First Grow: White Kush 1 In Soil, 1 In Hydro/Coco, 1 In Perlite, Who Will Win?

[SmokingBud]

Sorry I was lazy and didn't post a good picture to begin with. Here is a picture of the light or burnt ends. It seems to be a little better today, but maybe I was fuzzy in the head last night to go along with the lazy

I also pruned some additional mid-branch leaves off. I left about the top 25% of each branch.

As for super-cropping and tent space, I have a SCROG coming. So I look forward to getting that going in the next week. It will be fun to bring the long branches down and try to fill in all the squares.

Also still hoping someone can chime in with their 2 cents on how much nitrogen should I give in flowering? FoxFarm chart shows to give "Big Grow" with nitrogen during flowering, while other people seem to use almost nothing.

 

[SmokingBud]

A few days into flower now – plus I now have a SCROG started. The 2 bigger ones are stretching like crazy. It seems like some branches have added 5”. I got the SCROG just in time to help bend down the big ones. I’m so happy when I open the tent now and see these beautiful girls They have nice shape and their color seems perfect - unlike the light lime green as they appear in the pictures. I have to work on taking better pictures.

However, my fan leaves have been slowly dying and I have about none left. I just saw Reave’s plants going into flower and he is full of it – I mean full of fan leaves I have seen grows where they die during flowering as the plant uses them for nutrients. I’m worried that I don’t have any. It probably means I’m not watering enough or not providing enough nutrients? Any thoughts? I bought a moisture meter like Reave has so I can learn what’s going on down in that dirt. Emilyia had me so worried about overwatering

Anyway, last question – am I trying to hard to save some low little branches. I guess it’s probably the larf that Reave said I need to remove, but but but . . . I think they will grow nice flowers with time Yea, I'm a newb!

Feel free to tell me all I screwed up on. My wife does it daily

 

[Reave]

I haven’t used that moisture meter forever sort of a wast of money except I learned that about it at least.

Humidity and temp are pretty important for fast growth but the reason my plants have more wide fans is due to strain. If you look at my sativa leaning plant in the other tent she is much different. So I wouldn’t worry about that.

learn to lift the pots , you can tell when they need to be fed because when you tug on the handles they lift instead of feeling wet and heavy. Best way I can describe it.

Also the reason the plant starts culling leaves in flower is because it isn’t getting enough food so as long as you feed appropriately you are going to be solid.

your plants look great. Take it slow, make it happen.

 

[SmokingBud]

I haven’t used that moisture meter forever sort of a wast of money except I learned that about it at least.

Humidity and temp are pretty important for fast growth but the reason my plants have more wide fans is due to strain. If you look at my sativa leaning plant in the other tent she is much different. So I wouldn’t worry about that.

learn to lift the pots , you can tell when they need to be fed because when you tug on the handles they lift instead of feeling wet and heavy. Best way I can describe it.

Also the reason the plant starts culling leaves in flower is because it isn’t getting enough food so as long as you feed appropriately you are going to be solid.

your plants look great. Take it slow, make it happen.

I'm really trying to take it slow I have noticed some very light pots at times and said "wow, that's light". I'm surprised the moisture meter didn't work out for you as it seems to make perfect sense - so I will consider returning it.

Proper nutes you say, working on it

I thought for sure, you would say I'm still too larfy. I guess I will determine in a week or so. Thanks for your 2 cents again Reave! I have gotten through most of your current grow journal and I like how you are always learning and trying new things. Plus you had some nice buds in there

 

[Reave]

You will have another opportunity to trim off stuff you don’t want at the end of stretch.

 

[SmokingBud]

Another great week of growth The tent is filling in nicely. I never imagined I would come close to filling the squares on my first growth. I would not be here without all the great help

I decided to cut nitrogen in half and so far the girls still seem happy. The dirt girl under the light really took off this week. The dirt girl next to it will go under the light tomorrow and maybe that will stimulate her next week.

The hydroponic girl is obviously still kicking but. The hand-watering of her 2-3 times daily has been a chore to say the least. I’m down to 1-2 for it in flowering. I have gone back and forth about my next growth, if it should be dirt or hydroponics. I really love not watering dirt for days, but the faster growth of hydro is also a great benefit. Maybe hydro when I’m home for months, but dirt when I’m going to be away during the grow. We will see. What I won’t do is run both at the same time again

I keep patiently waiting and watching for something beautiful and white to show up on top, but nothing quite yet.

2 questions this week, Any ideas how long it should take for those flowers to start? Secondly, during stretch they keep making new buds/branches, should I trim off anything past the last 3 sets?

 

[Reave]

I like to trim some off right at the end of stretch. I think it’s usually around 21 days but that can be different per strain. You can usually tell when stretch stops turbies will start bulking up. Anything that looks like it’s going to be larfy I trim off.

