First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

[knighthawktfc]

There's a training style I saw on one of threads here for autos, it's actually was the thread of a guy named Neil, who is the creator of the Perfect Sun LED. It's called ponytailing, I think. You could look into that. Unless your girls have already started flowering, then I think it's too late.

Yeah I've considered that, even sort of coaxed the leaves up to see what it would offer tonight, I didn't do it but I was thinking about it cause it would help alot with the two top fan leaves out of the way. They are preflower right about now... think I could get away with it for a few days? I checked for sex again tonight I can really make it out, I think the CC is female though from little I could see... idk will know in a couple days I'm sure.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 24 - Evening


Drainage report:

So there was about 300ml from each in the trays and in ww I got lucky and two little cups got filled directly, not so lucky on the CC but there was enough in 3 cups to just barely get enough to test. Was really expecting more runoff, even accounting for a little evaporation during sleep time they definitely were thirsty today. In the end though they got ~2000ml-2100ml each and spit out about 400 total, or ~20% so check another watering off the chart.

Did not droplet ph test only pen-meter...I had enough of the droplets for today and tired of cleaning things, get enough of that just with the pen.

Clean pens. (each of these is with fresh little cup of distilled)
WW From tray: PH 6.2 ppm 238
Clean pens
WW from cup1: PH 6.0 (5.95) ppm 235
Clean pens
WW from cup2: PH 5.8 ppm 229.
Clean pens

CC from tray(top of water skim): ph 6.51 ppm 243
Clean pens
CC from combined cups: ph 6.43 ppm 245
Clean pens
CC from tail end of cleaning up tray: ph 6.50 (exactly .. I cleaned the pen with distilled and tested it twice lol could not believe it) ppm 247\248.
Clean pens

I was relieved to see 6.2 on WW at first, thinking the cups would bump it up .1 or so... nope... no idea what's throwing either readings off on her or the soil itself. grr. maybe time for tiny top sprinkling of some domalite next time I water on the WW, have hard time believing it's as far off as drainage keeps telling me...but it's been constant in the high 5's very low 6's at best. Least it's not throwing 5.5's at me anymore.
Was nice to see the CC finally drain at basically 6.5, frankly couldn't believe it, I would have been happy to see 6.3 based on past.

 

[Eyes4grandpa]

I am going to go ahead and sit in on this one. Being new myself with one miserable failure under my belt, the more I can find out the better.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 25 - (mid day) Let's talk about sex baby, lets talk about breaking stems and me!


Overview:
I woke up way late, didn't get to these babies till just after noon.
Temps and RH stable last 24hr.. 70-77 and RH 47-72%, that spike to 72 was from all the drainage being around during lights out.
Miss Cane is nearly 7" now, and Mrs.Widow nearly 8", yeah that's like the better part of an inch in 24hr, so either they chasing me popping the lights up a little yesterday again or they're starting that pre-flower stretch... or I'm not measuring in a consistent manner, or man were they happy to get some water, or some combo of all that. IDK.

-Today I edged the humidifier ever so lightly lower setting again (it shoots high when lights are out), given all these leaves touching one another...I don't want any chance for mold, even with all the airflow I'm a little paranoid about it. I put a 1" piece of Styrofoam under fan #3 which bring it up a little, will probably add a second 1" piece tomorrow, as the lower part of the 2 sections of oscillation is still mostly below the pots.

-I left the lights alone, no raising today. I did not see additional tip burn on CC today vs. yesterday, what was there is still there, I really have a hard time believing it's heat\light burn, so maybe it was early touch of nute burn from last week's 1/3rd nutes showing up right at the time she was begging for watering. In fact I would say if anything it looked less pronounced today, but that might just be my eyes\mind playing wishful thinking.

-Miss Widow to me sort of like she may have very early signs of some nute def, middle part of leaves seem to be going a little lighter than the rest, typically this would be mag related I think but she's been getting decent doses of that so maybe she has not been taking it up due to lower ph? IDK again my eyes maybe playing tricks on me, I yanked her out of the LED lighting to look closer and it looked less of a problem than under led lights....those special glasses only help so much. All the winkles on her throw me off sometimes.

I inspected their private parts while checking\tightening their lst lashings again today, more on that later. Damn things are too fking bushy, in retrospect I really should have topped lower...or done it sooner than I did, really causing problems, I'm too paranoid to take off any more fan leaves.

Top Shot:


Miss Cane:


Sides: I so badly want to take the fiskers to this beotch and remove like at least 4 more leaves.
I'm not going to though, not without someone telling me it's ok for an auto-CC at this point.


Closeups: I see people with fan leaves cut in 1/2 or 2/3rds some times, is that to trim them
or is that just them removing damaged parts? Anyway only thing of note here is no new
burning tips that I noticed.


Miss Widow:


Sides:


Closeups: That last pic is maybe best to see to what I'm sort of saying about the lighter color
between veins, it's mild, but rather address it now before it gets worse. Perhaps a little top
coating of domalite-lime with the next watering, and to extent possible dissolve a little in the water?
I still have hard time believing ph is so much lower from one pot to the next prepared exactly
the same way.

.

