For grins and giggles

So I switched ph down to GH brand and I’m happier. I was using the brand cutting edge organic. My PH was all over the board daily. It’s not doing it with the GH brand. Just posting this for information purpose

rkymtnman said:

i saw you are going with the GH 3 part. good choice.

i like 1-1-1 ratio for vegging and then Lucas formula for bloom is good for a rookie. 1:2 ratio of micro/bloom (no grow).

that and the hydroguard and you are fine. and next time buy southern ag garden friendly fungicide instead. it's a million times more concentrated and cheaper.

keep your pH 5.5 to 6.1 , dont' overfeed and dont' get rot. my 3 rules for dwc.

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I put the southern ag in my cart for next time. So far no issues with hydro guard. I’m using golden shield silica and wondering how necessary it is. I switched from my leftover ff cal-mag to botanicares version. I like this stuff. better. I did run the voodoo juice at half strength. Have one more res worth left. I tend to lean on the side of underfed I think. Usually in the 750-900 range ppms. That’s not counting the natural 200 in the tap water. Today when I did a bucket change my bigger plant said it had zero ppms. I never checked ppms yesterday. I thought my pen was broke but I checked with my back up pen and sure enough it did t register shit. I’m wondering if this is my sign to increase feed

Rookieoftheyr said:

My question is could you also just run micro and grow in beginning stage like I’m gonna do with micro and bloom?

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don't know about that. never heard of that being tried.

epsom salt is a good one to use in bloom. the sulfur brings out the smells for sure

here's a cool article about lucas and why it works


and a good nute calculator at bottom

Things are going smooth. I determined my PH pen was bad but luckily i had two and the zero reading was so wild i checked with second pen. They are drastically different in size but im 100% happier than if they were autos. Took away factory metal wire/hanger and went four ratchets. One each corner. Im not doing no training this run being dwc is new to me And the ph and ppms is my focus. Was finally able to crank light 100% with no repercussions. Gonna introduce great white orca next res change. Every two or so days ill throw some cal mag in buckets. No matter what. Trying to dodge purple stems this run.

rkymtnman said:

here's a cool article about lucas and why it works

CannaStats - Nutrient Profiles for Cannabis

This page provides a common language spoken by all fertilizer solutions and a way to mix them for growing cannabis hydroponically. Sometimes referred to as the Lucas formula, this page explains the true origin of this well known proven formula and the project that led to its discovery. Emphasis...

www.angelfire.com

and a good nute calculator at bottom

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Started using the lucas formula today when i changed the res out. Plants look like they are on cusp of making buds. I sure hope so. The one is getting outta control. Ill report back soon with pics once they get going

rkymtnman said:

if you look at the GH feedcharts for later in bloom, it's the 1:2 ratio (Lucas).

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Do you think I should defoliate a little bit? They are just starting to show they are gonna flower. Worried it could stress them to much at such a crucial stage. I’ve never had plants look this good inside. I don’t wanna screw this up. Other than topping I’ve only removed maybe 5 fan leaves. Some of the older original leaves look dark green but almost like they have had enough and are ready to go. I’m also fine with just letting them die off in their own.

Still rolling. I took off about 8 leafs that looked exhausted. Figured no reason to take a bunch from them while they are using them. Dropped lights off air temp to 74-75 trying to get them to flower already. They are taking their sweet time. Whatever. Long as they are healthy.
Pictures don’t do justice. They things are taking my tent over. They may not be perfect but healthy they are for sure. I introduced great white orca and flora blend and floralicious last time I made a rez at water change out. Switched to running that Lucas method. Seem to have a burst of growth again but it could just be me.

They look great. Don't hesitate to do a little training as they stretch to keep that tall one in the back under control. You can try gently bending it out to the sides to a bamboo pole taped to the bucket maybe. I'm a soil guy so you'd have to improvise a place to tie off to unlike the supports we can stick in the dirt. I would supercrop it but that's a little more aggressive and I understand you're not wanting to get them stressed. You just want to try and even out the canopy a little if you can. Now is the best time though before flower gets too ramped up. Congrats on the smooth transition to dwc so far, I hope flower goes easily.

FirstCavApache64 said:

They look great. Don't hesitate to do a little training as they stretch to keep that tall one in the back under control. You can try gently bending it out to the sides to a bamboo pole taped to the bucket maybe. I'm a soil guy so you'd have to improvise a place to tie off to unlike the supports we can stick in the dirt.

I would supercrop it but that's a little more aggressive and I understand you're not wanting to get them stressed. You just want to try and even out the canopy a little if you can. Now is the best time though before flower gets too ramped up. Congrats on the smooth transition to dwc so far, I hope flower goes easily.

