Curious' 2nd Grow Journal, 4x Strawberry Cough, Jan 2019

[Curiousnoob]

Round two, fight! (Mortal Kombat)

Welcome back to Curious' back yard adventures. During this episode we will be visiting four monster cropped Strawberry Cough clones, done in a scrog style. Top performers on my previous grow, these ladies have a really nice appearance with long branches and cone like indica type flowers. Taste of summer fruits and sweet strawberries with a giggly and creative high, they are easy enough to grow and quite tolerant of changing conditions Their habitat consists of rocket/smart pots with a coco and 10% perlite medium. Basking under a 600w hps and supported by a range of quality products they should hopefully put on a good show. With out further a do, welcome to my second ever grow. (without the fungus gnats hopefully).
Please feel free to comment and advise me where needed!

Full specs;
Strain: Strawberry Cough, Sativa hybrid (strawberry fields x old school staple haze) Vege/flower: Currently in week 3 of veg
THC content: 19%-22%
Height: 180cm-220cm
Flowering Time: 12-14wks.
Medium: Coco with 10% perlite.
Potting: 4 x 18litre rocket pots, run to waste.
Tent: 1.45 x 1.45 x 2m Seahawk tent
Lighting: Lumatek Pro 600w/400v digital ballast running a phillips Son T plus 600w hps, through a cool tube.
Exhaust: Max fan pro 150, can-lite carbon filter.
Intake: 150mm cultiv8 fan drawing in external air. Couple of clip fans and one tower fan.
Nutrients/additives: BAC coco A & B, F1 Extreme booster, Pro active, Uwaroo, Rotalumits, final solution, weekly scirup. Cyco ryzo. Organic aminos. Calimagic (cal/mag) and PSI.
Preventative care: gnatural (gnats), fungirid (fungacide), kryptomite (spidermites).

Week 1
Top right was a couple weeks into flowering as I dont have a cloning set up. Lesson learnt for next time.

Week 3
(Current photo, back left still recovering from reverting from flowering to veg)
Was going to flip at the end of the week, not sure now looking at this photo - any advice?
I know they all look different, Im trying different techniques out. Top right tipped once, bottom right tipped twice, bottom left has just been pulled over and nothing yet on top left

Hmmmm

I do have a spare clone, in the event I had issues. Only issue is it is Blue Dream (does look alot better), it likes its space and I would kinda like to keep them all the same, any opinions?

Feed schedule.

Photos are taken through my hydro glasses lenses if they look a little off.

For the love of it .

 

[Blew Hiller]

Looks like it might be too close to the light and/or too high temps.

 

[Old Salt]

Heat stress? Nitrogen poisoning?

 

[Kongfuzi]

Jesus Christ at the amount of nutes you’re putting in. Is that for a 50 gal resovior? Please tell me it is because 400ml of any sort of nutes in one go seems insanity. I think I use 70 at the highest to make 13 gallons, and that’s just your base nute.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Thanks for the comments peoples. Yes, definetly some heat stress, the last few days outside temperatures have reached nearly 40 degrees celcius (104F) with 80%-90% humidity. Having a direct feed from outside and no airconditioning doesnt help the environment.
Nutrients are @75% of week 3 schedule, nitrogen poisoned clone has been given a seperate feed until it has recovered from flowering. Other 4 clones seem to be handling schedule quite well. This is the first time I have used coco. Having no nutrients in it I think from what I read they need a little extra? Is this correct? Will try 100% of week 4 and see how the 3 handle it. Yes schedule is for a 200Litre (52gallon) tank, Im using a 20L resivour while we have this hot weather, so everything is divided by 10.

