Want To Bulk Up My Buds!

[homebrew420]

Sin do yourself a favor, and ditch the diy co2 it will not provide anything other than yeasty stink. With a 400w you will want an even flat canopy no more than 12". Light pentration and proper coverage in this situation are key. Thinning is very important, remove all of the first 2-3 nodes on every branch from the begining of veg. You will see faster growth and easier managment later into flowering. Uniformity will be a great ally. If you interested I can direct you to much less wxpensive way of growing, non organic.
As for the question at hand, keep them healthy and well fed. Bloom boosters add very little bulk from my experience. I will know for certain by years end with multiple experiments in a large production med warehouse. If you decide to use bloom boosters use them sparingly. These AREthe reason people need to flush. If you feed every time with lowrr salts 600-750 you will see no decrease in yield and so long as you nute ratios are good something around 2-1-3, 2-1.5-3 will be the key to the cleanest burning meds you can grow. Lower levels of phosphorous are going to work as good as adding more thant the plant can use.
Just my 2cents.
I would like to add garden looks nice. Nothing to be dissapointed about. Wish I had an understanding of plant nutrition then. Keep up the good work and dont get discouraged by problems, most can be solved without panic.
Peave

 

[the rrock]

MOAB!!!

 

[LexLuthor]

.....and GRAVITY!!!


Just joking

 

[ooS0uPoo]

BUY BUY BUY........J/K!!!!!!

Dude, Smoke a bowl.......k? Good.... phew!

Your plants look good, those babies are still a ways away from being ready to cull. This is not an impatient mans sport kid. Thats why we ALL pay the big bucks for good genetics... cause it takes time to weed out the keepers. Its hard right cause its your first grow and you've put time in, Maybe more time than you care to admit but believe me, time is the answer. Forget about C02, as Squiggly posted your temps are too low Definitely worry about that first. Forget about buying more shit to shove down her throat. Just be patient meh, they will fatten up in time! -S0uP

 

[Sinner D]

Okay. So I gotta say, I kinda wish I would've read this a bit sooner. But all I bought to add to my next generation of plants (their Grand Daddy Purple, in their 5th week of flowering) is some Kool Bloom. It's a bloom booster made by GH, which is why I got it. Fortunately, I only bought a little bottle of this stuff, because I was NOT going to pony up $40.00 for a canister of this or anything with a picture of Godzilla, or a Hindu goddess, or some other commercialized looking burner out there. I'm sure some people swear by this, but I'm very happy that I've switched to a reliable organic brand (for now at least). I'm currently using General Organics and I'm certainly not too disappointed with the buds where they are right now. After reading what everything Homebrew420 wrote above, I can say that one thing this current grow does not have is a uniform canopy. The three GDP's that I now have in my grow tent are uniform but one. She's a bit smaller than the other two. I'll post some pictures of these ladies tomorrow if I have a chance. It'll probably be the evening. But the Co2 from yeast, it hasn't stunk up the place, however, I can tell ya that I really don't think it is adding a whole hell of a lot of bulk. I just mixed some, oh, a week ago, and from what I can tell, they've done all the bulking on their own or with the help of the nutrients. Since I'm new to this, I really couldn't say without a doubt that the yeast concoction has worked at all. But it was cheap and worth a shot. I'll discontinue.
The idea of cutting off the leaves is always hard for me to do. I know this sounds wuss, but from day one all I can think of is Jorge Cervante saying "Don't cut off any leaves. This is not necessary, and will only take from your plant." I'm pretty sure it went something like that. It was in one of Jorge's famous YouTube video's. But after looking at many other growers op's, I noticed a lot of pruners out there. I was just totally unsure what would take from flower production, or mess with plant hormones too much, and what would be acceptable to remove. I will consider only the first 2-3 nodes on every branch from here on out (and anything looking too ill of course).
I was happy and so was my patient with the harvest from the first grow. It did turn out to be quite good. If I didn't have a generation of plants with proven genetics flowering right behind those 1st generation plants, then I would've let em go to probably 10 weeks before harvest. Never-the-less, the outcome was two real good plants of the three budding that produced over 4 oz. Purdy stuff too!

 

[squiggly]

The idea of cutting off the leaves is always hard for me to do. I know this sounds wuss, but from day one all I can think of is Jorge Cervante saying "Don't cut off any leaves. This is not necessary, and will only take from your plant." I'm pretty sure it went something like that. It was in one of Jorge's famous YouTube video's.

I can all but guarantee you that he hasn't done a proper scientific study to prove something like that--and simultaneously tell you that there is every bit of evidence from the rest of botany that often pruning is the ONLY way to maximize yield (depending on the cultivar).

Cannabis is a REALLY REALLY EXCEEDINGLY poorly understood cultivar--due in no small part to the moratorium placed on research.

We're left with people doing "side by sides" and the like--which are almost never done properly from a scientific standpoint (which generally renders the results useless, and at the very best very badly correlated).

Don't take one guy's word for it. That is the best advice you will ever get from any person about anything.

At the very least try it yourself.

It's a plant--not life or death. Don't be a vagina about it and just take some random dude's word as gospel. You are capable of thinking for yourself.

 

[Sinner D]

Uh, yeah.....thanks squiggy. I know it's not the end of the world if you lose a plant to one thing or another. But my girls are not just an investment for my poor ass, but medicine for a loved one. I've been doing a bit more pruning as of late, and it seems to be doing quite well. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go douche....lol.

 

[homebrew420]

Hey sin, I know how you feel on the prune. But selective removal of both limbs and large fans will help. I had the same mindset for years finally watched someone else do it at work then watched over the flowering period. Long story short the flowers looked better we increased yield.good luck to ya

Peace

 

[LexLuthor]

Good points from homebrew and Squiggly, 'selective' is the key word.

When indoors your light diminishes significantly every inch further your plants leaves are from the bulb, removing some leaves to allow more surface area to absorb light and increase air flow will help increase yield.

I use to watch Jorge's grow video's on YouTube when I first started growing indoors about 2 years ago. After many hours spent here at the Farm and researching on Google I don't watch any of his video's anymore or listen to anything he says, IMHO he is commercialized and everything he says has already been known for years in the cultivation industry, he just puts a bunch of beginners info onto a dvd and High Times makes him to be a 'legend'.

Sorry for the mini rant, I just had to let that out.

 

[Smoking Gun]

Sinner in all honesty, stop thinking you can add something to your grow to improve your results. There is no magic product that will make your final product better or heavier, NONE!!!! The only real way to improve your quality and quantity is to practice, practice, practice. All of the wonderfully talented growers on here have spent lots of time, made many mistakes, and tried lots of things to find what worked best for them to give them the results they are seeing now. It is time and experience that have given them great results. Only more education and experience will bring your results to their level. You must first learn to grow the plant before you should be concerning yourself with advanced techniques and products.

As for KoolBloom, it is not organic at all. The General Organics line is a great organic line, but almost all other General Hydroponics products are not organic. However you don't seem to be using any mycorrhizae or beneficial bacteria cultures, and without them your organic nutrients will only be a fraction as effective. And as for the products with Godzilla on the bottle, that line is from Fox Farm, the same people who made your soil, and are actually quite good and reliable products.

My best advice is to not concern yourself with your nutrients as much as your environment. If your environment is not dialed in it doesn't matter what you put into your plants, they will not perform to their full potential. For plants as big as you had them on your first run your light was significantly under powered. Also, since you got that gear on Craig's List, was that bulb used. If so its definitely time to change it out, it is definitely putting out less lumens than when it was new, and that too can decrease your yield and quality.

Also what are your temperatures like now? An ideal temperature would be between 75 and 80 degrees with lights on and a drop of 10 to 15 degrees at night. The temps will have a considerable effect on your final product and overall health of the plants.

As for your soil, did you add any perlite? Did you do any amending? Happy Frog is a great soil with awesome benefits, however I find most people tend to amend it as it does not have the same level of food that other soils contain. I ask about the perlite because while so many people focus on getting CO2 in their grow space they forget how important oxygen is to the root zone of plants. The perlite will keep good air space in your root zone allowing for greater oxygen uptake and better overall drainage. Don't ever forget that a healthy root zone equals a healthy plant.

Your plants leaves are its food factory. This is why it is best to not cut of any living leaves from your plant. Remove any leaves that are more than 50% yellow as they will only hinder the growth of the healthy leaves and stems. Selectively removing or pruning whole branches have serious benefits to your plants growth. But you must learn what is good pruning and what may be hurting the plant. You can also use pruning to keep the canopy even or force more branch tip growth to move into the canopy. But these are what I would consider advanced techniques that are to be mastered after you learn how to grow a healthy plant.

