1st Hydro - LED Grow With Crop King White Widow From Seed

[Bamalabrat]

Update day 45 in Flower
So today I did a res change in all of the veg buckets except for two of them. I ran out of water and time. I also started my training regiment for them. It is my attempt at mainlining/fluxing. I will finish the other two tomorrow but they will get the same treatment. Tut is too small for the training just yet. I really am confused as to why it is so stunted compared to the PPP. It was a strong grower in veg but this time around not so much. I hope that it takes off this week. Enjoy the pics.

Now for the flower tent, I did a major defol on them today. My attempt at lolipopping them. I did a defol on them last week and all of the bud sites that I opened up to direct light really grew a bunch so this week I wanted to see what would happen. I really want to know. The PPM is sitting at 750 with a pH of 5.9. I will be giving them water and nutes tomorrow.

Enjoy the pics! I included a few with the tape measure in them for Cogreen. He was asking for something to give a sense of size I think. I wish they were big enough for me to be using a soda can! Hope you guys enjoy them!

 

[Bamalabrat]

Now this is just a quick side note about what to do with all of the material that I took from the plants when I was lolipopping them. Normally I just burn the fan leaves. However, these leaves were very sticky and most had a lot of sugar on them. Well not a lot but they did have some. I was very interested in the QW ISO hash that Vlad and others have talked about. So I figured why waste the material? So I made hash.

I made a batch of it from the leaves I had frozen from last week, last night. My friend put a little bit of it in his bowl. He went apeshit over how nice it was. He went to sleep 30 minutes later. True story. So today I made a second batch of it with all of the material from last week and today. OMG it made a lot. This stuff is very strong. My friend said I will have to put warning labels on it.

 

[CCOiler]

That's awesome Bamalabrat. Congratulations on your "fan hash"

 

[Spitz]

Sure would like a tutorial on that process.

 

[cogreen]

Thanks for the pics Bam -- nice! It does help put things into perspective for me
Looks like you did a pretty heavy defol huh?

A lil confused on those mainlines in the veg tent -- do the have 4 mains already? Hard to tell from the angle of the pics.

I agree with Spitz, if you get time to post the hash making process that'd be really cool... I've been tossing some nice fans myself and feeling guilty about it, but I'm not huge into cooking with cannabis.

Later

 

[Bamalabrat]

That's awesome Bamalabrat. Congratulations on your "fan hash"

Thanks RSOiler!

Sure would like a tutorial on that process.

Thanks for the pics Bam -- nice! It does help put things into perspective for me
Looks like you did a pretty heavy defol huh?
A lil confused on those mainlines in the veg tent -- do the have 4 mains already? Hard to tell from the angle of the pics.
I agree with Spitz, if you get time to post the hash making process that'd be really cool... I've been tossing some nice fans myself and feeling guilty about it, but I'm not huge into cooking with cannabis.
Later

Guys I do not think that Ican post a tutorial on how to do it on this forum. Isoprophol alcohol is flamable so they do not want to post that. However if you look up Quick Wash ISO hash you will get a bunch of hits. I did exactly what I saw online. The stuff to buy is very cheap. You can get a few things off of amazon but I got everything from the local big box store. I used 91% ISO. I bought a hotplate and glass dish. I also got a strainer and some cheese cloth to use to separate the solution from the material. I put the hot plate on at 300 F and let the solution evap. Then used some blades to scrape it up. Looks like brown sugar at this point. It will get oily as it sits out, but is good to smoke as soon as you want. The thing with this is that a little goes a long way. It is very strong. Also do not soak the material for long in the ISO. It only takes a minute. I used 17 ounces and some change. It made almost 8 grams of hash. It was only fan leaves and like I said they had some thc on them but nothing close to what the sugar leaves and the fans in the buds have. But I was only going to throw that stuff away but this gave me something fun to try and pretty good to boot!

Cogreen, I did do a heavy defol on them. Not done yet either. I will get some more as the week goes on. If any leaves have crystals on it I will save it for the next hash run! Yes the plants have four mainlines. I topped all the plants a couple of weeks back. So the second set is the lowest side branches or rather the branches right before the topping site. I pretty much stripped it of everything else including fan leaves. To get an idea look at the two plants that did not get trained. The others were that big and had that much on them. All I was trying to keep was the four stems or mainlines that I wanted to grow out. I will now just let them grow and take clones when I put them in the flower tent.

