4x600 Strawberry coco\perlite grow

[fonzee]

pH got up to 6.1 in less than a day. I should probably monitor it closely.

Most plants already grew a second alternating node. That is some fast growth!

I got the plants' mother in there with them, along with a 9 week sativa mentioned before. Both are much bigger than the native ones and stand near one tray to catch the remaining light.

 

[fonzee]

pH lowered to 5.0
EC gone up to 2.3 mS
the timer kept the time well and everything goes according to plan so far.
Most plant put out another node since yesterday. I love this growth!

 

[Don-roni]

עבודה טובה פונז

 

[Don-roni]

&
I Wish u luck

 

[fonzee]

Day 5 of flowering:
pH - 5.7
EC - 3.32 mS
Temp: 23-27°C
RH: ~50%

I've raised the watering program to 3 minutes once a day, meaning each time each plant should get around 400 ml of solution. There's not as much runoff as I'd like to see. It might be a bit too much, but I can't set to timer to 2.5 minutes...
I'll probably change that to 2 minutes before the lights go on and 1 minute after the lights go out later on into flowering to keep any rooting action to a minimum.

I raised the CO2 output a bit to count for the extra vegetative growth their having. I hope it would help the formation of the main colas.

So far the plants haven't stretched too much, rather they stretched their lower branches and got wider, which is was I was counting on.

I've raised the lights a bit to keep them around 25 cm away from the tops of the plants. I don't like the tops to get closer than 20 cm from the lights so I should have 2-3 days until I'll need to raise them again.

עבודה טובה פונז

Thank you

 

[fonzee]

Day 8 of flowering:
The timer really fucked up and I got tired of that shit so I've replaced it with a new one.
I shall check to see if the problem has been fixed when the lights would go on today.
The photoperiod was doubtless quite off so the flowering period might take a bit longer than usual.

I have toned down both the fans to 1\3 and got another 20" fan on the floor level to push air up and create some circulation.
I also got another wall mounted fan to get in there later on when they'll start filling up with leaves.

I also opened the CO2 valve much wider to put out much more CO2 per minute. I'll get a meter to check the specs in a week or so. Meanwhile I'm judging by how the plants look, and they look great.

 

[fonzee]

The new timer works well.
I got a new fan in the room for a total of 4 fans now. 2x 16" and 2x 20". all on 1\3 speed.
Plants are stretching pretty fast so I've supercropped the tall ones in middle of each tray to create a somewhat even canopy that gets taller on the edges of the tray.

Temp: 23-28
RH: 50-80 %

I also got too much AC water to handle currently so I put the drainage line in the reservoir to lower the EC a bit and stretch the refill a day or two.
I'll try and find a big barrel soon.

 

[fonzee]

Day 10 of flowering:

After the AC water diluted the watering solution:
pH: 6.0
EC: 1.8 mS

Temp: 23-28
RH: ~55%

Everything looks great. I've raised the lights again and the setup is pretty maintenance free, which is what I'm aiming for!

 

[DevilWeedSeeds]

Looking good fonzee tuned in to watch the flowering show

 

[fonzee]

Day 14 of flowering:

Mixed a new reservoir:
100L AC water, 100L tap water
2.5 ml\L H&G Coco A
2.5 ml\L H&G Coco B
0.1 ml\L Ata Clean

pH: 5.5
EC: 2.1

Temps: 24-28°C
RH: 40-55 %

I had around 25L left in the reservoir so I mixed around 50L of tap water in it and mini-flushed the plants.
Everything seems proper so far.

I started to shave the legs of the plants to allow better air circulation. Done about 1\3 of the plants so far.

As far as flowering goes I think it is pretty normal for 14 days of 12\12. I'm trying to keep them squat as this strain can produce quite the popcorn buds if it doesn't receive enough light.

Looking good fonzee tuned in to watch the flowering show

I hope not to disappoint you ;-)

 

[fonzee]

Day 17 of flowering:

pH: 5.8
EC: 2.15 mS

The plants under light #4 have stretched a lot - almost 20 cm in 3 days.
I got all the lights somewhat close to the plants and supercropped the ones that got too stretchy.
The floor and trays have been washed and quite a bit of water was left on the floor to dry. That should increase the humidity quite a bit for a few hours but in this stage it should pose no problem.

