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After two grows with autoflower strains, I thought i'd make the transition to Photoperiod. A friend supplied me with some clones, and so far they all look very healthy. I have them in a 70/30 coco coir/perlite mix, and with all my previous experience being with soil, I really notice the difference in growth rate using coco, they are speedy! I feed them once daily, and water until I see some runoff. For lighting I have a Black Diamond Perfect Sun Dwarf Star led light - supposedly 400w output with 230w power usage. I have given them a bit more Rhizotonic than usual for this first week to help them establish some healthy roots. This is my first time growing under something other than H.P.S, so combining that fact along with a new growing medium, I am expecting a lot of changes in outcome from my last grow! Lets see how this goes
These plants have now made it to the end of their second week. I repotted them from their small 1/2 litre pots into some slightly larger ones, I think around 2 litres in size. I have ordered some fabric 10l (3 gal) pots which have now arrived, and that will be the next and final transition for them. Not much information seems to exist online about some of these strains, but I was told firsthand a little about them;
Red Devil - is a strain created by someone local to where I live. I don't know what to expect from her in the slightest.
Misty Mack - was warned about the weighty, dense colas that can appear, taking a long time to finish and the only danger being mold if proper ventilation isn't established. Hopefully that shouldn't be a problem for me, but large colas, hey, I think I can handle that 😉
Pineapple Express - Need I say more, a favourite strain of mine, so I only fear that I could end up with something not up to the standard I have grown to associate with this plant. Fingers crossed!
In this second week all the plants have grown a little in height, and all have the beginnings of some lateral branches. I am thinking at the end of the third week I will top them, and allow to veg for one or two more weeks after that before making the transition to flowering.
Another week, same feeding schedule, I topped the Misty Mack and she has two nice even heads. She is the tallest at 20cm, Red Devil sits at 16cm and Pineapple Express at 14. The are all looking a very healthy shade of green, and lateral branch growth continues. It is getting quite cold at night here where I live (2 degrees celsius at the worst) and it is my one worry, so considering getting a small heater if they seem effected in any way.
I finally purchased an EC meter today, and my nutrient water sits at 1.1 EC value; according to the chart I am following, right where it should be.
*Mid Week Update*
My tap water has an EC value of .2, which is great! That means the amount of nutrients I am adding should be fine with my girls.
Today I repotted into 11 litre fabric pots. I lay down a base layer of perlite for drainage followed by 60/40 coco/perlite mix with Canna Pro Coco. Each drank 2 litres of water following the move into their new homes. I also defoliated the lowest 2 or 3 nodes on each plant to give me a little space for watering and keep the amount of scraggly buds I end up with to a minimum.
The biggest two factors I was facing were unknown EC value and my nighttime temps. I bought and added a panel heater into their tent which takes up more space than i'd like but keeps the temperature at a constant 14 degrees celsius. For now, all my problems seem to be solved! But stay tuned to see what happens, these things seem to find new ways to go awry... 😉
Another week has elapsed and the girls are looking quite happy. Yesterday I topped Red Devil and Pineapple, and i'll monitor how their new heads develop. Today I attempted to low stress train the Misty Mack, who had already developed two main growths from her topping, and when positioning one of the heads it sadly snapped off rather abruptly. She is left with a gap in her foliage so I will see what occurs naturally but some more topping may be required to work things out now. Red Devil maybe requires a little less nutrients from what she's showing me (a slight bit of clawing on some mature fan leaves) so I am feeding her less and seeing how she goes. I also added a fan today to keep them rustling nicely.
In terms of how each of these plants grow differently, I notice that Red Devil has faster growth but also thinner stems, I worry that it isn't the strongest plant. Pineapple is very bushy and i'm really happy with how she looks. Misty Mack takes it up a notch with thickness and bushiness but I am really mad at myself for breaking off a branch. Who knows what nug it could have brought into fruition! I am intrigued to see how all these characteristics translate into the flowering period. The plan is to keep vegging another week or two, set up my scrog netting and let em do their thing.
You might notice the two lil plants in the tent there too, they are bagseed and I am leaving them in as an experiment. I won't repot so they don't have much space at all but I figured it would be fun to see if they could do anything at all. That being said they could well be male.