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I 100% agree. I was thinking putting 1/4 inch or maybe 1/2 inch self tapers around lid of net pot and leaving them up enough to tie a string/twine to lst it some. I’ve never super cropped and that kinda scares me to be honest. If I remember right it’s rubbing stem to bend and tying down right?

I would love to get her knocked down some. I think maybe I will research it better tonight and maybe try it tommorow after work. It’d give me at least 6 inches with them top ones bent over and put me In a better place light wise.


Tomorrow I gotta make more nute water and clean so I’ll be In there more than normal. This is the first time they have used up all the extra nute water I keep bubbling for reserve. Didn’t make it a week on ten gallons and throw 2 out like normal. Time to up my reserve.

Maybe it’s the Lucas method I tried , maybe the new nutes and bennies and method combined. Either way I’m not gonna change it.

I appreciate the compliment. I could just never get what I was looking for from soil.(unless outdoors) Mainly because weeks before finish something would always happen. I’ve had so many different types of failures. So my hopes ain’t up right now for the finish but this has been awesome first experience for me right now.

I had a lot of issues in soil over the years too, it happens. I finally got into using dry organic amendments from Dr. Earth and it's super simple. I don't have to check the ph of the water anymore. I don't have to mix nutes every day or even week. It's just really easy and they grow really nice organic bud. I add a little Epson salt and molasses when I feel it needs it but otherwise I just water them and stay out of the way. Glad you are liking the dwc, it just wasn't for me because I'm disabled and the changing res stuff was too physical. They produce some amazing plants fast though. Supercropping looks scary the first time or two you try it but it's really just pinching or twisting the stem where you want to bend it in order to crush the tissue some so it will bend easier. Then you bend the branch over 90 degrees. I'll usually support it if it snaps when I bend it and is hanging loose past the 90 degree point by a string or just another plant in the tent like a prop for a day or two. They bounce back really fast and will usually have a good burst of growth on that branch. I'll try to find a pic of mine later on, I'm in the middle of chopping one of my plants and I just stopped to take a break for a minute.

FirstCavApache64 said:

I had a lot of issues in soil over the years too, it happens. I finally got into using dry organic amendments from Dr. Earth and it's super simple. I don't have to check the ph of the water anymore. I don't have to mix nutes every day or even week. It's just really easy and they grow really nice organic bud. I add a little Epson salt and molasses when I feel it needs it but otherwise I just water them and stay out of the way. Glad you are liking the dwc, it just wasn't for me because I'm disabled and the changing res stuff was too physical. They produce some amazing plants fast though. Supercropping looks scary the first time or two you try it but it's really just pinching or twisting the stem where you want to bend it in order to crush the tissue some so it will bend easier. Then you bend the branch over 90 degrees. I'll usually support it if it snaps when I bend it and is hanging loose past the 90 degree point by a string or just another plant in the tent like a prop for a day or two. They bounce back really fast and will usually have a good burst of growth on that branch. I'll try to find a pic of mine later on, I'm in the middle of chopping one of my plants and I just stopped to take a break for a minute.

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Bad ass. I appreciate all the advice. I tried a lot of them ffof recipe with failure after failure. Just chalked it up as it wasn’t in the cards for me. And them damn gnats. Congrats on the harvest. What’d you grow? So I’m probably better off to use stakes/dowels like you suggested In the event I damn near break them. Gonna hit hardware tomorrow. And just do it !!

I had clones this time for the first time. I got motorbreath 15 and pre 98 bubba kush as a gift and I popped a LA Girlz seed from Strayfox Gardenz that really impressed me. Gnats are a pain but you can use this stuff called Gnatrol and it will get rid of them, just soak it in every 3-4 days a couple times and use the yellow sticky traps for the flying ones. If you accidentally break a branch doing supercropping, don't panic, it happens. Just go slowly when you are doing it and as your bending go back and forth every so often to loosen up the fibers, that seems to help me with the really stiff ones especially. Pick up some painters tape at the store tomorrow and you can just tape it up to support it if you have a bad break. I usually put a dab of raw honey on it as an antibiotic if the skin is broken, but I'm OCD. Here's a shot of the LA Girlz I just harvested.
Motorbreath 15

A supercrop closeup to show the healing joint at 4 days.

And a whole plant shot that shows what a difference it makes. You can see how much shorter than it's tent mate it is now that it has been super cropped. Even only after 4 days you can see how the ends of the branches are turning back up and healthy. I should have tied it down but it's at a friend's house and I didn't have a ton of time while I was there. I'm bringing it home as soon as I harvest this bubba as we can only grow 4 plants at a time so I veg plants at his place and flower plants at mine. Let's me have a perpetual grow going without stepping outside the rules. Hope you have some luck getting them down to a more even level but remember you can also put the shorty on a cinder block as a booster. You just need to keep the tall one from my getting up in the light. Then you can get shorty up at the same level . Lots of ways to skin the cat as they say.

