Belladonna & LA Woman

FiredUp

Member
This is my first grow. I'm a couple of weeks in and thought I'd share with everyone. It's been interesting so far. Even at this early point in the game I've learned from a few mistakes, and there are some things I'm still trying to figure out. The best advice I could give to any fellow new growers is to find a good grow shop. I don't know where I'd be without mine, and their knowledgeable staff.

The Setup

Tents: Two 2x2x5'3" Grow Lab 60
Summer Light: 2', 4 bulb T-5, 7200 lumens.
Fall Light: 150 W HPS

There is a small clip fan inside of each tent to keep the air moving good, and the exhaust fan is connected to an adjustable dial that's been attached inside the closet. Inside of both bottom air inlets there is a short piece of 4" metal duct. These have black pantyhose wrapped around them to keep out dust. This has also been done at the exhaust outlets to prevent dust that gets through from getting at the filter and clogging it.


The bulk of the operation is setup inside of a closet. There is a hole cut in the ceiling with tubing running to the nearby utility room where the air is sucked up and filtered before exhausted.













The Seeds: 3 Femenized LA Woman, 5 non Femenized Belladonna.

Wanted to get a couple of strains that would be fairly easy on a new grower and that would work well in the smaller environment. Both are hybrids, and even though the Bella is sativa dominant, it grows more like an indica. (Aside from all that, the online pics made me drool)







Seeds were germinated inside separate, folded up squares of paper towel. They were checked on daily and dampened as needed. They were stored in an uncovered tupperware container inside a hardly used kitchen cabinet. (sorry no pics from germ) After three days all 10 seeds were ready for the rockwool.

This is after 4 days in the cubes...


At this point They are being watered with R.O. water purchased from my favorite local fish store. I noticed prices on the water actually vary all around town, so it works out that I can not only pay the lowest price, but also support the local guy (even if it is only a few bucks at a time)

During the grow they'll be receiving FoxFarm nutes. At this point They're only receiving 1Tbsp of Big Bloom/gallon of RO water.



Don't worry, The T-5 fixture was moved closer to the little ones. We don't want these beauties getting any more stretched out than they need to be.

I did make a couple of mistake early on. I didn't quite know what I was doing with the cubes and so I didn't presoak them or make any adjustment to the pH. Also I didn't put a humidity dome over them until much later. Luckily there were no problems that occurred from this, however I did think it was odd that they needed watering so much!

Also, I started transplanting the seedlings into 4" pots after only 2 weeks. Once I saw a root pop through the bottom of a cube, I transplanted it. In hindsight I probably should have let them grow a bit more and not risk shocking them by transplanting so early. Again, luckily nothing bad happened.

LA at 2 weeks


And Bella



At this point the nutes have been upped to 2Tbsp of Big Bloom/gal. I also finally added the humidity dome, since my humidiy was often as low as 25% Even with the dome though I'm having a hard time raising it to the >70% that it should be for the seedlings. Its still only in the low 30's to low 40's depending on the weather outside. Not sure what I'm going to do about this in the future. A humidifier would help, but I'd have to come up with something slick to make room for it.

I've lost two Bellas at this point. One never really made it out of the rockwool, and the other died shortly thereafter.

Either way, things are still looking pretty good...








OK so this is were my big mistake came into play. Between everything I've read on these forums and my local grow shop guy telling me to be careful about introducing the plants to the nutes, I think I underdid it. I was so scared of getting nute burn, I think I deprived them of the nutes instead.

I'm just over 3 weeks in and two days ago when I went to check on them, two of my babies, one Bella and one LA both some some dark spots on the leaves (some going all the way through) and some minor yellowing on some of the tips. So I feverishly started reading the diagnosis threads and I'm thinking its caused by nute deficiency. I went back and checked the FoxFarm website to see their recommended feeding schedule and I'm definitely behind. I should have already been adding in the FoxFarm Grow Big on top of the Big Bloom.

Here's what happened...








So I've upped the nutes to 2Tbsp/gal of Big Bloom and 2tsp/gal of Grow Big. Problem is they haven't really needed any watering so I've only been able to top them off a bit. I'd hate to over water and add to the problem. I think its just going to be a rough next couple of days as I sit and watch what happens. Like I said thouh, as of right now It's only 2 of my babies. the rest are still looking great...





LA...





and Bella...






This is where things lie as of now. I'm a little worried about the current problem, but things seems to be going pretty well for the most part. Any comments or suggestions are greatly welcomed. I'd love to hear some recommendations on what I've got.

more to come soon...
 

Skryptz

Active Member
how many u putting in each tent? 2x2 seems like only 1 would fit? but nice ass set-up bro. will be watchin..dna genetic deliever stealth? and l.a. women looks amazin...but gonna be interesting..gonna def. watch cuz im a newbie also haha....GOOD LUCK :)
 

FiredUp

Member
how many u putting in each tent? 2x2 seems like only 1 would fit? but nice ass set-up bro. will be watchin..dna genetic deliever stealth? and l.a. women looks amazin...but gonna be interesting..gonna def. watch cuz im a newbie also haha....GOOD LUCK :)
Thanks for the compliments! You have great timing as I'm working on my updates right now! They should be posted very soon.

As you will eventually find out, The flowering tent will end up with 5 plants in the 2x2 area. They're a little tight, but so-far so-good. Just watching to make sure the vertical growth doesn't get out of hand. Some adjustments have had to be made with the lighting that I'll touch on later.

None of them seem deprived of anything and the way things are going it looks as if 5 is the magic number. They will remain in the 6" pots all the way through as I'm assured by my grow guy that being a little root bound wont hurt them.

Definitely going for quality not quantity with this setup, but I still want to maximize where ever I can.
 

