Chubutta's Medical Grow

[Chubutta]

Hello everyone! My first medical grow is finally underway. I currently am growing Greenhouse seeds White rhino, White Widow, and Super Lemon Haze. From Dutch Passion I am growing Strawberry cough , and Green Spirit. I wanted to start with a good variety to see which strains I like for my personal needs. I am going to use this thread as a grow journal to help me along the way. Sit back, roll one up, and please feel free to give me advice.

 

I was very impressed with the germination I got from my seeds. I am currently growing in Roots Organic soil. I germinated using the papertowel method and had 100% germination rate within 48 hours. The little (hopefully)ladies are currently under a Sun Blaze T5-24 4 lamp Fluorescent.

 

Here are two problems I have ran into so far. One plant the leaves curled up a little. I was trying to go as long as I could without watering for good root development. First, I think this little girl couldn't handle it, new growth looks fine though.

 

 

Second, I have a few spots on a few girls. I did have the T5 really close to the plants maybe within 2 inches because I thought heat wouldn't be an issue. To me this looks like a heat issue, the leaves on the plants seem to look a little fluffy. This is a Strawberry Cough

 

 

Here is a shot of some more Strawberry Cough's (far left plants) so you can see the difference.

 

 

 

I would appreciate any help!! Thanks

 

Peace!

[Kingdiamond]

Looks like you splashed some grow nutrients on the leaves outside of that they look good to me.

 

T5s get very hot if you see and signs of burning up your leaves just send the lamp up a notch or two.

[THC-Farmer]

Looks like you're on the right track overall.

 

The spots on the StrawberryCough appears to be heat stress. But keep an eye on it to see if it progresses. I would recommend bringing the T5 up a bit higher, say about 6-8" away from the tops. Those high output T5s, even the 2 footers, can put out quite a bit of heat. I keep my 4 foot SunBlaze at about 8" from the tops.

 

The first plant is definitely showing signs of lack of water. Give her a good drink, moisten that soil up a bit, she'll perk right up. What strain is that with the curled down leaves? (just curious)

 

My guess is it's the Super Lemon Haze. SLH is very Sativa dominant hybrid. Strong hybrid though. Most Sativas tend to enjoy a nice steady supply of water. Not a ton of it but a nice steady moist medium is optimal for Sativas, they don't really care for dry spells.

[Chubutta]

Actually another Strawberry, but you are correct on the Sativa dominant on that one as well. I did move the T5 up about 6 inches or so. I am running a 1000watt MH with a 6" air cooled reflector. I am using a can fan for ventilation. How long should I wait until I put them under the big light?

[Chubutta]

It's been awhile since my last update. Everything is going great. The Green Spirit by Dutch Passion which has about a week more of veg showed sex yesterday, it's a girl!! This thing is getting super bushy since I topped it twice. Should I continue to let it bush out, or trim it some? I am still using the Roots Organic nutrients and soil. These plants are almost approaching a month old now and I just went from a 24/0 to 18/4 light cycle a few days ago. How much longer do you think I should wait until I go over to 12/12, I was thinking about another week or two. My goal is to get 2oz per plant, but I would be happy with anything since it is my first grow. From what I have read a plant can stretch quite a bit during flower. Anyone want to give me some insight on what I can expect a Indica or Sativa to stretch during flower? I appreciate all the advice I have received so far. My plants seem to be very bushy, what do you think?

 

 

 

Here is a current shot of how the garden looks

 

Here is the Super Lemon Haze

 

Shot of the Green Spirit , should I trim this girl?

 

 

Strawberry Cough

 

White Widow

 

It really does blow the pictures up pretty good, I did not intend for them to be that up close. I will take some better shots in about a week.

 

Tell me what you think!!

 

Peace!!

 

-Chewy

 

 

Peace!

[Grow Thread]

been a good couple weeks for the girls

 

lookin good bro.

[MightyMightyMezz]

Don't know if it has been mentioned, but that Roots Organic soil might be a little hot for seedlings. In the future it might be a good idea to mix it with something that has no nutrients. Looking good now though!

[rockinlespaul]

Lookin' real good. Nice and healthy. I like 'em short and bushy like that. When you put them babies under that 1000 they're gonna exlpode! Our last run were about 2 feet tall and bushy. Two of 'em were White Widow and all of them netted 3-4 zips each dry, so you should do very well.

[TheFlyingBuddha]

looks good, best of luck with your grow. =)

[Chubutta]

Should I top these plants? I would appreciate it if someone would answer my questions. Thanks everyone!!

