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

[Old TimingMan]

Oh, I also got the microscope and took it for a test drive! Everything looking clear and glassy on both plants. Still time to fatten up and get closer to my goal!

My test drive was not so good...I am not steady enough to free hand it and push the snap button at the same time!

As long as you don't see any additional leaves yellowing, good chance you nipped it in the bud...(play on words?)

 

[DobeWan]

Speaking of nipping buds - I decided I wanted to take a sample of the plants to see how the trichomes looked under the scope. I have the same steady hand issue at 60x magnification, OTM. And what better opportunity to try backbuilding?

Mike, how do you get clear shots through the scope lens? I can't seem to get it the camera to stay in focus when pointing it through the lens.

In any case - as I thought, nothing but glassy and clear on both strains. So we still have some time.

I just did 1 cola each on LA2 and 24K1, and I got 4-5 hairs and 2-3 small ends of calyces from each snip - less than what Light Addict took in his tutorial, but in line with his description from the person he learned it from. I'm tempted to do more given how successful those that have been trying it lately have been with it.

 

[DobeWan]

Yeah I think it usually takes about 3 days to really see a change. I just realized that my girl is on day 82 and it's supposed to be a 70-75 day auto. I've still got white hairs everywhere so I have no idea how long mine will go for but likely not more than a couple more weeks. I likely will just make a half PPM balanced batch and see if she likes that instead of full flushing being at the end of flower.

I don't expect them to recover their lost vitality, but I'm hoping the sadder looking leaves at least have stopped the bleed and we can bounce back to growth in the next day.

I have a majority of white hairs on my 24Ks but the LAs are mostly amber in the hairs now. I guess I should expect the glassy look to give way to a milkier look soon.

Do you have certain things you're looking for, Ase, to determine when to switch to flushing? My goal with the LA Confidential is to be more on the couch lock side, but I don't quite have a handle on the milestones I'm looking for to determine when to switch to plain water, and when to pull the plant to achieve that. My goal is to make this an evening smoke that can help me get a restful sleep.

 

[Pennywise]

Ill wait for 10-20% amber to start my flush if a want a night time med

 

[Old TimingMan]

Speaking of nipping buds - I decided I wanted to take a sample of the plants to see how the trichomes looked under the scope. I have the same steady hand issue at 60x magnification, OTM. And what better opportunity to try backbuilding?

Mike, how do you get clear shots through the scope lens? I can't seem to get it to hold the right focus.

In any case - as I thought, nothing but glassy and clear on both strains. So we still have some time.

I just did 1 cola each on LA2 and 24K1, and I got 4-5 hairs and 2-3 small ends of calyces from each snip - less than what Light Addict took in his tutorial, but in line with his description from the person he learned it from. I'm tempted to do more given how successful those that have been trying it lately have been with it.

I did a snip on a few select buds that I have been keeping my eyes on, these are a couple of them;

The first is a Widow that stretched, and the second is a Coco Kush gal, so far they are filling in, the Kush is a shorter stem so not as much node spacing.

Mine through the scope are similar, clear with a scattered yellow pistil here and there...another 2-6 weeks for sure.

 

[DobeWan]

Nice - it's easy to see how beneficial the tighter node spacing is to the visual appeal. I've been working on that in my veg tent - I'll post up some pics later if I ever finish watering!

I'm thinking I'll snip a few more, including the LA1 main cola. Why not? She'll be the fattest cola of them all if the current pattern holds, why not try to make her fatter?

 

[Old TimingMan]

Nice - it's easy to see how beneficial the tighter node spacing is to the visual appeal. I've been working on that in my veg tent - I'll post up some pics later if I ever finish watering!

I'm thinking I'll snip a few more, including the LA1 main cola. Why not? She'll be the fattest cola of them all if the current pattern holds, why not try to make her fatter?

