Donpaul.p's Latest 400 Watt HPS Grow

[donpaul.p]

@Techman, i was just listing the products i had received with the prizes i was sent, so im not using any of them just yet, i will be using the veg and flower enhancer though, i dont some reading up on both of them and you can use them alongside regular nutrients as their sort of a booster more than a full nutrient, so next feed ill use the flower enhancer and see how it does, it says it contains molasses so ill stop using molasses and give this a try instead, the only buds ive had problems with is fungus gnats, but they are more of a problem during spring and summer so will be using some of them products as and when needed, luckily ive not had spider mites but if i do get them ive now got something to use.

@Spimp, if they have been shipped you should get them pretty quick, with the autos im finding im getting much bigger yields using 18-6, when i was using 24-0 or 20-4 yields where less, the kc45 autos performed very poor under 24-0 and 20-4 and was hitting yields of 7 to 10g tops, but since flipping to 18-6 ive had much better results, the dwc always seems to work well, growth is much quicker compared to soil grown plants, quality is about the same as far as i can tell
the DnS products seem to be working very well, within 24 hours the ph is spot on in my dwc so not adjusted anything and water my plants as soon as ive mixed some up, my soil plants are also doing very well using DnD, not used bag 1 yet as you need to mix it in with the soil when you plant the seed or clones, but will be planting in the next day or 2 so will do a side by side with 1 seed under bag 1 added and 1 with regular compost, that should give me an idea on how well bag 1 works, but bag 2 and 3 seem to be working very well, it won awards in high times as well so must be ok.
i found that same bit of info about sns so will be using it next feed, i have been using molasses though so stopped using that as it may cause problems if i use both at same time,

@king, i leave them till the seed pods are bursting open and i can actually see the colour of the seed, once i can see their a good brown colour like shop bought seeds then i pull them off the plant or if its near harvest ill leave them in till after harvest. i find they usually take at least 4 weeks to fully mature, the longer the better but when their breaking out the calyx and you can see the colour then their fine to pull off the plant, if you put pollen on really early on flower then you will only get seeds at the nodes and not in the buds, so i can pollenate a plant twice and harvest 2 lots of seeds, i only found this out due to using pollen to early, so the kc45 i just removed seeds from was again pollenated really early when their was just pistils on the plant and no actual buds, so the seeds at the nodes was falling out and the buds still grew like they was unseeded but i can see the odd seed inside the bud but will leave them in the plant till after harvest. so i guess 4 to 5 weeks is about the norm with the plants ive used, not seeded a true sativa so cant comment if they take longer or not,
but 4 to 5 weeks to answer your question, just wait until the seeds are splitting the calyx open, seeds also develop after harvest so they will still ripen and mature while the bud is hung to dry

 

[danklover79]

Those D&S nutes sound like they work pretty well, I might have to get the sample pack, and try them out, really glad you and Spimp are testing them, so we can see some results. I've started a new journal, if you wanna check it out Dank's Three Strain Grow LST CFLs In Soil

 

[donpaul.p]

cool im on my way over.

DnS seems to be working fine for me, the ph does start off low but until Spimp mentioned it i hadnt noticed any problems that would of made me check the ph so for me its working well and ive not getting any signs of any problems, id have to say it works well and easily compares with the product i was using before, id go as far as saying its slightly better than my old nutes, so id say its well worth trying.

if the ph was a problem then my dwc would be showing problems within 24 hours and my soil plants within a few days, but to be brutally honest i dont even own ph up or down, ive never adjusted the ph of anything, i only tested the ph so i could give spimp the results i got. so at the moment id say it works very well, not tried bag 1 yet so cant comment on that but ill use it with my clones and seeds and do half with the bag 1 mixed in and the other half i plant with regular compost, with compost/soil we dont need to use nutriets for a good few weeks so bag 1 is not really needed but if it gives the plants a boost and growth is quicker then ill use it every time.
Bag 2 and 3 seem to be working well, the only thing i will add is to not use bag 3 until you start to see the plants flowering, so when you flip 12-12 stick with bag 2 until after the stretch is over, then change to bag 3.

