On home stretch, 12+ wks flowering, looking gnatty!

[NewbieTed]

Good day, all,
Quick recap:
Soil grow FFHF
Photoperiod day 87 flowering
Still many buds w/ white pistils, clear trichomes

I've been having some fungus gnats all along, but they have not been heavy as I've been attempting to fight a war of attrition by squishing them-when I can get 'em. They're pretty wiley, they see my hand coming with the lights causing shadows of movement. I've been winning until now. I sit with them every morning with coffee, talking to them and squishing gnats. I've killed at least a dozen so far this morning. I give each plant a shake to disturb the gnats and kill the ones that land on the walls.

Last couple of days there have been more gnats. There were at least a dozen sitting on the tub walls when I opened the grow room this morning. Not coincidentally, the plant roots are still pretty moist 5 days after the last watering. I've read that at some point near the end, the girls will take substantially less water. I dug down a couple of inches in the soul and saw no wriggling larvae, so maybe there isn't a horrible infestation-yet.

The gnats aren't helping the gnarly appearance at all, but I know the adult gnats don't harm the plants, it's the larvae eating the roots.

There situation can be fixed by completely harvesting the rest, but I have so many buds still pumping out white pistils and mostly clear trichomes. Amber? Wutz dat?

I would like commentary and suggestions about my plan:
1) obviously, the soil needs to dry out pretty well to control the gnats and to not drown the roots.
2) continue to smash as many of the little buggers as possible.
3) continue with staged harvest until stuff is really, truly dying, while keeping a close eye (with loupe) on the buds. Yank as needed.

Am I risking too much by just pulling the buds that are ready and causing shade and waiting for the others to ripen? I've already gotten 202g from the girls and if I can wait long enough, at least that much more buds is still on the plants. Every day they are filling out more, still.

Thanks for comments and advice.

 

[growsince79]

What strain? They look well done from here. I see little/no gain in waiting longer. Some strains don't turn amber until its way over ripe.

 

[NewbieTed]

They are Lemon Jeffery, supposedly takes 60-70 days to flower.

But, but, but, the trichomes say they ain't ready? Hubby wants max THC levels if possible. I want maximum weight. I'm hoping to get over the 1g/watt ratio and if the buds keep gaining weight, that's more likely.

The LEDs make them look yellower (is that a word?) than they are. But they are on the light greenish-yellow side.

Ugh, stuck between colas and gnats...

 

[growsince79]

But, but, but, the trichomes say they ain't. Hubby wants max THC levels if possible. I want maximum weight. I'm hoping to get over the 1g/watt ratio and if the buds keep gaining weight, that's more likely.

Ugh, stuck between colas and gnats...

I see the strain now - it was supposed to be 63-70 days. Took a bit longer and ruined yield because it was abused so bad. THC is probably degrading now regardless of color, and it's not gonna gain another joint or 2 max..

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

I'm no expert in treating pests and others here I am sure will chime in, but I would say if you decide not to harvest now, get some of the yellow sticky pads to catch the gnats and diatomaceous earth will kill any larvae, but from what I understand you need to really let your soil dry out good for the top inches for it to work. If you are not overwatering, that should not be a problem.

 

[NewbieTed]

Growsince79, looking at your posts and experience, I think I will cut them over the next few days. Since I won't be trying to prolong the life of the plants for further growth, should I do the 48 hours of darkness first?

 

[growsince79]

Growsince79, looking at your posts and experience, I think I will cut them over the next few days. Since I won't be trying to prolong the life of the plants for further growth, should I do the 48 hours of darkness first?

Nothing to gain. I would have already cut by now and had new plants without gnats.

 

[NewbieTed]

Ooooh ooooh ooooh! I'm so excited! I have never had any success with any type of garden. Like I mentioned, I'm lucky to get 50-60% survival rate on tress and shrubs.

I'll post my weights when they're done drying.

 

[Og_punkgenetics]

Nothing to gain. I would have already cut by now and had new plants without gnats.

Some strains will throw pistols long after they are ripe if there are temp and humidity irregularities. Low intensity lighting can do the same. That said ive had a landrace sativa go 15 weeks.

 

[growsince79]

Some strains will throw pistols long after they are ripe if there are temp and humidity irregularities. Low intensity lighting can do the same. That said ive had a landrace sativa go 15 weeks.

Landrace Colombian 149 days 12-12 / 11-13

 

[Ponky]

Get some kitchen funnels. And 50 pound sack of diatomaceous earth. And insert the funnels into the soil. And put a 1 cm thick layer of DE on the top of the soil. Water into the funnels. Bam. No new gnats.

 

[NewbieTed]

Thank you for all your suggestions! I didn't cut it all (see pix below), I left enough to continue drying out the soil, my back will not let me pick up 7 gallon pots of wet soil. I'll keep an eye on them every day and they'll get no more water until they're dead. After weighing the buds, I examined each one with the loupe. Along with plenty of clear trichomes, I was gratified to see lots of cloudy trichomes. There were a good amount of amber ones, though I wished for more. I use cannabis for pain, sleep and restless leg syndrome and could use a bit more CBN.

