First DWC Attempt with CFLs and Bagseed, Just Entered 12/12 Cycle

[UVRay]

I was casually reviewing the bud growth on the girls last night and when I was inspecting the smaller Kush twins I noticed on the flower nodes right under the main top with a 10x loupe clear evidence of trichomes forming in masse on the flowers and the small single leaves within and around the flower. Even some of the larger five leaf near those flowers are getting a light dusting at their base. That's pretty cool to see so early, the plants have been flowering for three weeks now. I didn't expect to see the trikes this soon. Not complaining mind you, just surprised, wasn't expecting to see the trichomes for a few more weeks. The big skunk plant isn't showing the trichomes like the Kush plants but that's OK, I didn't expect to see them now anyway and I believe the Kush will no doubt finish flowering faster than the skunk plant that appears by her looks that she's a hybrid so no telling when she'll finish.

Sorry don't have any pics to post of this latest milestone. I need to shoot some closeups that can actually get close enough to see them. Maybe sometime today I can get a few and post them, I need to take some pics anyway, it's been a few days now.

The plants are coming along nicely, so far everything is cool and thank God there's been no surprises in the last few weeks and I pray no surprises in the coming weeks. Right now I'm just trying to get these girls and myself through my first hydro harvest.

My clones are hanging on, maybe growing a little slower than I'd like but they seem to have made the transformation from a branch to a plant. The roots are starting to drop out of the 6" net pots, the grow cubes are the small SureToGrow brand and I've got them nestled in hydroton sitting on top of 5 gallon buckets with DWC bubblers. Again, so far so good.

 

[UVRay]

I took some pics of the buds just now showing the trichome development that's just started showing on the Kush twins. I do see some trike development on the big skunk momma but they aren't yet the stem and bulb type we commonly think of on buds. I guess the skunk with its sativa blend will likely mature slower than the kush twins and that's OK by me. It's good to get a little variety in the grow and also I don't mind the skunk maturing later than the little kush plants as that will give me a longer harvest period, yee haw!

So, here's a few trichome porn shots to help us all get through the day:











Above pic is one of the Kush twins main top at 3 weeks.

Below is the Skunk main top at 3 weeks:


Below are the lateral side branches of the skunk girl, they are showing flowers almost a foot down the branches from the tip:


Last pic is the skunk and kush twins doing their thang in the tent.

 

[UVRay]

thanks guys, I've been out of town all week, got home quite late Thursday night, past the girls bedtime so I checked on them this morning before I was off to work. They seem to have slowed down the stretch rate which is fine with me. But when I popped the net pot lid on the big skunk girl, I was blown away how much she drank from Monday night til Friday Morning, she looks to have drank about 2.5 gallons.The buds are starting to fatten up and the branches are starting to fill in between the nodes, I got no idea what kind of bud this things gonna make bud she had good genes, super skunky and potent considering it's bagseed. Oddly the plants don't yet stink more as you'd expect, the plants are into their third week of flowering.

The Kush twins buds are getting thick round the stalk, looks like it wants to be one big ole' cola almost all the way down to the hydroton. The kush twins are just oozing trichomes in earnest now, hope it's not too early maturing, I want those buds to get nice and thick so I hope they'll not peak on me too soon. I don't think the big skunk female will mature nearly as fast as the kush twins, I hope so. I did take some pics while ago, I'll try to get a few up that are current. later this evening.

 

[Penyajo]

Hey ray. Nice grow dude shit is looking pretty good man. Keep up the good work hope the skunk and the kush do you right. Anyways subbed and rep+

 

[UVRay]

thanks Penyajo, *L* seriously man, I'm digging this DWC business, it was pretty scary and hairy til I got my arms around it but I think it's under control now. I did get some time to download a few recent pics, not many but they are decent pics.

These were shot this last evening and early this morning 5.14.11.
First pic is the many bud sites on a side of the skunkie gal. She's making me proud guys! Looks like a legit 36 bud sites or branch tips and all of them seem to flowering quite well. Not only is the main cola forming up nicely, the skunk is starting to get sugar coated on the tops like the kush.



Here's a decent shot of the skunk's side branches filling into colas near the tips looks like this one is filling in about 4-5 inches already at about 27 days since going 12/12.




Skunk gal's main top:



The Kush twins larger sister's main top at 3.5 weeks of 12/12:


Below, a closer shot of the Kush main top, note the trichomes starting to fan out:


Trichomes under macro and my Canon:



Another shot of some trikes on the kush twins:



I've been pruning the problem leaves and the buzz gets better each time. I sampled a few small snips of a leaf finger here and there up near the buds and I'm happy to report it's a good stone. I can't bring myself to snip a young bud this early and I have no doubt it's going to be worth the wait so I'll leave the buds be for now..

I wish my tent was at least 3 ft. deep, it's a 4' wide x 2' deep and 7' tall. The big skunk plant is a yard wide and there's bud from edge to edge soo I don't even want to zip up the tent because I would have to compress the plants width by a foot or a third of the diameter of the plant. Fortunately, it's not been a problem to leave the tent unzipped, the carbon filter/inline fan is holding its own, although it still smells a bit in the bedroom with the closet door open. If I keep the closet door closed I don't smell anything even with the tent unzipped and open in the front. I've been working way too hard the last two weeks and still haven't gotten around to dinking with the mini fridge to cool my nutes.

 

[Niko Bellick]

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3577443
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752556
Hey UVB which bulb out of the two links would be better to increase resin production? bout three weeks from harvest and I've got one that could use alil help

 

[Mineralz]

Thats wut im talking about! Looking good UV Gonna be some frosty shiz 4 surez. Keep em comin and happy growing!

 

[UVRay]

hey Niko,
man I think either is good, the top link is a little bigger than the bottom one, actually, I have the bottom one the Reptile spiral cfl with a 10 rating. I think the 10 rating is double a 5 rating or 5x a 2 rating. I remember reading somewhere perhaps even here at RIU that about 10% of your total wattage should be UVB. So depending on what power lamps you're running you may want two bulbs. My bulb says it's effective range is up to 20" and yes, this stuff matters....

If you read or have experience about raising reptiles indoors like lizards, turtles and other exotics you will know that many owners don't know about the need for UV-B exposure, lack of it will harm your reptiles even can kill them. Some have saved their reptiles near the point of death simply by adding one of these lamps, usually within a day or two they come back to normal health, start moving around normally and start eating again.

MJ, on the other hand needs UV-B rays to be all it can be. Apparently, over time MJ has evolved Trichomes to protect the plant from those potentially deadly UV-B rays. So it makes sense that giving the plant a strong regular dose of UV-B will trigger Trichome development more rapidly and denser than without real time UV-B exposure.

Full spectrum CFL or LED or even HID lamps don't go into the UV-B spectrum which is about 320nm and btw is invisible to us humans. The UVB lamps are a white light, as it doesn't have the bluish black light (UV) coating that actually suppresses UV-B output. Good luck bro and thanks for checking out my chit.

I'm not certain about how long to leave the UV lamps on, to be honest I'm running mine 12 hrs a day, on the same timers as my lights. I've read some people recommending just 4 hours a day but I know that in summer where I live the UV index is way up there starting fairly early in the day and late in the afternoon, a hellofa lot longer than 4 hours a day. I suppose too much UV-B radiation can damage a plant but so far I've not seen any adverse effects. Just remember UV-B rays are deadly to humans too, it can fry your eyes and cook your skin if you're not mindful of the exposure possibility. Just like tanning lamps, same thing.

I bought my bulb at PetSmart, it was sinfully expensive, like $19.95. Amazon has the same damn thing for $10 w/ free shipping. I'm ordering two more today, one for a spare and I'll likely add the other one just to spread out the light more evenly over my canopy. If you're that close to harvest, man I'd run to PetSmart and go ahead and do what I did, pay more that it's worth to get it right now and go straight home and plug it in. Plus I was already using a spiral cfl black light before I got the reptile lamp and I still use the black light w/ the reptile lamp for what it's worth.

Minz, my homie, wuzup bro???? Yea maan., da gurls seem quite happy, even the skunk lady is getting frosty and the Kush seems to be off the hook with trikes. I don't know whether to call this beginners luck or just the fact that I did a shit load of reading here and at ICMag and HTs mag. but I'm really pleased with my first hydro attempt. I'm just biding my time for these gals to get fat and sticky. Pre harvest samples prove this to be a very potent plant, no doubt the final product will not disappoint.

