What's new

Synthesis' Apollo 8 LED CoCo grow - RQS Critical / Ripper Toxic / Vision Blue Power

Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Hi folks,


It's been a while! Sorry I haven't been posting much. Real life got in the way :)

Anyway here's my current grow up until this point.

Strains:

Royal Queen Seeds - Critical
Ripper Seeds - Toxic
Vision Seeds - Blue Power

Grown from seed. The Critical and Toxic are about 4 weeks and the Blue Power is about 3 weeks old (I had another Blue Power - it popped out of the Coco and never developed a main stem... it also had 2 seedlings sprout from the one seed - wierd!).

Vegged with CFL for about 2 weeks and then switched to the Apollo 8 LED panel.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
picture.php

Critical on the far left - Toxic in the Middle - Blue Power on the Right


The Critical and Toxic were both topped above the 3rd node (if memory serves lol) and the Blue Power was topped above the 2nd node. I've just placed a thin black net above them yesterday and started to train them a little bit.

So far their diet has been ; Canna Coco A+B, Folvate (Fulvic Acid), Nitrozime, Silica, AN Piranha (one time innoculation), Carbomax for the benes & CalMag - PH 5.8 through out.
 
Last edited:
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 3 under the net.... more training

Day 3 under the net.... more training

I was doing some more stem work today and accidently snapped one of the main stems of the Critical.... OOPS ! :whistling:
It was a very deep snap to the point of the stem almost falling off. I had some electrical tape nearby and tried to give her a quick band-aid... I hope she'll forgive me! hahaha

(Just tied the Critical and Toxic down more to keep them as low as I can for now)
(I also super cropped the main stem of the Blue Power (Just tried as hard as I could to squish/crush the main stem - let's see if it grows back any bigger!)

picture.php


Here they are today.... fed them with about 700ppm nutes today (mainly canna coco a+b / silica / carbs). I dropped the lights down a bit lower to increase the PAR. They seem to like it so far.
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
The stem that I snapped the other day wouldn't recover so I just plucked it off the Critical.

Yesterday, I aggressively super cropped all 3 plants.
I tried to mash up as many stems as I could... then gave them all a good feeding. Usually people super crop a very small portion of the stem... I tried to be experimental and went nuts on them.

Here they are today - the training continues.... :)

I'll probably initiate the flip this week at some stage. Just trying to let the Blue Power catch up!

picture.php

Critical (left) / Toxic (middle) / Blue Power (right)


I have a feeling the Toxic will grow to an unruly size... gotta keep a close eye on her!
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
2 days before 12/12 flip!

2 days before 12/12 flip!

Here's today's update. They're looking pretty :) I need to do some more training on the Blue Vision (here's what they look like before I do)

picture.php


Toxic (Left) / Critical (Middle) / Blue Power (Right)

They've been drinking lots of water. I've been playing around with the humidity levels. 55-60% is pretty optimum from what I've seen from the plants.
I've dropped the lights a bit more - slamming them with PAR before the flip.

Nutes: Silica, Folvate, Epsom salt (Magnesium), Canna Coco A+B, Carbomax (microherd food) @ 900ppm / PH 5.7
Temps: 27 degrees celcius @ 56% Relative Humidity

From what I've seen they appear to have entered into the final phase of vegging and will be happy to go into 12/12 at any time now.
2 days left before 12/12 begins! I'm excited!!
biggrin.gif
 
Last edited:
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
lucky last day of veg before 12/12 change over! :)

lucky last day of veg before 12/12 change over! :)

Howdy folks.



Back again. Here's today's update. Today will be their final day in veg.

The plants have grown to an acceptable size and all the training has been done to improve the structure of each plant.

