Tuesday, August 3rd. 7 Weeks from sprouting, day 3 of flower. Things inside the tent seem to be moving along well, if I had a worry, it would still be over the humidity as I am still trying to find the right settings for when the lights are off. It is getting as high as 60 % RH in those dark hours, I will probably turn up the exhaust another notch to 6 to see how that works. This is from about 15 minutes after lights on.
Mixed 3 gallons of Jacks at 2-2-2-1.2 with silica added at the beginning and MKP at the end. PH was 5.83 after mixing which is pretty convenient for me and the EC was 2.06. Split it evenly among the 5 plants. Removed the runoff from the drain pans, then removed about 20 leaves I could reach without much effort that were shading other tops. I started opening the tent at 8:00 pm and just got finished when lights came on at 8:30. Those plants look very happy to me, so I will leave them running along just as they are.
Now I am not sure how I lucked out, but at least for this first week so far of flower when I mix nutrients my PH is between 5.78 and 5.83 and the EC is 2.02-2.08. Every evening after 12 hours of dark I open the tent at 8:00 and feed, do minor defoliation, and vacuum out the drain pans and mostly am finishing before the lights come on at 8:30 for the next 11 and 1/2 hours. I am trying to keep the lights at 24 inches above and have them now turned up to a total of 515 watts now, about 200 through each of the HLG 260’s and 118 through the bp-2500 in the middle. I am going to keep slowly turning them up for the next 2 weeks until the plants react badly, or I run out of available power. If I don’t get the photo’s confused here is a closer look at the Black Jack from bag seed followed by a Banana Kush.
There is a lot of growth happening under all those leaves which I believe means more bud sites, and I have tried to remove a bunch of leaves every day, mostly ones that are blocking light but some that will probably never receive light again being so low on the plants. The 2 digital sensors inside the tent are constantly showing about 10% less humidity than the ac/infinity controller shows, I have no idea which is correct. So at this moment in time the RH is 44%, 47%, or 57% or somewhere in between. The lung room is showing 43% humidity. I guess I need to keep nudging those numbers down as time is going by. I can’t complain about anything, so I’m hoping things keep going this way.
Tuesday, August 10. 8 Weeks from sprouting and day 10? since switching to flower. Still feeding 3 gallons split between the 5 and runoff has just about disappeared. I took the time to wheel them out and rearrange them so a lower plant is under that fan, it happens to be the Black Jack-which was the most vigorous of the bunch until I flipped the lighting schedule. I may keep rotating them once a week, at least until I get the short ones in the front. Lots of growth, the nodes are much closer, and I believe things are going well. A couple of photos right after lights on.
Friday, August 13. Yesterday morning about 10:00 AM I called HLG to ask about 1 of my HLG 260 xl rspec topping out at 158 watts draw from the wall. At 10:30 AM this morning a new inventronics driver was on my porch with a return shipping label to send back the Meanwell driver my newest light came with. I had removed that light last night from the tent, and just finished re-installing the light along with feeding the plants as I type this. I have been feeding about 78 oz of Jacks 2-2-2-1.2(MPK) to each plant and runoff had become almost nothing. So tonight I mixed 4 gallons of Jacks with the PH at 5.77, I diluted it just a bit with 36 oz of water from the tap but the PH didn’t move and I said to hell with it. EC was 1.9 and I gave each one 110 oz of feed/water and got about 25% runoff except for the Black Jack which had no runoff. That one will probably get a whole gallon tomorrow. I moved the fan across the tent, put a small one blowing across the top of the lights, and set the lights at 630 watts with both HLG 260’s at max and the Bloom Plus in the middle at about 115 watts. Girls look happy to me, despite my rough handling of them.
So this farming stuff is hard work and I got a bit hot and sweaty so I am going to put a couple ice cubes in a short glass with some Fighting Cock in it-103 proof with a chicken on the label. Last look through the window.
