Consciousness420s White Widow Max Grow

Hey all, time for a summer grow and this time I'm trying the White Widow Max strain from 420-seeds.com. As a basis for comparison, I started with two seeds in soil and two seeds in hydro. The soil babies get a 300W cfl (going to use these as 'Mothers'). The hydro babies get an old used up 400W MH bulb that I am going to replace this weekend - you can see in the pics of the hydro babies, their growth is lagging behind the soil guys).
See my last grow (random bagseed experiment) here --> https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/129998-consciousness420s-random-bagseed-hydro-grow.html

SETUP :
Closet dimensions : 3.5 feet x 10 feet x 12 feet
its a small room BUT I have a 185CFM air blower feeding to a dryer vent to the outside via a 5 foot ducting (continuously on when the light is on)
Two standard oscillating fans - one of them brings in fresh air into the room from the rest of the house.
One 400W Metal Halide for veg cycle for the hydro plants
One 400W HPS for flowering (lights not used simultaneously) - for hydro
One General Hydroponics PowerGrower ECO (with
Rockwool media (1.5 inch starter cubes and 4x4 inch grow cubes)
Nutrients : General Hydroponics Flora series
Hydro drip rate --> 15 minutes on per hour (40mL/minute)
Transpiration rate --> so far seems to be about 1/2 gallon per day
Soil plants have a 300W CFL and regular plant food/water
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4 seeds were germinated using the paper towel method for two days
Sprouts were put into Rockwool on 5/10
Metal Halide light ran 18 hours per day
Nutrient solution at 1/4 strength for first week
Soil is fully watered every 3rd day
Soil plants are 6 inches from CFLs and hydro plants are 2.5 feet from old 400W MH

It is 5/16 and all four seedlings survived and are thriving at the end of the first week (pics below). I will update this journal each week with pics and procedure. Feel free to comment. So far I am impressed with the 420-seeds.com White Widow Max (germination rate and health of seedlings); a pack of 10 were mailed discreetly from Europe (was impressed with the packaging and price - only $50). As soon as I get a new MH bulb, I think the hydro babies will catch up with the soil babies growth rate. Hopefully this grow will yield some incredible White Widow kind bud! I plan to use the soil plants as 'Mothers' and just put clones in the hydro setup for a brief veg then flower, BUT if the current hydro guys get going and do well, if any are girls, I'll bud them before starting a new 'sea of green'. Stay tuned!

It is 5/24 and all four plants are thriving at the end of the second week (pics below). The hydros were given a fresh Metal Halide bulb and the growth has started to pick up the pace. The hydros are now on 1:1:1 NPK ratio solution. The soil plants were transplanted into a larger container. There is a pungent scent of natural oils from the tops of the plants. The light cycle for all plants is 18/6. The plan is to change the hydros to 12/12 in 2-3 weeks and keep the soil plants at 18/6 as 'mothers' (to be determined later).

It is 5/31 so it is the end of the 3rd week and this strain from 420-seeds.com is really something else! 100% germination and very healthy seedlings and now they are vegging into very good looking plants. Since the soil plants are only going to be used for harvesting cuttings, I have topped them both and will continue to keep them at a height of 1 foot.
The hydros are extremely dense (insanely short internodal length) and lush with an amazingly great marijuana smell to them. The nutrient solution is now at NPK 3:2:1. The plan is to veg them for another week or so until they reach 1 foot (currently at 6 inches), then I will begin flower cycle.
Pics below.. laterz

It is the end of the 4th week and the hydros are doing very well.
For the transition into pre-flowering, the NPK ratio was changed to 2:2:2
and the photoperiod was changed to 12/12. I will them let sit under the Metal Halide bulb for another week or two at 12/12 until I can determine sex, then hopefully if any girls exist I will at that time change to the HPS bulb. Humidity is held constant at 50% and temp is held at 85 F and drops to 78-80 F with no lights. Both plants are at 1 foot in height.
I really am pleased with this strain and I can see why 420-seeds.com tacked on the 'Max' to the name because the lower branching is insanely robust/thick (almost like multiple whole twin plants coming out from the base as side branches).
Pics below, later....

The plants are in the pre-flowering phase (transition into flowering). One of them is a male so I am going to cut it down.
Hopefully the other plant is a female; if not, I'll have to take cuttings from the two 'Mothers' (still not sure of the sex of the soil plants) and put them in the hydro setup to find out if any will flower. The other plant is shorter and has not yet shown signs of flowering so hopefully it is a female.
Pics below.. later

Both hydro plants turned out to be male so I cut them down. I replaced the planter with two clones from the two 'Mothers' (soil plants), but I do not yet know the sex of these so I will have to wait a while before I know if any will flower. Will update this journal in a few weeks once I know the outcome...

The clones from the 'Mother' plants (still not sure what sex) are doing well at the end of the second week. Nutrient ratio is now at 1:1:1 after the first week was at 0.5:0.25:0.25. They need another week or two before they go to the flowering 12/12 photoperiod; at which point we'll see if any are female. Pics below...

What was female to male ratio on the white widow max? I'm growing one myself from the same seedbank. Day 38 in flower.

