TheDillestPickle's First Grow Journal

I've decided to start my grow journal! This is my very first grow, I think I once grew a kidney bean plant in my backyard but I'm no green thumb so it should be interesting. There may be moments of suspense along the way but hopefully a happy ending!Any comments are welcome and I encourage everyone to subscribe and follow along. Advice, compliments, complaints, and any ideas are welcome. Im hoping I can do any trouble-shooting within the journal if possible instead of polluting the "Plant Problem" board with redundant threads. Hopefully things will run smoothly for me and my plants.My room is 4x6 with a 6 1/2 foot ceiling. I've started with 10 Kali Mist seedlings and I may use cloning to up my plant numbers. I want this to be a big harvest and Im investing alot into this grow. Currently I have my plants under a 400 and 600 MH. Its overkill but its the only way to keep the room warm. Im growing in coco coir and using HG coco nutes with an array of different supplements. Ill be upgrading everything over the course of the grow as I can afford to do so. I have 3 gallon airpots to transplant into when the plants fill out their current pots.I won't get too in depth just yet but I will leave you with some pictures of my plants starting from germ until today. Youll notice I topped all the plants above the second node.Im trying to clone the tops that Ive taken from each plant, Im not sure if they are going to make it or not. They have not rooted yet and its been 48 hours. I will be taking more cutting from each plant so this is really just a test run on cloningKALI MIST

One more node up and you may have gotten 4 colas per bud instead of 2, but you can still train for more I suppose!

Looking good so far!

smokeymcpotterton said:

One more node up and you may have gotten 4 colas per bud instead of 2, but you can still train for more I suppose!

Looking good so far!

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Really? I cut above the second node just like described in Uncle Bens topping for 2 or 4 colas. After topping the noce directly below the cut really started to grow and the two shoots from the node below that havent really done much. I think your right Im going to have 2 colas but I did cut above the second node?

Let me know if this sounds like a bad idea. I want to top those plants again, cutting above the first node. I can use the two shoots that I remove to make 2 clones of each plant. I can use those clones for sexing/keeping as mothers. This will give me 2 colas BUT, I then want to top the two remaining shoots at their first node so I get 4 colas in the end. Am I putting way too much stress on the plants by doing this? If it works out I should have a wicked root system from all this extra time in veg, or at least thats what I'm hoping. Any thoughts on that plan?

Looks very good. I think i'm going to try topping on my next grow. I'm subbed for the ride.

Can anyone explain why I'm getting two colas instead of 4 when having topped above the 2nd node? I may have to bring this up in the Uncle Ben's topping thread

How old where they when you first top them?

OldLuck said:

How old where they when you first top them?

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Are you thinking of topping your plants? They were topped at 26 days old from seed. Heres a picture of one plant an hour before I topped it. Its hard to tell by looking at that picture, but the second node was quite a bit more developed than the first node, and I think this is the reason that the shoots from the bottom node arent catching up after topping.

Subbed!

Just a bit of advice; while searching though my kali phenos, I found the one that I feel most exemplifies the characteristics of a near pure sativa and she would typically finish around 77 days. Recently, just for fun and because my kali stash was full, I took her out 96 days while keeping an eye on the calyx structure, tric color, and overall plant health. She only got better. She's still clear, euphoric, and social, except her intensity nearly doubled, no joke. Keep that in mind and good luck!

homebrewer said:

Subbed!

Just a bit of advice; while searching though my kali phenos, I found the one that I feel most exemplifies the characteristics of a near pure sativa and she would typically finish around 77 days. Recently, just for fun and because my kali stash was full, I took her out 96 days while keeping an eye on the calyx structure, tric color, and overall plant health. She only got better. She's still clear, euphoric, and social, except her intensity nearly doubled, no joke. Keep that in mind and good luck!

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Good to have you here HomeBrewer, Really glad you mentioned that because I was thinking chop early as possible to retain the sativa characteristic. Trichromes were amber when you harvested? I was expecting about 13 1/2 weeks until harvest actually just assuming the breeders usually make it sound faster. What amber/cloudy ratio would you recommend for ideal harvest?


