By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
This week has seen some nice growth but also some issues with nute burn and tacoing. The humidity has been a battle to keep up and it struggles to get above 50%. I have a cool mist humidifier running 24/7 at the intake of my bucket and this also helps keep the temps around 25c during the day and night. I think the tacoing is because of temp and humidity though and would love some advice on this and any general comments on the health of my plant that you can gather from the pictures.
@Penguin, actually, you should not worry about anything. Really. This is your first grow. And for the first grow it looks better than my first experience. Do not give up and get upset. I will get yout first harvest.
Last night was the first night of darkness. I swapped her to 18/6 schedule to try and fix the curling. If this shows no improvements by tomorrow again I will try to extend my grow space height to move the light away from her. I also gave her a drink for the first time since day 15. I used 1L of pH'd water around the edges of the pot. She hasn't shown any signs since I did that so I think it was correct to do so at the time.
Took her out of the bucket last night to try and decide if I should or could start LST. I gave her a little bend but it felt very much like she could snap if I pushed it so I left her upright. I really want her to spread out a bit more because currently she is so compact there is no way to help light get into the bottom areas of her. Going to leave her another week and try to reassess, I hope she doesn't stretch upwards too much though!
Decided after her stretch last night that I would try some LST. I started small and tied one tie around her base in the opposite direction I would be bending her to hopefully keep the stem secure. I bent the top over and secured one of the side branches off to the side as best as I could. I know there is still some growth under the top I bent over but would this be a big issue at this stage? Should I undo the LST?
I undid the LST. Decided to either let her grow out fully untrained or wait until it feels possible to manipulate her easier without damaging her. She has stretched out since yesterday but not so symmetrically unfortunately (see picture for day 28). I'm happy so far though for a first time. She is really starting to put out strong smells now for her size and weirdly skunky smells for a plant that isn't flowering yet.
As you can see from the third picture on day 29 she is looking a little ugly and unkept. I'm not sure if this is a normal thing or something I need to take action on. Advice would be great.
So day 30 rolling around. Decided I had to try LST again. She felt more receptive to being bent over today as well. I mainly had to attempt it for space reasons. With the current covid panic all the markets where I buy my buckets from are closed and I can't procure a new one to increase my height for probably a couple of weeks at this rate so LST was my only option. She seems to have taken well to it and I will upload a finished picture of her shortly.
Day 32, watered and fed her. 500ml of water plus .3ml each of fox farm trio. Hoping to see her perk up a bit. Concerned about the large brown spot on one of her leaves which made me think she was having a deficiency? Probably a bit early to worry about buds fattening up also but I am worried they are looking a bit airy at the moment on the non main cola sites. I'm not sure if my LST was effective at tricking her into trying to have more than one top cola?
Day 33. No noticeable gains today, at least to my eyes. I can spot a little nute burn perhaps but hopefully nothing too serious. Looks like a cola that isn't the original top is starting to fill out just as much, if not more, than the original top though. Hoping they all catch up at a similar pace to each other and reduce the pop corn nug potential!
Day 35. She has shown a few more bud sites since last post. I am worried that she is going to produce a fair bit of larf/popcorn bud and wanted to know how to get rid of that? I am not confident to remove any growth without knowing for sure it has a beneficial impact on the overall health of the plant and the final results. Any advise is appreciated. She also seemed a bit thirsty to me. The leaves were feeling a bit thin and dry so I gave her 1L of water with .7ml each of fox farm trio. Hopefully she responds well. I will check her in an hour or so to see if the leaves are starting to point back up - fingers crossed.
So this is the start of week 6 which is the first week on here labelled as flowering. Her growth seems to be good but I really want these bud sites to fatten up as much as possible. I gave her a drink and feed last night of 1L water with .8ml of fox farm trio just to test her out. She seems more than fine and I plan on increasing the amount next time I feed her to about 3ml per L. Haven't done any more LST as I can't see any new sites worth bending her to try an expose yet. Thinking pretty soon she will stiffen up and I won't be able too anyway.
