New build, just getting started.....

ginnzy

Active Member
Well im using Sunshine #4 mix..... I think i'll skip the molasses. Thanks for the clarification.

Using the molasses is more about running true organic or not. If you are adding chelated nutrients, you are just throwing money away by adding molasses too. (I know the stuff is cheap, just saying) If you dont have soil webbing, it's useless.
-----EDIT------

Well guys, just a quick update, I turned them over to 12/12 today. pics to follow.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Hey guys... I have some new pictures. I flipped em to 12/12, I fed them with A/B flora grow, and Gro Tek Blossom Blaster (0-39-25), with zero water at 800 ppm. This is my first bloom feeding. I will feed them another dose like this in about a week (or once the bed has dried out enough), then they will get a straight zero water flush, Then after that, the PPM will go up to 1000 or so, I'm not sure if the White Widow strain will take a 1200 ppm feeding without showing signs of tip burn? I measured a number of them, and they average 10.5" now, and will keep track of their growth rate. These girls are about 20 days old now. I will update the growth rate in about a week.

here they are, as promised.... :-)



----------------------------------------EDIT-------

Guys, I went to my place and checked stuff out today.... (Its still COLD here, and I have a heater setup that runs 12 hours when lights are out), I wanted to make sure it was staying warm. I checked the plants i measured yesterday, and they were exactly 10.5", today they were almost 11.5", thats an inch in under 24 hrs.... I know thats not amazing at all, but in the very early stages of flip, its a good sign! ( my buddies other setup, which is virtually identical to mine, did 5" in ONE day, same strain)..... be back soon!

oh, and guys, ive been doing a "Bug Check" every day, as I had spider mites from DAY ONE - (got them from my clone donor), and i'll say again, since i used a home made mix of Rosemary Extract Oil, and Safer's Soap, THEY ARE ALL GONE. This home made organic mix KICKS ASS over ANYTHING I have ever used! We've used Kelthane, Malathion, Avid, Matador, ECT.... and NOTHING has ever kncked them down, AND killed the eggs like rosemary oil. It is the best thing ive ever used!
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Hey guys, heres a quick update, 3 days later. They are really starting to fill out/ take off! I am amazed at the new growth, and they are staying short! (just what i wanted). Let me know what you guys think..... Oh, I'll take some pics of my buddy's grow, same strain, but his plants are 50+" tall, the pictures will show exactly what happens when you turn on lights EVERY DAY during the off cycle.... (they are stretching, and showing new veg. growth, even in the 5th week of flower!)

here are mine!



 

ginnzy

Active Member
here are a few more updated pictures, I added a dehumidifier to the room, its built into the wall :-) These girls are 10 days into the 12/12 lighting schedule. I also put 2x2 posts up on the bed sides so i can put a net over the top of them, I'm going to wait about six days till I net it. I will need to get into them to do some trimming, cutting off a bunch of the lowest small branches. I just watered the whole thing yesterday, at 1000 ppm, so im thinking they should explode with new growth again. They sure are staying short! I didnt think white widow was such a short growing plant?











Ill be back in a week or so! Ill update after pruning and putting the net up!
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Filled half a garbage bag with small stalk, leaves, that i trimmed off the plants today, they are filling out like crazy! Tomorrow I will water them with straight water, as the last two feedings were 800/1000 ppm. They are just starting to show signs of bud now, and are 2.5 weeks or so into 12/12. I dunno about this strain, I sure would like to find something better. Now its the long wait. Ill post some new pics tomorrow, just to show the progress.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Nice looking room. Good luck!
Thanks! well, i never bothered with the netting, the height of these plants just didnt warrent it, and if i was to use a net, i should have put it up a couple days earlier than i tried. The tops of alot of the plants were already past my posts height, making it impossible to add the netting. We spent a good hour+ plus pruning out all the super thin side branching, i prolly ended up with half a garbage bag of leaf/stalks. Alot more energy will go into putting out larger buds this way, and there wont be a much tiny popcorn stuff to trim up at the end.

