Deezy's First Grow - DP Orange Bud Fem in Coco

[DeezyH]

Ok so this is my second attempt at a grow and journal, the first one sharing the same title just with DWC instead of coco. Nothing ever came of that and I had to pull the plant after a few days.

This time around I decided to go with a hand watered coco with coco specific nutrients as opposed to the DWC. I really like the coco and will stick with it for future grows.

600 watt MH/HPS in a cab like this:


Vegetative Journal (34 days, I will summarize):

Weeks 1-2
Sprouted two fem seeds, watered with tap and distilled always ph'ed to 5.8-6.0 range.
Made lots of newb mistakes like transplanting three times and not feeding them enough.
I started off with no-name brand coco (straight) and it was pretty bad. Second planting was with no-name coco and perlite.
Third planting was with Canna coco. Very happy with the Canna coco.
Plant 1 lives, plant 2 died a slow and painful death.

Weeks 3-4
Started light feeding with A+B and Rhiz, 1mL/Gal (A+B) and 4mL/Gal (Rhiz)
Added cal-mag to the mix (2.5mL/L, yes 10mL per gallon)
Struggle with heat issues, temps reach 93 at one point. Solved this with an A/C routed to the cab.

Week 5 to flowering
Figured out the bitch likes nutrients. Upped the juice to 4ml/Gal A+B, 16mL/gal Rhiz (overkill imo), 16mL/gal Cal-Mag (overkill imo), 4mL/Gal Cannazyme (hey why not) PH ~5.9
Did not kill the plant!
Topped her and then pruned off four branches
Did not kill the plant!
Lowered the lights to about 6"
Fed flowering week one nute schedule and switched to 12/12

Here is the flowering profile I'm using as a guideline:


And here she is:

 

[Phillthy]

keep up the good work. once you have all the bugs worked out and your setup dialed in you will be very happy i am sure

 

[DeezyH]

Thanks for stopping by Phillthy!

I'll keep this thread updated at least weekly or whenever theres a noticeable change in the plant.

*EDIT*

Here's some pics I took today. You can see a little bit of bleaching from the close proximity to the light. I moved it up another two inches so its about 10 inches away from the lamp.

 

[JamieShoes]

Hi Deez,

Do you have some kind of cooling for your lamp mate? it sounds a little close to my novice ear. I keep my 600w HPS around 24 inches at the beginning of flowering moving to about 18 at "peak", but I only have old fashioned uncooled hoods :smile:

all the best mate
j :smile:

 

[DeezyH]

Hi Jamie,

Yes I have a cooltube for the light, a 6" inline fan venting that, a 6" vortex venting the cab, and a ~4500 btu A/C unit blowing cool air in through one of four 6" intakes. Before I flipped to 12/12 I had the tube as close as 6" to the top of the plant, but that was a bit overkill imo. The A/C blows the cool air directly at the plant so it stays fairly cool with the lights on, the avg temp in the cab is pretty consistent at 79F.

The way the cooltube is vented isn't optimal with the exhaust side basically pointed up toward the vortex so it gets sucked out.

*also to clarify, the distance as measured is from the bottom of the tube to the top of the plant-not from the lamp itself*

 

[JamieShoes]

good call mate, sounds like you already leared this particular lesson and have everything under control

 

[guanito]

interested to see his one.
looks good so far!

 

[TheMintMan]

Nice grow. I used to have a cab just like that...damn those things are convenient aren't they?

Good job on keeping a journal. Stay on top of things like you are and you'll have a nice load of premium nuggage in no time.

 

[DeezyH]

Thanks for stopping by guys!



TheMintMan: The cab is conveinent yes, but I am not happy with the quality of it. I ended up having to buy a second cab as the first one collapsed in on itself when I tried to raise it up. The box claims it weighs 195lbs which I believe, and the plastic bits that are used to keep it together are really not up to the job. I ended up using the doors from the first trashed cab to strengthen the second. Thats my other gripe, the back panel that comes with this closet is really 1/8" cardboard paper - not ideal for growing anything imo.

I'll take some pictures of it the next time I move it to illustrate it a bit better.

 

[greenatik]

deezy did you put that flimsy cardboard on before you tried to raise it up? that's what holds the damn cabinet together lol. same thing happened to me, i was just going to use white poly for the back but that cardboard definitely holds that whole thing together

good grow and i'm using the same cab

 

[DeezyH]

Hey Greenatik,

lol, I must have missed the part in the instructions where it says the cardboard is load-bearing!

I ended up using the doors from cab 1 as the back of cab two. I also used some of the 2"x4"'s from cab 1 to brace a couple of weak spots and tie everything together. Finally I used expanding foam to seal up the cab. It is much more sturdy, but I am still leery about moving it around to much.

 

[DeezyH]

Week 1 Flowering update:

Been dealing with nutrient lockout resulting from temperature issues (I hope). Relocated cab to a more easily environmentally-controlled area. Lights on temps are now steady at 71F and lights off a cool 65F, RH ~40%.

This picture was taken two days ago. You can see the yellowing from a micro-nute deficiency. Some of the really yellow leaves are starting to green again, so hopefully the move I made is helping.

I also popped a freebie G13 Thai Skunk regular bean and placed the seedling under 12/12. Two more DP Orange Bud seedlings are going to go under the lights this week as well. I am interested to see how 12/12 from seed works, I assume I start feeding as normal as soon as they are under the lights?

 

[DeezyH]

Wow I can't believe its been two weeks since my last update! I am now just beginning week 4 of flowering out of 8 total according to DP.

