keingrowers tent grow: white widow / snow white

[keingrower]

Hello dear growers, cannabis connoisseurs and gourmets

First of all, I would like to say thanks to all the people who contribute to this site and forum.

I am a long time cannabis smoker and enjoy a smoke every day. Just recently I was getting annoyed with my cannabis source and about all that stuff that comes with it. So I decided to start my first grow.

Because I did not want to make some serious mistakes at the beginning and lose my discovered interest in keeping my own plants I started some research.

At first I read many threads and information on the web about the plant, the growing phases, the needs, the environment and so on. Long story short, I bought a full grow package.

Because of limited space (I am growing in my room), I have to closet grow in a way… no its tent growing

Here are the facts / my equipment:

• Grow Tent, Secret Jardin DR90 (90cm x 90cm x 180cm)
• Euro Reflector
• 400W Sylvania GroLux Lamp (58’000 Lumen, 2050K, High Pressure Sodium)
• Lumatek 400W Digital Ballast HPS / MH (not the dimmable version)
• Systemair RVK 100 L Exhaust Fan
• Carbon filter
• 1 fan for air transport inside the tent
• (added after 2 months vegging) temperature controller, connected to my exhaust fan
• passive intake (open up the tent when lamps are on)

I am at day 46 of flowering right now, as I have started long before I got around to share my thoughts and experiences. First I was kind of scared to share this all over the web. Second thought was, there are a lot of people doing it and I am just a little home grower who grows for his personal stash. So whatever….

Third thought… no one around me knows that I am growing.. and its so hard not to tell anyone or not to share … and if there is something going wrong.. I need to ask someone.. so here I am I hope you will enjoy my first little thread.. it will not have many pictures as I have not taken any up till now.

Along with my gear described above, I use for my first grow:

• Soil, without nuts..(is this called promix?) with perlite (dont know the exact recipe, but it has a good drainage as far I can tell, and when its dried out, it expands and doesn’t sink with time).
• Plagron Nutrient Line (I think you can call this organic… or bio or whatever no chems.. ?): Alga Bloom, Alga Grow, Vita Race, Power Roots, Green Sensation, Lemon Kick for pH adjustment
• I use tap water, kept in a reservoir with air stones (to get rid of chlorine) and with a little water heater to keep the temperature about 23-25°C..
• 3.5 Liter pots

I have read very much about keeping plants, about the setup of your grow room, but I have not really read much about the strains, the genetics, the different breeding methods resp. seed production techniques and about the persons behind it. I will get some more seeds and if I have energy I will start a new grow diary with them

Seeds available:

• White Widow Strain from Seedsman
• Snow White Strain from Nirvana Seeds
• Blue Widow Strain from Dinafem (is not grown at the moment, space issues)

For my first grow, I decided to not transplant my plants, so I started with the 3.5L pots. I popped 4 WW and 2 SW, all of them where up the next 3-4 days. Yeeeah… (after some weeks I read about germination rates etc and was relieved that all my plants germinated).

I am using a HPS lamp for the hole grow. started with 18h light. At present, it is summer and the temps go way up to 30°C, so I let my lamps run in the night to profit from a little cooler temps. What I need to change is, the exhaust air is vented in the room, where the tent is and not outside…. (maybe in winter its not that bad)

The first 13 days I was just spraying the surface with pH water out of my reservoir, one or two times a day. All seedlings began to grow and looked healthy, except one. It was the one which shed the seed skin last.

 

[keingrower]

Part 2 - Vegetative and Flowering Phase

Part 2 - Vegetative and Flowering Phase

Vegetative phase(48 days)
As I read that the time of vegetation is very important to the outcome of yield, I decided to grow them for a bit. At week 3 I started with giving them some nutrients (Vita Race = Vitamin spray 1/4 of recommended dosage) and I topped all of them. At week 4 I started with 1/4 Alga Grow and increased it till week 6 (1 dosage).