 

[Spimp]

I have a theory on a strategic feeding schedule of 'stretch' plants. I think the first week of stretch should b stage 2, then 1/2 feed of stage 2&3 for 2 weeks, then stage 3. NO IDEA IF IT WORKS but I think Im gonna try it. I can vouch for Stage 1. 3 days after repotting they started very nice growth and it seems like they are rooting really good because they are taking alot more waterings/week now. But like you say, we will know alot more about these products a month from now. So far---

 

[AfricanGrower]

I have been lurking around the depths of this thread for a while now, but it is never too late to officially sub Thanks for a great resource +Reps.

 

[alex801]

Hey... Man it's like a book this journal. A book of knolage.
Every page of this grow I learn something I didn't think I wanted to learn but am always happy I did
DonP and the gang hello good day chaps
Will you be including the plant u mentioned on my journal in this journal don? Hope so il be keen to watch it grow

 

[donpaul.p]

@Spimp, interesting idea, might give that a try next time round, all i go on is that during the stretch the plant is using a lot more N compared with what it was using during veg as the upwards growth is more, the only thing im wondering is if giving to much N during stretch is a bad thing and causes to much stretching, so i think ill give your idea a try next time round with one of the clones ive got growing as ill be able to compare it with pics from previous grows, i used to flip to flowering feed at the same time as flipping to 12-12, thats what ive always done, but might not of been the best option. hopefully the DnS will continue to do well right up to harvest, so far so good anyway

@AfricanGrower, welcome aboard, seen you around the journals plenty of times giving great advice, so your more than welcome to follow along, if you have any question or advice and tips then feel free to post what you like here as it will help me and im sure it will help others,

@AleX, are we talking the blue mystic, ill be planting some seeds tomorrow, ive been trying to get a true purple strain for ages now, i just need 1 plant then i can work with that pheno and back cross to produce a stable purple pheno.

i bought blue mystic about 2 years ago but their was a huge gentic problem with it back then and it was pulled from sale, so been waiting until a stable strain gets released so hopefully the seeds i got are stable and wont have that genetic problem the last batch had, lots of us had problems with it and many other grow sites was reporting the same problems, but fuzzy duck produced some amazing blue looking buds so hopefully this strain is stable and hopefully i can produce a purple/blue strain.

i crossed ken estes gdp which is a purple strain with purple cheese auto, so hopefully one of them will turn out purple, the purple auto cheese didnt turn purple but it gave me plenty of seeds, so hopefully the gdp been in the mix might bring out the purple but got to grow out the seeds to see the pheno types, i just need 1 purple then i can work with it and hopefully make a true purple strain, BID has pulled it off with his own breeding project but ive been after a purple for a couple of years now and not got even 1,

 

[Jay233]

Those D&S nutes sound like they work pretty well, I might have to get the sample pack, and try them out, really glad you and Spimp are testing them, so we can see some results. I've started a new journal, if you wanna check it out Dank's Three Strain Grow LST CFLs In Soil

I agree Dank ...I am interested in d&s as well...Looking forward to watching the results

 

[donpaul.p]

i cant fault it so far, ill know more the further my plants get in flower. next seeds i plant will be grown using bag 1, so can do a grow from start to finish using just DnS nutrients, this grow i didnt start using DnS until my plant was all ready in early flower so not really a true test but im more than happy with the results so far, cant find any faults, im pretty sure i can push the dose higher but ill stick to the stated dose for this grow and my next plants ill just use 1 plant and push the product as much as i can until i see problems then back off a bit, then i can compare results and see if its worth feeding more than the stated dose,

the reason im thinking the dose can be pushed higher is because you use bag 1 all the way through veg, then bag 3 all the way through flower at the 1 table spoon per gallon dose, but im thinking as the plants get bigger they will need more food, so ill see how they flower on the stated dose then change it with 1 plant next time round and see what happens.

