Buds Buddy's 1st Grow Journal

[Buds Buddy]

And here are my 2 "PHOTO" - genic Bitches ....

 

[Buds Buddy]

I can zoom in on these pics , my iPhone won’t let me see but half the thumbnail pics !
Girls are looking very healthy!

Wow, Aren't those phones like $800 or something ? For that price it better be able to fly me to the moon. I'll never pay over $100 for a phone. Just not worth it to me. I would think you'd be able to do just about anything with a picture on them; but I guess not. When it comes to that sort of thing I think more like spend $100 on a phone & that leaves me $700 for Grow Up-Grades..... LOL. But I guess if you have your set up just the way you want it already it might be a different story.
Anyway, it's good to know you can zoom in on things. Maybe you'll spot something I miss. Kind of a PITA to drag each pot out to look under my digital microscope. I'd rather wait til closer to harvest time for that.
I think my girls are doing OK so far. The next 2 weeks will tell the whole story. It seems to me the 3 closest to the Humidifier are growing faster & more lush (AK 47, Haze XL, AK 47 x 6 Shooter).
The 3 on the other side of the tent are only like 1/2 the size & I notice the Coco dries out faster on that side. I'm guessing that's because the exhaust is on that side sucking the moisture out.
The 2 photo's in the center under the ViparSpectra are just growing slow & steady. I purposely put them under the cheaper light since they will veg so long. Don't want them getting out of hand too soon.
I'm considering up-potting to 6.6 gallon pots when I flower the 2 Photo's. 10 weeks of Veg & then flower in a big pot with 4 - 5 Toppings in between aught to make for a nice harvest.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Little Update for Day 18: After watching my girls for awhile I noticed that their leaves were pointing upwards as if to reach for the light. To me if they are pointing upward & not laying flat is kind of a sign that the plant will stretch to reach for the light unless I lower my light. I'd rather have shorter, bushier plants than tall slender ones. So I lowered my lights a good 10" - 12". Had to replace the rest of the Bamboo Stakes in the other plants with Tomato Cages to get my lights lower on those.
Oh yeah, I Transplanted the Widow's Breath today also.
Gotta Run Now ... Time for work

 

[Emilya Green]

New growers need to be very careful of the assumptions they make, and the snap decisions they make because of them. The pointing upward to the light is exactly the behavior of a healthy plant that is able to reach full transpiration. This means that when those leaves are praying like that (popular term, not mine) the plant is responding to the light in a very positive way. Maximum lift means that there is maximum pressure in the xylem (the trunk) and therefore the maximum amount of water pressure available to lift those leaves like that. Look closely at the leaves... all the ridges are extended and the plant is attempting to create the maximum amount of surface area on those leaves, not just to capture the most light for photosynthesis, but so that the leaves can evaporate the maximum amount of water. This is what causes the suction from the roots, and the ability to uptake water and nutrients.
So, I am afraid that assuming the plants needed and wanted to get closer to the light, you have moved them too close. When you get home, look for a different sort of reaction than the praying you saw earlier, and look for any cupping and canoeing caused by heat and/or too much light... you might have mistaken bliss for want, and upset the balance you previously had.
So, to review... leaves lying flat or dropping downward... not as happy of a plant as what you were seeing. This has nothing to do with whether the plant is going to be tall or bushy... that is determined by how you train them.

 

[Buds Buddy]

The pointing upward to the light is exactly the behavior of a healthy plant that is able to reach full transpiration. This means that when those leaves are praying like that (popular term, not mine) the plant is responding to the light in a very positive way.

Hi Emilya & Thanks for the heads up. I did check out the plants when I got home. There's no Cupping, Taco-ing, etc.
3 of the plants leaves were still doing the praying thing & on the rest the leaves are pretty much just laying flat. So I went ahead and raised the lights back up about 1/2 the distance of what I lowered them this morning. I'll check tomorrow morning to see how they respond.
For 2 years now I've been told the leaves should lay flat. Can't remember when or where or by who so it was probably people who were assuming also. Anyways, I trust you as I know you have over 10 years experience & have probably seen it all at one time or another. So I'll gladly take your advice & run with it. Thanks !!!

