1200W HPS - SCROG - Soil - NL & Strawberry Skunk - K.I.S.S Grow

[geteven]

Hello guys and girls,

Just signed up and wanted to post my grow journal.

This will be my 3rd grow, my first using HPS and I am a noob but learn fast.

The aim of this journal will be to show that growing weed is actually quite simple, I wont be doing anything overly fancy and just sticking to K.I.S.S (keep it simple, stupid!)

On my first grow I used bag seeds, got 2 plants out of it. One male and one female. I didnt chop the male fast enough and he ended up fertilizing the female. I grew under a 125w CFL and a couple 20w CFLs and got a dry yield of 55g inc seeds.

I took a few clones and 2 rooted and are currently in slightly different stages of flower. One is probably a week away from flower whilst the other has only been flowering for a couple of weeks. The flowering was done under 2 125w CFL but 2 weeks ago I swapped that for a 600w HPS. The younger of the 2 clones has grown so much faster than the other will yield way more I predict!

This is the current grow

This plant is nearly ready to harvest

Decent size buds grown from CFL plus the CFL fell on it and burnt it. ouch!

And thats what it all looks like. No need for cooling where I live

Ok - back to this grow.

My set up is:

600w HPS in air-cooled reflector (yes I am using it to veg - K.I.S.S remember)
8 x 4 Gallon Smart Pots
bog standard grow in a bag soil bought from your local hardware store (K.I.S.S)
bog standard flowering plant fertilizer and a slightly less strong bonsai tree fertilizer (K.I.S.S)
4 x Strawberry Skunk. This is a new strain and I cannot wait to taste it as I think Strawberry makes everything taste better!
4 x Northern Lights
They are grown from seeds.

this is what they are in now - meant to be very good for root development - we shall see!

The 8 that I am keeping are in the big pots, the extra 2 are being given away.

Once my flowering cycle is done and I start flowering these bad boys I will take the 600w HPS and add it to the other to give me my 1200w of sun power!

The aim is to pull 20 zip from this 1200w/8 plant SCROG set up but would be happy with 16. What do people think the chances are of that?

Thanks for taking a look and thanks for all the information everyone has provided as I have been lurking for nearly a year!
Happy Christmas

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

And as for a timeline, the seeds have been in for 2 weeks now. They were planted on the 12th Dec.
They might even be growing a bit slowly but they look fine.

 

[kikocorn]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

"This plant is nearly ready to harvest" Looks like at least 3 more weeks for that plant.

As for the 20oz prediction. You can get 10oz for the 4 NL easy. not sure about 10oz on the other strain.

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

It's been flowering for about 8 weeks now but there are still quite a few white pistols and the change to hps mid way through seems to have started new growth.

The 20oz is what I would like to get, have no idea if I will or not as I haven't done anything on this scale before

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

"This plant is nearly ready to harvest" Looks like at least 3 more weeks for that plant.

I had a bit of a defoliation session last night, took off a few of the largest fan leaves and the plants seemed to react almost immediately.

I think a combination of the switch from CFL to HPS and defoliation has seen a visible amount of new growth over night.

Sorry for the poor pictures but you can see where overnight the buds have grown new pistols.

Now the problem I have is that I am already flushing. Do I start giving some more ferts as the leaves are dying and hopefully help it out a little? Maybe ferts for 10 more days then flush again? I am currently only feeding a molasses solution to that plant. Im going to call it plant A from this point on.

Plant B also seems to have really enjoyed the fan leaves being removed and the extra light penetration.

Still very immature but moving in the right direction.

And here's what that booth looks like right now.

Plant A

Plant B

No change over night on the seedlings but its early days. I decided to order some biobizz last night and step away from the hardware store ferts for these new ones.

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

I was struggling to get my seedlings to grow for some reason. 2 nights ago I lower the light to about 1 foot and dimmed it from 600w to 400w and they have loved it and taken off growing new leaves yey! The only temp problem I have is too cold which is why I can have the lamp so close.

Here are the little girls now

Ive put the little pot in the middle as it was defiantly the runt of the seeds. It was the only one that didnt germinate in the wet paper. Im trying to give it a bit of a chance before I give it away.

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

A little help needed please. I checked my calendar and plant a has been under 12/12 for 11 weeks now and it keeps making new buds and new white pistols. What do I do? Just leave it another week or so? The tips of the buds are starting to go crispy. The trichomes all seem to be milky but none are amber. Very confused.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[donpaul.p]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Hi,
are you 100% sure you dont have any light leaks during the dark period.
do you know the NPK of the nutrients your using, the soil should of been able to support the plants through the veg stage with no added nutrients.
have a look on the back of the nutes your using and post the NPK %.
what kind of temps are you getting during lights on and lights off,

give us a shout back then we can get some idea of whats going on

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Thanks don,
From what I can see there aren't any light leaks, its tight.
The NKP is 8-12-14 with trace elements and I also add molasses.
I am not sure on the temps but it is probably cooler than ideal.
Night time (without lights) is about 10 degrees. Day time is about 20 degrees.

This is for the older plants that have been in flower for ages - not for the seedlings. The leaves started dying about 2 weeks ago after I started to flush.

thanks for your help.

