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Testing a new toy to see if it lives up to its name as a gavita pro 1000 replacement as advertised. California Lightworks solar system 1100 UVB. Spoke with sales rep and am testing recommended custom spectrum settings. Right now it’s set at R50 W99 B99 as less red is needed for veg and I am only using 558 watts. So far I’m seeing compact plants develop with tight node spacing. Testing a homemade ghetto screen I made from bamboo kicking around the house so I can move the pots to really get in and inspect/care for them rather than having a traditional screen taking up the whole tent. If it works well I will make more. Or not...I’m more interested in this light to see how it does. If it performs well, I will purchase enough for my allowed 72 plants. More updates to come. I write more than I type so will do my best to keep up with this diary for anyone else that is interested.
Very good week 2 all in all. The Durban's are looking tighter than a nuns #@%&. Super compact and I'm thinking will maintain a nice compact shape during flower with a reduced blue spectrum. I've topped them once and will now just LST until flower as there is plenty of fairly even growth that I'm hoping will rise evenly once I flip to 12's. The front one is a little ahead of the rear one for some reason but I think the super early thrips slowed it down a bit. Still no sign of new thrips.
The Cali Haze's are way too healthy as they are trying hard to explode upwards already which they are so famous for. I FIM'd them last week but it didn't seem to take so I just tried again but cutting a little further down to ensure I get the growing tip as well as the two side leaves. It's tough as it's just a tiny bulb basically. Im hoping this will slow the upward momentum while allowing the bottom to bush out a bit so I can have multiple tops that I can LST. Again, front one is healthier than the rear.... I'll have to keep an eye on this to make sure it's not something to do with lighting.
On week 2 day 3 I fed them with a Wayne Gretzky EC (yes I'm Canadian and yes it's .99). They responded very well but I'm watching tips closely and decided to just PH my tap water for the next water on week 2 day 6 which is high in calcium and has an EC of .3-.5 depending on the season. I haven't let any runoff through the pots yet as I went straight into 10 gala and don't want to swamp them early. I have a soil EC meter that gives me a general idea if they need food or not. Soil in highest was .75 and lowest was .47. I want to monitor to see how my own watering/feeding schedule will work for my environment.
Removed homemade screens on first water this week haha. It is a royal pain in the ass and I feel I'm good enough with plants to train them on my own for this grow.
So far I'm very happy with this lighting and can't wait till flower!
This week was solid again. I’m monitoring the two back plants in slightly smaller pots as they are using much less water right now and are also a few days in growth behind their sisters in the larger pots.
Very happy with the growth but I wanted to test the plants tolerance to the light at 36” above the canopy. I simply placed 12” pots under each of them rather than lower the light as I have it in a fixed position right now at the very top of the tent. Plants are responding well...or at least there is no negative response as they are still growing very 💪.
I am constantly LST’ing in order to keep the canopy low and flat. The Durban’s are only at 10” and the Cali’s are at 13”. I broke one top on the Cali Haze but I grafted it back on with some on hand electrical tape. These girls are much tougher to keep low than the Durban’s so I need every branch!
Bumped their feed up to an EC of 1.4 and will continue to increase this week to see how they respond. So far there is no signs of leaf burn.
I’ve pre programmed my entire grow with spectrum changes during their transitions and such but i went with a 5 week veg and I’m almost contemplating flipping them after week 4? Anyone else grow 4 plants in a 5x5 tent before? If so, how long did you veg for? I need to keep them fairly low as they are both sativas and will stretch a fair amount and I want to hammer them with UVB at the end but California Lightworks suggests a minimum distance of 24” be maintained between plants And UVB lights.
Again, all in all the week went very well. Snapped a top off one of the Cali Haze but I always have electrical tape on hand, so I quickly wrapped it up like a dome on the first fuck and she is perfectly healed 7 days later 😎.
Did a little lower defoliation on the Durban’s due to the insane amount of growth happening. Pure sativa so I’m expecting heavy leaf growth similar to their mom outdoors
Brought the feeding up to 1.6 EC and then a PH water a few days later as the soil EC’s are pretty much right where I want them at this point. I’ll increase the conductivity steadily from here on until flush...ish...again, will see how it goes as this is a long flower.
Putting into flower now as the growth is heavy enough for this test run on the light. So far there is no question this light can veg very well from ceiling height although I started to notice some stress after a week at 36” so I put them back down. I think I may have jumped too quickly though as I’d expect the sativas to be able to handle the added light intensity...although there is little heat with this light, make no mistake that the intensity of it will burn the plants!
