Day 1 flower. Here we go!

Today's photo shoot: Day 30 flower.

Here's a couple of the main colas I've got going on.

First pic is of lady 5 - she's showing my first browning pistils, to me that equals progress! I've found these last few weeks are the hardest to wait because its tough to SEE what's going on. Whereas in veg, I could literally count the new leaves day by day. Second is lady 1 - main cola starting to stack up very nicely. It's extending downward and combining with lower colas to form one mega one. Ballin.

On another note, I've only had to raise the lights maybe .5" the last 2-3 days, so I believe they are finally at their peak heights (thank God). I want to stress again my huge underestimation of the growth potential of this plant and will seriously consider new grow room plans next time. First timers beware!

Enjoy.

Comments and things welcome!

You're ladies are looking great, nice and green! Curious to see how much they swell up . Out of curiosity how many lights did you end up accumulating with this project?

If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man
You win some, lose some, It's all the same to me
The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say
I don't share your greed, the only card I need is
The Ace Of Spades
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]The Ace Of Spades[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]Sorry couldn't resist the Motorhead tendency there.[/FONT]

It would have been nice to clone that #5, she is a beaut man

Day 81:


Hey all! Thought I'd give these ladies a proper end of Week 5 Flower update!


First off, thanks for the interest!
Jaxtaz - That song is seared in my head from I think Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, back on GameCube. Haha. Anyway, your lights question is a good one, and I'm a little ashamed after tallying this up. That's what I get for being new at this! For sprouting I bought a 42watt 2700k CFL (this burnt out after about 3 days as I had it too close to the plate and it got too hot) along with an 8" clamp reflector. For veg I had 2, 2-bulb T-8 fixtures with 6500k bulbs. Later in veg I bout two more 42watt 2700k CFL's for more of a full spectrum, but never used them (haha). For flower I am using 5, 55watt 2700k CFL's inside 5, 12-inch clamp reflectors. About 2 weeks into flower I added one of the unused 42watt CFL with the old sprouting 8" clamp reflector. I removed the reflector though and am using it more as side lighting. I would have liked to have used the other additional 32watt, but I didn't really have the space since my box is kind of crammed. I'm basically approaching accidental SOG. But also my power strip is full and I didn't want to buy yet another clamp reflector. So all in all I've bought probably $275 in lighting? Damn. Side note to this, my electric bill went from $130 last month to $230 this month. I'm only at 287 total watts, I can't imagine how much you guys with 1000watt systems or multiple 600watt systems pay for electricity!


And to Mr John, just across the Columbia I see. Thanks for the compliment! I wish I could have cloned something here, but being my first grow I'm just trying to get from start to finish, nothing fancy. Then I can start tinkering and perfecting this craft. In addition to cloning I also want to try out topping next time. And maybe a few other things I can't think of at the moment since I'm medicated.


Now to the point! Enough of this babbling.
Last few days have been pretty much yet again the same stuff. Pistils slowly starting to fill in and more frost appearing. I keep meaning to start getting familiar with my 30x loupe and their trichs as I know this will be key in the next few weeks, but haven't started playing with it yet.


I believe all 5 plants now having browning pistils, maybe around 5-7 each plant. Not impressive, but still, progress! I feel like I've been watching paint dry or water boil these last couple weeks.


Also, 3 days ago I switched the lights from 12/12 to 11/13. I was sort of wanting to do this anyway as I feel it would be a slightly more late autumn photoperiod. And the additional electricity cost was another factor that made me decide to do this. I think in about 10 days I'll cut it to 10/14 for the finish. I read a great article about this (along with the whole debate that goes along with it), I just wish I could remember the link to it.


Last paragraph before the pics...
Here was another thing I noticed today. Tonight as I got home from work, and about 5 minutes before lights off, I noticed #3's pistils were STRAIGHT up. 90's kid spiked hair style. Is this the beginning of their last ditch effort to become pollinated? Just a very small detail I've never read about or come across.


On to the pics!

First is, extremely blurry (I'm almost embarassed to post it), of the buds. #5 (foreground) and #2 (background) with the lights off. My iPhone can't focus well in pure dark, but you can see the buds stacking up.
Second is #3, left side is 4-5 days ago, right side is tonight, pistils straight up! (CFL's eat up the detail but again, you get the gist). Sidenote, does anybody know what that "bubbling" is in the upper leaves? Resin build up maybe?

Peace!

and I thought my humidity was high, you're not getting mold or bud rot?

Mine reaches 70 at night with lights off sometimes, during lights on though easy 20-30%.

Here's a better pic I snapped of the buds right before lights on this morning, a bit more in focus.

