My First Grow! Big Bud + 8 Ball Kush CFL's

[FunkySkunk]

Filling out nicely

BigBud's looking real healthy

8 Ball looks a little wilted IMO

 

[danklover79]

Looking good, looks like some healthy plants.

 

[Light Addict]

Nice little scrog my friend, subbed!

 

[FunkySkunk]

Thanks Dank, Light Addict - good to have you along for the grow. I'm getting obsessed with my plants and this forum Haha such a cool place to share info with nice people. I get up, check plants, check forum, go to work, get home, stare at plants and forum, eat sleep repeat. Haha Good times

 

[danklover79]

Sounds almost like my day, except the work part, since I'm on injured leave right now.

Thanks Dank, Light Addict - good to have you along for the grow. I'm getting obsessed with my plants and this forum Haha such a cool place to share info with nice people. I get up, check plants, check forum, go to work, get home, stare at plants and forum, eat sleep repeat. Haha Good times

 

[FunkySkunk]

Hope you make a swift recovery Dank
Fans have arrived, and rigged them up to a phone charger like you said Dank, but noticed they were spinning slow because the charger is 6v and the fans run at 12v
So il have to run them off batteries unless I can find another AC adaptor 12v....

 

[FunkySkunk]

Evening
Flowering has officially began! 8 Ball is starting to shoot pistils from tops now, and the smell from it is lush. Really sweet earthy smell. Both plants seem to love the Molasses, I am feeding it them every other water.
Just had another defol and tie down session, each time i've done this the plants recover with more growth really fast, creating alot more bud sites.
That's the majority of LST'ing done for now, dont wanna stress them too much now they are in flower. I will take out the odd straggling leaf thats blocking light though. Also going to start feed the Grotek Monster Bloom next water.
I took a few pics during pruning.

 

[autopsycho]

looking good, im subbed

 

[FunkySkunk]

Welcome mate, glad your along

 

[FunkySkunk]

Ok all you experienced growers who may be watching... I need your help!
My suspicions that the 8 ball looked 'wilted' are definately confirmed after looking at its deterioration in pictures.
The side branches with bud sights that where once growing really well have shrivelled, and the leaves have shrunk, curled at the edges and are yellowing. What does this mean??? What's so wrong with her when the BigBud is now flourishing?
I have ventilation in there now, I am not over watering, temps have cooled down.... Please help?

 

[danklover79]

Sorry I missed this one, haven't been online for awhile, yeah that's how you do it, just splice the wires and tape.

Hi Dank, so you mean strip the wires on the adaptor and connect them to the - + wires coming off the fan?

 

[danklover79]

As for the 8 ball, it could be under watering, sometimes us noobs tend to do that to prevent over watering, as I see you had an issue with before. What size are the pots the plants are in? Wilting can be a sign that the plant is root bound, but I don't know if that's the issue either. If it is under watered, it should perk up soon after watering, but I would suggest you pot up if those are any smaller than 3 gallon pots.

 

[FunkySkunk]

Just found this article....
Wondering where my situation fits in, bearing in mind the BigBud has been watered, fed as is receiving as much light as the 8 ball.

"Quite often I hear groans from folks having leaf problems -> “Help, my leaves are cupping and the leaf edges are turning brown!”, or, “My plant's leaf tips are curling down and turning black ....what's wrong?” Unless insect damage has occurred or the plant is suffering from a severe case of calcium deficiency, the plant is trying to tell you that it is water stressed. It's hard to tell *exactly* what the culprit is, and unfortunately the “solution” the grower chooses many times is not the right one. A mis-diagnosis only serves to make matters worse by promoting further decline. I’ll try to cover some of the more common causes that can induce these common symptoms and try to offer a few simple solutions. The ultimate and correct solution is in the hands of the grower.

1. Over-fertilizing - the most common cause of leaf cupping aka leaf margin rolling, leaf margin burn, and leaf tip curl/burn is the overzealous use of too much plant food in relationship to factors such as plant size, vigor and rate of growth. The first unit of a plant to show moisture stress is the leaf at its margins and/or tips, reflected by margin rolling (cupping) or burning. Sometimes copper colored necrotic spots show in the leaf also. A hard, crispy feel to the leaf frequently occurs as well, as opposed to a soft and cool feel of a happy leaf. When you have a high concentration of salts in solution (or in the root medium) compared to lower salinity levels found in the plant’s tissue, water is actually drawn out of the plant across the root gradient in order to fix the ppm imbalance. IOW, this is a natural, osmotic response that serves to equalize salinity levels on both sides of the root’s epidermal gradient. Back off on the amount and/or frequency of plant food. Too much plant food can also burn the roots, especially the sensitive root tips and hairs, which then creates another set of problems such as nutrient deficiencies. A note for the bio folks - as soil dries, the concentration of the remaining salts rises further exacerbating the problem. Leach (flush) your pots once in a while to get rid of excess salts.

