Bloomin' In A Box

[Sonora]

6 May 2016 - Day 0 of Flower

Happy Friday from The Box!!!

Today we switched to 12/12! The girls had a great week of growing, as the pics below will attest. You would never believe how aggressively I de-foled them last week when you look at this week's growth. So green and bushy.

Last week I took out the Metal Halide bulb and put in the High Pressure Sodium light, to start getting the girls prepared for the switch. I was actually hoping I might trigger some pre-flowers, but no such luck. They're growing big and bushy, but no flower indicators yet. They're femmed seeds, so I'm expecting females, but you never know 100%.

This week, I did a full res change - took out 5 gallons of water, so the girls drank 3 gallons over the week. Water pH was 7.6 - super high!! TDS was 730, so roughly on par with what I put in. Still a bit concerned about how high the pH got in the course of the week, but que sera.

I put in 7 gallons, and this time I moved to the flower feeding schedule - much heavier on the nutes, with the addition of B+ vitamin. So, this week's res change:

• Lots of CalMag
• Bloom Nutes
• Common Nutes
• Hygrozyme
• Super B+

This resulted in a pH of 5.6, with a TDS of 965, about 300+ TDS when compared to the grow stage.

I also took 2 cuttings off each plant for clones, and got the veg chamber up and going again, with the former veg hydro-system being used as an aero-cloner. I hate the veg side of this box. The flower side works pretty well, but the veg side is bollocks. The system leaks all over the place, is unwieldy to work with, and put together really cheaply. After this grow, I'll look at making my own improvements. FOR SHAME, BCNL. For Shame!!!

Like most clones, they don't look that great a few hours after cloning. But they'll either perk up after a few days...or they won't, in which case we'll try again. Not all plants are easy to clone, and that's a big part of selecting a mother plant. It doesn't matter how great the weed is, or how great the yield is, if the clone rate is 0%. Honestly, I bet I'll get 50% success, so I'm not too worried about it. Hell, I smoke weed, so I don't worry about much.


To the pics!

Family pic - soda can in place for scale

WWI

WWII

WWIII

And the new babies, wilty and sad. They'll come around.

We are now ~80 days from harvest!! It's FLOWER TIME!!!!

Happy weekend from The Box!!!!!!

 

[Sonora]

Just a small update - it's only been ~12 hours since we took our clones, and they've gone from looking sad and wilty to healthy and upright. Just another example of why not to get too hands on when something is going wrong. Most of the time, the plants will straighten themselves out.

<=>
(Less is more)

 

[SCROG IT]

By flipping this early you think that u will use your space to it full potential? Scrog is supposed to be vegged into to train? By the time your flowering plants stretch up into it is just a support! Not a training method. plants look very healthy . Clean setup

 

[Sonora]

By flipping this early you think that u will use your space to it full potential? Scrog is supposed to be vegged into to train? By the time your flowering plants stretch up into it is just a support! Not a training method. plants look very healthy . Clean setup

I think so - I'm height limited, so controlling height is pretty important.

I don't think the screen should be filled in veg - I think you flip just shy of the screen when it's only 20% full or so, and then use the stretch to fill in the screen. In my experience, the SCROG works best when all the structure of the plant is below the screen, and the buds grow above the screen. Basically, there shouldn't be a lot of fan leaves or non-bud material above the screen.

I'm sure there are multiple ways to skin the cat, though, so not saying my way is the best opr right way - it's just my way. This is my first time growing with this box, but I've been growing for more than 10 years, so I've screwed up often enough that I kind of have a feel for what will work or not for my style.

 

[SCROG IT]

Have you grown these WW before? Are they known to put on a pretty good stretch?

 

[DeanB]

You may help them stretch by turning off the bottom flourescents. Then they won't be hanging around at the bottom of the plant. Force them up top.

 

[Sonora]

You may help them stretch by turning off the bottom flourescents. Then they won't be hanging around at the bottom of the plant. Force them up top.

It's funny, I had been considering that as well. The flo's have definitely helped the plants bush out, but now they might be working against the goal somewhat.

Ultimately I'll be growing in a SoG rather than SCRoG - this cycle is mainly to select a mother plant, so I haven't been prioritizing yield and whatnot. In a SoG, I think the lower fluorescents will help a lot, but in this run I suspect you may be right.

 

[Sonora]

Have you grown these WW before? Are they known to put on a pretty good stretch?