 

[Emilya Green]

Except for late at night when they droop a bit, my plants mostly maintain that upward reaching stance the entire grow. It's just exactly the same thing as a sunflower following the sun in its arc across the sky. It is a function of how all plants work, to point themselves at the light source. That 45° angle that the leaves assume is the exact best angle to get the maximum light for photosynthesis, but yet to allow the most light penetration so that the leaves below also get light. Nature is amazing.
I have been doing a lot of study into maximum PAR during our grow, as I am convinced that even with the cheap knock off LEDs I ran last time, it is possible to give too much light and bleach or stunt our plants as a result. I am sure that I did exactly that to one of my plants last time, hence my words of caution to you. Your description was of very happy plants, and then you adjusted the light. It just gave me pause... be careful.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I checked on my girls this morning & the leaves have started pointing upwards again but not as high a lift as before so I'll raise the lights maybe 3" more & observe again.
Seems all of a sudden my plants are starting to take off. "I Likes That" !!! Looks like they've doubled in size over the past 3 days. I'll wait til Saturday for more pics as it's easier to see a difference when I post pics every 3 - 4 days.
Funny thing is .... I don't have a clue what I'm doing when growing in Coco (Well, really not so funny). Just kind of 1/2 ass stumbling through it following the instructions on my bottles of nutrients & sort of doing what I did with soil.
All I can say is " So Far .... So Good". Hoping it all goes well because I'm not getting much traffic or advice from others.
Sure glad you're here . At least I got the best help possible. Does Flattery get me anywhere .... LOL ?
All Kidding aside; It's great to have your knowledge along to help me out & fill me in on stupid stuff I didn't realize like the light thing. Thank You Emilya.

 

[Emilya Green]

I am always glad to help. That doubling in size while they were showing you this lift should say a lot to you about how happy they are right now.

 

[Buds Buddy]

19 days in now. I hate being so aggressive with these plants but they are Auto's so I am very limited on time to do things to them. So today I topped 3 of my plants a 2nd time (that's it for those 3). Hoping to top a 2nd time on the other 3 in the next couple of days. Yes I'm pushing them to see what will happen. But only topping the Auto's twice. Only have about 7 - 10 days to start the transition from Veg to Flower so it happens within 3 days or they wont get topped twice.
I also tied back the top leaves again to open up the center more for deeper penetration. Pots felt heavy enough so I just did a light Foliar Feed. So far things are working out nicely. A few plants are starting to get nice & bushy. The AK 47 is the one I'm keeping an eye on. Never had one grow like this before. The 1st Leaves were huge & I wasn't even sure it was weed because I never had a plant like that. But as it grew the new leaves looked like weed; but still some big ass leaves. This plant excites me and really has my attention.
Got a question ... Do Flies eat leaves ? I seen a fly in my tent yesterday & today I noticed some itty, bitty holes in 1 leaf on my N.L. Not sure what it is but hitting my plants with Neem Oil before these things start flowering.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Got my answer on Flies. Yes, Fruit Flies, Bulb Flies, White Flies & Gnats eat leaves. Filth Flies do not eat leaves. I believe the flies around here are Fruit Flies so that was probably the Culprit. It was only 1 & it's gone now but still going to spray today before lights out just for the assurance.

 

[Barney86]

Hiya buddy looks good so far. Emily is spot on about what she said there too Should only top autos once though mate. Anymore than that is pretty much garunteed to hurt the yield. You'll get better results from 1 topping then LST or supercropping. In all fairness you can get the same result from Lst alone. The benefit of the topping is that it gives a symmetrical plant thats easier to train and no main cola to fight with. I always top my autos once. No point topping them again though.

 

[Emilya Green]

look into my recipe for lactobacillus serum and start spraying your plants with it to give them some natural immunity to these flies. I also regularly spray my plants with my compost teas or the microbial stew that is produced with Realgrowers Recharge. There is nothing like aggressive microbeasties on the leaves to help strengthen and protect those leaves. A good cannabis appropriate mulch also will help break the lifecycle of those flyers.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Hiya buddy looks good so far. Emily is spot on about what she said there too Should only top autos once though mate. Anymore than that is pretty much garunteed to hurt the yield. You'll get better results from 1 topping then LST or supercropping. In all fairness you can get the same result from Lst alone. The benefit of the topping is that it gives a symmetrical plant thats easier to train and no main cola to fight with. I always top my autos once. No point topping them again though.

