First attempt at flowering

[KingInDaCloset]

Hi, hey Stgeneziz, I may be wrong but it seems when I was working at a local nursery here (nor cal) that sold Super Thrive I read the ingredients and saw mostly nitrogen and hormones on the label. (might be confusing it with 'VF-11'.) Regardless both these 'miracle' products were mostly veg growth oriented, and kinda 'crack' like for plants....like 'Miracle Grow' is that what you want? Basic nutrients with micros will get you to the same place with out excelerating growth in a weird way. Most growers I know use some sort of organic system of nutrients. Healthy plants don't need miracles eh? Great looking shots of your plants, they look healthy & like they're filling out nicely! How soon will you flower them? Have you seen the two little hairs in the branch crotches yet? What are you feeding them now? (sorry if you've mentioned it above somewhere and I didn't see)

 

[Genosyde]

why does everyone flower so small? is it because of space or what? my plant is about 3 feet tall from mostly vegging for about 3 months. id rather get 2 oz+ off a plant instead a 20-50 grams, IMHO

 

[Stgeneziz]

Hi, hey Stgeneziz, I may be wrong but it seems when I was working at a local nursery here (nor cal) that sold Super Thrive I read the ingredients and saw mostly nitrogen and hormones on the label. (might be confusing it with 'VF-11'.) Regardless both these 'miracle' products were mostly veg growth oriented, and kinda 'crack' like for plants....like 'Miracle Grow' is that what you want? Basic nutrients with micros will get you to the same place with out excelerating growth in a weird way. Most growers I know use some sort of organic system of nutrients. Healthy plants don't need miracles eh? Great looking shots of your plants, they look healthy & like they're filling out nicely! How soon will you flower them? Have you seen the two little hairs in the branch crotches yet? What are you feeding them now? (sorry if you've mentioned it above somewhere and I didn't see)

hey king, about the superthrive, I've heard a lot of good things (from friends) about it so I decided to experiment with it. I'm still extremely new to this so im really just tryin to figure out what will work long term, and what won't.. I haven't used much of it at all, about 1/4 the dose. Haven't seen any "crazy growth" so i might scrap it, dunno, i'll give it a little while longer. Thanks for the compliments, I have noticed them growing much better since I tuned everything waaayyy down ( i.e. watering, feeding, etc...) and they're already in flowering, so far 2 boys (thrown away) and only two girls left in the running, so far the only nutes have been from the miracle gro organic potting mix that they're in, other than the superthrive, as far as my hydro setups, they're all on GH flora series, lucas schedule, and h202, and thats it. thanx for stopping by!!!

 

[Stgeneziz]

why does everyone flower so small? is it because of space or what? my plant is about 3 feet tall from mostly vegging for about 3 months. id rather get 2 oz+ off a plant instead a 20-50 grams, IMHO

you hit the nail right on the head, space is limited and I can't have my girls getting too tall for my box. Also, I have to use a limited amount of lights for various reasons, heat, space, energy, so I'm trying to maximize the use of that light by keeping my plants small enough for the cfls to be effective. But hey, if I could, i'd grow 7 ft monsters like some of the ppl on this site. maybe one day.... (daydreams) thanx for stoppin by

 

[Stgeneziz]

here are some pics of the 2 hopefuls ; 0

 

[KingInDaCloset]

Ahhh I see! Well good Luck! Here's a few shots of tonight's harvest. (that's a full sized Mag lite for scale) It's 'Aota' flowered about 7 and a half weeks, this is from only 3 plants that were all at or under 18 inches, mostly bud from the base up. Still have one that's a few days behind to harvest from this 1st group of this cycle. 2 weeks and I'll harvest about this much probably a bit more again, and 2 weeks more, again etc. So far pretty beefy buds. I make them branch by pinching or preferably bending in the veg side humidity dome/tray while the cuttings are getting well rooted in. I don't like to waste time growing them tall, I don't like to have the plants expend much time or energy on elongation. I could grow them to 3 feet if I wanted but don't really see that I get that much better production especially since I am loading 4 new plants every two weeks. Letting the plants get tall messes up the light height because of the varied heights of the plants in each cycle. Tall plants force me to move the light too far away for the new plants... So once they hit 4 branches on the veg side which is about 5-6 inches tall in they go to flower. NOW once they are beginning to flower they can elongate all they want. Still I keep the lamp between 12 - 18 inches. This system ROCKS! Happy Gardening!

 

[Stgeneziz]

Ahhh I see! Well good Luck! Here's a few shots of tonight's harvest. (that's a full sized Mag lite for scale) It's 'Aota' flowered about 7 and a half weeks, this is from only 3 plants that were all at or under 18 inches, mostly bud from the base up. Still have one that's a few days behind to harvest from this 1st group of this cycle. 2 weeks and I'll harvest about this much probably a bit more again, and 2 weeks more, again etc. So far pretty beefy buds. I make them branch by pinching or preferably bending in the veg side humidity dome/tray while the cuttings are getting well rooted in. I don't like to waste time growing them tall, I don't like to have the plants expend much time or energy on elongation. I could grow them to 3 feet if I wanted but don't really see that I get that much better production especially since I am loading 4 new plants every two weeks. Letting the plants get tall messes up the light height because of the varied heights of the plants in each cycle. Tall plants force me to move the light too far away for the new plants... So once they hit 4 branches on the veg side which is about 5-6 inches tall in they go to flower. NOW once they are beginning to flower they can elongate all they want. Still I keep the lamp between 12 - 18 inches. This system ROCKS! Happy Gardening!

