Bloomin' In A Box

[Far East Buds]

I went through all this with DWC. It was why I went to drain to waste. But anyway just add tap water as ph up usually tap is very high.. PH down is very strong so only a little goes a long way. I had change it once a week to keep it good as I was having similar results as you.

I made it a habit to PH down above 6.0 in flower and would let it run down as low as 5.5 without a correction. In flower lower on the scale is better...

Veg i try to ph down around the same but don't like it as low in veg. I don't really like below 5.8 or 5.7.

5.8 really is a good sweet spot for both so that is why everyone shoots for it.

Can you post what your nute lineup is? Live? Sterile?

Hopefully this enough to help along with LED's good stuff!!



FE

 

[Sonora]

Here's my current nute schedule: Future Harvest Brand.

• 50 ml CalMag
• 100 ml Hygrozyme
• 50 ml H2O2
• 60 ml Bloom
• 40 ml Common
• 80 ml Bud Bloom
• 80 ml Carbo Blast
• 80 ml B+ additive

In Flower I don't have these fluctuations nearly as bad, and I don't think it's bad to let the pH drift upwards into the low sixes - that gives you a full spectrum of nute intake. I think anything between 5.5 and 6.5 is OK. But I do think the 7.8 was out of hand, for sure. I'm taking pH samples every day - this morning flower was still at 6.1, Veg is at 6.2, was 6.1 yesterday, and I change water out every Friday). As of today, I think the pH is fine.

Veg - started at 5.5, is now 6.1
Flower - started at 5.9, is 6.1 now

The flower nute solution didn't need any pH treatment, the nutes were enough on their own. I added 4 ml of pH Down to the 5 gallon veg solution to bring it to 5.5.

\o/

 

[Far East Buds]

PH and Nutrient Uptake charts!


Do your very best to follow that top chart for hydro and you will understand why letting it creep up too high can be an issue. Yes balancing it is the hard part... also you need to use that chart along with knowing it needs slightly different things in different stages. But PH will determine what you are allowing to pass through.


good luck with it




FE

 

[Sonora]

17 June 2016 - 42 Days in Flower

So with all the discussions around the pH, today is our regularly scheduled pH change. Both Flower and Veg came out at 6.3, which is high-ish, but not urgent. However, I am going to be a bit more diligent in adding pH down during the week whenever pH rises above 6.0

That being said, I'm still happy with how things are progressing. There's definitely crisped leaves which I'm going to attribute to nute lock out due to high pH (thanks all for making me see this), so we'll dial that in. But growth has flourished, the buds are thicker and fuller, and everything is basically running on auto-pilot.

Veg Side
I put 3 gallons of RO Water in, mixed with:

1. 6 ml/Gallon Grow
2. 6 ml/Gallon Common
3. 5 ml/Gallon Hygrozyme

That, plus 3 ml ph Down, gave us a TDS of 800, and a pH of 5.2. The plants in veg look great - pics!

The plant at the very back-right is the one that'll be the mother plant. The other 5 will go straight to flower the day after harvest & clean-up.

Flower Side
As soon as I see my first amber trichomes, I'll start the flush. As it is, using my jeweller's loupe, I see mostly clear with occasionally cloudy heads, so we're still a week or two away from starting flush. I did a complete res change, and then cycled 10 gallons of RO through the res just to do a mini-flush. The I used 6 gallons of RO with the following mixture:

1. 24 ml/Gal Bloom
2. 4 ml/Gal Common
3. 8 ml/Gal Bud Boom
4. 8 ml/Gal carbo-blast
5. 8 ml/Gal B+
6. 8 ml/Gal Hyrgozyme

That, plus 5 ml/Gal CalMag gives us a pH of 5.1, with a TDS of 1,000 ppm even. The girls as they continue to pack on mass:

Flush will start in a week or two, harvest looks to be 3 - 4 weeks away. I'm still expecting 4 - 6 oz off this first run, which was more about identifying a mother plant than it was about yield. I'm a happy grower overall.

Hope your weekend is fun and safe!

