First Grow, Ryn0nTX: Critical Mango, Ebb 'N’ Flow, 2020

[Ryn0nTX]

it's been 7 days since I took or posted pics. The wife and I decided to name them, to help keep track better. she picked the names......

Right to left... Harmony, Dawn, Meadow and Rain...

Harmony up close....

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Dawn....

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Meadow........

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and Rain.....

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I'm keeping them on the same feeding cycle for the next 7 days since I was off by a week when we started last week. The only thing I will change is the frequency of the drip. The roots are doing okay, but I expected more and I think its the lack of nutes or too much dry time after researching. What are your thoughts?

 

[Ryn0nTX]

I do have one other concern that I should have seen coming. The clear hose is going to be an issue. After only one week, I have algae taking off in the tubes. I'll probably wait until I shift things around with the new lights before I re-work the irrigation.

 

[Rexer]

I do have one other concern that I should have seen coming. The clear hose is going to be an issue. After only one week, I have algae taking off in the tubes. I'll probably wait until I shift things around with the new lights before I re-work the irrigation.

Hi RynOnTX! Had to check your journal out!! Nice setup!! Those were some awesome looking roots you had going! I should have waited for mine to get to around that length, learning curve.

A lil black spray pain to light proof that line should clear up the algae. I think Hydrogen peroxide (use food grade stuff) might also be beneficial if you keep getting algae (a more experienced grower can chime in on that). So long as you dont plan on using bennies.

I thought about running the GH trio but decided on the Lucas formula (GH micro and bloom) to make it even more simple.

I will say this though....Dude those plants are coming along nicely! I'll be following your journal as well, are you in Canada?

Edited for spelling

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Thanks Rexer! I'm in Texas, East Texas actually. For the algae in the tubing, I'm not real concerned for now. When I hang the new Mars led's, I will change it out for black tubing which should do the trick.

I will be topping/pruning some today and will have some more pics posted.

(edit: HaHa! I wrote this six hours ago and never hit the post button. Pics coming....)

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Day 27

So today is day 27 since sprouting. Two days from starting week four! I made all of my week four adjustments today since I'll be busy tomorrow and have to work on Monday. I have spent quite a few hours researching How/When/Why to prune. From the best I can tell, it's solely discretionary. Sure there are things that are NOT recommended, but short of cutting your plant during flowering, it's a free for all. Shape and train as it fits the space and gives you the best chance of good yields.

That said, I figured it was time to stop reading and start sniping since they all had 6+ nodes! My main goal was to give the plants plenty of air-flow and keep the canopy/foliage away from the bucket. I also topped all four of them. I FIM'd Rain and Harmony (outside plants) and did a true topping of Dawn and Meadow. Fingers are crossed!

Oh! I also took a clone from Dawn. I don't have any cloning gel and just made my own concoction with a rapid rooter. I'll keep you posted.

The setup and timers are all the same. I went to the GH 12/6/3 mix for this week, the schedule says to stay here until I go to 12/12 lights.

But before adding the nutes, I cleaned the res and ran straight r/o water (ph 5.9) on the drip cycle for about ten hours today (quick flush). Then I drained and added 8 gallons of fresh r/o water plus the nutes. It settled right at ph 5.75. It depends on the plants as to how long I keep them in veg. The new lights will be here next weekend so starting week five I could throw them to flower. But we'll see.


Here are some pics.......

This Harmony pre-trim...


Here she is post-trim...




So after a fresh trim and nutes...they are back under the lights for week 4!

 

[Rexer]

Thanks Rexer! I'm in Texas, East Texas actually. For the algae in the tubing, I'm not real concerned for now. When I hang the new Mars led's, I will change it out for black tubing which should do the trick.

I will be topping/pruning some today and will have some more pics posted.

(edit: HaHa! I wrote this six hours ago and never hit the post button. Pics coming....)

Well, now I'm thinking I should guessed that by

Thanks Rexer! I'm in Texas, East Texas actually. For the algae in the tubing, I'm not real concerned for now. When I hang the new Mars led's, I will change it out for black tubing which should do the trick.

I will be topping/pruning some today and will have some more pics posted.

(edit: HaHa! I wrote this six hours ago and never hit the post button. Pics coming....)

Thanks RyOnTX, something tells me I shoulda guessed that from your name! Lol

Them some happy looking girls!

 

[Ryn0nTX]

thanks @Rexer ! I meant to get a shot or two of the roots. I'll post some up soon.

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Here is a look at what Dawn has going on. Not the easiest pic to take one handed

 

[Rexer]

Those roots look extremely healthy!! Got some nice air roots going on as well!!

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Thanks @Rexer! You should see these girls now! I can't wait to post my weekly update tomorrow. Its amazing at how fast they grow!

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Day 35!​

These girls are starting week 5 and I’m getting a bit nervous. The plants look great! I’m nervous about the size. I am trying to give the other three time to stretch a little more and hopefully catch up to Dawn before switching to 12/12. I would welcome any tips regarding what the focus should be as far as maintaining size is concerned.

My initial plan was to select the two largest/healthiest plants and space them out. Then placing the other two plants in another room under different lights to see how they do. But I would really like to keep all four where they are. So I'll keep the same nutrient schedule for the next seven days. What are your thoughts?

I finally got the new Mars TSW2000’s in and installed. I also rearranged the grow room to allow for more space, better air flow and easier access to all sides of the plants. Temps and humidity are still maintaining perfectly!

I also pruned all four of them again. Just got rid of the growth that isn’t getting much in the way of light. I have read that it’s best to wait two weeks before going to flower after pruning, but I have also watched videos of growers pruning all the way through flower?

Here are the pics of the grow room....



Here are some pics of the girls prior to pruning.....

Harmony is doing great! She is in second place to Dawn in regard to size. It may be the strain, but Harmony and Meadow continue to try and shoot out a ton of grow about two inches up from the media. Dawn is the "same" strain and never did this??
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Dawn is my Rock Star (for now)! She measures 18" Tall x 30" Wide, even wider in some spots, just a ballpark avg. My thoughts are that I really should throw her into flower this weekend, but I'm hoping the others will do some catching up this week.
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Meadow looks like shit in this pic. I didn't realize how bad of an angle it was until I had already pruned her up. She is quite short 9 inches, her fan leaves reach out to 20 inches. I would be worried about her if the main stalk wasn't every bit as big in diameter as Dawn's. She is very healthy otherwise from what I can see.
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Rain is doing just as well as the others. She is a little larger than Meadow, but not by much. I am surprised with Rain, I really didn't expect much from this one since I have no clue where the seed came from (strain, etc.) So any production from her would put a big grin on my face!
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Thanks for following along! I will post some post-pruning pics soon after this. Also, for the sake of keeping the 'Weekly Update" from going too long, I have a couple of other items that I would like some feedback on. I will post that separately in this thread as well as others.

*edited for spelling

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Day 35 (cont'd)​

Here are the pics of the girls post pruning. Any tips or recommendations will be greatly appreciated!

Harmony.....

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Dawn....

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Meadow....

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Rain....

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[Ryn0nTX]

The two issues/questions that came up while rearranging the grow room.....

One being that Dawns roots are headed down the drain...literally! I thought this would become an issue when building the buckets, but my options were limited. I could put a filter on the drain, but then that would stay clogged. What do you guys do to avoid this without root damage and even more, what can I do now to fix this?

....and yes, I will never use clear tubing again!
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The second is not so much of a concern, but I was curious what would cause random leaves to spiral? It's only on one plant and only three leaves. Any ideas?



As always, thanks for your feedback and input!

 

[CagedApe]

The two issues/questions that came up while rearranging the grow room.....

One being that Dawns roots are headed down the drain...literally! I thought this would become an issue when building the buckets, but my options were limited. I could put a filter on the drain, but then that would stay clogged. What do you guys do to avoid this without root damage and even more, what can I do now to fix this?

....and yes, I will never use clear tubing again!
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The second is not so much of a concern, but I was curious what would cause random leaves to spiral? It's only on one plant and only three leaves. Any ideas?



As always, thanks for your feedback and input!

Everything is looking good Myself I would do some LST. You really should have been pulling them down a while back but that's ok. Still do it if you have the desire. Second, I would go into the bucket and pull those roots back out of the drain and take the whole pad in the bucket and softly fold it back under the side farthest from the drain or as much as you can. 3rd, those few leaves are probably just root deformation or drying, etc. Let me know what you think.

 

[Ryn0nTX]

I agree with the drying. One thing I forgot to mention is that when I returned home from a two day trip last week, I noticed the pump wasn't pumping nutes! The res was almost all dried up. So at that point it had been three days since I had seen the nutes pumping. I don't think they went that long, but they for sure missed some watering cycles. So probably a great call on the spiral leaves.

The reason I never did LST is due to space. When I'm home, I train them by hand two or three times a day. this is definitely one aspect of growing that I didn't realize would be an issue.

I'll definitely do that with the roots. As always, thank you!

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Any insight on topping more than once? I have a plant that is seriously getting too tall! Just today she has grown 3 inches since I was down here drinking coffee at 8am this morning. I can only raise the light about 10 more inches (ceiling is in the way) and lower the plant about 6 inches (need to stay above res height for draining).

Any ideas or suggestions?


(edit: forgot pic )

 

[Ryn0nTX]

I missed my weekly update last week, so I will explain what all I did then. I will follow that up with this weekend, week 7.

Day 42 / Week 6......
So these girls really took off during week 5. I was blown away when I returned home after a four day work trip. I knew right away that I was going to have to get really creative with pruning and sneak in some training. The training was pretty dramatic and after doing that along with some major pruning back, I was nervous!

- High stress training
-Nute flush (3 complete flushes with RO water
-Extreme pruning
-Moved on to week 1 nute schedule for flowering
-Went to a 12/12 light cycle

here are some pics to show the progress......


- This is a pic of all the girls before I started chopping them up. Dawn was getting so tall and stretching out sa far that she was blocking light from the two on either side of her. I knew I had to do something to make every happy.
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- Here is a close up of Dawn prior to pruning.
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- Pruning in progress
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- So like a puzzle, I configured all the branches (the ones that were left) to where they all got great exposure to the lights.
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- Here is Rain after the pruning and clipping her down. I snapped of the main lower branch on accident. I was really worrying about her, it was a very fat branch and a huge wound!
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- Here is Harmony after her pruning. Now my smallest plant, she has more flowers starting than any of the others.

So after all this, I took a deep breath, crossed my fingers and closed the door. Hoping for the best!

 

[Ryn0nTX]

So it's the begging of Week 7 (Day 49)......

Getting through week 6 was pretty stressful. First, I was only supposed to be away for work one day, that turned into 4 days! During that time, my wife sent me some pictures of Rain. She took a complete shit! I chalked it up to the stress and nute change. The other three were still looking good. I asked her to look in the res and there was about 3 gallons gone! I had her check the buckets and they were bone dry! So not only were they really thirsty, she found a piece of the tubing disconnected from the pump. This caused all the flood cycles just to dump the nutes back in the res, nothing was getting to the plants!

So I had her add 3 gallons of RO water at 6.8ph and hook the tubing back up. Rain looks like she is going to pull through. The discoloration in the leaves and stems is going away. There are two fan leaves that aren't gonna pull through, so I'll prune them off.


- Here is a pic of Rain. Can you see anything that I'm missing? I posted a better pic of her in my last post (before she was stressed) to make it easy to compare.
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I haven't mentioned room temp, humidity, etc. in a while. This is simply because the room is heavily controlled. Temps are right where I want them (between70-75F) and humidity is held tight around 60%.

This is what I did this weekend:
- High stress training. I'm seeing great results, wish I had started this weeks ago. So I'm going to adjust the tension and add a few to new branches.
- Nute flush (2 complete flushes with RO water). I did this last week and realized afterwards that one of the buckets were full (clogged). so I wanted to do it again ensuring all the nutes were flushed.
- Slight pruning, just the stuff in the dark.
- Moved on to week 2 nute schedule for flowering. I mixed 14 gallons to a ph of 6.8.
- Still on a 12/12 light cycle

Here are some pics.......


I had just let all the strings loose in preparation for adjusting them. I also wanted to look at the roots to make sure I didn't have any clogs like last week.
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Here is a decent pic of Harmony. Hard to tell in this one, but she has a bunch of flowers starting up.
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This a good pic of Dawn. You can see where I so boldly cut the main stem. I took about 15 inches of of her. I also topped many of the top nodes on the branches. I left some as they were so I could see the difference. It seems to be working well. And no, I did not read anywhere that this would be a good idea. In fact, everything I read strongly leaned towards being a really bad idea....so I did it!
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And lastly, here is Meadow. She 'was' the smallest so I did far less pruning on her and tried not to stress her as hard with the training. I was hoping she would catch up. It seems to have worked. I'll be pruning on her a bit more this evening to clean up the dark side.

I'm learning and discovering quite a bit. I can't wait to see the difference in yields when it comes time to harvest. Have a great week!

 

[Ryn0nTX]

A quick update..... Day 55!

I returned home on Wednesday (3 days ago). I was inspecting all the girls and relishing in how far they've come! Then, there it was... Rain had grown massive pollen sacks! Raindy is a boy!!! This was the mystery seed that I had planted. The three feminized seeds I purchased are indeed all females and looking great!

After a quick consult here on the forum and some reading, I cut it down and removed it from the room....trashed it! In a way, I'm somewhat glad because this gave me some room to do some rearranging. I'll be doing my weekly update tomorrow and I will share pics.

R.I.P. Raindy!

 

[CagedApe]

A quick update..... Day 55!

I returned home on Wednesday (3 days ago). I was inspecting all the girls and relishing in how far they've come! Then, there it was... Rain had grown massive pollen sacks! Raindy is a boy!!! This was the mystery seed that I had planted. The three feminized seeds I purchased are indeed all females and looking great!

After a quick consult here on the forum and some reading, I cut it down and removed it from the room....trashed it! In a way, I'm somewhat glad because this gave me some room to do some rearranging. I'll be doing my weekly update tomorrow and I will share pics.

R.I.P. Raindy!

Poor Raindy....