DobeWan's First Grow! LA Confidential & 24K Gold - LED - 3x3 - Coco

[Old TimingMan]

Just make sure you try to germ a few not just cut them in half! I almost had a heart attack seeing that pic!

LOL! Sorry but I needed to know it wasn't a shell with dust inside...just a small sacrifice for the better of all!

 

[Jdub95]

That sucks Jdub. I'm not sure what to tell you - my 24K Gold germed like anything else (I only germed 2 but they were fine).

This is how I do it, but I'm still a novice. You could always ask in the Ask Us Anything thread?

1. Fold a large number of paper towels over until you have a wallet-sized piece that can fit between 2 small plates
2. Label the paper towel with the strains corresponding to the seeds. Careful not to use something that will run.
3. Place the paper towel on one of the plates, folded over like a wallet
4. Open it up and place the seeds inside, a couple of inches between each
5. Close over the paper towel
6. Water with plain water, ideally distilled, and pHed to the eventual medium (coco - 5.75ish), to the point the paper towel is damp through.
7. Place the second plate over the top of the first, facing down, to form a mini dome
8. Wrap plates in a towel or two to block light and keep humidity in
9. Place in a warm location that can maintain humidity - I like to put it in my entertainment center on top of the receiver.
10. Check several times per day for germination and keep paper towel damp through. Should see germination in 24ish hours.
11. Once the shell opens the seed can be planted, but I like it to come a couple of centimetres out of the shell
12. Watch to ensure the taproot doesn't start rooting to the paper towel. If you leave it too long, it will. In that case, cut out the paper towel around the root and carefully plant it as well. If you separate the root from the paper towel the seed will likely die.

Thanks I think I'm going to cut my losses and see what flowering does to this plant now

It's just taking way to long to grow vertical do you know if I'm supposed to see pre flowers in veg state before I even put it in flower

 

[DobeWan]

It's just taking way to long to grow vertical do you know if I'm supposed to see pre flowers in veg state before I even put it in flower

Don't worry too much height right now - she'll stretch. I'm coming up on the end of 3 weeks in flower and it's just now slowing up. My plants have tripled in height! I learned through this grow that veg just sets the framework the plant will grow from in flower - so your goal in veg is all about setting things up for the vertical growth.

I saw stipules but not calyxes before I flipped - and I flipped at 51 days. So I wouldn't sweat not seeing preflowers either.

If you're ready to flip, I'd say go ahead!

 

[DobeWan]

Nope, same as fresh seeds. Peat pellet, set it, and forget it. Lol! Or just plant the seed directly in the ground, my personal favorite method.

You guys are way too laid back - I need something I can obsessively check up on every couple of hours.

(This need to check in on my plants constantly goes away in time... right?!?)

 

[Lady Antheia]

Looking great! I knew you would have a super full tent based on your veg time. Your harvest is going to be amazing, I'll bet.

My Blue Dream CBD continued stretching until just a couple of days ago - 4 weeks after flip. Every night that I thought she was done, the next morning she would be taller! I think she's just trying to show off and outdo Candy. ::

 

[DobeWan]

Thanks Lady Antheia! Hope all is well with you. Your ladies are looking good. That advice about the extra room to operate is not lost on me these days, especially given the contrast between our tents! Definitely leaning towards going 4x4 or bigger to upgrade the flower tent when the time is right.

 

[Lady Antheia]

Thanks, I'm trying to come back and post a little - even under the influence of tramadol. When I'm not feeling well, I really miss being here!

Now that my girls are in flower and very big, I realize I would like more space than I originally estimated. They not only get taller, but wider! It's really hard to work on them in certain spots. My cloner and small veg space are side by side in a shallow closet, and I find it easier to work in the wide space with little depth. It is much easier to just reach in and work without having to go over or around much, if at all. This has made me reevaluate how I want to expand my setup.

 

[DobeWan]

Just a quick update to say that there'll be no real action all weekend. I'm out of town for the weekend and hoping for the best in the tent. I watered to about 50% runoff today (guessing) - enough to leave 1-2" in the pans. Left this morning. Back Sunday night.

One thing to add in case anyone checks in while I'm away. My biggest worry while I'm away is not actually the watering - I know I'll come home to dry pots but I think they'll be fine. My worry is actually root rot. I was getting a little rotten egg smell from the runoff last night. Checked all pots and none feel mushy, even on the bottom. No yellowed leaves or signs of impeded flower growth. No lingering water collected and I'm using Smart Pots which are naturally a little more resistant to root rot anyway. I can see some green on some otherwise white perlite though, so it suggests I have a little bit of slime but maybe not a huge root rot issue. So maybe them drying out will be a blessing in disguise. And I'll look at getting some H2O2 Monday to nip it in the bud. Pained me to leave this morning knowing it wasn't resolved though!