The whole point of training them this way, for me, is when I scrog these I want to completely fill in my screen with the branches that grow off of the four main tops. This will then let me, I hope, keep my canopy even during and after the stretch. I fully expect to have to use the second screen to even the canopy at the end of stretch. I just want to have an even canopy with each plant using a full square meter of space. I also want to get rid of these little branches with little nugs and colas. I want all of my tops to get big colas and to fill in my screen with a hundred or more tops! This grow is pretty good for a first time out. I want to have a better one next time by using more advanced training and and better cultivation. I will be doing a very significant defol on them before flipping them to flower. I will then lolipop them like I am doing these at about the same time. I really am seeing a difference in the nugs even after only a couple of days of defol.

If you guys have any more questions or suggestions, please say so. I love the feedback and like having to explain my thinking, that way if somebody sees something wrong or that can be done better I can learn and grow my knowledge. Also if anybody reads this and was thinking the same thing they can see the results even if they are bad!

 

[Bamalabrat]

Update day 50 in flower
Well I have been able to finally get the veg tent to get a healthy shade of green going. They are starting to grow again and the new growth especially is looking very healthy. So I am very happy about that.

I am now very late in flower but my leaves on the plants are not very healthy looking. It seems like I have a persistent def. I took some pics and would very much appreciate what anybody has to say. This may be just what the plants are supposed to do at this stage but I do not know. I can not play around with the nutes too much cause it will hurt one of the three strains. BTW I will not be doing this again where I have three different strains on a single res. It just seems very unstable.

I am very happy with how frosty everything in the tent looks. Seriously they are iced up. I have been looking at the trichs with the microscope when the lights go out. The WW is very cloudy with only a couple of amber. There are still quite a few that are clear, but I am really looking for the amber. Once I get to what looks like 15% amber i will cut it down. Also I am planning on taking down the top half of the plant and letting the bottom half alone to see if I can get some more growth on the bottom bud sites to see if they will grow. Has anybody ever tried this and does it work or have a chance at success?

The Tut1 has just a couple of amber that I have seen. It is about 50/50 clear to cloudy. I do think it will be coming down right after the WW but not sure when. I am looking for the same thing as far as amber goes, in all of my plants. So this will be a staggered harvest. The PPP and Tut2 are mostly clear and still very white pistils. They may have another two weeks left in them. I am not sure. I will say that the buds are swelling up. This past week has seen them swell to a pretty decent size.

I think that sometime early this week I will be chopping the WW. I am very excited about getting to this point in the grow. Getting very close to having some home made DIY smoke . I have been enjoying the "Fan Hash" with some friends this holiday weekend. They all love it. It has been kicking everyone's ass that has tried it. Including mine. It is strong and the high last longer. It seems to go on for 3 -4 hours no matter what bud you smoke it with. I will be trying to make some more next weekend from the trimmings that I get from the WW.

Well anyway, here are the pics of the flower tent. If anyone can diagnose the issue I would really appreciate it.

 

[sciguy]

Looking like we'll be harvesting our white widows around the same time

 

[Spitz]

Comment and question...

Comment first. I heard a rumor that WW doesn't turn Amber for genetic reasons. I've read some that have let it go past prime have never got there. Just a note.

As for your deficiency, how long has it been progressing? The leafs on my coco girl look exactly like that. It happened on day 3 of flush though and happened fast. If it's been happening slowly for a while, I guess you are fighting a feed schedule problem. Likely not adding enough of a nutrient over the life of your res change (likely P). If it came on quick, I'd calibrate your PH pen.

I have a hunch it's the first. I guess this is what they refer to as "dialing in". Make some notes while you still remember and address when you flower those clones.

All that said, I do believe you're going to do cartwheels at harvest time. Loving it in here Bama!

Edit:
Since you are running the xmls, take a picture under white light for us. Just turn the red/blue knob off. Now I'm just being selfish.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Comment and question...
Comment first. I heard a rumor that WW doesn't turn Amber for genetic reasons. I've read some that have let it go past prime have never got there. Just a note.
As for your deficiency, how long has it been progressing? The leafs on my coco girl look exactly like that. It happened on day 3 of flush though and happened fast. If it's been happening slowly for a while, I guess you are fighting a feed schedule problem. Likely not adding enough of a nutrient over the life of your res change (likely P). If it came on quick, I'd calibrate your PH pen.
I have a hunch it's the first. I guess this is what they refer to as "dialing in". Make some notes while you still remember and address when you flower those clones.
All that said, I do believe you're going to do cartwheels at harvest time. Loving it in here Bama!
Edit:
Since you are running the xmls, take a picture under white light for us. Just turn the red/blue knob off. Now I'm just being selfish.