[bobandtorey]

Should I top these plants? I would appreciate it if someone would answer my questions. Thanks everyone!!

 

 

i do not top but thats just me i think their are a lot better thing you could do to your plants

[HerbanLegendSeeds]

Should I top these plants? I would appreciate it if someone would answer my questions. Thanks everyone!!

 

I would top them once if you have the extra room for them when they bush out. Take clones off the lowest branches once you know you have females.

[Chubutta]

So I just switched the girls to 12 12, I gave them a feeding today. I usually water about a gallon per plant. I checked on the girls and they are drooping pretty good. Is this normal???

[CannabisPatient#1]

If you are in 3 gallon pots (kinda looks like it) one gallon of water may be a bit much. It depends if you want to flush. How much water runs out the bottom when you water? I like to water until just enough comes out the bottom for me to do a meter check/flush once a week. Between flushes I water until the soil is just over damp but not wet...best way I can describe it. Each watering will not be the same. Some times they will need more and sometimes less. Plants can wilt from over watering. If they are a bit too wet increase air flow if possible.

 

As far as topping goes I think that it depends on the strain. If the plant is main cola dominant then I do not top, but I love to super crop and lolly pop. If the plant has a good amount of branching I like to FIM, lolly pop, and super crop. I like to twist the stems until you get that knuckle cracking sound too. That is basically super cropping with out any bending. Do you do any of these methods? Any ???s I would love to help out. Feel free to ask here if you want or pm me.

 

~Blake

[Chubutta]

Hey Blake thanks for the help. Some of my pots are 5 gallon and I think the others are around 4. I usually fill up the water catchers that are below the pots, they are about 1-2 inches high. Then I will suck the water out with a shop vac haha. Good news is I checked on the girls this morning and they look totally fine again, perked right up!! I think over watering was the problem. I am interested in hearing about some of your methods. The fan leaves on my plants are starting to get big and I believe they are taking up a lot of the light for the bud growth?? Any recommendations on trimming??

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

-Chewy

[CannabisPatient#1]

I have heard of that being done. Poor mans hydro. You should save the run off and put it on the soil around your plants in your garden outside. I have a rose right now that is going crazy! Good to hear that she bounced back.

 

When I have plants in pots I use the weight when picked up to feel how much water it has. After a while you will get the "feel" of it too. I personally think that less water is better than too much. Try watering until the water just starts to come out of the bottom. Then once a week or less do a flush filling up the catcher to about 1". Do you have a pH meter? pH the water before going in and pH test the run off. That will let you know the state of the pH in your soil. I have heard that WW is pH sensitive (sativa dom pheno). I think that you will find that cannabis is a resilient plant.

 

The Green Spirit looks like she could use a hair cut. Trim fan leaves to expose the lower bud sites. The third set of fan leaves from the top should IMO get cut. I would cut one then wait a few days and cut the other side. They are still pretty small and you don't want to shock the metabolism.

 

Do you know super cropping? I also pinch the lower branches gently toward the base until the stem just gives in a bit, and bend them outwards. Some strains will need to be tied down after SCing so that the branches don't just perk up back to original position. Don't be afraid to crease the stem a bit so that the branches stay were you want them too. Be careful to keep "bark" intact. She will heal in a couple of days. Bending the branches outward will open the plant up and let in more light. The pinching also breaks the herd in the stem. The plant heals itself making stronger pathways for nutrients to flow. The stems also get stronger, and can hold up more weight. Good thing too, because when you do it they get bigger. I would let them get adjusted to the trim of a couple of fan leaves before you super crop. Also do not do nutes right before or right after you do either method. Let the growth kick back into gear before juicing again. It is better to SC before switching 12/12, but you are very early in flower and they will be just fine SCed now.

 

I also carefully cut the growth on the bottom/inside of the lower branches off. This is lolly popping. The growth that doesn't get much light will not produce enough to be worth keeping. The energy will be diverted to top growth after trimming.

 

Do a search for super crop. Good method to know and I am sure that others have explained it better than me. Search FIM too. It is a topping method. You could FIM one of your Strawberry Coughs. That way you can compare between natural and topped to see if you like it.

