Giving it a Try: White Widow in a Box

[MadMardo]

its amazing how much they bounced back..

wait till your place starts to smell lol... im dealing with that right now.. I love it, but the wife cant stand it

 

[akasa]

Yeah, hopefully the smell won't be bad. It shouldn't be a big deal because this apartment block smells like smoke and cat pee and beer and weed anyway. The plants actually have a nice fresh herbal smell, like basil or mint. Wouldn't mind it throughout the house.

All right, so here's a big photo update. I decided to go ahead and start LST, because I can't let them get too tall, and I figure it can't hurt to get them started. They seem to be taking well to it so far. They are about a day in now. The tie-down also acts as a handy marker so I can see the growth easily. They gained a few mm overnight. You can see the new growth areas at the nodes where tiny leaves have appeared! Gonna be nice colas there

Fertilizer is at almost full strength. No evidence of any burn, so I'll keep it up.

Annie:

Marge:

Everything is going well. Let's hope they're ladies!

 

[akasa]

Well, ain't nobody replying, but they've grown another node and I've moved the stakes up some more. Good times. I guess maybe two more weeks until 12/12...

 

[Prop19]

Nice little setup man, good luck with your grow! Ill be checking in

 

[akasa]

Medium sized update:

Nutrient burn! Yep, annie's got a mild case, so they're off the ferts for a few days. Still not huge plants, but they are both really dense, so they should perform well in flowering, I think.

Love these LST nodes:

So: when is it time to flower? I guess at least another week, or until they near the edge of their pots? They are growing much more slowly than other people's plants, but I'm not too concerned. They'll get there.

 

[MadMardo]

Looking great bro.. how far they have come.. They are about where mine were on your timeline. I got over eager and got nute burn too.. looks light you caught it fast and shouldn't cause any issues.

Wait for the take off.. that was mine about 3-4 weeks.. they just started shooting.

 

[akasa]

Looking great bro.. how far they have come.. They are about where mine were on your timeline. I got over eager and got nute burn too.. looks light you caught it fast and shouldn't cause any issues.

Wait for the take off.. that was mine about 3-4 weeks.. they just started shooting.

Well, I'm at almost double that: 5.5 weeks. They are growing very quickly now though, and without any major problems, so I'm just going to chill and sit back and watch them go. I've got a ton of other work to do, so I'll manage!

 

[akasa]

All right everyone, things are less than perfect. The burn on annie's oldest leaves continues to spread, and I'm worried that she will lose them. That wouldn't be as big a deal if she were vertical, but these are some important leaves to her.

So far I have gotten more distilled water and tried to soak her soil through. Should I put an entire gallon or two through to try to flush it out? Or should I just wait it out and know that what's done is done? I don't want to overwater.
Edit: went ahead and just stuck annie in the sink and flushed her with about a half gallon of distilled water. That should clear it up if anything does. I'll start back with low-level nutes after the soil dries in a few days.

Marge has managed fine on the same dosage, but here's a picture of her anyway:

 

[j4s2u0]

The plants looks pretty good I think,there are slight buns on a couple leaves but I honeslt wouldent worry to much about it,the next time they need watering just give them plain water,no nutes...should clear up a little anyways,

 

[oldthumber]

I'm using "Scott's Premium Topsoil." Couldn't find anything premium without fertilizer already in it. There are a ton of good hydro stores nearby, but I don't feel like going there.

PH testing is my next step. I've been using filtered water, but I'll probably switch to distilled now that I have some fert.

Same bulbs, just changed the white balance of the picture to be more neutral. They really aren't as red as the earlier picture shows.


I went back to home depot today. Again, the biggest cool white bulbs they had were 27 watts, which isn't worth the money/space. So I'm going to stick with 2700K for now. Picked up two more 42 watt CFLs. My science tells me the redder light should be absorbed just fine by the green leaves, so I'm not worried.

It seems like my plants are growing very slowly. They're now 13 days from breaking the surface, but just starting the second set of leaves. I see grows that are relative bushes by two weeks. Is it the loss of the cotelydons? The small cups? Lack of light or nutrients? I'm not sure, but I'm going to repot today and see what I can fix.

On the watering: I've got a bit of a green thumb, so I've never had issues with watering. Just think about how much it rains in the spring, and match that. A good soaking every four days or so works for me (that is, whenever the plants need it, not on a schedule).

on light temp.
yes green leaves will absorb the light fine but the light freq will tell the plant different things:

6500k tells the plant that it is summer so the plant does the summer thing, it bushes out and makes roots, stems and leaves.
2700k tells the plant that it's now fall and we need to get going on making seeds; therefore it flowers so the bees can do their thing.

If you only use the 2700 you may end up with a weak plant that has anemic buds at best. hope that helped.:rollout:

 

[j4s2u0]

on light temp.
yes green leaves will absorb the light fine but the light freq will tell the plant different things:

6500k tells the plant that it is summer so the plant does the summer thing, it bushes out and makes roots, stems and leaves.
2700k tells the plant that it's now fall and we need to get going on making seeds; therefore it flowers so the bees can do their thing.

If you only use the 2700 you may end up with a weak plant that has anemic buds at best. hope that helped.:rollout:

I agree that the 6500k bulbs are better for vegg,although Iv always used 2700k for both vegg and flowering and they take right off,even in vegg!
I have used 2700k throughout a hole grow and got very good buds,and I have seen others that have produced crazy big potent buds using 2700k for both vegg and flower,I think alot of it has to do with the grower,then the lights...

 

[akasa]

Yeah, I've been on 6500 K bulbs for about a month now. I'm of the opinion that there are so many hundreds of variables that it's tough to know anything for sure. Once it's legal and botanists and agriculturists can do studies we'll know for sure. For now, let's get high!

 

[akasa]

Well, it looks like she is going to lose those leaves. I know it's not that big of a deal; plants lose lower leaves all the time with no bad effects.

 

[j4s2u0]

If it were me I might cut that one or any like it off,Iv done it many time and never seen a problem...but that leaf dont look good at all,lol...it wont hurt the plant if the leaf is dead or about to be...

 

[akasa]

You can check out my problem investigation here.

I added a little fert-water, changed two of the bulbs to the bigger 2700k bulbs to help it dry out, and I'll try to get fungicide when I can.
Some pictures of the ladies today:

I had removed the tie-down for this shot, but I put them back after watering.

 

[akasa]

Got some neem oil extract spray. Gave the leaves a good spraying, and I'm hoping that should clear up any issues. Other than that, they continue to grow quickly, so I'm hoping the problems won't continue for too long.

 

[akasa]

Well, they are growing quickly. The older leaves keep going downhill, but new leaves just keep popping up from underneath and taking their place. Hopefully since the new leaves will have plenty of neem oil in them they won't have an issue with the fungus or death.

I almost wonder if the plant knows it is tilted over, so it's killing off upper fan leaves so the lower branches can get light... were I bolder I would just cut off all the big leaves with the fungus and leave only the fresh new stuff...probably wouldn't be too much of a setback because it would open light for the new growth.

Here are some new pics:
Marge, looking relatively good:

Annie, hit hard by fungus/leaf death:

But she has plenty of fresh new growth:

 

[akasa]

Then I realized that the LST is probably contributing to the spread of the fungus by keeping the plants low to the soil and compact. I need to get more air in there are spread them out. So I removed the LST restraints and raised the lights to help them stretch a bit. I feel better about it. If they are going to go down, at least they will go down naturally. And some yield is better than max yield.

Don't they look happy?

 

[j4s2u0]

Nice looking plants

 

[MadMardo]

Great job on the LST man. Working out well. looking nice and dense