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

[greenops]

Yea for sure an HPS and MH combo would be best.

I just based my decision to do this experiment when I read a couple threads that directly compared MH and HPS buds. HPS was said to produce more yield, but MH was more potent and tastier.

That's why I thought of using MH in the end, so that the buds can have a chance to fatten up under the HPS first.

I can't run and HPS and MH at the same time, as I don't have the space in my tent. But i will be looking at the kind of lights that are used for reptile terrariums. I was told that they can work pretty well and are much smaller in size. I hope i can hang 2 of those next to my HPS in my next grow.

 

[greenops]

Give thanks to the most high, the most high

 

[gaiusmarius]

looks like a bountiful harvest in the drying process.

the mh thing really doesn't make sense imo, just cause of the seasonal aspect alone, but in the end you'd need to do the whole flowering phase with mh to really know how it works. what i can believe is that you get more trichomes with mh and hps. also seen some beautiful buds grown with led's. anyway kudos for trying things out. sometimes you learn amazing things by trying stuff. will be most interesting to read a smoke report after a nice dry and cure.

 

[Buddler]

Green nice job man . when I started growing indoors we didn't have dimmable ballasts that run both bulbs couldn't afford both so I did quite a few runs under a parabolic shade 1k magnetic ballast MH and it would turn out some nice buds . As mentioned above both together seem to work well. Enjoy your harvest ,grow on now .. Bud

 

[greenops]

Thanks guys. The plants are hanging for 2 days now. I hope they won't get mold coz some buds do touch each other and they were still moist after 2 days in 18-20C and 50-65% RH. The climate is different now than in my previous grows, where the humidity was much dryer. Although I know that a slow dry is best for flavor.

I will make a short smoke report on each strain after a month cure.
Yea I really like to try out LEDs in the near future. Just waiting for the right time.

Peace out.

 

[Shoots]

Just skimmed through your journal and I liked what you did.

Great pull.

I am moving from soil to coco here as well.

Shoots

 

[gonzo`]

look good!

 

[greenops]

Moment of truth

The plants started to get crispy after 5 days of hanging. I spent my entire weekend manicuring buds, i dunno why i'm so slow at this. I just watched a couple Weed Nerd Episodes by Subcool while trimming. Some episodes are more than an hour long, pretty entertaining actually.

Once i put the buds in the jars, the RH showed 48%, hope it will go up when i leave it unopened for a while.

Then I weighed them:

Lost Coast OG 32 g
Green Crack 11 g
OG #18 38 g
Trainwreck 26 g
Fruity Crhonic J. 20 g
Headband 2 18 g
Headband 3 65 g
Skywalker OG 62 g

Total 272 g

Well shiiiiet. I didn't know what to expect, but I was def hoping for more. Especially when I compare it to my 3 Plant Scrog in soil under a single 250w, where I yielded a decent 169 g, that's 0.67 gpw. See the grow journal here:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=229121&page=6

At least, in this grow every single strain has a dank smell to them. I grew a few strains before that lost their smell by the end of the grow... so it's not all bad.

Still I gotta find answers to know how i can improve. I been reflecting on this grow and these are some factors that may or may not have been contributed:

1. Genetics/ Phenotypes - Other than the Headband 3 and Skywalker OG which produced more than 60g, the rest were all low producers. So 2 out of 8, could it be tough luck? I don't really think so. While I know that genetics play an important role, I'm not gonna blame this on that alone.

2. Too packed - Could it be that each plant would have yielded more, if I scrogged, say 5 or 6 instead of 8? Maybe the plants didn't get enough Co2 or light, as they were blocking each other.

3. Light - The bulb is 3 grows old. In flowering, I didn't set it to 600w the entire light period. I started off with 400w when the lights went on and left it for about 3 hours. Then switched to 600w once I was finished the maintenance work. Also I raised the lights pretty far up as I was trying my best to keep the canopy under 75F. I think the light didn't penetrate as deep as there were alot of underdeveloped buds.

4. Feeding - Obviously a lot of symptoms were showing up mid flowering. I had no clue how to fix them. I'm sure this caused the yield to suffer... Perhaps the Headband 3 and Skywalker OG were a bit more tolerant than the others. But did that mistake really made the Fruity Chronic Juice yield 20g when it did 60g under 250w in my previous grow?

5. Defoliating - I'm not blaming Papaduc for suggesting defoliation. I didn't only defoliate in hopes to increase yield, but most importantly for air circulation. But maybe some strains are just more sensitive to it than others?

6. Pot size - This is was my first Coco Grow. I heard from experienced Coco growers that pot size doesn't make much of a difference? But I know in soil, the difference between a 6l pot to an 11l pot is huge.

So any ideas? I'd appreciate your input.


Here some bud porn:

<><><><><><><>

 

[gaiusmarius]

yeah it's never good to make more then 1 change at a time to your grow, so you can tell what caused any change you observe. by defoliating with the first run in coco as well as trying the mh and your own way of feeding, makes it next to impossible to know what exactly caused the low yield.

one thing i noticed too, the colas were not really long enough to become really big. either the defoliating caused a shock and reduced the stretch, or the cold temps, or you didn't stop training them early enough to let them stretch to a good size cola during the first 3 weeks of 12/12.

 

[papaduc]

The main thing is the plants weren't healthy at a vital point in their life. That's really the bottom line.

