Fire OG & Blue Dream SCROG Grow - Am I ready to flip to 12/12? Please advise.

sk8er1695

Member
I am doing a stealth cabinet CFL SCROG Grow (first grow) and need advice on whether they are ready to flip the switch for flower?

Cabinet Specs:
  • 2 ft wide x 1 ft long x 5 ft height
  • Intake on lower back of cabinet with panty hose filter
  • Entire Interior Mylar Emergency Blanket
  • 2 Vornado Fans for circulation & to strengthen stems
  • Custom Hood with Reflective Aluminum (The hood is adjustable up and down by chains on each side)
  • 2 Corsair SP120 Fans for Exhaust (One mounted on top of hood with ducting to back of cabinet to push hot air out)
  • Lighting: For Veg -> [3 42w 6500K CFL's 2,700 lumens per bulb] and [4 23w 2700K CFL's 1,700 lumens per bulb on sides to mix spectrum]; when switch to Flower I will replace the 3 6500K bulbs with [3 42W 2700K bulbs with 2,850 lumens per bulb]

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Plant Specs:
  • Fire OG - Picked it up Pre-Veg Clone about 4 weeks ago.

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  • Blue Dream - Picked up Clone about 3 weeks ago.

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Soil Specs:
  • Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Mix
  • Miracle Grow Perlite


Nutrient Specs:
  • Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow
  • Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom
  • Liquid Karma
  • CalMag+


So last week I gave the 2 plants their first feed of Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow for the first time about 5ml mixed in with a gallon of water.

Based on these photographs can anyone tell me if they are ready to switch to flower?

As you can see I have setup a SCROG and also done some topping and minor super cropping (semi successful SC on fire OG and snapped main stem of blue dream when attempting to SC and so it was hanging on by the skin and i taped it up with electrical tape and now its pointing straight up)

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If they are ready to flower tomorrow I plan to switch out the lights and timer schedule and since the soil is starting to get dry I am going to mix the following in 1 gallon of water:

  • 5ml of Pure Blend Pro Grow
  • 5 ml of Pure Blend Pro Bloom
  • 2ml of CalMag+
  • 2ml of Liquid Karma

I am open to any suggestions - the recipe is derived from extensive reading online about Botanicare products. Also any recommendations on how long to flower and do I flush the last 10-14 days with distilled water everyday or every few days - I am still a little noobish on the flush process and frequency but I am trying to get a head start on the knowledge. Thanks for looking at my post!

Also here is a link to the same grow but in its early stages - if you look at the update at the bottom you can see how much of a difference the SCROG has made: https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/696725-should-i-concerned-about-plant.html
 

Dwezelitsame

Well-Known Member
yo screen is to low to be effective
plants are yet to stretch whole plant to be above the screen
look around at afew scrogs you will find just the buds above the screen
rest of plant controled below screen

but yes can switch now if you like
 

sk8er1695

Member
yo screen is to low to be effective
plants are yet to stretch whole plant to be above the screen
look around at afew scrogs you will find just the buds above the screen
rest of plant controled below screen

but yes can switch now if you like
Thanks for your response Dwezelitsame! Currently my scrog is about 11 inches above soil for Fire OG and 9 inches above soil for Blue Dream. The reason I have decided to switch to flower is because the screen is pretty much almost full for both strains and this is a personal first time grow with very limited space. If I had a bigger place I would be doing HPS and/or MH.
 
3/4 full is what I have read for a general idea when to start to flower. As mentioned above I would probably raise the screen 6" or so, as the first 3 weeks of flower you will have some stretching.
 

sk8er1695

Member
3/4 full is what I have read for a general idea when to start to flower. As mentioned above I would probably raise the screen 6" or so, as the first 3 weeks of flower you will have some stretching.
Thanks NightRiderCo - so I will raise the screen, today I am planning to switch my lights to the 12/12. I noticed some of the growth shoots (the top new growth the tinier leaves looked a little droopy - see picture). That is the branch that I supercropped a week ago so does anyone think that could be the reason for the slightly droopy leaves compared to other branches?

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I did water them 36 hrs ago with the Botanicare transition recipe at half-strength mixed with 1 gallon of distilled water the recipe was as follows:

    • 5ml of Pure Blend Pro Grow
    • 5 ml of Pure Blend Pro Bloom
    • 2ml of CalMag+
    • 2ml of Liquid Karma



One thing I noticed is when I mixed in these nutes my pH before I watered had gone way low even though I was using distilled water with a neutral pH - I am guessing it is the CalMag+ that might have dropped the pH to 4.0 so I added 1/4 gallon of filtered tap water (pH closer to 7.0 on the filtered tap water) and it bumped the pH to about 4.5-5.0. I also read on some forums that "Botanicare nutes usually give a low pH reading but once you water and the soil/roots absorbs the nutrients that your runoff pH should be closer to normal". Note: I am using pH drops to test my pH.

When I watered I water with 1 liter at first then I wait an hour and then water an additional 2 -3 liters until I notice runoff and then I test the pH of my runoff. The pH of my runoff was more closer to 6.0 so I think I am safe in that aspect. I suspect that I may have overwatered possibly although I did have about 10-15% runoff from each plant which I immediately drain/remove with a large syringe. Only the Fire OG new growth leaves seem to be slightly drooping (as seen in the picture above) and they look healthy otherwise so I am guessing overwatering might be the culprit.

I will be switching to flower lights today so I will see if that and moving the screen up will make any difference...Also I am planning to move one of the vornado fans which are pointing up from below the screen to on top of the screen and pointing across the canopy and the other vornado fan remain at the bottom of the screen pointed up so it is pushing intake air up through the canopy. I would greatly appreciate any input or suggestions to my ideas!
 

sk8er1695

Member
UPDATE: Here is a short video based on your suggestions of raising the SCROG and I put one vornado above the canopy. The leaves that were drooping perked back up so it looks like things are looking on the up!

[video=youtube;dQ9YljYoXEo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ9YljYoXEo[/video]
 
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