MFP's - Indoor - G8-LED - Master Kush - Hydro Grow - Fall 2014

[M F P]

Reservoir clean & change day. Always fun. Plants are looking good, tiny buds starting to show a bit more body.

FYI - I'm on an iMac now. I have no idea why the images are coming in sideways. LOL. Even if I rotate & save them...back to sideways when I post them here! I'll figure it out. For now, bear with me...

AUDIBLE: repeating week 8 on my nutrient schedule for one week before moving on to week 9. Just hoping to build as much body on the buds as I can.

HAPPY WEEKEND Y'ALL!

M F P

 

[M F P]

Looks like I maybe figured it out...same pic, rotated correctly.

 

[M F P]

Buds are finally starting to swell up nicely. Not much to report; resumed defoliation today but only the largest fan leaves. I note my humidity is creeping upwards; I'll probably resort to using the dehumidifier if today's minor leaf-pulling session doesn't make a dramatic reduction.

HAPPY 2015 y'all!

M F P

 

[M F P]

Still looking good. Great trichome development on these. Still pulling for a 1/31 harvest. Buds are slightly larger.

Humidity started getting out of bounds last week, so I deployed the industrial strength dehumidifier during my off hours to bring it back into a comfortable range. Going to keep running it at night...for the plants, but also for me as I tend to get extremely mold paranoid once there's good bud on the line.

Happy Sunday all!

M F P

PS Ceiling view...

 

[McCdive]

And we're left dangling / drooling......

 

[M F P]

and we're left dangling / drooling......

lol.

 

[M F P]

All is looking great. Preparing for the flush next week. Got some slight browning on some leaves (see photos) but we're so far along I'm not going to sweat it. I wish I could provide you all with a sample of the smell and stickiness.

Kinda wish I was having more issues so I'd have more to discuss...this is about as automatic as a process can be, though, and no issue.

Oh, I did have an issue with the lights tripping the breaker. Only happened one afternoon, but it popped four times in a row. Finally got the electrician out here yesterday. He told me he doesn't think it'll happen again, but we moved my lights over to their own circuit now. So yeah...M F P = one happy dude.

Happy Saturday!

M F P

 

[M F P]

...just a quick Friday night shot for ya. Tomorrow or Sunday I'll start the flush, followed by a pretty maddening waiting period. All has been great this past week; not really anything of note to report. Other than crippling impatience.

Have a great weekend y'all!

M F P

 

[M F P]

Ahh SO CLOSE but still no amber on the trichomes. Well, not entirely true, as of this morning's inspection, two plants are showing tiny bits of amber on the uppermost buds, but most of the others are cloudy if not clear. I always hope for this part of the process to occur on a weekend, but whatevz.

No major issues this week. The flush occurred, and my timing was off slightly, so I'm just planning on another week of plain water (though I think the harvest will start as soon as tomorrow). To help the ripening, during flush week I began reducing the lighted period by 15 mins/day. I believe that at this moment I'm closing in on 14 dark/10 lighted hours. Also dropped the temps very slightly on the AC just to see if that helps.

Took some bud shots this morning so you can check out the frost levels.

Happy Sunday folks!

M F P

 

[Xbones]

Ahh SO CLOSE but still no amber on the trichomes. Well, not entirely true, as of this morning's inspection, two plants are showing tiny bits of amber on the uppermost buds, but most of the others are cloudy if not clear. I always hope for this part of the process to occur on a weekend, but whatevz.

No major issues this week. The flush occurred, and my timing was off slightly, so I'm just planning on another week of plain water (though I think the harvest will start as soon as tomorrow). To help the ripening, during flush week I began reducing the lighted period by 15 mins/day. I believe that at this moment I'm closing in on 14 dark/10 lighted hours. Also dropped the temps very slightly on the AC just to see if that helps.

Took some bud shots this morning so you can check out the frost levels.

Happy Sunday folks!

M F P

Looking great! Nice and frosty!

 

[businessman]

how come you dont cover the rockwool under hydro? Wouldnt it maintain moisture better and be less prone to issues?

 

[M F P]

how come you dont cover the rockwool under hydro? Wouldnt it maintain moisture better and be less prone to issues?

That's a good question, particularly considering that I usually do make some attempt to foil over the cubes. The simple answer is: I forgot this time (I also almost forgot to remove the cellophane from the sides of the cubes before placing them into the gravel...luckily my wife happened to be available to micromanage me a bit).

The not-so-simple answer as to why I haven't foiled or covered them since: all I really ever seem to get on my rockwool is a thin layer of algae, which is perfectly reasonable given the conditions. It maybe penetrates 1/8-1/4" down from the top surface, then completely stops. So I'm monitoring it heavily but not too intimidated by what I've seen so far.

As for moisture retention - honestly that never even occurred to me. In my veg area where the cubes can be moved freely around in the flood tray, there's always some good heft (ie water weight) to the cubes, so I know they're nowhere close to drying out no matter how far they are from the last watering. As for retaining moisture better, though? That thought never occurred to me but I'm willing to bet you're 100% correct: a covered cube would retain moisture better.

