A Grouchier Grow - LED 3Wx100 - Hempy - 9 Plants - 3 Strains - Lucas - Mainline

[Grouchy]

DAY 44
I gave these bad boys a feedijg st 75% tonight. They're really taking off now!

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Pop quiz! Anyone know what this fella is gonna turn into? I'd love him to stay in the tent for potential pests

 

[Camo420Grow]

Lookin good grouch! And my guess is a mantis !

 

[Katatonia]

plants r looking awesome Grouchy
well i'v thought about the light on the outside branches as u said so i added 75 watts of cfls on those areas yesterday, i also cut some fan leaves to let light and air get through the lower parts because plants seemed so bushy , i also read that defoliation slower the stretching after switching to flowering , so i'll see what happens in few days and post some photos
Have a nice weekend man , stay high

 

[cogreen]

Well I did a pretty heavy defol the other day -- perhaps I'll regret that one, but time will tell Damn rookies (me)!!

I think I understand your technique for pinching the "sub branches", but if you remember and have time I would like to see a pic of it for visual confirmation if you can.

In terms of my plant structure control, I want better control over height mainly. I induced flower expecting a decent amount of stretch (seed bank confirms they have a tendency to stretch a lot), but alas one of them didn't strech barely at all. This concern will probably go away next grow when I have 24" more inches of head room in my cab.

Your girls are looking good brother and thanks for the response and tips!

 

[JoosyBuds]

Nice grow Grouchy!
yeah that's defiantly a preying mantis,
there so badass

 

[Grouchy]

Lookin good grouch! And my guess is a mantis !

thanks camo!
+10 grouchy bucks (not redeemable anywhere)

plants r looking awesome Grouchy
well i'v thought about the light on the outside branches as u said so i added 75 watts of cfls on those areas yesterday, i also cut some fan leaves to let light and air get through the lower parts because plants seemed so bushy , i also read that defoliation slower the stretching after switching to flowering , so i'll see what happens in few days and post some photos
Have a nice weekend man , stay high

Thanks, Katatonia!
The side lighting will definitely help but is not completely necessary with your setup. That Galaxy should do nicely in the size of tent you have. The extra lighting will equate to bigger buds though. Maybe not a whole lot but there will be more.

You have to be careful for defoliating during the stretch. If you interrupt the stretch too much, you will have noticeably different/less stretching.

Well I did a pretty heavy defol the other day -- perhaps I'll regret that one, but time will tell Damn rookies (me)!!

I think I understand your technique for pinching the "sub branches", but if you remember and have time I would like to see a pic of it for visual confirmation if you can.

In terms of my plant structure control, I want better control over height mainly. I induced flower expecting a decent amount of stretch (seed bank confirms they have a tendency to stretch a lot), but alas one of them didn't stretch barely at all. This concern will probably go away next grow when I have 24" more inches of head room in my cab.

Your girls are looking good brother and thanks for the response and tips!

Hey man!
yeah ill definitely take a picture and show what I'm talking exactly about to be 100% clear.

On my last grow, I had 2 of the same strain growing and only one of them really stretched while the other one stayed extra compact. I really cant explain what makes some stretch more than others especially when they're the same strain but what we could do is minimize the stress a week before the plant flips and until the stretching is done. After those 2 things are finished, I think the pruning and defol should start. I tend to defol throughout the entire grow without any regard to the stage of growth but I also never take a lot at once. I don't think it's ever beneficial to the plant to take a lot off of the plant all at once (except for training techniques such as mainlining of course). But defol isn't a training technique. It's probably considered ongoing maintenance.

You're plants are never going to do exactly what you want them to. I'm starting to realize that and just go with the flow because SHIT HAPPENS and it happens a lot

Nice grow Grouchy!
yeah that's defiantly a preying mantis,
there so badass

Hey JoosyBuds! You're damn right, sir! Those things are very sinister to say the least... who eats their sexual partners head after intercourse? Some people/insects are just into some really freaky things.

Welcome to though! If you want knowledgeable people with no friction, you found the place.

 

[Grouchy]

Don't get me wrong... I freakin love the 420 community but on this matter specifically, it's a little... Eh. Know what I mean?

DAY 47 - UPDATE

So I got a small problem. My plants are all growing different sizes. Those mystery seeds are so stretchy it's horrible. One of them already showed its hairs so I have 2 guarantee females. 1 mystery seed and 1 northern light fem. 3 of my plants have already reached the top of the tomato ring (all mystery seeds) and I'm hoping they're not sativa dominant because I don't have the time for a long flower period that accompanies most sativas (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm going to have to get crafty with the training to lower them down to the heighth of the others. They should go into flower soon... Less than 6 days hopefully. Maybe this weekend! We'll see.