2. High Heat - the plant is losing water via it’s leaves faster than what can be replaced by the root system. The leaf responds by leaf margin cupping or rolling (up or down) in order to conserve moisture. A good example is reflected by the appearance of broad-bladed turf grass on a hot summer day, high noon, with low soil moisture levels - the leaf blade will roll in and the grass will take on a dull, greyish-green appearance. Upon sunrise when moisture levels have returned to normal, the leaf blade will be flat. Lower the heat and concentrate on developing a large, robust root system by practicing sound plant culture. An efficient and effective root system will go a long way to prevent heat induced leaf dessication and leaf margin curling by supplying sufficient moisture for good plant health. One short episode of high heat is enough to permanently destroy leaf tissue and cause a general decline in the leaves affected, which often occurs to leaves found at the top of the plant located near HID lamps. The damaged leaf (usually) does not recover, no matter what you do. Bummer in the summer. One can only look to new growth for indications that the problem has been corrected.

3. High Light - yes, it’s true, you can give our faves too much light. Cannabis does not receive full sun from sunrise to sunset in its natural state. It is shaded or given reduced light levels because of adjacent plant material, cloudy conditions, rain, debris and dust collection on the leaf surface, twilight periods of early morning and late afternoon, and light intensity changes caused by a change in the seasons. Too much light mainly serves to bleach out and destroy chlorophyll as opposed to causing leaf cupping, but it often goes hand-in-hand with high heat for indoor growers. Again, back off on the light and concentrate on developing/maintaining an efficient and robust root system. Keep in mind that all but equatorial material receive less light during flowering than during the vegetative stage.

4. Overwatering - this practice only serves to weaken the root system by depriving the roots of proper gas exchange. IOW, the roots are not getting enough oxygen which creates an anerobic condition causing root decline and root rot with the end result showing up as leaf stress, stunted growth, and in severe cases, death. <gasp!> Alot of times folks think the plant is not getting enough plant food (which it can't under such adverse conditions), they add more nutes for a "curative", and just add insult to injury.

5. Underwatering - not only is the plant now stressed due to a low supply of adequate moisture, but carbohydrate production has been greatly compromised (screwed up). Step up the watering frequency, and if need be, organic growers may need to soak the pot from the bottom up until moisture levels reach an even consistency throughout the medium especially with mixes that are heavy in peat. If severe, a little surfactant (liquid Ivory dish soap) added to the drench will help return the organics back to a normal moisture retentive state. If the pot feels light to the lift - it’s time to water. Don’t wait until the soil pulls away from the sides of the pot or leaves droop before you water."

 

[danklover79]

Nice article, is the 8 ball's pot really light, or did you just water in the last day or two?

 

[FunkySkunk]

i think they are 15 litre pots Dank, and the soil is moist... I wait for the top couple of inches of soil to completely dry out then water. They have been watered tonight, I'll check the plants reaction tomorrow. I have a feeling that it is losing too much water via the leaves ( No.2 in the article) ... Could this be from having the CFL's too close?
I will give the leaves a good misting of water at the start of the 12 hours of darkness.

 

[danklover79]

I always have my cfls almost right on top of the plants, unless it's a seedling, so I don't think that's it.

 

[FunkySkunk]

Well, I think i've solved the problem. I added an exhaust fan at the top of the closet to suck the warm air out. Gave the leaves a thorough dousing of water this morning, came home from work and the 8 Ball looks a million times better. The new small growth that just wasn't growing (being stunted from the heat) has shot upwards. The main leaves are still slightly crisp, I just hope i caught it in time.

I know they are only CFL's, but it's surprising the heat they can produce when you have 6 of them, in a small space with no ventilation!
Lesson completely learned. Ventilation from the start, it really is a must.

 

[FunkySkunk]

Hello everyone. Quick update here. Just to say that both plants responded well to ventilation. Just fed them a weak mix of nutes, alongside the Molasses. I used the water from the spring that is sourced at my house, It's water that forms in the hill, and channels off outside my house. No pollutants just fresh chem free water - Gotta be good.
I put a small area of Mylar up behind the plants, didn't want to go ripping the rest of the walls down at this stage, needs to be done when the closet is empty. I will save it for my next grow.


PC fans, and DIY carbon foam filter - Yes... abit Knock off Nigel, but kinda effective.

 

[KingJohnC]

have you noticed what your grow room temperature is since you placed the foam in the fan?

 

[FunkySkunk]

Hi KingJohn, I'm not 100% on the temps as I have no thermometer, but temps are certainly down compared to having no fans. The fan does manage to blow through the foam, albeit a little less. I noticed alot of bud sites under canopy, so just had yet another major defol. Only taking out fan leaves and odd leaves blocking light. Is there a limit to pruning during flowering? I mean, if I do it too much could it affect flowering?
Also, can you confirm that feeding the plants Nitrogen based feed can stunt flowering?
I took a few pics of them after the defol, everything you see here is more or less bud sites now. I counted around 80 between both plants..

Beast of a BigBud cola!