First Grow - Blue Dream - 4x4 Tent - 1000W Light - DWC

[TheFrizz]

Hi folks, this is Day 53 (mid week 7) of flowering. The buds are looking and smelling very tempting but I still see a lot of white pistils (probably from the new growth) so they still have a week or two left. The top colas are getting pretty massive but the stems are easily supporting the weight. No plant yoyo's needed yet

The dehumidifier is working pretty well, it dropped RH down into the high 30s at one point. I don't think it will be able to get into the low 30s because of the constant air flow out of the tent but I am happy with high 30s/low 40s.

I decided to try taking bud pics with the lights off vs. on and WOW, such a huge difference! It is hilarious how big the colas look in the dark with flash on, since all of those trichomes are reflecting back light. I am including a few pics with the lights on so you can see the difference. Also, it is interesting to see how nute burn and bleaching is much more visible with flash, but oh well, it's not like I am growing these plants for pretty fan leaves! The nasties will all get trimmed away

Lights on

Lights off

Lights on

Lights off

Side of Queen Sativa farthest away from the center of tent

Top of front left plant (going to call her Purple for her funky leaves)

Top of back left plant (going to call her Frosty because she has more trichomes than the other 3)

One of the smaller cola tops on Queen Sativa near the edge of the tent

Same bud from Frosty that I have taken pic of last 2 wks

Misc bud

So, it looks like at least 1-2 more weeks of flowering for the buds to finish fattening and ripening. For finishing, I am planning on doing a gradual flush the last 5 days with cold water, removing about 1/2 the liquid each day and replacing with pH'd 50 degree water. The last 2 days I will add FloraKleen as well. This should help bring out more purple color as the chlorophyll is converted to anthocyanin from the cold temp, and also flush out salts and nutrients that have built up over the grow.

Next week I will post pics of the trichomes via USB microscope so we can see how close they are to harvest. Until then, stay frosty my friends, and as always, questions, comments, and feedback are much appreciated


~TheFrizz

 

[Monsignor]

I've been watching the show in silence for a while now. I find myself rooting for them by name like it's some sort of TV drama! Queen Sativa is my favorite leading role.

 

[Tomula]

Hi Frizz, so I was basically away for two weeks and my, oh my! Your plants look amazing what a buds! Nuff said. Looking for the harvest!

 

[Dwight Monk]

Looks like a bud forest looking good, you should get some nice herbs out of that

 

[TheFrizz]

I've been watching the show in silence for a while now. I find myself rooting for them by name like it's some sort of TV drama! Queen Sativa is my favorite leading role.

Welcome aboard Monsignor! Thanks for chiming in, Queen Sativa is my favorite as well such a beast! I just posted in your journal, that is a really unique training idea, I like it!

 

[TheFrizz]

Hi Frizz, so I was basically away for two weeks and my, oh my! Your plants look amazing what a buds! Nuff said. Looking for the harvest!

Looks like a bud forest looking good, you should get some nice herbs out of that

Woohoo thanks guys! The buds definitely look better in this lighting. I will check the trichomes this weekend and if they look ready I will start flushing and then harvest on Saturday Nov 19th.

 

[Drazel]

Hey Ms Frizz!! Just stopping in to say the plants look great and I can't wait for harvest. You're gonna have some full jars.


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[TheFrizz]

Alright folks, this is now Day 60 (halfway through week 8) of flowering. Today I snipped off a tiny flower from each plant to bring to look at under my USB microscope to check trichomes. These are from the bottom of the canopy, because I couldn't bring myself to hurt any of the nice big buds Sorry they are blurry, I need to get a stand for the microscope (or get a surgeon to hold it for me).

Here they are zoomed out, placed by their location in the tent

Queen Sativa close up

Purple close up (there hasn't been any more color development since I noticed it, might have to change her name )

Derpy close up

Annnd finally Frosty, this is a good name for her

So I am still new to the whole clear vs cloudy vs amber but it looks like I am seeing, on average, about 50-60% cloudy, 30-40% clear, and just a few amber trichomes. Since these buds are underdeveloped (lower canopy), I would guess that the rest of the buds have a majority of cloudy/amber trichomes and should definitely be ready for harvest next Saturday.

Ok, time for more pics! The top colas are literally like rocks, when I squeeze one there is no give whatsoever.

So here is the plan leading up to harvest, let me know if there is anything I should change:

Next 2 days: Maintain ~1,000 ppm in each bucket
Monday 11/14: Remove half of the nutrient solution from each bucket and replace with 50 degree F pH'd water. Nutes are now 500 ppm
Tuesday 11/15: Repeat above step, nutes are now at 250 ppm
Wednesday 11/16: Repeat above step, nutes are now at 125 ppm.
Thursday 11/17: Completely empty the buckets and add cold water + FloraKleen to flush remaining salts out
Friday 11/18: Repeat above step. If plants are not purpling yet, add some more ice to the water
Saturday 11/19: Chop time! Harvest at 4am, before the light comes on. Overnight the plant will have metabolized the sugars from the previous day and so harvesting at this time should result in a smoother final product.

