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

[Graytail]

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

One dark period like that rarely causes a problem - I'd be surprised if it did. For me, stress nanners have usually appeared first in shaded lower buds.

But don't sweat it - you're fine.

 

[CCOiler]

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

See snacks your fine.............now get your a$$ home!!!!!!

 

[snack420]

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

One dark period like that rarely causes a problem - I'd be surprised if it did. For me, stress nanners have usually appeared first in shaded lower buds.

But don't sweat it - you're fine.

Ah
Thanks for setting my mind at ease.

I'll be home in less than 48 hours so will be able to check on the situation soon, but I also got good news today. My trusted caretaker, in an act of supreme consideration, acquired a new HPS bulb and switched it with the MH bulb today. Apparently all went well and the girls seem happy, so I'm happy, or at least a bit less worried now.

It will be very good to get back and reconnect with the family...

 

[snack420]

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

See snacks your fine.............now get your a$$ home!!!!!!

Absolutely! I'm on my way and already there in spirit

 

[snack420]

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

Hi everyone! Happy Friday to all my fellow 420 growers following along and helping out

I've gotten home and have an update and should be able to also post some pics over the weekend.

LIGHT
Even though my caregiver got a replacement HPS light and installed it just a day after the other one blew (while the MH was subbing in), they got a relatively inexpensive brand. In the meantime I was told that the Hortilux bulbs are top notch in terms of light spectrum, so I bought a 600W Hortilux HPS (for a bit more than twice the price!) which I'm hoping will be a worthwhile investment. Anyone have data on using a Hortilux HPS vs the same wattage UltraSun HPS?

LEAF DISCOLORATION and FEEDING:
As a quick reminder, I left for a trip about a week ago and left a 50% strength nute mix for my feeder. Well, upon coming back, I noticed many of Sadie's (she's in the front left) leaves became even more yellow than last week, some completely so. And some had burnt and curled looking leaves or leaf ends. Regina (in the back left) also started showing some slightly discolored leaves, with some yellow and brown spotting, but much less than Sadie. The other two, on the right side, Vera and Tori are a very nice deep green color. My light is centered in the tent, as are the ladies, but part of my wonders if the light is somehow shining better on one side based on what I'm seeing.

After some online research and talking to an experienced grower, it seems like the leaf discoloration could be due to a Calcium and/or Magnesium deficiency. I was advised to increase the CalMag concentration. So, I did that, increasing it from 50% to 200%. The grower I spoke with is experienced and said that 200% should be fine and he uses that concentration frequently. The strength of the other nutes in the small fresh batch I made just for yesterday was at 75%. I figure I must've been going in the wrong direction by decreasing nutes to 50%, but just wanted to make sure I wasn't giving them an overabundance of nutes. We'll see how they look over the next week or so from using a 75% nute strength with 200% dose of CalMag.

TEMPS and RELATIVE HUMIDITY:
The levels from the hygrometers about 1 hour after lights on.
Hygro1 (AcuRite) showed temp 75F (range 59-77F), and RH of 61% (range 56-76%)
Hygro2 (Thermo) showed temp 68F (range 57-78F), and RH of 57% (range 43-65%)

Because I know my humidity was too high and I really want to prevent any chance of mold or mildew while also maximizing trichome production and overall budding health, I purchased a top-rated 70-pint dehumidifier. After only 1 hour of running it the RH readings were as follows:
Hygro1 (AcuRite) showed an RH of 51% (dropped from 61%)
Hygro2 (Thermo) showed an RH of 41% (dropped from 57%)



When I checked a couple of hours after that, they were reading even lower, so I'm very excited that the humidity seems to be getting near the ideal range of 40% (or even lower). When setting the target RH, I should be able to dial it in for the last couple of weeks of flower and also during the drying period which I understand should really help the overall quality of the harvest.

