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This week they got transplanted into their deep water culture buckets. Home made units using 50 litre dustbins with 10 litre net pots, and a single pump in each one.
The Purple Orange CBD and Bruce Banner have all been topped twice now. The Charlotte's Angel CBD is lagging behind a bit size-wise though so I haven't topped that, but it's still a really healthy looking plant.
I've installed a cargo net as a SCROG net. Although they're outdoors I need to keep their height below the windshield I've built, so this is a way of keeping them trained and down.
I've been pushing the higher shoots wider and wider across the net the last week and the Bruce Banner and Purple Orange CBD also got topped a second time and have responded really well.
We've had some hotter weather the last few days and these ladies are proving to be very thirsty. Hauling water onto the roof is going to be a mission once we hit full Summer heat and they've doubled in size
I've been training the tops back under the net almost every day the week, so although there's no overall gain in height they have bushed out like crazy and the big 3 are now 1.25 metres wide. The front left Purple Orange CBD is starting to show some flowering
Still going strong they are starting to show signs of early flowering, pistols increasing and internodal length shortening. I’ll give them another undercut this week to reduce the leafs and branches underneath that don’t get any sunlight.
The scrog net has worked a treat to keep the tops low and encourage side beaches to push up to the top as well.
I’ll add a second net in a couple of weeks for further support.
Another great week of growth and further bud development. The first Purple Orange is about 2 weeks into flower now and the Bruce Banner and second Purple Orange are a week in now. The Charlotte's Angel is still to get going.
So, I heavily defoliated the front left Purple Orange CBD this week and already it's responding nicely. I'm going to leave the second Purple Orange CBD and Bruce Banner another week or so before I do the same as they are only about 1-2 weeks into flowers so far.
They've stayed very thirsty this week, the larger 3 consuming about 15 litres per day.
I refill each tank completely every other day with 30 litres of full strength nutes. One book I read suggested I only had to nute them once a week on the schedule, and then in between I simply topped up with water, because as they drink the nutes concentrate in the remaining water, but so far they only get full strength nutes every time I fill. Although I do a full flush every 2 weeks.
I really need to get an EC meter, but it's beyond budget at the moment.
still pushing on with some height gain and buds continuing to thicken. The weather has been cooler and a lot windier so they've taken a pummelling from that but they've survived.
The smaller Charlotte's angel CBD is showing signs of nitrogen deficiency. I think this is because I've been feeding it the same schedule as the others, but it hasn't started flowing yet. Lazy of me I know but they take up a lot of time already. I'll have to flip back to a growth mix for a week or so.
This week has been hard work. First off the Charlottes Angel CBD died very abruptly. Solution temps got very high and I’m pretty sure it got root rot. I’ve been putting 2 liter soda bottles with frozen water in them into the reservoirs every day now to try and lower temps. It seems to be helping. After a hot start to the week and refilling reservoirs every day, we’ve then had a few cooler days as on the hotter ones they are damn thirsty plants.
So it’s been 3 weeks since I updated this as I was away for 2 weeks on holiday and only got back Tuesday.
A lot happened in that time and many people will have differing opinions about causes but I’d appreciate all input.
I had someone coming in every day to water them for me and I left premixed tanks of solution for the entire time.
That might have been the first problem but in addition to that, temps got high into the 30s for a solid 2 weeks. So solution temps went very high and air temps and sunlight hitting the leaves were very high as well.
Unfortunately, the Purple Orange CBD on the right that was about 3 weeks from harvest died in about 48 hours.
Luckily the other Purple Orange CBD was just about done and I harvested that and saved most of it.
The Bruce Banner lived up to its name and survived as a strong one and is now under shade. So I hope it will go the full distance and maybe daytime temps will start coming down now.
I’ll report on the harvest once it’s dried and cured.
I'm pretty gutted about the lost plant, the early forced harvest of the second one and how this diary has gone from a triumph to trash quite so quickly, but I have learnt a lot along the way and I've got some pretty decent bud still to look forward to, so all is not lost :)
The shade netting seemed to do the trick this week offering some much needed protection and then thankfully the temps have fallen as well.
I've noticed the stalk on this one has a very dark patterning on it. I'm not sure if this is just the strain or whether its a sign of something I should be worried about?
I'm still waiting for the Purple Orange CBD to finish drying. I reckon it'll yield about 500g of dry bud but I'll see.
It’s been an epic journey. My first big grow and my first hydroponic as well.....and outdoors with all the complications and pitfalls I had no idea about in advance.
The biggest challenge was watering them in the hot weather, carrying so much water up to my roof terrace every day.
But watching these plants grow into such huge happy plants for the most part has been very rewarding.
I’ll definitely introduce some solution cooling equipment next time and be more attentive to high temps.
But a half kilo per plant I’m pretty happy with that.
This lady is finally ready for harvest. Temps have been crazy fluctuating from rain and 22 daytime to 35 yesterday. She’s taking some punishment and showing signs of heat stress.
Weirdly even on hot days she drinking a lot less now only about 5 liters per day. Ive no idea why but I can see increasing numbers of leaves yellowing turning brown and going dry and crispy.
But the buds are done and so she’ll be harvested this weekend. Im excited to see what I get as although the buds aren’t huge there are quite a few tops and they’re reasonably dense.
Nigh time knock out stuff without a doubt, for me at least anyway, buy I am quite a lightweight. I also have some indoor of the same plant grown from clones to try so it'll be interesting to contrast the two.
