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Soaked seed in 25C temp overnight then in paper towels, tails popped on 2nd Jan, placed into 1" chocolate muffin overcoat on 3rd Jan, Day One. The plan was to grow Think Big and Trippy Gorilla both autos but the Trippy Gorilla looks like it might have a genetic deformity, not sure if I'll continue with it but I might.
Think big is starting fast and powerful, Trippy Gorilla tiny but well developed and Auto Glueberry which is going in the garden looks a little spindly. But we see how they go.
Think Big is getting very strong, Auto Glueberry in the pot remaining spindly but fine, Trippy Gorilla is still a worry with the deformity. Think Big looks like she's going to be a strapping lassie.
Think Big powered on. I topped her at 16 days at the forth node. Some light defoliation just to get some more light into the lower branches. The plan is to fill a 2 x 4 space with a scrog. The Trippy Gorilla is twisted and deformed. I was about to pull her but the first set of normal looking leaves appeared. So I'll keep her and see what happens. I located various items and jerry rigged a sort of circular pre scrog,
The roots are out the bottom of the large pot filled with clay, and sitting in their shallow water reservoir.
Lights are currently at 75% White and 25% Red and 25% Blue. I had the red at 0% and the Blue at 50% but added some red as they plant seemed compact enough.
I have increased the grow area from 3 x 2 to 4 x 2. And I have installed two QB96 Elite Engines, with an HLG 185H 54A on each one. Currently running at half power. I found some very lightweight grid wire at the local hardware. very light, only 250gm for a 2 x 3 foot piece, I cut it down a bit so it only weighs 130gm.
The pots I'm using for this grow are the Nutrifield Pro Pot system. They can be configured in many ways and you can customise them. I like to a large area of clay, so they are sitting in a 10 in pot filled with clay pellets, as oppose to the last grow which just had a 4" pot but the roots are allowed to form in air rather than sit in the main reservoir.
Next I bought some 8mm wooden dowel and cut it to 40cm length and drilled a 1mm hole in one end to put some wire through which it turned out I don't even need because the sticks are locked in position so that can exert enough tension on the mesh to hold it in place.This means it is attached to the pot which means you can move the post.
The original round scrog did some initial training but I now have to plan for the rest of this week.
Update on the Trippy Gorilla, it seems to have recovered somewhat it's chunky and stocky but it's still obviously has some sort of genetic problem. It also appears to be already setting itself to go to flowering mode.
Began week 5 with a defoliation as per sneak preview from next week.
Everything proceeding as expected. Trippy Gorilla seems to be doing well and both girls are gearing up for the flip and stretch. I did a couple of defoliations and I've been trying to keep Think Big evenly spread on the net.
There's some tip yellowing on the Trippy Gorilla but as it's impossible to diagnose I'm just monitoring it, there appears to be a slight improvement so I don't think it's serious. More than likely some heat stress from the 34C ambient temps but we're in the middle of an unprecedented heatwave so they're doin' OK considering.
The new lights are pretty bright and don't generate too much heat. I have already exploited the new scrog attached to the pot because I decided to turn Think Big 90 degrees.
Pistils are well underway but I'm still calling this a veg week because it's more veg than flower. I've got Think Big spread out as much as I can. She is developing some decent sized stems so I hope it doesn't get too crowded.
I have no idea whatsoever what Trippy Gorilla is going to do. She was not topped just bent over a bit.
I am expecting/hoping that the next two weeks will see the main part of the stretch and setting of the final form.
A couple of update pics of Auto Glueberry in the garden, (see week one) she had a hard time in the garden and didn't do much for a couple of weeks but she's taken off now, although very squat at 12".
All the best and thanks for watching. Any ???'s just ask away.
GH nutes were used in the following ration. 1 part Micro 0.5 part Grow and 1.5 part Bloom
Plenty of stretch and vigorous growth. Trippy gorilla seems to have shrugged off her weird start and I'll be turning her around at the end of the week which will require some creative re-plumbing of the drain pipe.