I received 10 seeds from that seedbank and I only germinated 4 of them, 2 out of the 4 so far have been male, but very soon I'll be able to see if there are any females as regards the mothers/clones...
Nice looking bud

Arrggghhh, nothing but males; just unlucky.. Both clones were males (pics below) so that means the soil plants are males so I have cut all of the plants down and going to start a new crop soon. I am going to do exactly the same procedure with the new crop so IF I can eventually get a female plant I will update this journal... laterz

cool info. thanks

Houston, we have pistils.. two new White Widow Max seeds were put in the same hydro setup and it is the start of the fifth week and one of the plants is showing female pre-flowers and the other looks like it may wind up being a male (small nodules so far).
I put the plants on 12/12 flowering cycle today as well as switching to NPK 2:2:3. I'm sure that one of the plants is a female so I'm back in business to bud the White Widow Max strain from 420-seeds.com.
Pics below of the various growth stages.. I'll update this journal every other week with pics, later.

Ok, finally I have a female White Widow Max plant that is thriving in the beginning of the flower stage. The white pistils are really starting to surround the nodes now. The other plant was a male so I pulled it and now I am just left with one female. I noticed yesterday that the roots have reached the nutrient solution so I added the extra air pump to the setup so that the root system gets enough oxygen. The plant is now exactly 5 weeks old and about 1 week into the flowering stage and stands exactly 2 feet tall. I estimate the flowering stage to last another 1 month and the plant to grow about another foot before the harvest. I'll post pics once the buds start to really form. later

The white widow max plant is about half way through flowering (I estimate another 3 to 4 weeks before harvest) and really showing some nice bud formation. The smell is very sweet almost like sugar cane or maple syrup.
NPK ratio changed to 1:2:3 and the plant is really transpiring (I have to replace the planter with about a gallon of water a day). Now just need to be patient and let the plant develop for the next three weeks.
Pics below..

The White Widow Max plant is looking good and budding nice phat sweet nugs at its 5th week of flowering. It will probably be ready for harvest around christmas time (Santa's coming early this year!).
A couple bottles of sugar/yeast mix were added to the grow room to generate co2. The nutrient concentration was increased and now the plant is receiving extra P and K. Humidity is holding constant at 50% and temps are kept between 70-75 deg (at night) and 78-80 deg (day).
There are a total of 16 large branches and each has developed a pretty decent amount of bud so far but one of the branches (from the very bottom of the plant) is the largest by far. Some of the fan leaves have shown signs of slight heat stress (curling up at the edges) because with all this extra material it is getting difficult to keep temps down right at the tops (breeze not getting through the plant as well as before), but the plant seems to be ok. The tall branches are already reaching the light so a metal hangar bent in a circle was placed in the middle of the plant so as to keep the branches separated and allowing the breeze to reach the top of the plant. Trichomes are about 20% cloudy and the rest clear at this point (all pistils still white). I am excited about the potency of the future bud because already the leaves and bud are densely covered with crystals. This promises to yield not only a huge amount of bud but also a very very high potency bud.
Pics below...

The White Widow Max plant is at the end of it's 6th week of flowering and now has exactly 2 weeks until harvest.
The plant has finally stopped growing upwards and now just the buds are getting fatter and sweeter. The aroma is sweet and the buds are really getting a nice covering of crystals all over now. Some of the fan leaves at the bottom are yellowing and falling off (natural/normal). The trichomes are about 1/4 cloudy and 3/4 clear, though I already snapped off a small bud, quick dried it and smoked it and it got me completely high out of my mind for 6 hours so the final product is going to be insane. The main cola is huge and there are two other branches that are nearly as large (I call them the 'twin towers') so this plant is just a monster. No matter what I end up with now, I can safely say that the White Widow Max strain from 420-seeds.com is the BOMB! The seed has yielded an amazingly high quality monster of a plant.
The nutrient solution was changed to have about
20ml FloraMicro : 0ml FloraGro : 40ml FloraBloom.
A few more co2 bottles were placed under the plant and will be taken away in a week (when flushing begins). In a week, the photoperiod will be changed to 11 hours light and 13 hours darkness and given only distilled water to force the plant into its final maturity. I will update again with pics after harvest.
Pics below...

Well, damn it, Im just so unlucky with trying to produce the bud from the white widow max strain; plant was doing great then I left on holiday vacation and came back to find that the pump for the hydro had broke and the plant withered and died in a matter of days so I threw it out along with any future hopes of getting to the finish line with this strain..
I'm officially giving up on growing but if any have any good experiences with this strain, please feel free to post on this thread. peace out

any updates?

Consciousness420 said:

Well, damn it, Im just so unlucky with trying to produce the bud from the white widow max strain; plant was doing great then I left on holiday vacation and came back to find that the pump for the hydro had broke and the plant withered and died in a matter of days so I threw it out along with any future hopes of getting to the finish line with this strain..
I'm officially giving up on growing but if any have any good experiences with this strain, please feel free to post on this thread. peace out

Click to expand...

How long were you gone for? I thought that res (3 or 5 gal?) would last for awhile...?