Padsters 1st ever grow! - 4 Fem Snow White (CFL/400HPS/tent)

[padster]

Ok, so i got a little scared last night, Phoenix looks like she's got some balls. She's a bit behind the others anyway but i just didn't like what i was seeing...
View attachment 1038319 View attachment 1038320

I did an emergency thread out of panic - Male, female or hermie!? but the jury's still out on it for now

Looking again today and i think one of the balls has spat out the start of a hair, phew! Still going to keep a very close eye on it, what i'm seeing is very small and i doubt it's going to explode nasty pollen everywhere just yet.

I've shaded the venting site because i was worried a small amount of light may be going down there and reflecting around the cool tube. Prob just being over paranoid now but better safe than hermie! On that note, everyone stresses the importance of checking for the slightest of light leaks but surely there's is a small amount of light about at night from the moon?

Smelling great in there, and only in there which is good, carbon filter working a treat.

I stupidly forgot to set my water out to de-chlorinate, i'm hoping 12hrs will be long enough because they need feeding later.

Still not decided whether to use any additive with the lucas formula nutes i'm using. The budget's tight on this grow now so don't want to be pouring liquid gold in there or anything, so if anyone has any tips i'd love to hear them...

Other than that all is well

 

[padster]

Still waiting to properly sex Phoenix, the frustration and waiting is killing me.

Thought i'd post a nice group shot to cheer myself up...

 

[padster]

I don't know if it was the right thing to do but i've nipped off what looked like little balls, from 3 different sights. My thread relating to this just kept saying hermie/male, well, as much as i'd rather not believe it i thought i should accept the many voices of experience and act swift to stop my whole grow going tits up!

Random questions:
What happens now? Do i keep looking for these things to appear? If it was female, how much damage have i done? Surely the pollen sacks get to a substantial size before popping anyway?!

I hate to wish my life away, but since i started growing i really wish i could hit life's fast forward button sometimes!

 

[red fury]

Thanks for the +rep red fury! ...you can never give fosters too much rep that's for sure!

And that's one helluva plant you've got goin' there, it's like a freakin' xmas tree dude! I bet it'll feel like xmas too the day you start chugging on that baby! Nice first time plant, is that hempy that you're running, if so what mix? and what strain is it?

Yea, christmas is coming early this year! Im not running hempy right now, i had to look up what it was, sounds cool but could be pretty messy. Im using Fox farm ocean forest soil along with the trio nute pack from fox farm. as far as the strain, i ust pulled a seed out of a bag of mids, but she is looking way better than the mids i found the seed in!

 

[red fury]

From what I've read and experienced, it is best to get the one with the balls outta there, no use risking the possibility of pollination.

 

[padster]

Hempy rocks, well for me anyways. They do seem to love their buckets, my tallest has just hit 3' tall!

I know what ya saying about gettin it out, but i'm still kinda thinking it's gonna pull thru. I know this may just be my nooborance(ignorant noob!) but i'm lookin so closely you wouldn't believe. I'm quite confident i'll know for sure well before they could pop.

Another suspected ball, one i didn't remove has started showing girly bits(i think)

 

[padster]

Group shot and pre-bud porn!

 

[padster]

 

[red fury]

Looking tasty man! What mix are you doing in your hempy? i just germinated 15 seeds and looking to experiment a little.

 

[padster]

3/1 perlite/vermiculite. I've tried to follow the original hempy thread as much as possible, such a simple but effective method and the plants seem to like it too.

I just wish the sexing was as easy at the moment!

 

[padster]

Sparky again, biggest of the lot. day 17ish of flower, and there looks to be some potential budding sites...

 

[del66666]

looking real fine there mate

 

[padster]

looking real fine there mate

Cheers del, hope they end up something like your avatar, juicey!

little update...

DAY 19 FLOWER

Ok, so hermie paranoia is fading a bit. removed about ten strange growths from my smallest plant(phoenix) and about 2 on my largest plant(sparky). Couldn't resist naming all my plants, just glad i ain't growing 100! i still wasn't totally convinced they were balls but i couldn't watch them any longer and picked them off. The next day i only found about 2 on phoenix and 1 on sparky(prob missed these the day before. Then yesterday i found NONE on either of my plants! I'll keep a close eye on this now, i'm in there every 12hours and they get a full examination once every 24hrs.

I got so concerned that i've now got some dutch master reverse on the way! Kinda having second thoughts on that now tho. Some rate it, some hate it, and 3 weeks into flower is prob a bit late to start using it, plus then i found out it needs to be used with the Penetrator which i'm not getting. Might look at a finding home made wetting solution instead. but like i say, i don't know is this'll even be needed yet.

