Cash Crop 5.0 first grow

[allmyown]

The grow Box is suppose to be 3 feet tall, but with the reservoir inside, I have about 2 feet. my plants now are about 7inch, I think I can Veg for about another 2 weeks, than im need to flip them, at the rate they growing now every day when i check them i can see the growth NebulaHaze. I also couldn't resist, I topped the 5th plant today, so another reason I am going to Veg longer. If things go like this once I start flowing, I will have me one good time smoking lol Okay let me go read some more on flowing & bud growth

[oldjarhead100]

I am wondering if you will have enough room in that tub and room for all your plants to reach maturity .I have a friend who grows in hydro and he uses 5 5 gallon buckets(his root ball fills the bucket) .I grow in a 5x5 room and I am full with 4 plants. I have found that when the plants don't have enough room it really effects them badly

[NebulaHaze]

It seems like you're on it! I didn't realize you only had 2 feet of head room including the space needed between the lights and the top of your plants. With that amount of space left I can see why you want to flip immediately! oldjarhead100 That's a very good point and something to consider! That is a another good reason why it makes sense to flip them to 12/12 when they're still relatively small

[allmyown]

Indeed that is also one of my concerns oldjarhead100 that was why on my first grow i only tried growing with 2 plants, but being a rookie and cost i brought reg seeds, and 1 of the plants was a male. The other plant ran into root rot early, i applied Hydroguard, and fix that problem, and did bring that plant to a full Harvest the yield was only about little over half OZ. I used that grow for the knowledge and experience of the different stages of growing. That plant was Strawberry sour diesel, and while the yield was very small, the smoke was awesome!
This Cash Crop 5.0 claims you can grow 6 plants, and I have not found yet where anybody has been able to do that successfully with this setup.
So this grow my second, i have learn a few things, and correct those mistakes like, I will never ever grow again without a PH meter, I use Hydroguard with every reservoir change, and I cut back on the feeding levels. I topped these plants once, and I have upgraded the lighting a little, so far they are doing great, and i have not had one single problem.
I plan on Veg one more week NebulaHaze than flip em. I might have to take a few fan leaves to just give some room for the lighting to reach lower, but i am not going to step out my lane and do to much experimenting. Thank you both for comments and advise

[CCisme]

Very nice ladies.

[NebulaHaze]

What a great post, and thanks for sharing your story! I just can't wait to see how it goes. if it starts getting crazy crowded in there, you can thin out a few of the weakest or least productive looking ones

[allmyown]

Thanks NebulaHaze I just did a reservoir change, and I plan to flip em in 7 more days. I also checked my root system, and so far i am good, but you can tell 5 plants is MAX big time with this setup. All my future grows in this setup will be 3 plants max. My plan is to lightly defoliate a few big fan leaves just before the flip, put them on 12/12, and do a final defoliate 2 weeks into flowering.
The benefit of growing the 5 plants is 4 of nthe plants is Strawberry sour diesel reg seeds, so I am expecting 1 or 2 of these plants to be males. So far they are all healthy, and i have yet to have a problem.

[NebulaHaze]

They look great!

[allmyown]

Okay update. My plan is to flip these in 4 more days, i am loving the way these plants are growing. I can actually see 2 main colas on each plant, they took real good to the topping, and if all goes well in flowering, my grow box should be packed with bud. I been reading for the last few days NebulaHaze section on Defoliation, and I want to try it on this grow, but i am so scared i will mess this up, and hurt my plants NebulaHaze As you can see the plants are starting to take up space, and I like to get as much light as i can to all the bud locations. I don't have enough room between plants to do any real LST in this box, so i am thinking if i defoliated some of the large fan leaves now before 12/12, and again of my third week of flowering, I can increase the yield and bud growth.
Question. I will have to get in there and move around my plants some to defoliate, will to much movement hurt my plants? Also how close to my main stem do i have to be to cut the large fan leaves?
here is photos of my plants as of today........

