I have 2 plants finishing in a few weeks, this is my first “grow” which I inherited from my late father in law. I’m trying to optimize my final results since these plants mean a lot to the family. I’ve read some differing opinions on the matter, so I bring the question to the experts here.
The plants are being grown in dirt, in rolling “self-watering” planters which have a reservoir in the bottom which will hold roughly 2~ gallons. It’s been fed miracle grow and calmag on a weekly basis. It’s indoors with a hps bulb
There’s a lot of arguments about flushing out there, but if they’ve been fed well, you can stop adding nutrients to the water during the last week to ten days of flowering. There’s plenty of nutrient in the soil for the plant to use. Depending on the schedule of my plants in the tent, sometimes I “flush”, sometimes I don’t, haven’t noticed a marked difference either way.
As far light deprivation, same story, I don’t notice the difference there either.
But someone else will have their own experience saying the exact opposite of me. I dunno.
personally I have never noticed any difference from various light deprivation methods. I’ve only ever seen benefits from flushing when you feed way too much and end up with a serious buildup in the soil. The past 5 years I haven’t used synthetic nutrients, just organic matter amended to the same soil and I have no need to flush now because the plants will simply ask the microbes in the soil for specific nutrients, then the microbes will in turn hand that nutrient over to the roots, and the plant takes it up.
Read the book “Teaming with Microbes” and it will change the way you grow forever.
Not only are my plants problem free 100% of the time, my extractions have much more terps than ever before. Growing this way is so easy I can’t stress it enough…
Literally I plant, water when dry, set a date for harvest, and chop them down when that date comes. There’s no need for any other inputs.
Agreed, I also expect yellowing as as nutrients are reallocated from fan leaves to flowers as the soil reserve depletes.
As a newbie is used to try to solve the yellow and ended up with chemy/harsh results. If they are still super green towards the end, a flush maybe warranted as Miracle grow is a strong fertilizer.
“Teaming with Microbes” seems like an excellent source. Thanks for adding the reference.
Hey buddy, flush them the last 10 days with 5.8ph water only. I keep my lights the way they are. And the last 2 days, go in and pluck the large fan leaves off. This will put the plants energy into the buds and make them swell and trich real nice.
You can always tell when you did a good job at flush and drying/curing. When the joint burns grey white ash, it’s a heater!!! If its black, doesnt stay lit, or tastes like ass, then you need to go back to the drawing board.
I was going to give the plants at least 48 hours of darkness. The light went off last night at 10:30pm and I was going to harvest early Sunday morning. I ask my mother in law to cut off the timer so the lights didn’t come on this morning. Well, she forgot, plants got 30-45 minutes of lights before she shut them off. Do you think this will do anything weird? I can harvest Sunday at noon so they still have 48 hours of darkness, but the 30-45 min of light has thrown me for a loop. If it was a minute or two I wouldn’t be bother, but 30-45 min of 1000w se hps is not a “little” light. Should I be concerned?
it’s not gonna make any difference at this stage… just harvest them. the best taste out of all the drying techniques i tried was to remove the big fan leaves with the branches but leave the leaves on the bud and hang in fairly big size chunks .don’t dry too quick and trim when dry for best results .i always found chopping the buds off stalk and doing a wet trim resulted in worst tasting herb
Thank you guys, I’m much more at ease with the whole thing. I’m not chopping it down just yet, I have a scragglier in there that’s a few days behind the other plant. I let it finish the light cycle Thursday @ 10:45pm, then I was going to leave them in the dark until Sunday morning, little more then 48 but I figured it wouldn’t hurt.
Here’s some photos of the scragglier on Thursday afternoon. Some of the flowers still have long white hairs and some have receded and turned orange.
The trichomes look over 80% amber. They are mature.
Do you know how to properly dry your flower and cure it? This is a vital step to maximum potency.
A few tips for next grow.
-Don’t use miracle grow. They have beads inside of it that is time released. Go with ocean forest.
