First Grow, Big Bud basic questions

[randude]

Friends Thank You all so much letting me into your community. I have been lurking here for a couple of weeks and finally got the nerve to come out of the grow closet.

Being so new to this at 46, I went for the Big Bud from a seed company that apparently changed it's name recently. I am 4 1/2 weeks into the flower and it is so fun to watch. I get in trouble from the gf for spending so much time out there (and she isn't pleased how much time I spend here). Anyway, I got the big bud. It is supposed to have such big buds that it falls over, and at 4 1/2 weeks at flower it doesn't look that that is going to be a problem. The plants are super bushy, about two feet tall. I don't feel like messing with pictures right now, but I will get some up soon. (I am actually pretty good at photography, just it is night time in the ol' grow room). See the colas are filling in nice, but they do not look as good as the pictures here.

Soil, Miracle Grow Potting soil, 1 gallon pots. I guess I got to show you all the photos, they say a lot of words (some folks differ on the actual number).
My grow room does not have a light problem and there are no deseases. Every thing looks hunky dory, cept the bud size. I have these things that look like little white clover thingys all over the place. Between the nodes are filling in with those clover white hair things (those are buds?). My colas are probably an inch in diameter and filling in the nodes every day. I am keeping them on a 400w mh and a 400w hps (I veg'd them in only the single mh, got a deal on the hps a couple weeks into the flower and started to use both). I am pretty close to the colas with the lights, any closer and there would be some damage, but so far okay that way. The pictures I seen on here are HUGE. Is that going to happen or not?
And any other growers who grew this, is this smoke any good? Looking at getting something a little stronger next time, but I still want to smoke this. I plan on making bubble out of it anyway.


Thanks for the welcome,
randude

 

[Pipedream]

Many plants really beef-up in the last weeks of the flower period. Quite often the small popcorn buds expand and grow together to form larger colas. Of course, it always gets better with practice and experience. It would have been better to have the HPS on as soon as yo put her into flower, but running both lamps now will surely help.

 

[Wiimote]

The general rule of thumb I've read is 1gal pot size per foot of plant. So part of your problem is the pot size. Cramped roots don't produce well (from what I've read, I always use 3 gal buckets for final pots). Also, Miracle grow (I used it once) definately seemed to lower my yeilds significantly.

Another thing I am noticing (shooting for my third successfull harvest in a couple weeks) is that my harvests do NOT look as good as most posts here until very close to harvest. What I see in pics at 4 weeks, I don't see in my cab till closer to 6weeks. At the harvest however, I've been coming in right around .5 gpw so far, which is (I think) respectable for being new at this. I've never grown Big Bud so I can't offer any specific suggestions, but I can say this with confidence, your second, third, fourth, etc grows will get better and better. So even if this one is a little off, hang in there the learning curve is a steep one, but so are the results.

 

[thc43]

the bigbud i grow is from clone so may not be at all like what you get but is a good strain. Not too frosty, not very fast but yields well and the smoke is about as good as ive smoked. But have always fovored the sativa stone over full blown indicas.

wont need luck on your side with this strain is hard to get less than expected yields, or make the plant sick. Most tolarant plant ive grown by far alot of what i grow is quite picky dont like high or low ec but BB takes what you give..

heres a tease of what you could expect.

 

[randude]

Wow Thanks for all of the response, this is a fantastic community.
THC43, what a neat looking program you have over there, I am highly impressed. I want to grow a SCROG myself. I have read that BB is hard to clone, can you talk to me about that? Are there special precautions that you follow in regard to BB? I would love to have myself a SCROG in the near future, but I need to get some clones going.
1. Is it advised to make clones while they are as late in the flower cycle as they are? I
Am going to be in the fifth week of flower tomorrow.
2. If I take a clone now, do I take a bud into the clone or cut it off? Which is better?
3. How does a person that is starting to do this so late in life find clones?



I am a senior electrical engineer and I can consult anyone here on anything in that field. I can make Ozone generators for as little as $30, calculate wire size, define radiation physics (Light fallout is a square the distance), or anything else that may pop up.

Thanks again everyone, I am so glad I joined.

randude

 

[JJScorpio]

As stated, you need to up the pot sizes. I would say 3 gallon minimum.

If the plants were immature when you started them that could be why they are small. The plant will not flower until mature so that can set you back.

You need to be careful scouting for bud on the net. You will have cops contacting you and banging you with a conspiracy charge......

 

[randude]

If you read this thread, you know that I was growing some big bud seeds. However, I did get some bag seeds from a friend of mine. Most of those sort of died, but one is really strange. God I have to take a photo soon, but my gf's kid stole my camera memory, long story. So anyway, there is this one plant that I cut when it was about 6 inches tall. I was stoned and cut the top cola off and was going to throw it in the garbage, but didn't. We, it did live and it has two colas about 18 inches long. Now the leaves look like a sativa to me, but that is not the real thing, I dont think. It looks like those 18" colas are becoming 18" cola buds. The bud is filling in all the way to the crotch of the plant. Now it is not as mature under the flower lighting as the BB, so my assumption is I will have to leave it in for an extra week or three, but I am going to get some giant possible sativa buds. And this girl has proven to be a survivor to boot. I am new at this, here is what I am thinkng. Should I try to clone this while in flower or should I take some big bud pollen I have outside and maybe seed one of her buds.
Thanks.. Sorry I am so stupid at this.

 

[Wiimote]

I would reveg her after harvest (keep a couple lower buds on the plant) and take any clones after she has fully reverted to veg growth. Cloning during flower has been iffy at best for me. Either they take forever to root or (my experience) they sit there in stasis forever and never do anything but slowly brown out and die. Reveg will take longer until you can clone, but is safer in my limited experience