24 days since I planted the germinated seed. Not sure what the standard is as a starting point when people refer to “such and such weeks”. I think they’d be considered 3 weeks.
They took to their final pots just fine. I’ve been able to keep a pretty good eye on them aside from when I’m at work. Up until yesterday I’ve been very conservative with the amount of water I’d been giving them. I was surprised to notice the feint signs of over watering and glad I caught it very quickly. Did a lot more research about watering and my goodness there was a lot. Needless to say, I think I am getting a better understanding of the plant so far.
Yesterday was the first day I gave the plants a heavier watering and got all the soil saturated with run off. I could tell they were going to be thirsty but I waited for them to tell me. Last night was when it happened, I saw a barely noticeable weight to the leaves when they’d been perked a couple hours prior. So, I got super ripped off my bong and went at it like 2 more hours late 
. I used 2 quarts of water per bucket (3.9 gal I believe I’m brain farting). Ripped fat clouds of their dank brethren all over them. I shook some great white on the topsoil prior and mixed a little into the water. Poured slow, at first around the base of the plant (as best I could) then poured around the edge more heavily. Apparently the roots will expand to the water and the nutrients get sucks onto them yadda yadda I’m just glad I only got a LITTLE fucking water on the tent floor
It did the trick woke up to them perked up and bussin. The blue dream is a scrappy, absolute rascal of a thing and the bubble gum is THICC mammasita.
Bubblegum (feminized photo)
Blue dream (rando)
My questions right now are:
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how do you number nodes? I’ve read you don’t count the cotyledons but when I look that’s where the first node with the first true leaves that formed are. I know I’m way over thinking this but does that count as node #1 or 0? I want to top soon and I just can’t get an answer I’m comfortable with yet.
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both the plants, especially the bubble gum, seem to have very short node spacing. They never did want for light, I spaced it probably as close as you could without nuking them during their seedling stage. So, I know it’s a good sign they aren’t struggling for the light but do they seem oddly tight or is this normal? There is less than a 15 degree change of night temp in the tent, 78 to about 65-67.
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both plants got neglected by my friend earlier on when I was away on work for several days. They were sad and thirsty when I got home but completely recovered by the next day after watering. The bubblegum suffered slight yellowing in the first true leaves and I am wondering if at this point I should cut them or wait for the topping to do it. I’m inclined to do it when I top but they seem to just be wasting energy at this point.
That’s really all my big questions. I have their leaves rustling with air now I think they’re happy af. I transplanted them to that FF mix like a week or a bit more ago and since I just watered to runoff yesterday I know I have some time before I need to feed nutes. I have a digital apera tds, pH, ec, yadda yadda meter on the way but have been relying on the dropper method and checked moisture with this cheap garden probe as another tool to check things. I’m planning on letting the buckets dry out and waiting again for a slight sign to tell me when to water. I’ve read some stuff about how weed likes to sort of have to search for that water and doesn’t thrive as well in constantly watered environments. Give it a good watering when you do then let it get a good drain and dry period is what I’m seeing and of course any other tips and tricks I’m all ears this is my virgin grow.
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Most people will top at the 4th or 5th node, which is not counting the cots. A lot has to do with personal preference on how much plant you want to train or health of the plant.
They do look pretty compact. If you want to stretch them out a little and gain some height raise the light physically or lower the intensity where it is and they’ll reach out for it, switch it back when they get where you want.
As far as the dying leaves go that’s another personal preference really. Some leave them till they drop, others cut them off. In higher humidity areas I’d definitely take them. They’re not really producing anything for the plant if they’re yellow, and may be taking from it actually.
Either way get them out of the tent you don’t want to introduce any chance of bugs or mold and decaying material will attract it!
If you’re in FF soil you should be good for at least 4-5 weeks, but take the time to get to know your pen and watch your run off Ph and PPMs and the PPM drop will clue you in as to when they’re getting hungry.
Are you planning to use FF nutes also when the time comes?
And yeah, weed does like a wet/dry swing. The roots will follow the water so water wide and deep, you want the roots to fill that pot as much as possible. Then let them dry to a depth of an inch or two and water again. It may be a week in plastic pots and soil.
Best of luck to you!!
Plants are looking great!
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Interesting. That a good point about raising the light, I think that might be the ticket.
I have an autopot XL setup with a 25gal flexi tank, still in the Amazon box. I’m going to grow 4 Tutenkamon plants once these are done with the autopot. I got impatient and went to the weed grow store and just asked the guys opinion and he sold me a bag of the ocean forest and I popped a couple seeds. They give free live compost tea a gallon a day I was using a lot of it for my sprouts and even germinating. So no, I’m not sold yet in which product of nutes I want to use yet. I’m glad to know I have a bit of time.
I’d take any recommendations, I don’t mind going with a higher grade line. This is purely for my own enjoyment and smoke.
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Yeah, make them reach for it a bit and they’ll stretch out.
Growing weed will certainly teach you patience! LOL!
I did my run with FF and while it works great outdoors, I thought it was a little harsh on the inside ladies and gave me a lot of problems ultimately.
Jack’s 321 gets a lot of traction around here and I switched to that for a clone run and with just the Jack’s and some microbes and feed I introduced over time I’ve had great results.
I’m still tweaking my style, as it were, but I’m gonna stick with the Jack’s/microbe blend for a while.
Tweak it as necessary.
Plus it’s actually pretty cheap and plays well with additives, etc. Easy to use to.
But you know what opinions are like of course! LOL!
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Welcome ! I like to top auto’s at 4 or 5 nodes photos I like to build a little more framework an top at 6 or 7 nodes. Plants look great keep up the good work.
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But dont forget that indica strains have tight node spacing unlike sativa strains they have the large node spacing so it can still come down to strain not just lighting
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IME plants start out squatty and as root mass builds, so does the plant height. I like to let my plants get about a foot high before topping or FIM’ing.
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Update:
Plants are still doing well. I did get an apera multi meter and took the time to properly calibrate it.
I watered to drainage again on 1/20 which was 3 days after the first watering. I used only water and sprinkled some great white on top. I’m really glad I got the meter but it came in the morning after I watered, I I discovered the water I had even used pH down on was still like 7.2 pH.
Here were the readings from the 2nd watering:
BG/BD
Ph- 7.47/Ph- 7.66
- I am going to disregard the tds, conductivity and salinity for the 2nd watering because I did not calibrate that meter, and there was a huge discrepancy between than and the the 3rd watering.
3rd watering today 1/23 with fresh compost tea
BG/BD
Ph- 6.63/Ph- 6.54
Cond. - 2.43mS/Cond. - 2.12mS
TDS - 1,750 ppm/TDS - 1,490 ppm
Sal. - 1.23/Sal - 1.05
Soil is FF with some eyeballed perlite. BG is in a 4 gal pot and the other one I noticed is a tiny bit smaller like a 3.5. The light is about 26" from the top of the plants, I could have it lower but want them to stretch a wee bit. Photone app doesn’t do much good for me but that’s alright.
I came home one day to the light off. The readings went cold at 11am and I pieced together my fucking cat had turned the power cord off. I duct taped it. The plants went without light for about 5-6 hours… Should I be worried about that? I’m noticing they are starting to get the little tendrils. They do this in the vegetative state or did that bastard cat switch them?
Here’s a recent pic of both after the watering