my last watering was straight zero water PH'd to 7.0, and all I added was 0-39-25 Blossom Blaster, and some Carbo Load stuff.... Kinda a flush. I'm hoping hairs will start showing up very soon, and I'll hit them with 1200 PPM of the regular juice next time around.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Hey guys. I thought i'd share some pics of a buddy's set up, and his crop so far. He is growing the exact same strain as me, and his plants are at 9 1/2 weeks. First thing that stands out is that his plants STRETCHED insanely compared to mine! His are around 48" at this time, and mine are all around 24", and prolly won't get much taller. He is planning on harvesting tomorrow, and IMO, should wait at LEAST another week, if not two. All the hairs are still totally white, and the leaves are not showing any sign of dying off yet. In my experience its in the last week, to ten days that the buds really fatten up, so if they chop this weekend, they will be sacrificing a substantial amount of finished weight. It was his hope that this (white widow) strain would be an 8 week finisher, and he is bound and determined to keep that schedule, regardless of what the plant wants to do. What i see, is the trichome production isnt very good on these plants, and the "hairs" have a long ways to go before reddening/dying off. They didn't use any Veg. food in the short veg time that they put them through (approx 10-14 days), and they also interrupted the dark cycle daily, as they needed to spray for mites. I believe that the lack of Veg food was a primary reason for their stretch, and the light interruption may have damaged their trichome development, and delayed their harvest time. Anyways, here are some pictures of them as of yesterday. Note how tall they are, and how it appears that some of the buds look like they started to (re-veg, or grow new shoots). What are your opinions on this early harvest idea?







Buddy also believes that he should tim off ALL side branching, as he want to try and get one solid "cola" on each plant, as it cuts down on the trim time. I left alot more of my side branching on, as I seen area's that were bare, and I anted to take advantage of all my lighting as possible. I trimmed off appox. 1/2 of a garbage bag of side branches, lower Veg. But my overall canopy is more dense than his room. We have the exact same strain, and the same number of plants. We will see who yields more after I cut down, which i figure will be in about six to seven weeks. :-( I will be visiting mine this afternoon, and will post new pictures tonight.

what do you guys think? this crop should wait another week?
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Well, we cut em down. They certainly could have waited another week to ten days, but the overall yield was excellent! the bud density was insane, and we got five FULL "tray lids". On average a tray lid (cloning tray), is usually a pound dried. So we figure it will be between 4.5 - 5 lbs dry. very good IMO with 3 lights.

Anyways, i promised updated pics, I took these three days ago when i last fed them. They are starting to show hairs now, and are showing good bud sites. I didnt trim nearly as aggressively as my buddy did, and have many more off shoots, I'm not sure if this will help my overall yield or not. Its been 21 days or so since i flipped 'em to 12/12, and IMO, they are sure a slow strain to start budding. I'm hoping they really blast off and start producing aggressively now! I'm going there tomight to check up on them and will do some more pruning, prolly for the last time till cut down. My canopy is alot denser then his (was), and my overall plant height is much shorter.

here they are....





Im seriously considering adding 3 T-5's on each side of the bed to help with side lighting. I dunno. I'll see what the costs are for them, and maybe add them in the future.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
New updated pics coming up tomorrow. They have absolutely EXPLODED with new growth yet again. I am running out of vertical room! I will need to agressively trim one more time!
And, My buddy's finally was dry enough to bag today. they harvested 5 1/4 lbs under his three lights. very good return, even though they were cut down a little early IMO.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
We just had a hell of an idea.... we just came from the grow. I picked up a bunch of 4 foot florescent lights for 8 bucks a piece, and figured i'd hang some around the outside perimeter of my grow bed, as the outside rows are getting shaded out real bad by the huge plants in the middle rows.... So my buddy, who is "running" the other legal grow, that is pretty much EXACTLY the same as mine, comes up with a great idea....

They cut down last week, and got 4 lbs 10 oz. off of three lights. They also real aggressively trim out their plants, and I didn't go to that extreme, so my middle three rows are HUGE plants,and the outside rows are staying small..... He figures I may get around 4 lbs off the middle three rows, and the outside rows will be pretty poor producing unless I can get some light on them, so he says why not build another small bed, enough to hold thirty plants and run another two, one thousand watters on them? I have the room beside my main room to build another bed 4' by 6 or 7' no problem! I'd still be running my legal numbers (74), but just have bigger plants, and i'd see that i could prolly pull off 6.5 - 7lbs off that setup, verses the 4.75-5lbs off this setup that im running now, well worth it, for another 2000 watts.

