Second Round-Thunderstruck Grow

[Herbal Warrior]

Ok so last grow didn't go according to plan. Started a new seed of thunderstruck that is now just over 6 wees old and looks healthy. Used promix/ worm castings 3-1, added alfalfa meal blood meal and bat guano with dolmite lime for the growing medium. Right now its in a 2 gallon air pot with all the holes in it. It was topped at the 6th set of leaves and seems to be a really big feeder. Using General Organics nutrients.
Lighting is a 600 MH for veg and going to change out the bulb to HPS when it is switched over to budding. Have ample air flow and carbon filter for smell. Have the humidity under control FINALLY, set at around 60%. It fluctuates between 49%-60%. There is also 2 fans blowing 24/7 inside the room to circulate the air.
Not going to use the 1000w LED this time as I want to see what will happen with just the MH/HPS this time and lower the variables at play.
So far so good. I will upload more pics when I have a chance. So for right now all is good.

 

[NebulaHaze]

Looks really nice so far! Can't wait to watch it grow! Just curious, how are you venting out the hot/humid air from in the grow space? Every leaf is constantly giving off water, so when the humidity is high it's often because there's not enough ventilation. Overall your plant looks very healthy and happy! I think you'll be very pleased with a 600W. If you completely fill the grow space under the light with colas, you can harvest 10 oz to a pound or more with a 600W!

 

[Herbal Warrior]

I have a 6" fan blowing fresh air in from a lung room and another 6" fan sucking out through a carbon filter that turn on when the lights go on. The 600w has a seperate 4" fan that cools the light. Doesn't need it right now as the temp is around 23-25deg Celsius without the cooling fan on.

 

[Herbal Warrior]

I'm not sure what the rules and guidelines state about vulgar language swearing and cursing on this forum so it has been many hours in the making before I'm writing this from the fact of the matter at hand.
I'm f#*%ing pissed!!!
I had to be out of town for a few days and my love of my life didn't water my girl...........
Work had to be done and pics to follow. Thunderstruck 2.0. I hope by the morning it's looking better.

 

[Herbal Warrior]

No Title

After flipping my lid, calming down and not going back into the room freaking out.............................mellooooooooooooow.........
Ok got everything under control fro the time being. Had to be out of town for longer than I thought and when I got home my wife didn't think that the plant needed water. Well it did. Leaves were droopy and falling off. Some even crunchy. So I took the opportunity to transplant into 5 gal airpot. Used the same soil mix as before, 3-1 promix - worm castings with blood meal, alfalfa meal, bat gauno & dolmite lime with some mycorrhiza added in. I gave it CaMg @ full strength, 10-52-10 at half strength after transplanting with 6.0ph water. Run off water was 6.1ph. Looking way better but now I have a few problems. Have to leave today to be out of town again for the rest of the week, which I don't like. Wanted to switch to 12/12 and get this baby flowering. I was swayed to let it veg for at least another week by a very experienced veteran of the grow. With blind faith I am going to follow that advice. The reason given was to let the plant relax into it's new environment of the new pot and give the roots a chance to stretch out and shoot some new growth, and new foliage. The other piece of advise I received was to stop tying all the tops down and to let them start stretching for the light before switching photo period. End result will be bigger buds.
Feel free to chime in any time here with comments about this advise. More info the better. The advice I got seems like it makes sense. I'm going to follow it and wait until the end of the week to set the lights back. Everything looks like it has rebounded fairly good. Looks like harvest will be extended another week.

 

[Herbal Warrior]

Having a hard time posting other pics. Way to many MB

 

[Herbal Warrior]

No Title

 

[Herbal Warrior]

This is after the transplant and 10-52-10 feeding.

 

[Sheesh]

Looks like a nice recovery to me. I would keep doing what you're doing but let them settle in a bit before flipping. I would also remove some fan leaves to expose bud sites and ensure good airflow going into the flower stretch. Defoliation helps keep humidity down too. I do understand not everyone agrees with plucking fan leaves...

 

[Herbal Warrior]

Well, she's going to get at least 6 days before the lights are cut back. I have left detailed watering instructions so there is no question as to if it needs any water. I really don't like being away this long but have no choice. So I practice my patience and wait to see how everything turns out.

