Phototropic's First Grow: Pure Power Plant In Soil Under CFL

[Phototropic]

Day 30 since germ.

I love putting my hands in that FoxFarm soil. So fresh feeling. And i was a kid who hated the texture of dirt.

Decided to transplant into final containers as i will be taking a 3 day trip and I'm worried about leaving my girls without their daily watering. This way, i can overwater the container and the roots themselves don't need to be soaked. The excess water in the soil will get to the roots as they drink the nearest water. I think it was time anyways as i hope you will agree by the pictures below. The roots of Ethel had reached the bottom of her container. Lucy was about the same but i neglected the picture. Let me know your thoughts.

They look nice in the bigger pots. Small, but i think they fit and will hopefully enjoy growing into the space.
This did require me to spread the scoop lights a little so each plant lost the benefit of sharing the other's light. Not sure how this will affect them but hopefully they each had an over-abundance of light when they were tight, and now they each have a suitable amount spread out. Time shall tell.

I also took the time to tie down Ethel's topping chutes. The best office supply ever is a binder clip. So that's clipped at two sides to the smart pots with twist tie connecting the chutes to the clips. Lucy needs to grow a little longer before there is enough new stem to bend. Don't want to risk breaking another of her leaves.

Did some undergrowth pruning as well. Snipped some three-finger leaves that are growing at the bottom.
Do the smaller leaves always grow at the bottom nodes? Do the 5-7 finger leaves never develop at the lowest nodes? I was expecting that i would stop seeing three-fingers altogether as the plant matured.

So now i am out on my porch enjoying some good scotch and a pipe of legal plants fawning over the pictures of my pretty ladies and imagining the (hopefully) bountiful harvest i am working toward.

Enjoy the pictures with me:

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Dinsdale]

Those are very healthy seedlings! Keep it up and the harvest should be awesome

 

[Phototropic]

Those are very healthy seedlings! Keep it up and the harvest should be awesome

I appreciate the vote of confidence.

 

[Phototropic]

Just a couple nighttime pics. Did some pruning so the girls are a little bare at the stems.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Gearing up for the girls to have a couple days alone. Not going to water until I'm leaving tonight, then i will give the pot an excess and hope for the best. My wife keeps suggesting an upside down water bottle but it worries me that it will tip over and dump out or something. I don't like the idea of not controlling the water going in, even if that control is by pouring in a lot extra.
So wish me luck.

Here's that perspective picture i mentioned the other day. I'm sure a lot of you out there have these Fiskars snips.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Day 36 since germ

Continuing 1/4 strength nutes for the week as the girls haven't complained. Leaves are a nice deep green.

So i left the girls home alone Thursday night and got back to them last night. Almost 4 full days alone...and they looked beautiful when i got home. I left them in their 5gallon smart pots with about 1/2gallon of 1/4 strength nutrient water in the soil. I made sure to spread it around so that it didn't drown the roots. Good and dry when i checked last night so i think it was just right.

Of course, now they have a ton extra foliage so i did a little prune and LST on them both. Always afraid to go over board, but i think this way, they can grow out the leaves at the top and not worry about feeding the lower foliage.

Let me know your thoughts.

Lucy

After a nights rest, you can see how all bent stems have turned their pretty faces upward.

Ethel

Overnight for Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Everything is looking great. Very excited about my girls. They look healthy and green. Still not confident in their size, but between the LST And pruning, they look to be shaping up to be some nice plants (not that i really know).

Continuing to bend out the branches to keep the main colas away from each other. Really happy with how they're looking but feel free to burst my bubble if it doesn't look as good to you.
Lucy has three main colas growing with a little cola that I'm working on keeping exposed to the lights.
Ethel has four beautiful main colas.

I'll be starting on half strength nutrients today. Planning to be at full by the end of next week.

All in all, grow seems to be going well. Happy with my ladies. Constantly doubting their growth rate but trying to step back and just watch them develop.

Enjoy the pics.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Good afternoon folks

Day 42 since germ

Been pretty happy with how theses little ladies are taking to the big pots. They have been growing faster and responding well to the LST.

Wondering about how many colas i should allow to grow in. Ethel is very symmetrical with four main bud sites, but she has a handful of other smaller areas growing off of her longest section. Now, i could cut these away and allow focus to remain on the main four, or i could allow them all to develop. I imagine smaller buds all around, but the extra individual colas might be good.