Continued LST throughout the week and will continue for the next week depending on how the stretch goes during flower. Will reduce blue spectrum to 50% and increase red to the max for pre flower. Cya next week!
Woah...just realized what time it is!! 5 minutes before one can finally purchase legally in Canada Day! Happy New Canada Day growers! May you continue to grow cheap cannabis! Lol.
K back to reality...
Week 1 of flower went very well. Continuing to pull the odd top down in order to let them go mid week as evenly a split possible. Bumped up nutes on first water and more again to 2.10 EC by simply adding a half dose of flower formula to their normal veg formula. Kept Ph at 6.3 via citric acid as I don’t find this nutrient blend to bring the PH down far enough. Soil EC’s were loosely measured at 0.65 average which is up but can still handle much more if needed. No need...they are flourishing right now! I was forced to thin out the Durban’s due to the intense undergrowth from my LST strategies. I took 10 clones at this time...now I’m forced to keep them alive for 9 more weeks as I have a soft spot for plants and can’t kill them now lol. I may have to prematurely order another light 🙏🏻🤫😁😃😬😬👰🏼🗣️🗣️🤥😕🙁☹️
Cali OG’s seem to be drinking more and the DP in the larger pot is drinking less now so I will keep a very close eye on the growth this week. Will give a good Ph water next and allow some decent runoff. This will also allow me to more accurately test the levels to see how the root system shows are doing.
Dropped an aluminum bar from the ceiling that that I was using two weeks ago to test a fan blowing directly at the light (which turns out to only seem to interrupt it’s own built in cooling and increased the heat in the room by 3 degrees C...sorry...back on track) which I didn’t even need, and it fucking sheared off the main growth top on the one Haze! Photo attached lol
Man I ramble...until next week!
Simply amazing is all I can report. Pics show rear COGKH looking tattered but really I just got shattered and LsT’d the bitch to slow it down a tad to keep in line with the other three girls 😁
Added bud start this week but I won’t give all the proprietary secrets 😉
Buds the size on much finger nails already. Will see how dense this light can make them...even though they are both sativa or sativa dom.
Not much more to report other than I swapped the plants side to side as the CoG Haze seemed to be drinking way more water so I wanted to eliminate the possibility of a hotspot in the tent. So far I think it is just a thirstier plant. The Durban Poison is a full sativa...could sativas be less thirsty?
21 days down and the girls are doing amazing! Upped the nutes this week to 2.4 EC and I think I found the perfect level for these girls as the tips JUST showed signs of slight discolouration. Now the trick will be to hold them at optimal for the next 6-7 weeks 🤨🧐.
Largest and healthiest/leafiest Durban is drinking the least still. Come to accept it must just be what it’s going to be as it is very healthy regardless. Played with nutes/water based on the plant telling me what it needs and so far there isn’t a huge language barrier 😂.
Absolutely stripped them naked and exposed their lingerie at day 20 as there was no more light penetration down low and air movement was totally restricted due to the intense foliage of the Durban’s especially. Found a small colony of thrips thriving in that massive unshaven underbush but nothing that couldn’t have been dealt with once shaved.
Decided to finish the evening date off with some super cropping on a few already nicely flowered buds just to test all the arguing online lol.
Finished the week with a standard nute application just to help the girls put on some new clothes. Flowers are looking amazing today, can’t wait for next weeks post already!!
Things are going very well so I won’t ramble too much this session. Fed them early in the week with 6L each. Fronts took a PH6.4 EC 1.7 dose of medicine while the rears took a PH6.4 EC 2.1 dose of crystal meth 🤭. Testing Ton-o-bud mid bloom food to see if it is what they say. Only giving the rear plants the dose as they are in smaller pots so if they turn out way heavier then I know it worked or it’s just more marketing 🤥 bullshit.
Runoff from rear COGHK was PH5.8 and an EC of 3.7!!! Decided then to just give PH6.3 next water so I did but also added molasses for carbs.
Next runoff test on same plant after the Ph and molasses water came up Ph5.8 still but EC dropped to peak of 2.7.
Reduced blue spectrum to save on power and the plant doesn’t need much anyhow. Loving this light and controller so far!!!