FiredUp

Member
Seems like forever since the last post. Let's work on getting caught back up shall we?

Still not 100% sure what the problem was. Things got a bit worse before they got better. A humidity dome was added to increase the humidity levels but it didnt really seem to matter that much.


Week 4 of veg.





A Bella




An unhappy LA




Another LA- looking very weird.



It was about here that the nutes were upped. Now using 2Tbsp of Big Bloom, and 3 tsp of Grow Big. The plants seemed to love this change as things did not take long to get back to business.



Week 5 of Veg.




Strongest Bella




Stongest LA Woman



The plants all seemed to have bounced back pretty well in between weeks 5 and 6. At this point some of the very dead and sickly looking leaves were trimmed maybe a bit to excess. (You know how us noobs do it, however I'm determined to never trim another leaf unless its at least 50% dead).

About here (week 5-6), the plants were also transplanted into 6" pots. (Plants were numbered to keep thing easier). 2, 4ft T-5 fixtures were also hung vertically in the tents to increase the lumens and allow more light to access the lower leaves.

Per the advice of my grow shop guy, the plants were given straight R.O. for just about a week after the transplant to ensure they don't go into any sort of shock. After that it was back to the normal feeding.

After all this attention the plants seemed to look a bit droppy. They were out of the environment for well over an hour. By the next day they had all perked back up.


Week 7 Clones were just taken from the plants.




Bella #1




LA #3


These things are growing like crazy! They don't even seem to be the same plants anymore.


Week 8 Starting flush on Mothers to prepare for the switch into Fall.




Bella #1



Bella #3




LA #1




LA #2




LA #3


Also, Bella #2, and LA Woman #2 were topped. Only two were selected in order to compare the growth and flowering of topped vs. untopped plants. (I can tell you now, I'm pretty sure the next go around well be dealing with all topped plants!).

A second 6" clip fan was added to help with some extra air movement. (There is now 2 clip fans, one on each side of the tent). This seems to have helped greatly.

***

Only 6 days after the flush started but the clones are screaming for some tent space. Its time to move these Mamas into Flowering.

Here's the plant heights at this point.
LA1-15" Bella1-14.75"
LA2-10.5" Bella2-12.5"
LA3-14.5" Bella3-10.5"


Moving Day!

Bella #1




Bella #1 Its a girl!




Bella #3




LA #1




LA #2


LA #2- Noticed the new topped growth, and the pistols.




LA #3
 

FiredUp

Member
The Mothers were placed into the fall room and given 36 hours of total darkness. After the 36 hours they were awoken to the 150w HPS for flowering and the two 4' T-5s with the cool spectrum to further encourage growth. This is of course, now on the 12/12 photo period.

The new nute schedule is started immedietley and they were fed 1Tbsp of Big Bloom, 2tsp Tiger Bloom, 1/4tsp of Open Sesame per gallon of R.O. water.

Since being placed into the 6" containers the plants are being watered about every 3 days. They've been pushed to four in a pinch but don't seem to like it. Watering was very confusing at first. It seemed for a while that I'd never get the hang of it. Advice for my fellow nubes, Hang in there, you'll figure it out. I started with a cheap moisture meter, then found myself simply digging in a bit with my finger to feel, but these days it really is just done by weight. It didn't take long to figure out. Your ladies will let you know when you've done something wrong but don't worry though as they are very resilient.

The following pic was taken two days after the lights turned on.




This pic was taken at the same time. Unfortunately Bella #2 started to show signs of being male.



I'm a little ways past this point however I don't have my journal or pics organized to the point where I can continue. I'm hoping to have that done within the next couple of days so this online journal will again be up to date.

I appreciate any and all comments or suggestions from either the veterans or my fellow noobs.

I've noticed many people have read this, but until today no posts. I'd really like to hear what you guys think!
 

Skryptz

Active Member
lookin great, sorry about the male:(, but rest are lookin fuckn crucial, keep us updated man, cant wait to see the flowering, i need a camera, i think 2x2 just looks small to me because of the size of my plant im flowering now in a 4 ft wide x 2ft deep closet
 

FiredUp

Member
Do to unfortunate circumstance I have quite a large lapse in photos taken at the different stages of Flowering.

I do have some pics from harvest however.

Here's one of the Bellas.



And at a closer angle...




The size and density of this LA Cola really surprised me after it was all trimmed.




Everything hanging to dry. Its a little hard to see but each level has string run across the tent in the shape of an X. Bella on Top, LA Woman on the bottom tiers.

The Belladonna really out-produced the LA Woman. There were 3 LAs and 2 Bellas harvested.



Can't hardly wait for the drying process. I'm quite curious as to how this will all weigh, once its dried and cured.

Any guesses anyone? I'll update again with the final number.
 

FiredUp

Member
Wow, I totally spaced out on this one. sorry guys.

Total yield was about 105g dry. It worked out to be about 21g per plant.

Been playing around with a few things like leaving out the molasis (the Foxfarm solubles do well on their own and the molasis seemed to be a bit much for the plants.) Also trying differn't configurations between 4 and 5 plants.

Just harvested 4 more this week, and while its still too early to really tell, I think the yeild may be greater. They certainly look denser, but its hard to tell what's the cause with so many variables. I have a feeling many of the improvements are simply from having an idea what's what and being able to listen to the plants better. They certainly do tell you what they need.

Well, I gotta run again. I'm right in the middle of making some cannabutter with some of the most recent trim. Can't wait to try the brownies!
 
i have a LA going now and shes growing out of control 2 inches a day, how long did you wait to flip her 2 12/12? preflowers? nodes? or force at a height?
and what did you get from her?

ps. im just a bullshitter this is all hypothetical
 
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