Second Grow - Going Hydro, Baby!

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They have grown at over two inches in 48 hours even though this is the start of week five since flip. They don't seem to be slowing their stretch down much, so I guess that means I'll get more yield, but if they don't knock it off, I'm going to have to do something with the lights. I think they may be too close as they are and I really don't have room to move them up any more. I could put the fan and filter outside, or I guess I really don't need the filter anyway. Or I could try some super cropping? Hopefully it won't come to that point and they'll stop growing up and start fattening the buds. I have to wonder if it's something I did that made them slow progression since the flip. No pistils on either plant for 17 days, and now they're still stretching relentlessly through four full weeks. I'm following the hydro feed chart for GH FloraTrio on Grow Weed Easy and keeping a close eye on ph and EC; VPD has stayed pretty good, although I'd prefer to get the humidity lower, but it's going to have to be what it is--around mid-fifties. My new dehumidifier just won't lower the basement any more than that. I'm interested to see how long before harvest now regarding the flip vs. first pistil dates.
They were getting really bushy again, so I did another defoliation last night. I can just see through them and a good deal more light is reaching the tent floor. It's been the most nerve-wracking aspect of my growing career. Next grow, I'm going to plant two of the same strain and run some experiments on a few differences. Maybe I'll be able to find some good clones from the same mother.
062325 Weed Growth
 
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Lorlabelle said:
Some of those trees in my pic are OG Kush, the biggest colas came from the OG last year. The others are Pineapple Express. I have been smoking for over 32 years, so my tolerance has grown over the years, parallel to the increase in potency. It's been 9 or 10 years since I have consumed alcohol, I much prefer to smoke. It's just something that I decided I didn't want to spend money on, nor do I like the taste. Alcohol reminds me of my regretful, hazy, self-medicating days. I also have paradoxical reactions to some meds, so while indicas are what are recommended for my conditions, sativas and hybrid sativas are what work best for me. I want to be functional and that's how I manage to be very productive and also mostly sane. If I were to down a vodka and cranberry today I would probably render myself completely inebriated with one drink, my tolerance is nil. Meds can mess with other meds, no matter the variety. Serotonin syndrome sounds similar to mania, without the euphoria. Mania is a familiar face, however much less seldom seen since age has caught up with me.

What is the EC? I haven't educated myself on hydro set-ups and protocols, so I am unsure for what that is an acronym. I haven't ever grown anything except photos. I have a few auto seeds that I want to try at some point, but I haven't done autos yet. I have a 6 plant limit, and since myself and another household member are medical card holders, our limit is 12 total. I stretch that limit indoors, but not outside.

If you take your phone camera and set it on 7x zoom, and get in close to the buds, you will be able to see the trichomes up close and be able to tell when they are ready for harvest. It takes a steady hand, I usually have to perch on a stool and use both hands on the phone, and turn off my fans for a moment, but when you get a clear pic it looks really interesting, and you'll be able to see the progression from clear to cloudy to amber. Your plants do look healthy. Bushy perhaps but healthy. I learned my lesson once about defoliating too much or too early, it's sort of something you just sometimes have to learn the hard way, along with not defoliating enough.

What is your PPFD in your tent? Are you using LEDs? I keep my vegging plants around 600ish, and in flower I crank it up to roughly 900. I took a pic of my outside set up today and the tiny plants that are started in my "cage". I just bought a new computer and it's been a learning curve to figure out transferring pics from phone to computer, but I am going to try. It's interesting to see the beginning photos because the ending photos look so vastly different.
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The plant in my tent on the left is an OG Kush. Is yours a special strain that grows into trees like that, or will they just get that big if left to grow unhindered? Unfortunately, I tend to prefer alcohol over weed, but I think that may just be from using alcohol to self-medicate all these years. Things are going pretty good now and I'm trying to make the adjustment from evening drinks to evening puffs. The problem I originally had with doing that was most of the stuff I was getting from the dispensary really made it difficult for me to talk coherently, much more so than I see in others who are way more baked than I get. However, the stuff I grew last time really doesn't affect my ability to talk nearly as much so I can still function in the household. I have definitely delt with paradoxical reactions, usually with very negative consequences. Serotonin syndrome is only similar to manias in that it makes it very difficult to sit still, but it feels like total shit, like being very physically ill. Luckily it usually doesn't last too long although I've wound up in the hospital with it a couple times. My manias now are hypo and I kind of look forward to them because I get a lot of shit accomplished around here. I just have to watch the pocketbook and the drinking, and things are usually okay--not at all like my twenties and thirties.

