TheFrizz
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone! This is my very first grow, and my goal is to get the most efficient yield that I can from 4 plants (legal limit in my state). I selected Blue Dream because it has positive smoke reviews and also is a high yielding strain that is easy to grow. I decided to grow from seed rather than clone because I plan on using the mainlining/manifolding method and that technique works better from seed. I apologize for not starting my journal earlier but I wanted to wait to see if the plants survived the heat wave we experienced this July/August.
Equipment overview:
Feminized Blue Dream seeds (HSO)
4x4 grow tent
Phresh carbon filter (400 CFM)
Hurricane inline fan (435 CFM)
1000w MH/HPS light & ballast
4x 5 gallon bucket DWC system
GH nutes for veg
Rock Solid- Super Bud Booster for flower
4x wide spectrum 30w LED bulbs (supplement for flower)
General grow plan: Use the mainlining technique until each plant has 16 main growth tips. Divide grow tent into 64 squares, each approx 6" by 6" (looks similar to a scrog). Each plant gets 16 squares to fill out, with 1 cola forming inside each square. Flip lights when plants are close to poking through squares. End result: 64 lovely colas evenly spaced out filling up the entire grow tent.
As I am writing this, the girls have been vegging for about 5 weeks, and I will be flipping the lights quite soon. Here is a brief recap of their crazy journey so far:
We had an extremely hot summer and the grow tent is in an upstairs bedroom that faces the sun most of the day. The room was about 85-90 degrees F most days. To try and keep temps down I wrapped the buckets in mylar (they were black), kept tent open with like 4 fans in the room, added ice every day, vented top of buckets when lights were off, and always topped off with cold nute water. Despite all this, water temps were consistently from 76-86 degrees F most of veg (often spiking up to 90s if I didn't open the buckets). Luckily Hydroguard is amazzzzzing and so root rot hasn't really been an issue
Here is what the plants looked like before and after being divided into 16 growth tips. I heavily defoliated them each time I topped, for several reasons: 1.) maximum light availability and visibility of structure 2.) to see what limits I can push the plants to and 3.) to ensure that all of the plants nutrients go directly to the new growth tips. The plants rebounded quickly after each session and this process created the overall structure that I was looking for.
Before:
After:
After a day or so
After a few more days
You can see how after defoliation they spring back quickly and vigorously. In the future though, I will probably leave more fan leaves on, but it is good to know that they can handle being completely stripped. Here are images I took today, showing the screen in place over the plants, and also a close-up of the most Sativa dominant plant. Look at dem beefy gunz!
Now just imagine each branch turning into a main cola that fills up one of those squares, like a nice tidy grid
So yeah, essentially what I am trying to do here is create a canopy entirely composed of 64 main colas. With a 1k light, I feel like it is reasonable to expect decent quality bud along the top 2 feet of each cola.
Questions for you guys:
1.) What should I do about Derpy in the back? She has been lagging the entire time, bad seed I guess. I am thinking about putting cinder blocks under her bucket when it is time to flower so at least she is the same height as the others.
2.) What effect do you think supplementation with 30w wide spectrum LED lights will have? I am going to hang one light above each plant during flowering, in addition to the 1000w HPS because I had read that extra lighting can improve terpenes and yield.
3.) Do you think these plants are ready for flowering? I was planning on doing it within the next few days because I am happy with their structure but not sure if waiting will be good to give Derpy some more time to catch up.
Feel free to ask any questions about my setup and grow method, etc. I will start updating this journal every few days as the girls start their journey into flowering and beyond.
Equipment overview:
Feminized Blue Dream seeds (HSO)
4x4 grow tent
Phresh carbon filter (400 CFM)
Hurricane inline fan (435 CFM)
1000w MH/HPS light & ballast
4x 5 gallon bucket DWC system
GH nutes for veg
Rock Solid- Super Bud Booster for flower
4x wide spectrum 30w LED bulbs (supplement for flower)
General grow plan: Use the mainlining technique until each plant has 16 main growth tips. Divide grow tent into 64 squares, each approx 6" by 6" (looks similar to a scrog). Each plant gets 16 squares to fill out, with 1 cola forming inside each square. Flip lights when plants are close to poking through squares. End result: 64 lovely colas evenly spaced out filling up the entire grow tent.
As I am writing this, the girls have been vegging for about 5 weeks, and I will be flipping the lights quite soon. Here is a brief recap of their crazy journey so far:
We had an extremely hot summer and the grow tent is in an upstairs bedroom that faces the sun most of the day. The room was about 85-90 degrees F most days. To try and keep temps down I wrapped the buckets in mylar (they were black), kept tent open with like 4 fans in the room, added ice every day, vented top of buckets when lights were off, and always topped off with cold nute water. Despite all this, water temps were consistently from 76-86 degrees F most of veg (often spiking up to 90s if I didn't open the buckets). Luckily Hydroguard is amazzzzzing and so root rot hasn't really been an issue
Here is what the plants looked like before and after being divided into 16 growth tips. I heavily defoliated them each time I topped, for several reasons: 1.) maximum light availability and visibility of structure 2.) to see what limits I can push the plants to and 3.) to ensure that all of the plants nutrients go directly to the new growth tips. The plants rebounded quickly after each session and this process created the overall structure that I was looking for.
Before:
After:
After a day or so
After a few more days
You can see how after defoliation they spring back quickly and vigorously. In the future though, I will probably leave more fan leaves on, but it is good to know that they can handle being completely stripped. Here are images I took today, showing the screen in place over the plants, and also a close-up of the most Sativa dominant plant. Look at dem beefy gunz!
Now just imagine each branch turning into a main cola that fills up one of those squares, like a nice tidy grid
So yeah, essentially what I am trying to do here is create a canopy entirely composed of 64 main colas. With a 1k light, I feel like it is reasonable to expect decent quality bud along the top 2 feet of each cola.
Questions for you guys:
1.) What should I do about Derpy in the back? She has been lagging the entire time, bad seed I guess. I am thinking about putting cinder blocks under her bucket when it is time to flower so at least she is the same height as the others.
2.) What effect do you think supplementation with 30w wide spectrum LED lights will have? I am going to hang one light above each plant during flowering, in addition to the 1000w HPS because I had read that extra lighting can improve terpenes and yield.
3.) Do you think these plants are ready for flowering? I was planning on doing it within the next few days because I am happy with their structure but not sure if waiting will be good to give Derpy some more time to catch up.
Feel free to ask any questions about my setup and grow method, etc. I will start updating this journal every few days as the girls start their journey into flowering and beyond.