My outcome from this grow turned out some upper level mids which I am totally ok with. The reason why I rated it as good mids is purely visual. Its not as pretty as top shelf bud but dont let looks fool you. This is a great sativa with a very happy high great for both day and evening. The buds are not as fat as I would have liked but massive pH issues thanks to some bunk nutes, ruined the first few weeks of flower. The trichome density is insane and can not wait to try the hash that will be made from the larf and trim.
The veg cycle went well and with out any major issues. Even the the pH was bouncing, she never showed signs of deficiency or stress. It wasnt until flower set in that they got real sensitive to the pH fluctuations and I had to change up some of my nutes to get her back in line but damage was doe that prevented her from swelling up in time before the trichs started to really go amber. Lesson learned, stick to tried and true nutrients and only change up a bit at a time. I have not given up on masterblend nutrients, they veg'd great on it. I will try it again this time with proper pH down instead of the TNB. Once I have processed the trim and larf into dry ice hash, I'll update with more pics and weights of hash. I also feel that heavy defoiling would have helped greatly as well. They both had thick bushy centers and I let Lloyd go more natural and Harry I defoiled some along the way. Harry produced more and nicer quality buds vs no defoil Lloyd.
Running a dutch bucket set up for the first time was a big learning curve from using the largest grade perlite to reservoir size to system layout and maintenance. I really enjoyed the overall hands off watering but would recommend going with a much larger reservoir than twice your buckets capacity, milder ec swings and less top offs.
Now I am fully impressed with the lighting. I only used 220 watts in a 4x2 tent, yes only 220 watts but still yielded 344g of dried buds or 1.57g/watt plus another 200g of larfy stuff for the hash/edible pile plus a good amount of trim. Never had any heat issues and they just simply put out the PAR like no other for the watts. I have ordered a 3rd qb288 to go in my tent for my next run going on now.
Lloyd dried over an 11 day period at a temp range of 64 to 69F with rh 58 to 64%. Harry had a better manicure trim and I removed a lot of small leaf matter from Harry and harry dried out in only 6 days in the same room. Harry is more foxtail sativa in structure vs Lloyd.
Smoke report I decided to try not flushing this grow to see how it goes. Being a hydro run, I feed all the way until harvest and the taste is very smooth, not harsh by any means. Very strong culinary herbs and spice flavors with a subtle fruit pie finish (think spiced christmas fruit pies). Absolutely delicious even without a long cure. Aroma is gaining daily and it just gets better.
Effect is immediately felt in the cerebral cortex. Very uplifting creative feeling pleasant high. It's great for brain storming, organizing the grow room, and very conversational (I'm more of a resevered person but cant shut up on this). If I had to guess potency, i would put her in the 15 to 20% range. Effects linger for hours but the main rush is done in about 90 to 120 minutes. I would definitely grow again.
Made dry ice hash today, hand shredded up 8 oz of larf and 2.5 oz of trim, sifted over a parchment paper lined table. I only have a 73 and 220 bag. 73 or purest yielded 9g, 220 first shake yielded an additional 16g, and 220 2nd shake yielded 30g for a total of 54g of kief
This is my first dutch bucket run and my reservoir pH is rising quite a bit daily. I pH down to 5.8 to 6.0 and within 24hrs it's back up to 6.6 6.7. Rinse and repeat. Is this normal or is something out of whack. I know pH will drift a little in a hydro system but this much?
@Ga4rd2en0er Thats a hard name to write , What is the ppm doing ? is it rising or falling or remaining the same ?
usually it will rise like that if the plant has taken up a heap of water thus changing the ph of the now more concentrated solution
@Grey_Wolf the ec drops slightly per day and seems to be drinking about a gallon of water per day right now. Been topping off with nutes to keep it in the 1.7 to 1.8 range.
@Grey_Wolf, last res change and it was clean as a whistle. I do 4 gal ro, 6 tbsp molasses, 2 heaping scoops of great white, and 3 to 4 handfuls of EWC in a sock and brew for 48 hours. I then add to my reservoirs at a ratio of 20 to 1. Aside from my indoor dutch bucket, I use it in my outdoor kratky tomatoes peppers herbs and lettuces and all have brilliant roots even with 80ยฐ res.
@Grey_Wolf, that's what I was thinking just the sharp rise in pH alarmed me. I inoculate bi Weekly with a tea I brew with EWC, great white powder, RO water and fed backstrap molasses.
