Dr Kripplings The Incredible Bulk Big Bud X Super Skunk

[Chedz]

Hi guys!
This is my first grow journal so please excuse me if I struggle with anything or get anything wrong.

I have been growing for about 6 months now and have two grows under my belt, both which have been from cuttings however my next grow is being done from seed which is why I decided to start a journal.

My very first grow yielded 14 ounces but my 2nd grow only yielded 7 ounces which I have put down to cutting the girls down early after 6 weeks of flower time. I did not keep a diary of my first grow so could not remember how long I had the 12/12 flowering cycle going and think i got a bit eager to chop down my second grow. Either that or i've struggled with the heat (freak english heatwave in May and some dodgy extractor tubing which keeps splitting).

Anyway down to business,
Im growing 4 plants in a metre by metre grow tent with a 600W hps light,1 extractor fan,1 intake fan,1 freestanding fan and two tube heaters (for the colder months) im using sensi-grow and sensi-bloom at the moment but my hydroponics man has promised me some extra nutes to use in the flower stage to boost my yield.
I bought some seeds from Herbies and as soon as they arrived gave them 24 hours in some tap water

after an hour 4 seeds had sunk but one remained to float which only sank after i eventually pushed it down after about 15 hours of soaking. I then used 5 jiffy pellets which i had soaked for 5 minutes to plant the seeds (my jiffy pellets seemed to retain too much water so i gave a little squeeze just to clear excess water)

Four days later and I have these!!

as im only going to be growing four plants, I may have already found the bad plant to get rid of but i will keep an eye on it to see if it sprouts. As soon as the roots show then i will be planting them into their first small pots to start their grow!!

If anyone has any advice or tips I'll be truly grateful as i could use all the help i can get at the moment. I know that growing is a delicate process and the slightest change in circumstance can have a massive effect on the plants so all help will be massively appreciated!

Many thanks guys and I hope this grow will be successful and maybe help some other newbies.

D

 

[NOCO Farmer]

Whats up Chedz!!
Looking forward in watching your grow!

 

[Chedz]

Hi NOCO!!! Like i say im still quite a newb all I can really tell you is that its a super skunk X big bud strain. heres the link ! Dr Krippling Incredible Bulk Feminised Seeds - Herbies Seeds
Really looking forward to keeping this journal and sharing my journey with you, and really hoping its a successful one!! As ive said, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Chedz]

So just got home from work and look who decided to show her face!

I still only need 4 though so she may be re-homed to a friend but very pleased that my first time from seed and I managed 5/5.
The other four all have a root showing at the bottom too so i'm guessing its time to put them in their first small pots? Will clean and hoover my tent and get the girls potted and in under the light. Exciting! Oh and a quick question, I am using Sensi-Grow and Sensi-Bloom advanced nutrients, I heard that nutes can go bad if they are left in a warm environment and I bought 4 litres of each because its a lot cheaper than buying one litre bottles, can anyone advise?

 

[DaddiSwanga]

Subbed, welcome, and so far so good!
Subscribe to some veteran growers journals, you can learn so much!

 

[Chedz]

Good idea Daddi thanks mate, any that you can recommend? PS. nice to have you on board

 

[NOCO Farmer]

Good idea Daddi thanks mate, any that you can recommend? PS. nice to have you on board

I like reading through beginners and intermediate and seasoned grower journals, remember variety of styles to build on, builds perfection for your own style.
I wouldn't recommend trying to follow one specific method, but try to build on whats happening with your grow. Also use the search engine within 420 to get immediate answers to any questions you have. For example: search "nutes go bad", and you will find several threads with your same question and several answers.
Journals will give you feedback on different methods of growing, and by following these journals you will see the grow progress, pointing out issues, solutions, pros, cons, etc...

Just some advice on how I learned to use to benefit me!

 

[Chedz]

Thanks for the advice NOCO, ill make sure to search for any issues i've got first before having pages of questions that i can find out for myself. And i'll be doing a lot of reading over the next couple of days of some other journals.
Quick small update, hoovered and washed my tent and tray, reset my timers and had a general check of all my equipment, turned on my extractor to find no air being exhausted so im guessing there's another split somewhere in the tubing which was becoming a weekly occurrence, tomorrow I'll take a trip to the hydro shop and get some insulated tubing which im hoping will be a bit more resilient.
I'll then pot the girls and get them in the tent under light.
Night guys

 

[Chedz]

Hey guys, so I know I haven't posted for a few days but I wanted to replace all my ducting before I put the girls in the tent.

I took a trip to the hydro shop to get some insulated ducting and after telling him about all the duct tape now holding my old ducting together the grow man recommended some plastic covered ducting, however as i was being impatient decided to buy myself some insulated ducting. After getting it home I realised it would be extremely difficult to attach it to the exhaust hole going out of the wall and ended up phoning the hydro shop and ordering some plastic covered ducting anyway which would take 2-3 days to be delivered. Yesterday I phoned the hydro shop to see if my ducting had arrived and it turned out the bloke had forgot to put the order in so would be another 4 days!!!

