Too Old's Indoor Hempy Auto Fem Candy Cane - 2014

[too old]

Thanks guys. I should have been more clear, all I did was up the N,K ppm. Using GH 1-2-3, at this point they should be at 3(Micro)-2(GRO)-1(BLOOM), and I tweaked to 4-2-1. Yes, they are still symmetrical. I was not aware that asymmetry was a sign of maturity, thank you for that, colourful. Both plants are at the 7th node, maybe 8th by this morning, so using your count, I have a ways to go yet. (If you count in the pic, add one node, as I trimmed off the bottom nodes because they were sitting on the medium, and I feared a mould may develop.) What I noticed last night, and forgot to mention,was the stem sizes. The shorter plant was the younger of the two, by about a day, and it had a thin, spindly stem comparatively speaking. Yet now, even though it is still the smaller plant, its stem is considerably larger in diameter than the other. Weird. Growing in 100% perlite, to me, is similar to growing in rockwool, or hydroton. It's just an inert medium. I found that it supports the plants better than the other two, drains better than rockwool, and holds more nutes than hydroton; probably due to more available surface area, but I'm guessing. Good growing all, stay green.

 

[colorfuldayze]

Hi too old, you are very welcome. The anticipation of 'when' they will express and then 'what' they will express (which for your garden to me looks like it is right now through the next 10-20 days) is one of my favorite stages of the auto-cannabis plant's life. It tells me a lot about how she is going to run her race down the stretch from root to crown. You being at the 7-8 node now, at this rate, 11 hours later, I'm guestimating it will happen fairly quick. I have noticed that at least half if not more of the plants in any given gro of my strain 'lag' for a while (5-10 days) after that first little burst of a female flower expression and then 'boom'.
That is an interesting observation you noted re: the shorter stouter plant and thicker stem. I have also observed that on my strain. The taller the phenotype, the less woody and more pliable the main stem; whereas the shorter, the more woody, thicker, and not-flexible. Awesome find for me re: your perlite insight. Thank you too old, I am grateful to be along with your journey looking in. All the best growing to you sir. cheers

 

[too old]

Hey colorful, you must be psychic or something. Went out tonight to do the regular feeding, and wouldn't you know it, the one plant has gone irregular at the growth tip of the main cola. I'm not sure if I've never noticed this before, or if maybe I thought it was from topping, but it is definitely obvious once you see it. Live and learn, eh? Good call, bud. And the node count? Eleven and nine. So, right on time, too. Took a height measurement, 7-1/2" and 7" respectively, but they are both at 12" in diameter. Did some more tucking of fan leaves under the lower branches, and trimmed some of the popcorn sights off the lowers. Not too much, a little on each one. Doesn't look like I will have to lst too much, as the lowers already have a good horizontal growth to them. What I would like to do is supercrop them a little, but I think I'll wait until the stretch is over. They seem to be holding up ok, probably from the gale force fan I have on them (even lo speed pushes them around pretty good).

 

[colorfuldayze]

That's great too old. That's interesting that they are both odd intervals too...wonder what your other two will do. I've always wondered how other strains performed and expressed that characteristic. Your plants look fantastic - super thick and vigorous. I am a total newcomer to the supercropping concepts. All I've done so far on a few grows is top early on like you did as well as microtop in the last stages of budding. Your good science too old because your efforts are raising more questions than they are answers lol. I wonder if your topping influenced your plants' maturity stage for the strain; i.e. had you not topped, would it had been 13 nodes. Also, they new primary nodes from where your topped should also go indeterminate/asymmetrical. Have a great day sir, your plants and garden look awesome. Thank you for sharing

 

[too old]

Update - Day 43 - new pics. First pic is the overall that I missed from previous update. Second pic is what I believe colorfuldayze is referring to as asymmetrical nodal growth.

 

[colorfuldayze]

That's it too old. Great pictures! Nice robust and vigorous growth, looking great. Is that a pretty new flower I see

 

[jinn]

your girls look healthy and happy mate!

 

[too old]

Update - Day 48 from sprout: Apparently, we have reached the "stretch" phase of this growth. For the last four days, the ladies have been adding 1-1/2" to their height every day. They are also rather thirsty, as they have been consuming one litre of nutes/water each day and not letting any drain out the hempy hole. Flowers (pre-) are developing nicely. I've trimmed some of the larger fans to allow light to the lower/outer bud sites, and have tied one branch over for the same reason. Not much lst required so far, as the alternating nodal growth seems to allot for the flowering cycle. The fans that I did take off were huge and near the top, pretty well shading the whole side of the plant. I was contemplating changing the MH to HPS, but I think I'll wait until the stretch is over and the buds have set. Not sure if I'm going to reduce the hours of "lights on"; generally accepted practices say it is not required. That's about it for this week. Thanks for stopping in. Keep growing and keep green.

 

[jinn]

im literally at the same point mate, the girls are getting hungrier and thirstier every day!
Your girls look lovely! (also planted my nl x big bud auto in a double big gulp just for you!)

 

[too old]

Hey j, I just looked through your journal and didn't see it. Did I miss it? Maybe I was too early for the pic, but thanks...treat her nice...I'll be watching you. I thought maybe I wasn't giving the girls enough water, but holy smokes, those buckets are heavy, just not draining, so I assume it's a balance of water in/water used. Still not used to these autos, to me they look rather "leggy". It's quite the contrast to yours and other photos. I'm probably just used to the real thick bushy plants that you can play with and bend and twist.

