Apollo 13 & C99 vertical IKEA dresser grow

[zlock]

My last thread was more about the construction of my new grow cabinet, and now that the girls are happily vegging in their comfy little home, I figured it would be more appropriate to have a thread dedicated to the actual grow.

To see the construction of the cabinet, check out Building a stealth 3 drawer IKEA grow cabinet

The stats:

Vertical setup with (1) 70w HPS and (1) 150w HPS
Stanley blower fan with a 6" x 14" carbon filter

(2) Female Seeds C99 (fem)
(1) TGA Apollo 13 x Vortex (fem)
(1) Delicious Seeds Northern Light Blue (auto)

growing in Fox Farm Ocean Forest with Light Warrior mixed in to lighten it up, Fox Farm liquid nutes + SuperThrive

The girls right after sprouting (beginning of Sept)

Here they are at between 2 and 3 weeks old

And between 3 and 4 weeks old (transplanted to bigger containers)

And most recently, at a little bit over 4 weeks of veg

This is where the old thread ended and this new thread begins, flowering will start within a few days from now and updates will follow!

 

[blynx]

Are you going to train/top the plants? or just let them do their thing?

 

[zlock]

I'll do a little bit of training, I've had good results pinching the stem and knocking the stalk down almost 180* before, I'll probably do that with the taller ones, tie it down, and let it grow back up in kind of an "N" shape. For the shorter ones I may just let them do their thing, as it is there really isn't much room in the cabinet so I feel like making them real big and bushy probably isn't the best plan.

I've been running the 150 by itself with the fan on setting II, temps are higher but still within an acceptable range. I need to get another fan hooked up inside the cabinet to circulate the air and see if that makes any difference when the two lights are on at the same time. With cooler weather coming, hopefully if I keep the temperature down in the house that will help as well.

In other news, I just took cuttings from the two C99's and the Apollo 13xVortex and am hoping they will take root directly in the soil, I'm using a cloning solution I've never used before (freebie from the indoor garden store) and have plastic water bottles over the cuttings to keep some humidity in until they take root. Not ideal, but given the time and resources I have available right now it'll have to do
I'm going to see about rigging up a 5 gallon bucket with a CFL and a small exhaust fan for a super-small veg area to keep the clones alive until this first harvest is complete, at which point I may select one, two, or all three clones to keep and do a perpetual vertical SOG type grow. Or maybe at that time my plans will change. I just want to be sure to keep these genes alive so I have the option.

Here are current pics before taking cuttings...

 

[zlock]

And here we are a week later... still haven't made the switch to 12/12 but the Northern Lights Blue auto is starting to flower.

Got the supplies to make my mother bucket, I'll post pictures when that project is done!

Left to right is Apollo 13x Vortex, NLB(auto), and the two Cindy's

 

[zlock]

V-SCROG time!
I wasn't sure if I'd use screens or not, but with the way the girls are growing it didn't make sense not to.
After watering them and feeding them this morning (the Fox Farm trio + superthrive), I trimmed the old screens I've used on previous grows to fit these containers, got out the zip-ties, and went to town!
They look a lot more under control now and will get much more light since the giant fan leaves have been tucked out of the way and the branches are flattened out, rather than blocking each other.

Left to right: C99, C99, A13xV, NLBa

 

[zlock]

Been having some difficulty with the girls lately, trying to figure out if it's too much nutes, too little, incorrect pH...
I've posted in the infirmary, but curious if anyone here has any feedback.

The Northern Lights Blue auto is flowering and looking good, and the other girls are continuing to grow, almost out of control...
And they all stink!

How much pruning should I be doing here to maximize yield?

 

[blynx]

It looks like they have too much nitrogen and that's causing some clawing.

Are you letting the soil dry out or keeping it constantly wet?

 

[zlock]

Hey Blynx,

I let it get dry before watering....

Any way to correct the nitrogen overload besides waiting it out and not feeding any more? I flushed them all with a gal of water each two days ago....

 

[zlock]

Long awaited update:
20 days into 12/12 and though there have been a couple of rough patches , things seem to be stable and the plants don't seem too unhappy.
The Northern Lights Blue Auto is looking pretty, she's been flowering for a while now and is starting to put on weight (yay fat girls!)

The other 3 are earlier on in the process but are getting nice and hairy, there are plenty of budsites so I'm really excited to see how they look a couple of weeks from now!

I'm nervous to feed them when I water right now because I'm not 100% sure what's causing them to look less than stellar... some dead/yellowing leaves towards the bottoms and curling leaves towards the tops...
Any input is appreciated!

 

[zlock]

An update... Light bloom nutes only, now it looks like nitrogen deficiency?
Either way, they're fattening up and starting to get frosty!

 

[zlock]

36 days into flowering

One of the c99's is looking awfully... skinny? Not many leaves left, but what can ya do?

Overall, still not perfect, but alive and buds are growing and packing on the crystals...

They're past the half way point, I'm excited to see what they look like in another 2 or 3 weeks!

 

[ice420]

How's those c99 on the smell?

 

[GretaStjarnholm]

How did it go?

Dry weight and some final thoughts?

 

[zlock]

Sorry 'bout the absence of activity lately, been stupid busy with work and haven't had the time to come back and sum up the Ikea dresser grow!

Total dried weight out of the cabinet: 54.3g

C99: 20.5g
A13bx: 19.5g
NLB: 14.3g

My favorite smoke is the Apollo 13 x Vortex (aka Apollo 13 BX), C99 close second, and NLB I think either went hermie, needed more time, or something, cause I'm not particularly thrilled by how it turned out. Kinda leafy, not very frosty... It does the job, but leaves me wanting more.

Here are a few specimen pics...

1&2: A13bx
3&4: C99
5&6: NLB

 

[zlock]

How's those c99 on the smell?

The C99 smells good... a little on the sweet side, but hard for me to decide what to compare it to... Most pleasant smelling of the 3.
Keep in mind one of the two C99's had to be harvested way early (it was not doing well...), so this is the second of the two (the more robust looking one in the grow pics), the first premature c99 is all gone... was decent smoke (err.. vape) especially since I had been dry for some time so my tolerance was nothing.

The A13 smells like shit, literally... very pungent and strong, enjoyable vape though (when you crack open a jar of it though, smells like ass! in a good way though)

NLB smells alright... first thing that comes to mind when I take a whiff is when you walk into one of those crafts stores like Michaels Crafts or Jo Ann Fabrics...


During the last 1/3rd of the grow the smell got a little bit out of control, which I didn't like. I had read that these strains weren't particularly odorous during flowering, and I was using a "professional" carbon scrubber instead of a DIY one like I've used in the past. I may have to revisit the ventilation system in the cabinet for future grows (it's empty now).

Overall a good experience, just need to tweak things a little better next time around...