up there now. From this point forward for the next week or so will remove two small lower branches per day to redirect energy upward to to the larger bud sites.
Todays bud pics…..She just keeps getting stickier.
Todays bud pics…..She’s a slow one. But I think that’s just how it is with GMO from what I’ve been reading. She sure is sticky as heck. The buds have definitely gotten larger since I posted six days ago. But I truly believe at a tad over six weeks she’s just starting to enter the phase where she’ll start to really swell and pack on weight. And she should continue up until I harvest at about week eleven. So approximately five more weeks to go. That or my research is way off.
Oh! I also added a co2 grow bag. You can see it hanging in the first pic. Have another one on the way in about a week. This should allow me to increase light output without hurting the plant. I won’t go too high, but I have gone from 860 to 875 and I’d like to get into the 900’s when the 2nd bag arrives. These XL bags are supposed to be good for 36 sq/ft so two of them would do 72 sq/fy. My room is 10.5 x 6.5 = 68.25 which will be just about perfect.
So tell me what y’all think. Is she gonna fatten up??
I’m exactly seven weeks or 49 days since I flipped this plant to a 12/12 cycle. Since this is GMO I’m expecting an 11 week or 77 day flower (plus or minus a week). It seems that this girl is really just starting to get her legs under her with regard to the buds swelling. As you can see from the photos there is no shortage of trichomes on this girl. Super happy about how that part is progressing. Hoping that over the next four weeks she puts on a lot of weight. Assuming it’s a good sign that my stems, not only the ones on the leaves, but the actual stems are covered in trichomes in the pictures. At least I’m assuming those are Trichomes on the stems.
So I’m about nine weeks through the flower stage. I’ve got about three more weeks according to estimates for the GMO strain. Problem is my buds are not filling out very fast. They are absolutely covered in trichomes but tiny. Just barely starting to touch each other in some places but no real colas yet. And based on some leaf tip burning it looks like I had a case of nutrient burn that probably caused a nutrient lockout there for awhile. A week or so ago I flushed thoroughly to zero ppm and I’m making sure to water to run off about a quarter gallon of waste every night to make sure I’m not building up nutrients again during these last few weeks. All of this said what should my plan of attack be with feeding over the next few weeks? I’ve dialed it back to about 900 now. Was at about 1200-1300. Also, the trichomes still appear to be clear after nine weeks in flower. Is this normal for gmo or could the nutrient burn and subsequent lock out cause an even longer flower cycle? Which would be good because I can use all the time she’ll give me to fatten up those buds. Any help would be appreciated. What should I expect from here?
I'm sorry and this is just what I see and i've read your whole post 2x mainly cause you got that clone from Portland and i'm 3hrs south of you. Anyway she looks really stressed light and feedings almost looks like she stress hermied. I think this may be all she'll give you bud size wise. I've not grown this strain nor ever purchased clones. You have had a long road with her she got so much N and created alot of extra leaf an stems early on. I wish you so much luck bringing you some decent bud and she still may smoke well but i don't think size wise they'll get much bigger??
Appreciate this feedback. I'm a little curious about your mention of "stress hermied" and will look into it a little. I'm not seeing any pollen sacs and haven't seen any pollen at all. I do know to look for bananas but don't think I'm seeing any. I do see some yellow like hairs but I think those are normal color changes to the pistils but might be wrong. If you noticed something in the pictures that I'm missing please let me know so that I can look into it. I'm new to this, google & AI are my friend, but this is a fairly complex subject based on what I've been able to research so far after reading your post, hermaphroditic traits that is, and it can show in a number of different ways. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and offer up your analysis. I'll thoroughly research anything you throw my way. I'll get this figured out and it won't happen again if it's within my control.
Also, could you give me your take on the color of the pistils? Is this still considered "clear" or is she starting to get "cloudy"? I'm thinking clear.
* On a positive note it does appear that the buds are continuing to swell a little since I posted this a few days ago. No massive growth but she does have new growth and the trichomes are continuing to increase in size and quantity.
I'm sorry and this is just what I see and i've read your whole post 2x mainly cause you got that clone from Portland and i'm 3hrs south of you. Anyway she looks really stressed light and feedings almost looks like she stress hermied. I think this may be all she'll give you bud size wise. I've not grown this strain nor ever purchased clones. You have had a long road with her she got so much N and created alot of extra leaf an stems early on. I wish you so much luck bringing you some decent bud and she still may smoke well but i don't think size wise they'll get much bigger??
So here’s an interesting turn of events. I just finished week 11 of flower and my plant seems to have recovered from the nutrient burn. I was afraid the plant’s buds wouldn’t even start touching each other and forming larger nugs. Luckily not the case. Starting my first day of week 12 and the trichomes still appear clear and the plant seems to have started new fresh “pistils” on a lot of the buds. I’ve heard this is a thing with strains that flower for extended periods of time. The buds have now really started to swell from where they were at a few weeks ago and I’m seeing lots of new growth now in the bugs which I wasn’t seeing before. Going to have to wait and see how this turns out. She’s luckily giving me plenty of time to try and make up for the lost weeks when she was locked out of nutrient uptake during flower. So everyone cross their fingers and send some good vibes toward my plant.
Also, am I correct that this is still considered clear trichomes?
So here’s an interesting turn of events. I just finished week 11 of flower and my plant seems to have recovered from the nutrient burn. I was afraid the plant’s buds wouldn’t even start touching each other and forming larger nugs. Luckily not the case. Starting my first day of week 12 and the trichomes still appear clear and the plant seems to have started new fresh “pistils” on a lot of the buds. I’ve heard this is a thing with strains that flower for extended periods of time. The buds have now really started to swell from where they were at a few weeks ago and I’m seeing lots of new growth now in the bugs which I wasn’t seeing before. Going to have to wait and see how this turns out. She’s luckily giving me plenty of time to try and make up for the lost weeks when she was locked out of nutrient uptake during flower. So everyone cross their fingers and send some good vibes toward my plant.
Also, am I correct that this is still considered clear trichomes?