THC Bomb & WW/Skunk - CFL Hood/Veg HPS/Flower

[Skybound]

This is a regular seed. When I started the grow, I dropped one of these and a fem THC Bomb, but the bomb never grew. I will be flipping the lights in about a week, so we'll know shortly after that if this will be another male plant or not.

 

[AfricanGrower]

NIIICCCEEEEE!! I am happy for you Sky! And for the Capn.....he's a good guy, more than you'll know!


When I was looking through these, I literally thought you took my pics from my gallery and through them up here, haha Then I realized I couldn't be that fair in complexion

Good to know that we can replicate ALMOST exact results with this method, all because of the amount of effort and time it took Capn to develop it!

 

[TheCapn]

AG, definitely has the nicer tan; I'm jealous. It is remarkable how much those two root balls look alike.

Sky, it looks like you waited until just the right time. Your plant looks happy in the new pot. I sure do hope it's a girl. Growth will be very rapid now with the new pot and at this stage. You will be checking that thing 3 x a day for pistils.

I'm glad you could some of my extra gear to use.

On a side note, I've been pm'ing with sling; he was really the first person to really see the advantage of switching to rockwool cubes. He has been experimenting with irrigating more often during vegetative growth. I'll let him chime in here but he says he is watering multiple times a day (recirculating) and it is increasing growth rates even further, with NO SIGNS of over watering. I'm starting 2x a day now in veg.

Since you're going to flower in a week, I would start the transition phase of the Gen hydro nutrients this week. (Equal parts of grow, micro, bloom). 500-ish ppm. Not absolutely necessary, but it should bring the pistils out a few days sooner.

 

[Skybound]

AG, definitely has the nicer tan; I'm jealous. It is remarkable how much those two root balls look alike.

Sky, it looks like you waited until just the right time. Your plant looks happy in the new pot. I sure do hope it's a girl. Growth will be very rapid now with the new pot and at this stage. You will be checking that thing 3 x a day for pistils.

I'm glad you could some of my extra gear to use.

On a side note, I've been pm'ing with sling; he was really the first person to really see the advantage of switching to rockwool cubes. He has been experimenting with irrigating more often during vegetative growth. I'll let him chime in here but he says he is watering multiple times a day (recirculating) and it is increasing growth rates even further, with NO SIGNS of over watering. I'm starting 2x a day now in veg.

Since you're going to flower in a week, I would start the transition phase of the Gen hydro nutrients this week. (Equal parts of grow, micro, bloom). 500-ish ppm. Not absolutely necessary, but it should bring the pistils out a few days sooner.

I'm glad you brought this up b/c I've been meaning to ask about it. Right now I have the feed timed to water for a minute 3 times every 24hours. I would like to increase this b/c the plant appears (to me) to be at a stand still. This may be from being a bit too root bound so I will wait and see, but I have this voice in my head telling me the plant isn't getting fed enough. Is the voice lying?

The res PH spike very high last night @ about 7.6 maybe a point higher. It took me about 4 hours to dial it back down and it looks to want to settle @ 6.1 which is manageable for me. The tea PHed @ 5.5 at the time of maturity. I added about 400ml to the cubes and hopefully this will help lower the PH in the res a bit. I have almost no silica in this weeks mix so there's no reason why the PH should be climbing so high. I attribute this spike to the new rock wool cubes as I didn't soak them very long, maybe 5-10 minutes.

I have the PPMs right @ 500, but that's with a 3-2-1 mix. Maybe I will try and change out the res again on Sunday and use the 1-1-1 ratio to transition into flower. Does it matter when the transition schedule is applied relative to the lighting change in schedule? I still need to track down some 2700k bulbs as I broke one when I gutted the closet after the last failed grow. As far as female, of course I hope it's a lady too, that goes w/o saying. Time will tell!

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>> I attribute this spike to the new rock wool cubes as I didn't soak them very long, maybe 5-10 minutes.

Yea the cubes tend to be a little bit on the alkaline side.

