Starke's Story: An LED Tale

[starke]

Goats: That's crazy about Amazon. With my wife's Prime membership I received 2 day free shipping. Both bags came crunched down in the same really small cardboard box. Box looked like it should have weighed about 5 pounds based on size - but weighed 50 when you picked it up.

FakeSun: Glad to hear about the Peters. I've read all the Peters and PPK threads here and think that is how I'm going to go in another grow or so.

 

[FakeSunGrower]

I remember that you use hempys stile grow where ph isnt a worry but if you ever venture to the DWC side , it's so stable ph wise , and so cheap per gallon , I almost felt silly when I bought the canna coco fertz to try coco.

 

[starke]

Glad to know FakeSun. Hempy is essentially drain to waste so as long as I ph my feed going in I'm OK. PPK is recirculating like DWC to some extent so being able to maintain ph becomes much more important. Thanks for the experienced info.

 

[starke]

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Did a defol this morning that was about two weeks overdue. Until this grow I have not experimented much with any forms of defoliation. Normally I only remove growth interfering with a bud site but these ladies have grown so dense in the middle and down low that not removing some growth was going to lead to problems with airflow.

Pretty much stripped the lowers and center of the plants. Must have cut off a hundred small interior shoots that would have produced only popcorn buds. Hopefully the defol will help increase yield and quality...because it sure as shit does not feel natural. Of course I'm growing weed indoors, in artificial dirt and under artificial light...guess it's hard to get more unnatural than that.

Got a crockpot full of trim though that is cooking into a pound of butter as I write this.

Mixed up the first batch of Jacks yesterday and fed the ladies with it. Keeping about 800ppm/.5 until how I see how they adjust. The breakdown is about 120ppm well water, 400ppm Jacks and 280ppm Calnit.

Assuming the ladies recover from the defol quickly and like their new food, I think I'm about a week away from flipping to flower.

Here are a few before and after pics of two of the ladies. The yellow appearance of the top leaves is due to an incandescent dining room light fixture hanging about six inches over the plants.

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



Today After Defol:



Peace,
starke

 

[FakeSunGrower]

Glad to know FakeSun. Hempy is essentially drain to waste so as long as I ph my feed going in I'm OK. PPK is recirculating like DWC to some extent so being able to maintain ph becomes much more important. Thanks for the experienced info.

I ran the ppks several times and it's the best system in speed and yield and ease of maintenance ,(as long as you have the headroom unlike me :-/ ) as a matter of fact all I did is top the reservoir every day , and watch the magic happen in front of my eyes , in reality all systems are great in their way as long as you keep up with whatever quirks they come up with , if I had the same space I did before I would be running ppks , let me know if you hit any issues while setting up your ppks , and glad to help , tc . FSG.

 

[starke]

Thanks FSG.

 

[FakeSunGrower]

Hey bro , I read the last 3 pages and can't find if you are still vegging? I always defol , in veg and flower .

 

[starke]

Still in veg for at least one more week from today, then will decide on flipping. Going to hit you up when time to defol in flower.

 

[starke]

Flower Day 1

Flower Day 1

I flipped the ladies into flower this morning. Running an 11 on/ 13 off light cycle. Gave them 36 hours of darkness first. I don't know if the dark period speeds up the onset of flowering or not, opinions on here vary. I figured it can't hurt though so, why not?

Going to keep the feed and other conditions as they are for now as the ladies seem to be happy.

Just one picture to mark the beginning of flower. Hopefully next weeks pics will have pistils to show.

9 Days ago After Defol:




Today (Flower Day 1)



Peace,
starke

 

[starke]

Weekly Update (Flower Day 7)

Weekly Update (Flower Day 7)

Today marks the end of the first week of flower and the ladies are well into the stretch. They have grown approximately four inches in the last week. Shooting out pistils everywhere so flower has definitely begun. Based on past experience, they will likely stretch another four or so inches this coming week, then settle into making buds.

