Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w Pro-Bloom LED - RDWC - Grow #2

[Bassman59]

It shouldnt Kiefsgood. Two things come in to play in my eyes. Number one and probably the most logical is because of the spread in area of these 6 plants, combined with overcrowding, I'm asking the light to do too much. In reality, probably four 200w or three 300w set triangularly, or two 600w (slight overkill) would have been better I think. Really, two plants, properly trained, in 5 gal buckets would have been perfect for this 600w and probably would yield over 20 oz dry. With proper training there would have been more air circulation and less colas shading other colas too.

The other thing, and I'm sure had a great effect, was a really light feeding schedule for too long in flower. I think I should have bumped up to 950ppm (on .5 conv) with more bloom booster and BPN nutrient much earlier. For the last few weeks I have run it from 650 when I thought it was going to mature to chop in a week, to 980 or so. I really think I should have been in the 900's from week 3 or 4. Instead I was staying in the mid 7's.

I applied much of the defoliation technique correctly. However, trying to cram 3 plants in each tub was bad. And I knew that going in. I just didnt have the $$ to make the changes I needed. Now that I'm working again I have almost everything for my Master Kush girls to flower 4 girls in four 5 gal buckets with proper training in veg and RDWC in the tent for flowering. I'll probably get the last items I need Monday and pre-fab most of it.

I've only done my first defol on those girls so far. And come harvest on this grow I'll have room to make some lighting adjustments for them too. I kinda think they'll be monsters. Especially if I can get another LED to veg them with. But they'll most likely need more light in flower too. It's just that they will be covering a wider area than the one 600w is really ideal for in terms of core coverage area.

 

[Bassman59]

Took a gander under my radio shack 60-100x scope Sunday. Seems a lot of the buds are showing mostly milky trichs now. Chop will be coming soon. Some of the buds are bulking a bit while others don't seem so. But I did a couple squeezes and found them to be pretty firm and not airy.

Question: On average, if all the trichs were milky, time frame to 30-40% amber?

If I guessed 4-5 days (I could be off here) this would put chop day at somewhere around Thurs-Sat. All of those days are work days for me and impossible for me to consider chopping unless I can get a day off.

 

[Bassman59]

Update

Day 66 in Flower

Ok this is just something I don't understand. You will notice in the following pics some of the buds are extremely loaded with frosty ass trichs while others are not. I mean they all have lots of trichs, but some are just white frost to the naked eye. What's even more odd is the ones more covered are also a bit further from the LED. Not directly under it. ????

Anyways, looked under the scope again and used the zoom on my computer to look closer at the pics I'm posting here and found not much more in the way of any amber trichs. In fact there are still some fair amounts of clear, but mostly they are going cloudier.

Added 1.3 gals of water with 60ml of Ginormous. Last push for bulk. I have noticed a bit more hardening of the buds in terms of density. But still not satisfied with the bulk.

I am now wondering if I should go with a bigger mix of bloom boosters next grow. Like Bud Candy & Big Bud as opposed to this Humboldt Ginormous.

Notice the pics below. There are 2-3 shots where there are just loads more trichs.

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

HOLY CRAP You have not harvested yet? I am taking the bottoms of what I chopped last weekend tomorrow and moving others into flower. If you don't chop them beasts soon you will need a chain saw!!!! And you will also need goggles for all that frostyness!!!

 

[Bassman59]

I'm only going by trichs. I dunno if you can see well enough in the pics, but there is very little amber in the buds. very little.

 

[Bassman59]

I know I harvested too early last grow also. So that is beating in the back of my lil pea brain.

 

[YardDog35]

Frosty!! Looking very good Bass!

Patience is a virtue. I remember way back you mentioned identifying a few different phenos of your AK seeds. Is this the more Sativa dominant pheno? They look great, like they just want to keep growing instead of dying off.

 

[Bassman59]

Update:

Forced Harvest!

I mentioned 2.5 weeks ago I lost one bank of led diodes. About 20 led's in all. Well, GS was on it fast and sent me a ballast. Took a week to arrive cross country. Unfortunately, the connectors had changed from the time mine was made to current. So I shot out a call to GS and he sent me one with the correct connectors. Another week down but it's only 20 odd led's on an outer edge, kinda near one of the cfl's even so it wont bork me bad. Upon installing that replacement ballast, nothing changed. So Donnie gave me an assignment to make sure it was the ballast. Well, long story short, in the process of trying to diagnose 2 more banks blew out. May have been my fault, may have been a result of the 2nd ballast sent being bad and causing a blow out. Shit happens with electrical stuff sometimes.

After spending 3 hrs trying to diagnose I gave up. I'm purdy damn close to harvest anyways. Hell I probably should have waited till harvest and run at 85% anyways.

Spoke to Donnie at GrowStealthLED and he immediately told me to just send it back and I would get a replacement unit sent to me upon receipt. Having owned a business in a past life, I understand sometimes shit happens. It's how you handle it that's important, and GrowStealthLED is taking care of business the right way.


So, prior to turning off the supplemental cfl's I ph adjusted, topped off with ro water, and took some pics. Then zipped up the tent, lights out, 48 hours of dark now and I'll start harvest Sunday.

I scoped some buds and I do see some amber. Interestingly, some buds don't seem to have any amber and some have a fair bit of amber. They may be different off shoots or main branches, but even next to each other, they can be different.