-use Age old for base nutrients. It’s organic and hard to burn.
-I personally like 6.2 ph clean water. The amount of nutrients from miracle and only cal mag you could get away with 3-4 days. I usually have my Ppm at 1600 before flushing and mine is 7-10 days depending on amber trichomes.
-them blankets are killing you man lol. Get some flat white paint.
The white hairs is throwing me off. I think you’re burning the plant with the light. It’s to close or you don’t have a fan hitting it. That’s the only time i seen white hairs in this stage. They tend to stop when it starts the hardening stage of flowering.
I don’t think flushing matters but lots of people do so id do it anyway since its a sentimental grow. Chop then hang them for 14 days in a 60 degree room with 60% humidity then trim and jar and it should get you real close to finishing it as good as possible.
Aye. It wasn’t my choice, the old man didn’t like to be told anything. These were ~2 weeks into flower when he went into the hospital and I took over. Heck he has 2 plants in the same 10 gallon self watering planter. Granted he was sick as fuck with cancer and never said anything or ask for help.
I’m planning on really utilizing the space and upgrading. Gorilla grow 5’x9’ with 9’ adapter, 2x gavita 1000w de hps, ac unit, carbon filter, the whole deal. He even has a 4x4 tent but it’s only 6’, and he wanted to grow monsters so he never used it. It will work as a perfect veg tent. He was on a tight budget so he was trying to do things on the cheap. I don’t mind throwing some cash at the space.
I was considering doing 3x hlg600’s and dimming them if they’re too much for the 5x9. Idk, I’m not in a rush, considering my options.
Those trichs are 80% amber? Damn I though they were just cloudy with one a few % amber
I already know how older folks can be stubborn when asking for help lol. He was probably independent and took pride in his work and i will be the same way as him.
He left his tradition to you or his hope to medicate himself. I’m sure there won’t be anything better than him seeing how much further you took it. I’ll help you out as much as i can.
The color has an amber complexion but cloudy. It’s hard to tell from my phone. What week is this on? And strain name?
Tbh i wouldn’t get leds unless you’re planning on spending 1500 per a light. That’s where quality ones start. Get MH lights for veg. This will increase more colas spots. Than switch them to you’re flowering room with hps. You will need a T-5 for clones/early growth from seed.
Look into getting a CO2 for flowering and run co2 lines on the ceiling of our grow tent. I’m not sure what self watering pots are?
You will need osculatory fans for constantly to keep the branches moving. This will strength then and in return it increases the amount of roots you will get. More roots=more nute uptake.
Not 100% sure, I believe week 9. Strains are uncertain. It’s bag seeds from one of the many strains I’ve gotten from my breeder friend over the years. He put a seed bag in the planter which says great white shark, which is my bag and label from probably 5 years ago. I’m thinking that’s the scragglier.
The big one is ready, I’m thinking those seeds came from instant cookies, here’s some photos of the big one
Did you have a light leak? Looks like a reveg from those weird single leafs from the bud. And its deffinately a cookie cross. Weird bud structure always give cookies away
Gotta be my fault. I was thinking I was going to harvest 9/15, so 9/13 I went in, looks on schedule in my newbie mind. I took 3trees advice and plucked most of the large fan leaves. The 15th came and it still had clear trichs and some buds with white hairs, no amber trichs. I’ve been watching them every few days, they have progressed slower then I thought, especially the smaller one.
I’ve been waiting for the large one to amber up, but still with my 60x I see very few amber trichs. I see more amber on the smaller plant then I do the larger one.
There may be light leak from the garage eaves. The lights don’t come on until 10:30. With the lights off I can some light at the garage eaves, I checked the plant room, but since the plant is so low it’s in pitch black. I don’t know if that would be enough to cause a problems. I’ll take a picture next time I go over
I knew I should of left it alone, I’ve been kicking myself ever since. My breeder friend told me it wouldn’t really hurt as long as it was just bigger fan leaves, but I kinda felt like he was just trying to make me feel better about my idiocy.