 

[UVRay]

Hey guys,

I got a bit of time to snap a few pics, yea I can tell the growth spurts appear to have stopped. Now they are starting to fill in the buds and blanks!

Geeze man, the better these plants start to look the more paranoid I get.... but they sure are looking good so far for week four I think. Still no idea of the plants flowering season as it was quality bagseed on the skunk and kush.

Anyways, here's some pics, should be able to see a difference in four days, from the last pics I posted.

Here's a shot of the Kush twins larger main bud:


another of the same plant:


Here's a peek of the larger Kush Twin's main stalk, I think it may give me a big ole cola from the dirt to the top!


Here's a bud on the smaller Kush Twin, she's not as tall and buddy as the larger sister but she's bushier. One branch is so dominant that it almost looks like this plant was topped but it wasn't.


Here's some of the larger side buds on the Skunk, she's so damn bushy, I hope these buds fill in and make a candelabra of big thick buds, they go about a foot deep from the tip with decent nodes budding all along the length! Think positive!!!!



Below is a top of one of the side branches:


Here's a shot of the Skunk main top, about a foot is shown:


Below is a shot below the main top of the Skunk plant:


Here's one more shot of the Skunk main top at four weeks:


A macro shot of the Kush Trichomes:

 

[UVRay]

Hey guys, here's a few more pics I took the other day and finally got some time to upload and share. The plants are almost six weeks into flowering when these pics were taken on May 31st.

The bushy skunk is really something, she's got good genes man... stocky bushy branches everywhere, buds everywhere and I don't think any branches will need support as the are pretty stiff and robust already. It's starting to get quite frosty round the buds now and the odor has finally changed enough for me to notice, same smell (skunky as hell) just more intense now. it's all good though. I can beat the smell when I need to by closing her up but I like to leave it open when possible to get plenty of fresh air.

The kush twins big sister main bud is getting prettybig and jeeeze it's frikkin solod as hell, nice and firm.


Man that little kush plant looks so tasty, shame she's not bigger, oh well I'll have to clone me a few more backups.

The skunk is full of frikking buds and they all look good!!!


And a few more pics of the Kush twins trichomes.

 

[Mineralz]

Mmm....softcore bud porn. My fav! Nice work UV. They're looking really healthy. Keep em comin!

 

[UVRay]

Hey minz, glad you're still checking in, this thread hasn't had much traffic lately but that's cool.. I got some recent pics of the girls. We're closing in on 8 weeks of 12/12.

And JEEZES the bigger skunk plant is one thirsty bitch! I'm guessing she's drinking a gallon + a day. I had some ph problems last week. The ph dropped down into the mid 4 range for a few days I was out of town. She started yellowing some fan leaves all of a sudden. I figured it was time to drop my nutes and do a final flush. I'm giving her only SugarDaddy and water through harvest. I'm not sure how much longer these have to go as it's bagseed but the buds are getting big and trichomes are just starting to cloud up a bit with a few amber ones here and there and they are swelling up bigtime. The white hairs less than 40% red on much of the plant, a few buds are more some are less.

I'm pretty happy with the grow so far. Didn't really have a clue what I was getting into other than all the reading about it I did here and other forums. I've learned a lot but still have a ton to learn. I'm guessing my next grow will be like starting over as I"ll be likely using different strains. Hopefully the next ones will make it to the end without too much trouble.

Here's some pics shot on June 8th.

this is the skunk @ 7 weeks:


Skunk side buds, hopefully I'll have a dozen or more side colas a foot long or more if the finish filling in.



Skunk side bud top closer look:









Skunk's main cola, nice and fat...



here's a shot of the kush plant, she's not very tall, but she's got one hellofa main cola and it's super dense, this plant didn't want to bush out like the skunk did but that's OK, won't be much yield off the kush but it should be very good. I've recently sampled both plants from some small lower buds and both are excellent even though they were fast dried.

