Critical +2.0 photoperiod NFT

This diary is going to be a long and complete one! While waiting for my main room to finish up the last three autos under the new HLG 550v2 I thought I’d get these ladies on the go! 3 of 4 popped right away and came through the rapid rooter in 3 days with roots so I put them in their final home of 6” Rockwool cubes and took a little extra from some slabs to make a tight fit. I popped another bean and I hope it comes up soon just to keep the field even. Right now I have them under a blurple light which I HATE! So I ordered an HLG 100v2 4000k for the little 2x4 veg tent and then all three are now complete with their products. My guess is that I’ll have them in a brand new NFT setup exactly like my new auto tent within 4-5 weeks and I plan to let them veg for another week or two before I switch the light. There is also a rescue in the tent that is a Durban poison which will be going along for the ride but unfortunately not a part of the diary because I’m positive that these heavy hitting Dinafem ladies are going to show us all exactly what we can get out of a 50 day +/- flower. That being said I think the first four weeks of diary are going to be a little slow and the blurple will be gone next week!

I’m kind of bummed that only 3 out of 5 seeds germinated and I had to try and pop another fast finisher from a different breeder to complete the setup. Is what it is and these are just now starting to root into the Rockwool cubes awaiting their spot in the sun. They are now under the HLG 100 which made it here super fast from rightbud.com

These little ones almost didn’t make it. They were initially through the rooter with lightning speeds but the hlg 100 was more than they could take and it’s not dimmable so I flipped it to the side and they turned the corner. They are just waiting for the other two in my main tent to finish before I convert from soil to my hybrid NFT setup and get them in their new home. That looks like 3-4 weeks from now.

Another two weeks and these ladies should be in their new forever home in the main tent under the hlg 500v2 and in another new nft hydro setup where I plan to veg them for 3-4 weeks and flip them. I’ll start giving them some mild nutes next week to get a little boost before they go in.

It’s Aliiiiiiive! Finally built my second matching hybrid NFT hydro system after getting the autos out of the main tent. 6” Rockwool cubes on draining racks in 8 gallon totes with an 8 gallon res. Waiting on some parts from amazon to add the second pump and feeding tubes. Hoping to veg them for 3-4 weeks before I flip the schedule. Haven’t decided if I want to scrog them yet or not.

The week was great. The roots took to the 1/4 nutes and I’m expecting beast mode soon. Stems are ok, stalks are good until you’ve gotten trunks. This ebb and flow NFT system is the way to go for me. I red something a while back about “kiss” keep it stupid simple. This setup does that and triples anything in souls I’ve ever done. My only new issue is that my humidity is quite a bit higher so I see myself investing in dehumidifiers down the road.

I started hitting them pretty hard with the nutrients this week and topped every one I could find. Might’ve fimmed one. I did a little early LST on them the whole week because the system I’m using grows woody stalks and if you wait too long you’ll never get a bend on them. They all more than doubled in size and technically this is week 3 day one of veg since they were put into the feeding system. I plan to get them another 8” taller with their new multiple tops and then place the scrog net over them. At this rate I’m guessing two weeks or a little more and they’ll be ready for the 12/12 flip.

Ive gone mad with the LST this week. My goal is to get them stretched out to cover the totes then top them one more time and let them get to about 26-28” and flip them. I gather that this will take 7-14 days from now. If the trend continues there shouldn’t be a need for a scrog with these stems unless they turn into the super fatty colas which would hurt my feelings.

The canopy has filled in nicely here and I think I’m about done with veg LST minus a bend here or there. So for now I’m going to let them start to stretch until they get to 24-28” before switching to flower. I think that should be a week from today. The stalks which you can barely see through the jungle are a little over an inch across. I raised the lights as high as they can go and started increasing the intensity from 50% every couple of days. I’ve had my gfci trip twice in the past two days and I can’t find the gremlin. Nothing has changed so I’m not sure what’s going on there. Luckily I’m able to tend them at least twice a day. Thanks for looking and keep on keeping on.

