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

[CHED]

Well done my friend. Looks like your topping and training is paying off nicely. Turning out beautifully for your first go. Great pick of strain too.

I posted a reply to your question on the ask us anything page. I hope it helps.

 

[Phototropic]

Well done my friend. Looks like your topping and training is paying off nicely. Turning out beautifully for your first go. Great pick of strain too.

I posted a reply to your question on the ask us anything page. I hope it helps.

Got that. Thanks for the reply.

I'm pretty excited. Not sure at this point what to expect. I think i had high hopes for my yield at the start so now I'm just trying to see what happens. I do feel pretty good about them regardless though.

 

[Troy01]

Lucy is getting quite long. In the process, she has developed a lot of small bud sites rather than the 4 mains that i was developing.

Are these what grow into popcorn buds? Should i be making an effort to reduce them? Trim them?

Just my opinion but don't think you should prune out. On my plants when they start plumping in last 3 weeks they fill in and create a nice colas. Here's an example

To me popcorn are the small buds deeper down. I have some growing at the base I just let go.

 

[Phototropic]

Just my opinion but don't think you should prune out. On my plants when they start plumping in last 3 weeks they fill in and create a nice colas. Here's an example

To me popcorn are the small buds deeper down. I have some growing at the base I just let go.

Thanks. And i always appreciate photo examples.

I think I'll be trimming based on light exposure. Anything sprouting out into the light will stay but anything tucked away that i can't expose cleanly through pruning or an extra scoop light will go, especially where they are growing low down at the nodes.

 

[Phototropic]

So i went for it.
I've been avoiding training and trimming since i flipped to flower because i was afraid to stress the girls. Tonight i made the move to trim off fan leaves that were blocking light, bud sites that looked too small to waste energy on, and to retie all of the stems to spread the girls out a little.

It probably would have been less stressful to have been doing this slowly since the flower flip, rather than all at once, but i figured i should just jump in now that i decided to do it this way. It was good to see the natural development prior to this trim.

Chopped a lot.

and that's just Lucy. Planning on letting it dry and steeping it for tea. Not sure if the little flowers have any cannabinoids in them but i thought it would be worth a taste. I was brewing fan leaves during veg which obviously did nothing, but the flavor was nice and green.

So here they are. My girls looking a little naked but still pretty. Feel free to tell me if you think I've made a huge mistake. I will be trying to peak in on them before i leave for work. I'm nervous but i think it was the right thing to do so they can focus their growth on the good bud sites and forget about the little popcorn buds.

I did leave them along the main stems a bit to hopefully let them fatten up. I'll be getting that extra scoop and two bulbs in there this weekend.
Lucy took the brunt of the trimming.

Lucy before

Lucy after

Ethel before

Ethel after

And my girls together

 

[Troy01]

They are looking good after their hair cut. I am sure they will take off.

 

[Phototropic]

They are looking good after their hair cut. I am sure they will take off.

Thanks. They took well to it so far. I may be imagining it, or it may be that the less foliage makes their buds look thicker, but they seem to have plumped up over the last 24 hours.

 

[Troy01]

I love it when they start growing the long hairs- Your leaves also look really healthy. Keep up the good work.

 

[Phototropic]

I am happy i trimmed. They look like they enjoyed it. I've seen no adverse affects yet and to me they look fuller.

Lucy/Ethel

Closeups

 

[Doggie Daddy]

They haven't skipped a beat Photo! I love the white afros, it means shit is getting real! Looking really good man.

 

[Troy01]

Looking better by the day. I found that after a trimming they usually have a burst of growth. They look point on.

 

[Phototropic]

No major update here. Added the second scoop with (2) 6800K lights a couple days ago. I'm now at approximately 344 watts between the two girls.

I just love watching the grass grow.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

Close ups of my sugar leaves and all them sweet trichomes.

 

[Phototropic]

In a good place for the great, Danny Carey.

