Critical Jack Vs. Critical+ (Dinafem)

|B3RNY|

Well-Known Member
<Day 26>

Overdone the nutes slightly, a few burnt tips on two of my girls. Should be fine though. They are reaching the 20" mark now and growth is slowing a bit so I'm expecting heavy bud production to begin by the end of the week.

Hot and humid weather is giving me grief, I'v had temps up in the mid-high 80s. Hoping for thunderstorms soon and a cooling of the climate. My setup runs for the most part in cold climate so heat is never really an issue and I dont have any a/c. Infact a more common problem for me is keeping temps up.

Thinking of repotting to bigger pots next week - getting soil is my only logistical problem as my nearest hydro store is pretty far away and I dont have a car (or tell many about my grow, so cant ask for lifts). I have to buy one 50litre bag of it at a time and carry it home. It knackers the hell out of me lol. I know the plants would take advantage of the extra medium so I'll try to make that happen soon.

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CJ1, CJ2, CJ3, Critical+

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Growing tips starting bud production
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Smell was becoming an issue, fitted the carbon scrubber today.
That cola was from outside or it wouldn't have gotten so big I'm sure. Good thing you hooked up that scrubber, I bet those puppies will wreak so good! Those plants you have there have a really nice branch structure..
 

MysticMorris

Active Member
<Day 27>

Commence budding!

So now its clear that the Critical+ is going to do just fine in comparrison to the CJs. These girls really love dry soil, I have yet to see them droop at all from lack of water and I have been leaving them for a full 24hrs with almost completley bone dry soil before watering again.

Carbon scrubber has stopped the smell completley, and my temps are droping to the low 80s now so no problem at this time.

I've included a pic of my full flowering setup incase anyone wanted to see it.

*edit* you may notice signs of heat stress on some of the leaves. They are cupping up slightly. I think this is just due to the warm and muggy weather so I hope to see the problem dissappear soon.
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|B3RNY|

Well-Known Member
Hell yea man!! Looking real good! Sometimes when they cup like that with a low humidity but a bit of heat will do it to. It looks like you're going to have quite a nice grow man. I was wondering- (forgive me if i missed it) what size is your hps and do you have any heat issues with the open wing reflector? Thanks man.

I didn't even realize those were autos until just now, simply awesome man.
 

MysticMorris

Active Member
Aye I've seen my plants cup thier leaves durring the cold winters here aswell so your right about that. Its a 400w HPS, using a Sylvania Grolux bulb with a magnetic ballast. I have indeed been having a bit of heat issues with the open reflector but only durring strangely warm weather here. I know once the temps drop even more next week I'll be sitting in the mid 70s inside the tent. I preffer the light distribution of the open reflector but I also have a cooltube. I use to get the light closer to the plants if needed (ie durring my BBG grow where 1 pheno got so tall and the light wasnt reaching down far enough).

Autos are really fun to watch durring the early weeks I think, its why I'm posting so regularly with updates atm, you can really see a big day to day difference.
 

|B3RNY|

Well-Known Member
Awesome. I was just wondering because I have an extra light and an extra little space but it's a 400 watter as well and I was afraid it would get too warm, if it stayed below 82 F I'd be happy.

I grew a World of Seeds Auto NL X Big Bud last time and it was really cool to see the progress it made each day. To me, that's the coolest thing about them; also you can set them of to the side and they will do relatively well under "side-light."
 

MysticMorris

Active Member
Awesome. I was just wondering because I have an extra light and an extra little space but it's a 400 watter as well and I was afraid it would get too warm, if it stayed below 82 F I'd be happy.

I grew a World of Seeds Auto NL X Big Bud last time and it was really cool to see the progress it made each day. To me, that's the coolest thing about them; also you can set them of to the side and they will do relatively well under "side-light."
I managed to squeeze a 400w hps into my little cabinet with the cooltube and slightly overkill extraction, temps were mid 80s. If you could make the stretch money wise a cooltube is very useful to have.

Btw I just had a huge fuck up. Dropped a mister bottle (full at the time) onto one of the Critical Jacks!!!!!!...... it has perfectly supercropped the main stem and one side branch. Im almost beside myself here lol, I'm frantically reading up on what happens to a supercropped auto, gulp... The outside of the stem has not been punctured in any way but the inner workings of the main stem are broken. It was sitting at a 90degree angle so I have now supported it in a splint....

Anyone have any advice?

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*Damage Report* So I watered the girls before bed and this morning CJ1, the supercropped plant, has seemingly already fixed the break! overnight! I love these plants.
 

|B3RNY|

Well-Known Member
I managed to squeeze a 400w hps into my little cabinet with the cooltube and slightly overkill extraction, temps were mid 80s. If you could make the stretch money wise a cooltube is very useful to have.

Btw I just had a huge fuck up. Dropped a mister bottle (full at the time) onto one of the Critical Jacks!!!!!!...... it has perfectly supercropped the main stem and one side branch. Im almost beside myself here lol, I'm frantically reading up on what happens to a supercropped auto, gulp... The outside of the stem has not been punctured in any way but the inner workings of the main stem are broken. It was sitting at a 90degree angle so I have now supported it in a splint....

Anyone have any advice?

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*Damage Report* So I watered the girls before bed and this morning CJ1, the supercropped plant, has seemingly already fixed the break! overnight! I love these plants.

Fear not my friend! I'm not going to promise you anything, just tell you an experience I had many moons ago on my first autoflower... I had a G13 Labs Auto Northern Lights that I super-cropped 3 weeks into flower (a n00b mistake, I know) but I also 'pinched' the rest of my plants (which were not autoflowers)... several days later- ALL of my plants grew male flowers (hermies!! :/) ...EXCEPT for the autoflower, which grew just fine all the way to maturity! I stressed them right into hermaphroditism but the Auto Northern Lights just kept on truckin'... and I had pinched that one so hard it ruptured the stem, you could see inside of it but it continued to flower just fine w/out male flowers. I think it should be alright because automatic strains are soo tough. Don't hold me to that though, lol.

