# How much longer?



## Surfer Joe (Oct 30, 2013)

I tried to take a couple of informative shots of the sativa that was planted on sept 12 and grown in a small 6 inch clay pot.
The leaves are turning yellow and the trichs look a little cloudy, but I'm not sure.
Can anyone please advise based on these shots how much longer it may need to go? I would prefer a strong head high rather than a body stone.
Thanks for any advice.


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## 7greeneyes (Oct 30, 2013)

we need things like strain name, maturity, when seed was sowed, when you flipped to bloom...all that stuff first and foremost


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## WeedHopper (Oct 30, 2013)

looks like an Auto.


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## Surfer Joe (Oct 30, 2013)

7greeneyes said:
			
		

> we need things like strain name, maturity, when seed was sowed, when you flipped to bloom...all that stuff first and foremost



The strain is a white diesel feminized auto that I got from sense seeds that was marked as 70% sativa. It was planted on september 12 and sprouted by september 17.
I had them on 18/6 light cycle until about two weeks ago and then I increased it to 20/4, mostly to keep it a bit warmer at night since the grow tent is in an unheated garage.
I have noticed that the humidity inside the tent goes down to about 30% when it is closed and the lights are on, and then when I open the flaps to visit them the humidity goes up to about 40%. It has been between 40 and 50% humidity for most of the grow inside the tent, but it must be getting drier as the colder weather arrives and driving the humidity down maybe. I do keep a flat dish of water in the tent and the plants seem to need watering every day or they start to droop.


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## Melvan (Oct 30, 2013)

Most autos finish 70-80 days from sprout. Of course, that's just an in general number.


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 5, 2013)

Are we there yet?
Here they are again on november 5.
They were planted on sept. 12 and sprouted on sept 17.
The indica is an auto super skunk and the sativa is an auto white diesel.
Thanks for any advice.


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## trillions of atoms (Nov 5, 2013)

Aint ready yet


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## The Hemp Goddess (Nov 5, 2013)

The only way to tell is to look at the trichomes with a 30x or better microscope or loupe.


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 12, 2013)

Happy days.
My trichs have begun to turn amber!!!
I plan to harvest my little sativa this weekend.
It still has a few whitish pistils in places and somewhat have dried up a bit but there are definitely several amber trichs in the tiny leaf that I snipped off tonight near the top of the main cola.
The little indica is not there yet but the trichs are definitely cloudy.
Both plants are shedding fan leaves and those have turned mostly yellow.
I have been feeding them only water at pH 6.4-6.5 for about two weeks now.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Nov 13, 2013)

You are not even at 9 weeks yet.  I believe that you still have time to go, especially since this is a sativa auto.  Mel mentioned 70-80 days and you are only at about 62 days now.  How are you checking the trichs?

I feel that you probably made a big mistake feeding them only water for 2 weeks, especially since you are in such a small pot.  I feel that you probably still have at least 2 weeks to go and them that will be 4 weeks that it has been deprived of food.  I am sure that it has cost you in both yield and potency.  There is just not much bulk to the plant at all.  I really really think it is too early (and that you should feed her again).


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## sunakard2000 (Nov 13, 2013)

:yeahthat: honestly i just dont understand why some people dont feed near the end, thats just stupid if  yah ask me, especialy for an auto. think about it this way, lets say your birthday is comming up in 3 weeks and you know your gonna have some awesome food there so you decide to starve for 3 weeks so you can demo everything thats tasty, by the time your birthday comes around your weak and tired cuz you havnt eaten anything for weeks. i know thats kind of a retarted comparison but i mean come on, the last few weeks for this wonderful plant seem to me to be the most critical, since its when the plant not only puts on a majority of its weight and also trichs, the plant needs food to process the basic THC acids into the form we want, pure THC. so starving the plant near the end is only making it have to eat its self basicaly to stay alive, unfortunaly even a big monster plant doesnt have enough reserves of nutrients to keep its self fully fed so it can produce to its max, i personaly feed right up till the chop as do alot of people, iv never noticed a difference in taste or smoke between a 2 week+ plain water flush and feeding till the end. its all about the cure at that point, and especialy with autos who have a finite life span they need food to do their best, otherwise your cheating them from the chance to really get things in full gear and bulk up as much as possible.
thats just my opinion on that subject.