EC stands for electrical conductivity and it measures the amount of dissolved solids in a solution. Since the nutrient concentration in hydro is so critical, EC lets me keep an eye on how strong the nutrient solution going in is and also what's going on in the reservoir over time. For instance, at least through my understanding, if the EC in the solution goes up, then the plant is drinking more water than it's taking in nutes, so I'd need to lower the strength of the solution I top it off with or I'd start getting burn and perhaps lockout. It's been on the higher end of the recommendations and I'm just starting to get some leaf tip burn, so I've backed it down a tad.

I have a digital microscope that connects to my phone via WiFi that I used last grow to watch the trichomes, but I haven't broken it out yet. In a couple weeks the little auto outside will start getting close to harvest, so I'll use it then. I defoliated again last night. It was more difficult deciding which leaves to snip since they were all fairly young and small. I hope I did okay. At least they're alive this morning. I've definitely learned my lesson of not defoliating enough, so now I guess I'll just have to learn about defoliating too much, too often, or too late.

I use the Photone app on my phone and was keeping the ppfd at the canopy tops around 1000 since they started flowering, but I don't have much more room to raise the lights up and I think it's probably a good deal higher now. My goal this evening will be to get that under control. I may have to take the fan and filter out. When I bought the 7' tent I didn't think I'd have to worry too much about headroom, but here I am. I would be interested in seeing your plants' progression, especially the ones that'll get 9 feet tall.
 
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ajpapenfuss said:
Enough water left to still blow bubbles 🙂 must have got a little rough found a broken top
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Glad to see the plants made it through the drought and that they can stand low water for a little while. I've missed a day of topping off here and there, but now I won't be so stressed about it. That broken off bud looks like it would have been a beauty. It doesn't look ready for harvest though (or is it?). Will you be able to do anything with it?
If you have some pics of the progression of that plant, I'd love to see them, especially regarding training and defoliation.
 
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That bud I will smoke as her pictures all I have what's in my post I didn't really do any training and I just defoliated when it looked real bushy your plant is looking great I would just clean everything up on the bottom five or six inches
 
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I always let mine go at least 2 days sometimes three when we're going camping but that was the longest now I don't have to worry about it when I'm gone this weekend also I don't always feed it nutrients sometimes I just top it off with 10 L of water
 
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ajpapenfuss said:
I always let mine go at least 2 days sometimes three when we're going camping but that was the longest now I don't have to worry about it when I'm gone this weekend also I don't always feed it nutrients sometimes I just top it off with 10 L of water
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Definitely can't argue with results. That plant looks like it's going to give you a good yield of quality buds.
 
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Looks like the stretch might be coming to an end, but not before I had to move the fan outside the tent and zip tie the lights to the very top of the tent. Not another inch more room to raise them and it’s a 7 foot tent. Even after raising the lights, the stems of the plant on the left grew to about eight inches from the light and the tippy-tops of the buds were starting to get little bright white tufts on them. I hadn’t seen that before so I considered supercropping the stalks, but they were so woody I feel pretty certain I would have snapped at least one. Instead, I stretched out a few bungee cords and pulled those tall stalks to the sides. I’m still not quite sure why that plant stretched like that (maybe too little light? I had them close and turned all the way up) and I don’t really know how I could have gotten a more horizontal canopy other than scrogging, which I did my first grow and ran into some problems there too. I’ll have to do a little more research on training before my next grow, although I’m quite certain it will be a hydro run again.

Been doing reservoir changes every 6-7 days and topping off daily with water and nutes tailored to keep the EC to about 1.8-2.0. Pistils on Punch Pie on the right are just starting to turn a little orange now whereas the pistils on the plant on the left are still bright white and sticking straight out.

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Buds on the little Northern Lights auto are fattening up nicely, but the young plant is not liking its enormous pot and is growing very slowly. That was for a friend who wanted something leaning sativa, so I dropped another two auto seeds—hopefully just in time to be done in fall before the weather gets a little hostile. They’ll be going into five gallon fabric pots. The jury is still out on Ocean Forest though—I’m thinking I might try Happy Frog where I have a little more control of the nutrients the plant is getting. I’m finding that the faith required for soil is of a different variety than that needed for hydro.

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Greenadian

Greenadian

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Nice haul @ajpapenfuss 🤘🏼 big ol bucket of dank nugs!!!! 👊🏼

Hey........I gotta know!? WTF happened to that toe on your left foot??? 🤔
 
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