I've got a cool tube and a closed hood, as well as an open wing like yours. I've got an intake and an exhaust, but they're on 4 inch ducting so if I hook up that light it won't have it's own fan but I think I'm going to try it out now after talking to you. Thanks for the replies man!!
 

MysticMorris

Active Member
Reassuring story to hear, tys. She seems suprisingly ok today so I'm gona stay optimistic. They repair very quickly thats for sure.

About the ducting situation you have, I had a simillar issue. My cooltube is 4" and my fan is 5". I just used a 4"->5" reducer and connected them that way. My cooltube still functioned just fine, and thats with a scrubber aswell. Its worth maybe quickly rigging up your stuff and seeing how hot it runs. I know it kind of depends on the extractor and scrubber you have though.
 

|B3RNY|

Well-Known Member
Awesome, I hav a 6" fan and scrubber too now but I don't want to re-cut my intake holes, 4" is big enough lol. I had been wondering about a reducer though, it would be a lot less money for me and less work. I will try it out now for sure, my fan is a decent 4" one, but not the best- it should work if I clean the prefilter on my scrubber, it's pretty dirty from where I used to smoke inside. Thanks for the tip man.
 

MysticMorris

Active Member
<Day 29>

I realize now that its probably a pain in the arse me updating this thread every day as It keeps it at the top a bit too much. I'll try and keep like 3day gaps from now.

So after my accident (dropping a spray-bottle onto CJ1 and suppercropping it) I feel like things have gone a little downhill. The supercrop seems to have begun to heal nicely and it can support its own weight again (I'v included a pic of the main stem). However that plant has now slowed its vertical growth and is bushing out more than the other 3. It did display more indica leaves compared to the other three anyway but I think I may have vertically stalled it.

I'm also seeing the appearance of more problems. The moisture/heat stress is showing more than ever so I might have to install the cooltube in a bid to keep the temps down and the general enviroment more stable. I'm seeing the first yellowing of the first set of true leaves - which is normal - but also a slight yellowing of the next set of leaves on one of the girls so I have to consider if they are getting enough nitrogen. I have a slowly increasing amount of burnt spots aswell which I would have suspected to be pH but after testing I'm not so sure, think it might be nute specific.

Here is a pic of the things most growers woulnt want you to see. From a distance you cant see the nute defs but up close you can!

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And here is where bud production is at, bit slower than I was expecting. First trichs have appeared today, all be it in very small amounts.
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mike91sr

Well-Known Member
They still look healthy overall for the most part(at least in the bigger pics). At least youre acknowledging and calmly assessing any issues as they arise. Better than the threads like 'o shit, I saw a yellow spot a few days ago so I fed them quadruple strength nutes and sprayed every pesticide known to man on them, why are my plants suddenly fucked?!' lol.

Those little spots seems to appear randomly on most plants I've grown or seen. Sometimes they never progress, sometimes they do. Best just to keep watching it. That cupping definitely spells trouble though, excess heat is really detrimental to bud production and density.

ps I dont think anyone minds a thread that gets updated 'too often' unless youre just bumping it aimlessly

 

MysticMorris

Active Member
Thanks mike, I'm not an expert grower so I'm wary of any problem arising, and as you point out it is calculated action that is needed. I'll keep watching them carefully.

The spots do kind of seem random, a few appeared in the first few weeks and more in the last few days. They arent from the HPS as these girls were started under floros so I'm still wondering and assuming its nute def.

The cupping does seem like the most serious symptom they are experiencing and I will heed your words about it spelling trouble for bud growth and start making changes in an attempt to remedy it. Hopefully the next pics you see will have 4 happier looking plants :)
 

MysticMorris

Active Member
<Day 32>

Here we are at roughly half way through the grow. Now its fair to say that the Critical+ has surpassed the CJs, and despite not being the first plant to show trichs, it is certainly the largest in the vertical sense. Funny how it started off as the smallest.

Temps are in the high 70s now and the cupping of the leaves is getting better, heat should no longer be an issue. Two of the Critical Jacks are showing nitrogen def on one or two bottom leaves, but as I am opting for a repotting in a few days I'm not too worried about it. No nute burn or sign of new burnt spots at this time. As it stands one of the CJs and the Critical+ are looking like two very happy plants, but the other two have slight problems.

At this point I think I have 4 different phenos going on here, and they have slightly different nutrient needs. All of the plants are now growing more sativa leaves, but each plant has a variation in the big fan leaves.

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MysticMorris

Active Member
<Day 36>

The plants began serious N def a few days ago so I have now repotted to 18Litre pots. Perhaps a bit overkill for an auto. This was the trouble I had the first time growing Critical Jack, heavy yellowing early in flower. Interrestingly the Critical+ is looking the healthiest, but has the slowest bud production so far. Its the quick switch to heavy flowering nutrient needs that is catching me out I think.

Now I have repotted the spreading has stopped but the damage is done. Bud production-wise they are all doing great, but the CJs more so than the C+ by a fair bit, all plants are showing trichs now, but the first of the CJs to show trichs is significantly frostier.

So long as thats as far as the N def is going to go I will be happy, wish I had caught it sooner though.

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In these last 4 pics all but the last pic is the CJs, and the last pic is the cola of Critical+
 

Dameon

Well-Known Member
Looking good Morris. I expected the CJ to be taller. They all look nice and healthy! Stay Crunchy! Crunch*
 
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