Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon Haze

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Oh, I'm running into an issue with the mosquito bits breaking down into sort of a sludge that is clogging up my water pump. Here's a pic of the mess it makes:

I also asked about this in the problems, pests, and disease control section here, BTi, Mosquito Bits become sludge and clogs water pump, to open it up to a wider audience, because I'm guessing not too many people run into this, but I really have no idea.

Maybe someone has a suggestion? In the meantime, happy green Friday everyone!

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

I found this nice shot taken two days ago and felt compelled to share it with the gang.

 

[Major PITA]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Are you sure it is the BT making the pump sludge? I've not see it do that. I've had it in standing water for long periods w/o any gunk, but haven't run it through a pump. I've had the BT dunks in water bubbled with air stones and had no problems. Some nutrients will "bloom" once mixed with water, over an extended period of time. Dunno...

Nice looking buds! How much longer do you recon?

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Are you sure it is the BT making the pump sludge? I've not see it do that. I've had it in standing water for long periods w/o any gunk, but haven't run it through a pump. I've had the BT dunks in water bubbled with air stones and had no problems. Some nutrients will "bloom" once mixed with water, over an extended period of time. Dunno...

Nice looking buds! How much longer do you recon?

Thank you kindly Major.

Yeah, I'm nearly positive it's the BTi/Mosquito Bits breaking down. I didn't have this problem before I started adding that to the nute mix. I'm using the bits instead of the dunks which are much smaller and look like possibly a slightly different consistency, but maybe it's the same stuff - not sure. I'll have to figure out more precisely how long it takes to start breaking down, as I might be able to prevent this problem by mixing up smaller batches, perhaps 2g at a time instead of 4g at a time, before it starts degrading. It will be more mixing and a bit more time investment, but if it saves the pump(s), that's a good thing, and fresher nutes to the plants can't hurt.

Yeah, the bud are looking nice, huh?

From all the info I've gathered it looks like flowering for Strawberry Diesel is anywhere from 56-75 days and similar for Super Lemon Haze. Tomorrow will be day 49 and I definitely don't want to harvest them too early, so I'll be starting to check trichome color today or tomorrow. I only have one other grow under my belt at this point, but my best guess is they have at least another 2 weeks to go, maybe even 3 weeks. Figuring I'll be harvest somewhere around July 4th.

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon


So, it looks like some of the mosquito bits start breaking down into that sludge after day 3 of idling in the nute mix. It could be they are reacting with one or more of the nutrients, but I'm not sure. Since I've been mixing up 4g of mix at a time and feeding approximately 1g overall to all plants each day, the sludge is generally around for day 3 and 4 of the feedings.

pH, BTi/Mosquito Bits, Fungus Gnats:

Also, I've started checking the pH each time before feedings and to my amazement, the pH has been very low after a couple of days of the mix sitting around. For instance, yesterday, on day 3 after the last nute mix got mixed up, I measured the pH at 4.4 !!! Wow, that was way lower than I've seen before. I never had to use so much pH to get things back toward 5.8 before.


I'm theorizing (and hoping) this is only caused by the addition of the mosquito bits, so tonight I'm going to mix up a new batch of only 2g (for two days of feeding) and leave out the mosquito bits. Instead, I'll pour some dry bits onto the coco and water over them so they are not idly sitting in the mix. I expect this may have a similar effect on any fungus gnat larvae that may be embedded in the coco.

There were 40 adult gnats caught on the sticky traps yesterday, which means they are steadily visiting the area, but I don't think causing a big problem. The numbers from the last several days were:
6/21 - 40
6/19 - 36
6/18 - 32
6/17 - 31
6/16 - 27
6/15 - 27
6/14 - 24
6/11 - 5
It seems roughly 3-5 new ones show up every day for the last couple of weeks; at least the ones that are caught.

