Cbdstealth - Soil - CBD Critical Mass - Small Grow - Jan 2017

cbdstealth

Active Member
The details:
- 1 x CBD Critical Mass-
- Approx. 3 gallon pot 11"x13" x 5" height "Rubbermaid dishpan"
- "Grow box" is 67L Rubbermaid storage container, approx 12"x16" x 14" height
- Miracle Gro African Violet potting soil
- 2x micro mini CFL, 1450 lumens @ 6500k moving up to 4 bulbs when ventilation is added
- Currently no nutes only tap water which locally is quite hard water (7.5-7.7 pH)
- Currently ventilation relies on convection; filter carbon and fan arrived yesterday and will be built "diy" soon

Grow events to date:
Seed in wet paper towel with tap water on Jan 20
Seed cracked in ~24hrs, put in soil 24hrs after germination (Jan 22) @ 1/2" deep with loose soil covering
Seedling broke soil approx 36hrs later (Jan 24), grow box wasn't ready, seedling in low light
Seedling transferred to grow box approx 36 hours later (Jan 25)
As of Feb 7 there are three leaf nodes (excluding seedling leaves) with the top pair having seven point leaves

Some context:
Hi all, from up here in balmy Canada. Last time I grew anything was many years ago before we had legal medicinal and was quite successful from bag seed, outdoors. I decided to try to do something a bit more challenging for my "new first" attempt by doing a micro grow similar to a scrog. This was supposed to use The Purps for its small stature but the beans didn't arrive in time so I decided on CBD Critical Mass (CBD CM) Feminized because they arrived before The Purps and I wouldn't have to worry about sexing multiple seedlings.

My aim is to grow the plant around the grow box perimeter without topping the main stem. The idea being the CFLs would remain in the middle surrounded by growing plant. I don't expect this to maximize yield but am doing it simply as an experiment. To date I'm surprised at how short and squat this plant is growing, I expected a lot more stretch from the CBD CM given that I currently only have 2 bulbs running. This may be a blessing though seeing as I haven't got my screen in place yet which would make it a bit difficult to do the perimeter thing.

Any advice or input is welcome.
 
So I haven't checked in for a long time, things have been busy. First a quick summary of where we are at.

When I first started growing her she was at 24/0. Starting on February 8th I gradually rolled the timer by 1 hour the first day and a half hour each day after so she was at 19/5 by Feb 17th. The plan was to roll it a half hour a day from 19/5 to 12/12 over a course of two weeks into flowering. The switch to 12/12 started on February 25th and finished on March 11th so she has now been in 12/12 for about 11 days (darkness is during the day so I always forget which day is the 10th, 11th, 12th day etc. :) About a week before I started the switch-over to 12/12 I did a bit of thinning to take out a few sucker branches and some overcrowding fan leaves.

I have been running 3-4 CFLs in the middle of the "Grow cage". The way the cage is setup when I tie parts off the plant to it they are no further than 3 inches from the light. Close enough to get all the goodness but not close enough to burn. I am surprised, but it appears a leaf only gets burned if it is within fractions of an inch of a light (a few millimeters). Depending on how warm the box feels I will sometimes shut off one of the CFLs (hence 3-4). During veg I ran 3 cool white (6500k) with one warm white (2700k), the warm white is the one I would turn off to reduce heat. In 12/12 I have been running the reverse (3 warm/2700k, 1 cool/6500k) but have still been turning off the warm white if I reduce to 3 bulbs.

I had a few leaves yellowing during the switch to 12/12 and in the first few days after. I thought there may be a nitrogen deficiency so I gave her some fertilizer with a some N and a high P to build into the flowering. It seems that may have given her some nute burn even though it was at half strength. Since then it has just been plain water and she seems to be responding well. I still have the odd leaf yellowing but they typically appear to be ones not getting enough light. The grow tips and foliage around appear to be doing well so I will probably stay on plain water a few more days unless she complains.

Other than the nute burn not too much exciting has happened. The plant is quite squat and bushy. The way the setup works she is pinned to/growing up the sides of the grow box with CFLs in the middle. The flowering stretch has not been as pronounced as I expected. There are a few lanky sucker branches that have come out and I assume will turn into popcorn buds but I have also considered trimming some of them. I never pinched the grow tip but I have trained the top so some under branches have grown quite vigorously. Currently I would say I have three main grow tips and a lot of smaller tips.

It sounds weird to say but part of my problem is she hasn't stretched as much as I was expecting. This has made large portions of the plant concentrated on a single part of the wraparound. I have tried to spread them out as best I can but as soon as a branch starts getting enough light it seems to slow down on the stretch. This has resulted in some overcrowding but it is currently still manageable. We'll see where it's at when I get bud formation (currently just see some pistils).

