Arjan's Haze #3, White Satin, and Critically Smashed - Grow Journals

Welcome to Sirius and Pipesmoker's Elf first grow log, in which we'll be following the growth of Sagarmatha's Matanuska Tundra, Greenhouse Seeds' Arjan's Haze #3, Mandala's White Satin, and Critically Smashed, a freebie strain from Dr. Chronic. Nothing but pleased with both Dr. Chronic and Seedbay as far as shipping is concerned, Dr. Chronic very stealthy. Its the first indoor grow for both of us, and its a relief to be making this after months of dreaming and reading multiple cultivation forums with an obsession. A little about the strains for those not familiar, Matanuska Tundra is an indica that is said to develop very dense buds, have a great creeper high, and the possibility of a phenotype that smells and tastes like chocolate. Arjan's Haze #3 is a Haze with something from Laos that produces a plant with sativa characteristics in a shorter, more bushy package. White Satin is said to be a hybrid with a soaring, uplifting high. Critically Smashed is a cross between Critical Mass and White Rhino. We also have a single, two to three year old seed of a mystery strain. We also received Sam the Skunkman's Original Thai Haze x Skunk #1 as freebies from Seedbay, but will hold off until next time to germinate these.

Germination occurred on the 10th, in the evening. Seventeen rock-wool cubes were soaked in water that was adjusted to a pH of 5.8. Two of the feminized Arjan's Haze #3 were planted, and five each of the Matanuska, White Satin, and Critically Smashed. The mystery strain was placed in a moist, folded up cotton disc, since it is so old and closer observation will be necessary in case it will need help in sprouting.

Temperature for the first couple days was around 27°C/82°F, with a relative humidity around 50%. We applied more water, about a couple mL for each cube, in the area around the seed when it seemed necessary. I became concerned with having the humidity that high and have since kept the doors to the cabinet open, which brought it down to around 20-30%. In the evening on the 12th, we finally managed to nigger-rig our fluorescent fixtures in the cabinet (although without the reflector), which was just in time, because when checking the cubes the next morning, we noticed that one of the Arjan's Haze had pulled itself and the seed hull up in the air. :smile:

Meanwhile, the mystery seed has cracked itself open and is starting to emerge. We've been lifting the fluffy bits of rock-wool covering the other seeds and most of them have cracked and some have nearly popped out of the rock-wool.

Now that the fluorescents are running, the temperature has risen to around 29°C/85°F and the humidity has dropped to 10% or lower. The rock-wool cubes we used are around 7cm, so we're preferring to keep the air dryer and water the area around the seeds more often, to limit the possibility of mold or fungus on the rest of the cubes. The fluorescent fixture consists of four, 60cm, 18w grow-lux bulbs, with 6400 lumens all in all.

Our main growing room has not been set up yet, but we will begin doing so in a couple days, the process of which being documented here as well. We have a floorspace of 1.7m x .85m (roughly 5ftx3ft) and a height of 2.9m/9ft, which should help with growing sativa dominant strains as well as helping keep heat away from the plants. We'll be running a 600 watt HPS lamp inside of an air-cooled cool-tube. The floorspace is a little less than optimal for the 600 watt, but the adjustment to a longer room was made to better fit our plans for the different strains we're running, and the trade-off from a more optimal light to space ratio should be worth it. The amount of light the HPS produced while testing was definitely stunning, and the ballast runs nice and quietly.

We have an in-line extractor fan for the ventilation, as well as a smaller vent fan that will help bring air into the room. The incoming air will be filtered in an effort to avoid a spider mite infestation. The extractor fan was not noisy at all, when I had figured it would have been. We have a basic carbon filter (crazy how heavy the damn thing is), and the room will be sheeted with panda film.

The plants will be grown in coco. We have 4 liter/1 gallon pots to transplant into once the larger rock-wool cubes have become filled with roots, and a final destination of 16 liter/4 gallon pots. Considering our room's setup, we've planned on having about eight to ten female plants that will be flowered. The plants will be allowed to pretty much grow naturally with little training, unless necessary. We have Atami Coco A and B for nutrients, as well as their PK 13/14 and Atazyme. We also have an individual bottle of calcium and one of magnesium just in case a deficiency of either might arise (hopefully the amount of trace elements in the coco-specific nutes will cover it).

So, in the next couple days, we should see most (hopefully all) of these seeds sprout and start their life cycle. Sitting next to the cabinet, gazing in at the sprouted Arjan's Haze #3 while stoned, feeling the fluorescents and imagining how cool it will be to sit there like that and see them transform (and, of course, document it all here for everyone :grin:

) is a great experience. :mushroom2:

This will be updated when necessary, and all additions will be edited into this post (Edit: Ran out of room to edit into this post, so newer updates continue on page four), to help keep everything organized and efficiently accessible to those who haven't followed along since the beginning. All thoughts and constructive criticism welcome!
Thanks for stopping by! :pimp3:

*Update* :pimp3:

Still the same day in which the log was created, about seven hours later. We took a couple quick pictures to show that we hung some mylar up in the cabinet that we picked up from a flower lady. I wouldn't recommend getting mylar from them because they seem stubbornly adamant about selling you flowers as well. :cuckoo:

After putting the mylar in, the temperature shot up to around 31°C/88°F. We brought in the oscillating fan and its back down to 28°C/82°F. The first Arjan's Haze, AH #1, has risen more, the seed hull has fallen off and the cotyledons have opened. AH #2 has sprouted from the rock-wool as well now, and this one isn't carrying the seed shell like the first. After peeking at the other rock-wool cubes, it seems apparent that, when we wake up in the morning, we should have a few more sprouted, from every strain. Every seed has been categorized with a simple system, just the strain initials and a number, to help keep better track of different phenotypes for potential breeding purposes.

*Update 7/14* :pimp3:

This morning more seeds had sprouted as expected, and through the course of the day more have shown up as well. :smile:

Arjan's Haze is definitely leading the way, followed by three White Satin, three Critically Smashed, and one Matanuska Tundra. CS #1 required a little bit of surgical assistance though, as the taproot had grown out the side of one of the ridges in the rock-wool. Apparently the plant was having trouble lifting itself up? Anyways, its straightened out now and hopefully it'll have better luck. After checking underneath fluffy bits of rock-wool, it is definite that every seed has started germinating and it is a matter of a day or two before everything will have sprouted. The three year old mystery seed had cracked open enough to be planted in a rock-wool cube as well, so hopefully it will sprout too.

The rock-wool cubes we have came with a big round hole in the middle of them, possibly because we bought bigger cubes than we should have, which is why they are turned upside down. When we soaked the rock-wool cube for the mystery seed, I tore up pieces of an unused cube to fill the holes underneath to avoid any problems the hole might provide. We also have propped the cubes up closer to the fluorescents. The way in which we had to nigger-rig the lamp fixtures is preventing us from simply moving the lights closer, but hopefully tomorrow we'll have what we need to change that, as well as being able to get the reflector on there as it should be. Other than that, it should be pretty quiet for the next couple of days, just time to wait for all of the seeds to finish germinating and then to begin putting together the grow room.

