Jon's New Pared Down Setup Soil Grow: 3 Photo & 1 Auto With New Dedicated Auto Rig

[Jon]

Chunkadelic Bud Finishing Update
Day 104

I can't believe I haven't been doing this the whole time. Here's Chunky today. I put her outside to finish in some sunlight. We'll do the sun/LED thing with her till she's ready. The buds are finally beginning to coalesce and look like actual buds. It smells flowery and sweet, like perfume, which is exactly what the test buds taste like - perfume. This thing is going to yield like mad. Each bud is chunky and self contained and snips right off. I'm barely going to have to trim this plant at all. The dead brown leaves in the buds basically fall right off or are easily pulled off.

Here she is.

 

[Rexer]

Hey Jon, yeah I'm far from gentle with my plants (unless they're wee lil seedlings still). The only time I'm truly careful of is when I'm using scissors for a big defoliation, fingers and unwanted snipping and such.
I do try to refrain from touching the buds towards the end, when the plant has less time to replace any burst trichomes.

Hmm I love the smell on my hands though after handling them, stickiness not so much

Post # 601, bottom picture- just beautiful (they all are- I just like pointing out favs)

 

[Jon]

Hey Jon, yeah I'm far from gentle with my plants (unless they're wee lil seedlings still). The only time I'm truly careful of is when I'm using scissors for a big defoliation, fingers and unwanted snipping and such.
I do try to refrain from touching the buds towards the end, when the plant has less time to replace any burst trichomes.

Hmm I love the smell on my hands though after handling them, stickiness not so much

Post # 601, bottom picture- just beautiful (they all are- I just like pointing out favs)

Thanks! Took me a minute to decipher the last line, lol. But yes, that pic came out nice. For a change I didn't oversaturate the very tips of the white pistils with light so you can still see them. I find that hard to not do and still get the close focus I want. A work in progress.

 

[Jon]

Chunky
Also Day 104
The Sun Made Them Hit Overdrive or Something!

Ok, this is crazy. Never seen buds grow like this. So this morning I posted this girl in the morning sun. It was the first time she's ever seen the sun like that. I was wondering why I didn't do it all along. Anyway, when I put her out, I thought she was almost finally done, and the buds were pretty much coalesced, and the white hairs popping had finally calmed down along with her water consumption.

Just now I brought her into LED after spending the entire day in the sun, and THIS happened (pictures). Top, bottom, middle....everywhere on every bud it looks just like this.

Damn.

 

[Jon]

Phototown
Hulkberry Focus/Defol
Grow Day 104
Flower Day 34

Ok, Hulkster's turn. Yada yada yada, did the defol, did the undercarriage, got us better air flow, etc...same as with the others. No need to reiterate, let's just get to the porn. Oh yeah....Hulkberry is Bruce Banner #3 x Bruce Banner #3. Lol.

1: Hulkberry overhead
2: Side Shot
3-7: Buds

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

@Jon - question about Chunky: did you trim off the sugar leaves for the buds on that one or is it just genetics??

 

[Jon]

@Jon - question about Chunky: did you trim off the sugar leaves for the buds on that one or is it just genetics??

Hi @cjsbabygirl313, how are you? I wish it was genetics. No, I burned them off. When she was starting to bud I originally had her under my more powerful light, and as I was much more focused on the photos and getting the light right for them, I accidentally exposed her to too much light, a good bit too much, for about five days. That's when it started to show, and I know those signs, so at that point I moved her into the Mars Hydro rig outdoors to finish. When I first put her in that rig she had a ton of leaves, but they had yellowed or begun to and they all eventually turned brown and died. I have been removing them as they die. So what's left are the leaves at the bottom which didn't die, and that's unfortunately it. It makes for odd looking buds. But the buds themselves are sweet, so it is what it is. Doesn't seem to have affected the size or yield too much.

Here's what she's supposed to look like.

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

Hi @cjsbabygirl313, how are you? I wish it was genetics. No, I burned them off. When she was starting to bud I originally had her under my more powerful light, and as I was much more focused on the photos and getting the light right for them, I accidentally exposed her to too much light, a good bit too much, for about five days. That's when it started to show, and I know those signs, so at that point I moved her into the Mars Hydro rig outdoors to finish. When I first put her in that rig she had a ton of leaves, but they had yellowed or begun to and they all eventually turned brown and died. I have been removing them as they die. So what's left are the leaves at the bottom which didn't die, and that's unfortunately it. It makes for odd looking buds. But the buds themselves are sweet, so it is what it is. Doesn't seem to have affected the size or yield too much.