Anyway today I taped up my existing ducting, re-potted and got the girls in the tent

I will replace the old ducting when the new finally turns up.

At the moment the girls are still on tap water but now they are under the light (which ive got WAY up high to minimize stress on the little things) I will give them a very diluted dose of Sensi-grow with the next water.

 

[NOCO Farmer]

I would be careful on setting lights up to high, I have read that this increases space between nodes.

 

[Chedz]

Thanks NOCO that's good to know, I am planning to gradually bring the light down as the girls get bigger and more sets of leaves.

So my new ducting has still not arrived, I might have to find a new hydro shop soon!! I am really struggling to keep the heat down too, at its highest the tent is up to 100 degrees!! It has been a hot week though and no doubt the temperature will drop in the coming days. The girls have grown a couple of sets of leaves and do not look too stressed out by the heat but I imagine it is stunting the growth a little.

Ive also noticed that the right two plants look to be drying up a bit quicker than the left two so I have swapped them around to see if one side of the tent is hotter, I might buy another hygrometer to confirm this too.

 

[Chedz]

Hi guys, firstly I need to apologise for the pictures this time, I snapped in portrait instead of landscape and they have uploaded sideways and I haven't figured out how to delete them

So my ducting finally arrived, only 2 weeks after I ordered it lol. Luckily I managed to get by with my old ducting. This time I cut it down to about a meter long instead of attaching the whole 5 meters and having about 10 bends lol, hopefully this will help keep the temperature down a bit better

The girls are now sprouting their 2nd sets of leaves and are getting quite wide however I have noticed one of them seems to be growing a bit slower than the rest.

I've brought the light down further again and am watering about every 2-3 days with half the recommended solution of nutes for plants with 4 and more sets of leaves. I'm hoping that as long as I can keep the temperature down then I'll start seeing some serious growth but if i'm still having trouble with the temp then I'll look into buying an air cooled hood.

 

[Chedz]

Quick temperature update, the new ducting has brought down the temperature considerably, lights on temperature is getting up to about 34C/93F and lights off temps are about 27C/80F which I am much happier with. The girls look bigger already and the stalks are looking thicker. I also noticed a small white root poking out the bottom of each pot so thinking they should be repotted into their final pots in the next few days?

 

[Chedz]

Picture update, the girls are looking stronger everyday.

Going to give them another couple of days before I repot them.

 

[Newfriend]

Lookin good.
Will be following this one.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chedz]

Hey Newfriend, nice to have you on board mate.

So I finally figured that the girls needed repotting, they was needing a drink everyday and when I pulled them out the pots the root system had grown around the edge of the soil. I repotted them into some biobizz all mix which has about 10-14 days of feed already in the soil so I'll just be giving them tap water for the time being. Im also trying to work out if and when im going to start tying them down for a bit of LST however I'm a bit skeptical about doing it this time as my first grow I didn't bother tying down and I grew twice as much bud as my second grow which i did tie down.

Anyway here's the pics

Hopefully, once they settle into the soil then they'll really start to shoot up.

 

[Newfriend]

Sweet
More to growing (well) than meets the eye.

 

[Blueballavngr]

I also just got those seeds so I can't wait to see ur results

 

[Mantellaman]

You should throw in some 6500k daylight cfls to improve veg

 

[Chedz]

Hey guys, apologies for the slow replies, usually I get an e-mail to tell me when someone posts but I haven't had anything.

So i know i haven't posted for a while but I haven't really had to do much with the girls for the past 10 days, they've been in the all-mix which has food already in the soil so I've just been giving them 2 litres each of tap water and they seem to be shooting up nicely.

Last night's water I decided to give them a full dose of sensi-grow and I'll carry on feeding them from now on (unless any problems crop up).

I was still having problems with the heat so decided to shorten up and straighten out the ducting going to the fan blowing in the fresh air as I noticed that there was hardly anything blowing out. When I cut through the wall in my shed i covered the outside hole with a grate that had a mesh inside to stop insects and such getting sucked in and when I removed the ducting from the wall discovered that this mesh had got clogged up with dust and shit which was blocking all the fresh air from coming in!! I gave it a good hoover out and re-stuck the ducting on and now have a good air flow coming through the fan which has brought the temps down another 5 degrees when lights on and about 8 degrees when lights out, so now got maximum temps of about 96-97 with lights on and coming down to about 83 with lights out.
I also noticed slight yellowing of some bottom leaves but put this down to heat and not nute burn as I haven't been feeding them any.

Nice to have you on board Blueball and Mantellaman. I'm looking forward to seeing how these plants turn out too, so far so good!!
In regards to the cfl's how many would you recommend putting around? Do you only run them when the main hps light is on? Are they better placed near the bottom of the plant to give light to the branches the main light misses, and finally do they use much electricity as I'm bordering on excessive already lol.