The idea of this gradual flush is to let the buds squeeze out as much final growth as they can, I feel like this makes more sense than going cold turkey all at once. The icy water is to (hopefully) induce some purple coloring and also stress the plant into thinking winter is coming and it needs to put all of its final energy into tasty tasty resin and buds

Anyhoo, assuming all goes well, my next update should be Harvest Day! As always, questions, comments, and feedback are much appreciated



~TheFrizz

 

[Tomula]

Great buds man! I have heard that 3 day long flush with clean water should do the trick. Looks like you have something to help you with that, so good luck! I bet two of your colas from Queen will have more weight than my Russian. I think I did mess up the temps there was leak from the window (fixed now). Everyday you learn something new. Ha ha, now I stop comparing and will admit, that no matter what, great buds are great bud no matter the matter! Happy days to come for you!

 

[4Dutchess]

Very nice Frizz!! I hope my second run looks like yours. Proper defoil and lollypop. Great scrogg set up. Yours looks very profesional and beautiful. Great job Frizz!!
Heres my first tent in progress

 

[Gaffle]

Alright folks, this is now Day 60 (halfway through week 8) of flowering. Today I snipped off a tiny flower from each plant to bring to look at under my USB microscope to check trichomes. These are from the bottom of the canopy, because I couldn't bring myself to hurt any of the nice big buds Sorry they are blurry, I need to get a stand for the microscope (or get a surgeon to hold it for me).

Here they are zoomed out, placed by their location in the tent

Queen Sativa close up

Purple close up (there hasn't been any more color development since I noticed it, might have to change her name )

Derpy close up

Annnd finally Frosty, this is a good name for her

So I am still new to the whole clear vs cloudy vs amber but it looks like I am seeing, on average, about 50-60% cloudy, 30-40% clear, and just a few amber trichomes. Since these buds are underdeveloped (lower canopy), I would guess that the rest of the buds have a majority of cloudy/amber trichomes and should definitely be ready for harvest next Saturday.

Ok, time for more pics! The top colas are literally like rocks, when I squeeze one there is no give whatsoever.

So here is the plan leading up to harvest, let me know if there is anything I should change:

Next 2 days: Maintain ~1,000 ppm in each bucket
Monday 11/14: Remove half of the nutrient solution from each bucket and replace with 50 degree F pH'd water. Nutes are now 500 ppm
Tuesday 11/15: Repeat above step, nutes are now at 250 ppm
Wednesday 11/16: Repeat above step, nutes are now at 125 ppm.
Thursday 11/17: Completely empty the buckets and add cold water + FloraKleen to flush remaining salts out
Friday 11/18: Repeat above step. If plants are not purpling yet, add some more ice to the water
Saturday 11/19: Chop time! Harvest at 4am, before the light comes on. Overnight the plant will have metabolized the sugars from the previous day and so harvesting at this time should result in a smoother final product.

The idea of this gradual flush is to let the buds squeeze out as much final growth as they can, I feel like this makes more sense than going cold turkey all at once. The icy water is to (hopefully) induce some purple coloring and also stress the plant into thinking winter is coming and it needs to put all of its final energy into tasty tasty resin and buds

Anyhoo, assuming all goes well, my next update should be Harvest Day! As always, questions, comments, and feedback are much appreciated



~TheFrizz

Just stopping buy at random, and wow. Thats real nice Frizz. I shall dish out some reps. Most eggcellent.

 

[TheFrizz]

Looking great Dutchess!! I especially love the purple hues, combined with the frostyness of the cola makes it look like a dessert of some kind

 

[TheFrizz]

Just stopping buy at random, and wow. Thats real nice Frizz. I shall dish out some reps. Most eggcellent.

Hiya thanks Gaffle, much appreciated! I shall go check out your journal now, yay for Blue Dream!