FUNGUS GNATS:
Before leaving last week I got rid of the 4 yellow sticky traps and replaced them with 3 new ones. Yesterday I counted five adults caught on the traps. I will be continuing to monitor the traps and coco tops and using the BTi in the form of mosquito bits in the nute mix. The grower I spoke with indicated that the hot water and h2o2 mixture I have been using weekly or so in an effort to kill the gnat larvae may also be harming the biology in the coco. On the other hand, they look very healthy and I haven't seen evidence of gnats on the coco surface, so I may continue using that mix occasionally. At this point I'm undecided, but whatever methods I use to control the gnats, I just want it to be cost effective and relatively convenient to apply. Apparently gnats are attracted to coco, so that's part of the inherent challenge of using this medium.

BUD BACKBUILDING:
Next week, during week 7 of flower, I'm going to employ LightAddict's bud backbuilding technique in an effort to encourage the buds to get more dense.

TRIMMING:
On Sunday it will be day 43 of flower and I'm planning to do another trimming of lower leaves and buds that aren't getting good light.

NANNERS / HERMIES:
I'm also going to search for nanners this weekend, just in case the girls were too stressed out by the extended lights out period the other day.

As always, any feedback is welcomed and appreciated, and feel free to ask any questions and I will respond.

 

[CCOiler]

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

Nice update snacks, sounds like a great plan.

 

[snack420]

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

Nice update snacks, sounds like a great plan.

Thanks RSO. I was hoping to post some pics this weekend but became too busy with other things like trimming and dealing with more fungus gnats... I should hopefully be able to upload more pics soon though.

I will provide a status update, however.

The last 3 days I've been feeding them 75% strength nutes (FloraDuo A, B, LiquidKoolBloom, Floralicious+, FloraNectar, DiamondNectar), as well as 200% strength CalMag and 100% HydroGuard and Molasses (1 tbs/g). This yielded a
pH of 6.2
ppm of ~ 1050
EC, mS/cm - 1.4

I then pH'd it down to 5.8.

Temps and RH are stable and in the target range. The addition of a dehumidifier was an excellent choice.

Today I trimmed a bunch of leaves and very low small branches off, but not branches that came directly off the main trunk. I took a lot off of Sadie and Regina (the two on the left), and a bit less off of Tori, and even less off of Vera (the two on the right). Because Vera is clearly the alpha female, I moved her to the front and Tori to the back in order to better manage Vera's large branches. I'm anticipating putting up more stabilizing stakes soon and maybe installing the plant yoyos too. It will be interesting to see the difference in buds across the plants since I trimmed them each a little differently than the next.

Unfortunately, the gnat situation has worsened slightly though I'm not panicking. The 3 yellow stickies I put down have caught 24 gnats! Just 3 days ago they had only caught 5 gnats, so the adults are on the rise. I took each plant out of the tent today while trimming and in the process took the opportunity to level the medium on each of them and caught a bunch of adults flying around on Vera's coco. I didn't notice any adults on the other girls, only Vera. So, to try and kill any lurking in the coco itself, and prevent them from laying eggs, I added some diatomaceous earth to the tops of each of their coco and covered them completely. Hopefully this will help. Tomorrow I may use the hot water and h2o2 technique again.

I also decided to test the runoff water from a couple of the plants. The figures were interesting but I'm not really sure what to make of them.
Regina's runoff: pH 7.0, EC 4.0
Vera's runoff: pH 6.7, EC 5.1

A couple of other quick notes. Tonight I decreased the "lights on" time by another half hour at the end of the cycle so now the lights are 9 on / 15 off. Today begins week 7 of flower and I'm expecting they may be ready to harvest for flushing in 2-3 weeks. In two weeks or so I'll start looking at the trichomes to monitor for milkyness as a sign to start flushing with water and FloraKleen. They are really starting to smell quite pungent now!

 

[snack420]

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

Here are some pics which were taken on 6/11... Enjoy!

 

[snack420]

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

And some more pics taken yesterday...

 

[snack420]

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

The lower bud clippings I've been taking off are very resinous and sticky. Is there any THC present at this point (week 7 of flower)? If so, instead of throwing them away I might want to make them into some cannabutter, but I won't waste the time and effort if they are devoid of THC.