 

[SmokingBud]

I like to trim some off right at the end of stretch. I think it’s usually around 21 days but that can be different per strain. You can usually tell when stretch stops turbies will start bulking up. Anything that looks like it’s going to be larfy I trim off.

I started trimming off some of the larf - that obviously ain't gonna make it. I will be ready around day 21 then for more pruning. Thanks Reave!

 

[SmokingBud]

I just got back from 4 days away from the girls. After 2 weeks of waiting, it finally happened . . . the flowers have started to show up Big thanks to the wife for watering them, especially the daily watering of the hydro!

The most exciting day so far. I can’t believe I’m looking at this tent. Each week is just full of new 4 letter words with adjectives to describe it.

Last week I switched places of the 2 girls in dirt. The Kush 16 went from middle to the right side of the tent and did beautifully with a little less light. The Kush 3 in the middle seems to have gotten a little extra giddy up this week being right under the light. I think I will leave her there.

In flower stage, I’m watering the dirt girls with full nutes, then straight water with cal/mag the next cycle and it seems to be working. I don’t know if anyone does it differently. I did not get @MochaBud way of watering in flower.

The hydroton/coco coir is just mammoth. It’s as big as the other 2 combined. I’m going to try and setup auto-watering of it this week. I should have done that months ago Maybe I didn't think I would still be going.

Big question of the week, some of the flowers have stretched so much with as much as 6 extra flower sets underneath, should I cut off past so many sets? I see many pictures of multiple flower sets, but usually the plants don’t have as many branches. I’m worried I’m leaving too much larf and too many flower sets that will starve the main flowers. as shown in the next picture. Any help is appreciated. And who put that string in my picture?

 

[SmokingBud]

Hey Reave, it looks like a party of just us now. I don't know if I said something to offend people or didn't post enough, but I appreciate you still being here or I would just abandon the journal. I have really appreciated your input in helping me to get to this point!

By the way, I loved your line "I don't got lemon juice, but I got lemons, so I will make lemon juice"

 

[Reave]

Thanks SB,

So many journals I imagine it’s hard for everyone to keep up. Info my best but even I get backlog that takes a long time to go through sometimes. Journal is great for you tomoook back on and check your notes. The time stamps are all included. Your plants look pretty good. You can start entering the contests and what not too. Maybe visit some other journals and comment. Building a following on any social media platform takes a bit of work.

 

[SmokingBud]

Good points Reave, thanks! I have learned a lot this grow and your right about the journal being helpful. I have visited many journals but I need to post more, other than just lurking around.
It's hard to imagine contests at this point, but if these plants all flower nicely and give me some good bud . . . then maybe

 

[SmokingBud]

Another great week of growth!

The hydroponic plant is really starting to produce some buds and they look like they should be HUGE as this plant is so big and healthy. Well huge by my juvenile grower standards, thanks to your feedback!

The auto-watering system for that hydro plant consisting of a tiny pump and 5' of tubing is really working well. It's working so well, that I plan to setup the same pump system for the other 2 plants. I have been going out of town a lot lately, so it will help lessen the burden on my assistant. Unfortunately, it will be more complicated because they will need a pump from each bucket (full nutes and water only), so it's actually 4 pumps, but since they cost less than $7 each, I think I can swing it. I will end up with 1/2 nutrient strength water under them, but that can easily be cranked up to full strength for the next round The hydro plant takes up about 1/2 the tent, which is kinda hard to tell from the pictures.

Anyway, the buds on the dirt plants continue to bud out and have tons of new buds below them. The leaves are really starting to dry up and fall off, especially on the plant to the right. I know it's kinda normal, but it almost seems to early

The little buds erupted this last week on all 3 plants. I probably removed at least 100 little buds as they don't have worthwhile potential. So first question, should I have removed more?

I think the next big moment is flushing a few weeks before harvesting. Is there something between now and then? When should I get aggressive with pruning the trivial stuff off?

As always, thanks in advance

 

[odinsmaster]

Looks good

 

[Reave]

Those are some massive stocks. I want to setup some auto watering for my fabric pots. 4 pots in the tent. Need about 2 liters each a day.

 

[SmokingBud]

Those are some massive stocks. I want to setup some auto watering for my fabric pots. 4 pots in the tent. Need about 2 liters each a day.

I'm using an ILEBYGO 95gph pump that is adjustable from Amazon. It's very cheaply made but has been doing 2 daily waterings of 1 minute each for my hydro pot. If you can peak in every day or so and confirm it's wer and working then I recommend it. I worry when I'm out of town but no issues yet for over a month. I have another slightly bigger pump in reserve.

 

[SmokingBud]

NOOOOOOO - is what I said after 4 days being gone. The timer for the big hydro failed and it went without much water for days. Apparently, my cheap Chinese timer just stopped working and I can't seem to fix it. The plant looked SO MUCH WORSE than this when I got home. I removed about 20 of the most aweful brown leaves. The only thing going for it, is that it had SOOO many leaves that it can probably lose some without being a huge problem.