TEMPS and HUMIDITY:

First, I got yet another hygrometer that I'm using outside the tent but still in the growing room. This is for measuring the temps and relative humidity in the room and comparing it to the measurements from the other two hygrometers which are in the tent. Also, I've rectified the earlier discrepancies of the first two hygrometers by moving them closer together in the tent and making sure they are both close to the top canopy. Prior to that, one of the hygrometers was on the tent floor and the other was up near the tent ceiling and this must've accounted for the differences in their measurements. So, at least now I am more confident that I have accurate measurements, which is a big plus.

For the last several days temps have been in the range of:
63-86 F in the tent, and RH has been
23-50%
I have the dehumidifier set to a target RH of 35%, but at some point over the weekend the water tank filled up which temporarily stops the dehumidifier from being effective, so the RH rose above 45% briefly. I'm now in the habit of emptying the tank daily which should prevent that problem from happening again. I am somewhat amazed at how much water it actually takes out of the air in such a short amount of time.

I believe ideally the temps are supposed to be slightly cooler (more toward 70-75, instead of 80-85) during lights on time during flowering, but I already have my oscillating fan inside the tent and the outtake fan working hard. I also have the air cooling fan on maximum and attached the outtake duct of that to the ballast to help cool the ballast which becomes very hot (see upcoming photo). This seems to be working well. In a perfect world, I'd attach the passive intake duct to the tent to the AC vent coming into the room, but it would be awkward to do so based on the orientation of the tent to the vent. With that in place though, I expect I could bring the temps in the tent down by 5 degrees or so, which would probably be favorable for better bud development (at least based on my research). I might see if I can make this happen, but I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'm very happy with the effectiveness of the dehumidifier though.

TRICHOMES:

I still need to look at the trichomes under magnification but haven't done so yet. I likely have at least a week or so until I should start flushing though anyway, so there isn't a huge rush, but I do want to start looking at them soon. Also hoping that the Strawberry Diesel and Super Lemon Haze mature at nearly the same rate so I can harvest them all together. I don't know how folks grow multiple strains together which have different harvesting times, but I guess it must be necessary to have a separate drying room and then it could be possible. For me, since I'm going to dry inside my tent, I really need to harvest everything at the same time, though I could try to improve with a temporary drying spot in a different room; though that could cause major odor problems

LIGHT LEAK:

I'm hoping this isn't going to cause a problem, but a couple of days ago we had a short power outage in the middle of the night. I came out of a deep sleep to realize it and was worried about the plants and went to check on them, turning the light on in the room, not awake enough to realize that they were already in their dark period. I immediately noticed it after switching the room light on (not the HPS light) and turned it right off and left, but there was probably one second of light that hit the plants when they were in the dark phase. If there is a saving grace, it might be that their dark period is now 15 hours, and this all happened less than 3 hours into that period, so they still had over 12 hours of constant darkness for that dark phase. Hopefully that won't cause any problem though! It makes me think of what happens to cannabis that grows outdoors in the wild, because there are normal lighting situations (i.e. the moon, street lights, etc.) that could come up and disturb their normal light cycle, but then again, maybe that causes those plants to hermie? In any case, there's not much I can do about it now other than just keep the environmental conditions are close to ideal as possible, so that's what I'm doing.

Hopefully someone else can benefit from the crazy amount of detail I'm putting in my journal

Greenest regards!

 

[Major PITA]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Excellent update, snack (again)!

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Excellent update, snack (again)!

Thanks again my friend!

Assuming all goes well leading up to the harvest and throughout drying and curing, I should end up with a nice amount of buds to get me through until I start my next grow, which may not be until next year. First, I'm focusing on finishing this one up strong though.

 

[Major PITA]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Ya know, if the BT hasn't knocked the gnats down by now, I'd quit using them altogether. The lifecycle isn't that long for those little buggers.

 

[CCOiler]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Outstanding update snacks, your updates help people like me and lets you go back and see what you did in the past.

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Ya know, if the BT hasn't knocked the gnats down by now, I'd quit using them altogether. The lifecycle isn't that long for those little buggers.

