The Traveling Grower - The Struggle From the Road

[Bogleg]

Well, the only issue I obviously could see in my grow was my humidity was really low. The GL was not looking great in spite of everything seeming okay with everything except that. So I fixed that.

Yesterday I had another day of < 40%,humidity. I soaked a sweatshirt in water and hung it in the tent, and this morning the RH in the tent is at 70%. The GL looks much better now; unfortunately the damage is done to the leaves already on her.

I just left town until Wednesday to do some deer hunting, so I will have a thorough update Thursday.

[bob31]

@Bogleg looking forward to that update! How’d you make out on the hunt?

[Bogleg]

@bob31 - sorry, I’ve been updating over in the member’s forum more often than here (a little more consistent response there when I have questions, which is to be expected since I paid to get in there :)).

Well, reading through my journal it’s obvious that I haven’t exactly loved and nurtured these two plants.

When I went away to hunt last week (fyi: saw lots of deer, but nothing mature enough to shoot - I did pass up a 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer that I normally would’ve shot, but I was a half a mile into a swamp and didn’t feel like figuring out how I was going to get it out of there) I accidentally pinched the hose to the air stone for the GL. So when I got back, it had been oxygen starved for 6 days.

I decided today is the day to top the plants. I had intended to manifold the GL, but as of this morning it had 7 nodes out, and I just couldn’t get myself to cut it down to the 3rd node, so I topped it at the 5th (for now?). One of my headaches is how absolutely thick the branches and stems are - I am not sure I could LST the lowest colas without breaking them. In any case, those lowest branches are now even with the top of the rest of the plant, so I am going to just SCROG this plant as well. I couldn’t get myself to remove the 1st and 2nd nodes of this plant when those branches are even with the top of the rest of the plant. Here’s the GL today, after I topped it:

I also removed the two lowest fan leaves (they were pretty ugly looking) and some smaller leaves that were wilted and not looking all that great. I am going to attempt a lot more plant training this time around.

The SSH looks good - it had 6 nodes out, so I topped it at the 5th node today as well:

Here is a side by side. You can also see that I put the tops in my cloner. I haven’t ever successfully cloned anything, so we’ll see if it works. If they do take root I will probably give them away.

Right now I have all atmospheric variables dialed in and the PH/nute levels are all holding steady. GL PH isn’t going down anymore - but it isn’t rising either (like I normally expect). SSH PH rises as expected. GL is holding steady ~5.8.

I want to make a point of noting that the SSH plant is a good 3-4" lower in the net pot than the GL; so take that into consideration when judging the different heights/size of the plants at this stage.

[Bogleg]

I should note that my RH is stuck at 40% and the soaked sweatshirt trick isn’t budging it past 45%. I am going to have to look into a humidifier. Ugh. Trying to avoid dumping more money into this hobby until I have this grow done… but that’s not likely to happen.

On a side note I think I have everything I need to build my under current style RWDC system - so I will start on that project this weekend.

[bob31]

Wicking humidifier

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AQUK9S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?tag=greenrel-20

This is the unit @Countryboyjvd1971 recommended to me last winter. I ran it all winter and started it back up about 2 weeks ago. Works great an no dust! @Bogleg

The girls look great! The boys in the Lab do a nice job! They are very attentive!

Don’t blame you not wanting to drag him out of the swamp, thats a long ways in unfriendly terrain.

[Bogleg]

I broke down and bought it.

[muffybunny]

@Bogleg the beauty of most of this stuff is that you only have to buy most of it once. Isn’t it ironic though that a lot of people start growing to save money and then it turns out to feel more like a financial sink hole? Lol

[Bogleg]

Day 43 since sprout.

This morning I put the SCROG on the GL:

I trimmed off some of the old, large fan leafs that were damaged by the apparent nitrogen toxicity she endured. All stuff below the canopy. Not going to clean everything up under there until it has a week more growing under its belt.

I will put the screen on the SSH Thursday night when I get back from my work trip. I swapped out buckets yesterday so I should be okay until then.

Here is the SSH, which is looking great imho:

Obviously the screen is going to have to be lower on this one.

[Bogleg]

Day 47 since I dropped the seeds; day 45 since both sprouted.

This is just a photo update. As you know, I was on the road for work (as usual) the past 3 days, just got home last night.

Here is the GL this morning (note I re-tucked last night at 9pm, so this is what it looks like after 12 hours of no one bugging it):

As I highlighted in my last “update” post - I am trying to understand where/how I should (or if I should) top this plant again to make sure I fill all those squares up. This is my first SCROG - I assume a bunch of those internodes on each main branch will turn up and fill in some squares as I tuck and extend each terminating branch… I guess I’ll just wait and see how it grows and decide but thought I could use some experienced opinions.

Here is the GL from the side so you can see how the under-canopy is looking:

I will be cleaning up more of the foliage under the canopy once it’s in shadow, but going to hold off for now.

And here is the SSH:

She looks super good to me - which I am very happy with, because this is by far one of my all time favorite strains. As I noted earlier, I topped her again this morning (I topped each of the colas that resulted from the first topping). I will be putting a screen over her this weekend (probably Sunday but maybe tomorrow night).