So, for now, i'm gonna hang another two, four foot florescent's just to finish this grow off, as I have about 4 to 5 weeks left, but in the mean time im gonna build the other smaller bed and get the lights and timers i'll need to expand, so i'll be ready for the next run.

In the mean time i took a couple pictures just to show what it looks like right now, sorry for the crap quality of the pictures, as my Galaxy s3 gets these stupid lines in it from the freq. of the sodium's, but the idea is there, and my God, have they ever grown in the last week! here they are, let me know what you guys think!





 

ginnzy

Active Member
Wow. You my friend have a full time job right there.
LOL... yeah, well its not that bad, I work full time as well. After building everything, its a couple, three hours a week. ;-) Although it seems a guy is never done changing/ modifying things. My goal is to get 7 lbs off 74 plants, in 10 weeks. ;-) (2 weeks veg/8 weeks flower).
 

ginnzy

Active Member
Just a quick update..... we added the other 4 ft florescence's, so there are 4 of them in total, one on each corner. I believe this will help, as those area's are so dark due to the tall middle plants! And, yesterday a buddy dropped by and said he a 1000w ballast, bulb and hood laying around, doing nothing, he said I could have it if i put it to good use, so i'm going to add it into the mix between the three in there now, and ill get another one just bofore i need to harvest, so i can build the second bed, then ill have my five lights! My set up will be going through a pretty major overhaul for the next run! I'm thinking of building a light controller so I can run all five lights off one T-101 timer as well.

I priced out some new equipment, five new 1000w HPS bulbs is 250.00, five blue star square reflectors 350.00, 1000w ballast 150.00, two 6" 435 cfm fans for light venting 280.00, one 10" 761 cfm can-fan 300.00, one 8" 722 cfm can-fan 280.00 and about 120.00 in ducting, approx 150.00 misc electrical parts (timer, relay(s), wire) and i'm looking at a 2000.00 upgrade.....Im planning on buying large unvented square horizontal shades and adding the vents and glass myself, saving almost 1000.00 in shades alone! These upgrades would certainly improve the growing environment substantially!
 

DoomsDay

Member
if your looking to keep those bulbs cool and still want to run them with the reflectors you have and vertical, find some used cool tubes and run them vertical with those umbrella style reclectors. the spread of light would be much better IMO and you could get away with spending even less. ive always loved the umbrella style reflectors though so i may be a bit bias.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
if your looking to keep those bulbs cool and still want to run them with the reflectors you have and vertical, find some used cool tubes and run them vertical with those umbrella style reclectors. the spread of light would be much better IMO and you could get away with spending even less. ive always loved the umbrella style reflectors though so i may be a bit bias.
That is an awesome idea! But, another issue the horizontal ones address for me, is the lack of vertical height.... I could lower my grow bed by 12" to get another foot, which would work as well! I dont know where i would find used yubes, but it is a very good option! Thanks!
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
the way your hanging your flouros its kinda blocking off your HPS's, are u sure that it isn't reducing the amount of light? Alls im saying is maybe you could hang em different or maybe its just the way it looks in the pic and you already hung them good, as i see theyre angled a lil
also if you want to increase light try enclosing your footprint so the light reflects more
 

ginnzy

Active Member
the way your hanging your flouros its kinda blocking off your HPS's, are u sure that it isn't reducing the amount of light? Alls im saying is maybe you could hang em different or maybe its just the way it looks in the pic and you already hung them good, as i see theyre angled a lil
also if you want to increase light try enclosing your footprint so the light reflects more
Naw, it's just the way it looks. the outside rows are just being shaded too much by the inside rows. I picked up another 4" and added it to the backside of the room, so now there are three on that side. Next week i'll find another 4' and finish the frontside. (i'm getting them for 6 bucks at a local "thrift shop" in the next town over)! So for 36 bucks its a cheap little upgrade, i figure any light is better than nothing!?

