Not my first grow but first grow log!

No photos yet, the bud I pollinated on Stubby is showing tiny balls through the pistils (which are turning brown)...mission accomplished? I'm hoping that those tiny balls are seed pods and not pollen sacks :wtf:

I'm still unclear on what my nute schedule should look like, I had so many bad experiences with nute burn in the past that I might be underfeeding? As it stands I water every 3-4 days (when the soil is dry) and I've fed the plants once during vegging and once thus far during flowering.

I'm trying to steer clear of the chemical ferts (a 20-20-20 mix) as much as possible and want to use diluted molasses to keep flowering as organic as possible, the only question is: how frequently?

Okay, looks like I found answers to my questions! From what I've found on this site, nutes can be given to the girls every third watering. I watered them last on Sunday, which means the soil should be dry around Thurdsday; plain water again.

Next watering after that should be around the following Sunday, so I'll give the girls another shot of diluted molasses then. 3.7 litres per gallon, my watering can holds 4 litres filled to the top, so my concerns about using too much molasses the last time were unfounded.

So...awaiting the delivery of the SMT pure red LED light...supplemental red spectrum and no extra heat won't go amiss. Agreed the HPS should be more than enough, but according to what I've been reading in the Grow Logs, there's no such thing as too much light! ;)

Looking good pedro. Nute's are hard to buckle down, you kind of have to get used to a niche yourself. Theres a great sticky somewhere with a shitton of images about what nutrients cause what appearent damage to your plant. I'd check that out to make sure you arent overnuting them then just slowly increment your nutes till they grow great and dont have any signs of nute burn or deficiency.

I cant seem to find the post maybe it was of the growFaQ i dont remember but it exist.

I take it your using MG or something of the sort for soil. IF this is the case they usually have nutes built in that you have to account for. Just makes sure you got your numbers straight and btw

THEY ARE LOOKING SECHSY!

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Originally Posted by Pedro de Pacas

Okay, looks like I found answers to my questions! From what I've found on this site, nutes can be given to the girls every third watering. I watered them last on Sunday, which means the soil should be dry around Thurdsday; plain water again.

Next watering after that should be around the following Sunday)

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soo you only water your girls twice a week? hmmm they must be hungry for some nutes by then

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Originally Posted by bickeybammer

soo you only water your girls twice a week? hmmm they must be hungry for some nutes by then

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I water when the soil's dry. It used to be more often under all CFL, but overwatering ain't good either. So far so good I'd say!

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Originally Posted by DE.Db33t

Looking good pedro. Nute's are hard to buckle down, you kind of have to get used to a niche yourself. Theres a great sticky somewhere with a shitton of images about what nutrients cause what appearent damage to your plant. I'd check that out to make sure you arent overnuting them then just slowly increment your nutes till they grow great and dont have any signs of nute burn or deficiency.

I cant seem to find the post maybe it was of the growFaQ i dont remember but it exist.

I take it your using MG or something of the sort for soil. IF this is the case they usually have nutes built in that you have to account for. Just makes sure you got your numbers straight and btw

THEY ARE LOOKING SECHSY!

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Why thank you! :D

Believe you me I've made plenty of mistakes in past grows, overfeeding the plants rsulting in nute burns, heat burns from too many CFL's in a small cabinet (that was before the wardrobe) you name it!

I use the Plant Prod(the 20-20-20 mix from Home Depot) once during vegging, and that heavily diluted, split between the original four pots. The label says it's also suitable for flowering and blooming I guess I could make a super potent nute cocktail using that (maybe at half dosage) and a molasses boost...I'd like to keep the bloom ferts as organic as possible...:wtf:

Really good grow log, Pedro!

Okay, more pics! Foliage was beginning to interfere to the point the girls were competing for light so I pruned the excessively large leaves. I may be wrong, but trimming them up a bit will help get more light to the lower bud sites as well as improve air/Co2 circulation in the cab.

I've done such prunings in past grows and got no hermies so I'm pretty sure the girls are safe! ;) To help alleviate the stress (and since the soil looks pretty dry - three days after the last watering so I'm within this grow's average) I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them a feeding.

Very, very low dosage, maybe a quarter of the 20-20-20's recommended dosage and a teaspoonful of molasses diluted in a gallon (4 litres) of water, split up between the girls.

Here's how they look after their haircuts, and a closeup of the pollinated bud...are them seeds I'm seeing? ;)

wow they R looken great. yumm yumm.:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by hydrocannabis

wow they R looken great. yumm yumm.:thumbsup:

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Thank you! :hippy:

Day 25 and I measured the plants for height:

• Stubby is now 20.5" tall
• KC is a few hairs taller than 22"
• Leggy 2 tops them all at 2'1"
• Jr is hanging in there at 7"...hopefully yesterday's pruning & feeding session helps her get bigger and stronger.

I raised the HPS light to accomodate Leggy 2's stature. Which means I had to move the inner cab fan to the wardrobe's floor (blowing air at the bottom of the girls rather than at the canopy).

Waiting the the pure red SMT LED bulb with great anticipation...maybe I'm reading too much into that whole extra red spectrum deal, but I want to see thick, dense nugs this time around instead of fluffy, frail buds.

Don't get me wrong, the "all CFL" Mango and KC grows from the past gave me potent buds indeed...but compared to the "Squamish Gold" (I call it that because my brother's pal who was a grower was originally from Squamish BC) my kid bro had me try 2 years ago the CFL bud was still pretty mild!

Okay, pics of the changes I did yesterday: fan (the one blowing on the plants not the exhaust) on the floor rather than wall-mounted, HPS light raised a few more inches.

I also threw in a few pics of the colas from the top!:hippy:

your setup is sick. i love it. im workin with a box that 4 feet long 2 feet high and about a foot and a half deep. then i got to pc fans for intake and one 80mm pc fan for exaust then im runnin 6 23 watt cfls. help plz any suggestions?

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Originally Posted by Pedro de Pacas

Here's how they look after their haircuts, and a closeup of the pollinated bud...are them seeds I'm seeing? ;)

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Yes this is the place where the seeds will grow.
Great job with the grow, the plants look really good, the buds are awesome and you are just at day 26! You should have a great harvest.

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Originally Posted by LuciferN

Yes this is the place where the seeds will grow.
Great job with the grow, the plants look really good, the buds are awesome and you are just at day 26! You should have a great harvest.

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:D Thanks! Again me learning and changing things as I'm going along, keeping what works and dropping what doesn't. I can't wait to add that pure red SMT Led bulb to the mix and see if it does have an impact! :hippy:

Like I've been told once: the devil's in the details, and with a bit of digging; it's possible to have a decent personal grow on a limited budget.

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your setup is sick. i love it. im workin with a box that 4 feet long 2 feet high and about a foot and a half deep. then i got to pc fans for intake and one 80mm pc fan for exaust then im runnin 6 23 watt cfls. help plz any suggestions?

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Okay...in my meager experience here are my suggestions:

• Lookup the LST - Topping and Fimming posts on this site - my first grow had limited height; I controlled the canopy height low by gradually bending the branches and keeping them low with pieces of string (my version of LST)
• Carefully monitor the cabinet temperatures, extremes in the too cold or too hot aren't good for the plants
• Be careful not to overwater or overfeed - I lost a raspberry bush (actual raspberries ;) ) to root rot because of over watering (a soil moisture meter helps); and nute burn can harm the plants too if you overfeed.
• Try the "hand test" to be sure the lights aren't too close to the plants
• Lookup the article on fans (I posted the link earlier in this log) to calculate proper air exchange in your cab...

Hope this helps! :hippy:

yea it helps tremendously i just picked up some nutes from my local plant place. its called green light all purpose 20-20-20 plant food which the guy said works well for any plant. so basically with the LST method you are basically controlling the height. and is using all cfls gonna give me an alright yeild? sorry for asking so many questions. but yea my box seems to stay really cool and the lights are about 3-4 inches away from the plant. they are looking really good. i have em in the big QT cups its like a 54oz cup. which is pretty big. and my plants are about 2 weeks in when should i start flowering.
and thnx for your help man.

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Originally Posted by bigsmoke07

yea it helps tremendously i just picked up some nutes from my local plant place. its called green light all purpose 20-20-20 plant food which the guy said works well for any plant. so basically with the LST method you are basically controlling the height. and is using all cfls gonna give me an alright yeild? sorry for asking so many questions. but yea my box seems to stay really cool and the lights are about 3-4 inches away from the plant. they are looking really good. i have em in the big QT cups its like a 54oz cup. which is pretty big. and my plants are about 2 weeks in when should i start flowering.
and thnx for your help man.

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Yield depends on many factors: light intensity, watering/feeding schedule, air circulation (we wouldn't last very long in close quarters without proper ventilation right? ;) ) cabinet temperatures, plant genetics... :hippy:

I got bud on my first grow (2 KC Brains Mango under 2 warm white 45 watter CFL's), the "high" was decent; but was the yield and bud size comparable to what I would have gotten with a 150 watt HPS? Probably not.

I tried growing on my balcony even...23 floors up, no chance of the neighbours seeing leaf shape...lost 2 Mango's there: too much wind, not enough sun (nothern exposure) so as you can see I made plenty of mistakes. :(

There was a Low Ryder grow between the balcony grow and the first Home Depot wardrobe grow...never reuse soil that spent the summer outdoors...spider mites! :jawdropper: Ever seen cobweb covered bud? :wtf:

Later, I got passable yield using a 125 watt high powered CFL (the first Wardrobe grow - leftover Mango seeds and KC 36 seeds), hoping that the one CFL could handle vegging and flowering...big mistake! While it is very powerful, the lumen output was far from sufficient, and ventilation in the wardrobe at that point was mediocre at best.

Did I get bud? Absolutely. Did it look as good or as big as my current grow? Nowhere even close!

All of this to say that you will get bud. If you're careful you might even get better looking, more potent buds than I did, it's a learning process you see. :hippy:

A few more tips though: Cool white works better for vegging (which you probably already know) and warm white (soft white) works better for flowering. Before you initiate 12/12 you might want to make sure you have warm white CFL's in there and that your babies are LST'd (or LST as you go along, be gentle while bending!)as they can litterally double in height once blooming has started!

As far as when to initiate 12/12, well...

Some growers believe in vegging 24/0 (or 18/6) until the plants are 12" tall before initiating flowering, others like to wait uintil the plants show signs of sex; others prefer to go 12/12 from seed and still get wonderful results, so when to start flowering is strictly up to you.

For my next grow, what I might do is sprout the seeds using my usual method (soak the seeds 8 -12 hours in warm, sterile water in a warm, dark place), plant the seedlings in styrofoam cups under 24/0 cool white CFL; once the seedlings are a few inches tall, transplant in bigger pots and go 12/12 right away; when growing stealth, time is always an issue, which makes initiating 12/12 as early as possible attarctive indeed IMO...

yea i found a great deal for a 250watt hps kit which is gonna run me bout 160 which aint bad. but like you said i will get bud but just not as good as it could be. but yea im runnin 6 26watt cfls and its puttin out like close to 9grand of lumens a peicelol. but until i get my hps my trutsy ol cfls will have to do.
but on the flowering my biggest plant is close to 4inches could i start flowering like next week if i wanted and still get a good size plant and a decent yeild? so you said the yeild quantity is decent.
when would be the best time to tell the sex of the plants.

Pedro: I saw a picture of 'cobweb' buds! Looked like coyote shit to me! Who could touch it! ICK!

I continue to enjoy your grow and engenuity! Nice log! Keep it up!:thumbsup: pr

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Originally Posted by bigsmoke07

but on the flowering my biggest plant is close to 4inches could i start flowering like next week if i wanted and still get a good size plant and a decent yeild? so you said the yeild quantity is decent.
when would be the best time to tell the sex of the plants.

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Quoth bickeybammer:

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its never to early to flip the lights... i have 4 purple erkles that are 12/12 from seed and all 4 came out female..... i have a purple voodoo and g13/hashplant and 12/12 from seed that came out females.... but the only plants (besides my clones) that i didnt 12/12 from seed came out to be 1 female and 13 males ... BAH .... o well

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If you veg the "traditional way" sexing can take 6-8 weeks. Inducing flowering forces them to show sex earlier.

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Pedro: I saw a picture of 'cobweb' buds! Looked like coyote shit to me! Who could touch it! ICK!

I continue to enjoy your grow and engenuity! Nice log! Keep it up! pr

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Thanks painretreat, it's been a long learning experience! :hippy:

so you think that 250watt hps would do good

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Originally Posted by bigsmoke07

so you think that 250watt hps would do good

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More light is good as long as you keep a few things in mind:

• If the HPS kit doesn't come with a timer you'll need a heavy duty grounded timer to stay safe (using a 2 prong timer with the remote ballast may result in a fire).
• Measure how much space you have between the top of your enclosure and the plant canopy, is there enough space to accomodate the HPS fixture and reflector? If yes,
• How much space does that leave you between the HPS bulb and the top of the plants? A HPS bulb too close to the plants can cause severe heat damage.
• You'll need to figure out a way to install the remote ballast outside your grow cabinet to keep cab temperatures manageable;
• You may need to incease your cab's ventilation after the HPS switch (proper ventilation is a good thing anyway);
• Always use a bulb that matches your ballast - with HPS/MH you can't mix and match;
• While a fire is very unlikely here are a few things to keep in mind to avoid one - always use the appropriate timer, always use the 250 watt bulb with the 250 watt remote ballast and beware cracked bulbs - most HPS fires are due to a cracked bulb exploding upon ignition.

Here are a few reference posts you may find useful:

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...-lighting.html

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...uch-light.html

Energy Services, Energy Solutions Database - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Information

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...g-hot-air.html

Gave the girls a watering - Sundays and Wednesdays seems to be the ad hoc watering schedule. Which means I'll have to shift the schedule by one day (I'm off with my girl for the long weekend! :hippy: ) so that the little ladies are watered before we leave and won't be in too rough a shape when we return.

To prevent heat burn I'll raise the HPS light maybe 6"? I have memories of last year's wardrobe grow, and how one of the KC 36's had gone through a growth spurt while we were gone and sustained major CFL heat burn (it was litterally touching the bulb!). At this point the plants should have done most of their growing but I don't want to take any chances!

Today's photos! :hippy:

Usually the plant stretch the first 3 week when flip to 12/12, in these 3 weeks you can see them grow 1 inch per day and even more. In you're case at day 28 you should not have any problem. Checking the FAQ's you can see the chart : Flourescents: proximimty, 400w HPS: 1 foot, 600w HPS: 1.5 foot, 1000w HPS: 2 foot. So any lamps less than 400w 6 inch should be perfect.

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Originally Posted by LuciferN

Usually the plant stretch the first 3 week when flip to 12/12, in these 3 weeks you can see them grow 1 inch per day and even more. In you're case at day 28 you should not have any problem. Checking the FAQ's you can see the chart : Flourescents: proximimty, 400w HPS: 1 foot, 600w HPS: 1.5 foot, 1000w HPS: 2 foot. So any lamps less than 400w 6 inch should be perfect.

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Kewl! Thanks meng!:hippy:

And we're nearing the halfway mark for the harvest folks! Well that is if the girls are nice and ripe in another 30 days. It would seem that different strains ripen at different rates, the KC 36 may be ready a good week earlier than the Oasis, so...keep your eyes open, trust the plants as well as the calendar. Snip a leaf when you're in the 50 day range and inspect it under the mini microscope for trichome color.:hippy:

Speaking of trichomes, the tops are showing more and more of them, not quite the 'frosty' look yet, but getting close to it anyway. Once again, my skills at taking closeups leave much to be desired, the tichs aren't really visible at this stage...which is weird 'cause I see them with the naked eye! ;)

Big PS for day 30: the SMT LED bulb has just been delivered! :D And give credit to the seller, he did send the color red! ;)

As far as intensity goes...maybe I'm still thinking in CFL/HPS terms but it's not the 'red spectrum bath' I envisioned...oh well, it may help or do nothing at all, so I'll keep a positive attitude and hope the extra reds will help the few budsites closest to it...:greenthumb:

wowee wow wow wow. they r looken gr8 m8.

cant wate to see how big the buds get.:D:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by hydrocannabis

wowee wow wow wow. they r looken gr8 m8.

cant wate to see how big the buds get.:D:thumbsup:

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Thanks dude, looks like the HPS kit was a wise investment; at this stage I'm not so sure about the LED fixtures though...

Watered the girls thoroughly before the long weekend trip and inspected the girls, this is indeed the second half of flowering as some pistils have begun turning brown...nice! The trichs are visible to the naked eye and while they're not yet showing "that frosty look" it's definitely on the way there! :D

Pruned a few leaves again, mostly at the bottom of the plants to improve air flow and got rid of a few leaves that were showing signs of drying. All in all the best grow yet! :hippy:

hey man, im glad to see ths grow, im just germinating some kc36 as i type this, i got a 400watt hps, and a bit more space. How tall are your plants right now (around 30 days)? peace

hey whats up i have a bunch a questions for you. i have been out of town for the last week due to i was working for fema in galveston last week. but when i got back my plants are looking great they are huge. but on some leaves there are some little yellow spots with holes in them i dont know what this means. plus they are three wekks into veg can i go ahead and start flowering to keed plant height down? but other then that i just need some help.

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Originally Posted by bigsmoke07

hey whats up i have a bunch a questions for you. i have been out of town for the last week due to i was working for fema in galveston last week. but when i got back my plants are looking great they are huge. but on some leaves there are some little yellow spots with holes in them i dont know what this means. plus they are three wekks into veg can i go ahead and start flowering to keed plant height down? but other then that i just need some help.

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Regarding your leaf problem my knowledge isn't all that great, try here, there are many people more experienced than I am that can be of assistance ;) :

Plant Problems - Cannabis.com Forums Message Boards - Medical Marijuana, Cannabis Club, Dispensary, News

Like I've mentioned before, if you have limited height you really should top and/or LST to control plant height, as the plants can litterally double in height during flowering, and you want to stress the plants as little as possible during flowering (thus Low Stress Training).

Keep in mind that I'm by no means a leading authority on indoor/stealth grows, my own experience comes from a lot of trial and error: my first Mango grow would have been so much better had I had invested in a HPS light 2 years ago (then again an affordable 150 watt HPS kit was hard to locate back then); and if I had eased off on the plant food (mega heat & nute burns).

The point I'm trying to make is that therere are many growers in this Community who are far more experienced than I am, look around, ask around; for all I know I might be handing out bad advice, and I'd really hate to learn your grow went to hell because I gave you the wrong advice! :hippy:

Just returned for the road trip & finished unpacking. This is the first time I'm watering the girls and trimming dry leaves under the green CFL. I've noticed one seed pod on the bud right behind the one I pollinated on Stubby...oh well, more seeds for future grows and the rest of her buds look fine.

I'm not sure if it was due to the stres of the DIY fixture nearly killing her as a young plant, but Stubby has developped into this "V" shaped plant with dual Colas, without topping...Mother Nature sure holds many surprises!

So yeah, I can pretty much say the growth spurts are done with:

Leggy 2 is still the tallest at 2' 2.5" (or thereabouts)
KC is still second at 22.5"
Stubby's tallest cola is at 20.5"
Jr seems to have gained a bit more height...nothing earth shattering but she's 8.5" tall as of today!

The trichomes are definitely becomming more and more visible, even under green light. I'll have a better look tomorrow morning when the light cycle is in effect.

:thumbsup:

Trimmed a few burned leaves, Leggy 2 seems to have grown a bit more, and I raised the light.

Today's photos!

Random thoughts:

I can see definite differences between the past all CFL grows and the mixed grow using CFL, LED and HPS. At best, under the all CFL lighting I would get many small "pom-pom" buds. Since getting the HPS, I am seeing some mighty large tops in the making, where the cola "meges" with the buds beneath it...Leggy 2 is showing signs of this.

Looks like this'll be the first time I get bud that looks like the ones advertised by KC Brains and Dutch passion! :thumbsup:

According to their own photos, KC-36 and Oasis should look like this when ready:

Just by comparing pictures I can see I'm not close to ready...but hell it's only day 37! :hippy:

Things are lookin' good! Gave the girls a watering with a molasses shooter and improved the "light leaks" with weather stripping around the door frame.

My attempt at closeups of the tops...see trichs yet? ;):hippy:

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Originally Posted by Pedro de Pacas

Things are lookin' good! Gave the girls a watering with a molasses shooter and improved the "light leaks" with weather stripping around the door frame.

My attempt at closeups of the tops...see trichs yet? ;):hippy:

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The girls look great ! Yes we do see trichomes !
How long do you plan to flower them ?

dude your plants look amazing. i just started flowering mine. im on day 2 and its about lights out for my babys. i think i got a plant like you im callin him stubby. he is really short lol. but the rest are lookin really good though. now whats the best way to tell if they are male or female. lol but hey you keep up the great work man peace love and smoke.:rasta:

:D

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Originally Posted by bigsmoke07

dude your plants look amazing. i just started flowering mine. im on day 2 and its about lights out for my babys. i think i got a plant like you im callin him stubby. he is really short lol. but the rest are lookin really good though. now whats the best way to tell if they are male or female. lol but hey you keep up the great work man peace love and smoke.:rasta:

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Male: they'll grow pollen sacks. Unless you wish to selectively pollinate a bud or two to have your own seeds (which would entail you isolating the male from your girls) or if you don't mind having seedy buds get rid of the male ASAP! :eek:

Female: you'll see pistils (they look like small, feathery white hairs).

FWIW I was on the fence about stubby - with all the stress it endured I wouldn't have been surprised if it had turned out male or hermaphrodite (balls & pistils - you can find pics on this web site if you do a search)...so I waited and to my relief, Stubby's a she!

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The girls look great ! Yes we do see trichomes !
How long do you plan to flower them ?

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Thanks! I'm going to eyeball it as far as flowering goes...'the zone' seems to be 55 to 60 days, maybe longer or sooner depending on strain (if I recall, KC36 has an average flowering time of 6 to 8 weeks, while Oasis can take up to 9 weeks).

So I'd say as soon as they look close enough to the pics I downloaded from the KC Brains and Oasis web pages, hopefully in 55 days...I know, I lack the virtue of patience! :p