*Update*
The ever helpful B4RNS told me that the purple stems I am seeing could be a magnesium deficiency - not wanting this to potentially develop any further, I today purchased some FlairForm CMX, a trace element additive to stabilise deficiencies. I took an EC reading of my water after adding this and my nutrient solution sits at 1.6, with a PH of 6.5. Hopefully the girls thank me for it in the weeks to come :)
Their heights are currently
Pineapple Express 👉 24 cm
Red Devil 👉 23cm
Misty Mack 👉 27cm
Another week elapsed, time for another update!
Halfway through these plant's fourth week I made the switch to flowering. I did this when they were starting to overlap into each other's space, as I read that this is a good indicator for when to begin flowering and not end up with plants too large for the space available to them. Since then their branches have stretched as they prepare for flowering. I continued with my vegetative nutrients and will make the switch next feeding, when it's been a week since the change.
I had a problem with purple stems last week, the cause of which could be attributed to either lack of magnesium or overwatering, or both! But I have scaled back my watering to 1.5l per plant every other day or as needed, as well as supplementing their Magnesium with Flairform CMX. It is definitely lessening due to either or both of these changes which I am happy to see.
My one new concern is a few leaves on top of the Pineapple Express, as you can see in the photo something is awry, even if only slightly. I am unsure what the culprit is so I'd love some advice sent my way. Red Devil also has slightly weaker looking stems than the other two but she could just be needing to play catch up. Time will tell. Thanks for stopping by
Today, I opened the zips to my grow and shook my head. all my space was used up, the plants were still stretching and there was no space for them to expand in any direction. It really felt like I had lost control, and I didn't know how I would see this grow through to completion without running into a whole host of problems. In my dismay I took a forlorn look around and happened to glance at an unused clothes rack in the garage and my Macgyver instinct kicked in...
About half an hour later, the sight before my eyes was completely transformed. A clothing rack component turned out to be a perfect fit, and I carefully spent a while bending and contorting my girls into their new home. I also heavily defoliated their lower branches and the undercarriage is now in a relatively neat and orderly state. One or two leaves which grew over the top of the heater seemed dried out, so I have made an effort to confine their growth in the space not overlapping with it. I also repositioned my fan and it is now properly oscillating. I have continued to feed them vegetative nutrients while they stretch but will wean them off and soon switch to flowering. Excited to see how they conform to their new space. Happy growing to you all :)
Better pics soon to come - The girl's upward growth seems to have slowed down, and small buds are beginning to appear. The canopy is quite crowded and I am hoping there will be enough room for them all. I have switched over to my flowering nutrients, my main one, Super Bloom being a 1-9-1 natural guano product for coco. Other than some slight leaf damage caused by close proximity to the heater, these plants are looking happy, and are starting to drink more. They also have pleasant and unique smells about each of them now. I just hope the buds don't stop growing any time soon!
This past week, the girls have undergone the foundation of their bud growth. Young trichromes are to be found all over these 3, and these last couple days the bud size seems to be increasing too. I have phased out my vegetative nutrients and have them on my flowering ones, tomorrow I plan to buy some more trace elements to keep up with everything they will be needing. Opening up my tent I am heralded by a gorgeous smell combination every time. Misty Mack has a very strong dank smell about it which I find hard to place my finger on, Red Devil has pine notes, and Pineapple Express is living up to her name and smelling just like all the pineapple i've ever smoked. My mouth is watering! I have continued to keep an eye on things below the hood, and every day I trim a few undesirable growths. Now i'll say a bit more about each of them individually.
Misty Mack - Her upward growth is continuing on a little longer than her roommates. It finally seems to have ceased, and her buds area little less developed than the other two as a result. I was told she is a late bloomer, so I am expecting that the other girls will come down and she will have a bit of time on her own. She also is developing BEAUTIFUL pink pistils, something i've only ever seen online!
Red Devil - Previously, I was worried that this girls stems appeared too thin. That problem has dissipated, and I think that too early on I classified her as the runt of the litter because of this. I've actually paid her the least attention, but she is budding beautifully. No problems!