Thanks for commenting Spitz!
I have not heard that before about the WW. That is very interesting and will make deciding when to harvest much more difficult. How do you decide when to harvest? The trichs are about 70/30 cloudy/clear. The pistils are about 60% brown. There are some new white pistils that have popped out about 72 hours ago. I felt the nuggs and they are dense not airy. So would you wait until pistils are almost or completely brown? Or would you use another metric?

The def has been there for a while. I thought that maybe it was from a month ago when I burned them a bit by accident and then I thought maybe because of a Cal/Mag. Potassium could also be a problem but really I am not sure what. It could be all of them as well. I am not really sprouting new leaves except sugar leaves and they are green but curl down. I would love to try and fine tune it but like I said I have three different strains all looking like they are different stages of finishing. I will not be able to flush until I am ready to harvest the last of the plants. I have definitely taken notes and will be trying for a much better run on the next one.

I think I will be very happy about harvest as well. I am struggling to come up with an estimate. I just do not know. But it will be enough to keep me and mine talking to cosmonauts if we wish too!

I took some pics for you with the red and blues off. Hope you like them.

 

[Spitz]

They are swelling nicely! You'll still go "mostly cloudy" if you harvest by trichome color. I tried looking at trichomes on my journaled plants and kept getting confused. On every plant I could find "mostly clear, mostly cloudy, 20% Amber, etc.." depending on where I looked. I decided I was going to wait until they quit growing and then give them 1 more week. I cut 1 pure sativa down at 7 weeks and 1 indica at 11 weeks.. Whooda thunk?? This may be one of those times that when you decide to harvest the 1st, you leave 1/4 of the plant until you harvest the last plant. Should be some good information for you to learn from to expand the vast knowledge you've already gained.

Shit man... If you cut them now, you'll be friggen thrilled! Pretty sure you've set yourself up in a win/win scenario. That my friend, is a good place to be!!

Thanks for those pics. I lied, mine went brown/crispy on day 3 of flush and look a bunch rougher than yours. I'm stoked about cutting down my coco girl. She is a beast! Maybe... If I could find a DWC mentor... I could give this a whirl? Looking good Bama. Finish strong!

 

[Bamalabrat]

Thanks Spitz. I am doing risk assessment now. I think if I harvest the WW tomorrow the downside is I may lose out on a little bit of yield and some more cloudy trichs. Nothing really bad or what not. I will continue to grow out the PPP and Tut until I feel they are ready, but think it could be another week or more before they are. It is not a bad spot to be in for sure. Honestly I would like to get the veg tent into the flower tent and veg them for a week and then flip them. But they are almost all PPP with one tut, so I really want to see what the Tut and PPP do so I can have a better experience with the next flower cycle.

I guess I am getting antsy looking at all of those big colas and all that snow on them. Just trying to remain patient and see where I get to. I would recommend DWC if you are interested. It was a big challenge (I knew it was going to be so when I started). OMU was my mentor I guess when I started. I am worried about him because he has not been on for over a month now. I hope he is doing fine. But even with out a mentor I have had three grow buddies, FE, Vlad, and Cogreen. We are all pretty much noobies. But they were good sounding boards for ideas and I liked seeing what they were doing as well.

I guess what I am telling you is, if you are thinking about doing it then you should try it out. I am pretty anal about planning it out first. If you go this route, you will have to be able to control air temps (you already do that) and water temps (If your space does not get that hot and you are only doing one tub/bucket then you could wrap it in insulation and chuck an icepack in it once a day). You have lights so next is nutes. If yours are not compatible with hydro then I can highly recommend the Advanced Nutrients line. Really helps with pH as well. You will need a PPM meter as well as a pH. Also an air pump. I am not so sure I agree with Vlad and FE that you can drown a plant in hydro. It seems to me it is about whether or not you have sufficient air dissolved in the water. The pumps and air stones are cheap.

Now if you are going to go full hog like myself, with multiple pots and a single res, I highly recommend that you stick with one strain and get a water chiller. I also recommend that you use a recirculating system. Some guys use a sprayer I just ran a hose line, in series, to each pot. I put mine on a timer so that it is thirty minutes on and thirty minutes off. If you have multiple sites I really feel like you need to recirculate the water to make sure each site is getting equal access to the nutes.