Here's a shot of the first true leaves on AH3 #1.

A closeup of the first Matanuska Tundra (MT #2) to emerge to the surface.

And, finally, three lower-quality pictures of all of the cubes, six cubes in each picture.

Update 7/18 :pimp3:

Well, its been a few days now, so its time for an update. Once this baby hits page two, the updates will be posted in a new reply as well as added to the main page, so regular followers won't have to wait for all of the pictures on the first page to load to get the update, and people who stumble across it later will still have the efficient convenience of it in a concentrated dose.

First things first, the day after the last update, the fluorescents were properly installed with their reflector, and jerry-rigged in such a way that they can be easily adjusted. This has certainly directed more light where it needs to be. Temperature increased slightly with this, but the oscillating fan was adjusted to keep the temperature steady, still hovering at 30°C/86°F, with the humidity staying around 20%.

The two Arjan's Haze #3 were the first to sprout, and #1 in particular is the most developed seedling of the bunch. The first is a little more stretched than the second, as it spent more time after sprouting with the seed hull on. A similar thing happened with White Satin #4; the seed hull was on longer and it is slightly more stretched than the rest.

Here's a couple shots of AH3 #1:

AH3 #2 has a little bit of discoloration on its cotyledons. This has been observed on the cotyledons of some of the other plants, but absolutely nothing of the sort on any of the true leaves. Two thoughts that come to mind is that it has been a week since most have sprouted, and perhaps it is a sign that the nutrients are beginning to become exhausted from the cotyledons and it will be time to begin feeding soon, or possibly that there has been some burning from the lights, although this wouldn't make much sense, as the true leaves are closer and there is no sign. If anyone knows more about this, input would be appreciated.

Onto the White Satin. All five have sprouted and are quite vigorous, and growth has been pretty uniform and consistent amongst all five seedlings.

The Critically Smashed, overall, seem very healthy and are pretty much sharing the same consistency in growth as the White Satin. Only four of the Critically Smashed can really be considered to have sprouted, however, as we have had problems with one of them, CS #5. It was found with the taproot out and the cotyledons having begun emerging from the seed hull, but unfortunately a spot a little below them on the stem looked quite pinched together. We're not sure how this could have happened, as we've been very careful handling them. Possibly it was having trouble pop up and that point was especially weak? Anyways, it was propped up and supported and half the seed hull gently removed, but so far no real sign of improvement. Nonetheless, the other four are doing just great. :smile:

Today Pipesmoker Elf made a great discovery! :muahaha:

Looking underneath the rock-wool cubes, she noticed that most of the seedlings have adventurous taproots that have exposed themselves. So, here is a couple examples, our first root porn, jail-bait style. :naughty:

Well, that's all of the great news. Now, unfortunately, its time to cover some of the more unfortunate news. :smirk:

Matanuska Tundra has been performing dismally so far. Only one of them have sprouted and seems pretty weak, one of them kind of has sprouted but has a lot of problems, and the other three have cracked with a taproot that has emerged and, from there, seems to have just stopped growing. We've heard a couple reports before of bad germination rates with the Matanuska, and with our environment seemingly right and the other strains performing quite beautifully, it definitely seems to be problems with the genetics. First, a picture of the one that managed to sprout on its own, MT #2:

It sprouted a couple days after most of the seedlings did, but when it did, the true leaves were already developed, which wasn't the case with the other seedlings. However, it has been growing slowly, and now there is a problem with its cotyledons. At one point, all the seeds that hadn't yet sprouted, this one, and the Critically Smashed with the aforementioned problems were elevated with something underneath to get them closer to the light in an attempt to help them out. They didn't get checked after that for a longer period than usual, and these rock-wool cubes dried out a lot more, so with the decreased distance between the cotyledons and the bulbs, we're thinking they just got burned on the edges, but perhaps it is something else?

The other one that has shown at least more "progress" than the rest is MT #5. We found it with the tap root out from the seed hull, the cotyledons almost completely out of the seed hull, but for some inexplicable reason (it definitely wasn't from handling), the tap root had actually become separated from the rest of the seedling, just a little ways underneath the cotyledons. A close look at both ends and there didn't seem to be any kind of fungus or rot or anything like that. It just looked completely normal, beyond the fact that it was in two.
:confused:

The seed hull was removed gently and the cotyledons placed above the surface with as much of an effort as possible to keep the rest of the stem/root secure in the hopes that it will start growing down. When we checked today, it definitely appeared to have grown further into the rock-wool, but then later, it looked like the cotyledons tried to raise themselves up and open a bit, and this caused it to become "unrooted", since it just wasn't anchored well enough to be capable of moving like that.

Here's a picture of the cotyledons above the surface, the color seems to look worse in the picture than it actually does, for the most part its green. Not a lot of hope for it, but it'll get every chance it can get until its finished. :shrug:

If the rest don't sprout, we'll just attempt to germinate the last five seeds. We've contacted Sagarmatha to see if we can find out if the strain has special needs that aren't being met, or really just some kind of explanation on the matter...

All in all though, we're more than satisfied with how everything is going, which definitely seems to be quite well! :super:

The taproot on the mystery strain has been growing more in the rock-wool and the seed hull slowly becomes more cracked, so in the next day or two I'd expect to see the cotyledons emerge. Beyond that, we're taking care of some work in the grow room to get it ready to be set up, tomorrow the panda film will go up, and everything else after that. Transplanting the healthy seedlings into coco shouldn't be more than a few days away, especially considering how vigorous these roots are. :grin:

Any input or guidance on everything would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading! :bigweed:

Update 7/24 :pimp3:

Last night all the potential ladies were transplanted! The roots on all of them were covering the bottom of the rock-wool cubes, begging to be immersed in coco. Eleven 3.4 liter pots were filled with coco a couple of days before and were flushed with tap-water in the bath-tub for quite some time. Two Arjan's Haze #3, five White Satin, and four Critically Smashed made the move. The two Matanuska Tundra that made it aren't ready to be transplanted yet. One of the Critically Smashed that was having serious problems was removed, and the other three Matanuska Tundras were disposed of after we found them full of white squishiness. The mystery strain has sprouted successfully, but the cotyledons aren't looking very healthy.

After firing up and calibrating the pH meter, we ran an initial run-off test, with the tap water at 7.3, and all the pots had a run-off pH in a range between 6.6 to 6.4. After some experiments to figure out the best way to approach adjusting the pH of the coco down, we got it down to two rounds of flushes, in the end bringing the run-off of the pots to the range of 5.6 to 5.4. After that, the plants were happily transplanted into the pots, and each plant received its first dosage of nutrients, a quarter dosage of Atami Coco A & B.

