Virgin growers 13 days into flowering, please help

I have never seen such a helpful site with so many people looking to lend a hand to one another. What a cool place. This is my first post ever and a buddy and I could really use some help. We are hoping to be welcome here and any comments, advice, or suggestions anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

Many years ago I threw some commercial seeds in the ground next to my house and actually took about 10 females to harvest. The end result was not even worth smoking but I know now that was due to a lack of knowledge and especially of the curing process. Months ago I told a close friend that I believed I knew enough to have a basic hydro system successfully pan out. He was keen to the idea and bam we jumped in.

We located 5 Mazar and 5 Blueberry seeds(said they were feminized) and set out to grow 2 of each. My friend purchased a kit that seems to have included all we needed at least to get where we are now. Our experiment 1st began on 11/9 with germination. After the 1st day they had cracked and sprouted. I would have put them in rockwool after day 2 but had to wait for buddy to return to town. On 11/14 he returned and we took the seedlings and put them in rockwool inside 6 inch nets surrounded with this reddish pumice looking stones that came with the kit. We had no enclosure built yet so we put them in the corner of a basement and used a 65w light I had. We were a bit lazy and didnâ??t get the enclosure built for 2 weeks. The corner where they were I believe was too chilly and although they were well on their way, I definitely believe the non-ideal conditions at this point were slowing things down a little.

On 11/28 the enclosure was finished. It is about 5-6 feet tall, 4-5 feet wide, and about 3-4 feet deep. We took the seedlings in their respective rockwool and plastic nets and put 2 each in 5 gallon tupperware containers that have a pump in each that supplies a stream of water to the rockwool. We lined every square inch of the enclosure with mylar and even put it on the tops of the Tupperware because we were under the impression this could aid in growth. We used a 400 w mh and with an electronic timer began a 18/6 light cycle. The only nutrients we gave them were some plant food that came with the hydro kit, some SuperThrive my buddy and I thought theyâ??d like, and my buddy insisted on food spikes in the rockwool because he said they seemed to really dig them :) Every week we increased the light cycle by an hour until we got to 20/4.

It was 60 days, give or take 1 or 2 until we were able to see very tiny pre-flowers on all 4 test subjects. We felt that this was the proof we sought that the seeds we used in fact truly were female. We changed the light to a 250 sodium but not before leaving them in complete darkness for 30 hours. This was I believe 1/29 and we were excited to say the least that day 1 of the flowering stage had begun. We changed the light cycle to 12/12 and there they have been for 13 or 14 days, which brings us to today.

My ingenious partner in this experiment read that 10/60/10 would be wise to use as a flowering nutrient mix so purchased something called SuperBloom which arrived yesterday. We decided in an attempt to slightly stress the plants that we would starve them of water for 24 hours and that tonight when the lights go on at 10 p.m. they will get their first taste of nutrients during this phase.

All of this has brought us to the present and we are fearing the possibilities of this wonderful experience ending in despair due to potential mistakes from lack of knowledge. Please let me reiterate(if not yet obvious) that we are complete beginners and we are hoping for advice on absolutely any facet of what weâ??ve done and are trying to do. This being said there is a multitude of things I am seeking help and answers with and think it would be easier if I list them for simplicity.

1. 3 of the girls have recently run out of room with distance and 1 is past the light and the light can not be raised any higher. We have always been afraid to crop them but feel that we should at least for now center them inside and pull the tops to the their respective corners of the enclosure so that less of the them will be missing out on light. The 250 w sodium bulb appears to give out much much less light than the 400 w mh and we are feeling maybe we should be pruning off many of the big leaves that are blocking light to the lower limbs.

2. Are we retarded with stressing the girls out a little by starving them of water and nutrients for roughly 24 hours? If we arenâ??t wrong than should we ever do this again during the flowering stage?.

3. For strands like Blueberry and Mazar how many days roughly should we be expecting they should flower? 60ish? Did we make a mistake by growing 2 different strains under 1 light? Will we most likely harvest them at different times?

