I am a Compassionate Caregiver here in the civilized Medical Marijuana state where I live, and am not exactly a newbie, been doing this a while now, started years ago in the San Fernando Valley of California, but I am experiencing 2 VERY distressing problems that I need some serious help with please, any advice or suggestions from anyone would be most welcome. I will try to give adequate information about my grow to assist. Mother room has 4 1000W lights. I maintain a constant temp in that room of 72-75 degrees and about 25% RH. I use a passive intake system, pulling outside air through a 10" passive intake, by a 945CFM fan w/variable speed switch to reduce strength, I'm definately exchanging my air about once every 3-4 minutes. All air is filtered through stage 7 HEPA filters before entering, then is pulled through a carbon filter which is connected to my lights with 8" flexduct. The lights are ducted together, air from room and almost all heat evacuated through my exhaust at the other end.
Strains - Am presently working with Northern Lights, ChemDog, The Church, Rocky Mountain Purple Sour Deisel, Sour Kush, Super Silver Haze, and a pure sativa of unknown origin, but is absolutely phenomenal in both quality and yeild.
Growing Medium - I grow in ProMix HP, mixed with 2 parts additional perlite, 2 parts worm castings, and about 1 tablespoon of powdered Dolomite Lime per gallon of Medium.
Nutrient Schedule - For Veg, I use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow 3-2-4, Botanicare Pure Blend Metabolic Grow Compost, Liquid Karma, Sweet Raw, Cal-Mag Plus, Silica Blast, Budswel Liquid Bat Guano, and SuperThrive. I use somewhat less of each product than indicated on the labels, and end up with a nutrient strength always between 900-1200PPM, always Ph'd at 6.0. For flowering, I use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom 1-4-5, Botanicare Pure Blend Metabolic Bloom Formula, Liquid Karma, Sweet Raw, Cal-Mag Plus, Silica Blast, Budswel Liquid Bat Guano, Bud Candy, and on this crop just began using Humboldt's "Gravity", Snow Storm Ultra, and Purple Maxx, again, always under minimums, and nute strength Ph'd to 6.0, and 900-1200PPM.
Lately, I've had a SERIOUS problem with overly aggressive vegetative growth. The new leaves seem to grow so aggressively and quickly, they soon begin to wrap themselves around the stems, and then end up in just huge knots of veg matter. The problem has been the most pronounced in my Rocky Mountain Sour Deisels, which all literally choked themselves out and began to die, so I had to pull them early. During Veg and the first few weeks of flowering, I would literally spend HOURS each night "combing" the plants to try and unknot and free all the leaves, it's just a mess. The medicine is PRIMO, absolutely first rate, but unless I can determine what has caused this, and fix it, I simply cannot justify the man hours spent untangling each plant daily, just to have them die. Talk about a heartbreaker, after all that love and labor!!! The plants have such a short internodal distance, the nodes are practically stacked one on top the other. Also, once you start trying to untangle the leaves, very soon a reaction occurs because of contact with my skin, and the leaves start to become very damp and limp, and you might as well give up then, because any further effort just makes them worse!
Second SERIOUS problem I seem to be having (Another Heartbreaker, since I'm now 66 days into flower) my buds have been looking plump and beautiful, literally bathed in frosty looking trichromes, and getting fuller and harder by the day, up until just several days ago, when they started to become "fluffier" again, not quite so dense, and trichromes didn't even look as abundant anymore. Also, on a few of my plants, the tops of the colas started to turn brown, and the buds seemed like they weren't as moist or heavy anymore, getting "airier" daily, to the point where I just couldn't stand to watch it any longer, and just had to harvest several of my plants, which were just beginning to show amber trichromes. The tops looked almost as if they were burnt, but this is impossible, I check the heat between the lamps and my tops constantly, and as I use sealed lights with 8" flanges and exhausted heat, I could easily get my 1000W lights to within 6-8 inches of the tops of my plants without too much heat getting to them, but I still keep them raised to about 12" above the tops.
Finally, in hopes that it might help, I would like to add some information about problems I have had during this flowering cycle. I have a completely seperate "maternity ward" where I maintain my mothers, do my cloning, and initial veg. All mothers and clones are under T5 and T8 lights, initial veg is done in the same room under a 400W Metal Halide. I have, in the past, had SERIOUS heat issues in BOTH of these environments. I had a breaker throw on me a while back while I was still finishing veg on these plants under the 1000W lights with MH bulbs, temps went to 117 before I discovered the malfunction, but I was actually able to save over half the crop. Also, in my maternity ward, I am in a commercial building with a business beneath me that runs a lot of equipment which generates a LOT of heat! I have, however, at long last, finally solved ALL of these issues, and have been easily able to maintain absolutely lovely temps in both rooms by way of sealed, exhausted lights and 2 10,000BTU a/c units in my flowering room, and a 10,000BTU unit in my maternity ward. I stay right around 75 degrees and 45% RH in my "maternity ward", and again, all air pulled in and exhausted by a 945CFM fan exchanging my air at least once every 3-5 minutes. Also, besides the "meltdown", I recently had to do an emergency a/c change in my flowering room during the dark phase of it's 12/12 photo period, and while I was as careful as possible, I didn't have a green safety work-light (Yeah...STUPID!) and while I was as careful as possible, I still am not entirely comfortable with the amount of ambient light that they were exposed to, and this just happens to have happened right about the time my buds started to feel lighter and "fluffier", and I noticed more immature green growth than I had remembered seeing b4. Does anyone know what is the farthest into flowering that a Cannabis plant can be shocked into reverting to veg? Do you think it is possible that this is what is happening? If so...I'm taking them ALL down ASAP!!!
