LJFM White Widow Grow

[ggrant]

LJ, Nice Pictrues!

Sounds like you're well informed about trichome development. Do you have a mangifying glass or pocket microscope to check on your trichs? If not, you should get one. Depending on where you buy it, you can get something very nice for between $10 - $20. And it's educational, too! (don't I sound like your old high school science teacher?)

The lower branches and buds probably won't produce a lot unless you have light coming from the side. With your setup, that's not possible. I don't have side lighting either. It's really not a big deal.

What you want is to get the middle buds to develop. In order to do this, you should trim the TOP fan leaves on the plant as well. I know it looks like they're essential to keep the top buds going. Not so!

If you trim a lot of the bigger, older fan leaves, not only will the lower shoots and buds get more light, but the top buds will thrive as well. When you trim an area of the plant (even the very tops), that area will experience lots of new growth. The tops are where the colas are forming and cutting the big fan leaves from here will help the colas fill out the missing places. It's neat to watch this happen.

Water and fertilize your plant a few hours before you do a major trim. By the way, I'm not sure how well you've been doing on the 12 dark cycle. Have you been peeking? When I first started growing, I couldn't help myself! Try to make sure your gal gets at least 12 uninterrupted hours of beauty sleep!

Not sure if you've been to my journal. If not, you'll hours of delightful and entertaining reading material there! Actually, not so much.

But you will find what happens when you trim off a whackload of fan leaves. I've trimmed my ladies to the max to promote development and to let the light reach the middle growth. The amount of leaves I've cut off since the start would be more than the weight of the entire plant!

Here's an example of one of the smaller trims:

Sometimes, after a major trim, the plants look a bit naked, but after a few days, they bounce back so much that you wouldn't even know they had been trimmed. I have been trimming my ladies about once a week for the first five weeks of flowering. At this stage, they are concentrating more on flower development than fan leaf production. The new fan leaves are way smaller than the monsters that used to grow there.

Charly's 4th Grow - G13 Haze Soctober 2011​

 

[LJFM]

Actually, reading your journal is what made me think I needed to trim ggrant. I have read in other places that you should never trim during flowering but your grow and several others I've stumbled upon here have shown me that it's beneficial. And I think it will be necessary especially with my setup - more light penetration will be a great help. I am able to have a light coming in on the side for most of her day cycle so the lower growth should be able to do something but I think I'd rather have a handful of fat juicy colas than a bunch of those little "popcorn" nugs. Maybe I'll cut back some of the new undergrowth and leave a little bit. This isn't a perfect grow by any means and is largely a learning experience so it's not going to hurt me, i think, to experiment a little bit and see what happens.

Now I'm curious if those baby branches that have flowers starting would be worth keeping for making hash or something after I've trimmed? I've tried looking up when exactly thc production begins or really kicks in but I couldn't really find a good answer.

And though the desire to check on my baby all the time is strong, I always let her get her full 12 hours uninterrupted.

As well as that new fan I ordered I also sent in for a jewlers loupe 30x as well as a handheld microscope with lights which both had good reviews for botany use so they should work just fine.

Well I think that's it for now. I should have time tonight so I think I will do her first big trim and see if I can shed some light on those buds Only problem is she won't be awake for 6 more hours.. Oh well, patience is a virtue!

 

[ggrant]

LJ,

I think steering a middle course makes a lot of sense. And experimenting is a good way to learn how to grow. What I'm doing now is a total experiment. Luckily, it's working!

My first three grows were farily traditional. Top once, end up with four colas.
Seeing a monster cola growing that you have to prop up with a cane or it will fall over and break is a beautiful thing.

I would keep the little buds and stuff that will never mature fully. Leave it there unless it's in the way. Even though they will end up small, they may could still produce a good high. The other thing, of course, is to make ice hash out of them as you suggested.