When I prepare for transplant, I usually let my cubes soak in pH adjusted water, at around a pH of 5. I let it soak for at least 6hrs, and when I return to check the pH, it settles right around 6.0....perfect

 

[TheCapn]

I'm glad you brought this up b/c I've been meaning to ask about it. Right now I have the feed timed to water for a minute 3 times every 24hours. I would like to increase this b/c the plant appears (to me) to be at a stand still. This may be from being a bit too root bound so I will wait and see, but I have this voice in my head telling me the plant isn't getting fed enough. Is the voice lying?

The res PH spike very high last night @ about 7.6 maybe a point higher. It took me about 4 hours to dial it back down and it looks to want to settle @ 6.1 which is manageable for me. The tea PHed @ 5.5 at the time of maturity. I added about 400ml to the cubes and hopefully this will help lower the PH in the res a bit. I have almost no silica in this weeks mix so there's no reason why the PH should be climbing so high. I attribute this spike to the new rock wool cubes as I didn't soak them very long, maybe 5-10 minutes.

I have the PPMs right @ 500, but that's with a 3-2-1 mix. Maybe I will try and change out the res again on Sunday and use the 1-1-1 ratio to transition into flower. Does it matter when the transition schedule is applied relative to the lighting change in schedule? I still need to track down some 2700k bulbs as I broke one when I gutted the closet after the last failed grow. As far as female, of course I hope it's a lady too, that goes w/o saying. Time will tell!

>>> I attribute this spike to the new rock wool cubes as I didn't soak them very long, maybe 5-10 minutes.

Yea the cubes tend to be a little bit on the alkaline side.

When I prepare for transplant, I usually let my cubes soak in pH adjusted water, at around a pH of 5. I let it soak for at least 6hrs, and when I return to check the pH, it settles right around 6.0....perfect

Stand still: After topping, you will notice it will stop growing for a few days, then it will get back on track. Don't worry.

PH: I promise you, the cubes didn't raise your PH that high. Calibrate your meter. As I recall you have that yellow one from china. I used to have that one and it NEVER stayed calibrated. If your meter is correct, there is something else raising it.

Timing: I start the 1-1-1 a week before I go to flower to give it a head start. With all the PH fluctuations and adjusting, I would change your water now.

 

[Skybound]

I gotta wait for someone to get paid so I can borrow off them. Best I can do is give a 3 or 4 day grace period after the next res change. My life would be so much easier had I bought the RO system when I had the $$. After I topped, it stopped for a minute then started growing nice again, but then shortly after halted growth again. I was just thinking it's b/c I had it in such a small pot (solo cup) and even still, the cup was only half filled with cubes.

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>>After I topped, it stopped for a minute then started growing nice again, but then shortly after halted growth again.

What time frame are we looking at here? I don't start to see rapid growth begin a good week(slightly less) after topping!

 

[Skybound]

Maybe about 4 days. The 2 main stems about about a quarter inch past their first nodes now. Overall plant color is not optimal. I thought this may be b/c I undershot the CalMag dose, so I corrected by adding another 1.5ml which brings that to 9.5ml total and ppms to 550.

 

[AfricanGrower]

I know the Capn's recipe calls for 4ml/g of CaMg, but it's just a fact of nature that some strains are more CaMg hungry than others! I previously said that I was going to reduce my CaMg dose from 5ml to 4ml, and within 1 day of doing so, I noticed a slightly yellow hue returning back to my tops. I now stick with 5ml/g because I now know Bubblelicious just eats the stuff up. And mind you, I am also using tapwater at a PPM of 170, so even what little Ca is in the water already STILL is not enough to satisfy my plant. Just my opinion

 

[s1ingblade]

I've had to top plants to get them to slow down or even stall so I could wait for a room to send them to. Its harder on some strains than others, we all have the tendencies to overlook the obvious and jump right into the opposite of K.I.S.S.. I've done it to but sky try to keep it simple and to not over think this one to much, its a simple plant to grow esp. At that stage. Hit me up if you runs to a bump in the road ok?

 

[Skybound]

@ AG, if my coloration improves, I will conclude the same as you for this strain.

