First Grow Ever: HSO Blue Dream in DWC

Did you pick up any bloom additives? As was written before they are not needed but I get the feeling you got'em anyway hahaha. I have never used any in the past but did get get some liquid kool bloom for this round. Just about to start using in a couple days. I have read on here growers getting good result using liquid KB and the granular KB. They are different formulations and should be used at different times during flowering. I think it was liquid KB first and the granular near the end. Don't quote me though.

Yep, dry kool bloom last two weeks.

blackstoneinstitute said:

Did you pick up any bloom additives? As was written before they are not needed but I get the feeling you got'em anyway hahaha. I have never used any in the past but did get get some liquid kool bloom for this round. Just about to start using in a couple days. I have read on here growers getting good result using liquid KB and the granular KB. They are different formulations and should be used at different times during flowering. I think it was liquid KB first and the granular near the end. Don't quote me though.

Click to expand...

I did NOT get any additives I'm following the credo: Learn to grow first, then learn to increase yield...

I don't have much to say tonight, so this will also be my update:

Things are fine

Well, I know it's been greeted with some skepticism, but my reservoir upgrades are probably the best thing I've done so far. Maybe the new buckets don't last more than this grow, but I'm sold on larger volumes of nutes... It's easier to keep up with things. Each bucket is down over a gallon, but the water level has only actually dropped about 3/4 of an inch, which means that my roots are still nicely covered... The ph is right on, and things look good.

Those who have done this before will understand how different flowering is from vegging. Although it's only been 3 days since going 12/12... The differences are amazing. The plants are now about 20" tall, the odor is super thick already... Very fruity. Touching the stems leaves your fingers sticky and smelling sweet. There isn't any budding going on, but the plants are showing signs of where they will be. Part of my amazement still comes from the "I can't f*cking believe I haven't screwed everything up yet!" I had no aspirations of making it this far at all being it's my first time and all. Now I'm into flowering on two plants who have stems thicker than cornstalks... and I"m not lying! See the pic below!

Also, tonight is the first time I've looked at my own pics and thought: "This looks like some awesome sh*t!". The pre-flowers are everywhere, but I don't see any actual calyxes and pistils yet... All in good time, but now I'm anxious again! I can definitely see the hybrid genetics too. The fan leaves continue to grow longer without getting too fat too... I'm pleased whereas earlier I was nervous about the plant being dominated by indica traits... I'm not looking for too much couchlock. That's why I picked this strain!

Like I mentioned, the girls are drinking plenty... I'll refill the reservoirs tomorrow night. Everything looks terrific... Some pics:

They grew overnight damn near after you put them into flower, great grow!

Blue Dream is definitely sativa dominant. What are your plans to control the height? are you going to tie them down or scrog before they grow into the light?

They're super bushy, they'd be perfect for a scrog right now.

This is what I'm talking about.^ Those bad girls are about to go hulk on you real quick. They will get near 4 feet tall or taller if left unchecked, but it is awesome to see such big plants.

Ok... I guess I'm going back to ScROG then... I'm going to get on that here tonight. I'm nervous though... I foresee problems doing reservoir changes and whatnot... I'll have to figure something out I guess, because I like doing a full change of nutes and water once per week (or maybe a little less often now with the new reservoirs).

Pics to follow.

Ok, so I spent the better part of the night building my screen. I had garden fence I thought would be perfect, but it required some cutting, wire-tying, and string weaving, so it took a lot longer than I thought. What I ended up with is a 4' x 4' screen with a 2" x 4" grid all around. I mounted it in the tent and pushed it down into place... Then I started bending the nodes and tops into the screen... I almost wept while doing it... I felt like I was doing something wrong... The plants look a hot mess tonight; I hope they show the same resiliency they have so far and make this ScROG a success...

I also put the PPMs back to where they belong and still haven't had to mess with the ph since upgrading reservoirs.

Here's the pics, although I have an unsettled feeling... Someone please tell me everything's gonna be alright!



P.S. I dropped the light back down to about 10" above the canopy after I took the pics...

Goodnight, sniffle sniffle

-The truly nervous

Well, it's 24 hours + in the screen and things are "ok" I felt something snap while training under the screen last night... It's not a total break, but I'm nervous I lost a bud site... Only time will tell. There are also tops that I will not try to train because I know they'll snap right off... Particularly the main stem on the plant on the right in this pic



I'm also getting really frustrated with the huge fan leaves getting in the way. I feel like I shouldn't prune them... At least not yet. Advice?

Otherwise, things are ok. I will say I'm still really uncomfortable right now. Once they stop stretching, I'm sure I'll be glad I have the screen on to help support the buds, but for now... I'm really uncomfortable.



I am excited to see the leaves turning upward like I see on other growers' plants. I feel like I'm still doing it right.

I'll probably update again tonight.

You're doing fine. You should see the number of branches I've snapped/bent while training. Most all repair themselves quickly and keep moving up. Remember the main goal of scrogging is to keep the canopy as even possible so use twist ties to slowly, over a few days, bend the main stem horizontally during the stretch. As far as the fan leaves just keep tucking under bud sites as needed. I wind up cutting a lot but try not to for as long as possible.

