Chevy's blumatized organic soil LED mini grow

[Chevy cHaze]

The lights is roughly 30cm/12" from the tops, without harm so far and that's also what I used the last couple rounds...



during veg I have it a little bit higher.
Basically I try to get as close as possible while still having good coverage of my canopy (my floorspace is 60x60cm and canopy is a bit smaller than that).
The Gorilla Zkittles in the back are obviously a bit closer with some of their tops but they too seem to love it.
CC

 

[exploziv]

Plants looking good, man.
Thank you for taking time to measure it. That's what I figured should be a good distance as well, but wasn't sure since I am not at full power yet.

 

[Chevy cHaze]

I always like to move closer very slowly... you can see when it's too much and I try not to go there in the first place.
As long as all new growth is freshand nice green and then goes darker as it matures a couple days later it's all good
I have a feeling my plants are liking the oversize circulating fan I put into the top of the tent. Or maybe just that it'S runnin 24/7 now. Before during light off only the two small computer fans where moving the air around a bit. I managed to dial in my temps via heater cable and dimmer so that they're sitting at 25C/ 50%rh lights on and 18C/45%rh.
That gives me a VPD of a bit more than 1 kpa during lights on and probably as good as I can get it without better equipment.
BUT: I have ordered a humidity controller that will regulate my small, mobile dehuey and a temp controller that will control the heater cable ( does day and night)

Let's see where this goes!
CC

 

[VerdantGreen]

looking nice in there!..



I hear you about growing being a 'meditative' experience.... i spend most of my time sneaking around my grow because i try and keep it secret from the kids.. which is stressful - but i really appreciate those occasions when i have some time to tend to the plants without looking over my shoulder all the time. Training and scrogging the plants as they stretch is very 'zen' i find...


VG

 

[Chevy cHaze]

I hear you VG, I hear you!

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Update Day 40 Flower

Update Day 40 Flower

Quick update
Day 40 of flower.
Everything ticking along nicely, tried to get the proper VPD dialed in by hooking up the heater cable to a thermostat and also adding a dehuey during light on.


I manage to keep conditions relatively stable at
25C/ 45-50%rh during lights on and
18C/65% during lights off
Apparently VPD is not important during lights out and also read that if VPD is right, mold shouldn't be a problem.
Despite my normally outrageously high humidity I'm not seeing problems with mold in my grows, which I contribute to the organic soil but trying to optimise things a bit this round to see if I can do better...



Here are some clones I've got rooting.
In the front are a couple strawberry lemonade and Gorilla Zkittlez clones I took well into flower and as I tried rooting them in tap water only for 10 days, they look pretty fucked up.
I've since then put them in root riot plugs as the water rooting did not seem to work.


I was also gifted some Zkittlez clones that are in the back and obviously looking much better than the other ones in the front.






Take care and stay save as Europe enters another lockdown.


CC

 

[Chevy cHaze]

day46 of flower

day46 of flower

Update for day 46.



roughly 10days for the Gorilla Zkittlez and about 20 for the SL.


As mentioned, some fresh clones and we have roots.
In the back is a Strawberry Lemonade, in the middle the very healthy Zkittlez I was gifted and in the front a very beaten Gorilla Zkittlez. The SL and GZ I took well into flower, and they're really fucked up now, but they rooted.



Best
CC

 

[exploziv]

Looking great man! At first I thought they were fading too fast, then I read how close they are to the harvest and it seems you are doing great.
Have a great weekend!

 

[exploziv]

Come on man they are so close to harvest, we demand an update! Show us the bud porn!

 

[Chevy cHaze]

I'm about to! And I have a handheld digital microscope now too so I'll take some shots of the trichomes as well.
The Gorilla Zkittlez are coming down end of the week or according to trichome color.
Lovely smells!!!
I've been giving them only water and a bit of kelp plant vitaliser of ther last 10 days and the Strawberry Lemonade is really starting rt fade now. The GZ is starting too, but always was less nute hungry.


Update later today!!!


Best
CC

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Update

Update

Here are the pics:


It's autumn in the tent, colors are changing fast and I let night temps drop to 15C






Here's a bud of the SL




And here's the GZ




Closeup of the GZ


The GZ has some amber trichomes already and is coming down in the next couple of days.







And the trichomes of the SL




Cheers!!!
CC

 

[Frosty Nuggets]

Nice crop there mate, can't wait to see the final weigh in.

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Will be chopping soon!

 

[exploziv]

Happy worker, happy factory!

 

[Chevy cHaze]

tooot tooot

 

[Chevy cHaze]

The trichomes again!!!

The trichomes again!!!

A long time ago I've moved to determining when to chop by trichome status.
Then for a long time I failed to get amber trichomes under LEDs and moved to somewhat more of a freestyle approach, still looking at trichomes under a loupe but also taking into account smell, overall look of plants etc. And of course I paid attention to what the breeder info said about flowering times of a strain.


Now I'm about to chop Barney's Farm's Gorilla Zkittlez and Strawberry Lemonade and am, once again bamboozled by trichome colors.
The GZ is supposed to take around 55-60 days and the SL, more sativa leaning the say, is supposed to take 60-70 and as of today (day 53)they are both exhibting amber trichomes, the SL even more than the GZ.
Quoi le fuck??



They both smell delicious! The SL is still really resiny and sticky but the resin on the GZ has become somewhat "dry". I've witnessed this before in some F13s from DJ Short.
When you rub the buds you end up with a sandy texture, crumbly resin that looks a lot like dry-sift.

I'll stick to trichome color and chop both the next couple days.
There are always exceptions to rules and surprises and you have to keep on your toes not to miss what a plant is telling ;-)


CC

 

[Chevy cHaze]

GZ Harvest

GZ Harvest

So, after additional trichome inspections I have decided it was time to harvest the Gorilla Zkittlez.
Somehow I managed to remove the trellis and get the whole plant out.
Here's the tent upon harvest


Wasn't very difficult, just lifted it up over the colas.


Here she is, gotten real dark, even darkeer than before over the last week or so.




Super hard nugs, very little leaves, strange sugar leaves that look like little crystal alien tentace things.

Hung the whole mini plant upside down to dry again like last time.
I use one of the two little compartments on the side of the SJ lodge tent. Just enough height to hang the plant.
I'll monitor rh and temps more closely this time to do most of the drying at around 17C and 60%rh.
Current ambient temps and rh luckily make that work right now, but in the worst case I have the dehumidifier ready as well as a heat source.



And removed the trellis from the Strawberry Lemonade as well, spreading her out a bit more for the last couple days until harvest


The SL looks like she's a decent yielder!


Both smell lovely, the GZ has that typical Zkittlez smell and the SL, well it does kind of smell like some strawberry lime kind of fruity thing. Hard to out my finger on it.
Will give her a couple more days as most of the amber trichs I had seen must be from me working in the tent, damaging some.


CC

 

[saitama]

I have also experienced longer than recommended flowering times if by going with trichome color. I didn't know this was related to LED.

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Hey Saitma,
Yes that seems to be the case, but not always... I guess some must be strain dependent and other factors might be contributed to LEDs... I was thinking for a long time that the missing UV in most lights would cause the lack of trichome degradation, which could also be really cool! Imagine getting all milky with zero amber?
But this time around I got some amber trichs and everything seems to be done a bit ahead of the time... Then again I did shorten the days to 11/13 for the last two weeks, so that certainly plays a role too.


Cheers
CC

 

[Fitzera]

Looking good Chevy! I really enjoyed the GZ I grew last run, two very similar phenos...one was purple and one had more green with a splash of purple. 6 month cure its lost some of the zkittlez flavour but its still my favorite smoke from that run.