thinking of flowering earlier Than expected opinions

[Weaselcracker]

I am sooooooo not a guru! But yes the last pic looks like male flowers. I'm looking on my phone atm and don't have a better screen to get a good view though so can't be 100% sure. I'm not sure if some of the other pics showing pistils are of the same plant? Does it seem like maybe you have a hermie, Or a male?

 

[stickyickyick]

Next to it is a pistil, on the same stock I'm not sure but what I think is those are hairs that I caught just grown and not unrolled maybe? I'm gonna watch it tonight and if it keeps having balls of any kind it's getting hacked at 6 am lol... but I'm really starting to think it's a girl and I'm being paranoid haha. If I'm wrong getting it out in the am is gonna be next to impossible without pollenate the others that one is in the back left corner

 

[Weaselcracker]

You probably have a couple days minimum before the flowers open up, if it's a male. Definitely time to make sure of the situation anyway. You'll for sure have plenty of time to 100% identify it.

 

[stickyickyick]

I'm gonna give it to maybe tomorrow evening but I'm gonna look again before lights out this morning, and if that round thing hasn't opened or if I still can't find a single pistil on it (I was mistaken earlier in my post), and those other pics with pistols are not it, then I'm gonna cover a few inches of it with a bag, snip it. Go further down gently, snip it and so forth until I clear the trellis. Then I'm gonna get the base and roots and with just a clean wet towel, wipe that whole corner down and just pray lol. This has seemed almost too easy, but losing chemdawg sucked, losing this plant will be a hit. I'm sure I ca. Pull a decent harvest with four plants that'll have more space and less light competition, but still all these weeks have been a lie lol. It's like a cheating girlfriend. It hurts worse actually haha. Anyway joked aside, I just wish it had been the exceptionally tall plant and at least my heights would've been more even across the srceen. Oh well first time, beginners luck is running low. Thanks for the advice bro and btw, you're the one person. That has consistently helped my here so you by default, if nothing else, are my weed guru lol. All the heavy hydro hitters just ignored my pleas. Man little do they know I've been in over my head since I started to build my set up. All good though, some advice is absolutely better than none...

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ok cool. Thanks for the kind words. I think you'll find people are generally super helpful here. I'm pretty new but it seems to me that it just takes time to have people wander in to your journal for whatever reason, post something and get subscribed. It seems like when people start threads because they need help, they get a lot.
No need to get too worried about the male flowers if it is the case. It's been a while since I let one flower, so I'm being cautious re saying how much time you have, but you might even have a week or more depending when the alleged male flowers started. Just keep an eye on it. And one or two flowers can only do so much damage in pollination anyway.
I'm not surprised you feel in over your head. It's a lot to manage and hold in the head.
Growing a perpetual with two rooms, I honestly don't worry one bit when I have to cull a plant. I'm usually happy actually. Anytime they want to weed themselves out a bit it's a bit less work for me and more room for the other girls. They just keep growing and getting bigger and I have so many late nights. Who's in charge? They are. Any impatience over them being ready to harvest, and stuff like that is totally gone though. I just have two 600s for flowering so it's not that big but it's still work.

 

[Weaselcracker]

A tip for you, if you haven't already done this... I went and attached labels at each end of every electrical cord and every device I have in my grow rooms. I also labeled my lights A, B, and (C for veg) and wrote whatever other relevant information on each label. Fans,timers,power bars,ballasts,etc are labelled. This saves me a lot of time and general confusion.
Also I keep track of the weekly feeding/whatever else routine and write it all down.

 

[stickyickyick]

Sorry man I have been meaning to get back to you, been really busy with work. Anyway yes every plug in my tent is color coded with zip ties. I didn't see a way around labeling, between lights, fans, pumps and ac I've got 23 plugs haha. It's quite a bit. I had to slit with extensions like I said and it has
nt been an issue yet. Keeping my eyes on that. As for the plants, they didn't like being trimmed I don't think but it was a necessary evil. I couldn't get the RH below 80 percent last week without opening all the vents On My tent. Since trimming I've gotten it back down below 70 but I need it at 45 max with this strain. It has really dense buds and is very susceptible to mold. Gonna be buying a dehumidifier this week or putting my entire portable ac I their on that shelf I built. It'll be tight but nothing I don't think I ca. Handle. I'll add mor epics tomorrow gonna go to bed soon been a long day. Til then keep doing what you do can't wait to see your harvest. .

