Flying Dutchmen Skunk No. 1 150 Watt HPS

Hey everyone! I am a proud new mmj patient and I am attempting my first indoor grow (bubble bucket style). I have never grown indoors but have done outdoors years ago. I have several questions but first here's the specs. This grow will be FD Skunk No. 1. I got a few fem seeds plus a freebee Dinafem Sweet Deep Grapefruit from our favorite overseas middleman. I vegged for about 5 weeks, topped and did some lst. The last pic is about a week into 12 on 12 off. I will post pics here as I progress. It is under a 150 watt HPS and the plant seems to be happy. I vegged with one 85 watt 5000k CFL. I am using Floraduo A and B (nice and simple). It's in a 2 gallon bucket that I made out of an empty whey protein container. All water is filtered through my Brita which actually lowers the PH from 9 to 7. Then after nutrients very little PH down is needed to get it at 5.5 or so. I live in the city and it's hot AF outside. My AC runs continuously but temps generally range from 75 to low 80s in the box (I know it's hot... Looking forward to winter). In one week the plant drinks about 2 gallons of water. I top off with fresh PH'd water daily now. The box that I made myself is completely ventilated, light proof, and wired with electrical outlets. I used to do woodworking as a hobby and then was an electrician's mate in the Navy. Hooyah DD214! I just bought a tent and will be starting perpetual grows soon! The current grow box will be used for vegging.

Supposedly Skunk No 1 has a flowering time of about 55 days. My question is... Does that 55 day countdown start as soon as the lights are cut back to 12/12. Or is it when the first pistols appear??? I have always wondered about this.

Also... Some leaves on the bottom dry up and flake off here and there. What could cause this? It seems everything closer to the light does great. There was some brown spots here and there. I think I may have over fertilized one week. I also read it could be that the plant drinks water so fast that I should use less nutrients each weekly water change. Maybe because it takes in too many nutrients too soon from drinking water so fast?

Hey buddy, welcome to the world of growing!!

That's a nice girl you got going, I quite enjoyed the skunk I grew from the Dutchmen.

Have you got an intake or exhaust fan in your box? Or any air movement?
The reason for the crispy leaves is due to her soaking up the water and nutes, leaving residue and then when you water again, the residue dissolves into the nutes and increases its strength and increasing the EC. It sounds like too much evaporation is occuring from the heat and you need to flush your girl regularly to stop salt buildup.

Your girl looks good though mate, going to be good to watch

I knew it! Even with the AC on it was high 70s low 80s. The temps are much better now. I moved her into a grow tent now so I can have a veg and flower chamber.

Here's some pics

I decided it's best to count flowering days from when the first pistols appear

KilledByDeath said:

I knew it! Even with the AC on it was high 70s low 80s. The temps are much better now. I moved her into a grow tent now so I can have a veg and flower chamber.

Click to expand...

Low 80's isn't too bad, I had low 100's for a while and mine survived...just lol.
Glad you got onto it bud, the more air movement, the more heat they can handle. You got some nice bud sites popping up too, should be a good grow from here

Thanks! Yeah I have random things tied on strings to act as weights. I then tied them to some branches to pull down and even the canopy out and let some light shine on the new bud sites. I think there should be 13 colas all together. For the next grow I am thinking about switching the 150 Watt HPS to a 250 and scrogging. I now see how easy it is to bend and train the branches.

KilledByDeath said:

Thanks! Yeah I have random things tied on strings to act as weights. I then tied them to some branches to pull down and even the canopy out and let some light shine on the new bud sites. I think there should be 13 colas all together. For the next grow I am thinking about switching the 150 Watt HPS to a 250 and scrogging. I now see how easy it is to bend and train the branches.

Click to expand...

Well, you're off to a good start mate! My only suggestion is to just take things slow and let the plant tell you when it's hungry...and flush, at least once a fortnight to get rid of salt buildup! Otherwise, sit back and watch the buds grow!!!
Moving to a 250w would work well, not too much more heat, but a bigger yield!!

Got some updates

I am in the 4th week of flowering now (from first sign of pistils that is). I had a little nutrient burn and some yellow leaves. But it's still going strong!