I decided at 21” to flip the schedule and crank up the lights. I don’t want them to get much higher than 44” on the stretch and apparently the criticals are notorious for more than doubling so it’s a bit of a learning curve for me on this strain. They are perfectly trained for my style and there should be a ton of solid cola sites. Thanks for looking!

Welcome to the jungle! The stretch is on! I’m not going to do a thing while they are in this mode but let them thrive. As soon as they are done I’ll go through and do some leaf stripping so everyone is getting light to their bus sites. I’m still heavy on the nitrogen feeding and starting to add more phosphorus. I’d like to see another 12” of stretch. I’ve been having an issue with the gfci breaker popping when the lights come on and can’t seem to figure that part out other than raising the plug amperage.

Still giving me a little stretch this week which is fine because there’s still some room. I initially thought they were going to get a bit taller or I might have waited another few days. Either way there’s a TON of cola sites and I’ve selectively removed a few fan leaves blocking them. I turned up the HLG 550v2 to about 90% power and switched the nutes to a higher phosphorus and less nitrogen base. All In all everything is on track.

Day 22 of flower which according to dinafem means these ladies are about half way there. I erred this week by letting the reservoir dry out but it was only for half a day so they came back. Early in the week I tried super cropping for the first time and I can see the benefits to let others play catch up. I’ll probably do some light defoliation this week to get a little more air and light to the lower sites and branches. The LST I did early on in their life looks like it paid of as it’s just a sea of green.

All you can do is try your best to recover from the bumps in the road. That’s the mantra for the week. The plants look and seem very healthy! The genetics are all on par with each other with typical subtle differences but @dinafem always seems to put out a quality product. Now for the oops. I was out of the house most of the day on day 29 of flower and the lights were off for nearly 18 hours due to a gfci outlet that popped. If the lights are wide open at turn on this seems to happen but the fix is easy enough by matching the outlet to 20 amps like the breaker panel is. What came from that long day of darkness was the colas nearly doubling in diameter and girth that day. It’s nothing I’d ever try to duplicate mid flower on a very well maintained canopy but I’d rather have the lights stay off than stay on. We’re on the home stretch now as we enter week 5 of flower!

I started in with the maximum ppm of about 1500 on a fresh reservoir and a ph of 6.1. I also went full strength with beastie blooms 0-50-30 at 1 tablespoon for 6 gallons of water. The white hairs are turning orange now which is the sign of times to BULK UP! My diary seems to be a little off on this 45-55 day flower as today we mark day 37 of 12-12.

Edit: I just wanted to share a couple photos and a video that I took with my new WiFi microscope. Best $20 I’ve spent in a while. Ladies and gentlemen it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Live from the Alaska arena IT’S TIIIIIIME! After 15 weeks in the 4x5 custom tent these ladies standing at 38 inches weighing in at a weight to be determined later are going to get chopped down by rear naked shearing this Sunday Sunday Sunday! We’ll sell you the whole seat but you’ll only need the edge!!!! On the real. These ladies have done their job. They’ve bulked up and gotten rock hard with mad trichomes on the sea of upper bud sites. I had a scare with a plant in a nearby tent that was rescued that was a hermie. ONE site right in front of the intake vent got it and was cut immediately. The rest of them were not affected. This strain is nearly impervious to everything from ph to whatever amount of nutrients you want to feed them in a hydroponic environment. I hit them with a massive 2100 ppm of flora series with fox farms beastie bloomz 0-50-30 in the end and never got the fade or burn. The nutrients have been cut out and it straight water for the duration. Friday starts 48 hours of darkness.

Here we are! The size was great the flowers were super dense. I left them to their own device for 12 days. Yet the yield was lighter that I had hoped for. Quality over quantity right?! Still today they are super stinky and sticky though. The genetics are super consistent amongst phenotype and they can take everything you throw at them. I would’ve completed my strain and nutrients review in the correct location but the boxes will not let you type in them. I’ll finish that part shortly.