The hardest part of this grow has been keeping the leaves out of the lights. Every once in a while one will climb up in or a branch will spring out of nowhere and get cooked a bit. The constant training to keep everything in check has been enjoyable. It gives me something to do other than just stare at her waiting to grow. However, I wouldn't want to do this with more than a couple plants. If I had 4 or more I suspect I would be spending about an hour a day just on training. With 1 plant though it is quite easy to just move the odd bit when I check in on her.

Photos to follow.
 
Here are some pictures.

These are from March 20th. This morning I saw a lot more pistils coming out of my main grow tips, starting to look like nice little pre-buds. I didn't expect this much formation so soon. I think I can attribute it to either 6-ish weeks veg time or the gradual switch into 12/12.

The first picture (left) is one of the 3 "major" grow tips, it's one of the oldest branches on the plant. The second picture (middle) is the entire plant and you can see the mesh around the sides that I tie it off to; one of the major branches is pulled to the right, the gorw tip and other major are pulled to the left, everything in the middle is giving me potential popcorn buds. The last (right) picture is the actual main grow tip and the third tip I count as "major", again that is from an old branch. In the picture the main grow tip is the top tip and the branch is the bottom.
 
Had some of what I am calling "pre-buds" starting to form. Lots of pistils everywhere right now so I thought I'd grab some pics of the major grow tips for reference. Unfortunately lights turned off before I could get all 3. First picture is the main grow tip and second is the major grow tip pulled to the right.
 
I'm not sure if this is normal but all my bud sites seem very small and I'm in week 3 since full 12/12 (5 since roll-off started). I know I shouldn't expect too much being under CFL versus HPS but given the size of the plant and stem thickness I expected a bit more particularly on my 3 major grow points. The picture of the bud is one of the major grow tips, the coin is a quarter.

I have a bit of a heat issue with the grow box being so small. It is hard to tell though how I should be measuring this. In direct light I am reading 32c/90f but in the shade it reads 28c/82f. I know that it's a little warm in there but not terrible. I understand higher heat will make the buds less dense but is it also maybe making the buds small? Or am I just impatient?

All in all she still seems to be doing well despite the heat. It is getting a little crowded with all of the little bud sites being close together and crowding each other. Some of the older fan leaves are continuing to yellow and die off but there are plenty of other leaves picking up any slack.

 
Thank you HerbChild. It's a combination of small grow chamber (hard to get picture with short focal length), not the best camera, and I just realized now the lens is dirty... oops.

I will try to get better pics in the future. Right now she is sleeping so I'll see if I can get some better one at lights on today.
 
Here are some better pics of what's going on. I now have a fourth bud that has managed to grow large enough I am going to start counting as "major". Regardless I still feel all the buds are small and I'm still struggling with temperature running around 90f (32c). I am going to rework my ventilation system this weekend and see if that helps.

First four are what I am counting as "major" bud sites. The last is an indication of the other little buds on the plant, none of the major sites are in that picture. Total I'm around 15-20 bud sites (tips) that doesn't count some of the smaller stuff down away from the tips.

 
Here are some better pics of what's going on. I now have a fourth bud that has managed to grow large enough I am going to start counting as "major". Regardless I still feel all the buds are small and I'm still struggling with temperature running around 90f (32c). I am going to rework my ventilation system this weekend and see if that helps.

First four are what I am counting as "major" bud sites. The last is an indication of the other little buds on the plant, none of the major sites are in that picture. Total I'm around 15-20 bud sites (tips) that doesn't count some of the smaller stuff down away from the tips.

Hey don't sweat it. Your only three weeks into bud. Depending on your strain you may have six or even 10 more weeks ahead. Keep up the good work. Better job on the picks BTW
 
Just a quick little pictorial update.

There are so many little bud sites sitting under the canopy that aren't immediately apparent in the pictures. At harvest I'm thinking of maybe using them for my first try at making some hash, specifically dry ice hash. Mmmmm, I love me some hash.:drool:

 
Had a bud where all the pistils started turning orange and thought "it seems a little early for that". Did a bit of research and found out this can happen sometimes. Next day that same bud had a nice bunch of new pistil growth on top so I guess it wasn't anything serious. I have bought a 40x loupe so I can have a look at the trichomes.

I have altered my ventilation system and it seems to have dropped the temps almost 10f (4-6c). I'm now running around 82f (28c) and I have another idea that I am going to try with airflow to try to create a kind of "air curtain" between the plant and the lights. If I can get it down low enough I may turn the fourth light back on even though she seems to be doing fine with 3.

 
She is really starting to slow down, not drinking as much water and some lags between new pistil growth on all buds. I gave her a half dose of ferts on Monday and I think that may be the last. This is supposed to be an 8 week strain. I am at 5.5 of full 12/12 and 7.5 since the roll-off from 19/5 so I think she's a bit ahead. Lately a lot of yellowing is happening on fan leaves despite me keeping an N component in her diet.