If i am to let them grow, I'll have to prune some of the larger fan leaves around the inside of each main cola in order to expose the little ones to the light better.

Here's a look at Lucy's cola situation

And now just some general pics for the girls.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Feeling good about my LST. Keeping clean stems.

This is Lucy. She is the leader of the pair. A little off, asymmetrical because of a bad bend, but staying strong

And Ethel, she's a follower, but still an independent and strong lady.

 

[Phototropic]

Just some future bud site close-ups.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Enjoying some current pics. Just posting for posterity and, by the looks of my notifications, @Dinsdale at this point. Hopefully some interest will grow as the plants do.

But here they are:

Lucy

Ethel

And some baby pics, this is Lucy in her first day "above ground" still under glass, and after a few hours under the lights, getting some color:

And the dynamic duo in the box together:

Any suggestions on when to flip the lights? We're at Day 45 over here since germination day. 25 days since starting nutrients. 22 days since topping. Expecting at least about 1-2 weeks but would love to hear what, besides height (which I'm not struggling with at the moment) indicates a good time to enter flowering.

Thanks for reading (@Dinsdale).

 

[Phototropic]

Prefowers!
I had not been looking for these. I was reading through some posts this afternoon and realized i had missed this since i started my grow. So i took some pictures of my girls' preflowers. Not seeing any white pistils coming out, but maybe that's not necessary?

Here's Lucy's

And Ethel's

Thoughts? Opinions?
I feel like i could flip the lights now and get a good stretch and have enough colas to produce some good buds. But i have my doubts. I definitely want to wait at least one more week, maybe two. But really, just needing to come up with an indicator of it being the right time. If i were concerned about height, i would go by that, but as you can see, i don't have a height issue at the moment.

I'm at full strength nutrients, they look very healthy to me, though i worry they are small. My LST seems to be in the right place. Preflowers are in. Stalks are strong with light bark showing. They have a gentle smell from outside the room with the box closed.

Anyways, I'll just end it here with a few more pictures.

Lucy

Ethel

Thanks all.

 

[Phototropic]

Day 50 since germ.

Haven't posted in a couple days. Nothing much has changed. Girls are growing steady. New leaves coming in every day. I'm keeping them trim. Maintaining the bud sites that have developed and not letting any others come in.

Decided I'll be hitting the switch on my lights to 12/12 next weekend. Seems that everything i read says to base it on size and the potential stretch so don't see much use in waiting any longer. I'm anxious to see some buds.

Wishing they had gotten a little bigger but it's either my awesome first-timer skill with the LST and the lights or they are stunted from the heat (or something else keeping them small (in my opinion)). Either way, they deserve to start moving forward. 50 days in, about what i wanted out of my veg stage so i think it'll be time by day 55ish.

When i switch, I'm going to time it so that the day period (which is cooling down as we end the summer) will be lights out. Should be able to hit it so i can still check them in the morning and evening. This will hopefully give them the lowest temps possible during their flower. If you've read through, you'll know that this is the one thing I've had the least confidence in.

Already planning my next grow. I want to box off some cooler attic space by a window in Sheetrock so that i can have a proper controlled room. Hopefully i can invest in some decent LEDs and divide the space into a veg and a flower room. Do a perpetual grow with a mother sitting around producing clones. I still have 3 seeds waiting to be germinated from my first buy.

The girls don't have much to show but pictures will follow.

On a personal note, been going through a few "wee drams" of scotch watching "Nocturnal Animals." If you want to watch a disturbing but brilliant movie, check it out. It's on HBO right now. Also finished the classic "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" with my son today. Glad to know that he will love Clint Eastwood movies as much as me. Already enjoyed "Escape from Alcatraz" earlier this year. He's going on 10 so i have a proud fatherly spot glowing right now. Kids aren't easy, but it's nice when they go right. Having a pipe on our porch, cool breeze after midnight, looking forward to a good sativa arriving tomorrow. (Scotch makes me share and also encourages my own bouquet of parenthesis (((()))) hope someone gets the reference).

Well, have a nice night and a pleasant (hopefully) 4-day week.

Now the pics;

Lucy

Ethel

Much love to all.

 

[Dinsdale]

Enjoying some current pics. Just posting for posterity and, by the looks of my notifications, @Dinsdale at this point. Hopefully some interest will grow as the plants do.

Keep the updates coming and I'll keep watching!

Any suggestions on when to flip the lights? We're at Day 45 over here since germination day. 25 days since starting nutrients. 22 days since topping. Expecting at least about 1-2 weeks but would love to hear what, besides height (which I'm not struggling with at the moment) indicates a good time to enter flowering.

I'm a still a beginner, but here's my two cents...

- Like you said, height: As a rule of thumb, when they're half the final desired height, it's time to flip. (Flip sooner if it's a stretchy sativa, obviously).
- Preflowers: It doesn't really make sense to flip before preflowers.
- How soon do you need weed? Do you need a small yield soon? Or can you afford to wait longer and get a bigger yield later?
- When you're going perpetual, it also depends on space availability in the flower room/tent, because obviously you can't put a new plant in flower if there's no space available there.

If I were you, I'd keep them in veg a bit longer. The bigger the roots, the bigger the plants, the bigger the yield. You have enough space and big enough pots. The question is, do you have enough patience?

 

[Dinsdale]

Not seeing any white pistils coming out, but maybe that's not necessary?

I can be hard to tell the difference between preflowers and tiny new growth tips. But when you see white pistils, you know it's prefowers.

 

[Dinsdale]

Decided I'll be hitting the switch on my lights to 12/12 next weekend. Seems that everything i read says to base it on size and the potential stretch so don't see much use in waiting any longer. I'm anxious to see some buds.

We all know the feeling! I say go for it. Even if this grow isn't perfect in the end, look at it this way: The sooner you harvest this grow, the sooner you can start the next one (which will be even better thanks to everything you learned so far!)

Also finished the classic "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" with my son today.

Excellent choice. One of my favorite movies of all time! I've seen it at least 20 times... and I want to see it again now!

 

[Phototropic]

Keep the updates coming and I'll keep watching!



I'm a still a beginner, but here's my two cents...

- Like you said, height: As a rule of thumb, when they're half the final desired height, it's time to flip. (Flip sooner if it's a stretchy sativa, obviously).
- Preflowers: It doesn't really make sense to flip before preflowers.
- How soon do you need weed? Do you need a small yield soon? Or can you afford to wait longer and get a bigger yield later?
- When you're going perpetual, it also depends on space availability in the flower room/tent, because obviously you can't put a new plant in flower if there's no space available there.

If I were you, I'd keep them in veg a bit longer. The bigger the roots, the bigger the plants, the bigger the yield. You have enough space and big enough pots. The question is, do you have enough patience?

Thanks for the reply and input. Just about out of patience. Planning to go 12/12 this weekend. I figure 55days is plenty. The girls look healthy and from what i was reading about Power Plant (the strain used to make Nirvana's PPP) it stays relatively short, even when it's predominantly Sativa. Going to flip so that my lights are on at night. Hopefully this will alleviate some of my heat issues.

Pretty confident the girls are putting out preflowers, those little tips are all around and not turning into leaves. I was concerned i was confusing them, but i think i ID'd them right.

Perpetual is down the line, and I'm hoping that when i get there, it will be in a large enough space so i don't have to compromise on timing.

 

[Phototropic]

Excellent choice. One of my favorite movies of all time! I've seen it at least 20 times... and I want to see it again now!

Love the Eastwood westerns. I was also a big Dirty Harry fan growing up. "Dead Pool" and such. I think it'll be a couple more years before i can show those to my son though.

 

[Dinsdale]

Perpetual is down the line, and I'm hoping that when i get there, it will be in a large enough space so i don't have to compromise on timing.

It's never large enough, believe me!
I had one little tent and it was crowded. Then I bought a second bigger tent, thinking the space issues were a thing of the past. But since I had more space, I just started growing more plants, and now it's even more crowded than before. And the worst thing is I don't even need that much weed... I just can't help it, I always need to grow more plants and more strains.
Growing weed is addictive as fuck!

 

[Phototropic]

It's never large enough, believe me!
I had one little tent and it was crowded. Then I bought a second bigger tent, thinking the space issues were a thing of the past. But since I had more space, I just started growing more plants, and now it's even more crowded than before. And the worst thing is I don't even need that much weed... I just can't help it, I always need to grow more plants and more strains.
Growing weed is addictive as fuck!

Hah, yea i can imagine. I could do fine with only a couple going, but i do see myself growing a couple of this strain and a couple of that strain and a couple more of another strain just for the variety.