 

[Weaselcracker]

Cool. You're way ahead of me then. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out that I should label things.
I'm itching for a dehumidifier as well- as soon as I get some cash, hopefully this week, I'm ordering one in. I'm a little maxed out on power draw, or at I least want to stay well in the safe range, so have spent a lot of time looking for a low wattage one. Best I have found that works for me is about 400 watts, but it has an auto restart function for power outages- which means I can run it on a timer for during the off periods- which is when the RH gets highest, and temps drop, and I have more available power, and the most danger of mold. Very convenient.
My RH regularly gets above 80, and often into the 90s. It's insane actually. I've managed to keep the mold away with good air circulation, but any time big dense buds form, I get worried.

 

[stickyickyick]

Yeah the RH I'm has me concerned. I've got two velcro 1.5' by 1' on the floor of each end wall of my tent that I've been removing while my lights are on . It seems to help if I keep my central air cranked. I actually suffered my first major calamity tonight. Came home to find water in one of my drip pans and a lot. Thought it was a leak. Looked into it and found out the root ball is being sucked into the return pipe to my next bucket in the line. So after cleaning the mess I cut that trellis out. Put all the plants in the sites closest to the reservoir (furthest two always had a slightly higher water level as they're being fed by my pump from the reservoir). Now everything is cramped up even more. I'm actually concerned about a few things. One of my plants is 11 inches from my hps and they're all the way to the roof. I'm gonna have to start bending my plants. I've got the two biggest next to the empty sites so if I stretch them that way they'll gain a few feet but I'll have to spread my hps lights further apart. It's a conundrum for sure lol. I've decided next time I don't care if I germed them three weeks ago, if they're 18 or more inches it's flower time. And with the ppp strain I'd say germ in a paper towel two days, dropped in a cube in a short lid seedling tray for six days. Put into the sites as soon as roots were poking through the rapid rooter cube. (I know that's a mistake now and I got lucky they all survived) and from there may be 3 weeks before they were 18 or more inches. Also because of RH issues and the known density of the strain I'm almost sure I'm gonna be flowering for no more than six. So all in all in my set up, I'm speculating with this strain I could have 6 18 inches ready to harvest in 12 weeks. Not the fastest bit faster than what I'm doing now lol.. how far into flowering were you when. You took those pics?? Those buds were really nice. I'm seeing pistils and actual buds forming everywhere. Will be adding those pics tomorrow, been working in my tent for like three hours lol. But anyway I'll add those tomorrow and look forward t some feedback. Question real fast, other than trellis is there anything I could use like a tomato cage that I could use to contain these beasts? All four of these plants occupying about a 4.5' by 4 by 6.5 tall space. It's very tight. Leaves stay damp from over laying on each other. I've trimmed a lot but if I don't do something fast I'll have to trim a lot more em I'm thinking. OK enough it's late ave a good night

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah in Skybound's journal he was considering tomato cages for a while and I'm 99.9% sure he said it was Hiker he go the idea from. I haven't checked Hiker's journal - but if it's a long one just PM him to point you in the right direction. I think they would work well. You could have lots of options for tying the branches down the way you want.
The two pics I sent you- the younger one was something like - a little less than 3 weeks old, the stage just after they've finished stretching and are starting to bud. I did a big defoliation on that plant as an experiment, because I have two of them the same. The defoliated one hasn't done well and the buds are still quite small. I was open to experimenting with it, and still am, so not worried if it doesn't work out great- I'll try again next time but do some things differently. Still haven't harvested the one from that pic yet.
Alright bro- good luck!

 

[stickyickyick]

 

[stickyickyick]

Ok so I've been saying I'll add more pics. Finally got around to it. I shut down the hps for about an hour today and misted them with some micro (1 ml to 24 Oz ro water with a pinch of Epsom for the magnesium. I figure it's like a summer shower with a couple clouds lol. Just haven't misted in a while and I figure it'd be safer as they're practically touching the hps at the roof lol.. I've got to tie a few down that are passed the lights. I'm 15 days into flowering though and things seem to be going well. Praying the stretch is almost finished. I still haven't gotten the RH under control but I have a couple more weeks I figure. May do some more trimming once the buds start showing up bigger. I don't know I feel like things are going well, I need to get some more ph calibration solution, using the drops and vial is so sketchy. Been keeping the ppm between 1250 and 1350... mainly feeding bloom and liquid koolbloom at this point. Still feeding microgro, and calimagic. Seeing very little spotting or deficiency on my leaves at this point. Been using under lighting cfls, I know it's controversial but it seems to work so far. Between the 4 I've got left I'd say I've got about 20 decent sites that get light. I'm thinking when I harvest, I'm gonna harvest the tops of the plants and give about half down an extra week to hopefully give the bottom buds a little boost.