its also the easiest system ive used, no mixing of different nutes or giving higher doses of one or more as the plant gets older, so if it does produce well at the stated dose then its a very good system, if it can be tweaked then even better, if not then im sure the results will be good at the stated dose, my sensi star clone thats in flower is all ready packing on the trichs and its early than it did last time round, the kc45 autos is also covered in trichs and ive not had one covered like this before, but its to early to say if its because of the nutrients or because of the new watering method or both, the next grow from seed will be a more fair test of the product

but so far its a thumbs up from me and works well for both soil and hydro

 

[donpaul.p]

just a quick update, i fed the plants the sns 604b flowering addidtve this morning, ive only noticed a diferrence on the auto buds so far, they seem to be firmer with some foxtailing going on, i cant say its down to the sns alone but it wasnt doing it this morning and the lights are just about to go off and the buds on the kc45 auto seem fuller but it is getting close to harvest,

ill update on the other plants as and when i notice a difference, not feeding all the plants the sns640b as i want to give this DnS product a fair test on its own,

also planted blue mystic and nirvana ice this after noon.

 

[stealthgrow]

I'm running out of nutes and gonna do some research but the SnS line is a good place to start, followed by the DnS site. Thanks

 

[Spimp]

I'm running out of nutes and gonna do some research but the SnS line is a good place to start, followed by the DnS site. Thanks

I highly recomend both or either. Ive been using the D&S for 2 weeks and my girls never looked healthier. The research ive done on the SNS comes back as a very good product as well.
Between Light Addict, Donpaul.p and myself, In a month or so you will have some good data to draw from sir.

 

[donpaul.p]

the sns products ive got is not their nutrients, ive got the 604a and 604b which is just a veg and bloom enhancer, so cant comment on their nutrients as not used them,

but the dogget simpson nutrients are doing ok and not finding any problems at all and use it for both my dwc and soil plants, i use bag 2 for my young clones and they grow ok with no signs of nute burn and bag 3 ive been using since the start of flower, no mixing anything so its very easy to use, ill know much more when i do this next grow from day 1 so will be able to say more about it then, but so far im getting great results at the stated dose, bag 2 is veg and it says 1table spoon per gallon all the way through veg, bag is the same dose and to be used all the way through flower, so no adding more as the plants get bigger just use it every time you water the plants.

im sure the dose can be pushed a tad higher but i wont with the plants i got in flower now and the next grow ill just try adjsusting the dose on one plant and see how far it can be pushed and see if its actually worth pushing it higher,

but im thinking this, when a plant is young you give it less water, as it gets bigger you give it more water, so 1table spoon per gallon might not need adjusting as your giving the plant more water as it gets bigger, so maybe the 1tbsp per gallon is the perfect dose, but i will try pushing the dose higher with just 1 plant and see if its worth doing,

 

[donpaul.p]

hi all,

ill try and get a picture update done tomorrow or get a video posted, my plants are all doing great, flowering well and producing huge buds, the jack flash is ready for harvest in the next day or 2, all the clones have rooted so if jack flash and big buddha cheese is the real deal then the clones will live on and prospor, if not they will end up in the bin and ill try and pick up some clones in the next couple of months from down south and get some true cheese and true jack flash growing,

so far the jack flash im not holding high hopes of, its lost its amonia type smell and dont smell like the old skool jacl flash, but its really a tad to early to tell as ill have to do a smoke test so ill quick dry some of the buds just so i can sample them, the buds look really nice and very fat and foxtailing like crazy, its ready for harvest but the foxtailing is causing me to leave it longer as its still producing flowers even though the pistils have died, new flowers are been formed so it will live on for now, the main bud is the same size as a can of pop and ive had to support the stem as it was pulling the plant over.

big buddha cheese has the pungent cheese smell but cant guarantee its the cheese until ive tested it but thats got a month of more left on it before its harvested.

all my other plants are flowering well and flowering better than they have ever had before, the auto kc45 is producing huge buds on it so with the seeds i harvest from it ill plant them and see what pheno types it produces, ive got the size right at about 3 ft and its produced 3ft plants for the last 2 grows, but this time the buds are huge compared with previous grows so either this is pheno type or it could be down to the nutrients so ill plant some more autos to test this theory, im happy with the results and all seeds are auto and seems very stable with no genetic issues, its given me about 50 seeds that have started falling out the plant and should be another couple of hundred after the buds have dried, so ill do a germination test in paper towel and plant 3 or 4 to check pheno types.

