Purple Chem Grown Indoors By Cookie Man

[CookieMan]

Hi fam,

After my successful go with The Cali Connection's femanized Girl Scout Cookies, I decided I wanted to go with something purple. I ended up with about 200 grams of Girl Scout Cookies, a low yielding strain, with my 400 watt setup. Due to heat issues and poor airflow, I had to turn the ballast down to 80% or so. I will be using the same set up as before. I plan to grow fewer plants and train them better with the goal of better airflow and space management. I want to fill my space up with nice evenly spaced colas. I am thinking either two or three plants.

Space is pretty small, about 2'x3'. I'm using an air cooled 400 watt metal halide light for veg, and will change to HPS for flower. I'm cooling everything with a 6" inline fan and a carbon filter for the odor. Heat is vented out the room the closet is in. The new strain is The Cali Connection's femanized Purple Chem. This is more indica. I plan on doing a flux inspired training. I don't want to defoliate as aggressively as Light Addict.

I think the best flow will be to grow the three biggest ones (back left, back center, and front center) with 4 colas each. This will give 12 colas spread over 6 square feet. The plants are currently in 5" by 5" pots and will soon be transplanted into 3 gallon pots that they will flower in. They have been watered with RO water with 1 tsp of Cal Mag per gallon. Only watered twice. Seeds were placed 1.5" below soil on 3/13 at night. They have been on an 18/6 schedule. I'm also having the lights off during the middle of the outside day to help control heat better.

I think I'll be topping just above the third node and then begin the horizontal training. I will try to follow in Light Addict's methods, but who knows how that will work. Wish me luck.

 

[CookieMan]

I have a big update for today.

I decided to go with just two plants in 5 gallon pots. I wanted to transplant since I want to start training now that the first two are at the third node. Having given fluxing much thought, and having no experience with it, I decided to just copy how Light Addict starts. It makes the most sense to me to focus all the growth on the two main shoots and basically treat this starting as the planting of the seed or so? Thats just how it makes sense to me. This is what they looked like today before I got to work on them:

I selected the back left and center one. I was debating between the back center and front center. The back center grew faster but has wider node spacing. Ultimately, I chose the back center because the stems have more purple in them and I'm growing this for some purple color. I also dropped the light down to 75% to drop my temps and raise humidity. I noticed a slight taco leaf effect. I'm on the fence between running the grow at 75%, getting an LED setup, or investing in an AC unit for the room. Anyone ever install a small ac unit in a cabinet? For now I will run at 75% and monitor my temps closely.

The large bag of fox farm ocean forest was the perfect size to start 6 seeds in 5"x5" pots and then do two 5 gallon pots.


I wish I could have taken photos of the roots. They were starting to circle the 5" pots. I think this was the perfect time to up pot them and to start training. I'm going for a fast and efficient flux. 6 colas on each plant spread evenly aiming for 1 foot tall of growth by the time the stretch is over. I'm hoping to get 6" of vertical growth before flipping to flowering schedule.

I plan to put the wires on them tomorrow morning. I planned my transplanting and cutting to be at the end of the day. I just figured it makes more sense to remove the leaves when it will be dark since they don't need the leaves at night. And any hormones and sugars going to the leaves will now be focused on the two remaining leaves on each side.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

all looks well so far, I'll be asleep in the corner if you need me.

 

[CookieMan]

Thanks for following along Mr. Am4zin. Please share any thoughts, advice, criticisms, jokes, weed, hash, wax, and tunes you might have.

I have made some slow and steady progress towards the flux. I attempted to train the day that I transplanted them and cut them. I broke a leaf off of one. So I quickly repotted a different one and trimmed it. Did not try training again. I also have kept the light on 75% strength to keep the temp maxed at 82 degrees. The plants seem to be a little happier. No more taco leaves. The progress has been slow and steady. I trained them a little bit last night as the new shoots are finally starting to take hold. This has been a long week. I am wondering now if removing all the leaves like I did was a bad idea. I feel the growth was retarded by the trauma of transplanting combined with removing the leaves. Although, comparing them to the uncut plants that are still in the original pots, the third node fan leaves and offshoots are larger on the cut plants. Perhaps there is something to defoliation. It could also be that putting plants in a larger pot speeds up growth. They also are closer to the light. So this is purely anecdotal evidence. At the very least, it really does not seem to have slowed growth down.