As with the other plants in this outdoor DWC experience, as it got towards the end and temps got high it definitely tailed off in growth and bud production. The 300+ grams yield in the end was ok but a little disappointing given the size of the plant and it's initial high growth rate. But the bud is dark and dense and has a powerful hit to it!
wow show us more of your landscape!!! lovely. and yes your girls look great. good thing with the gluetape around the stem!!! are you Located in southafrica=? If yes congratulation to legalization on October, 20th
What a pity!! I followed your diary carefully because I love outdoor crops.
cycle performed in hydroponics performed to perfection, the only mistake to have gone on vacation at the worst time !!! the biggest problem is the temperature of the solution ...
Excellent work the next round will be perfect !!!! 😎👊👊🤙🤙🤙
@Chefc14, thank you for the kind and encouraging words. It's certainly been a learning process and one that I have gained a lot from...not only some amazing product :)
the purple-ing could be from micro nutrient deficiency , not sure from the pictures though, check to see if the purple-ing is spreading towards the top of the plant
@ScarfaceGuerrilla, yeah the 3 bigger ones are getting through 10-15 litres per day on warmer days. I am currently carrying 3 to 4 30 litre jerry cans up to my roof every other day.
I might need to sell the entire crop just to pay for a chiropractor!
@THC3,
Good luck bro! They will eat a lot of nutes and water, be sure to daily check the level in da buckets, i'm also switchng back to DWC, finished to build up a 4 bucket system today along with a micropropagator, visit me from time to time :) peace!
@Experimentgreen, yeah it is an amazing place and I count myself very luck to live here. The weather is pretty good too. Summer months it usually averages in the high 20s to low 30s winter can be much colder and wetter and it can get to freezing at night but mostly it's about 10 degrees minimum and averaging mid teens in winter with occasional patches of low/mid 20s. Generally pretty lovely.
@THC3, oh! Lol I'm sorry, i heard city and just naturally thought us. We have a table mountain a few hours from me in the states too 😊. Cape town is beautiful, you're very lucky to live in such a nice place. Do you have pretty decent weather year round?
have you considered maybe some biological warfare against the aphids and the ants? something like beneficial bacteria and nematodes that basically kill or sterilise them until they disappear?
@SJgarden, thing is outside... well, they fly away lol... so what folks do is they make a good environment that ladybugs want to stay in and come to.... it's a whole thing lol bonus : lots of hilarious youtubes of people releasing 10k bugs in their living room "by mistake" 😂
@CRiSPrGrow, I want to second the ladybugs. I released ~75 of them in my tent at the first site of what I think was some type of mite and I have had no problems since, almost 2 months later. They are also dirt cheap to buy compared to pesticides.
I see your leaves are showing signs of heat stress. I bet with temps the last couple of weeks grazy. I stay bit further North from you - past Blouwberg Hill - so know what's it all about. Last week had temps going up to 40 degC. Some of the leaves burnt but new leaf growth seems healthy. Hopefully things will be a bit cooler next week - low 30's instead of high 30's.
Was thinking if you put a shade cloth over the top of your stick partition, that will help with the direct sun rays quite a bit.
@THC3,Ha! I see the shade cloth. You'll notice the diffs in temp when you crawl under there. Maybe another suggestion is to prop your shade cloth with a stick .. like a tent pole .. for when the wind blows .. to avoid the shade cloth flopping up and down too much and donnering your buds .. breaking sticks, etc.
@THC3, Re heat stress - I see you leaves are cup shaped. Typical when too hot. No, I didn't look close enough to see any brown crispy leaves.. but know what you mean as mine got a bit fried. But shade cloth really works. I had 6 weeks old clones under my incubation shade cloth area .. and though I was clever by taking them out into the full sun one afternoon on a hot day - well they got fried beyond recovery and died. I think times are changing and the sun is much stronger than what we think. Luckily season is hopefully going cooler but we'll still have a good couple of hot days ahead of us. Shade cloth is only gong to cost you a couple of bucks - well worth your while.
@@@Simsalabim, in fact one has got so badly burnt its died :(. Purple orange CBD No.2 RIP, And number 1 almost went as well.
The heat stress you refer to, do you mean the brown edges and crispiness?
I was away for 10 days and had a friend coming in to water them. I think the high temps hit them in 2 ways, heat stress on the leaves and then also high solution temps as well. When I am here I put 2 litre frozen water bottles into the solution every day to help keep temps down but that didn't happen last week just when it was at its hottest
Luckily PO CBD No.1 is ready to harvest and the Bruce Banner is living up to its name by fighting through. But I may well try your shade cloth suggestion if we don't get some cooler weather soon.
I really appreciate the feedback man, thanks for that!
please try hydroguard, it works wonders. i do DWC and i do not control my solution temperatures. also i am not sure what kind of air pump you're using but i'd recommend a bigger one.
@MaryJaneUSA, I’m based in Cape Town South Africa. Hydro guard is available but very expensive. I’ll check out your other tip as well thanks for taking the time to give feedvback
@THC3, I’m so sad to see one of your plants pass away because I’ve been passively following this journal and it has been amazing, especially your background and the thought of outdoor DWC. May I ask what geographic region you reside? I live by the equator.. you can try great white bennies if you can’t get hydroguard
@MaryJaneUSA, thanks for the tip I really appreciate it. I’ll see if I can get hold of some. I’m sure the high solution temps led to root rot which killed the Charlottes Angel. The others seem ok so far which is a relief
THC3