im going to try and make some coloidal silve so i can produce fem auto seeds so ive always got them in my collection along with the regular seeds for future crosses to produce more seeds of this stable strain.

the ken estes gdp cross purple cheese plants look great, so glad a made that cross, all flowering well so ill collect pollen from this male and cross it with the strongest female, then ill use the clones from the strongest and best female to back cross each generation of seeds with, that should in the end produce the best pheno type and make the strain stable.

now as a little side projet im going to see what benefits a super male has, now most of your probably dont have a clue what im on about but im hoping at least one of you does so you can give me some idea of what to expect and the likely results,

the info i have collected on super males is this:
what is a super male?
a super male is a male plant that started life as a male but then goes hermie, males go hermie just like females.
when using the pollen from a super male most of the seeds are female, not all but most (only quoting info i have got here not what i know, so could be wrong)
now the benefits of the super male been used for pollen is that it produced very high thc and cbn levels (again only going off info im getting off line) it also produces big buds compared with a regular cross.

so as you can see i dont have much info on super males, i dont know if you use the pollen on a female and it produces the strong strain or if you put pollen on the male hermie to produce seeds on the male plant, so some testing will need doing to find this out,

now so far ive had 2 males go hermie in the past, i killed them as never even knew anything about it so wasnt sure if they was worth using, so this time round ill collect pollen from the gdp cheese male and ill force it to go hermie and i can start testing from then on,

we just dont grow enough males to have some solid info on this so its something ive been interested in for about 2 years now as when i killed my male hermie i looked on the net and thats where i came across the super male info.

yes it will create a freak of nature but its no different to producing femenin seeds by forcing a female to go hermie,

also you ca debate that strains like G13 are really geneticall modified by using cochline i think it was, dont quote me on this as its been a while since i was researching polyploids and triploids to produce super cannibis plants, as i dont want to geneticall alter the plant to produce seeds i have not gone down the poly route yet, so as a few members was debating they have never heard of super males and some even said its not possible for a male to go hermie, well ill be proving it is possible if everything works out ok, if not ill keep growing males until i have another go hermie on me, in 3 years ive only had 2 males that have turned hermie and both where killed when i seen they was hermie, so this time round ill looking into the pro's and con's of using them for breeding,

if it works out great then its all good, if it produced poor unstable results then we know its not a good direction to go in, but if we dont try these things you just never know whats going to happen, it wasnt that long ago when people would not use a female that turned hermie but now we all know it produces fem seeds we now force females to go hermie just so we can get female pollen from it, so im going to do this side projoect on a male and see if i can force it to go hermie, this should be possible just as its possible to make a female hermie, you cant use the same chemicals such as cs to make the male go hermie so ill either need to find something that will make it go hermie or stress the plant enough to make it go hermie,
once ive got a hermie male ill do the following,
1, collect pollen and use it on a female plant
2, use pollen from a male and pollenate the female pistils on the hermie male.
3, let is self pollinate.

so ill should have 3 paths to follow and compare the results, the only info i can find online is a bit vague and does not go into much detail, it just basically says it produces a very high amount of fem seeds. (it dont say if the pollen from the hermie was used or if the pollen from a female hermie was used on the male hermie so will try both ways to compare results)
it suggested the male hermie is called a super male but i need to try and find the site i was on before that provided all the info which i cant seem to find this time round so ill plug in my old laptop as im sure i had it bookmarked on that laptop, but it said it produced females that produced high levels or thc and cbn, so its not fully proven and no clear proof has been provided, but ive got males and got a place to grow them under cfls so its not going to be in the way or stop anything else im doing.

its just something thats been playing on my mind since i was questioned about it been legitimat and im not the kind of person who lies so want to try and follow this up with some soild proof that males will go hermie and will produce seeds, will they produce strong healthy plants, well who knows but im going to find out one way or another,

 

[donpaul.p]

