11/15/09 Update

Beginning of fifth week of flower for Groups 1 & 2
Beginning of second week of flower for Flower Unit 3
Beginning of the first Week of Flower for Flower Unit 4


Before Unit 4 was added


Flower Room After Unit Four Added

Major changes this week:


Flower Unit 4

The last flower unit has been transferred into the flower room. This is the unit that contains the last three strains to be cut & chosen - Blue Apollo, Apollo 11 & Sugar Berry. Extra cuttings for back up mothers were taken (2 from each plant) before hand.

Another major change - I've decided to add FloraShield as a mainstay in all reservoir - those yellow leaves got me worried. It's like H2O2. In Groups 1 & 2 I drained the reservoir and ran FloraShield & water at the recommended dilution (changed & cleaned all the part of the 2 systems) for the recommended time (1-2 hours, I did a little over 2) Just incase I am dealing with a case of root rot. The plants in the dutch buckets are quite root bound which has caused drainage problems & overflow & I've mentioned the unwashed Hydroton before, I just don't see why I'd take the chance especially as I observed yellowing leaves starting on my second unit - that's what did it for me. I can't have this spread around the whole room. The only thing I sacrifice is the beneficial bacteria/organisms & I guess if they had established themselves, I wouldn't be having this problem, so my choice was clear.


Unit 2

As there isn't much to tell now, I'm mostly looking toward the future. My worries are so far: when to add the Dry KoolBloom (Ripen)? Shall I do it for 3 weeks prior to harvest? 2 or only 1? I hear that stressing w/products like that can cause hermaphrodites, but vastly increase bud size so I'll do a little experimenting. As I'm using the aggressive bloom strength formula, might as well go the whole 9.


Units 1 & 3

Another worry is circulation, budrot. I'm thinking of adding several fans & really blow those plants around - humidity has been good, 47% last I checked. But, The vegetation is dense & the plant are stacked on top of each other. I've ordered more fans to mount on the walls just to rattle each leaf & stalk. I've also cut the lower third
side stems & leaves off of the plants in units 3 & 4.


Units 2 & 4

I've taken readings with my Lux meter above the canopies of all my flower units - they range at the darkest points 50,000 Lux - to the brightest being 600,000 Lux. I plan on addressing the issue of the plants getting the lesser amount of light by adding perhaps an LED over them as it worked for my Flower Unit 3. It doesn't jump the Lux reading - LEDs give lower readings, but due to their more specific spectrum, give more useable light with the added benefit of using blue light to keep the stretch down.

One observation - the plants in Groups 1 & 2 are low odor strains, but are finally starting to show odor now if you go up to them - they smell sweet. Some smell like candy, I put that up to the Pineapple!Rush FloraNectar sweetener I'm using, just my guess.