Grow #1: Cookies Kush by Barney's Farm | 315W CMH | DWC

[ocgreen]

They're not perfect but I love them and I'm learning. Looks like the one I broke is going to survive. 🤗

Date: Mar 11, 2019

Reservoir 1
ph: 5.96
ppm: 1059
temp: 22.8

Reservoir 2
ph: 6.17
ppm: 1095
temp: 22.8

Tent
temp: 26.8
rh: 47

Adjustments

• Using smaller humidifier which turns on/off based on RH. Keeping it between 42 and 57 now
• Daily fresh water top ups
• Lots of frozen water bottle swapping
• Increased overall water level in both reservoirs because plants I needed to dilute ppm
• Automating equipment using smart outlets
• Added a Waze web cam so I can check on my plants no matter where I am

[Spidermite]

You can remove the lower damaged leaves. The plant appears to have all its new growth looking great. Those brown leaves can go. Just keep on top of it and you will do great. And yes when life pulls you away it makes it really hard to keep up with them. Just have to do the best we can with what was given to us.

[ocgreen]

Ok great. I wasn't sure if they should stay or go.

[furrysparkle]

The most popular aerocloner is Clone King. Rooting gel and plugs do have a chance of failing, Mainly to root rot. In an aerocloner use light flowering nutes and hydroguard and you’ll have roots galore.
CLONE KING 36 Site Aeroponic Cloning Machine. Expect 100% Success Rates! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NRQJC0..._79tICb5XWJSWE

[ocgreen]

Got some help determining when to flower (as part of a separate thread). One of the recommendations was to defoliate so I gave it a shot!

What do you think? One pic is right after (last night) and one is from today.

THANK YOU to everyone helping me as I go.

[LurkingInTheGrass]

nice bounce back

[ocgreen]

Thanks! Next canopy will look better. Lots of lessons learned first time around.

[ocgreen]

Finally got around to completely washing and swapping out water from both reservoirs. For better or worse, this was the first time one of the reservoirs was changed. And this is likely my last grow in large totes vs 5 gallon buckets.

One mistake I made with the reservoir swap relates to PH. Last night the PH said 6.34 in R1 before I put plants in. This morning it was 7.03. Not sure what happened but I brought it back down to the 6.3 range this morning.

Adjustments

• Cleaned and replaced reservoirs in both totes
• Changed nutrient mix to "transition" levels
• Increased # of air stones in reservoirs from 2 to 3
• Tried to condense canopy because I learned my light only has a 2x2 footprint for flowering (in a 39" x 39" tent)
• Accidentally super cropped main cola of #2 😅

Issues

• Several stocks showing redness
• Plants looking a little more droopy than usual today
• Canopy has gaping holes
• One plant is continually pumping out deformed leaves and I think it has root rot

Next Steps

• Letting them bounceback for a few days
• Figuring out how to fix/optimize canopy prior to flowering
• Start flowering this Friday

Attaching recent pic of my canopy. I think I tied too many branches to the outsides which is creating big holes in middle. Not really sure how to fix because if I don't tie those branches down then they're much taller than the rest. 😞🤔

I'm all ears if anyone has any advice regarding any of the issues I'm experiencing and/or anything else you may observe/recommend.

Thank you.

[LurkingInTheGrass]

ocgreen
That's how it goes (pH fluctuations)

As plants uptake water/nutes/O2 pH will change

We just do our best to keep the res in range 😁

[DingusKhan]

That's some healthy growth!Your defoliation payed off well. Also, you really don't have to control your tank pH THAT closely, it will naturally change as your plant takes up nutrients, but you can let it get to about 7.5 before you add some lower pH water to your tank to bring it back down.

Also, if your plant is about a 1/3 of the height to the bottom of your lights, your should switch to flower, otherwise you won't have enough room to raise your lights before they finish stretching I can't really tell from the angle that your picture was taken from, but you may be getting close.

[ocgreen]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the help. I am switching to flower today and pretty anxious about it -- but that's par for the course with me these days! Anyways they have been sleeping since 7am and won't be up for hours.

My main concern is that RH gets to as high as 60 these days and I know flowering should be about 40.

One thing I observed is this tent is about +20 RH vs another tent in same room. The key difference is the tent with higher RH pulls cold air from outside. The lower RH tent pulls in warmer (but much more dry) air from same room. Temp is slightly warmer in second tent but still within ok range.