Oh yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I believe the life cycle for gnats is roughly one month, and honestly, I could probably ignore them altogether at this point and still be fine because the plants are mature and strong and can likely endure a few of them munching on the roots. But, the thing is that new adults keep getting caught which tells me that they could try to lay eggs and continue the cycle, and I guess the cycle can start happening continually as new adults arrive on the scene. I really hate the thought than any roots could be affected by the larva.

I guess I mostly just want to feel that I have an effective method of limiting the amount of eggs that can get laid in the coco. I'm going to give them a dose of h2o2 (in h2o) later on which I've read (from several sources now) will effectively kill any larvae that are lurking there.

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon


Here are some pics from a couple of days ago on 6/19:

First, the cooling "system" for the ballast

And now for some greener photos...

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Outstanding update snacks, your updates help people like me and lets you go back and see what you did in the past.

Hey RSOiler, I just saw your message. I guess I was posting pics when you wrote.

Great to hear from you and I'm very glad my updates are helping! I figured even if they don't help anyone else, they will provide a reference for myself when I need to come back and relearn how I did things, what problems came up, and how they were dealt with. But, I'm really happy that you're getting some benefit out of the journaling too!

 

[CCOiler]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

I'm also loving the new Avatar, that's how I feel sometimes.

 

[Graytail]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Excellent resin production!

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Excellent resin production!

Agreed! It seems like they are getting very frosty looking and I checked the triches yesterday and there are a ton of them. Sometimes it's hard for me to distinguish between clear and cloudy/milky, probably due to my lack of experience with harvesting, but I'm pretty sure they are still clear.

Any guesstimates on how long I have until harvest?

My understanding is I'll want to start flushing when the trichomes start looking cloudy or milky. Is that a good guideline for me to follow?

I have a 30x/60x loupe and a second 60x magnifier but neither is super great for seeing the triches in detail so I got a (relatively inexpensive) digital microscope that plugs into a USB port on the computer. Only problem is, the software doesn't seem to install correctly so far... But I hope to get that working because it has 200x magnification which should be a lot better.

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

The thing I'm trying to figure out is when I should switch to the Ripening feeding schedule mentioned as week 12 in the FloraDuo Expert Drain to Waste schedule (page down for the DTW as the upper schedule is for recirculating) - Feedcharts

This schedule allocates 8 weeks for flower, but in my case, and I believe it's the case for many sativa-dominant strains, a longer flowering cycle than 8 weeks is necessary for optimum maturation. This was the tricky part for me in my last grow too, figuring out when to switch to ripening nutes (which are comparatively minimal), and then when to switch to flushing.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Graytail]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

I'd estimate two or three more weeks.

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

I'd estimate two or three more weeks.

Cool, thanks Graytail. And just to clarify, you're thinking 2-3 weeks until harvest, right? (As opposed to 2-3 weeks until switching to the ripening or flush schedule.)

I'm hoping that the buds will start getting fatter and more interconnected with each other on the branches, because as of right now, they are not as big as I would expect. But I guess they are supposed to fill out, especially in the last couple of weeks?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Graytail]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Yep, 2-3 weeks til harvest, and re-yep, this is when they should fatten up. You should be feeding ripening nutes now, or soon.

 

[snack420]

Re: Snacks - DWC Bucket - 600W MH/HPS Grow Journal - Strawberry Diesel & Super Lemon

Yep, 2-3 weeks til harvest, and re-yep, this is when they should fatten up. You should be feeding ripening nutes now, or soon.

Awesome! Thanks so much for clarifying that Graytail. I'm very excited for the upcoming harvest

I will plan to start on the ripening schedule in 2-3 days once I finish the nutes I just mixed up (which should be about two feedings worth). The ripening schedule calls for .5 tsp of dry KoolBloom, which I don't have, but I do have Liquid KoolBloom. Wondering if I can use that instead? (That's not a question for you specifically GT - I'm just thinking out loud)

Oh, and here are some pics from 6/21: