Cold weather grow....and yes, first time

Growing in the Rockies. This is our progress from what we have been able to glean from the internet. Photos taken at 4 weeks and then again at 6 weeks.

We started from seeds (Nirvana, Attitude & Mandala) and began germinating Feb 18 by putting them into water and sprouting them on Feb 21. Our first seedlings were grown in rock wool, but then decided to plant them directly into soil.

Our soil is a mix of FoxFarm and Miracle Grow, with some other stuff mixed in to help drainage, like Perlite and Vermiculite. Temps have been averaging 73, w/ 44% humidity. Some leaves are starting to curl under...maybe the soil has too much N from MG?

We used 2-40W Cool White Flour. for the beginning, and then (when transferred to the bigger pots) we put them under 400W Metal Halide: 18-6. We have been recently adding bottled CO2 at 5-10 min. intervals a few times a day.

The largest strains in the photos are Big Bud (26cm), with White Widow, PPP and AK48 in the mix. They range from 3 - 6 weeks. The biggest pest problem has been black crickets that we vacuum up whenever we see them - they like to eat the young leaves.

I guess they are growing the way they are supposed to, but really don't know what to expect. Is my Big Bud big enough to clone? I am also thinking of flowering one of my feminized PPP's. I hope it is a gal.

Well, my first pre-flower, and it looks like a male. Darn. I have 3 more chances (of this strain: Big Bud) for a female...

Finally, one in the grow room (feminized PPP) - with a few clones. The 400W HPS is about 24" above. Temps getting a little higher here than in the vege room, i.e., ~79-80F (compared to 70-75F), and humidity still around 45-50%.

I have a bit of a design problem: I have to go through my vege room into the flower room - they are not side by side. I hope that the two layer plastic wall will be enough to keep the flower room dark. I mean it seems dark when I close myself inside, but see just a little, little light peeping over the top seam. Not sure what is significant light leakage...I guess I will find out if it takes a long time to flower or something....

I have six in the grow room: 2-white widow; 2-AK48; and 2-Blueberry. The pre-flowers showed feminine. The plant in the flowering room from my previous photo turned out to be a male - a surprise, because it was supposed to be feminized...

Putting these plants into the flowering room from the vegetative room took less time than waiting for my clones to show sex. My cloning techniques needs some work though...

cowabunga said:

I have six in the grow room: 2-white widow; 2-AK48; and 2-Blueberry. The pre-flowers showed feminine. The plant in the flowering room from my previous photo turned out to be a male - a surprise, because it was supposed to be feminized...

Putting these plants into the flowering room from the vegetative room took less time than waiting for my clones to show sex. My cloning techniques needs some work though...

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These plants are growing higher than I thought. The height of my light is maxed (6'), and the blueberry is the same height, so I put it in the corner, but...not sure how it will grow now.

The second surprise is that I had a hermie in the flowering room, and didn't know it until today. I hope the other gals did not get pollinated. The hermie was in the flowering room a week and I am not sure how long the pods had formed- a possible disaster in the making.

It is just about time (I think) to harvest some of these lovely gals. I tried using a pocket microscopes (60 - 100x) to see the color of the trichomes, but could not hold it steady enough.

My challenge is, since I do not use the product, is to know what is the optimal to harvest for various types of body/head effects. I am growing for others, i.e., caregiver. I guess I will have to see what the response is....

Hey CowBunga..cant believe nobodys stopped in...hope u dont mind me postin in ur journal..Looks real good..just 1 lamps and floros huh.. dank looking nugz im impressed.. ahh isnt cold weather in the winter the best for indoor HID grows..cant wait till september..oct myself..PeAce

i just went back thro everything..sweet looking rooms even if u have 2 pass thru 1 to get at the other..just beef it up if u do notice any light leaks with cheap good poly black with a thick mil rating.. plants look healthy i do c some stretching..how far have u kept your lamps during the grow from canopy?

tilemaster said:

i just went back thro everything..sweet looking rooms even if u have 2 pass thru 1 to get at the other..just beef it up if u do notice any light leaks with cheap good poly black with a thick mil rating.. plants look healthy i do c some stretching..how far have u kept your lamps during the grow from canopy?

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Thanks for stopping in and I welcome your comments. I have two HPS (400w) lamps in the flowering room now.

Those stetchy looking plants are the sativa version of super skunk and blueberry. I have another blueberry (bud photo) that is not so tall, so I am thinking that the seed of the taller blueberry had more sativa genes. There has been some inconsistency in some of the other seeds (of the same strain) as the plants grew.

Since the tall sativas are touching the ceiling (6'3"), I am not quite sure what to do except see what happens. Maybe I can bend them or something?

The lamps are as high as they will go (~5'10"), so I guess the limitations in my room height is showing up. This set up is under my house, which is like a walk out crawl space...if that makes sense.

One other thing of note, is that I am using FoxFarm Open Sesame and Beastie Bloom during the flowering stage.

I cut after 6 weeks (probably prematurely) about 1/2 of the AK48 since the stigmas were mostly amber. The small buds dried in about 3 days and are now in a mason jar - about a week now.

wow thats crazy u have that much room in ur crawl space..no makes perfect sense..ive got a crawl but its not nearly as tall.. well next time they stretch in flower..ususally the 1st 3 weeks of 12 12..try snapping the larger shoots that are gettin unmanagable..ie supercropping..apply suttle pressure to the stem and twist a bit and itll lay over..and in the long run be better for it..and ur space ..Good lookn grow

tilemaster said:

wow thats crazy u have that much room in ur crawl space..no makes perfect sense..ive got a crawl but its not nearly as tall.. well next time they stretch in flower..ususally the 1st 3 weeks of 12 12..try snapping the larger shoots that are gettin unmanagable..ie supercropping..apply suttle pressure to the stem and twist a bit and itll lay over..and in the long run be better for it..and ur space ..Good lookn grow

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Thanks Tilemaster. Never heard of super cropping before, so, off to the internet and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1YEc7ENd5E

Is this the idea? Not sure if the bent over branches are still alive?

This is probably a better site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FmXHhKFA5U

ya when u lightly bend them over..u can incorporate some tying down of the branches...the ones u snap..so they dont bend back up to the light right away..they do stay alive..adn turning the branch in direction from verticle to horizonal saves u growing hieght room, and also creats a bushyier stronger plant with more growing shoots..which equals more bud sites...

tilemaster said:

ya when u lightly bend them over..u can incorporate some tying down of the branches...the ones u snap..so they dont bend back up to the light right away..they do stay alive..adn turning the branch in direction from verticle to horizonal saves u growing hieght room, and also creats a bushyier stronger plant with more growing shoots..which equals more bud sites...

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Interesting. I assume you have been successfully doing this and your yield has consequently been greater, eh? Thanks again for the advise.

The AK 48 lived up to its name: flowering in 48 days, but I harvested a few days before. Accordingly (from our patients) it was nonetheless helpful for glaucoma, anxiety, spasms and pain. Quick harvest, but the yield was small - just a tad over 1 oz. Will continue to grow...

Did not cure all that long (< one week) as everyone was anxious to, you know, use it. Used mason jars for curing.

Total time from seed to harvest was about 5 months. Clones are now doing well - have 9 moms.