GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow Journal - 2012

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

4.5ft is plenty, at the most they should double or tripple in size when you switch to 12-12 so a 1ft plant should finish around the 3ft mark, if you take a look at my journal and the last page with the pics on you will see what i done to mine, i used cfls all the way through veg and the start of flower but i was using a load of watts so switched to a dual spec 400watt hps, i was hoping to grow mine to 1ft tall, but cfls tend to keep the plants small and very bushy, i topped both of mine and done some lst, i toped it and with the 2 new tops that grew i trained them to grow outwards instead of letting them grow up using some pipe cleaners, and i done the same with the other branches as well, but if you look at my 2 plants in flower it looks like they was under a scrog when in fact i never done anything apart from lst and topping, so now my plant looks like i have got about 20 or more tops, exactly the same as it would if it was scrogged, i found using cfls i couldnt get the plants to stretch they just wanted to bush out, but now im using the hps im finding the plant wants to stretch up to the light, have a check and look at my plants, they never even made it 1ft tall but i was getting on 7 weeks so i flipped to 12-12

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

I will have to give Herbies a look when i am on the search for the next bag of beans.

I got my seeds from nirvana cos the name has always stuck in my head lol

 

[TaylorMade420]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

i got mines down the barras lol

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

nirvana is top place as well but you need to spend a bit to get some free beans, attitude is good as well they give free seeds to new customers but not sure if you have to spend so much, i found herbies very fast and they have thousands of seeds from all seed banks including nirvana and attitude, they stock seeds from most banks and also their own so their well worth a look and plus their in the same country, ive not had a seed that has not sprouted from their yet so cant say a bad word about them, plus the free seeds they send are not some stuff they got lying around their all good seeds and some are pretty expensive, they usually send 2 x big bud#2 regular seeds, i planted a couple of these and the dog ate one and the other was male but the plant grew like a monster and i was so hoping it was female so i got a few of the big bud#2 left that im doing next time round, but the other seed they send for free is either an auto fem or a normal fem, when of my plants in flower now was a freebie from them, it was northern lights cross big bud femenised, it was free with my first order with them, i purchased special kush for a couple of quid and got that free with 2 big buds so i can complain plus the plant looks amazing, so they are well worth checking out,

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

LOL nice one TM, i didn't trust the guys at the Barras. i would have got fake beans knowing my luck lol.

I know another guy who always gets his up the Barras n he has never had a problem.

Although i do like the idea of free seeds

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Posting an update in a couple of hours..... hope you like

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Update time

Well it has been a wee while since I have posted anything so I thought I better get my ass in gear and get some updating done.

I have come to the conclusion that BioBizz Allmix soil is crap to start your young ones in. I am thinking it has too much fert in it for seedlings to start off in, if that is possible ?

I have been just giving the plants water when they needed it and they still got messed up a bit and the growth has been so slow on top for the time that has gone by but the roots are looking good all the same.

Once the wee ones started to pick up a little I gave them some food at 1\3 strength and the next day I could see a big improvement in them. So I am guessing the food levels in the soil are just about ok now.

As you can see from the pictures below the lower leafs don't look too good at all but the newer growth on top is looking more like it should. They seem to look a lot better than they did 2 days ago and fingers crossed they will be happy when I move them into the big containers.

Now there is a thing I am going to change from what I had planned to use. The pots I wanted to use will not be here for a while yet mainly due to cash flow. They will just have to wait till the next grow.

So I just happen to have some old laundry powder containers that hold about 16ltr just nicely.
They are rectangular white containers but think I will paint the outside of them black to keep the light from the roots.

I am not sure if the shape of pot/container will affect the growth of a plant but will Google that one later.

Well guys let me know that you think about anything I have posted

 

[James 1st]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Looking good there I can't wait to see them shoot up. Also those containers should be ok to transplant into.

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

the plants looking great mate, its clear they didnt like the compost at first, miracle grow compost does the same damage, its ok for older plants but stresses young ones out loads, but looks like your back on track, just dont over water them, thats what badly stunted mine at the start, i was watering say every 2 days and it was way to much, now i only water when the pot is bone dry, they seem to prefer a dry medium to a wet one, but looks like their healthy and have got over the problem they had at the start, should end up with some very nice plants

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Before I start with the update I would just like to say to everyone for the kind words and for stopping by for a look

Since my last update I have moved the girls into bigger pots so they can start to spread out them roots. I decided not to use the BioBizz soil for the bigger pots. Instead I am using just a basic compost that is designed for seeds sowing and 30% perlite.

When I moved them into the bigger pots I gave them a good watering so that they would not need disturbed for a few days at least.

The next time they need watering I will give them a 25% strength feed because there is some food in the soil already and I don't want to build up excess nutes.

Picture time

You can probably tell from the picture below that the light I have over the plants is just not cutting it now so I have decided to build my own light panel that would cover the whole of the floor space. I will be using 8x30w (240W) @ 6400K on a flat board painted flat white. I will also be mounting a 2 or 3 P.C. fans to ensure that the heat is sucked up to the extractor.

You may be thinking.... Why not just buy a 250w CFL and reflector?

Well I did originally think of doing just that but I somehow came to the conclusion that I would get better light distribution doing it this way. Also it is cheaper to DIY and I like to get the power tools out now and then.

I will have to do some thinking on how I am going to arrange the bulbs to get the best light coverage and fit in the mini extractors. I will need to get this one done sooner rather than later!!! So I guess its DIY weekend for me.

