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

[Bassman59]

Update:

Day 25 into 12/12

I had an interesting visit 2 nites ago. I can't say who other than it was a grower of 20+ years getting 10z+ per plant using high defoliation technique.

He offered some suggestions for next grow, reducing to 2-4 plants max and even higher yield. Basically more training earlier. Lots of 90 degree bending, making wide ass plants nice and low. As well, lifting my base. By this he means, getting a reflective base at the base of the plants covering the entire tent. Thus not losing light down low like I do know with tub height and non reflective floor some 12-14 inches below the plants.

For this grow, he guided me on making more heavy 90 degree bends and spreading as much as possible the top of the canopy, thus lowering it and allowing me to lower the light for better penetration down deeper in the plant.

He loved the health of my girls. Said they looked marvelous and was super impressed with the Grow Stealth LED.

So yesterday I went to bending! Basically I reduced the overall height 3-5" and spread the canopy more in the middle. This reduced some of the shading the corner plants were getting and they have responded well. Also, on every one of the 90 degree bends the buds turned from horizontal to 90 degrees vertical in just 12 hrs!

You may notice that some of these bends have small side buds that are now at the virtual canopy top along the length of the bends. These should now produce really nice buds that would have had less light without bending.

I'm still plucking small amounts of leaves almost daily. But allowing them to leaf out some still too. In another two weeks or so I'll be doing another huge strip.

PH has been super stable at 5.6-5.9 (.5 ec)
PPM, I bumped a little with the addition of 2 more gals yesterday to 850ppm or so.
Water temps are consistent at 65-66 degrees.

I tried to give pics showing the bends and 13hrs later results the best I can.

 

[Bassman59]

Well, maybe the gods and your prayers are looking down upon us. We've been given a reprieve to the 31st.

Still havent heard back after the drug test. Expected to hear Friday. But I guess I'll hear soon enough. Kinda a drag because there are orientation things to do, uniform fittings, etc. All delay getting the daily tip $$ to get back on track.

Small update:

Day 26 after flip:

PPM 860-870
PH 5.8
Water temp 65.84
Lights on room temp 79-84
Humidity 29-51

Temp & Humidity during lights on are dependent upon how long tent is completely closed and room door shut. I move it around a bit.

So, I tried to count how many top bud sites I have between the two tubs. It's over 130. That's between 6 plants with the two corner plants getting bad light penetration because of shading from the bigger girls and just plain light spread. Furthest separation is 46" end to end diagonally.

I went in and did some more bending to get more light to the further plants and open up the middle of each tub a little as well as fill more of the center light space between the tubs. In so doing I had a miss-que and facking snapped a good top. So it's in the 1st pic with scotch tape. Hope it recovers.

*not to self: when trying to bend DON'T bend right on top of super close nodes-offshoots.

The flowering looks to be coming along nicely. No real budding yet but that's soon to come. I may only see 1lb dry or so from this. Hopefully more, but I wouldnt count on it. My mistake was not bending more radically early in veg and continuing. While they are still stretching, the current bending is keeping them at a more desirable height but I don't have the width even though they look pretty bushy. They are getting strategic leafing daily, just to get light to tops. But I'm going to let them leaf out some too. I'm really going to need to set up a support screen. Not really a scrog, just a frame with 4 strands or so each way to give support when the buds get heavy. There's no way in hell they will be stable in 3" net pots when the buds put on weight.

I've got 5 Master Kush female seeds on the way. Those will be germinated the second they arrive and veg in closet/cfl/dwc where my AK48 mom's are. Plan is to have 4 go to flower transplanted into 5 gal RDWC buckets, with more training and high defoliation. Leaving 1 mom from seed initially.

On to some pics:

 

[jjames]

lookin real good as usual b. im interested in seein how all that bending/training/defol is gonna work out for you here. when i flipped to flower, i bent two main branches on my blue dreams to kinda see what would happen, seems like they reacted similarly and are shootin up some bigger buds along the branches upward and seems like im gonna get some bigger buds than if i just let the branch upwards. also allowed me to keep the light lower and get down thry the canopy farther like your friend was sayin.

im hopin that everything is going to work out on your end. good luck.

 

[Bassman59]

Thanks jjames. Still waiting, I'll be calling them tomorrow I guess.

mini update:

Went to lowes today and broke down and got the pvc and more cfl's so I could add in some support string and get some light to furthest corners that are being shaded by the middle, bigger girls. I put 2 43w 2700k spectrum (red) in each hood.

I cut the damn pvc about 1" too long so it's too damn tight fitting, and kinda macgyvered in there. I used the cutting tool at lowes and dont have one to shorten them so it's gonna do for now.