Day 37. She seems to be doing fine. I can't figure out why she is a bit droopy however. Some of the bud sites are getting larger which I am happy about. Weirdly I'm not noticing as strong a smell compared to when she was a little bit smaller. Hopefully that's not a bad sign. She still has a skunky kind of smell, just not as "hot" smelling.
Day 38. Still haven't figured out why her leaves are drooping. The pot felt light again already since the last watering so I gave her another drink this morning and also some more nutes at a stronger dose. I went with half the recommendation on the fox farms feeding schedule since the previous small dose seemed to have no impact. Hopefully she handles it fine. Would love for her leaves to perk up. I also made a big decision and ordered a 60x60x140 grow tent to move her into once it arrives. I am hoping it will make taking care of her easier since I am a beginner and working from the small space of a bucket is proving to be a pain. If I could only get a spider farmer sf1000 where I live, I'd be set for life haha
Day 41. She has been fed twice since last update. The first was at about 1/4 the bottles recommended feed of fox farm trio. The most recent (day 40) was at half strength. She seems to be responding fine to it. No hard signs of burn. I also defoliated a few dead/dying lower leaves yesterday and I am keeping an eye out for any problems. The tent hasn't arrived yet but I'm hoping it makes it easier to keep an eye on her. She is stretching upwards each day and it makes it harder to take her out for watering and inspection. The 60x60x140 tent should be a nice upgrade.
Day 42, I definitely burned her bad with yesterdays feeding, There is some concerning discolouration on most of her leaves at this point. Not sure if I flush immediately or ride it out until next watering and flush her then?
Start of week 7. Having some obvious issues. Gave her just plain Ph'd water yesterday to hopefully flush some of the nutes out. Will water her again today maybe. My grow tent arrived so I will have to transplant all the exhausting equiptment currently attached to the bucket and the grow light. From tonight onwards I should be growing inside the tent, fingers crossed.
Just put her into the new tent next to a random bag seed that hasn't really done much from being outside for 2 months. Hoping to get some progress with that but not risking the NL auto so I placed the light more central to her.
Day 44. The signs of nute burn are very obvious still. She isn't dry enough to give water too yet. I will probably feed her tomorrow with a very weak feed.
Day 45. Burned tips are still bad. Not sure how to proceed. Defoliated some very dead leaves too
Day 47. Decided I'd calibrate my pH meter as I'd gotten very complacent and forgotten it needed to be done every so often. To my horror, what I thought was water at 6.5pH turned out to be 8! I am really surprised she hasn't complained much more about this as for sure her last few waterings have been way off the mark for pH! Gave her 1L of properly pH'd water today, hopefully it will make her happier.
Day 48. She seems happy after the flush from yesterday. Hoping to see some improvements as it's getting harder to notice changes daily now. I decided to try a picture with the flash on to see if any trichs are forming and surprisingly got back a sparkly looking flower. Hoping they form into bigger buds haha.
Day 49. Continuing the feeding of just pH'd water. Might give a small feeding next watering.
Will nute burn have a big affect on my final yield? Are my buds likely to increase much in size? Leaves discolouring normal at this stage? Does she look likely to produce just popcorn bud at this point? Can I do anything about it? Also not many leaves on the plant?
A little nute burn won't affect your yield, but you are starting to lose leaves. Those leaves are what process nutrients to feed your flowers so losing a lot of leaves will lower your yield and quality. Your buds do have the ability to get much larger if the issues you have are corrected. The leaf coloring is not normal at this stage. And yes fortunately you can correct this and get her turned around. I saw that you just gave her a flush. This is definitely what she needed because I think your issues are from excess salts built up in your soil from all of the nutrients. After letting her dry out a lot then you want to feed only every third watering. So feed, water, water, repeat. This will help prevent nutrient and salts from building up around your roots. It also looks like your flowering stretch is about over so you want to back off the nitrogen as much as possible. The plant doesn't have much need for the grow big from here on. I would check out the fox farm feeding schedule and feed half the recommended dose on their chart every third watering. Also make sure you adjust the pH to around 6.5 to avoid other lockout problems. This should clear up your issues. Good luck finishing up your grow!
