Week 6 Flower, White Widow: Is This Normal?

[OrganiKz]

Fox Farms says give them all 3 of the trio till the end. So if you say follow it, I am going to follow it.
I have read about adding molasses during flowering, any thoughts?
How do you feel about a water flush after every 3 feedings?
This is my 1st grow. I have the White Whidow and 1 Obi Wan kush. I wanna do everything the best possible for the best medication in return.
Plus do to the virus,shortages,heavy lines and closures at the dispensaries my plants are flowering at a perfect time.
I need them.
Obi wan attached

 

[Freegrower97]

You have been given very bad advice. Giving nothing but water at the end is not flushing... it is called forced starvation. I take back everything I said earlier about your buds swelling to twice their size in the last two weeks then... they won't even come close if you are going to starve them.
And, I wasn't talking about bloom boosters... I was talking about the other two thirds of the Fox Farm trio.

Hi Emilya,

First of all, you're coming on a bit strong, as if I'm going to knowingly starve my my plants for no reason!? As you know this is my first grow and I am learning everything as I go along. I have read almost everywhere that you should flush your plants for two weeks, can you please explain how to flush properly rather than just criticise me and put me down?

You mentioned flushing 3x the pot size in water, do you do this while feeding it as per usual or do you do it just once at the end? I'm very confused now. And yes I own 2 of the fox farm trios, but I thought grow big was only for veg, and now with the virus it is impossible for me to obtain the big bloom varient.

I am at the point where I would be starting flushing and I would love your advice to do it properly.

Thank you

 

[Freegrower97]

Hi Emilya,

First of all, you're coming on a bit strong, as if I'm going to knowingly starve my my plants for no reason!? As you know this is my first grow and I am learning everything as I go along. I have read almost everywhere that you should flush your plants for two weeks, can you please explain how to flush properly rather than just criticise me and put me down?

You mentioned flushing 3x the pot size in water, do you do this while feeding it as per usual or do you do it just once at the end? I'm very confused now. And yes I own 2 of the fox farm trios, but I thought grow big was only for veg, and now with the virus it is impossible for me to obtain the big bloom varient.

I am at the point where I would be starting flushing and I would love your advice to do it properly.

Thank you

One more thing, I just read over your first post and I see what you mean now. However I'm still not convinced. I just did some more research and everything I've seen suggests to stop feeding by the last week at least. Yes you may not get as big buds, as you would if you keep feeding towards the end, but the plant will still be using its reserve fan leaf energy to grow and in return you will get a much, much smoother smoke (From what I've read).

Please tell me if you disagree and why. Like I said I am still learning, so I am open to any and all ideas with good reasoning.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Hi Emilya,

First of all, you're coming on a bit strong, as if I'm going to knowingly starve my my plants for no reason!? As you know this is my first grow and I am learning everything as I go along. I have read almost everywhere that you should flush your plants for two weeks, can you please explain how to flush properly rather than just criticise me and put me down?

You mentioned flushing 3x the pot size in water, do you do this while feeding it as per usual or do you do it just once at the end? I'm very confused now. And yes I own 2 of the fox farm trios, but I thought grow big was only for veg, and now with the virus it is impossible for me to obtain the big bloom varient.

I am at the point where I would be starting flushing and I would love your advice to do it properly.

Thank you

Hey Bro, Emilya is just saying if you flush every day for 2 weeks it will do more harm then good.
2 weeks before harvest you flush 1 time. If you are growing in 3 gallon pots you flush with 9 gallons of water. If 5 gallon pots you flush with 15 gallons of water, etc., etc. I usually pH my water that I flush with. If in soil I pH to 6.4. In Coco I pH to 5.8. By time you are done flushing the pH of the water coming out will be the same pH as the water you put in. After that you feed right away & return to your normal feed / water routine.
Emilya is really good at this shit & has been doing it for almost as long as this forum's been around .... well maybe not that long, but a long time. She taught me how to grow 3 years ago & occasionally I still have to turn to her for advice. She can be a little sarcastic at times; but it's only meant to get her point across. Don't take it personal at all.

 

[Buds Buddy]

One more thing, I just read over your first post and I see what you mean now. However I'm still not convinced. I just did some more research and everything I've seen suggests to stop feeding by the last week at least. Yes you may not get as big buds, as you would if you keep feeding towards the end, but the plant will still be using its reserve fan leaf energy to grow and in return you will get a much, much smoother smoke (From what I've read).

Please tell me if you disagree and why. Like I said I am still learning, so I am open to any and all ideas with good reasoning.

That's been proven to be wrong. It's been proven that feeding nutes all the way to the day of harvest doesn't change the taste or smoothness. That's all in the strain & your drying & curing process.

 

[Buds Buddy]

There's a thread called " To Flush or not to flush" you might be interested in.