You can see the large 12" pot is completely filled with clay pellets and there is a few inches of space under the pot with a 2" pool of water, but the roots sort are a bit springy like a mattress.
last two weeks was GH at ppm about 900. in the ratio of 1 part Micro 1/2 part Grow and 1 1/2 part Bloom. Has buds all over but no trichomes yet. So I'm hoping that the next two week brings out the character and trichomes.
Trippy Gorilla still looks a bit odd to me, but I'll get a better idea of what she's gonna do in a couple of weeks. Think Big has been growing steadily and if she fulfils her promise this could be a big yield, but no trichomes at all yet.
Funnily enough the Auto Glueberry that I put in the garden have very developed flowers, but it's only a foot tall and will probably be lucky to get one ounce.
There have been a couple of big defoliations. And now I just wait. I have upped the ppm to 1400 see how that goes. Still using Micro/Grow/Bloom in the ratio 0.5/1/1.5. in. two weeks I'll cut out the grow and just use micro and bloom at 1:2
They've been stretching at about an inch a day and still going. These could take 14 weeks to finish, maybe even more.
Think Big is looking very nice with very many colas covered in tufts ready to begin fattening up. Hopefully by next week I'll be seeing some serious trichome development. I've gone in and done a few very heavy defoliations. Also removed a lot of thin stuff to give it a bit more air as the humidity is very high. I've up the nutes to 1400ppm and she responded well.
GH nutes were 1 part Micro 1/2 part Grow and 1 1/2 parts Bloom, after one week the ppm was down to 900 so I topped up with more Micro and Bloom only in the ratio of 1 to 3 to take the ppm back up to 1400.
The Glueberry has completely finished, that's drying now. Maybe 1/2 zip, but it's smell nice and berryish. Trippy Gorilla is still a bit of a worry, but I figure if she doesn't make decent buds I might just to an extraction on her. This makes me think that the large root systems in my hydro is causing the development to slow down while the plant grows more.
beginning to fatten up, but trichome production seems a little thin. Could be the extreme heat and humidity but then it could just be a little late. No doubt there is some stress though. Trippy Gorilla has some good trichome production and has very compact buds should be nice is she fattens up as promised.
The Think Big reminds me of the Silver Pearl I was growing 20 years ago, in which case I'd expect these buds to get a lot bigger before putting on the trichomes. However this not Silver Pearl so I'm a little concerned as the paucity of trichome production. But hey, I'm told this is a 14-15 week plant so there's another five weeks to go. Seriously though I am expected these to get get dense and fat during the next two weeks or I'll be a bit disappointed. But at the moment my main concern is keeping control of the humidity and temperature as best I can in order to avoid any fungus or powdery mildew.
Next grow weather should be better.
Well it was a very exciting week. Everything is frosting up nicely. The Trippy Gorilla is very heavily covered in trichomes and the buds are small and tight but with the 80% humidity I knew there would likely be a problem. She started to ripen up quickly then I saw a hint of bud rot so I had to take down all the main colas and left the rest to mature a bit longer. The buds are very small and not very impressive, but they are covered in trichomes. As yet there is not special distinctive smell.
I spent about another 3 hours today on the Think Big, and she has now expanded to almost fill the entire 4 foot width. She is large. I did my best to spread her out and defoliate and also to remove some undergrowth to get good circulation. I'm getting a dehumidifier tomorrow so all should be good.
Looks like another 3 or 4 weeks for Think Big. She is a genuine princess.
Soon after I posted last week I found a bit of bud rot in the Think Big. I knew this was coming. I had just bought a small 20 pint dehumidifier but the temperature was 32C and it was just too hot to use. I was checking the buds every few hours all day for two days after, when I found two more small bits of rot, I took down all the main colas. I thought about it for a couple of hours but I knew this had to be done. Fortunately I have an air conditioned drying room so I was able to get them into the right environment.