I don't know if you are interested in
clones or not but the guy I got these from is really a good guy to deal with. He has virus free clones which is getting hard to find and he's pretty good price wise. Not as cheap as some of the ones on Strainly but those are the ones that people are having virus issues and questions about authenticity with. He's dookiefarmsgenetics2 on Instagram.

I have yet to do clones. I was looking at cloners just about a month ago. Wish I woulda did it , it woulda been perfect timing right now to use to shorten that plant. I will put that one on a brick tomorrow. Can’t believe I didn’t think of that. But I can tell she wants more light. That’s why made what you said make sense and that with a cinder and I should be damn close and I can give her the light she needs. My walls in my tent suck in almost six inches so I’m gonna put in some supports tommorow. Plants look small when door is open but when it’s closed they are Being smushed and I dont like that. Just gotta make the door one removable. I think with everything we talked about was super beneficial. Thank you! I’ll look into strainly. Is it a local thing. I am getting ready to build another Dwc setup in my other tent I ain’t been using. Could try them out

Your plants look good by the way

Strainly is online clone and seed vendors, there's a thread on here that talks about who is safe to buy from and who to avoid because there's a really nasty virus going around called hlvd or something close to that, I always fuck up the spelling of it. Dookie is on Instagram and who I deal with but I also would try auntie Jane probably on Strainly, he has a good reputation. I used a wooden dowel drilled on the ends with zip ties to stop the tent from getting sucked in to much before. A 1*1" tomato stake works too. It sucks to lose so much space to that I know. Oh yeah, throw a towel down under the bricks or cinder block or you'll destroy the tent floor liner. I've done it to mine twice. Good luck with your girls.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Strainly is online clone and seed vendors, there's a thread on here that talks about who is safe to buy from and who to avoid because there's a really nasty virus going around called hlvd or something close to that, I always fuck up the spelling of it. Dookie is on Instagram and who I deal with but I also would try auntie Jane probably on Strainly, he has a good reputation. I used a wooden dowel drilled on the ends with zip ties to stop the tent from getting sucked in to much before. A 1*1" tomato stake works too. It sucks to lose so much space to that I know. Oh yeah, throw a towel down under the bricks or cinder block or you'll destroy the tent floor liner. I've done it to mine twice. Good luck with your girls.

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So I didn’t use no rods because after I thought about it it would of made my water changes harder. I sanitize and clean everytime I do a changeout. I put my little one on a pot to give me idea where to super crop bigger one. I just squeezed a little bit and bent I. Direction I wanted. Plant seemed real soft still but I could feel the crush still. Ehh we will see what happens. It did open up a lot more but sites I know that.
Guess in hindsight I coulda went through hydroton in net pot. I’ll just pay attention to what this does. Pretty even canopy and gained some light distance

Wow, that looks fantastic. Now it will all get the same amount of ppfd across the primary bud sites. Just watch the ones you bent as they're going to start right back growing up again in a few days or less. It's stressful that first time you snap a branch like that but it really doesn't hurt the plants and some people say it creates an improved pathway for water and nutrients where the knuckle forms at the break site. I think that's true but it's only my opinion as I've never seen any science on it or proof of it. It just seems that the branches I supercrop have denser colas. Could be observation bias for all I know, it sure doesn't hurt em. Congrats on snapping some branches safely and next time will be even easier.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Wow, that looks fantastic. Now it will all get the same amount of ppfd across the primary bud sites. Just watch the ones you bent as they're going to start right back growing up again in a few days or less. It's stressful that first time you snap a branch like that but it really doesn't hurt the plants and some people say it creates an improved pathway for water and nutrients where the knuckle forms at the break site. I think that's true but it's only my opinion as I've never seen any science on it or proof of it. It just seems that the branches I supercrop have denser colas. Could be observation bias for all I know, it sure doesn't hurt em. Congrats on snapping some branches safely and next time will be even easier.

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Well I checked them this Morning before work like always. Didn’t phase it a bit. All the shoots on bent ones already going up. My bends did go beyond a 90 overnight . I put a little tape around bends this morning to get them back to 90. It drank half the bucket overnight. My little one perked up and drank more than normal too. Everything still looked good to me. I appreciate the advice , it definitely put me in a better spot with my light also.

They look great, I would think about a defoliation when you get to the 21 day from flip mark especially in the lower area for airflow. I go moderate and I know it's a controversial subject when it comes to removing leaves. I think improving the airflow to prevent mold and pests is always a good plan though. Whether or not to clear out leaves to improve light for lower areas is up to individuals. There's a lot of stuff to read on it. Schwazzing is one technique that is an extreme defoliation method some people use if you ever have time and want to do some reading. It's a bit too harsh to the plant for me personally but some people do well with it.