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Outdoor Hydroponic Rooftop Grow - Recirculating DWC - No Airstones & No Medium!

Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
Time to flower these girls and go for two harvests this year!

Time to flower these girls and go for two harvests this year!

Since I realize my plants are getting root bound, I want to make the most of it and flower them now.

Of course, that means light deprivation.

I've been trying - so far unsuccessfully - to get a tarp to stay down in regular 20-40 mph winds.

I really need to pull this off - the plants just look like they want to flower. Actually, Fire OG is flowering and has probably been flowering for weeks now, but my sativa doms haven't yet.

Time to get them all flowering - and put plants in that will finish in early November for a second harvest!

Anyways, here's what I've been up to, light deprivation-wise:



 
Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
The plants have settled into their second night of their new earlier bedtime schedule:


New harvest date: August 26

Second harvest date: November 4

Now all I have to do is automate the light deprivation, so it will cover and uncover itself at timed intervals.
 
Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
Week 1 of Flower Done

Week 1 of Flower Done

Week one of flowering is done - well at least for Capstone and Super Lemon Haze. Fire OG looks like it's weeks into flower and I suspect it started flower when I put her on the roof due to the time change.

Here's a look with Fire OG in the foreground and Super Lemon Haze in the background:



Fire OG:





Super Lemon Haze:



 
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Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
End of the First Week of Flower (continued)

End of the First Week of Flower (continued)

Capstone has turned into a two foot tall, four feet wide bush.

She didn't stretch as much as Super Lemon Haze yet:





The view of the Super Lemon Haze stretching tops (I will have to train her again soon):



Capstone has a nice uniform canopy height:



 
MoS

MoS

Member
I envy your surroundings, hence Cali has some of the best conditions I think for outdoor growing, where plants are able to be done properly without too much rain and shit basically...
 
starke

starke

Well-known member
Plants are looking great. Your SLH is more sativa leaning than the cut I keep, based on leaf structure anyhow. Keep it up!
 
Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
MoS said:
I envy your surroundings, hence Cali has some of the best conditions I think for outdoor growing, where plants are able to be done properly without too much rain and shit basically...
Click to expand...
True, California has consistently good growing conditions. It's almost impossible for us to get rain in the weeks leading to harvest, which reduces bud rot problems. Before I lived in California, it was possible to grow gigantic monster plants in the Northeast, but it was just as possible the crop would be a total loss due to unpredictable rains that could last a week or more as that it could actually exceed the yield one could expect in the southern half of California. The Emerald Triangle formed by the norther counties is the sweet spot because it's high enough in latitude that the days are long enough to veg out huge plants outdoors, but the timing of the rainy season allows them to consistently flower safely until harvest - it's the consistently flower safely until harvest part I was missing before moving here. Now, my main difficulty with outdoor growing has been getting the plants to veg big enough. Anyone south of San Francisco has that problem. But, I'd rather have that problem than the random destructive weather problem that exists in the northeast.
 
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Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
starke said:
Plants are looking great. Your SLH is more sativa leaning than the cut I keep, based on leaf structure anyhow. Keep it up!
Click to expand...
Hi starke - thanks for the well wishes! Here's what I know about the Super Lemon Haze cut I have, which I have yet to have completed a full cycle with, so I don't know if it's true:

1. The clone was sold by "Purple City Genetics";
2. It was billed as "Franco's Breeders Cut";
3. It was described as having strong lemon terps to the nose that also transferred to the taste.

In reading people's reviews of seed grows, various clone grows and smoke reviews of Super Lemon Haze they got from a dispensary, it seems to me that everyone acknowledges the strong lemony terp smell, but only half seem to report the lemon terps also transferred to the taste of the smoke.

I'm hoping the cut I have has the taste as well as the smell - I think I'll still not regret growing it even if it doesn't have the taste if it at least has the psychoactive effects that have been consistently reported (even when the particular cut or seed plant did not have a lemon taste when consuming it).

Does your clone have that strong lemon taste, starke?
 
MoS

MoS

Member
Ah yes forgot about clone shops, wish we had them here, would be so grand.

Have a good sunny Weekend...
 
Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
Week 2-3 Update 1

Week 2-3 Update 1

I'm going to try a little experiment.

You know me - I like to experiment.

After two weeks of pulling a tarp over the plants to simulate 12/12, I've seen the pistols start forming - first, the Super Lemon Haze and, later, Capstone.

With FireOG solidly flowering (even before the outdoor daylight times had started declining) and with daylight hours now on the decline, I'm thinking I can stop the tarping and my sativa dominants will continue flowering on their normal cycle without reverting to veg. despite them receiving 14+ hours of daylight.

If I'm right, it adds 2 3/4 of steadily declining daylight to support the plant's photosynthesis during flowering, which should optimize yield. I'm thinking a plant flowering under 14+ hours of daylight will be better than a plant getting only 12.

You know me: I'm lazy - or at least I aspire to be!

I shudder to think of having to do up to 8 more weeks of tarping! I will post pics of the plants in the next day or two.
 
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Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
Week 2-3 Update 2

Week 2-3 Update 2

A couple weeks ago, when I had erected my light deprivation structure and had pulled the tarp over the plants for the first time, I noticed that it did not totally block the sun - more like late twilight. But, I figured they were dark enough for it to initiate flowering, like I've seen in outdoor guerilla growing - like coming back to a plant about a month or two after planting it and seeing that it was in flower way earlier than she naturally would be with sufficient direct sunlight due to the shade of vegetation that had grown around and past it.

Heck, as the crow flies, these plants are less than 20 feet from a street light - it doesn't effect them at all - they continue to happily flower. That is, unless it is a seed grow. The clones do well, but the seed plants may go hermie.

So, I decided to not stress on getting my light deprivation darker.

You know me - I'm lazy AND I like to experiment!

So, the results of the not completely light proof tarping experiment have been positive - it induced my girls to start flowering with no ill effects!
 
Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
Week 4 Update!

Week 4 Update!

After two weeks of tarping the plants to simulate 12/12, and after one week of not tarping them, the plants have continued to progress in flowering.

Fire OG:



Super Lemon Haze:



Capstone:



Group shot - from the side:



Group shot - low and wide:

 
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