White Widow - My First Photoperiod

Greetings!

I started growing at the beginning of the pandemic, and like many newbies I started with autoflowers. (Technically this isn't entirely true-- my very first grow was a bag-seed photoperiod, but that's a story for another thread!). This is my first photo-period and in hindsight, I wish I had started with photos. I had great results with the autos, but photos are more newbie friendly-- ie., you have a lot more time to fix problems. This is also my first coco grow. Feel free to comment!

Indoor
Strain: White Widow by Seedsman
Lights: 250w LED
Medium: coco and perlite
Pots: 1gal fabric
Nutrients: MaxiGrow/MaxiBloom
Germ date: 31 December 2021

Month 1
Vigorous growth by the end of the first month. Feeding schedule consisted of watering about every two days. Started with MaxiGrow at ~250ppm and finished month at ~550ppm.

Month 2
I topped each just before transplanting into into 1 gallon fabric pots. I also began some LST to fill out the grow tent. The third plant in the tent (back left in first photo) was the strain Ninja Cookies by Beantown Greentown, but it ended up being a male. By the end of the month I was watering once per day at ~650ppm.

Month 3

I switched the lights to a 12/12 cycle at the begging of March. I was quite surprised how quickly the two plants moved through pre-flower and started to stretch. I also decided to ditch the net-- I needed these plants to be somewhat mobile. Watering once per day and feeding with MaxiBloom at ~550ppm. I upped the feeding gradually through mid-March to a peak of ~850pmm. Near the end of March I had let the medium dry out, which led to some burnt tips. I I also backed the feeding to ~650ppm.

Month 4

End of March was looking good. Smell started to come through-- very sweet initially that fades into a light diesel. I also started using KoolBloom, whcih is meant to promote "intense and abundant flowering"-- according to the label. (Recieved it for free when I bought the MaxiBloom). Since it's a 2-45-28 ratio, I decided to lower my maxibloom feed to 500ppm and then add 200ppm of KoolBloom. Apropos of nothing, just bought an EC meter.

Going into week 6.5 I hit my first snag! I noticed some discoloration on some leaves. I'm not sure what's going on; I suspect a deficiency. Ph has been consistent and run-off was reading at 6.2. I also checked my meter, which was accurate. Next, I checked the KoolBloom ingredients and saw that unlike MaxiBloom it did not contain any calcium and much lower levels of magnesium. Since I'm still trouble shooting this, I have cut out the KoolBloom and put the MaxiBloom ppm back to ~700-750.

Nice ones, White Widow a true classic...

Heading in week 9 of flower. No major issues. What I thought was the start of "problem" is most likely a purple fade coming on. I suspect it's due to lower average nightly temps because run-off, PPM, and Ph are all stable. VPD in range. She's definitely started to slow down on the uptake.

Oh no!!! While installing a new light (going from 230w to 420w), I noticed that my main branch split. Eeeeek!!! I've taped it up. . They're at the very beginning of week 9 of flower. The trichromes haven't really clouded up-- so I think it would be a waste if I went ahead and just chopped that one branch. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be much appreciated.

So we're getting there. Have now started to check the trichomes. Heading into week 10 of flower. I did notice, however, what appears to be new pistils coming from the tops of some of the buds. For the time being, I'm going to assume this is the beginning of light burn, so I am going to raise the light a bit (first photo). I would be interested in others thoughts.

Just a quick photo of the WW canna-bonsai I'm playing around with. She's in about week 2.5 of flower. I have low confidence that she'll actually finish... check out the root bound photo. In hindsight, I probably should have pruned the roots before flipping to flower-- especially with such a small container. Lol...oh well.

Bishop12 said:

For the time being, I'm going to assume this is the beginning of light burn, so I am going to raise the light a bit (first photo). I would be interested in others thoughts.

Click to expand...

Lookin' good man. I'm nearly finished my first LED harvest now and struggled with the lights in both flower and veg. Recently got a cheap bluetooth lux meter and it was an instant relief. I had both lights way too high and shaved ~180 watts off my power use across both tents and the plants look so much better. Highly recommend it if you're still having problems. Cost roughly 20 bucks.

TrichDaddy said:

Lookin' good man. I'm nearly finished my first LED harvest now and struggled with the lights in both flower and veg. Recently got a cheap bluetooth lux meter and it was an instant relief. I had both lights way too high and shaved ~180 watts off my power use across both tents and the plants look so much better. Highly recommend it if you're still having problems. Cost roughly 20 bucks.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll have to check it out. I did download the 'Photone' app. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I used it to test relative differences between a 420w led and 250w led.

hi, are these the same white widow seeds as https://cannabis-seeds.store/product/white-widow-autoflower , im thinking of buying some but unsure which ones to get

They are feminized seeds from Seedsman.

It's been a while; thought I'd update this thread. I harvested at 122 days (75 days of flower). After the dry, the total amount from the two WW plants came to 237 grams, which is about 20% of the wet weight. Overall density is good with little in the way of larf. The smell is not very strong but pleasant; very much on the sweet side with just a hint of diesel on the back-end.

In terms of smoke, this is the first plant that I can definitively say is better than anything I've purchased as a dispensary! Very mellow high-- right in the "middle of the road." Not racey, but also no couch lock. Great strain for passing the time. I would 100% recommend growing White Widow.

Lessons learned:

This was my first photoperiod grow and I don't think I will go back to autos anytime soon. It's not that autos are "bad", but I think photos are FAR easier to managed. With autos, time is the enemy. If you're not dialed in before it goes to flower, you'll have real problems down the line. With photos, I've learned that it is easy to wait until your plants are exactly how you want them, and healthy, before flipping to flower.

This was also the first time I played around with cloning (and now I have WAY too many clones lying around!). It's a lot easier than I had anticipated. I also learned that for cloning, fancy equipment (like auto cloners) are not *really* necessary. I found that a dome, heat pad, and root riot cubes worked the best. Generally, I would see roots within 7-10 days and have only had a couple fail out of maybe 2 dozen, so far.