Schnookie's First Grow In 30 Years: Mixed Strains, Mixed Schedule, Mixed Nutrients

[HugePeckerhead]

You can always gauge how well you are doing with the white widow in the room... she is always a hungry girl and can take more nutes than most any other plant, and look at what she is doing for you in response to the aggressive feeding! I predict heavy snow with a good possibility of drifting to occur in those who can not handle her bounty.

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The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant (in soil) - STICKY
Emmie's Links, Journals and Tutorials
Berry-D'licious No AACT Organic - Grow Journal
Pineapple Chunk Mega Crop Test - Grow Journal

I definitely can vouche for the widow being a heavy feeder. In my grow with them, if I missed a feed she showed it the following week.

 

[Schnookie]

I actually realized this detail yesterday before even reading your comments, @Emilya, @HugePeckerhead! Thanks foe the confirmation! The gsc I think may be the heaviest feeder of all though. I reduced the nutes by 1g to skunk and am giving them all least 1G of food today each... haven't watered to drain in two weeks so I'll do that today for a full soak.

I also got out the lumen phone app and discovered that the brightness under the hps is considered about 2x the lumens than the 15k MH bulb (~60k vs 30k). I realize the accuracy may not be correct but it's a good indicator I think of maybe why the skunk is growing lower? Too much light? I can't lower the amount or raise the light so I may swoop them left right again.

Any thoughts?

 

[Schnookie]

Here's the MH bulb I mentioned. It's made for aquariums and what I had available to start. Seems to work ok!

Here you can see the light difference. This is just my phone camera auto adjusting and accentuates what the plants are receiving

My eyes cannot see that difference so easily.

 

[Emilya Green]

don't put a lot of faith in that phone app. It could be that the skunk is just genetically shorter

 

[Schnookie]

I also noticed on at least one skunk bud that the sugar leaves are starting to change color but to my eyes it looked light turning brown. The pictures don't rally show it too brown Like I thought, but definitely different. Do they usually have other colors in skunk strains? I'm gonna look around and see...

And from a different phone camera...

It's only been 5 weeks in flower so there's no way they can be ready yet but I'm gonna get the loupe out and take a look at the tricks later.

She's always had mostly orange pistils from even before I flipped the lights so maybe it's supposed to be that way?

 

[Schnookie]

don't put a lot of faith in that phone app. It could be that the skunk is just genetically shorter

I used two different apps and both showed the lumens were double under the hps... again, not sure what that means, but i think the light is brighter, it's decidedly a different color.

 

[Schnookie]

So I've been remiss in keeping up to date here...just few days, but nothing really changes that obviously during this stage I guess.

Today my MH light went out right after sunrise so I just moved the HPS towards the middle of the tent and upped the ballast to to 400W, but not sure if the bulb actually is putting that much out? Appears so, as the phone app lux meter is definitely seeing higher numbers, and it's obviously brighter to my eyes. After a couple hours (I did have to work today ), I went back in and got my other MH lamp out to test the ballast so I didn't have to take the other out (yet). Appears ballast may be on it's last legs, as my other light came on, but it also kicked off after a little while. I let the ballast rest for half an hour or so and plugged it back in and it's stayed on successfully at both high and low output for several hours so we'll see what happens. I put the second lamp on the outside of the tent temporarily to shine inwards on the edges of GSC and Skunk, so they're getting some undercarriage lighting (think of those dudes running their neons under their lowriders while driving the strip, lol...! )

Oh, yea, so I also watered _almost_ to drain with LOTS of water and nutes yesterday and the day before. I've had my windows open the past two weeks and it's been cold out (low 40's to high 50's) and this morning my apt was at 61 degrees inside! Previously had not been cooling off below 68 so the girls got some nice cooling off last night. First batch of water/food was 3G total so a gallon each and I had to go out so didn't get to finish on monday. Had planned on only giving another gallon yesterday, but managed an additional one (with a pint extra for the GSC and WW and less nute strength for Skunk since she seems to be showing some burn since I've added some additional Beastie Bloom for the heck of it...just a little).

At what point should i be seeing the big "thickening" of the buds? I can see some, but like I said, it's hard to tell day by day. Maybe I oughta compare my pics now in this journal? (derr)

Skunk is still pushing out some white pistils but much slower than the other two. Got some sticky on my finger and her aroma is fantastic! Skunky and piney.

GSC is my favorite right now. She is thickening up for sure; hope to get all the lower buds connected into one huge cola in the next few weeks. Her aroma from sticky finger is like pine-sol mixed with fruit loops. Just amazing. I could literally just sit all day sniffing my fingers with that on them...so good!

WW still making lots of pistils and trichs and is super sticky. Her smell is fruitier than GSC even, and amazing as well.

Full garden with my makeshift side lighting...lol (it's not a huge light, just looks big from that angle)

Will the low humidity hurt or slow things down? The tent during daylight has barely ever gone above 35RH for the past few weeks, usually high 20s, maybe once or twice in the 40s. I poured 1/2 gallon of water into the tray hoping to make some additional humidity but it doesn't seem to do much...