Here's a brief summary of weeks 2 and 3:

Week 2

Relocated the cab once again and now the temperature issues are resolved. Temps stay between 65F lights off and 74 lights on. Lights are ~8" from canopy. The G13 Thai Skunk freebie had an accident, I dropped the plant and the entire stem got sheered off and sliced into several pieces. Moved two more DP Orange seedlings into the cab, trying some 12/12 from seed. **During week 2 I was having a mystery nute lockout, being new to growing I was completely unaware how much I was over fertilizing. The problem has since been corrected but the damage is done.**

Week 3

Raised lights to ~12" from canopy. New nutrient profile, much milder and the plant is liking it. Nutrients are: 5mL A+B, 1mL Boost, 2mL Sweet, 2mL Zyme. Plant is really starting to stretch, but not showing much in the way of flowers yet.

Some Bleached white tips!!!

Week 4

Upped the nutes to: 6mL A+B, 2mL Boost, 4mL Zyme, 2mL Sweet, 2mL PK13/14
Newest pics:

I couldn't get the camera to focus on the bud.

Hard to see, but theres a half dozen or so little popcorn buds coming in down there.

 

[DeezyH]

Oh I just wanted to add one more thing:

This particular pheno has a really distinct smell to it ever since it got its first true node. I haven't been able to figure out what it reminded of until just recently. I was out doing some yard work and strangely enough there was a plant out there that smelled exactly like my little DP Orange!

At first I was freaking that somehow the odor from my plant traveled through space and time to this one spot, but it turns out it was this bush. I asked what kind it was and the answer was Sweet Mock Orange, aptly named because it smells exactly like orange blossoms!

This plant smells exactly like orange blossoms with a subtle hint of mint. I am looking forward to smoking this once its done.

 

[DeezyH]

Week 5 & 6 update!!

Week 5

Nutrients: 4mL A+B, 4mL Cannazyme, 6mL Cannaboost, 10mL BC Sweet

No real issues with the plant, she has finished stretching for the most part. I periodically trimmed some of the dead or dying leaves and kept a close eye for any pests. RH is up into the 60-70% range but theres not much I can do about it. I started watering a less amount but several times a day versus once daily. Plant smells like orange blossoms!

Week 6

Nutrients: 3mL A+B, 5mL Cannazyme, 10mL Boost, 15mL Sweet

Week 6 started today and will be the final week for feeding nutrients. The packet says this is a 7-8 week flowering time so I'm going to stick with that. Starting week 7 the plant will get straight water until I cut it down.

Here's some fresh pics:

She went into flowering no more than 6" and is now well over 2 feet!

I like this pic because it makes my bud look big. Too bad its really the size of a bic lighter.

Lots of spacing between the nodes. This plant really liked to stretch, it was no more than 10" away from a 600 watt HPS at all times but would still stretch up to the light.

Lower canopy, you can see some orange hairs starting to develop.

Another frosty bud shot, I wish you could smell this it so good!

Well thats all for now, stay tuned for more!

 

[DeezyH]

Start of Week 7 update!!

Starting now I will be flushing the plant with plain water ph'ed to 6.1 for up to two weeks. The smell is absolutely fantastic; very strong as well so good thing for the can33 or else the whole house would smell like an orange grove!

The other two plants finally started to show flowers, its been nearly 5 weeks under 12/12 from seed. I decided that this would be the week three feeding schedule for those plants based on how far along the first plant was when it started to show flowers. Basically this means its getting the PK 13/14 for this week, with a harvest planned in about 5 weeks from today. These other two are a different phenotype though, not nearly as strong smelling and far less purple on the stems. I read the purple hues can be from skunk genetics which makes sense for this strain. I'll post some pics once they really start going.

In the meantime heres some bud pron:

6 colas visible here, nice and frosty!

The top of one of the main colas:

This is one of the lowest branches, nice and frosty with the orange hairs really starting to show.

Thats all for now!

 

[growMEDS]

Looking good bro!
The yellowing kind of scurred me until I saw the cola pics and how heyve grown.
That 600 should make your colas even more fat soon! :smile:

 

[DeezyH]

Thanks!

I really did a job on the plant with the over-ferting, but it seemed to pull through OK. The other two plants are doing much better, but they are also a different phenotype. I am going to cut this one down on day 56 and start the drying/curing process. I am hoping with a good cure this turns out to be a real primo smoker. No clue on the yield, but I'm guessing an oz all said and done.

 

[growMEDS]

Ya looks like youll get some nice meds off them :smile:

 

[DeezyH]

Well its about that time!!

The plant is now entering her 53rd day of flowering and I think its about time to cut her down. I've been flushing for the last ten days, around 1L per day. Most of the leaves have lost their green color and some are starting to curl up and drop off.

My new toy just arrived (Eyeclops Bionicam) so now I can do trich shots!! I have to say its a lot harder than it looks, props to those that can pull off a steady handed trich shot!

I decided to take a donor bud to test out with the bionicam:

Here are the best shots I could do, the rest are in my album:

Trich head at 400x:

Someone made a snowman!!

I'm going to work on steadying the camera and angling it properly to get clearer shots, but in the meantime enjoy these.

Oh and last but not least, about three weeks ago I noticed what I thought were seeds growing in the lower buds. Turns out they were, and I found two little pollen flower things (they looked like mini cloves of garlic filled with yellow powder.) No nanners found so I guess that means she self polinated vs just herming it up which means these are feminised seeds?

Is there even a difference between self polinating and hermaphroditing?