 

Have fun and I am here to help if you have any more ???s

[Chubutta]

Awesome!! So I did cut back a few of the fan leaves and pinched and tried moving others out of the way to allow more light to the bud sights. The plants are back in gear but some of them look a little bit yellow( new growth coming in) I am not sure if this is from over watering or not. I am going to switch from a MH to HPS today for the remainder of flower. Both of my WW's are confirmed Female as well as the two Super Lemon Haze and Green Spirit. The 5 Strawberry Cough as well as the White Rhino's are yet to be determined. The White Rhinos are really goofy looking, they are short and stout, they don't resemble a marijuana plant much to me. I'm just going to leave them alone and let that soil dry out a bit to get some oxygen to those roots. I hit them with their first bloom feed following the Roots Organic feeding schedule the other day. I haven't fed these plants much and have always flushed good between feedings. I'm just going to wait it out for about a week and see how they do. I'll take some good photos tonight when switching bulbs. Thanks Blake!!

 

 

-Chewy

[Chubutta]

Here are some current shots. You can see the new growth has quite a yellow appearance. I just raised the light up, it is around 3 feet from the tops. I have never had any heat problems in the tent, temps never go much above 80degrees. They usually are around 75-80. I am not sure how high I should have the light from the canopy but I thought maybe it was to close? I am heading to buy a HPS bulb and some more goodies right now. Peace!!

 

-Chewy

 

 

 

 

[THC-Farmer]

I don't recommend topping your plants at all. I never top ANY of my plants EVER. It's the worst thing you can do to your plants.

 

No matter how you look at it the FACT of the matter is, cutting the top of the plant off will seriously reduce it's overall yield. This is because chopping the top of the plant off stops the production of new branching. Doing so means less bud sites right from the start. DO NOT TOP YOUR PLANTS. If space is an issue, put them into bloom phase earlier when they are smaller so that when they stretch they don't outgrow the space you have. Or you can simply bend them over gently as they get too tall. It also helps knowing the tendancies of the plants you grow such as how much they stretch before they stop growin upwards and start producing flowers.

 

I also never recommend trimming off ANY leaves or branches. Doing so inhibits the plants normal growth rate because the loss of leaves forces the plant to use nutrients and energy to create more leaves. Clipping or yanking leaves off will stress the plant. Think of it this way, the leaves are like the "food factories" for the new growth that is coming in. The leaves act kind of like a stomach, they "digest" the light and make energy with it for the new growth. If you remove the source of food it will struggle to make more leaves and new growth.

 

Those plants are looking VERY healthy Chub. Don't screw it up by being ignorant! You're looking at a healthy yield there my man.

 

If you're going to take clones you should do them ASAP. Take them from the lowest branches. Don't take clones of plants that are already in bloom. Take your clones FIRST, then force them into bloom and then, you will know whether your clones are male or female without stressing the clones. If you take clones from a plant that is already changed it's metabolism and is in bloom, your clones may not survive as they will be shocked from the flip flopping of the photoperiod.

 

The new growth coming in a bright-yellowish-green is an indication of high Nitrogen levels within the soil. Judging by the pictures this may very well be the case as your fan leaves are all a very healthy dark green color as well. Don't panic! This is a very good thing! That means that you have very good levels of nitrogen in your medium. All you have to do is not feed them any more Nitrogen.

 

They are looking very good. Keep up the good work!

[Chubutta]

Thanks FARMER I appreciate your input. I only topped one plant out of the 12 and that was the Green Spirit when it was younger. I think you are spot on about the Nitrogen. I am going to take a picture tonight when switching to the HPS because I swear I can already tell a difference. The new growth is much more green. I did take clones right before I put them into flower. Will the HPS hortilux make them stretch a little bit more then the metal halide? I'm hoping for a decent yield, do you think I could get a oz/plant ??

 

 

Thanks!

 

-Chewy

[affordablemimeds]

Topping is a good thing, it will produce more branches for more tops. Also too many sucker branches on the bottom just make usless tiny buds.

[THC-Farmer]

Here is the deal with HPS lights.

 

They emmit a strong amount of light in the yellow-orange range of color and no where near enough in the blue end of the spectrum. What happens is that the chloraphyll must adapt to use this kind of light more efficiently. So the cellular development will actually change. The cells will become more elongated, resulting in what we refer to as a "stretch"... This type of stretch is VERY different from the increase in growth rate you will notice about 5-7days after switching the photo period. This type of stretch is caused by a deficiency in the the photo-energy.

 

Yes, your HPS bulb will change the growth of the plant. The only problem is you won't particularly notice it because you have already set the gears in motion for the bloom phase. Now if you were to change the spectrum of the light during vegetative phase without changing the photoperiod you would instantly notice the difference in growth. All the newer growth will have elongated cellular structure, even the leaf structure will change.