 

[ThaConspiracy]

Nice to have you back Ray!! them plants are looking good.. still have a couple more weeks. Sorry to read about the ph problem but i'm sure they will be able to recover. Check out my grow. I harvested the bubblelicious on friday.

 

[UVRay]

Dude, I saw your harvest pics of the bubble, frikkin killer man! Congrats, looks like a decent harvest and I bet the quality is as good or better than it looks.

I'm out of town this week for the week, the wifey is out of state visiting family and I'm hoping nothing funky happens while I'm away. fingers crossed!

btw_ been harvesting a few small lower branch buds that don't see much light and are struggling and they are sweet and potent. Can't wait til the curing and drying is done so I can see what I've really got.

 

[Mineralz]

Supz Ray. Your plants still look really good considering the troubles you've had. From the looks of em I'd say you're still gonna be pretty happy with the results bro! Give credit where credit is due My girlz just started Week 6 of Flower today. Swing by and check em out when you get the chance

 

[UVRay]

hey minz, thanks for the vote of confidence bro. I've been tooling around the forum and have popped in on your thread, I musta been in a hurry as I didn't post, been pretty damn busy of late. I know I'm probably my own worst critic, the early samples of some tenders from down under albeit fast cured are pretty potent but they really don't have the flavor or aroma yet, I was happy to get rid of the cholo taste, I can't stand that! I put some in my frost free freezer for a few hours and then either air dried or nuked them for 3-4 secs. a pop until they started drying, tried to leave'm a tad moist rather than vape them in m microwave *L*

Anyway, I have no solid clue when these will get done, I really thought the kush would be ready by now (8weeks) but it's not, I'm sure the sknk will take even longer bt I'm pretty sure it'll be worth the wait, that is unles I kill'em before harvest, JK

cheers bro and keep yours coming looks good so far, I'm real curious to see when you end up harvesting yours. Also, I'm wondering about the yield this round is gonna give up, hopefully I get a† least a few decent ounces and if I get a qtr lb I'll be tickled to the point I may just piss all over myself.

 

[Mineralz]

hey minz, thanks for the vote of confidence bro. I've been tooling around the forum and have popped in on your thread, I musta been in a hurry as I didn't post, been pretty damn busy of late. I know I'm probably my own worst critic, the early samples of some tenders from down under albeit fast cured are pretty potent but they really don't have the flavor or aroma yet, I was happy to get rid of the cholo taste, I can't stand that! I put some in my frost free freezer for a few hours and then either air dried or nuked them for 3-4 secs. a pop until they started drying, tried to leave'm a tad moist rather than vape them in m microwave *L*

Anyway, I have no solid clue when these will get done, I really thought the kush would be ready by now (8weeks) but it's not, I'm sure the sknk will take even longer bt I'm pretty sure it'll be worth the wait, that is unles I kill'em before harvest, JK

cheers bro and keep yours coming looks good so far, I'm real curious to see when you end up harvesting yours. Also, I'm wondering about the yield this round is gonna give up, hopefully I get a† least a few decent ounces and if I get a qtr lb I'll be tickled to the point I may just piss all over myself.

Yea man I hear you for surez. I know that harvest times are gonna be different for all of our girlz so its definately gonna be an exciting July this year lulz. Hard for nyone to say about the yields I think. Too many variables involved and most strains dont really fatten up fully until the last couple of weeks. I'm figuring at least 1 of our plants is gonna be a 10 or 11 week flowerer so we'll just have to keep an eye on em. Your skunk should be done or really close in the next couple of weeks I'd say. Do you have ny kind of magnifying glass to check trichome colors or are you just gonna eyeball em? I thought about spending $20 and just gettin a scope tbh. I'll check back for sure man! Keep us posted and happy growing

 

[UVRay]

hey minz, yea I got a few loupes that I use for my work plus I bought a few more off Amazon.com, hands down the cheapest source around for decent loupes if you shop a bit. I bought one that is a 20x lighted loupe, it was like $5 shipped, figured crap, what do I have to lose, it looked decent in the pics. Got that one in and I was blown away. it's all metal, polished nicely and has a 3 cell lithium button battery supplied dual white LED bulb and man that makes those trichomes glisten even more! well worth double the money so on my next order I got another one for backup and the misses, she likes to look at trikes too! pppppp