 

[Advocate420]

I'm a purple fan. Got some Purple Crack seed on the way. So you topped and are training like mainlining ?

 

[CookieMan]

I'm a purple fan. Got some Purple Crack seed on the way. So you topped and are training like mainlining ?

I'm training using more of a flux technique, although I'm not sure what the exact difference is. I am going to aim for 6 1 foot tall colas on each plant. I'm not sure how it will work out. But wish me luck. Good luck on your purple crack seeds!

 

[Advocate420]

I do believe fluxing is the termed coined by some of the peeps involved with the technique. I think I saw a post where the peeps were using the mainlining word created a search that returned info on using IV drugs (mainlining) I think they don't like that term for obvious reasons. Thank you and good luck. Interested to see how this training goes.

 

[CookieMan]

I think you are right on the naming convention. Mainlining has a connotation of iv drug abuse. Flux was coined by light addict. He explains it well in his post about it. The shoots coming off above the fan leaves are now large enough to start training. That had started to grow up, so I put some wires on them and have pulled them back to horizontal. The stem on the shoots was about 1cm and the leaves are still folded, but they should open up today or tomorrow.

In other news, I think the cure is starting to even out on my last harvest. The buds are easier to break down now. And they are a nice golden color. I'll take some nug shots later.

 

[CookieMan]

Well, I didn't get to the photos until today. I bent up some more wire and decided to straighten these ladies out. They are now spread eagle absorbing the light and ready to grow. I feel like the fluxed plants are on a better track to produce more bud compared to the wild plants in the initial seedling containers. I will need to get rid of them soon as they will be growing taller, but the fluxed plants wont be.

I suppose flipping to flower at this point would work, but I don't feel like the plants are really developed enough to have a good switch. I really am trying to work out the options of fewer plants and longer veg vs more plants and shorter veg. As this is for my personal smoke, I want the best quality. Unfortunately, I also appear to have some fungus gnats in the room. They need to go, should I get some sand? neem? diacotomas earth? What do y'all recommend?

Anyways, here is some photos of the progress since Friday.

I plan on removing the shoots that come off with a vertical orientation. I figure this will help with my spacing. I will veg until it feels about right, then I will plan to switch to flower soon after allowing the vertical growth to start. Wish me luck.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Good luck check out this link for help....

Light Addict's Quick Guide To Fluxing - Featuring The Original Flux!

 

[CookieMan]

Thanks for the link Mr. Amazin. That was my inspiration for doing a flux in the first place. I am happy with the progress overall so far. I do think the growth is moving a little bit faster on the big plants that are being fluxxed. Now this could be due to them being in bigger pots, being closer to the lights, or something else since I did select the two fastest growing plants to flux. The runt is catching up to the other two that are in small pots. I don't know what is going on for sure, but it looks to be going ok. Here are some photos from yesterday that the forum wouldn't let me upload, but they are here now.

I noticed the node with vertically oriented leaves seemed to be at a disadvantage. I started to see why Light Addict would want to remove every other node and only allow horizontal growth to occur. His extreme and quick style of defoliation seems to rely on knowing exactly where you want the plant to be and limiting the production of any unneeded vegetative growth. I suspect this also helps prevent overcrowding. I used my scissors to snip them off as close to the trunk and cleanly as possible. It seems to be just flowing along nicely. I also used an upside down drain pan to lift the short plant up so the canopy is even. I am aiming for consistent growth and optimal bud production. Anyways, here are some shots after trimming.