@ s1ing, with anything that I apply myself to, I try to learn as much as I can about that topic. I'm not trying to over complicate my grow, but personally the knowledge gained is most important to me b/c these understandings I know can be applied to any plant with small adjustments. I will do my best to Keep It Simple, I'm probably not going to scrog this either and just let nature happen randomly.

 

[TheCapn]

>>>After I topped, it stopped for a minute then started growing nice again, but then shortly after halted growth again.

What time frame are we looking at here? I don't start to see rapid growth begin a good week(slightly less) after topping!

+1

I know the Capn's recipe calls for 4ml/g of CaMg, but it's just a fact of nature that some strains are more CaMg hungry than others! I previously said that I was going to reduce my CaMg dose from 5ml to 4ml, and within 1 day of doing so, I noticed a slightly yellow hue returning back to my tops. I now stick with 5ml/g because I now know Bubblelicious just eats the stuff up. And mind you, I am also using tapwater at a PPM of 170, so even what little Ca is in the water already STILL is not enough to satisfy my plant. Just my opinion

+1

I've had to top plants to get them to slow down or even stall so I could wait for a room to send them to. Its harder on some strains than others, we all have the tendencies to overlook the obvious and jump right into the opposite of K.I.S.S.. I've done it to but sky try to keep it simple and to not over think this one to much, its a simple plant to grow esp. At that stage. Hit me up if you runs to a bump in the road ok?

+1

@ AG, if my coloration improves, I will conclude the same as you for this strain.

@ s1ing, with anything that I apply myself to, I try to learn as much as I can about that topic. I'm not trying to over complicate my grow, but personally the knowledge gained is most important to me b/c these understandings I know can be applied to any plant with small adjustments. I will do my best to Keep It Simple, I'm probably not going to scrog this either and just let nature happen randomly.

 

[Scarfinger68]

Plants look good to me I am curious to see how this ww x skunk turns out. It sounds like a decent cross.

I am not a hydro guy but I have heard that a plant in VEG produces/or leaves behind more alkaline stuff and a plant in Flower produces/leaves behind more acidic stuff? Not sure if general plant stages could contribute to small fluctuations in general. Curious if after you start flowering if you will have more problems will low PH.

Good luck and +Reps for the good work so far

 

[Skybound]

Scar, to be honest, I really wish my pH would fall rather than climb. I had to discontinue use of Silica b/c it's way too alkaline to add to the already existing burden. If in flower pH falls, I can then add the silica back in. i just wish I was able to use it for veg b/c it makes the plant noticeably pliable and forgiving to extreme LST. The label also claims that silica increases immunities and tolerance for stress.

Edit - The new pot size, the added CaMg and the heal time all paid off. Color is returning to even green and stretch has once again commenced.

 

[Skybound]

Happy Fried'day to all you potheads! This is not an update, but rather some plans I have to possibly remedy the pH swings I've been having and the new nutes I will likely be using to flower with. First, I have been researching possible causes of the crazy pH swings that have been occurring in my res and as best I can tell, it is likely do to the high pH value of rock wool coupled with the fact that I did not treat the cubes properly before I transplanted into them. In a rush, I added cubes to pHed water and left it sit for about 10-15 minutes. No problems there except when I transplanted, I only prepped enough cubes to cover half of the root ball leaving many roots exposed to open air. I quickly added a few more handfuls of cubes to the treating jug and pHed the water, waited about 5 minutes, adjusted, shook the jug, then corrected and drained. Speeding through all that to get those roots covered is what I am likely suffering from now. I should have placed a solo cup in the new pot and built a bed of wet cubes around it to make sure I had enough.

I have 2 plans to possibly remedy this. First is to adjust the pH of this res. Being as though I plan to change it out anyway in 2 days, I figure the ware and tare is ok and if need be, I can switch it out early as I want to start transitioning into flower nutes asap. The plan is to catch it when the timer kicks the pump on for a minute and set it to keep running for 15 minutes, checking pH in the middle of this run and adjusting accordingly. I figure I can completely saturate the RW and slowly recorrect the pH of the medium, I just hope the RW is flexible to that. With 2 days to play with, I should be able to dial it in. It may also be a good idea after changing out the res to run the new res water only for a few minutes to flush the medium of any buildup, and quickly swap the water again.