Training-wise, I noticed that it takes the plants approximately 3-4 days to recover from super cropping. Maybe on my next grow I will give them 2 super crop sessions per week. It doesn't seem to stress them out too much :)

picture.php

Toxic (Left) / Critical (Middle) Blue Power (Right)

Final veg feed: 1100 PPM @ PH 5.7 - Silica, Folvate, Nitrozime, Canna Coco A+B, Epsom Salt (Magnesium), Carbo-Max


Tomorrow will mark the beginning of 12/12! I'm super excited. Stay tuned for more :tiphat:
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 1 of 12/12 (Change over)

Day 1 of 12/12 (Change over)

Today is the first day of 12/12. w00t w00t!


I rotated the plants around.

picture.php

Blue Power (Left) / Critical (Middle) / Toxic (Right)

It's been raining today so the humidity levels are at 70% which is a bit high - I won't need to bother feeding them today because of it.

The lights were dropped again for one last time. Maximising the amount of light they get to reduce any possible stretching due to lighting.

They'll be fed with Veg nutes until closer to the end of this first week and then switch over to Flower nutes.

Air pots and LED lighting are an excellent combination used together!
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 2 of 12/12

Day 2 of 12/12

Here's a little peek inside the tent today.
You can see them start to stretch out - filling out the space a bit more.

Today is day 2 of 12/12 (transitional phase to flower)

picture.php

(Blue Power (Left) / Critical (Middle) / Toxic (Right)

Grow my lovely ladies - grow!

They were fed with 1200 PPM of my veg nute formula @ PH 5.7
(Silica, Canna Coco A+B, Folvate, Epsom Salt, Calcium)

Humidity levels are above 60% for now due to our weather. Hopefully the rain goes away soon! :ying:
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 3 of 12/12

Day 3 of 12/12

The tent is fast filling up!

picture.php

(Blue power (left) / Critical / Toxic)

Today they were fed with 1200PPM Veg formula again. I'll give them a few more days until I change to Bloom formula - just want them to stretch a bit more.

Interestingly, the Apollo 8 panel had 1 blown LED cluster this whole time. I was able to troubleshoot what happened to it and it turned out to be a blown power supply. The Apollo 8 has 4 individual power supplies that drive the LED lights (1 per 2 LED clusters). Disassembling the Apollo 8 was a fun task because I couldn't find any instructions on the internet on how to do it.

Thankfully it was a pretty simple process and everything comes apart with minimal effort.

picture.php


For anyone that's interested. To disassemble the Apollo panel:

You need to take off the brushed cover over the lights (there's a lot of 2.5mm hex screws that hold the cover on) then you can extract the heatsinks that hold the LED clusters after taking off the inner screws that hold the panels to the side vents (you can also take the side vents off to make it even easier)

All you need to remember is that the longer power cables powers the bottom LED clusters and the shorter power cables powers the top LED clusters. Simple stuff. I'm pretty sure anyone could fix these panels if things go bad. Problem solved and the Apollo 8 is no longer an Apollo 7 LoL
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 4 of 12/12

Day 4 of 12/12

A sneak peek into the tent today.

picture.php

Blue Power / Critical / Toxic (from left to right)

I have freed the girls from all of their training strings. They're now 100% free to stretch and fill out the space as they need to. After they stop stretching. The lower growth will be getting pruned to get the plants to focus all of their energy towards the tops of the plants.

I've also been super cropping them during the flowering period to beef their stems up even more. I know it's not recommended to do so during 12/12 but the plants seem to respond positively.

My super supercropping Tip: Instead of only pinching and bending a small portion of the stem. Grab the stem between your fingers and slowly crush the stem till you hear it crunching. Then continue that same motion all the way down the stem. When the plan heals you will get a MASSIVE stem (instead of just a swollen knuckle). You can pretty much do the super crop technique to the entire stem and watch the plant response - it's incredible.

I've compared my super crop technique to the traditional regular super crop/bend and there is no comparison. This is an amazing improvement to an already excellent technique. Try it yourself and see!

