Fat and wide

FWIW, this is what I am doing. Start with fresh, viable seeds if possible. (I have a 10 pk of freebies that I could not get to germinate probably because they were old. (?) ) I put the seeds in a cup of water in a dark warm place for 24 hours and check on them after 12 hrs to tap them to sink if they haven't already. After 24 hrs, I put them in a damp paper towel placed in a baggie (sealed) and in a warm dark place for 24 hrs. The tails should be growing by then, but not too much. I fill a solo cup(cut an x across the whole bottom for drainage) filled with damp Growing medium (Fox Farms Ocean Forest for me) and stick the seeds in root first so the seed is just under the soil. They are then put into the tent in an aquarium with a lid to keep it humid. My light is set for veg grow cycle and stays that way till flower. After they pop, I give them a day or so and then open the top a little bit. I mist and or water lightly a few times then take them out of the aquarium and into the real world.
After that, I let them grow until they look something like the seedlings below. From solo cup I put them into the final grow container. Again, I use the FFOF and I don't add vermiculite, pearlite or kryptonite. It is great the way it is.
Note the pic of the seedlings in the big pots. I used a solo cup as reference. The far right and far left are both 5 gal and the center is 3 gal on blocks to equalize ht. The 5's are huge! I have only used 3's until now. It takes a bit more than a full bag of FFOF to fill 2, 5 gal bags. I don't know if this will make any difference. I tried to gently remove the stubs and root balls of my plants after harvest to see their root systems only to find more similarities then differences between my strongest and weakest plants. I was convinced that lack of water uptake and poor growth would mean a crappy looking root ball, but not the case.
So, assuming that space = root growth = stronger and maybe bigger plants, I thought bigger may be worth a shot.

As a post script to the above post, the 2 tent pics are the current set ups. A 2'x4'x60" tent with 2 Blackstar chrome 180s and a 32"x32"x63" tent with a Chrome 270 Blackstar. Fans and exhaust ducts are now outside the tent and work just as well. The fans were in the way just a little and bothered me appearance wise.

Bubbagineer said:

yes, it's for humidity, but I don't think it does much... No air stone in mine, just a gallon pitcher and a towel. CO is so stinking dry I ought to put a swamp cooler up in there somehow.

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I think most of us would trade our humidity for CO's tolerance.

I am picking April 5th as the first day of veg for the Holy Grail Kush. I am not counting seedling stage as time in veg. I transplanted into final pot on 4/2 and allowed a few days to acclimate, then started the veg period. The picture of the 3 plants shows 2 different phenotypes. The middle is smaller with much thinner leaves and delicate appearance. Interesting because the seed was also much smaller than the other 2.

I topped all three. I let 5 nodes form, then topped at the third.

The picture below is the two LSDs. They both went into 3 gal felt pots. Note the roots visible in the solo cup soil. They look like they will be just fine in their new pots. Also, note I filled the pots almost to the top with soil. I settles at least an inch or so, and this time I am allowing for that.

So far, no food at all. The HGK have been above ground for a little more than 2 weeks, the LSD a week or so less. I will feed a bit during veg, but not much unless they look hungry. I do want to feed enough to push growth, but not to much.
Thoughts?

I forgot to mention that my lights are now at approx. 24".

This is a picture of one of the HGK, 8 days after topping. Notice that each of the remaining 3 nodes has sent a pair of tops up to the top of the plant. I will use some LST to keep all 6 tops up there.

Below is a picture of 2 of the HGK. The one on the left is from the small seed. The right is a twin to the 3rd (not shown).

TerryD1111 said:

So far, no food at all. The HGK have been above ground for a little more than 2 weeks, the LSD a week or so less. I will feed a bit during veg, but not much unless they look hungry. I do want to feed enough to push growth, but not to much.
Thoughts?

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Hey Terry. Good Luck with this round. I would wait until the plants look hungry or growth has slowed just because of, how shall I say, your general lack of experience with the combination of strain and lights. Some led lights provide enough light for a plant to thrive and some provide just enough light for the plant to live but not necessarily thrive. Too much food with the latter light and you've got a fucked up grow. Combine that with too much food with a nute sensitive plant and now you have a nightmare. So I'm not trying to insult your knowledge or expertise, I'm just voting for nice and slow. Kinda goes well with fat and wide, huh ? Anyway hows the node length with your lights at 24"?

FranJan, your comments are the encouragement I need. Last time I overfed. This time I wanted to avoid that mistake, but not under feed by over reacting. BTW I don't know how to like a post, or I would have done it to yours.
AS a general observation, growth seems good. The LSDs are also growing nicely. I can only compare node length to pictures from others and my impression is that they are more compact or closer than some. I will post a picture of one of the untopped LSDs that are in identical situation.