Saturday, August 14. At 8:00 PM I opened the tent and fed the Black Jack 1 gallon of Jacks w/MPK and split 3 gallons equally between the 4 Banana Kush. I spent a little time defoliating and used the shop vac. to empty the pans under the BK’s getting about 25% runoff average. Checked the pan under the BJ and it was bone dry. I rushed a gallon of my well water, no Jacks, only getting the PH to 5.89 and fed that one plant the entire gallon. So after a bit more time doing some defoliation, I emptied that pan and got 46 oz of water runoff, still less than 20% runoff. I am considering whether to start feeding twice daily- it is hard to believe that one plant absorbed 1 and 2/3 gallon in a 5 gallon fabric bag of coco, but I just saw it happen. I put that info here so if someone wants to tell me that I must have a version of the borrowers living in my tent and they get thirsty too. Here is a look down on the thirsty girl.
I am astounded by the growth so far, flowers clearly forming on all plants. I am 2 weeks since switching from a 6 hour light/2 hour dark cycle to basically a 12/12 cycle. Tomorrow will be 2 months since groundbreaking. If there is some person that is a new grower out there (like me) trying to decide what to grow in, I can not possibly exaggerate how glad I am I chose growing in coco with Jacks. This has been pretty simple, I am now at the point I am starting to pray I don’t screw up now.
Sunday, August 15. 2 months since sprouting and 2 weeks since flipping the light schedule. Today I mixed 6 gallons of Jacks, 2 ml of Armor-si, 2 grams each of parts A and B and Epsom salts, and 1.2 grams of MPK per gallon. PH came out right at 5.80, and the EC was 2.12. I fed each plant 1 gallon and had intended to give the extra gallon to the Black Jack but it already had some runoff so I skipped it. I removed the runoff after taking as many leaves off as I thought were possible, it still doesn’t look like I have removed anything. Here is a different angle on the Black Jack.
Her leaves have always seemed a bit droopier than the other 4 so I might not have noticed there was no runoff on this plant for about 10 days in a row but after 2 gallons yesterday I got some run off from 1 gallon of feed today. Here are a couple of the Banana Kush plants.
This should be day 15 of flower I think and things seem pretty fine with the plants. I should probably move the 2 carts they are on around again and get the Black Jack back up front where I can keep a closer eye on her. I noticed a few leaves up top had some discoloration and even though I think that is from the sweat on my hands or dripping off my forehead, with the lack of run off on that one I should give it a good heavy feed again to help flush the coco.
So I am posting this photo here for reference. From the middle of the Black Jack up above the net but 3 or 4 nodes down from the top of that branch, one leaf that makes me want to panic and freak out, hoping I don’t have some tobacco/concrete mosaic virus monster in my tent. I have a guess what it is from though.
Back less than a month ago I had sprayed my plants with neem oil as soon as the lights went out because I had seen something flying in my tent. I even noted that I had some yellow spots on some leaves and told myself that my 2 hours of darkness cycle wasn’t long enough for the fan to dry the leaves which were rubbing against each other, and when the lights came on those spots got burnt. I might be right, I might be wrong, but there isn’t another leaf that looks like that on any of the plants. This is also the plant that had no runoff. That spot where the leaf was had overlapping light from both the HLG 260 and the cheap Bloom Plus light in the middle. I think I just burnt it. Any super smart person that sees something I missed, by all means chime in.
@skippyisnohippy those plants look dalm lush kiddo what ever your doing id say your doing it right, looking beautiful and one leaf is no issues in my opinion
Monday, August 16. Fed each plant 1 gallon and got about 25 to 30% run off on the banana Kush plants and maybe 5 - 10% run off on the Black Jack. Although I took a couple hands full of leaves out of the tent I really need to do a massive defoliation and might try to start before that 21 day thing everybody does.
I am keeping the humidity in the room the tent is in around 45% and the temp between 65 and 71 degrees. Right now with the lights on for almost an hour the ac infinity controller says it is 76 degrees and 57% RH inside the tent above the canopy. The 2 little digital ones inside say it is 74 degrees and 44% RH beside the fan and 81 degrees and 47% RH above the canopy. I am guessing somewhere in the middle on all those numbers. i saw a tiny yellow speck on the underside of a leaf I cut off the plant and figure it must be some kind of critter, but I didn’t notice any others. If I do I will contemplate spraying the plants down with Jacks dead bug after a major defoliation after lights out in the near future. Some people posting on here have just about convinced me to do a bud wash at the end either way.