You'll have to keep an eye on them for me and let me know when Its flower time, I have a 6 foot ceiling but my lights will be set into the ceiling(between wooden joists in the basement). Youll probably have a better idea than me when I should go into flower so as not to shoot through the roof with these plants.

Thedillestpickle said:

Trichromes were amber when you harvested? I was expecting about 13 1/2 weeks until harvest actually just assuming the breeders usually make it sound faster. What amber/cloudy ratio would you recommend for ideal harvest?

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I don't do amber trics on any strain I grow, I detest that sort of buzz. I just noticed with Kali that the trics were clear and moving to mostly cloudy at 77 days. I felt like that was a good time to harvest. At 96 days though, I still wasn't seeing amber (which is a good thing of course), just fewer clear trics. The harvest window of sativas seems to be longer if that makes sense and by going longer, you're improving the quality, IMO.

homebrewer said:

I don't do amber trics on any strain I grow, I detest that sort of buzz. I just noticed with Kali that the trics were clear and moving to mostly cloudy at 77 days. I felt like that was a good time to harvest. At 96 days though, I still wasn't seeing amber (which is a good thing of course), just fewer clear trics. The harvest window of sativas seems to be longer if that makes sense and by going longer, you're improving the quality, IMO.

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lol ok that clears it up, thats some good insight, hopefully Ill end up with bud even you would be happy to smoke. Are you timing from the day you flip to 12/12 or from the day you first see flowers?

btw Uncle Ben looked at some of the pictures and he's confident that I will get 4 colas, I think he was even slightly annoyed that I suggested otherwise. I might be doing some more topping though as previously mentioned, still aiming for 4 colas, but I need to get some clones for sexing/keeping as mothers.

Going to bump them up to 1100ppm tommorrow, they handled 1000ppm pretty easily, Ive read higher ppm keeps nodes tight, so ill try to stay close to the max throughout growth phase.

Thedillestpickle said:

lol ok that clears it up, thats some good insight, hopefully Ill end up with bud even you would be happy to smoke. Are you timing from the day you flip to 12/12 or from the day you first see flowers?

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The 12/12 flip is day 1.

Going to bump them up to 1100ppm tommorrow, they handled 1000ppm pretty easily, Ive read higher ppm keeps nodes tight, so ill try to stay close to the max throughout growth phase.

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This line of thinking will not serve you well with this strain. Plants in general feed a lot less than most canna growers feed to being with and sativas feed even less than the cash-cropper strains grown by most. I think 1000ppm is way too strong but she's your plant. You've got a loooooooong way to go and salts love to build up in your medium. I'm just warning you now because when day 45 of flower comes around, they'll be leafless and yellow and it'll be too late to fix it.

smokeymcpotterton said:

One more node up and you may have gotten 4 colas per bud instead of 2, but you can still train for more I suppose!

Looking good so far!

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I'm not positive I would have to reference the UB topping technique again to verify but I believe you may have counted the 'cotyledon' I believe it is called as your first node, and your not supposed to do that from what I remember.

Like I said though through proper training, you can get more!

Yeah looking at your pics you counted the first 'baby leaves' as your first node, thats not your first true node I'm pretty sure. I followed UB's topping technique as well in my current grow, link is in my sig and look at how many colas I have, I have 6-8 per plant b/c I also combined it w/ supercropping. I didn't top until they were like 1.5 almost 2 feet tall as well, to give them extra vigor and bounce back.

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What I would do is train those 2 branhces to grow horizontally across at a straight 90 degree angle, and all the branches that grow up from them will turn into colas, and you can then supercrop each individual branch. That will give you mad shit in like a 3.5-4.5 tall space.

You could even super crop the 2 that you train to grow outward and have them become even more branches, which would be good.

Don't get crazy w/ how many times you do that though, I would only do it once and in some spots twice if there is room, b/c too bushy of a plant will have ventilation issues.

It would probably be like a month and a half veg to do and w/ that many plants things would get very crowded unless each was in like it's own 'bubble' of space.

homebrewer said:

The 12/12 flip is day 1.



This line of thinking will not serve you well with this strain. Plants in general feed a lot less than most canna growers feed to being with and sativas feed even less than the cash-cropper strains grown by most. I think 1000ppm is way too strong but she's your plant. You've got a loooooooong way to go and salts love to build up in your medium. I'm just warning you now because when day 45 of flower comes around, they'll be leafless and yellow and it'll be too late to fix it.