Anyone know?

 

[snack420]

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

And here are a few more pics taken yesterday for your viewing pleasure...

 

[CCOiler]

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

Damn snacks, you not only turned this grow around, you blew it up.

 

[Major PITA]

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

The lower bud clippings I've been taking off are very resinous and sticky. Is there any THC present at this point (week 7 of flower)? If so, instead of throwing them away I might want to make them into some cannabutter, but I won't waste the time and effort if they are devoid of THC.

None. Send them to me. You won't like them.

Awesome job getting things turned around snack!

 

[snack420]

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

None. Send them to me. You won't like them.

Awesome job getting things turned around snack!

Hmm, well it sounds like it may be worth my while trying a cannabutter batch after all...

And thanks!

 

[snack420]

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

Damn snacks, you not only turned this grow around, you blew it up.

Thanks buddy. I'm doing my best. My girls deserve all of my love.

 

[snack420]

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

Today I decreased the humidity setting on the dehumidifier to the lowest setting, 35%, and after a short time all my hygrometers measured an RH of less than 35%. I believe this should help bud and resin development over the last couple of weeks of flower.

Also, since some of the branches are getting heavy and could use some support and guidance, I added 5-6 bamboo stakes to each pot and attached them to the main outer branches using soft wire ties. This should help with branch stability as the buds get heavier.

I also performed LA's bud backbuilding technique to all of the major buds. I just took off the tiniest amount at the top of the buds.

Finally, I realized that my pH meter was slightly uncalibrated as of last night when I mixed up the nutes, so I ended up having to add pH Up to the solution to bring it up to 5.8 (from 5.2). So, they likely had their feeding yesterday with a pH that was too low, but it has now been corrected.

Here are some pics of the clippings I've taken off the last couple of days which I'm going to try and make into cannabutter. First I want to let the clippings dry. There are also some shots of the buds and the girls in all their glory. I noticed that if I use the flash on my camera, the orange hue from the HPS bulb seems to be negated, which is pretty cool, meaning I stumbled on a way to get more realistic looking shots with normal coloring.

Enjoy, and keep it green!

 

[snack420]

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

Quick update...

Fungus Gnats:
I counted 31 gnats caught on the stickies today. That number is up from 27 yesterday, so a slight increase. I've come to the realization that I'm probably never going to be able to completely eliminate the fungus gnats since they are drawn to coco, but at least I seem to be able to keep them under control and prevent them from attacking the roots using the methods of hot water and h2o2, BTi, and diatomaceous earth. I poured some extra mosquito bits on the tops of the coco before watering which I think helps.

pH of nute mix:
I checked the nute mix today before watering and found it at a pH of 5.1. This is interesting because I had pH'd it up to 5.8 yesterday. I'm not sure why it would drop so drastically in just 24 hours, but I'll check it again tomorrow before watering again.

Harvesting and Drying:
I'm eagerly anticipated the harvest at this point and am going to start looking at the trichomes this weekend to see how they look under magnification. The smell and look of the girls right now is pretty amazing. I also picked up a drying rack that hangs in the tent which should work well for drying them in an even manner. I don't think there will be enough space in the tent to hang them all, and I do want to dry them in the tent to take advantage of the carbon filter.

'Til next time...

 

[snack420]

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

Here's a question. Would it be worthwhile for me to pickup one of those bags of "stuff" that release CO2 into the air and place it in the tent for the final couple of weeks of blooming?

Also, do you guys provide an extended dark period before chopping? I've read some people like to use a 1 or 2 day (or even longer) dark period before the chop, but I'd be interested to hear what you method you guys use.

 

[Major PITA]

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

Would it be worthwhile for me to pickup one of those bags of "stuff" that release CO2 into the air and place it in the tent for the final couple of weeks of blooming?

IMO, No.

 

[snack420]

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

IMO, No.

Cool. Thanks for your opinion on the matter Major

I'll forgo it this time and maybe try it for my next grow earlier on.