There was 820 wet grams of colas. And I've just trimmed down the dry buds now, and there's 5 + 1/2 zips. When I hung them all carefully I only found one more bit of bud rot. If I had waited two more days, I could have lost it all. I cut all the dry buds off today and inspected them all closely. Only one single bud had some residue rot which I got rid of. They are quite airy buds even though they are very dense on the plant, they were also a few weeks away from being ready so about half the trichomes are clear but half are cloudy.
I've only been smoking some of the quality larf so far but its a very nice smoke, banana flavours, and covered in dense trichomes. I'll put some shots in that I trimmed up today. So even this early taste is good.
That was only the main colas on the Think Big there's about twice that many secondary colas and they've been going for another week. They've made 12 weeks and there are still new pistils springing up. The temperature dropped to about 27C and 85% RH so now the dehumidifier is working well enough, it raised the temp to 31C but it gets the RH to 60% and so far all the buds look good. It's hot but relatively dry. They are ripening up quickly now but I think they can go for another two weeks. Too bad I had to harvest early but you have to take bud rot seriously. I leave the nutrients for two weeks now. So here's some shots of the harvest so far and what is left. I have the lights down to 100W each now. It seems to be enough.
After the bud rot situation it's all quiet down here. What is left of Think Big which is all the secondary colas, is enjoying the sudden cooler temperatures. I've been able to keep the humidity down to under 60% and 28C most of the time, so the threat of rot problems has receded. So far they are still shooting out new pistils and continuing to throw up strings of calyxes but overall the buds are not getting much bigger. They are however covered in trichomes but they are still only about 50% cloudy.
This could go on for another 2 weeks.
Finally starting to look like she might be finishing, but every time I think that, a bunch of new pistils shoot out. Trichomes are getting more cloudy but still a lot of clear ones. Lots of stacked calyxes now packing on. Remember this plant has already had 5 zips of dried bud removed at 11 weeks!
I have not changed the reservoir for 4 weeks, I topped it up with a little bit of extra nutrient after two weeks but there seemed no reason to do anything else, she has not been using much recently ppm is constant at about 800. Only now beginning to see some leaves dying. I'm going to let her go for as long as she wants.
Welp, I've made it to 15 weeks finally. She is starting to heavily frost up everywhere, but still a lot of new pistils, after giving her a close inspection for an hour all looks good and while some buds appear on the whole she could go another week, I'll tackle it on a day to day. One way or the other I'll chop before week 16 is done.
Heads are very heavy and branches are very bendy, I've put three lights back on at 100W each in a triangle for the final few days. Overall the ppm is remaining at 800 although the reservoir colour is almost clear, so I'm not sure is the ppm is nutrient or waste. At any rate I've not changed the tank for 5 weeks, three weeks ago I added a bit of extra micro and bloom to bring the ppm back up to 1200, but it's remained at 800 for the past two weeks so it doesn't appear to be using any nutrient and the leaves are finally going yellow and starting to crumble. So I wonder how much of bud supplements that people use are just going down the drain. This is just conjecture though it's been interesting to see.
Well I went about 3 days into this week and it was time to chop, there was 2000 gm of wet bud so that could possibly be 13 zips plus the 5 already harvested would make 18 of this one plant, but we'll have to wait and see the final dried weight. The self supporting scrog was a good idea and made it easy to work with the plants as I could move them around easily. By the time it came to chop there were almost no leaves left on the plant.
A wonderfully easy and compliant strain with beautiful willowy sativa like branches. I don't know how many plants you can do this on but this one can take two harvests. At just over 11 weeks the harvested buds were the same quality, that is full of resin, as the harvest 5 weeks later, and it certainly increased the output. If given the room to grow, she will produce big, as well as the 18 zips of bud there was a couple of zips of quality larf.
