Colorado High - Soil - CFL - Super Skunk - 2013

[David Bowman]

Thanks CS!

 

[Dennise]

 

[Christine Green]

Good morning Co High!

 

[David Bowman]

Morning Pinky! How goes things? I see that you are loving your new ZNET LED!

 

[Christine Green]

Morning Pinky! How goes things? I see that you are loving your new ZNET LED!

Things are going beautifully! I do love my ZNET LED! This is such a beautiful healthy grow despite my low humidity. Your girls are getting so tall!

 

[David Bowman]

That's great to hear Pinky! I'm looking at a TopLed reflector to help keep the temps low over the summer. The ladies are around 2' in height now and continuing to fill out.

 

[yuyo]

hiya colorado
what size light you thinking on? what made you look toward the reflector series?
i purchased the ref 48x3w and it is doing nicely but i now wish i had just gone with the 96x3w
so anyway i am thinking of getting a second light
there is a respected member highly touting the old style lights and has my antennae up i must say
been watching 'doc bud' with high interest he is awesome,if he decides he likes led's i will never doubt again
he is using a different brand which seems a bit higher in price range
also icemud ugh this guy is also awesome and he is using at least 2 different kinds of led and the intelligent grow looks
really up to date and some sweet features but i am sure they will be high end in cost
this led tech seems to upgrade faster than gpu's lol i am hesitant to build up too fast and then in 3 months
a revolutionary model comes out but on the other hand the people using these have had great success
decisions decisions...
ok i will leave it at that for now
take care and good luck

 

[David Bowman]

Hey yuyo, how's it going? Yesterday, I purchased a TopLED 96x3-watt Reflector LED grow light which I plan to start using as canopy lighting starting with my next grow which begins later this month or early May depending on when I harvest these ladies. I went with the 3-watt diodes as I have limited height, 5', and that does not take into account pot size and light mounting requirements. I was thinking about the old style of reflector but the coverage (3'x2.5') was not sufficient for my grow box which is 4'x2', the 96x3 reflector covers 4.4'x2.2'. Another reason I chose the new style was the lower wattage used during vegging (170 watts) compared to maximum output of 200 watts during flowering. I think that better matches cannabis' light profile requirements over its lifetime and saves energy while still providing sufficient light for each stage. The biggest factor as to why I chose TopLED over the other sponsors was that it was far and away the best value for the money that I could find. While I am intrigued by the concept of adaptable/progammable lighting that Intelligent Grow provides, the cost was prohibitive for me, especially for something that is a very nice feature, just not necessary IMHO. ZNET was another brand I researched but couldn't quite match TopLED's price/performance point, although it was a close second. It is so hard to stay ahead of the latest high-tech developments that I simply don't try to be the trendsetter. I'd rather used an existing product that has a proven track record of performance and reliability than jump on the bandwagon for the latest trend. I know that I'm in the minority with that perspective but over time it has saved me from numerous "bad decisions" that I would have come to regret in hindsight.

 

[yuyo]

sweet !! i think you will like your results from these lights
i say this after only using one for 3 months lol
i am certainly no expert but i do notice the plants doing their thing and that is what it's all about
your last post was definitely along my line of thinking
my purchasing footprint is small i don't mind paying for quality but am loathe
to make a mistake and cannot always make up for a loss
so i fully feel the value part
i will be around as usual cannot wait to see your next run
keep up the good works
take care and good luck

 

[David Bowman]

Day 60 of flowering and the ladies are still hanging in there. They look as they should this close to the end of their lives. The right lady is filling out quite nicely while the left lady is still slightly behind in bud production. The general appearance of the left lady as compared to the right lady shows the damage wrought upon it during vegging and the long lasting after effects that still impact it this late in flowering. You can most noticeably see the difference in their developments with the side shoot colas, the left lady's are smaller and have more dried pistils than the side shoot colas on the right lady. I'm not that concerned with their appearance as long as they continue to mature and fill out. I plan on inspecting their root balls after harvest has been completed.

Temperatures range from a low of 64° during lights off to a high of 88° during lights on. Once the exhaust fan kicks in, the temperature stabilizes at around 80° throughout lights on. Since the exhaust fan now runs continously once the high temperature has been reached, I've turned off the humidifier as it was doing little to nothing with respect to the RH in the grow box. RH ranges from a low of 20% during lights on to a high of 70% during lights off.