Tuesday, August 17. Mixed 5 gallons of Jacks with silica and MPK and PHed water to 5.8. I fed the 3 Banana Kush that have had the most runoff about 110 oz each and the 4th one got a full gallon. That gave me about 180 oz for the Black Jack and she got it all. Runoff was very close to 30% on each and every plant. After the lights had been on for about 10 minutes the total wattage draw was 628 watts. since both HLG’s are turned up wide open I increased the Bloom Plus to about 200 watts and as of typing this the draw from the wall is 715 watts. I may try to turn it up 1 more time to get up to around 750 watts. Here are some top down shots of the 3 BK’s up front.
Temp in the tent is reading 78, 82, and 75 degrees on the displays. RH is 57 on the ac infinity display but 42 and 44 on the others. Room temp is 68 and RH is 45%. Seems to be moving right along. Today makes 9 weeks since ground breaking. I am amazed.
Friday, August 20. I think it’s day 20 of flower, guess it depends on when you start counting. For the last 3 or 4 days I have mixed and fed 5 gallons of Jacks with armor-si and MPK every day at 5.8 PH and an EC number between 2.09 and 2.18 every day. Very consistent 35% runoff feeding 110-120 oz to the 4 Banana Kush and 170 or so to Black Jack, and they all seem to be thriving. Did defoliation for about 30 minutes after watering and ended up with a small pile of leaves.
That is the Black Jack at the top of that photo. My hands were so sticky and smelled like a weird cross between Pine and Lemon cleaner, like lemon juice added to pine-sol. I have the tiniest little bud from the bag of weed that seed came out of and it was the same strong smell.
That last shot is across the tallest of the BK’s with Black Jack across the back of that pic. The front plants were just as sticky with a sweeter smell and very much reminded me of what I remember from I guess the 90’s and what friends in Cali just referred to as Kush. I don’t know if my back or my knees will let me just get a massive defoliation done all at once. Unless I come up totally lame tomorrow I will have the carts rearranged so that feeding will be easiest and fans moved around and light heights reset again. Then try to do that day 21 defoliation event I read so much about. Then again if I don’t get finished no one will yell at me except me and these plants seem to be rolling right along no matter what I do or don’t do. Hard to believe these will need to be chopped in about 7 weeks already. Now I know it’s nothing fancy but I got a bottle of Buffalo Trace yesterday which is kind of difficult to find around here, so I’m gonna smoke a bit and drink a bit.
Saturday, August 21. Sticky, stinky, fingers. At 8:00 PM I opened the tent and removed both little carts the plants are on. It took me 2 hours to defoliate 1 cart the Black Jack and Banana Kush #4 are on and water/feed all 5 plants and get things buttoned back up. Lights got raised just a few inches, as did the oscillating fan. Before you look at this, I was not gentle.
I thought to maybe ask @AfgVet@Hellraiser@Nicky@imSICKkid@PurpNGold74@ashhhh@Myfriendis410 if that is too much defoliation for the 21st day of flower or not. I still have the other cart with the 3 Banana Kush to do tomorrow evening. I think it just seems severe to me since the light hasn’t been hitting the bottom of anything for a while now. Any other tips or hints about something I’m forgetting to do are welcome, always. Now from the front of the tent the BK’s 1-3 are on the left and #4 and Black Jack on the right, with the BK at the front. Still feeding Jacks, MPK, and Silica at 2-2-2-1.2 at about a gallon a plant each day and getting 35% runoff. PH 5.8 and EC was 2.09 and lights are pulling 715 watts from the wall. Between the 3 different sensors temps are between 78 and 81 degrees and RH is between 41% and 54% with the lights on right now. The view from the front of the tent now.
Just as @Nicky suggested. Great job on your first defol though. Everyone tends to be a little hesitant the first time. Give her a week or so and you don’t know you even took any leaves