4. From what we have researched we feel the curing process seems to be the most important yet also seems to be the easiest to screw up. Like how exactly and for how long do we dry them? Do we remove everything but the flowers and hang upside down somewhere? How long do we do this and should it be dry or humid or drafty there? After we dry them are we supposed to remove the flowers from their stems completely, further prune, and relocate them to a different climate and environment for a period of time? Weâ??d really be feeling a lot better if we knew what to expect from here and how not to have had this project been in vain.

5. If we are successful in our experiment what can we roughly expect in weight for our personal enjoyment? Is ¼- ½ lb. per plant reasonable or very far fetched?

6. So that the end result doesnâ??t taste like SuperBloom nutrient lol how long before harvest do we flush them with just water and how do we know when to do this?

7. If you prune off the main leaf on a stem will the flowers on that stem not grow or should we be doing this everywhere to promote light to the lower branches?

8. Is 10/60/10 SuperBloom good to be using, is it all we need or should we obtain something else or in addition to?

9. We have done nothing to ventilate said enclosure except often leave the doors open and blow a big fan on them lol. What might be some suggestions on a quick yet inexpensive way to ventilate yet also contain the overwhelmingly precious scent we will soon be facing?

10. And lastly does it look like we might be on the path to a successful project that will produce some tastly little dragons :jointsmile: to play with or will this probably result in a painful pipe dream :( ?

We do not have too many pics but I will try to upload whatever I can and will tell my buddy to take more depending on if anyone here wants us to. Thanks in advance and thanks again for having such an awesome forum.

Sincerely,

Lopez

so much,if there getting to tall dont prune them bend them over and tie in place,dont trim any shade leaves off there little factorys for the plant if you trim you will slow it down and stress it out stop nutes 2 weeks b4 harvest just flush with water when you have harvested your plants trim all the leaves off save for hash when trimed hang untill dry 5-10 days then 30day cure in air tight jars take lid off for 10 minutes morning and night then blaze your head off.peace.:stoned:

bend them over get a screen and feed the nodes through the sceen and tie everything else down.

Damn what a lesson in why not to be so long winded. My bad :( there's just a lot we don't know and wanted advice about. Thanks xHazex and Jack for your advice, it's exactly what we'll do and the rest we'll just do our best to figure out. Whether it works out or not, it's been a fun experience trying. Thanks again

Lopez

Thats a lot of questions Lopez... I would answer most of those by searching the threads...

But, most importantly, when you flower, the plant does not STOP growing... It will grow to 2-3 times its current height. So if they are 2 ft now, they will be 6 ft tall when fully grown...

You have to fix that headroom problem 1st... The other things will start to fall in place.

Yes you have some heat burn on your plants from the lights I can see.

You may trim off the burned parts and any leaf that is NOT green. They do not produce chlorophyll so they are of no use to the plant.

You did veg them a bit long for the room you have. Everyone is correct that you must place a screen over the top to hold the plant down. You can also bend the plants and tie them down to keep them under the light.

Anything more then just trimming off the bad & dead leafs may prolong your flower cycle and reduce your end yield so keep that in mind.

Happy growing and Welcome to the family.

Check out my show when you get a chance you will learn many things you may have know before about this great plant.

HELL YEA. That's the info I was looking for and again guys since we were brand new to the site(and I was a little :stoned: ) I totally did not think about my post being retardedly long till it was too late :( Much of what we know has come from info we have learned here and we are optimistic about this last phase. Unfortunately the 4 sexy girls are not at my place of residence or all of what you have spoken of would have been done long ago. My bud that I have embarked on this journey with is learning as we go along but having had no prior experience, mistakes are being made. He hacked off about 20 of our biggest leaves because he says he is having trouble bending them over with the stalks are so thick. I told him that LST isn't supposed to happen over night and that even if it takes a few days, the branches can be heavily manipulated to grow the direction of our choosing.

Highseekerz - Holly sheep shit! We have grossly miscalculated the growth cycles and we are pushing 4-5 feet now and are only 16-17 days into flowering. 10-15 feet plants was not something we origianlly anticipated but I trust that you are correct and that we must deal with that immediately. My buddy says there are bud sites literally everywhere and I am en route there this evening to see if we can solve our needing a screen problem.

Zandor - I wish I had read your reply last night because it was last night that my homey whacked off about 20 of our biggest chlorophyll making factories. I have scolded him already today and said to NOT do that again. I will get some pics tonight and post.