I don't know though, please anyone with experience feel free to comment and suggest I'm open to advice and criticism. Weasel I hope to hear from you too bro. Ok it's late have a good night everyone I'll check in the morning.

 

[stickyickyick]

Ok so day 21 of flowering.... it started out looking like a great day, my buds looked bigger and a more tricomes than the day before. I had intended to finally re hose my ac unit on to the shelf and see if that helped significantly with the humidity and do a florakleen cycle before a switch. I got the ac in place and it's making a noticeable difference. However from there things went down hill. I've been noticing and trying to ignore and hope would pass, spotting on my lower to mid fans on my two back and biggest plants. After a little investigation and during my pump out I noticed that the roots were blocking my 1 inch returns. Go figure right? Lol short sighted and lesson learned almost immediately after the build. Been expecting this. So in the process of addressing the issue I needed to move one of the forward plants out of the way to lift the back one and access the pipes. Well I needed up snapping cola right below the big production is occurring. I used a pipe cleaner and skewer to try and mend and after reading some posts I feel a lot better about the situation. As for the root clog I came up with a simple temporary fix that was easy for one person. I bent trait a coat hanger and barbed the end a little and pushed the roots from the reservoir back to their bucket. Next moved the back plant furthest away from the reservoir a little, enough to get my arm in, and stuffed a half crumbled up and cut coat hanger in its return to the next bucket. For as simple and stupid (for lack of better terms) of a fix I gotta say it's been amazing. Water flow completely restored. So all in all I guess it turned out to be a decent day. All goals accomplished, switched feeding now to heavy bulking and bloom mix. I'm hoping the restored flow will help the spotting. Also hoping to see some major bud production over the next two weeks. Aside from adding nutrients when needed over the course of the next two weeks, I don't think I'll be feeding anything else. Made it on liters tapped out, glad I didn't buy gallons lol. After this two weeks I intend to do a florakleen week and a clean water week if production vs. RH and mold is not present. Giving a total of 42 days for flowering. Short by what the seed banks instructions suggested but with the space and environmental factors to consider probably the best I can do. I'll finish with 24 hours 9 darkness to help the crystals finish development.

All and all total grow from paper towel to harvest will have been 14 weeks. Which is much shorter than I had intended but nature calls the shots ultimately. I'm gonna post a few pics just uploaded, more to come over the next for weeks. As far as my plan, anyone out there have any thoughts? Judging by these newest pics and being 21 days into flowering and planning for 4 more weeks, any thoughts on yield possibilities? I'm hoping for a pound plus between the four of them. Everyone told me to expect less than a qp from the original six I had but I feel like they expected me to put forth less effort for a first time grow maybe? I don't know, plan for the worse hope for the best I guess. Anyway that's it for now , excuse the typos my phone is shattered and being extra bitch tonight.

 

[stickyickyick]

 

[stickyickyick]

One last thought for the night, I forgot to mention that when people told me they'd stretch, I didn't consider how much. My lights are about 3 inches from the top of my 6.5 foot roof. I had to tie them directly at the v hooks because I needed the extra three inches the come alongs were taking up. The two largest plants actually damaged the very top of their cola by smashing into the light the other day. One actually was lifting the weight of the hps at the corner throwing it off balance sort of. Crazy. I used jute string to tie everyone forward and sideways. It's a mess of strings coming and going but seems to have alleviated the problem of height assuming they aren't gonna keep stretching. I'd say my back to, not considering the 14 inch buckets are easily 4.5 feet tall and more wide. The plants are all very crowded as I get a little further in i intend to trim some more leaves to help the RH. Restricted airflow from everything I've read, coupled with a high RH and dense buds is the making for moldy trash. Can't have that.

 

[Weaselcracker]

The plants are looking good man. Hope they stay that way it sounds like quite a handful. I've been struggling to get a dehumidifier to get my Rh under control as well. I live in the middle of nowhere and yesterday Amazon tried to charge me $365 shipping for a $200 humidifier. No thanks guys...
I know when a couple of my current plants get another two weeks older they are going to be in serious danger and still no real plan to deal with it other than trying to find a decent dehum. You don't have to worry till they start getting fat, but then watch for the signs. They rot from the inside and it can be hard to spot at first. Watch for any of the little fans that stick out from the buds -wilting and dying- and if they pull right out of the buds effortlessly, it may be because the base stem is rotted. Won't have to worry about that yet though.
I tend to be pessimistic when it comes to flowering time. Almost never had a plant flower in the suggested time. Always at least a week or two and usually several weeks or even (yes) months more. So I'm not sure about the part of your plan that calls for early harvest. Generally the buds go through their best most amazing ripening changes in the last 1/3 or -/4 of flowering so it would suck to chop early. But hopefully that situation won't happen
Looking good though. I sent you some +reps for managing this far!

