Claudette

I grow using topfed DWC in a 10 gallon tub and a LED light (rated 450w, actual ~210w draw on flower setting, ~150 on veg). I have two air stones. I tend to have 6 gallons of water to my reservoir. I grow one plant at a time from seed in my smallish tent in a closet. I don't have AC and I struggle with temperature and ventilation with my current set up. I germinated the seed using the paper towel method. Started to crack in about 24 hours and placed her in Rapid Root plugs with the top feeding pump running nutrient rich, oxygenated water onto it after 48 hours

Need lite nutes on seedlings from beginning in DWC. This one had orange spots on early leaves because of calcium deficiency because it was straight phd water for first 10 days

Didn't give her nutes in the beginning so she had a slight calcium deficiency. She's a champ and pulled through though.

Starting to bend over at 24 days from seed. Plant looked happy and supple and appears to be growing fast. Brick and bent coat hanger worked well as training tools. At 25 days, discovered that I had mixed up which side of my timing power switch was a timer and which was always on. For the last 7 days, bubbles and temperature control were switched off for 4 hours per day. Oops. Appears to have been okay but was getting too much light and not enough bubbles for that week. Plants looks good though so I hope this doesn't matter too much. Only 7 days of 4 hours each day of mess up.

Her roots are established in the reservoir so the explosive growth is starting. Added the SCROG screen.

At 40 days, noticed the beginnings of flowers so switched LED second switch on so both veg and bloom are on. Added the screen to help train. Left the light 24" above the plant though so the it could get used to it before lowering. Lowered slightly each day. Started to notice leaves wilting so raised it back up. Still nowhere near 18" above plant.

At 44 days, made the realization that I don't think this grow is going to finish flowering at 77 days. It is going through the flowering stretch now so I think flowering has started but there is no way they are going to be done in 33 days (77 day lifecycle per breeder less 44 days already grown = 33 days). A similar thing happened to me the last time I did autos. This is fine with me as it means I can train the plant more with a SCROG and will also get a bigger harvest. But it is good to make the connection that my setup (nutrients, environment, etc.) seem to make it so autos go longer. As I didn't notice real flowering start until 40 days (5.5 weeks), and normal autos are supposed to start around week 3, I think this whole grow is going to go an extra 2-3 weeks. Tentatively estimating an extra two weeks.

At 48 days, noticed the first trichomes. Vertical growth is slowing. Flowering sites are still very lanky and not filled in yet. At 53 days, flowering sites are still very lanky and not filled in. Vertical growth is still happening. Plant is drinking about a 1/2 gallon per day. At 55 days, flowering sites are still very lanky and starting to fill in a little. Vertical growth is slowing. Plant is drinking about a 1/2 gallon per day. Defoliated some so air and light could get down the whole kola. Plant was really bushy and still is. Did not lollipop, just removed leaves that were blocking another kola.

At 64 days, flowering sites are still filling in. Vertical growth has stopped. Plant is still drinking about a 1/2 gallon per day. Pistils are all white.

At 69 days, flowering sites are still filling in. Plant is still drinking about a 1/2 gallon per day. Some of the tips of the pistils are just starting to turn orange.

At 75 days, flowering sites are still filling in. Plant is still drinking about a 1/2 gallon per day. More pistils are orange but still a ways to go until ready. Trichomes are whiter than ever but not ready to harvest. At 77 days, expect to harvest within 10-14 days.

At 83 days, figured out that this grow had 'foxtails' at the top of each kola. Foxtails can be caused by light and heat stress. I think this was caused by light stress as heat was pretty well controlled. Kolas continued to stretch and stretched up into a position that stressed them. Something to do better at in future grows. At 86 days, saw a few isolated amber trichomes. Hoping this grow will be done by 90 days.

Harvested at 90 days. These are final impressions of the grow and the harvest: - I like the bend-over method of plant training but the stump got covered in tons of bud-like growth that wasn't anywhere near ready of even usable when harvested. This makes sense as the light couldn't get to the stump. Bend-over combined with a scrog screen made it so I couldn't really get to / see the lowest part of the plant so it wasted energy creating this bud growth that the light couldn't get to so it got thrown away. In the future, the bend over method shouldn't get used with a scrog screen unless you're sure you have the access needed to clean out the stump area. - Harvested when I started to see amber on most or all of the upper kolas. Even with what felt like good patience, I still think I harvested too early. I wanted this grow to be over and I know I was a little early but I really understood how early when I cut everything down. Breeder says 77 days. I went 90 and I feel like it could have gone 100. I didn't want it to go 100 though as I had another plant behind it. - Fox tailing sucks! I think / hope this was caused by a too close LED light combined with the oscillating fan only being on for 15 minutes and then breaking for 15 minutes. In the future, I'm going to keep the oscillating fan going 24/7. According to my reading, it can also be caused by heat stress, nutrient and PH stress and genes. Given that I'm pretty sure my PH and nutrients were good, and I'm sure I have good genes (and no ones else's picture of this plant looks like mine) I think it was the LED being too close. - Between the excessive and unripe growth at the base, the fox tailing and the feeling that the plant wasn't as ripe as it should have been when harvesting, this didn't feel like a victorious harvest. I still got lots of bud (I think more than I've ever gotten) even with throwing a ton away from the base of the plant.