First Closet Grow...NL with 600w HPS+ 4 CFL's

Thanks so much for your interest in my grow! Yours is damn nice, I can only hope to get plants that nice! and I hope to god my runt turns out like that...

Ill be watching from now till Harvest

Poon69 said:

Reckon I'll have any top colas like the one you just cut on your Jock Horror??? That was a BEAST! How much did it weigh dry on it's own?

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It all depends. Biggest factors IMO are light and space. If your plant has plenty of light and space to grow the buds will blow up in size (we're assuming you're providing proper nutrition which isn't that hard to do). Then there's a ton of other factors like genetics, grow medium and rootzone health, temperature, ph balance, carbohydrate availability, etc. If one of these conditions is out of whack it will take away from your growth potential.

So hows the grow going?

RedOldy said:

Thanks so much for your interest in my grow! Yours is damn nice, I can only hope to get plants that nice! and I hope to god my runt turns out like that...

Ill be watching from now till Harvest

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Cheers fella, I'm subscribed to yours now too so keep the updates coming on the runt.

mared juwan said:

It all depends. Biggest factors IMO are light and space. If your plant has plenty of light and space to grow the buds will blow up in size (we're assuming you're providing proper nutrition which isn't that hard to do). Then there's a ton of other factors like genetics, grow medium and rootzone health, temperature, ph balance, carbohydrate availability, etc. If one of these conditions is out of whack it will take away from your growth potential.

So hows the grow going?

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Well I got decent light, space is kinda at a premium but fingers crosssed I get a beast or 2.

The grows still going quite well. Buds are definitely getting bigger now. Where my missus burnt the top colas before, they've split into 3 and to be honest are looking like my biggest colas. One of them definitely is, and is starting to swell outwards now. There's alot of yellowing to the leaves on that plant also, so I think it's gonna be done sooner than the rest.

One thing I've been noticing in the last 2-3 weeks, is the trichs going orange. I know that's supposed to happen, but on the lower buds it has been happening for several weeks now and you can see several orangey hairs on them now. They haven't started swelling yet and look nothing like smokable bud yet. What's that all about Mared???

Oh and the Sensi are going strong. Not much to report apart frrom the fact that every time I move the light up 3 inches, the feckin plants grow into it again within 24hours! I'm having to sacrifice a couple leaves at the top (literally only a couple) to light burn as the plant still grows but not upwards when i leave those leaves slightly touching the light. They are gonna ultimately end up being too tall, like you're white lady, but meh,.. shit happens.

Not long now tho I reckon. Hopefully another 2-3 weeks tops. I'll get a couple pics up soon

Do you mean trichomes are going amber or the pistils(hairs) are turning orange or both? If it's the pistils going orange or brown that is completely normal. They will continue to do this until you have 85-100% brown hairs at harvest. If you have a magnifier and are looking at your trichomes I can't imagine that they would go amber starting 2 weeks ago. That is way too early.

Sounds like everything is good. Make sure your Sensi doesn't fall over when they get some heavier buds on them. I have to tie my White Lady up with string to keep them from growing into the light or falling over. My other two strains grow nice and sturdy and never fall over. Hopefully that Sensi bud is worth the extra hassle. I'm thinking about dropping the WL from my garden. Not worth the aggravation anymore.

Pistols AND trichomes? hmmm... It's just the pistils going orange I think. The hundreds of long white hairs which cover the buds. to be honest, I don't think I know the difference between a trichome and a pistol lol.

I'll def have to tie the sensi up. No doubt about it. 1 plant was touching the cfl the other day but today has grown right past it! The CFL is about 3" long and the plant is about an inch above that! so 4inches in a couple days again. I just know I'm gonna have probs with the sensi later. I can imagine exactly how ya feel with the WL cuz the sensi is pissing me off now so it's gonna be murder in the next few weeks. I just want them under the hps. Oh well, that'll teach me to veg 2 plants with 100w of CFL for 4 weeks! lol

Look at this pic. The pistils are the brown hairs. The trichomes are the hundreds of little clear stalks with orbs on the ends. You can see that the trichomes actually cover the pistils! Anyway you can get a magnifier at Radioshack (if you have those where you're at) for $13. It's 60-100x zoom so you can focus in on the trichomes and their color will tell you the maturity of your bud far more accurately than the pistils. They will start all clear and then become cloudy and finally amber color. Any clear trichomes and it is too early for harvest. Harvest when they are all cloudy and you get a more energetic high. Harvest when all are amber and you get super couch-lock. And you can go for any mix in between. I go for 50/50 cloudy/amber.

hi guys! Sorry for the long break my internet is still not up n runnin n ive nowhere else thats safe to come on here! lol My Tiscali is instaled on the 21st so ill be back in business by then.

Ive added an update on my grow if your interested too.

Mared good shit mate you have some valuable info floating around at your end!

Matt ive left a private message matey!

catch ya next week hopefully guys!

Ok so I took a few pictures again earlier. It's been a while so I thought I'd better. Alot of the pistols are going orange now and the buds are swelling slightly. Not as much as I expected tho. And it's definitely looking like they are gonna finish at different times, with one or 2 showing more swelling and orange pistols than others.

Can anyone gimme an idea on whether or not I should still be nuting?? I know its best to use plain water for the last 2 (?) or so weeks? I'm still not exactly sure how long is left to be honest. Technically I switched to 12/12 on 14th Nov, so 9 weeks (63days) ago, but they didn't really start showing they were female until 2 weeks after that.

They're looking a bit droopy again in the pics but that's only cuz I only take pics when I get them out to water, so they're a bit thirsty.



Also, I know alot of the leaves will turn yellow and die now, with their nitrogen being sucked out towards bud growth, but on at least 3 of the plants the older larger leaves towards the top are showing quite alot of yellow pin-prick-sized spots on the leaves and the tips are curling under. Is this ok??? I'm a bit worried summat is going on that shouldn't be and it would be a bitch (to say the least!) if summat went wrong now. Pics below.



Mared / Nibbz - Any ideas what this might be?? and what's your opinions on whether I should still be nuting and how long I have left. I was sure the buds would have started showing noticeable swelling by now.

Here's a few of the Sensi too. Actually really pleased with how these are going. I expected them to start budding really shit under the 4 CFL's but they're actually showing some quite good bud growth all over. Presumably as they are slightly more stretched then the NL were, the light can reach all of the plant and there is no shaded areas caused by larger leaves. They're still going str8 under the hps tho as soon as I harvest the NL lol.

Hey man. Yea I've been spending a lot of time at another forum recently. Very friendly people there that were actually able to help me improve my garden big time. Someone was actually nice enough to send me some seeds and clones so I have a whole bunch of new stuff going - 7 strains in all! I think you should check out this forum but there's problems with posting info here about it so if you are interested just let me know and I can make sure you find it.

I wouldn't worry at all about those spots on the leaves. The plants shouldn't be alive for that much longer anyway. A lot of people just cut off the mangled fan leaves and let the plant live off the little triangle shape leaves on the buds themselves. Personally if a leaf is more than 50% green I leave it on there but I get some really phucked up leaves too. They are literally dying as the buds suck the life out of them so they will go through all sorts of hell at the end. So yea don't sweat it. As far as the flush, my medium handles it a bit differently because it only takes one or two waterings to flush it clean. I hear soil requires a lot more flushing to get the heavy metals out. If you've ever smoked bud that sparked and crackled as it burned, the grower did not flush properly before harvest. Those sparks are actually magnesium and other metals still in the bud. Usually accompanied by a chemical taste so it's best to avoid.

yeah mate i agree with ya on that one... my plants are pretty much completely yellow however if you dont need to take off the leaves there is no reason too they will fall off anyway when they are ready!

As for flushing you need 2 weeks worth to be sure... sounds a bit over the top but its well worth it trust me oh n one more thing 2 days before you crop leave the plants in complete darkness! a full 48 hrs. the plant thinks its the end of summer and goes into over time mode and it just help to put that last little bit of phatness on the buds!

Cheers guys. And yeah shit loads of my leaves are turning yellow, have been for a while, it's just that this looked a bit different is all. And it's hit 4 plants now and getting worse. Oh well, fuck it, buds should still be nice.

So guys, I know I keep asking this question, but any idea how long I got left now?? It's not that I'm majorly desperate, but seeing as this is my first grow, and the buds still don't seem to be swelling loads, I don't really know when 2 weeks before the end is. Would be good to know when I should be feeding only plain water and begin flushing.

And Mared yeah, I'm interested in checking out the other forum. Sounds like a diamond.

What did u guys think of the pics anyhow? The NL and the Sensi?

I think your buds look dank, man. You might want to think about starting your flush soon on the NL. Maybe 2-3 weeks out IMO from the pics. I think I'm gonna give up trying to be sneaky about the other site. I'll take an infraction for the cause. Just google "skunk skool".

lol mared.....

Yeah you could start to flush em and dont forget to leave em the last two days in complete darkness!!!!

How they comin on since we last spoke matt?

So Nibbz, this is one I'm curious about. So many little tricks you hear about but this one about stressing them with complete darkness at the end of flower to increase resin production interests me. Have you harvested both ways? If so, is there really a noticeable difference? I have a couple different groups of plants in flower so I can't go for extended dark period in there but I guess I could pull one a couple days early and throw it in a dark closet.

I havent personally but i know people that have... Its not gonna make it a massive difference but its enough to notice! end of the day the more you can get out of it the better so if its 1 gramm or 10 its not gonna hurt anyone too turn off the lights for two days is it? I dont know the in's and outs of why it works i just know because of the extended dark period the plant goes into overdrive mode to make sure its reached its peak before the cold sets in.

Twisted Nibbz said:

I havent personally but i know people that have... Its not gonna make it a massive difference but its enough to notice! end of the day the more you can get out of it the better so if its 1 gramm or 10 its not gonna hurt anyone too turn off the lights for two days is it? I dont know the in's and outs of why it works i just know because of the extended dark period the plant goes into overdrive mode to make sure its reached its peak before the cold sets in.

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Yea, I've been doing some reading up on this. Here is something I found:

"72Hrs Darkness before harvest:
increases THC in the Bud
The Stichting Institute of Medical Marijuana (SIMM), the first company to sell marijuana through the pharmacies of Holland, has been investigating the medical possibilities of cannabis, together with TNO laboratories and the University of Leiden. One of their discoveries has been that to keep the ripe plants in the dark before harvesting could increase their potency.
SIMM’s growers separated a crop of mature plants, harvested half of them and kept the other half in absolute darkness for 72 hours before cutting and drying. Analysis of the resulting dried buds showed that some varieties had seen an increase of THC of up to 30%, while CBD and CBN remained the same."

Like i say ive never tried it personally but i know a man who does and he swears by it!