My first post and my first grow!

[NickyChicks]

Day 36 of 12/12. Another water change, I upped all the nutes on the GC in the center of the tent to 3/4 this week. After bumping up the Floralicious plus and LKB to 3/4 1 week ago and then I added 1 gallon of full strength nutes on Thursday. I definitely see an improvement with the overall color of the plant, but the top fan leaves still have a light green color to them. I'm not too concerned, it's producing nice looking buds and the roots look great.

All the plants are looking real healthy from what I can tell. I'm guessing when a breeder talks about flowering time, they're talking about how long it takes to harvest from the start of when you would first see signs of flowering, not the switch to 12/12. Is that logic correct? Ive been in 12/12 36 days but I didn't really see pistils until about 10-11 days in. I'm guessing I'll be harvesting somewhere close to the end of April. The alaskan purple and green crack have the longest flowering time of 63 days.

Also, thinking about lights and about trying LED. Thoughts on what I would need to cover my 4x4 tent? I was looking at Vipar Spectra but I'm really not sure what I'm looking at honestly. I would even consider supplementing 600w MH/HPS with smaller LEDs but that would mean more energy use and I'm not trying to do that unless I need to in order to effectively light my tent.

[NickyChicks]

SoOrbudgal that makes sense to me. Do you believe the same applies to autos?

[JohnEmad]

Most autos are from germination so 65 days to harvest is 65 days from the plant poking its head above soil in a near perfect growing environment.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks JohnEmad, good to know. As soon as i harvest these girls, I'm going to start some autos.

[Farmall]

NickyChicks LATELY, my last harvests had gone about 3 weeks beyond their breeder date. It does make you question whether or not you have gone off the path particularly when your relying on specific maturity checks to guide your plan. Your plants look terrific and the tent is filling up. Personally, I like it and believe you may find another 6 weeks if you are at 5 weeks in those pictures but that’s my thinking. I remember you said something about a deadline...hope this falls within it

[NickyChicks]

Your memory serves you right. However I lucked out and there is no worries of a time constraint now, well not really. I actually just found out today I will have some family visiting but not until mid September. I should have enough time to try my hand at growing a few autos after this and harvest those before September. As long as these girls finish up within a reasonable amount of time.

[Farmall]

Whew!, nice news in a way. Since our families are not nearby, never visit and our 2 extra bedrooms have been turned into non-bedrooms, we don’t see anyone

[NickyChicks]

Day 43 of 12/12. I think I over did it with the nutes last week, nothing major but I was going too heavy with the Floralicious plus. I cut back a lot on the water change I did this morning. The plants were all dark green and the GC in the center had some nitrogen claw going on. Idk how I messed up the measurements on it but I was giving full strength to all the plants and full strength + another half to the GC. The F+ is high in N which is probably why I'm seeing what I'm seeing! Other than that, all is good. Hoping to see the buds start bulking up from here on out.

The white widow smells amazing, Alaskan purples in the solo cups smell even better IMO. The smaller one growing in coco has leaves starting to show purple, I think she's gonna be a good looking little plant. It was sunny but cold yesterday so I took pics of the solo girls outside, today I took the Northern Lights and the Green Crack from the center out and brought them upstairs to try and get a decent picture in natural light. It's not sunny today like yesterday, no today it decided to snow. So the pics aren't as nice I wanted but they still look great to me.

Also my Grove Bags came in, I ordered the case of 50 1oz pouches. I'm excited to give them a go and see if they're all they're cracked up to be.

[NickyChicks]

Start of week 6 flowering. Nothing new this week just more buds! Did some thinning out , mostly the bushy green crack in the center of the tent. Also tied down the branches to space them out also to keep the plants from tipping, a couple are get a little tipsy.

Ordered UVB t8s from Solacure today. Hopefully those show up quick but i won't hold my breath. I would like to put them to use on this grow even if it may be a little late, but I shall see.

I posted a few weeks back on this thread that I ordered auto seeds. Well I ordered more. Variety is the spice of life right?? 25 seeds for $111 shipped, 10 of those seeds were free either from seedsman for spending x amount of $$ or they were on promo from the breeder. Let me know if you you've ever grown any of these from my new order, and/or feel free look back at my update when I posted the pic of my last seed order.

