Caconym's Multi-Strain Compact Soil Grow 2017

[JustinHemp420]

Setup looks good, and you have walls that are capable of reflecting a lot of the light that hits them. But have you considered switching the lenses in your COBs to get a tighter footprint, so that less light hits the walls (instead of the plants) in the first place? Or adding lenses, if yours are open? Might boost your yield a fair bit.

Either way, you should be happy on harvest day!



An EC meter won't accurately show how many parts per million of total dissolved solids are in that brew - it's "organic." I wouldn't expect there to be much in the way of dissolved nutrient salts or the like in it. They don't directly measure content; they just measure the electrical conductivity of the solution. If it's a "TDS" meter instead of an EC one, it just does the same thing and then multiplies the result by a simple conversion factor (typically .5 or .7, IIRC - which is just "in the ballpark range," anyway, since the various salts and other electrically-conductive elements/minerals in ("chemical") fertilizers have different degrees of conductivity... so they all read a little differently from each other).

That was useful thank you

 

[Caconym]

Setup looks good, and you have walls that are capable of reflecting a lot of the light that hits them. But have you considered switching the lenses in your COBs to get a tighter footprint, so that less light hits the walls (instead of the plants) in the first place? Or adding lenses, if yours are open? Might boost your yield a fair bit.

Thanks for the suggestion TS, I originally decided against using reflectors or lenses because I wanted to ensure a good spread of light to get even coverage over the canopy and hit the plants from all angles. My thinking was that with the majority of the light being reflected off the walls, I would get much more diffuse light for a slight loss. My box is only 80cm tall, do you think that using reflectors I could focus the light better and still get even coverage at say 10-15cm from the lights? I did try and do some calculations when I was building the COBs but I got lost in the trig and gave up.

 

[Caconym]

Quick progress shot. Not long to go for Fruit Spirit, Critical Kush and C99.

 

[Caconym]

Flower day 50
Day temps 27-28°C
Night temps 19-21°C
Humidity 50-60%

Everything is progressing smoothly, adding the calmag seems to have solved the nutrient problem. A lot of the affected leaves have died off but newer growth looks healthy.

I defoliated the Fruit Spirit, Critical Kush and C99 a second time on day 42, and did the White Widow on day 48. I'll do the Bubba Kush tomorrow (day 51) and the Blue Dream around day 56 based on their longer flower times.

The FS, CK and C99 have entered their advertised harvest window and on inspection the trichomes are nearly all milky with a couple of amber on the Critical Kush. I plan to harvest all three on Friday (day 56) assuming they're ripe enough, I'll start flushing them when they're next due for watering. The buds on the Critical Kush are really fat, I'm excited to sample them in a few weeks!

I'm already thinking about my next grow, I think I'll go down to 5 plants now I've lost space to the larger filter, and add an extra 140mm intake fan as I think I'm losing out on a little airflow.

I've got a few more of the Royal Queen Seeds Critical Kush seeds and I'm impressed with the one I've grown this time so assuming it smokes as good as it looks I'll run two of them and 3 seeds I got in a promo pack from Barney's Farm: Chronic Thunder, LSD and Pineapple Chunk.

Fruit Spirit buds

Critical Kush buds

View of the box

Peace

 

[Caconym]

Thought just occurred: make the COBs more easily height adjustable for the next run so I can lower them to the canopy if desired.

 

[Caconym]

Defoliated the Bubba Kush tonight.

Before

After

Got some bud shots

White Widow

C99

Blue Dream

Bubba Kush

Peace

 

[Caconym]

Flower day 52
Day temps 27-29°C
Night temps 19-21°C
Humidity 45-60%

Started flushing the Fruit Spirit, Critical Kush and C99. They got 4l each with 0.5ml/l calmag, 0.5ml/l Budweiser and 3ml/l Terpenez pHed to 6.3. Runoff pH 6.3-6.4, EC 1.8-2.0. They should get two more doses before harvest. Had a look at the trichomes, not much amber to be seen on the buds. They might need a little longer than expected to ripen up.

The White Widow, Bubba Kush and Blue Dream got fed 2l each with 0.5ml/l calmag, 0.5ml/l Budweiser, 5ml/l Hesi Bloom, 0.5ml/l Monster PK and 2ml/l Terpenez. Feed pH 6.3, EC 1.8. Runoff pH 6.2-6.4, EC 2.6-3.3.

Got some photos with flash:

Fruit Spirit

Critical Kush

White Widow

C99

Bubba Kush

Blue Dream

And a shot of the girls back in the box

Peace

 

[Caconym]

Still waiting for some amber trichomes to appear. I think it could be another week on top of the seed companies numbers.

