First time grower, growing in coco and ready to flower

[Morcheeba*]

Holy cow... how do you manage the light hood in all of that? I'm running an HID hood, so it alone takes up nearly a foot when I crank it up to the top of the tent. Sounds like you are pretty handy with a rope, man!

I hope my topped, Indica girls stay short and stout. I never was very good with knots!

i run 2 600's and i have one in a cool tube and the other is in a traditional hood.

my sativas grow on the end w/the cool tube so they can get 5' and still get good light but my shorter plants will go under the hood or in between both lights.

my system is far from efficient but its functional for me since im in a wheelchair and im growing just for my needs.

ill take pics soon but here is my old veg area in a closet.

 

[classV]

my sativas grow on the end w/the cool tube so they can get 5' and still get good light but my shorter plants will go under the hood or in between both lights.

That's pretty trick man. Those plants look great. It will be interesting to see how they progress!

 

[classV]

One week into flower. The 3 older girls have grown to about 23”. The baby is about 13 inches. I’ve stayed with the MH for 12/12 so far. The plants have only grown 4 to 6 vertical inches since starting 12/12 last Tuesday. Will switch to the HPS soon. For the first week I used the 1-1-1 ratio at full strength for transition according to the run-to-waste schedule on GH’s Flora Series. Still adding 2ml/gl CaMg+. I have also started adding 1ml/gal Floralicious+. The solution EC comes to 1.3 EC, and the runoff is about the same or a little lower. I have taken to feeding daily, and treating the Coco like hydro. I use the EC of the runoff as a check for signs of buildup. As long as I’m not much over the EC going in, I figure I’m okay. My runoff volume is about 25%.

I’ll need to change the nutes tonight or tomorrow for the Bloom phase of the GH schedule, and introduce Liquid KoolBloom to the feed. Right now they are very bushy, crowding each other, and building more leaves and bud sites. The canopy is relatively even, with a couple of the colas on each plant taking on the characteristics of the main. Inter-nodes are tight. ( All of the plants have been topped once at the 4th or 5th node during veg, and the baby sits on some books to come up to level. All four plants appear to be female ( Started from Fem seeds), though it’s still early. No sign of hermies yet.

Couple of questions if anybody would be inclined offer an opinion to a complete noobe:

1) Crowding: These four plants are short and fat, and crowding each other. The foliage is very thick. Any thoughts on pruning during flower? I did not expect the width of the 3x3 tent to be the issue, but turns out it is more of a problem than the vertical space. Topping them created bush monsters. Lower and side growth are suffering a bit, and the 400w MH is having trouble penetrating the dense foliage. The canopy is rocking though.

2) Calmag: How long do you guys keep adding this for your coco grows?

Here are some updated picks from last night. All thoughts from other growers are always appreciated.

 

[BrownThumb]

You're probably going to get a few different opinions on the question of pruning during flower. I let the leaves yellow and then pull them as they die off; others are more proactive. It depends on the plant, some can benefit from it, some not so much.

I feel your pain on space and the answer IMO is to take your lumps, figure out which pheno.'s behave the way you want in regards to how you use your space and use those going forward. I am in the same boat as you, only less space, but no matter how much space you have, you'll never have enough.

 

[classV]

I hear you, BrownThumb. I've read conflicting opinions on pruning during flower. The notion of letting it be and letting the leaves die off on their own make sense to me. The horizontal space issue came as a bit of a surprise to me, probably because I was concerned about height, and light penetration, and other things I have yet to experience first hand. I have plenty of vertical room as it turns out. Anyway, I just tuck some of the leaves to get more light onto bud sites. That will just have to do for this grow. Even all the reading and helpful advice from folks with experience, there is a learning curve here. It feels pretty good to have made it to flowering. If I get any yield at all I'll be okay with it.

