Canobud's First Grow - The Widow

[Lazarus13]

What the power on your LEDs 300 watts? , they should be at least 24" away from seedlings. Matter of fact you could use only a couple Cfls for them. Both is kinda overkill, imo.

I'd raise the led for use in a week or two. For now I would just use a couple cfls nice and close to the leafs. (2-3 inches) then in a while introduce the LEDs at a fair height and bring them closer

I agree with this man. I did the same thing. First 2 weeks from the baby popping its head up i used 1 or 2 6500k daylight bulbs. That combined with a few hours of ponytailing a day gave me a great ffoundation to veg off of. Short and bushy. Those cfls might not have very good penetration but man the plants love early life under them. After 2 weeks i introduced my leds, one at first, then both at like 30 inches. Then down to 24"...18"...14" and thats where i kept them. At 12/12 i set em higher again and let the plant grow up to them.
Sorry for the double post.

 

[Canobud]

I agree with this man. I did the same thing. First 2 weeks from the baby popping its head up i used 1 or 2 6500k daylight bulbs. That combined with a few hours of ponytailing a day gave me a great ffoundation to veg off of. Short and bushy. Those cfls might not have very good penetration but man the plants love early life under them. After 2 weeks i introduced my leds, one at first, then both at like 30 inches. Then down to 24"...18"...14" and thats where i kept them. At 12/12 i set em higher again and let the plant grow up to them.
Sorry for the double post.

Interesting...I guess I assumed it would keep them lower/bushier if the LEDs were much closer to them at this stage. It's at 24" now. Am I going to have to kill two of these because one mature plant is all I'm going to fit in a 2x2.5' footprint? How much dry bud weight do you expect out of your plant?

 

[Lazarus13]

If you train them at all it is going to be tight with 1 probably. As i said i have 2 in a 3x2 area and it is grown to the walls. When i open the flaps and take them out they are in the shape of the tent. I set up a space bucket to veg a clone just because i want to keep one of these alive until my tent opens again and im looking at places outside for my other 2 clones. Next round i think im going to try a scrog. I stopped counting at 20 bud sights on my canopy so there is a lot of potential but i am not experienced enough to give you any kind of accurate guess as to dry weight. I know what im hoping for but hope and reality are often two completely different animals. Gorillas website says "massive yields and high thc" but that is optimum conditions and experienced grower probably. By the end of april or first week of may i will be able to give you a number tho.

 

[Canobud]

If you train them at all it is going to be tight with 1 probably. As i said i have 2 in a 3x2 area and it is grown to the walls. When i open the flaps and take them out they are in the shape of the tent. I set up a space bucket to veg a clone just because i want to keep one of these alive until my tent opens again and im looking at places outside for my other 2 clones. Next round i think im going to try a scrog. I stopped counting at 20 bud sights on my canopy so there is a lot of potential but i am not experienced enough to give you any kind of accurate guess as to dry weight. I know what im hoping for but hope and reality are often two completely different animals. Gorillas website says "massive yields and high thc" but that is optimum conditions and experienced grower probably. By the end of april or first week of may i will be able to give you a number tho.

Keep me up to date on your progress, I'm very interested in hearing how yours turns out. You've got two 300w LEDs in a 3x2? That's got to be pretty intense! I was actually wondering if I should focus on learning to scrog one plant in this small of a tent. This is my first grow so I'm not sure if I should attempt that quite yet. I definitely want to try it though. Have you had this strain before? How's the high?

 

[Lazarus13]

I will definitely keep you up to date and i will be following along on yours.
Yeah 2 300s ( 370 true watts between the two) it is pretty blinding.
I think this strain would take to scrog amazingly. Like i said from fimming and training i have a ton of tops. My main stems are probably about 2 inches in diameter.
My first go at hydro and i have to say this was an awesome strain to go with so far. And i won the 5 pack of seeds my first week being a member on here. How cool is that. I bought from them again too. Hybrid X and got 2 free blue treacle autos w my order. I have a treacle in a space bucket/dwc set up right now too. Sherry and gavin, the gorilla reps on here are awesome.
I havent had this particular strain but i have had different white widows through the years and they have never disappointed. If i can go by smell it is going to be goooood. So skunky and potent smelling and i havent even gotten any trich development yet so the smell is only gonna get more amazing.

