Antics Power Flower - Cali Jack FIM Grow

[Antics]

I'va watched all of Arjan's and Franco's grow videos and besides getting a watering mouth and a strong urge to buy their seeds I learned those two things you mention: (1) drying out your plants 2-3 times in the flowering period and then hitting them with a good nute dose and (2) test the PH of the runoff water to see if more flushing is needed.

I've also now learned that my bag seeds (very possibly a blueberry hybrid of some sort, the flowers are blue/purple at their base) love this treatment of drying out and then getting lots of water, but my autos get extremely sad once their soil is dried out so that trick will not be applied to them anymore.

Did you see the white widow grow where they compared hydro to organic soil? The soil grow produced more! I was freaking shocked at that one!
Dude congrats on the strain, that sounds badass, I'm going to finish my update here, then head over to check your girls out.

And I'm doing the same thing, drying them out, then massive flush/feeding. I just did my flush a few minutes ago.

And that leads me to today's update. Flush completed. Soil was in better condition than I thought it'd be in. If the runoff PH is an indication of health, I'm almost dead on where I should be. (I hope I'm interpreting the data correctly lol)

Power Flower:

Cali Jack:

They both appear to be right about the 6.6 range, with Power Flower seeming like it's just a tiny tiny bit higher than Cali Jack.
(Like 6.6 vs. 6.58)

So this is my PH'ed runoff. I'm HOPING that seeing these numbers means good things. I had a minor deficiency issue way back in Veg when I didn't start nutes soon enough, but since I started them on nutes, I haven't had a single deficiency so far.

Now I'll dry these girls out again, and the next feeding should be in about 5 days, and I'm, considering switching from transition 10ml, 10ml,15ml and giving bloom levels of 12ml 7ml and 20ml, along with nutes, they will receive 2 tbsp/gal molasses.

 

[KingJohnC]

Your runoff waters pH is good, I would slightly lower the pH of your nutrient mixture.

 

[Antics]

That's great to hear, thanks KJC, The flush was with PH 7.0 water, so I'll take your advice and lower the nutes PH. Much appreciated!

 

[jg106256]

Now I'm cutting off healthy leaves and I'm looking at the canopy just thinking to myself 'WTF?!?!?'

Instead of the FIM method, this can be the WTF method.

 

[rick3066]

applause!!!!

 

[knotspeeds88]

The trimming and the LST looks great. Just went through the whole journal and picked up a few things for LST, paperclips and ribbons. I'll be follow to see how the story ends. thanks.

Pipe cleaners are really good as well...that is all I use now.

 

[Antics]

Agreed, I grabbed some pipe cleaners myself when I ran out of ribbon, and they're quick and easy.

 

[Antics]

Update. Just because.

I took a few pictures, then decided to do a little defoliation after. Nothing major, just removes a few more fan leaves that weren't able to be tucked, and were starting to block bud sites.

No water/nutes yet since I just flushed 3 days ago. 2-3 more days and we'll be starting a nice dose of nutes and molasses for flowering.

Power Flower:

Cali Jack:

And that's about all for now! Thanks for reading.

 

[lexblaze]

Looking good real clean and well trained!

 

[MikeTbob]

Sweeeet!
How much do you think you can harvest from each?

 

[Antics]

Looking good real clean and well trained!

Thanks! It's been a lot of work, but hopefully it'll all be worth it when it comes time to harvest.

Sweeeet!
How much do you think you can harvest from each?

Realistically, I'm going to guesstimate about 14 grams +/- from Power Flower, and I'm hoping to see about 21 grams from Cali Jack.

The only thing holding me back is the CFLs, I could probably double those estimates easily if I were using a quality LED. So when budget allows, that's going to be the first thing upgraded. I'll be probably looking at a single 400w, or 2 200w lights.

 

[MikeTbob]

Thanks! It's been a lot of work, but hopefully it'll all be worth it when it comes time to harvest.



Realistically, I'm going to guesstimate about 14 grams +/- from Power Flower, and I'm hoping to see about 21 grams from Cali Jack.

The only thing holding me back is the CFLs, I could probably double those estimates easily if I were using a quality LED. So when budget allows, that's going to be the first thing upgraded. I'll be probably looking at a single 400w, or 2 200w lights.

You and me both. I've done everything I can so far....just need more lights. Keep up the good work buddy.

 

[budstep]

How often do you defoliate power flower? I take about 5 leaves every other day and it looks like I havent touched her at all and looks leafier then before.

 

[Antics]

How often do you defoliate power flower? I take about 5 leaves every other day and it looks like I havent touched her at all and looks leafier then before.

Started on July 11, I removed all fan leaves from the main stem except the lowest 4 which weren't covering anything.

July 15 a couple more leaves removed, and a few of the lowest small branches

July 17 more defoliation (Page 5: Antics Power Flower - Cali Jack FIM Grow You can see how much I remove from both plants each time, most of the leaves come from Power Flower, and only about 30% come from Cali Jack)

July 22 more defoliation done

July 27 more defoliation done

I try to wait as long as I can, but as soon as bud sites are getting blocked, I remove whatever is necessary to keep everything exposed to the as much light as possible. This usually happens every 2-5 days. And I have to tuck some leaves every single day.

It's been a cool strain to grow so far, but it has also been very high maintenance with all the defoliation that I had to do. I'm sure other growers would remove even more than I have, but since I'm into flower 28 days now, I no longer spray the leaves with water (Veg gets a daily mist of water), and I'm still learning myself, so I'm cautious to cause as little stress as possible.

But it sounds like both our plants are growing about the same. Tons of leaves, and defoliation doesn't stop it for long. All the leaves I cut today will be replaced in about 2-3 days tops. And then I have to start all over again.

 

[Antics]

It's been about 5.5 days since the flush, and the girls were ready for water.

12mg/gal Grow
8mg/gal Micro
15ml/gal Bloom

And I decided to go with 1 Tablespoon of molasses, instead of 2.

Power Flower:

Cali Jack:

 

[rick3066]

well done man...lookin good!

 

[Pablo Tesla]

Oh yes, looks good indeed!
How many times did you top them?

 

[Antics]

well done man...lookin good!

Gracias!

Oh yes, looks good indeed!
How many times did you top them?

Pablo, I did 1 FIM on each plant. (It's on Page 1, the first FIM did not work, so I had to try a second time, and the second try worked)

Everything else was aggressive LST, and defoliation.

I say 'aggressive' because at times I had the branches growing at a 90 degree angle to the main stem. I would often move the ribbon once, sometimes twice a day, always moving it to the farthest point out on the branch (without damaging the newest growth).
I just used ribbon and paperclips to train them to that shape.

So far, I'm happy with how it's coming out, but now I have to see if it actually increases yield over my last 2 harvests. I did a very weak version of LST on my last grow, just to spread the branches a little from the main stem, but no topping, no FIM was done, and no defoliation. I'm HOPING the new training methods will help me at least double my yield per plant this time (I'm hoping for at least 14g each, dry)

Also I'm scrolling up and looking at pics from just 3 days ago, and comparing them to today, and the growth has just exploded. I'm hoping to see a MASSIVE difference now that the flush is complete, and I just fed nutes today, with a tablespoon of molasses (Molasses is supposed to help fatten up the buds)

 

[MaggiesFarm]

It's amazing how fast they recover from defol!

 

[Antics]

It's almost annoying how fast they recover from defol!

Fixed it for you! I hate defoliating lol. I can go in there and defol today so all budsites have a nice clear path to the lights, and in 24 hours there'll already be a few budsites partially covered again.