Here's what she's supposed to look like.

Regardless - it looks *amazing*!!!

 

[Jon]

Chunky
Day 105

Took a bunch of lower, smaller buds that looked finished and were not doing the shoot foxtail growth thing. I didn't think these were going to get any better. Still a ton on the plant, but these little branches are gone and drying.

 

[Jon]

Phototown Friday Porn
Grow Day 105
Flower Day 35

Humming right along. Today was a clean water feeding day for the girls (miraculously, they are at least for now on the same watering schedule) and as I have done since I was sure the stretch was over, FYI, I added 1 tbsp. molasses and 2 tbsp. Terpinator to each of their gallons. They get this once a week. Of course I ph that mix to my 6.3 target for this grow.

Also want to say one thing about watering. At this point, my root balls completely fill these pots, and then some. They all wish they were in 7s or 10s. I also have what I consider to be supreme drainage, between the perlite in the FF soil and the 20% of perlite #3 (bigger stuff) I add. So when the roots have filled the pot, I have found that from that point forward, let's say I'm giving each girl a gallon each feeding. If I were to simply dump the gallon of water on the soil as a whole, I will immediately see half of it at least drain right through the pot. Gravity and weight of water and my drainage guarantees, it, I've watched it happen dozens of times now. Did I really give them a gallon? No. VERSUS when I water as @Emilya reiterates over and over again - SLOWLY - they take the entire gallon with just about 5% runoff, which is about okay. So even at this late stage, when the natural tendency is to simply get it done and dump your water on cuz you figure what difference does it make, the roots fill the whole pot anyway, I have found that one is better served to fight that tendency, stay the course, and water slowly the entire grow. Always. So I give them a half gallon very slowly around the edge on all three plants, and then I go smoke a while, refill the containers, mix the additives, ph it, smoke again, and basically kill like 20 minutes or half an hour. Then I take a quart of the half gallon that's left and I slowly dump it right down the middle of the main stem, slowly enough that it doesn't go beyond the center right around the stem. Then I smoke some more and drink some coffee and play with Molly for another 15-20 minutes. Then I finish the last quart around the edges, so that the last thing they got with that watering was the very edges. Even though the roots fill the pot, there's still room for more density of root to the outside.

How am I doing, E?

Anyway, other than that, worthy of note is in one of the two photos. The first is my standard shot of the girls from the front door of the tent at my "usual" easy to capture but too far away angle. This is just to show them as a whole.

But the second picture I gotta give some props to @West Hippie. He posted a picture in his journal last night of the grow from the perspective of above and shooting down in between his light bars. I loved it. I was inspired. So West, the second pic is for you, and thanks for the inspiration. Someone once said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Here you go. Have a great weekend everyone.

 

[West Hippie]

Loving all this great work Jon , this will tag me in so I don’t miss anymore of this excellent grow . And thank you for the tag . I’ll catch up before you know it .

 

[Bill284]

Phototown Friday Porn
Grow Day 105
Flower Day 35

Humming right along. Today was a clean water feeding day for the girls (miraculously, they are at least for now on the same watering schedule) and as I have done since I was sure the stretch was over, FYI, I added 1 tbsp. molasses and 2 tbsp. Terpinator to each of their gallons. They get this once a week. Of course I ph that mix to my 6.3 target for this grow.

Also want to say one thing about watering. At this point, my root balls completely fill these pots, and then some. They all wish they were in 7s or 10s. I also have what I consider to be supreme drainage, between the perlite in the FF soil and the 20% of perlite #3 (bigger stuff) I add. So when the roots have filled the pot, I have found that from that point forward, let's say I'm giving each girl a gallon each feeding. If I were to simply dump the gallon of water on the soil as a whole, I will immediately see half of it at least drain right through the pot. Gravity and weight of water and my drainage guarantees, it, I've watched it happen dozens of times now. Did I really give them a gallon? No. VERSUS when I water as @Emilya reiterates over and over again - SLOWLY - they take the entire gallon with just about 5% runoff, which is about okay. So even at this late stage, when the natural tendency is to simply get it done and dump your water on cuz you figure what difference does it make, the roots fill the whole pot anyway, I have found that one is better served to fight that tendency, stay the course, and water slowly the entire grow. Always. So I give them a half gallon very slowly around the edge on all three plants, and then I go smoke a while, refill the containers, mix the additives, ph it, smoke again, and basically kill like 20 minutes or half an hour. Then I take a quart of the half gallon that's left and I slowly dump it right down the middle of the main stem, slowly enough that it doesn't go beyond the center right around the stem. Then I smoke some more and drink some coffee and play with Molly for another 15-20 minutes. Then I finish the last quart around the edges, so that the last thing they got with that watering was the very edges. Even though the roots fill the pot, there's still room for more density of root to the outside.