Most of the plants have been showing signs of needing a good dosage of nutrients. We've been concerned that its either been a nutrient deficiency, likely magnesium, or perhaps signs of heat stress. Underneath the fluorescents, temperatures had remained pretty constant at 30°C/86°F. Up until coming to their second week without showing any signs with the temperature remaining the same, though, it seems more likely that they just started getting hungry. Tomorrow I'll be taking more detailed pictures of some of these signs to throw up in Doctor's Diagnosis and at another site to get some other opinions. Nonetheless, we've been working to bring the temperatures down, and right now its been hovering around 26°C/79°F, which is working closer towards optimal anyways.

After transplanting them, the plants went back underneath the fluorescents. Fortunately the pots manage to all fit underneath the fixture pretty well, because we went to some great efforts to get their 600 watt HPS lamp going, to no avail. After hanging panda film in their intended area, the cool-tube couldn't be installed, due to the fact that the ceiling and walls are essentially solid rock. No access to the proper tools to work with the stuff. We then tried installing it in a wooden cabinet that was about 2m tall x 1m x .5 m, with the extractor fan pulling eight times the volume of air in the space every minute through the cool-tube, but temperatures on the floor wouldn't drop below 33°C/91°F. We then went back to the room where we installed the smaller grow area, rigged up a way to hang the cool-tube (it wasn't easy, talk about improvising :lol:

), and ran it with all different ways of bringing in and extracting air, but couldn't get the temperature below 32°C/90°F. The main problem was that the ambient temperature was already in the eighties, so no real margin to work with. The plants will love the spectrum of the fluorescents more anyways until we can hopefully take care of the ambient there before they can't stay underneath the fluorescents any longer.

So, let's close this up with a few pictures. :grin:

Here's the four Critically Smashed, enjoying their new home:

Four of the five White Satin:

The two Arjan's Haze #3 on the left, and the other White Satin on the right:

AH3 #1, working on its third set of true leaves:

The two Matanuska Tundra:

And here's two pictures of one of the Critically Smashed, one closer up, of what appears to be a micro-nutrient deficiency. Much better pictures will be taken later, to clearly see what is happening with these ladies...

Hopefully the first dosage of nutrients will help them out, otherwise it'll be time to take another look at the pH of the coco and possibly bump it up to a half dosage of the recommended dosage. Thanks for reading!

Update 7/27 :pimp3:

Tonight the plants were watered. The water was adjusted to 5.8, and they were given a half-strength dosage, up from a quarter last time. The plants had a few days for their roots to grow out from the rock-wool cube and into the coco, and the ladies themselves have shown signs of growth meanwhile. The problems with deficiency haven't really gotten worse, and they were probably stemming from problems with the rock-wool cubes. Next time we germinate, we'll be planting the seeds straight into the coco. It should be a better environment for germination, as well as making it easier to manage pH and watering. A lot of the ladies have begun showing their fourth set of leaves, and tiny stipules are showing on the two Arjan's Haze #3. Adding the half dosage of nutrients, with some magnesium and calcium (also coming with other trace elements), now that the roots should be exploring the coco, should definitely knock it up a notch. :grin:

All of the plants together have been giving off a subtle but pleasantly noticeable smell of pot plants, very refreshing! :bigweed:

Here's the two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

And the five of Mandala's White Satin:

No pictures of the Matanuska Tundra right now, but the one is coming along all right, and the other smaller one is, well, really really small. Still alive and growing, though. :shrug:

Sometime soon, when the fluorescents are free from these ladies, most likely, we'll attempt to germinate the last five of the Matanuska. I have a feeling we'll have better success keeping them in coco, as opposed to the rock-wool cubes. I think the rock-wool cubes this last time through were carrying too much moisture inside of them, and although this didn't affect the other strains, since they grew very fast, the Matanuska Tundra seeds just take more time to germinate, and the same amount of water in the rock-wool affected them more adversely. Anyways, they could just be bad seeds, and the coco will tell us that for sure. :wink:

Thanks for checking! :super:

Update 8/01 :pimp3:

Time for a quick update. It has been a few days and the plants were ready for some water and some feed. Temperature has remained pretty steady, around 26-27°C/78-80°F, with an exception for a few hours where the temperature climbed up to 32°C/90°F. The next day we noticed the leaves felt a little dry and what could best be described as little wrinkles in the middle of some of the top leaves. I'm assuming this would be a sign of resulting heat stress? There have been little areas on some of the leaves across the board with some discolorations and little variations in shapes of the leaves, but it is pretty insignificant and is probably due to issues with the rock-wool cubes inside the coco. This should become less and less of a problem as the roots colonize the coco and the plant finds more consistent pH and moisture levels. Definitely won't be using rock-wool again when all you need is coco. :wink:

The plants show noticeable signs of growth even throughout one day, with little leaves developing in the notches between the stems of the leaves and the main stem. They are definitely developing a beautiful, more distinct aroma, some plants more than others. We're thinking they will remain underneath the fluorescents for another week before they are introduced to the HPS.

The one Matanuska Tundra that is alive is showing some signs of the bumpy road it has been on. The other tiny little runt didn't make it, but it wasn't really growing anyways. Since the Matanuska Tundra was kind of on its own and separate from the more consuming, routine maintenance that the other eleven take, it has been neglected a little more and treated a little more rough. One day it had drooped over from becoming too dry, but sprang right back up after being watered. When it showed signs of needing nutrients some time ago and I was feeling a little too lazy to start adjusting and measuring out stuff for it, it was just given a full dosage of nutrients from a bottle intended for something else. Today it finally showed some signs that it might have been a little too much for it, so it was flushed. Its showing signs since of growth. If it makes it, it makes it, if it doesn't, it doesn't, but its kind of a lab rat for us, being subjected to harsher extremes to see how it responds so we can learn from it. :lol:

Sagarmatha Seeds responded to our questions about the low germination rates we had compared to the other healthy strains, and they have graciously offered to replace them directly. :super:

On to the pictures! First, a couple that were taken two days ago, the first of Arjan's Haze 3, phenotype #2, and the second of White Satin, phenotype #3:

The full image of the eleven ladies before they were watered tonight:

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

The five White Satin:

We were just marveling at the difference after just three full days in the size of the plants after posting this update. :eek:

If you notice carefully, the rows are in a different order, but it is the same plants in each row. After each watering, we move each row forward underneath the fluorescents to make sure they all get equal light over time, since, obviously, the spot in the middle receives the most light. :wink:

The next two and a half months should be fun! :muahaha:

Thanks for following! :bigweed:

Update 8/04 :pimp3:

Not too much new, but its been three days and the plants have been watered and fed again, so its time for some pictures. We bumped the concentration of the coco nutes up a notch and added some of the Ca and Mg as well. We're experimenting with doing some nutrient profiling of what we are working with, so later we'll have some data on that and a way of getting a better idea of how much nutrients to give them. Right now it seems like they aren't getting enough, but we're continuing to increase the dosages incrementally and let the plants tell us what they need.