 

[LJFM]

Update

Man she was busy Yesterday! The main cola reached the lights which are up all the way. So it looks like I'm going to have to start tying down again. It's not a problem though because with the shape it is there's plenty of room for the branches. I may need to use some stakes. Oh the buds are a poppin!! I'll try and get close up shots of the branches, they are starting to look real nice!

Oh and since I'll be tying down more I probably won't need to trim too much because more light should be able to get to the bottom. I may still thin out the undergrowth a bit, haven't decided yet.

Alright, gonna feed her and take some pics, back in a bit to post

 

[LJFM]

Forgot to mention this, it's clear that my side bulb is helping. I will get pics to show the difference between the branches next to the side light and the one from the back of the box. I'm going to need to initiate a rotation schedule so i can get all those lower bud sites in the light.

 

[LJFM]

Urgh, just got out an old magnifying glass too look at the bud sites and I saw a little critter moving. Sure enough, i've got spider mites. I'm chopping off some of the infected leaves and looking into what is safe to use during flowering. This is looking like what I'm going to use Green Light Organic Rose Defense

Ugh, just when I was really getting excited she gets infected! Hopefully I can fix it

 

[LJFM]

For now I'm going to make a tobacco spray as other than iso alcohol cigs are really all i have on hand.

 

[LJFM]

Alright, watered her and tied down the tallest branches.

Sprayed all over with a mix of tobacco and habanero pepper. I'll keep using it as necessary and I plan on going to town tomorrow to see what organic stuff is available and to get some anti pest strips I read about.

Only a couple of pictures, too tired to go crazy with it. Hopefully I get this pest problem handled and can get this back on track.

 

[LJFM]

4-5 Hours after my previous post I checked on her and she had already started to recover well from the tie down so the mites aren't hurting her too bad yet (knock on wood) and the tobacco and habanero didn't hurt. I guess I'll see in 5 hours if she's still alright.

Today I talked to my buddy that gave me this plant and there's an organic store in town (well not our town, have to go about 15 minutes to get to a town that actually has things) that sells ladybugs. I'm going to pick some up tomorrow for sure and set them free. They should (fingers crossed) do the trick and having some ladybugs roam around is hardly a price at all when it means my plant will be fine.

Pictures to come tonight.

 

[LJFM]

Pulled down one of the taller branches even farther, I'm much closer to an even canopy now. Not much else to report so on to the pics.

Trimmed a few more leaves. Like 3 of them had 2 spider mites on them, a couple from the bottom had eggs..

But pictures like these make me feel better:

One of the better branches that got a lot of side light

Here's one of the sticks I put in, I used it to wrap a tall renegade branch around to fill in a gap and keep it from getting burned.

Here's the top of that branch

We'll finish with some random shots

 

[LJFM]

Howdy all,

Well I bought myself a package of 1500 ladybugs today. I asked if they had any butterflys when I walked into the organic shop *facepalm*

I released some into my box and all but like 6 left to go elsewhere. I knew from my buddy's experience that they tend to get all over the house but I figured at least a good number would stay in there.

I really don't care about them being in the house but obviously I want to make sure they get the mites so I decided a more enclosed grow box was called for.

A few years ago I bought one of those plastic rubbermaid tubs to grow in and i've had it just lying around so I figured I'd bust it out and build something less open. And the box was sitting under the stairwell which is where I'll keep it, making it even more hidden. The other upside to this setup is there is now a little bit more space for her overall.

A downside, however, is that the temp with the lid on is 90 degrees Fahrenheit-this could also be because I've added a 3rd 23w CFL. I'm not too concerned with that temp so long as it doesn't get at all higher. I've got vent holes cut out in the top and bottom to help it breathe and I'll be able to install that fan (when it gets here) over one of the holes and it'll blow nicely over the top of the canopy. I'm thinking I may need at least 1 more fan as an exhaust which should also help lower the temp.

New Setup:

Here you can see some ladybugs (not butterflys)

Hopefully it works out

 

[LJFM]

Crap!