So I have come to the point all newbs do where I am starting to wonder when to chop. I know, everyone says "look at the trichomes" but I can't tell the difference between clear and cloudy (even in good macro-photos). I'm pretty sure I don't see any amber at this point. I am willing to chop any time after this coming weekend (after 6 weeks). Here are my reasons for and against chopping her a bit early in order of importance:

For early chop:
#1 - The smell. She is a dank girl. Smells like a bowl a very ripe fruit when you are close but definitely fades to skunk. The house isn't stinking yet but every once in a while I catch a slight wiff if the air currents are right. I have a filter but it's apparently not good enough.
#2 - The yield. Right now it looks like it is more than enough to last for a while. I don't smoke that often and lately my insomnia has been pretty good. For sure there is enough to last until my next harvest which I expect will be in about 2 months.

Against early chop:
#1 - The experts. I have read time and time again about waiting whenever anxious newbs are thinking "I want to smoke now!". Truthfully I'm not feeling the "want to smoke it now!" vibe. Yes I am curious to see how this goes but I currently have a stash and know that after chop I'm still about 6-8 weeks away from smoking.
#2 - The yield. I was so worried about small buds earlier and this is an experiment in how much I can grow in a very confined space so not seeing it to the end won't maximize my results. I also want to try making some hash so obviously the more bud the better for that.

One thing that is not as important to me as you might think:
#3 - The potency. I'm OK with not having her reach her full potential. I am growing this one for the CBD component and as I understand it CBD doesn't have the same last days peak that THC does.
 
Here are some pictures to give you an idea where she is at. On Monday she had only one bud with new pistil growth which got me starting to think about how close she is to done. However, in the past 24 hours a bunch of the larger buds have popped new pistils so there's still some life in her yet. I also tried to get some trichome images, sorry if they are too low quality.

(Click on the trichome images to a full-size image)



 
I know it has been a while since I have checked in. Today is the start of week 7. I got a good look at the trichomes and I finally understand what "cloudy" means and feel it truly is easiest to understand when you see it first-hand.

She is definitely over 60% cloudy, saw the odd amber (maybe 1-2%) and every once in a while there is a clump of clear (usually on new growth). I think the chop is coming very soon, I need her grow box for the next round.

According to the site I got the seed from this is supposed to be an 8 week strain. I am at 7 weeks full 12/12 but have always felt she is a bit ahead, mainly because of the roll-off in the lights but I also wonder if her small stature has had an effect as well.

 
Your buds looks really well shaped and developed! Mine are a bit ugly haha. But yours are pretty!

One thing I'm seeing through the pictures is the yellowing fan leafs, your plant is already starting to cannibalize itself, which means it's near the end of its cycle. So you are close! Get her in flush and I'd get ready to chop down soon.

Take an overall shot, so we can see the size of the whole plant. And make sure to enjoy! That looks like a successful grow to me
 
Thank you Pstarsr! This is all for personal use so I'm not to concerned about the looks but I'll take the compliment. :) The buds may look nice but they are all quite small.

This weekend she had a few foxtails because my filter wasn't working well mid last week so I slowed the fan and things got a little too hot.

She is already 7-10 days into flush if I recall correctly. I'm probably going to chop either Wednesday or Friday this week. I'll be sure to do a full set of pictures at the chop and try to get some that give a better idea of size.
 
So she finally got the chop on Friday afternoon. She is super-stinky and my whole house smelled skunky for 6+ hours after I took her down even though I was in a room with an exhaust fan. Chopping took about half an hour to get her untangled from the screen but I had to move outside to the shed to finish trimming because the smell was just too strong. She has a nice almost citrus, sweet smell up front but the skunk is definitely there on the back end and it is pungent and it lingers.

Sorry for the low-quality pics, a combination of poor lighting and weak camera. These should give an idea of the constrained size. The grow cage I used to tie her down inside the grow box was approximately 15" x 8" and the max height from the top of the soil is 9". The bud and trim is sitting on a 18"x13" cookie sheet to give you an idea of quantity. Lots of popcorn bud, only a few decent sized nugs.

Unfortunately I forgot to take more pictures after trimming. She is in the dark right now drying, I will take some pictures of the buds and post a final weight when she is dried and stabilized at 62%.

 
So she is finally stabilized around 65% RH and I am letting her cure. Final weight is 19 grams. I think this may be the last post for this journal.

I obviously would like a bit more but am happy with this as a first go. I suspect I can get the yield up if I can get my temperatures under control. The buds just aren't as dense as I had hoped and I understand "fluffiness" can often be attributed to heat.

The smell is incredible if you like weed, very pungent, can't really smell the citrus as much any more. But weed, definitely weed, so delicious! Lots of trichomes and quite resinous, slightly sticky to the touch even when dry.

The weigh-in:


One of the larger (maybe largest) buds:


A picture of it in the jar:
 
Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please feel free to start a new journal here: Journals in Progress

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
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