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

The five White Satin:

Going to start work on getting the HPS running finally, so hopefully the temperatures will be manageable and we'll be able to start introducing these babies to some HID light. :sun:

Update 8/07 :pimp3:

Well, a few things have been happening, and the plants were fed and watered a little while ago, so its time for an update. :grin:

A few of the top leaves had a little bit of some burnt tips after the last feeding. After taking a closer look at the formulas used, it seems that it was a Calcium deficiency, resulting from there being an imbalance in the Calcium-Magnesium ratio. There was a little bit less Ca than Mg, when its typically best to aim towards twice as much Ca as Mg. I've read that, generally, about 60ppm of Mg is optimum, and we had it at about that level, but the problem is that the bottle of Ca has some nitrogen in it as well, and it makes it more difficult to keep proper proportions between everything. An idea is to use some of the P/K booster, with less of Coco A&B, to leave more room for the N to be cranked up with the Ca. I'm tired of seeing small signs of Mg deficiency, damn it!

In the meantime, though, we just gave them 1mL/L of Coco A and B, as well as 1mL/L of Atazyme. Somehow, we completely forgot that we had it. :lol:

The label says its natural, multi-enzyme stuff that should help increase nutrient absorption, enhance root activity and plant growth, stimulate micro-organism activity, and reduce chances of over-fertilizing. Hopefully it will work fine.

The 600 watt HPS is up and running, in a temporary setup, that is allowing the ambient temperatures to be controlled, so the temperatures underneath it are manageable. The cool-tube is about 16 inches above the tops of the plants, with an oscillating fan blowing across the area in between, and the temperature is staying around 29-30°C/84-86°F. Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable, and it is pretty much the temperature they have been at underneath the fluorescents. They are being slowly introduced to the HPS, increasing it a couple hours a day, to get them used to the intensity, and also to give them the continued advantage of the fluorescents' light spectrum. Here's a picture of them, underneath the HPS, after they were watered today:

Here's the signature group shot and individual shots of the plants. A few more days and I don't think it will be possible to keep going with this formula, considering how much they are growing. I'll post the three other group shots first, three days between each one, to give a perspective on how quickly they've been growing:

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

And the five White Satin:

Thanks for checking in; great to see you back, Annom! :super:

Update 8/10 :pimp3:

Thought it might be nice to make another update, this one a little more picture-orientated, as opposed to boring old typing. :wink:

We watered the plants today, after only two days, instead of three. Despite what Inverted says about them looking textbook healthy :grin:

, there are slight problems with some of the leaves, but I think it could be chalked up to "still dialing in the nutes". Watering/feeding more frequently is an initial step to see if it helps the matter. I really think the problem is with Mg/Ca though, and next time I'll be prepared to do a more radical approach to the nutrients to try to cure it. :evil:

The plants are still growing vigorously, without stretching. Running them underneath the fluorescents for this long, I think, is really making all the difference, but its definitely time to start weaning them off, and these huge fan leaves that are developing are just begging for the HPS light, and the leaves growing in the internodes for its intensity, so they are spending more and more time with it. Hopefully, in about a week, it'll be time for a transplant (the roots are starting to show up in the drainage holes and can be seen while peaking between the side of the pots and the coco) and some 12/12. We're dying to see some buds forming! :stoned:

First, here's the group shot from when they were watered:

Thought we'd try something a little different this time, and take side shots of all of the plants, back underneath the fluorescents (with them turned off, of course, to get good quality pictures :wink:

):

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

The five White Satin:

Here's another shot of White Satin #3, to show how fucking huge its fan leaves are getting:

And another shot of White Satin #2, to show some of the leaves that have six leaflets:

Here's an interesting shot of Critically Smashed #1. One of the main leaves developed with its left half mostly yellow. Now, one of the smaller leaves that has developed from the internodes has the same exact thing going on, except it is on the right half. The only explanation that I can think of for this is genetic mutation. :shrug:

And, the last shot, a close-up of Critically Smashed #4, the first and only plant thus far to develop alternate nodes. This became apparent almost a week ago. Very curious why the anomaly....

Thanks for checking in, kudos to those who've given some sign of life. :muahaha:

Update 8/13 :pimp3:

Gotta keep moving with the documentation. Not too much new, but a lot of pictures. The plants were watered twice in the last two days; the first time, they were flushed before being fed. What looks like nutrient burn began to appear a couple of days ago, bringing us to try some new things with feeding. After doing some analysis, it seems most likely that it was due to having too much Calcium. The Arjan's Haze #3 are looking the most worse for wear. This is thought because the leaves started going lime green at the edges, with the burnt spots (too much calcium locks up magnesium), and also due to the discovery that the label of our Bionova Calcium had a typo (1% CaO on the label, whereas it was intended to be 15%), meaning we were giving it far too much calcium, trying to keep it at the right ratio with the Magnesium. The first watering, we applied an accurate dosage of it with the dosage of magnesium. Today they were given a regular dosage of A&B (up to 1.5mL/L) and a dosage of Magnesium, absent the dosage of calcium, after the magnesium lock-out didn't improve from the day before. The thought is that the tap-water probably has a lot of calcium. I think we're starting to get everything dialed-in as far as this goes; can't wait for the RO to not have to guess about the tap-water.

Still alternating between the HPS and the fluorescents, for them to keep benefiting from the blue spectrum, as well as the light intensity that they need from the HPS. Hopefully in about a week, preflowers will start to appear. Most of the plants are working on their seventh set of nodes right now. In about a week, we'll be able to take our first shot at cloning, as well, as the side-branches are really growing. :smile:

Here's the group shot from the last watering:

AH3 #1

AH3 #2

CS #1

CS #2

CS #3

CS #4

WS #1

WS #2

WS #3

WS #4

WS #5

Thanks for checkin'! :super:

Update Day 6 Flowering :pimp3:

Its been awhile, so I guess we should update this thing. The plants have been on 12/12 for six days now and are really working on their stretch (all of them are over a foot and a half right now). The plants have been suffering through some problems with the older growth getting burnt on the edges. There was an initial onset around the time they received an overdose of calcium due to the mislabeled bottle, and we've been working to figure it out and try out different things to stop it. It hasn't stopped yet, but it doesn't spread nearly as fast as it first did. It seems to be a compound problem, likely due to magnesium deficiency, too much salt buildup in the coco, something with the roots, who knows, because they don't seem to be responding too well to anything we try to that end. Starting to work with foliar spraying just this morning, and tonight the coco is going to be flushed like crazy again... Anyways, beyond the edges of some of the older fan leaves getting some burning, the plants seem to be pretty healthy, and all of the new growth on the side branches shows absolutely no problems. :shrug:

Preflowers had started developing before the light switch, and as of right now, seven are confirmed female, three are unconfirmed, and one of the Critically Smashed was a male, that is no longer of this world. We took some clones from it a couple days ago, before it got chopped up, as we've never cloned and are seeking to build some experience with the essential technique. We tried three without a dome over them and three inside plastic domes, to see if it would be necessary to work with humidity domes, as some people have success without them. The three without wilted overnight, and the other three seem to be doing just fine. Tonight we'll be taking some more clones from some of the confirmed females.

That's pretty much all there is to it. Really looking forward to bud production; hopefully we can solve the problems with the old growth. Here's some pictures of all the plants. Thanks for checking in! :super:

Arjan's Haze #3

Critically Smashed

White Satin

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Update 7/24 :pimp3:

Last night all the potential ladies were transplanted! The roots on all of them were covering the bottom of the rock-wool cubes, begging to be immersed in coco. Eleven 3.4 liter pots were filled with coco a couple of days before and were flushed with tap-water in the bath-tub for quite some time. Two Arjan's Haze #3, five White Satin, and four Critically Smashed made the move. The two Matanuska Tundra that made it aren't ready to be transplanted yet. One of the Critically Smashed that was having serious problems was removed, and the other three Matanuska Tundras were disposed of after we found them full of white squishiness. The mystery strain has sprouted successfully, but the cotyledons aren't looking very healthy.

After firing up and calibrating the pH meter, we ran an initial run-off test, with the tap water at 7.3, and all the pots had a run-off pH in a range between 6.6 to 6.4. After some experiments to figure out the best way to approach adjusting the pH of the coco down, we got it down to two rounds of flushes, in the end bringing the run-off of the pots to the range of 5.6 to 5.4. After that, the plants were happily transplanted into the pots, and each plant received its first dosage of nutrients, a quarter dosage of Atami Coco A & B.

Most of the plants have been showing signs of needing a good dosage of nutrients. We've been concerned that its either been a nutrient deficiency, likely magnesium, or perhaps signs of heat stress. Underneath the fluorescents, temperatures had remained pretty constant at 30°C/86°F. Up until coming to their second week without showing any signs with the temperature remaining the same, though, it seems more likely that they just started getting hungry. Tomorrow I'll be taking more detailed pictures of some of these signs to throw up in Doctor's Diagnosis and at another site to get some other opinions. Nonetheless, we've been working to bring the temperatures down, and right now its been hovering around 26°C/79°F, which is working closer towards optimal anyways.

After transplanting them, the plants went back underneath the fluorescents. Fortunately the pots manage to all fit underneath the fixture pretty well, because we went to some great efforts to get their 600 watt HPS lamp going, to no avail. After hanging panda film in their intended area, the cool-tube couldn't be installed, due to the fact that the ceiling and walls are essentially solid rock. No access to the proper tools to work with the stuff. We then tried installing it in a wooden cabinet that was about 2m tall x 1m x .5 m, with the extractor fan pulling eight times the volume of air in the space every minute through the cool-tube, but temperatures on the floor wouldn't drop below 33°C/91°F. We then went back to the room where we installed the smaller grow area, rigged up a way to hang the cool-tube (it wasn't easy, talk about improvising :lol:

), and ran it with all different ways of bringing in and extracting air, but couldn't get the temperature below 32°C/90°F. The main problem was that the ambient temperature was already in the eighties, so no real margin to work with. The plants will love the spectrum of the fluorescents more anyways until we can hopefully take care of the ambient there before they can't stay underneath the fluorescents any longer.

So, let's close this up with a few pictures. :grin:

Here's the four Critically Smashed, enjoying their new home:

Four of the five White Satin:

The two Arjan's Haze #3 on the left, and the other White Satin on the right:

AH3 #1, working on its third set of true leaves:

The two Matanuska Tundra:

And here's two pictures of one of the Critically Smashed, one closer up, of what appears to be a micro-nutrient deficiency. Much better pictures will be taken later, to clearly see what is happening with these ladies...

Hopefully the first dosage of nutrients will help them out, otherwise it'll be time to take another look at the pH of the coco and possibly bump it up to a half dosage of the recommended dosage. Thanks for reading!

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Update 7/27 :pimp3:

Tonight the plants were watered. The water was adjusted to 5.8, and they were given a half-strength dosage, up from a quarter last time. The plants had a few days for their roots to grow out from the rock-wool cube and into the coco, and the ladies themselves have shown signs of growth meanwhile. The problems with deficiency haven't really gotten worse, and they were probably stemming from problems with the rock-wool cubes. Next time we germinate, we'll be planting the seeds straight into the coco. It should be a better environment for germination, as well as making it easier to manage pH and watering. A lot of the ladies have begun showing their fourth set of leaves, and tiny stipules are showing on the two Arjan's Haze #3. Adding the half dosage of nutrients, with some magnesium and calcium (also coming with other trace elements), now that the roots should be exploring the coco, should definitely knock it up a notch. :grin:

All of the plants together have been giving off a subtle but pleasantly noticeable smell of pot plants, very refreshing! :bigweed:

Here's the two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

And the five of Mandala's White Satin:

No pictures of the Matanuska Tundra right now, but the one is coming along all right, and the other smaller one is, well, really really small. Still alive and growing, though. :shrug:

Sometime soon, when the fluorescents are free from these ladies, most likely, we'll attempt to germinate the last five of the Matanuska. I have a feeling we'll have better success keeping them in coco, as opposed to the rock-wool cubes. I think the rock-wool cubes this last time through were carrying too much moisture inside of them, and although this didn't affect the other strains, since they grew very fast, the Matanuska Tundra seeds just take more time to germinate, and the same amount of water in the rock-wool affected them more adversely. Anyways, they could just be bad seeds, and the coco will tell us that for sure. :wink:

Thanks for checking! :super:

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Update 8/01 :pimp3:

Time for a quick update. It has been a few days and the plants were ready for some water and some feed. Temperature has remained pretty steady, around 26-27°C/78-80°F, with an exception for a few hours where the temperature climbed up to 32°C/90°F. The next day we noticed the leaves felt a little dry and what could best be described as little wrinkles in the middle of some of the top leaves. I'm assuming this would be a sign of resulting heat stress? There have been little areas on some of the leaves across the board with some discolorations and little variations in shapes of the leaves, but it is pretty insignificant and is probably due to issues with the rock-wool cubes inside the coco. This should become less and less of a problem as the roots colonize the coco and the plant finds more consistent pH and moisture levels. Definitely won't be using rock-wool again when all you need is coco. :wink:

The plants show noticeable signs of growth even throughout one day, with little leaves developing in the notches between the stems of the leaves and the main stem. They are definitely developing a beautiful, more distinct aroma, some plants more than others. We're thinking they will remain underneath the fluorescents for another week before they are introduced to the HPS.

The one Matanuska Tundra that is alive is showing some signs of the bumpy road it has been on. The other tiny little runt didn't make it, but it wasn't really growing anyways. Since the Matanuska Tundra was kind of on its own and separate from the more consuming, routine maintenance that the other eleven take, it has been neglected a little more and treated a little more rough. One day it had drooped over from becoming too dry, but sprang right back up after being watered. When it showed signs of needing nutrients some time ago and I was feeling a little too lazy to start adjusting and measuring out stuff for it, it was just given a full dosage of nutrients from a bottle intended for something else. Today it finally showed some signs that it might have been a little too much for it, so it was flushed. Its showing signs since of growth. If it makes it, it makes it, if it doesn't, it doesn't, but its kind of a lab rat for us, being subjected to harsher extremes to see how it responds so we can learn from it. :lol:

Sagarmatha Seeds responded to our questions about the low germination rates we had compared to the other healthy strains, and they have graciously offered to replace them directly. :super:

On to the pictures! First, a couple that were taken two days ago, the first of Arjan's Haze 3, phenotype #2, and the second of White Satin, phenotype #3:

The full image of the eleven ladies before they were watered tonight:

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

The five White Satin:

Thanks for following! :bigweed:

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We were just marveling at the difference after just three full days in the size of the plants after posting this update. :eek:

If you notice carefully, the rows are in a different order, but it is the same plants in each row. After each watering, we move each row forward underneath the fluorescents to make sure they all get equal light over time, since, obviously, the spot in the middle receives the most light. :wink:

The next two and a half months should be fun! :muahaha:

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Update 8/04 :pimp3:

Not too much new, but its been three days and the plants have been watered and fed again, so its time for some pictures. We bumped the concentration of the coco nutes up a notch and added some of the Ca and Mg as well. We're experimenting with doing some nutrient profiling of what we are working with, so later we'll have some data on that and a way of getting a better idea of how much nutrients to give them. Right now it seems like they aren't getting enough, but we're continuing to increase the dosages incrementally and let the plants tell us what they need.

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

The five White Satin:

Going to start work on getting the HPS running finally, so hopefully the temperatures will be manageable and we'll be able to start introducing these babies to some HID light. :sun:

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Update 8/07 :pimp3:

Well, a few things have been happening, and the plants were fed and watered a little while ago, so its time for an update. :grin:

A few of the top leaves had a little bit of some burnt tips after the last feeding. After taking a closer look at the formulas used, it seems that it was a Calcium deficiency, resulting from there being an imbalance in the Calcium-Magnesium ratio. There was a little bit less Ca than Mg, when its typically best to aim towards twice as much Ca as Mg. I've read that, generally, about 60ppm of Mg is optimum, and we had it at about that level, but the problem is that the bottle of Ca has some nitrogen in it as well, and it makes it more difficult to keep proper proportions between everything. An idea is to use some of the P/K booster, with less of Coco A&B, to leave more room for the N to be cranked up with the Ca. I'm tired of seeing small signs of Mg deficiency, damn it!

In the meantime, though, we just gave them 1mL/L of Coco A and B, as well as 1mL/L of Atazyme. Somehow, we completely forgot that we had it. :lol:

The label says its natural, multi-enzyme stuff that should help increase nutrient absorption, enhance root activity and plant growth, stimulate micro-organism activity, and reduce chances of over-fertilizing. Hopefully it will work fine.

The 600 watt HPS is up and running, in a temporary setup, that is allowing the ambient temperatures to be controlled, so the temperatures underneath it are manageable. The cool-tube is about 16 inches above the tops of the plants, with an oscillating fan blowing across the area in between, and the temperature is staying around 29-30°C/84-86°F. Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable, and it is pretty much the temperature they have been at underneath the fluorescents. They are being slowly introduced to the HPS, increasing it a couple hours a day, to get them used to the intensity, and also to give them the continued advantage of the fluorescents' light spectrum. Here's a picture of them, underneath the HPS, after they were watered today:

Here's the signature group shot and individual shots of the plants. A few more days and I don't think it will be possible to keep going with this formula, considering how much they are growing. I'll post the three other group shots first, three days between each one, to give a perspective on how quickly they've been growing:

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

And the five White Satin:

Thanks for checking in; great to see you back, Annom! :super:

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Update 8/10 :pimp3:

Thought it might be nice to make another update, this one a little more picture-orientated, as opposed to boring old typing. :wink:

We watered the plants today, after only two days, instead of three. Despite what Inverted says about them looking textbook healthy :grin:

, there are slight problems with some of the leaves, but I think it could be chalked up to "still dialing in the nutes". Watering/feeding more frequently is an initial step to see if it helps the matter. I really think the problem is with Mg/Ca though, and next time I'll be prepared to do a more radical approach to the nutrients to try to cure it. :evil:

The plants are still growing vigorously, without stretching. Running them underneath the fluorescents for this long, I think, is really making all the difference, but its definitely time to start weaning them off, and these huge fan leaves that are developing are just begging for the HPS light, and the leaves growing in the internodes for its intensity, so they are spending more and more time with it. Hopefully, in about a week, it'll be time for a transplant (the roots are starting to show up in the drainage holes and can be seen while peaking between the side of the pots and the coco) and some 12/12. We're dying to see some buds forming! :stoned:

First, here's the group shot from when they were watered:

Thought we'd try something a little different this time, and take side shots of all of the plants, back underneath the fluorescents (with them turned off, of course, to get good quality pictures :wink:

):

The two Arjan's Haze #3:

The four Critically Smashed:

The five White Satin:

Here's another shot of White Satin #3, to show how fucking huge its fan leaves are getting:

And another shot of White Satin #2, to show some of the leaves that have six leaflets:

Here's an interesting shot of Critically Smashed #1. One of the main leaves developed with its left half mostly yellow. Now, one of the smaller leaves that has developed from the internodes has the same exact thing going on, except it is on the right half. The only explanation that I can think of for this is genetic mutation. :shrug:

And, the last shot, a close-up of Critically Smashed #4, the first and only plant thus far to develop alternate nodes. This became apparent almost a week ago. Very curious why the anomaly....

Thanks for checking in, kudos to those who've given some sign of life. :muahaha:

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So sexy! I started 2 really late outdoor plants this year, the Gravity's as you might have seen in my GL but both of them look exactly like some of your plants, I thought that was very cool, they must be around the same age, your's might be a little less stretched because of how many hours you give it but they are definately identical

Sorry for the blurry pic, do you think this looks like a Indica/Sativa mix to you, the leaves are a little skinnier than any of my other strains... I hope so, because even if they only harvest a 1/4 per plant then at least I know its coming from an absolutely amazing strain. The gravity's around here are so fucking bomb... med grade.

They are so perfect and healthy, if this is a what growing a good strain is like I can't wait to order seeds, I love how both of my plants look EXACTLY the same, must be good genetics eh?

Even though they are a month younger than the rest of my plants they show the best prominent growth characteristics... I love it, I'm too obsessed... They are the shortest bushiest plants I have ever grown I think...

Oh and here's a shot of my good ol' city I took WHILE DRIVING today...heh

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Update 8/13 :pimp3:

Gotta keep moving with the documentation. Not too much new, but a lot of pictures. The plants were watered twice in the last two days; the first time, they were flushed before being fed. What looks like nutrient burn began to appear a couple of days ago, bringing us to try some new things with feeding. After doing some analysis, it seems most likely that it was due to having too much Calcium. The Arjan's Haze #3 are looking the most worse for wear. This is thought because the leaves started going lime green at the edges, with the burnt spots (too much calcium locks up magnesium), and also due to the discovery that the label of our Bionova Calcium had a typo (1% CaO on the label, whereas it was intended to be 15%), meaning we were giving it far too much calcium, trying to keep it at the right ratio with the Magnesium. The first watering, we applied an accurate dosage of it with the dosage of magnesium. Today they were given a regular dosage of A&B (up to 1.5mL/L) and a dosage of Magnesium, absent the dosage of calcium, after the magnesium lock-out didn't improve from the day before. The thought is that the tap-water probably has a lot of calcium. I think we're starting to get everything dialed-in as far as this goes; can't wait for the RO to not have to guess about the tap-water.

Still alternating between the HPS and the fluorescents, for them to keep benefiting from the blue spectrum, as well as the light intensity that they need from the HPS. Hopefully in about a week, preflowers will start to appear. Most of the plants are working on their seventh set of nodes right now. In about a week, we'll be able to take our first shot at cloning, as well, as the side-branches are really growing. :smile:

Here's the group shot from the last watering:

AH3 #1

AH3 #2

CS #1

CS #2

CS #3

CS #4

WS #1

WS #2

WS #3

WS #4

WS #5

Thanks for checkin'! :super:

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Update Day 6 Flowering :pimp3:

Its been awhile, so I guess we should update this thing. The plants have been on 12/12 for six days now and are really working on their stretch (all of them are over a foot and a half right now). The plants have been suffering through some problems with the older growth getting burnt on the edges. There was an initial onset around the time they received an overdose of calcium due to the mislabeled bottle, and we've been working to figure it out and try out different things to stop it. It hasn't stopped yet, but it doesn't spread nearly as fast as it first did. It seems to be a compound problem, likely due to magnesium deficiency, too much salt buildup in the coco, something with the roots, who knows, because they don't seem to be responding too well to anything we try to that end. Starting to work with foliar spraying just this morning, and tonight the coco is going to be flushed like crazy again... Anyways, beyond the edges of some of the older fan leaves getting some burning, the plants seem to be pretty healthy, and all of the new growth on the side branches shows absolutely no problems. :shrug:

Preflowers had started developing before the light switch, and as of right now, seven are confirmed female, three are unconfirmed, and one of the Critically Smashed was a male, that is no longer of this world. We took some clones from it a couple days ago, before it got chopped up, as we've never cloned and are seeking to build some experience with the essential technique. We tried three without a dome over them and three inside plastic domes, to see if it would be necessary to work with humidity domes, as some people have success without them. The three without wilted overnight, and the other three seem to be doing just fine. Tonight we'll be taking some more clones from some of the confirmed females.

That's pretty much all there is to it. Really looking forward to bud production; hopefully we can solve the problems with the old growth. Here's some pictures of all the plants. Thanks for checking in! :super:

Arjan's Haze #3

Critically Smashed

White Satin

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I think what will happen is that some of them will make the transplant and some of them won't. I found a setting on the camera that seems to filter out the red light from the HPS, so here's a couple shots as requested. :smile:

The overhead shot I really love. :pimp3:

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Update; Day 20 Flowering :pimp3:

This is when it starts to get interesting. :yesnod:

Our girls have came out from the stretch with a lucky number of seven, and now the bud production is really kicking off. :wowz:

We've made a lot of progress with diagnosing the problems we were having with our plants, thanks in large part to subjecting the males to adjustments in nutrient dosages that were a little too adventurous to want to risk with the ladies. Potassium deficiency describes the problems we were having quite well, and they have been very responsive to increased amounts of P/K booster, with the leaves darkening up and the burning almost ceasing to spread further. Some of the main fan leaves still lack a little color around the edges, and the Arjan's Haze #3 girls seem very reluctant to green up (although most of the leaves on the side branches, which outnumber older leaves by a long shot, look a lot better), but we've hit a point at which we can't increase the P/K without causing some nute burn. The reason we've found a wall like this when everything should be fine is due to the humidity being virtually non-existent. We're working with a temporary setup right now due to not being able to control the ambient temperatures in the intended area, and, unfortunately, this air conditioner dehumidifies the fuck out of the air, and we can't spring for a humidifier at the moment. The water transpires too quickly and induces a potassium deficiency, as it assists with transpiration and gets left on the tips and edges, which, in combination with the lack of water, is responsible for the burning, and also explains why increasing P/K past a certain point doesn't have more of an effect. Just have to live with it for now, and be grateful to have learned a hell of a lot from everything. :grin:

Beyond that, we'll pretty much let the pictures speak for themselves. We've highlighted bud formation on two of the plants that are leading the way, one of the White Satin bitches, and the only Critically Smashed plant that turned out to be female. The structure of CS#3 is absolutely marvelous. We didn't take a clone from it (we still have seven seeds to run of that), but we do have a clone from the WS#3.

Also of interest is the fact that most of the White Satin plants really smell like coffee. :goodmorning:

CS #3

WS #3

AH3 #1

AH3 #2

WS #1

WS #2

WS #5

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Thanks for the replies everyone. :super:

We appreciate those responses, saltatory and ren. Our goal with the log was simply to make it resemble the kinds of logs we enjoyed reading and looked for the most when we were absorbing everything we could like sponges - detailed information, updates being edited into the first post as well (unfortunately the first post can't take any more updates, so going forward, we'll either have to leave a couple empty posts after the first one, or get them to change the codes...). It feels great to hear that we're inspiring other people who are looking to grow for the first time, because the line of thought we both have had is that it is pays off a lot more in the long run to take a slight security risk in posting if it means that it helps the community out and gets more people growing. The spirit of overgrowing, I guess. :grin:

Uns4ne, the Arjan's Haze #3 might look a little less bushy than they should because they were hit the hardest throughout this whole deal and they're missing some of their leaves that should be there. They are about as tall as the rest of the plants. I'd suspect that they are really going to fill in with buds really well. :smile:

