HYDRO My second grow in the 4'x4' tent: Acapulco Gold, Laughing Buddha & Purple Haze!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 7 of flower is underway and we have our first yo-yo! The taller Purple Haze was making me a bit nervous with its leaning! The rest are all still getting slightly taller and making colas like they're s'posed to. I estimate two weeks to chop - I'm seeing some orange stigmas now.

The thrip traps may soon be gone. A few gnats still hanging around are the reason they are still there. I kinda wish I'd topped them all and given them another two weeks in veg at the time I flipped to flower, but it's no biggie.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 8 is here and stigmas are fast turning orange. They are liking the low humidity and cooler temps. Bud growth is mostly stopped except for fattening. I've got some yellowing leaves from overfeeding a bit last week. Acapulco Gold seems to dislike it the most. It looks like I'm going to be forced off my nutrients I've been with since ever. I'm looking at some stuff called Cutting Edge Solutions (which sounds like a great name for a shell corporation) currently. I bought a gallon of their Bloom to help finish off the grows I've got going and then I'm going to burn through what's left of Aurora Soul Grow and Infinity during veg of the next projects. Individually, the bottles aren't very expensive but even their basic program will require you to use a bit from six different bottles during veg and bloom. On a more positive note, the store I bought the bloom from also has seeds now. I scored a vial of ten PPD fems from Humboldt Seed Company! I've been trying to get those beans for a while now. I could cross it with Ghost Train Haze and call it Panty Raid.....

Check out the photo of the PH side branch which is so heavy from bud that it is pushing part of the trellis into a V shape.

 

[RagWeedDWC]

Awesome grow, have been thinking of building something similar in my space. Do you have a problem with roots plugging your return lines?
That bud in the corner is a winner!

 

[crucialbunny]

When my plants stopped taking up regular nutrients I used a epsom, molasses, and banana tea the last few weeks. Seemed to help fatten the buds up nicely those last few days.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks for the kind words. So far, I haven't had a blockage problem. It is 1-1/2" PVC and probably as small as the return lines can be without trouble. Some builders even use 3" PVC or ABS pipe. I think I'm fine as long as I don't run a pump too hard. The ones that tend to clog are likely the undercurrent kind where the nute solution flows fast in a circuit through all the buckets and back to the reservoir. In my setup, the solution returns to the reservoir passively. I think that is the difference-maker here.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Noted. I may look into that. pH is still falling from the low sixes to the middle fives during the day, so they are at least still using potassium in quantity.

 

[RagWeedDWC]

I missed the passive part, so as long as you limit the feed line you prevent the over flow and it just drains back to your res... Makes perfect sense.

 

[crucialbunny]

I should add however that I did get some foxtailing. Didn't seem to take away any quality of the final product.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 9 began Sunday. It's amazing how I never realized how fast the stigmas were turning orange until the weekend when I got to see the girls in natural light instead of green light. They seem to have stopped hogging nutes which is fortunate because some long days at work kept me from checking on them as much as usual. Chop is almost certainly happening at the end of this week! Purple Haze is not as mature as the rest of them and I might just give it an extra week if it demands it.

Acapulco Gold

Laughing Buddha


Group

Purple Haze!

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 10 is happening after deciding that none of these girls are getting cut before time. AG is likely good enough to go, LB is not far behind. Purple Haze has just too many glassy trichs going on. Next weekend will be interesting cutting down seven plants of four varieties in one weekend. I feel a bit dumb but a little better for figuring out what that spotting is on some of the leaves. I pointed the oscillating fan at the tops of the plants when I was fighting thrips. It finally dawned on me that the leaves in trouble were not random - they were all in the sweep of that fan!

Laughing Buddha didn't seem to be as affected by the wind burn for some reason. Hmm.

They are all on a very light diet to conserve what Bloom I do have left. I can't wait to try all of them once they are dried but PH has a special place in my heart (and in my bowl).