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I haven't even thought of it like that before, I figured if I didnt see burn within a few days I was at a safe ppm level. Im planning to do a flush tommorrow, before putting the nutes in, Cant hurt to do a flush, just a bit of extra work. Im using Botanicare's Cocogro for a medium. My plants look healthy at 1000ppm, should I bring it down to 800ppm or somewhere around there? Now youve got me all worried that salt buildup is going to destroy me.


Smokey- I can say with 100% positivity that I did cut the plants above two true nodes. It may be hard to see but you had a pair of coytledons then a pair of 1 bladed leaves(which in the pictures you may be thinking are coytledons) and then a pair of 3 bladed leaves, I cut just above the three bladed leaves.

Thedillestpickle said:

I haven't even thought of it like that before, I figured if I didnt see burn within a few days I was at a safe ppm level. Im planning to do a flush tommorrow, before putting the nutes in, Cant hurt to do a flush, just a bit of extra work. Im using Botanicare's Cocogro for a medium. My plants look healthy at 1000ppm, should I bring it down to 800ppm or somewhere around there? Now youve got me all worried that salt buildup is going to destroy me.

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800ppm on the .7 scale is about where I feed my flowering hydro girls, I cut that in half for promix. Just do your best to keep your medium clean and I personally wouldn't exceed 800ppm at the height of flowering. Right now, you should be fine at like 300ppm given the size of your plants. Take notes, do what works best, but beware that high feeding levels may not hurt now but they'll make things impossible down the road.

homebrewer said:

800ppm on the .7 scale is about where I feed my flowering hydro girls, I cut that in half for promix. Just do your best to keep your medium clean and I personally wouldn't exceed 800ppm at the height of flowering. Right now, you should be fine at like 300ppm given the size of your plants. Take notes, do what works best, but beware that high feeding levels may not hurt now but they'll make things impossible down the road.

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Alright homebrewer, Ill bring the ppm's down and I'll be reading through your journals to see what else I can learn.

I am around 800 ppm's and I am at 3 weeks flower. I really don't know how a lot of people are using real high ppms. But I don't know how to read the plants yet either so hopefully some body will chime in on mine as well. Looking good pickle, can't wait to see the results. Just put up this weeks pixs so check them out when you get a chance. So how many plants will you be flowering at one time?

OldLuck said:

I am around 800 ppm's and I am at 3 weeks flower. I really don't know how a lot of people are using real high ppms. But I don't know how to read the plants yet either so hopefully some body will chime in on mine as well. Looking good pickle, can't wait to see the results. Just put up this weeks pixs so check them out when you get a chance. So how many plants will you be flowering at one time?

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Yesterday I did a flush with just pH water, my runoff was still at around 500ppm because I didnt flush excessively, so they shouldnt starve from now until next watering, and next watering I will bring down my ppm, I also just purchased H&G drip clean to help prevent salt buildup.

I have 10 plants right now, so however many plants are female are going to be flowering, I am going to have at least 1200 watts of HPS for flower and possibly more if my temperatures permit, and I will bring in more light if possible. Assuming I get 5 plants then I will have 5 well vegged plants going into flower, but I will also be taking a number of clones off of each plant, So I may stick smaller less vegged plants in alongside the bigger ones just for fun, Or If I can get myself a grow tent I might start up a second room for veggin in. right now I have just the one room and a very very small closet that is just big enough to fit one standard size seedling tray, I just finishd setting it up with my first bath of clones(pray for them they are not looking so good), and they are under 46 watts of CFL, and sitting on a seedling heating pad. If I can get a tent setup I can start thinking of doing perpetual harvest, but I need to see if my funds will allow that.

Im really hoping for 6 females, These plants are going to be well vegged and ought to fill in the 4x6 room very nicely, I just put an order in for 5 gal airpots, and with topping for 4 colas they should have a nice profile. I'm really hoping 6 females because it would be the ideal use of light and space with the plants each having plenty of room and no wasted space/light. 4 females would be good as well, 5 females would pose some awkward geometric problems in the room.