KJ's T5/CFL 1st Time Grow

[KarlJay]

Update: Harvested 3 more of grow 2. Now only 4 more left of that grow. Grow 3 is mostly in flower, only 5 held back for more veg time. Grow 4 is making GREAT progress! Grow 5 is all in soil now and looking pretty good, I didn't take any more clones, so I got 21 for grow 5. I might just leave it at that to cut back a bit on the space and get better lighting.

The 3 harvested had better yield for some reason. I can tell by how much they filled up the drying tray.

The other 4 from grow 2 should be ready over the next few days.

The ones in cure are doing great and I'll be ready to vacuum bag them in a few days.

 

[Graytail]

Update: Harvested 3 more of grow 2. Now only 4 more left of that grow. Grow 3 is mostly in flower, only 5 held back for more veg time. Grow 4 is making GREAT progress! Grow 5 is all in soil now and looking pretty good, I didn't take any more clones, so I got 21 for grow 5. I might just leave it at that to cut back a bit on the space and get better lighting.

The 3 harvested had better yield for some reason. I can tell by how much they filled up the drying tray.

Thanks for the pics, Karl - heheh, that looks SO familiar! I bet the second 3 harvested had closer nodes, meaning they matured a bit more slowly than the first ones, and therefore yielded more from more branches.

And yeah, 600 watts over 5 plants is a bit weak with no side reflection. Have you considered white curtains?

 

[KarlJay]

Thanks for the pics, Karl - heheh, that looks SO familiar! I bet the second 3 harvested had closer nodes, meaning they matured a bit more slowly than the first ones, and therefore yielded more from more branches.

And yeah, 600 watts over 5 plants is a bit weak with no side reflection. Have you considered white curtains?

And yeah, 600 watts over 5 plants is a bit weak with no side reflection. Have you considered white curtains?

?? I don't have 600 over 5 plants :O ... I've got 4 600 watt lights in the flower room. Total plants in the flower room is about 35 or so.

They're a bit cramped, but I'm working on getting things fixed up better. I might cut down the number of plants and spread them out more and add some lower lights.

The 3rd harvest should be the "tell-all" because I didn't cut the lower branches.

 

[Graytail]

I was referring to grow 5 with 21 plants and 4-600s = 600 over 5.

If it's 35, you have 600 over 9. That's a lot for 600 watts. 21 should be better weed, and similar yield.

But hey, I've harvested 2 plants so far - it's not like I actually know what I'm talking about.

 

[KarlJay]

I was referring to grow 5 with 21 plants and 4-600s = 600 over 5.

If it's 35, you have 600 over 9. That's a lot for 600 watts. 21 should be better weed, and similar yield.

But hey, I've harvested 2 plants so far - it's not like I actually know what I'm talking about.

Ok, I get it now... You're counting the number of plants under each light. Yea, I really think my lighting is an issue. I'm actually going to scale back a bit and see what happens. The difference between the 1st and 2nd grow per plant was huge.

I really shouldn't have changed the number of plants and lower trimming at the same time. It's better to make small changes and see what happens.

Given the dramatic difference between the two grows, I should have just held steady instead of changing things up that much.



On another note, the 4th grow is now nearly as tall as the 3rd grow that's still in veg !!!!

In the veg room I have 5 left over from Grow 3 and the grow 4 is nearly the same size and they don't look all stretched out.

I've been using more molasses than before. I didn't use molasses during veg before and not I'm seen BIG results from it.

I'm going to try molasses thru the whole grow and see how the plants like it.

 

[DharmaBud]

Congats on the harvest KJ! Oh to have the room you do lol!

 

[KarlJay]

Congats on the harvest KJ! Oh to have the room you do lol!

Thanks!

Update: Harvested 2 more from Grow 2, so now there's only 2 more left. I put the last harvest into the gallon jars before they were fully dry so that I can roll them around while they are still a bit wet. It seems to be working, they look tighter than the ones that were fully dry.

Looked around the flower room and it's pretty clear that I need to space these plants out more. Several plants looked unhealthy on the bottom part because they aren't getting enough light.

I have just enough room to walk around the edge of the room, so maybe I'll spread them out more and make a path when I need to.

 

[KarlJay]

Update: All of grow 2 is in drying/curing! From the looks of it, it'll be 18 1/2 gallon jars, 4 gallon jars. Probably not much more yield than the 1st grow. I'll be putting the 1st part of grow 2 into vacuum bags in a few days, I'm just about out of jars.

Part of this harvest went into jars while still a bit wet in order to make them more compact or tighter. I noticed that mine were too fluffy at the edges, so I'm rolling them around in the glass jar to get the outer part more compressed. Seems to be working great.

