Flowering-Harvest

[BlueberyBlaze]

Few questions, I only have a 10-10-10 plant food, should i keep using it at full strength into budding it, would you recommend using a 1/2 strength solution, or should i just use water for the rest of the grow. And if i do keep using the solution, should i flush the plant out and then go into the new mixture?
Then when it comes time to harvest, i want to clip a bud every few days and try them out (im a man of experimentation hehe) So do i just cut right down the main stem every time i take off a bud and work my way down the plant until i harvest the crop. Or should i break buds off from elsewhere? I feel like cutting the top off the plant every few days until its half the height of my other plants cant be health. Also any tips or changes that might come up for budding a plant that im trimming off of.
Last one, i heard somewhere the more you transplant a plant, the more likely it is to be a male. Any truth to that, or any other mistakes that increase the chance of males

 

[Hydrogrown]

Im sorry I can't help with the nute question, maybe someone else has experience there. As for experimentation, pick the lower popcorn buds if you must pick early, doing this will effect your yield least negatively. Cut a top bud and you have a dramatic loss in total yield.
If you want to know the effects, read about the different highs associated with cloudy/amber/clear trichomes. Knowing the effects of the different colors will give you a better idea of the final product than testing wet or non cured weed.
Also, remember to dry and cure properly. Drying and curing properly can mean the difference between schwag and some connoisseur grade weed. IMO, the entire plant is harvested at once, and the whole plant is left intact to dry. This is the only way to ensure the plant dries correctly, because as we know the plant pushes moisture out from the inside as the outside dries. Many growers agree the plant should take about a week to dry if all environmental cues are right. any faster and the chlorophyll taste is imminent.
And last, environmental influence upon sex is exerted among seedlings as soon as the first true leaves appear. That being said, any stress increases males. I will correct myself later as I do not have the source right now but high temps, high humidity, and low light all increase male tendencies. The opposite is true for females. Like I said I will double check but i think thats right, either way if you keep everything in order the best you can, you should get about 50% male to female ratio. Hope this helps and I will post again in a few hours. Let me know if anything is unclear.

 

[BlueberyBlaze]

Thanks alot, few things in there i didn't even think about. But i seen a page about harvesting at different times by watching the trichomes to know when to cut them down. So one of the suggestions was to pull a bud every few days and dry it. Supposed to help give a feel for how it changes the bud when you let the trichomes darken up. My tallest plant in my grow has been to hell and back throughout growing and i just started flowering last week. Cant really tell about the others but my tallest one is starting to look male so i was wondering if all the damage thats happened to the poor guy might have helped push it toward a male.
My box is usually around 55-65 degrees during the day, and i hear 70-80 is the ideal temperature to have it at. But are you saying that the lower temps can give it a better chance of being female? Not to mention winter in minnesota is really dry so i usually have about 30-40% humidity and thats me trying to keep it up. Would that helps also or is it just in high humidity it increases the chances of a male plant.

 

[Hydrogrown]

Yeah totally, I can't wait to taste a few buds off mine either, but I will definently go for the popcorn nugs at the bottom when I do, it really is your preference in the end. So to correct myself, environmental factors begin influencing sex after the 3rd true leafs apear, not counting cotyledons. This is all from jorge cervantes's indoor/outdoor medical grow bible by the way. So here are some of the things he lists as sex influences, this list is not final either, there are certainly more factors but Increasing the level of nitrogen increases females, lowering it increases males. Increasing potassium increases males, decreasing potassium increases female tendencies. Those two nutrient levels are important in the first two weeks (once the seedling has 3 set of leafs of course).
Low temperature increases females, warm temperatures increase males (good news for you, if the plants can live at that cold of temps) High humidity increases females, low increases males. Low growing medium moisture increases males, it doesn't say whether this applies to hydro, and it also doesn't say high moisture increases females. Blue light increases female tendencies, red increases males. fewer hours of daylight increases the nimber of females, longer days increase males. It ends the article claiming any stress tends to yield more males from seed. Mr. Cervantes then says this info is from Welcome to Dutch-Passion