Pineapple Express - My favourite child. The only reason she may not make it to the end is if I succumb to my desire to eat her, she literally smells soooo good. I WISH pineapples tasted how this smells. Sticky icky buds already. Thanks for reading my stupid rants and raves people, and happy growing 😊
Another week has elapsed, and everything seems to be going well! Yesterday I completed some defoliation on all 3 girls to expose some more bud sites to direct light. The size of all buds continues to increase, and they are all getting trichromed up. Pineapple Express seems especially resinous, and leaves my fingers sticky from even a glance encounter. Currently feeding 2.5 Litres of water every other day between the three of them, which equates to .88 l per feeding per plant. By the end of their day without water, their pots are already dry. The smell is very strong now, and I am really excited to see how big these buds will get, Misty Mack definitely appears to be putting on the framework for some hefty weight! Thanks everyone, and happy growing 😊
Buds continue to develop, and all three of these girls are both smelling beautiful and sparkling like precious jewels! I found out a bit about Misty Mack too; apparently she is a cross of Misty Kush and Big Mac, which can be found on leafly, a website that has good strain information. Both these strains are predominantly Indica, and I look forward to seeing how she comes out. Red Devil also won the 2006 High Times cup :) I have been most excited about the Pineapple Express, so it is nice to have some reasons to look forward to the others too. I will upload some more photos this week, my camera died mid session just before 😩 Happy growing everyone
So these girls are now 11 weeks old, and they are well through their flowering now. Buds are starting to swell and mature (for Red Devil and Pineapple Express more than Misty Mack), and their smells are pretty powerful. The end is approaching, and as a guideline my plan is to harvest
Pineapple Express @ 13 weeks
Red Devil @ 14 weeks
Misty Mack @ 15.5 weeks
So that means Pineapple Express' two week flush begins today.
No problems to report, other than the fact my lil air circulation fan has given up. So limited ventilation, something I will amend this week. Pineapple begins her second week of flushing today, and the last week of her short life. Red Devil flush begins now. Leaves are starting to yellow now, which I take as a good sign with that stored energy being put to good use. Pineapple's trichromes just keep frosting up, and I await next week in eager anticipation. I'll let my photos do the rest of the talking for now - thanks for stopping by, and happy growing! 😊
Week 13 has come up, and today I took down the Red Devil. Pineapple is due tomorrow and she is looking really great in my opinion! She is fully frosted up, much more so than the Red Devil which I harvested. I took her down due to the yellowing on her leaves almost spreading to the buds. When trimming I noticed some purple-red pistils which may be where she gets the name from. Misty Mack is starting to look more mature now, and the pink colour is really prominent. I'll update soon with some harvest reports once RD has dried!
This strain grew well, the only qualms I have are regarding her smaller bud size than her two room-mates, and the smaller stem size I also noticed during her development. I think however these two are due to factors on my end as the grower, and I'd love to give her another crack to see what can be accomplished. Her leaves started dropping off a little too soon, and I noticed a red colour creeping in which didn't get to blossom in its entirety. This could have been the reason for the strain's name which would make sense, so I will experiment further! In terms of first photoperiod experiences I am happy with what I have found, auto or photo both have their pros and cons and with my newfound knowledge I feel better equipped to discern what is right for any given scenario.
For this to be a ten star strain, I would need to have done a better job. I am leaving some stars out to account for some room for improvement. Was this a success? - that answer is always a yes if you learnt something. Each of my grows helps me improve and gain confidence, and go forwards into next time with my best foot forward. I hope that following along has helped you in some way too. 🙏
The effect is quite strong, I just smoked a joint to write a description and suddenly the day ahead of me is feeling quite difficult! I feel flowing with ideas, and very happy. The taste has still yet to develop, as I am only now going into curing. I'll update this once the flavour is a bit more developed :)
Best weed i've ever grown - this strain showed no problems with how she was grown or treated, and rewarded me with dense crystal coated buds that smell just like I hoped they would. I definitely hoped for a heftier yield, but if there's one thing i've learnt from photoperiods its that a little extra veg can go a long way. This was the type of grow that leaves me feeling excited for next time and eager to do better. I will definitely revisit this strain.
Smoke report - this bud has yet to cure and as such the flavour was compromised. Even then I found the taste remarkably smooth already! In terms of the stone she definitely strikes me as an evening smoke, as it left me sleepy, relaxed and content. The worst aspect of this grow is only having an ounce, it is going to be so hard saving it til cured, and I could burn through this in a week if I was left to it! Time to reign in the self control until my growing skill can match my ravenous appetite :D
Photoperiods plants are great you'll see bro, you can Veg them has long has you want, it let you the time to top it and to supercropp it has you wish, and you can let them recover in case of any stress before putting them into 12/12 cycle
@Book_of_Thoth, Yes, these kind of strains are named "commercial strains".
The Royal Queen Seeds Skunk XL can yield 600-650 gr / m2 indoor without growing too tall.