 

[Sonora]

24 June 2016 - 49 days in Flower

We near the end of the first cycle of The Box, as we're about 3 weeks from harvest. Growth has been keen. Let's begin!

In veg
When I opened the veg side this morning, I was dumbfounded - the plants were all about 18" tall and brushing the CFL, and very bushy. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the before. Hey, I grow cannabis and I forget things, you connect the dots. Anyway, I cut all the plants back to be about 8" tall, so these are now some really, really bushy girls. They're going to explode candelabra-style when they move to the Bloom side. I took out 2 gallons of water at 7.1 pH - wtf is going on there I don't know. But I'm not going to argue, because as I said, the growth was like a torrent of green. They got 4 gallons of RO water with CalMag, Grow, and Common. All is awesome in veg. Pics!

Flower
In flower, we pulled out less than a liter. These girls had drank everything. The buds are swelling and fattening up, and are so juicy now when you give them a slight squeeze. The smell is pine and candy, and I am looking forward to sampling these girls' fruits!

This was their last feeding, so I gave them the full silver package at 1/2 strength. Next week I'll give them a flush that I assume will go about two weeks. We'll harvest at 50/50 cloudy/amber. Pics!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Take care from all of us in The Box!

 

[Sonora]

1 July 2016 - 56 days in flower

Happy Friday to everyone from inside the BloomBox! Let's get right to the updates!

Veg

On the veg side, all six girls are bushy, bright green and healthy. They had just about finished the 4 gallons from last week, so I gave them another 4 gallons. The pH on the way out was 6.3, so it continues to drift up, but it's nothing I'm worried about. It sure isn't impacting growth! The girls are all between 11 - 13". The leftward row, WW I, is the row which I'll get the mother plant from, and right now I'm thinking it's the rearward plant. The WW I strain seems to be the biggest yielder to date, and it's not really close. Some pics:

Flower


On the flower side, we've reached day 56, and it's nothing but water for these girls the rest of the way. Trichomes under the loupe are about 50/50 clear/cloudy, so I'm thinking that harvest at 50/50 cloudy/amber will be in 10 - 14 days. That's when we'll be harvesting.

Right now there are 8 tops with buds that are about the size of coke cans, and another 13 tops that are all the size of a lighter or more. Although I wasn't really focused on yield, I am pretty happy with the yield I have for the first run. I think I'll be pulling 3/4 lb per harvest by the third or fourth cycle. Pics!

I ordered a macro lens so I could start taking some pics of the trichs and sharing them, and I'll probably do that every couple of days. That might help get some new readership, too - I think this is a good journal, hoping that there's going to be more traction soon.

Happy weekend from The Box - stay safe and healthy!

 

[Far East Buds]

Things look really good! Keep it up. Flower you are getting close!


FE

 

[Sonora]

Macro Experiment

Playing around with the new lenses, getting a feel for what they can and can't do. These are from yesterday, I'll keep practicing. The best lens is only 15x, so it's not amazing or anything. But you can see the 50/50 clear/cloudy ratio pretty clearly.

Future attempts will be better!

 

[Sonora]

July 4th - Happy Independance Day

Independance - it means being free from other people's thoughts on how to live your life. It's what I served my country for, and why so many other veterans like myself did the same. It's what many of us speak up for - our ability to be independent, and live our lives as we feel. Happy July 4th - Independance Day.

Here are some macro pics!

 

[Sonora]

Mini Update

Tomorrow we'll just be adding more RO water for the second week of flush. Not exciting, so here's a small update. First, some macros of the trichomes. Still a mix of cloudy/clear, but a lot more weighted on the cloudy side. Still no ambers.

The buds themselves continue to fatten and swell. I'm expecting ~5 oz in total, so a modest harvest, but nice given how little emphasis was spent on maximizing yield. You can see the leaves yellowing and dying as they give all their nutrients to the buds. The flush really draws out the last of the plant. The buds themselves are starting to look lumpy and misshapen instead of symmetrical, and they're very dense.

Finally, the clone chamber was running amok with growth, so I trimmed it back by about 50%. These clones go into flower in the next 8 - 10 days! Some pics of before and after, with bonus cameo from Ms Peppa the beagle.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

 

[Canna Montana]

Looks good over here!!