Start of a new week, day 50. The soil is still feeling a bit wet from the last watering so I will hold off on it for now. I checked the run off after last feeding and it came out at 6.5 after I watered at 6.5 so I plan on doing one more plain water feeding before introducing nutes again. She seems happy, just waiting for her to put on some weight. No strong odours yet, just mild.
Day 51, I think I am notcing her buds getting bigger, very slightly though. The soil still isn't dry enough to water/feed her though. This is the longest between watering her I've had to wait to water again. Feels like she isn't drinking as much since I gave her the correct pH or maybe it's because the last watering I deliberately had about 10% run off when I normally have closer to 1 or 2%.
Day 52. Gave her a very light feeding minus the grow big foc farm trio nute. Lets see how she responds. She is looking nice with a flash on too
Day 53. She seems to be happy and I think I can see very small increases in bud sizes. I wasn't convinced that I would see a reasonable yield so took the step of buying a 150W Quantum Board for a lot of money here so I really hope it will make a difference once it arrives. I will post a question about swapping from the Blurple to a QB mid grow as I am not sure what side affects it can have. I'm also wondering if it will be much more powerful that this "600"W blurple that obviously isn't 600W. I have no way of testing to see what it actually pulls but it surely couldn't be close to what a QB will put out?
Day 54. Same as yesterday, no noticeable increase in size or density but also doesn't seem unhappy. Waiting for the QB to arrive hopefully tomorrow or Thursday to swap out this noisy, hot blurple!
Day 55. Gave her a light feeding today and checked the run off. Came out at exactly 6.5 so hoping that means all is good in the soil. Same observations as last few days, not much change and I've finally accepted her fate of not getting much bigger. In the process of trying to source some more seeds for the next grow which I hope will be much better yielding. I still hope to get 14g to call this a worth while investment though!
Day 56. Just some bad blurple pics today as there isn't much difference from yesterday. She is smelling great though, very fruity.
My Blurple apparently uses 230W actual draw but is advertised as 600W. If that 230W value is correct, does that suggest my new, much more expensive QB is not as good? Will it make a difference to the plants health? What are the benefits from the QB? Thanks!
I have a 150w quantum board from a chiness seller , it's a 3500k with UV and IR , it was supposed to replace my 2 50w ufo "burple" light that was just fine for flowering.
But I decided to plug both my quantum and my ufo's and the result is amazing because the "burple" light are bringing more blue to the spectrum that is giving me short internodes (except when I choose a high distance between the lights ans the plants , then it is stretching ) and the plant are shorter but bushier and like I said if you put the light higher then you will work on the height.
Stop talking bout me : What is the nenefits of a QB ? Better spectrum and basiclu the real full spectrum compared to the purple light ( mostly blue and red ) , they are producing less heat than the other light without using fans for heat disssipation which leans they are noiseless and the fact that they are emitting less heat can allow them to be placed lower in height. The QB are made of a lot of little leds that covers a bigger "area" than the others boards and so a better light repartition than a COB or a HPS that are more efficient in the middle than in the corners ( the light will reach the corners of the box easily ).
The QB wattage is also ALWAYS the real draw compared to the purple light so what you ordering is what you get.
It will make a difference to the plants health ( to me ) as the spectrum is a higher quality one with the QB and the light repartition is more efficient
Day 57, didn't upload anything as nothing had changed.
Day 58, still no noticeable changes to her but gave her a pH 6 drink. QB still hasn't arrived but hoping soon. The temps here have turned very pleasant and the tent stays between 21 and 25 throughout the day and night. My humidity also stays under 50% which is nice. Ordered a PPM meter, more pH calibration solution and some new soil for the next grow after this one. Ordered some "Super soil" mix that apparently should cover the first 2 months of nutes. Fully prepared to make the next grow a good one after the learning experience on this. I managed to source 5 RQS Diesel Autos and 5 RQS Royal Madre Fotos (I guess the guy only had stock of the older seeds as he listed it by that name and not the Mother Gorilla that I wish it was). I also have the random bagseed growing in the tent with this NL Auto still in Veg but it showed sex this week and turned out to be female. I was using it to practice HST and attempted to FIM / Top her so I will see how she grows and maybe finish her out before starting my next grow of the Diesel Autos, probably 2 at a time.
