Snack420's Coco Blue Dream Journal 2014

[snack420]

Over the last few days,

temps range 63 - 82 degrees F
and
RH ranges 40 - 57%

Is my relative humidity too high or is that range fine? I'm trying to decide if I should get a dehumidifier.

 

[snack420]

Hi everyone,

I was a little sad to see there were no posts to my thread this last week, but I guess there are lots of other threads and distractions and my journal can only keep people's attention for so long. Anyway, even if it's just for my own benefit, I'll update with some latest info. Today begins week 5 of flower and I'm using 1/2 the recommended strength GH nutes and my ppm is within the recommended range.

temps from last 3 days: 61.5 - 83.4 F
RH from last 3 days: 42 - 55 %
pH (tap water + nutes + SNS203): 5.7
ppm: 700

Going by this thread, What Range Should I Maintain For My Growroom Humidity & Temperature?, I think I'm in the acceptable range for humidity and not going to worry unless it starts going up to 60+ % I will plan to bring the RH down during the last 2 weeks of flower though as suggested using a dehumidifier. I know that mold can be an issue when there is too much moisture and I'm scared to death of mold, and not sure how to identify it or deal with it if it comes, so I just have to try to prevent it. (I'll also have to read up more about it, clearly.)

Main Cola

Overall, things look good, at least to my untrained eye. One thing I'm not sure about though, is that the leaves are starting to look a bit lighter shade of green now. It's a little hard to tell from the pictures I'll post because of the orangy hue given off by the HPS light, but most of the leaves are looking a light green now and I wonder if maybe I have the light a little too close to the top of the plant? I did read some suggestions for keeping 18-24" between a 600HPS and the plant, but also read that the distance can be decreased when using an air cooled light, as I have setup and ideally I want the lights as close as the plant can tolerate without damage. I also did do the back of the palm test and it is not hot after 30 seconds at 15" where I'm keeping the light now above the plant. Any thoughts on the leave coloring and the light distance would be welcomed. Thanks!

Miss Green is now about 23" tall (from the top of the pot) and 36" tall including the pot. Next time I'm definitely going to try and LST it better. Very excited to see the buds getting bigger and smelling very sweet!!

As usual, any and all comments are welcome and thanks for stopping by!

 

[snack420]

Quick update...

Miss Green has appeared to have become a hermie. There are seeds that are forming on many of the buds, particularly the ones closest to the bottom of the plant and up toward the middle of the plant. After endless reading I've come to the conclusion that the best course of action is to probably remove any of the buds underneath the canopy that have seeds forming in an effort to let the plant redirect its energy toward bud production as opposed to seed production. Sadly, it also sounds like this means my yield and possibly the potency will suffer. I have no idea why it hermied as I was very careful in all aspects of how I treated her, er, her/him. But, I guess some strains can get stressed more easily than others, and who knows what might've caused it? Maybe it got too hot for a couple of days. Maybe it didn't fair well when I change the lighting from day/light night/dark to day/dark night/light? In any case, I'm learning a lot from this grow and will plan to apply that knowledge on my second grow next time around.

 

[Titangoddess]

Hi! I wouldn't cut those buds. At this stage in the grow the chances are you are not going to lose too much bud growth due to the seeds. Instead make sure to just pinch any boy parts and you can even pinch the seeds that are forming. Unless it is taking over the entire plant don't ditch it. Are your seeds fem seeds? They tend to herm most times. I have had many due that on me and they are always fem seeds. Since it is my stuff I don't care too much. I smoked heavily seeded weed for most of my life before the wonder of Colorado and liked it. So a few seeds here and there won't hurt me plus if your plant herms it will have fem seeds on it. They will be female therefore worth about 10-20 bucks a seed and will supply you with replacement seeds for your next grow. People herm their plants on purpose so I try to look at it as a gift… unless that is the whole bud is covered in seeds. I had a girl scout cookie that didn't herm as it didn't have any male parts on it but it produced so many seeds that I had to cut it. There was hardly any bud on them, just rows of seeds. I have no clue what would have happened with them as I am sure they were not good seeds but it was odd the way they just came on. Some plants herm easier than others also. Post a pic of your lady. It's been a while since you showed her off.

