DTW Coco- Learning by doing - 600HPS multi strain SCROG

[greenops]

Day 93 from Seed - Day 44 in Bloom

So i did a solid flush on the plants couple days ago and a mild flush again last night. It washed the salt in the bottom of the pots right off. Just a day after the first flush i noticed that the Headbands and Skywalker started giving off slightly more smell. It was pretty much non existent before. I then increased the running time of each feed to create more runoff.

Now going into week 6 of bloom (started counting 16 days after the switch), the HeBa3 and Skywalker show impressive colas, full of swollen calyxes. The yield of those two seem promising. The others 6 plants are noticeably smaller but none of them appear to be low yielders. I'm expecting some of them to gain some weight soon. Perhaps the flush will help get things going too.

In the past few days the yellowing around the scrog has increased. I'm not sure if they need more nutes now or if it's just a reaction to the flush. I bought a bottle of Canna Mono Magnesium and plan on adding a lil bit of that in the next feed. The Lost Coast OG has got the most yellow leaves, followed by the Fruity Chronic Juice and Trainwreck. The other plants have just a lil bit, however the HeBa3 and Skywalker have practically none.

Also I bought a 400w MH bulb which i'm going to use in about week 9 of flowering. I read that MH grown buds produce more resin. So I'll give it a try and let it run for about the last 10 days before harvest.

Another issue I'm facing now are hermies. Just today I saw a set of nanners laying on a leaf. It already fell off the plant, so i don't know which of the 8 plants is threw it. I checked most buds in the scrog and couldn't find anymore, however, i found 2 seeds near by. This isn't the first time dealing with a hermie, but before I noticed it happen much later in the flowering phase. I never had more than maybe 5 seeds in the entire crop. This grow still has 3.5 weeks to go and i just gotta hope that it wont produce another banana.

 

[greenops]

Green looking good, taco leaves can be low humidity, drinking more water then nutes hence salt buildup, as you are figuring out on your own. I agree a low nute flush get your ph up. Keep postin man your getting things dialed hopefully the low smelling weed will come out with a good cure in the jars no hay smell, Next grow maybe look into getting some drip clean.. Bud

Thanks bud. I'm using Ata Clean, it's basically drip clean just made from another company.

That's a nice canopy mate.

Don't worry about the lack of smell on the headbands... It's something I noticed with them, they're not a strong smelling plant. But they do make up for it when they're dry and in a joint.

Drop the ec of the hesi base on them by 0.2, in fact on the next feed drop it by 0.4, but leave the PK in there.

Sorry, I've just re-read and you said you're going to lower the ec to 0.9. Make that up with 0.3 base + 0.4 PK on top of your tap, just for this feed, then carry on at 0.8ec, made up of 0.4 base and 0.2 PK on top of your tap. Put the PK in first. They should be good on that.

Thanks for the tips i'll apply those figures to my next feed.

 

[greenops]

Hope someone can help me out here. I applied papaduc's tip in my recent feed but it didnt seem to fix the yellowing.

We best compare the headband 2 in the lower left corner with the headband 3 in the upper right corner.
The leaves of the hb2 is getting more yellow every day while the buds are barely growing. The hb3 has greener leaves while the buds appear to be more than twice the size of hb2.

Im feeding them all the same, so whats causing this issue on some of the plants?

 

[papaduc]

That sort of yellowing is the manifestation of a problem that's started a while ago.

When I advised you to adjust the feeds it was because of the look of the plants and what looked like either a buildup or nitrogen excess, not because they were yellow.

In post 81 you said you did a solid flush. What did you flush them with?

What are you using to check your ec, and when was it last calibrated?

 

[greenops]

Hi papaduc, thanks for checking in.

I flushed the plants with a mild solution of Coco bloom Nutes, and half dose Enzyme... EC 0.8 (tap is 0.4), pH 5.8.

I got an EC meter, and I calibrated it about 3 weeks ago.

 

[gaiusmarius]

without reading any posts just from the pics i'd say you underfed them during a stage when they were hungry, so they used resevs making the leaves get lighter. you can see the areas on the leaves closer to the buds are still darker green.

but by the look of the buds they are nearly done now anyway and are just swelling up the calyxes now, so nothing you do fertwise will make any difference at this stage. just don't shock them and keep the feed at a steady level till it's time to flush.

looking like you will have a decent harvest in the end, can't wait to try some of the smoke.