Yes, White Widow is kind of my go-to strain. I have...I don't know, nine, ten zillion WW grows. Maybe only eight zillion. My favorite strain is either WW or Northern Lights, but I didn't have any NL seeds at hand when I started.

In general, I think Crop King's WW will triple in size in flower. So if I flip at 10", she'll grow to 30". Obviously there's some variance in there, but as a rule of thumb it's seemed to hold.

 

[Sonora]

The girls are really starting to wear their perfume. Opening the door to The Box today, and I was just bowled over by the scent. The carbon filter does a great job of keeping the rest of the house smelling not-weedy.

Scent reminds me of green bananas mixed with pine.

 

[Sonora]

I'm already down to 3 gallons left in the res, girls drank 4 gallons in 3 days. Definitely time for the stretch.

 

[Sonora]

10 May 2016 - Flower, Day 4

I added 3 gallons of water with full strength nutes today - I didn't think I could wait until Friday, the girls were drinking it too fast. With the 3 gallons I added, I think there's ~5 total in the res, meaning the girls have drank 5 gallons of water in 4 days. They're piling on the growth as well, as you can see by the pics. WWI is the shortest in height, but the biggest in overall mass due to her...girth. It feels weird writing "her girth". The res looks like a boiling pot of spaghetti - just bubbles and thick white roots everywhere. It's beautiful.

To the pics!

Family Shot - soda can for scale.

WWI, II, and III

Flower is such an exciting time. Hope everyone is well!

 

[Sonora]

All six clones I've taken have sprouted roots. I'll have some pics tomorrow (Friday and all), but it looks like we were 6/6 and have a nice harvest queueing up for when The Box finishes up the girls in flower. All's good with the Babes In A Box!

 

[Sonora]

13 May 2016 - Day 7 of Flower

Lots of things happening! I'll start with the clones.

As I mentioned, all the clones had developed roots, and so I spent this morning in the veg cabinet. Here's what the clones looked like:

I took 5 gallons of tap water, evap'd the chlorine for 48 hours, and then mixed a nute mix of grow, common, hygrozyme, and CalMag, at 1/5th strength, which I soked rockwool and 6 rapid rooter pods in for 24 hours. This is basically just to get them starting to want to absorb the nutes - I'll move to 1/3 strength next week, 1/2 strength the week after that, and then to full (veg) strength. I moved the clones from their neoprene sleeves into the rapid rooters, then cleaned out the veg container top to bottom with bleach and Mr Clean magic erasers (seriously - magic erasers are the best cleaning agent for hydro grows ever). I'm obsessive about keeping the area clean, so I focus on that quite a bit. From there, I reconfigured the tub from an aero-cloner to a hybrid bubbler/aeroponic beg center. Pics below!


First off, the clones of WWI - a and b

WWI.a

WWI.b

Now the clones of WWII. WWII is the funky girl, and you can see in her clones as well - her roots also grew flowers downward. What a weird chick.

WWII.a

and WWII.b

Finally, WWIII. I mentioned in previous update, WWIII was the tallest, but WWI was the largest in terms of mass. That has changed, and WWIII is now the biggest overall by quite a bit (updates from the flower cabinet will come later). You can see this in the clones - WWIII's clones exploded quickly. Between WWIII's size and easy clonability, it seems like she's emerging in the race-to-be-the-mom. I'm pretty pleased.

WWIII.a, with her massive roots

WWIII.b

So I took 6 clones, and I went 6 for 6. Cloning is easy! Just stay out of their way.

Here's the baby girls, no longer clones, but full-fledged plants in veg!

And that's the update from the veg side! The Box is now running at 2/3rd potential - I have plants in veg and flower. The only thing I lack is a mother plant, which is pending. I am close to being able to run a perpetual SoG which should churn out about 12oz every 8 weeks. Not too shabby!

More later - ta ta for now!

 

[Sonora]

13 May 2016 - Day 7 of Flower (Part 2)

Flower Cab Update

I pulled 4 gallons of water out of the res, with a pH of 7.5; the pH is getting really high after only a week or so. I'm not sure what the cause is, but as long as I'm doing full res changes twice a week, I'm not worried about it. Mostly just using more nutes than I should be, I guess.

All three girls have pre-flowers! It's official - they're LADIES!

I did some heavy defoliation below the screen - removed some of the larger lower fan leaves, and any branches that were small and low and were likely to end up in popcorn buds. I'll do some more tomorrow I suspect, as I still have some more left on WWIII (middle) and WWI (left-wise).