 

[Sonora]

More trich pics

Trichs are now mostly cloudy, some clear, an occasional amber here and there.

 

[Sonora]

15 July 2016 - 70 Days In Flower

Well, it's total darkness in there today. The girls have now had two weeks of flush, and last night, when the lights went off, they went off for the last time...at least for these girls. Today it's all darkness, and tomorrow, around noon, I will chop them down and trim them. I'll make bubble hash out of the trim, clean up the box, then move the clones to the flower side, with the exception of one of the WW1 clones, which will be my mother plant. In the end, WWI won out - better yield, better looking buds, easier to grow. Clear victory. Ironically, WW2, the funky one, ended up being the #2 yielder.

Here's a few bud pics of the girls' last day. Nothing special about these, they're just the ones my iPhone can focus on.

I'll have pics of trim day tomorrow!

 

[Sonora]

Just a Taste...

Here's a little preview of what my wife and I did yesterday! I'll have a longer write-up about it later!

 

[Canna Montana]

Re: Just a Taste...

Here's a little preview of what my wife and I did yesterday! I'll have a longer write-up about it later!

So THAT'S what that square thing is for. Lol! I feel silly now. Lol!!!

 

[Frenchy672]

did you do dry ice for that?...nvm I suck at reading

 

[Frenchy672]

also, I'm getting that same pH flux burn on the edges...I feel it's harder to get a good amount of air in a thick glob of roots when in flower.

 

[Sonora]

17 July 2015 - Day After Harvest

Yesterday, around noon, my wife, my friend and I chopped down the girls. We trimmed all three plants, and made bubble hash with the trimmings. Altogether I got a wet weight of 1,730 grams. If you assume the dry weight will be 1/6th the wet weight ( a good rule of thumb), then I'll end up with about 280 grams, or around 10 oz. That would be a really nice haul for a the box's first run.

WWI had, far, the biggest yield. I think about 1/2 the harvest came from that plant alone. WWIII had about 3 oz, and WWII had about 2 oz. I ran the trim through bubble-bags, and got another 19 grams (wet) of has that's still drying. I got 3 grams (again, wet) of hash through the pain-in-the-ass 25-micron bag, which needs to be hung up all night for the water to eventually drain enough to scrape out it's sweet, sweet goodness. But here's what that goodness looks like now (with AA battery for scale):

Here's the rest of the hash that was collected last night (their bags weren't such pains in the ass) - altogether here, 16 grams:

Here's the plants coming down, 1 by 1:

Screens and screen full of weed. We eventually ran out of screen space, and started throwing popcorn bud in the bathtub, so most of what we kept was buds that were fist size of larger. My wife has small hands, so some of her buds are still pretty small.

So up-close macros of the product right before the bud wash:

And the dryer, drying!

And that's harvest day! Today, I cleaned out the flower area, and I'm running a solution of 1 part bleach for 6 parts water through the system for 48 hours to make sure the next cycle starts nice and clean:

So - Wednesday, I will move 5 of the clones currently in the veg chamber into flower, and then take the remaining clone, which will be WWI.1 and pot her in a mothering hydro-bucket (basically like a mini-hempy bucket), where she will spend the rest of her hopefully long life pumping out high-quality clones. That will be the start of the next journal - Bloomin' in a Box II - The Culling.

Next Saturday, I'll update this journal with a smoke report, at which time it will be completed.

Happy f'ing weekend!!!!!!!

 

[Sonora]

Yield Update

The buds and hash are out of the dryer and jarred, where they'll start curing for a few months. I ended up with 204 grams, which comes to 7.2 oz - pretty good yield! I also got 9 grams of hash when dried out and pressed, including 4 grams of ultra-high quality 25 micron hash. They're in 4 quart-sized mason jars now.

Jar 1: 49g
Jar 2: 49g
Jar 3: 50g
Jar 4: 56g

I'll smoke some Friday or Saturday and come back with a smoke report.

 

[Far East Buds]

Congratz on the harvest!

Turned out nicely!



FE