@JUNGLE_B4RNS, I did four and a half weeks, that three day difference obviously didn't go very far! I now have two tents and three lights, and for the next time around I am posed to run a couple plants with a bit more space for each of them. I really think I could have utilised my vertical space more with the veg and had some taller bud towers. Tell me, any personal picks for high yielding potent strains? 😃
@Book_of_Thoth, I 100% agree with you can never truly attribute nutrients unless a fair test is carried out, which is not easy to do or practical. Believe it or not bud the biggest and very good quality I have achieved in all my years of growing was with 12 royal queen special kush plants in a flood and drain hydro system with clay pebbles. I had them 13 hours lights on 11 lights off. I vegged for 3 weeks and foliar fed with dutch master liquid light and a triacontanol mix every other day for all of veg and first 3 weeks of flower. I used genesis formula nutrients from green air. The buds turned purple during the last 3 weeks. It was the first time I used a 1000w 400v gavita pro at max setting, I had an 8 inch fan blowing over the canopy because it was in a tent the gavita put out a lot of heat on the canopy hence the 8" fan. Anyways I achieved a few grams shy of 1100g in a 1.2m area. I am trying to (sort of)recreate this grow using wwXbb which is currently in week 2 of flower in my diary. when I say sort of I'm using 2 400v 600w lamps this time not gavita, and I'm using triacontanol foliar again which I have not used since the special kush grow.
@BreakingBud, I have found that this crop of mine is definitely very odorous, but to attribute that to the guano is something I cannot do with 100% certainty. I believe rhizotonic is organic, but the Flairform nutrients I use are not. In my opinion the Guano works great but maybe doesn't provide everything the plant needs on its own. Now my turn to ask you a question 😄 You seem to have grown a fair few strains so far, what has given you the biggest buds and the best quality?
@Book_of_Thoth, have you found guano improves aroma at all? are your base nutrients organic? thanks for the info bro. I have heard many great things about guano, they sell liquid guano in my local area and many of the soil mixtures come pre mixed with guano.
MM is running out of Mag (if your not guilty of over watering), the symptoms are here , dark green leaves 🍃 with purple stem
Others plant a running out of Mag to, Mag deficiency symptoms are , dark green tacos 🌮 leaves with purple stems . Mag deficiency start by leaves getting dark green , purpling start from the petiole (where the stem join the leave) on top of the stem , then the leaves start to look like a taco 🌮 shell and the stem of the leaves start to get dark purple, and the main stem is stripped with purple lines .
It's the number one problem in a healthy garden , it's mostly due to over watering, the roots doesn't get enough oxygen , if not , that means they have done a lot of exercise (photosynthesis activity) and they are really suffering from Mag deficiency (not over watering).
Have a look on my dairie Y Griega , she has suffered from Mag deficiency (in week 5), she is just recovering , you can see the difference between the bottom of the plant whit dark green leaves and purple stem and the top of the plant (new grow) where the leaves are healthy
@Book_of_Thoth,I go through about 1 L/week (and only water every 5-7 days)- mine are in 5 gal air pots, but I use a LED light source so there's less heat. I still have purple stems, am adding Cal-Mag and I'm lowering my Ph which was a bit high. The leaves got crispy dry and grew in jagged and deformed before.
Don't be afraid to let the pots get dry. A 10$ soil moisture meter can help. I have gardened a lot before growing cannabis, and plants need a little motivation to reach to get to water to grow roots. You can get a lot of other issues from overwatering like fungus, pests and mildew so be careful.
Good luck. Pineapple Xpress is one of the few sativa dominant hybrid strains I've tried that I love.
@Book_of_Thoth, 1.5 l per day ! This is the amount needed per day for a homo sapiens of 175 Pounds 😅
Mag def is mostly due to overwatering in a lot of case 😉
@TheFairyBudMother, sure is, woke up to snow today! 😬 My light is a 'Black Diamond Perfect Sun Dwarf Star', no complaints about it so far!
Our leaves look quite similar, yours are definitely a healthy shade of green, but we suffer from sporadic spotting that is for me hard to diagnose. I somehow suspect the led could be to blame, perhaps small dots of dew cause some intense light refraction of the led's laser like beams, causing burns? There's my paranoid stoner hypothesis for you!
Sounds like your plants have received a very comprehensive sonic upbringing, what a responsible parent you make!