@CRiSPrGrow I ran out of hydroguard and have been supplementing my res with hydro tea every 2 weeks to build up benies since I am not running any type of chilling for my res, So for me H2O2 would be a no go. Tea has kept roots of plants outside in kratky setups bright white and happy with res temps in the high 70f to low 80f. I'm probably being a little over critical as this is my first true hydroponic run.
@CRiSPrGrow, thanks Nova, I inoculate with great white myco powder and earthworm castings fed with backstrap molasses. I can see being myself being over critical, it's one of the reasons I smoke ๐. Thanks again growmie!
@Ga4rd2en0er, yes to everything you said let me just add it might be a good thing to add bennies to the tea just to assure it's got that chelation power, but yeah most of it is probably being strict on yourself growmie ๐ ๐
You look to be of to a nice start with our Auto Original Amnesia ๐
Happy and healthy just what we want to see at this stage of growth mate ๐ค
Good luck with the grow ahead my friend ๐
I'll be along for the ride and watching with interest ๐
All the best โ๏ธ
Mark..
@Wicked_Stix, unfortunately I tried that and the buckets are far to wide mouthed compared to the 5 gal bucket. I'm setting up an outdoor Dutch bucket with reg 5 gal buckets and will definitely be using the strainers.
I love how you've named both plant's my friend, very cool ๐ค
Lloyds time is nearly up with Harry coming down a week later ๐
Both plants look absolutely stunning mate ๐ค
Well played ๐
All the best โ๏ธ
Mark..
Things look to be going into overdrive mode now ๐ค
Big fat buds dripping in trichomes, what's not to love ๐
Looking good in here ๐
All the best โ๏ธ
Mark..
They are looking great!! There is definitely something is your feed that is messing your ph up. The maxigro and maxibloom are the most stable nutrients I have found. My ph will hold stable for 2 weeks without adjustments.
Ph goes up because sheโs drinking all the nutes our the water.
Try running beneficials instead of H2O2 Hydroguard is good example.
Best is to brew a liquid tea using compost molasses and strains of bacteria and fungi. You will have the pinnacle of health and flavour smell will be increased
Rather than nuking your way to root rot then bud rot, try the natural approach XD
Read your comments after I posted this... lmao
@Ga4rd2en0er, unless youโre adding beneficial to every feed youโve got chance of brown slime especially in res temps over 18c.
Wipe the side of your res with paper towel. If a load of brown slime on the side/bottom of res.
I would go ahead and do a H2o2 bath in your res, get some new air stones and see if that makes a difference.
As your in flower you can use phosphoric acid instead of nitric acid which is more common.
1 more thing this might help
If you dump the water in cold then put nutrients in, the PH will change as the water warms up...
Good luck, let me know how you get onโ๏ธ
@PharmaZ, I've used straight ro, I've used straight tap, I've used 50/50 mix. I mix all my nutes for a while in a 5 gal bucket to ensure no precipitation of the suspended nutes and have a small pump circulating the water within the res along with 2 large airstones powered by a 10 w pump. First thing I do when I open the tent daily is check ph then adjust and work on plants (lst, defoil, etc) and check ph again when done. Not sure if maybe the tnb down is crap, first time using it as I ran out of trusty old GH ph down. I think after this run I'm going to build a platform to put my tent on and use a larger res outside the tent. My res is only 7 gal due to holes in the latching handles on the tote. Thanks for the input and keep the ideas coming!
So many massive colas on this beauty. Nice work. 15 weeks is an old auto on here, but I think many people harvest too early. Yours surely shows the Benifits of patience. Congrats. Keep doing what your doing and best of luck with the rest the grow.
@Denzul, they definitely tried my patience this run. But with the bad pH down I was using, they had a rough first couple weeks of flower so I think it elongated the flowering window. Fingers crossed this weekend and the last one will be done.
Hell friggin ya buddy. What a harvest! Holy crap! DOTM contender for sure. Congratulations man. This is serious quality and a serious yeild. Unbelievable ๐ฎ.
Great work, well deserved. Happy smoke my friend!๐๐โบ๏ธ
Holy crap this is nice. Look at that frosting! You're in for one hell of a treat and you've done these genetics proud. Very happy to see you nearing the finish line. I'm genuinely excited for you, it just all looks so good.๐
Cheers and continued success my friend. Bring her home!โ๐