4 x 600w dripper fed DTW 15/16 plant grow

I'm 31 days into an estimated 67 flowering. I've been running a grow journal, but not really getting on with the format and low throughput of traffic, so I thought I'd continue it here, anyone want ing to know the room layout specifics and the lousy start these plants had can check it out in my journal here. https://www.icmag.com/modules/Journal/viewentry.php?journalid=1381

Well this is how they were a good few weeks back, suffering from off gassing, then, believe it or not were very badly affected by a "Trilite" 600w MH bulb, absolutely excessive UV rays blistered them up and screwed new growth up and made them look like they had a bad attack of Broad Mites, which thankfully they didn't! Not till spreading them between two MH bulbs did I see a clear difference in the plants under the new bulb. Anyway this is the state they were in 6 weeks into veg, you should have seem them 3 weeks in, they were so poor I didn't bother taking pics as I thought they were gonna's.



As I say the catch up between there and now is available in the above link

I'm pleased to say that things are all on top again in the grow and its firing well on all four cylinders. Here's a few pics taken last night at end of day 31.





Buds are packing it on and resin build up is impressive






They're currently getting ec 1.5, previous to this they've had slight increases from 1.2. Half way through week 5 I'll carry on feeding this strength as they seem to be loving it. I don't usually feed above ec1.2. But you can see they're happy, not a sign of tip burn on any leaf.

Week 6 I plan on giving them a small dose of PK13/14 with a little less A+B and then week 7 a higher dose (3/4 of what Canna recommend I find works well).

I have two issues I need to deal with. 1 each plant has its own waste tank that its sat on. The lids of these tanks are brittle and I'm worried about when they pack more weight on that I'll find one or two fallen through the lids and sat in their own waste. I'm thinking plastic chopping boards, though I'd prefer something like a stainless mesh of some sort to help with drainage. I drill the shit out of the chopping boards if I have to. Baking racks would be good, but I need 15 1/2 to 16 inches long to fit across the tank, and I don't know if I'm likely to find them that big.

The second issue i that I have to fit some sort of lines across the room to tie branches/buds up to. As you can see from the canopy in the pics, there's not going to be much room to play in. I can shift plants about a bit individually as they're on their own individual tanks, but once they're hafl way through being tied up its not going to be so easy. I'm just going to have to make sure I can come up from under the canopy in a couple of central'ish places and I should manage through. I've got 16 plants in this flowering room, although its going to be 15 in future as the extra one is one too many.

All the room and feed system are laid out in the above link to my journal, but if you have any questions, please fire away.

Trev

Its a couple of years since I've been active on IC.

Now I'm in a new place with a new grow room, and a space upstairs for a tent for a couple of mothers and cloning.

These are going to be for my next grow, providing I can keep them trained and small enough in the 80cm x80cm tent, fortunately they've been taken from my crop between week 2 and 3 of flower, and as a result will take longer to get back into their veg state propely. I have 22 cuts in total out of 24 taken, I through 2 as they were very slow rooting and didn't look so strong. I'll be keeping the best 17 out of the 22, 15 for the next flower show and 2 strong ones to keep for mother's. I must get an extractor fan running in the cloning tent as the temps are reaching 90f. I have a filter on the way and will hook up a fan in the next couple of days.





As I said, they were taken mid way through week 2 of flower, hence the wee buds on them. So I'll be expecting some good multi branched plants to come from these small clones, ideal for LST training.

I have'nt had my usual supply of green since getting back from travels, but one or two friends have been very kind and lent me some of their's til mine comes through. A mate also gave me his trim, which he usually bins (Yipes!!). So I got busy making some knock out bubble hash last night.



And after a bit of working in the hands



I still have a large bag of trim left to play with, I don't know whether to make some BHO and some strong Ghee or whether to simply make more hash with it. . . . talk about spoilt for choice lol.

Awesome recovery there mate!!!
Looking at the first pic and then the almost ready pic it is hard to believe it is the same grow!!!

New grow looks like it is also going to be killer!!!
And that hash....

lazylathe said:

Awesome recovery there mate!!!
Looking at the first pic and then the almost ready pic it is hard to believe it is the same grow!!!

New grow looks like it is also going to be killer!!!
And that hash....

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, yeah, its been a stunning turn around, I never expected them to come to anything really, just hoping to solve the problem before getting the next lot in, but they've bounced back full of vigour.