 

[papaduc]

Hmm.. With respect to Gaius, I don't think that's just basic underfeeding.
The foliage beneath the top of the canopy seems ok, but the very top is yellow. Plus, on some of the pictures just prior, there is tip burn on the plants.

There's something else going on there Imo. Have you lowered the light at any point recently, to try and plump up the buds?

Maybe there was a lockout due to buildup, and the flush with low strength nutes magnified the problem.

Whatever it is, there's nothing you can do about it now. At this stage in the grow all you can do is help them on to finish. Like Gaius says, they're swelling up and should still be a nice smoke.

Next time just keep the feeds nice and even and maybe get a bit more run off every few days.

Edit: I'm just reading back over the thread to see where your problems started and what they could be. There's a few things I noticed.

When you said "as it gets colder outside, the hottest part of the room is 75f"

Where is the coldest part and what temp was/is that?

You also said you were watering 4x per day. Were they drinking that all the time or did you notice as the temps got lower they were staying more moist?

 

[greenops]

Thanks for your input Gaius. Yea 2 out of the 8 plants are nearing the end, but the other plants are visibly behind. I'm actually planning to let them go for another 3 weeks. That would be 10 weeks of flowering. I'm just gonna keep an eye for amber trichomes.

Papaduc, no i havent lowered the lights. Damn, i didn't know that flushing can magnify certain problems. The outer areas of the scrog are around 70F.
I used to water 3 times per day, then I increased to 4 times after the stretch. I didn't notice any connection with the moisture and temperature, but I feel that once I increased the watering is when the humidity level increased a bit. Lately its been around 45% to 60, even peaks at 67%.

 

[gaiusmarius]

normally a flush will not magnify problems as long as you go right back to the normal feeding plan. ie. don't let the plants go with just water for a long time. as soon as your flushing is done you should fert the tank normally and let the pump go off with nutrient solution again normally.

not sure what nutes you are using, but i assume they are coco specific, in which case it's all about the ratio.

but the main thing is that you can not get rid of burnt tips once you have them, and you can not regreen a fan leaf once it's in the last weeks of life either. but that all doesn't matter much as the plants will ripen up fine, even with 3 weeks to go.

it's quite hard to get the feeding right with multiple strains, specially when they are also on different flowering times. but all in all you are looking at a decent harvest imo. which lamp you using?

going too close to the growing tops can also bleach the leaves at the top like that, but again it's not such a big deal.

 

[papaduc]

Yep. It's one for the scrapbook now mate no matter what the problem was. As long as they finish nice that's all that matters. I think you'll really like the headband once it's dried and cured.

 

[Buddler]

Well growing multistrain all on the same tank might have something to do with it ,your tap is high too , also a mild nute flush simply removes excess salts better than straight water not bad if you need it . Don't forget all the stuff you sprayed on them over the grow. still your gonna have some nice nugz man be happy ..Soon forget about some yellow leaves and grow some more...

 

[greenops]

Day 101 from Seed - Day 52 in bloom

The buds are finally continuing to swell, after a period of barely any growth.

I'm not sure what my plants are lacking, so I'm feeding them an EC of 1.0 to 1.1 and make sure I get enough run off to avoid salt build up.

The Headband 3 and Skywalker are getting that done look. There are very few amber trichomes the Headband 3.

The Hermie issue seems to have died down. I havent spotted any more seeds or nanners since then.

I may have to take back my statement regarding the lack of smell. The odor has increased in the last couple days. Even the carbon filter is having difficulties masking the smell completely.

Both Headbands smell very similar. It reminds me of gasoline and a lil bit of pine and hash. The odor is rather mild but pungent when u come near it.

The OG18 and Skywalker OG have a similar odor as well. It could be the OG in it, although i'm not all too familiar with any OG strains. They are kinda sweet and hashy. The O18 also has some undertones of a citrus scented air freshener.

The rest, Lost Coast, Green Crack, Fruity Chronic and the Trainwreck have a stronger odor. They all smell fruity and sweet. The Green Crack and some sour undertones, while the Trainwreck has an incredible orange smell going on.

I'll be using the 600w HPS only for approx 8 days more then i'm going to finish with the 400w MH. All buds are already frosty as hell and some are so thick that I can't even wrap my hand around. So I gotta look out for bud rot. I also may do one final defoliation session in a couple days.

Any tips on what to feed my plants in the final week? pH water only or a weak nute solution?