 

[snack420]

Hey TG, good to hear from you! I've been away for a bit but will try to post some pics tomorrow. Unfortunately, my lady is suffering a bit now because she became extremely thirsty while I was gone. I gave her a good watering and put an auto-watering solution in place before leaving (blumat), but it didn't appear the help and most of the water in the bottles went unused, so that was a shame. I'm really hoping she bounces back in the next day or two. The buds look fine but the leaves are extremely dry and droopy right now :-(

I think you're right about the fem seeds. From reading it does seem they tend to hermie much more than non-fem seeds. My problem though, is that I only have one tent and it isn't really feasible for me to setup a second flowering area where I could take clones and figure out the sex from plants which came from non-fem seeds early on. I guess I'd have to grow twice as many as I'd really want and let them get into flowering before I could tell which were male and remove them. Kind of a pain, but maybe there are other ways to do it?

 

[snack420]

Really hoping she recovers from being so thirsty while I was away...

I'm thinking that next time going hydro might be the way to go as it will allow me to travel and not have to worry as much about waterings.

 

[Titangoddess]

Hi! Oh My so sorry about your girl. You will have to cut her. She wont' come back. But the bright side is she looks at least close to ready by the way her hairs are looking. If you want to keep going you'll need to cut the dead leaves off. They will continue to creep up into the bud and then dry them out also. So cut those puppies off. There are some undamaged leaves there so you may be able to do that. There's not much you can do to save her Sorry. . . I do however, have an idea on your sexing of your ladies. You will need to get a t-5 light or do what I have done, get an aerogarden. If you do the t-5's you will be able to sex them at about three weeks. You can plant as many as you need and wait till they have their third stem. Then you need to either top it or cut a stem from the plant and place it in a glass of water. Put that stem into a dark area and leave it. It will take two to three days to get boy or girl parts and ta-dah… they will be sexed. Make sure to mark the stems to show what plant it came off of. You can use magic markers and dot the plant and the corresponding stem. Use different colors Do not try to sex the whole plant. I know people say you can flip them from veg to flower and back again but it causes much unneeded stress to the plant and they WILL herm. So must sacrifice a stem and they will be just right. I grow hydro indoors. It is MUCH easier to be able to do things with water. I've gone on seven day vacations while using water by adding an extra reserve of ten gallons while gone. My spouse made his own reservoir system and it rocks. Very easy and very cheap to make and use. Saved our butts a couple of times. I'm fixing to start a new run in the water this week. My outdoors are almost ready and I have already cut one down. I will be doing LSD, omg dude that strain is amazing, pink plant, and critical kush. I have never grown any of these strains but I have tried the LSD and it is awesome. I hope they turn out right because I really want to see a pink plant… sounds exotic

Growing in water can be very expensive. It is totally worth it though. I spend about 800-1500 per cycle when I run a cycle. I also use Canna and only Canna on my water grows. Makes a huge difference too. If you are used to getting 2 ozs on one plant you can count on 4. I also run two to four plants a cycle so it will be more expensive for me. This is counting everything of course. Water, lights, CO2, ferts, and equipment. I have the same sized tent as you do also. We use the little clay balls for the median. I like those and they are not too expensive. With this method you won't get your gnats either. If you need any advice on what to get or use feel free to message me on here or leave a private message with me. I can take photos of everything and send it to you while there are no plants in the tent to show you what I use. There are many ways to do it and many things you can use so this is just a guideline for you. Happy growing and do let me know if you need anything…

 

[snack420]

Hey TG. Yeah, it's a bummer, but before you replied I did decide to trim off all the dead leaves yesterday. Here is a picture of all the clippings,

Today she looked a little better but this picture is also from yesterday soon after the clip,

I've given her plenty of water (and nutes) and will check on her again tomorrow (can't today, unfortunately). I'm hopeful that she'll be OK. From my reading about this strain, blue dream, it takes around 11 weeks of flowering until harvest time. I switched the lighting to 12/12 on July 13, so we're just about at the 2 month mark. Does it look to you like she might have 2-3 more weeks to go? I know I'm supposed to start watering with straight (pH'd) water only starting about 2 weeks before harvest time, so that should be soon.