If anyone can add anything to this such as letting me know if they have had hermie males or maybe someone has come across the same site i was on a couple of years ago and can point me back toward that site so i can carry on my research.

or if anyone has any questions or suggestions then let me know, i know chemicals can be used to force a male to go hermie but again this was on that site i was on ages ago and i cant seem to find it again, hopefully my other laptop will spring into life and let me find the bookmark and access the site, just depends if i can put the laptop back together and get it to spark back into live as the gpu chip is pretty much toast and the solder to the circuit board must of cracked and lost connection so tomorrow ill reflow the solder on the gpu chip and hopefully that will get it to boot up for an hour so i can access the info i need

 

[Spimp]

This is a story told to me time and time again from an old school outdoor grower:

He claims he has turned several(over a dozen) male plants into 'female'. He said he was shown how to do it by the guy who taught him. He gave me a really long speech about Nature and the plants will to reproduce blah blah blah. But heres what he claimed he did-- When the first sign of preflower starts, any that could be male he would put a ribbon on. If they showed any 'balls' he would pinch them off. He claims he went 3 days without checking one time and picked off over 200 balls off one plant. He says after 2 weeks, the plants would stop trying to produce any sex signs. then one week after that hairs would start forming. He claims that you still need to do by-weekly checks as he had a couple produce balls mid flower, but he said his dilegence lead to 95% sinsemilla out of 'Male' plants.

Take this with a grain of salt, but I have seen 55gal trashbags full of buds grown by this guy 10+years ago so I do know he knows how to grow. Not sure his story is 100% truthful, but it did get my wheels turning.

 

[alex801]

Very interesting.

 

[Light Addict]

Good weed Donpaul, always great popping over here for an education in all things green. Its like coming to school each time, awesome!

 

[donpaul.p]

@Spimp, great info mate, i know its true and males do hermie the same as females, ive had 2 in the past but killed them long before i looked into what they was and what they could be used for, so im pretty sure your info is spot on, ill give that method a try with the next male i grow, ill try light stress with this first male, ill collect pollen from it first as its part of my gdp cheese project but once i collected pollen ill treat it bad and see if he can turn into a she, i just want to find out the benefits of doing this, just like people found out the benefits of a female hermie was femenised seeds, i just know the site i was on called them super males and produced mainly fem seeds with high thc leves, so thats what im trying to aim for, thanks for the info as it confirms their is some benefit as these old timers would not of messed around with males,

we dont grow males so we dont see many male hermies, but im sure if we grew lots of males then we would all report back on having hermies, any plant should turn sex to reproduce, its how nature designed them. So now i just need to try and get 1 or 2 to go hermie and i can begin testing on the results. ill cross it with my own strains so i know how its changed the results, crossing a hermie male with a strain ive not grown wont be a good test as i wont have anything to compare it to, so i need to do this right and make sure the results i get are fair and produce a stable strain

@AleX & Light addict, just trying to learn things myself, its something i reseached ages ago after i had a male go hermie on me so want to give it a try and see what results it produces, i just wish i could find the site i was on the first time i looked into it as it had lots of in on this, its where i got the super male name from, so i just need to force a male hermie as a natural hermie wont produce the results im looking for so i need to get a male to hermie with stress,

@Light Addict, any chance you can give me some info on that budding method you was on about where you clip the bud, not something ive come across but would like to give it a try, got plenty of plants in flower i can try it on,

just ordered some seeds as well, deciding to give it one last try at getting a purple pheno strain,
Ordered Products
3x TGA Subcool Deep Purple Seeds
3x BC Bud Depot Ultimate Purple Seeds
2x High Quality Purple Tops Seeds
2 of them strains say their true purples and been carefully selected for the purple pheno, subcools strain says it has many pheno types and the purple is not the strongest pheno type but if you get it then its worth keeping hold of, so fingers crossed the other 2 will produce a purple plant but i know subcool's seeds will produce better quality and better results, so if i hit purple with his then ill be very happy indeed.

my quest for a purple strain that turns purple with no stress continues.

 

[Light Addict]

Don I posted my little bit of knowledge on my tutt thread for ya earlier