offgrid's first grow attempt
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offgrid
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man, cfl's are a pain in the butt. had-i a proper set-up, maybe it would be easier. it's certainly easier in a stealth grow with some time and labor. but for my ghetto single-shot grow, they ****. i have to constantly adjust the lights on wobbly coat-hangers. i've fried way too many leaves by accidentally letting them touch the lights. i can't get optimal light coverage because the wobbly coat-coat hangers are very finnicky. so yeah, she looks good. not so big...but maybe something magical happens around day 50 that will suddenly show she'll yield more than 5 grams.
i saw this one guy's grow room. it was maybe 1 meter x 750cm x 2 meters...really long, not very high. he strapped 4 long-tube fluros on the celing, wrapped the whole room in emergency blankets he got at the 100 yen shop, a few more 22 watt cfls...and that's it. he grew his plants out of rock wool sitting in a little rubbermaid tray barely bigger than the rock wool. he had to constantly water and give his plants nutrients, so there were no vacations for him. they couldn't get very tall, but if he wanted, he could fill that room with 50 plants. anyway, i smoked some of his bud and it was faaaantastic. his plants don't look like much, but that's not the point...the point is to get good bud. so yeah, given the proper set-up, fluros and cfls can certainly be used as a force for good. in my situation, however, i'm sick of them and can't wait to get a proper 600 watt hps/mh grow tent and reeeaaally get to work.
cool, thanks for checking out my grow and for the props ^^
i saw this one guy's grow room. it was maybe 1 meter x 750cm x 2 meters...really long, not very high. he strapped 4 long-tube fluros on the celing, wrapped the whole room in emergency blankets he got at the 100 yen shop, a few more 22 watt cfls...and that's it. he grew his plants out of rock wool sitting in a little rubbermaid tray barely bigger than the rock wool. he had to constantly water and give his plants nutrients, so there were no vacations for him. they couldn't get very tall, but if he wanted, he could fill that room with 50 plants. anyway, i smoked some of his bud and it was faaaantastic. his plants don't look like much, but that's not the point...the point is to get good bud. so yeah, given the proper set-up, fluros and cfls can certainly be used as a force for good. in my situation, however, i'm sick of them and can't wait to get a proper 600 watt hps/mh grow tent and reeeaaally get to work.
cool, thanks for checking out my grow and for the props ^^
offgrid
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It's day 32 of flowering under barely-adequate conditions. She has pretty much stopped growing, which allows me to position the CFLs as close as I possibly can. Been watering every other day, giving 0-6-4 nutes every other watering. Not much change, other than some more resin production; however, I'm afraid I'll not see much actual bud from this plant. In my stupidity when I tried to fim/top, I cut off an entire bud site at the top. So instead of 4 flowers of happiness at the top, there are only 3. I'm hoping this merely encourages her to put her energies into making the remaining bud sites more productive.
Because I'll be lucky if I can get 5 grams out of this, I've been looking into using as much as the plant as possible. Exactly WHAT parts are smokable? Just the buds? The leaves have nothing? I noticed the bud leaves have trichs on them, so after snipping them I'll save them and make ghetto hash or something...but man, I was hoping to be the ganja guy for my last two months here in Japan, but it looks like I'll be the stingy man yet again as I try to stretch my limited supply as long as I can.
Oh yeah, check out Mr. Nihonjin's improvised CO2 enhancer. 600 ml of water, boiling. 600grams of sugar. 35 grams of jello mix. mix them together while the water's boiling (add the jello slowly else it'll glob up on you and be a pain). Pour the concoction into a 2 liter PET bottle and let it sit overnight in the fridge until it becomes jello.
The next day, combine 200 ml of boiling water with 200 grams of sugar. Seperately, combine a little bit of water with about a half-tablespoon of yeast. When the boiling 200ml of water is cool enough not to kill the yeast, shake the yeast up inside the little bottle, then pour it into the sugar water, then pour it ALL into the PET bottle with the jello. then leave that sitting in the grow room.
I don't know if it works, but it smells funky enough, and the mix is bubbling with what could only be sweet sweet CO2.
Yeah, so does anyone know if my plant is going to significantly change, or if this is generally what I can expect in terms of yield? I'm only 32 days into flowering, and she's only about 17" tall...
thanks for reading
PEACE
Because I'll be lucky if I can get 5 grams out of this, I've been looking into using as much as the plant as possible. Exactly WHAT parts are smokable? Just the buds? The leaves have nothing? I noticed the bud leaves have trichs on them, so after snipping them I'll save them and make ghetto hash or something...but man, I was hoping to be the ganja guy for my last two months here in Japan, but it looks like I'll be the stingy man yet again as I try to stretch my limited supply as long as I can.
Oh yeah, check out Mr. Nihonjin's improvised CO2 enhancer. 600 ml of water, boiling. 600grams of sugar. 35 grams of jello mix. mix them together while the water's boiling (add the jello slowly else it'll glob up on you and be a pain). Pour the concoction into a 2 liter PET bottle and let it sit overnight in the fridge until it becomes jello.
The next day, combine 200 ml of boiling water with 200 grams of sugar. Seperately, combine a little bit of water with about a half-tablespoon of yeast. When the boiling 200ml of water is cool enough not to kill the yeast, shake the yeast up inside the little bottle, then pour it into the sugar water, then pour it ALL into the PET bottle with the jello. then leave that sitting in the grow room.
I don't know if it works, but it smells funky enough, and the mix is bubbling with what could only be sweet sweet CO2.
Yeah, so does anyone know if my plant is going to significantly change, or if this is generally what I can expect in terms of yield? I'm only 32 days into flowering, and she's only about 17" tall...
thanks for reading
PEACE
D
DLtoker
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Things are looking AWESOME man. Good for you! Things have come a long way haven't they. Those buds should double in size before harvest.
offgrid
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nice plants 3patas...do you have a grow journal?
so here i am in day 39 of flowering. no new pics because there's really nothing new to show. the buds have gotten a bit fatter, which makes me a lot happier. the lowest fan leaves are yellowing and dying off, which i think is normal during flowering. i'll give her the silly 0-6-4 stuff i have for another week before doing a flush and buckling down for the home stretch.
haven't been able to find a microscope here in japan...i'll look one more time in osaka, but i'm not too confident i'll find what i need. damn this language barrier! in any case, it's looking like i'll do the ol' red-pistil method of finding out the date. the seed package said 7-11 weeks, but she hasn't been changing much in the past two weeks so i don't know what else to wait for. it's difficult watching those sugar-coated nugs after ALL THIS TIME W/O A SMOKE and knowing that there's nothing i can do until the time is right. sigh.
been trying to smoke the dead and yellowing leaves near the bottom. it's a terrible smoke and does very little to the head...but hey, it's better than absolutely nothing
so here i am in day 39 of flowering. no new pics because there's really nothing new to show. the buds have gotten a bit fatter, which makes me a lot happier. the lowest fan leaves are yellowing and dying off, which i think is normal during flowering. i'll give her the silly 0-6-4 stuff i have for another week before doing a flush and buckling down for the home stretch.
haven't been able to find a microscope here in japan...i'll look one more time in osaka, but i'm not too confident i'll find what i need. damn this language barrier! in any case, it's looking like i'll do the ol' red-pistil method of finding out the date. the seed package said 7-11 weeks, but she hasn't been changing much in the past two weeks so i don't know what else to wait for. it's difficult watching those sugar-coated nugs after ALL THIS TIME W/O A SMOKE and knowing that there's nothing i can do until the time is right. sigh.
been trying to smoke the dead and yellowing leaves near the bottom. it's a terrible smoke and does very little to the head...but hey, it's better than absolutely nothing
D
DLtoker
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Who's thread is this??? Can you make a grow journal?
crintonator
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its offgrids journal but your pics are up on it with your updates, you seem to do it a lot on other journals.
offgrid
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As you know, it's 4/20 this friday. My girl isn't ready yet..i'm only at day 41 of flowering, so this sort of bums me out. I was wondering if it would be OK to take one of the lower flowers? I know it won't be the best smoke, but otherwise it's another dry year for me.
Also, I've noticed that the majority of her fan leaves are starting to turn yellow. One or two, ok I can understand...but most of them?! Should I give her a shot of nitrogen ferts? I was looking to harvest in the first or second week of May, but since I've never done this before, I don't know what's supposed to happen or anything.
Cool, thanks for looking into my journal!
Also, I've noticed that the majority of her fan leaves are starting to turn yellow. One or two, ok I can understand...but most of them?! Should I give her a shot of nitrogen ferts? I was looking to harvest in the first or second week of May, but since I've never done this before, I don't know what's supposed to happen or anything.
Cool, thanks for looking into my journal!
kindphriend
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offgrid said:
Hey offgrid!
