BubblePonics Mixed Strains - Hydro Grow

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Splifford

Member
Hi Guys,

Yeah, I did cut away some of the lower branches but I waited too long, so that was my mistake. I cut some of the branches and fan leaves in about the 4th or 5th week of flowering. I should have done it earlier than that.

I started seeing the red hairs around the late 6th to mid 7th week of flowering.

I have been learning a lot from this grow, and I'm sure I have more to learn, but so far things seem to be going OK. Not too bad for a rookie I guess, lol

:-P
 
S

Splifford

Member
Update.....

Hi gang, well we're in the 8th week of flowering and the girls have been flushing with plain PH balanced (5.8 - 6.2) water for 7 days now. They actually kicked in with another growth spurt over the last week and started packing on some more weight, not a lot, but some.

I am going to have to give them another week before harvest. I checked the Trichomes with a microscope at various places on the plants and there are a lot of spots where the trich's are still clear to slightly cloudy. When I found some Amber trich's last week it seems they were only isolated to a small spot on the plants.

The girls seem to like the flushing, they haven't shown any signs of stress, and the fan leaves aren't even turning yellow yet. I'm not sure if this is because of the ferts I am using or if they have a large supply of ferts within the plant system. In any event, I'm glad I started flushing when I did, just in case they still have a good amount of ferts in them.

I wasn't crazy about the 60x - 100x pocket microscope I am using because it was too hard to get a consistent shot of the trichomes, so I ordered a USB digital microscope with a stand that plugs into your PC and you can take close up pictures and even movies. I hope to have some interesting trichome pictures tomorrow, then maybe I can get a better idea of how much longer until harvest.

Here are this week's pictures.


General Grow Setup - 2 Pictures







Strawberry Smile - 2 Pictures







Bubblicious - 2 Pictures







Blue Mystic - 2 Pictures







Random Digital Macro Shots - 4 Pictures











Be on the lookout for some Trichome shots tomorrow if all goes well.

:-P
 
S

Splifford

Member
Update....

We have Trichome shots today :-P

I received my USB digital microscope and tested it out on the girls. The results are amazing compared to those cheesy pocket microscopes. The pictures are not crystal clear unfortunately, but it is a heck of a lot better being able to stabilize the microscope on a stand, and viewing the pictures on your computer monitor. Not bad for $80 at all, certainly well worth the money.

If you'd like to get one yourself, you can do a Google search on "Veho USB microscope" or some variation of those search words.

Here are some random Trichome shots, I definitely need to give the girls another week before harvest, hopefully not more than that.

Trichome Shots - 4 Pictures











Until next week, have fun, and hopefully the girls will be ready to harvest :-P
 
S

Splifford

Member
Hey Doc,

I did not use any CO2 although it did cross my mind to try it, perhaps that would have helped with this grow. As far as lights, I am using (1) 400W HPS for flower, it is one of those
Yield Master II Supreme - 6" Air-Cooled Reflectors. It is a great setup and I have been very happy with it. You can get it from bestgrowlights.com.

Here's a pic


 
S

Splifford

Member
Update....

Hi gang,

Here's the latest update. The girls have been flushing with PH balanced water for the last 14 days. The buds are literally sucking up all the available nutrients within the leaves and stems. The leaves have been turning a lot of different colors from yellow, to red, to purple during this process, it is really amazing. This is the 9th week of flowering, and according to the vendor, they should be finished. Unfortunately they are not finished, so I'm going to have to let them go a little longer.

I probably started flushing a bit too early as some of the side branches are now becoming too weak to hold themselves up, due to lack of nutrients. The problem is most of the Trichomes are still at the Cloudy stage, and I am not seeing a lot of Amber Trichomes. Lesson learned for me.

Based on everything I'm seeing now, I believe that the girls will be ready for harvest within 5 - 7 days. The majority of Trichomes are cloudy and I am starting to see a couple of Amber's, so I know they are really close.

The girls are also starting to stink with a Skunky smell quite heavily, the candy aroma is long gone now, I think they are pissed, lol

One thing I didn't account for is that some buds are maturing earlier than others, so I might not be able to harvest all the girls at the same time. I might have to harvest in stages which could complicate the drying and curing process. I suppose this should not be totally unexpected, but it is something I did overlook. Another lesson learned for me, lol

Here are this weeks pictures, I'm just going to provide some random shots of different plants at different angles. This should be pretty cool.


General Grow Setup - 3 Pictures









Random Bud Shots - 4 Pictures











Digital Macro Shots - 2 Pictures







Trichome Shots - 4 Pictures











Next week better be harvest time or I'm gonna be pissed, lol

Have a good one guys! :joint:
 
D

Dex319

Member
So after you harvest, what are your plans for drying and curing? How long will it take until the buds are smokeable?
 
S

Splifford

Member
Dex319 said:
So after you harvest, what are your plans for drying and curing? How long will it take until the buds are smokeable?
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that drying the buds will take a maximum of 10 days, considering that all of the ferts have been washed out of the plants. Assuming that is true, I then plan to cure the buds for two weeks in glass jars before I would actually smoke the harvested product.

The longer the buds cure in the glass jars the better, but after two weeks of curing, you can roll up a few nice Spliffs and get a great high out of them. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see what kind of high I get after the buds have cure for 6 months, hehe
 
S

Splifford

Member
Update.....

Hey Gang, guess what? It's Harvest Time :mrgreen:

Over the last few days the Trichomes started changing to Amber quite quickly. When I chopped down the girls the trich's were about 30% amber, that was good enough for me.

I must have spent about 2 hours trimming the major buds, that was a serious pain, lol

Once I saw what I had, I decided not to even hassle with all of the smaller popcorn buds or I would have been trimming all night. I'm guessing that I probably threw away well over 1/2 oz of "wet" popcorn buds, maybe more, there were quite a lot of them. It was kind of a waste to toss them but I have plenty of larger buds that will last me a long time.

The pictures show the larger buds right after I chopped and trimmed them, so they are still wet. I am not sure how much they will weigh once they are dried, but I'm guessing probably 1 1/2 - 2 oz. Any guesses from the more experienced growers?

As it turns out, I think I started my flushing at just about the right time, 2 1/2 weeks before harvest. Most of the leaves had turned from purple to yellow, and about 50% of the leaves had dropped off. This seems like it should be a really good flush.

Here are the pictures, and I guess it brings this grow journal to a successful completion. Some of the pictures are a little fuzzy due to poor lighting conditions and my hands were a little shaky from all that trimming, but you should be able to make them out OK.

I hope you have enjoyed following this grow journal as much as I did putting it together. It was great fun and I learned a lot of things along the way.















bongsmilie
 
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