today a buddy gave me a 1000w MH with a small hood, so i moved all the others over a bit so i could fit it between the HPS's.... Its lighting up a shady zone between 2 of the HPS's.... there's ALLOT more light there now! And by moving all the lights 6-8" over, it seems that the area's that were starting to get a bit shaded in are getting "new light", as the footprint was changed! very nice. I'll take a few pictures tomorrow to show all the changes.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
well for the love of..... Anyways, its been a while since i updated. I can say this white widow has been a long haul! the dude i originally got the mother off of, told me he would finish around 8 weeks. my buddy's grow went 10 or 10.5 then he just cut down, early i'd say, they managed 4.75 lbs off 3 1000w hps, but the overall product was pretty poor. The trichome development was very poor. mine is at 8 weeks now, and I can say I have at least 2 or 3 weeks left! I have run out of vertical room as my lights are as high up as i can get them, I even went through the ceiling plastic and hung them between the joists, just to get another 4"! But, my buds look real sweet, they are getting very frosty and are sooo sticky, the trichome's are all over and awesome, even the larger leaves are covered. It seemed that after flipping them, the first 5 weeks they just putted along, then all of a sudden they are just exploding! I am watching them bulk up daily now.

Ive had to re-rig allot of stuff as i went along to accommodate the unexpected vertical growth, I added all the florescence's around the perimeter of the room as the middle three rows were shading the outside rows, and I added another 1000 sodium half way through. After this grow is done, I will do a 2 day over haul in preperation for the next grow. I have clones taken of a different strain, its called "Elephant", and buddy has it going currently in his room, and It looks like it will top out at around 30" max, instead of the 50" monsters that the Widow turned out to be. He has them in week 3 of 12/12, and they are flowering incredibly fast, they are looking like the widow did in week 6 for him. His "supplier" of the mother plant told him he finished his at just over 7 weeks. So hopefully this strain is a little more time efficient, and more controllable. I dunno, it sure looks wierd to me though, as the leaves are long, thin sativa looking, but that doesn't mean anything i guess, the certainly didnt do the "sativa stretch" after flipping to 12/12, and he vegged them for around 12 days, and they are looking pretty good.

I'm in the middle of making changes, and will split my bed, as one side will have 50 plants this time, and the other bed the remaining 24 i'm allowed on my license, with the room to go bigger, as my Doctor has advised me I should come in and re-apply, upping my limit, as they found more stuff in my last CT scan, not so good stuff. (anyways, that's another issue).

I am planning on building a 4 light flip box soon, so I can run my five lights off three ballasts, one room on 12 hours with three lights, and the smaller one on the other 12 with two. I also acquired a nice 875 cfm "Can Fan" from a buddy, that i will add to the bigger room to help with fresh air. I'm headed there to check on the little ones and inspect, so i'll take some updated pics, and post them after work. I figure the bed will need watering today, or tomorrow, and I'll be giving them a good shot of nutes, as they have zero water last time around, I've been alternating between waterings, and this time i'll give them the full meal deal at around 1000-1100 ppm, Then i expect them to really pack on the weight! At the end of the day, its not really a competition, but seeing how my buddy has the identical license, the same starin, and almost the same set-up room wise, I really want to get 6+ pounds, to his 4.75..... ;-)

Pics to follow.
 

ginnzy

Active Member
New pics as promised, im at around 10 weeks now. It is very hard to get good pics with the Galaxy s3, pics that really convey what's going on. It seems they don't bring out the beautiful covering of tri-chomes like it should! There are at least 50, 15-18" cola's, that are getting as big as my forearm! once they fill out they will be the biggest bud's i've ever grown, bar none. I started to expand my build as well, I built a second bed, that will house 25 of the next batch. I'll have 50 in the main bed, and 25 in the second room, so they'll have more room to get light, and not be as crammed in. I'll run a 4 light flip box, so i'll only need 3 of my ballasts to run the set-up. one light will be on its own timer then. Ive ordered 5, 24 x 24" vented hoods and new bulbs for the next round as well, along with new fans. 2- 745 cfm fans for air flow, and 2- 435 6" for the hoods.... anyways here they are, i figure 10-14 days and they'll be coming down.























Well, it looks like KILLER BUD, and the sticky resin crystals all over it attest to that, but the LONG flower times have me switching over to something new. I have 74 clones of "Elephant" getting ready for the next run, and buddy has it running in his room now, and it promises to be some very nice stuff as well! He's at 2 1/2 weeks of 12/12 now, and its FLYING right along! It looks like this stuff did after 6 weeks! more to come..... ;-)
 
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