Day 59. Noticing a lot of the lower leaves are yellowing more than before. Not sure if this is at a normal rate or because of a deficiency. Bud sizes don't seem to be increasing in size still but I am not expecting them too at this stage. I am hoping the yellowing is a normal process at this age and isn't happening too soon as she doesn't have a lot of them to spare if they start dropping off this quickly!
Day 60. Definitely noticing a lot of leaves starting to fade and die. I am not sure if I should be doing something to fix this or if its part of the natural cycle at this point in her life? Buds look like they are putting on some nice frost though and the smell is really strong now. I had got used to it because when I left the house for shopping and came back, I could smell her from downstairs. Need to invest in a filter but for now making sure the door is closed in the room with the tent seems to be working.
Day 61. Decided to give her a watering today as she was looking a bit droopy. My PPM meter still hasn't arrived so I am unable to check the runoff at this point but hopefully the soil isn't still too hot for her. Also waiting for the loupe to arrive to check trichs but from my best attempts to zoom in on them, they still look to have a fair ways to go.
Day 62. She's still chugging along. Haven't noticed any new issues or changes to her today since watering yesterday. Temps got a bit cold last night and the tent dropped to 18c from its usual 21c at night. Doesn't seem to have bothered her too much though. QB arrived today! Swapped out the noisy hot blurple for this 150W QB. Currently running it on 100W as I am not sure if the shock between the 230W actual draw blurple to 150W QB would stress the girl out too badly. Already have to say the light coming off this thing feels "cleaner" somehow and its a beauty for taking pictures with. In love already and can't wait to get the next one going. I have a bag seed in veg in the same tent as the auto that I was planning on flowering after she is done, I think the QB on this intensity might fry her though?
Day 63. She has spent some time under the new QB and hasn't shown any visible signs of stress with the light sitting at 13" and 100W. I bumped the wattage up to 110 this morning and plan to do 10W more a day until at the full 150W. Gave her a watering today until about 10% runoff. Watered at 6.5 and the run off measured in at 6.6 so next watering I will go for a lower pH. Not sure how it's built up as I've been watering around 6 for a while. Will keep a close eye on her again after bumping the wattage and watering her. The bag seed seems to be perfectly happy with the change in lighting as well and hasn't shown any signs of stress yet. Also got my seeds today! Will likely grow one or two together, not sure which yet though and will wait for the bag seed to finish up. Will give her the whole tent for flowering to see what kind of yields it will pull. Anyone got experience with the strains Royal Madre or the Blue Cheese from RQS?
Does my girl look like she is suffering from a deficiency or is it a normal fade for day 60 since sprouting? What can I do as she definitely has a while to finish I feel? Any estimates on how much longer she has before getting close to chop? See most recent comment for details.
Hi @Penguin it seems to me over-fertilization, phosphorus or potassium. there are certainly 2-3 weeks to go before it is ready, the buds will still get quite fat, wait about 5/6 days to feed it only with water, you can give a fattening booster and after a few days start making flush. good luck mate 👍
Day 64. Another week on the calendar! Time is flying but also feels like an eternity. Still can't tell if there is any signs of light stress from swapping to the QB this late in the grow. I do think the bag seed in veg sharing the tent is possibly showing signs of trouble (https://imgur.com/a/9Sn0gEZ) and would love if someone reading this could take a look and let me know. Other than that, nothing new today, won't water again until tomorrow maybe the day after. I've noticed the environment in my tent has become very consistent since swapping out the blurple. Not sure if it's connected but the RH has dropped to a steady 44% ish and the temp never climbs over 25. Loving it so far!