A high creative trippy stone with a nice banana flavour and a very clean after taste. if there was just a bit more complexity to the flavour it would get a 10 but that's because flavour is the main characteristic I look for because as far as I'm concerned all the modern strains do the job and they all seem to have a wide spectrum of results. If I can get my current Glueberry to grow like this then that would be a 10, I really like the Glueberry, and Blueberry. Nothing other than GH Flora series was used. No cal mag, no other additives. apart from pH up and down.
This plant is a big producer and there was a Harvest at 11 1/2 weeks and a harvest ad 16 1/2 weeks. There was not much difference in the buds except that later harvest had more stacked calyxes. Effect was equally good. Not many amber trichomes at all. Still a lot clear too, even though the plant was clearly ready.
@smoking_hills9, I can believe that, I had to do an early half chop (see week 12) but the ones that are left are still growing. I can see that these have big potential.
Well it's like 25C at night and 32C in the day currently it's 84%. The res is at ambient temp. Humidity is a problem no doubt about that however I'm not in a tent, so that helps. I did not need to but I pulled both plants out of their spot and checked them out thoroughly as a precaution. Not being locked into a scrog helped.
It's important to keep things simple otherwise you get pulled into all the hype, like all the unnecessary additives and even if an additive is good, you can't tell. The Think Big does not have a lot of trichomes on it and I could easily put that down to the new lights, but the Trippy Gorilla has developed very tight buds and heavy trichomes. This shows how easy it is to get fooled.
The DWC's that I've always seen with root rot are those single self contained buckets where the roots come straight out of a small net pot into the solution. I think this is an inherently bad design if only because of the small reservoir which mean it's easy to send the pH and ppm of the solution fluctuating wildly.
Roots should always be crystalline white, they may take on a tint from the solution but there should always be healthy new growth. What size system are you thinking of setting up.
Yes I'm still in shock at that 9zip. This should be a lot bigger judging by the last harvest, considering this is filling the area better and the heads are about three times the size and it looks like it's going to put on a lot of weight. It's frightening. However if I get a bud rot or a powdery mildew then all bets are off. However the Trippy Gorilla might be done in two weeks. The growing area is also 4 x 2 now plus I've got a better spread on the lighting.
I'm convinced bigger root system equals bigger healthier plant and more yield.
@Mrs_Larimar, I'm blushing. I'm glad if anyone can see that it's best to keep things simple. I've got 5 beans going which I have not put up yet they are only a few days old. I'm going to try 3 plants in one pot to see if I can get more variety in a small grow.
This time I'm going to make little cuts in the wire scrog so I can move stalks around without having to push them under the scrog. It is stiff enough to do this but still easy to cut.
@Freddd, Such a nice Diary, I love your Scrog tchnics and gonna do it like you in my next grow..... i liked to read your explanations and thoughts... looking at your beautiful pictures... thank you for sharing that Diary
@BarrieGrower, It is my belief that the key here is the large 27L pot with expanded clay. Then of course there's the shallow water culture part at the bottom. It's very simple and allows a large separate reservoir. This avoids all the problems of a normal DWC. You don't need air stones or additives. No cal mag. What I learned from this is that there was no difference in the smoking quality of the buds at 5 weeks apart, also that the first harvest definitely increased the second harvest. I didn't mean for this to happen so it was a fortuitous discovery. Although I imagine that you would want to know the plant will take it. I'd definitely do an early crop when I grow Think Big auto. again.
Freddd, do you ever get roots growing out the exit tube of your system and ending up in your Rez?
If so, I 'm assuming these are clear tubes exposed to light, do you think that could cause any problems as far as algae or even pythium?
@SHAMMYDOG, never use clear tubing, it will just get filled with algae. All tubing I use is black. Roots always try and escape if they can! Otherwise I don't have any problems with algae. I've just begun a new grow and I'll be putting up some new shots in my next update with the root shots you asked for.
Thanks, freddd for all your info. I think you are a top grower on this site, maybe D.P. will pick you to grow their next newest strain. I think that would be really cool.