At a time when they should have been swelling, they weren't because something went wrong. That won't have been to do with defoliating or the metal halide lamp, or the pot size.

One change I'd make next time is to use a HPS for flowering. I'd also defoliate earlier in a packed space like that. But, no matter what methods you use, there's a root cause of them looking like they did at the end, and there's no accounting for that unless you know what caused it. It was a very strange problem to just show up like it did based on the ec you were running.

 

[greenops]

yeah it's never good to make more then 1 change at a time to your grow, so you can tell what caused any change you observe. by defoliating with the first run in coco as well as trying the mh and your own way of feeding, makes it next to impossible to know what exactly caused the low yield.

one thing i noticed too, the colas were not really long enough to become really big. either the defoliating caused a shock and reduced the stretch, or the cold temps, or you didn't stop training them early enough to let them stretch to a good size cola during the first 3 weeks of 12/12.

I felt like overcrowding would be a problem, that's why i sent them to flower earlier than i would have with soil. Yea maybe I should try not to scrog em until they stop growing, good point. Also, i'm going to lower the screen next time so that i can start training them while they're stil in veg. And I plant to veg them for at least 35-40 days, instead of 28-35 like this last time..

In regards to MH... I switched to MH just a week before harvest. During that time the buds pretty muched stopped swelling under the HPS. I don't think it would have made a big difference...

However, do u think bigger pots would bring bigger yield, lets say an 11l pot instead of 6.5l? After the harvest i checked how the root system looked like. Some pots had roots up and down all wrapped around the coco medium. I dont know if its normal though.

The main thing is the plants weren't healthy at a vital point in their life. That's really the bottom line.

At a time when they should have been swelling, they weren't because something went wrong. That won't have been to do with defoliating or the metal halide lamp, or the pot size.

One change I'd make next time is to use a HPS for flowering. I'd also defoliate earlier in a packed space like that. But, no matter what methods you use, there's a root cause of them looking like they did at the end, and there's no accounting for that unless you know what caused it. It was a very strange problem to just show up like it did based on the ec you were running.

yea, something def went wrong early flowering, I just cant figure out what caused it.. which means, i may get this problem again. Maybe i'll change to a different nute brand.. any recommendations?

Maybe i didnt get enough run off early on? I remember sum salt-like substance was building up around the drainage holes during that time. Though i always felt i was getting decent run off I increased it after it got my attention.

How bout using too many plants???
Could too many plants in limited space reduce their potential?

 

[gaiusmarius]

i mean that once you switch to 12/12 don't keep training beyond about day 10 to day 14 of 12/12 after that you need to just let the stretch and make the colas, no more bending down is what i meant.

 

[papaduc]

There's a trick to getting a nice canopy with enough stretch to make colas but not so much as to make it a mess. Pinching and putting in the hours helps a lot, but so does running clones and knowing your strain. In a scrog I wouldn't even run random seeds anyway because it's almost impossible to check properly for male flowers.

I'm using chempak no.2 high nitrogen feed for veg at the minute. Nice lush growth all round.

 

[Buddler]

Stripping leaves can screw harvest numbers ive done its a controversial subject some strains yes some no .for starters you need a good pheno, monocropp and learn what plant needs which may take a few runs. If it was me I get rid of net go for four two gallon smarties veg longer to develope good roots train prune let recover then trip 12 12 especially with slow vegging OG strains use bamboo stakes instead so you can pull plant s out and work on them..MY 2 Cents lol ...Bud

 

[greenops]

i mean that once you switch to 12/12 don't keep training beyond about day 10 to day 14 of 12/12 after that you need to just let the stretch and make the colas, no more bending down is what i meant.

Yea thanks for that tip. I'll do that next scrog.

There's a trick to getting a nice canopy with enough stretch to make colas but not so much as to make it a mess. Pinching and putting in the hours helps a lot, but so does running clones and knowing your strain. In a scrog I wouldn't even run random seeds anyway because it's almost impossible to check properly for male flowers.

I'm using chempak no.2 high nitrogen feed for veg at the minute. Nice lush growth all round.

Right. I've been growing fems ever since i started growing. As i only have one tent, i didn't want to sacrifice space for males. I figured scrogging with fems would increase my yield.

But for next time I'm planning to buy a 1.2 x 1.2 m Darkroom tent. I'm going to fill it with some nice reg seeds. Then i'll take clones and will run the winners in a scrog after harvesting the first batch.
I'm still in the planning phase though, tryna figure out how to time it.

if u got any ideas pls lemme know, i made a thread for that lol

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=282379

Stripping leaves can screw harvest numbers ive done its a controversial subject some strains yes some no .for starters you need a good pheno, monocropp and learn what plant needs which may take a few runs. If it was me I get rid of net go for four two gallon smarties veg longer to develope good roots train prune let recover then trip 12 12 especially with slow vegging OG strains use bamboo stakes instead so you can pull plant s out and work on them..MY 2 Cents lol ...Bud

Agree. In my understanding, defoliation is not for every strain. But as mentioned before, what i really wanted to do is increase air circulation in the scrog. Yea i came to realize that if i really wanna improve in quality and yield, i need to start clone and select the good ones. AS mentioned above i made a thread about it, if u dont mind dropping your 2 cents there too =)

 

[papaduc]

You can clone fems too. Just running clones makes scrogging - growing in general really, but scrogging more so - much easier and more efficient.