Light distance is the key to node spacing, when I look back on how my grow was going in veg, (many of those photos are right here on your Journal) the 3 plants with the short nodes were the 3 tallest plants in veg, my lights were 24" above those three and probably 30" above their shorter sisters, now they are the shortest plants and the 3 runts are taller by many inches with accelerated stem growth when I flipped!

The things we learn together!

 

[Asesino85]

I don't expect them to recover their lost vitality, but I'm hoping the sadder looking leaves at least have stopped the bleed and we can bounce back to growth in the next day.

I have a majority of white hairs on my 24Ks but the LAs are mostly amber in the hairs now. I guess I should expect the glassy look to give way to a milkier look soon.

Do you have certain things you're looking for, Ase, to determine when to switch to flushing? My goal with the LA Confidential is to be more on the couch lock side, but I don't quite have a handle on the milestones I'm looking for to determine when to switch to plain water, and when to pull the plant to achieve that. My goal is to make this an evening smoke that can help me get a restful sleep.

Yeah I am with PW here. 10-20% Amber for the more couchlock feel. Most plants I just wait until I see about 5% amber.

 

[Pennywise]

A lot of trichs will amber up during the flush as well

 

[DobeWan]

Thanks guys. Do you guys keep it to a week of plain water with coco or go longer?

 

[Asesino85]

Thanks guys. Do you guys keep it to a week of plain water with coco or go longer?

It's all relative to trichs but 7-10 days seems to be the range for me.

 

[Pennywise]

Yea thats about what i give them

 

[DobeWan]

An update on what's going on in the veg tent. The 3 mature plants are at V41. The clones were cut 19 days ago at 22 days into flower IIRC.

Chocolope is the plant I'm manifolding. I have the manifold base in place and the canopy at an even level, but I'm going to take it out wider and pot it up to a 5 gallon smart pot in time. I'm really happy with my chopping and training on the manifold so far - the approach of diving in on my first grow has benefited me there.

LA Confidential, my LA2 clone, is a little lankier than I'd like, and generally has a thinner overall appearance than Kushy Kush. I don't think I'll keep an LA clone on this run, I'll just grow from seed if I do it again soon. With my coming seeds I'm in no rush.

Kushy Kush is the no expectation freebie, and I must admit, the growth so far has been solid. I've managed to keep her low and bushy so far, which is what I hoped for.

Finally my reveg clones are coming along well. A lot of growth in the last day or two. I'm going to let them grow while it's quick like this, then look to put them up to 1 gallon plastic pots when they slow.

And I couldn't post an update without a bonus flower shot!

As always, thanks for following!

 

[DobeWan]

A few text updates while the lights are off and the kids are napping.

- I've managed to get the flower tent down to avoid 24-25 degrees throughout lights on the last couple of nights. 22 at lights off. That's 77f at lights on, 71-72 at lights off. I'm really happy with that, although it's made sitting in the rec room late at night less pleasant!

- I'm not sure if it's the timing in the process, the environment tweaks, or both, but the LA Confidential appears to be undergoing some change. The fans / sugar leaves around the top buds have darkened significantly, almost a purple / brown look. I've seen this in pics of LA Confidential buds before harvest and I'm happy to see it kicking in on my buds! A reminder it wont be long.

- I'm pretty sure I also saw milkiness and even hints of amber in the LA Confidentials' trichomes last night as well. I was playing with mounting the microscope on a tripod but couldn't get decent photos. I have a clip on macro lens for the phone coming next week which should make that easier. But I think I may be within range of starting my LA flush, which is exciting. I'll see how things look tonight and post up. Selfishly I'd love to start flushing in the next couple of days because I have some vacation coming up and could use the time to chop!

- My 24K2 top that I broke the stem of is dying a slow death. Taping the stems seems to have dried them out and prevented healing - interesting given that it has the opposite effect in veg. I have the step propped up with ties - which I'll now know to do immediately next time instead of bothering with tape. I have about 8 others of the same size and several smaller ones, so the hit won't be large, but it just sucks to lose a nice cola off of my favorite plant. There's not even a point to experiment with revegging since I have 4 clones with which I'm well into that process already.

