Step's Closet & 5x5

[steppedinds]

 

[steppedinds]

Day 112 - Calyxes are starting to swell and a few hairs have began to shrink/turn orange. They aren't drinking as much water as early flowering; maybe only 2-3 gallons a day and 4 gallons on the first day after WC. Decent crystal production, though I've had better in the past in strains like Cheese. The Canuk Cookies has really slim/skinny buds. Pretty disappointing since it was my biggest plant pre-flowering, but it did have a longer finishing time so hopefully it will catch up. A friend grew the same strain and said his weren't like this, so maybe I just got a bad pheno. All the Lemon Skunk on the right side is doing extremely well with thick full buds all the way down to the scrog. Most are at least 6-8" of pure bud, some close to a foot; the buds on the taller colas are a bit more spaced out. The giant cola poking its head into the fixture is surprisingly not burned at all from what I can tell and has huge buds growing from it. Don't remember if I mentioned it before but I cut the top of it off around week 2-3 because it had wedged itself between the top of the light and the fixture. Also starting to regret not getting the support trellis in...a few colas have began to lean/topple. Hopefully everything is so packed in tight that they will lean against each other for support

 

[steppedinds]

These pics are from last Saturday on a friends Galaxy S7. Takes way better pics than my Iphone 5 or Surface. Lemon Skunk and Canuk Cookies. The Cookies has since starting to fill out a bit more. Expecting it to finish a week or two after the LS.


Canuk Cookies



Lemon Skunk

 

[Suntana]

I need your recipe .

 

[trapgodd]

Day 41 - pulling that many leaves off seems to have slowed growth substantially. will only remove new nodes from now on, and wait to remove fan leaves until the canopy above is full. everything always seems so much slower, too, without co2 during veg

Tent -



Left -



Right -

are you checking the ph of your rezivour after the drain sequence? and also what are your feeding times per day and run cycles per week if you don't mind me asking ?

 

[steppedinds]

Greetings Trapgod,

I check pH after WCs and after topping off the reservoir. I do a full WC every two weeks and top off as needed during the time in between. Before topping off my resevoir I look at the PPMs to make sure I do not overfill. At the end of the week, especially during flowering, the plants have used quite a bit of the nutrients, so you might not need to top off all the way. Only add enough water to get your PPM back to ~1600, or wherever you feel comfortable (I run a little higher during mid-late flowering because of extra molasses). After I get my PPM to where I want it, I let the solution sit a little longer to ensure proper mixing before checking the pH. I add pH Down accordingly.

During late flowering the plants may end up using so much nutrients, and the PPMs & water levels get so low, that there is no point in topping off the res because it would lower the PPM too low (below 1600). Sometimes instead of 14 days I may do a WC in 10-11 days because the plants have already absorbed the nutes. The plants are always using more water than nutrients, though, so when refilling your reservoir just make sure you get your PPM, then pH, correct.

 

[steppedinds]

And I missed part of your question...

During early Veg, just after I transplant them into the 6" cubes, I run the pumps for 15 minutes every 48 hours. Then after a few weeks, once the roots have grown into the substrate, they get watered every 4 hours. The first feed comes an hour after lights on, then every 4 hours from there. I'm running the GH Flora Series Expert Recirculating schedule. So nutes are always in the reservoir and they get them with every feed

 

[trapgodd]

And I missed part of your question...

During early Veg, just after I transplant them into the 6" cubes, I run the pumps for 15 minutes every 48 hours. Then after a few weeks, once the roots have grown into the substrate, they get watered every 4 hours. The first feed comes an hour after lights on, then every 4 hours from there. I'm running the GH Flora Series Expert Recirculating schedule. So nutes are always in the reservoir and they get them with every feed

are you using half strength of there recommendations to keep from burn or lockout

 

[steppedinds]

are you using half strength of there recommendations to keep from burn or lockout

Nope. I find the plants grow much faster at full strength on week 1. Their wk1 is already at half strength so no need to halve it again. I just run my seeds/clones on regular tap water, NOT reverse osmosis, for 3 days or so (until they have sprouted and can stand on their own). Then I use their week 1 schedule for 10 days before swapping to wk2. Use CFLs for seedling stages, IMO, and get a weak fan to blow over them so they don't get light/heat burn (they shouldn't be moving much in the wind as seedlings). The CFLs will have them growing short and strong; they wont bend/fall over or need supporting. Once you are at week 2 schedule you will have some strong and large plants ready for the veg stage and adapted to GHs nute strength schedule

 

[Suntana]

Hi step, just wondering what scale you are referencing ppm, .7 or .5?

