Icemud's Organic SCROG! Grow 3.0

[Icemud]

Day 63 veg

Today is day 63 of veg. I am trying to determine when will be the best time to flip to flowering because my Holy Grail OG and my Silverback OG are taking over the screen!! The platinum bubba's, blackberry kush and sour bubble all are much slower growers, with tighter internodes and much larger leaves. These are taking quite a while to stretch up and really don't seem to be the best strains for scrogging since they really don't react as well as other strains I have run before. Overall they all are growing very healthy and fast and I still believe that if I flip anytime now, I still will be happy with the results. I am waiting for the sour bubble and the blackberry kush to fill out the screen a little bit more, but know I cannot wait more than 1 more week to flip... So I imagine by next weekend I will be flowering.

Well the girls really loved the foliar feeding I gave them yesterday and look really green today, with some branches shooting over 2" overnight!! I gave the girls another foliar spray as the light's came on this morning and let them dry out before moving my HID lights back down to normal position. ( I raise them to the top of the tent when foliar spraying)

I also re-adjusted any branches that were more than 2" above the screen. Pulling them back under and positioning them vertical to help promote more branching and to maximize how many tops form...so far a ton!!!

I also moved my HPS lighting timer up another hour so my plants are recieving 11 hours of dual spectrum lighting, with only 1/2 hour of MH ONLY lighting in the beginning of the light cycle and 1/2 of MH only at the end of the daylight cycle. (increasing this from only 9.5hours of dual spectrum prior to the switch)
I am very happy with the results of the Gas Lamp Routine and will be using this on all future grows. I see no difference in the rate of growth vs 18 hour cycles, but my plants do look much happier and so does my electric bill!!!

Well here are the photo's for today...
looking at the tent:
Front right: Blackberry Kush
Back right: Silverback OG
Middle F and B: Platinum Bubba Kush
Front Left: Sour Bubble
Back Left: Holy Grail OG

Blackberry Kush

Silverback OG

Platinum Bubba Kush's

Sour Bubble

Holy Grail OG

A few close ups of the tucking of branches under the scrog screen

 

[Icemud]

I decided to take some Brix readings with my refractometer today to see where my plants are at. I am taking 1 fan leave from about 3 nodes down as my sample from each plant. I have been using a pair of pliers to extract a drop or 2 of juice from the leaves, however this doesn't work to well and I am going to pick up a garlic press to see if it works better. But for now the pliers will suffice. I rolled each leaf into a ball with my fingers, placed it in the pliers and squeezed the juice onto the refractometer. Here is what I saw..

When looking thru with my eye vs the camera, all of the readings were a little clearer with my eye, but the camera does a good job representing what I saw, I also calibrated my meter and it is spot on!

Nothing on the lens.. 0brix

Platinum bubba Brix: reading around 15-16Brix

Silverback OG Brix: reading around 17-19 Brix

Holy Grail OG: Seems to be reading at around 20Brix

I think when I am able to get more "juice" from the leaves it will make for much easier of a reading, but so far I am pretty impressed that I am well over 12 Brix!!!

 

[Doc Bud]

Bro.

 

[glassONglass]

hey man just wanted to drop in and congratulate you on your work. i attempted a scrog several years back but found out the hard way that only having one wall to access from and 4+ ft of screen depth was not a convenient screen to manage. have you worked with homemade adjustable screens as some other growers use or do you strictly use fixed screens? love to lurk around your journals and keep those updates coming... more people appreciate it than youd think.

 

[Icemud]

Here are the brix readings for the other 2 strains... I actually kind of pre guessed which would be the highest due to leaf shine and stem vibrance and I seemed to be right on with the holy grail and silverback being the highest brix readings. My sour bubble and blackberry are the ones that have the least leaf shine and vibrance in the stems. Here are the photo's.

Blackberry Kush brix reading between 12-14

Sour bubble brix reading between 12-14

 

[Icemud]

hey man just wanted to drop in and congratulate you on your work. i attempted a scrog several years back but found out the hard way that only having one wall to access from and 4+ ft of screen depth was not a convenient screen to manage. have you worked with homemade adjustable screens as some other growers use or do you strictly use fixed screens? love to lurk around your journals and keep those updates coming... more people appreciate it than youd think.

Thanks a bunch for the compliments on the Scrog!! much appreciate it!! I have only used the setup that you see (this is only my 3rd grow ever) but I could definitely see a larger screen being a issue with only 1 side accessible. Its actually not easy even under my screen getting to the back plants to trim/lollipop/prune the lower leaves and branches so I could only imagine a larger one. If I had a larger area, I would fashion up a screen/pot/wheels setup and have each plant on wheels and with its own separate screen. I think that would taking scrog to a whole new level, but it will be a while before I am able to expand my grow area.. one can only dream right now

 

[Icemud]

Bro.

Thanks Doc!!! I learned from the master!!! I am going to try to take readings about every week to see if the levels increase or decrease. I also am going to try to take the samples from similar places, as well as the same times of day since brix levels are higher in the mornings.

