Second Grow - Venice Beach Afghan

[Vestrimatrik]

Hey all, I'm new to the growing community and the forums.
I thought I might share my progress with my venice beach grows as I haven't been able to find much info on the net about them.
80% indica dominant in RDWC with 20gal reservoirs and 3gal root chambers. 1x1000w, 1x400w. Switching to 2x1000w hps next week, which would put them at 6 weeks in veg from clone using GH nutes
Comments, questions, and suggestions are all welcomed.

Babies

pH was fluctuating way too much

Had to Gove them some more space

Can't wait to switch them!

 

[TanR]

Hi Vestrimatrik,

Welcome to 420 Magazine and community of members that gathers here.

I confess to not being familiar with the venice beach strain and am curious to learn more. I realize you mentioned being unable to learn a lot from the net, but I'm curious to know if you've learned anything about it's "parent" strains?

Great looking plants and setup! Are you planning on changing light schedule at the same time you add the second 1000 watt light?

I know you'll find the rest of the community welcoming, laid back and sincerely interested in sharing and cheering your successes.

Be well and happy growing!

 

[Vestrimatrik]

From what I have seen it's parents are OG kush and white widow. And yes, once I get the 2nd 1000w ballast I will be switching to 12/12 and hps.
I'm still at a loss of whether or not it's a hardy strain or if it's resilient to pests. But I will find out as I have one plant hardening for an outside season that is the same strain.
I do know that they really love a full strength nutrient mix.

Thanks for the compliment! I'll try to post updates every week or so with anything I learn.

 

[TanR]

Thanks Vestrimatrik.

An OG Kush and White Widow cross sounds like a very promising strain. I can't imagine it being anything but a joy to grow and consume! I'll look forward to your updates as the opportunity presents.

 

[VladimirPutin]

Subbed for the show

Vlad

 

[Vestrimatrik]

So I actually got to looking at my girls tonight and noticed on one of them that some of the leaves are "canoeing" to the underside, I had this in my first grow and didn't know what it was... does anyone else?
I just started started the preflower flush and it's a little nitrogen toxic to the point where I have the claw but nothing further.
Are these signs related?
Sorry for the photos being sideways, I'll get that fixed soon

 

[Stinky Snid]

Sign me up, can never get enough grow pics to enjoy. Thanks for starting a journal, look forward to many more posts and pics.

KiG cheers

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Switched these 2 girls to flower today, both under 1000w hortilux hps. Had a couple bad Apollo bulbs so I decided to get these instead.
I'll be flushing for another day, then I will add the nutrients mixed at a mild strength.
They are a 9 week strain and I hope they turn out well.
Any suggestions would be welcome as I am still new to growing.

 

[TanR]

Ya know Vestrimatik, I think all of us are constantly on the look out for what we could do better or how to tweak that extra little bit out of our plants; but your plants look great and seem to be loving life.

If it's not broken......

Be well and happy growing!

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Finally got some pictures to upload. It's stretch time!
These ladies are growing a little over an inch a day. For the past 3 days nurtients, pH, and Temps have been 100% stable and happy as can be.
During the flush however I had some heat issues where the Temps would climb up to 87 and 85 shining on the leaves. So I increased the ventilation and backed off the lights till they were 77 consistent and 73 on the leaves.

More updates to come as they progress!

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Seeing as how I'm new, I'm not great at guessing yields yet. Maybe someone could enlighten me as to what I can expect from these?

2 weeks into flower and this monster is still going strong!

Nice little preflowers.
The res was a little low today and a bit too alkaline so I added 5gal ph adjusted water to top up and bring back to 5.9.
Temps are in the 77-81 range and humidity hovers around 50.
In 3 days I plan on doing some trimming to thin these ladies out a bit as well as move them because they are outgrowing their tent right now.

BONUS PICS! A preview of some incredible bulk I picked up a couple days ago.
And my diy LED grow light I just completed for the incredible bulk when it comes time.

 

[TanR]

Hi again Vestrimatrik,

Sorry I missed your question about the curling leaves. Looks like you got it straightened out though, as your plants are looking fabulous! There are a couple variables to guessing eventual yield and doing it from just a few photos poses additional challenges. Your plants look healthy and absolutely loaded with bud sites, so I'm going to suggest your yield will be bigger than you probably expect.

Care to share what your thinking or hoping yield wise?

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Hi again Vestrimatrik,

Sorry I missed your question about the curling leaves. Looks like you got it straightened out though, as your plants are looking fabulous! There are a couple variables to guessing eventual yield and doing it from just a few photos poses additional challenges. Your plants look healthy and absolutely loaded with bud sites, so I'm going to suggest your yield will be bigger than you probably expect.

Care to share what your thinking or hoping yield wise?