 

[Emilya Green]

Thanks for the backup @Buds Buddy and sorry for making you feel like I was dissing you @Freegrower97, that was not at all my intention. As Buds said, i have been doing this a long time and I know what I am talking about. If I say something on these forums you can be assured that I have done the experiments to prove the controversial things that I say because I hate being proven wrong after making a huge statement designed for impact, such as my use of the term forced starvation.

Buds is right, that modern science has analyzed our buds and we have found that starvation at the end does not reduce the amount of chemical taste that we get in our buds... the only thing that can do that is a proper cure after harvest. Yes, you read almost everywhere that it is important to starve your plants at the end, some say 1 week and others say 2. I used to be in that camp too... back when I was following 1960's advice from the only cannabis grow books available. Now we know a lot more about what we are doing, and taking organic growing methods into consideration, we realized that these superior grows were not starved at the end... that the nutes and microbes in the soil keep working right up to the moment of the chop.

We know that there is a second stretch period with these plants in the last two weeks of bloom. The buds can almost double in size and weight during this important finalization step, and it is during this last two weeks when the nutrient needs of the plant are greater than ever before. In its imperative to build the buds and produce the seeds, the plant puts its all into the final process, and if the nutes it needs are not available, it will cannibalize itself to get the nutrients it needs to finish out those buds. Old school says this process is needed to produce quality buds and that plant must sacrifice itself toward that goal. Modern methods and organics say to keep feeding right till the end. I know which produces better buds... I have done both, extensively.

The proper way to do this is to flush the soil of all salts and debris right as you are going into that last two weeks, knowing that the plant is about to explode with growth of those buds. This provides maximum water and nutrient uptake for that last stage. Since it is typical to feed/water/feed/water in a soil grow, a 3x flush is usually scheduled for a plain water day and the flush takes the place of watering on that day. Everything else stays normal, and you should feed right up to the end. If your plants finish out and don't need anything else, they will stop uptaking water and nutes all on their own. You do not have to force this decision onto your plants.

I have found there are better ways to stress the plants at the end, so as to throw their all into this process. Reducing the room temp to simulate fall is a good one... slightly reducing the amount of daylight you are giving them, raising the lights a bit, slashing the trunk right at the end... all of these are good tricks to make our plants finish stronger... but starvation is not one of the tools that I use any longer. This is one of the reasons we grow so much better pot than our early pioneers did... we now have better methods and we know better not to follow some of the old ways.

 

[Freegrower97]

Hey, thanks I appreciate both of you getting back to me so quick and with so much information. Everyone here seems to trust your judgement and what you say does make sense, so I will give it a go and do a single flush now and continue my feeding schedule as normal.

Just another question I had that maybe you could answer, I've seen a lot that it's recommended to have 48 hours of darkness before harvest, have you found this to be necessary or more old information?

Thanks again to you and Buds Buddy for all the help!

 

[Emilya Green]

Another successful convert to modern growing methods.... it is already a good day.

My philosophy on the darkness again comes from years of experimentation. We know that strong light degrades the trichomes. We also know that while in the dark, they seem to grow and mature more in the dark period than the light. So, after doing many experiments with side by side plants, I have decided based on my own observations that there is a significant increase in the trichomes size and maturity after putting the plants into an extended dark period of at least 36 hours right before the chop. I have noticed no extra effect from extending this dark period any longer than this.

The darkness does not end here.. again, knowing that light degrades trichomes my harvest will not see direct light again. As soon as they are chopped they go into a dark room to dry for 5-7 days. When they are dry enough to jar up, I like to use dark colored glass jars, or I store my jars in the dark if they are clear. So yes, keeping your buds out of the light once you have grown them, is a thing.

 

[Freegrower97]

Another successful convert to modern growing methods.... it is already a good day.

My philosophy on the darkness again comes from years of experimentation. We know that strong light degrades the trichomes. We also know that while in the dark, they seem to grow and mature more in the dark period than the light. So, after doing many experiments with side by side plants, I have decided based on my own observations that there is a significant increase in the trichomes size and maturity after putting the plants into an extended dark period of at least 36 hours right before the chop. I have noticed no extra effect from extending this dark period any longer than this.

The darkness does not end here.. again, knowing that light degrades trichomes my harvest will not see direct light again. As soon as they are chopped they go into a dark room to dry for 5-7 days. When they are dry enough to jar up, I like to use dark colored glass jars, or I store my jars in the dark if they are clear. So yes, keeping your buds out of the light once you have grown them, is a thing.

Ooo that's a big one, I have clear glass jars ready for curing, but I never would have thought to keep them in the dark! This will really help me out. I really like that you use your observations and first hand experience to back up your points.

Just one more thing, you mentioned them not seeing light again after chopping and I've heard it's good to let the plant dry upside down for a day before trimming, so at what point do you personally trim your buds? Because I assume I'd have to trim them in the light.