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## kaotik (Nov 13, 2013)

funny you find two completely opposing views with flushing (a finishing flush, THG )
one totally for it, and one totally against it. there's really no middle ground.

try both ways make your own decision i say (i'm a flusher myself, find it quite beneficial *on smoke, not so much look  )

i do agree you started starving her a little early though. but c'est la vie, hope it's alright


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 13, 2013)

The Hemp Goddess said:
			
		

> You are not even at 9 weeks yet.  I believe that you still have time to go, especially since this is a sativa auto.  Mel mentioned 70-80 days and you are only at about 62 days now.  How are you checking the trichs?
> 
> I feel that you probably made a big mistake feeding them only water for 2 weeks, especially since you are in such a small pot.  I feel that you probably still have at least 2 weeks to go and them that will be 4 weeks that it has been deprived of food.  I am sure that it has cost you in both yield and potency.  There is just not much bulk to the plant at all.  I really really think it is too early (and that you should feed her again).


Thanks a lot. 
I am checking the trichs with my lab microscope, which is an actual science microscope, not a toy.
The trichs are definitely amber and the fan leaves have been falling off for a few days.

I read that the plant also starts to use up the nutes stored in its leaves near the end so they do keep feeding, and I used so much nutes early on that those leaves could he holding more food than normal.

I read that the smaller pots would speed up the maturation process, so maybe that's why they seem to be done early. The seed info said that the flowering period was 50-65 days.

Also, I made so many mistakes during the grow, not just the tiny pots, that they may be done for anyway.
I don't want to leave the sativa to develop a lot of amber trichs since this tends to result in a heavier stone rather than a greater head high, which is what I want from the sativa anyway.

The two indicas can be left a bit longer, but the larger one is already dropping fan leaves as well, and the smell has become more noticeable in the tent.
I might go back to feeding the indicas some nutes and see what happens, but I'm glad that they even made it this far.

I'm not in any rush to harvest since I don't need to smoke them any time soon, but I wouldn't want them to go on too long and start losing the thc and becoming less potent.
Today, the pistils were also looking more shrivelled as well, so I don't see them having a lot of time left in any case.

The bud that I took last week and dried in the oven was quite nice to smoke and my wife said that the smell was definitely of pot rather than the hay smell that came from an earlier bud that I tried a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe I'll cut off the main cola and leave the rest of the plant alone. None of the plants have grown any higher for over a month although they have gotten a little fatter colas during that time.

I really don't know what to do, but based on all of the info I've read about trichs and pistils, the sativa does indeed seem ready.

You guys are very kind to be concerned about my results and I greatly appreciate it. I wish that there was someone as knowledgeable locally that I could show them the plants and see what they thought.


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## sunakard2000 (Nov 13, 2013)

*I read that the plant also starts to use up the nutes stored in its leaves near the end so they do keep feeding, and I used so much nutes early on that those leaves could he holding more food than normal.

I read that the smaller pots would speed up the maturation process, so maybe that's why they seem to be done early. The seed info said that the flowering period was 50-65 days.*

im not sure where you read these but they are not 100% correct, 
first item, yes the leaves do store some nutrients for later use, however its not nearly enough to fully feed the plant, its like a snack to tide it over hoping for more food. also just because you fed heavy earlier doesnt mean that the leaves are holding far more nutes in reserve. they hold what they can and when there is too much the tips burn, so they arnt gonna hold more then they can. again i personaly feed right till the end, fatten em up nicely. kinda like livestock, yah dont starve them the few weeks before you slaughter them, you feed them as much as they can eat so they get nice and fat. starving at the end forching the plant to eat its self just still doesnt make sence to me reguardless of the fact that the plant does store some nutes for later use.
and the 2nd item, smaller pots = faster maturity, thats a big fat ole negative buddy, all smaller pots do is limit the space the plant has to grow, thus keeping them shorter and unable to plump up as much. bigger pots are better especially for autos, the deeper the better, once the tap root hits the bottom of the pot that negatively effects the size potential of the plant, hence why after transplanting from a small container to a larger container the plants get far larger. more room to stretch out their roots means more space the plant its self can take up, kinda like trees, their root system doesnt go out much further then maybe a foot further then the longest branches sticking out to the side are, so the canopy is ever so slightly smaller then the roots reach out. iv got my autos in flower at the moment and all 5 of them started showing pistils about a week or so ago and already they are the same size if not twice the size of yours and they still have about 6-7 weeks left to go. my buckets are also 17.5 inches deep on the inside so they have plenty of room to reach out their roots and the size of the plant will follow suit as the root system gets larger.

hope this helps you in the future.