@SHAMMYDOG, well that's very kind of you to say so but I'm happy to just show how easy it is to do without all the complication. Just one three part nutrient and that's about it, no additives at all. You shouldn't need any with a hydro anyway. Are you ready to give one a go? If you do go with an auto because they are so much less hassle.
@SHAMMYDOG, yeah, I'll try and show it complete with as much of pebbles away as I can, I'm curious myself how well it utilised the clay. Look like this Think Big is almost ready.
@SHAMMYDOG, that's a good question. I would not. I bought 5 seeds and the only two to sprout were deformed. Two were undeveloped and one half germed. I don't want to be unfair though because the smoke is nice, it matured early was well behaved (apart from weird mutations). But in the end it isn't what I'm looking for.
It's very similar in taste to the OG Kush, refined, perfumed even, but I prefer a more smelly weed. I'll be growing a DP Glueberry, same as went outdoors last grow but this time indoors. And I have a DP orange bud which I'm excited to grow as I'm hoping it will have that old school taste. I'm going to have to downgrade my OG Kush for not being tasty enough for me.
The feeding schedule on a shallow water culture like I'm using is totally not critical but I give it about 15 minutes every and a half, approximately. Sometimes I forget and leave it running on override, it really doesn't matter. Even just a few times a day would be enough, I use a large reservoir to avoid any sudden changes.
Approaching harvest time I see... looking super beautiful and dense. Once again, great job- I am super impressed! How many true watts and what type of light r u using? Thx
@Momgrowsthechronic, thanks again, this one is very pretty. I've shot a movie today because it's hard to do her justice. Remember that she has already had all the main colas removed at 11 weeks and a couple of days!
The dehumidifier is working well, even thought it gets the temp up to nearly 30C. I can feel there's no problem. I only found one tiny bit of bud rot on the dried colas so it's all good on that score. These have been slowly fattening up they are not getting a lot bigger but they are chunking. They are still growing lots of stacked calyxes everywhere. The already harvested bud are tasty and strong, so I'm really looking forward to these.
They are looking close to ready this morning but there's still a fair bit of clear trichomes, Some buds look ready, I'll expect that the chop will be sometime within a week. Mainly using 2 x ab96 Elite boards with hlg185 54A drivers. Currently running at 2.5A each so about 260 real watts in total the plant is currently occupying 9 square feet. I have had these lights driving at 3.8A at one point. but I got another Rapid LED puck to spread it out a bit better. You can add about another 12% for the wattage draw at the wall.
@SHAMMYDOG, thanks shammy, I think I've pretty well covered the two different but similar ways in my two grows. As far as nutes go I only use GH Flora series with nothing else. No extra cal or mag. Basically this grow is just the plant growing in a 12" pot filled with clay and being top fed from a recirculating reservoir.
Freddd, I am assuming your using tap water.... so my question is, does your ppm reading include your tap water reading. So, (for example) your 300 ppm reading for your seedlings, is that just your nute solution? Thanks
@SHAMMYDOG, Yes it gets too confusing otherwise. I mean you can only measure the nute solution after it's mixed! My base water ppm is 130 so that's not enough for me to worry about. In a hydro set up it's so easy for the plant to get at the nutrients that I don't really think the ppm is of great importance as long as it's not so high it's burning the tips, or under say 400 for a peaking plant. I've only just started experimenting with 1400, what I do is I watch it over the next few days, if it goes down quickly like to 1000 after 5 days, then I'll keep an eye on it. I'm tending to be more relaxed with my nutrient mixing.