A low magnification cursory check of the trichomes revealed that the vast majority are still clear with only a few turning cloudy. I will post a more detailed examination of the trichomes which will help me to determine when to start the molasses water flush 2 weeks prior to harvest. Last night I fed the ladies a total of one half gallon of D&S Step 3 & Molasses, both at 1 Tbsp/gallon. Interestingly enough, they don't like to be watered that frequently which is more than likely due to the feeding schedule I put in place prior to Spring Break vacation. I thought that they would revert to a more frequent watering schedule like my last grow did during late flowering, but they still prefer less frequent and more thorough feedings/waterings.

You might have noticed that I've moved my Carbon Filter/Fan combo unit to the right rear side of the grow box. While this isn't in a ideal location, I needed to move it to maximize the height of the TopLED 96x3-watt Reflector that I recently purchased.

Group shot of the ladies on day 60 of flowering -

Single shot of the left lady on day 60 of flowering -

Single and close-up shots of the top cola of the left lady on day 60 of flowering -

Close-up shot of a side shoot cola on the left lady on day 60 of flowering -

Single shot of the right lady on day 60 of flowering -

Single and close-up shots of the top cola of the right lady on day 60 of flowering -

Close-up shot of a side shoot cola on the right lady on day 60 of flowering -

I'll know more about when the ladies will be ready for harvest once I've fully inpsected the trichomes. Hopefully, I will be able to harvest later this month so that I can move on to my next grow. I'm particularly looking forward to see if this new LED light will help with the heat related issues I experienced during the early stages of my first grow.

 

[David Bowman]

sweet !! i think you will like your results from these lights
i say this after only using one for 3 months lol
i am certainly no expert but i do notice the plants doing their thing and that is what it's all about
your last post was definitely along my line of thinking
my purchasing footprint is small i don't mind paying for quality but am loathe
to make a mistake and cannot always make up for a loss
so i fully feel the value part
i will be around as usual cannot wait to see your next run
keep up the good works
take care and good luck

Thanks so much yuyo! Good luck with your grows as well. I'll be the first to subscribe to any grow that you decide to journalize.

 

[Christine Green]

Congrats on your new purchase ColoradoHigh!

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks Pinky!

 

[David Bowman]

Day 62 of flowering and no changes since the last update 2 days ago. I went ahead and inspected a couple of sugar leaves on each of the ladies, one from the top cola and one from a side shoot bud. The right lady appears to have a larger number of trichomes than the left lady but the left lady is showing a slightly larger percentage of cloudy trichomes. The vast majority of trichomes on the right lady are still clear with perhaps 20%-40% cloudy along with a few starting to turn amber. The left lady looks to have between 30%-50% cloudy trichomes.

Right lady top cola sugar leaf @ ~100x -

Right lady side shoot bud sugar leaf @ ~100x -

Left lady top cola sugar leaf @ ~100x -

Left lady side shoot bud sugar leaf @ ~100x -

Keeping in mind that sugar leaves mature faster than calyxes and other parts of the bud, I'm thinking that these ladies will be ready to harvest in another 3-6 weeks. I will be keeping a close eye on their development and should be starting the final flush with molasses water sometime over the next week or three.

 

[b.real]

very cool! 3 weeks? that might be overkill. please keep us updated with trich pictures

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks b.real! They're not as lush and sticky looking as the buds from your recent harvest. Yet!!

 

[David Bowman]

You think b.real? They look at least 2 weeks out but my best guess here is more like 4 weeks. I went up to 6 weeks in case their development does not proceed as anticipated which so far has been the case during flowering with this strain. Flowering has been real funky with this pair, they both shot out pre-flowers all over the place within days of flipping. Yet after 9 weeks in flowering, at least 75% of the pistils in both main colas are still vibrant and white. The buds also have a ways to go until they're filled out. The ladies seem somewhat tired but not quite ready to give up the ghost! I'm still feeding/watering them as needed, which hasn't been as frequent as my last grow. At the end of my last grow I was feeding with every watering every 2-3 days compared to the 5-6 days between feedings now. Either the ladies are not as hungry or this D&S Growology has more than enough balanced nutrients to feed the ladies for a longer period of time.

 

[yuyo]

nice camera work
3-6 weeks yikes that's a long time for a skunk no?
somehow i wanna say less than 2 weeks...like 10 days give or take
start a pool!!

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks yuyo! Yeah, I don't really expect them to go that long, but then again, I expected that I would have started my final flush by now. BTW, at this point in my last grow I was 2 days away from harvest!

 

[David Bowman]

3-6 weeks yikes that's a long time for a skunk no?

You got me thinking yuyo, and I think that flowering has been lengthened by the stress the ladies experienced throughout the grow, most notably the staple incident which, all by itself, probably put them behind a week or two, possibly more. Taking into consideration these delays brings the timeline a little closer to the norm.