Today I added 8 gallons, full strength common, bloom, b+, and carbo-blast. I also added CalMag and hygrozyme. It's a nute slurry! pH of 5.4, TDS 970.

Pics!

Before the defoliation

After the defoliation

That's it for this Friday's update. Happy and safe weekend, from the (now confirmed) Babes in The Box!!

 

[DeanB]

Looking good in there.

Sent from my SM-G355M using 420

 

[HiddenGrow]

Very nice job! I can't believe how fast the kids grow.

I noticed that when you flipped it was the perfect timing since you wanted them to stretch to the netting. I wasn't sure if they would make it. I think you'll be able to adjust them how you please and move each branch to where you want it.

You should take a picture of that spaghetti pot! I can imagine your roots are getting thick like carrots now.

 

[Sonora]

Very nice job! I can't believe how fast the kids grow.

I noticed that when you flipped it was the perfect timing since you wanted them to stretch to the netting. I wasn't sure if they would make it. I think you'll be able to adjust them how you please and move each branch to where you want it.

You should take a picture of that spaghetti pot! I can imagine your roots are getting thick like carrots now.

Yeah, the flip to flower seems to have been the right timing - I'm filling the screen with tops that are beginning to flower. Part luck, part learning from previous failures

I can't really take root shots since the plants have grown into the screen - if I lift a plant out of it's setting, it could damage the tops, you know? But come the chop, I'll have pics for everyone of what it looked like below sea level.

Thanks for following along!

 

[LEDBud]

Re: 13 May 2016 - Day 7 of Flower (Part 2)

Sonora the PH could be rising in the reserve due to inadequate aeration.

I tested my reserve last change what happened in my case was after intense aeration of a 30 gallon reserve I set the PH to 5.8 and reduced the aeration , too much as it turned out.

I rechecked the PH throughout the first day and it was stable but 4 days later it had climbed to 7.4 on it own.

I knew something had gone wrong so first I turned one aerator from low to max and added the 2nd aerator back in.

After 48hrs I retested the PH and found it to be at 6.1 it stabilized there and never dropped lower , on its own.

Flower Cab Update

I pulled 4 gallons of water out of the res, with a pH of 7.5; the pH is getting really high after only a week or so. I'm not sure what the cause is, but as long as I'm doing full res changes twice a week, I'm not worried about it. Mostly just using more nutes than I should be, I guess.

:

 

[Sonora]

Update Day!

First the veg side - the clones are doing well, roots are strong and they're beginning to push out new growth. You can see that the older leaves are a bit brown and curling - I think this is because the babies were using the leaves to feed themselves, since the nute mix was so weak. So I'm upping the strength today.

Ph of the water going in: 5.9
TDS: 1190

I used evap'd tap water, with CalMag, Hygrozyme, Grow and Common. The high TDS is because it's tap water - I use RO water when they go into flower, but tap is fine for the clones. Frankly, I don't want them to grow too much right now - I want them to be 6 - 8" when I move them into the flower chamber, which is 6 - 8 weeks away, so keeping them small and bushy right now is the priority.

Pics!

The ongoing theme about the hydro system is the veg side - it's shitty. The drain tube cracked and now water leaks every time the water pump comes on. BCNL really made the hydro system on the cheap. It's the most frustrating part of The Box; The Box itself is put together well, but the hydro system (especially the "Power Cloner") is just rubbish. So I'll need to buy some silicone tape so I can repair it, if I can't find matching tubing at Home Depot. Que sera.

I'll have an update on the flower side later this afternoon.

 

[Sonora]

Re: 13 May 2016 - Day 7 of Flower (Part 2)

Sonora the PH could be rising in the reserve due to inadequate aeration.

I tested my reserve last change what happened in my case was after intense aeration of a 30 gallon reserve I set the PH to 5.8 and reduced the aeration , too much as it turned out.

I rechecked the PH throughout the first day and it was stable but 4 days later it had climbed to 7.4 on it own.

I knew something had gone wrong so first I turned one aerator from low to max and added the 2nd aerator back in.

After 48hrs I retested the PH and found it to be at 6.1 it stabilized there and never dropped lower , on its own.

That's a great tip - I'll check on the aeration and see if there's a way I can increase it. I have 6 big air-stones going, but maybe I need to add another pump and double it up?