So tonight I am going to make this tent pull from same room like other tent and see if that helps. The more overarching strategy will be to get a dehumidifier sufficient enough to dry out entire room vs. trying to manage tents individually.

[ocgreen]

Alright so here are some key updates:

• Started 12/12 light cycle 2 or 3 days ago 🎉
• Moved 2 of 4 plants in the 3x3 to a 2x4
• Bought a 4x4x7 tent 😅

Both the 2x4 and the 3x3 have a 315W CMH. Considering a 480w alibaba quantum board for the 4x4.

I went from 4 plants to 2 plants in the 3x3 because 2 were become monsters, and I really wanted to make sure everyone has room to grow. Fully expect them to takeover entire 3x3. And now all 4 plants are thriving as far as I can tell. The biggest difference has been the explosion of growth in 2x4. They definitely love the separate space.

The hardest part right now is waiting. Both tent environments are stable and undisturbed for 12 hours during the day -- leaves me a lot less time to hang out in the garden and do things like stare at the canopy blowing in the wind. I miss it.

[ocgreen]

Maybe it's the Bubba Kush talking but all I could think when I opened that door was peek-a-BOOM! 😅🤪

3x3 and 2x4 filling up nicely!

[ocgreen]

Bad news:
1. Not as much to do since switching to flower.
2. Totally running out of space in both tents. 😅🤔
3. Two Cookies Kush ready to swallow a Northern Lights Auto

Good news:
1. New tent coming on Tuesday
2. Wife agreed to an 8x4x7 tent instead of 4x4x7 😍
3. I found a good use for old textbooks 🤓

The thought of an 8x4 auto factory has me feeling like 😁🤗

Any suggestions how I can create more distance in the 2x4? It's about 10" away now and I'm seeing signs of light stress. Not sure if there's anything I can do except wait for Tuesday.

[ocgreen]

LOL you're right. Doing great if that's the worst news I can share at this point.

Now to just finalize the different types of strains I'll be putting in the ol' auro factory.

Any suggestions? 😁

[LurkingInTheGrass]

I am on the end of days with my first Autos now. Royal Gorilla from Royal Queen Seeds.

Smells great, heavy buds. Just starting to get amber trichomes, so 2 more weeks?😁😁😁😁

Been a fun grow - I will be running more autos soon 😍
and the smoke will judge how soon I grow this strain again 😁

[ocgreen]

Nice, I'm growing a single Northern Lights Auto by RQS right now. Will be going back to RQS in the future.

You should check out mcubed's grow. 3 great looking autos produced just over a pound under 220w of cob lighting. Makes me want to grow some Bubba Kush Auto! And maybe get some "auto cobs" for the "auto factory" 😎

[ocgreen]

Hey Mr.furley look what I found!



☺👌

[ocgreen]

The two plants in my 3.5x3.5 continue to grow at unbelievable rates as we near the end of second week since I flipped to 12/12.



Right now the tallest point is a whopping 38" from top of tote which is slightly larger than the 3ft max for the strain. And I think they're very happy that the NL auto experiment was finally moved to a separate tent.

Question: Will they ever stop growing vertically? I think they stop growing upwards after week 3 or 4 of flowering. Can someone please confirm?

The other two plants that were getting absolutely squished in a 2x4x5 eventually reached to about two inches from the light. That's when I decided to open the 4x4x7 tent and transfer them into it:



If you look closely you'll see my little auto experiment in the front corner. Planted seed in rapid rooter on Mar 9 and just watching it grow au naturale.

As things start to stabilize and I become more confident that I might know what I'm doing, I just wanted to take a moment to thank and recognize:

Spidermite, furrysparkle, DingusKhan,LurkingInTheGrass, Mr.furley, Doubledealing72, alltatup and anyone else who may have provided me a warm welcome and/or encouragement along the way.

Thank you so much for helping me get started.

[Spidermite]

Glad you are having a great grow and enjoying yourself. There is nothing more satisfying. Your plants are looking great.

And yes around week 3 or 4 they stop growing taller and stop producimg new leaves. All energy is put into the buds.

And yes there is some kick ass help on this site. Never seen a more helpful site of people.

[alltatup]

You're doing a fantastic job, oc!!! The "flower stretch" usually lasts around 3 weeks; I measured my plants over the following weeks and there was like maybe an inch, 1.5 inch growth over the next 4 weeks. So at the end of week three flower is when you may want to remove the fan leaves that are blocking bud sites so that the light can penetrate into the interior of the plants.