Sex investigations continue - Dude looks like a lady

I know what I'm supposed to be looking for, particularly I know what I DON'T want to see. I spent about 30min looking over Miss Cane with a mag glass and even tried that crappy scope...I keep calling it crappy but it's my twitchy hands that are 1/2 the problem. So basically from what I see I think Miss Cane can keep her name, but I might need a few days to know for sure. :--)

CC pre flower pics



Mrs Widow is another story, I can't really make heads or tails of her yet. Such that I didn't even bother with photos yet because there doesn't seem much to photograph, yet. I only spent about 15min looking up her skirt in various places and then threw up my hands cause my eyes were hurting and I already broke one of her stems while screwing around with her. While Mrs Widow has always been ahead in growth, she is stated as 8 week flower vs the Candy Cane at 7 weeks, so I'm not surprised Miss Cane would show first.
Anyway bottom line no signs of sacs or balls on stick on either that I can make out yet.


Broken stem\branch.. GRRR.
I guess everyone does this by mistake at some point. I was being so careful too, but apparently not careful enough when adjusting one of Mrs.Widows LST lashings, but my hand twitched and when I heard that unmistakable snap sound my heart dropped. I slowly removed my hand from her and ran to find my electrical tape... fk..where did I put it!! I couldn't find it...don't ask... So I grabbed some duct tape and sliced off a 1" or so piece. Thankfully I didn't snap the branch entirely off... I didn't frankly get a great look either...damn plants are too small to be digging around in without doing even more damage, but I'd say it was only 1/3rd - 1/2 broken. Anyway I held her branch in place and wrapped the tape around her snapped area, fairly tightly but not too-tight. I removed her LST pipe cleaner (I was trying to replace it with wire, pre-snap) and left her free to do what she wants while healing. Will leave that branch alone for 2-3 days before putting cleaner back on that branch\stem. FML - was a really good branch too at least 2 decent bud sites already and it was getting light with the training.

 

[knighthawktfc]

I am going to go ahead and sit in on this one. Being new myself with one miserable failure under my belt, the more I can find out the better.

Thanks, glad to have you riding along, need all the help I can get!

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 26 - (morning) That's the sound of the men, working on the chain ...gang


Overview:
Environment was stable last 24..Temps 70-79, RH 47-69. I don't think my slight touch of humidifier setting yesterday made any difference, too slight I guess, will try tad lower again today, interesting that 79f showed up, my other main monitor also showed middle of tent got up to 84, only 81 under plants. I'm not sure how that exactly happened yesterday...unless it was while I was screwing around in the tent moving stuff, as for the 84 max up higher (chest level) I can understand..cause I raised the lights yesterday to point where the exhaust sort of hits the monitor there. Up top showed no change same solid 74-78 as it's been for weeks. hmm. I tweaked the intake fan ever so slightly from about 1/4th 'low' setting to 1/3rd 'low' setting... (only 2watt difference) could be time to wash the pre-filter - I do smoke in the room after all. I bumped "middle fan" that sort of points down toward front corner from low to high.... but I did that for other reasons. We'll see how it goes, not going to obsess over it yet - I been spot checking the leaves with laser with the tent 85% zipped here and there over last two days in search of hot spots, never seen anything over 76.4f on any leaf, usually 74-75.

Plants did not have their usual Thursday night growth spurt, guess they did that Wednesday night instead, sort of makes sense since they took water earlier this week as well. Miss Cane is now a legit 7" and Mrs. Widow a legit 8".. so idk... .15-.20 since noon yesterday. CC though added it all in her topped tops.. they were clearly standing little taller today. That's good because I need her to keep up like that because they way she is it actually means a little more light to below...which is sort of counter intuitive but is the situation for now.
Some of her training is helping her grow outward I noticed today (or the minor light tweaks yesterday + no rotation), no where near enough but I'll take tiny progress on that over no progress...still have to resist shaving her more. WW training yesterday seemed to pay off a bit, definitely growing outward a bit more overnight. That said WW had transpiration spots in 3 places where leaves got bound up with each other, I may have to take the knife to her... if I see that again tomorrow I will do surgery. That's what fan#2 going to 'high' was about. Speaking of surgery, the branch I snapped yesterday..and all it's leaves look really really sad today... maybe I snapped it more than I thought, I didn't expect recovery in 24hr... but given what I see I'm not sure it's going to make it.

I touched them here and there to adjust lashings, and added 2-3 pipe cleaners and swapped out a stake down
that just wasn't staying staked for a p-cleaner tie down.

Top Shots:



Miss Cane:


Sides: Nice to see those two main tops sort of finally start to lift off a little. Normally you might
think uneven is bad...yeah well actually they coming up a tad is helping some of the light,
especially the side lights get through and helping with air flow... at least my two main tops
aren't colliding with everything else anymore...for now anyway.



Closeups: Last one is post morning touching, very slightly pulling the two main tops to the side.
It looks like there is pressure there but there is actually very little if any tension atm.
I did the same on WW but didn't snap a pic.



Mrs.Widow:


Sides: Repair job looks like it may fail... then again never know.. Girls all wet too, may need
to cut a beotch... don't want to do that before branch has had another day to maybe repair
out of fear of stressing the hell out of her. I made sue the broken branch was pointed more
toward the side lights for next 24hr.



Closeups: See what I mean about that slight discoloration. I don't think that's bleaching cause
I see it on leaves 4"-5" lower, that said I didn't really notice it on those buried at near dirt level.
*shugs*. Next watering I will be sprinkling a pinch of domalite into water, and probably spread
a tsp or two around the top soil before watering process, I'm reading 5-9tsp would be better but I'd rather
go slow with it. I know that will not really be an instant fix, but over time it should help bring ph up a bit... assuming the exit water is accurate and for some reason this pots ph is ~0.5-0.7 lower than the other and where it should be. I'm still absolutely baffled how that can be.


In Search of Sex - The mission continues:

So these are some shitty photos I took...via sticking my camera up to a magnifying glass's little extra zoom spot.. sorry I could not manage to do this and stick my led glasses in between...and still get remotely clear shot.

Miss Cane:


First two are of the same area, second is another. Hard to make out from photos but in pics
1 and 2 there is a tiny white fiberish hair or two floating around in there. Looking around the plant
in other places I can't really see much different or more clear hair, but I can say I don't see
anything that clearly looks like nuts to me. But again, my eyes are not great. So I'm leaning
toward female but jury is still out I'd say.



Mrs. Widow..


No signs at all that I can see, jury is still out. Yeah I know they're so
blurry as to be next to useless pics.




To dos:
So I finally got my little pvc project for the 2.5\3" electrical ports\vents completed yesterday and painted them up with flat black... still letting them air-out more in the garage, but before lights out I need to remember to install them in the portals and tape some bug-screen on them. They're 2" pvc with like a 3 way connector and 2 90d pieces each. Once side will face down and help support the unit with pipe down to floor, one side will be blocked off, and the other have the 2 90'd turns... probably will not be 100% effective but I think 95% will do, I can always add another 90d piece if I need too. Frankly I'm not positive I even need to add these... BUT better to have it done, particularly for next time, esp if I do photo period seeds. BTW I also added bug screen to that box contraption I have going on for a light leak protector for the back vent... again that thing is maybe 80% effective..but it's definitely better than nothing.... I really down anything beyond dull moon-light has made it into the tent over the course of the grow.... except around day ...idk day10 there was one day I had the tent opened up as the lights went out and I was still working on something for about 15min, it was more a 'delay' I guess than an interruption and it was around the time I was first starting to even give them a break from 24/0.


What else...hmm for shit and giggles I lifted the pots...yeah still heavy, not that I was expected anything different. God I wish these where photo's and I could trim the hell out of them.

In other totally unrelated news...
I tried out some safer-garden fugus killer concentrate shit on my roses yesterday (also could be useful down the line), as well as the safer-garden insecticidal soap on those aphid infested area of weed\pants (not MJ!) growth in my backyard (I did the 'dust' version of the killer-shit along with removing lots of the plants last week...pfft didn't seem to help on some plants I left around). Hope they'll start looking better in a few days.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 26 - (Late Morning) Boy are we thirsty all of a sudden!


Overview:
Temps\RH in range 70-75f (really more like 72-77 under light), and 48-70% RH, apparently my tweak of RH again had no effect, or #2 fan on high is blowing more of the mist around (my theory).
Decided today to tweak humidifier to low end of medium, about 3 times the slight changes made over last couple days, don't want to see 70% high, hopefully the lows stay in the 40's though.

My babies two main tops stretched a bit over last 24hr. Before some adjusting Miss Cane was full on 8" maybe more, and Miss Widow about 9"... post some lash tightening they're both about 1/2-1" lower. I did not adjust the light height yet, the closest parts are about 22-23" from main light, and at least 20" from side lights. I caught a single CC leaf at 78f today, all others about 2f lower so don't know what that was about, but rotated a bit so at least what ever is happening in the spot moves around a bit, that said leaf in question was resting on black pot edge so maybe it had more to do with that.

So they looked droopier than usual today but it's hard to tell because of the all the bush and lashes and tucking I've done.
It was about 1hr till side lights kick off but it seemed more than that so in the course of also pulling them out to investigate leaf color a bit I noticed they were WAY lighter than yesterday... so I weighed them...CC12-13lbs and WW 13lbs. Seriously? So I repeated the process 3 times, once with holding them in my hands while while stepping on scale with and without them (you know sometimes balance throws shit off at low weights)...and doing the math Nope... they are indeed dry or near enough for watering. Didn't have the time for that though as it was mid-day, so I will consider watering them tonight, after I weigh them again to keep checking my sanity. I do notice a trend though, the day before they get dry they put on more growth than usual.


Top Shots:



Miss Cane:


Sides: Two main stems at the top added like nearly 1" over last 24.



Closeups: Don't ask me how that one photo came out green.. Idk.. it was some attempt to use
mag-glass + led glasses + flash I think.
Anyway... going with that she's a sexy female for now still.


Mrs. Widow:


Sides:
She be looking even more ratty than usual today..idk cause more wind + thirst?


Closeups:
That branch on Mrs. Widow...yeah I don't think she's going to make it, but I'll wait 24hr after watering to like sunday evening to make the call and just chop branch it if not looking better... or at least chop that dying leaf (some stuff closer to the break looks less dying), no use having it waste too much energy on it or the branch. I got no sex close ups for you again on Mrs. Widow, nothing to see there, though in looking I think maybe tomorrow I might be seeing some indications, I see today some starting of something in the between the joints.


Other:

It's only been ~3 days though since last water. I've been expecting them to want more water as they grow up but I thought it would be more gradual. In the last week or so they gone from barely every 5 days to 4, to now it seems every 3. I'm not complaining though.
Trying to decide if I do water tonight, if I should feed nutes or not.

Leaning toward, yes but 1/4th nutes to CC and 1/3rd (same as last time) for WW, except for the cal-mag which I will go 100% on - 2.5ml per gallon for ww and maybe just 2.0ml for CC, and I'll add a pinch of dolomite lime powder to WW's gallon (I'm gonna prepare a gallon each separate). Schedule says to feed\water\water; thus far I've done feed\water. idk.. maybe just water + calmag again +dolo for ww. Reason for lower nutes on CC... is pretty sure that tip burn stuff was some slight nute burn after getting 1/3rd feeding.

See if I knew they'd want water again in 2-3 days I would do just water, but if it will be 3-4 I'd rather feed as it would be probably last 'veg' feeding. I may flip a coin, ha ha.

-Yesterday I did complete the pvc-light-leak things for the side electrical cord vents, went ok..feel better that they're there even though I wasn't too paranoid about it to begin with.

- Ordered some more goodies from my shopping list yesterday, should be here in next 48hr.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 28 (Early Morning) - 3000ml of water on the wall

Overview:
Things were stable last 24, 70-75f, 47-68RH. Growth last 24hr for Miss cane was about .25" and WW about .40".
I did not water when the lights came on last night, WSOP final table took up most my time last night, but I did start he watering process after around 6am this morning after snapping daily photos. Could argue this morning was day 4 since last water, weighed them again before process... 12.4 and 12.8 on digital, both seemed to read 12 on manual scale. Not much to report overall other than that today.
Miss Cane 95% chick, you can now make it out better in pics I think, Mrs Widow still not wanting to show, and her broken branch has gotten no better, we'll see tomorrow morning after day of water and nutes, pretty sure I'm just gonna it the knife though.

Included some normal lighting photos today (while I had them out for weighing).
Not happy anymore with fan #2's location, tweaked a little today, will likely relocate tomorrow... but learning to do only small thing or
two at a time, so it can wait, just not trilled with breeze on WW.. for once it seems not enough given the bush.

Top Shots:



Miss Cane:


Sides:




Closeups: Dude sure looks like a lady to me.


Mrs Widow:


Sides:


Closeups: Yeah I got nothing to say on these close ups really...



The watering...


So I mixed up a separate gallon of distilled for Miss Cane and Mrs. Widow this time. Mainly because I wanted to feed them slightly different mixes, also even though I knew they didn't need a full gallon, no telling how much they would indeed need, not exactly anyway and last time splitting a gallon was only borderline enough to get some drops of run off.

Miss Cane:
She got a dose of 1/4th strength nutes, except for Magi-cal which I gave her 2ml per gallon, or roughly 80% of recommended. Last time she got the same but nutes were at 1/3rd and I think she just got some light nute burn, so I dialed it back a little for this round. I debated with myself if I should go 100% magi-cal.. and I decided to just stick with what seemed to be semi-working thus far, and I read about 2ml each gallon of distilled\ro is pretty standard'ish. ALSO I gave her a tiny pinch of dolomite lime dust into the water, no other way to describe it other then a pinch. All said and done she was ~340ppm PH'd to 6.4-6.6. Schedule calls for 1000, last time she got about 420ppm post adjusting.

Water in: 3000ml
Water out: 600ml ph samples in stages were: 6.09 6.18 6.3, 6.2, 6.39 (raw so for my meter you can add +0.1)
Only sample that was odd was the first one\two where droplets suggested it was higher at 6.3-6.5.

Daddy is more or less happy about this... as every other than the first wave was basically 6.2-6.5.. basically consistent with last time.
Bitch finally starting draining in timely manner.... don't get me wrong I started this around ~7:30am with last water in at round 9am and she was still dripping at here and there at 11am. BUT I did get some water to start coming out after about 15minutes.
This is due probably to me just throwing 1000ml at her, waiting 5-7min another 1000ml at her waiting 15min (drops started) and then another 1000ml. 90% of all water was edge\2-3 inches in from edge...fk I couldn't really reach in more anyway if I wanted too haha.



Mrs. Widow:
She got a dose of 1/3rd strength nutes, same as last time except for magi-cal which I gave her 2ml per gallon. I also mixed in 1/4th tablespoon or 1.25ml of dolomite lime dust after all the nutes were in the water. This saved me having to PH-up it as much as usual. The idea here is supposedly Mrs.Widows soil is only in high 5's, slowly I want to raise it...actually I want to do it fast, but since a) I'm not 100% convinced it's as far off as exit water says, I figure maybe I just add a little with the water and let it filter down through a time or two before taking more radical steps or top coating soil etc. Whatever.. all said and done her mix was about 430ppm, about the same as last time... ph'd to 6.5.-6.6. This girl got the same 1000,1000,1000 timing as her sister, but offset by 5min.. basically I did one, then the next, then back to the other one. Interestingly she didn't take forever to first start draining either this time, in fact amazeballs she was sort of first.. though after initial wave she was slower than her sister to completely finish - but she was about 200ml more thirsty.

Water in: 3000ml
Water out: 400ml ph samples in stages were 5.91,5.89,6.09,6.22,6.08,6.15,5.99 (some from cups some from tray)

Daddy is not pleased about this yet again, but on the upside, there were some 6.x samples, and the 5.x samples were at least all nearly 6. Why all over the place and the tail end lower then some of the middle...IDFK. That said better then some of the 5.6-5.8 samples last feeding. Definitely will be adding 1/4th tsp of dolo again next watering (which will no nutes). BTW all the trays were washed clean prior to this and almost uni-formally the little capture cup things read lower side oh ph than tray water.

Droplet testing all the ph water for everyone always seemed to show slightly higher ph than the meter, yellow or yellow with slight orange haze..if any. So it was telling me 6.0-6.5, which if you +.1 or +.2 from my meter basically matches.

It's occurred to me it's a good thing I only have two plants, because if I had more than say 3, this sh1t would drive me nuts.
Next time I'll spot check CC's exit water toward the end, but I'm not gonna be as elaborate as I have been... I will be for WW... as track her lower ph exit water... but even so it's gonna be more dump-and-go. I can't spend 3 - ~4hr on this process constantly.


/Well that's another chapter in the book down. Week 5 starts tomorrow.

Oh and my girls really starting to get their stench on, still mild but I love opening the tent to the smell "of the skunky funky smelly green shit".

 

[AKGrower907]

Nice thread. Thats a gorilla tent?

 

[knighthawktfc]

Nice thread. Thats a gorilla tent?

Yes it's a 2'wx4'lx6'10"h (+1 foot extention came with it but I did not use for this first grow).

Thanks for saying that and stopping in!

 

[AKGrower907]

Yes it's a 2'wx4'lx6'10"h (+1 foot extention came with it but I did not use for this first grow).

Thanks for saying that and stopping in!

Thanks for the kind info. Always had an eye for the gorillas but never did purchase one cause they were so expensive. Your ladies look great. Love the LST too. Im subbed.

 

[Dinsdale]

Oh and my girls really starting to get their stench on, still mild but I love opening the tent to the smell "of the skunky funky smelly green shit".

And then you sing a song and puff all night long?

 

[knighthawktfc]

And then you sing a song and puff all night long?

As I take hits from the bong... of course!

That's at least 10 weeks away though, assuming everything goes relatively well.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 29 - Morning - New Toys arrived, let's get microscopic!


Overview:
Temps\RH stable last 24h. 70-77 \ 47-70%, I still don't know when this 70% is happening I've never caught it even during lights out, best I could catch was 65, and top and chest high never break 63. Not sure what's up with that, did rain while I was sleeping yesterday, I may dial back humidifier again some more, but not today. Miss Cane was 8.5" inches today on top, and Mrs Widow's tippy tops reached 10 inches. Today I gave the girls another lashing session, including their tippy tops, and more forcefully all around.

Tomorrow I'm 85% likely gonna make 2 cuts on Mrs. Widow to remove 2 fan leaves, in addition to some trimming on the broken branch. That said the broken branch is looking better today, in fact it seems more light and nute drink really helped it start recovering. I just have to shave off one fan that is basically dead after the break, and 1/2 another that curled tight before it started to recover a little, the bud site in there actually looks ok - runted compared to opposite side but none the less ok. Also CC is definitely getting 2 more fan leaves taken off somewhere, not exactly sure where yet, but it's happening... too much darn light being blocked and too much air-blockage, maybe even 3 or 4. I will not go beyond a total of 6 though (2 already removed).

My toys arrived last night, but more on that later, lets get the usual out of the way first.

Top Shots (pre lst session 4):



Miss Cane:

Sides: Reaching for the sky! Which is nice because now I can lash her down a little more.



Closeups:
See kids...that edge, this what happens when you spill nutes on leaves and forget\fail to clean it all up.
At least I'm 90% sure that's what happened and it's not more actual nute burn, I was messy yesterday
I thought I cleaned\dabbed off all the leaves... apparently not... or maybe next time part of the cleanup
need to be spraying with distilled water, then using the paper towel.


Mrs.Widow


Sides: Reminds me of the twin towers... before the planes of course.



Closeups: Time to open her up even more...bust out the pipe cleaners!



First...
My additional toys:



2 hydrometers.. I probably need more, but 2 will due to have on hand, they were not dirt cheap (like 25 piece),
I may look for cheaper ones and use these supposedly more accurate ones as the sort of benchmark.
They are meant primarily for later in early jarring\curing...before I put bovida's in... assuming we even
get that far.

2 more PH pens.. Because nothing will make me happier than quick sanity checks WITHOUT having to bust out
those damn droplets. Why the 3rd? Well silly because if one breaks I have 3rd. 1 is none and two is one... isn't that what marines say or something?

4 more clip\stuff hangers for the tent. I don't actually need these atm... but I only had 1 spare and that one I
likely will use, and also if I ever reconfigure for next grown and throw the 450w light I have in there two... I will need some more.

1 set of 32oz Fox Farms main nutrient line + Sledgehammer flush that didn't arrive yet.
It occurred to me the other day that I may use up most of my existing Technaflora nutes if these girls start drinking every other or every day. So best to a) have some others on hand, and b) I'm probably gonna need it for second grow.

1 bag dolomite lime pure powder form. Remember the stuff I currently have I graded\ground up myself, and frankly I think is close to the same end result... that said this power is even finer and will dissolve in water and soil even better\faster. It also has some Calcium and Mag in it as well, so bonus for next time when I mix soil.
I may not even use this stuff this grow... but I have the right stuff at least now.

1 Liter of botanicare Cal-Mag... I already have Magi-cal.. but in case I run out (my magi-cal is like 1/3rd the size of my other main nute bottles).

1 liter of Botanicare Silica Blast... I wish maybe I had this a month ago as it's more important then vs. now.. but I have it now, and I may even start using it, maybe at like 20% of dose. Suppose to help make stems stronger and encourage more branching.

1 USB 60-250x scope.
Oh yeah baby! Not that this is perfect either, but it's better then the eye-socket one I got for 1/3rd the price.
I can and have hooked it up to my Surface tablet I can actually hold it an inch or so off the plant and get about 60x (if you want 100-200x it'll need to be close). Almost better is I can hold it many inches away and still get decent magnification. Of course the best feature is I can take photos... either by tapping a touch sensitive button on it (not a good idea >60x), or clicking inside app with my other hand while holding with the other.
It's still sort of cumbersome... but OMG it 10x better than the eye-socket one. Now I can at least look at my tablet screen while adjusting focus for my distance, still hard via my shaky hands, but that's only cause I'm trying to one hand the device+led glasses in front of lens and adjust focus. Doing without the glasses was much easier.

Whatever for 35$ I am much much happier with this product than Carson's stuff for looking at stuff while it's still on the plant. Examples later.


LST main session #4 result photos:
Time for the beotches be getting those tips strapped!
I'm not actually trying to get them all the way to the side, just enough to get some light down the center.
They are just getting tall enough and separated enough from the rest that I actually train them off the center without entirely hitting other leaves.... well at least not as badly as trying this before would have done.

Miss CC after:



Mrs Widow after the abuse:


I think short of some minor adjustments it'll be the last LST session for 4-7 days.
Cause tomorrow I'm busting out the fiskers again. CC's two main tops now have fan leaves
and they should be little bigger tomorrow, so I finally going to take off the two main HUGE ones
the next level down they are the ones that are basically even with where I topped.
I don't think it's recommended to do this, or to try and avoid it, but I sort of can't avoid it
they just too much in the fucking way, there are 1/2 a dozen other small ones near the bottom
I should probably remove too but it's auto.... I keep reading no more than 6 or so leaves else
risk effecting production. That said I debating to go 8 (6+ original 2 I already removed).
There are two leaves... like the original two leaves of the plant that are basically at ground level literally growing on the dirt or a mm above it... that just screams mold opportunity to me, I've tried to specifically
water near them to get the dirt to sink a bit...hasn't happened.


Miss Widow is gonna get the same two below the two main tops removed, and maybe two more lower ones.
If I do that it should open up a shit ton of light to what could be some nice spots underneath. All of this on
both plants should also help air-flow and cause less problems with leaves smashing into one another in such a way that they stay touching\get stuck together. The added wind has helped with that, but it's not solved it completely.


Now... for some use of my new scope toy...

CC Sex - It's clearly a girl right?




As for Mrs. Widow, she's still being shy... very soon I think but till then here are some crappy ones anyway.



Now for some random zoomed in parts of a Mrs Widow leaf:


BTW those are all not at full maximum zoom, and it's me trying to hold device steady with
one hand, while focusing, while other is touching snapshot with my other in the software...
all while the fans are blowing etc...almost impossible to time the shot right.
I'll do better when it actually matters at a later date just wanted to give some idea for peeps
what it does. BTW it's neck attachment is SUPER sturdy arm\flex metal, which is great, and
it can attach to sturdy enough base and exam tray thing that comes with it for looking at
stationary \ things not on the plant, I just didn't use that yet.


Other -
I continued my very anal hot spot checking... yeah that one spot under light #5... definitely gets 2df on average higher then most other spots...even close to lights, high being 78-79. I'm paranoid about it, I moved #5 up another inch yesterday but it had zero effect, it's not from the light itself in my view it's just a spot that doesn't get as much wind, and also a sort of ...well let's just say it gets fair amount of light from all 3 lights around it. I've tried some tweaks, but really I'm not that paranoid about it... it's one spot.. on candy cane, and I rotate her a little each day.. 30d or so...unless I catch it at 80 or above I'm not gonna worry too much about it, will just keep and eye on it.

OMG will this post ever end... no!!!
To think I thought this morning while unzipping tent that today would be a do-nothing to them day.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 30 (Morning) - Even more child abuse


Overview:
Temps 72-77 over last 24hr, RH 48-68%. Even with lots of rain here I get the feeling I almost don't need humidifier anymore, putting it on middle of low setting today around 12pm and will see, outer room sits about 40-44% lately, would have done it this morning but I abused the plants so much I figured I'd leave them alone for a few hours. Post LST yesterday they are about 8.5 and 9.0 inches off soil... most growth in last 24hr seems to have been around the sides. I don't plan atm of restricting them much anymore, gonna start letting them grow upward mainly beyond small tweak here or there for next couple days if not week.

I figure this is about the last day I could abuse them, so off some more leaves came. I don't even want to talk about it, probably ruined them. I chopped 5\6 off candy cane and 4\6 off Mrs. Widow (depends if you count dead leaves or ones from broken branch). The broken branch on Mrs.Widow is starting to recover, that bud site I guess will never be the same as the strong one opposite it on the other side but... something better then nothing I guess. As for the leaves, both of them had main fan leaves from upper parts removed, largest on the plant, but also in both cases the ones most getting in the way of both light, air flow, and worst of all smashing up against everything. CC had a dying\yellowing leaf at literally soil level removed... I'm 95% sure that yellowing was caused by it sitting\growing on the moist ground for weeks. The other couple leaves removed on both were smaller but in spots that blocked the most light from what I felt were promising bud site directly below, or otherwise just getting in the damn way with no other options.

I really wanted to cut about 5-8 more on each... but I know I'm all ready pushing them past the limit, so no more cutting from here on out unless something dies.


Top Shots (pre slice and dice):



Miss Cane:


Sides:


Closeups: Kind of need her to grow upward some more now before can do anymore management.


Mrs.Widow:


Sides: That leaf right there in the last shot, I actually didn't remove the whole thing, just
nipped about 1/2 of leaf off ..leaving what was still good for now.


Closeups: Gonna start letting here bend up ward more and leave her be for a bit.


They are about 23" and 22" from light atm... keep debating if I should lower again, and wondering
if I'm wasting time an penetration by not having closer. Sort of just decided to keep'em where they
are for now, and let them grow upward now till like 20"... if no burning then let them get to about 18"
before moving light up, that said I sort of need the coverage at this point provided by about 20" as they
push outward from the pots...another reason I want to let them start growing up now more. IDK..

Pics of the leaves, CC first, WW second.


That's all for today, lets hope they don't decide to tell me to go f myself after slicing them up.

 

[Pennywise]

Looks good in here, they'll be fine after the defol

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 31 - (Morning) Just another day in paradise


Overview: Temps\RH relatively stable over last 24hr 72-78, RH 47 - 68%. What's throwing me off with the RH is house humidity in afternoons when they've been sleeping..2-7pm is when we keep having downpours and then 90d sun\heat right after so house is going up to 45-46% at times..which I've noticed is what's spiking the RH inside above 60 to 68-70%, otherwise it's been where I want it in the 48-55% range atm, seems for every 1% the house gets means about 3% inside the tent (with current settings). I'm consider today the last day of 'veg' time frame (even though I know CC is already in flower mode, WW not far behind).

Weighed the pots today cause they felt very light - 12.6 and 13.0, meaning time to water, however I'm gonna wait till tonight. Not that I have buds yet to worry about but I want to keep humidity down during sleep time much as possible from here on out (no uv active to counter any mold). I might be more paranoid than needed about that, but I fear that almost more than pests... at least with pests you have a fighting chance. More on RH and sex later.


Top Shots:



Miss Cane:


Closeups: the very last pic... I forget if that was CC or WW, 75% sure was cc.


Mrs. Widow:


Closeups: forgot to snap a top view, but you get the idea from top shot version. Starting to
look like a lady to me.




Sex.. on Mrs. Widow... no real news there, except I've gone from IDK to 70/30% female, she's starting to show and so far I like what I see, on CC she be clear female to my noobie eyes, guess she could still herm or banana on me though, but not showing signs of that yet, gave her a good look over today top and to extent I could bottom.


I've considered putting my humidifier on the main light timer..atm I have a cord length issue with that, but mostly I worry a little about breaking humidifier it's not really designed to consistently handle powerloss imho... but I may go that route in next couple days. I do wish I'd spent the extra time early on and got one with a humidity setting... I see TAO electronics make some nice ones, ones that don't need filters and just have the pebble contraptions, and has setting save feature for few days when has power loss (key on those digital ones), they incidentally also make one of my side lights...happened across that coincidence by pure chance while shopping around on the web.

For now though I'll just try and remember to turn down the setting around noon and remember to turn it up a bit an hour or two after lights on. Worst case.. I hit low 40's... not the end of the world imho at this point, particularly after next week or two when I want around that figure anyway. Also I could just jack-up the exhaust a little and intakes a hair more, which I may do anyway as I notice 1-2d avg temp rise on top of plants as they'll approach the light. Still under 80 but did catch one at 79.5 when wind was not hitting it today before.


That is all for now, will give a post watering update tonight, they both will be getting their last no-nute watering (except for calmag + little dolomite and maybe 10% shot of silica blast). I think I may drench the hell out of them tonight with a gallon each, and just deal with the massive run off (last time 3000ml was enough), to ensure a totally full soak everywhere before starting flower nutes next watering.. which should be day 34-35.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 31 - Evening.


Watered.

TLDR: Went ok, 3700 in ~1000 out, ph on Mrs. Widow out-water now in 6's.


1gallon (~3700ml) each

WW mixture - distilled + 1ml silica blast + 2ml magi-cal + 2.5ml (1/2 tsp) dolomite lime + ph down. PPM ~115 ph 6.5\6.6
CC mixture - distilled + 1ml silica blast + 2ml magi-cal + pinch of dolomite lime powder + ph down. ppm ~90 ph 6.4\6.5

Four waves each 1000 + 5min + 1000 + 15min + 1000 + 30min + 700.

Finally got pretty much constant drips from both after only about 10min after second 1000.

Output:
cc - 1000\1050 ml; ph at various stages about 6 tests in all (all from tray) via meters.
All between 6.2x and 6.54 avg was about 6.4; -ppms out: head ~890/900, middle ~840, tail ~805
two spot checks with droplets.. in 6.5 color range.

ww - 900\950ml; ph at various stages about 8 tests in all (all from tray) via meters.
All between 6.1x and 6.59 avg was about 6.35; -ppms out: head ~780, middle ~750, tail ~740
two spot checks with droplets.. in 6.5 color range.


Papa bear is pleased, no more 5.x readings. and even some of those 6.1x's are probably high 6.2's with meter offset.
I think the two doses of dolomite in last waterings are starting to do their job. I may back off adding that in future, maybe next time just a pinch in each gallon at the end of the mix instead of using ph up fluid... then after that if get similar results to this time.. not adding it anymore... I image at least some of it has been getting trapped in the soil (what I want actually for ww).

That last 700ml wasn't truly needed they leaked out 80-90% of it, but starting bloom nutes next watering so best they get a little extra through them of semi-plain water this time, or so I figured. But really...I just wanted to finish off the gallon jugs. I went light on the silica blast, will probably not mix that in with normal nutes though, maybe keep it to the watering only sessions and at low dosage maybe even just ever other plain water... seems the most effective time for it's use is mainly in veg which is over for me at this point.

Got everything wrapped this time in about 2hours\2:30, still insane.. 30min of that is just ph'ing the dam jugs at the start (perhaps I'm too anal or careful about everything idk), I could shave an hour if I forget about checking out-water ph (or only check sample in trays at end of process), still paranoid about out-ph, but far less so after today than 2 weeks ago when I was seeing 5's on WW.

Little shocked to see out-ppms way higher than in-ppms... and I mean like 7x-8x higher, not freaking over it though that's actually less than recommended in ppms listed on my 'recipe schedule' (1000 at full strength in end veg) when feeding so between my feedings and the soil itself I guess there is plenty of food still, hmm maybe I should be doing feed\water\water and not feed\water, eh thoughts for another night. What's random though is last feeding with nutes was 420(haha)'ish in...and like 100 150 out, yet this time I put ~100 in and 700-800 comes out. wtf is that about, is there a magic ppm fairy putting food in my soil, did the silica blast release a bunch of stuff locked up in the soil somehow? Just weird, idk maybe all my reading last time around were off for some unknown reason.

Oh and my foxfarm sledghammer flush fluid stuff came today... Not that I really plan on using it but if I think I need it it's at hand.

Turned off humidifier as test till morning seems 45-55%'ish will hold without it, especially after watering, been playing around with settings all day\night, had it on near lowest setting during sleep time, and it still got up to 65%, me no likely that at all.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 32 - Morning - Overslept.


Overview: Today will be brief since I overslept till about 2 minutes before lights out. Temps in range 70-77 last 24hr, with RH 46-65%.
Starting today\tonight I don't consider 65% during lights out in range anymore though, has been stilling in the 48-53% range with the humidifier off. We'll see how sleep-time goes today with no humidifier on hopefully < 60%, if not I'm gonna have to figure something out to get it down (outside room has been 40-45%).


I managed to snap an overview shot about 30 seconds before lights out:


Two things I forgot to mention yesterday:
I added (but haven't turned on yet) a 4th fan, placed sort of back where I originally had #2, just above the intake air area on right, but instead of pointing at ft wall it points across the front of both plants toward opposite side of tent. Theory is beotches are getting really bushy.. more air movement might help if can't keep RH lower, and they're at a point I think were a little more wind shouldn't be a problem. May turn it on starting tonight (vs cranking up speed on others).

Second I replaced the duct-tape wrapping with medical-cloth tape..or whatever you call it evening before yesterday on that broken branch area's break point. From looking it was 85% healed, I probably could have just left it off, but figured a little more help for a couple more days couldn't hurt and I read the cloth tape 'gives' more than duct-tape etc if it wants to fatten up the stem.

 

[Cannabro]

Following - looking great very detailed journaling .