 

[Herbal Warrior]

No Title

Little bit of a delay getting things posted. Had to deal with the flu. So this is a week later after the last pics, after transplanting and letting go one more week before cutting the light to 12/12. I changed the bulb to HPS and cut the light back 3 days ago when I got home. I did do some trimming on the bottom and some of the bigger leaves that were shading the lower bud sites. Didn't get a chance to get any pics because i was just about timed out for everything to go dark. I'll post come tomorrow but they are going to be all orange.
What a difference letting her go another week. It grew at least 7 inches, it was completely wild growing everywhere. Love when that happens.
So I'm not sure if this was what I was supposed do, but it needed water and was schedualed for nutes, so I gave it a feeding of the General Organics Bloom 2-4-4. Should I have used the Grow 4-3-3 instead because of the stretch the plant does in the first two weeks?
Other than that I'm pretty happy so far.

 

[NebulaHaze]

I hope you're feeling better! I think your plants love what you're doing! When it comes to the nutrients, I took a look at their official schedule and it recommends doing Veg nutrients for the first week of Bloom, then switching to Bloom after that. But honestly at this point as long as you started with good soil I don't think it really matters much

 

[Herbal Warrior]

Good to know. Thanks Nebula

 

[Herbal Warrior]

No Title

Ok here are a few pics of everything after a trim of some of the leaves that were covering potential bud sites. Can't quite bring myself to full on manifold this baby. My big concern is that all throughout this whole grow, I have been able to keep the run off water at between 6.3-6.0ph. The last feeding I did the run off was 6.1ph. Yesterday was time for water and I gave it straight water with CaMg just to make sure there is no calcium deficiency developing and the ph was bouncing between 6.0-6.1 going in. WHY is the run off water coming out at 5.5ph????? I have been doing everything the same and the ph has dropped dramatically. I even re-calibrated my ph pen and it was the same thing, 6.0-6.1 going in and the run off was 5.5ph. What would cause the ph to drop like that when the only thing that I did was change the bulb in my light? Nothing was added to the soil, the run off was good when I fed it, all it did was grow and use up the moisture in the soil. I really don't understand how this happened. What would cause a huge drop in the soil ph like that???? Someone please shed some light on this. I don't get it.

 

[NebulaHaze]

Lots of things can affect the pH including the plant using up nutrients in the soil, or a change in which nutrients they've been given. In soil you're going for a pH of 6-7, and if its coming out at 5.5 you could try giving the plant nutrients at a pH closer to 7 until it starts coming out in the correct range It sounds like you're really on top of it!

 

[Herbal Warrior]

No Title

Sorry about the orange strip effect but I don't have everything set up to take wonderful pictures. I'll take big buds from the HPS over pretty pictures any day.
So these pics are day 10 after switching to 12/12 light schedule. Watered again (day before yesterday) with 6.9-7.0ph water with just CaMg and run off was 5.8-5.9 ph. Kept fluctuating so I'm a little more happy with that. Using a lot of water right now. Took 10 liters (just over 2 gallons) before started to get any run off. I guess thats a good thing. Everything else is in check. Heat is 24°C(75.2°F) humidity is 39-42%. Have enough air flow to get wind hair-do when I go in there. She seems pretty happy. Which makes me happy.

 

[Herbal Warrior]

Yesterday was watering day and time for a feeding. Gave it Bloom at full strength with cal mag. Ph at 7.0 to bring the soil ph up. So now the run off ph is 5.1.........so should I flush and get the ph back to 6.0 or just wait until the next watering and ph the water a little higher 7.7-8.0 to get the ph up? Don't really want to drop the ball at this point. This is a full two weeks into bud and I'd like to fix this before it snowballs. I still don't know why the ph is dropping like it is. Plant still looks healthy but the stems on the leaves are turning red. Need some advice.

 

[Herbal Warrior]

I'll get some non orange pictures up as soon as I get another light shining on the situation.

 

[NebulaHaze]

How's it going?

 

[Herbal Warrior]

No Title

Hey all. Been a while. With nice weather finally showing up, haven't made much time to do any updates or post any pics. Everything has been about outside. Sooooo this is 4 solid weeks of bud. Just watered yesterday with water with CaMg and Silicate wit ph'd to 7.0 Finally got the run off water to get to 6.3ph. She looks good and is really smelling like grapefruit in there. I was fighting with the runoff ph the last couple of waterings. The watering before this one was full strength bloom with CaMg(General Organics) and 2.5ml of silicate. I watered with a ph of 6.9 and the run off was 5.8. So now tat it's all cleared up n the ph department I can sleep much better.
I put up some pics to show how she's doing. They weren't very good pics. I had to crop them down quite a bit to get them to be under the 2.0MB to be able to upload them.
Oh and thanks NebulaHaze for checking up on me.