The girls are still looking amazing. Other than the ongoing fungus gnat nuisance and the odd thrip there appears to be no damage. Sprayed medium with a soap/veg oil mix to kill the larva and any fungus gats hiding in the perlite boulder fields 😉
Hit first water this week with molasses and ph 6.3 water and the second with another dose of alleged plant meth ...the usual. We are in in the beginning of week 6 today so I will be switching the fertilizer up to include a late flower finisher for the final 4-5 weeks as these two bitches are spoiled and want to have their flowers exposed for 9-10 weeks 🤭🤫
For the most part the girls did well other than the Durban Poisons getting some rapid purple leaf on both plants at the same time. One morning temps hit 15c due to an error with my new heater. Hoping that is what the cause is. Got tired of chasing fungus gnats so I decided to fight fire with fire and be a little proactive and release ladybugs and a few million nematodes 🧐🤓. Nematodes will become a weekly part of all growing in the future. As will ladybugs just to ensure they help keeps mites and gnats at bay. No obvious bug damage so far but I don’t want to jinx it as I have 3-4 weeks left on these 🤔🤔. Check it out at thebuglady.ca if you don’t want to use sprays! Till next week!
Curious if anyone else has experienced leaves like this on Durban’s. I know I’ve seen leaves like this when temps get cool outdoors but all flower sugar leaves are turning. Watered regularity and fed well in my opinion, so I’m not sure what else it could be. Thanks in advance!
Its pretty normal reaction man , you're nearing the end of harvest and with the temps being the way they are you're going to get an abundance of colours ! Durban is really known for its purples in later stages my buddy has some growing right now and you could swear its purple kush or something of that nature . Sometimes its just the pheno you end up with my friend . I wouldn't really worry abut anything your seem to be rocking and rolling and your ladies are suffering from anything . So all in all you're in great shape ! Keep up the great work ! -Happy growing!
Buds are thickening nicely and tris are still coming on strong. Back right Durban looks like it is finishing but it has only been 7weeks 2days of flower. Will keep a close eye on all but the tris are milky with a few clear so as far as that goes, things seem to be on schedule.
Starting to give straight Ph adjusted water to begin the flush process. I took the runoff from each plant and all but one have ideal salt levels. All good though, still confident I’ll take these girls to third base 😎
Man the temps outside are causing me a lot of work for this particular setup as it's in a 100sq ft outbuilding that pulls in -5C air as it's cold as fuck outside lol. Caliogs are doing amazing. Huge thick buds. Durban's are so ng well but they suffered a bit of a setback from low temps at one point to high EC runoff due to lack of runoff during watering throughout the grow cycle. It's a pain in the ass so I tried without runoff but now I'm pushing hard to flush so it's a smooth smoke in the end and not all efforts were wasted!!
Really enjoying these plants from crop King. I have 10 Durban's ready to go as well as a Bubba Kush, green crack, White widow, and 2 unkonws from outdoor this summer and I can't decide what to run. I was going to do all Durban's but I'm excited for her other strains as well. Here comes another mixed grow which I swore I'd never do again lol.
Week 9 complete and I’ve been contemplating taking them down for a couple days lol. I’ve held off as they are still pushing a few new pistils and the tris aren’t quite where I want them with little to no amber yet but still a few clear on both strains. Leaves are still too green for my liking too. Don’t want to water anymore though as I don’t want to push more risk of bud rot nearing the end of harvest. DP’s finishing up quicker. I’ve harvested a few tops already due to bud rot starting (DP) and smoked it after a couple days drying and was very pleased at the sativa kick 😜. Will likely harvest this week. Will update when necessary! Thanks to all who have followed so far!
Easy grow all in all. They handled nutes very well compared to the Durban Poisons. The buds looked very dense on the plant but finished up a little lighter than I had hoped, although the tops are nice and tight. Huge amount of trichomes on these girls but I attribute most of that to the UVB I blasted them with for the final 2 weeks. I think I took them down slightly early as they were still quite green and healthy and the tri's hadn't gone amber as of yet. Looking forward to more of this strain as well as testing the Durban Poison harvested in this co grow. Drying time was a little quick but I will need to look into making a separate chamber to control climate in order to preserve some of the flavors and the looks of the bud. Cheers everyone and thanks for following. Much more to come!0
These girls produce veg like crazy! Almost to a fault lol. That being said it offered up nice tight node spacing but just required a little extra work thinning the fan leaves throughout. They got hit with a 15C morning after installing a new heater that didn't work as expected and the tops of these turned yellowish. They never recovered as I began to blast the UV around the same time. The tops seemed to finish up way quicker than expected which started to produce bud rot which I chased until decided to take them down. Gave me rock solid buds although slightly less than the COG's, they are much firmer. These did not enjoy the nutes quite like the others but in their defense I did have the runoff up to 4 EC at one point which I'm sure didn't help the finish! Easy to trim as there was hardly any leaves on the buds.
stevieb21
