Finishing Out An Almost Perfect Grow

[OlderStoner]

My plants, all 8 of them are entering week 7 of flowering. I have to again thank all the people in this forum who offered advice in the past as this grow, unlike my first one which was filled with nute and pest problems, this one has been darn near flawless. The plants are just the right height for this tent and the abundant buds are swelling so big. I do have one question at this point I would be expecting to see much more yellowing of the leaves. Yet all of them have almost perfect, deep green leaves. They are growing in FF Ocean Forest soil and I used the FF regime of Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Grow Big, Open Sesame and Cha-Ching. I feed them right up until week 6 with only 1/2 strength and even then I watered their feedings down with more fresh water as well as I skipped some feedings because the runoff TDS was very high. I started them on the fresh water only flush this week and will let them continue out for the rest of the grow. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the spider mites have been kept under control as well. I only saw a few in the beginning and a little diluted rosemary oil based product took care of it.

BTW, I've been tempted to give them one last feeding of maybe 1/2 to 3/4 strength nutes, but as it stands now I'm of a mind that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Any advice on how to best finish out this grow would be appreciated.

 

[Dutty Panty]

I'd keep the flush going. Sounds like they got an abundance of nitrogen in early flower so no nitrogen deficiency showed up. It's good there green. And even against some belief yellow is normal at this stage in there life (if indica dominant) they are trying to get all the nitrogen they can.

Congrats man.

 

[Stealthboat]

FFOF has nutes in it to begin with so the plant can probably just leech a little off that so keep the flush going. Did you add any molasses to your waterings ever? Have you ever heard of Neem oil? and on a side note, what's your opinion on the open sesame and cha-ching? did they provide a noticeable difference to the plants?

 

[OlderStoner]

FFOF has nutes in it to begin with so the plant can probably just leech a little off that so keep the flush going. Did you add any molasses to your waterings ever? Have you ever heard of Neem oil? and on a side note, what's your opinion on the open sesame and cha-ching? did they provide a noticeable difference to the plants?

As for comparison with Cha-Ching and Open Sesame, I can't speak much except that one of the plants in the nine I started off with got spider mites so I moved it off into another room until I got that under control. It doesn't get any of the 600w lights, only natural sunlight through the window. I gave this one the FF regime but not as much and it did not get the second dose of the Open Sesame and it never got Cha-Ching. It looks nice but the buds on it are not anywhere near the bulk of the others. I chalk most of that up to the lack of light but I think you could say the lower dose of those supplements were part of it as well.

And no, I never added molasses but I did give the pots a small dose of an organic mix I got from a local nursery. It contains microbials and I think it was 5-3-3. I mixed this in with the soil in the beginning and another small dose about 1 week before I started them on 12/12 and the higher P&K doses. To see how green everything is at this late date, even the one in isolation, is amazing. In my last two grows there were lots of yellowing and falling foilage at this stage.

 

[Ascended]

I'm sorry if you've already thought of this but I felt I should mention it just in case you haven't.

the excess green you're seeing might be from the plants not being ready yet, it could be that you have a longer running strain. I might be wrong but I think I remember reading that some strains could go 11 weeks or more, but i'm not 100% certain of that. Have you checked the trichomes yet to see if there has been any cloudy or amber trichomes to be seen?

 

[Stealthboat]

Cool stuff on the Open Sesame and Cha-ching, I want to try those products soon. And I've heard good things about the molasses, I've used it but no idea if it had an effect or not. My friends swear by using it though so I trusted them and just used it, mixed up a few mL's of it into some warm water to dissolve it and tossed it in with the nutes. Used it twice during flower.

 

[OlderStoner]

... the excess green you're seeing might be from the plants not being ready yet, it could be that you have a longer running strain. I might be wrong but I think I remember reading that some strains could go 11 weeks or more, but i'm not 100% certain of that. Have you checked the trichomes yet to see if there has been any cloudy or amber trichomes to be seen?

You've got a good point there. I'm letting the plants talk to me. They have been in 12/12 for 43 days now so there is time left. I see a few red pistils but not anywhere near the 75% mark I start looking for. And yes there are many trichomes but none are cloudy let alone amber for the moment.

 

[Ascended]

Usually the rule of thumb i've heard is to wait until you get at least between 50 - 75% cloudy trichomes before harvesting. When still clear the resin inside isn't ready and won't really do a good job of taking pain away. With a cloudy trichome some say you will get more of a "head high" where as with amber it is said to be more "couch lock". so it would depend on the type of stone you're looking for as to when you harvest but always wait till most trichomes are at least cloudy. Anyway good luck on your grow and I look forward to seeing more updates.

 

[OlderStoner]

Today is the end of week seven of flowering and wow these babies are looking good. I'm seeing only a very few red pistils but there are plenty of cloudy trichomes. There is some yellowing finally starting to show but that's probably because I stopped feeding a week ago. They've gotten nothing but fresh 6.3 ph'ed water and they are drinking all of it quickly. I notice the slightest bit of drooping after a few days and I give them small amounts of water before they get their big drink twice a week. The run off from these waterings is perfect ph at around 6.3 to 6.5 and the TDS is still showing off the scale with my meter. Last night one of them did measure 1680 ppm, the rest were too high to read and this meter goes to 1900. So I don't think they need anymore nutes. The buds are huge but not as firm as you'd really like. So I'm wondering if these will go well past the next week before I see the real signs of ripeness like 75% red pistils and much more cloudy or amber trichomes.

 

[OlderStoner]

I'm getting a little worried. The plants are now at day 102 in the grow and day 51 of flowering. One of them is really showing signs it's ready with plenty of red pistils but I'm not going to do anything until I reach day 56 of flowering so I can say I gave them 8 weeks. They come out of the tent again today for maintenance and I'll inspect them closer. The buds are huge, thick but pink and red pistils are hardly there. I'm worried that I may have cut them off from their nutes too soon. I was just wanting to give them a good 3 weeks on fresh water to flush them out good. That's been all they got for the last 10 days. My questions is at this stage showing only a minimal number of red pistils, should I give them another good feeding and continue with 12/12 for a few more weeks?