Dutch Passion
Daiquiri Lime Auto
Brooklyn Sunrise Auto
Meringue Feminized
Banana Blaze Femizined
Expert Seed Bank
New York Diesel Auto
Sweet Seeds
Bloody Skunk Auto
Seedsman
Blueberry Femizined
Gelat.OG Femizined

Hope everyone is doing good during these crazy times. Stay physically healthy and just as important, mentally healthy. Pet your dog, they don't know what's going on. Mine usually goes to doggy daycare 5 days a week for almost 10hrs a day. He definitely misses his friends and my girlfriend and I are both "essential employees" so he hangs out with my girlfriends son all day. He loves his walks and he's getting extra now but he misses his friends at daycare. Stay healthy everyone 🙏

[Farmall]

NickyChicks yep... the Bluberry feminized , Dutch Passion Cheese and the Gelato.... ranked in that order ....did them in soil and in hydro as my first rodeo. And it was a wild ride for a dried total in 9 plants of 3.6 lbs. so, ENJOY!!!!

[NickyChicks]

Awesome! The bloody Skunk piqued my interest because of the red poison in it's lineage. I saw mcubed's red poison plant and was all like ooooh ahhhhhhh. I have some gelato that I'm smoking right now, just from my usual guy and it's quite delicious. Danky smell.

[NickyChicks]

UVB bulbs from Solacure arrived today, super quick shipping. $25/ea if you buy 4 or more. Hopefully I see some good results. I snuck a quick pic before I got out of the tent, don't want to be exposed to it too much or at all for that matter.

[Farmall]

Hey NickyChicks I like that setup... are you using the metal brackets they sell for attaching the fixture to the hood of your main lighting? I got a pair on eBay ...if I remember $32.00 for 2?

[NickyChicks]

Farmall nope just some ratcheting rope hangers. I had some extra ones and they seem to be ok for everything else I've hung inside the tent. I'm going to try and look into what you're talking about, might be useful for my future grows

[Farmall]

NickyChicks The symmetry in your hanging them looks too perfect.... I’d have thought otherwise. I have them, they mount onto the hood and then the fluorescent fixture... one on each side and are adjustable... but, I used ratchets as well. They were already hanging and in the nightmare of pre-existing ‘stuff’, I just let them hang.

[NickyChicks]

I added a pic of how it's hung. I'm sure you really didn't need to see it to understand but there it is anyways

[Farmall]

Yep, that looks just like mine. 😉 mine was worse... a nightmare

[NickyChicks]

Another week in the books, starting week 7 of flower and hoping for another week of buds fattening and trichomes popping up. It's possible it's in my head but I'm pretty certain I've already seen a noticeable change in the appearance of my buds since using the UVB. Today would be day 4 of using it and I can say for sure that I've noticed darkening of pistils, especially on the chocolate kush and the white widow plants. The widow widow plants have been superstars during flowering and they are looking mighty fine. Lots of trics and nice round buds. I took a few pics right after the lights went out the other night. It's amazing how nice the plants actually look without the yellow HPS light beaming on them. The order they uploaded in, completely random. Happy Monday everyone, stay safe!

[Obi-Wan]

I don’t have any experience with the grove bags myself but the growers that do are A+ in my book. I’m a wet trimmer myself and I leave the buds on individual branches this time of year in the northeast USA. It’s a bit dry and I want to leave as much moisture as I can. That being said anything harvested past May in my parts gets clipped at the bud and dried on a rack. Right now I put my dried branches in a tote to bridge the gap between dry and cure. They go into the tote at about 70% RH and I’ll leave it cracked open until it drops to 60%. I’ll then set the lid tight over night and check them in the morning. Normally the RH rises over night and I crack the lid again. I repeat this process until the maintain 62% RH for 24 hours with the lid closed. As soon as it’ll hold that 62% for 24hours it’s ready to jar with only weekly burps for a month or so. I follow the same process with my summertime harvests with the only difference being that the totes are filled with buds only rather than stems with buds.

[NickyChicks]

Cool thanks again Obi-Wan. I like the idea of a transition stage, for the buds between dry and cure. Purgatory for cannabis. Going to see if I have some extra totes in the attic.

