DP Fem Orange Bud from seed, 220watt HPS/CFL

[InNvBoarder]

Hey Waydee I just read your whole thread I like your set up its clean and stealth. I think that you should get a digital PH meter make sure its were it needs to be that really makes a huge diffrence 6.6- 6.9 is good. I think your curling leaves on the top are from heat I had the same curling leaves the other day and moved the lights 3 inches farther from the tops of the plants went away in less than a day.
definitly gonna be checking out your progress grow on bro!

 

[waydee]

Thanks man, since dropping the plants a bit the leaves look much better!

peace

 

[waydee]

day 36 from planting so ~day 33 from sprouting. They're getting a feed tomorrow, last did it on saturday and they look and feel like they need it.

Decided to untie, going to let it stretch a little then try again - that said, they're looking branchier and have 5-6 exposed tops from the week they've been tied over a little.

Screens are in place, not sure if this will be the final height - will see how well they branch out. Lowered both plants a couple of inches to try and get them to reach a bit more. Note ingenuity in absence of chicken wire - garden twine, stiff wire and tent pegs


I'm going to fill up the pots a little, what i've got in there has compacted down a bit and i want to top them up - i'm ok to do this right?





#1


#2

 

[InNvBoarder]

Hey dude dont worry about them stretching!

Hey dude dont worry about them stretching!

Plants looking good dude but I would let them stay as compact as possible. When you flower them they will stretch and spread out try to keep em tight as possible

This plant one the right is at 30 days 5 into 12/12 look at all the stretch it was tight and compact before i switched it over to 12/12

 

[NG2k]

yeh you can add some more soil waydee. they are looking very good very compact!
i think they may fill out those screens tho when you start flowering.....
i finally started my diary aswell ! the link is in my sig
peace

 

[waydee]

Hmm so you think the flowering stretch will take care of filling out the screens? I can drop them maybe another 8-10" but was going to keep them vegging at this height for another week then flip to 12/12, when they touch the screens I will drop them so there should be enough height for bud growth above.

Thanks for the advice, if they're going to double in size during the stretch - at least - then the screens are probably set at the right height and given another week of veg should be branchy enough to fill a budsite per hole. My main reason for wanting another week of veg is to do a little topping, give them a week to recover and then flip to 12/12 - sound good?

Looking lovely InNvBoarder, amazing how quickly they've grown whats the lineage of that Purple Shack? i'll have to look it up, but anything purple always sounds great to me

Thanks for that NG, i'll go drag the soil out of the shed trying my best not to look suspicious around the neighbours if you're flipping to 12/12 shortly as well looks like we might have a pretty close finish!

 

[NG2k]

yeh i should be flowering within the fortnight i would expect. i installed the 150W HPS today. havent checked on it yet, but will add more pics and an update in a minute.

what i meant was you may find that those screens are too small for the plants (in terms of surface area). height idealy, for a 70W HPS is probably about 6-8" between screen an growing tips at the start of 12/12. then the initial stretch will fill out the screen. however in your case i just think that the screens are too small... i may be wrong tho.

Peace

 

[waydee]

I did think that :/ might have to rummage through cuboards and find some more materials to enlarge them a bit theres room for 16 budsites per plant on them right now but i doubt i'm going to get 16 sites to conveniently sit next to each other, i'm thinking i'll just cut the screens and somehow extend them into the centre a little.

They were made with the intention of having 3 plants in there, so theres a fair bit of wasted space in the centre... not sure how much light they'd receive there but definately worth making use of the space.

The height should work out fine, the cfls will be right on top of the canopy and the hps's about 6" away

grow on!

 

[NG2k]

yeh keep your lights as close as possible to the screen.... i reckon you may have to build yourself that middle screen.....
your girls are pretty compact so you should be able to get all the budsites at the right height. good luck

 

[waydee]

sorted






not quite so easy to access plants now but it should help out a lot, going to tie the plants over towards the centre screen tomorrow. Note they've switched positions.

 

[NG2k]

thats better. i personally would get the lights much closer unles u cant due to heat. having the 70W HPS 4" from each plant would be better than having those CFL's closer. they put out too much heat compared with the light they give out.

 

[waydee]

Yeah those cfls get in the way a bit, i suppose i could flatten out the screen and raise the plants until they're just beginning to grow into the screen and then drop it again, i'd like to keep the dished shape since the results i've seen in other threads look great.

 

[NG2k]

yes but dippin the screen should be done right underneath the lamp to match the curvature of the lumens given off from the bulb. not dipped across the room.

 

[waydee]

My rationale for making it dipped was that directly under the carbon filter they're obviously not going to receive the most light but allowing it to be a bit lower should help them catch what little is reflected but yes - I think i'm going to see sparse growth towards the centre, but a completely flat screen would make for no usable space in the centre and the outer edges would be further from the lights than i would like.

We'll see how it fills out, they're bent over so that the main tops should grow up towards the joins of the screens, most other growth will presumably go towards the outer edges since the light is more intense there but hopefully the centre screen will fill out a little more as opposed to keeping the entire screen at a single height.

All wishful thinking i'll admit, but i'll give it a shot and see how it works out.

 

[waydee]

Here, what i'm trying to say better expressed in a picture




Just my idea of how the light footprints fall, the lower the centre screen the more the footprints come to overlapping and thus the more light they receive, albeit at a lower intensity. With a flat screen the centre wouldnt be seeing much light at all, the lower it is the more within the footprints it becomes.

Or at least thats my reasoning, I could be wrong.

 

[waydee]

Update








Branchy





Any ideas on when to start 12/12? i'm considering giving them another few days in veg but would like some other opinions. There are plenty of shoots, just a lot of them arent tall enough yet... will 12/12 stimulate growth enough to get most of them above the screen?

 

[smokeymacpot]

i would give them one more week veg, then give 12/12 and the stretch can be fed through the screen.

 

[NG2k]

wow yes very branchy.... i heard grapefruit can stretch quite a bit.... how soon will you be flowering?

 

[waydee]

Flowering starts today - I put it at around 45-50days veg, they're a bit stunted, probably out of my own mistakes but are still super branchy for their height, i'd say the screen is about ~50% filled and all the fastest growing shoots are being directed towards the centre... i'm confident that flowering stretch will bring a bunch of useful shoots up to the edges in the next two weeks.

So now the fun begins


They were in need of a watering when I was messing around with the timer etc (going to run Lights off 5am-5pm, so i'm up early to get it setup but messing around in the flat at this time to get water will likely piss off my flatmate so i'm just going to wait until lights on tonight, im sure they'll survive)


Anyway, enough spiel... pics.

 

[waydee]

Already ran into the first hiccup - the timer I was going to use doesnt seem to work! luckily i have a spare, got that set up and tested it and it works great so looks like the dark period is going to be 6am-6pm.

Going to stay up until the lights turn off, just so I know for sure it's working.