The plants seem to be left with a little bit better spacing and a more optimal configuration of leaves. This really is an extremely manipulative growing technique, but it seems very well suited to small spaces. I anticipate one foot tall buds that are densely packed. I want to eliminate the wispy buds I had before and optimize the light penetration. I just hope what I give up in quantity will be made up for by quality. I suppose a nicely sized metal mesh would allow for easier training than the wires do, but the wires are fairly simple. They also offer a lot of control with some creative bending. However, the main goal does seem to be a very even horizontal growth pattern until vertical growth is allowed. A rigid screen that was well positioned would work very well. But on further reflection and reviewing some of LA's photos, I remember that the many wires will be simplified as the plants are simplified.

Is keeping some of the fan leaves advantageous? I think it probably is since they should be a net power gain for the plant. I have been letting the soil dry out a lot and am trying to hold off watering the girls as long as possible too. I don't want the fungus gnats to persist. They need to die off quick. Anyways, enough rambling. That dab of the girl scout cookies I did is treating me right. It was a nice big glob of rosin. Anyways, enjoy.

 

[CookieMan]

So I made the big changes I was planning. I improved the ventilation and filtration situation. I also installed vents in the room's door and got rid of the ghetto rigged closure I was using. It looks like we will be here for a while, so I might as well optimize shit. No more cat hair please. I also installed cages to help with training. They seem to be a little easier to use to precisely position my plants now. I also watered them with a tsp of ff bloom per gallon. This was mainly done to balance ph of the water. For whatever reason the ph seemed a bit low, then I added a few drops of ph up. Then it shot the ph way up. I guess it really was minimally off. Then the ff bloom was all I had to counteract the ph up. So I put a 3 tsp in the 3 gallon jug. I'm sure the phosphurous and slight nitrogen boost wont hurt. WE shall see. Have a good day.

Here is the new cabinet filter installed in the 10"x10" cutout. Filter had to be cut down to fit, and I just left it a little big to squeeze it in tight.

Ventilation was improved and made to look more legit. See the full cabinet at the other thread.

 

[Advocate420]

I'm going to have to run long length of ducting. I can't cut hole in ceilings or walls and would like to vent out a window for summer. Any stealth ideas for the exposed ducting?

 

[CookieMan]

I'm going to have to run long length of ducting. I can't cut hole in ceilings or walls and would like to vent out a window for summer. Any stealth ideas for the exposed ducting?

Yes. I did this before, about 10 years ago. I ran the ducting under my bed, but I just vented to the room. I then just ran my ac to offset the heat in the room. You could also use decorative fabric to cover it up and run it high like I did.

Post a pic of your setup and I'll see what I can come up with.

 

[Advocate420]

I will get back to you. Going under bed is what I was thinking. And blend the exhaust with a portable AC unit. I was going to go high like you did. I'm still debating a second passive in. Here is a start. Just a pic I have available as I'm not home. It's at end of bed

 

[CookieMan]

There is nothing stealth about that tent, so why are you going for stealth now?

 

[CookieMan]

I have another update today. The plants required more training, so I obliged with some sticks. Here are some before pics:

And some after pics:

 

[Advocate420]

It is behind the door. Can't tell unless you walk into the bedroom. Ducting across the ceiling would be visible and looks like shit.

 

[CookieMan]

I see. Well I would just run it under the bed and then blend it with the AC unit. That will probably be the easiest and will work well. Good luck, you have a build log?

Are you going for just a clean look? Does it need to be stealth? Running it along the ceiling and then through my door is a nice clean install and has dropped my temps by 2 degrees, along with having proper intake to the closet. But I feel like the air exchange in the big room is also improved.

I checked out your thread on a fresh start, It seems like a decent setup you got. I hope you get rid of your bugs. My gnats are going down in quantity. My friend even noticed. So I'm sure you can deal with your critters. Best of luck, put up a good fight.

 

[Advocate420]

The way it is you can stand next to the door and not know it's there. I picked the spot because it's kinda out of site out of mind and not where you would expect it. The smaller tent will be mostly veggies while I get things settled and is my cover story. There is good reason to grow my own veggies.
I appreciate the support. I was going for either a Clean look or "stealth". I was just looking to borrow ideas. Your thread was stealth closet grow so maybe I assumed you had a elaborate plan in mind with the exposed ducting.
Yeah this week is flower room cleaning and a second over every room again before the beans hopefully arrive.