Nute regime: 1200 PPM Veg nutes / 2 times daily @ PH 5.7
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 5 of 12/12 - Transitioning

Day 5 of 12/12 - Transitioning

Happy New Year folks! :huggg:

Tent pic today:

picture.php

(BP / Critical / Toxic)

The stretching is almost near where I want it. In 2 days, I will begin feeding them with the bloom formula to encourage them to start producing their flowers. At the moment - I am still using the veg nutes for their transitional phase as it contains more N which they seem to really need.

Bushier plants are much easier to manage than the traditional tall christmas tree structure that cannabis normally has. This was the main benefit behind topping for me (not so much the multiple colas) but more so better canopy/height control.

:tiphat:
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 7 of 12/12

Day 7 of 12/12

Sneak peek into the tent today.

Day 7 of 12/12. Today marks the day of nutrient blend switchover. I have given them 1600 PPM of my flowering nute blend (a mix of Cyco, Budlink, CalMag, Folvate, CarboMax @ PH 5.8). No more veg nutes. The new ratio should help them transition faster to the true flowering phase.

picture.php

(Blue power / Critical / Toxic)

This is them before I removed all the old training screens. The ladies are now 100% free and unshackled! :trampoline:
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 8 of 12/12 (Sexual maturity - 3 confirmed ladies!)

Day 8 of 12/12 (Sexual maturity - 3 confirmed ladies!)

Good morning all!

Today I woke up and checked the crowns and tops of the plants and they're confirmed to be 3 ladies :dance013:
All are putting out pistils. They have reached sexual maturity and the ladies are slowly kicking into flower production.
They're all about 16" (inches) tall. I'm trying to keep them short and productive.

picture.php

(Blue Power / Critical / Toxic)

I've given them all a slight rotation. There is some crazy bushy foliage going on and some fan leaves are covering tops.
Instead of cutting fan leaves - I like to tuck the leaves out of the way. This allows the tops to get more light but doesn't remove
a source of their energy production. I will give them some undergrowth pruning at the beginning of week 2.

The plants seem very happy and that makes me feel happy too :D

Nutes: Budlink Silica, CaliMagic, Cyco Platinum, Folvate, CarboMax @ 1600PPM - PH 5.8
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 9 of 12/12 - Flowering

Day 9 of 12/12 - Flowering

Howdy folks. Today's update:

Boom! The girls are going gang busters. As you can see - they're very happy and loving life :yummy:

picture.php

Crit / BP / Toxic

Switched the positions of Critical and the Blue Power to allow the Blue Power more PAR. The growth rate of all 3 plants are quite uniform and I'm surprised that the Toxic hasn't overtaken the other 2 by that much.

Nute feed: Cyco Platinum, Magnesium, Folvate, Carbomax @ 900PPM / 1.8 EC - PH 5.8

I've been experimenting with the feeding style. Instead of keeping it always at a low PPM. I have really pushed their feed beginning of 12/12 to see what they can handle but also to build up the cation bank. Then dropping the PPM to something a bit more gentle.

No flushing until the very end. Let's see if it pays off :biggrin:
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 10 Flowering

Day 10 Flowering

Today's update:

There's been quite a bit of rain lately so humidity levels in the tent are reaching above 70% which isn't ideal. I did feed the girls but they're not drinking as much due to the humidity levels.
They will be given a wet/dry cycle then I'll continue feeding as per usual.

Day 10 Flowering - Critical / Blue Power / Toxic
picture.php


Nutes: Budlink Silica, Cyco Platinum, Folvate, CarboMax @ 900PPM / EC 1.8 @ PH of 5.8

Last night - I super cropped a few more flimsy looking stems on the Critical and Toxic. This will probably be the last time I need to do it since the stems are looking pretty strong and capable of handling decent weight late flower.

The Critical will probably get some undergrowth pruning before the other 2 ladies. Trying to see when the stretch slows before I start to prune so it doesn't contribute to more stretching.