However it's the balance between npk that is more important, which is why it's best to use no additives just a 3 part solution like GH Flore Series. Micro:Grow:Bloom seedling 1:1:1 ppm 200-400ppm | grow 1:2:1 ppm 600-800ppm | early bloom same as grow | bloom 2:1:4 800-1400ppm | late bloom 1:0:2 800ppm
Note: the ratios above are the ratio of Micro:Grow:Bloom not N:P:K
Freddd, What do you think about this setup, except I would use a five gallon bucket holding one plant and it would drain into a reservoir. So I would have my roots just dangling in the bucket. Thanks www.youtube.com/watch
@SHAMMYDOG, well I'm not fond of roots going straight into the solution. People do it and it works but it's asking for trouble especially in a 5 gallon bucket, because when you allow for the space in the bucket then there's not a lot of solution. So if you evaporate a gallon or two then the nutrient can damage the roots. It's important to have enough of a reservoir to handle the evaporation.
As a first hydro, I would recommend this.... Take a 30L tub with a lid then you make some holes in the lid for the nutrient to drain back into. On top of the lid you place a 12" pot filled with clay pellets. A pump in the reservoir pumps the nutrient into the top of the pot. This will cause the roots to spread out and fill the clay pot, so it's a perfect hydroponic medium.
Eventually the roots will come out of the bottom of the pot, you can trim. them off or you can let them go through the holes into the reservoir. Because the clay stones will pull oxygen in as the nutrient flows through, you won't need any extra aeration.
https://i.postimg.cc/gjKRx9M8/hydro.jpg
@SHAMMYDOG, I'm happy to enjoy the fruits of the work that's already been done in the breeding. It's a challenge just seeing how well it's possible to get a plant to express its full potential. This is why I do not use any additives.
@SHAMMYDOG,
Hi Shammy, one top, that's it. I think not using the direct deep water culture allows me to have a bigger finer healthier rootball, and I believe this to be necessary to be able to get the effect that I get. I am working on the idea that if the plant can detect that it has a large root system that it tends to slow down the plant development and instead increase plant size. Interesting thread about topping autos here. https://www.autoflower.net/forums/threads/auto-topping-thread-pushing-the-auto-limits.57281/
However the Trippy Gorilla was just LST'd because it's weird.
Very cool stuff going on in here. they call this dutch bucket method? Do you have to maintain the root compartment by swapping liquids/washing it or how does that work? I can get my dwc roots looking like that, but it's a lot of liquid swapping action required
@haftanara, if you look at my previous grow, I've used a 4" pot of clay pebbles with all the roots in a large cavity with spray jets. I'd prefer misting but it was too hard to do. This sits on top of the reservoir and drains into it. A small pool of water forms on the bottom and drains out again. The roots are always wet and in air.
This grow is different the entire 20L pot is filled to the top with clay pellets and drains out the bottom into a small air space then a shallow pool of nutrient. It was too inconvenient with the reseviour under the plant.
This particular grow is using a single reseviour to the side, of 60L which I change every two weeks. A bigger reseviour is more stable. Especially in the heat we are having two plants go through a lot of water.
Hey Freddd... Is your system a high pressure spray mist or low pressure system. I have seen a low pressure system on youtube that just uses flexible tubing and he just burned holes in tubing so it just kind of sprays out. If you use high pressure, do your nozzles get clogged? thanks Tim. Looking good
Howdy @SHAMMYDOG, this one is different from my previous grow in that the previous one only had a tiny 4" pot to support the plant with the roots in the air, and jets of water spraying around. This is not what I wanted which was what you described, that is, I wanted misting not heavy jets. If you look at my previous grow you'll see I tried different jets.
However for this grow, I am using the full 12" pot filled with clay pellets, because I have an emotional attachment for growing in a pot filled with clay pellets. So the clay does the aeration and the roots just come out the bottom and sit in a shallow pool. The main thing though in both these methods is what they don't do, and that is they don't have the roots coming out of a small pot straight into a DWC. It's not to my liking.
Hi Shammy, I have updated to scrog 2.0 will put up all the details soon. What I used in version one was just bits and pieces of stuff. The circular wire was a pot stand and I don't even know what the plastic circle thing is for, and the plastic sticks were from a halo set. I version 2.0 I have a much more ingenious system stay tuned....
Freddd