 

[Fastass419]

Lol ya you cant trim in the dark just minimize the light less is better

 

[Buds Buddy]

Lol ya you cant trim in the dark just minimize the light less is better

Maybe he has night vision glasses ? Kidding of course.
When drying I cut off all the Lg. Fan leaves & then hang the branches upside down. When you can snap the smaller branches between 2 fingers it's dry enough to go in jars to cure. Could take 3 - 7 days depending on temps, humidity, etc.
You want to keep your drying room with the humidity as low as you can get it to prevent any mold.

 

[Emilya Green]

too low of RH in the drying room and you get a quick dry... I try to maintain 60% RH in there. Getting the buds dried down to below 70% is what stops mold, that and hanging each branch separately and not touching each other.

No, I don't actually harvest and trim in the dark, but it isn't under bright lights either. Since I am not concerned with the showcase sell-ability of my buds, I no longer close trim and manicure my buds. I pull off the fan leaf at the bottom of each bud cluster and I trim any sun leaves back to the point where trichomes are seen, but that is it. I want to trim the non trichome covered tips of all the leaves, to stop transpiration and to open up another avenue for drying but I don't go crazy with the trim since I would rather consume it than send it back into my compost pile.

When I cut all my branches off of my plant, I cut in such a way that I either have part of the branch form a hook or with an opposite branch still attached so that I can easily hang my branches upside down on a clothes hanger in my drying tent. The idea of hanging your entire plant upside down prior to the trim so that somehow the "goodness" would fall down into the buds, is pure old wive's tale, and I have never seen a definitive side by side test proving that one plant hung by its feet for a day turned out better than one simply chopped and hung in a similar fashion. Everyone has a method or a pet trick that they swear by though, and you will see a lot of these kinds of hints out on the webs.

 

[Fastass419]

too low of RH in the drying room and you get a quick dry... I try to maintain 60% RH in there. Getting the buds dried down to below 70% is what stops mold, that and hanging each branch separately and not touching each other.

No, I don't actually harvest and trim in the dark, but it isn't under bright lights either. Since I am not concerned with the showcase sell-ability of my buds, I no longer close trim and manicure my buds. I pull off the fan leaf at the bottom of each bud cluster and I trim any sun leaves back to the point where trichomes are seen, but that is it. I want to trim the non trichome covered tips of all the leaves, to stop transpiration and to open up another avenue for drying but I don't go crazy with the trim since I would rather consume it than send it back into my compost pile.

When I cut all my branches off of my plant, I cut in such a way that I either have part of the branch form a hook or with an opposite branch still attached so that I can easily hang my branches upside down on a clothes hanger in my drying tent. The idea of hanging your entire plant upside down prior to the trim so that somehow the "goodness" would fall down into the buds, is pure old wive's tale, and I have never seen a definitive side by side test proving that one plant hung by its feet for a day turned out better than one simply chopped and hung in a similar fashion. Everyone has a method or a pet trick that they swear by though, and you will see a lot of these kinds of hints out on the webs.

I guess I got lucky that's how I did my first plant I trimmed for showcase buds but I might not do it on my next harvest that and there will be a lot more buds

 

[Emilya Green]

I guess I got lucky that's how I did my first plant I trimmed for showcase buds but I might not do it on my next harvest that and there will be a lot more buds

takes a lot less time too

 

[Freegrower97]

@Fastass419 and @Buds Buddy lol you guys cracked me up.

Okay I see. This is a lot of information to take in, I will have to keep coming back to this thread. I hope everyone else who comes across this and needs it learns something too.

Thanks for your dedicated help, Emilya, and everyone else who answered my questions. If I remember, I will post the results of this grow. My buds are already maybe 40% bigger from when I started this thread.

 

[Fastass419]

@Fastass419 and @Buds Buddy lol you guys cracked me up.

Okay I see. This is a lot of information to take in, I will have to keep coming back to this thread. I hope everyone else who comes across this and needs it learns something too.

Thanks for your dedicated help, Emilya, and everyone else who answered my questions. If I remember, I will post the results of this grow. My buds are already maybe 40% bigger from when I started this thread.

Share a pic

 

[Freegrower97]

Share a pic

Left is 8 days ago, right is right now.


It's a lot more filled in now and I've realised I'm actually a week ahead than I thought, I'm at the beginning of week 8 of flower.

 

[Freegrower97]

HARVEST TIME! For anyone wondering, here are the pics of my finished product!

Not bad for my first grow. I am very happy with the results. Picked at 70% cloudy, 1% Amber. Could have waited 2 weeks longer but it was already 11 weeks in. They're just drying in my closet now.

I'm thinking to go with an autoflowerer for my next grow, what's everyone's opinion on them?