Yeah, you can take a lower bud. I suggest if you take one, take one now and put it in a dry place. That way it might be dry enough to smoke for Friday, otherwise you will have to nuke it or put it in the oven.....which will not be as good.
As fas as the yellowing leaves go, it depends how much time is left for harvest. If you are looking to harvest in the second week of May and your buds are still growing then yeah you can give them a little shot of nitrogen with your ferts. Keep in mind it is normal for the leaves to turn yellowish at the end of the flowering cycle on some strains. I would check the trichromes or look at the red hairs if you got a lot of foggy trichromes or a lot of red hairs everywhere, don´t worry about the N. If there is a majority of clear trichromes and white hairs, then give her a shot of N. Just my opinion. I´m no expert.
D
DLtoker
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I can't believe how far you have come with this grow! Looking amazing! To get a bud dry for Friday, I would put the bud behind the fan. This is so the air is moving over the bud slowly, but not hitting it full force as if it were in front of the fan.
offgrid
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hey everyone,
ok, i'm into day 46 of flowering...6 and a half weeks. a lot of the leaves were yellowing and dying off, and finally the pistils started wilting as well. the package said she'd be done in 7 to 11 weeks...so i'm considering harvesting about halfway through week 7. just did a massive flush and i'm not going to water her until the end. because it's starting to heat up here (the grow closet gets up to 30 degrees now) i've turned the fan up to the second setting...i think she dug it, because there was a lot more resin development. i think someone's mimicking storms indoors...gotta check out that journal.
now i'm a bit lame when it comes to trichome colors and what-not...i couldn't get a hold of a microscope here in japan, so i tried to make due with the macro function on my camera. the pictures show various spots on my plant where i could get a clear view of the trichomes. it appears to me their either cloudy or clear...so maybe one more week ought to do it. ooh, i'm excited, but i don't want to wait too long and get a plant full of couch-lock
yeah, this has been a great experience for me. could any of you give me some pointers on the absolute best time to harvest? my research says in the middle of the dark period is best, let her dry out some after the flush, and when the trichome development is around 80% cloudy / 20% amber, for a good long lasting head and a mellow body.
i've already got my glass airtight containers in anticipation of the cure
peace!
ok, i'm into day 46 of flowering...6 and a half weeks. a lot of the leaves were yellowing and dying off, and finally the pistils started wilting as well. the package said she'd be done in 7 to 11 weeks...so i'm considering harvesting about halfway through week 7. just did a massive flush and i'm not going to water her until the end. because it's starting to heat up here (the grow closet gets up to 30 degrees now) i've turned the fan up to the second setting...i think she dug it, because there was a lot more resin development. i think someone's mimicking storms indoors...gotta check out that journal.
now i'm a bit lame when it comes to trichome colors and what-not...i couldn't get a hold of a microscope here in japan, so i tried to make due with the macro function on my camera. the pictures show various spots on my plant where i could get a clear view of the trichomes. it appears to me their either cloudy or clear...so maybe one more week ought to do it. ooh, i'm excited, but i don't want to wait too long and get a plant full of couch-lock
yeah, this has been a great experience for me. could any of you give me some pointers on the absolute best time to harvest? my research says in the middle of the dark period is best, let her dry out some after the flush, and when the trichome development is around 80% cloudy / 20% amber, for a good long lasting head and a mellow body.
i've already got my glass airtight containers in anticipation of the cure
peace!
D
DLtoker
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Great looking plants man. Good work! I would say you are probably still 2 weeks away to getting that 80% cloudy, 20% amber. But, you are in the home stretch. IME, flushing doesn't do a damn thing for taste. Let that lady have nutes to the end because she is just getting ready to put on some serious weight for you. If she has readily available food, her growth will be that much more explosive.
offgrid
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Day 53 of flowering.
So I took DLtoker's advice and kept giving her nutes. She has indeed grown a bit in the buds, but they're rather thin and wispy. This waiting is *killing* me...I can't beleive how long it's taking! Going utterly insane right now starting at the plant and checking her trichomes every 30 minutes. Got a 4x magnifying glass so I can sort-of see the state of the trichomes.
I had some bad luck regarding my camera. Took it out with me to the beach and got sand stuck inside the retractable lens...the whole thing's stuck now, so I'm out a camera. That's the third camera I've gone through in as many years. Canon may make good stuff, but it's awfully fragile. In the meantime, I'm using an OOOOOLLLD Sony camera I bought about 6 years ago. The thing's a brick, but it's still working after all this time.