Thoughts?

 

[Van Stank]

I grow up in the North East and our winters are tough. Easiest solution is a humidifier for your space if you can swing it. Otherwise some strains may be unhappy with that low of RH....especially in veg. You can hang wet towels in your tent and that will help increase the RH. Also you can add a couple bowls of water and have a fan blowing across it. I found those two things will get you at least 5% increase in RH.

Having said that....I still had successful grows with RH in the 25-35% range....but the plants sometimes will show their objections.

 

[Schnookie]

I grow up in the North East and our winters are tough. Easiest solution is a humidifier for your space if you can swing it. Otherwise some strains may be unhappy with that low of RH....especially in veg. You can hang wet towels in your tent and that will help increase the RH. Also you can add a couple bowls of water and have a fan blowing across it. I found those two things will get you at least 5% increase in RH.

Having said that....I still had successful grows with RH in the 25-35% range....but the plants sometimes will show their objections.

It was always in the high 40's to 50's when in veg and just the last 2-3 weeks (a few after flip) has the temps and humidity come down. I would certainly rather have "whatever happens from low humidity?" than bud rot from the alternative. I also have learned that mites love high temps and low humidity as well, which is what i have seen until I (hopefully) have eradicated them...

 

[Schnookie]

Ok, wow. I took some tiny, TINY, little buds off the stems that are BELOW the screen with just about no light. I mean TINY, like 10 pistils size... ya get me? Anyway, I put 'em in the toaster at "keep warm" (whatever that temperature is) and they're in there about 20 minutes. So now they're crispy, way beyond what I wanted to dry, BUT, HOLY SHIT! It's mostly GSC, like 80% - I didn't really pay attention to what I pinched and what went in the bowl. 2 hits from the bubbler...I like this little guy...

So, for backround - I've been pinchin' these little buds for a couple weeks now to clean up under the screen anyway so I had an expectation...capice? i expected an immediate something, a change, y'know, something. Didn't happen...took nother hit about 5 minutes later...then 5 minutes later BOOM! Now best of SNL is on the TV and I'm cracking up. Like RIGhT NOW!! Check it!

 

[Schnookie]

So the MH light didn't come on this morning and I couldn't get it to trigger for a few times today (although I could hear the "connection" of electricity), it just didn't happen. I ended up quick-buying a @MarsHydro TS600W on Amazon for a decent price so will complement/supplement the 400WHPS until the end of grow (should be here monday).

Followup on the bubbler hits - previously as expected the little junk buds were nothing more than 10 minutes buzzes.

Man I haven't been this high in a LONG time!

 

[Schnookie]

Continuation...with most any previous inhalations in my cannabis life, I like to take a few hits over an hour, just to maintain, y'know? However........Still haven't had a third hit yet...going strong! And this is at week 6 coming up (and dried in a toaster oven!), so...I'm kinda psyched for fully cured!! I'm plan to COB a good portion of this crop too; this is looking quite the bounty for me!

 

[Schnookie]

Couple more hits and I got some serious munchies! That's cool though, I was ready for a late-ish dinner and needed some nutrients for myself for sure. Still a great buzz..surprised at the depth/height prior to even getting properly dried and cured.

 

[Van Stank]

Sounds like its going to be a good crop!! Only gonna get better going forward!

 

[Schnookie]

I got my recently ordered new seeds!! Missing the DDA so hoping they resend! Should be interesting deciding on Auto or a couple of the other africans next build (or maybe one huge one!)!

 

[Schnookie]

It's amazing how mesmerized I am every time I look at the girls. It's just incredible in my mind I guess thinking what the results will do for me when they're ready.

 

[Van Stank]

Its pretty cool to take a seed and hold it next to that plant and think....how? But then I have that same thought when I hold an acorn and look at an oak tree!

 

[Schnookie]

So I used up some the 9/10ths of a turkey that I had leftover from last week. I bought a 16lb frozen all for myself and have used up my yearly allowance! Fresh chillis and chives from the porch garden. Yummy!

 

[Schnookie]

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

Well, not quite. I'll be away from the girls for 5 days and nights so I've soaked them with water and then a full level of MC at 6g/G until they drained. I'm gonna have my friend come by twice while I'm gone to check on the kitties and probably feed the plants in the second visit. That would be approaching 4 full days between feedings.

Took some pics yesterday and moved colas around. They're getting heavy and leaning over so some assistance had been required.

Skunk is so thick and dense

GSC smells so amazing...I open the closet door in the morning and breathe in deep

WW is coming up fast behind with great terpenes aroma also

And a full tent shot. And YES my new LED light came in. A TS600 Mars Hydro is filling in the missing lumens (did I even have a lack? Lol).

Not gonna any updates I'm hoping between now and Monday so have a great week and stay lifted!
‍

 

[Schnookie]

They will be over 7 weeks in flower when I get back so I'll check the trichs on the skunk, and probably the others too. If I have more than 50% cloudy, amber or not, I'll harvest some and COB them up for a later date. Want to elevate the cerebral so getting early harvest should help with that, especially in the ferment and cure process the COB does for the bud.