 

[donpaul.p]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

ok thanks for the info,
im wondering if the nutes have been a bit on the high side and the low temps will really stunt growth, when my temps drop my plants stop growing so i think you have a couple of problems going on, the dark green leaves suggests the N is a tad on the high side or maybe the dose your giving is a tad high.

with the new pistils your getting growing i this on the whole bud or just at the tops of the buds, if its just growing out the tops of the buds and it seems like thinner bud growing out the main part of the bud then this is foxtailing, its basically the bud growing again, you can leave it to keep growing and the foxtailing will continue but you need to keep an eye on the plant turning hermie if its been left in flower to long,

lets see what others think but the dark green leaves look to me like to much N or to much nutes in general. plus im thinking the temps are causing a problem also, cool temps can give you small skinny buds.

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Thanks, I have thought about the temps before and it is something that I do need to address.

The new pistols are on the sides of the cola rather than on the top of the buds. The top buds have totally orange pistols but no orange trichomes

 

[donpaul.p]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

ok,
their are strains that dont produce amber trichs, its mainly indica strains and some autos, ive grown a few indicas and they never turn amber no matter how long you leave them in flower, so it might just be that the strain your growing dont turn amber, if the pistils are receading and turning orange/brown then you wont be far from harvest, the plant is fully mature and ready for harvest at 100% cloudy or their abouts

so if the trichs are cloudy then the plant is ready to harvest, thc is at its peak when the trichs are cloudy, when the trichs turn amber this means the thc is degrading and turning into cbn which gives you a stronger couch lock affect, but most indicas will give a strong couch lock affect at 100% cloudy,

i like to harvest at around 10% amber but if my trichs are cloudy with no signs of amber after a couple of weeks then i know that this strain is not going to turn amber, not all strains have trichs that turn amber, plus im pretty sure the lower temps will slow down the degrading process as the plant pretty much stops growing when the temps drop to low, my temps where low in veg and my plants pretty much stopped growing, if temps are to high then the buds stretch like crazy and you end up with really skinny long buds, but if temps are to low then the buds dont tend to fatten up much and the plant develops much slower, so an 11 week flowering plant can take longer if the temps are to low,

plus if its an 11 week strain then day 1 of flower is not day1 of 12-12, day 1 of flower us when you see pistils and buds forming which is around week 2 of 12-12

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

+ rep

Very informative thanks for that

So my plan is to leave it for another week or 2 and hopefully the new pistols have changed to Amber.

I will have to address the cold issue as it's about to get colder here. Simple electric heater will hopefully do the trick. Need to get a thermometer to check what's really going on.

Cheers

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Little bit of an update with pics.

The seedlings seem to be growing OK and aren't giving me too much drama yet.

As for the other plants the new white pistols seem to be turning orange now as well. I tried to take a pic but I dont know if you can see.

This is the size of the buds from plant A, not that huge but should give me a bit of goodness! There are about 11 colas of that size so if I can get 50g I will be happy very happy! Still too new at this to be accurately guesstimating dry yield but hey, worth a shot!

Plant B has the potential to be bigger. The colas, one they fill out, will be about twice the size of plant As.

Thanks for taking a look!

 

[donpaul.p]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

very nice, the plants really fatten up in the last 2 weeks so you should notice the buds swell up a bit more, the calyx or seed pods swell up so let it go the extra week or 2 then you will have bigger yields,

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Thanks - they seem to have noticeably fattened up in the last 3 days which is really good.

I have some biobizz that has arrived so that should help plant B better than the nutes I was using.

Here are some update pictures.

I took the leaves and small buds off plant B below the scrog

The seedlings seems to have kicked on quite a bit too which is nice!

A few of them are looking a little bit twisted and pale.

While others look great

I havent given them any nutes yet, is it time to start feeding them a diluted version of the glow nutes? Should that help with the colouring and the twistedness?

 

[Budworshipper]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Hi... Nice set up

Good luck with them seedlings

Subd

 

[donpaul.p]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

twisted and pale could be down to a few things.
1, soil to wet
2, light to much for seedlings,
i cant start seedlings under my 400 watt dual spec hps unless its about 3ft above the seedlings, the light is just way to bright and it bleaches the leaves and the seedlings end up dying or they get used to it after a week or 2, so i either keep mine under cfls for the first couple of weeks then move them to the hid room or i have the hps 2 or 3 ft above the plants then after a week i start lowering it until im about 1ft above plants.

so check the soil to see how wet it is, if its not drying out as quick then this will be the cause, you have small plants in lots of soil so it will hold its moisture a lot longer as the plant is not able to use it up as quick,
but failing that id look at raising the light a bit and lower it in 7 to 10 days once the seedlings have conditioned to the lights

 

[geteven]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

Thanks Budworshiper

Donpaul - I think it might be the lights. I was doing some reading last night and thats the conclusion I came too. I guess having a 600w HPS 12" from seedlings is a no-no.

Ive turned down my digital ballast to 400w and raised the height of the light to nearer 24". I dont expect immediate results but over the next few days I will report. I can feel it is noticeably cooler at the seedling level now.

Is there any chance it could be nute burn from the soil? It is the first time I have used this soil so it is a possibility I guess?

 

[Budworshipper]

re: 1200W HPS SCROG Soil NL & Strawberry Skunk K.I.S.S Grow

No probs my friend... I came to the conclusion last nite aswell.thinking about chilli seedlings in direct sunlight of summer... Frazzled comes to mind on one occasion of growing them.

Bleached out is normally too much light.

I couldnt type anymore last night....