Flowering journal

[Gingerbeard]

It's late on the start of a grow journal. I figure why not do a flowering journal. I'm happy with myself because I've done just about everything right.
Bag seed. Both are 14 weeks, 3 days old which include 3 weeks and one day in flowering under my 350 watt LED. 2'x2'x4.5'. 24 hours after doing my 3rd week defoliation. I've been pinching fan leaves from the lower buds over the last few days to lessen the shock of doing it all at once. Good idea? Bad idea? I didn't see how a 20% defoliation was going to open this up. So, here we go.

 

[Gingerbeard]

Fourth week in flowering. One week after third week defoliation. It looks like they're about over the shock. I keep having to LST because the tops are hitting the 16" recommended minimum distance for my LED. Time to move the light up because the branches are beyond supercropping and I'm nervous about getting more splits from further LSTing.
Each is taking a full quart of nutrients with only a small amount of runoff from the side or bottom holes.
Using the GO Box for nutrients on the flowering schedule. I'm probably looking at starting molasses no later than the second week of June. The eighth week of flowering.

 

[oldjarhead100]

Gingerbeard those plants look fantastic well done on the defole you took a little less than I do lol but they always come back I don't worry about shocking them , I use fabric pots but if you get some of the green soft wire ,round not flat then You can poke a hole in the pot the lower the hole the further out you can pull down ,the wire is strong enough to hold it in the hole ,Not saying your doing anything wrong just sharing what I do lol

 

[Gingerbeard]

That, my old jar headed (old jarred head) friend, is high praise. Thank you.
I'm going to keep working the bag seeds before considering purchasing strain specific or auto/fem seeds online. They're giving me good practice.
I was considering wire like you're talking about. But using it to bend branches bonsai style so as not to stress the stem-trunk joint.

 

[oldjarhead100]

Jar head a term given to Marines because of there hair cut stile lol I think i've bought a half dozen 50 foot packs of it I love the stuff ,there are generally six ways to accomplish something while growing I just share what works for me lol

 

[Gingerbeard]

You know… when I first saw your avatar I thought, "That dude is a marine. A snake oil selling marine." Called another one.
I'm army.

 

[Gingerbeard]

Another week gone. Everything looks good. They're sucking up better than a quart of fluids a day. The buds are freaking sticky. I'm not going to bring them out to photograph because they're getting to be too much to move. The 9 finger came from the plant in back.

 

[Gingerbeard]

6 weeks in flowering, 3 weeks since the 3 week defoliation. The plants will be 18 weeks old on the 31st of May. If I flower for another 26 days I can harvest on the Summer solstice, on the 21st of June, which would make for some magical bud, I'm sure. I nuted last night for what I plan on being the last round. From here on out I'm thinking of alternating molasses and water.
My camera is about ten years old. The quality of the pictures isn't super. The 'duct tape' I initially used to block some light gaps along the partition edge didn't last from morning to evening because of the... whatever. I wound up putting blue painters tape in place. It's been there for five and a half months.
The plants are sticky. The plant in back smells like berries. The plant in front just smells like weed. Very dense buds.

1. How does my 26 day theory hold out? Does that seem like a good time frame?
2. Keeping the 26 days in mind, I'd like to do a good flush of remaining nutes and replace them with molasses. Whatever ratio of molasses to water ratio I choose, how often should I use it?
3. Taking a look at the larger fan leaves in the pictures, would it be worth while to trim them? Would it be too much shock, this late in the game? Would it help the lower flowers?

 

[Gingerbeard]

Found some purple on one of the plants. It's only showing on top of a few leaves. Others are trying real hard. Most of the rest of the plant is purpling on the underside. I'm calling it purple pride. It's the one in back. Still uber sticky. Still uber berry-e. There might be near end of flowering nitrogen deficiencies happening. Not to worry. I understand it to be a good thing.
Liquid schedule is water-dry-molasses-dry-etc. Good progress on the hairs. The trichomes are real small and are difficult to check for milkening but could be getting bigger. I might have found a few amber trichs. Checking again this evening.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Those look pretty darn good Gingerbeard . Looks like just a little ways to go great job.

 

[Gingerbeard]

It looks like autumn in my tent! The purple exploded. The fan leaves are yellowing. The back plant will be called 'Purple Pride'. Smells more and more like fruity berries.
I found purple on the front plant tonight, too.

Just a bit but coming along. ​

We'll be calling it 'Purple Pride Jr.'. I keep thinking my flowering window is about to open when the flowers keep putting out more of their little hairs. Trich's are still smallish but are getting their little heads or caps or you know. Don't make me get technical.
So, lots of pictures because I'm lots of happy.

 

[Gingerbeard]

More pictures...

 

[HappyDaze]

The color is amazing...you're inspiring me to start another dirt run, I've got about half of a G.O. box left but it's a year old.

Anyone know the shelf life of organic ferts? They stink pretty bad when they're fresh, so how do you tell if they've gone bad?

 

[Gingerbeard]

Thanks, HD! Three cheers for bag seed!
When the GO box is fresh, it smells like fresh breezy sea stuff. I happen to be a fan of fresh breezy sea stuff smells. Living by the ocean is a bonus for that. When he stuff goes bad, it smells like rotten sea stuff that is kept fermenting in a little bottle. I'm not such a fan of that. If it smells rotten rather than just bad, get rid of it.

 

[HappyDaze]

Haha...thanks for giving me some perspective...I'm on the eastern edge of the Canadian Rockies / western edge of the prairies, so pine forest, freshly cut wheat and cow shit is a "good" smell to me. Everything was kept in the cool, dark basement and the biomarine still smells like the beach in Vancouver, if my memory serves. I'll test it on the tomatoes first.

 

[Gingerbeard]

I might have exacerbated the nasty smells because I was using a syringe to dose my water. Since it was the same syringe, I probably cross contaminated fertilizers. Extra virgin, expeller pressed squid vomit doesn't mix well with 5x refined cod squeezin's, I guess.

 

[Mr.furley]

Very Beautiful Gingerbeard

 

[PaganRich]

Lovely grow mate and great pics.Question...do you keep your Vipar at the flowering distance suggested or closer and what would that be please. Thanks mate

 

[Gingerbeard]

Howdy, Pagan. Thanks for the kind words.
16" - 20" is recommended for my 350 during flowering. The light is at 16" for the uppers and the lowers are in the 20" range. Better training practices and I would have trained them down a bit more to keep them closer to the same distance to the light which would have given me a better harvest of the lowers.
When I went to flowering I didn't acclimate the plants and got a bit of light burn at 18". Start slow if you're moving a plant, say, in my case, from t5's to LED. Mine spent a couple days acclimating to the LED at 18-6 before flipping to 12-12. Keep an eye out for light burn when you first start moving the light.

 

[PaganRich]

Thanks GB...starting growing again mid to end July and first time with LED`s so curious to see how they far and nice to save some dosh on electric as well. Lights eat power...so, your info really helps mate. Trying the Vipar 1200`s and never used anything like that before. Interesting days ahead. I have heard that light burn is a major factor. Do they penetrate far below the initial canopy, light wise?