First Time Soil 3x3 Tent Grow

[Kburn]

So here's a little update. Flipped to 12/12 on march 10th so it's coming up on around 40 days right now. I think my yields are going to be pretty weak except for the skywalker OG. That one has some good sized buds on it. The rest all have frosty buds but the sites are pretty small. I dont expect much from this crop. The leaves were drooping on a few of the plants, I wasn't sure if it was the heat or a nutrient problem so I added cal mag into the nutrient solution yesterday. Also a few of the leaves were starting to yellow, wasn't sure if that was normal either.

King Louie 13th

Skywalker OG

Master bubba

 

[Icemud]

Hey Kburn...plants are looking pretty good, this is about the time those buds should start swelling up a ton as far as the leaves, sometimes the plant's around this time start shedding off there water leaves because they are sucking the nutrient's stored up in the leave's over to the buds to assist in production, so from what I have read, and also experienced this is pretty normal. You might want to get a good compost tea going for your next feeding.... its really easy and your plants will love you for it... just get a 5 gallon bucket, fill it with water, get an old nylon/stocking and fill it up with that foxfarm ocean forest dirt.... hang the nylon into the bucket, get an airpump and airstone...and let the "tea" bubble for a good 24-48 hours.... try to plan this ahead of your next feeding, so start the tea, about 2 days before you think they will need the watering This tea will give an abundance of microlife to the soil to really help with producing those bloom nutrients, as well as it will give your plants a mild flush to rid some of the built up salts in the soil (make sure there is a good amount of runoff) .....

This should help your ladies explode into the last phases of growing....

 

[Kburn]

Hey Kburn...plants are looking pretty good, this is about the time those buds should start swelling up a ton as far as the leaves, sometimes the plant's around this time start shedding off there water leaves because they are sucking the nutrient's stored up in the leave's over to the buds to assist in production, so from what I have read, and also experienced this is pretty normal. You might want to get a good compost tea going for your next feeding.... its really easy and your plants will love you for it... just get a 5 gallon bucket, fill it with water, get an old nylon/stocking and fill it up with that foxfarm ocean forest dirt.... hang the nylon into the bucket, get an airpump and airstone...and let the "tea" bubble for a good 24-48 hours.... try to plan this ahead of your next feeding, so start the tea, about 2 days before you think they will need the watering This tea will give an abundance of microlife to the soil to really help with producing those bloom nutrients, as well as it will give your plants a mild flush to rid some of the built up salts in the soil (make sure there is a good amount of runoff) .....

This should help your ladies explode into the last phases of growing....

ok sounds good ill start this today. So on my next feeding do i just flush the soil with the compost tea and leave out any nutrients?

 

[Kburn]

I seem to be having a problem with my plants drooping. The leaves are once again looking terrible. It looks like overwatering but i cant figure out why. Ive been waiting until the pot has been nearly dry before rewatering and the last few times the leaves have been sagging. I watered two days ago and they still havent perked back up. I watered until it came out of the bottom of the pot making sure it was fully saturated and ive only been doing it about every 4-5 days when the pot feels light or nearly dry. Per gallon im using advanced nutrients lineup 5ml micro, 10ml grow, 15ml bloom + 2ml superthrive. In the last watering i also added 4ml cal mag. Are my nutes alright? I cant figure out why my plants keep doing this.

Last time when this happened i flushed the plants and they looked alot better after a day or so. I shouldnt need to flush these again and i dont want to resaturate the soil. Im stuck on what to do here.

 

[Louis]

They still look okay bro. When I first started this I had the same problem with over watering, you have to fight all your natural instincts to give the plant more water. I only water once a week sometimes every 2 weeks now, once I saw the results in letting my soil COMPLETELY dry out. Let the soil dry out for a little while (a week or so). I also had 3 plants that looked the same after the same amount of time in flowering and was getting pretty discouraged to say the least. I got with a vet grower at my local club and he offered me a 1000w HPS to flower, and wow, what a difference. I was just lacking the right amount of light to get the results I wanted. Is the skywalker OG always in the same spot or do you rotate plants? It might be that the skywalker is in the best spot in the tent, thats why she's looking a little fatter than the other ladies. But then again you still have, maybe, a couple more months to let them fatten up, and they will! Your plants are still looking good brotha and good luck the rest of the way.

 

[Kburn]

Well I definitely don't have a problem with lighting, I currently have my ballast at 110% so ive got over 1100w on them. I flushed one of them with a lower nute mix, 0ml micro/5ml grow/10ml bloom/1ml super thrive. Within an hour it went from fully wilted back to normal! I dont understand what was wrong exactly. I did the same to the other two plants that were drooping very badly and they also came back to normal within an hour. The soil wasnt even fully dry at the time so I flushed them earlier than their next watering cycle should have been. This has me thinking that it's been a nutrient problem and not overwatering.-

Possibly a overdose of Nitrogen? I tested it by leaving out the Micro part of my nutes, which is high in N and the plants responded amazingly quickly to that.