Day 64 update, my loupe and PPM meter arrived. Tested the run off and found it was over 2200 PPM. Flushed her with around 5L of pH'd water, got the run off to 1000. Leaving it there for now as it seems to be a recommended amount for late flower. Will probably only give her plain water for the rest of her time, maybe one more light feeding, then continue to flush it down in the next couple of weeks. Took some test shots with the loupe but sadly I don't think the magnification is strong enough to clearly identify the stages of individual trichomes. Maybe I can play around with it when I take her out of the tent again but that won't be for some time. Let's see how it goes!
Day 65. It's almost been 24 hours since the panic flush. She seems to be doing fine other than showing stronger signs of yellowing in the fan leaves. Not sure if its something to worry about or part of the end of life fade? Tried to get a few different trich shots from various flowers but again, the loupe is probably not strong enough to accurately tell. Wondering whether I should try to treat the yellowing or leave it.
Day 66. The yellowing continues but at this point there is probably not much to do about it. Gave her a small feeding PPM'd to 300 to see if it helps get her over the finishing line. Tried checking trichomes and can't really tell if some are cloudy or all still clear. Definitely no amber yet though. Hoping for a couple more weeks at most before the chop! She puts off different levels of smell day to day as well. Was a bit more pungent today, very nice smelling.
Day 67. She hasn't lost as much leaf as I was expecting considering the last few days progress. Trichomes still look a while away from turning and mostly looking clear. Still has lots of white pistils too. Humidity has been a bit higher than I'd like since watering but I try to keep good air movement and a negative pressure in the tent which will hopefully reduce risk of bud rot. Smelling good but wish she'd have covered herself with some more trichomes!
Day 68. All the yellowing/dying leaves have given up and fell off. Not worried as I think I have spotted the first signs of amber trichomes on the main cola and one other. Would love someone to take a look and let me know!
Day 69 (nice). Going along fine. The fading seems to have slowed a bit and haven't noticed it spreading to the remaining sugar leaves. Definitely going to give her another 7 days and assess then if she needs to be chopped. Thank you to everyone who replied to my question regarding that. As someone said, if I had already started flushing, the timing was perfect, and luckily I had already been flushing her, so I will continue to do so. I gave her a heavy watering today with some runoff and I might do once more before she finishes? She isn't the frostiest bitch out there but she's mine and she taught me a lot. Hopefully some of what I've learned with her will transition well to photoperiods and the bag seed that is vegging next to her. I'll flip her into flower once this girl is done.
Day 70. All her leaves are starting to fade now. There are still a lot of white pistils that concerns me about the timing. I feel like the plant will fade and yellow before it fully matures. The trichomes still look the same to me but I need to get better close ups really. She doesn't seem too frosty in recent days, not sure if it's in my head or not though. Still, hoping for a chop at the weekend if she finishes up, otherwise I might be forced to due to how fast she is fading. I think I also see some purpling on the leaves? Is that from the temps or from the nutrients being used up?
Runoff was at 2200PPM. I flushed her with 5L of pH 5.8 water. I got the runoff to 1000PPM where I left it. The pH was at 7 though and was higher than before the flush. Why is that? I always pH before watering. Also, is the flush going to cause trouble for her? I kind of panicked.
Hi there. First of all, according to your posts, you are growing in soil, so the pH should be between 6.0 and 7.0, not 5.8. Secondly, soil will buffer your pH, which is why our run off is higher. Third, soil runoff of 2200 PPM is quite low, rich soil mixes can have a run off as high as 10.000 PPM (I'm talking from experience); as the plant consumes the soil nutrients, the run off will drop weekly. If you flush the soil, you could end up with soil devoid of any nutrient for the plant to take in.
Optimal time to harvest? I can see a few amber trichomes but find it hard to tell the clear and cloudy apart in my best effort pictures. I'd love a stronger head high with couchlock being a secondary trait I'm looking for. Can I achieve this by harvesting at a certain time?
Well you want fewer amber trics at the expense of having some clear still around.
Looks like another week, still more clear than one would like on board.