 

[Old Salt]

Thanks for the comments peoples. Yes, definetly some heat stress, the last few days outside temperatures have reached nearly 40 degrees celcius (104F) with 80%-90% humidity. Having a direct feed from outside and no airconditioning doesnt help the environment.
Nutrients are @75% of week 3 schedule, nitrogen poisoned clone has been given a seperate feed until it has recovered from flowering. Other 4 clones seem to be handling schedule quite well. This is the first time I have used coco. Having no nutrients in it I think from what I read they need a little extra? Is this correct? Will try 100% of week 4 and see how the 3 handle it. Im using a 20L resivour while we have this hot weather, so everything is divided by 10.

I grow in coco/perlite using General Hydroponics' Flora Trio and supplements. My first grow was at 25% of the recommended strength on the labels. This grow I'm running at 40%. I think that is too high as I'm getting salt deposits on the outside of my grow bags. I think your concentrations are too high. That plant is the most sensitive, and the first to show it.

The high heat and humidity aren't helping. Once your plants are flowering you are at high risk for mould to set in, ruining your crop. Draw your air from where the sun doesn't shine, the the same side of the building as the hemisphere where you are located. There's a difference of several degrees between the sunny side, and shaded side of a building during daylight hours. Get as much air moving around and through the room as possible. This will help some, hopefully enough to get a reasonable harvest. Any mouldy bud will need to be discarded.

EDIT: If you have a basement, that can also be a good source of cooler air. A dehumidifier is called for.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Hey @Old Salt, wow ok, that says alot about how much i'm putting into these... I did think it was quite alot, some of the amounts are alot higher than the products recomended dosage. Next feed I will bring back to 50% from 75%. Can I ask how much perlite you are using? I am picking up my dehumidifier this afternoon. Air is drawn from a shaded area, just really hot days. Humidity was a problem for my last grow, hopfully with a couple extra fans and a dehumidifier it should help alot.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Also do you flush your coco weekly, I read someone on here advised not to flush with plain water? But to have some nutrients in it? Also can I ask what ph you are running at?

 

[Old Salt]

Hey @Old Salt, wow ok, that says alot about how much i'm putting into these... I did think it was quite alot, some of the amounts are alot higher than the products recomended dosage. Next feed I will bring back to 50% from 75%. Can I ask how much perlite you are using? I am picking up my dehumidifier this afternoon. Air is drawn from a shaded area, just really hot days. Humidity was a problem for my last grow, hopfully with a couple extra fans and a dehumidifier it should help alot.

I use 70% coco / 30% perlite. I never flush during a grow.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Thanks Old salt, I took your advice instead of flushing with straight water I used 1/4 strength nutrients to wash some of the salts out (hopefully). Will stick with the 75% schedule as they are looking ok.

Photos are of outside the tent they look a lot different in comparing photos taken through my blue lenses. Having lights on 18/6 doesnt give me much time to catch them after they are off. Will try 30% coco next time is that the general rule of thumb? Have you tried anything less? Do you feed every day? if so how many times? Im feeding twice every other day. As the coco still seems wet?

 

[Curiousnoob]

Found this in my garage, has been in a box for 10+ years, lol. I knew there would be a time it would come in handy.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Ok after some help, Scrog screen has been set, now im not exactly sure how high it should sit above the pot? It is currently sitting at abot 34-35cm (14-15inches) off the pot.

Now is this high enough? Or should it be lower? Do I flip them now that they have reached the screen? Or do I fill the screen up first any information/links would be great or tag someone that can help me would be wondeeful cheers.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Week 5 of Veg
Running nutirents at 100% of week four schedule. Feeding twice daily, two hours after lights on and two hours before lights out with 18/6. PPM1000, PH at 5.8-6, somedays I will not catch the fluctuation (work) and the PH can raise to 6.5. I will be flipping them to flower on sunday 16/02, giving a couple of days to recover from being lollie popped. This will end the fifth week of veg. From previous experience this strain will at least double in size in the first 3 weeks of flower.

 

[Curiousnoob]

End of week 5 Vege
Ok, so my four gals are ending there fifth week of vege. Time to flip I think, probably could have flipped last week looking at this pic.