 

[steppedinds]

Hi step, just wondering what scale you are referencing ppm, .7 or .5?

I'm not really sure. I use the cheap $15-20 Chinese pens from eBay. I would link but this site does not allow. If you search for PPM pH pen on eBay or Amazon you should see them. I have two sets. The old version yellow pH pen with the blue TDS pen, and the newer white TDS pen with yellow pH. Here are stock photos. The new pH pen is so-so, I use the older model more. The new white TDS pen is more accurate than the old blue one though, so I mix and match. You could always spend more money and get a professional/laboratory grade which could set you back a few hundred bucks.

 

[Suntana]

Thanks I'll check it out, just trying to get an idea of your feed rate. More than likely .5 (Hanna) I believe common in USA and Canada. Some European countries use the .7 scale. All relative to EC.

Depends I guess on what the Chinese have it set at.

 

[steppedinds]

Hannah sounds right... I tried looking it up, but can't find it stated anywhere. I did not know there was such different scales, and such drastic differences. Learn something everyday I bought these out of recommendation from another journal somewhere, no idea where at this point though, but they are usually sold by the hydroponic stores on ebay/amazon.

 

[Suntana]

Ya, it always messes with me when I read into some articles and journals. I think "holy shit how is that guy getting away with feeding 1800 ppm", mine would die at anything over a thousand lol, but I'm in coco and using .5 and not including additives.

 

[steppedinds]

During the first WC I don't even check PPM. I assume the schedule is accurate and use what the GH schedule prescribes. Once I notice the reservoir going down I start checking the PPM and refill no more than to the fill line. If the res is down a few gallons, and I see the PPM is 2500+ then I just add to the line. I do not fill nor pay attention to the PPM once it is to the fill line, especially during flowering. I add tons of molasses during flowering and this will easily add an extra 400+ppm for the first few days to the solution, so I do expect it to be around 2000+ at that time.

 

[steppedinds]

During the first few weeks of flowering, the plants drink so much that I've seen the PPM jump to over 6000 within a single day. These girls were drinking 10gallons a day at one point and my res is only 20gall

 

[steppedinds]

Ya, it always messes with me when I read into some articles and journals. I think "holy shit how is that guy getting away with feeding 1800 ppm", mine would die at anything over a thousand lol, but I'm in coco and using .5 and not including additives.

Also, when I was not using the full line of GH my PPM was no where near this high. I was using the, I think, performance or professional pack. The prescribed dose only got the PPM to about 1200 and when I tried adding extra to bring it to 1600 the plants burned. Since adding everything on the list my PPM is where "they" say it should be. I'm using: Floragro, Flormicro, Florabloom, Rapidstart, Diamond nectar, Flora nectar, Liquid koolbloom, Floralicious plus, Florablend, Dry koolbloom, Armor Si, CalMagic, and Florakleen. This is my first grow with diamond nectar, floranectar, dry koolbloom, and armor si. I've always used Calmagic even though it is not on the schedule. Next grow I will probably start using beneficial bacteria, also.

 

[Suntana]

I grew hydroponics for quite a while, then switched to coco. I don't mind coco, but i understood Hydro much better, so when I switch it was a learning curve to say the least. I've got a handle on it now (I think) .
When in hydro, what was in the tank is what the plants were being fed, coco hangs on to certain elements and you have to experiment with what it needs, your almost feeding the coco before the plant then your ok.

 

[steppedinds]

Yeh I went from DWC to soil-less to Ebb/flow. This is much less maintenance for me and really cheap to setup and switch to. I didn't do too bad with the ProMix BX soil-less, but this is far easier to regulate.

 

[trapgodd]

when you did ebb and flow how was that easier than dwc . asking because I been considering that to be my next system