I guess it's not that big of a problem but what should I do about the uneven canopy? Raise the shorter ones on stands or let them sit further away from the light when I flip them to flower?
Thank you guys for your help!

 

[cogreen]

It's not possible to train the mains of the taller ones down a bit?? e.g. pull down and secure them, or train them off more on an angle to reduce height?

Just curious, how far are your lights from the plants (in general)? I thought you had a pic of that, but now I can't find it.

 

[Grouchy]

It's not possible to train the mains of the taller ones down a bit?? e.g. pull down and secure them, or train them off more on an angle to reduce height?

Just curious, how far are your lights from the plants (in general)? I thought you had a pic of that, but now I can't find it.

I did have a pic of it. Until they deleted it.

But from the highest point of the plants, to the lights, it is 12 inches. That's basically where they've been the entire grow and where I'll keep them.

I didn't want to have to train them down but I guess that's gonna be my only option it's looking like. Maybe ill make them into a S pattern and make them go back and forth. I can pull that one off pretty easy I think. I'll probably run some "tests" today to see what my limitations are going to be for training them down.

I'm gonna go hit the bong and check out the side branches to see if any need trimming.
I cant remember who wanted a picture representation of what I was talking about so ill post that here.

 

[cogreen]

Thanks for posting that labled pic - you rock!
I'll watch for close ups as your plants develop as I want to see how the technique "looks" as the plants grow. I need to find a good way to reduce "sub-branching" during veg without impacting bud-sites. I know there's a way, I just haven't had time to dig deep enough into it.


An "S" pattern huh? Dude if you pull that you are an eff'ing artist!

Couldn't you also just bend/anchor the tops of the taller plants (e.g. an "n" shape) and/or supercrop? I'm obviously just rambling off ideas here.

 

[Grouchy]

Thanks for posting that labled pic - you rock!
I'll watch for close ups as your plants develop as I want to see how the technique "looks" as the plants grow. I need to find a good way to reduce "sub-branching" during veg without impacting bud-sites. I know there's a way, I just haven't had time to dig deep enough into it.


An "S" pattern huh? Dude if you pull that you are an eff'ing artist!

Couldn't you also just bend/anchor the tops of the taller plants (e.g. an "n" shape) and/or supercrop? I'm obviously just rambling off ideas here.

Well I attempted the "S" pattern! I ran out of wire so didn't do it all but I'll address that all in an update shortly.

I actually did one "s" shape and one "n" shape to see the difference but I was trying to avoid breaking any branches so I don't want to supercroo.
But Rambling off ideas is a great way to bounce ideas off one another


UPDATE: DAY 50 Of veg!

Hey everyone! How are all you green thumbs doing?
I've been better. I got a pretty bad sickness that had me throwing up about 20 times in a day. But I'm pretty much over that.... Except my wife and daughter have it now. No Bueno!

Plants are doing good. They're all fairly even, at least enough to flower. I'm gonna throw a block of wood or something under the short plants to even them out for flower.

I noticed a problem on only 1 plant that looks like rust strips on a few leaves. I cut the tips off of the leaves that are affected to see if it spreads. Makes it easier for me to identify the already rusted ones seeing how they won't recover anyway. I haven't really had the time to lookup the problem in depth but the picture graph online makes it look like pH fluctuations which I don't think that is it but I'm in no way an expert on plant problems. I'm going to do a flush tomorrow then when they drink that up (maybe 2 days), I'll feed them and most likely flip them to flower. We'll see.

In order to control the side branching on all my 8 colas, I left on 1-2 nodes and snipped everything above that. When I flip to flower, I shouldn't have to touch anymore. I don't think the lateral branching will stretch or grow too much.

I also secured each branch to the tomato ring on all 3 plants that have a tomato cage. This will stabilize them throughout the grow and give them structure. In an attempt to shorten the height, I trained a plant branch into an "S" shape to see how it will grow. This will greatly reduce the heighth if it works. And if it's even feasible. It depends on the stretch. My next grow will have uniform strain. That's for sure.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff but it's late, I'm tired, and have a house full of people I got sick. Better get some sleep while I can.
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I'll start with the leaf problems. Unsure of what it could be at this point. Any guesses?

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[Stage]

Grouchy,
Sorry to hear you and family aren't feeling well. POM juice is a great drink when sick.
Nice training mane. Did you flush and lower your nute ppm's?

 

[cogreen]

Looking purdy good in there sir!! Those plants sure have grown since the last time I saw them. And you pulled off an "S"; impressive! I'd like to see you perfect a "G" (for Grouchy) and use it on one of your mains as your grow signature...

On the leaf discoloration; I only have text book answers for you... A wise man once said "when in doubt, flush them out"... Oh wait that was you who said that!