Here is a picture of all 3 with the hydro on the left, Kush 3 (started in perlite) in the middle and Kush 16 on the right

The Kush 16 on the right seems to dry out very fast and is quickly losing leaves. It's very strange because I water it by hand exactly the same as the dirt plant in the middle. It's so weird that the dirt plant I transplanted in the middle seems to be doing better, but they are slightly different plants.

Anyway, here is a closeup of Kush 16 on the right. The leaves are yellowing and falling off quickly. Could this be done in 2 weeks? Should I flush it ???

Here is Kush 16 in the middle that started in Perlite. She seems rock solid and moving along nicely, just nothing too impressive about her

Last we have a closeup of the hydro that was very unhappy without much water. Oddly it also seems to have a Magnesium deficiency for some leaves that I caught 10 days ago when it started. I quickly added more cal-mag. The leaves on the lower half seem almost perfect.

I think this hydro is about 3 week from harvest now with the lack of nutrients. What do you think? I will be home now for 2 weeks to feed her properly.

Basically a pretty sad update, so none of the normal fun emojis. I wasn't going to do an update, but I really need your assistance to help me with the final decisions to get me to the finish line and keep me inspired enough to move forward. By the way, my next 3 plants are 2-3" tall.

Thanks @Reave and @odinsmaster for helping me get this far!

 

[odinsmaster]

NOOOOOOO - is what I said after 4 days being gone. The timer for the big hydro failed and it went without much water for days. Apparently, my cheap Chinese timer just stopped working and I can't seem to fix it. The plant looked SO MUCH WORSE than this when I got home. I removed about 20 of the most aweful brown leaves. The only thing going for it, is that it had SOOO many leaves that it can probably lose some without being a huge problem.

Here is a picture of all 3 with the hydro on the left, Kush 3 (started in perlite) in the middle and Kush 16 on the right

The Kush 16 on the right seems to dry out very fast and is quickly losing leaves. It's very strange because I water it by hand exactly the same as the dirt plant in the middle. It's so weird that the dirt plant I transplanted in the middle seems to be doing better, but they are slightly different plants.

Anyway, here is a closeup of Kush 16 on the right. The leaves are yellowing and falling off quickly. Could this be done in 2 weeks? Should I flush it ???

Here is Kush 16 in the middle that started in Perlite. She seems rock solid and moving along nicely, just nothing too impressive about her

Last we have a closeup of the hydro that was very unhappy without much water. Oddly it also seems to have a Magnesium deficiency for some leaves that I caught 10 days ago when it started. I quickly added more cal-mag. The leaves on the lower half seem almost perfect.

I think this hydro is about 3 week from harvest now with the lack of nutrients. What do you think? I will be home now for 2 weeks to feed her properly.

Basically a pretty sad update, so none of the normal fun emojis. I wasn't going to do an update, but I really need your assistance to help me with the final decisions to get me to the finish line and keep me inspired enough to move forward. By the way, my next 3 plants are 2-3" tall.

Thanks @Reave and @odinsmaster for helping me get this far!

Keep doing what was making happy before you left, up your calmag on the coco, I don’t go over 5mlpg. Watch for happy leaves. It happens just learn from it.

 

[SmokingBud]

This was a good week . . . I actually watered my plants, LOL

I upped the cal-mag to 5ml per gal for hydro as @odinsmaster recommended. I am 5 weeks into flowering now. I threw away the digital timer that failed and I'm using a smart plug tied to Samsung SmartThings, which I have been using for years without any problems. Anyway, plants seem to be fairly similar to last week. I think they are growing They are 70 degrees during the day and about 63 degrees at night.

The hydro in coco has leaves getting browner and falling off as expected from lack of water for a few days over a week ago, but luckily there are so many leaves to give nutrients, I think it will be just fine.

The transplant from perlite to dirt in the middle looks rock solid with great looking leaves, other than a very slight tinge of magnesium deficiency on a few leaves. Here are some pictures of the buds on that dirt plant, which is very similar to the dirt plant on the right

My first plant pictures with my digital camera that I thought looked other than a few orange spots which are hardly visible to human eye. It's crazy what that camera can pickup.

The dirt plant on the right continues to lose leaves without many more to lose. It's so weird because I have been watering the 2 dirt plants by hand exactly the same for months. I don't have any bugs or anything. This plant will have to be harvested soon when the leaves are about gone. It also seems to dry out faster. . .

Can anyone venture a guess about how many more weeks of flowering?

 

[steelcurtain22]

Not sure how long to go yet and I am by no means an expert but the first close up pic looks like couple of little banana’s. May want to check her over and make sure she hasn’t hermie’d. Hope a more experienced grower can give a thought?