When trying to figure out how much nutes to put into the res, first figure out what you want your PPM to be. Then (in the case of AN) use 1/4 of what the schedule says. Let your system cycle for an hour and then take a reading. Adjust as needed. When setting up your system, spend a little time considering how you will get samples to test your system (I use a turkey baster to grab a sample from the res) and also how you will add water and nutes to the system. I have a funnel taped to a 3/4 inch hose that is long enough to reach the res. So I just dump everything down the funnel and only have to bend down to draw a sample with my turkey baster. Believe me when I say, a little prior planning about this will make your life so much easier down the road. Make sure you do not have any plans to travel for longer than 24 hours. You will be bucket sitting. Also, this last piece is very important. Check your electric circuit. With a full on RDWC system with multiple air and water pumps, a chiller, lights, and fans, you will be pulling some power. I am at the absolute max for my circuit. My damn tent goes dark at the slightest bump now. I really need to add a circuit, but I do not need to have an electrician over to my house right now. Maybe when I harvest everything I will break my system down and get one out to the house to add a circuit for me.

That really is it as far as I have seen. You have a big advantage as your knowledge about growing is a lot more than mine. You already know how to grow and what is healthy and what is not. So the hydro part is fairly easy if you have the discipline to check it everyday and the confidence to make a schedule and follow it.

Thanks for all your great observations and comments Spitz. I really appreciate it.

 

[cogreen]

Hey Bama, hope you had a good turkey day.

Man you have some nice colas going on in there!

In regards to the potential deficiency -- can't help you much here as I'd be googling myself. My plants have been looking a bit shitty for awhile, but I decided I'm so close to harvest I'll just let them ride it out, though I'd surely like to understand the cause for my future reference.

Your pistols still look pretty white in those pics; maybe it's just the light... Can't wait to see what you pull here.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Well, this morning at lights on I went in to check on the girls, and especially the WW. They had a bit of a swell and popped out more white pistils. I am getting very confused by this plant. It must have sensed that I was considering a chop of it and tried like hell to convince me not to. I am going to wait and take a look at it tonight after lights out to see what the trichs are telling me. I think that if she is still growing in the colas I will leave her be and just enjoy the calm before the chop. I have my drying tent all set up with fan and filter and herb rack. I was really wanting to try it out today Just have to keep waiting.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Hey Bama, hope you had a good turkey day.
Man you have some nice colas going on in there!
In regards to the potential deficiency -- can't help you much here as I'd be googling myself. My plants have been looking a bit shitty for awhile, but I decided I'm so close to harvest I'll just let them ride it out, though I'd surely like to understand the cause for my future reference.
Your pistols still look pretty white in those pics; maybe it's just the light... Can't wait to see what you pull here.

Hey man. Thanks for the kind words. The PPP and Tuts are almost completely white in the pistils. They are nowhere near ready. The only brown ones are the WW and they still have some more white pistils to go. I am also dieing to see what I pull out of these plants.

 

[Spitz]

I don't think there would be any harm in harvesting a branch or two this morning??? Surely you can find one leaning against a wall and "accidentally" break it off?? or... You can cut a branch or 2 to test out the screen? I sure would hate to not have a well tested drying system before you harvest that jungle! ;-)

Looking quite grand sir!

 

[Bamalabrat]

ROFL Spitz! Here I am trying to be patient and not rush and you go putting evil thoughts in my head. I do not need much convincing lol

 

[Bamalabrat]

Ok, as it turns out I did have to chop a couple of branches. A couple of stems on the PPP4 were turning a purplish black. I have been whatching this for a few days now. The leaves on these branches were the worst about looking like shit. I think the PPP4 may have some kind of sickness or something. It was a total of 3 branches and there are a couple more that I will probably take today. I am going to chop down the WW, or rather the top 50% of it. I will leave the rest to see if those nugs on the bottom do anything. I have to say that over the last two weeks the WW has surprised me with the size of the nugs that she grew. Those things looked like they were going to be "Meh" but then they started swelling. They are actually fairly large now.

So I will be pretty busy today. I have to do res changes in the veg tent and chop down some plants. I will do a res change on the flower tent tomorrow and probably still be chopping/trimming.

The veg tent is coming along nicely. The plants are very large (except of course for the Tut). They should be providing clones in the next week or so. My plan is to put them in the flower tent and then take clones. I will then give them one week of veg in the big tent to recover before the flip. So if my PPP is ready by 10 Dec. that puts my next crop in flower around the 17th. That will give them until the 7 of Jan to be done with stretch with a mid Feb harvest again. So, I should be good on smoke until then

 

[cogreen]

Let us know how those "early flowers" are!!

I've been chopping small branches / flowers off my plants for about 2 weeks now and have been very happy with the result... Can't bring myself to visit the dispensary and spend more money on flowers while I wait for harvest

 

[jojo677]

Sounds like you've been busy today! Good luck with all the trimming and whatnot, I don't completely envy you with how much bud you have! Congrats. I'm surprised how long you've made it without sampling- not something we can all say