MedicatedGrow - Besides that one week of heavy rain and 70% humidity, my averages for flower have been between 45% with lights on and 60% with lights off. Temperature falls to 62F lights off and peaks at about 70F. I haven't seen any signs of mold, whether that being smell or fuzz on the buds. Knock on wood. And as far as bud rot, again, nothing that I've noticed. Only sweet sweet lemon berry scent coming from these things. I have considered keeping my fan on 24/7 rather than just with the lights, but haven't really had a reason to yet.

damn you're lucky, I can never seem to get my humidity or temps stable at night. I'm scared to leave the A/c on because it can get below 55F in the ENTIRE room. I tried messing with the settings but I'm scared of frosting my plants so I'm probably gonna have to buy a dehumidfier.

Regardless, your plants look amazing. When I first grew mine were just like yours then I fucked up lol. Hopefully you don't do the same but I was very young and dumb.
Best of luck and beautiful plants you got there.

Have you thought about just a fan at night or turning your AC temp up? Or maybe a space heater to combat the frosty air (although this seems a little counterintuitive)? Also I've read humidity anywhere in the 35-65% range is fine. It's a pretty forgiving variable and I figure as long as you're not at <10% or >90% your ENTIRE grow you're probably fine. I don't really know your setup and I'm surely no expert but I've found that "common sense" and "let the weed grow" have been the most important techniques yet.

Day 84, Week 5.5 flower.

First trich check! I might need some help determining where these are at. What do you guys think? I'd say clear turning to milky, maybe 30% clear/70% milky? Or are they going to become way 'milkier' than that?

Noobie here, they look pretty milky to me and I think the next stage is they will turn amber on you. Do you have any amber at all? Curious what the pros here will say, but i feel they will say not ready yet. Learning everyday from you all!

Yeah I'd agree that they still have time to go, anywhere between 2-2.5 weeks. I'm planning on harvesting anywhere between the 2nd and 6th of November, which would be 8 weeks exactly. No amberying that I've spotted yet. I guess I didn't realize they were going to be milky for so long? Still 90% white pistils so surely they aren't quite ripe.

Went down to feed these ladies today but the soil was still a bit too moist, so we decided to have a little photo shoot instead.

Here's what's going on...

First is one of plant #1's nice lower buds.
Second is of plant #5's holy purpleness.
Third is of plant #1's top cola (Donkey dick).
Fourth is of plant #1 in all her glory.

Enjoy!

I'm pic happy today... Comparison shot from 17 days ago.

Left is from 10/2 (end of 3rd week flower), right is today (middle of week 5 flower).

Had to post this pic. My new favorite.

Fed the ladies today and, after looking at the calendar, realized I need to get my flush schedule in order. This is one of yet again another huge growing debate, so I'm gonna cut it right down the middle. One week of only water before harvest. The word "flush" is a bit ambiguous, so I'm going to avoid using it. Also I'm not going to drown them either to "wash off build up", I feel that's over parenting.

Anyway, enjoy today's pic o' the day!

Week 6.5 Flower pic update.

Day 93.

Plan to chop in 6-9 days. Been watering only for about a week now, tomorrow will be their third of four plain waterings to finish them off (I hope). Pistils are at about 30-40% brown now with new ones still forming. Trichs still milky. Lots of pinks and purples showing on the calyxes and newer pistils.


Excited for the home stretch!


Here's today's pics:

Flower Day 53. CHOP TIME!

I decided to chop Plant #4 today. Topped out at 26" final height. Trimmed her and she's hangin' out.

The other four I'm going to let go for a few more days.

Couple of pics from the last couple days. All the rest of the ladies were chopped on exactly 8 weeks flower (11/6).

Here's what I've been up to...

First pic is of #4 which was harvested 11/3. She's going to dry another day or two and then cure for a few more before I flaunt her. Took me a good 2 and a 1/2 hours to trim two coat hangers worth of buds. Certainly one of the more green phenos. Still smells of berry, but can't wait to cure to get the "homegrown" smell out of there. I'll grab a dried weight later this week. Definitely not as much as I was hoping, but hey, it's about the experience. Next time, with these lessons learned, we'll double our yield! But I do have a shit load of trim just from this final manicure, as well as all my sugar leaf rough trimmings, and also my fan leaf/no sugar trim. A metric fuck ton. Gonna try dry ice hash with my better trim, and girlfriend wants to make cannabutter and brownies with all the leftover. Should be high times here for awhile.

The other four are still drying. Probably start manicuring on Sunday to the sweet sounds of the NFL.
Here's my closet for the next few days... What to wear, what to wear?!