I think you are being quite hard on yourself - it looks like you're doing great, I think my one piece of advice after looking at your journal would be for next time, another week of veg would have gone a long way, as there is definitely some valuable real estate under your light that is not being utilised! Which you touch on yourself, so you've got this :)
@Book_of_Thoth, Wow, a bit chilly in your area! What light are you using?
The leaves are looking a little troubled on mine but I am keeping positive. I'm happy to have learned some things about these plants and all 3 are pretty different. I play them really good music: everything from Grieg, Tibetan throat singing, some classic ELO, Anderson .Paak, and of course Radiohead.
Your plants are gorgeous. Good work!
I'm not sure my TDS is calibrated but it was supposed to be. Luckily I keep spring water for emergencies.
For my next grow, more plants, seeds instead of clones (might try one of those macs), maybe hot soil and compost tea, better water, proactive pest abatement, individual trellises because my it's really hard to check what's going on in there, and longer veg/more training for scrog.
@TheFairyBudMother, Thanks! No AC but I have a small heater, other than the fan pushing air there's only passive air intake too, as I currently have outside temperatures of 5c, at night dropping to 0 or lower. So to keep them warm I have to keep the same air in there to a degree.
The biggest changes in this grow as opposed to my last in my opinion are the led light with uv spectrum - I think this has contributed a lot to my trichrome count, growing in coco coir has helped me with my watering, and stopped my soil from compacting over time which really stunted things in the past. And the water where I live is really great. I notice you say yours isn't so clean, my house is still fed unprocessed rainwater from the mountains. That being said though, your girls are looking beautiful too!
Damn your excitement about the pineapple makes me want to grow it sooner ! Have you tried using bending techniques instead of a scrog before ? If so what are the biggest differences ?
@Book_of_Thoth,i see what you mean,it's possible i'm gonna try it my next grow aswell, only problem is that it'll be quite annoying to get the plant out of the tent, in case i'll need to flush or something
@Bstoner, Additionally, in my past grow when I used solely bending, a lot of other factors were different too, such as autoflowering plants, unideal grow conditions and inexperienced watering and nutrients by me to name a few. But I think that beyond bending large branches, it's hard to maintain that level of attention down to every branch, and scrog leads to a more even canopy at a finer level. Which compensates for the extra effort
@Bstoner, Glad my excitement is good for something! I think the only strain whose smell excites me equally is super lemon haze. I've tried bending techniques too, and if you look at the past weeks of this diary you will see i've actually used both. I used bending to dually retard the growth of my largest branches, and also to form knuckles on the stems which eventually work to increase the nutrient flow capabilities of the branch. Or so I read online 😉 What I find most useful about scrog, this being my first time, is it helps to gradually even out the canopy, whereas bending works moreso immediately if you know what I mean. Scrog helps to even out your plant over time, after it's been prepared by bending. A difference would be that scrog is very low impact to the plant, whereas bending will require the plant to 'bounce back' from a sudden change. Hope this helps!
@Book_of_Thoth, Nice bro! 👊👍 It came out well. An easy idea, if you would like to save some time is to add a cfl 59w or so to the grow tent so you can use it for pics. 👌
@CANNASIM, Thanks bro! I was trying to edit the photos back to natural lighting in photoshop (It's my job when not growing weed) and it wasn't seeming to work out. I found out that because this particular light has UV spectrum light as well it creates quite a natural lighting, so you are seeing the plants in their true colours as these are, in the close ups at least 😎
The Pineapple 🍍 Express leave is showing some micro deficiency from your past overwatering bro, keep in mind that the problem has started 3 weeks ago and it's showing now, if you stopped overwatering it shall not spread to others leaves (but that leave won't recover) .
Hey man girls are gaining size! Looks good. This injuries on the leaves could be also some kind of ph fluctuation issue watch the ph cloasely, and the watering frequency, they will replace this with new healthy leaves. Happy growing! ⚡⚡
@CANNASIM, Thanks man, going to be an exciting time watching some buds form! I moniter the ph and ec, I think this must have arisen from overwatering/watering frequency as you suggest. Happy growing to you too 🙏
Dude I would be willing to bet the pineapple will be some of the best you've had. Always seems to be so much better when it comes from my own garden. Of course I've never sampled dispensary quality to compare it with.
@Grimbol, I really hope so! Can't think of anything better. No dispensaries in my country either, but some of the most memorable nugs that have passed through my hands (and lungs) were pineapple. So far so good
Book_of_Thoth
