My Very First Grow Journal, Ever. A Work In Progress

[Hackerman]

I have never done a grow journal but it occurred to me that it might be a good way to get advice and comments on the style of my grow. I need to dial in my grow and I guess this is the best way to do it.

The GIF is what's going on in my flower room. 2 more weeks and I start harvesting the 3 CBD plants on the right.

The rest are some Lemon OG Kush plants. Not doing bad. These are in week 5 so they have 4 or 5 weeks left.

The room is 4x6 with a 4x4 grow area. 1000watt HPS on an adjustable ballast.

I'll gather and post the details of the room ASAP. I need to get the data to figure air exchange and all that stuff.

The veg tent is 3x5 with an 8 bulb T-5 setup. As the journal progresses, I want to address things like.... I keep my front flap open all the time. Good or bad idea? Temps and humidity. Blah blah. I'll get to it all.

Since I am already well in progress with everything, I am going to jump right in with where I am now and what I'm doing next.

This pic is my veg tent. These are the high CBD plants in the gif that stretched like Jack's beanstalk when they hit 12/12.

These are only 6 weeks old. I usually veg for 9 to 10 weeks. Why? Because most strains take that long to mature so the flower room is busy until then.

I take clones when I move the mothers to flower so I have at least that long to wait.

I have thought about taking clones at 2 weeks into flower and making my timing better but, have never tried. I trim my plants right before 12/12 so I just happen to have all these beautiful cuts to clone. So, I do it then.

However, because they will be monsters if I veg them that long, I am doing something new this time.

I am going to flip these now at 6 weeks in the #1 pots, with the T5 light in the 3x5 tent.

The first thing I want to address is the way I trim plants before flipping to 12/12.

This is a before pic of the plants as they are today. I'll be back in an hour or so with a pic of 3 or 4 plants that I pruned.

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[umbra]

looks good

 

[Rosebud]

Looks fab Hackerman. I am glad you started a journal.

 

[Hackerman]

OK, here is a shot of the plants before and after trimming (just the front 4 or 5).

Too much? Not enough?

My usual MO is to select 16 of these plants to go to flower and the rest hit the mulch pile. However, since I am doing things a little differently, I may have room to flower them all. So, for now, I'll keep them all.

The pheno on the left is the beanstalk. To look at them now is to see a stretchy, low yielding plant. Normally, all of this pheno would hit the mulch pile. But, for now, they stay.

I am going to trim the rest of these and set the lights to 12/12 tomorrow. I have some flowering bulbs that I'll put in this T5.

Life pattern for these clones from cutting day is .... 2 weeks in solo cups with domes. 2 weeks in solo cups with no domes. transplant to #1 nursery pots. 2 weeks in #1 nursery pots.

So, they are 6 weeks old. Normally, I would have them in veg for 3 to 4 more weeks. LMAO Can you imagine.

After looking at these pics, I may trim one more node up.

So, trim job? Comments.

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[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Looks nice!! What did you do with the lower branches? Are you going to root them or just toss them?
Also, are they going to stay in those containers all the way thru flower?

 

[Hackerman]

Normally, yes I would take the cuttings and root them. This time I tossed them.

Again, normally, I would transplant them to #3 pots and put 16 of them in the flower room (4x4).

This time, since I don't have the room right now, I am leaving them in these pots for 4 to 5 more weeks until the flower room becomes available. At that time I need to decide if I want to transplant 16 of them and put them in the flower room, while leaving the rest in this tent. Or, leave them all in these pots and flower some in the flower room and some here.

It's all new to me so I am kind of playing it by ear.

Going to be tough to finish a beanstalk like this strain in a 3 quart pot. LOL

 

[Hackerman]

Well, that's quite a hair cut. I always bottom trim before I transplant and flip but I think this is the most drastic I have ever trimmed. LOL

Plenty of room to work. LMAO

Hope they don't mind.

I also switched the bulbs to bloomers and set the timer to 12/12.

Countdown to 9 weeks.

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[Hackerman]

OK, I screwed up on my timing. I was thinking my flower room would be available in 2 weeks but after looking at the calendar, it's more like 4 weeks. By then, these plants will be too big to move around and transplant and crap.

So, I ended up having to put 16 in the new tent under the LED was I was only planning on 9. Bummer.

So, I transplanted them all into #3 pots and put 16 under the LED in the new tent and the remaining 7 stayed in the veg tent. I suppose it will work out.

The tent is really cool. Much nicer than my other 2. It unzips around all 3 sides so you can get to the plants from all angles. Windows. Tons of vents. Very nice. Under $100 for a 4x4. Matrix is the name brand.

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[2RedEyes]

A drummer screwed up the timing? How is that possible...
Sorry, I couldn’t resist...

The drummer from my old band would slow in proportion to the number of beers consumed...

 

[Hackerman]

I hear that all the time from one of my guitar players. If I am going too fast he says I had too much coffee. If I go too slow he says I had too much pot.