I usually only Top Auto's once & LST. Just thought I'd try this once for the experience of it. I know it can hurt my yield if topping isn't done (most say 21 days) within 21 - 28 days depending if the plant is showing any signs of flowering at the time. Not really sure if it hurts yield or not if it's done in that time frame. That's why I'm kind of rushing the topping before my 21 - 28 day window is up. It's kind of an experiment I guess. I know what I yielded before only topping once so now I'll see what happens by doing this. By no means am I saying you're wrong. Just want to see the results & experience it 1st hand.

 

[Barney86]

I usually only Top Auto's once & LST. Just thought I'd try this once for the experience of it. I know it can hurt my yield if topping isn't done (most say 21 days) within 21 - 28 days depending if the plant is showing any signs of flowering at the time. Not really sure if it hurts yield or not if it's done in that time frame. That's why I'm kind of rushing the topping before my 21 - 28 day window is up. It's kind of an experiment I guess. I know what I yielded before only topping once so now I'll see what happens by doing this. By no means am I saying you're wrong. Just want to see the results & experience it 1st hand.

Yeah quite right mate. You can listen to us all day long but untill you do something for yourself you'll never really know. I like experimenting. Growing can get a bit boring at times so it's always nice to spice things up now n then with a curve ball

 

[Buds Buddy]

My thoughts exactly .... Makes it more interesting & fun.

 

[Barney86]

My thoughts exactly .... Makes it more interesting & fun.

Fun is important when growing mate. Once the fun goes you start getting lazy and cutting corners. I like doing little stunters in tiny wee pots to keep myself entertained. Only get enough weed for a blunt but its a blunt that was more than worth the while

 

[Buds Buddy]

Hey Emilya, I got a question for you .... or for anyone else that would care to chime in. I've been really watching my plants a lot due to being a 1st time Coco grow. I have noticed that 2 of my plants (Haze XL & AK 47) have really dark green leaves with a little bit of a down curl. They are also kind of shiny. I'm thinking Nitrogen Toxicity from too strong of nutes. The other 6 plants aren't doing this so I believe my pH should be OK. Every plant is a different strain so I could see them reacting differently to the same nutes. I really doubt I'm over watering because they've only been watered 36 - 48 oz. every 2 days in 5 gallon cloth pots. The pot weight has always been light before the next watering. I'll check Run-Off when I do my next feed tomorrow but so far every time I checked it was 5.8 or 5.9. So if I'm right (Big "IF") .... & it's not over watering or pH being off the only thing I could think it is would be N toxicity from too strong of nutes.
Please give me your thoughts on this so I can proceed correctly. I'll post pics tomorrow. I swear my camera eats batteries. Got to buy more today when I go to work.

 

[Emilya Green]

The rules are a bit different in coco than in soil, and I have heard several say that you can not overwater coco and many water several times a day with oxygenated water/nutes. I would have to see a pic to confirm N toxicity, but I bet you are not there yet... it gets pretty ugly. Your pH sounds correct in the 5.8 range, but look into some other coco grows to see how the pros do it... I know that most of them don't adhere to a wet/dry cycle like I promote for soil.

 

[Smokiemcpot19]

Hey budsbunny I'm along for the ride if you don't mind, im also In a 70-30 mix of coco and perlite working on my first auto grow. My ladies are only day #2 though.

From all my reading and info gathering before the grow its virtually impossible to over water coco. Are you checking run off pH?

Anyways happy growing brother the babies look happy in the pics.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I

Hey budsbunny I'm along for the ride if you don't mind, im also In a 70-30 mix of coco and perlite working on my first auto grow. My ladies are only day #2 though.

From all my reading and info gathering before the grow its virtually impossible to over water coco. Are you checking run off pH?

Anyways happy growing brother the babies look happy in the pics.

Yes, I've been told it's hard to over water Coco also so I've pretty much ruled that out. I've only checked pH when I water / feed on the weekends (I'm kind of lazy). I really think that the nutes are too strong for those strains. Sure seems like I add way more using AN products than when I used GH products. When I started week 3 nutes I mixed them at 3/4 strength which is 12 ml. A & B, 12 ml. Cal Mag & 6 ml. B-52 per gallon. To me that sounds like a pretty strong mix. Not so sure about going Full strength until I see them start to Flower. Tomorrow starts week 4 of this grow.
Please tag along @Smokiemcpot19 . The more the merrier ! You'll find Emilya is amazing. She has quite an extensive knowledge so I call on her for help & info & she usually has the answer.
I'll post fresh pics tomorrow.