Apparently some of my posts got deleted from this grow journal for the same reason yours did. Honestly I can't fathom why that would be; I guess we can't even have open discussion on that topic.

Have a good weekend and hope you and the fam feel better.

 

[Grouchy]

Grouchy,
Sorry to hear you and family aren't feeling well. POM juice is a great drink when sick.
Nice training mane. Did you flush and lower your nute ppm's?

Thanks man! I appreciate it. I've always seen that POM stuff but never have given it a try. I love pomegranates so maybe I'll like them! I'll pick some up today. Forum friends helpin' with plant problems and life problems! What more can a man ask for?! Thanks buddy!

I barely discovered the leaf problems last yesterday and have had no time to do anything with it. I'm going to buy a filter to bring my PPMs to 0 then flush today with that and FloraKleen. I think 'ZeroWater' makes a water filter that will work fine. Target or Walmart sells them if I remember correctly.

Up until this point, I've completely disregarded my PPMs because it has never been an issue for me. I realize this is probably the reason for every problem I've come across but I've always kept my PPMs below 1400 mostly but I want to start with an EC of 0. 1400 is just too high for my feeding schedule now.

So, today, here is the plan.
-buy Zero Water Filter
-mix up 5 gallons with 0 PPM water (using the filter) and FloraKleen
-flush them with the 5 gallons
-IN 2 DAYS, feed at 75% Lucas using filtered water

This should work but if not, I'll dig deeper and fix the problem before the flip which has been pushed back a few times now already but my ultimate deadline for flip is the end of the month, so no worries.

Looking purdy good in there sir!! Those plants sure have grown since the last time I saw them. And you pulled off an "S"; impressive! I'd like to see you perfect a "G" (for Grouchy) and use it on one of your mains as your grow signature...

On the leaf discoloration; I only have text book answers for you... A wise man once said "when in doubt, flush them out"... Oh wait that was you who said that!

Apparently some of my posts got deleted from this grow journal for the same reason yours did. Honestly I can't fathom why that would be; I guess we can't even have open discussion on that topic.

Have a good weekend and hope you and the fam feel better.

HAHA! I may take you up on that challenge eventually just for fun.

and flush I shall brother man!

YEAH as far as the deleted posts, I'm going to abide by their rules and not talk about it anymore. They politely sent me a message and I don't want to be kicked off here because 420 is awesome! So, as Forest Gump once said, "...And that's all I got to say about that."

Thanks for the well wishes though CoGreen!

 

[Grouchy]

QUESTION!!!



Does reducing the PPMs lower the pH? Because after I filter my water, the PPMs go from 250 to 0 and my pH goes from 7.0-7.5 to 5.0-5.5. I have to run to the store now to grab some pH up which I thought I'd never use

 

[Grouchy]

Switched to flower yesterday! Update coming shortly.

 

[cogreen]

Flower time; let the fun begin!

On filtered water PH; when I run my tap water through an in-line shower filter it does lower the PH a little. Based on what google says filtering it may or may not reduce PH depending on the composition of the input water source.

Hope that flush worked out well for ya.

 

[JuanCarlos]

If you are using RO water try letting it sit out for 12-24 hours and then see what the pH is.

 

[Grouchy]

Flower time; let the fun begin!

On filtered water PH; when I run my tap water through an in-line shower filter it does lower the PH a little. Based on what google says filtering it may or may not reduce PH depending on the composition of the input water source.

Hope that flush worked out well for ya.

That's what I'm sayin man! Now I can join you to see if this mainlining stuff is going to be an ongoing strategy or not. If I don't get the yields that I want, I'm going to switch to SCRoG but I really do like the mainlining so far... The way things are looking as of right now, I'll be doing another mainline.

Hey, that's great to know about the shower filter. Same principals apply I would think to my watering situation. The next time I flush, (I'm flushing after every 3 waterings. I did this last grow and it worked fairly well. Someone (forget who) explained how rain in nature acts as a flush every so often and that it prevents buildups of any salts that could raise the PPMs of your runoff. Before I was doing a bi monthly flush, I was getting Hempy readings of runoff of over 1600 PPM. It just helped me keep almost all problems at bay.

I appreciate that info!

If you are using RO water try letting it sit out for 12-24 hours and then see what the pH is.

I'm actually using a water filter. I did try that though (leaving it out for 24 hours) and nothing changed. I cant remember, I may have had the lids on the water jugs so that could of made a difference.

Either way, I'll give it a try again. Thanks for the help!

...and you wouldn't happen to be the former King of Spain, would you?

 

[Wreckedsummer]

Happy flip day for the other day Grouch. Looking good in here as always. Hope your well mate!