Well, the last two days have been very stressful, not for me but my poor plant! I got her settled into the new box and everything was good. I moved it into position under the stairs after a day and all was still good. Then last night I get home and look at her and she's completely wilted! Temp was way too high. I kept the lid off, turned off 2 lights and gave her a huge drink of water and thankfully in a few hours she was perked back up.

As if that wasn't bad enough, today as I'm getting ready to go to work at 4 I peek at the box and see the lights on but they are supposed to go off at 1! Sure enough in the move the timer got bumped and the times were thrown off.

Now I don't know if I should compensate for lost dark time or just continue on the normal cycle. Any help there?

 

[Mark Green]

Just contenue your normal light cycle, Dont worry about that man i have done the sameting. Once or twice wont harm anything.

 

[LJFM]

Cool, thanks Mark. I just took a peek and she seems to be bouncing back. I'll post some pics later on.

 

[LJFM]

Coming Back

Well she still seems to be recovering well. The night that I found her wilted I noticed that Most of the pistils were turning brown/red, not sure if that's just her DNA or if the heat stress turned them. Either way, i'm not too concerned about it.

I got a loupe yesterday and now I can see trichs developing on some of the leaf sets on the bigger buds. Aww yeah

Overall

This branch probably has the most bud sites of all

Thanks for stopping

 

[LJFM]

Well the hang ups from the box move seem to been all ironed out and she seems to be doing well. She smells so good!

I was worried about the bud sizes underneath but I read that in weeks 2-4 of flowering the buds are always airy while she finishes stretching. I'm starting to see how the whole bud forming process really works, it's awesome.

Using that loupe I took a look at a bunch of the buds and leaves forming trichs, I could stare at them for hours lol.

The fan is keeping the temp in the 80's which I'm liking a lot more and I think she is too.

This is the "top" the small leaf sets underneath are starting to get lots of trichs

Currently the 3 fullest branches

If this pic is big enough you can see trichs. If this really is a white widow she should be dripping with them by the end. She certainly smells like it

Anyone have a guess on what a plant this size could possibly yield? Honestly If I could get even just one smokeable bowl out of it I'd be happy.

 

[Mark Green]

You will get more than that! How much I do not know... Glad to hear you got tour temps down.

 

[ggrant]

Hey LJ,

I've been out of action for about a week, so I haven't been able to answer your questions. Looks like you're doing OK though.

It really is a trip watching the trikes develop. When my first crop started flowering, I told the friend who taught me how to grow, that it looked like there were diamonds sprarkling on my plants. He said, "those are more valuable than diamonds, they're trichomes!"

As far as leaving the lights on too long when your crop is in flower, don't worry about it. After all, in the wild, there are full moons. The plants can't handle a little extra light now and then.

There were a lot of times that I would forgot to turn off the overhead light (the one for the furnace room) in my grow space. A few times I left it on overnight. I even used to turn the light on just because I felt like looking at my ladies. I don't recommend doing any of this, by the way, just trying to illustrate that you'll still have a fine crop, maybe just not the best it could have been.

After all, the plants are all about survival. They're not going to stop their sexual development just because some pervert has turned the lights on to watch them!

 

[LJFM]

Yeah she's definitely doing good now, looks like she's starting to fill out more. There are still mites but there are still ladybugs hanging around so hopefully they stay under control. I rearranged a couple of branches and smelled my hand.. it was amazing so fruity and tasty smelling. I'm so excited to see what it smokes like.

Other than some Jack Herer I had last week I've just been smoking commercial brick stuff so It'll be nice to toke some fresh my own hand grown white widow in the next month or so

 

[420inOregon]

Get more cfl's day light . My little veg room has 9 cfl's in there 5 42watts and 4 23watts my plants have that same browning. I will show you in pics.

my cfl's this is a 3 bulb fixture

You also can go to my gallery and take a look I got OG Kush and Sensi Star. I'm going to get a juicey fruit sweet!