[NebulaHaze]

First off, they look beautiful! Touching the plants to move them is just fine. Think of an animal brushing by the plants in the wild, or leaves getting blown by the wind. They can handle a lot. You don't necessarily want to touch them all the time when you don't need to, as they need time by themselves to just grow, but regular plant training and movement won't hurt them.

With fan leaves you can try to pop them off with your fingers right at the stem, but if they don't easily come off you can cut the leaf off with scissors as close you can without injuring the main stalk. If you're worried about taking off too many leaves you can always start slow, or maybe try with just one or two plants and see how they react before defoliating the others You'll get the most bang for your buck by removing the biggest fan leaves with long stems that are blocking bud sites and can't be tucked. Your grow is shaping up very nicely!

[allmyown]

Now reading your comment NebulaHaze really really made me feel good....Thank you! Also I really feel like I am getting the beginners hang of this growing life. I started defoliating today, I had notice some of my leaves was on top of each other, and when I move the leaf and notice wetness on top of the other. I remembered your saying (you can always take leaves off, but you can't put leaves back on!) So i only took a few fan leaves. I am going to flip them in 2 more days.....Photo update soon

[allmyown]

Grow Update:
These plants are growing so well, I decided to flip them today. I change my reservoir and nutrients i am using now is RX Bloom A-B, feeding a little under the product suggested level. Because of the amount of plants, and the tight reservoir space for my roots, I upped the Hydroguard strength slightly, PH is balance off at 6.5.. I got a good airflow going, and my lighting seems just fine. I am still concerned about the grow space, cause these babies have been growing vigorously. My main focus now will be keeping control of them during the 3 week stretch, and looking for males among the 4 strawberry sour diesel Reg plants. The skunk #1 is a Female.

[CCisme]

Looking good yay! Im 2 days away from my first flower!

[allmyown]

Hi NebulaHaze little photo update 6 days in flowering, and you can see the growth, with no problems out of any of the five plants. I will change the reservoir in 2 days. Next week my focus will be the start of me watching my plants very close for Males. So that brings me to my question:
Because of the tight space, i am sure the roots of these five plants are all tangled together. If I have a Male that needs to be removed, can I cut the Male at its base without removing the base and roots of the plant? because if the roots are tangled i would have to cut them out and wouldn't that damage the other plants?

[NebulaHaze]

Ooof, that's a really tough question. I've never done that. On the one hand, it seems like a good idea to try to avoid disturbing the roots of the other plants as much as possible, but on the other hand you don't want a bunch of dead and rotting roots floating around in your reservoir if you can help it. I imagine you'd want to take a hybrid approach and just do the best you can to remove as much as you can. Your plants look great! They have filled up your space!

[allmyown]

New photo update 13 days into flowering. I used white thumb tacks to mark my plants growth once i flipped them, and they grew past each mark. I have 5 plants in this Cash Crop 5.0, with a Full Spec 20Watt LED grow light that came with the setup (to which I still wonder if its strong enough to produce quality bud). I think I am going to upgrade the lighting on my next grow, by adding 2 strips of 10watt Gled LED grow bar strips. My grow is 4 plants of strawberry sour diesel, and 1 plant of Skunk #1. This coming week my focus will be keeping the plants healthy, looking out for any males, and a final defoliation which should be the ending period of my flowering stretch!
I am also other than following NebulaHaze grow instruction on GWE, doing this grow off of my learning experience, and sight. My first grow I followed my setup grow instruction, and My nutrients growing instructions & feeding guide. I have found both to have been a little misleading for a example....My nutrient instructions stated a Veg time period, only when their suggested Veg period was over, truth is i could of Veg for about two weeks longer and filled my grow space more. That was also the case in flowering, I was done with their suggested feeding cycle, about 21 days before Harvest, so I had to continue feeding but at a lower level than I liked cause my levels that I was giving my plants was now off. NebulaHaze Thank you for all your reviews of my grow, and advise......