Thanks much for checking the grow out!

M F P

 

[McCdive]

It looks good so far. i am subbed in. I grew master kush and loved it. Big yield! I grew 4-5 different strains in this pic and she was the biggest

As for the wrapper on the side of the block, from my understanding is you are suppose to leave in on there. I would double check with some users in the forum that run rockwool, as i dont.

My opinion though i would just put my hydrocorn in the tray above the layer of rockwool, thats what i do

Good idea, bussinessman. I think I'll try that on my next grow. I like that idea better than covering it in plastic. Makes sense.
As for the removal or not of the side cover, I take them off. Why root bind the first inch of the cube?
I wanted to post a pic here of a clone with the cover off and roots all over, but I guess I can't on my cell.
(There's more of my 2 cents worth)
Thanks, Andy.

 

[M F P]

As for the wrapper on the side of the block, from my understanding is you are suppose to leave in on there. I would double check with some users in the forum that run rockwool, as i dont.

My opinion though i would just put my hydrocorn in the tray above the layer of rockwool, thats what i do

Good call, man - I bought slightly shorter rockwool for my next grow (Aurora Indica) so I should be able to have enough gravel to work it under. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll ask up at the hydro store about pulling the plastic off the sides of the cubes, too.

 

[M F P]

Submitted sans comment:

OK MINOR comment, just to clarify - only one plant is ready today. The others will be coming along later this week hopefully.

 

[M F P]

Harvest update - three of eighteen plants down so far (Q, D, and K from the half-assed seating chart I posted a few pages back when we moved to flower). K ended up being a hermie - unfortunate, but I believe I got it out of there & trimmed before any pollen sacs popped. We'll see. No clue yet on what caused the change as it appears to be a very recent development.

Here are a few of the nugs clipped from the hermie yesterday. Happy almost-weekend y'all!

M F P

 

[M F P]

Friday night update: seven of eighteen plants are done. Hopefully I'll complete the rest and get some pics posted this weekend. Happy Friday y'all!

 

[M F P]

All but five plants are done. Once this coffee works its magic I'll be getting started. So far I'm guessing I'm averaging around an oz per plant. Still planning on providing a dried weight per plant once this is all done. Middle of this coming week, most likely.

In the meantime, here's a few pics of what I'm up to my elbows in over here...happy weekend folks!

M F P

 

[M F P]

Dried weights are in. I'll summarize - 359.4 grams for an average of 19.97gm/plant. I did a little quality control last night and was very pleased: extremely potent, minimal anxiety. Right on.

I'd started out hoping to control the 12/12 stretch; as you might recall, I did this a little too well: thanks to my aggressive defoliation sessions in the weeks after switching to 12/12, I barely saw any vertical growth. Unfortunately, bud growth was affected during this period as well: bud sites appeared, but growth was minimal. Additionally, the extremely short stature of the plant locked (in my opinion) much light and much CO2 out from the buds near the center of each plant.

Lessons learned - first & foremost, a little stretch ain't a bad thing. Two - cover the tops of the rockwool...if only a cosmetic change it'll still be an improvement. Three - I'm going to consider running the CO2 at much lower levels during the transition into 12/12; I'll probably keep it at 400-600ppm for the first two weeks at least.

Everything else will stay the same. Very pleased with the outcome, particularly the quality.

Below you'll find some techy-type details, so I'm gonna sign off now. Grow = complete. Thanks for tuning in, y'all.

M F P

Seating chart:

L M C J B G
Q D O A K R
N P H I F E

Plant ID/Height at start of 12-12/Final height/Harvest weight (grams)

A/6.5"/12"/16
B/7"/14.5"/28.9
C/4.5"/11"/11.1
D/5"/10"/22.1
E/7.5"/11"/16.9
F/6.5"/13"/18.1
G/7"/10"/19.3
H/6"/9"/6.7
I/6"/8.5"/6.1
J/9.5"/14.5"/26.8
K/5"/12"/18
L/9.75"/14.5"/21
M/7.5"/10"/19.9
N/8.5"/14"/22.3
O/7"/11"/21.5
P/7.75"/12"/45.5
Q/6.5"/13"/25.6
R/5"/10"/13.6

Temp range: 86F - 68F

Humidity range: 69* - 48

* there was one day where my instruments recorded a 79 humidity peak in the flower room. No idea, but I'm thinking it was a mechanical hiccup as there's no reason for it that I could account for and the air in there didn't really feel much more humid. Regardless, even if it were an accurate recording, it's an extreme outlier and the above range is much more indicative of the conditions throughout the flower cycle.

 

[J189RFC]

Hey glad to see this worked out for you! Sorry that your stretch was cut a little short but now you know. You have so much room that even if you did miss your target stretch and they got out of hand I think it would still be ok with the amount of light you have.

Can't wait to see your next grow! I really like the set up and all the ambition that went into this project. Keep it up and congrats on your harvest!