Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

[Legit Spam]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

I would get crazy with training & make the entire canopy level & cover as much of the light space as possible...You'll increase your yield! You plant looks so happy, don't change anything else...Also if your all organic feed right to harvest!!!!

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Yeah, I could pull down some limbs to let more light into the center. That's probably the best move.

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Okay, I've tied all the stems down, opening up the center. I was very careful, of course, only to tie to stem and not crush any bud sites. I was able to bring the lights down a few inchs and it's definitely a better use of light on the interior buds.

Here's Plant Three:

And then the left side and right side, a bit closer (I don't really have a zoom lens on this camera).

I can see a couple of leaves to take off, but probably from here on it's just let it grow and keep the fertilizer coming!

 

[Legit Spam]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Looks great, more light, more buds!

 

[KingJohnC]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

you did a good job Low Stress Training your plant.

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Thanks folks.

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Here we are about a week later. Plant Three continues to be very healthy. The buds are developing slowly. Small buds at nearly every leaf node now.

This is about four weeks since I flipped to 12/12, and about two and a half weeks since Plant Three was confirmed female.

Overall view of Three:

Buds along the left side:

And the right:

The largest buds are just about one inch long now:

And I think I'm seeing the first signs of sugar on the leaves! But they're growing very slowly.

I continue to give the full strength BioThrive Bloom at every watering. No signs of deficiencies, no salts on the soil.

I know I don't have the wattage going on to get really huge buds, but I hope they keep growing a while!

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

So here I am ten days later. This is 40 days since I went to 12/12 and 25 days or so since Plant Three showed female flowers.

Here's what I see. The buds are bigger all over, but not huge. There are many more trichomes, but I'm not seeing any sign of a stretch of the kind KingJohnC mentioned. The plant is maybe an inch taller than it was, from bud growth, but definitely hasn't doubled in length. The pistils are starting to brown a little, so I assume we're getting closer to harvest time.

Here's some pics.

Plant Three overall:

And a couple of bud shots showing pistils starting to brown.

Plant is very sticky, and smells heavily (and heavenly ).

The buds lower down are still growing. Do I start harvesting top buds once all the pistils turn?

 

[Legit Spam]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Please get on amazon & order a pocket microscope in the area of 10 to 60 times magnification ($10 or so)...Use this to harvest with by looking at the trichs...Little amber, lots of cloudy for a head high, lots of amber for chillllllllllllll smoke....

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Okay So the pistils don't tell you much, right?

 

[Legit Spam]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Once you know that plant, sure but not from seed the top buds will continue to produce new pistils past done. Also look into the center/outer ones for harvest info..

 

[Hijinks]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Hope i'm not too late for the show... sub'd and reps for a fellow Colorado grower.

Looks great so far.

 

[KingJohnC]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

you need a 30x jewelers loop to see the trichomes and judge when to harvest. most growers harvest between 5%-30% amber trichomes. harvest at 5%-15% amber trichomes for a "head high" energetic effect and harvest at 30%-50% amber trichomes for a "body stone" sedative effect strain dependent.

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Heya, Hijinks! Always happy to meet another Colorado grower!

Before I saw your suggestion, KingJohnC, I ordered a "420 Scope 60-100x LED Handheld Microscope" which was recommended to me. It should arrive this week, and I hope it will do the trick. To my naked eye the trichs all look quite clear so far, but I can't wait to get a better look.

Other than that, the buds are continuing to grow. Pics below are taken with a different camera, and I'm still learning to use it so they are a bit fuzzier than usual.

Here's Plant Three overall:

And a couple pics of the right side. I'm really happy to see the buds on this side growing in as they are. This side of the plant was all beneath the canopy before I did that last round of LST as you all suggested, and clearly the extra light is helping a lot.

And the left side, which is the original growing tip and the upper branches from the earliest rounds of training.

I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far. The only other thing is that I started to see a very slight coat of fertilizer salts on top of the soil, so I've begun alternating plain fresh water with full-strength fertilizer. Plant looks fine though.

Thanks so much for all the help y'all have given me so far. I look forward to watching this grow finish, and intend to start another batch from seed once this one is done.

 

[Legit Spam]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Looks great, you have certainly eliminated the popcorn & seems to have made every bud chunky. How many days are we at?

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

47 in 12/12 and 28 since Three showed female flowers. She's a bit slow to develop, but fortunately I am (mostly) patient

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Back for an update. I am at 52 days in 12/12 lights, and 37 days since Plant Three was confirmed female. The buds continue to grow and thicken in place. No real stretch, and the canopy is staying nice and even.

We tried using the 420 60-100x scope for viewing trichomes and it is incredibly powerful and clear, but the field of vision is so small I couldn't see anything, and it's sensitive to even the slightest motion which didn't work well for me either. But what trichomes me and Mr Legal could see were clear.

So I ordered a 30x jeweler's loupe which is nice and steady with a large field, but of course gives less magnification. Trichs still look clear to me, but it's possible they are somewhat cloudy. Definitely no amber yet.

My plan is to harvest each bud as it shows a small amount of amber, as I like to keep my smoke pretty light. Top buds first, I assume, since they have been developing the longest, and I'll let the interior buds grow further before harvesting them.

Anyway, a few photos. First a kind of fuzzy over all look at the plant.

And a couple of the left side, where the biggest buds are.

And then the right side, which was the least developed. I am really happy with how these buds are growing in.

We've cut a couple small buds to test, and dried in a paper bag for several days. They are nicely dense, and the high is very light so far, with only a tiny touch of psychedelic in it. But very relaxing and enjoyable.

Alternating fresh water with fertilizer has dissipated the salts that had started to show on the soil. Leaves are staying a nice dark green with no signs of deficiencies.

I have started getting some of the soil gnats that plague my house plants pretty regularly. I'll try to let the soil dry out a bit more to discourage them. Near as I can tell, they don't do any damage to my plants; they're just a nuisance really.

Anyway, I'm overall very happy with how it's going.

 

[Legit Spam]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

Nice, lower buds give a better view of the overall plants maturation stage & you can order nematodes to take care of the soil bugs if you want....

 

[Legal At Last]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

They don't bother me too much unless they dive bomb my wine glass

 

[KingJohnC]

re: Legal & Laid-Back in Colorado - Indoor Soil Grow With CFLs

fungus gnats will eat the roots of your plants as they grow. I use diatomaceous earth on top of my soil as a barrier for soil insects, it cuts them as they move through it. i bought my diatomaceous earth from an animal feed store, do not use the type meant for pool filters.