 

[Morcheeba*]

your plants look healthy so im guessing you will harvest some nice nugs.........maybe not enough but as you stated that the learning curve is where your at and with each harvest all you read will make more sense.

on any pruning / topping / defoliation all plants react different so experiment with that in veg in case a plant stalls all growth.........no good for that to occur in flower.

i heavy defoliate some in veg but i do this to help control height and keep branching close and i have pruned a small ammt early in flower but im not comfortable doing any more.

a few yrs ago i had a pheno of NL and if i defoliated or topped to clone she quit growing for 7-10 days so i treated her different.........sadly i no longer have her or id post pics but you dont know how your plant will react until you try it.

id tie branches apart to get better light penetration b/c you can not afford to slow any stretch..........also, id go w/hps since they are stretching less than expected.


EDIT: check a defoliation option HighLighter does
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=108969&page=43

good luck

 

[classV]

Hi Morcheeba. I’ve been thinking about that HPS too. It’s sitting in the box ready to go. But since I have used the transition ratio with the Flora nutes for this first week, according to their schedule, I will be interested to see what effect the change in diet with the bloom nutes has on the plants for a few days before I spring the HPS on em. The change drops N and drives up P and K. I hear you on the HPS, though. Another aspect has been the temp diff between day and dark hours, which has not been much. I have the temps back under some sort of control, and have started letting the grow area cool to the high to mid 60's during dark hours.

That’s a good suggestion about tying up to manage the canopy. It's more or less even, ( with the baby on a couple of books) but I think I see what you are getting at. Do you have preference for the material you use to bind them up? Twine? String? Cat gut?

 

[Morcheeba*]

many was to skin a cat but i have used bamboo stakes & tomato cages to tie branches to and i use string or twine and at times zip ties.

i know your canopy is even but to expose lower bud sites to light you can tie together fan's like HL does in the thread i linked.

 

[classV]

i know your canopy is even but to expose lower bud sites to light you can tie together fan's like HL does in the thread i linked.

Ahhh.... I see, said the blind man. I completely missed that link. I would never have thought to tie the fan leaves down. That's clever as hell. One thing I have in to much abundance is leaves. Thanks for the tip, Morcheeba!!!

 

[Morcheeba*]

no prob.

i just saw it and wanted to show options to defoliation b/c you dont need them to stall and many dont think defoliation is good but its something that is helpful but not in you current situation.


peace

 

[classV]

Took a good look at them and decided that at this point, tucking the leaves will have to suffice. I see more peril than payoff in trying to tie the leaves up at this point. I'm going to err on the side of caution. Having never seen a cannabis plant going through development before, I see now that more detailed and thoughtful cultivation during veg is going to be part of my program moving forward. No matter how much I read, or how much I learned from experienced growers... seeing how the plant is built and develops over time, first hand... no substitute for that, man. Now I understand much of what I read and was told about the veg phase in a very real way.

As for flowering... I switched over to the Bloom phase schedule with the GH Flora nutes, and have added liquid KoolBloom and Floralicous to the mix. This complies with the run-to-waste schedule (simple version) posted on their site. I wonder about the decrease in N, since these NL plants seem N hungry all the time. If it becomes a concern, I'll add a little N back with the Flora Micro. Hand watering has become quite a chore. Automating the process is something I will be looking toward next time out.

I'm mixing fresh nutes each feeding, and the solution is at full strength according to the GH chart. Right now my solution EC is just over 1.2, (600ppm .5 conversion). My runoff for the plants averages just a bit higher right now. The 1.2 EC of the solution seems a little low compared to what I read from other growers. I imagine down the line I will have to push it up a bit.

Still rocking the 400w MH. The vertical growth has not been huge during "stretch" so far. Tight nodes. I miscalculated on my post above. Looks like about 8" to 10" of vertical since flipping to 12/12. The three older plants are all just over 2 feet tall now, and the baby is about 17." I considered going to the HSP sooner, but elected to keep the MH going the full two weeks as originally planned. We'll see how it goes. If the plants top out around 30 inches I will be very pleased. I'll flip to the HPS on Tuesday and finish the grow with it.