[Farmall]

NickyChicks. Well, a little too much Catholic school? Purgatory for Cannabis? 😂

[NickyChicks]

Day 64 of 12/12 roughly 50-54 days into flower depending on which plant you look at. Changed the water today and according to my feed schedule this is the 'ripen' week. Unfortunately I ran out of GH Bloom and was only able to give 1/4 of it's normal dose, not much I can do about it. The USPS has 7 bottles of my nutrients that I was expecting Friday/Saturday sitting at one of their hubs and I have yet to get an update. I think I'm close enough to harvest that it shouldn't matter and if it does, unfortunately there's not much I can about it right now. This week I added Ripen from GH, I think it's similar to Dry Kool Bloom except it's liquid. It says to use in the last 2 weeks prior to harvest, 2 weeks prior add Ripen to regular feed schedule, 1 week prior use just Ripen it's meant as a standalone supplement.

One of my white widow plants, much more noticeable than the others, showing some deficiency I'm thinking calcium. It's been very slight for a couple weeks and this past week it was more severe. Am I close enough to the finish that it shouldn't matter or is there something I can try and do. My pH has always been between 5.5-6.5, usually on the lower end of the range. This week and the past 2 weeks I've kept it above 6.0 thinking it's a cal def and I read cal gets absorbed above 6.2.

I'm really really really hoping the plants finish by the end of the month. Honestly, regardless of where they're at, I'm going to harvest them not later than May 1 so I can start my next grow. Right now, the tricomes are mostly clear with some cloudy on the buds, some of the sugar leaves seem to be more cloudy and I have seen amber on 2 plants but not nearly the amount I'm looking for.

Patience patience patience but, are there any methods I could do to help my plants mature/finish faster? I did raise my lights a few inches and I am using a ballast without a dimmer, but I do have one with dimming from 600 to 400 to 250. Should I consider using that ballast to lower the wattage at some point? I've heard of methods like stem splitting and things like that but they don't seem to hold much merit from what I can find. I read that strains like Acapulco gold got their names because of literally how golden they looked. It's said growers used stem splitting at the correct time right before harvest to get the trics to amber up. Sounds cool, but I've also read that it's a bunch of bullshit lol. I'm not really willing to try that but I am curious to see what kinds of things anyone has tried.

[Farmall]

BEDTIME: Sorry to hear about that .... my wife gets a cold or bronchitis and then pneumonia if the dogs tail makes a fast breeze ... no clue why and it is a factor for the last 45 years. Most days, 10:30 pm it is like someone took the battery out....I gotta go to bed and off she goes. Around 11:30-12:30 I get a second wind and heaven forbid ....if I’m reading some cool thing here on weed, I start getting ramped up and wider awake.

If The Firm, Top Gun or Crocodile Dundee isn’t re-running for the 2500th time, I’ll watch that til I nod off after a 2 capsule dose of MCT extraction... then, like magic 6;00am...it an automatic wake up. Without work now at 1 day a week, I do a lot here but have days I just hang out.

Going thru a seed collection today to see which strains are next to germinate. I’m also taking a few of the seeds from a hermied Durban Poison to see what they are capable of

[NickyChicks]

Yeah we usually hit the hay around 11 and up at 645 except this morning. This morning was alarm clock by doggo. Boomer is on his own schedule and so 638 was wake up time today, "let me out and feed me human".
Seed collection selection. Sounds like a good time, my guess is you only have a couple to choose from 😜 . Do you have a variety type preference or even a favorite strain? I like indicas and anything indica leaning more but i do like a nice sativa in the morning or when I'm working. With sativas it's best I am busy working or doing something though, if not I'll sit there and smoke the whole stash lol.

[Farmall]

My last count was over 1200 and I still sort out 20-30 whenever I have my glasses with me. I have had great “luck” with Black Cherry Punch, Blueberry Gum, Grandaddy Purple, Citrus Mistress and sever others I can’t remember right now but once I go thru the little bags, I’ll know. I have found indicas are More predictable for me

[NickyChicks]

Maybe I'm closer to harvest than I thought.... I have been checking with a loupe but I checked with my digital microscope today, in natural light. This is the one of the white widows

[Farmall]

Hard to tell but.... are those beautiful golden trichs I see a reflection of other elements near the photo site or are they actually golden amber trichomes? I’ve had this happen that the light reflections from something made it look more amber than it really was....just a thought. Hopefully not the right thought

[NickyChicks]

I was in natural light, indirect, led on very dim on microscope. I'm pretty certain those are amber, I will be checking them often. Oh, btw Farmall I'm going to pull the trigger on LED strips 😬

[Farmall]

NickyChicks. Well, let me say GOOD LUCK and I feel quite confident you will be very pleased 4-5 months from now 👍
A.) your electric bill B.) your crop

[NickyChicks]

Alright, the word of the day is Nanner. Found some nanners in my single Northern Lights plant. Noticed them recently but didn't realize until last night what I was seeing. I thought it was a burnt tip on a small sugar leaf. Anyways here we are, about day 60 in flower so I yanked her from the tent and chopped her. I really wished it could have matured a little longer but I think the right choice was to pull it and not risk ruining my other girls. She was a final height of 22" and about 18" wide with 7 mains, should have been 8 but the 8th never grew as strong as the others. The buds have a peppery smell. Trimmed them up and have them hanging for now, once they're dried the buds will go into Grove Bags.