 

[Lazarus13]

Update: came home from work tonight and they have their first trichomes. Yay! The sugar leaves closest to the buds are covered in tiny white crystals. I am so excited! Lol i really hope you have as much fun growing these as i have/am!

 

[Canobud]

Update: came home from work tonight and they have their first trichomes. Yay! The sugar leaves closest to the buds are covered in tiny white crystals. I am so excited! Lol i really hope you have as much fun growing these as i have/am!

Nice! How long was it between the seed breaking soil and flipping the lights to flower mode? I'm trying to get a sense of how long that typically is for raising a plant to the ideal size for small tents like we have. Starting today I've switched from 18/6 light schedule to the gas lantern technique. Seems like people are very impressed at how their plants veg out using it.

 

[Canobud]

Day 12, second sets of leaves are forming. If I have to cull two plants for space concerns, this is looking like the one to keep. It's growing out a good bit faster than the other two.

All three together

 

[Lazarus13]

Ill give you my timeline to date... Seeds in paper towels, 3 days later they had cracked and had 1/4 in taproots, straight into hydroton with a drip feed, 2 days later they had broken "ground", two weeks under daylight cfls then switched to leds, vegged for 4 weeks, 36 hrs dark then 12/12, about 1 week to show preflowers, stretch for 2 weeks, pistil growth started, now in week 3 l actual flower trichomes have shown up. They are starting to fill in really nicely.it's too bad you don't have room for all of them. I have 3 clones and 3 seeds left. Once again they are so forgiving and will really tolerate a lot.

 

[Canobud]

Ill give you my timeline to date... Seeds in paper towels, 3 days later they had cracked and had 1/4 in taproots, straight into hydroton with a drip feed, 2 days later they had broken "ground", two weeks under daylight cfls then switched to leds, vegged for 4 weeks, 36 hrs dark then 12/12, about 1 week to show preflowers, stretch for 2 weeks, pistil growth started, now in week 3 l actual flower trichomes have shown up. They are starting to fill in really nicely.it's too bad you don't have room for all of them. I have 3 clones and 3 seeds left. Once again they are so forgiving and will really tolerate a lot.

OK so roughly six weeks from seedling to flower light schedule. I'm almost two weeks since breaking the soil so they should begin filling out here pretty soon. You said you have two main colas on that plant, 2" thick? How tall are you expecting those to grow?

 

[Lazarus13]

My canopy is completely even. There are 8 "mains" from fimming but even the other tops are almost the same size. Those buds SHOULD be about 6 to 8 inches if they all fill in evenly. Probably 20 or 25 tops that, if they fill in all the way, will be 4 to 6 inches. The nodes are so close together man. Most of them avout 2 1/2 inches apart. The determining factor will be how much they swell and fill out. Im using AN and have all the additives to try and push it as far as it will go... Bud ignitor, big bud, bud candy and overdrive. See if ANs as good as they say they are.

 

[Lazarus13]

Any news on your widow? Hows she coming?

 

[Canobud]

Any news on your widow? Hows she coming?

All three are doing OK at the moment. The third set of leaves are just beginning to form. This coming Friday 4/1 will be the beginning of week 3 since they broke soil, and I must say I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around the fact yours was veg'd and ready for flower mode in 6 weeks, unless they REALLY take off from here on out. I'm also wrestling with when to begin feeding them nutrients. I've been using spring water with a little Ph down in the Fox Farms/perlite soil mix, and in hindsight I suppose spring water was perhaps not the best idea since it has minerals in it. I've read some of the nutrient schedules posted here and I'm not completely sure if "week 2" means now or the 2nd week after the 4th or 5th sets of leaves have formed. If it's the latter, that sounds to me like I shouldn't be feeding until about the time I switch them to the flower light schedule. Any recommendations?

