Hey everyone. Things are starting to get exciting now after 35 days of 12/12… It took the plants nearly 2 to 3 weeks to show signs of their sexes after switching the light cycle. A comment came in from Grow Medical 420 (see link on home page) which reminded me to start the bloom cycle when the pistils are visible, and not when the light cycle is changed. This makes sense as the plants need some time to react to the cycle. So technically they are in week 2 of flowering, depending on which plant we are taking about. The plants are beginning to produce a lot of pistils and 3 plants have had a spurt of growth.

The feedings are still the same 50ml seaweed and tomato fertiliser, 50ml seaweed soil conditioner and a couple of spoons of bat guano mixed into a 3 gallon bucket. The seaweed is concentrated so I am just following the directions on the bottle to be honest. I’m feeding them about every 4 to 5 days now with about 2 litres per plant. If the plants get a little too much water I drain the collection trays under the pots with a 200ml plastic syringe. This will prevent root rot and other issues such as drowning the plants as the soil isn’t airy, lack of oxygen to the roots will kill them too. I reuse the water I collect from the trays so the plant food will not go to waste. The plant in the picture below is looking a little different to the other. I am curious to know if it is a hermaphrodite. It took until a week ago to show its sex properly. The bud in the picture doesn’t look as pistil-full as the other plants either. I am keeping a close eye for any male pollen sacks hidden in there.

Attachment 280656

The plants are showing no signs of deficiencies so far. The only problem on the grow room right now is the over crowding. I wonder if it might be a good idea to take out the little short plant in the middle… Maybe stick her in the veg tent as a mother, but perhaps she is too far into a bloom to turn back. But I’m sure I read somewhere that a plant can be reversed at any stage of bloom by changing the light cycle back to 18/6. I would like to free up some space in there. 6 plants from seed would be still pushing it for space, I have 7. A couple of plants have reached up to 4 feet high so I just tied them down to keep them below the light.

Attachment 280657

The Room is very crowded as you can see but the Pro-Grow 260 is still keeping the lower leaves alive. The lower leaves are 4 feet away from the LED light ! And there is a lot of foliage in the canopy. I would have thought that they would have withered and died by now, but no.. I am going to do some pruning soon to take away some of the popcorn buds before the plants put more effort into them. I don’t think that super cropping went the way I had planned… The LED light made them recover too quickly and I should have bloomed at 4 weeks or earlier instead of 5. With some pruning at least the light will penetrate further and the plants will get a bit more light each. I cannot fault the Pro-Grow 260 so far. It has more than impressed me through the veg stage and the pictures will speak for themselves through the bloom.

Attachment 280658

Here are some shots of a few very young buds. Remember that only 2 weeks ago they showed their sexes. So this is the result of 2 weeks of pistil growth. The picture are not the greatest I have taken but they will give you a good idea of what’s going on. The auto focus and auto detect on the iPhone4 is a bit tricky to control. I must try to learn how to control my new phone. It’s not the phones fault, its mine I’m sure.

The below picture came out quite clear. You can see the beginning of the wonderful crystals forming. I read somewhere, I think 420magazine, that LED can produce much more trichomes than HPS lighting. I won’t be doing any comparison grows as firstly I don’t have the space and secondly I don’t want to have to deal with all that heat. The Pro-Grow 260 runs totally cool. The average temperature in the tent is a comfortable 23 – 26 degrees Celsius. The extractor fan has a speed controller and is set to the lowest possible speed. I leave the extractor fan on continuously to constantly move and replace the air in the tent. The new carbon filter I bought is doing an amazing job. It the Can 9000 if anyone is interested in it. I would recommend it for sure.

Attachment 280659

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my grow journal. I hope the information I provide can be useful to other growers out there.