I LSTed the plants to get an even canopy.

The light schedule was decreased after week 6 to 16h a day, at week 7 to 14h. In the vegetative phase, I always had some problems with low RH, sometimes my hygrometer just stated VERY LOW… With some wet towels I tried to maintain a steady RH between 50-70%… but it was very hard to.

Further, my plants showed some nitrogen deficit early on (the bottom leaves were pale green, the upper ones normal in color or beautiful dark green). Maybe the deficit comes from the soft feeding schedule of mine… or it may be a nutrient lockout… is it possible to have just some lockout.. not a major one??

why I am thinking of nutrient lockout… I was feeding very light at the beginning with Plagron Power Roots (should help to establish root grow), Plagron Alga Grow and once a week with Vita Race (a vitamin spray).. but what I did was feeding with every watering. I never gave my plants just plain pH water.

They did not showed signs of nutrient burn … I think (no burning tips).

White Widow in vegetative phase
All four of them were growing very well. I have topped all of them once. So I got two main tops. Further I let the shoots grow till they were the same height as the two tops.. to do that, I was LSTing the plants a little. I think i have 2 different phenos.. but for an amateur like me, its hard to tell… 3 plants are like… growing normal, 1 plant is a little short.. but the topping did not work correctly and I got some massive top (mutant bud, like two in one… )
this is my mutant bud in day 46 flowering

Snow White in vegetative phase
They were growing a little taller… and did not respond to the topping or I did it wrong. I think the second is the case but with LTSing I got them on the same height more or less.. the are still a little bit taller..

Flowering Phaseweek 8 or day 50
I changed the lighting schedule from 14h to 12h. I read, that it helps to slowly changed the light cycle, as it is more natural. And that some plants may grow better with other lighting schedules, it differs from genetics, the heritage. And if you are growing only one strain you can find the ideal light / dark period for your plant.. so you may get better off with a 13h light / 11h dark period than 12/12... very interesting

With the lighting, I changed my feeding plan and started to feed Alga Bloom. This time I was going with the feeding schedule provided (1 dosage). Additional, some Plagron Green Sensation (1 dosage) was added. I still was feeding with every watering.

The first 2-3 weeks the plants stretched a lot. Especially the two Snow Whites. The one White Widow which always was the baby is now one of my finest and a beauty

I have read about pruning the plant to increase yield as the plant concentrate its energy to the buds you wish… but I never even could snip of a little bit of my precious plants… till this day… I noticed that there is so much growth which will not get enough light and realized, that this growth costs energy… so I pruned my plants and cut of any lower branches … I was already in flowering phase… so I could not use the cuts… but, I dont have space anyway.

I think because I changed the feeding immediately to Alga Bloom, my plants started to lack some nitrogen.. again.. the reason could also be, that I was feeding with every watering.

My plants quickly started to suck up all the energy stored in the leaves and I have lost lot of leaves. But I read that it is usual, that the leaves start to yellow and to fall off when the plant is in flowering.

 

[keingrower]

Part 3 - Questions

Part 3 - Questions

Question to readers:
As I am new… I tried to cure the nitrogen defficency with adding some more nuts than recommended. What happened (I think you all new), was a little nut burn on the leave tips… some leaves were burnt at the tips, very strong yellow in the middle and normal green behind.. does this come from the nutrient burn?

Furthermore, I think I have made a mistake in not keeping up with the growth of the plants and the space between the canopy and the lamps… my 2 Snow Whites are a bit taller and I have put one of them in the middle directly under the lamp…. now one shoot resp. the leaves of the shoot are showing some bleaching or heat burn… it happened after I had the super idea to place the fan under the canopy to ventilate the trimmed stems to prevent mold and diseases… mmm I was not thinking about hot spots forming over the canopy… although I have prevented it till this point..
Snow White A
Snow White B

Could anyone of you analyze this and confirm if its heat burn or heat stress…? further, look at the leaves… that looks not good (

Question to readers
Then look at some leaves of one of my white widow… wtf?… they look like super ninjas throwing stars… has some one experienced anything like that? Does it come from heat stress?
Throwing Star Leaves

What I have noticed… after week 4 of flowering, I have problems to keep my temps down.. even benefiting from the cooler temps at night, the temps keep rising to 30 or 31°C. that sucks… but if summer is ending.. I think temp problems are not an issue.

I have installed a second fan inside the tent to prevent any hot spots over the canopy. both fans are ventilating above the canopy. Second, I have increased the distance between the lamp and canopy.. it is about 45cm… should I go with more?

To determine when I need to start flushing (maybe I dont need to as my nuts are organic… but I will), I bought a little microscope to view the trichomes.. but just looking at the buds.. they need more time.

I think I will wait another week and then maybe start my 2 week flush. so I have 3 additional weeks..

yeah, thats all about it right now Thanks for reading and for helping me out.

 

[keingrower]

Part 4 - Pictures I

Part 4 - Pictures I

Snow White A + B

Snow White A - Budshot

Snow White B

Snow White B - Budshot


White Widow A

 

[keingrower]

Part 4 - Pictures II

Part 4 - Pictures II

White Widow B

White Widow B - Budshot

White Widow B - Budshot 2

White Widow C

White Widow D

 

[keingrower]

Part 5

Part 5

Later on I will provide pictures without the HPS lamp on, I think

What you think about my grow?

ps: while uploading my pictures I browsed trough the galleries… ohh man I was so proud of my plants… but … I aint having big buds like I see in the galleries...



sincerely
keingrower

 

[keingrower]

Little Update

Little Update

Hello guys

I have put two of my white under a white light to get better pics

please feel free to comment

White Widow A

White Widow B

 

[keingrower]

please help me out

please help me out

heeeiii guys

so yesterday.. all was looking good... one day before, I gave them a feeding (as scheduled by plagron) of bloom and sensation green.

today... many of my plants show signs of.. mmm manganese def.. or calcium... or is it to much potassium??

I cant tell... please help me out guys...


if you need better pics, just tell

 

[sun_shine]

Maybe it helps if you turn your library into public mode,,... ?

 

[keingrower]

oops... I was no aware of that! sorry

I changed it, so you should able to see the plants

 

[tommygh]

Nice plants

 

[keingrower]

there not looking good at all anymore

I haven't kept up with changing up the distance between the canopy or the tallest bud and my lamps..

Up till now... I haven't issues with heat... my temps surely went up to 30°C (85F)but my plants were not affected.. but the last few days... the leaves started showing signs of heat stress.. the tips have bent down.. some leaves showed white spots like bleached out.. and the leaves were yellowing ... some from the middle some from outside...

first I thought it was a nutrient issue, because I haven't got problems with heat.. my plants didn't show it and as it is my first grow, I have no experience.


second thought.. after reading many forum posts about diagnosing plant problems, I read that the signs my plants now show, are signs of heat stress and heat burn and not in the first stage...

I moved my light away.. the distance is 60cm (30inches approx.) now. I hope this is enough...

what do you guys think, what else can I do? I try to keep the temps way down now..

my biggest buds are affected and it has burned away some bud leaves with much trichomes on it I am so sad... after 3.5 months good growth and no bad signs

 

[tommygh]

It's hard to tell with the lights on. Looks like you're pretty close to harvesting anyway, but maybe some Dyna-GroMag Pro Blossom to give your buds a boost.

Here's a link that might help
http://www.thenug.com/galleries/diagnose-your-sick-marijuana-plants

Not much of a help, since I've haven't gotten that far yet. Just some food for thought.

60cm sounds about right for the lights, or whatever feels right on the back of your hand.

Good luck, and happy harvesting!

 

[keingrower]

thanks mate for your kind words

I think they will go for another two weeks and then its time
Thanks very much.

I will update this thread till harvest