 

[Icemud]

Today is day 64 of Veg and the ladies are looking great. I decided that I am going to be flipping to flowering in the next few days as the screen is getting really full at this time and I think that if I go too much longer it will be overcrowded. I noticed that the girls are already getting close to needing another feeding so I decided to start up another batch of compost tea on bubble. Since this will be my last veg feeding I figured I would give a slight dose of Earthjuice to help replenish the guano's and soil organic materials for flowering. I tried to keep a good balance between the organic nutrients so that it will not mess up my soil ratios. I also have been reading for indoor High Brix grows it is a good idea to do this 1x per month (replenish organic fertz in soil).

I also topdressed each pot with Humboldt's Myco Maximum 2tbsp each pot, and 1tbsp of Greensand. I mixed this into the top 2" of soil.

4.5g of 0ppm R/O D/I water mixed with:

1 "teabag of alaskan forest humus and worm casings 1/2 TBsp gypsum
1tbsp soft rock phosphate, 1TBSP lava sand"

2tbsp of molasses
30ml 8% humic acid concentrate
2-4-0 hydrolized fish
1 TBSP 95% calcium carbonate powder

Advance Nutr carboload 20ml

Earthjuice Grow 2-1-1 60ml (1/4 recommended dose)
Earthjuice Bloom 0-3-1 20ml (full recommended dose)
Earthjuice catalyst 20ml (full recommended dose)
Earthjuice Microblast 20ml (2/3 recommended dose)

I also am trying an experiment, I added 1 crushed/powerdered spiralina pill to the tea as well as 1/2 acai powder extract to the tea. Since these 2 plants are full of bennies for the soil including carbos, micronutrients, growth stimulants, flavanoids, I decided to add them and see what happens.. I have read numerous research papers on positive growth effects of spiralina innoculated soil so I figured I would throw 1 in....lol. I also was reading about the importance of carbohydrates in soil health and that is why I added the acai extract powder. We will see what happens when I take some readings in a week or 2 for brix.

 

[Icemud]

Here are today's photos'

 

[Icemud]

Here are today's photos after feeding and foliar spray with compost tea

 

[Mr Mud-Pie]

dang icemud your at it again i hope they come out like the dragon <333

 

[Stoned4daze61]

They look amazing! Some of the healthiest Vegging plants I've seen

Can't wait to see them in flower. You are doing an awesome job and the brix readings are very neat. Being able to monitor the brix levels will really help with the fine tuning.

 

[shottafire]

Looking sooo good Icemud!
Cant wait to see these beauties get nice and fat for you.

 

[Firetulip]

Hi there MR Ice mud what is a SCROG? sorry im still a numblin

 

[Icemud]

Hi there MR Ice mud what is a SCROG? sorry im still a numblin

A Scrog is using a screen to train the plants along it (like a vine). It is a way that indoor growers can grow a larger plant in limited vertical space and produce more tops/cola's. Scrog stands for Screen of Green

 

[Icemud]

Looking sooo good Icemud!
Cant wait to see these beauties get nice and fat for you.

Thanks Shottafire!! It will be very soon that I will be going to flower, my guess is by the middle to end of next week I am just waiting for my sour bubble and blackberry kush to get a little larger before the flip, then the High Brix gets really put to the test

They look amazing! Some of the healthiest Vegging plants I've seen

Can't wait to see them in flower. You are doing an awesome job and the brix readings are very neat. Being able to monitor the brix levels will really help with the fine tuning.

Thanks Stoned4daze!! I would suggest anyone with around 40$ to spend to pick up a refractometer to test there crops, it would be great to have a chart of all different types of grows, strains and brix levels Shouldn't be long now for flowering

dang icemud your at it again i hope they come out like the dragon <333

Thanks MMP! That blue dragon was amazing, matter of fact I still had a little bit left from about a year ago that I smoked today, it still has a very floral and strong scent to it, and a smooth inhale, with a great body numbing feel to it Was much better than I expected for my 1st grow

 

[Icemud]

I decided to snap a few photo's while my Ceramic Metal Halide was running so you can see how beautiful these leaves are looking. Under this full spectrum light it really shows the shine and vivid greens to the leaves... High Brix works!!!

Full Tent Views

Silverback OG

Blackberry Kush

Platinum Bubba Kush

Platinum Bubba Kush

Holy Grail OG

Sour Bubble

 

[CronicHempHog]

looking good
whens the flip?
or did you flip it already?

 

[Icemud]

looking good
whens the flip?
or did you flip it already?

I haven't yet flipped it but it should be in the next few days, I am just waiting for my blackberry kush and sour bubble to grow a little larger before the flip. I may have to put some 2x4's or blocks under the pots to raise them up since I read they do not stretch that much in flowering... We will have to see but should be this week sometime

 

[James 1st]

A Scrog is using a screen to train the plants along it (like a vine). It is a way that indoor growers can grow a larger plant in limited vertical space and produce more tops/cola's. Scrog stands for Screen of Green

How do you make one of these for your tent?