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## trillions of atoms (Nov 13, 2013)

If your new to curing...feed phd water the last several waterings at least.


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 13, 2013)

sunakard2000 said:
			
		

> im not sure where you read these but they are not 100% correct,
> first item, yes the leaves do store some nutrients for later use, however its not nearly enough to fully feed the plant
> and the 2nd item, smaller pots = faster maturity, thats a big fat ole negative buddy, all smaller pots do is limit the space the plant has to grow, thus keeping them shorter and unable to plump up as much.


Thanks.
The info about the leaves and the pot size were found on some of the grow bibles I read online.
One guy was talking about growing his plants in a solo cup and inside a computer case! The pix of his plants looked a lot like mine do now- like miniature pot plants.
Please don't ask why I did such a nutty thing. I was probably worried that if I put it into too large a pot it would grow too large for my little tent.

Also, while I am after really potent pot, I don't really need a large yield. I've grown very fond of growing just for the fun of it, and want to get better because I am a bit obsessive, but I don't know what I'd do with a pound or more of pot each grow, so I was trying to keep the plants small. (I'm really not crazy  )
I have since learned better and will not do that again. But I'm quite happy to grow just two plants at a time- a sativa and an indica- so that I can have the variety of both types.

The littlest indica that I have was started in a tiny three-inch clay pot and after it was well into flower I took someone's advice to transplant it into something bigger, so I put it into a tall pot about 2 gallons in size, but it never grew any further, even though I saw its roots eventually stick out the drain hole at the bottom of the taller pot. It is only 6 inches tall and it is just one 6-inch cola.

In any case, I am eager to start my second grow with the hydro bubble buckets and am grateful that my first grow even survived. I think that the three little plants could produce about 1 ounce of dried buds. I would like to get more than that next time.


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 13, 2013)

Here are some photos of the sativa and the indica taken today (nov 13)


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## Growdude (Nov 13, 2013)

Lookin fine to me, good job


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 13, 2013)

Growdude said:
			
		

> Lookin fine to me, good job


Thank you. They're nothing like what you had in your ww grow link, though.
What a huge mass of pot.
Do you think that mine are done yet?


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## Forever[D]anked (Nov 25, 2013)

looks pretty good, you seemed eager to cut them 2 weeks ago. did you happen to chop them by now?


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 25, 2013)

Forever[D]anked said:
			
		

> looks pretty good, you seemed eager to cut them 2 weeks ago. did you happen to chop them by now?


I held off until yesterday, and they did get a bit fatter and stronger smelling.
Now I got them hanging in the dark. I'm dying to see how strong they are and how much I eventually got from them.


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## trillions of atoms (Nov 25, 2013)

Dont be scared if the smell goes away during the cure and smells like hay.... its normal for strains that are not fiyaaaa.

the good smells should return if you cure correcty...

ENJOY!!!


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## Surfer Joe (Dec 3, 2013)

trillions of atoms said:
			
		

> Dont be scared if the smell goes away during the cure and smells like hay.... its normal for strains that are not fiyaaaa.
> 
> the good smells should return if you cure correcty...
> 
> ENJOY!!!


Thanks.
I'm probably going to screw up the drying process as well. Poor plants.

I harvested them and hung the entire plants upside-down in the dark grow tent with the extractor fan and a small oscillating fan running for about 6 days. The humidity in the tent was about 50%.
Then I trimmed the buds and they felt too moist, so I laid them out on a screen indoors in a dark room for several days with an oscillating fan running from across the room. 
Now I got them in sealed jars but I'm not sure about the humidity.
I put the buds in a new large plastic zipper baggie so that I could fit the hygrometer inside and left it in there for a few hours and it read 53%. I put them back in the jars and put the jar in a closet and today I am trying to get another humidity reading by taking them out of the jar and putting them in the large baggie with the hygrometer.
Can you use zipper plastic baggies to seal buds enough to read the humidity?
Once they are dry, how do you store them? 
I normally just keep my pot in a baggie anyway, but how long do you dry or cure pot before it is stable and ok to just store and not worry about it going moody?

PS: Not to be pedantic, but we are octillions of atoms. Once cell alone has 100 trillion atoms.


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