Looks effin great!!! (sooooo jealous) Im still about 4 weeks away from harvest, and that's only on my outdoor plant, it's on week 5 of flowering, guerilla style. I'll be visiting it this weekend so i'll post some pics. also, i've pretty much developed the same philosophy about plant height, I have about 2.5 feet of growing space, not including lights, so I'm only gonna veg them to about 6 inches as well. Don't really know what kind of yield to expect yet tho, what's been your experience, thanks.

 

[KingInDaCloset]

Each of the 4 branches as you well know becomes a cola and there are usually several smaller orbiting side branch buds that develop lower down. I used to cut the main colas then let the underlings grow more but that took too much time & space when trying to load 4 newbies every two weeks. Depending on all things going as perfect as you can get them I get on average about 3/4's of a oz a plant, sometimes as much as an ounce. Not bad for 12 to 18 inch plants eh! 4 plants x 3/4's = 3 ounces per 2 week harvest ( that's still a bit on the low side I often do better)....too bad I can smoke 5 oz's in two weeks HA!...just kidding!
Now, Jorge Cervantes says for the light I'm using I ought to crank out .5 grams per watt of light, per 30 days. Using his measure, a 400 watt lamp ought to produce 200 grams a month or a bit less than 7.5 ounces, OK so I get 6 plus...it still smokes sweet!
Now of course I've had :floods, power outages, nutrient overdoses, my cat, my Macaw, my own clumsiness and mites do a lot of damage here and there so it isn't all sweetness and light. Gotta watch the plants & the various systems on a real regular basis. But that's the fun part huh?!
Lastly, one more reason I keep plants smaller is because it's a lot easier to turn the plants so they swell up evenly. I can also take any plant with a mite issue outside and spray it with Neem oil without spraying that nasty smelling stuff in the closet. I still have to sleep in the room eh?! Happy Gardening!

 

[Stgeneziz]

Very Nice! I think I'll let my plants go till about 2 ft, or just about. I'll be trying some lst, only one plant, because i've seen sooooo many great results from it and hey, I might as well learn!! keep up the excellent work!!

 

[Bobbin4Poodles]

Looking good. I have a similar setup in a bathroom shower with cfls ( 2 65w 2700K, 2 40w 3000K and 2 26w 6500K in a 3x3x8ft shower), i can only fit 2 or 3 plants width wise but i can let them grow 4-5ft. Keeps the supply up for the long winter months when we can't grow the big girls outside.

 

[Gardener 09]

i have one plant that is about 2 1/2 feet, its still in veg but slipping into pre-flower, right now i have a (used to have two b4 my mom took one of my lamps) 6500 cfl on it and three 2700's. all low watage lights, just screw in ones. 24/0, i have a feeling it my be a male or hermie so im growing it out alot b4 i jump into flower, porbly just make some oil with it.

 

[Stgeneziz]

it's official, I've got my first indoor girl!! I'd post good pix if I knew where my camera was (or I wasn't lazy), but for now these iphone pix should provide some intrest, these include my outdoor plant as well. But for now, you can't wipe the smile off my face!!!

 

[Stgeneziz]

Looking good. I have a similar setup in a bathroom shower with cfls ( 2 65w 2700K, 2 40w 3000K and 2 26w 6500K in a 3x3x8ft shower), i can only fit 2 or 3 plants width wise but i can let them grow 4-5ft. Keeps the supply up for the long winter months when we can't grow the big girls outside.

thanx poodles. I have height restrictions, so I'm goin for bushy, so far the lst has been working well so i'll stick to that for now. My real problem has been the heat! But i'm starting to solve that problem as well..

 

[k-town]

Plants are looking good.

 

[Realistg]

yea plants looking real nice cant wait till 4 weeks see where mine are going to be at. good luck

 

[Bobbin4Poodles]

Nice to see some good progress. I like the hiding spot outside. You should try topping them outdoors too. I got one girl outside about 5 ft tall but it has 6 2ft colas full of pretty flowers. Achieved by topping it twice, planting on top my dogs grave, and planting it on 4/20 (covering it for the frost)

 

[Stgeneziz]

hello everyone and thanx for the comments, I got some real good shots of my indoor girl earlier and I'll b posting them later!!

 

[Stgeneziz]

well, im late as usual, but here are some better pix of my first girl!!!

 

[KingInDaCloset]

Sweet one! Nice plants! Now just keep from picking it for 6 to 8 weeks and you'll be set! Hard not to want to touch them all the time too! More on the fingers less in the pipe though! Good Luck! Happy gardening! GrowIT!

 

[Stgeneziz]

So being the idiot that I am, I haven't written any dates down and have 4 different plants flowering in staggered dates and now I don't now how far along each of the are. However I do have a rough estimate, the oldest has been flowering about 3.5 weeks and the other one about 2.5 weeks and below are pix of those 2 ( the 2 that have shown sex ). and yes I did say 2. I have my second ever indoor girl So i'm very excited, take a look!