She’s almost reached the height of the GL’s screen (in fact she is taller, but she is sitting 4" deeper in the net pot due to my early troubles).

So, my original plan was (is?) to let these plants stay in veg until after Christmas. I have my whole family (not pot friendly) visiting for Christmas, and really didn’t want plants 3-4 weeks into flower when they all got here. Even though I managed the odor (e.g. the heavenly smell of growing bud) pretty well last time around, I want to be considerate.

Looking at these plants now, and how that screen is already almost 50% full on the GL… I’m not sure I will be able to wait until after Christmas.

[Bogleg]

I went ahead and built and installed the screen for the SSH during my lunch break today:

I haven’t started pruning anything on this plant yet - I’m going to wait on it until it’s necessary.

[Bogleg]

Day 47 since sprout.

Well, the SSH has now been in the screen for nearly 48 hours, and the GL has been it in for a week. Here is the GL:

I don’t see how I can wait until after Christmas to switch to 12/12. I might have to do some aggressive plant training and trimming to make that happen.

Here is the SSH:

I put my little 30w CFL in the tent so I can get pics with more natural looking light.

[dbrn32]

Glad to see you’re doing good! I lost track of your thread somehow, sorry. Switched to watching so I’ll get notifications if you update.

I seen you noted that you didn’t get much help here. If you have a question or concern for someone specific, tag them by typing @ symbol then their name. One you type the symbol choices should start showing up. Or you can respond to that persons comment by selecting the arrow in the bottom of their post box. Sometimes it gets a little too busy to just check in on all the threads, but everyone here is really good about responding when they get a notification.

Keep up the good work!

[Bogleg]

@dbrn32

I seen you noted that you didn’t get much help here.

Well, to be fair what I wrote was that “I get a little more consistent help” on the paid-for forum, which is to be expected, 'cause I paid for it. I have certainly had plenty of help on this one too! I just know that there is a lot more content on this side of the house, so it’s definitely easy to get lost in the mix. I certainly didn’t want to offend anyone.

[Bogleg]

Day 49 since sprout (I think).

Well, the GL is progressing nicely but I have noticed what looks like a little nutrient burn on some of the leaves - I’ll keep an eye on it but I didn’t change anything yet. Both the girls drank a TON of water over the past two days - they were nearly bone dry again. I can’t believe how much they are consuming. The SSH doesn’t seem to have figured out what happened to it a couple days ago yet. I did start cleaning up a little under the net on the SSH as well.

GL:

She looks almost ready for another tuck job.

SSH:

So, a question. I believe it was in @Myfriendis410’s journal that I read he gradually switches from 18/6 to 12/12 over the course of a week. If I recall correctly, he said that by doing this he can keep the stretch to around 10%. I’ve been reading around the internet about it and it appears that anecdotally other people have experienced the same.

Anyone else have any experience with this? @bob31, @Countryboyjvd1971, @dbrn32?

My predicament is that I don’t really want to put my plants into flower until after Christmas for discretionary reasons. Plus, if I can control the stretch in transition, I can fill the SCROGs the way I want to during veg and not have to worry about trying to manage the stretch. In fact, it seems to me that the GL is ready to flip right now if it’s going to double in size during the transition.

What do you all think?

[bob31]

I do the same. Gradual light switch. I scrogged one GL that I harvested a month ago and she was over a pound wet and over 4 ounces dry. I vegged about two months. @Bogleg

You are on day 49 now. How many more days of veg are we talking about and how much room do you have for the GL?

I looked at the pics, but it is hard for me to judge. Looks like three squares on the far end and two on the near end. The next tuck I would go sideways with the near ones so that you can fill up that screen as tight as possible.

You might find that raising your scrog another 4-6 inches will give you enough room to veg her for that time?

[Bogleg]

The SCROG is roughly 24"x40" and the squares are 4" apart. As it stands right now I have another inch of growth on the main tops there before I have to tuck them under the next row, which would leave me just two full rows that are empty. I think I could probably flip it right now and with a normal stretch fill it out. Maybe this pic from yesterday would help:

I would veg until right around Christmas ideally - so that’s another 4 weeks or so.

[bob31]

@bob31

You might find that raising your scrog another 4-6 inches will give you enough room to veg her for that time?

I just added this above and then saw you already responded so I moved it down here @Bogleg

I use 4 bricks one on each corner under the scrog frame

[Bogleg]

Good idea - I’ll ponder it. I have plenty of height to play with in the tent.

[bob31]

it is a great problem to have! My SCROG was 18 inches by 36 inches. Yours is a bit larger than mine was and I think it will be enough to get you by. It might get a little crowded. Maybe you could take some clones, lol @Bogleg

[Bogleg]

I will for sure take some clones - even if I have to end up just giving them away. I only have 3 GL seeds in stock so it would be nice to get a clone or two from it. I haven’t successfully cloned anything yet - I have two SSH clones and one GL clone going from these plants at the moment; I haven’t really spend the mindshare on how to do it yet so I can’t say I’ve given it a solid try but we’ll see.