Noticed the slightest bit of nute burn on a couple of leaves so I have backed the Jacks down to about 700ppm/.5 for this next 30 gallon batch of nutes. So far I am liking the Jacks as are the ladies. It dissolves much easier than the Maxibloom and seems to hold final ph better. I am using well water with a ph of 8.2 and initial ppm of 110/.5 and have had no issues thus far. I may still invest in an RO filter down the road, especially if I set up a PPK.

Last Week: Flower Day 1



Today Flower Day 7:



Peace,
starke

 

[FakeSunGrower]

They look so happy , you could try to open up the middle by pulling to the sides the leading branches by tying to the edge of the bucket with some wire and making all the tops equal in height , making the plant uniform will make a difference in the next 13 days , secondaries will catch up to the canopy or get closer to the top and you will be able to choose your tops much easier once you start defol , so exiting to watch the ladies grow , will stay on the up and up , thanks for sharing , FSG.

 

[caljim]

The tent is filling in fast and they look good.

FWIW ....I run Jacks with water that is 140ppm with no issues.

 

[starke]

FSG: Thanks for the advice. I originally built a great SCROG screen, however, there is just not enough room in the tent for my old ass to work it so I scrapped it during the last grow. The timing on your post is perfect. Doing what you suggested is happening today, along with a little interior defol.

caljim: Glad to know about the water. It's taken me about 50 years to learn, "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Your experience will save me several hundred dollars in RO equipment. Thanks.

 

[FakeSunGrower]

Awesome to hear that !!! On my pheno's , the fans stem start turning purple , sort of "maturing " that's when I pluck them out , also don't be shy trimming the lower branches that won't mature in time before the end of stretch or reach the light or makes the branch to busy , you will know what I'm talking about once you look for them , it will help lots , directing the energy to remaining branches , looking forward to the pics !!!!FSG

 

[starke]

Thanks for the tips FSG. I'm in uncharted territory when it comes to defol.

 

[saitama]

looking good in there. they're loving the flip to 12/12

 

[starke]

Weekly Update (Flower Day 14)

Weekly Update (Flower Day 14)

Today marks the end of the second week of flower and the ladies continue to stretch and make buds. I tied down some outer branches earlier in the week to try and open up the middles. Also have been pinching shoots here and there to try and keep things even.

I'm going to do a final defol one week from today and then it will be entirely up to the ladies for the next seven or so weeks.

I have kept the Jacks at 700ppm/.5 this week and the ladies seem to like it. No more indications of nute burn and no signs of deficiencies so far.

Have been maintaining the URSA LED at about 36 inches over the ladies and also rotating the plants about every other day in an effort to combat light bleaching. So far it appears to be working. I'm curious as to what the height will do to final yield and bud density, expecially at the canopy edges. Just have to keep on winging it at this point. I should have enough height in the tent to maintain 36 inches through harvest, if required.

Last Week:



Today:



Peace,
starke

 

[caljim]

Lots of flower sites forming, seems that they like the defoliation.

As for the light bleaching...could you hang a square of shade cloth under the middle lens to block a bit of light...just a thought.

What ratio of jacks to calnit are you using? Just curious how others use the product.

 

[starke]

Hi caljim, I'm using the Jacks at 1:.67 like the PPK folks so far. I have thought about the shade cloth approach and believe it will be the easiest to implement if it comes to it.

 

[FakeSunGrower]

Wow , the girls look amazing, the defol worked great from where I can see , what kind of angle does your light lenses have in the center and edges , I'm asking because I don't run lenses , I guess I would have them around the edges in a WAREHOUSE setting but to me ,IMHO lenses only make bleaching much easier because of the focalization of light .

Also covering up the lenses defeat the purpose of the light itself by diminishing it output, too bad you can't take the lenses off and make a comparison run , I'm positive it would help the bleaching, either way the grow looks awesome , thanks for sharing, FSG.