Main reason I didn't was that they had lockout and they needed a pretty heavy defol and to be lollipopped which amounted to about 1/3 of total vegetation. Is there a guide of how long you should wait to flip after a heavy defol and being lollipopped? Do they need to recover from this?

Before

Doesn't look like much but it filled a 10L bucket.

I am running 50% nutrients atm due to high salts/lockout, from running 100% and some really hot days 38 degrees Celsius which in turn ibeliev speeds up plants metabolism? (lesson learnt). Wise advice @Old Salt lol. definetly should have listened to you, will be easing my way up with nutrients next time.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Sooo much better, spent a couple of hours this afternoon tucking the ladies in

Looking at this photo it doesn't really do it justice.
Lights have been reduced from 18/6 to 15/6 in the next two days lights will be reduced again to 12/12.
Happy growings

 

[Curiousnoob]

End of 6th week vege.
Over this past week lights have slowly been reduced from 18/6 down to 12/12. All ladies are showing thier lady parts (pistils)

Today marks second day of flowering. All things going ok apart from having a bloody fungus gnat problem again, nooooooooo. Spent all day yesterday flushing coco with a 50% nutrient mix with gnatural and some neem oil. Will start a neem oil spray aswell for tomorrow day. Was thinking of layering some sand on top, but having rocket pots with holes all over them I don't think the sand will have a great affect, although I think I should cover all angles to be safe.
Looking at this photo, kind of thinking that the screen needs to be lower on the next show, seems alot of wasted space.
Nutrients are at 50%, ph steady at 5.6-5.8. PPM is at 800 will start to increase hopefully getting up 75%, PPM 1200. Temperature over the last week has been around 22 - 26 degrees Celsius with a RH of 60% will add a dehumidifier in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Just after lights out. First time I have been able to see leaves without lights on, due to work hours. I do wear Indoor grow glasses, which most photos are taken through. They actually dont look to bad after having a slight case of lockout. Nice to see a shine on the them.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Day 7 of flower
Ending their first week of flower ladies are starting to put on the stretch, screen is about 95% full. Thinking maybe I should let them go, as im not sure how much they will stretch in smaller pots.

On a awesome note, I have upgraded to 2 x 600w HPS instead of one, oh yeah baby let there be light! They are loving the extra light. Not sure my pocket will feel the same way next electricity bill.

Nutrients are at 75%, adding a little F1 extreme booster to the mix. PH is at 5.8 PPM is at 1000 hoping to get up to 1200PPM by the end of next week (3rd week).
Being my first attempt at scrogging I'm not sure when would be the best time to do a defol? A little here and there or one big defol? Just concerned as the canopy is quite thick and I'm a lil worried about air flow does the thickness of the canopy grow with the stretch?
Thanks for dropping in.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Woke up this morning to do my normal check on what should be a nice quiet and dark tent, to see a very bright and warm tent started using a new timer last night and must have stuffed up and put on when should be off. I turned off and changed to what should be normal hours? They will only be off for 3 hours? Not sure if this is correct or I should wait twelve hours? Well soon see, hopefully no hermies.

 

[Curiousnoob]

Starting 3rd week flower
My ladies seem to be taking the mistakenly changing of light schedule well, no signs of stress or turning hermaphrodite. Wednesday the 13/03 will be day 21 of flower, on this day I will do a pretty decent defol as Tue scrog canopy is very thick. Aswell they have not stretched as much as I would have liked highest only being about 27cm off the screen.

Starting to get there frost on

On another note I have made a clone/vege tent/shelf. I don't have enough room to get a vege tent so I have made one out of one of the shelves that helps conceal the area, some car window reflectors, 2 x grow lush twin 55w flourecents and a little clip fan. Measurements are about 4 square ft. Hopefully 20,000 lumens will be sufficient to start the vege cycle? I'm not sure of the PAR.

If anyone has advice on the lighting, as in not being enough to start the vegetation cycle I would love to hear about it.
Thank's peeps