 

See because when you change the photoperiod on a cannabis plant it signals hormones within the plant that completely changes the whole entire plants metabolic rate. Once this happens it grows bigger and a lot faster. The plant does this to basically "set the stage" if you will, or prepare it for blooming. The plant figures, the bigger I get, the more flowers I can create, the greater the chance of reproducing a larger amount of seeds for the next generation. This is kind of the instinctual adaptation that is inherent in almost ALL annual flowers. After all, cannabis is nothing more than an annual flower. The only difference is, this one, produces THC.

 

Now, the Hortilux Super HPS is one amazing HPS bulb. They have managed to create quite the balanced spectrum in those bulbs. So much so that you can even use them during vegetative phase with little to no stretching at all! But even with the added spectral corrections the HPS is still deficient in a lot of the spectrum so if you did a vegetative side by side experiment with something more towards the blue or full spectrum you would indeed notice a difference in growth structure.

 

However, they are absolutely THE best HPS bulb out there. The only thing better than the Hortilux Super HPS is the Sun Pulse bulbs.

 

Your overall yield depends on a lot of factors. First off, what size HPS system are you utilizing? You should be able to pull an ounce or close to it per plant with a 1000w Super HPS easily. Is that a 4ft x 4ft grow tent? (I like it, very neat and clean! Nice setup)

[THC-Farmer]

Topping is a good thing, it will produce more branches for more tops. Also too many sucker branches on the bottom just make usless tiny buds.

 

Topping your plant is only a good thing when you have a strain that you KNOW will produce equal main colas. This is usually done with strains that don't develop a big main cola. Very few, if any, strains actually do this... If you find one that does, cool but I can assure you that bigger yields come from the HUGE main colas from naturally bloomed cannabis plants.

 

What you basically end up doing when you top the plant is you force the plant to split up that main growth tip into more smaller growth tips. Those growth shoots that come up are just like the lower smaller branches will never produce the same amount as the main stalk left in tact would. I promise.

 

If you do some side by side tests you will see that regardless of how many new growth tips shoot up your overall yield is still greatly diminished... Those giant main colas are where the REAL yields are at. Don't waste your time with all that topping, FIMing, and even supercropping as most of it is unnecessary non-sense. Just let the plants grow and bloom naturally.

 

But if my word's not good enough for you then do some tests (as I have) and see for yourself. Take two clones of the same plant and top one. Let the other grow out naturally. Give them both the same amount of light, nutrients, and water. You will reconcile, I can assure you.

 

I want you to take a look at this video for me -

 

At about 2:00 minutes in is where I really want you to pay attention but just watch the whole thing. I know most of it seems like non-sense but if you pay close attention you will see what I'm talking about.

 

I don't mean to pose an argument about it I just can't stress it enough. I see people losing out on good yields all the time due to bad information from misinformed growers...

 

(by the way, I was on that smoking panel they speak of during that video. )

[affordablemimeds]

I have tried this. I have almost 20 years of grow time in already. How about you. I'll show you mine if you show me yours. 4 plants gives 17 oz easy

Topping your plant is only a good thing when you have a strain that you KNOW will produce equal main colas. This is usually done with strains that don't develop a big main cola. Very few, if any, strains actually do this... If you find one that does, cool but I can assure you that bigger yields come from the HUGE main colas from naturally bloomed cannabis plants.

 

What you basically end up doing when you top the plant is you force the plant to split up that main growth tip into more smaller growth tips. Those growth shoots that come up are just like the lower smaller branches will never produce the same amount as the main stalk left in tact would. I promise.

 

If you do some side by side tests you will see that regardless of how many new growth tips shoot up your overall yield is still greatly diminished... Those giant main colas are where the REAL yields are at. Don't waste your time with all that topping, FIMing, and even supercropping as most of it is unnecessary non-sense. Just let the plants grow and bloom naturally.

 

But if my word's not good enough for you then do some tests (as I have) and see for yourself. Take two clones of the same plant and top one. Let the other grow out naturally. Give them both the same amount of light, nutrients, and water. You will reconcile, I can assure you.

 

I want you to take a look at this video for me -

 

At about 2:00 minutes in is where I really want you to pay attention but just watch the whole thing. I know most of it seems like non-sense but if you pay close attention you will see what I'm talking about.

 

I don't mean to pose an argument about it I just can't stress it enough. I see people losing out on good yields all the time due to bad information from misinformed growers...

[THC-Farmer]

Then keep doing what your're doing if you like the results.

 

I'm telling ya though, you can do better.

 

Best of luck!