Thanks again for your help and thanks for the welcome. We'd like to be here for the long haul :rasta:

Lopez

lol I'm a wee bit :stoned: again and forgot to add this to what I just said. Is it possible that as a quik fix to our height issue that we just use a staple gun, 1/2 way between the base of the plants and the light, all along the inside walls and than just slowly pull the plants over and tie stings to the staples? I was thinking that if we keep the tubs centered and just let the plants run horizontally along the walls that we would eventually have all the buds just reaching for the center. I only say this because I don't know how fast we can get a screen to put on top and I also am not exactly sure how we are going to get the screen in there since they have so seriously run out of room already. The 2 Blueberrys are about a foot past the light if not pulled over and the 2 Mazar are already to the light. My buddy insisted on food spiking the rockwool a bijillion times lol and I believe this kinda mushed the cubes. Should I worry that if we really bend the plants over that they will damage at the base? Thanks again yall

Lopez

It'll be alright. Just stop hacking.:D we preach trying to allow the plant to grow as naturally as possible. later. peace

Welcome to the forums.

Whelp I don't know what else to say other than my homie must have gotten pretty damn high to have thought it was wise to hack off almost all of the leaves we had on our 2 Blueberrys. Nothing I can do, not at my house and I can only advise him on what I feel to do, and not to do. They straight up died a week or so ago so we removed them from the box. The leaves(luckily) on the 2 Mazars we have left, were not nearly as big so he did not hack them off and they have been doing awesome the last few weeks. Bud sites everywhere and looking great, BUT today my homie made me aware that he had not changed the water and nutes for 3 weeks plus and that many leaves were wilting and yellowing. I almost fell out of my chair and said I'm comin over to see. He wasn't kidding, many of them look ok but many of the leaves are past the point of no return. I gave him a good talking too and then we emptied tub they were in, completely washed and filled back up with just water. If my calculations are correct, we are 29 days into flower. Please look at the pics I am attaching and notice the difference between the 1 pic that appears to be doing just fine, than look at the 3 other sad looking photos. We really could use some help as far as what we should do from here on out. My homie feels absolutely horrible for killing 1/2 our crop and is I feel now ready to listen to those like yourselves that know. Thanks for your time.

P.s. We have on the way, 10 Ice, 10 White Widow, and 10 Crystal Limit seeds. Any comments on these strands would be appreciated

Lopez

Im no hydro pro, but that looks like a combination of overwatering, ph, and heat stress. I'd bet PH is your biggest culprit - since you say he didn't change the water/nutes for a few weeks I'm sure the pH was off for 90% of that time. Hydro takes daily, sometimes multiple daily adjustments to keep ph in line. Flush the system with fresh phed water and see how they respond

Put that 400 MH on as well as the 250 HPS. Watch your heat though...I find they dont always grow 2-3X but It almost does always x2. LST them...try a water cure. You will lose some flavor and smell but you will not lose any THC. The result is a higher THCg:Budflowerg ratio. Really smooth as well....and the best part is it only takes 7 days to do and you can run nutes strong W/O flushing all that much.

You lose more weight when you sure this way but that just results in THC leiden buds that dont smell much but do the trick.

Thank you both for your replies. We already lost 1/2 of our 1st grow and I'd hate for the whole thing to have been for naught. I have already relayed your comments to my friend and we're ready to do whatever it takes to rescue our girls. Do you think that if they in fact have been overwatered that we should shut off the pumps that flow into the rockwool for a few days? And with the 6 inch nets in the 20 gallon tubs, how high should we be trying to constantly keep the water level? I read once that water should be kept an inch higher than the bottom of the nets. Is this way off? And we would be using the 400 watt bulb but we do not have another housing for the bulb. The light kit we have came with a 400 metal halide and a 250 sodium but only one light housing and socket. We have been at 12/12 for about 30 days so do you think with a Mazar strand we are 1/2 way to harvest? There has been many mistakes thus far so I'm assuming we have further slowed things down and that it may take 60 days plus of flower to be ready. Is this far off too? Damnit I wish they were at my house so I could care for them :( Anyways thanks again for your advice

Lopez

Don't think it matters much but we don't have a 250w sodium it's a 400