My second possible plan is to get me another of the cheap 3 gallon totes and run the drain line to it. This will separate my feed from my return. Res A would be the feed, Res B would be the return. Once water levels in A get too low, I could then treat B for PPM and pH and bring it back to A to begin the process again. this would allow me to isolate the problem and slowly correct it over the coming weeks and would truly be a set it and forget it operation for at least a few days.

Both plans I think are logical, but I hope one of my mentors will sign off on either or both to give me a bit of added confidence.

I am hoping to get funding to replenish my pretty thin GH 3 part stock, but I have a life line if that doesn't happen. I'd like to stay with the GH 3 part b/c so many people use it and Capn's nute schedules are now extremely easy for me to understand also use the GH products. If push come to shove, these new nutes will be used and I will still try to stick to the flower schedule The Capn has laid out for GH. I will adjust accordingly if/when need be.

Here is a few of the gifts that were so graciously donated to me. there are plenty more and I will upload pics of each as I incorporate them into my grow. The 2 PC fans I won't be able to use right away, but I do have immediate plans for them and as soon as I get the AC/DC converter, they both will be used for my current and future cabinets.

Edit -

Rock Fusion (Bloom) - 4-2-9
Rock Resinator (Heavy Yields) - 1-4-16
Rock Absorbalight (Foliar Spray) - 0-0.3-0.3
Rock SuperChrage (Root Tonic) - 0-10-12

 

[TheCapn]

>>>Happy Fried'day to all you potheads!

TGIF!

>>>I have been researching possible causes of the crazy pH swings that have been occurring in my res and as best I can tell, it is likely do to the high pH value of rock wool coupled with the fact that I did not treat the cubes properly before I transplanted into them.

I promise you it's not the rockwool.

>>>I only prepped enough cubes to cover half of the root ball leaving many roots exposed to open air. I quickly added a few more handfuls of cubes to the treating jug and pHed the water, waited about 5 minutes, adjusted, shook the jug, then corrected and drained.

I do that all the time. I never have enough, so I just dunk a few more and use em. I'm mainly dunking them so they don't irritate my hands.

>>>I have 2 plans to possibly remedy this. First is to adjust the pH of this res.

Good idea. Just go slow.

>>>The plan is to catch it when the timer kicks the pump on for a minute and set it to keep running for 15 minutes, checking pH in the middle of this run and adjusting accordingly.

Not necessary, just recirculate for 15 mins and then check and adjust the res.

>>>My second possible plan is to get me another of the cheap 3 gallon totes and run the drain line to it. This will separate my feed from my return. Res A would be the feed, Res B would be the return.

Not necessary, just recirculate for 15 mins and then check and adjust the res.

Plan A. Approved.

Plan B. Rejected. ha ha ha

>>>If push come to shove, these new nutes will be used and I will still try to stick to the flower schedule The Capn has laid out for GH. I will adjust accordingly if/when need be.

I think the rock nutes would attract a lot of attention to this thread, but I understand being gun shy as we don't know the nutes very well yet. I can't understand what the "super charge" does. If you want to stick with GH, when you're getting low on one of the three parts, tell me what it is and I'll send you more.

>>>The 2 PC fans I won't be able to use right away, but I do have immediate plans for them and as soon as I get the AC/DC converter, they both will be used for my current and future cabinets.

Be sure to get 1AMP, 12V converters: 12V 1A AC DC Power Supply Adapters 4 CCTV Security Camera 1000mA

I have a .75 amp. It runs one, but gets too hot.

I'm looking forward to seeing this girl take off.

