First Grow: DR40 Grow Tent, 150 Watt HPS, Hempy Bucket, White Widow

Yeah, I only vegged the LA Con for two weeks... No Spiral, and as you can see I have about 20 tops (although some have more bud sites than others... I'd say I have about 15 equal sized tops, and about five others that are just as big, minus the smaller buds below).

I'm shooting for a little bit over an ounce as well. I'm sure I'll get it with the LA Con (crossing my fingers...) but am not so sure with the White Widow. I only vegged her about a week and only let her get about 10 good tops.

Just picked-up some fun stuff from the hydro store today...

Got some Superthrive to throw in when I first pot and veg.
Some Clearex for flushing.
Jungle Juice Foliar Spray (to clean the leaves and unclog the stomata's from the other foliar feeds)
and some of those CO2 releasing tablets. The shop sold them individually, so I picked-up a couple.

I've been foliar feeding before lights go on... I have a couple different bottles for different plants. One is just Cal-Mag, the other some superthrive, and the last bottle some bloombastic. All mixed at extremely low levels.

If/When I see some yellowing I've been hitting it with the Cal-Mag and that seems to clear things up. I've been throwing the bloombastic at the plants a couple days before I start introducing the stuff to the res.

jguy21 said:

Nice! I've never lst'd before and all the ones I saw had the spiral pattern going. If I can get 8 to 10 good tops I'll be more than happy.

Im hoping this will get me an ounce per plant for three plants with my 150 watt hps and 105 watt cfls for extra lighting.

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Feed Update:

So this morning before the lights went out I flushed all of the plants (The LA Con, White Widow & the two Dream Queen Lollis). Last night I also cleaned off all the leaves with a foliar cleaner to be sure that the stomata's weren't clogged from previous sprayings. I think perhaps on the LA Con they were a bit clogged because this morning after a day's worth of light after being cleaned, she seemed to have a new vigor to her... Or maybe it's just me... Then again, maybe it was the CO2 tablet I added to the grow closet (more on that in a sec).

Tonight when lights go on the White Widow will continue receiving nutrients at 3/4 strength. No change to the diet just yet. Her tops are developing nice flowers and the stretch appears to be done... or at least slowed down. I used plant wire to guide the branches more upward instead of out so that I can leave room for the lollipops. The White Widow takes up about half as much canopy space as the LA Con.

The Dream Queens will get a change in their diets. I'm going to up the dosage of nutrients to 3/4 from 1/2, and start slowing introducing the Bloombastic to them. It's just about the third week for them (out of a seven week flower time) so it's just about time to start adding some of the blooming additives. I'm a little worried about introducing the bloombastic and upping the nutrient strength at the same time... Maybe I'll stick at 1/2 strength nutrients for now. They've doubled in height in the two weeks I've had them in flower and are now 16" tall, each.

The La Con (the older sister living next door in her own tent) will get an increase in nutrient strength as well. Nutrients will stay at 3/4 strength, but I will be increasing the amount of Bloombastic. It recommends 2-4 ml per gallon... I started with 1, then went to 2, and will go up to 3 for now. This will also be the last week I give it the bloombastic and feed it nutrients. The flower time is supposed to be 7-8 weeks, so I'm planning on flushing the last two. Depending on how development is at the end of the week, I might give it an additional feeding if I think it could use some extra flower time.

Picked up some Florakleen and used that to flush this morning. Will flush again tonight before I feed.

I also picked up some of those CO2 tablets. Supposedly one tablet with raise the CO2 levels in a 10x12 room to appropriate levels and will last up to 8 hours. I have a tiny closet, less than 1/10th the overall space of this so I figured I'd try a little experiment. I basically broke the tablet into a bunch of pieces and instead of using the whole thing in one day, will use portions of it throughout the grow. When the lights are off I leave the closet door completely closed (although I have fans circulating air inside and filters cleaning the air) so I started taking a little bowl, adding some of the CO2 portions, some water and leaving it in there. This way the fans pull in the air with CO2, pull it into the tent, and vent it back into the closet space. I wonder if this is actually doing anything... We'll see!!!

That's a short vegging time but I guess you started with clones. I started with fem'd seeds and I'm on week 3 of vegging. There only about 4 inches tall or so but i might have stressed em a little. I changed hempy buckets because I found a better one with more space in the rez.

Are you only flowering with the 150 watt hps?

I just thought of something....I've never lst'd so I was just wondering, since your bending over the plant and it basically grows horizontally how does the plant support itself when it starts growing buds?

jguy21 said:

I just thought of something....I've never lst'd so I was just wondering, since your bending over the plant and it basically grows horizontally how does the plant support itself when it starts growing buds?

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Totally. It still gets nice and thick like a main branch, but sometimes, some of the smaller branch tops that didn't have quite as much time to develop don't get so thick. Again, from what I've been told, some of those might need a bit of support if they grow heavy flowers. Yeah I started with clones so was ready to go basically right away. I'd wait until they were about six or seven inches before I start bending them down too much. Especially since you just transplanted... Give it a bit of time to let those roots get stable again since they will be supporting the plant. So I'd wait till about seven inches and make the first bend downward... And when you bend it, you don't want to make a sharp bend but make a long arc... The trick is to get the actual top of the plant to be a tad bit below the lowest nodes site. That tricks the plant and it starts to grow the lower nodes out quicker thinking they are now the tops. Then you just re-adjust the ties once the growth has worked itself out to get an even canopy and you are good to go! Basically you need to watch whichever top gets the highest because it will take off like a rocket and start to outgrow the other tops...