They're not really anywhere near almost ready, they're literally half way through flowering, 4 weeks, 2 days to go. I envisage an awful lot of tying up of heavy branches. I'll be setting about putting some lines up above the grow to yo-yo and tie off to. I only have 80 or so yo-yo's so I imagine that I'll need a fair amount of dental floss, though I may be able to borrow some yo-yo's off mates.

The biggest problem is going to be finding space to pop up from under the canopy to actually get to the branches in need of support. Lol, I've had worse problems to deal with in times gone by. I am beginning to wish that I'd put some netting on these plants a week or two back to help give them support though.

Trev

Some netting would have been a bonus or even those tomato cages seem to work really well.
What about using some bamboo stakes to hold all the girls up?

Busy reading your journal in your sig line!
Time to catch up and learn something!

Wow, that hash really takes you out especially after a few drinks

hello trev nice looking grow especially after the start lol just wondered how you empty the tamks under the plants are there pumps in each tank?

cheers mate

johnny5 said:

hello trev nice looking grow especially after the start lol just wondered how you empty the tamks under the plants are there pumps in each tank?

cheers mate

Click to expand...

That'd be cool, but too many wires and plugs. No I simply use a hosepipe from downstairs and syphon it out from each tank, it takes about an hour to empty the lot, once every 7-10 days. Connect the hose to the downstairs tap, run water up to one of the tanks and then turn off and disconnect the hose from the tap, the gravity then drwas the fluid from the tank, as it gets down to the bottom I quickly pull the hose out and stick it into a hole on the next tank and so on. There's usually stuff to do whilst waiting for the tanks to drain. Once I've sussed a way to strengthen the brittle and easy to crack lids, I'll have a hole big enough in each lid to drop a fairly high powered pump in each one and pump to the bathroom next door to my room, but for this grow its syphoning ;-)

Everything is looking good in the room, things are fattening up nicely, though I've had no time for it other than filling the res with nutrients for the past few days. I've got a busy few days ahead too, but I'm going to have to find time to put some hooks into the upper battons on the walls and run some lines across to yo-yo and tie branches off to, as some of the the thinner branches are starting to give in to their own weight, so they'll need pulling up into the light.

I've also done no fan leaf removal whatsoever yet so there are plenty of buds not getting the light I'd like them to be getting. I'm looking forward to having some time in there to give it a good sort out.

Start of week 7 of 9 on Thursday, I'll be giving them PK13-14 for a week, then 2 or 3 days at low ec before the final 10-14 day flush.

I plan on giving them another dose of Pure Blackstrap Molasses tomorrow, give em the carbs they can use . Its the only form of "boost" I give em, other than the PK.

I'll try and take some more pics soon and show you their progress.

Trev

very nice canopy , u ever use a screen ?, good stuff
TS

Yeah, I've done this size scrog before but too much of a pain to get about in, so rely on tying down and training now, but going for that even canopy. It'll be switching from tying down to tying up pretty soon though.

Start of week 7 today, the next res will be with PK. I'll try and grab some pics at lights on/off time in the next couple of days. Must feed Molasses too. . . . . reminder to self!!

day 43

day 43

End of day 43 of 63.

I've just made up a full res with PK13/14 at full strength, and with 25% less Canna A+B, keeping things at ec15 which they seem very happy at.

I'm going to get chance to spend some time in there tomorrow setting lines above to tie and yo-yo off to and remove some of the larger fan leaves that are getting in the way of buds, I'll also be giving them some long overdue Molasses.

Things are looking very impressive with 3 weeks to go, its going to be warm and wet here for weather so I'm going to have to keep a keen eye out for mould in the final stages and keep plenty of air circulating around the canopy.

Here are a few pics I took at the end of day 43 of 63(ish)





I've noticed some leaf curling/canoeing, going on on some of the bigger buds, the buds look to be doing really well, but some quite bad curling up, any ideas?? its not on all of them, just the bigger ones. Also probably nearer the lights so could be some heat stress. Here's a couple of pics of what I mean.





And here with no curling?



Anyways, all looking good here so far, no signs of slowing down on bud growth and I'll expect some more packing on of muscle as they use the PK13/14 and Molasses over the next few days. The plan is then give a light feed for 3 or 4 days and a 10 day flush.

A few more pics.











Trev

is it just me, or do i see a few beans in there?

