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...

[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?

[Gingerbeard]

Yes. Again, my newness, I assume anything between the 16-20 inch recommended distance means that anything within that range is getting enough. My lower buds are at about the 20 inch mark and look great. I had a small issue with light burn at the beginning. All I did was move the light. Problem solved. It's just a matter of keeping an eye on things.

[PaganRich]

Thanks GB...very grateful mate

[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.

[Gingerbeard]

HARVEST! This is Purple Pride Jr. PP Sr. still needs a weekish.
Almost zero sugar leaves. Fair dense nugs.

[HappyDaze]

Nice! I've got a Blue Dream clone that I hope to introduce to a diet of cod squeezins and squid vomit shortly.

[JohnEmad]

v nice results. They looked great with that purple.
I am almost 4 weeks into flower. anticipation builds.

[Gingerbeard]

Ooh... this is only Purple Pride Jr. Very light on the purps. Next is Purple pride Sr. That one has a few days to go, yet. The one in the back of the tent. That'll be the money shot, boy-o. I could actually have purple nugs at harvest time.

And I said "expeller pressed squid vomit" and "5x refined cod squeezin's." Don't skimp on the cheap stuff.

[Gingerbeard]

I had a little BB's worth of scissor hash after trimming. Bowled it up this morning. Good stuff. Tastes just like hash. Not like scissors at all.

[Gingerbeard]

My harvest on the 11th has given me about 18 grams, shown in the pictures. The plants are not the harvest. Nothing to sneeze at for a first timer with bag seed. Of course I wish it was more. But I'm learning. After this much time drying, it's a damn smoothe smoke! Like getting softly punched in the face with a cotton ball. Purples are a' comin'.
Of course, Purple Pride Sr. (shown in the pictures) is still ripening up. It is entirely possible I will be harvesting on Friday, the Summer Solstice. I'm pretty sure the trichs will be good to go but it seems like it keeps putting out green hairs or the ones that are there are being stubborn about things.

[Gingerbeard]

I can't do much more than plant and grow, HD. I don't have space to try things like revegging. 'tis a beauty, though.

[oldjarhead100]

when the plant has its second set of true leafs ,I give it them a little bit more N, I decrease light to 14 hours,Increase humidity and lower temps until the 4th or 5th set of leaves come in thats it ,the key is doing all this during the growth of the 3rd set of leaves .2 weeks is all I do it for

[Gingerbeard]

I can't do anything about temperature or humidity. There hasn't been a need to and I don't have the space to implement anything. One of my next plants will not be topped in lieu of training a spiral. One will be topped. I always top after the third set of leaves. Decreasing to a 14 hour light cycle seems counterintuitive after being groomed by GWE wisdom. Doesn't that send the plant to flowering?

[Gingerbeard]

And here's Purple Pride Sr. Looks like maybe perhaps double PP Jr.'s yield. Extremely dense nugs, in my opinion. They're purple, green, and orange. I went by the trichs for harvest time. The plant kept putting out new hairs while the trichs were probably 25% amber, 10% clear, and 65% milky. It's the summer equinox. That doesn't really mean beans to me except it was kind of neat doing a first day of summer harvest. A double BB ball of Fiskar hash for my immediate troubles.
Towel sprouted seed have gone to dirt. The two plants I had vegging had outgrown their space and it was good to get them in the flowering chamber. 50% LED for a couple days, 75% for a couple, then we're going to settle in to our 100% 12/12 and watch the magic.
I'm just tickled.

[Mr.furley]

Congratulations again.

[HappyDaze]

All the damn plant porn on this site is making me crazy. I'm months from a harvest.

Happy summer solstice.

[Gingerbeard]

I've taken a few of the smaller buds off for sampling. 24 hours of drying and it's as good as any dispensary top shelf. I found myself searching for the source of a candy smell. Smarties. A sweet, powdery smell. It wasn't the new dish soap. Not the dog. I don't eat candy. Gawddamn if Purple Pride Sr. doesn't smell like fing Smarties! Aint a bit of grass smell 'cept 'nless you get real close.
Daytime drying is hanging in front of my balcony door. Nighttime they go into the veg chamber where I have fans working.

[oldjarhead100]

nice shot of the bud I love the purple well done