Dales White Widow Max 1st Ever Grow - Indoor - Check It Out

[DaleDenton]

So the 6" inline exhaust fan was a success. It kept the temps down to 80 this morning! The exhaust setup cost about $50 from home depot.

Still hoping someone can check out that small spot on the leaves i posted above and tell me what they think.

Thanks again!

 

[flyfishinrock]

to me it looks like the leaf was splashed with some nutes when watering. Hard to tell when only a small area is affected, is it increasing?
Glad to hear the fan worked for ya, and didnt cost an arm and a leg.
good luck

 

[DaleDenton]

to me it looks like the leaf was splashed with some nutes when watering. Hard to tell when only a small area is affected, is it increasing?
Glad to hear the fan worked for ya, and didnt cost an arm and a leg.
good luck

That totally makes sense! I have tried to foilar feed a few times.... Sounds like that's not a problem at all, because it's really tiny.

Well, it was running for several hours tonight and got up to 82. That's probably not terrible, might consider a stronger inline fan, but the room coldness goes down to about 62. What are the best ways to heat a room just a few degrees? I bought a ceramic heater with a digital thermostat but it doesn't seem to work very well. I am going to return it and try to get one that uses the heating oil, looks like a radiant water heating set up. Perhaps put that on a timer to work when the lights are off... Suggestions welcomed.

Plants look great, the tallest one is now standing 33 inches, the yard stick isn't even going to work for much longer. I also think I can start to see buds forming. I'll probably take pics Sunday and post them.

 

[Cherma]

DD, how goes the Friday night battles> I see the exhaust fan in and working, Temps down ok... but to 62 at night.I have experienced lower temps at night and all was fine. Keep an eye on the overnight lower temps. Now being on a 12/12 will get these ladies into flowering.
Spots. could be a splash as suggested. I find that I will pull these off the plant when seen. 1 is ok, multiples are a sign of oh,oh... let's see what's going on.
I always make caution on foilar feeding in bud stages. Light, heat, water humidity, inside fat sticky buds can create moistness that breeds terrible mold spores at times. I cut off all foliar feed to plants in the 2nd - 3rd week of flowering.
Again, try wait in using a heater, and see what happens in a 3-5 days, I think you'll be ok.

 

[nbk380]

it looks to me in the pic w/circle the spot and the bent leaf next to it did it to each other. chafing perhaps?

 

[DaleDenton]

DD, how goes the Friday night battles> I see the exhaust fan in and working, Temps down ok... but to 62 at night.I have experienced lower temps at night and all was fine. Keep an eye on the overnight lower temps. Now being on a 12/12 will get these ladies into flowering.
Spots. could be a splash as suggested. I find that I will pull these off the plant when seen. 1 is ok, multiples are a sign of oh,oh... let's see what's going on.
I always make caution on foilar feeding in bud stages. Light, heat, water humidity, inside fat sticky buds can create moistness that breeds terrible mold spores at times. I cut off all foliar feed to plants in the 2nd - 3rd week of flowering.
Again, try wait in using a heater, and see what happens in a 3-5 days, I think you'll be ok.

Well that advice is very refreshing. It doesn't seem to be growing at all, and I haven't noticed it on any of the other plants when inspecting them so I feel much better about it now. I wasn't planning on pulling off the leaf because 90% of that leaf still looks healthy. I guess I'll wait and see what happens unless you think it's imperative i pull it off.

They have been on 12/12 since Monday. I think I can see the main colas starting to turn into buds now. This is the most exciting part of the grow yet!

As far as foilar feeding goes, thanks for the tip - I'll be sure to take your advice.

The heat has me nervous though, even the guys at my local grow shop suggest keeping the temp range within 15 degrees. I still may return my heater and look for another.

Now that the exhaust fan is sucking air out of the room, the humidity has dropped to a range 30-40%. I don't think this is terrible, but isn't 55% ideal? perhaps I'll return the humidifier and pick up one that has a digital humidity gauge on it so that it keeps it closer to optimum humidity.

Also, I'm going to spend this morning researching bud nutes. I think the pro bloom is a good nute, but there are so many other nutes that i could try that might make the buds just a little bit better. suggestions welcomed.

 

[DaleDenton]

it looks to me in the pic w/circle the spot and the bent leaf next to it did it to each other. chafing perhaps?

Hmm, i wouldn't have guessed that but I suppose it's possible. should i use a paperclip to separate them just to make sure that's not the problem?

 

[flyfishinrock]

in flower 30 to 40% humidity is perfect. 55 is ideal for veg.

 

[DaleDenton]

Ok, we replaced the 2 Blown CFL's and took back our heater and exchanged it for a different brand. This one will hopefully only turn on when it gets below 70 in there and has a mode where it can operate on 600 watts (or 1500w if needed, it's switchable). The last heater was not reliable at all.

So with our old broken heater we noticed the temps at 60F right before the lights came back on. I am not comfortable with a 20 degree difference in temp, so I am really counting on this new heater to keep it around 70 during the lights off cycle.

Things are getting really exciting now. The buds sites are really starting to show. Three out of four of our clones seem to be doing well, so hopefully I'll have at least 3 females for the next batch to go into flowering!

We have been watering probably once a week in the clone/veg room with just the Super Tea and every other week we add a weak dose of the beneficial bacteria.

The 4 plants in the flower room are looking like they need to be watered twice a week now. We've been doing 3 parts with the Pro Bloom, and 1 part of the Super Tea and a single dose of the beneficial bacteria.

On both plants we're aiming for a PH between 6 and 6.5. It's hard to tell exactly what were at because we're using the droplet PH tester which matches to a color scale. Eventually I'd like to spring for an Electronic soil moisture/EC/Ph tester(s). Anyone have a good cheap one they'd recommend?

Now for pictures.

Here is a picture of our replacement CFL's for the veg clone closet. Not sure if these are the optimum light spectum but I figured they'd be better than not having any CFLs. These were much cheaper at WalMart than HomeDepot.

Here is a shot at the clone/veg closet. I think the plants here are growing quite healthy. I definitely notice a difference in the growth with the CFL's opposed to the 1,000w Metal Hallide they started out under. The plants are growing much more compact.

Here is a shot of the 4 Ladies on Day 7 of flowering. The one in the back left is so stretched out, but it looks pretty healthy otherwise. The other three are much bushier and I really think they are looking great right now.

Here is a shot of our new heater. You can also see the ancient ballast we're using to the left of the heater.

To the naked eye, this stalk does not look nearly as purple as it does in this image. You can really see how crystally this plant is becoming though on top of those dark purples.

Here is a picture of a small leaf on one of the young plants. Nothing really remarkable going on here, I just think this picture turned out awesome.

This is our tallest plant, it now stands at about 35in. I think it's too late now to do anything about how stretched this plant grew, but if there is please let me know. There are probably 4inches between the branches, and this plant is not very bushy at all. Although it does look very healthy.

Here is an early shot of one of the buds. I took a bunch of pics so I am not sure which plant this is on. How does this look for day seven of 12/12?

 

[Cherma]

Coming along nice. There look like they are just barely showing, and looking anxious to see them advancing to another stage. Good Move on the heater.

 

[DaleDenton]

Coming along nice. There look like they are just barely showing, and looking anxious to see them advancing to another stage. Good Move on the heater.

Great news! The new heater worked like a dream! Set it at 74, left it hooked up to the power on the entire time. Temps were 80-74!

I think I am going to lower the temp on the heater to 70, anyone think that's a bad idea?



The old heater would pop the circuit breaker so it could only be left on when the lights were off. It was a pain in the ass to do it manually, and a timer would have been useless because that heater had to be powered on manually before it'd work (which it never did really).

 

[Happy Kitty]

Nice pics! Your plants look great

 

[DaleDenton]

Nice pics! Your plants look great

Thank you for the kind words!

 

[DaleDenton]

I am bored so I figured I'd post a few more pics that I took tonight. I wasn't satisfied with the early bud formation pictures from last night, so I tried again..... Still not that great but better.

I also snapped a shot of one of the stems. It's amazing how bark like it's getting near the bottom, this is a strong plant and it's the 2nd smallest our the four blooming ladies. (also the closest to the door, so the easiest to photograph! Yeah... Lazy i know...)

It's amazing to see how the HPS lights affect the colors in the photo's. All of these were taken within minutes of each other, but look quite different.

At 8 days of 12/12 I can really see bud sites all over the plants. I bet the bushier three probably have 20 or more bud sites on each plant.

I'm sure I'll update this during the week, but I'll probably hold off on posting pictures until the weekend unless I see significant changes. (Hopefully for the good!)

 

[Bee23]

WOW! Looks great

 

[DaleDenton]

Sending the big plants to flower was so exciting I think it made us neglect the little guys in the veg room. I believe we let them get root bound in their pots. 3 of the plants were in tiny pots, not even filled completely with soil. Oops.

The plants almost have shiny look to them and are droopy in the lower branches. Transplanted them into 1.5 gallon pots which I hope will clear things up.

The vegging plants aren't nearly as exciting, but the clones are looking like they are pulling through, and the two vegging plants (approx 12-14") tall in the 1.5 gallon pots our flourishing, but the 3 that were in what I would guess are half gallon pots were looking a little rough. Given that everything should be equal for the plants (lighting/temp/soil/nutes/etc) it only makes sense that the smaller pots would be the culprit, and the roots were spread throughout.

The bud room is getting ridiculously filled with bushy branches. The plants are flourishing, so much that I am positive that not much light is getting to the lower branches.

