My first grow: KC33 in soil under 400w MH + 1000w HPS- comments please!

Next up:
Britney...she reached her peak so early, now she's looking pretty mediocre...
this was the plant that, up until flowering, always looked strongest and most robust.
Let's hope she works through whatever she's got going on and returns to her previous glory!

Jaime, or Jamie, the potential hermaphrodite.

he/she's being named after a girl in HS we were convinced was a hermie.
Found one ball on her (pic 2) and pinched it off with some tweezers (pic 3). I'm hoping that's the last ball I see from her...

Meet Kitty...
She was an unsuspecting plant, all along the smallest, weakest of them all (see all my posts before, she was always the smallest). But, it looks like she might just develop into a tiger. Well at least I hope...

Lastly,
Hayden...Jail-bait.
She is the youngest, and sprouted about 2 weeks after the others did. I had already given up on her and her miscarried siblings when much to my pleasant surprise, she appeared. She did not have the traumatic past the others had, so it will be interesting to see how she matures.

Since restarting the MH light to provide heat, daytime lows have risen, but only just.
in the past 24h:
hi: 89F
low: 54F

To solve this, and get the warm air from the vegging chamber into the flowering chamber more efficiently, I rigged up a bathroom fan to blow the air. I hooked it up to a long hose, so it's pulling air from the top, and venting into ground level in the flowering chamber. I put it on the same timer as the MH lamp, which is only on the 12h the HPS is off.

I just set this up ~15 minutes ago. Let's see what the hi/low are for the next 24 hours...

Success! 18 hours later, (10h into the dark cycle):
High: 89.7
Low: 68.4

I've raised the low temperature by 13F! Now that I'm in optimal temp. range, my girls better start flowering!

they will and you will be very stoned lol just planted mine last week now yours are looking good

Well, I just got back from my ski trip yesterday morning. This left the plants unattended for 8 full days. Results?
My wicking system worked! It was completely dry when I got home, but the plants were alive and...OK. The most recent leaves to sprout were really stringy and thin. I assume this is due to their thirst?
Anyway, I gave them a nice feeding when I got back, and they should be back to normal soon enough.

In other news, ALL 5 are female! Bertha is by far the best-looking, with some great-looking buds growing.

I will update the photos asap, but I lost my digicam on my trip. Currently shopping around for a replacement.

apollo19 said:

Well, I just got back from my ski trip yesterday morning. This left the plants unattended for 8 full days. Results?
My wicking system worked! It was completely dry when I got home, but the plants were alive and...OK. The most recent leaves to sprout were really stringy and thin. I assume this is due to their thirst?
Anyway, I gave them a nice feeding when I got back, and they should be back to normal soon enough.

In other news, ALL 5 are female! Bertha is by far the best-looking, with some great-looking buds growing.

I will update the photos asap, but I lost my digicam on my trip. Currently shopping around for a replacement.

Click to expand...

YEAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I am so freakin happy for you I have been wondering about those girls for days now!!!!

Finally got myself a camera to use temporarily. It's been QUITE a while since the last photo update!

ALL 5 plants are female. Bertha is the furthest along in terms of budding. I believe it's Kitty who is the slowest.

While I was gone, the two tallest grew into the light a bit (actually didn't get closer than 8 inches before the tips got toasted). Anyway, I have started tying plants down, training them to grow more sideways and to expose lower buds. Things are looking GOOD!

Cheers to Pinksensa who got my unmotivated ass up to get these girls setup for vacation watering. They probably could only have gone another 1-2 days, so thankfully I got back when I did!

Photos:
1-a nice bud
2-a nice bud with AA battery for scale
3-my room
4-one of the singed top colas that grew into the light while I was gone.

Awesome post dude Im definetely gonna keep watching, kind of gave me an idea of what to expect... and your light set up is identical. Thanks.

kingnewb said:

Awesome post dude Im definetely gonna keep watching, kind of gave me an idea of what to expect... and your light set up is identical. Thanks.

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Thanks man. I'd say my plants are more comparable to ~20-25 days flowering. It took me a while to optimize night time temperatures, and I didn't even see sex until around 20 days in. Your plants at day 35 should look much more developed than mine.

Cheers and good luck.

Mighty_boosh said:

they will and you will be very stoned lol just planted mine last week now yours are looking good

Click to expand...

Boosh, you are growing these outdoors, right? I took a couple clones for this purpose, but need to wait some time before they're ready for mother nature to take care of them.

Here they are on day 42. Buds are growing nicely. I had to tie the tops of the taller plants down to get them out of the light (that's what the red twine is for). Next time, I'll try SCROG or SOG, as making these tweaks during flower is probably less than ideal.

No clear sign of trichomes yet. I hope they come in soon!

Leaves are looking droopy--and this doesn't go away after watering...what could this be? Could it be normal?


Photos 2-4 are all of one of Bertha's buds. This is actually one of the branches that stems from near the bottom of the plant. It's budding nearly all the way up it's ~10" length, and should turn out to be a nice specimen!

Colors are a bit messed up because these were taken under the HPS and then edited to try to get the yellow out.

looking good cutie looking good!!

pinksensa said:

looking good cutie looking good!!

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Thanks pink. I've learned soooo much with this grow. I can't wait to get it right the second time around!

How much did your current setup added to your electric bill? I am planing on a similar setup.

micutzu said:

How much did your current setup added to your electric bill? I am planing on a similar setup.

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I can't say for sure, as my electricity meter reading is estimated every other month. I suck at calling in the exact reading.

Here's a great resource to check though.
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/3284-power-consumption-light-cost.html

Dammit...I've been browsing other grow journals, and clearly mine is waaay behind the curve. Some people are nearly ready to harvest by this time, but I'm looking at 2-3 more weeks the way I see it. I'm going to finish it out and see what I get, then make some major overhauls of my system, sparing no expense!

Things I've learned the hard way (at least I know now, and can learn from my mistakes):
1-1000w HPS is waaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overkill for 5 plants in an 18 cu ft. space (especially if you have a 400w switchable ballast at your disposal
2-Temperature and humidity are absolutely crucial.
3-The worst possible time to neglect your plants is when they're still seedlings.
4-Choose a strain to suit your needs. My KC33, a primarily outdoor strain, isn't taking well to my attempts to keep it short

On the bright side:
1-Wicking systems work! I left my plants unattended for 8 days to no major detriment.
2-Crap...I'm running low on optimism right now...

no they are in the window to veg