Two of the plants are showing lots of pistils around the upper nodes on the mains. The runt and the baby plant are just now showing female pre-flowers. The runt, which is the smaller of the older plants, has been deformed since sprouting. I keep a real close eye on her for signs of a hermie. Side and undergrowth is taking a bit of a beating from the crowding. Some lower leaves look rough, but still very green down there.

As for yield... I'd be ecstatic to pull 4 dried ounces from this grow, but that's assuming all four plants make it through flowering, and I'm aware that 4oz is pretty optimistic for a noobe. Looks like the mains that have formed up since the topping will have to carry the load, and some of the secondaries look promising. But again, I am only now seeing these things up close for the first time, so it is safe to assume I barely know what I'm talking about at best.

I'm really glad I went with NL for the grow. Tough plants. I'm already contemplating how I will approach a second run. I figure to go with the same strain for round two, and work on technique. I'm also glad I took the chance with coco. It was worth the problems I had to work out at the beginning.

 

[BrownThumb]

I'd consider taking cuts of all of your NL's soon in case any of them turn out to be up to your standards. That will speed up your next batch and give you greater control in the sense that you will know what to expect in regards to stretch, potency, etc. The deeper you go into flowering, the more likely you'll get "monster" clones, which are harder to predict in regards to stretch and general shape (they tend to be way bushier than regular clones), but you will get at least equal yield, but more likely better. Besides those I start from seed, that is the only kind of clone I take these days. They're slower to root and easier to kill, but well worth it. They also typically take 3 - 6 weeks to root and revert back to veg and that is why you should think about it now.

 

[classV]

I dunno, BrownThumb. I appreciate what you are telling me. But I kinda got my hands full as it is. I'm curious though... in thinking about the cloning issue, I read up a bit on the plants. From what I could tell, folks reported difficulties cloning Nirvana Northern Lights. Have you ever heard anything about that? If I do get a wild hair and try and lift one off of one of these plants... and I will admit... two of them are real lookers... I'd at least want to have fighting chance of success. Would not want the strain working against me.

 

[BrownThumb]

I have not heard that NL is particularly hard to clone. My gut says that is incorrect, but I don't know otherwise from personal experience. What you risk is a few larf bud branches. That's not much of a risk. I count on killing maybe 1 out of 4 now that I can half-way clone, but the really good growers on here rarely kill one from the reading I have done. So you lose maybe a 1/4 Oz. So? Think of the time savings and it's a no-brainer to me, but you have to do what's best for your situation. The happy bummer is when you get cloning down and end up with more than you can really use. Then you end up with stuff like below... Maybe get a quad out of that if I am lucky.

 

[classV]

That picture is terrific! I have to tell you though, 1/4oz may likely be a substantial portion of my yield. I'm trying to resist scope creep on this grow: Just bring the first one home with yield of decent product. I've got at least 7 more weeks to screw this up.

You have definitely got me thinking about the options that taking cuttings affords a grower. Just not this time. I have five more beans of these NLs to play with. To my un-educated eye, the phenotype of the four that sprouted seems pretty consistent. This grow has revealed to me that I need to make some modifications to my process to sustain it even if I keep growing from seed. But inline with that, I am now thinking about how to incorporate a facility for handing cuttings. Because of space and security, these issues are a little complicated. It will take a little thought, but it's doable.

The comments I saw on a couple of reviews of the strain being difficult to clone were specific to Nirvana's rendering of NL, which is what I am growing. It was just stuff discussed in another forum. May be bullshit. One thing is for sure, they respond very well to topping. We'll find out on the next grow how hard they are to clone. I intend to light the fires on that as soon as I have made the changes mentioned above. You've got me stoked about cloning. I don't need a lot of weed, but I do like the idea of controlling the tempo and genetics by taking cuttings.