3rd grow... LA Confidential T-5

ive been getting some bad clones on my first few attempts ( bad genetics, root aphids, spider mites ) so i spent the day looking for some GOOD clones from a local dispensary here in socal and came up with some healthy L.A. Confidential

2'x8' closet
hydrofarm 4' 6 bulb 54W 6400k lighting
2 GAL pots
Fox Farms ocean forest soil
2'x4' plastic bin
24" oscillating tower fan
botanicare pure blend pro grow vegetative formula 3-2-4

running 18/6 light cycle 6am-12am
lights hung 6" from tops
watering every other day

just planted them today.. they are at 4 inches.. ill post an update soon.

day 9 of my grow... for the most part things are looking good this time around. here are some new pics




noticed this on a few leaves... havent seen any signs of pests though, any ideas?

day 12 of my grow. things are looking really good and i thought i would put up a few pics...
plants are 10" and really bushy! really happy with how these ones are doing this time around




i moved the light from 6" above the tops to 24" to try and get them to stretch up to the light more, and switched them to 24 hrs of light for this last week before i switch to flowering

looking good so far my friend

Looking great !

Maximus cannabis said:

Looking great !

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lol i went to reply but i guess you edited.. i forgot to add that i changed the watering to every 3 days and feed every other time. i had just watered a few hrs before the pics as you can see all the water in the plastic bin. they do look a little droopy

well i talked to the guys at my local hydro shop and they said not to let the plants get too tall if im planning on using T-5 through to harvest, so i installed the 3000k bulbs and set the timer to 12/12. going to be using botanicare pure blend pro bloom 1-4-5 from here on out.

the new 3000k bulbs (left some 6400K in to show the difference)


awesome timer.. 1/2 switched 1/2 unswitched powerstrip


last pic of veg phase


any advice on whether i should keep them in 2 gal pots or go to 3 or 5 gal?

twoeleven said:

lol i went to reply but i guess you edited.. i forgot to add that i changed the watering to every 3 days and feed every other time. i had just watered a few hrs before the pics as you can see all the water in the plastic bin. they do look a little droopy

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Yeah I didn't want to sound like an - hole in your journal, so i commented in mine, but good to hear on the water schedule change, i think that will work better for you.

IMHO

I am running my T-5 grow in 3 gallon pots and I think were using the same lighting rig. I have seen about 8 inches of penetration with the same lighting configuration, so i grew them to 1 ft and keep the lights about 1/4" away dromthe tops of the plants. If your plants are a little smaller I would stick with the 2 gallons just to keep them stubby and not shock them again but if you're going to add some height I would probably settle it 3. I would think 5 would be too big.

Good luck and keep up the posting, looks great so far.

1st week of flowering pics... looks like i got a good stretch out of them this week... what a difference 6 days makes!




also added some visqueen to the walls, and a hygrometer... (used the tip from an old fishing pole to hold the probe)

its been about a week, i thought i would put up some new pics. 12th day of flowering...







so what do you guys think so far? any advice? opinions?

Looking nice. Have you cleaned up the lower growth? I always remove the pop corn buds, the lower leaves, etc. All the stuff that won't get any sun and will just sap up energy from the plant. With our short plants we don't have a lot of extra energy to spare. I would also probably remove a FEW fan leaves just to open up the middle. I'm sure someone will flame me and say how I'm hurting the plant and my negative chi will hurt my plants, but it's just physics. The light needs to hit the lower buds and penetrate as far as it can. A leaf here or there won't kill it.

You should also be in your last day or two of stretch if it hasn't already stopped. I put my lights about an inch from the plants and have fans blowing across the bulbs, it doesn't burn the plants and seems to penetrate to the lower buds pretty well. Also, I made my own CO2 thing that sits in front of the fan. It seems to be working, my buds are nice and frosty at 5 weeks and already showing colors in the hairs. We have the same rig, but I left my middle bulb as a white light, I heard they like a little blue light, but it will be interesting to see how a pure yellow light version works. I'm going to be buying another rig today to use the bottom half of my tent to run my next test, Purple Kush pushed as hard as I can in a mini grow, hitting it with every additive in my arsenal!

Thanks for the input.... I did clear out most of the lower growth, and a few fan leaves here and there... Plants are at 20" right now, buds are looking a little weak but it's only been 2 weeks. there are a LOT of sites, I would say 10-12 per plant basicly looks like Leaves are real tight with a few small white hairs... When do you think i will see it go into full blown flowering?

your plants look great!

So what should be happening now is the buds will start to fatten up over the next few weeks. You should see no more new bud sights, and any new ones that pop up I generally kill since they'll never catch up. You're existing sites should get bigger, fluffier and fatter as the pistils start to stretch out looking for pollen. You'll see the most change over the next few weeks, this is a real fun part of the process.

Be watching for bud rot, bugs, any thing that wasn't there the day before. You can also start to push your food up a little more since they can handle more nutrients now. If you have any bloom boost now is the time to add it in, whatever you prefer to use. A lot of people used BudCandy, but I'm sure there are a lot of products out there.

Also be careful of hermies, this is when they come out. Look for bananas around your buds every chance you get. If they're goong to come out, they're going to come out in the next few weeks. Don't ever take anyones word for it when it comes to strain info unless you grow the seed out yourself, and even then it may happen.

But the plants look great. I thought the flowers were a little weak on mine at this point too, but they get there, I think it's because I look at them everyday, sometimes it's hard to gauge things unless i measure and photograph.

How long does that strain go for?

DNA says 46-56 days flower, I picked up a REALLY awesome USB microscope the other day to look at trichomes for harvest time, so look forward to some awesome pics... Like you said the pistils are coming out now, and I added 5ml hydroplex bloom maximizer to my regular flowering nutes so it should pick up...

Sweet, what is that camera you bought?

twoeleven said:

DNA says 46-56 days flower, I picked up a REALLY awesome USB microscope the other day to look at trichomes for harvest time, so look forward to some awesome pics... Like you said the pistils are coming out now, and I added 5ml hydroplex bloom maximizer to my regular flowering nutes so it should pick up...

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7 - 8 weeks, nice fast strain. Yeah, like I said, this is the fun part, all the pretty flowers start in, and in week 4, the scent starts tohit you when you first walk in and stat checking. I'm in week 5 so my grow room smells soooooooo goooooooooood.......

well the usb Microscope i bought for about $40 it has 150x magnification... here it is..

and a sample image

i think it will come in handy when it comes time to harvest, i will have the ability to see if the trichomes are clear, cloudy, or amber.