Have you decided how you are going to do res changes? That elbow near the bottom is perfect. You will not get everything out but that is not necessary.

Do you have any fans blowing on the canopy? Since most of the growth will now be concentrated right at the net all that leaf matter is prone to mold/fungus. Good air circulation goes a long way in preventing those problems.

If you scrog in the future I recommend putting the net 10"12" above the medium and letting the plant grow into the net until about 50%-70% full then flip the lights to 12/12. I like to train for another 2-3 weeks during the stretch trying to keep it all as level as possible. After the 3 weeks I stop training and just let them grow how they want to. Ideally I end up with a carpet of 2"-4" buds. This is all strain dependent though.

blackstoneinstitute said:

You're doing fine. You should see the number of branches I've snapped/bent while training. Most all repair themselves quickly and keep moving up. Remember the main goal of scrogging is to keep the canopy as even possible so use twist ties to slowly, over a few days, bend the main stem horizontally during the stretch. As far as the fan leaves just keep tucking under bud sites as needed. I wind up cutting a lot but try not to for as long as possible.

Have you decided how you are going to do res changes? That elbow near the bottom is perfect. You will not get everything out but that is not necessary.

Do you have any fans blowing on the canopy? Since most of the growth will now be concentrated right at the net all that leaf matter is prone to mold/fungus. Good air circulation goes a long way in preventing those problems.

If you scrog in the future I recommend putting the net 10"12" above the medium and letting the plant grow into the net until about 50%-70% full then flip the lights to 12/12. I like to train for another 2-3 weeks during the stretch trying to keep it all as level as possible. After the 3 weeks I stop training and just let them grow how they want to. Ideally I end up with a carpet of 2"-4" buds. This is all strain dependent though.

Click to expand...

I've had a oscillating fan circulating air since day one... I just never bother putting it in the pics...

As far as the main stems? I'm not lying when I say they as fat as a roll of dimes. Bending them at this point is impossible. Everywhere else I can I'm trying to keep things even across the canopy.

I was sorta talked into doing the ScROG late in the game. It was my goal, but things didn't go that way. Then I got spooked by a comment about running out of vertical space, so I built a screen and applied it to the grow... I'll be smarter next time around.

I'm almost a week into flowering... There is minimal stretch thus far... I'm no longer worried about running out of space. I'll post some pics/info later today.

As for rez changes... The elbows are perfect for accessing the soup, but getting it out is a different story. I have a wet/dry vac I'll probably use for pulling out the old. Then I'll switch the plants off the "transition" solution of:

2 tsp/gal grow
2 tsp/gal micro
2 tsp/bloom

to the full bloom cycle of

1 tsp/gal grow
2 tsp/gal micro
3 tsp/gal bloom

Then I'll just keep the rez topped of and do a full change every two weeks until harvest. Look at me talking about harvest... It'll be a bitter sweet day for me... Lol.

blackstoneinstitute said:

Whoa there. You got a long way to go before you can start talking harvest. You've done a great job thus far but you are not even half thru. Hahaha.

I think many were concerned about vegging to 18"-20" and then start flowering. As indica as your girls look my guess is that they will almost double in size, and that would have been fine for your 600w as a first time learn-n-grow. Since you are in the scrog now work it and train as much as possible.
My B.D. are very sativa and for the first 10 days of flower they seemed to just be growing normally. Day 10-20 they were/are just about killing me. I should have planned better. Oh well, next time.

If you have to use a wet/dry vac you need to rethink your design. I know if it were me I would not be growing that style if I had to use a wet/dry vacuum.

You will be fine. You seem to have a handle on the basics and all of us are here to help if you need it.

Click to expand...

yes his plants look great, tall yes I think i might flower my BD in a week or 2 just because i keep hearing about the double in size...also on my first grow

blackstoneinstitute said:

Whoa there. You got a long way to go before you can start talking harvest. You've done a great job thus far but you are not even half thru. Hahaha.

I think many were concerned about vegging to 18"-20" and then start flowering. As indica as your girls look my guess is that they will almost double in size, and that would have been fine for your 600w as a first time learn-n-grow. Since you are in the scrog now work it and train as much as possible.
My B.D. are very sativa and for the first 10 days of flower they seemed to just be growing normally. Day 10-20 they were/are just about killing me. I should have planned better. Oh well, next time.

If you have to use a wet/dry vac you need to rethink your design. I know if it were me I would not be growing that style if I had to use a wet/dry vacuum.

You will be fine. You seem to have a handle on the basics and all of us are here to help if you need it.

Click to expand...

Ok, I could turn the elbow joint sideways and let the soup drain... but into what? I'd need a flat container in which to pour the contents of the reservoir... I could go grab a water pump and attach the tubing, then I could pump out the reservoir, but that's not much different (in my opinion) than attaching a shopvac to the same tube and draining the reservoir that way.

My next grow will be completely different than this one, so I need to get through harvest and then I'll rethink my whole grow space.

P.S. I'm not talking harvest yet... Whereas I had been game planning for start of flowering, I'm not game planning for harvest... I'm patient enough to do this right.

Ok, so I put more work in last night than I have in a long while. It took me nearly 3 hours to drain the buckets and refill. my next change won't take nearly as long. I bought a submersible pump which will help me vacate the reservoirs a lot faster next time. Anyhow, it's done and now the girls are feeding the nutes I'll give them until the end of flowering flush. I'll top off the buckets every two days with 1/4 strength nutes for two weeks, then change the soup out completely. This should keep the girls feeding right, and give me the chance to flush out any salt build up or opportunistic pathogens before problems get serious.

The screen is proving to be more fun than I thought. I've got tops coming up all over (tough to see since I have such bushy fan leaves everywhere), and I even tied down the big main stem visible in my last update's pics... I don't know that I can get it tucked back under the screen at all; it's a super thick stem... Bending it over that far might just break it completely, but I'm trying to keep the canopy even, and LSTing it down to the screen helps that out.

Still no signs of "flowers", but it's only been a week... These ladies surprise me every day, so maybe today's the day I see something...

Pics:

Well, I knew it was going to become an issue, but today the humidity level got into the 80's, so I had to spend some cash I didn't necessarily want to spend at this point and get myself a humidifier... Found something attractive on Craigslist... a $200+ Soleus dehumidifier + humidistat for $40. I deployed it when the RH was in the upper 60th percentile. An hour later, we were at 55% RH. I'm sure it's under 50% by now, but I'm not going back into the grow this minute to check. After I update, I'm going in to take some clippings and get some clones going.

Not much to tell right now. I'm trying to keep the canopy flat as you can see in the pics, but I'm beating the sh*t out of my beauties in the process. I fear I'm stressing them too much. They're hardy, yes... but that snapping sound... Frightens the dickens out of me.

How is your ventilation system set up? To help with the humidity maybe you can have the air sucked out from the room through the light and then out of the room. It looks like you have air coming in from outside the grow space, through the light then out of the grow space?

If you have not then get in there and clip some clones. They say it is best to do during vegging. If this is your first time cloning I suggest you take more than you think you need. With those bushy girls I'm sure you will have plenty of lower shoots to choose from. Find a technique on here or look at some youtube videos and try to stick with it.

Don't worry about tucking the main stem or other woody/stiff stems under the netting. Just use twist ties to keep them just above the netting as needed. No snapping just training.

@blackstone... I'm negative pressure inside the tent because I'm pulling in with a 400 cfm inline fan into a 208 cf tent. The air is circulated with an oscillating fan in the tent and pulled through my activated carbon can filter, through the inline fan, through the air-cooled hood, then not just out of the tent, but out of the building. I have the humidity in check with the dehumidifier I purchased a few days ago. RH is in the mid 50th percentile right now... I'm still tweaking the settings on the dehumidifier to get it under 50% RH. It just takes a few hours to see the changes, which equates to a whole day since I won't go in there during the dark cycle.

My climate is good...

Read next update for more info (which I'm preparing right now)

Ok, so there's not much to report inside the tent. I switched over to full flowering nutes at my last update. I said I was going to take clones, which I did. I took 4 from each:



They're all twisted up from chasing the HPS through an ever-changing ScROG canopy. The four on the left came from the plant on the left in the tent. The rightmost four from the other. I trimmed them up nice and gave them a nice dip in Olivia's before plugging them into my rockwool starter plugs (prepped and ph'ed as they should be). The water in the tray is tap ph'ed to 5.8, although there isn't enough in there to touch the bottom of the rockwool. I put the hood on and left under the 23w CFL for a day. Then I gave them 1/4-strength nutes via syringe. I'll keep the rockwool moist using that formula until I see roots... Then I'll have some logistics to figure out See how nicely they straightened up? (48 hours later)



I think I'm over the hump. I never told you guys this but this isn't my first attempt at taking clones... The first one went miserably, so I never even mentioned it!

On to bigger budder... er "better" things....

As I said, the tent is pretty much taking care of itself. Reservoir levels are falling... PPM stays the same. Ph stays the same... They're eating just fine... And the screen? Filling up nicely, don't you think?



I had to momentarily unplug my HPS to get accurate readings on my trimeter... The second pic was taken while the light was starting back up... All pics are courtesy of my phone... which don't care much for the orange glow of the HPS

Here's a pic of when the screen was initially added for your reference... I think it looks good... Thoughts?



I should note that I've noticed the vertical growth really slowed down in the last 24 hours. Whereas I would open the tent and curse to myself about how much training I had to do, tonight I had very little to do at all... I think the plant is coming out of the stretch phase... Which makes me salivate

When (if at all) should I consider lollipopping my plants here? Should I wait until the nugs start forming? Should I do it in phases to prevent overstressing them? I guess I'm going to youtube for some video learning.... After tonight's edition of Breaking Bad of course...

Good night, all!