 

[DobeWan]

... and we're back! 22F update!

I was more concerned about the flower tent, but figured the veg tent was more fragile, with its less than ideal setup and young plants. I came home to see this

Sad to see them dried out and droopy, but they made it. 24K2 still looking as lame as ever. 3 weeks after planting the cutting, I'm about ready to try another couple from the defoliation / removal of small sites I'm overdue with for 24K2. It'll miss the boat on going into flower with my LA1 clone, Kushy Kush and Chocolope, but it'll give me a head start on my next batch to go in after those.

While the veg tent was looking sad, the flower tent was looking surprisingly happy.

Looks like the ladies didn't miss me as much as I missed them! A few flower shots to show progress.

LA Confidential 1 - this is the star on top of the Christmas tree. I'm conscious of that light burn whenever I post shots.

LA Confidential 2 - these flowers are looking great, and surrounded in frost as you'll see in the zoomed shot!

24K1 and 24K2 - still with the burnt tips but otherwise both looking great. Random flowers.

So the jury is still out on the August weekend - depending on how much they're drinking daily, I might take the same approach.

 

[Jdub95]

Don't worry too much height right now - she'll stretch. I'm coming up on the end of 3 weeks in flower and it's just now slowing up. My plants have tripled in height! I learned through this grow that veg just sets the framework the plant will grow from in flower - so your goal in veg is all about setting things up for the vertical growth.

I saw stipules but not calyxes before I flipped - and I flipped at 51 days. So I wouldn't sweat not seeing preflowers either.

If you're ready to flip, I'd say go ahead!

This is what she looks like rn

and is this the sign of a mature preflower ready to start blooming? I just flipped today thanks for your advice

btw this doesn't seem conspicuous does it???

 

[Old TimingMan]

... and we're back! 22F update!

I was more concerned about the flower tent, but figured the veg tent was more fragile, with its less than ideal setup and young plants. I came home to see this

Sad to see them dried out and droopy, but they made it. 24K2 still looking as lame as ever. 3 weeks after planting the cutting, I'm about ready to try another couple from the defoliation / removal of small sites I'm overdue with for 24K2. It'll miss the boat on going into flower with my LA1 clone, Kushy Kush and Chocolope, but it'll give me a head start on my next batch to go in after those.

While the veg tent was looking sad, the flower tent was looking surprisingly happy.

Looks like the ladies didn't miss me as much as I missed them! A few flower shots to show progress.

LA Confidential 1 - this is the star on top of the Christmas tree. I'm conscious of that light burn whenever I post shots.

LA Confidential 2 - these flowers are looking great, and surrounded in frost as you'll see in the zoomed shot!

24K1 and 24K2 - still with the burnt tips but otherwise both looking great. Random flowers.

So the jury is still out on the August weekend - depending on how much they're drinking daily, I might take the same approach.

I would not worry too much on the young-lings, they will recover fast, just water them a couple times a day, coco is like hydro so you wont drowned them!

The flower tent looks great, how much did the grow since you last seen them...is your stretch over? My gals seem to be in full stretch mode, tucking, re-positioning and trying to keep a even canopy is a chore! They are drinking water like mad so I would recommend looking into a cheap auto water system like I bought...it does the job...not quite like you do when you water but would work great with the young-lings!

 

[DobeWan]

This is what she looks like rn...

GL with flowering Jdub! I found mine got more nute sensitive in early flower, so keep an eye on that in the next couple of weeks. Watch out for the burnt tips.

If anyone asks about the grow tent, just tell them you're building a robot and only have a torso and arm so far!

 

[DobeWan]

I would not worry too much on the young-lings, they will recover fast, just water them a couple times a day, coco is like hydro so you wont drowned them!

Yeah, I think they'll be fine too - the 24K2 excepted because she just does not seem to want grow roots! But the others will bounce back I'm sure. Still not loving the veg tent setup though, I'm going to look at upgrading as soon as I think it makes sense financially... or I get roped into some good deals.

The flower tent looks great, how much did the grow since you last seen them...is your stretch over? My gals seem to be in full stretch mode, tucking, re-positioning and trying to keep a even canopy is a chore! They are drinking water like mad so I would recommend looking into a cheap auto water system like I bought...it does the job...not quite like you do when you water but would work great with the young-lings!

Yeah, I think for the veg tent moreso than the flower tent it could be beneficial next time. But it'd be great for both. It was actually the guy at the hydro shop that talked me out of it this time - of course I didn't tell him I had young plants in veg!

It looks like the stretch is done. Not that I want to jinx it. But LA2 and both 24Ks are both sitting comfortably at 24" from the lamp. LA1 is inside of it, but not badly. The top leaves are definitely inside of 24" as they were reaching up to the light. But the main cola is at a pretty good distance.