 

[Icemud]

Well I definitely don't have a problem with lighting, I currently have my ballast at 110% so ive got over 1100w on them. I flushed one of them with a lower nute mix, 0ml micro/5ml grow/10ml bloom/1ml super thrive. Within an hour it went from fully wilted back to normal! I dont understand what was wrong exactly. I did the same to the other two plants that were drooping very badly and they also came back to normal within an hour. The soil wasnt even fully dry at the time so I flushed them earlier than their next watering cycle should have been. This has me thinking that it's been a nutrient problem and not overwatering.-

Possibly a overdose of Nitrogen? I tested it by leaving out the Micro part of my nutes, which is high in N and the plants responded amazingly quickly to that.

Since your in flowering, I would get rid of the superthrive. Superthrive mainly is used during planting/germination of seeds, clone transplant and early veg to eliminate stresses. I wouldn't recommend using it in veg because it does contain synthetic hormones and you do not want to mess with incorrect hormones in flower, or you might screw yourself by creating hermies.

Also I would recommend laying off the Nitrogen.... at this stage of your plant's, not as much nitrogen is needed and other macro elements become more important. As long as you have a healthy soil Nitrogen is pulled out of the air by Nitrogen fixing bacteria, and there shouldnt be a need for adding more since your soil should have enough to get you through the rest of the grow...

I would advise you to make a compost tea like I recommended earlier.... give your girls a break from the advanced nutrients and give them compost tea, or even just a plain water flushing.... you will be happy you did....as fertilizer is used by the plants, salts start to build up in the soil. Unless you are watering with a good pure water flush, or a very low ppm feeding every few feedings, this salt buildup, once it exceeds about 15% of your soil base, will drasticly reduce your plant's efficiency to produce nutrients.

Let your soil dry out fully..... the day that you think its dry...give it 1 or 2 more days.... then water with pure water or compost tea...

 

[Kburn]

Ok I'll go ahead and do that. I started brewing the tea last night so I'll have it for the next watering. I'm at day 46 of flowering so I should only have a few weeks left. I planned to leave out the nutrients from here on so I can flush these before harvest using only compost tea. My yield is probably going to be pretty low but the buds look very good, just small.-

There's one thing I wasn't sure about. I know most people harvest at around 60 days but is there any downside to extending the flowering period another few weeks? My plants have been growing slow so if I can let those buds grow a little longer I'd like to do that.-

 

[Icemud]

Ok I'll go ahead and do that. I started brewing the tea last night so I'll have it for the next watering. I'm at day 46 of flowering so I should only have a few weeks left. I planned to leave out the nutrients from here on so I can flush these before harvest using only compost tea. My yield is probably going to be pretty low but the buds look very good, just small.-

There's one thing I wasn't sure about. I know most people harvest at around 60 days but is there any downside to extending the flowering period another few weeks? My plants have been growing slow so if I can let those buds grow a little longer I'd like to do that.-

The best way to tell when to harvest is by getting a 30x magnifiying lupe and looking at the trichomes. Depending on what type of high your looking for will determine when to pull your plants. Usually when your trichomes are clear, the plants are not quite mature, once the trichomes become cloudy, you are generally at the Max THC production point and if you pull with cloudy trichomes, you will have an uplifting, energizing high. If you let the plant go longer than this, the cloudy trichomes will start turning amber. When you see this, the THC has begun to break down into CBD which then you get more of the couchlock type of high. So use this to determine when is right for you.... I wouldn't stop using your nutrients... but just switch it up every few waterings... water with compost tea, then maybe 2 nutrient feedings, and then another tea. When you see that your trichomes have turned cloudy, that is the proper time to start flushing and usually within 2-3 weeks after that your plants will be ready

 

[Kburn]

well I now know why the leaves have been looking so bad. I had a pretty big spider mite infestation. I guess theyve been there for some time but i never saw them until a few days ago. I left for the weekend and had my roomate checking on them. When I came back one of my plants had webs all over it. As i looked at the other ones they were all over every plant. That would explain why the leaves have been turning yellow and dying recently, I thought it as a nutrient problem up until now.

So I went to my local hydro shop and the people there reccomended two things called Judo and Eclipse. Eclipse is supposed to be sprayed on the plants when the lights are off and Judo when the lights are on. I dont know too much about miticides but the employees are growers themselves and told me these two worked better than Avid and werent as toxic. I wasnt sure on what to do because im so late into flowering but these are supposedly able to be used up until a week before harvest. I also put a Hot Shot No Pest strip in my tent. Im hoping this works because i hate to see the last 4 months of work go to waste due to bugs. If these dont work does anyone have any other reccomendations on what to do? I debated cutting them down and harvesting early just to at least get some bud out of this before the plants go to crap.

 

[Kburn]

Heres a few updated pics. So far 3 of the plants have white trichomes, the other two are about half white/clear. Im going to give them one more week then its time to take them down. They actually came out alot better than i expected. I recently purchased a portable AC unit so my tent temperature is always 75F. I just wish i wouldve had one earlier, but i got an amazing deal. I found this model for $30! Thank you craigslist.
LG Air Conditioner

I got rid of the spider mites they ended up killing alot of the leaves. The infestation was pretty bad. Anyway heres a few updated pictures.

Skywalker

King Louie

Bubba OG #1

Master OG

Bubba OG#2

 

[Kburn]

I harvested yesterday and they actually made a lot more than i thought...heres a few pics. no weight yet, still need to purchase a scale.

 

[420 Girl]

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