They're starting to look like they have some potential and i'm really buzzed up with my first time grow, never thought i'd get this far.

The only other niggle i have is a bit of yellowing on the lower leaves. some have fallen of or come away with the slightest touch. This is affecting the larger fans and some of the medium sized newer leaves around the base/stem of the plant. I gotta say the canopy is pretty dense so there ain't a lot of light getting down there.

I'm still running the lucas formula on a nute, nute, water cycle but they don't look as good on the days they only have water, should i go all nute from now on maybe...? Also my stem seems to look a bit gnarly, hope it's meant to look like this?

Anyway, you've read enough of my ramble, it's only fair i reward you all with some pics...

Phoenix - my smallest


And Sparky - the biggest

 

[padster]

I've just found time to throw a few pics up and it's going ok at the moment. Haven't seen a ball in days and the one or two that i left to develop turned into hairs and new growth. Starting to think she was never even hermie in the 1st place!

Trying out my new little magnifier, early days yet but i can practice. 60x magnification, under a fiver with delivery on ebay! (just over $7 us) works great for the money and strapped to my 12.1mp phone camera takes a good picture too.

My main concern at the moment is some canoeing on the leaves of the tallest plant. It's only happening on a few leaves on the main cola(best seen in last pic) It looks a little darker than the others too so i'm guessing it's maybe too much nitrogen. I'll just wait it out for now and see if it gets worse, then maybe do a good flush next week if needed.

Take a look and i'd love any comments or advice...

 

[Xare]

Hi padster,

Canoeing of leaf is caused by magnesium deficiency.

Overall your plants look hungry to me.

Can I suggest a different feeding schedule... I use the same nutes that you do with my hempy. But I dont use the grow. Just the Hardwater micro and the bloom.

I run a lucas formula ratio. That means 1 part micro to 2 parts of bloom.

For 1 gallon of water its 8 ml of micro and 16 ml of bloom. You can adjust the strength up or down as necessary just stick to the 1:2 ratio.

Feed with this for every watering.

 

[padster]

Thanx for your comments Xare.
I think you had already advised me to do lucas schedule in a previous thread, so after a bit more research i started using it when i switched to 12/12. My mix is 16/32 for every 2gal which goes between the four plants every 2 days. Thanx! I think the plants like it generally. As of today i've dropped my plain water feed after every two nute feeds, like you say they are quite hungry. Do you ever flush your hempys? if so how often or just when probs occur?

The only other thing i did differently in the last week was to mix up a 1/4 strength nute solution(lucas) to use as mist. I'll prob just stick to plain ph'd water with a dose of epsom salts in from now on. I don't soak them, just like to give them a little dusting of moisture once every few days for their complexion lol!

I gotta say too that there's only one plant with signs of canoeing, granted it's the largest and most hungry but also it rests damn near the cooltube which ain't incredibly cool! So heat could factor into a possible canoe diagnosis too.

So many variables it could send you loopy all this growin lark, ...i fookin' love it!

 

[Xare]

I stopped doing the plain water feed all the way through veg / flower. Ive done the rotation: Feed, Feed, Water - but came to the conclusion that my plants looked hungry on the water only days.

The only time I will give them plain water is the last week of flower, as a final flush.

Sometimes I give my mothers a double dose of plain water when they are looking too dark green. But for the most part everything gets nutes with each watering.

 

[padster]

How do all!

Just stopping by to drop a picture update on my babies

All is going pretty well at the moment. I still have some canoeing going on but it hasn't got any worse and it's still only on one plant. Humidity has been a little high in the tent, so i'm gonna put a bowl of rock salt in there until i can get hold of some kind of small dehumidifier.

Sparky


Trooper


Phoenix


Jackie


And some random trich shots

 

[padster]

Just ordered me some good looking - Bud Trimmers - from ebay. In the hope that i can actually get my first grow to get that far!

All is well at the moment still. I've upped my lucas ratio to 9/18 at the ladies insistence! It's only been a day since doing this so i'm still waiting to see if there's any burn.

I also upped the thermostat on my little heater by 2 degrees and my humidity has gone from 70-80% down to 50-55%. Temps were dropping as low as 16! ...now they're getting no lower than 19.

31 days of flower so far, ...time feels like it's slowing down. Trying so hard to be a patient noob!

 

[hittsfromthebong420]

your snow whites look amazing you should check out mynes how long before your plants started sexing?