 

[Farmbuck]

About right for AG, I grew it myself ... Chop my AG at the end of 10 weeks of flowering , I could have keep them for another week but impatience took over... Their pistils were more than 80% orange by then . As for her trichome as a Sativa, she took her time to turn amber. After all she is a sativa dominant hybrid non ? Will I grow it again? Not sure..! But this is my personal opinion. Don't get me wrong her smoke is very close to the old one. Pleasant and mellow.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

I've had a half-ounce of AG from a dispensary and fell in love with the way it makes me feel like I'm on a vacation a long way from Frownland. AG will probably be grown again with other sativa dominant types that feed lightly. AG is at a place where most noobs (especially the dankrupt ones) would chop without hesitation. I think the extra week will be worth it for all of them. A funny thing - I've been forced to check on them with a green headlight lately. The green light is better at revealing glassy trichomes than anything else including a loupe! I can just go from bud to bud looking for how many sparkles I can see and get a good idea of how ripe they are even when I can't tell whether stigmas are white or red. PH is much closer today than she was on Sunday!

 

[Farmbuck]

If I may, are you growing the Barney's kind ?

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

It is indeed and so is the Laughing Buddha. Purple Haze is from ILGM and still my favorite homegrown until further notice.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Chop happened Sunday. As I pulled the root balls from their buckets I noticed root rot localized where coco was still sticking to roots. No more rooted clones in coco will be moved into my hydro setups - not without a helluva rinse. The finished product didn't seem to suffer much, thankfully. The smells are just insane. I had one of the Laughing Buddhas hanging tonight for fan leaf removal and the wife said it smelled chocolatey. Speaking of which - the LB in back produced much more than I suspected it did. Really, only AG underproduced. I think I will only grow it with other light feeders in the future.

The system has been bleached and cleaned. After the harvest dries, I will start seeds for a Ghost Train Haze grow for seed production. The smaller tent will hold four Skunk #1s for the same purpose.

I managed to learn a few more things during this grow such as how to kill off thrips, how to spot windburn and the moratorium on coco-to-hydro. The only thing close to a regret here is that I could have been more patient before flipping to flower. I might have had a bigger harvest if I'd topped them all one more time and vegged them two more weeks before flip. Otherwise, I've got two of my favorites drying and a very nice smelling possible new favorite on its way to my stash jars. Happy Thanksgiving to my stateside friends!

 

[Farmbuck]

Good job!! Yeah the AG"s are a bit finicky girls, put I manage to bring them to 10 wks.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

I hung them up to dry in the tent, fan leaves and all. RH stayed over 60% for the first five or so days then crashed into the high 30s as the weather changed from warm and rainy to cold and dry. I trimmed the fans as soon as they wilted three days later chop. A few days after that, the cut hay smell was gone and upon opening the tent I was kicked in the face by a terpene monster! AG is insanely sticky. I got to sample a few popcorn buds that fell off - they were better than the dispensary AG in every aspect but potency. I expect the better bud will exceed the half ounce from Colorado. AG filled two jars before trim. I jarred LB today - three jars worth. The smell is not as strong as AG but is at least as frosty. PH gets jarred tomorrow. I may need four jars to contain the untrimmed nugs. I will need to clean the tent again from all the fallen sugar leaves on the floor. Ghost Train Haze seeds get started this weekend! Luckily, I have managed to score a gallon of Soul Bloom so I can continue with my chosen nutes for at least one more grow.

Back with a smoke report later!

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

A somewhat complete smoke report!

I've only tried the Acapulco Gold as a couple of popcorn buds that fell of during drying. They were surprisingly potent but not mind-blowing. I need to get into the better stuff because the bigger buds are very sticky and stinky. The high was much as I remembered it - relaxing with a major mood lift.

Purple Haze is as good as I expected and may be the best batch yet. A little more time to cure will tell. It smells of fruit 'n fuel and provides some nice visual effects - animations even.

Laughing Buddha also is quite the mood booster. I tried. I really tried not to. Still, I wound up involuntarily snickering at how absurd this whole existence is. LB is described as both a mood booster and giggle grass but they don't mention that it's also quite psychedelic. I'm guessing that came from the Thai lineage.

The whole tent got a good wipe down or five and the buckets and plumbing were flushed with a bit of bleach then flushed another half-dozen times to get rid of the crud left from the coco that I couldn't knock off the root balls. Seeds for Ghost Train Haze are due to pop in another day or so. Time for a new thread and a new grow. Thanks for all the feedback along the way!