 

[jinn]

yeah I didn't get any pics up yet because she hasn't sprouted in the big gulp yet, and your girls don't look leggy at all mate! we just get blinded to how great they really are because we're seeing them every single day. Take a look at them 7 days ago, and look at them right now.

 

[drcannabi]

Hi too old,

I'm going to sit in and enjoy the grow! Thanks for the invite...

Your ladies look lovely!

 

[colorfuldayze]

Update - Day 48 from sprout: Apparently, we have reached the "stretch" phase of this growth. For the last four days, the ladies have been adding 1-1/2" to their height every day. They are also rather thirsty, as they have been consuming one litre of nutes/water each day and not letting any drain out the hempy hole. Flowers (pre-) are developing nicely. I've trimmed some of the larger fans to allow light to the lower/outer bud sites, and have tied one branch over for the same reason. Not much lst required so far, as the alternating nodal growth seems to allot for the flowering cycle. The fans that I did take off were huge and near the top, pretty well shading the whole side of the plant. I was contemplating changing the MH to HPS, but I think I'll wait until the stretch is over and the buds have set. Not sure if I'm going to reduce the hours of "lights on"; generally accepted practices say it is not required. That's about it for this week. Thanks for stopping in. Keep growing and keep green.

Looking really really nice too old. I concur w/ Jinn on the unquenchable thirst and stretch in this stage of their lives. I swear I can hear them drinking at this stage - almost like a rabbit in the hat trick...put 1.5 gallons of water in a 1.25 gallon pot and nothing comming out yet? whatz up with that lol.
Can't wait to get on over and check out and get subbed for Jinn's NLxBig BudxDDBL Big Gulp just for you grow!

Say too old, I thought I'd throw my two thoughts and 38 cents in the ring re: your contemplating whether to switch to the HPS at this point. I have zero experience w/ MHs since I've never owned or grown w/ one. I do think it would be worth my while for my setup and strain to use a MH after germination and plant establishment instead of the CFLs the entire first 40 days. I think our lighting strategy is similar with the one difference that I'm CFLing up to flower/sex epression and then going to the HPS (vs your MH to HPS). As soon as my plants have expressed sex then they go directly under the HPS for the rest of their lives. My rationale with the auto is that one has a limited clocked number of days once flower/sex expression occurs and the sooner they get saturated with the red/far red spectrum the better. Cheers sir, and thank you for an awesome update. Love you pictues and discussion of what you are doing, very informative and always a joy to visit your posts.

 

[Ascended Master Kief]

Read and subbed up, mate. Thinking of going hempy next year, in perlite, or coco, or both. Plants looking great.

 

[too old]

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

drcannabi and AMK - welcome aboard, glad to have you. Hope you enjoy!

colorfuldayze - I've grown under CFLs, and they are great! You get much different results from CFLs, which I like. It seems the plants are more compact, bushier, and it's almost like they beg to be topped to double up on the bud sites. It could be failing memory, but I think I recall them recovering from trimming and topping way faster, as well. The only downside, to my thinking, was the sheer number required to keep the plants bathed in light. Turned that situation around by seeing just how many lights it was possible to hang over/under/around my plants. (Quite a few, as it turns out!) Just be careful the leaves don't touch the ballast end. As to the switch from MH to HPS, I am guessing, leaning towards your theory with the red light, just not sure when to do it. It's easy with photos, but this auto thing is a new learning curve. Like I mentioned, once the stretch has competed, I'll switch then. With the Snow Whites.....wait and see what happens here.

AMK - a long, long time ago, my mentor started me growing in rockwool. Something inside my head said there was something wrong with keeping the roots that wet all the time. Next grow, radical change to the exact opposite end of the spectrum: perlite. Cannot possibly drown them if you have the drain hole in the tub. Dabbled in coco for a while but I didn't like it. I found it to be too finicky and sensitive in the pH department (sorry, jinn!). Having said all this, better growers than me use both those mediums with fantastic results (jinn, cocojim), so take it with a little more than a grain of salt.

 

[PlanetJ]

Heya .. growing in all perlite, is that to be treated as a hydro grow ? Looking forward to this

 

[too old]

Welcome PlanetJ - not technically a hydrogrow, I don't think. There aren't timers, or reservoirs of pre-mixed nutes, no "flood and drain". My res is just a tub of water under the grow table. No soil, this time around. I mix my nutes at each feeding (this is fresh food, not fast food) and water by hand. So I'm not sure what you would call it.

 

[Ascended Master Kief]

It's a soil-less grow, with water-based feeding. I know it's hempy, but I'd call it a type of hydroponics. I've got a tomato that's really happy in just perlite.

 

[jinn]

Welcome PlanetJ - not technically a hydrogrow, I don't think. There aren't timers, or reservoirs of pre-mixed nutes, no "flood and drain". My res is just a tub of water under the grow table. No soil, this time around. I mix my nutes at each feeding (this is fresh food, not fast food) and water by hand. So I'm not sure what you would call it.

passive hydro is the name ^.^
And thanks for the compliments earlier mate, but being able to grow girls as nice as yours using just perlite is a feat in itself.
If i didn't have the water retention of coco, I doubt my girls would have put up with my shenanigans thus far!

After seeing you, and Gov both do straight perlite, I think I might give one a go in the near future.

 

[too old]

Well, there you go! Thanks, AMK. Now I have a technically defined grow. Love it!!

Thanks, jinn. Guess we were posting at the same time. Better now, I have two useable defs!!