Have a great week everyone!

 

[fonzee]

plucked some fan leaves to allow better light penetration, nothing drastic, and supercropped a bit more.
everything seems on track

 

[Withoutatrace]

looks great Fonzee bravo hope you have a trouble free run an ill be watching this grow for an exciting harvest

 

[fonzee]

Day 19 of flowering:

Mixed a new reservoir:
50% AC water, 50% tap water
2ml\L H&G A
2ml\L H&G B
0.25 ml\L Hesi PK 13\14
0.1 ml\L ATA Clean

pH: 5.0 EC: 2.0 mS

A few days ago I've added another minute of watering in the in the middle of the lightperiod as I didn't get enough runoff.
Now I get the runoff I want, but the tank ends in 5 days. Oh well.

The runoff EC is around 3.5 mS which is a sign I need to flush. I'll try and do that today and lower the EC to around 1.0 mS.

Trays 1 and 3 are pretty untrained. There was some supercropping but nothing major:

While Trays 2 and 4 are maintained supercropped:

I believe I'll wait a week for them to stop stretching, defoliate all the tall colas in trays 1 and 3 and then supercrop them so there would be minimal shading on other buds.

Seems like I could have gone to flowering with no veg at all and still get proper results :-S

@Notatrace: Thanks man!

 

[Femora]

This thread is just in my taste! Im just sad I didnt find it earlier..

Big thanks for sharing your thoughts behind your actions, it makes it easy to understand why , when and how.. I just love it!

About co2.. How do you know if you are at 200 ppm, 2000 ppm or 10,000ppm..
Is it just by chance you have those intervalls?
Keep it up, Ill be here in the front waving n' smiling!


Stay safe!

 

[fonzee]

Hi Femora!
Thank you for the compliment.

I'm using a timer for now (the CO2 controllers are very hard to find around here and an imported one will cost quite a bit - ~1200USD, but it will happen relatively soon) and dialing the timer by looking at the plants.
I know how CO2 deficient plants looks like and how CO2 over-saturation looks like.

I got a friend that we somewhat grow together with a proper CO2 controller and it is MUCH preferred to my method. And I actually got it for him for real cheap...
The controller takes into consideration the actual, current CO2 levels, unlike my timer.

 

[fonzee]

Day 22 of flowering:
Supercropped some more and flushed the plants down to 1.25 mS (around 320L of water was used)
Plants are getting really tall and I definitely over-vegged them...

 

[fonzee]

A few days ago I defoliated anything from my waist up on tray 3 and supercropped everything to that height to create a carpet of flowers.
It actually went pretty well.

All fans are cranked to 3\3 now as the supercropping creates a very dense canopy.

 

[fonzee]

Day 27 of flowering:
Bleh.
The CO2 tank ran out on me so I left the door a bit open for gas exchange. It'll take me a few days to fill it up with the weekend and all that.
The water pump didn't work and the plants dried out. Nothing too major but some plants wilted to some extent. I fixed it up (zip tied the buoy much better this time) and gave the plants a 2 days worth of watering with (mainly) the previous solution.
Also, the pH meter fucked up. I got sick and tired of these BlueLab pH Pen meters, they just get fucked up way too fast. And I bought 4 of them by now so I know what I'm talking about.

However, things still look decent:

I've mixed a new tank today with:
~180L AC water ~40L tap water
*1.5ml\L H&G Coco A
*2.5ml\L H&G Coco B
*1ml\L Hesi PK 13\14
*0.1ml\L Ata Clean

EC:1.9 pH:/NA/

Temps are comfortable but humidity is too high for my liking and I will attend to that issue soon.

 

[fonzee]

Day 30 of flowering:

I got some H&G Enzymes to help the plants overcome the draugh they had a few days ago.
Which adds up to:
*1.5ml\L H&G Coco A
*2.5ml\L H&G Coco B
*1ml\L Hesi PK 13\14
*0.1ml\L Ata Clean
*1ml\L H&G Enzymes

EC:1.7 pH:5.5

Got ~70L left in the reservoir.
I'm thinking about giving one watering with only molasses, fulvic acids and rippen to boost the flowering once the reservoir is finished.

Everything is back on track. I will stop the supercropping from now on to keep the plants from any stress from now on.