I bought a 30x/60x loupe, but am having trouble seeing the trichomes with it. It's actually harder to use well than I thought it would be. I guess it takes some getting used to, but so far I haven't been able to see the trichomes clearly.

That's awesome info you shared on the hydro grow and equipment. As I get through this grow and ramp up for my next one I'd definitely be interested in messaging with you to get some more detailed advice on that because I'm very interested in going hydro the next time around.

 

[Titangoddess]

Oh she looks so much better. I can't see the hairs as well as I need to see to tell you. I suggest using a flashlight and the loop at the same time. You'll need some white light to be able to see the difference in the trichomes. Some people use the hair falling to the sides as a timer. Some people use the one leaf trick and some people just don't care. I found a couple of different things about your plant. Two say 9 weeks and two say 7 weeks. I do not see you getting 11 weeks out of this one. But hey, you never know. Try the loop with the light and see what you can see. Overall your buds are fantastic… truly. You are looking for a 45-50 percent amber cloudy ratio. More amber would be good for your lady as she is a high THC plant. More of a couch lock you know. But she does look much much better. If you notice any dead leaves creeping into the bud make sure to snip them. They can cause the bud to dry out also.

 

[snack420]

I'm so glad she seems to be recovering and am very eager to see her tonight to see how she's doing at this point. That's interesting about the 9 weeks and 7 weeks flowering times that you found. Would you mind sharing those references with me? I'm not clear on whether it's alright here to put third-party links in blog posts, but I hope so. If not, maybe you could message them to me, but on second thought, I think you'll need 50 posts first in order to send a message.

I've found it difficult to find detailed and trustworthy info on specific strains on the web. There is a lot of conflicting info and many of the sites seem to gloss over details important to growers. I feel there is a huge opportunity for someone to develop a comprehensive website of strains that has really detailed info. Many of the sites just say, this strain gets you high, ... - yeah, no kidding Anyway, enough ranting about that.

I realize now that my loupe does have an integrated light on it, so I'll see if I can get a good view of the trichomes using that tonight. I really hope so! My understanding is that an earlier harvest, when the triches are cloudy white, before they turn amber, will induce a more cerebral high (more what I'm looking for I think), and harvesting later when the triches are more amber will induce more of a couch-lock, which is nice too. I guess ideally I'd like to harvest some earlier and some later to have a little of both.

I'll update my journal with what I find out tonight and include some updated pics too. Thanks a million for all your support TG; it's so appreciated!! If you can share those flowering time references, that would be awesome. Thanks again!

 

[snack420]

So, I'm able to see the trichomes a bit using the light with the loupe, but since they are so translucent, it's a little hard to tell if they are clear or white, especially because it's difficult to keep both the loupe and the branches completely steady. Anyway, as far as I can tell, they are sort of whiteish and I think the ideal harvest time will be coming up soon. So, I'm going to start flushing with straight pH'd water tomorrow (with the recommended GH FloraKleen stuff that I have with my nute kit) and watch the triches closely over the next week or so. I'm guessing I'll harvest in about a week or so, but will see how it goes. My understanding is that it's best to harvest in the dark. Is this correct?

Here are some pics from last yesterday...

 

[snack420]

So, yesterday I cut off a very small bud from near the bottom and viewed the trichomes using the 30x and 60x loupe with the white light. After some observation I was able to see that the triches are definitely clear at this point, so I believe there is still time to go. It's been a full 8 weeks as of yesterday in the flower cycle. I decreased the nutes according to the last week of ripening and will monitor the triches closely this week. Once they start turning white, I'll plan to start flushing her with straight water. Does it need to be pH'd since there are no nutes to take in? I guess it doesn't hurt to pH the water, but was just wondering if it's needed.