Focus on all of these things first and you will learn to grow a plant properly. From there you can discern what is and isn't working. At the moment how do you know what is and isn't working? Making changes and doing things just because you saw someone else do them will not make you a better grower. You must understand what each technique and product is going to do to the plant, without that understanding those changes will not make an actual difference.

 

[Sinner D]

SG. Thanks for all the great info. I understand what you are getting at with the education and experience. Contrary to what your belief may be, I don't believe that everything I see others do is going to work, I was just trying a few different tactics while keeping costs low.
I AM using a mycorrhizae from Foxfarm, Microbrew. I opted for this just before I changed nute lines. The guy that turned me onto this product also showed me the GH line, among many others, but told me basically what you did, minus the idea of adding more perlite to the Happy Frog PS that I use. In all honesty, I wasn't totally sure that the amount of perlite present in HFPS was sufficient, but I haven't found any reading material that suggests the right amount to add to this good soil that's already mixed with some. This is where I believe trial and error will have to do. No big deal anyway, I think I can manage the proper amount by eye if I needed to. I obviously wouldn't want half or more of my dirt being white with perlite.
I totally ditched the Hortilux Blue MH bulb that came with the fixture that I purchased online. It wasn't going to be used as a veg light from the start and looked pretty used to consider use from the start. What I found most important choosing my Sodium bulb, was spectrum (as well as price, these things are quite expensive for a poor mofo like me). Though the bulb I found didn't have the superb spectrum some of the other high dollar ones had, I figured I'd be more prepared to purchase a higher dollar, full spectrum bulb down the road, which I'm due to start shopping for soon. I'm coming up on six months with this one around June, so, yeah, It's almost time.
My temperatures have been fair to low, remind you though, it's winter in the "mitten" and I'm not going to keep my heat above 70 so I rely on the room being sealed off and the door remaining shut during the day to keep the temperature above 72. It does drop to the mid 60's at night on average, but I record my high's and low's daily, and have been good about that. I'm not all that crazy about adding CO2 until I get some other things worked out, just wanted to do a lil' experimenting earlier in the flowering period with my first couple grows. It's NOT a everyday practice and I'm far too busy to be messing with that shhhh...stuff all the time. I also didn't think It would be some magical key to a bountiful harvest. Being real, most things you can do for your garden under $10.00 are not going to make a HUGE difference, depending on what area of cultivation.
As for removing leaves, yes, common sense has been a good ally here with the idea that the lower leaves aren't as much a benefit to the plant or flowers as the top. Also, I like the 50% rule. I don't just clip any leaf that shows a bit of bad health. I keep a close eye on it if I think it's in an important area, and try to focus more on the canopy (as stated by HomeBrew) being even, not too thick, and the lower yellowing leaves or weaker ones to be snipped. Until you said something SG, I didn't really consider pruning to be "advanced technique" but I will do more reading in this area. It's touchy.
As for right now, I'm happy to say that I finally have my ventilation the way it needed to be and the best way I can run it for the area I have to work with. I'm using a can fan to solely cool the bulb in my SHID, and a 4" inline fan pulling 190 cfm through about 4' of duct and a 4" scrubber, filter, (10 x 14) that handles 200 cfm. I was using the same 4" inline for both purposes with WAY too much duct work to vent it outdoors. That didn't last long after I acquired the filter to notice that I really needed to separate these two causes and focus on each one individually. I have a small 2"x10" air vent, low to the ground, katy-corner from the scrubber up near the ceiling for good air flow. I DO need to swap my box fan (which was used purely out of convenience) to a small oscillating fan for air circulation. Not only will it free up a bit of space, but it won't be so damn big!
I want to thank all of you for the great advice, especially Smoking Gun, HomeBrew420, and Lex0415. You have been a tremendous help and have helped me to consider the right avenues of change, over the wrong. Thanks a Ton!!

 

[bevin]

Draw from elsewere in the house if you can. also you can get a fan thermostat if you must use the outdoor air even through winter. you can wye your hoses and push air through to the floor and through your light to cool the cannopy. I have my window close off for now going to build some sort of box around the window I have to use it for intake and exhaust. My room is 3 x 6 with a 600 watt over 6 plants.