 

[Caconym]

Flower day 56

Fruit Spirit, Critical Kush and C99 got flushed again with 4l each with calmag, Budweiser and Terpenez at pH 6.3. There's still a while to go before they're ready. The buds are visibly fattening and there's plenty of white pistils, only a couple of amber trichomes appearing on the sugar leaves. Holding out is getting difficult.

White Widow, Bubba Kush and Blue Dream got fed with the same nutes as last time. The White Widow and Bubba Kush will get the flushing mix from their next watering as they are due for harvest next week, although I expect it will be a week or so behind schedule.

Peace

 

[Caconym]

Flower day 58

I think the Critical Kush is pretty much ready to chop, most of the pistils are brown, and the calyxes are swollen and starting to turn purple here and there. Trichomes are mostly milky with a scattering of amber.

Critical Kush

I'm planning to harvest the day after tomorrow in the morning so she'll get another 2 days of light.

The Fruit Spirit and C99 still look like they have a bit more to give, the buds are filling out but there's still plenty of white pistils and the trichomes are still a clear/milky mix.

Fruit Spirit

C99

I'm planning to harvest these two on Friday.

The Bubba Kush and White Widow have come into their windows. The Bubba Kush looks like she might be nearly done, but I'm going to wait and see because she might have a final growth spurt in her. The White Widow is still a little way off. She's got a good few white pistils left and the trichomes don't look ripe yet. She shares genetics with the Fruit Spirit so she might be ready at a similar time, I'll keep my eye on her for a potential harvest around Friday.

Bubba Kush

White Widow

I'm getting excited!

Peace

 

[Caconym]

Flower day 60

Critical Kush got the chop this morning. She's hanging in a cardboard box inside the grow box to dry. 156g wet, trimmed but still on the stems. I've saved the trimmings to combine with the other girls and make edibles.

Peace

 

[Caconym]

Harvested the C99 last night and the Fruit Spirit this morning. I think the White Widow needs a little longer and I'm not sure about the Bubba Kush. She has mostly brown pistils but there seems to be a lot of new white ones coming out. Blue Dream has a while to go yet.

 

[Caconym]

OK so I've not been around on the forum for a while due to life issues. I successfully harvested all 6 girls. Total yield was 221g so just over 1g/W which I'm really pleased with.

 

[Caconym]

C99 pre harvest

Blue Dream pre harvest

White Widow pre harvest

Bubba Kush pre harvest

Those are all the photos I have.

 

[JustinHemp420]

Very nice bud, what and when will the next be?

 

[Caconym]

Very nice bud, what and when will the next be?

Cheers, I've been really enjoying the fruits of my labour, the LEDs have produced some lovely nugs compared to my last grow under CFL. I'll get some pics up when I can.

I would have got cracking on the next run straight away but currently on a much needed holiday abroad. I'm planning to put seeds in soil as soon as I'm back home on Friday. I got some free Barney's Farm seeds with my last seed order so I'm going to give those a try, off the top of my head there's a Chronic Thunder, an LSD and a Pineapple Chunk. I've got loads of the Royal Queen Critical Kush seeds as well so I'll pop a couple of those as well for 5 girls total if they all germinate OK. Fairly Indica-heavy genetics so I'll veg a bit longer this time.

 

[JustinHemp420]

Will you still have enough headroom with a longer veg? How far off the top were you at the end of the last batch?

 

[Caconym]

Will you still have enough headroom with a longer veg? How far off the top were you at the end of the last batch?

The two Indica dominant girls had loads of headroom, they could have grown another 4 inches at least. The more Sativa-y strains were a bit tight. I'm planning to do an 8 arm manifold on all 5 this time. Last time round I skipped the last round of topping on the 3 youngest girls and I noticed that they stretched more than the 3 that got the full treatment.

 

[Caconym]

Subbed up. What's up Justin your harvest was sweet Caco, love your grow cab dude. Wish I could close off a part of my bedroom like that but on a larger scale always want more space to grow in

Thanks for stopping by with your kind words Pat

Sadly I am currently separated from my lovely nugs as I'm holidaying abroad, however the week's break will make them all the sweeter when I get home in a couple of days.

I could use more space as well, I should just about be able to keep myself and my girlfriend supplied with what I've got, but a separate veg space would make a huge difference and give me a lot more flexibility. I may sacrifice a little more of my tiny bedroom if the missus can be persuaded...

 

[Caconym]

LoL the missus always gets the final say in everything. Luckily for me I'm a loner so I stay alone holiday sounds sweet man mine just finished last month so pretty bummed. Like 3 week holiday for a whole year

Yep got to keep her happy, but I'd be lost without her and she's pretty laid back about most things.

Yeah it's been awesome, over too soon though, back to the grind tomorrow. Aw man that sucks gotta try make the most of it when you get the time off I suppose.