Second grow, first bucket

Whats up.
This is my second grow, first being unsuccessful, and i have 4 weeks left. I went with a Goji OG seed, 9 week flower, in a space bucket. I have been playing around with lighting, fans, and nutrition and have found a pretty solid set up. I have another 5 gallon bucket tower reddy to go with a 2.5 gal self watering bucket, half perlite (on bottom) and manure (on top) and a drain hole at reservoir level, ready with rystal Cherry.
Goji in Soil, smart bucket in 5gal bucket stacket with 5 bucket lips.
1 full spectrum grow LED floodlight,
1 soft white LED floodlight
And 8ft color changing ribbon LED light
Desk fan.
3,050 lx at base of the plant and 5,500 lx at the top.
I mainlined two Colas and two side branch colas throught the LST.
All self contained

Useing fox farms and liquid compost.
Hoping for the best.

Buds look a little wispy but, again 4 more weeks to go.
Ill update with a shot of the buds.

Here is a pick of the buds. Any thoughts?

I think you have longer than 4 weeks before harvest.

I agree with Joe. You have a lot more mass to put on before they even get close let alone ready to harvest by the looks of it.

your buds look like mine and im only 2 weeks in to flower.

Awesome. I was hopeing they had just stalled a little. Leaves are frosting around the edges and buds are getting taller and wider.
There were some stress issues from the cold snap during veg and i move the bucket to a cooler spot in the house as temps got too hot in the last week (Okc). I built a space bucket so i can grow and remain inconspicuous in th burbs.

So here is an update. The buds are stacking nicely and getting frosty. It does smell like Goji berries in the bucket. Flowers have stacked on the mid branch and looks like it will be dense.

I'll snap some pics on Monday out of the bucket. I'm curious to see the middle up close.

Expected due date is June 1. Goji is supposedly 9 weeks and I'm sure Ive made a mistake or two.

So, on defoliation, I've been plucking a few leafs off each week. Mostly any that are shading bud sites and fan only. This also gave me a better view of the middle sectin. I'm using two main lines for colas and one is looking like it is going to be thick. The LED ribbon lights are about the height of the mid section and because of the 5gal bucket size they are right up close. I can change the color of the ribbon.

Next buckets I'm gonna try to SCROG with 4 main lines in a self watering 2.5 gal bucket and some chicken wire I fit a 2 iniches frim the lI'd, so i can ado a 4 lI'd stack. I doubled up on LED 90W equivalent flood lights and they can stay 3-4 inches from the tops with 2 12v cpu fans rinning (one fan is from au to zone for a/c fan.
That reminds me, mother in laws company just moved and pulled out several old desktops just waiting to be converted to stealth grows for 12-12 from seed.

Also I'm working on my own wiring setup to make the system more self contained.
So, on that, I just thought about the $5 timers have a direct switch and a timer switch. I now want to use the single timer as the source and utilized both direct power for cpu fans and timer for 90W j18w actual usage) equivalent flood light (at least one with red/blue full spectrum)

I took her out of the bucket yesterday.
I think I'm at least 2 weeks behind my original harvest it is starting to fill in pretty good. Just not as pretty as all this picks I've seen but this is only second (first successful grow as of yet). Been on big bloom and tiger bloom along side happy frog bat guano.

Let me know what it looks like to you.

Looks like its got to much nitrogen which is why it's clawing and a dark green. Otherwise, it's growing pretty good.

I've been misting with water today. I figure I can try to pull some nitrogen out with foliate spray.
Also. I think my harvest date is going to be the 14-17 of june. Thinking back, it was like a week and a half to get pistals after flipping to 12-12 on 3/25 wit 9 week flowering period. How much heavier can it get. Noob here just curious of potential yield.

My og kush gave me a little over 2 zips with 8/9 week veg time. It packed on weight the last week or so. If you have a scope, start checking the trichs a week or so before you plan to chop her.

I will get the scope. As of now, the trics are only on the edge of the leaves. Goji looked frosted at harvest (from the pics on enterwebs). I know different strokes for different folk, but how wide do buds fill out? Are the hairs or sugar leaves an indictator of potential girth? Just from observation, when receiving some beasties, the sugar leaves are just poking out and that is what I am basing the question on.

StonyLaRoux said:

I've been misting with water today.

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don't do that in flower. you'll risk getting mold and won't have anything to harvest.

The fan on this bucket does a good job moving air. It is hard to keep humity in unless I seal it up. I have fitted a box cover to help keep Co2 up at night
(yeast, water, 2 liter, water bottle to diffuse). I'm using LED flood lights so heat is in not a priority but still in the back of my mind.

Here are some shots of the set up:

Here is an updated pic of the buds. Calender says one more week (from Friday) but I'm hoping she has 2-3 weeks left. I want her to be nice and fat for the big day.
How much can she pack on?

I just gave that giant cluster a light squeeze and felt like a home made marshmellow. This is exciting

So, tomorrow is the proposed harvest date. After reading some posts and replies, I think I am at least a week or two from the actual harvest. Pics were taken a few minutes ago. I increased light to 14/10 for the past week and flushed the smart pot with 2 gallons of water. I am now dropping the light to 12/12 for the next week then 10/14 to finish.
I read to go lights out for 24hrs then light on for 12 hrs before cutting.
Please give me your opinion.

I've heard of 24, 36, 48, or even 72 hours of darkness and then chop, but I haven't read to give them 12 hours of light after the dark period. I just chop after the dark period is over.

Joe Blows Trees said:

I've heard of 24, 36, 48, or even 72 hours of darkness and then chop, but I haven't read to give them 12 hours of light after the dark period. I just chop after the dark period is over.

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It was on a blog posts or two. I'll have to look it up again but one was a 2000 article post on the manipulation of the photosynthetic period and others were saying to flush at 2 weeks, water light once at the beginning of the harvest week, dry out the soil till harvest. Like many of you said, amber trics, dark hairs, and go up to 72 hrs dark. The 12 hrs light might be an exaggeration, but it was saying it was a dying gulp by the plant right at the end. Maybe an isolated idea. I am just happy I have gotten this far.
I have just constructed another bucket with self watering 2g bucket with a 300w equivalent LED natural daylight at 4000 lx. Im rolling in another, another bucket a single full spectrum led flood light that is 90w equivalent but has the par 38 and has 3,000 lx because it is down focused. Im thinking of taking the 4000 lx back and sticking to 90w flood lights. That light gets pretty hot for a led and would be better for vertical 360 closet. I only have room for buckets that fit behind the water heater.