In the process I also broke two tops in the far plant. BAH! Well, string and tape, hopefully they will be fine, but they dont look good.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Looking great, BMan!

Glad things are looking up for you!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Great idea for supporting the branches. Looks great! Keep it up. Good luck with everything else.

 

[SpiriTHC]

Lookin' good !
Everything happens for a reason..
and something has always got to give

as long as your trying!

keep your head up
and your buds high!

 

[fncg]

Looking good, Bassman! Here's to passing your test, as well!

 

[Bassman59]

Thanks a bunch! Passed test no problem, paperwork tomorrow, start 3am Tues. Going to be hard for the first few weeks taking care of mom. But it'll get me caught up and they'll let me cut back my hours. Nice to know they'll take whatever hours I can give them with no commitment or being forced to full time. Landlord allowed me to end of Jan to pay up. We wont be able to clear it till the 3rd, and then it'll take me another 10-14 days to get Feb handled. They want it all by the 3rd but when they see good faith they'll have to be lenient. Or they'd just be stupid.

I should have done this 8 months ago really. Now I'll be trying to do the bus route at 3 am start times. LV is horrible for bus service. Not like old home town San Francisco.

Plants are looking great. Waiting a day or two more to do an update with pictures.

 

[YardDog35]

Congrats on the new job, Bass! Good to hear things are going in a positive direction for you. I can't imagine how tough your days will be, but know you have friends here that will be thinking of you.

Plant are looking very nice as well. Nice of an experienced grower to come by and give you tips, and kudos. Keep up the good work!

Stay positive brother

 

[sqwheels]

Hi Bassman,

Well it took almost 2 hrs but I read it all and I think you're doing a wonderful job...your plants look great and it sounds like you've got lots of good advice. What's up with the cloning? You PM'd me about clones...??? There were no pics or talk of new clones did I miss something?

I'm so glad you've gotten work/rent going good again, sorry you had so much trama/drama to deal with...it never helps.

All looks great...keep up the good work

 

[Bassman59]

Thanks Sqwheels.

The clones PM I sent was referring to clones not mentioned here except for a few pages back. Since flipping these girls to flower and moving them to the tent I have taken 3 batches of 6 that died and now my 4th batch looks like it will be 4/6 and fine. I think in the end, the problem I had was too wet and not enough veggy nodes-top growth whatever. I looked back at the cuts this grow represents and all of them had more leaves when cut then these ones that have died on me.

I'll be cool with 4/6 actually. In fact, I may be setting myself up for must expand. I will be getting 5 Master Kush fem seeds any day and will be germinating them soon. Which means I will again be out of room.

 

[Bassman59]

Update:

Day 36 from 12/12

Everything is looking pretty good. Made some bends during the week. Letting them leaf out some more now, while I did take some leaves earlier in the week. I want to let em go a bit more before a big huge strip.

Blue Planet Nutrients are serving me well. PH has rarely needed adjustment beyond adjusted the new water going in. Girls are drinking 2 gals per day fairly consistently. But I only add nutrient about 1:3 gals. The day after a nutrient add (as opposed to just ro water), before a fill the PPM may hit 900. But that's with water at it's lowest level and more concentrated. After a fill, it'll be in the mid to lower 800's and the following day the level may be 740-825 or so after topping off with just ro water. It's staying in a nice range.

PH has been mostly 5.8-5.9
RH has been 37-50% but mostly in the low-mid 40's.
Temp has been 75-81 range mostly.

Starting to see a little bit of tiny frost on leaves. Buds are starting to grow faster it seems. All the while I've been able to keep the height down. About 29-30" avg height. Lets not forget 2 weeks ago while still in stretch they were 27" and I knew they could reach 45" easily. So the bending has helped. You can also tell we are really filling in the tent center as well.

The adding of the cfl's at the far corner plants has been a plus. Not huge, just a nice improvement by reaching to the corner plants that are somewhat out of reach of the LED.

On to some pics:

 

[GodSpeed]

Dude they are some monster bushes!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Bass those are looking fuzzy for sure. Mine are just starting. But then again they are only 8 days into flower or so.
You are sure to get a great harvest!

 

[Cultivator]

Nice journal mate and nice looking plants mate. Good work.............

 

[sqwheels]

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

F-ing rad Bass, you are gonna need to go to walmart and buy yourself a case of those big jars

 

[Bassman59]

Thanks KB, Sure hope so.

Gonna be a major strip day today. I'll do b4 & after pics later.

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Gonna be a major strip day today. I'll do b4 & after pics later.

Can't Wait!!!