But, I pulled off 581g wet. I only leave enough stem to measure moisture with the wood tester I put the buds in the Grove bags at 10-14% humidity. I do not trim sugar leaves. Hubby and I are children of the 70s and smoke (or I ingest) them. We never saw anything but shake until after the year 2000 or so. Buds? What are those? So, as long as I can harvest all the buds on the plants, I should get over 1g/watt dried, before curing. I would have been happy with just a couple of ounces for my first grow, so I'm incredibly pleased with myself.

Gnats lost their homes in the foliage, I'll be able to murder at my leisure now. Since it was an inside grow and I have no houseplants and this is a brand new home (8 months new), where did the bloody gnats come from?

Ponky, I will do that next time with the de. If I hadn't been applying Neem oil to foliage and drenching the soil into the beginning of flowering, how much worse would they have been?

One other thing I may wait for, depending on the condition of the plants: rodelization. I've stressed them so much and they haven't hermied on me yet, maybe I can push them even harder? I'm not planning another grow until this winter, so maybe I can leave one with a few buds to see what happens. I paid $6.80 a seed for my next grow, between my old lady discount and the freebies that came in the packs. But it would be cool to get my own seeds. Hubby likes the Lemon Jeffery.

I'll keep you all posted!
Ted

 

[Ponky]

Ponky, I will do that next time with the de. If I hadn't been applying Neem oil to foliage and drenching the soil into the beginning of flowering, how much worse would they have been?

Just a note about neem oil. It's been recently found to form toxic substances when burned and smoked. So canada doesn't let you have it anymore. if you pre treat before you get pests you can just dust with DE on the surface of the soil. And use a duster bulb to blast any soft bodied pests you see. I basically get to use one product. It's for garden fruits and vegetables. It's mild. Ideally you want a plant to be very dry between watering. A little droopy even. Keep the pests down and the plants happy. Nice job on the first one.

.

 

[NewbieTed]

I forgot to post the buds that I left on the girls. I figure a net ounce or a little more. The biggest mistake I made was doubling the fabric pots. I thought they would dry too quickly. I could have (and should have) watered less frequently, but I wanted to get nutes in more than once a week. Next time. I've got a whole list of things I'll be doing differently next time.
The bud is sad, but it's the biggest I got this time.

 

[NewbieTed]

"Just a note about neem oil. It's been recently found to form toxic substances when burned and smoked."

The last time they got Neem oil (foliar and drench was at the beginning of flowering, 11 weeks ago. Shouldn't it have dissipated by now? Not a problem for me as I only do edibles, but Hubby? I'd like to keep him around for a while.

Though one nice thing about getting old is that at some point you stop worrying about too many carcinogens. Something's gonna kill me.

Last detail- I was surprised by the number of foxtails. I guess it's a testament to the stability of these feminized seeds. They should have hermied as poorly as I treated them.

 

[NewbieTed]

This morning there were double of what I had yesterday. So I killed as many as I could in between sips of coffee.

I would have liked to buy or make my own sticky traps, but Hubby's away until later this week and we only have one vehicle. And it's too far to walk to the store. So I pulled out a couple of bright yellow dishes, poured some olive oil in them, covered the entire surface of the plates and voilà, sticky traps!

 

[Fuzzy_Buzzy]

I haven't had pests yet indoors but you can safely use neem CAKE in your soil, so the problem never occurs.

My tent has hella wind so no pest is surviving that.

 

[1989cheeseSOG]

plants will never ripen properly when they are yellow
they need to be green from the start to the end
easier said than done but its the goal

in soil gnats must never be a pb
if you water your soil properly the top layers of dirt dry out between the feeds and impede gnat larvaes to develop
pot are a bit oversized if you want my opinion, if it takes more than 3 days to dry out during bloom then there is too much substrate

 

[NewbieTed]

You're absolutely right on the oversized pots. It is interesting that the 3gallon pot got 1/3 less yield than the 7gallon pots. Just like I've read all over, the five gallon fabric pots are just the right size for what I want to grow.

I'm going to let the last few buds on the plant ripen a little more, mostly because the 7 gallon pots are still too heavy for me to pick up and bring outside. There are still a lot of green sugar leaves popping up on the popcorn buds with clear trichomes and new pistils. The pic I've been posting are under the LEDs and look yellower than they really are. If you scroll up and look at the photo with my drying buds, you can see that they are still pretty green. This morning, there were about six gnats on the walls, and below

you can see how many gnats were on each plate coated with olive oil. I will use some version of sticky traps on every grow in the future. My list of how things are gonna be done differently next grow is getting longer every day.

Besides, I'm up to 13+oz off the six plants. I don't think I'll yield three oz on what's left on the plants. But perhaps an ounce or so closer to a pound!

 

[harmonics]

I forgot to post the buds that I left on the girls. I figure a net ounce or a little more. The biggest mistake I made was doubling the fabric pots. I thought they would dry too quickly. I could have (and should have) watered less frequently, but I wanted to get nutes in more than once a week. Next time. I've got a whole list of things I'll be doing differently next time.
The bud is sad, but it's the biggest I got this time.
View attachment 1147346View attachment 1147353

Looks good! It’s always a learning experience for everyone; I love that there are great communities like this to help each other learn and improve our grows.

One thing I would suggest is leaving at the very least 2-3” between each Smartpot/ Grow bag (ideally more) if possible; as well as switching to 5 Gallons as you’ve mentioned. It will help all the plants dry more uniformly, and should help with overwatering/ fungus gnats.
Keep at it, best of luck!