 

[4Dutchess]

Frizz, I plan to scrogg my next tent run and would like to see how you made your rack. I see string and PVC pipe , but howd you attach it to the tent poles? Im 5x9 and Im thinking 2 racks that can be put in before the stretch. It be nice to see your set up. Also, you got to love a teacher, thank you for your service!!
Namaste

 

[TheFrizz]

Frizz, I plan to scrogg my next tent run and would like to see how you made your rack. I see string and PVC pipe , but howd you attach it to the tent poles? Im 5x9 and Im thinking 2 racks that can be put in before the stretch. It be nice to see your set up. Also, you got to love a teacher, thank you for your service!!
Namaste

Hiya Dutchess! So to assemble the rack I basically built a table. I did this by making a 4x4 square out of PVC pipe with those triple prong elbow joints pointed down. Then I added a shorter length to each corner to form the "legs" It can easily hold its own weight and plenty more and took me about 5 mins to put together. For the string I simply looped it across both sides, pulled it taut, and tied it. I used duct tape to help hold the big loops in place. I had looked at other SCROG diy's and they seemed like a lot of work, this was the laziest string SCROG net I could come up with

 

[4Dutchess]

Hiya Dutchess! So to assemble the rack I basically built a table. I did this by making a 4x4 square out of PVC pipe with those triple prong elbow joints pointed down. Then I added a shorter length to each corner to form the "legs" It can easily hold its own weight and plenty more and took me about 5 mins to put together. For the string I simply looped it across both sides, pulled it taut, and tied it. I used duct tape to help hold the big loops in place. I had looked at other SCROG diy's and they seemed like a lot of work, this was the laziest string SCROG net I could come up with

Thanks!! Your tent couldent be more beautiful, professional. Its what Im striving for and will try my next tent grow. Whats the height of your netting?? Im guessing 40" is good?? Im also wondering if you glue the PVC or not?? I want to make 2 racks, one each side of my 5x9.

 

[TheFrizz]

Thanks!! Your tent couldent be more beautiful, professional. Its what Im striving for and will try my next tent grow. Whats the height of your netting?? Im guessing 40" is good?? Im also wondering if you glue the PVC or not?? I want to make 2 racks, one each side of my 5x9.

Well thank you very much for the kind words! For this grow the height of the screen was at 30 inches off the floor of the tent. This left about 16 inches from the top of the buckets to the screen. I did not use any glue at all, just jammed the "legs" into the elbow pieces and gravity does the rest of the work. Honestly though next grow I will move the screen down by about 8 inches and leave more growth above the screen. This is because those bare empty stems are a waste of resources, so next time I only want to lollipop a bit and try to have each plant basically just be a bunch of 2 ft+ long colas

 

[4Dutchess]

Great info Frizz. I wrote it down. Thanks!! I noticed how much the string helped support my yard grow and Ive read enough to see a scrogged tent is the way to go. With that theory Ive thought cramming a bunch of plants in area, not topping or just one topping and scrogging the top. Thanks!

 

[TheFrizz]

Great info Frizz. I wrote it down. Thanks!! I noticed how much the string helped support my yard grow and Ive read enough to see a scrogged tent is the way to go. With that theory Ive thought cramming a bunch of plants in area, not topping or just one topping and scrogging the top. Thanks!

Yeah I definitely feel like having an organized system like a scrog screen allows an indoor grower to take advantage of space and light more effectively, because plants tend to grow in a "round" shape but tents and grow rooms and grow lights are square/rectangular. This means there is wasted space and light between plants and around the sides of the tent, unless you are running SOG and fill up the whole space but most people can't do that legally due to plant limits

Here is a pic I made in Paint real fast to show what I mean

Plus having those strings as support has been enough to support even the fattest colas on Queen Sativa without a hitch! So, I say go for it, just make sure that each main cola has an inch of two of "breathing room" so your plants stay free of bud rot or other issues that can arise from having a lot of growth in a tent. I used 6 inch spacing this grow and that worked pretty well and made the math easy but you could definitely tighten it up if you wanted to, I could definitely have fit a few more rows of colas in there

 

[TheFrizz]

Hi folks! Today is Day 67 (halfway through week 9) of flowering. I was planning on harvesting this morning but the girls put on some new growth these last few days and I want to get more purple coloring, so I decided to give them one extra day. Here are some teaser pics in the meantime...more to come tomorrow after the chop!

Whole tent

Purple (front left plant) and now she is living up to her name! The ice water and cold night air is really bringing out some nice colors in her leaves

Queen Sativa, looking amazing as usual

Here is one of her top colas with a quarter for scale. Some of her foxtailed tips are bleached from proximity to the light, but they are still covered in trichomes. I will be interested to see what smoking "albino bud" is like

Frosty, in the back left corner

And finally Derpy, who, by the way, is expressing some of the same colors as Purple. I guess Derpy and Purple have a similar phenotype, because Queen and Frosty have not changed color at all (other than yellow).

Alright so here are some close-ups of Purple's colas, I really like the new color! It is just frustrating to see all these white pistils pop up right when I want to harvest, but oh well, they will break down somewhat during the curing/drying process.

And a macro shot to wrap it up

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the harvest process, and also include some microscope pics so you can see the trichomes. As always, questions, comments, and feedback are much appreciated! Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring *fingers crossed*





~TheFrizz