As usual there will be loads of pictures to follow

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

hi, looking good mate, what i found with cfls is they give more light off the sides of the bulbs and not the ends, you get very little light from the end of the bulb so try and mount them in a v shape or find some way of mounting them so the sides of the bulbs are facing the plants, doing this should give you a lot more light coverage

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Hi Paul,

Thanks for stopping by

I have seen the 2 into 1 bulb holders on eBay and was thinking of getting some or i might just try and mount the bulbs so that they are side on to the plants.

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

them 2 in 1 are ok but only angle the bulbs at 45deg angle, which i have seen is the type of fitting most use, so as long as you got good light reflector to reflect any wasted light back onto the plants then you should be ok, just remember cfls lose their light very quickly, you can check this by holding your hand close to the bulb then slowly move it away once your more than a couple of inches aways it soon drops off and loses light very quick, all been well you should have a nice light set up,

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

It has been a few days since my last up date and I just wanted to pop some new pictures of the girls.

Now that the girls are growing up nicely I have turned my mind to Topping Techniques

Now I was thinking of trying the 3 main methods just because I have 3 girls. Thinking this will give me first-hand experience of how the plants react and also gives me a chance to clone the tops I take off.

Tech 1 is for 2 main Colas

Tech 2 is for 4 main Colas

Tech 3 is to even out the canopy by letting side branches catch up with the main tops

Let me know what you guys think

 

[TaylorMade420]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Lookin good mate

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

i managed to get 4 tops on mine without doing the fim method, what i did was this,
1, i topped the plant as normal so i would normally get 2 tops as you top it down to the node growth stopping the stem growing and only letting the 2 shoots that will now grow take the top part of the plant,
2, then i decided to try some, i removed the very 2 top fan leaves off the plant, these where located just below the node that i had topped, so i removed these also,
now what this seemed to have done, is slow down the new growth enough to allow the 2 shoots from the node below that catch up with the part you have topped, then i found that as soon as the 2 shoots below the top got level with the part that was topped they all seemed to grow at the same rate, so without fiimming and causing a lot of stunted growth i found that all i needed to do was take the top off and cut it back to the node below then all i did was remove the 2 biggest fan leaves at the very top of the plant, the fan leaves that come off the main stem, this slowed the growth at the stem down forcing the new shoots at the node below to start growing a lot quicker as the fan leaves removed where above these shoots so these grew quick and caught up with the top of the plant where the 2 new tops where growing, they all then started growing at the same speed, so now i have got 4 main tops and the branches are pretty long now, i think this would be great idea for a scrog as you could get all 4 shoots to grow strait out giving you a north south east west type grow so would easily fill up a scrog,

now im not saying this will work for all strains and might not work every time, ive not heard anyone else do this or came across it on this site, but it just come to me after i topped cuz i remembered when i took cuttings from one of my other plants and i broke 2 leaves off i noticed that that branch grew slower than the branch the other side of the plant that still had fan leaves, so after i topped the plant as i was only planning on getting 2 tops, a light lit up in my head and remembered about the slowed growth so i thought about the fim method and how that works and that works pretty much the same as your cutting the new growth which is the leaf and it stunts growth and gives 4 tops but it stunts growth loads, so when i topped and pulled the 2 fan leaves off at the very top of the plant i expected the growth to slow as much as it did when i fim, but it never slowed at all, in fact id say it forced everything below the topping to start growing to take the place as the top of the plant due to it not having any leaves, but then when the bit you topped starts growing at the nodes it then starts growing as it has leaves, i found this did not stunt growth, it gave me 4 tops, that all grow at the same rate, and it did not stress the plant as much as fimming, i have only tried this once i will be using this same method in my next go at veg in a week or 2, so ill be able to tell more and take pictures, but for me it worked and it worked well,

its totally up to you what you choose to do, but it gave me 4 tops, 2 from the bit you topped that normally become the 2 top branches but the node about an inch below that grew rapid and caught up with the top and all 4 are growing at the same rate, well they was till i had to split them up as i had not done any lst and their in the aerogarden with 1 bulb so all growing to the same point so i had to pull them apart to get light in., but it did work and i am going to do it with all my plants and see what results i got, thinking about it it should work like it did, but its only something i have tried once so cant say if it works every time, in theory it should if you think about it

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Thanks for the info Paul

I have been doing loads of reading on topping and after much brain melting i came across this wee post

Uncle Ben's Topping Method

This post confirmed what i was thinking about doing. the post describes the first two methods i was talking about

Now the third method is much the same as what you are describing.

My method 3 will be:

Topping site would be cutting just above node 4 or 5, this will let the light down to the other nodes and let them catch up to the new tops that will be growing.

I should be doing the topping in the next few days so i will post some pics up just after i do them

 

[GlasgowGreen]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

Last week i was going to start work on a DIY Veg light. needless to say i did not get much done on that with work etc.

This is how far i have managed to get

My small problem is that I have 6 ES type Bulbs and 2 Bayonet type.

Now i managed to find Bayonet fitments that will hold these bulbs perfectly without modification but could not find any ES type in the same style so i decided to improvise

I had a good long think of how to mount the bulb horizontally without buying adapters and extra fitments. I remembered i had some wood left over from building a door frame. I chopped these up into 5" sections and drilled a hole the same size of the light fitments I originally had.

The plan is to screw the wooden battens vertically onto the board with the bulb mounted horizontally in the batten giving the desired effect. so each fitment will hold a 30w CFL giving me 240w of 4600K light

If you look at the picture you will see i have drawn 2 circles at opposite corners. this is for intake and exhaust ducts.

This all sounds good in my head so if you want me to go into further detail please ask away.

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: GlasgowGreen's 1st Grow Nirvana White Widow journal-2012

great light, cant wait to see it finished, should be good