DenseBud's 400-watt HGS Avalanche w/ FoxFarm Nutes & Soil Grow

[DenseBuds]

This is my first attempt at a grow journal. I would appreciate any questions and constructive criticisms you may have. I've been growing for personal consumption for a year or so and have a lot to learn.

I plan to post weekly grow updates, but will stop by most days to respond to posts. Lets get to it!


Cabinet Setup:
I will try to keep this thread devoted to the grow. To see details about my setup, please see my cabinet build thread. If you have any general questions about the cabinet, please post there. Thx

Grow Details:
Seeds: Avalanche from Highgrade Seeds
Soil: Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Water: RO from local water store. .25/gal
Pots: 8.5"x8.5" Square
Nutrients:

• Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula—Big Bloom®, Grow Big® and Tiger Bloom®
• Soluble Tri-Pack: Open Sesame®, Beastie Bloomz®, and Cha Ching®
• Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus

Veg Time: 7 weeks from germination (seeds popped 11/09/09). Will top once or twice as these grow TALL in flower.
Flower Time: 9-10 weeks from 12/12 flip.

Just moved seedlings from their small tray into their final pots.

 

[DenseBuds]

Some shots of early veg and just before transplant to bigger pots and new cabinet.

I did the simple "wet paper towel" method with 10 Avalanche seeds (amongst others), and all popped in a few days. This will leave me with a few extra in my veg tent in case I get an unusual # of males or lose some another way.

Once the taproot was out, I popped them in some Rapid Rooter plugs. I find that they work great, especially if you tear them across the hole a bit before popping the seed in.

 

[DenseBuds]

I moved 7 from the small 4" pots to the 8.5" last night. Was going to do 8, but I ran out of soil and in the end figured I wouldn't want to do 8 females anyways, so I'll move the remainder to smaller 1 gal pots and let them sit under the T5s in my veg tent as back-ups. It also left me room to store my water can and dead-leaf bin.

So far I haven't used any nutrients or tested PH. It's been straight RO water from the local water store. I have ordered a cheap PH meter though in preparation for flowering, so I'll start to check/report that as I go.

Plants are all between 5-7" tonight and are about 24" below the 400w MH & side-CFLs.

 

[buttslambrown]

lookin good

 

[Drella]

looks great man, sog or what?

 

[DenseBuds]

lookin good

Thanks, glad to have you.

 

[DenseBuds]

looks great man, sog or what?

Thx for stopping by. I was thinking of doing scrog. Need to revisit some bookmarked threads to figure out what to make the screen out of. It should attach pretty easily to the watering shelf and/or the cabinet using magnets.

 

[DenseBuds]

I've been reading up on ScrOG and think I've encountered a problem with using it in my current grow. It seems that for the best results, you want to setup the screen during veg so that as you top the plants, they grow into the screen, filling up a majority of the space before you switch to 12/12. The issue I'm going to have with this is that I'm not using clones or feminized seeds. So I would surely end up with a couple males mixed into my screen.

I tried to think of some ways to work around this, but couldn't find a viable solution:

- Wait/hope for preflowers to confirm sex prior to flowering. But even with this, I'll have males wound through the screen unless I hack the shit out of them after (or if) they show.
- Wait to install the screen until flowering begins. I think though that this would present problems because I wouldn't want to be handling the bud sites that much during flowering.

I don't want to take time to cut clones, veg and flower them to determine the sex of the plants for this grow. Am I missing any options here or is my best bet to top them 2-3 times and then just flower as-is?

Thx

 

[cruzer101]

So I would surely end up with a couple males mixed into my screen.

I tried to think of some ways to work around this, but couldn't find a viable solution:

- Wait/hope for preflowers to confirm sex prior to flowering. But even with this, I'll have males wound through the screen unless I hack the shit out of them after (or if) they show.
- Wait to install the screen until flowering begins. I think though that this would present problems because I wouldn't want to be handling the bud sites that much during flowering.

I don't want to take time to cut clones, veg and flower them to determine the sex of the plants for this grow. Am I missing any options here or is my best bet to top them 2-3 times and then just flower as-is?

Thx

I would say either take a small cutting and lable it, start lighting at 12/12 in about three weeks you will have sex. Then top your females and screen them. You can lay the screen over them and bend them down with it if they are tall. Or, put them all under there and at about two weeks into flower you see what ya got. Cut out the males, remove them, cut all the lower growth that didnt make it to the screen and use the cuttings for clones.

What do you think?

 

[DenseBuds]

Hey cruzer, thx for stopping by. I'll be traveling over the holidays, so the cutting/flower idea won't be very feasible at this time.