Now I have the room to put the rest of grow 3 into flower. I spaced out the plants in flower (grow 3), and it's pretty clear this has made a difference. The lower parts have been getting more light and are responding well. I'm going to cut back the number of plants and see what happens over the next few grows.

 

[Graytail]

Ya, mon!

 

[KarlJay]

Some pics from grow 2:

All of grow 2 is harvested and some are in vacuum bags and the rest is in jars still curing.

This is the complete harvest:

I don't know how much the bags weigh, I just put them into bags to empty out the jars.

I'm putting them into the 1 gallon jars sooner than I did with grow 1, so that I can roll them around and make them look tighter. It REALLY seems to working, the others ones looked 'fluffy' these look tighter. I might have to dump them out on the drying tray in order to make sure they don't get mold/mildew. The stems didn't snap, just bent, so they are a few days sooner than last time.

I'll post a pic to compare grow 1 and grow 2, but it's pretty clear that per plant, grow 1 was awesome, compared to grow 2.

Grow 3 is well under way in flower and looking better since I spread them out more.

Grow 4 is off the hook!!! They are growing like crazy... They are as big as the smaller ones from grow 3 !!! They must be in a hurry

I don't know what I'm doing right, might be the molasses or something.

 

[KingJohnC]

congratulations on your harvest!

 

[DharmaBud]

Looking great KJ, nice stash!

 

[KarlJay]

congratulations on your harvest!

Thanks!

I just moved all the remaining plants in grow 3 into the flower room and it's clear that it's too many plants for how the lights are setup. I think I need 1 more light in there to hit the lower parts of the plants.

Also, the clones were taken too soon again. I needed to take them several weeks later than I did. Grow 5 is only 21 plants so maybe that'll be the right number.

I probably order another 600W HPS for the flower room because the summer temps will drop pretty soon.

I saw a CNN video on medical grows and they were saying they hope to get 1lb/light, so that would put me close to what they do. If I get the lights setup right, I should be able to do near 5lbs / grow.

 

[Graytail]

More than one 420Mag member has gotten close to the 1 gr/watt mark. One pound per light for you would be .75 gr/watt - entirely doable!

Jus' gotta get that canopy right.

 

[KarlJay]

More than one 420Mag member has gotten close to the 1 gr/watt mark. One pound per light for you would be .75 gr/watt - entirely doable!

Jus' gotta get that canopy right.

I agree. I think the 2nd grow harvest proves "more is not always better" I went from 10 plants to 26 plants and my per plant yield fell sharply. I think I need to both increase the lights and flatten out the canopy. Kind of a rookie move on my part going with so many plants, but this is how we learn.

One other note: I put the last of grow 2 into jars sooner than I did before. Last time I waited until the stems snapped, this time I cut that process short by about 2 days.

I put them into the 1 gallon jars and rolled them around several times a day and left the tops off while the jar was on it's side. It REALLY makes the nuggets look more like what you see in dispensaries. I'm not big on the looks part, but if the others involved in this grow don't step up soon, I'm going to have to find a different solution, and looks might be an issue.

 

[FirstOutGrow]

Congratulation on your harvest sir! enjoy your smoke!

 

[KarlJay]

I'm trying out my idea to put one of the HPS lights down low in the flower room.

The idea is to use a cooltube and hang it from one side so that it hangs vertical and then put it down in the center of the room and put the plants around it.

Here's a quick pick, of how I'm doing this now.

I think I should have 3 lights up top and 2 down low in the center. I'll have to move the upper lights around a bit so that all of the tops can get good light.

 

[mcloadie]

I'm trying out my idea to put one of the HPS lights down low in the flower room.

The idea is to use a cooltube and hang it from one side so that it hangs vertical and then put it down in the center of the room and put the plants around it.

Here's a quick pick, of how I'm doing this now.

I think I should have 3 lights up top and 2 down low in the center. I'll have to move the upper lights around a bit so that all of the tops can get good light.

I'm proud of you karl! Wait til you see what that hanging bulb does!

 

[Graytail]

 

[KarlJay]

1st reaction to the new light setup. 1/2 the plants closest to the dropped light had drooping leaves as if they needed water, while all the other didn't. So, I added water to all the plants and the leaves went back to normal.

So, the light make the plants use/evap water faster. I hope this isn't a problem with the other plants getting too much water, because I water everything in the flower room the same.

I'll probably just rotate the plants around the light every time I water so they can all share. I've been trying to get the ones with more lower growth closest to the light. Some of these plant just have nothing much down low, others have quite a bit.

I think in the end, the shorter more compact plants will produce more anyways.