Sometimes he compliments me and says, "Ah, just the right mixture of coffee and pot". LOL

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[umbra]

I learned with a metronome, otherwise I have that white boy rhythm, 1/8 beat off. Local guy when I was growing up, was into blues and rockabilly. He would do the Jersey shore and Wilmington, DE. He would start off slow and get playing so fast his hands would cramp up before he finished the song. George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, lol.

 

[Hackerman]

I know this is going to sound unbelievable and I didn't believe it myself but.......

This pheno 3 of the continuum is stretching so fast, I literally sat and watched it grow.

I know, I know. Bull. LOL

I was sitting on the bucket where fan usually sits watching my plants. I often do this for long periods. It's good for the plants and it's good for me. I am always cold in my house and this is the only really nice warm room with nice high humidity. I could stay in here all day.

So, anyway. I am sitting watching the plants and the peno 3's in the back keep moving. It's odd because the fan is off, the plants are all totally still but, every now and then, I would see one of them move. They were just poking though the scrog net and what was happening is the leaves that were under the net were growing over the net. OK, fine, we all see that over a period of time.

Suddenly, one of the leaves that was under the net, popped up and flopped over the net. This time I saw it plain and clear. The other times, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye but couldn't catch t in action really moving. But, this time I saw it plain and clear.

Once I saw what was happening and knew what to look for, I sat there for about 3 hours and literally watched all 4 of those pheno 3 plants go from under the net to over the net.

By the end of the day, they had stretched 4 to 5 inches.

Most amazing thing I have ever seen. I may put a cam on this and film it. No one would believe it's real time. They would have to think it's increased speed. 5 inches in one day?

Lights just came on. I'll get a quick pic.

Totally amazing.

 

[Hackerman]

Here are a couple pics of those stretchers and some updates.

Those plants in the rear were UNDER the net yesterday. They grew that much in less than one day.

As I said before, normally, I would have mulched a pheno that stretched that much but since we are looking for hemp..... well, maybe this is better than the others, not worse.

Meanwhile, in the other flower room.....

One pheno is really suffering from the leaf rot. It's getting close to the bracs on the buds and I don't want it there. I don't mind leaves that I trim off but I can't smoke dead crapola. LOL

I may harvest that one plant at 8 weeks (this Friday) out of necessity. I was hoping to do the 8, 9 10 week thing but I don't know if these will wait.

Also, I am seeing more and more of those shiny silver crystals going gray. Not a lot but, they are definitely turning.

I wish I knew if that was CBD maturing.

Some of the trics are so big and fat that I can see a separation of the substance in the head of the tric if it's upside down. It's all clear except a gray blob right at the very top of the head (well, the bottom if it's upside down but you know what I mean).

Here are some updates...

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[Killertea08]

Wow

 

[Hackerman]

Well, it turned out to be harvest day.

I was inspecting the plants and I looked at the one closest to me, as always. And, the trics were still about 20% clear and 80% cloudy. The next pheno was a little more mature with most all the trics being cloudy and I did find a couple tiny pockets of amber. The third pheno was mature. More so that I usually allow. It was the furthest from me and I don't always check it. I would say it's about 10% amber, maybe less. That's more than I ever let them go. I usually chop before any real amount of amber takes over. I hear people who take them late. Like half amber. I am always way earlier than that.

And, with the "harvest CBD early" talk. Plus, I figured I really have 3 stages of harvest here. They are all pretty different so I am hoping for a wide spread.

Anyway, here's a couple pics. Not much popcorn. Mostly colas. Pretty decent score for 3 small plants. That one pheno produced an awesome cola.

I am going to take what few popcorn buds I got and "fresh freeze" some of them. I have been reading stories about people pressing fresh and fresh/frozen pot for rosin. Called "Live Rosin". LMAO

Anyway, here's a couple pics. I am off to heat the rosin press.

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[Dogweed]

Very nicely done. They look great!

 

[grass hopper]

very nice grow. though i don't care for led colored pics. the best pics i have taken are just at lights out. then either using a flash or better yet buying a $20. construction light(white light), home depot, to see the natural colors in the buds. jmo

 

[Hackerman]

Yeah. I am learning to hate blurple also. LOL I think I'm going to do it DIY COB.

I'm bumming anyway. While I was trimming to jar and cure this Med Tree Continuum I found that pheno 2 to had some real serious male flowers poking out of some of the bottom buds. In fact I have some mature seeds on those buds.


I sure hope they didn't **** the Lemon OG that was in there with them. The nanners were wide open and dumped their entire load. Fortunately, it looks like it was all way under the canopy and only to a few of the popcorn buds at the very bottom.


However, the problem still exists that I have 6 of these pheno mixed in with my grow.


I need to harvest the Lemon OG (week 8 today and it's pretty close to ready) to make some room in the flower room. Then, move the phenos 1 and 3 into there.

Then, either kill the pheno 2 plants (which seems a shame. Or isolate them in the new tent and LED light I just bought. I'll have to watch them real real close if I do that.
Since these plants were so stressed, it's possible the clones won't herm at all. Still..... tick tock tick tock. LOL