I have no choice but to sadly agree with DLtoker that she'll most likely need another week, if not longer, for her buds to fully mature. I was wondering, however...the Japanese summers are very hot and humid. For drying, I was just going to leave the buds in the closet with a fan running (damn the heat!) but for curing, could I leave the buds in a sealed glass jar in the crisper of the refridgerator? It's not as cold there as the rest of the fridge, MUCH better than the hot humid air outside, and the buds will be sealed anyway.
Finally, when I have returned to the states and get all set-up again, I was trying to figure out a good set-up. Was looking at a 600w air cooled light and a grow tent, probably an inline fan and a carbon filter. Would an ozone generator be better? Could I leave it inside the grow tent, or would I have to use it outside?
I found this set-up pictured down there...a hydroponic system. I've never grown hydroponic before, so would this be a good deal? What else would I need?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180099391335&ih=008&category=43555&ssPageName=STOREROMOBOX:SHOWCASE
Thanks for the input and guidance. I really am going crazy with waiting. My old Japanese mountain hippie friend gave me some Japanese seeds...can't wait to grow them back in the states! I can tell everyone how you can't BUY these seeds from a shop...you have to get them from old crazy japanese mountain hippies
And the one picture is for Laserkittensgopewpew...I saw it and thought of you
So I took DLtoker's advice and kept giving her nutes. She has indeed grown a bit in the buds, but they're rather thin and wispy. This waiting is *killing* me...I can't beleive how long it's taking! Going utterly insane right now starting at the plant and checking her trichomes every 30 minutes. Got a 4x magnifying glass so I can sort-of see the state of the trichomes.
I had some bad luck regarding my camera. Took it out with me to the beach and got sand stuck inside the retractable lens...the whole thing's stuck now, so I'm out a camera. That's the third camera I've gone through in as many years. Canon may make good stuff, but it's awfully fragile. In the meantime, I'm using an OOOOOLLLD Sony camera I bought about 6 years ago. The thing's a brick, but it's still working after all this time.
I have no choice but to sadly agree with DLtoker that she'll most likely need another week, if not longer, for her buds to fully mature. I was wondering, however...the Japanese summers are very hot and humid. For drying, I was just going to leave the buds in the closet with a fan running (damn the heat!) but for curing, could I leave the buds in a sealed glass jar in the crisper of the refridgerator? It's not as cold there as the rest of the fridge, MUCH better than the hot humid air outside, and the buds will be sealed anyway.
Finally, when I have returned to the states and get all set-up again, I was trying to figure out a good set-up. Was looking at a 600w air cooled light and a grow tent, probably an inline fan and a carbon filter. Would an ozone generator be better? Could I leave it inside the grow tent, or would I have to use it outside?
I found this set-up pictured down there...a hydroponic system. I've never grown hydroponic before, so would this be a good deal? What else would I need?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180099391335&ih=008&category=43555&ssPageName=STORE
ROMOBOX:SHOWCASEThanks for the input and guidance. I really am going crazy with waiting. My old Japanese mountain hippie friend gave me some Japanese seeds...can't wait to grow them back in the states! I can tell everyone how you can't BUY these seeds from a shop...you have to get them from old crazy japanese mountain hippies
And the one picture is for Laserkittensgopewpew...I saw it and thought of you
BluntFullOfKush
I smell SMOKE!!!!!
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ya lady is looking good. great work with the cfl's. i hope mines get as chuncky as yours. i jus started flowering 2plants and 5clones. it's only been 1full week. pics comeing soon. Keep u the good work dawg.
BluntFullOfKush
I smell SMOKE!!!!!
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hey 3patas, on my last grow alot of the white hairs started changing at like week 6 or 7 i think, and i waz done byt week 10. I waited till half of the trichomes waz an amber color and they started changeing a little bit after the hairs. i hope that helped you, but some bud is different may be shorter and may be longer. oh yea i dont think they'll change color unless that strain do so, im no expert or jus misunderstood your "q" jus take care of the ladies and they will let you know
offgrid
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3patas said:
the pistils started changing colors about two weeks ago. that's when i thought i would have to harvest soon...but when i looked at the trichomes, they were still totally clear. since i've been waiting, the trichomes still haven't changed color, and the pistils have stopped wilting. the plant is in a state of suspended animation it seems...maybe there's a little more growth, but it's hard for me to tell.
D
DLtoker
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She's getting ready to explode...