I noticed when I was catching up you'd said you're basically out of room to keep scrogging? That's a good problem to have! If I end up only running 3 plants in flower when these come out, I'm thinking I'll try my hand at SCROG as well, given that the Chocolope will be tall. Seeing what our training is turning into is really informative - it's a little abstract my first time in veg. I see a lot more of the attractiveness of SCROG now than I realized before.

 

[Old TimingMan]

I noticed when I was catching up you'd said you're basically out of room to keep scrogging? That's a good problem to have! If I end up only running 3 plants in flower when these come out, I'm thinking I'll try my hand at SCROG as well, given that the Chocolope will be tall. Seeing what our training is turning into is really informative - it's a little abstract my first time in veg. I see a lot more of the attractiveness of SCROG now than I realized before.

The scrog is working good, but what I am seeing is that some of the branches that are next to my room walls have no place to go except up...it will be very interesting what the branch system looks like when they are harvested...branches are pushing against branches...its a wild nightmare under the scrog!

I have many bud sites above and many below, 6 plants in a 48" x 54" scrog is too much to keep under control in the stretch...4 in a 4x4 would work much better...lessons are being learned!...that is what information sharing is all about!

 

[TheBlaze]

Your plants are building some nice buds now. Looking good brother.

 

[DobeWan]

Thanks Blaze, can't wait to see where this goes over the next few weeks. Hope I see some stacking like yours!

 

[DobeWan]

Feeding question for you guys.

I'm feeding a popular noob schedule - a modified version of the Lucas formula.

This doesn't show a couple of things I added late in veg - 0.7ml per litre of Potassium Silicate, and 1/5 tsp per gallon of Epsom salts. I figure I'll remove these when I go down to just feeding Bloom.

My LA Confidential is listed as 8 weeks flower, whereas my 24K Gold is listed at 10 weeks. I'm wondering if you guys have any tips on how to modify slightly from this 9-week flower schedule.

First off, I'm think I can add a week to DNA's suggested flower times - seems like everyone exaggerates. So the schedule is probably right for the LA Confidentials. But what about the 24K Golds? I was thinking of maybe even doing a second "week 3" and "week 5" for the 24K Gold too - I figure a longer period of development would mean the KoolBloom would help for longer, and the flowers are definitely behind the LA Condifential flowers in maturity, so continuing the full blast of week 3 on the 24K Golds might make sense. Then in the end, I still cycle down to just bloom for 2 weeks then 2 weeks of plain water.

Any thoughts?

 

[Jdub95]

GL with flowering Jdub! I found mine got more nute sensitive in early flower, so keep an eye on that in the next couple of weeks. Watch out for the burnt tips.

If anyone asks about the grow tent, just tell them you're building a robot and only have a torso and arm so far!

There's two robots having ww3 in there lol well I've herd that I can keep feeding with veg but for a week or two and I just got the timer down last night so there in the dark during the day and on from 6-6 which is normally what time I get home from work so it works out for me

in this picture would you say that the leafs that are a very light yellow is cal mag deficiency

 

[DobeWan]

Thanks, I'm trying to come back and post a little - even under the influence of tramadol. When I'm not feeling well, I really miss being here!

Now that my girls are in flower and very big, I realize I would like more space than I originally estimated. They not only get taller, but wider! It's really hard to work on them in certain spots. My cloner and small veg space are side by side in a shallow closet, and I find it easier to work in the wide space with little depth. It is much easier to just reach in and work without having to go over or around much, if at all. This has made me reevaluate how I want to expand my setup.

Do you have a mobile device like a tablet? I find that key when I'm sick and don't want to sit at the computer - I can curl up and still have it with me. I had a really rough week last week and it was great for maintaining sanity!

I'm pretty much limited to enough space for a 3x3 and a 4x4 until I get a bigger house - which is not going to happen soon. I've been holding off on getting a 4x4 but my propogation tent just doesn't cut it. I'm really tempted to dip into savings and buy the 4x4 setup now - I figure I'll get the money back in time on taxes, since our medical equipment can be charged in outside of the current tax year. At least that's my understanding, are you aware of anything different Lady A? I've been keeping my receipts from both my gear and my flower purchases from LPs in hopes of getting tax breaks.

My Amazon cart has had the Viparspectra 900 sitting in it for a while now!

 

[DobeWan]

I do the same thing Jdub - 8-8 so that lights come back on when I have the kids to bed, and still leave me a little time in the morning before work if I need it.

I wouldn't feel comfortable diagnosing a deficiency myself - I'm still a novice. That said, I did add magnesium through using Epsom salts myself, and I started while still in veg. I thought a magnesium deficiency first shows interveinally - between the leaf veins - and it doesn't look like that's what yours is doing. Maybe one of the more experienced folks who check in here can weigh in? Might not hurt to pop by feral9x's thread too - he has grown this before and has a mountain of experience over me.