These are pictures of the untopped LSDs. They will get topped today.

Everything is now in flower. The Holy Grail Kush is 1 week or so in and the LSD is a few days.
This is the HGK

This is the LSD

Both have been fed once at 2ml/gal of the 9 3 6 about 3 days prior to flipping. Since then the HGK has been fed 2ml/gal of the grow (on the left) 10 days after the initial feed. They all look great.

Correction. The HGK actually got a 1 ml/gal of 9 3 6 about 4 weeks from seed.

I have kept the lights closer this time. 18 inches or less currently.

This is the LSD tent. The LSD are 6 1/2 weeks in. I fed lightly as needed.
Another shot of same. the Blackstars are really doing the job. This grow I have kept them closer at each stage. 12" +or- while in flower
If I were looking for a strain to grow, I would hope someone would tell me to try LSD. Fantastic plant. One was a little taller, but identical characteristics. It is 5 days behind the Holy Grail Kush in flower time, but way ahead in flowering. In may be ready in less then 8 weeks.
This is the HGK. What is not obvious is that this plant is 6" from the top of the tent. The Light is sitting on top of the light bar crushed up against the top of the tent. All 3 of the HGKs are different. One is similar to the LSDs in size, one (pictured) stretched 3 to 4x in flower and the third is tall and so spindly, that it is almost vine like. The "vine" is mostly small popcorn buds so far.
The plant on the right is the "normal" plant and the left is the "vine". I hope this is a 10 week flower so I will still see more size. This is almost 7 weeks.
This is a beauty shot of the smaller LSD.
So is this.

Below is a close up of the HGK. The buds are spirals and look very cool, but I hope they add some size. I admit I am disappointed in the seemingly unstable nature of this variety. Hey, maybe the smoke is totally fire. I will post again.

I forgot to add that this time I will harvest in stages. If it takes 2 extra weeks, I am fine with that.
Also, I made a mistake on 1 of the HGKs that I will share. A short time into flower, I trimmed everything that I thought would be small undergrowth buds. The plant regrew everything I cut off. That was not good for a plant in flower. A little bit of early pruning is fine, but the plant did not appreciate me removing so much interior growth.
LSD will be part of my next grow. I can not say enough good about how well they grew.

I gotta get some LSD. You and Slipon have me jonesing for it now. I was gonna buy some from Attitude but they didn't have it when I made a purchase so I bought fuckin Tangerine Dream instead. Great call by me, huh ? But I want to get regs from an auction/direct. Any ideas T?

Is this the LSD you're talking about FranJan?

https://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/barneys-farm-lsd/prod_80.html

^^^Actually I'm looking for a way to not use Attitude. Mr Nice auctions have really spoiled me on buying direct and I'm wondering if Barney's Farm have an auction for fresh seeds somewhere. I don't like Attitudes stealth packaging or policies and I've had enough of seed dealers who are truly clueless about the viability of the seeds they're selling, i.e. I paid 230 American for 10 "Fresh from the Dam" SLH and 1 cracked. Plus I'm lucky I got the space to work with regular seeds and am not a big fan of Barney's femmed seeds so give me regs of LSD.

FranJan said:

I gotta get some LSD. You and Slipon have me jonesing for it now. I was gonna buy some from Attitude but they didn't have it when I made a purchase so I bought fuckin Tangerine Dream instead. Great call by me, huh ? But I want to get regs from an auction/direct. Any ideas T?

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I use Attitude. Good so far. These are Fem seeds. No suggestions because I haven't used others.

As the cool kids say, "Duck Duck Go is your friend".
https://www.barneysfarmshop.com/barneys-farm-seeds/
And it appears they do ship to the good peoples of the US and Canada. Sadly I don't think LSD comes as a reg. Or at least I can't find anyone selling them.

A few thoughts:
I am using BlackStar Chromes. I am just finishing my 3rd and 4th grow and my feelings about LEDs, are that they work great.The discussions about DIY and other brands are theoretically interesting, but practically, not worth delaying growing while you wait for the latest and greatest.
I can not speak to the advantages or disadvantages of other lights, but price is often aligned with quality.
It is better to buy two small lights than one large if the wattage is equivalent.

Feeding:
Feeding lightly after starting with a good soil is a good way to go.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, I fed my LSD, 7 9 5 (light) during the last week.
-I am not concerned about taste issues.
-The first harvest will be within 5 days, but the second harvest will be 10 to 14 days (or so) and the plant is using up the nitrogen in the leaves. The feeding is for the 2nd harvest.
-I also fed the HGK the same, but it is at least 14 days away.
-I want to keep the leaves green(ish) as long as possible.