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

[DobeWan]

Quick late pic update... 35V...

LA Confidential #1:

LA Confidential #2:

24K Gold aka Kosher Tangie #1:

24K Gold aka Kosher Tangie #2:

Thanks for following along!

 

[DobeWan]

36V...

LA2's top didn't make it, so we'll see where we go from here. Everything was looking happy, and I figured since LA2 was likely to have a little pause in progress, it was a good time to take the plunge with some defoliation. I was tempted to do more than I did in a few spots (24K2) but didn't want to cut off too much at once. I then redid all of the LST. So these pics aren't pretty, but they'll at least serve as a good marker for the growth I hope for in the next few days.

LA Confidential #1:

LA Confidential #2:

24K Gold (aka Kosher Tangie) #1:

24K Gold (aka Kosher Tangie) #2:

Thanks again for following along!

 

[Old TimingMan]

They are looking good, don't fret it much, they will surprise you in the AM, they need guidance to open up the sites indoors, outdoors wild style they grow the proper spacing between the nodes to distribute the sunlight to the lower sites, indoors the nodes need to be closer unless you have a 12ft ceiling!

I posted my training style/results so far today on chappys journal Chappy's Coco White Widow & CBD Therapy Grow Journal - 2017
He is growing in coco also and is about at the age of yours and my plants so if you and any other coco growers have a chance and give some of your ideas/tips to help him out, check it out, he is about to start training some serious training and get set up for scrog.

 

[DobeWan]

38V!

Everything is starting to pick back up after the defoliation and LST in the last couple of days. A little bit of excess nitrogen signs on the LA Confidential, so we'll be down to plain water tomorrow then likely move to nutes every other day instead of 2 on, 1 off. I pulled some of the leaves around on LA #2 to try to expose some of the top growth. The new tops from my inadvertent topping are forming up nicely. Really happy with with how the 24Ks are looking after the earlier issues. My LST isn't perfect - the + is a little crooked - but it looks like it'll work well. I expect them to get pretty bushy in the next few days.

LA Confidential #1:

LA Confidential #2:

24K Gold aka Kosher Tangie #1:

24K Gold aka Kosher Tangie #2:

All 4:

Thanks for following along!

 

[Canada Guy]

Looking very nice!

 

[DobeWan]

Thanks CG. Really enjoy your journal because although your medium and lighting differs, it has been a really good proxy for where my plants are going since I'm a little over a week behind you.

 

[Pennywise]

Coming along nicely, how much head room do you have to work with?

 

[DobeWan]

Coming along nicely, how much head room do you have to work with?

58" - bottom of the lamp at the highest setting - fan gets in the way otherwise
35" - bottom of the lamp currently
15" - top of LA #1, the only plant to not have received any topping or training
11" - the height of the rest of the canopy, all of which has been topped and trained
5.5" - top of the layer of coco in the pots

Let's call it 6" for the top layer which leaves 52" of total space for the plants below the lamp.

Any tips for how I should approach things? How close to the lamp do you think I should allow the canopy to reach? It's the 600w Viparspectra LED.

I think I'm due to move the lamp up given the height of LA #1 - its top is 20" from the bottom of the lamp now. The rest is 24" from the lamp. I figure I shouldn't go any closer than 24" to be safe.

The 24K is reputed to stretch in flower given the Tangie parent. The LA is said to be a bushier indica, and the one I trained is low and bushy. The LA I haven't trained is the tallest now but the 24Ks have produced far more growth. I'm almost at the point in training where I'm ready to let the 24K tops grow upward. Almost all have reached the edge of the pot. I think they're the most important factor in how tall my canopy ends up.

On that note, I think I need to flip to flower when my 24Ks are at 1/3 of their final max height to be safe. Not sure what that max height is though. If I'm right about the 24", that means I have 34" to work with. So once I stop training the 24K tops out and allow them to grow up, I'll basically have to let them get started then flip to flower.

What do you think?

 

[DobeWan]

I'll post up some pics of the training progress after the hockey game. It took me a few days and I still have a few leaves to snip, but I'm almost done defoliation and the training seems to be reaching the point where the main branches need to be allowed to grow vertically.

 

[Pennywise]

You can always super crop if they start getting into the light. I like a bigger plant myself. I had to super crop a few branches tonite.

 

[DobeWan]

You can always super crop if they start getting into the light. I like a bigger plant myself. I had to super crop a few branches tonite.

No way mine will take off like yours though!

 

[Pennywise]

Never know man, they'll double in height

 

[DobeWan]

You can always super crop if they start getting into the light. I like a bigger plant myself. I had to super crop a few branches tonite.

I saw the earlier super cropping you had done. Seems pretty straight forward although it sounds like you've had to do a lot of work lately? Will yours slow down after the first few weeks of flower?

 

[DobeWan]

Here's how the training is looking... 39V...

24K #1 - 4 strong main tops, 2 weaker tops - these were the new tops that grow out of the lowest node, which I'd left in place.

24K #2 - 6 main tops, all fairly strong, although the one I've pulled top left is shorter, and the one I've pulled bottom left is significantly shorter.

 

[DobeWan]

Pest help please!

I haven't seen any pests nor any leaf damage that appears not to be self-inflicted. BUT... I found what I can only assume to be a pest egg. I found it when the coco was disturbed by my watering. It was sitting just below the top of the coco and was exposed when I watered the area. It was a couple of millimetres wide - maybe 1/5 the width of my pinkie nail. It was fairly hard but broke while I handled it. Liquid inside and a white mass, I assume a developing insect or insects. It was brown/green on the outside and opaque. A little different looking from the spider mite egg photos online - same round look, but apparently much larger and darker in colour.

Perhaps some of the leaf damage was misdiagnosed pest damage? Perhaps I'm overreacting, but I think I need to take some action to get ahead of any issue, I'm just not sure what. Perhaps sprinkling some dolomite lime on the grow area and tent floor? Perhaps putting some sand on the top of the coco? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edited to add: I think the most likely story is that it's a fungus gnat egg. Based on my reading if it was spider mites I likely wouldn't have seen just one, and the colouring looks more like the fungus gnat egg photos I've found in colour than the spider mite photos I've found. None of our house plants have shown any signs of spider mites, but I have seen fungus gnats in the house at times in the past - especially once the weather warms up. That said I haven't seen any bugs in the tent, and the only bugs I see in the basement otherwise are house centipedes (haven't seen one in a few weeks), spiders, and sow bugs.

 

[Lady Antheia]

The diatomaceous earth and insecticidal soap worked in my case. However, now that I've watched the LEDRF coco videos, I wish I would have put a layer of sand on the bottom and top of the coco to help keep pests out. If I do coco again, I'll definitely try it.

 

[Komplex180]

Taking a seat

 

[Pennywise]

Try the sand and get sticky cards to trap any adults

 

[DobeWan]

Taking a seat

Thanks for stopping by! How did your Skywalker Kush turn out? Sounds like you didn't get as big a yield as you'd hoped but that the smoke was good? I've been enjoying Skywalker OG as an afternoon / evening vape lately.

 

[DobeWan]

The diatomaceous earth and insecticidal soap worked in my case. However, now that I've watched the LEDRF coco videos, I wish I would have put a layer of sand on the bottom and top of the coco to help keep pests out. If I do coco again, I'll definitely try it.

I only discovered that after I'd already moved to smart pots as well. Next time!