 

[stickyickyick]

Thanks man its crazy everyday lol something tries to go wrong. But it's working out. I'm in no hurry to harvest, I'm hoping I can hold on for at least 5 more weeks but it's gonna be on the mold issue. The ac in the tent isn't really doing what I had hoped. It's because of the thickness of the canopy I feel, but I'm not trimming anything that isn't already looking bad. A few cola have burnt themselves pretty good, gonna be interesting to see how they turn out. Thanks for the rep lol street cred... I didn't even know we had rep haha. I was seriously gonna ask you about signs of mold in your experience so you saved a post there. I'm accused of being a pessimist myself, however I like to think I mentally prepare myself for the worse. So far this has been a roller coaster of stupid little mistakes that get me reading or posting lol but nothing too serious and nothing I haven't been able to work out. I'll post more pics in days to come. They seemed to stop stretching or at least slow down over the past 2 days so hopefully no more burn. Any experience with that? I've since tied them down but the colas have huge stocks that don't bend easily I've been moving the biggest two more and more over each day but they're still inches (like 4 to 6) from the glass on the hps. Which are the absolute highest I can put them. Thoughts on the repair, ever had an issue like that? Will it heal? Hopefully won't slow that one down too much in the process if so. Well got to get to bed just up changing ice and checking tds lol have a good night man..

 

[Weaselcracker]

I haven't ever had much of a height issue. Now I'm scrogging and that really makes it a non issue (knock on wood - I just put two very stretchy sativas into a scrog screen I'm pretty sure they're grown too big for- but am hoping I can keep tucking and weaving as needed).
Supercropping is a useful tool for slowing down branches. Not really recommended during flowering but I do it for emergency growth slow down. Basically I just crush the stems with my fingers, near the tips, till they pop a bit and go soft. Hard to do if the plants are grown tough as you say. Yes I've cracked stems and put a splint in them and it works fine. I found taping the splint on makes it hard to undo later- so I use the pipe cleaners which I think I mentioned in an earlier post.

 

[stickyickyick]

First off, weasel, sorry for not getting back to you I thought I had sent a reply but my phone thought otherwise. Yea lol I guess it was you're advice that guided me with the repair. I had forgotten but it clearly stuck subconsciously. Anyway thanks your advice has been extremely helpful.

Well on to the current events.. 24 days into flowering, I'm about to post pics. I've burnt a couple colas, seemed to get that under control. You'll see in the pics. I've had a few more issues with clogging pipes, but also under control. Haven't checked the RH issue, still between 60 and 70 percent even with the ac unit inside the tent.. with three fans and good exhaust I'm hoping that my airflow will offset the humidity. I've read some other people's threads and have found others that flower in high humidity, but I wonder about the density of their buds vs this strain. Also I really need some thoughts on whether or not I should trim a lot of the small bud sites and vines from the bottom this late on. The last two pics I'm gonna post will show just how dense the growth I'd in there. Also a worry about rot and mold.

But even after all that worry, they may not look organized but they're healthy. Happy so far with this first grow, I've learned a lot about every aspect and my next grow will be befit tremendously.

Judging from the pics I'm providing, how much further would you say these have to flower? I know to wait for the pistils to change and the trichomes, just wondering as a general rule. I know you'd said weasel, that yours always take longer, I assume you meant 12 weeks? I'd heard previous to growing that things happen faster in hydro but I have nothing g to compare it to. I'm still hoping to see massive growth over my next two weeks. I'm gonna then do a week of florakleen If I do see that density. And follow with a week of just straight water. Then finish with a day of dry system and one more in total darkness. I realize I may have to add more time, but it's hard I'm really stressing the flush. I don't wanna grow harshness lol a lot is riding on this first grows outcome.

So lol after all that three questions
1. Should I trim some lower growth off of these to promote airflow?
2. How do they look based on being 23 days in flowering?
3. Does the plan for time seem reasonable and if forced to wait how do I still get a decent flush kn?


Thanks in advance everyone and for your advice so far weasel, looking forward to hearing back..

 

[stickyickyick]