 

[Phototropic]

97 days since germination
32 days since flower light switch

Flowering stage is certainly not the most exciting phase of growing bud. Makes me excited for what's to come, but the changes are minimal. I suppose that's a thing to be cherished based on some of the issues I've seen people struggle through during their own flowering.
Anyways, both girls are doing well. Here's some pictures that look a lot like the rest.

Lucy

Ethel

 

[Phototropic]

So i had my head under Ethel's foliage today peaking around and snipping a few low growth buds and when i looked up toward the light i noticed some crazy spotting on her newer growth fan leaves.

If anyone has any thoughts I'd appreciate it greatly. I can't find anything on my trusted source, nor through Googling.

Front

Back

I see no signs of pests and it doesn't appear on her old growth. It is also not present on Lucy as far as saw.

I diagnosed previously that a lot of my brown spots were from wind burn. I'm confident that was correct but these seem different. These spots cover the leaves more and are barely visible without backlighting like the pics above. They're very tiny and uniform.

It is interesting how each girl has her own set of problems. Lucy has a lot of leaves with downward cupping along the long edges. She also shows clawing that Ethel has little to none of. I've attributed this to excess nitrogen for the time and have gone easy on the nutrients and heavier, leads frequent waterings alternating plain pH'd water.

 

[Gee64]

Hi photo. It looks like a calcium deficiency. Heres a good link.
How to Fix a Calcium Deficiency on Cannabis Plants | Grow Weed Easy

 

[Gee64]

If you are using filtered/distilled/reverse osmossis water you will certainly be lacking calcium. Get some CalMag. I use General Hydroponics General OrganInics CalMag. It works great but get any brand that fits with your nute system. In that link you will see that cal deficiencies can cause other deficiencies and thats why your showing other symptoms. Do a full flush with ph 6.5 water that has CalMag in it. Make sure every speck of your soil gets drenched. Then use it in every watering and every tea along with watever other nutes you use. It wont fix those leaves but new growth should be fine. If your in soil then I would brew up a good ewc/steer manure tea as well and ladle it in asap. Dont even worry about other tea additives just a teaspoon of molasses and a cup of ewc and a cup of steer manure in a 5 gal bucket of tap water. bubble it for 24 hours to increase the microbes and get the chlorine out. Tap water has calcium in it so it works well as a tea. Just 24 hours minimum to get that chlorine out. Better yet bubble it for 24 then add the ingredients and bubble for 24 more. Your plants are gorgeous btw....

 

[Phototropic]

Thanks for all of the advice G. I'll definitely consider implementing that advice, but more likely for my next grow. For now, I'm going to increase my nutes a small amount, maybe 1/4 strength to 1/2 for the remaining month or so, and look into a CalMag product.

(Quick nutrient tidbit from the Dyna-Gro website. "BLOOM has luxurious levels of calcium, so you do not have to supplement with a Cal-Mag product." 2%calcium)

However, from what I've read, giving too much calcium is difficult and only risky for locking out other nutrients. I think if i go gentle all around, i should be ok ... maybe ... i hope ... how should i know ... we'll see.

 

[Phototropic]

Yesterday was my 100th day being a 420 grower! Woo.

Started waiting for Lucy and Ethel to poke their pretty little heads above soil about 100 days ago and I've been enjoying the past 3 months watching them grow.

Thank you to all of the support that everyone on this forum has provided. It's been great to be able to talk out issues with folks. I've been following Rule A#1 from Cervantes, "Tell no one, not even friends," so it's been a little lonely as my wife is more excited for the end product than the day-to-day. Everyone talks and I'm a discreet person, not into people knowing my business, so getting to unload this journal on you all has been very therapeutic.

So here are some 100 day old flower pics. Still, not much to be seen but they are certainly fattening up.

Lucy has a couple very nice, big buds coming in.

Ethel has more bud sites but they are obviously smaller. A couple that look like they will be pretty fat, if not particularly long.

Have a great day everyone.