Also bought a 45x loupe also with dual white leds and triple battery. It was around $4.00 but it rocks! And it's really strong magnification so 45x is pretty real. Those are really decent loupes for the money. However, being the techno-gadget freak I am I just ordered a USB 200x powered microscope for about $40 shipped from amazon. It's not the easiest thing to get in super close to check out trikes a 45x loupe requires you to focus the bottom lens so close to the subject that it almost touches. The usb microscope should make that job a lot easier plus I will be able to capture decent sized photos or even video to my computer. The pics I've been taking the trichomes close up pics I've posted with my Canon 30D digital SLR camera with a large 10x loupe like lens in front of the camera lens to get a double magnification, it's not easy nor perfect but for now that's all I had for taking pics. Looking forward to getting the usb scope, the one I got was cheap and instock, I wanted the Celestron usb scope, my brother has one and it works great but right now they're not in stock or either priced way stupid.

Hopefully the usb scope shipped and will be waiting for me when I finally get home later tomorrow evening, been out of town working since Monday morning. I'll only get to play with it Saturday if it arrives as I have to catch another plane Sunday morning, I'm flying down to New Orleans to visit my family so I'm hoping I can get that trip done and back home before my trikes amber out and I'm late on harvesting.

 

[UVRay]

hey guys,

finally got my girls harvested.. I ended up taking about half the buds on the skunk and the larger of the kush twins. The buds on the side branches averaged 10" long of bud and the branches had another 5" to 10" of branch. I left branches where I could and left as many little popcorn nuggets at the nodes and tips. It looks like they are growing out new leaves on the existing bud nuggets and new bud calyx growth so it looks like the plant won't die after all. I wasn't sure how much abuse she could take.

The larger kush was ready too, had a lot of orange hairs and nicely swollen calyxes and I remember walking into my grow room and looking at the kush bud and knew right away it was ready.. as others have stated, it looked ready. the trikes gave the bud a warmer cast when you look at it, quite noticeable to me from 5 feet away.

About ten days later I cut the smaller kush main cola and the small but viable side branches of the kush and the remaining skunk branches including the skunk's main top.

The buds are mostly dry now and I've got 3 ounces in the freezer of some really nice buds and probably over an ounce we've taken out for further review and inspection.

I cloned the skunk and have about 8 small clones, I wanted to see what happens cloning during early flowering and keeping the clone under 12/12 lighting and see what results I get. The skunk clones didn't get very big, they didn't get my full attention during their early days and likely suffered a bit so they are quite small, a bit less than a foot tall but they are all bud and have branched only where there were small branches on the cloned branch. I'll take what I can get with the clones, no biggie...

When I cloned the skunk I decided to go ahead and plant a free seed I got with my last seed order. I planted the Chronic Fruit Juice feminized seed, it came up fast and has been growing literally like a weed. Not short and stocky with intense branching like my skunk and not like the kush that wants to make just a big single cola. This Chronic seems to have Sativa traits with long narrow leaves, a little stretchy with a few inches of spacing between the nodes. I had no choice but to top it as it grew too fast and was getting in the lights so I snipped the top and a few tall side branches. It got really bushy after that with small but heavy buds.

The aroma is unreal, very fruity, somewhere between lemon/pine and the smell of watermelon hard candy. The taste is just as good as the smell and the smoke is already quite smooth with a burst of tingles in your mouth when you hit it and it makes my mouth water when I smoke it, it's that good. Not harsh at all, very smooth but comes on fast and stays with you a long time. One of the best buzzes and stones I've had. I'll be ordering more Chronic soon! I wish I had vegged this baby a month before flowering her, oh well, live and learn.

Here's some pics of the mostly dried and partially cured skunk and kush buds, I even have a few pics of the chronic bush with some closeups of the trikes on the Chronic which is off the charts, the stems under the buds are covered in trikes like a bud leaf or calyx, frikking amazing and we've gotten some killer kief from the Chronic leaves much less buds.
































Below are some pics of the young Chronic Fruit Juice, intoxicating like nothing else!





below, a pic showing the stem below the bud down to the node, completely covered in heavy trichomes just as thick as the buds.

 

[VoidObject]

Nice dude... nice.