:tiphat:
 
"HEMPEROR"

"HEMPEROR"

Active member
looking good there bruv i like the idea of the tiny screens i may have to try that 1 myself as m a scrog,er myself anyway subbed for the rest respect.........
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 11 Flowering

Day 11 Flowering

Hi Hemperor - thanks for checking in :smoke: the tiny soft screens idea was my adaptation to the SCROG technique (a lazy man's SCROG perhaps? haha) it's not a genuine SCROG, and although it achieves something very similar in effect - it will never replace the tried and true SCROG technique. It does have the benefit of being easy to relocate (plant mobility) and I also find that it's easy to train the plants with too.

Today marks day 11 of Flowering.

picture.php

(Critical / Blue Power / Toxic)

Growth has been good. Although I did notice the plants stretch a fair bit last night. Not sure if it was because I super cropped them recently or if it was because I raised the lights a teeny bit (as they're growing within 12 inches to the Apollo panel) perhaps even a combination of both? Each time these ladies stretch will mean some sacrificial pruning down below to maximise production up top later on.

The Blue Power doesn't like too much heat but the Critical and Toxic don't seem to mind it at all. Interestingly - the Toxic suddenly stopped drinking... I wonder if she's about to slow down her stretching?

Height wise the Critical is about 22 inches tall / The Blue Power is 21 inches tall and the Toxic is about 23 inches tall. So overall - they're quite uniform. If I can keep them under 30 inches finished height, I'll be one happy camper :woohoo:

Tent environment is looking good today at 62% Relative Humidity and 27 degrees celcius.
No feeding until they almost dry out a bit and then I'll aim for about 1000-1100PPM on the next feed.
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 14 Flowering

Day 14 Flowering

Hi folks.


Sorry for the lack of updates these past few days. I wanted to let them dry up a bit before feeding them again.

Here they are today on Day 14 of 12/12:

picture.php

(Critical / Blue Power / Toxic)

They have stretched a bit more since I last posted. The Critical is about 27 inches tall now!

I removed a lot of lower bud site growth as they will produce popcorn buds (which I really hate to trim) if you remove the lower bud sites that get minimal light - it will encourage the plant to produce more at the remaining bud sites (up to the genetic yield potential) This is why lollipopping is such an effective technique.

Whenever I remove bud sites, I leave the lower fan leaves. These fan leaves act as nutrient banks for the plants in times of need. They will drop these leaves first when they are starving (or if I am too lazy to feed them - whichever comes first lol).

Nute Feed: 1050PPM of Cyco Flower, Budlink Silica, CarboMax @ PH 5.8
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 15 Flowering

Day 15 Flowering

Here's the tent today.

picture.php


I had to remove some more lower bud sites (doing it gradually) and even removed a few branches that I felt wouldn't produce that much. Leaving as much of the lower fan leaves as I can for emergency backup.

Nute feed: 850PPM of Budlink Silica, Cyco Platinum, Nitrozime @ PH 5.8
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 16 Flowering

Day 16 Flowering

Howdy folks.


Today's tent peep:

picture.php

Day 16 Flowering (Crit/BP/Toxic)

High humidity levels today due to rain so no feeding is needed (Above 70% RH).

The Nitrozime application induced a bit of stretching on the Critical - yet made the Blue Power and Toxic start focusing more on flower production. Interesting. Next time - I will time the application on week 3 of flowering instead.

I tied some poly string around the plants for gentle bracing. This will allow the plants to gradually strengthen themselves into their final form (as well as help prevent any branches suddenly flopping over due to increased weight later on)
 
Synthesis

Synthesis

Member
Day 17 Flowering

Day 17 Flowering

Today's update:

picture.php


The girls are looking great. I'm still a little bit iffy on the height of them so I started stem pinching all the main stems near the bottom. I didn't want to have to do it but it will make the stems stronger upon recovery and help against toppling over later on.

I also removed more lower bud sites and will leave them alone for a while as they recover :artist:

Nute feed: 900 PPM ; Cyco Platinum, Folvate, Carbomax @ PH 5.8
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top