Chocolope Medical Grow 1st Journal

[driftset]

Hey guys! I'm new to thcfarmer and what better way to introduce myself than by showing my garden. :)I've been a medical marijuana patient for the last 5 years and have been growing for about a little over a year now. This would be my second indoor grow.

I actually had no intentions of growing until I got a part time job at a local hydroponics store. From there with the help of the customers and my boss I was able to learn the basics. Listening to what people tell you can only take you so far before you have to do something for yourself. From there I kept at it and here we are today!:)

I am by no means an expert grower. So i'm also looking for tips and pointers along the way.

I'm going to be documenting my DnA chocolopes in my 5000 watt flower room. You may notice in pictures I have other "projects" going on in the room. For my first grow journal I'm going to first focus on one of the tables because I want to give as in-depth of a look into what i'm doing and the results that come from my actions.

A little about the room:
Dimensions:15'x10'x12'
Lighting: 5000 watt hps (1000w for chocolope grow)
Air:Vortex 450cfm 6"/Vortex 170cfm 4"
Grow System:4x4 Flood and Drain w/40 Gal resi
Grow Medium:Rockwool 70% / Coco Chip 30% in 3 gallon "smart pots"
Base h20 ppm:12ppm (filtered well water)

16x DnA Chocolope Clones taken from 1st gen mother plant.

Nutrients:
Iguana Juice Veg
Advanced Sensi Bloom 2 part
Great White Shark
Big Bud
Overdrive
Gravity
Epsom Salts
Liquid Karma
Compost Tea


I have also 3 specific plants from the grow that I will be photographing each week by them selves to show individual growth.
This journal will begin from day 1 of flower.

Whats happened so far.
So I had the chocolopes in rockwool cubes for its first week of veg. It filled it out and I transplanted to a 3 gallon smart pot. When they were about 12-14" high. After they rooted into the 3 gals and the growth continued, I topped them. This shot the other branches up and gave me a very even canopy to work with. The two shortest plants were not topped.(one of them is being photographed individually) Now that I have filled the canopy i'm ready to bloom!

 

[RIVAL79]

Welcome 2 da farm bro! Chocolope is some fire. Good luck with ur grow. Keep us posted.

 

[driftset]

Chocolopes A. B. and C! B was one of the plants that did not get topped because of how tight the node growth at the top was.

During the veg I slowly trimmed off about the bottom 50% of the main branches. This I think is called "lollipopping" the plant. I trim pretty aggressively Artificial light intensity decreases by at least 50% every foot away it is from the plant. So I wanted a dense canopy and to clear out the bottom "sucker branches" because they won't produce any useable product. I also thought that air could flow a little easier and mold would be less of a problem

So my thought train was going: ok increase growth to top of main branches by cutting all the bottom leaves and stems off. Then top about a week and a half before bloom so the plant gets out of shock and continues vigorous growth. So far its worked :) I have short plants 15"-16" That have lots of lateral branching. NODES!!:)
Plant A

Plant B was lollipopped but not topped because when vegging the growth was very compact and it (and the other one that was not topped) wasn't growing vertically as fast as the others. So I decided to leave it. The nodes are very compact and I think i'm gonna end up with one huge cola!!

Plant C
During the veg I switched from iguana juice to sensi bloom. This was because this is my second grow and iguana juice is nasty for resi-based hydro set ups IMO. So now i'm having to add a lot more epsom salts for Mg.

I also started adding great white this run through, which has already shown immediate improvements to my root growth. Starting to go through the bags:)

 

[driftset]

Day 5

update. So day 5 of bloom. I had to take 4 plants out and put them under their own light. These things are filling in like crazy! Going forward I think i'm only going to put 12 plants per 4x4.

I changed up the compost tea. I'm using more budswell now to develop flowering sites.

The canopy is growing very evenly after I took the 4 plants out. I don't want them stretching for light.
Everythings going great so far. This looks to be my best one yet!

 

[driftset]

Day 16

Day 16. These chocolopes are freakin huge! I really didnt expect them to get this big. I've had to move 5 of them under a seperate 600watt light around day 7-8 because they were starting to grow like they were fighting for light. Lots of flowering sites. The ones that werent topped defenitely look better but we'll see because like I said, lots of flowering sites!

I've been feeding them half strength but do a resi change twice a week and they seem to be really happy with this feeding schedule. Plants look like they're loving life!

 

[bong bandit]

wow. the plants look great. i like the pruning job. hopefully you have a good photo shoot ready to post soon

 

[driftset]

Day 29

Day 29, Things are looking bomb! There was a snow storm here so i got a little worried about temps and humidity but everything worked out. I got a dial-a-temp so i can control my exhaust fan speed and that fixed it.

The chocolope gave me a little scare because it looked so far behind my other strains in the room, but i just checked and its usually a 9 weeker. During week 4, they didnt really grow, just got really triched up. I came in the room today and everything swelled up nicely:). These things got HUGE! Haha

I think the ones that have been topped are doing better. The untopped ones actually arent growing as vigorously as the topped plants.

I'm definitely going to keep this strain. I want to dial this thing in proper. Looks and smells awesome.

First two pics are topped plants. Next pic is untopped. The table pic is the 600watt light. Frost and color starting to come in!!

http://i1177.invalid.com/albums/x350/driftset32/IMG_0370.jpg
http://i1177.invalid.com/albums/x350/driftset32/IMG_0376.jpg
http://i1177.invalid.com/albums/x350/driftset32/IMG_0380.jpg
http://i1177.invalid.com/albums/x350/driftset32/IMG_0373.jpg
http://i1177.invalid.com/albums/x350/driftset32/IMG_0372.jpg
http://i1177.invalid.com/albums/x350/driftset32/IMG_0382.jpg

 

[micknacksrx]

great grow... im planning on choc too....

 

[greenking]

thank you for posting this grow, i just popped 6 of these beans and your thread is one of the only easy to find journals I could find. really appreciate you letting me see what i have to come in the next few months!