 

[Skybound]

Update 11/23 Week 03 (36)/VD22,

I flushed the medium for 15 minutes with pH 5.8 res water for 15 minutes. Half way through I adjusted again and once more when flush was complete. Res has stabilized to 5.9/6.0. I also removed the lower most nodes because they were growing too slow and were constantly wet from feed hoses bouncing up. To remedy that, I made a DIY water halo that releases pressure pretty good. It was extremely simple to design and construct. All you need is all of the ingredients pictured below;

Also took a little time to partition off the section of the upper box to block light and down the road, mount a Capn fan to the card board. I will cover this wall with some bristol board (white) and also consider making some top feed recirculating mods to the upper box. I am very hesitant though b/c there would be electricity below so I will likely not do that, but we'll see. Was also able to barely squeeze in the 2' 20w T5 floro, but I got it and will fill out the rest with CFLs. It should make a good and safe place to clone/seed/early veg and be light proof from the lower flower room. Actually, if I can find a small tub that will fit inside nearly perfectly, I can run plumbing externally eliminating a possible hazard.

Just now, my oscillating fan was clicking loudly so I had to sneak in the stop the oscillation, and since I was in, I added the halo dripper to the crown and staked it down in 2 places with hose stakes The Capn kindly donated to me. As far as building the halo, you need a 1/4" barb Tee, a length of 1/4" poly tubing cut to your desired length to drip around the zone you choose. After the tube is cut, fit it onto your 1/4' Tee to make the halo. Then use the thumb tack to poke holes about 1/4" apart all the way around. You then take your generic $8 Moto Tool with the pointed grinder tip in the collet and before turning the Moto Tool on, first push the tip of the grinder into the hole poked by the tack. Once in, turn the Moto tool on and allow the grinder tip to remove most of the material from the hole. You'll just want to open the hole you made and do not want to push the grinder tip in too far lest it will poke out the other side rendering you with a dripper/water fountain, and though that would look totally awesome, it would probably not be a good idea to have nutrient solution sprayed all over your grow area in random directions.

Leaf color for the most part I'd say is improving. There appears to be some lower nute burn as PPMs are up to about 570, or it could possibly be a mild deficiency? Any rate I noticed it and will continue to monitor for other symptoms. I was having RH problems and did not want to risk contracting a K def, so I used an idea I saw in someone else's journal, hanging a wet cloth somewhere in the grow area. Coupled with the oscillating fan, the RH has risen to about 55%-60%.

Also added a half liter of Heisenberg Tea that ironically tested pH of 5.9, awesome. I've found the balanced mix that does not have weird pH readings. I just gotta stick to weighing the mycorrhizae b/c that is the only thing that changed save for adding each ingredient 15 minutes apart.

Also forgot that I LSTed the top 2 mains to open up the middle to a little light. Hopefully lower nodes will benefit and get a little stretch out of the deal. after the lowers are out far enough, I can let the mains free and everyone's leaves will have access to light. On a side note, I will be looking into dismantling my 400w HID and making a suitable reflector for it to fit into my current box. AG seems to think I can manage the heat so I'm going to give that a whirl. Let yas all know how that turns out.

Question, does Herbies have CBD only strains? I think I'd like to get some of that to help some people out. In the push to legalize my state, a few families have shared hardships with their children with epilepsy (up to 300 fits per day). Seeing the success the family in Colorado had with CBD (1 fit a day maybe), they joined the cause to help get laws passed. If it don't go their way, they are considering moving for the medicine. I'd like to help these (kind of) people out on the FQT, Free Quiet Tip. I love growing more and more every day. If that can be further enjoyed by helping people with no want in return just really adds value to ones life IMO. Just some thoughts...

Edit -
When done grinding out all the holes on the halo, you should blow debris out from both ends and whip the hose while holding an end to get it all out. You should then hook the halo up to something that can push the water through it. I used my trusty 100ml syringe to inject tap water through a couple times to ensure all debris was removed with direction of flow. Dank knows what direction of flow means, don't ya buddy?

 

[AfricanGrower]

Looking good in here Sky!

As for the spotting on the lower leaves, it looks to me that it is the start of a Calcium deficiency. I amy be wrong, but if those spots start turning brown, rusty, then you can be sure that a Ca related def is on the way.

But for now she looks healthy overall. Haha is the bowl and the 1/8th required to make that awesome halo drip ring

 

[Skybound]

My imagination only trickles w/o it.

Edit - Once I transplant into larger pots, I can just tie bigger halos to this one and feed multi zonal.

Edit 2 - I might even make one for adding tea. Not like I have to worry about covering medium with too many hoses.