Or, put them all under there and at about two weeks into flower you see what ya got. Cut out the males, remove them, cut all the lower growth that didnt make it to the screen and use the cuttings for clones.

What do you think?

My hesitation with this approach was just how intertwined the males would be with the screen and females. Since I've never done a screen, I wasn't sure if it would be possible to get them out once I know they're male. I guess if I cut the main stalk of the males below the screen and miss any non-obvious pieces, I'll know soon enough as they start to die.

Sounds like it'll work, thx!

 

[DenseBuds]

They were getting a bit taller and more established, so I decided now would be a good time to top. On most of them I went up 2-3 nodes from the bottom.

The tallest ones were around 8" before topping and ~ 5-6" after. Also moved the light down a few inches. It's now 20" above.

Also - I received my ph meter today, so I'll get it calibrated and start posting some #s in the next few days.

 

[cruzer101]

Looks like Uncle Bens method to me. Makes four top colas, sweet.

 

[DenseBuds]

Looks like Uncle Bens method to me. Makes four top colas, sweet.

You're dead on. I read the thread yesterday. I'm debating when to put the screen on. I think I will have to hold off flowering till about the 28th when I get back from my trip since I head out on the 22nd and really wanted more vegetative growth than I have now.

It may be best to setup the screen now so I have time to weave a good amount through before I leave. When I get back, I could perhaps top any shoots that are too tall, then switch to flower.

 

[cruzer101]

Have you stopped by doeeyes journal?
She is a couple days behind me and did UB's method. I attached her latest pic. The plants on either side were done.

 

[DenseBuds]

Hmm. Thx for the pic/reference. I think I'll go w/o the screen this round. I like the look of hers and don't want to mess with cutting males out of the screen. I'll go ahead and order some feminized seeds for my next grow and scrog that.

 

[DoeEyed]

Hmm. Thx for the pic/reference. I think I'll go w/o the screen this round. I like the look of hers and don't want to mess with cutting males out of the screen. I'll go ahead and order some feminized seeds for my next grow and scrog that.

Yeah I was happily suprised by the results of topping, using Uncle Ben's method. I use feminized seeds myself, I don't want to waste space and resources on males. Your plants look good so far! Just a note - you said you topped them all at the second or third node? If you're going for four colas, check them again, make sure they are all topped above the second node (don't count that first, single bladed leaf set). I think if you do the third node or above you'll just get two colas.

 

[DenseBuds]

Yeah I was happily suprised by the results of topping, using Uncle Ben's method. I use feminized seeds myself, I don't want to waste space and resources on males. Your plants look good so far! Just a note - you said you topped them all at the second or third node? If you're going for four colas, check them again, make sure they are all topped above the second node (don't count that first, single bladed leaf set). I think if you do the third node or above you'll just get two colas.

I think you get more colas. Like 6 or 8 but the production doesn't change at that point. It's ok either way though, I'm just giving my new cabinet a good run through this round. I'll get more serious about it next. Thinking of ordering some Trainwreck. Everyone seems pleased with that strain. Glad you stopped by!

 

[DenseBuds]

Quick question re: ph testers. I got a Milwaukee ph 600. I calibrated it tonight and it seems to work just fine. I read that you need to keep the probe tip wet when not in use. Does this mean I need to leave my ph meter sitting in a pool of the storage solution 24x7 or are they saying that if you remove the probe tip, you need to keep it in storage solution?

I guess my hesitation is that before I bought it, it wasn't stored in a liquid. It came in a normal cardboard/plastic package and was dry.

Thx!

 

[DenseBuds]

Since I'm going with FoxFarm and I plan to begin flowering the week after Xmas, I started with Week 2 on the schedule and did only 1/2 dosage since this is the first nutes they're getting. I'll bump it up next week.

So for every gallon of water (needed 2 to get all 7 of them) I added:

- 1 tsp of Grow Big
- 1TBL of Big Bloom
- 1/2 tsp of CalMag Plus (heard it's good stuff)

My water started out around 7.5 and dropped to 6.2 after adding the nutes. I used some ph Up to get it up to 6.5.

We'll see how it goes.

The topping seems to be going well. The two on the right are still a bit taller than I'd like, so I've moved them from their original position. They're around 7 and 8 inches tall right now.

 

[DenseBuds]

So I'm pretty sure I saw my first pre-flowers this evening. Not certain yet, but these two are looking male to me. Maybe tomorrow I'll pull out my microscope and snap a few close-ups.

What do you think??