Good luck bro, you are on the right site for growing marijuana. If you don't mind me asking, what strains are you growing now? If you have any pics throw em up or even start a journal, everyone waits to subscribe to journals until flowering anyways haha. Peace man

 

[BlueberyBlaze]

I checked out your journal, can you explain how to germinate seeds in a cup of water. I would think that'd drown the seeds but ive heard of it working plenty. And how do i make a journal, i got some pictures i can post up. They're seeds that i pulled out of a few different bags of weed (it was a rough week for buds hehe) but i figured since i had the seeds and a light i'd try growing them. Figured out how to germinate them and just researching farther into the growing process the farther along my plants get. Got some new plants growing now this week too. Butterfingers and what he claimed was northern lights but i think he was full of it hehe. My next grow is definitely going to have to be from seeds i buy online but i figured if i got some around here i'd grow them until i figured out what i'm doing. By the way i learned everything about growing from this site too, especially the link you have, i came across that and sat there reading for hours at a time haha.

 

[Hydrogrown]

You would think they would drown, but they like it, I think the seeds draws the water in and then opens so that must be why, after 24 hours of soaking in a dark place, I move the seeds to a wet paper towel folded over, I keep that in between two plates, one upside down on the other to block light and keep humidity high as possible. Then you just check the towel often to make sure it is damp but not soaked, and drain excess water if it puddles on the bottom of the plate. I like to use a spray bottle to keep it wet but its up to you.

In the beginning I didn't ph my soaking water, or add superthrive or silica or anything like some other growers, and I got a 100% germination rate. Though when I transplanted the seeds, with the taproot hanging out 1/4 to 1/2 inch, I ended up hurting a few and only 3 made it into the dwc.

If I were to guess, any knowledge I have of marijuana is 99% from this site, 0.5% experience, and 0.5% from that book lol. This site is amazing and I can't remember how I found it, but it sure helps a guy trying to grow some quality meds! I too have spent many days staring at that page, i use it so much I put it in my signature for my own convenience. You probably saw this but Ill go ahead and put up the link
How do I germinate seeds?
That has awesome info about germinating, and it says that soaking just speeds up the process a little, its not necessary at all but I highly recommend it. I think someone on that page commented they left the seeds for iike 2 weeks and they were fine, just waiting to be transplanted! It was either that link or this one with the comment
What is an idiot proof way to germinate seeds?

Sorry if I talked your ear off, I need a draft/revision process for my posts

If I missed anything or you want more info post on here or my journal if you want, OH! Heres one last link for help with starting a journal
How to Make a Grow Journal
To get to the place where you start a journal, go to the tab at the top labeled grow room, go to journals, and then post a new thread when you are ready. One tip I have is naming the journal carefully, I've seen a lot of people wish they named the journal something different after it got going. You want something explanatory, yet catching at the same time so plenty of people visit and check out the ladies. Also, when your journal is started, go to your user cp (at the top), click user cp once again and make sure to put a link to your grow in your signature.

Happy toking Bro!

 

[BlueberyBlaze]

One last thing for ya, whats a DWC, i see it alot but still haven't figured it out yet hehe. And i spent a while doing it but i got that journal put up. Thanks for the help. Got a feeling i'm going to be keeping that up to date for my newest grow hehe

 

[Hydrogrown]

Deep water culture is a form of hydroponics which uses air bubbles keep water in a reservoir oxygenated for roots to float in. There are a few different variations of the deep water culture, but at its simplest form it is a bucket with and air pump attached to air line and an air stone. It is similar to how aquariums are kept oxygenated. Some more elaborate systems have a water pump that pumps the oxygen rich water straight to each net cup, but I didn't choose to do that. There are a few others too, but what is cool is the space between the water line and the bottom of the net cups is a humidified aeroponic environment that the roots love. Although I have certainly seen vigorous and fast growth with this system, I am choosing to explore new ventures in hempys and coco next time around or something like it. But everyone is different, and benefits of some styles are disadvantages to others, so just keep on experimenting until you find what works for you. Ive tried soil, now dwc, and I'm still looking. I'm glad to see you got a journal up, Ill go subscribe once I can read all that info, its too late tonight but