I hope one of you experienced cultivators out there can please help shed some light on these two issues, what might be causing it, and how to rectify it. I am posting as many pics as possible to help. Sorry if I seem a little long-winded, just wanted to give as much 411 as possible in hopes of finding an answer.
Thank-you all in advance for any and all help you can give me, my patients are really counting on me, and I take my responsibility to them very seriously.
Strains - Am presently working with Northern Lights, ChemDog, The Church, Rocky Mountain Purple Sour Deisel, Sour Kush, Super Silver Haze, and a pure sativa of unknown origin, but is absolutely phenomenal in both quality and yeild.
Growing Medium - I grow in ProMix HP, mixed with 2 parts additional perlite, 2 parts worm castings, and about 1 tablespoon of powdered Dolomite Lime per gallon of Medium.
Nutrient Schedule - For Veg, I use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow 3-2-4, Botanicare Pure Blend Metabolic Grow Compost, Liquid Karma, Sweet Raw, Cal-Mag Plus, Silica Blast, Budswel Liquid Bat Guano, and SuperThrive. I use somewhat less of each product than indicated on the labels, and end up with a nutrient strength always between 900-1200PPM, always Ph'd at 6.0. For flowering, I use Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom 1-4-5, Botanicare Pure Blend Metabolic Bloom Formula, Liquid Karma, Sweet Raw, Cal-Mag Plus, Silica Blast, Budswel Liquid Bat Guano, Bud Candy, and on this crop just began using Humboldt's "Gravity", Snow Storm Ultra, and Purple Maxx, again, always under minimums, and nute strength Ph'd to 6.0, and 900-1200PPM.
Lately, I've had a SERIOUS problem with overly aggressive vegetative growth. The new leaves seem to grow so aggressively and quickly, they soon begin to wrap themselves around the stems, and then end up in just huge knots of veg matter. The problem has been the most pronounced in my Rocky Mountain Sour Deisels, which all literally choked themselves out and began to die, so I had to pull them early. During Veg and the first few weeks of flowering, I would literally spend HOURS each night "combing" the plants to try and unknot and free all the leaves, it's just a mess. The medicine is PRIMO, absolutely first rate, but unless I can determine what has caused this, and fix it, I simply cannot justify the man hours spent untangling each plant daily, just to have them die. Talk about a heartbreaker, after all that love and labor!!! The plants have such a short internodal distance, the nodes are practically stacked one on top the other. Also, once you start trying to untangle the leaves, very soon a reaction occurs because of contact with my skin, and the leaves start to become very damp and limp, and you might as well give up then, because any further effort just makes them worse!
Second SERIOUS problem I seem to be having (Another Heartbreaker, since I'm now 66 days into flower) my buds have been looking plump and beautiful, literally bathed in frosty looking trichromes, and getting fuller and harder by the day, up until just several days ago, when they started to become "fluffier" again, not quite so dense, and trichromes didn't even look as abundant anymore. Also, on a few of my plants, the tops of the colas started to turn brown, and the buds seemed like they weren't as moist or heavy anymore, getting "airier" daily, to the point where I just couldn't stand to watch it any longer, and just had to harvest several of my plants, which were just beginning to show amber trichromes. The tops looked almost as if they were burnt, but this is impossible, I check the heat between the lamps and my tops constantly, and as I use sealed lights with 8" flanges and exhausted heat, I could easily get my 1000W lights to within 6-8 inches of the tops of my plants without too much heat getting to them, but I still keep them raised to about 12" above the tops.
Finally, in hopes that it might help, I would like to add some information about problems I have had during this flowering cycle. I have a completely seperate "maternity ward" where I maintain my mothers, do my cloning, and initial veg. All mothers and clones are under T5 and T8 lights, initial veg is done in the same room under a 400W Metal Halide. I have, in the past, had SERIOUS heat issues in BOTH of these environments. I had a breaker throw on me a while back while I was still finishing veg on these plants under the 1000W lights with MH bulbs, temps went to 117 before I discovered the malfunction, but I was actually able to save over half the crop. Also, in my maternity ward, I am in a commercial building with a business beneath me that runs a lot of equipment which generates a LOT of heat! I have, however, at long last, finally solved ALL of these issues, and have been easily able to maintain absolutely lovely temps in both rooms by way of sealed, exhausted lights and 2 10,000BTU a/c units in my flowering room, and a 10,000BTU unit in my maternity ward. I stay right around 75 degrees and 45% RH in my "maternity ward", and again, all air pulled in and exhausted by a 945CFM fan exchanging my air at least once every 3-5 minutes. Also, besides the "meltdown", I recently had to do an emergency a/c change in my flowering room during the dark phase of it's 12/12 photo period, and while I was as careful as possible, I didn't have a green safety work-light (Yeah...STUPID!) and while I was as careful as possible, I still am not entirely comfortable with the amount of ambient light that they were exposed to, and this just happens to have happened right about the time my buds started to feel lighter and "fluffier", and I noticed more immature green growth than I had remembered seeing b4. Does anyone know what is the farthest into flowering that a Cannabis plant can be shocked into reverting to veg? Do you think it is possible that this is what is happening? If so...I'm taking them ALL down ASAP!!!
I hope one of you experienced cultivators out there can please help shed some light on these two issues, what might be causing it, and how to rectify it. I am posting as many pics as possible to help. Sorry if I seem a little long-winded, just wanted to give as much 411 as possible in hopes of finding an answer.
Thank-you all in advance for any and all help you can give me, my patients are really counting on me, and I take my responsibility to them very seriously.