I think we're going to have to experiment with LSTing. From what I gather the main idea is to tie the top of the plants over or side branches over strategically so that light hits the lower branches. This site is so full of good information, yet this is the one topic I cannot find a lot to read about. Even if you type it in search it doesn't return any results. Perhaps the word is too small and/or common?

Some of the lowest leaves on the budding plants have yellow spots on them, yet 98% of the plants look healthy as a horse. Could this be a sign of the leaves not getting enough light?

I neglected to take pictures but I'll be sure to have some up in the next few days or so, especially if things take a turn for the worse.

All in all, budding plants are looking incredible! Scratch that, I think the entire garden is something to be proud of! I would have never guessed I'd love growing plants as much as I do!

 

[McBudz]

On both plants we're aiming for a PH between 6 and 6.5. It's hard to tell exactly what were at because we're using the droplet PH tester which matches to a color scale. Eventually I'd like to spring for an Electronic soil moisture/EC/Ph tester(s). Anyone have a good cheap one they'd recommend?

I like the Milwaukee pH 600. Got it on ebay for $20 I don't think you need to waste your money on an EC or moisture meter for soil grows. But def get a decent digi ph meter.

 

[flyfishinrock]

^ agreed. The drops are tough to use as are the litmus papers. Get a ph pen and you'll wonder how you ever lived without one.

 

[DaleDenton]

Thanks for the tips on the meters, I will definitely be picking up something in the near future.

Flowering Day 11
Ok, I know I said I wouldn't post any pictures but I tried to LST one of the plants tonight (I think) and want to make sure I did it alright. Also, I want to share the lower canopy of my flowering plants - some of the leaves have spots on them and I am not sure what they mean.

The soil is feeling like it needs watering so we mixed up a ph 6.0 batch of only Pro Bloom Soil formula and a half dose of the beneficial bacteria for the flower room and will water tomorrow morning before the lights go off.

Overall the flowering plants look amazing, bud sites everywhere and they are really starting to develop. The pictures just don't them justice, plus i had a hard time taking quality pics of the buds tonight with the camera, all out of focus.

Also, in the veg room all of the plants sexed early again. We have 3 confirmed females and what appears to be 2 more males. That means the White Widow Max seeds gave us 7 females and 3 males. Is 70% good for non feminized seeds?

Now for the pics:

Here is a distance shot of the bottom of a plant. I'd say all 4 of the flowering plants have at least a tiny bit of this near the bottom. What could this be? I hope it just means these leaves aren't getting good light, but am really intersted to know your opinions. The tops of the plants look beautiful.

Here is a close up of one of the troubled leaves. This scares me, it's one of the more extreme spots. Most of the lower leaves look like this next picture.

And one more shot of the bad leaves.

Sorry this one is a little out of focus, but this is the only set of leaves on the entire plant that look deformed like this.

Another point to add to my light theory is that I usually rotate the plants about 1/3 a couple of times a week. Well the plants touch the walls because they are getting so wide, so i am thinking this could be lack of light.

Now to put things in perspective, overall the plants look fantastic. They are growing leaps and bounds, getting super bushy. Infact our one streched plant is well over 3ft Tall now, so I attemped to do what I think is LSTing. I can't find a good write up on it in the forum, and it returns no search results when i search for it.

Distance shot of LST'd plant.

Here is a close up of the knot i tied around the plant. I sort of tied it like a noose, and it's pretty lose. Is this a good way to tie it? Should i bend the plant a different direction in a couple days, week, or just leave it bent over like this?

The buds are really starting to develop

Shot of the entire room. I can't stress how bushy this is, we let the plants veg too big IMO.


Now to the veg room. The plants look a lot better now that we've transplanted them into bigger pots. But one does have yellow leaves like this on the bottom, I am thinking maybe because it was root bound before i transplanted it?

Shot of the yellow leaves on the bottom.

Here are the vegging plants - looking pretty good. Especially when compared to yesterday when i am pretty sure 3 of them were root bound.

Here are the clones. Looking pretty good.

So what do you think about these leaves in the flower room?

 

[McBudz]

Wow your ph is too low man. Soil should have a runoff of 6.3-6.5. The soil tends to lower whats going in a bit too. Check the run off water and see where its at. You should probably be adding your solution in a 6.5 -7.0 depending on how acidic your soil already is.

Some of the leaves look like ph inflicted nute lockout and/ or where nutes were spilled on the leaves. I had leaf damage like that when I had a low pH problem.

Flush the plants pH check the runoff and adjust as needed.

In regards to LST there is no real science to it. Just tie them as you are doing and open the plant up to let light inside. What I try to do when I LST is to make the canopy an even top. So I tie some this way and some that way and I leave them that way. During their stretch you may want to make adjustments to pull em down and away some more or just leave em be. If you check my grow out in my sig those plants were lst'd.

Wait I just realized.. are you growing in a cedar closet? That must make for an interesting smell..