Going into flower the plant height (if I were to untie it and stand it up) was about ten inches max... if even that. The real height of the plant (bent downward with the equal tops stretching upward) going into flower was only about seven or eight inches. Currently it's at about 15 inches tall, and spaced out to take out the entire canopy.

Yeah, I'm only using the 150 HPS. For the first two weeks I have a 5000k 40watt CFL in there... But that isn't for extra light, it's for the different spectrum. My tent is only 15 inches by 15 inches, so I'm getting over 10,000 lumens a square foot.

Here's an image I took this morning before lights out... It's a group shot of an entire canopy filling-up a DR40 Grow Tent. Again, the tent is 15x15 and I've currently got three cones in there. One White Widow that I have in a three-gallon bucket that I've LST'ed and two Dream Queen Lollipops (which are in front).

I'm still new to this, so what is lolipopping?

It's just--I think--growing a single cola and trimming the bottom parts that won't get light anyway. basically it ends up looking like a lollipop: a single cola that's fat at the top and trimmed at the bottom. No branching either.

Mine are taking a long time for the roots to reach the Rez. There on their 3rd week of vegging and they don't seem to have grown much at all. I guess cloning is the best way to go.

How tall are they right now? This may sound contrary to what a lot of people have maybe said... But what level nutes are you giving the plant (if any)? They could be locked-out and basically not taking anything in... In this case, less might be better than more. Also, if there is no growth, it's something to do with roots (assuming lights and everything else is a-ok).

How often do you water/feed? And at what level?

jguy21 said:

Mine are taking a long time for the roots to reach the Rez. There on their 3rd week of vegging and they don't seem to have grown much at all. I guess cloning is the best way to go.

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There 4" right now for the two perplex and 3" for the red dragon. I'm up to 3/4 strength nutes now (nutes then ro water then nutes and so on)

If you started from seed it doesn't sound like you are that far behind... I know people start from seed and it usually adds an entire month for them to get the seed up to where my clones start from day one. So when I veg for two weeks it's really two weeks on top of however long they were vegged to get roots (plus they were probably cut at around four or five inches to start).

If they seemed to have halted growth completely, try flushing with RO water (and maybe something like florakleen or clearex) and just feeding water for a bit and see if that jump starts them.

So Im guessing all is good now bcuz they shot up a couple inches over nite!

My tallest is at 5.5" so I'm gonna test out this lst thing

Nice!!! Good luck!!!

PS: Your roots finally hit. You usually get a little growth spurt like that when they hit.

The Older Sis LA Con is looking great!!! Tomorrow night she'll be receiving her last meal, then from there on out I'll be flushing for the next two weeks. So tomorrow night (lights on) last meal (3/4 strength nutrients, Cal Mag, 3ml of Bloombastic), and no more foliar feeding unless it's plain, RO water. Then Monday morning (lights out) I'll flush with some RO Water and Florakleen, then flush again at lights-on with the same mix, and feed sugar water. Repeat Thursday... The REAL last meal on the following Monday, then hopefully Harvest that week.

The White Widow is getting Bloombastic in the nutrients for the first time this week.

I started foliar feeding it ahead of time, and will now put it in the actual mix. When I started using those garden wire stakes, I think I may have drove a couple in too deep and disturbed the roots. For a few days after she seemed to halt growth entirely and didn't seem to be as lively as she used to be. I gave her some superthrive in a foliar mix, then fed her some and she seemed to respond immediately. Roots are the one thing I haven't focused on at all during this grow... So for the next round I think I'll go ahead and make that a priority. I was thinking of using the Canna-Care root stimulate when I pot the clones, and then feeding it them throughout the Veg State, maybe even the stretch... Then from there switching to Bloombastic for flower... Thoughts? Suggestions?

The twins will be getting an increase in the Bloombastic. I upped the dosage of nutrients from 1/2 to 3/4, and at the same time started the Bloombastic. So of course I was worried it might be a bit too much. Turned out it wasn't, so I'll go ahead and bump the amount of Bloom to 2ml.

Oh yeah... And I've started to pinch the Lollipops. I started at about halfway up (they are about 18 inches tall, each now). Let that heal, then moved another two or three inches up to the next node and pinched, then did it again a few days later. Knots are already to start to form where the pinching happened, and swelling the area of the nodes. So hopefully (as I was told), this will help boost the flow of chemicals up and down the plant once they heal; since they will inevitably heal stronger than before... like body-building for plants.

I've been doing it on the LA Con, and from what I can already tell, the bud sites closest to the knots are noticeably bigger than ones that aren't.

Wow bro youve got a very in depth grow going there. I really want to take a clone and start a mother plant then clone like crazy but I can't seem to find a small enough tent for the rest of the space in my closet.

What are the dimensions of your tent? Bcuz Id really like to find something about 1x1 and no more than 3 feet tall.

15"x15" and 46" high. You can try making your own tent with some PVC pipe for a frame and some panda plastic. If you made it a little bit bigger, keep in mind, you can also just veg the clones in the same tent. Since you'll be leaving the mother on a permanent veg cycle, you can just leave the clones in there until they are ready to flower.

I've read about a few people having cal/mag deficiencies with hempy grows. Have you had any problems with that?