For an extra bit of fun I moved our Nest cam into the tent so I can check in on them from anywhere. (Pic below is not from that, BTW.)

How is yours doing?

Day 15

 

[Lazarus13]

Can't really help with soil nutes as I'm dwc but i can tell you i didnt use anything but water in my rez until about the 3rd set of leaves after the cotyledons. Then 1/8th strength for about a week then 1/4 strength. The ones i have are super nute sensitive and show burn at anything over half strength so keep it in mind to take it easy. There was a point in the second week of true veg that i thought i screwed something up because they stayed the same size for what seemed like forever then just exploded. Here is week 2 after the 12/12 flip. They are starting to fill in a bit.

Once again, sorry theyre every which way. Doesnt matter which way i hold my phone they just turn randomly.

 

[Canobud]

Can't really help with soil nutes as I'm dwc but i can tell you i didnt use anything but water in my rez until about the 3rd set of leaves after the cotyledons. Then 1/8th strength for about a week then 1/4 strength. The ones i have are super nute sensitive and show burn at anything over half strength so keep it in mind to take it easy. There was a point in the second week of true veg that i thought i screwed something up because they stayed the same size for what seemed like forever then just exploded. Here is week 2 after the 12/12 flip. They are starting to fill in a bit.

Once again, sorry theyre every which way. Doesnt matter which way i hold my phone they just turn randomly.

Thanks for following and helping me out! I hear you on the nute burn, which is why I'm skittish on when to start it. Everyone here says Fox Farms is hot out of the bag so I'm trying to be cautious.

How long have you been growing?

 

[Lazarus13]

I have heard the same thing about fox farm. Seriously, these things are so damn sensitive. I have had tip burn almost the whole time this grow. I keep backing it off. This next rez change im going with 1ml/l of grow and 1.5ml/l micro and bloom. Thats the AN ph perfect trio on top of the additives i use. Im hoping this is finally light enough. I started this grow using GH with the lucas ratio but i felt it didnt give me enough control over my feeds, so i switched.
I have been a gardener all my life. Well, i grow flowers and veggies, at the hobbyist level anyway. My first foray into cannabis was last year. Bag seed and home de pot nutes, crappy soil, no idea what i was doing and diy everything. Had 4 plants that were growing like champs and ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks. My wife, not being any kind of gardener, let my girls dry out and when i came home i could only salvage 1. Only got about a zip and a half but it was super smoke and i was able to make about 2 gms of qwiso. It was enough to get me hooked. Next grow 6 plants... 3 hermied, and 3 got root rot. So i made the switch to dwc to try that out. Im lovin it.

 

[Canobud]

Day 20. Is this plant trying to tell me something? It's a few days behind the other two and I noticed the two leaves on the left and right are curling under a bit.

These other two are looking pretty good so far.

 

[Lazarus13]

Yeah, looks like a bit of curling. What you think is going on? Excess N? Never had any curling with mine so i dunno. All in all i would say they look pretty good, bro. If you don't mind, heres some more pics of what your future has in store...
Here is the widow at the beginning of week 4 flowering

The trichs seem to double every dayand the buds are really starting to look and smell great.

 

[Canobud]

Day 23. I'm having to water them pretty much daily; the low humidity + fan and 4" jiffy pots dry out quickly. Two days ago I fed nutrients for the first time, 1/3rd strength Big Bloom (2tsp/gal). Alternating with plain distilled water. I'm not sure yet if these are ready for transplant to my 3 gallon smart pots; are they a bit young for that? I think I'm going to cut partway down one side of a jiffy pot to check for roots. I think I'll only get one shot to get them out of the pots correctly and don't want to damage them. Any thoughts? Should they go another week in these? That would be day 30, a full month after breaking soil. I don't see how they could possibly be ready for flowering in just 3 more weeks.

What's going on here?

 

[Lazarus13]

Mine were your size on 2/3/16 and i flipped to flower around 3/15. They stalled out for a week due to ph problems so thats about 3 1/2 weeks. DWC growth rate is a bit quicker than soil tho, i believe. When they take off they will goooo. As long as everything is right.