Annom, they are pretty much all a couple inches over two feet tall right now, and there isn't much for stretching anymore. They are still in their 4 liter containers. While we could have made the transplant (actually its hard to say, not sure if there's enough coco for it to have happened with all of them, and we'd like to use it for the next round of seedlings), I don't suspect that they will be too negatively impacted from not doing so. They still have plenty of moisture after a full day, and while the roots are really starting to poke out from the sides of the coco, I really wouldn't expect that they will become too root-bound to cause problems with not being able to flush excessive salts from the coco. I'm sure not having more roots will create somewhat of a limitation on yield, but I think we'll still get more than we could have dreamed of getting for a first time. Next time, we'll definitely be transplanting. :wink:

Took a couple more pictures for the hell of it. This is two days since the last pictures, and not one, since we posted that update a day later than we took its pictures. :grin:

This is one of the clones we took. Someone who was taking care of them for us while we were away nearly broke the stem in half, and I was curious how the rooting was going along, so up it came (it was male anyways). I think this is closer to two weeks after taking the clones. Only one of these is actually female. We didn't take clones from everything because we aren't really setup to do anything with them right now, and were only interested in getting our experience with the process. Of the plants we chose to take clones from, only one of them actually turned out to be female. :lol:

The buds keep developing more and more every day, the pistils are getting really big, and there is trichomes starting to coat everything! :laugh:

This is White Satin #2, which really seems to be getting long-ass pistils on it.

Finally, two shots of the little, temporary grow area:

Thanks for checking the log! :pimp3:

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Well, this doesn't really count as an update, more of a teaser for the next update (coming soon enough :grin:

), but Pipesmoker Elf was playing around with the camera and found a good way to take some nice close-ups of the resin and bud production that is occurring right now on the sole Critically Smashed female. All of the plants are really filling out with this crystally goodness, this plant really exhibiting it well... Anyways, that's about it, so here's a couple pictures:

:ganja:

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What day in flowering are those Macro shots you took because that is an insane amount of trichome production for as mature as those buds look, its usually around 4 weeks that they seem to show that much but yours are fucking coated already and I would guess they are about 20 - 25 days into flowering? I'd like to know because if you look at the shots I've posted in my Grow Journal, you can see production on a higher than normal scale for me and yours looks about the same age but have probably 50% more trichomes than mine and I thought mine were dank!

You rule man, give me some lovin' over on my side :frown:

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Update Day 29 Flowering :pimp3:

Last night we snapped some pictures of all of the seven ladies before they were fed and watered. Not too much to say I guess, just lots of pictures. :grin:

We split the plants into two groups, with each of us make the decisions as to how to administer the nutrients for one group, due to differences regarding which direction to go in. We're still trying to learn what the plants are telling us and to respond accordingly, and trying out two different approaches will really help us learn.

The vast majority of each plant looks healthy, but there's always the older fan leaves that show loss of color and then burnt edges. It doesn't get much worse, but I think the main problem is that, since we didn't transplant into bigger pots, as Annom was mentioning, there isn't enough of a buffer zone in the coco and the roots for nutrients, so the plant sucks it all up and then takes it from the older leaves when they need more. I think the direction we will be going is watering twice a day, as soon as the lights turn on and then close to six hours later, to be able to try to help avoid this, while also not burning the plants by giving all the nutrients they need throughout the day at once.

Another problem might be that the Atami Coco A&B has NPK proportions that make it difficult to give the plants exactly what they need. It has a ton of potassium and barely any phosphorous, and getting the nitrogen and phosphorous to the right levels seems like it causes over-fertilization, due to all of the potassium (especially considering that I thought the cation exchange of coco actually released more potassium and took in magnesium). At any rate, we are really interested in trying out the Flora series of General Hydroponics next time around. :smile:

Arjan's Haze #3

Both of these ladies are focusing on producing buds now. One of them seems to have really improved in health, while the other hasn't. The odd thing is that #1 improved dramatically with the same exact treatment as #2 got. Trying to increase the A&B to bring the nitrogen up while cutting back on the P/K didn't really do anything for it, even though this helped all of the plants improve initially. Last night we cut back significantly on the A&B and boosted the P/K to see if it would respond to that, so we're just waiting to see what happened. It would almost look like a micro-nutrient deficiency, but it is pretty inexplicable, since it is the only one to show this.

#1

#2

Critically Smashed

The sole female, #3, is the one we showed pictures of a couple days ago, and here's some more.
:flyhigh:

White Satin

Oh, how I love these ladies. :smirk:

WS #3 and WS #2 are the more indica-dominant of the group, which really shows in their resin and bud production. WS #5 leans a little bit closer to sativa, and WS#1 is much more sativa, closer to the Arjan's Haze #3, really. WS#3 is the leading lady of all seven. It has been sucking the nutrients out of its leaves more than any of the others. Like was mentioned with AH3 #2, it was initially responding quite well to increasing the A&B, but then it hit a point where increasing it further didn't do anything for it, and it seemed like it started sucking more out of the leaves again. The A&B was cut back again and the P/K boosted, so, again, we'll wait and see.

#1

#2

#3

#5

That about covers it. Not transplanting before the lights were flipped really seems like a mistake since we're not setup to water the coco more frequently (soon we'll be automating that so it isn't a problem), but we weren't really going to be able to do it since we'd have another set of seedlings that were going to need it before we could get more. Also, having a nutrient set that gives you more flexibility over the levels of individual nutrients really seems like a must. This is what we've learned so far. :grin:

Thanks for checking! :super:

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Quote:

Inverted said:
What day in flowering are those Macro shots you took because that is an insane amount of trichome production for as mature as those buds look, its usually around 4 weeks that they seem to show that much but yours are fucking coated already and I would guess they are about 20 - 25 days into flowering? I'd like to know because if you look at the shots I've posted in my Grow Journal, you can see production on a higher than normal scale for me and yours looks about the same age but have probably 50% more trichomes than mine and I thought mine were dank!

You rule man, give me some lovin' over on my side

A+ headise

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heady nugz

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Update Day 37 Flowering :pimp3:

_{Just a quick note for my own purposes that these pictures were from yesterday, so I don't mess up my flowering count going forward.} :smirk:

Time for an update. :flyhigh:

Not too much to say, just a lot of pictures of the developing buds. The last couple of days, the calyxes have really begun swelling. The next month should be very interesting with watching these things pack on weight. Still working on adjustments with how we feed to best accommodate the small pot-sizes. We no longer need to worry about running out of pH-, so we're trying to flush 5L or 10L through every plant every night to help keep the chemistry as balanced as we can. Also, the problems we were having with the #2 phenotype of Arjan's Haze #3 having a very exaggerated yellow color was due to light bleaching. The plants had stretched some and were getting close to five inches underneath the HPS, and this one was staying directly underneath the bulb. We've moved it back up to leave about ten inches of space between the lamp and the canopy and put a shorter plant in that spot, and it has been getting a nice shade of green again, with the exception of some spots that seem as though they will stay bleached.

That pretty much does it, so here's the buds. :toke:

AH3 #1

AH3 #2

CS #3

WS #1

WS #2

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WS #3

WS #5

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