[ocgreen]

Good to hear the rapid vertical growth will end soon. I need to transfer the two in the 3.5x3.5 to a taller tent because the current 6' ceiling is not high enough. But I mean as far as problems go, massive healthy plant is a good problem to have.

I was planning to skip flower stage defoliation this time because the guide says it's more of an advanced technique. For now I am just tucking because they are really bushy but will likely reconsider once we get to week 3.

[ocgreen]

Plants continuing to thrive. In hindsight, I should've switched to flower earlier because I ran out of vertical space and had to play musical plants.

The two plants in 3.5x3.5 were moved to adjacent 4x4 because roof is 7 inches taller. They're still pretty cramped in their new space but it's all the height I can give them.



As you may notice, the plant on right side is starting to outpace growth of plant on left. Not sure there's anything I can do to keep canopy balanced given they're in the same tote.

My other two Cookies Kush are now in the 8x4 because it has the same height as 4x4, and I could actually get these two through a doorway.



All plants looking healthy and starting to produce buds. It has been so exciting to watch the bud sites develop.



Until next time!

[Spidermite]

Are they done with the stretch?

[ocgreen]

Reasonably confident that the two in the 8x4 have at least slowed. The two that I moved into the 4x4 are growing 1-2" per day still.

Happened upon an Instagram post from Nebula Haze yesterday where she super cropped her tallest colas because they were much taller. Keeping this in mind as a last resort but seems like a more advanced technique.

[Spidermite]

Yes supercropping is a great tool. You will be happy with the results.

[ocgreen]

Starting to look frosty! 🥶😍🤗

[ocgreen]

I think stretch is over. Light's too close in both tents still, so the key lesson learned for me is that I definitely waited too long to flip.

Here's a pic of the 2 in 4x4:


Some really pretty buds forming all over. Leaves around that one cola closest to light are really curling and browning but otherwise looking good.

What I'm most concerned about is in the other tent 1/2 plants showing brown edges and spots on most big leaves:





Thinking it may be a bit of nute burn because reservoir water level was low with high ppm a couple times.

But it may also be some light burn because the light is closer than it should be.

And i suspect this plant has a bit of root rot. So it could be that. 😅

Basically this fucker had a hard life and trying not to kill her before end of May. 😂

What do you think she has?

[ocgreen]

Thanks PRIMO. I'm a but concerned I'll fuck it up if I defoliate. I don't know what I did wrong or maybe I need to do some reading but I tried to lollipop two plants not shown. And I thought once I did that they would start diverting all their energy to making buds. But they ended up making like tons of little leaves and new branches down low. So I just left it because I figured I was hurting yields if it's wasting all this energy on making new leaves.

I use calmag. Whatever the recommended dose is for the flora trio + calmag schedule available here on GWE. Maybe give her a little more then?

[PRIMO]

Oc. have you studied the tutorials here? If not you really should. Go to G.W.E. com. enter defoliate in the search bar.

[ocgreen]

Yeah so the articles here say it's more of an advanced technique and one article in particular talks about how they only tuck after week 3 flower but approaches vary. Some do week 3 and 6. And so on.

I tried it on 2 plants at start of flower. Mostly focusing on all growth below a certain point followed by removing fan leaves the size of my hand then any stems that looked like they wouldn't reach the top.

Obviously I did something wrong because the 2 I defoliated the most got that prob I described earlier where this was like this explosion of new little leaves and branches.

I'm going to give it a shot for future grows but think I'll just leave it this time given it's my first grow and I dont really know what I did wrong last time.

[DingusKhan]

Hey oc, it's been a while since I have checked in, but those leaves look good to me, you could just pluck some of the bigger, .more beat up looking ones, and call it "schwazzing". Your whole plant grew so we'll for the stretch, and looks good, otherwise. One idea might be to cut off some of the tallest colas a little shorter. You will lose the buds closest to the light, but the lower ones will grow in to be your new tops, and won't be burned when they're done growing.

[ocgreen]

Hey DingusKhan thanks for stopping by. I guess I need to do more reading on the whole defoliating thing. And maybe try to super crop those tall colas instead of cutting the tops off. Worth a shot or do I risk losing the whole piece above wherever I super crop? It would hurt to cut those fat nugs off the top 🤔