How am I doing, E?

Anyway, other than that, worthy of note is in one of the two photos. The first is my standard shot of the girls from the front door of the tent at my "usual" easy to capture but too far away angle. This is just to show them as a whole.

But the second picture I gotta give some props to @West Hippie. He posted a picture in his journal last night of the grow from the perspective of above and shooting down in between his light bars. I loved it. I was inspired. So West, the second pic is for you, and thanks for the inspiration. Someone once said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Here you go. Have a great weekend everyone.

Love the shot through the bars.
My new favorite.
Stay safe Jon.
Bill

 

[Emilya Green]

How am I doing, E?

Excellent! You have fully grasped how important it is to water slowly, making sure to saturate the entire medium, and of course ending up with the edges the wettest places of all. The roots that this method produces can not be denied, and one who can combine that with being patient enough to wait for the plant to build those roots before transplanting, will never have underdeveloped plants.

 

[Mayne]

Praying is a direct result and indicator of how much transpiration is happening. The only way those leaves can raise up like that is when the water pressure in the xylem reaches the optimal level. This means that the roots are unobstructed and able to suck up the maximum amount of water over time and in addition to that, the leaves have enough light/heat hitting them and breeze helping them to evaporate off a significant amount of that water. The leaves reach a point of 45 degrees and all the ridges stand up to increase the surface area of the leaf. The angle that the leaves present to the light is the maximum compromise between gathering photons and allowing as significant amount of the light energy to penetrate the leaf and go to the next level. It really is a beautiful thing, this praying, when you understand what all is going on, and going right, in a plant that can do this every time the light comes on and all through the watering cycle. Some people only see this right at the end of the watering cycle, when the container is mostly dry and the plants are sucking hard to get the last of the water.

great explanation Emilya!

 

[Rexer]

Looking great Jon, I love that photo through the bars. And very nice explaining by both you and Emilya on the watering technique and its importance

 

[Mayne]

Oh, and Jon, hell of a job on the canopy bro, looks amazing!..

 

[Jon]

CHUNKY HARVEST
Day 106
Thank God We Don't Have to See This Plant Anymore....

So I finally took her. I probably could have let her go and go and she may have just kept sprouting those foxtails forever till all the buds dried on the vine. I have had enough and frankly I'm tired of looking at this plant. Lol.

But boy, did she live up to her name in terms of the buds and the yield.

Here you go:

Total Haul
Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
Stem and Root Ball: NOTE - for anyone seeing this who believes that you should not plant autos in any pot bigger than a three gallon pot, this is a FIVE. And as you can clearly see, she would have filled a SEVEN. Easily. The roots have been this full for over a month. Please let go of the myth that one shouldn't plant autos in a pot bigger than a three. It's time to let it go. Lol.

 

[Bill284]

CHUNKY HARVEST
Day 106
Thank God We Don't Have to See This Plant Anymore....

So I finally took her. I probably could have let her go and go and she may have just kept sprouting those foxtails forever till all the buds dried on the vine. I have had enough and frankly I'm tired of looking at this plant. Lol.

But boy, did she live up to her name in terms of the buds and the yield.

Here you go:

Total Haul
Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
Stem and Root Ball: NOTE - for anyone seeing this who believes that you should not plant autos in any pot bigger than a three gallon pot, this is a FIVE. And as you can clearly see, she would have filled a SEVEN. Easily. The roots have been this full for over a month. Please let go of the myth that one shouldn't plant autos in a pot bigger than a three. It's time to let it go. Lol.

Branching is fantastic.
Buds areccute too.
Stay safe.
Bill

 

[Jon]

My Latest Grow Room Guest

My buddy stopped by tonight and brought with him his new bird, not even named yet. This is his pygmy parrot, one of the world's smallest parrots, hanging out in her cage on my nute table. The red caps in the background are Canna nute bottle caps. Lol.

She's a little quiet, but you don't have to take her for a walk. Pretty little thing. And if I had a methane leak, I'm covered. Hmmm....

Lol!

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

Pretty birdy!!!