HYDRO My first post and my first grow!

[SoOrbudgal]

Weed Bible sits near my comp. LOL:bashful:

 

[DingusKhan]

I've personally let it go 2 weeks for smaller plants, up to about a foot high bush, in a 7.5 gallon tote bin. They started to look a little less robust, and had drunk down about a third of the tote, by then.

 

[NickyChicks]

This girl is getting a new home. It's one of the two northern lights I have going and unlike the other one, which is probably the bushiest of the bunch, it has been slow to grow. I think the space it's taking up is more valuable then what it will yield. Luckily, I have a friend who can take her. Slow to grow, but overall a healthy plant and I'm glad I don't have to kill it!

 

[NickyChicks]

Today will be the first day of 12/12. I moved the NL plant out of the tent that was supposed to get rehomed. Looks like that fell through so I'll have to chop it. At least I have more room now for the other girls to grow.

​​​​​​Last night I did a water change and I did my first defoliation session. I thought topping was nerve racking, ha, defoliating takes the cake. Hoping I didn't go overboard and that they all recover nicely.

 

[Obi-Wan]

Your plants look great. IMO you didn’t go overboard with the defoliation, a little heavier than most first timers but you left plenty of leaves up top to keep pushing growth. Now that you’ve flipped to 12/12 you’ll want to wait 3 weeks before you do that kind of defoliation again. A few leaves hear and there are fine to remove.

 

[NickyChicks]

Thanks Obi-Wan , your plants look great so I definitely appreciate your input. When I did it last night it was pretty late and the plants looked kinda sad and tired especially after I took all those leaves. It was nice to wake up to see them so happy and perky this morning. I hope in a week they look nice and full like your plants are looking today

 

[NickyChicks]

In 5 mins lights are about to shut off for their first 12 hours of darkness. I have my tent completely closed, all zippers zipped, all Velcro flaps are flipped shut, pull strings pulled tight. The vacuum on the inside of the tent pulled the sides in so much it made me nervous it would collapse my tent, seriously. I open two of the circular openings on the bottom and stuck a few feet of 6" vent hose in each. I cut some small circle shaped filters from some carbon filters I have for my air purifier. I stacked a couple in the end to block light from going in and it definitely seemed to help alleviate some of the strain on the tent. Anyone else have this issue? My fan is 440 cfm but I have it turned down all the way low.

 

[NickyChicks]

Its almost been a full week since I did my first defoliation and I think these girls filled out nice. The green crack that sits dead center of the tent, right under the light is definitely thriving the most. Kinda makes me wish I had a different light setup to deliver a more even spread of light, maybe 2 400w lights instead of a single 600w. It would be neat to have the light mounted on an arm light the dentist has to move the light to different areas of the tent. I realize I have an overfilled tent and that if I had half the amount of plants I could roll them around on dollys but just a thought I had. I've been considering getting LEDs but I really haven't done any research. Anyhow, that's for another day.
Later today I'll do a water change, first week of flowering nutes to be added. In addition to GH trio, I'm going to start Liquid KoolBloom, Floralicious Plus and Epsom salt. I've been using the Trio at 1/2 strength and I'll do the same with the supplements. Sometime before next weekend, I will change the MH out for the HPS. I'm guessing when I do that I'll really start to see the stretch, right now the plants have filled out since I switched to 12/12 but haven't gained much height the first week, maybe an inch, two max.
Should I do any light defoliating over the next few weeks? If so does it matter which leaves I take? Thanks everyone, Happy Sunday!

​​​​​​The second pic is the GC directly under the light, the third pic is another GC that's to the right of the one in the center. You can really see a difference in how they're filling in/out lol.

 

[Farmall]

NickyChicks I’d suggest at the 3rd week of flower. You’ll know which budsites are doing the best and can lollipop the rest. I will say...you do have a well filled space and it’s going to get really tight in there... nice grow. Keep it as productive as you can

 

[Farmall]

Consider pulling leaves that have a 2-3” stem reaching out of the plant. Kinda like the ones they use in the movies for fans when the princess is carried across the desert.

 

[NickyChicks]

Thanks Farmall , it's a tight squeeze for sure. Just trying to avoid any unnecessary growth and keep them all tame. My next grow I plan to only have 4 maybe 5 plants. When selecting leaves to cut, I will be sure to look for leaves only worthy of fanning royalty.

 

[DingusKhan]

Looking good, Nicky. It's always surprising how much they grow back after plucking.

 

[NickyChicks]

DingusKhan it's unreal. Almost looks like I never defoliated! It was a relief to see it happen though, made myself nervous cutting all those leaves last week. Ready to see some signs of buds soon!

 

[Farmall]

NickyChicks What’s funny is I think we all do the same thing....it’s when they’re successful plants that it becomes unruly. On the other hand, I stuffed over 3.5 dried and cured pounds into bottles that crop

 

[NickyChicks]

3.5lbs sounds like quite a successful harvest! Hard work pays off

 

[dphipps1020]

Just a thought to help "move" your light, rotate the plants themselves. Since the buckets and lids are round, you can rotate 1/4 or half turn to get light to different parts of the plant. Just a thought but that's what I usually do to help get light to every side. I even switch places every once in a while so each one ends up in a different spot.

 

[NickyChicks]

dphipps1020 yeah I've been rotating the lids every now and then. I would totally swap the positions of the bucket but i don't want to make a birds best of the air hoses and it's so damn tight inside the tent, it's a recipe for disaster. Surely a plant or myself would get injured in the process. I was more so referring to benefit of being directing below the light. Really was just having a stoner thought lol. Obviously the strength of the light is much stronger directly underneath than to the sides, using a lumen meter you can see a clear difference. The footprint of my light is 4x4ft but realistically the most effective footprint is more like 2x2. I'm guessing a con of an HID setup or my setup in particular. That's why I want to look into other options, looking to effectively and efficiently light my tent. Really interested in LED, just having a hard time understanding what's what.

 

[dphipps1020]

LEDs are definitely different, with pros and cons as well of course. I like them but I feel like I should get better ones cause I don't feel like mine put out what I want. Guess there's pros and cons for everything though right.

 

[NickyChicks]

Not related to my first grow.... But I'm excited. My seedsman order was delivered today with seeds for my second grow which will be autos! I think I picked some tasty strains. Also, super happy about fast shipping from seedsman. I ordered them in Friday Feb 7 and they came today, less than 2 weeks is good in my book.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

You sure got some good strains it looks like. Boy i'm going to do a all auto run after this photo tent gets done. And when I look at that photo from above the canopy holy bushes. Makes me want to help with the leaf stripping LOL. Your doing great.