[NickyChicks]

Water change today for the rest of the tent and nanner inspection. I found 1 on a white widow plant and 1 on a green crack plant. I plucked them and they are back in the tent. I'm going to watch them closely over the next few days, I really think they need to go at least this whole week and maybe most of next week. Lots of cloudy trics but still some glossy especially on the green crack.

[NickyChicks]

Northern Lights is dried, weighed and put into Grove bags. 46.3g total dry weight. Smell isn't very strong, hoping as it cures that will change. All in all I'm pretty happy with the harvest of my first plant! This weekend I'll check the trics again but I think I'll be harvesting a couple this weekend and then the rest during the week

[NickyChicks]

Farmall, I will definitely let you know what I think. So far my complaints would be bag size and design. Stuffing an entire oz into the 1oz bag is probably not a great idea. They say not to overfill the bag so I went with 21g in each I don't think I would do much more. I also wish the bag was a stand up style bag like how some snacks come in the resealable bag with a wide base. Those are minor issues though, as long as I get good results in a few weeks I'll be pleased. And if I don't I might chalk it up as first timer error lol

[NickyChicks]

I take back what I said about the stand up style..... They are exactly that. High how are you, no, how high are you? What.

[Farmall]

Well, ya got me on that one...😂

[NickyChicks]

Day 77 of 12/12. Harvested the smallest of the White Widow plants, and harvest the 2 smaller Green Crack plants. Both smell amazing, fruity, the green crack has a lime candy smell to it. White Widow 1(1st harvested) was about 22" tall and had a really nice purple and green color to it, dense round super frosty nugs. Green crack 1 was 19." tall had long, lanky lower branches and some chunky ass colas. Green crack 2 had the same structure as GC1 but never filled out as well despite being 2.5" taller at 21.5". Even with it's not so fat nugs, the yield was still impressive. I'll have dry weights when that times comes and more picture of the buds.

As for the rest of the tent. I have 2 white widows, 1 green crack, a chocolate kush who I've been doubting is actually CK, and my 2 alaskan purples in the solo cups. They'll all be getting a water change tomorrow and I'll let them do their thing for the rest of the week.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks JohnEmad, I appreciate that! I did do a bit of studying, a good 4 months lol. My only resources were the GWE site and combing through posts on the forum before I started my grow, and basically the same as the grow has gone on plus asking some questions. Hoping for a successful drying/curing. I'm trying a few different methods for drying, they're all going to cure in Grove bags once they've dried.

[Farmall]

Just underscores the amount of realistic information that is available here to truly develop a successful crop.

[NickyChicks]

Farmall ain't that the truth

[NickyChicks]

Yesterday was day 90 of 12/12 somewhere in the neighborhood of day 77-80 of flowering and I took down the rest of the plants. I'm pretty surprised on how well the solo cup plants yielded considering their growing conditions. Out of the full size plants , the chocolate kush was definitely they small yield and the green crack was the largest. All the plants that got the chop last night will absolutely have bigger yields than the plants I already harvested and dried. Judging by what I've got weighed so far vs what I harvested last night, I'm pretty certain I'll have a total tent yield of over 1lb! Fingers crossed!
My last post 2 weeks ago I had taken down a few plants, dry totals so far......
Northern Lights 46.4g
White Widow (plant #1) 35.3g
Green Crack (plant #1) 50.5g
Green Crack (plant #2) 45.6g

I really couldn't have had this much success without GWE or the help of all the kind folks on the forum. Thanks to everyone who has commented on my posts even if it was just to say good job, I really appreciate it and it got me to where I am now. I have learned a lot and plan to keep learning. It's true, what you put into it is what you'll get and i feel I have been properly rewarded for the effort I put into this grow. Thanks everyone, look for my post for my new grow of all autos, seeds are germinating right now, in fact one had already cracked open after 12 hrs.