The curling is classic heat stress. Move the lights up a bit and they'll be fine.
Nice looking grow, i see a loooooong trimming session in your future

Indianajones, you trying to give me the willies? You think you can see beans from those pics, dude you got some EYES if so. No beans showing anywhere. With the stress these had early on I have been, and will be keeping a close eye out for any bananas popping out. What you see, I can assure you, is only reflections and blurry pistals and calyxes.

Puscifer, yeah man, a big trim is looming, should keep me busy, tired and achin' for a while, oh dear

I have seriously allowed far too many branches, and coulda took a bit more away from underneath, which means more work. Overall I'm more than happy with the way things are going, I've trained them well, but now its time to help them keep their big fat heads up.

I've had a real good stint in the room today, I set wires above to yoyo the branches to and been through the grow lifting the weary heads of buds with almost my entire collection of yoyo's. I have more coming tomorrow. There is a good spurt of growth going on now so the timing for PK13/14 should be bang on. I also dosed with a feed of Pure Blackstrap Molasses today, which I aim to give them again in 2 or 3 days.

This is what I like about the individual DTW tanks, I can shove them about to access the different areas of the grow, a little more difficult now yoyo's are in use but still possible. I drained all the tanks off today, hence the blue hosepipe.



Here's a pic showing how I syphon my waste tanks



Here with the middle row shoved to the left.



I'll grab a few pics at lights off with all the heads held up, it'll show the size and bulk that's going on.

Trev

Here are a few pics after yoyo'ing some of the heads up. There's a bit more rearranging to be done, but I'm on top of things again. Just in the nick of time too, there were quite a few heads going down as I moved the plants about today.







Very phallic look!! Looking fwd to seeing the next couple of weeks develop

hey hosttrevor, very healthy plants you got there !!!

I using canna coco with drippers too, and think it's a good product..

Me too I have some leaf curling at the top of the plant, but only with the UK Cheese exodus Cut...

You strains seems good and fast flowering plant ?? what is it ?

what is your irrigation timing ? Do you wait for the coco drying or not ?? Me, I don't really wait, because I run-off at the first watering of the day.

best regards

Looks awesome Hosttrevor! Quite a comeback from the beginning! I'm sorry if I missed it but, what are your overall avg temps/night day variance?

Maxhouse said:

hey hosttrevor, very healthy plants you got there !!!

I using canna coco with drippers too, and think it's a good product..

Me too I have some leaf curling at the top of the plant, but only with the UK Cheese exodus Cut...

You strains seems good and fast flowering plant ?? what is it ?

what is your irrigation timing ? Do you wait for the coco drying or not ?? Me, I don't really wait, because I run-off at the first watering of the day.

best regards

Click to expand...

Hey mate, I never like coco to dry out, just don't want it water logged. I have an inch or tow of hytroton clay pebbles at the bottom of each pot. I'm using 11ltr pots and whilst the plants are big and in full swing they get fed 2-3 times a day till run off. I go for a higher run-off than the standard 10-20% and can dial down any plants that require less as I have adjustable flow rate drippers and each plant sat on its own individual drain/waste tank and can see the level of run off for each plant.

When I was in 15ltr pots they only wanted feeding once a day. I think I and the plants prefer the 11ltr pots and more frequent feeds. I've been interested in a guys grow here that is using just 6 liter pots and feeding very regularly, a bit nearer to hydro, looks like he's doing ok. I definitely find the 11ltr pots better than the 15, which is a reversal of my previous thinking. I'd struggle especially with some strains to get the 15 ltr buckets filled with sufficient root growth, leading to poorer drainage/usage of the nutrient solution, meaning once a day feeding was as far as I could take it, and also with more frequent feeding I'm managing a higher ec level than I'd normally run. Usually I max out at ec1.2, but this grow has been on ec1.4-1.5 for the past 3 or 4 weeks and loving it, no signs of over ferting and good large and very dense buds. I always thought more rootzone space the better, but now I think along the lines of the ideal size rootzone for roots to fill and use frequent feeds where roots can access all of the growing medium fully. Of course this would no doubt be strain specific. Some strains grow bigger root mass than others and there seems to be no correlation between amount of roots and yield with different strains, just different strains do it differently. I think 11ltr would be a happy medium for the size of plants I grow from now on, usually no more than 36 inches from the top of the pot. If there is more root mass I'd feed more frequently and see how it went before changing to bigger pots.

The strain is Critical, 9 weeks flowering maybe 10 at a push, but it is pushing it at 10 weeks.

Trev