 

[Sinner D]

I'm hoping to get enough dough up soon to build another room right next to my current grow room, so I can separate the veg and flower cycles and use my tent for seedlings, a mother plant, and clones. When I do build this second room, I'm going to have my Uncle come over and wire the two rooms with two outlets in each room and relocate the light in each room to the best location. I took a short video of my room last night, but didn't have the time to post it. I will later tonight, but it'll have to be around 11:00 or so, as I work a second job after my first full time position.
I wish I could use the windows in my basement to vent, but their all glass block, and it's a rental, so I keep making serious alterations to the house to a minimum. Believe it or not, it's not that hard for me to frame out a couple rooms in this basement and do it for little money.
Damn bevin, that's quite a full lil' grow you got going there. 600 Watt is the most energy efficient from what I hear. That's what I hope to get with the next room that I build. Taxes should help me achieve the upgrades I want, need.

 

[Sinner D]

Sorry All! Never got that video up. I took it, but just got so busy with the harvest and life, it hasn't happened. :bag:

 

[bevin]

How was your harvest got any new pics

 

[Sinner D]

Most recently, I ended up harvesting over six ounces on three plants of my second harvest, GDP seeds acquired from a bag bought at a dispensary. Turned out to be the BOMB! And thanks to all the help I've received here on the farm, I'm doing really well on my third and soon to be fourth grow. I bought some feminized seeds from a seed bank and started my fourth grow with three of them. But right now I'm on my third grow and it's Kush Berry, acquired through some clones bought on Craigslist. I allowed these plants (2) to grow too tall because shortly after I bought the two clones, one of them stalled and almost died. Of course, it's the better producer at the moment (go figure, probably because it's a bit shorter), and these plants are TALL and LeGGy! The buffer crop, or third plant only three weeks behind the two K.B.'s, is from a dispensary bag of Grape Skunk. Good stuff! I trained this plant, but fear I did let it get a bit too big as well. Either way, all three are snug but not too snug in my 4'x4' tent used for flowering. LST is definitely the way to go! I love how many tops I've got on this G.S. and expect it may very well produce just as much, if not more than the two K.B.'s. But I'll just have to wait and see.
Now, for the newest "bulk" issue. It's not the size of the buds, but the amount, or lack of, trichomes. Seems that these K.B., not for lack of trying, just aren't showing much for trich's! I've tried a few different blossom builders that I already had, BCUZZ Blossom Builder back around week 4, which did help or so it seemed when it came to the buds bulking, and just last week I threw some Kool Bloom at em, seemed to not do a whole lot. But mind that in between these two feedings I watered with either half strength or straight tap water (unchlorinated). So, I found a tobacco store in my hood that was selling off it's AN line at 50% off and picked up some Overdrive, remembering what Woodsman had said months ago, and it also seemed to best suit my immediate needs, but I'm really hoping that it helps in trichome production. These K.B.'s just seem to really lack trich production compared to my first two grows. I'm really just adding this to let ya'll know what I'm gonna do, try along with my line of General Organics, which I like thus far. But any and all opinions are welcome as you have all helped me tremendously through the past months.

 

[Sinner D]

Oh, and Bevin, I'll add some pic's of the ladies in just a minute. My Wife just made me this killer dinner and I have to demolish it before it gets cold. But, you may be interested to see these two Kush Berry plants I just posted about and the Grape Skunk. This G.S. is trained to a large bush! I love it!

 

[skillzd]

Dude it's not always about money. You can get good grows using homeade equipment if you do your research enough on it. Heck I mad a cloner using a pump from a waterfall and a water bottle sprayer. I took the little tip off. The guts out. Stuck the guts into the hose for the pump and screwed the little sprayer tip over it and turned it on and if you get it tight enough it will just most a nice little spray out onto the roots Put a root hormone if you want but just good PHd water is fine even.

 

[DankyPanky]

This thread is almost three years old, broseph. ^ :)

 

[skillzd]

Yeah I posted on the wrong one. I was reading through this one and was trying to add that to another I was talking on. Whoops. Oh well. It's a kool little homeade trick for anyone and everyone. Lol. Works amazing too