First time grower, have some questions

[JerzeyMike]

Looking great man! I am right around the same time frame as you with my girls. Im at day 32 or somethin. One thing I would suggest is some more defoliation. I like to take any fan leaves that are growing towards the center of the plant, and any that are covering bud sites. I try to never have leaves touching/laying on each other. Thats a great place for WPM to start growing. Looks great tho, especially for a first run! Congrats

 

[elusiveshame]

Looking great man! I am right around the same time frame as you with my girls. Im at day 32 or somethin. One thing I would suggest is some more defoliation. I like to take any fan leaves that are growing towards the center of the plant, and any that are covering bud sites. I try to never have leaves touching/laying on each other. Thats a great place for WPM to start growing. Looks great tho, especially for a first run! Congrats

Think it’s okay to defoliate this late? I’ve read in most places that you don’t want to after day 21.

I do agree though that I could’ve taken more off.

Edit: yeah, I’m at day 29/30 right now. I flipped fully to 12/12 on Halloween night, and the week leading up I reduced light time by an hour a day.

 

[JerzeyMike]

Nice! I just checked i flipped on the 29th. They were at ten weeks. I didnt really wanna veg that long, but we were moving and i thought itd be too stressful. I would def take a few more off, I will take a few or several anytime i see a bud being blocked or it being touchy Just watched another guy go through a crop with powdery mildew, and i sure as shit dont want any. Ive heard that avout day 21, but IMO all plants bloom cycle is different. Ive got two that look a week or two behind and they all started the same day.

 

[elusiveshame]

Nice! I just checked i flipped on the 29th. They were at ten weeks. I didnt really wanna veg that long, but we were moving and i thought itd be too stressful. I would def take a few more off, I will take a few or several anytime i see a bud being blocked or it being touchy Just watched another guy go through a crop with powdery mildew, and i sure as shit dont want any. Ive heard that avout day 21, but IMO all plants bloom cycle is different. Ive got two that look a week or two behind and they all started the same day.

Yeah, mine were going into week 8 from seed, but their height was about 18" on average, and I didn't want to risk running out of height (though now I know I could've gone a few more inches/another week or 2 longer).

And what you're saying makes sense. I'll remove a few here and there every few days over the next week or 2 so I don't cause too much stress on the plants.

Thanks!

Edit: Just snipped about 5-6 leaves off each plant. Mainly lower leaves that were pointing inward and some mid level leaves that were either blocking or just being blocked. Will keep a close eye and snip more in 2 or 3 days.

 

[JerzeyMike]

Just picked a few off of one of the girls. This is sour purple diesel (bagseed). I try to be able to just see through the canopy somewhat.

 

[elusiveshame]

Just picked a few off of one of the girls. This is sour purple diesel (bagseed). I try to be able to just see through the canopy somewhat.

AH okay! Thanks for showing that - it really helps to see :)

 

[elusiveshame]

Today’s pics:

Removed another 3 leaves from the right plant.

Still waiting for the soil to dry on the left plant. Might be by the end of the day, other than that, the buds be getting thicc

 

[elusiveshame]

Today’s pics:

Canopy top view

Some side shots

And lastly, a few buds:

Still doing light trimming here and there. At this rate, I might be done by harvest time

Bottom/right plant will likely need watering today. Top/left plant was watered yesterday.

 

[elusiveshame]

The girls just went to bed and I spent all afternoon updating my tent setup.

First, pics of the canopy and daily bud shot:

For the tent - I reran all of the external wires to mount and tuck them on the side of the tent on the wall. This still needs some work, but it’s better than laying on a laundry basket.

Next, I took down all of the heavy curtains that I would flop over the alcove during dark hours to minimize potential light leaks.

Then I put up a rail system for a sliding door. The previous owner had left behind a door that was on a hinge at one point, but the layout of the basement doesn’t really work with such a large door swing out. I put that on the rail system and reinforced the back side with 2x4’s.

And lastly, I took the fan and put it on the inside wall next to the tent.

I’m going to order a rubber mat and use that as a door skirt, then line the edges of the door with weather strip to really make sure no light gets in.

I’m not too worried about under the door for light leaks at the moment. I don’t think any light will get in currently.

 

[elusiveshame]

So as it turns out, I had some random materials lying around, so this morning I made the door skirt and added 2 pieces of shelf wood that was laying around and made a stopper so the door won’t sink into the opening. I also put a 2x4 across the floor and left a space to run cables through.

Then I tossed on a pair of black pegboards I had laying around, so I’ll be hanging up all of my growing tools and accessories there.

Here’s the near final product:

That knob on the bottom will be getting removed one the door handles arrive.