I won't get the yield I hoped for. But certainly part of that is on me for cramming them together and not training better early. Also trying to fill the area with only 600w(550w actual) of LED plays a part I'm sure. And that's because of the style of my grow.

I just hope the quality is there.

Full view:

Front tub:

Back tub:

Closeups:

 

[Bassman59]

This was the best I could do with the scope cam.

Though blurry, you can see there are some turning amber, mostly cloudy.

 

[Xlr8]

This was the best I could do with the scope cam.

Though blurry, you can see there are some turning amber, mostly cloudy.

Hi Bassman!

Personally, that's about when I like to harvest. 10-25% amber, mostly cloudy. Couchlock isn't really my thing, so I don't like to wait for 50/50 as much. Sorry to hear about the yield disappointing, but they sure look like sugar coated goodness. They sure look

Curious: Are you getting better bud size/tightness on the uppermost buds, and just not as much underneath? Or are the uppermost colas not quite as fat/tight as you'd like, too?

Good to know that GrowStealthLED stands behind their products so well. Bummer about the issues you had, though.

+rep and 5 stars for a great grow and journal - Nice job!

 

[Smallzz420]

Hey Bassman, your buds are looking nice and tasty
+reps for some frosty nugs

 

[Bassman59]

Thank you both for the reps and encouragement!

Xlr8, There seems to be decent tightness. I tend to not handle them too much so I dont squeeze off trichs. But They seem fairly tight. I guess we'll see when dry.

It's kinda funny, because with this defoliation thing and all I have some spots where there are 3-4 smaller branches melded into a top cola at or near it's base. Even an off shoot from another branch coming in to a main. So to some degree it's hard to tell. But I do know the upper halves of almost all the colas are not as big as expected. Even if they are fairly dense.

Most definitely the upper half of the grow is bigger. But that's to be expected. That being said, the lower 1/2 of the grow, the buds are bigger than last grow. Maybe I should say "budlets" as they are small, but bigger than the super tiny ones of last grow. I attribute that to the hi defoliation getting more light lower. Even if it's less intense from sheer distance alone.

I was hoping to see 1 lb dry. Now I think reality may only be 8 oz. But who knows. Maybe I'll be surprised.

 

[Xlr8]

Thank you both for the reps and encouragement!

Xlr8, There seems to be decent tightness. I tend to not handle them too much so I dont squeeze off trichs. But They seem fairly tight. I guess we'll see when dry.

It's kinda funny, because with this defoliation thing and all I have some spots where there are 3-4 smaller branches melded into a top cola at or near it's base. Even an off shoot from another branch coming in to a main. So to some degree it's hard to tell. But I do know the upper halves of almost all the colas are not as big as expected. Even if they are fairly dense.

Most definitely the upper half of the grow is bigger. But that's to be expected. That being said, the lower 1/2 of the grow, the buds are bigger than last grow. Maybe I should say "budlets" as they are small, but bigger than the super tiny ones of last grow. I attribute that to the hi defoliation getting more light lower. Even if it's less intense from sheer distance alone.

I was hoping to see 1 lb dry. Now I think reality may only be 8 oz. But who knows. Maybe I'll be surprised.

Hoping you are pleasantly surprised by the yield - you never know, there is a lot of bud in there!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

There is nothing disappointing about that crop or the yeild from it. You cared for and grew your own. Awesome Job!

BTW I am looking at those usb microscopes. Which one did you get and would you recommend it? I am thinking I don't want less then 2.0mp as my phone is better then that. I got a regular binocular microscope, that was my dads, today. I used to be a jeweler/gemologist and got this one for my dad years ago, he used to remove splinters with it....lol It's like new... Now I want one so I can show you all what I am seeing...Amazing!

 

[Bassman59]

I didnt get a usb scope. I got a camera-scope: SVP Handheld Digital Mobile Magnifier MicroScope 500x ZOOM w Camera Video | eBay

It chews up batteries. and takes a super steady hand to get pics on the growing plant.

 

[Bassman59]

Let the chop begin!

I couldnt resist today, being my Friday, I got an early out after 3 hours so I could get home and get started on the harvest. I'll be taking pictures as I go. Might post along the way, or not post till done. Who knows.

I packaged up the LED to send back tomorrow. I'll probably not do a res change on my Master Kush's this week because I have lots to do to set up for them to go into flower after the replacement LED get's here.

Wish me luck on my harvest!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Let the chop begin!

I couldnt resist today, being my Friday, I got an early out after 3 hours so I could get home and get started on the harvest. I'll be taking pictures as I go. Might post along the way, or not post till done. Who knows.

I packaged up the LED to send back tomorrow. I'll probably not do a res change on my Master Kush's this week because I have lots to do to set up for them to go into flower after the replacement LED get's here.

Wish me luck on my harvest!

Right on Bassman! Hope all goes smooth. You will have many hours of trimming ahead of you. Awesome crop!

 

[YardDog35]

Hope the harvest is going well! We want pics!

 

[Bassman59]

30 more mins or so and I'll have two done. Four to go. a few pics after this one gets finished.

 

[Bassman59]

A few harvesting pics. The first plant trimmed was a corner smaller girl. 85g wet.
The 2nd was a med-bigger. Roughly 220g wet.

Est 2.5z for first two.


The trimming desk:

1st two girls and some trichs: