Retro-log: Harvest from Waterfarm in a C13

[krustythfreakinclown]

Here is my retro-log of a grow I just harvested.

I grew one South African Durban Poison x Skunk #1 from Sam the Skunkman. I got the seeds as a freebie from Gypsy Nirvana. From what I understand, Sam the Skunkman is one of the people who created Skunk #1, so I was excited to grow this out.

I started the plant in a peat pellet and fed it pH adjusted tap water down to 6 pH. Once its roots started to poke out of the peat pellet, I put it in a Waterfarm and ran it on a continuous drip.

The seedling was under 2 CFL's until it was 5" tall (13 cm). Then, I fired up my air-cooled 400W HPS in a C13 (gotta represent the C13's!), with a 265 CFM blower.

Total veg time was 20 days or so on an 18/6 schedule. It was fed Ionic Grow nutes 3-1-5 and Hygrozyme. When the plant was 12" tall (30 cm), it got switched to 12/12 for flowering. Nutes were then switched to Ionic Bloom 4-5-8 and Ionic 0-5-6. This nutrient regimen lasted about 2 weeks and then I ran out of Ionic Bloom.

So, I switched over to the 3-part General Hydroponics nutes: Flora Micro 5-0-1, Flora Gro 2-1-6 and Flora Bloom 0-5-4, using the instructions on the bottle.

Just plain tap water was used, which has a pH of 7 and is not run through a water softener.

Attached are pics of the plant about 2 weeks from harvest. You will notice my hood is too big for the cabinet and the plant grew waaaayyyy too close to the glass for my liking. Cabinet temps would top out at 90 degrees and the plant got within 3 inches of the glass, which may have caused some problems (see next post).

The plant grew fast, healthy and strong. The stem was .75" thick, and there was never a nute deficiency or nute burn.

[krustythfreakinclown]

After 6 weeks in flower, I flushed the plant with plain tap water for 8 days. I chopped it last night and trimmed the buds.

The fan leaves have been seperated from the bud trimmings and I will be making hash from the bud trimmings. Mmmmm, hash!

Here are pics of the newly-trimmed harvest. I expect (hope for) four ounces. I'll update once they are dried.

BTW, I'll be hanging them in a large, cool, well ventilated, DARK closet. I'll post final weight when it dries.

Oh, yeah I almost forgot: The buds are COVERED in trichromes. I'm excited to smoke this stuff once it cures for a bit. I'll post a report on that, too.

[krustythfreakinclown]

One concern about the grow: This grow and the previous grow both resulted in buds developing a slightly "ballsy" look to them, where the buds seemed to try and hermie or develop seeds. If they tried to hermie, I could only assume it would be due to the temps being too high or being too close to the light. Perhaps there was a light leak in the cabinet I am not aware of. I dunno.

Anyway, to better explain what I am talking about, I tried to take some closeup pics of some buds which exhibited this "ballsy" trait. Oh, yeah, this may or may not be a symptom of a problem ,either, but the bud leaves that were closest to the light (within 3 inches of the glass) would get VERY dark green and look waxy. This also happened last grow as well.

Any comments about them would be appreciated.

BTW, the last grow I did, I saw the same thing. The last grow was Chrystal by Nirvana and it grew so big it actually had some buds mash up against the glass and grow AROUND the hood! In fact, the single Chrystal plant I grew DID develop some seeds- but only on parts of the plant. Even though it showed the same traits, it still got me pretty high. In fact I sold a couple ounces of it for $200 each. A couple of weeks later, I had a client saying he'd buy a quarter pound more of the stuff immediately. So, I'm thinking it must not have been a big problem.

[krustythfreakinclown]

Whoops! I almost forgot: I harvest the buds with 70% clear and 30% cloudy trichromes.

[jonny]

they don't seem fully developed and I'd reccomend 8-10 weeks flower, 6 seems very short unless its specifically a short flowering strain but they don't look fully developed. I know its a long wait but patience is the key to high yields and High times afterwards :)

MAybe try better nutrients, specifically formulated for flowering.

Read up and find out whats best for you.

Good luck in future grows,
Jonny

[krustythfreakinclown]

Thanks a bunch.

The buds had not grown or filled out at all for the last 2 weeks prior to flushing (3 weeks prior to harvest) and the trichromes were right where I wanted them: 30% cloudy/70% clear, for that up high.

I suppose my next grow I'll let the plant go really long in flower to the 8-10 week mark like you suggest.

[Zandor]

Whoops! I almost forgot: I harvest the buds with 70% clear and 30% cloudy trichromes.

Wow that's an early harvest. Why did you harvest so early you left a lot of good THC on the table you will not get now.

Guess you had your reason. ;)

[britewire]

The problem with the small undeveloped buds are that you're plant was too big. If you used that space, had a shorter veg with more plants (or with scrogg) you had more of a sea of green idea. That means more big buds..

[krustythfreakinclown]

Well, I just remembered I had this log floating around, so here's the final tally:

102 grams, dried and cured weight of buds.

.25 grams per watt.

I just gotta be able to get a better yield than that!

Anyone ever do a SCROG in a C13 under a 400W HPS?

Any links to a grow log?

Even if I did 50% better, I'd be at 42 grams/watt and get 6 ounces per harvest.

Any other ideas how to increase yield?

[jamstigator]

If you ever get 42 grams per watt, I wanna learn your secret. Since that'd get you 37 pounds from a 400 watt light. ;)

My first grow was about like yours: SCroG-in-a-box, 136 grams of bud from a 400 watt light with 240 watts of CFLs as accent lighting. So, 0.21 grams per watt. You get better as you go along, of course, and I learned plenty from that first grow that should enable me to do much much better.

The things I am personally going to try include: doubling pot size (I used 2-gallon pots, trying 4-gallon now), much more extensive pruning to create more bud sites, longer period in vegetative growth, and an additional plant (3 instead of 2). I'm hoping these changes will at least double the output, if not triple or quadruple. I'm actually more interested in quality than quantity, since I don't sell anything, but I am very happy with the quality and see no reason not to at least try to improve on the quantity.

[krustythfreakinclown]

If you ever get 42 grams per watt, I wanna learn your secret. Since that'd get you 37 pounds from a 400 watt light. ;)


Yep! that's what I'm shooting for! :D