As far as drying goes, my thought on that, due to wanting to keep the smell down, is to dry them in the tent hanging upside down with the lights off for a week to ten days, but have the carbon filter exhaust fan running on the lowest setting. Is this plan alright? Will that be too much air flow? Thanks for any guidance!

 

[snack420]

Yesterday was day 70 of flower. The trichomes seem like they're starting to look whitish, but still a little hard to see with my loupe. I should have some better equipment coming in a few days to view the triches with more detail. The smell is incredibly dank at this point! I snipped a bud off last night and hung it to start drying. Will post pics a little later. I also started flushing a couple of days ago and plan to harvest either later this week or next weekend, depending on how the triches look under better magnification. Can't wait to harvest her!

 

[snack420]

Snipped off this bud yesterday

Which can be seen as the far left bud in this pic

Does that bud look like the plant is ready for a full harvest?

 

[snack420]

So, after reading in another thread about flowering times and checking my notes, I realized I made a mistake in counting the days. From my pictures, it seems I switched the lights to 12/12 on July 19, not July 13 as I had originally remembered.

Also, the first pistils were not visible until July 25, so if I count that as the first day of flowering, I'm actually at day 60 now, not 70 as I had thought before. This seems more inline with the looks of the trichomes, at least as far as the flowering estimates go that I've seen for blue dream.

I went back and fed her some ripening nutes today and will continue to do so for the next week and then plan to switch to flushing again about a week from now. Hopefully she'll be ready to harvest in about 2 weeks from now, because I'm not sure I can wait much longer!

Here are some pics of the early bud I picked yesterday... still looks pretty good to me, even if it is premature. Wonder if it will give me a buzz or if it's too immature???

 

[Titangoddess]

The day you flip them is the first day of flowering. So you are closer with your first figure than the 60 day figure. You control the light so you can time it to the minute when flowering started. Buds are not a sign of flowering. It's a chemical process. Your bud looks yummy. It is slightly clearish looking when you zoom in on the bud but that's not saying it is premature. There are different 'highs' you can get at different stages. Clear not so much so but mixed with cloudy or amber and yep. Your bud if very smokable so do that. You can judge her maturity by the taste and smoke. You can also use the hairs as a guideline for this also. When they die back and turn brown/red/orange they are done. The more brown/red/orange you have the more done the plant is. You want to make sure there is still cloudy and clears in the mix. So far, pretty. I couldn't tell you if she was done by the pic. But if you shine a bright white light at her and snap a pic you will be able to see if the crystals have a white tint, shiny clear tint or a yellow tint. Also, some plants never turn amber. I've had two do that. An OG Kush and a grape Kush. They just all went white. but yours looks great. A couple more weeks will probably not hurt her at all. If you don't see any visible growth though you need to harvest. She'll keep getting larger around the middle if she is still growing.

 

[snack420]

Thanks TG. It looks pretty yummy to me too! I have read conflicting opinions on when to mark the actual start of the flowering time, so I guess I'll just have to watch the trichomes closely and go by that. If you're right though, it should be pretty close to ready. Right now the triches still look quite clear and some appear to be starting to turn white, but it still seems early to harvest based on everything I'm reading. Thanks again for your input.

 

[snack420]

I got a slightly better magnifier and can now see the trichomes clearer. They are still mostly clear, but some are definitely turning white. Have restarted the flushing after feeding them a bit the last week or so. I'm hoping they'll be more cloudy and ready to harvest within the next week or so. Very excited for the actual harvest!

Anyone know how I can take pictures under the HPS light and negate the orangy effect of the light in the pic?

