Farside05's 2nd Auto Grow Journal - Multiple Strains

[smokers420]

That trainwreck 2 is looking lovely bro. I was watching a show off the box the other day called Weed Country and seen that trainwreck strain on the show. A older guy named Be Smith had it growing and the plants looked amazing. Check it out on Kodi Farside, it's a good show..

 

[Camo420Grow]

Glad to hear it farside and this go around will just be different flavors and effects from different strains that she can experiment with !

 

[farside05]

Seeds for the next grow ordered. 3 Cream Caramel, 3 White Cheese, freebies are Critical+ and White Widow. Still sitting on 1 Trainwreck bean. Now to decide which ones see the tent.

 

[farside05]

Ordered a 5 stage RO water system today too. Should be here for the weekend, so I have another project. Will be able to quit using my 145ppm tap water with its 8.1 ph. Won't have to use all that ph down anymore. Should allow me to spend more ppm on nutrition rather than junk in my water.

 

[Camo420Grow]

Yeah I will get one of those ro systems one day. My water has about 90 ppm and comes out around 7.6 I believe ! Not horrible and has calmag in it already. But hey the critical can become monsters! Ledrf just free 2.9 lbs off 1 auto critical !!!

 

[millertm]

Very late to this grow but confused on ponytail training and bowl traning. Plants look great and nice excel skills. I use grow till stretching is over and late flower cha ching has N as well. I'm also using pro-tech for my Poly_Si but at 1TSP gal. I'm glad I stumbled across your grow.

Cheers

 

[farside05]

Yeah I will get one of those ro systems one day. My water has about 90 ppm and comes out around 7.6 I believe ! Not horrible and has calmag in it already. But hey the critical can become monsters! Ledrf just free 2.9 lbs off 1 auto critical !!!

That's not bad for tap water. I'd like to try one of the Critical 2.0's, they say they are a bigger producer then my Critical+, but I think it would be too big for my little tent. About 3' tall is about the max I would want a plant. My 2 bigger girls are 2' from the top of the soil now. One thing with providing N throughout flower is that your plant continues to grow. Both Trainwreck 2 and Critical+ have added another 1.5" in the last 5 days while flowering.

 

[farside05]

Very late to this grow but confused on ponytail training and bowl traning. Plants look great and nice excel skills. I use grow till stretching is over and late flower cha ching has N as well. I'm also using pro-tech for my Poly_Si but at 1TSP gal. I'm glad I stumbled across your grow.

Cheers

Welcome!

Ponytailing is using a piece of pipe cleaner to tie up your top leafs so that the light can penetrate to the undergrowth, thereby promoting more off shoots and more colas. It has some of the effects of topping without stunting your plant. You only do it for about 6 hours max out of the 18 hour life cycle. You do it for 3-5 days in a row at about the 2 week old mark. You want the light to be pretty intense during that time, so I move my lights in closer than where they are during normal veg. Others will use additional CFL bulbs and get them in within a couple inches (a good strategy if you are using a HPS or MH bulb for your main light that produces a lot of heat).

Bowl training is the process of using pipe cleaners to pull down and evenly space your lateral branches (which hopefully you now have a lot of from ponytailing). Wrap the pipe cleaner around the stem and then pull it down towards the edge of the pot. Secure the other end of the pipe cleaner to the edge of the pot somehow (paper clips work well if you are using a fabric pot. This helps light penetrate further into the plant to produce more buds.

The ponytailing training concept I got from Atrain, who I think got it from someone else. Bowl training was suggested to me in my previous journal. Google "Bowl Training Marajuana" and you should find some Youtube videos on the subject by Grow Pot Cheaply aka LEDRF on this site.

There isn't a big following for Dyna-Gro fertilizers on THIS site. They are remarkably simple since there are no "parts" to mix, and vastly cheaper than most of the multi part products and boosters. One of the Dyna-Gro gurus from another forum suggests lower amounts of Pro-Tekt. His experience (and he has done quite a but of side by side comparisons) has shown that larger quantities of Pro-Tekt will produce thicker/leathery leafs. The fact that Pro-Tekt also tends to increase PH a bit, there is no way I could even attempt to use that much. I'm already at 1 tsp per gallon of PH Down. I'd probably have to go to 1 1/2 tsp if I used 1 tsp of Pro-Tekt.

 

[millertm]

Wow, my tap is close to 8. FF is acidic and I feed at 5.7 to 5.8 with nutes, without, I need ph down to touch 6. I have had mites in my grow before and thicker leafs would help which is why I use pro tech, and the price is great.

Thanks for LST info, I top. It swells stem joints, open every available flowering site, and keeps plants short. But great info, I'm looking at two autos that have been above ground for two days now I might try some ponytail LST.

Thanks for getting back with me.

Cheers

 

[farside05]

Wow, my tap is close to 8. FF is acidic and I feed at 5.7 to 5.8 with nutes, without, I need ph down to touch 6. I have had mites in my grow before and thicker leafs would help which is why I use pro tech, and the price is great.

Thanks for LST info, I top. It swells stem joints, open every available flowering site, and keeps plants short. But great info, I'm looking at two autos that have been above ground for two days now I might try some ponytail LST.

Thanks for getting back with me.

Cheers

Right there with you on the 8 PH tap water. Wow that FF must be acidic. I'm starting in the same place, adding 3/4 tsp of Foliage Pro and 1/4 tsp of Pro-Tekt and still need a tsp of PH Down to get to 6.2 PH. The resulting ppm with my tap is right close to .89 EC (.5 scale) which I feed every watering.

Haven't tried topping my autos yet. The majority believe its best not to since they have a defined lifespan and any day lost to recovery will hurt yield. Others like Beast have had great results with topping though. Maybe I'll drop 2 White Cheese and 2 Cream Caramel on my next grow and run side by sides with one of each to see the difference and make up my mind for myself.

 

[millertm]

I'll still try an early chop on one and ponytail the other. Sounds fun.

Cheers

 

[farside05]

Day 56/47

Hit the 8 week mark on the first three. Trainwreck 1 has some nice orange hairs on her. My camera couldn't catch a nice close up of them. She's getting closer to harvest. I can use the extra space. Trainwreck 2 is a fat girl and putting on blooms. Ice Cool's hairs haven't started to recede yet. Critical+ just continues to pack on bud. She should be a good producer. My RO system should be in sometime today. I'm sure the girls will enjoy not sucking up chlorine and a bunch of acid to bring my PH down to acceptable levels, even though they only have a short amount of time left.

Trainwreck 1

Trainwreck 2

Ice Cool

Critical+

Group Photo

 

[millertm]

Look like good yielders.

Cheers

 

[Camo420Grow]

Looking good farside ! Yeah I would only want about a 3 ft tall plant for my grow area also! Anything bigger may up and grow thru my tent lol

 

[farside05]

Yeah I would only want about a 3 ft tall plant for my grow area also! Anything bigger may up and grow thru my tent lol

Yep, you run out of vertical space pretty quick. Put the plant in a good sized pot, there goes 12 inches or so, hangers for the lights, another 12 inches, a little duct work and carbon filter, next thing you know your 6 foot ish tall tent will only hold a 3 foot plant. I can't fit any larger tent in the space I have dedicated to grow, so LST, Top, FIM, and shorter strains is what I'm left to work with. There's still plenty of strains to choose from though. Just the ones I'm interested in at the moment will take me through the next year and a half.

 

[millertm]

Moving filter to top side will free up that foot if space look at my tent. I show pix of setup to illustrate how to get a good bare bulb setup. If you can keep room temp under 73 f your golden, if not cool tube won't help much. But my last grow outgrew my tent fast so I'm flipping at 16 to 18 inches with 3x stretch 5 feet of plant rocks.

Cheers

 

[farside05]

Just finished the install on my RO system. Pain in the ass but I bet the girls, homebrew, and shine will all be better. They'll all get their first taste in a couple hours after I can properly flush the system and get it filled back up.

 

[Camo420Grow]

I bet it was a bitch to install, luckily I am blessed with clean water !

 

[farside05]

Flushed Trainwreck 1 earlier today. Trichomes are almost all cloudy. Thinking by about Friday they might be 70/30 cloudy/amber for a harvest. Thinking Ice Cool may be about 4-5 after that. That will let me give the big girls 2 lights until they finish. Both Trainwreck 2 and Critical+'s buds are swelling nicely.

 

[Camo420Grow]

Ooo can't wait to see those ladies hung up and drying !!