My First Grow Journal...EVER! 600W MH/HPS Bubbleponics Cabinet Grow

[ellz]

11/02/2017:

11:00PM: Began removing the undergrowth today. It basically took 3 hours to cut all the popcorn from under the main canopy. A lot of it had decent buds...though small, they are frosty! Some was dead...not sure what happened but you live and learn. I threw out about 3/4 of a 10 gallon tote's worth of leaves and dead stalks. The rest I trimmed and dunked in a bucket of clean water, then shook them off (all one at a time mind you) and placed most of what I cut in the bottom 3 levels of my mesh drying rack, with about 5 larger colas hanging in my drying cabinet. I imagine I will cut most of it down tomorrow evening. Just wanted to get a good start on it today and I am glad I did...that was A LOT OF CUTTING! Photos below. Thanks for reading. I will keep updating as I finish out the harvest.

[bigtrucker315]

Nice, ellz. The bud sites look very healthy

[ellz]

10/31/2017:

09:00PM: Drained the flush mixture out of the reservoir and replaced it with pHed water (NO HYDROGUARD). This is all the girls will get from here on out...just pHed water. The flush did great...lots of residue in the bottom of the drainage tote meaning that deposits have been pulled out of the growing medium and roots! It's almost impossible to tell what color the pistils are on the larger buds under bright light. The red from the grow light is washing out the red in the pistils. I plan on blocking the light with a piece of cardboard and using a LED or CFL bulb to see if I can see them better. I have also been checking the trichomes and they are a nice mix of some amber, more cloudy and very few clear. A couple of smaller buds are ready and I will likely cut them later on tonight or tomorrow. For all the small buds, I am drying them in a mesh drying rack in my garage. The other, larger buds will be dried in my dry box but I am not running ventilation or any of that just yet. I am just going to leave the door open and a fan blowing on the crop from a distance. The environment in the garage is pretty ideal for drying so it should be okay. Below are photos from the past 3 days, along with some bud shots from tonight. Will update again when I start harvesting, which should be this week for the most part. Thanks for reading and for sticking with me! Happy growing!

[ellz]

Photos from today...just changed the reservoir over to the flush mix.

[ellz]

Wow...I never thought about how difficult it would be to grow being colorblind. That is quite a conundrum! Glad she can be your pistil spotter though!

[Graff420]

Lol im colorblind so i dont really do red that well i mostly ask my gf about specific colors because i cant really differentiate when things are small lol but yea thats what my gf told me she said my hps light turned my red pistils were white

[ellz]

Graff420 do you notice that the HPS bulb makes it really hard to tell if the pistils are red? It feels like the red from the bulb is washing out the red in the pistils. I feel that way because in the photos where I zoom in with my scope (which has a built-in LED) the pistils appear red but looking at it without the scope they look white.

[Graff420]

Yea i didnt do that lmao just got done drying and jarring it yesterday deffinatly shoulda weighed it wet

[ellz]

Graff420 I can't wait! Hope to be blazing some of this crop by December!
I am going to weigh it wet and dry just so I can get an idea of the loss of mass due to drying.

[Graff420]

Always glad to read and cant wait on the sative final weigh ins

[ellz]

10/28/2017: Went ahead and mixed up my flush mixture for tonight. When the light comes on I am going to drain whatever is left in the reservoir and refill it with my pHed water/FloraKleen mixture. I plan on running that until Tuesday and then it will just be pHed plain water from then on. It looks like I will be harvesting around Monday or Tuesday, and possibly doing a second harvest a week or so later (some smaller buds may need more time). Either way, the bulk of the grow will be ready in a few days. The trichomes are all looking cloudy or even amber and for the most part, the pistils have changed over to orange and red from what I can tell. Here are a couple of pictures from the past couple of days. Will update again around harvest or just before. Thanks for reading!

[ellz]

Two more 60x zoom photos from yesterday...

[ellz]

No problem. I am going to post two more close-ups from yesterday below.

[bigtrucker315]

Nice buds. Thanks for the close up of the amber trichromes, it will assist me in what to look for

[ellz]

Wanted to update everyone on the status of the girls. They are almost done based on the trichomes and pistils now both starting to turn mostly amber. Below are photos from the past 6 days along with a bud close-up from today showing the amber trichomes. Thanks for reading.