First Grow: 2 white widows

[ViCiOsO]

Good. I'm on day 17, so hopefully most the stretching has been done. I'm ready to see buds!

Hey Kick, congratulations on your last grow. Results look great! You actually have me thinking about trimming the bottom leaves the way you did. Do you think it's too late?

[kickstart]

I cropped mine at 21 days so the vegetative growth would not come back. Any later than say 3 1/2 to 4 weeks may effect yield, but I haven't tried it... The nice thing was I have no "larf" or wispy buds to deal with, all nice nuggets. My first plants that went down yielded about 2 oz ea. give or take when finished. The last of the plants that are still hanging look like they will yield between 3 and 4 oz. each. I only veg for a couple weeks by the time they go into the room. I finished harvest completely two days ago and am ready to send new clones in to veg tonight. I will keep a full journal this time around.

[ViCiOsO]

Great information +rep!

I'm still gonna do a little more research on the subject. I'd hate to mess up my plants by doing something that isn't exactly necessary. Plus, I've been turning my plants around evenly so that most the bud sights get sufficient light. Should I expect little popcorn buds from the lower branches even if they're receiving plenty of light?

[kickstart]

Well, before skirting my plants no light was getting to the bottom of the plants. After skirting them light could make it all the way to the dirt. Another way to attack the problem would be to add side lights. I have considered using a T5 fluorescent for this, but I opted to go with the skirting for the added benefit of removing what can amount to being a hiding place for bugs. I have been back into growing since 2001 when I got my card. I have taken on other patients since then and have been growing on a much larger scale for the last 2 1/2 yrs. This is my best crop yet. The yields I got before this technique where close but a lot of small buds and larf. Hard to deal with and hard to manicure, etc. Now that has been eliminated. I have read in a few place that to be considered efficient one must produce .5 g/watt. I am above that level by quite a bit which is encouraging.

[RooRman]

Most plants usually stop stretching by week 3. Some growers cut back on the Nitrogen a little to discourage stretching, but this must be done carefully as to not cause a deficiency.

If you do some LST with the lower branches and move them out of the shade caused by the larger fan leaves above then the buds will be bigger. In the past I have completly cut off the really small growth at the very bottom. This is done in an effort to cause "energy transference", by cutting away the under-developed parts and allowing the plant to put it's energy into the larger buds recieving more light making them even more robust. I typically do not cut large fan leaves off the plant because these are the main solar collecting panels on the plant by which alot of light energy is absorbed. Moving the buds out of their shadow is a better idea then cutting them off.

[ViCiOsO]

I can't rep you again Roor, but know the love is there. It's great to have you guys around. Tomorrow, I water with nutes. I'll be sure to cut the nitrogen to half, maybe a quarter dose.

Thanks to you too Kick. But since this is my first grow, I'm not gonna go crazy choppin off leaves. I am however going to cut off a couple of lower bud sights that obviously aren't going to produce much. There's only like 2 of them.

On a different note, I have a pretty bad cold right now and decided to stay off the drugs (advil,nyquil,etc), and just smoke. First thing I noticed, I'm getting ALOT higher! I'm thinking it's because my sinuses are so congested.

[RooRman]

Originally Posted by ViCiOsO

I can't rep you again Roor, but know the love is there. It's great to have you guys around. Tomorrow, I water with nutes. I'll be sure to cut the nitrogen to half, maybe a quarter dose.

Consider your appreciation...well...appreciated.

If you do cut back on Nitrogen, I advise cutting it to only half. Plants need Nitrogen for all stages of growth including flowering, just not as much as if they were in veg. Monitor the plants reaction closely, and if you see any yellowing whatsoever bring the Nitrogen levels back up to their current level.

Your doing really good and you don't want to ruin a good thing.

[ViCiOsO]

Just finished watering.

Flora series feed chart for week 3 of flowering:

FloraGro (2-1-5): 3ml
FloraMicro (5-0-1): 8ml
FloraBloom (0-5-4): 14ml

I only added 2ml of FloraGro and 6ml of FloraMicro. Hopefully this curbs the stretching a bit without screwing the girls up. Let's see how it goes!

[Boss]

Wow, I'm useing a 15-30-15 :-) Even with that I use full str every 5 days and 1/2 str every 3 days. Dont see any burn, yet :-) Maybe I just might though...

[ViCiOsO]

Pretty big numbers you got there lol. Does this mean my nutes are really watered down?

[Boss]

Tablespoon per gallon.

[ViCiOsO]

Yeah that sounds about right. Plus a 3/4 capfull of sea tea.

[ViCiOsO]

Day 22. The beginning of week 4. My smaller plant's bottom fan leaves have really started to yellow. Other than that, I think everything's turning out ok.

[Boss]

Very nice. Much better then mine in week 5 1/2 actually.. Great job!

[ViCiOsO]

You think so? That's a great compliment. It's exciting to know that they still have about 2 more months to fatten up! You think it's the sea tea?