For the plants, here’s the canopy:

I did a fair amount of defoliating today as well:

Now I have to go air out my house

 

[RootsRuler]

I like how you repurposed stuff around the house to improve your growing experience. You're canopy looks good and the girls seem very happy!! Good Job!

 

[elusiveshame]

I like how you repurposed stuff around the house to improve your growing experience. You're canopy looks good and the girls seem very happy!! Good Job!

Thanks! I try to use as much as I can before I decide to toss it. Plus it almost gives a secret lab vibe lol

 

[elusiveshame]

I didn't end up posting any pics yesterday since everything is more or less the same.

Now, I sadly have some somewhat sad news about the plants. At least one of them became a late stage hermie. I suspected that was happening last week as I saw what I thought was a "yellow" pistil. I didn't pay attention much over the last few days, but today a bunch of buds had them popping out.

I'm not too upset by this, though it does sort of reinforce me strongly disliking those velcro paneled windows, as I'm sure there was some light leaks in there due to that (and me not covering the tent with a curtain prior to lights out). I suppose it could also be genetics considering it's just bag seed, or maybe the pruning I did so late into flowering. It's tough to say for sure, but since I noticed it prior to the last pruning, I'm hesitant to blame it on that.

That said, I'm going to continue til harvest since I'm right near the end (week 6, so another 3-4 weeks). I'm not sure how much time it'll give the hermie to pollinate itself or the other plant (I don't see anything showing signs of hermaphroditism in the other plant, but I can't just pull it out and inspect the places I can't see due to it being scrog'd), so maybe there won't be enough time for it to create a ton of seeds and/or pollen. I did try to pull some of the bananas off, but I think that's just going to be an exercise of futility, especially if the male parts are growing inside of the buds.

The pollinated branches are basically moot at this point since I can't confirm if it was the pollen I used, or hermie pollen. The seeds (if any are viable) will just be a test grow outdoors in the spring.

I'll post some pics a little later. I still may try to pluck all the bananas I can see in the meantime.

 

[elusiveshame]

You can see them starting to poke out.

I went through and pulled all the ones I could see with tweezers. Some broke in half. Ooops. Otherwise there weren’t that many, and only on the top buds.

 

[elusiveshame]

Today’s pics:

I plucked out all the nanners I could see yesterday and I haven’t see any new ones pop out.

The last pic is from the plant that had the nanners. Hopefully s/he looks okay still.

Since the other plant hasn’t hermied, I’m thinking it’s either genetics, or there was a light leak on that side of the tent (unsure how, but I suppose it’s possible). I guess it could be from mid flower pruning, but both plants were treated the exact same, so if it is something I did to cause it, one plant is much more resistant to herming than the other.

I’ve also read that females can start to herm towards the end of flowering to try and pollinate itself, but I think I’m still a few weeks too soon for that to happen.

Let me know your thoughts on it.

 

[JerzeyMike]

Balls! That sucks man. I just found a male yesterday in veg. But for me rhats part of growing from seed. Its a chance. Hermi s suck tho because you keep going over “ why did this happen” ive heard of pulling them and see what happens, maybe youll get lucky?
They look great tho.

 

[elusiveshame]

Balls! That sucks man. I just found a male yesterday in veg. But for me rhats part of growing from seed. Its a chance. Hermi s suck tho because you keep going over “ why did this happen” ive heard of pulling them and see what happens, maybe youll get lucky?
They look great tho.

Yeah, exactly. Since these are bag seeds, it's impossible to really tell what's genetic and what isn't. If 1 plant is doing it and the other isn't, but both have been treated the same and have been in the same environment for the whole time, it leads me to believe it's genetics. I had another plant that hermied about halfway through veg, so that's another reason why I'm leaning towards genetics. Just a weak or easily over stressed strain.

If there are seeds on either plant, I'll do some growing outdoors with them, but my next indoor grow I think I'm going to go with white widow reg fem seeds. This way if they do hermie, they *should* just produce more female seeds so it'd be a win/win for me.

 

[JerzeyMike]

Sounds like a plan. I had three outdoor seasons before moving indoors, I miss growing those monsters! Ugh i was checking my epoxy og this morning and noticed ive got spider mites! First time, so i cut all i saw damaged off, and hit soil with DE. Hopefully i caught it early enough its not a big problem. Bastards!

 

[elusiveshame]

Well, I haven’t seen any new nanners appear. I did a light misting on the canopy with water this morning just in case, even though I read nanners can pollinate without opening in these scenarios, as well as them potentially being sterile.

Regardless, it still looks good and smells good, so I’ll keep on as if it didn’t herm and hope for the best. There’s some purple coming in on the buds, so s/he might put on some nice coloring in the next few weeks.

Still no nanners on the other plant, and everything looks fantastic.

 

[elusiveshame]

Here’s the pics of the hermie:

Here’s pics of the other gal:

And the canopy: