flower/bud/rookie

[cbgb]

hey folks ....i have 1 plant that "made it" due to cold weather here in northern ma. and a short veg cycle. i guess you could say i forced flowered ....so on 10/01/2014 i brought the plant indoors......12/12 , cfl and 100 red led lights ...the plant seems fine and is growing at about 1/2"to an inch per day +/- about 16'' tall from root line to tip .....sour diesel ~ Indica / Sativa we think. my question is should i be doing anything special at this stage ? she is full of pistils and is a straight plant w/ no branches to speak of except a self induced "t" at the top....when should i see "buds" i am in no rush but just wanted to make sure i dont screw up after coming so far. i have provided pics to help. an early thank you to all !!!!! if you are a rookie and reading this you might want to check out our sponsor page for what you will need for your 1st grow. photo's 1) looking down at top of plantx2 2)an inside view 3) general pic of plant ..............4. a borrowed pic for id purposes only (is this a good example of what i should be looking for eventually.......

 

[Ravyn]

those little white specks on the leaves in the top pic caught my eye. examine them closely, topside and underside, and look for tiny insects. thrips and spider mites can be a real pain if they get a foot hold. If you have used foliar spray, it might just be residue though. if you flipped the lights on Oct. 1st, the end of November might be close to your finish date. 8-10 weeks is typical. good luck with your grow.

 

[cbgb]

thanks ravyn for your input..........i did spray them with soapy water about 3 weeks ago, so it could be residue...but i will check with a magnifier ......the final pick on the right was borrowed , is this what it might look like at harvest time ? thanks

 

[Ravyn]

the final pic shows a pretty mature bud but not quite finished in my estimation. It has a lot of white pistils and a good bunch of those will turn orange-red and shrivel up when the plant is close to finished. you get the best read on it by looking at the resin glands under magnification. they heads start clear, then turn milky, and then to an amber color. Most peeps pick at varying levels of amber. - 5%, 20%, 50%, etc. depending on how they like the smoke. more amber = more body stone. more clear and milky = more head high.

Where you see those white dots, turn the leaf over and examine the underside for tiny spider like critters. i hope you don't find any.

 

[cbgb]

i checked the underside of all the leaves and nothing like what is on top is on the underside they are clean. i wet my finger and ran it across a leaf and it came off like dust and i think that it is exactly what it is . in the beginning i had gnat issues but was able to get them under control with some sticky paper and a light coating of ordinary sand on top of the dirt...........so spider mites are white?/ i see no webbing either. i would never use chemicals so i gave it a light spray of soapy water on top and what i could get underside..... thank u

 

[Ravyn]

glad to hear it wiped off. lol. sorry to be alarmist. spider mites suck the juice out of the leaves from underneath and leave little white dead spots. then they start spinning webs and multiplying. they are quite a nuisance to eliminate. lots of images will come up if you do a quick internet search. if the spots on your leaves wiped off, it was definitely not the borg.

 

[cbgb]

hey ravyn . upon ultra close inspection i did notice a few black spots that moved , not many and only on a couple of leaves. as i stated i dont want to use chemicals ......but the soapy water did not seem to work on them ....so today in my tent i placed two peppermint incense sticks and smoked them out ....after the smoke cleared and checking all around the plant i do not see any more black specs. in hindsight i should have placed white paper towels to see if they really did "die" and fall to the ground. i am not sure their tiny lungs could have handled that .....each incense stick was placed under the plant, the smoke rose and went up , down, around and in the girl ,lol. i wonder if anyone else has tried this? thanks 4 your help ravyn !! from what i see they are gone. looking fwd to about 4 weeks from now...............

 

[Antics]

Here I am as requested!

I'm actually humbled that you went out of your way to send me a PM to ask for my opinion.

Onto your original post....

Compared to my past CFL grows, your 1/2"-1" per day is normal, and good growth.

At this stage, I did nothing special. Just water/nutes as usual, and the 12/12 schedule.

The lack of branches could have been from a low level of light, other types of stress, like too much water, OR it could just be how this strain/pheno grows.

On my first grow, I had 3 plants. 2 plants had all the bulbs over them, and the third, I had 2 bulbs over it, and figured there would be enough ambient light for the plant. I was wrong. It didn't grow many branches, and the yield was under 1 gram..

How much light do you have on the plant now? And these 100 LED lights, are they just light a string of christmas lights? These lights might lack the intensity needed. I have some LED bulbs here I was going to try, so I wired one up and let it sit directly on a leaf for a couple days and it had no effect, so I scrapped that idea.

Buds are just clusters of calyxes and pistils. So as the concentration increases, that's when you'll see actual buds. As for a timeline, it's hard to say when...

For spider mites, look closely at the underside of the leaves. That's where they'll spend most of their time.

And I'm subbed, so just reply if I missed something, or you have more questions!

 

[Smokemupm8]

Spider mites suck.. and fungus gnats ! I had gnat issues once ,got rid of most of em.
You need a decent amount of light on ur plants, i ususlly start with CFL s and they love em, 6500k s.. Two or three around a new sprout should give good results and once big enough add better lightung or more CFL s. You will need lower K CFLs for flower, 2500/3000k s.. or a combo of both ?
Hope ur bush grows ok and happy harvesting ! Smokemup.. This my current lil tacker -