 

[Titangoddess]

Hi there! Sorry I haven't been able to post recently. I have been so so busy with harvest of everything that I rarely sit down. It's pasta making time in these parts Your girl looks so yummy…. she's really doing well. I can't reply to PM's yet but I am trying to get a few posts in so I can do that. To take photos without the yellow lights either right before the lights come on or right after they go out take a normal flash photo without any of the artificial orange light. I have to do that for my photos. I had outdoors this season so I didn't have to do that as much. Winter is coming up so its back to the darkroom for me… Do update your results when you can. Love seeing the progress you have made. All in all it has been a good grow and you did very well. But anytime the ladies make it to the end that can be considered a good grow IMHO…

 

[snack420]

Hey TG, thanks for stopping by! Always good to hear from you Totally understand being busy, as it's the case for me too. So, I have an update, a couple of pics, and a few questions for you, if you don't mind. I always appreciate your input!

She is currently at day 80 from when I switched to 12/12 and about day 74 from when I first started seeing white pistils indicating the beginnings of buds. I might be off by 1-2 days cause my records skipped a few days here and there, but it's pretty close to those figures. I got a 100x viewer and it helps - much better detail than the 60x loupe. The triches are still clear and somewhat milky white. Again, a little hard to tell because it appears the light at the end of the viewer is reflecting off the triches, causing some difficulty in seeing their true color. Kinda wished I had a 400-500x microscope or something really strong like that, but I don't have the time to get one at this point; next grow

Anyway, I've been flushing for about 4 days and the runoff water is showing the difference. See pic... the one on the left is runoff water from about a week ago when she was getting fed nutes via the ripening schedule, and now she's getting just pH'd water (to about 6.0) with some GH FloraKleen (per directions), and the bottle on the right shows the runoff from today's flush.

My plan is to continue flushing for the next 2-3 days and then put her into a 2-day dark cycle, as I've read this helps make the buds bigger and ready for harvest. I have to harvest within a week or so due to some life constraints, so I'm hoping she'll be ready by then. If not, that will be unfortunate. I don't see any amber triches yet. Wondering if any will appear by the time I have to harvest? I know you said sometimes they don't turn amber.

Here is a pic of her using a flash, which surprisingly came out without the orange hue from the HPS...

And w/o flash and just under the HPS...

So, a few questions on the drying and curing process.

1. For stealth reasons I want to cut the entire plant at one time, and my plan is to hang it upside down inside the tent with the carbon filter venting out so there will be some gentle air flow going through the tent and scrubbing the air. I understand I'll need to let her dry for about a week, or a bit more. Does this plan sound alright? I guess the way to check when she's done is when I can bend a branch and it snaps.

2. Incidentally, RH is oscillating between about 38% and 58%. Is that OK for the final harvest days and drying?

3. When is the best time to trim off all the little leaves that are left? Should I do it before hanging her up, or is it better and/or easier to do it after she dries but before the curing starts?

4. For curing, my plan is to basically cut the branches off into manageable sizes and stick them into mason jars with Bovida 62 humidity packs. I was told this will keep the humidity at the perfect level during curing and I can keep the buds in the jars for a couple of weeks to cure without having to worry about opening the jars. Does this sound reasonable?

Would be great to hear your thoughts on those things!

Also, looking forward to my next grow, I'm thinking I'd like to do 4 plants and do a hydro grow, for a few reasons. Reduced growing time, better yields, more flexibility in being able to go away for a week at a time, and hydro just seems really more efficient and less hassle with dealing with bugs and pests too; at least that's my impression. I need to research and understand some of the finer details of hydro growing before I get started with that though.

5. For 4 plants, likely of the same variety, which hydro method would you recommend?

Part of me would like to do 2, 3 or even 4 different varieties, but I feel like that complicates harvesting because they might all need to get harvested at different times, and I only have so much space for drying (in a stealthy manner), so really can't allocate separate spaces for growing and drying. Anyway, gotta run for now, but will be looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks TG!! I agree that any grow that makes it to the end is a success. I've seen lots here that don't get that far, so I'm pretty excited to get to harvest the first time around.