- I'm pessimistic about the LA yield. The buds never had that noticeable upward swell of the 24Ks, and I was definitely causing the nutes it needed to fatten up to become locked out at a critical time. I'm betting I'll do better in round 2 and again the next time I grow it from seed. If I can get a couple of ounces and it works well, it'll last me long enough to get the Violator Kush going. I have about an oz of similar strains here to help get me through until I have more grown. If I get less than 2 ounces, not a huge deal since I'll have the clone done in 2-3 months.

- I've been feeding 100% nutes in the veg tent without issue. I've been going 3 days nutes, 1 day plain water, which I think is the schedule I like best. I almost always had to cut back on nutes in veg with my current ladies in flower, and never did a proper flush, so was stuck with that issue the whole way through. As I'm feeding a LA2 clone in veg I can compare apples to applies, and my clone has none of the nutrient sensitivity its parent had. My early pH issues were never properly resolved on the girls now in flower, and I suspect the difference now is that without the pH issues causing nutrients to lock out, the plants have been able to absorb more of what I throw in in this round in veg. I think it bodes extremely well for my next round of flowering.

- After diagnosing my K deficiency it was incredible to look at the symptoms and compare to my experience in flower. The bad stretch and rubbery stems are, in retrospect, obvious symptoms, I just didn't piece it together last time.

It's interesting to look back with the benefit of further experience - I learned a lot in veg, but I learned even more by seeing the impacts of my decisions in flower.

 

[Pennywise]

If your la confidential has OG in it the it may be an og pheno. If it is she'll produce a bunch of golf ball sized buds. Being able to read back through completed journals is very valuable. .

 

[DobeWan]

If your la confidential has OG in it the it may be an og pheno. If it is she'll produce a bunch of golf ball sized buds. Being able to read back through completed journals is very valuable. .

Totally - I've already gone back a number of times to reference events, the K deficiency diagnosis was easy because I could check against timing of when I made changes and look at photos to reference what was happening when.

An update like I made today is a great reference for me even if it's a little dry for everyone else!

 

[Pennywise]

Hey this is about you as much as it is forever. Its a win win

 

[DobeWan]

If your la confidential has OG in it the it may be an og pheno. If it is she'll produce a bunch of golf ball sized buds. Being able to read back through completed journals is very valuable. .

DNA said the seeds would produce 2 phenos and I'm pretty sure I got 'em both! There's definitely a difference in the look and formation of the buds between the two. Not sure how much of that is due to pheno, or due to the mature LA1 growth vs the acccidental late topping of LA2 - I'm sure both play a part.

I'm trying to keep the clone of LA2 low and bushy without topping. My thought is if I keep it low and bushy in a long veg period, the growth should be mature going into flower and the stretch should be minimal. I've been clipping the top fans on the main cola and encouraging the tops open gently to try to get tighter node spacing. Seems to be working well so far. I'm really just experimenting as I go and seeing what works best.

 

[Pennywise]

Light Addict did a very good tutorial on opening nodes up for short internodal growth. Its worth checking out.

 

[DobeWan]

Pretty sure I could see a difference in the colas that got backbuilding vs those that didn't already. So I decided to do all of the remaining main colas that I hadn't before. That's LA2 in the front, I put the tag behind the watermark!

Got a good look at the trichs under the microscope when I did. Still mostly glassy although I can see milkiness in the "heads" of the trichomes in some cases. Looks like I still have some time.

I got a lot done in the veg tent as well. I have a busy week coming, so although in both cases I think I could have given them a few more days, I decided to get ahead and pot up the 24K2 clones and the Chocolope. Choocolope went into a 5 gallon Smart Pot and I redid the training. The plan is to give her the half of the flower tent the 24Ks are in when they come out. Kushy Kush and LA2 got some selective defol and rearranging of branches but nothing big. Both will be very much ready when the LAs come out.