Well I was hoping for 1lb, I'm thinking I'll be right around there.
As it sits right now one plant is 3 1/2' tall and 4 1/2' around, the other is 3' tall and 3 1/3' around.
I wasn't really expecting them to get this massive based off what I learned with my first grow but then again I hadn't ever tried.

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Just opened my tent this morning to find this... well crap, best suggestion on how to fix it?

Sorry it's sideways, was in a hurry to support it.
As for right now I tied it up to close the wound, wet it down, and wrapped a ton of electrical tape around it till I hear a better idea.
Bad luck will make me lose some yeild.

 

[TanR]

I going to guess your yield will be at least a little more than that. But again, there are a number of variables. I just don't have any insight whatsoever as to whether this strain produces big heavy buds or smaller fluffy buds.

Most growers have an admittedly imperfect baseline measurement of efficiency. Grams (dry of course) per watt of light. Again, probobly not the best method, but an easy one for sure. In a hydro I routinely hear/see/am aware of growers getting pretty impressive figures of over 1 gram per watt. But these are really experienced, "shit dialed in perfectly", no broken branches (from your next post) growers that are really pushing the envelope. Given that your still a newer grower (like myself) and how little we know of your strain, I think it's more realistic to expect .4 or .5 grams per watt of light. 2000 watts x .4 grams = 800 grams. Divided by 28 grams per ounce = 32 ounces or two pounds. Hopefully this is even a low guesstimate.

Oh, and I really don't anticipate that the broken branch will negatively effect your yield very much - if you have done a good job of mending and supporting it - which I anticipate you have. I think the electrical tape will work just fine btw!

Let us know if we can help (virtually of course) with the broken branch. I think you'll find this plant is amazingly resilient.

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Thanks for the reassuring info. Im just worried about the broken branch affecting yeild because that would mean my patient wouldn't get the amount of meds she needs.

Your way of calculating yeilds seems like a good baseline to start with but is that with a SOG where there is little wasted light? Right now with the gaps in my tent I'm guessing I'm wasting 25-35% of my 2000w.

 

[TanR]

Morning Vestrimatrik,

Completely understand your concern for your patient and think it would be misleading for me to offer 100 percent certainty that the break won't have any effect. My experience is that the plant will, if possible, find a way to repair the damage if given even half a chance to do so.

These plants are genetically programmed to reproduce. Their best chance to do so is to have as many big, sticky budsites as possible available to catch pollen from a male plant wafting by on air currents or passing fawna. From my own experience and many examples from others, I've seen repeated examples of a break like yours having little, if any, negative effect. Especially if the plant is provided any assistance from its caretaker.

The calculations on yield are not specific to any particular method of growing or light source, but are more a general baseline allowing for some evaluation and comparison of energy input to resulting yield across all methodoligies and lighting sources. I can almost envision a fictituous, humerous interaction between two old grower/stoners sometime in history comparing yields, with one conceding that while the other grower did in fact get the greater total yield, it came at the cost of far greater energy comsumption. As in "yes, you did get 6 ounces vs. my two, but your light bill was 4 times mine!"

Most, if not all, of the examples of SOG growing of which I'm aware were/are motivated primarily by speed of grow completion rather than total yield. My understanding is a SOG grow can be completed in around 90 days or so, vs. the more common 4,5, or 6 month timeline of longer vegatative times. I often see SOG growers employing light rails to move the light source back and forth over a group of plants that is larger than the footprint of the light.

I also think it my be an oversimplification to assume that because 25%-35% of the area covered by your lights is not filled by foliage, that the light is wasted. One of the reason we buy tents, reflective material, or paint grow areas is in attempt of capturing some benefit by reflecting the light onto the sides or lower portions of the plant. I'm afraid I don't know of an accurate method of evaluating any possible benefit to yield from the reflected light though.

Meant to comment/ask earlier about that sexy looking roadster in the background of the LED light picture below. Is that a Morgan by chance?

 

[Vestrimatrik]

Mgtd replica you aren't the first to ask. It is a rather nice car, but it's kind of in a poor condition.

 

[TanR]

Ah, gotcha. I knew it didn't look exactly like the Morgans I have any familiarity with, but thought perhaps one with which I wasn't familiar.

Have a great weekend!

 

[Vestrimatrik]

The one with the broken branch is still showing signs of new growth, I'm sure she will make it now. You can see the repair I made.
The other one has gotten so big that I actually had to take her out of the tent because she was being restricted. Temps are around 75 on both, each have a ph of 5.9 with a 1/2 strength nutrient mix.
I didn't think the big one was getting enough light and I didn't have another 1000w fixture so I decided to use my DIY LED as another. Didn't really want to use more electricity but I need her to grow up big and strong. Guess we will see if it was money well spent!