If you are already in flush you timed it well. If not now would be good
Day 71. Start of week 11, time is flying up till now. Feels like an eternity waiting for her to finish up! I've not watered her for a couple of days and her flowers almost feel like cured bud and smell fantastic if I lightly touch them. The fading hasn't been as quick as I was expecting actually and lots of leaves are hanging on with only slight colour change. Thinking of giving her the two days of darkness before chopping whenever that may be, and also keeping the bag seed, which after some research, I think might be Manga Rosa (Pink Mango), in the 2 days of darkness before switching her to flower. This is just from some research online about how it helps build up the hormones to trigger flowering faster. Might as well test it since she is an experiment anyway. Back to the NL Auto, I see some amber trichomes now but the pistils are maybe still too white? Would love some advice again about this.
Day 72. I have decided to let her run for another week and see what happens. I'll keep checking daily to make sure the plant isn't maturing past where I want it too. Gave a watering this morning too so she doesn't completely dry out. Let's see how it goes.
Day 73. Could be my imagination, but it looks like the bud on the main cola has filled out the gap between the top nug and a lower down one. I think she is bulking up a tiny bit but I am also weary of her trichomes getting too amber. I'll keep a close eye on this each day this week and if I feel they are turning too much I will harvest.
Day 74. Can't see much change in appearance yet. Also finding it hard to take the same picture day to day to try and check the same trichomes. Today I found it difficult to find ambers for a picture. I think it will probably run for the whole week at this stage. Not sure how often I should be watering now though and whether I should be letting her dry up completely before the next watering just in case something changes and she needs to be chopped. I'll let her go today without a watering and think about giving her one tomorrow instead.
Day 75. I do feel waiting the extra week or more was the right call now. She definitely hasn't produced as many amber trichomes as I thought she was and therefor probably had a fair bit of maturing to do. Smells great as usual but other than that, not much difference to the naked eye.
Day 76. Feeling more confident each day that she definitely needed the extra time. Still not seeing a lot of amber trichomes and still see a few clears. I hope she's ready for Saturday so I can flip the other plant into flower. Smelling amazing after a light touch too.
UPDATE Day 76. Decided tonight is the last time the lights come on for this girl. Just spent some time up close and personal examining her. Trichomes look to be exactly where I want them. Almost completely cloudy and very few amber. I know the pistils aren't looking prime but I'm happy with her. She smells amazing, and honestly feels like she is already pretty dry since I have been sparing with the waterings. 48 hours of darkness from tonight and will chop her Saturday morning. I hope the 48 hours of darkness doesn't stress out the bag seed too badly. I am hoping it will help in the switch to flowering if anything. Super excited and happy with results so far. Scared of the dry and cure though as I am not in the most stable environment. Expecting a high of 31c and low of 21c just in the next week with rain predicted all throughout so I am worried about the humidity levels. Wish me luck! Probably won't get a picture of her again until Saturday now!
Day 77. Lights have been off since midnight and will stay off until Saturday morning when I chop. Concerned about the humidity though as it's currently sitting at 69% with lights off during the day. Hoping my airflow is good enough to make this a non issue but I also don't want to keep opening the tent to look and interrupt the darkness.
Just harvested her today. Will update this shortly with some pictures and information! Super happy with my first grow and owe a lot to the people stopping in weekly to help!
Just a mid dry update. Added some pictures. Seems to be drying at a reasonably slow rate. She still has a lot of smell which I am happy about. I thought for sure I'd end up with grassy/hay smelling bud but instead she is gassy, piney and earthy smelling as she dries.
Another update on the dry period. Yesterday she lost her dank smell and the dreaded grassy smell appeared. She still has the dank smell when pressed between two fingers but currently I think the decomposing sugar leaves are causing the grass smell. I'm not too worried yet as it's only day 4/5 of the dry. Temps have been between 18-24c and RH has been 40-60%. Hoping to keep a slow steady dry going before jarring.
Just finished trimming and jarring the buds. Definitely have a new respect for people that trim bud. My wife helped me but the trimming was not perfect. I honestly don't mind having some extra sugar leaves as they were relatively trichomey. The total weight was almost 22gs so I am very happy with that. The buds themselves are a big small and I think I will definitely improve on my next grow. They are already smelling great in the jar. I will post an update again after some curing and sampling. I haven't been tempted to smoke any yet even though it smells and feels great.
Penguin