 

[gaiusmarius]

looking good from the bud side of things, i'd get those yellow ones harvested soon. will be interesting to see your yield numbers. looks like it will be respectable.

 

[Kiloz]

awesome, looks like a great harvest to come

 

[Buddler]

Nice buds Greenops ,must be getting close ..

 

[greenops]

Day 108 from Seed / Day 59 in flowering

In the middle of this week a couple buds started to look ripe. For the first time i got my pocket miscroscope and inspected the trichomes. Some buds indeed got some amber trichomes already. But mostly there's 50-60% cloudy and 15-25 % clear, some milky, a few with no heads...
Lots of pistils are getting crispy too. The Green Crack and Lost Coast OG are losing their smell a lil bit. I would say the harvest window is open now.

I just switched to MH yesterday as the buds arent growing much anymore. I'm trying to find out if the MH really adds to trichome production, as some side by side comparisons are claiming. The blue light allows me to take better picture toos. The close up pics are just macro shots that i zoomed in using adobe photoshop.

To start the flushing period I backed off with the feed, gave em very lil nutes, 0.6 ec, 5.8.
The runoff still came out at 1.3. This tells me the plants are again dealing with some build up. Hope I finish them in the next 7 - 10 days max. I'll be doing 36 hrs of darkness in the end.

 

[greenops]

some more pics...

 

[greenops]

Question...

As I'm planning to give the plants 36 hours before the chop, I was wondering if I should water them during the darkness period?
I learned to never let the medium dry out, but I'm worried that watering without lights will cause the RH to go up and invite mold.

 

[greenops]

Day 115 from Seed / 66 in bloom

Finally it's harvest time. The ladies just went thru their last 12 hours of light.
They're now going to spend 36 hours in darkness without watering before I'm going to chop them at the bottom of the main stem.

Temps in the darkness should be around 18-19 C and 50-65%.

The plants will be hung whole. When the outside gets dry and crispy i'll start the manicuring process. I'll start the cure when the rH stays below 68% in the jar. Until then they will continue to dry in brown paper bags.

I think the plants could have still gone a week or two more. Aside of the OG18, there aren't many amber trics yet. But due to an upcoming vacation in a few weeks I had to harvest at this point so that I don't have to rush the drying/curing stage. Everyone knows a fast dry or moist buds in the jar can mess up everything.

Perhaps the ladies would have finished faster if they didn't have these problems.
Unfortunately I still don't know what exactly caused these issues that started midway flowering. A lot of leaves are now dried, yellow and crumbling. Not all strains were equally effected though. The Headbend 3, Skywalker and OG18 appear much healthier than the rest. The smell of the Lost Coast OG, Trainwreck and Green Crack are now much milder, maybe due to the problems they're having.

I'm not sure if the MH these past 9 days has contributed to smell and tric production. The trics were pretty dense under HPS already. I even think that the amount of trics on these plants are much much more than in my previous grows in soil. However it doesn't seem as the MH had a negative impact on them. The plants were already going thru issues due to the nutes problems. At least I was able to take better pictures under the MH =)

But as Buddles mentioned, multi strain grows are difficult to feed. I'm planning to use 2 feeding reservoirs next time. One rez will cater to the nute sensitive plants, while the other one will feed the hungry bishes.

PS. Can someone please remind me how to blow up pictures in here?

,.

 

[gaiusmarius]

the benefits of mh in flowering are only there in combination with hps. you can't expect good flower production using a blue veg light by it's self imo. flowering plants need an orange autumn type light. that's not to say a combination of mh and hps wouldn't be better due to a wider spectrum, but by it's self the mh is not really logical for end flowering stage. it's hard for flowers to ripen when you give them blue spectrum veg lighting. maybe that's why the trichheads didn't ripen up as much as you expected?

it's worth remembering that trich heads are like everything else, just a guide, in the end its your smell and sight and the taste and high of the end product that really matters. you don't always have to wait for brown trich heads before stuff is at it's best. waiting too long to harvest a crop can be just as big a mistake as harvesting too early, depending on the strain of course.

i find the best way to judge flowering time of strains i didn't grow before, is to take samples on a regular basis in the end phase and test how it smokes. i mention this because you said the smell seemed to have lessened and thats typical of a strain grown beyond it's ideal harvest window.

dry and cold climate can speed up flowering, specially when you have nutrient level problems at the same time.

anyway all the best for the trimming, hope you find some nice keepers.