New Grower Vapor's 2nd Grow and the Tale of the Auto White Cheese (and a few photo strains)

[Son of Hobbes]

Muddy,

The vertical growth on the cheese has REALLY slowed down; at least that's how it looks to me compared to the 3 photo strains next to it. Those, on the other hand, have not slowed down. I had some slight burning of some leaves on the Blue Widow, I raised up the HPS a few inches, it was probably time anyways; I haven't adjusted the height since the plants went in (honestly surprised it didn't happen sooner.) LOTS of little bud sites on the Cheese and they are starting to plump up a little. I really hope they fatten up; my plant doesn't look like a lot of the other white cheeses I've seen in terms of size. I won't be disappointed either way; this grow has been a good learning experience.

I *have* to get some cool fresh air into the tent. I checked my temps last night and they are pushing close to 90 degrees. I think pulling air from the tent through the hood was actually cooling the tent down (it just unfortunately was also blasting hot ganja air through the duct, negating the benefit of the scrubber.) I've got some extra ducting left over; I'm going to rig something up today. Tomorrow all this will be take care of when my new stuff gets here. Super excited.

On a side note; my latest seed order just departed from the east coast and is happily making it's way to my door! I'd be surprised if it's here by Friday, but still very excited! Especially with all these new tips and gear! Can't wait to grow in some GOOD soil!

Here's a small list of what I have coming (all feminized, all auto):
DNA Genetics 60 Day Wonder Automatic
Nirvana Seeds Northern Lights Autoflowering
White Label Skunk Automatic
G13 Labs Auto AK
Dinafem Seeds White Widow AUTO
Nirvana Seeds Bubblelicious Autoflowering
Freedom of Seeds White Goblin Autoflowering
Auto Seeds Trans Siberian
Sativa Seeds Jock Horror Autoflowering


Freebies (mostly photo strains, all feminized, couple in there are Auto's)
Reserva Privada OG Kush
Reserva Privada Kandy Kush
Reserva Privada Sour Kush AKA Headband
DNA Genetics Seeds Cannalope Kush
World of Seeds Legend Collection Strawberry Blue
Dinafem Seeds Moby Dick
Humboldt Seed Organisation Trainwreck
Freedom Of Seeds JackAuto
G13 Labs Mix Pack Limited Edition

Okay okay.... so maybe I went a little overboard. But man I'm going to have some fun trying these out! On everything that wasn't a freebie; I ordered at minimum I believe at least 3 beans. On some of my more personal favs (I love the AK myself, my Mrs. wants the Widow), I ordered more. Got a lot of the White Label Skunk, it was cheap for the price so I figured I'd take a gamble.

I may take the photo strains on a SOG journey from seed. I've read SOG/SCROG from seed isn't advisable due to the downtime of waiting for a plant to reach maturity; but all I've got is time.

Anyways that's neither here nor there, back to the Auto White Cheese and her photo strained sisters!

 

[Muddy]

Sounds like you're just about done vegging. That's what they do, go gang busters, growing an inch a day, then they start to slow down and it drops to half an inch, then a quarter inch till they finally stop.

Great selection of seeds. Set a bit of each aside as you grow them and build yourself up a nice stash. I love having a wide variety of strains on hand to pick from.

 

[Springa]

Nice grow so far. You do seem to be heading into flower. I'm new to your journal but interested to see the rest. Good read!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Muddy - I'll watch the Cheese for any more vertical but I'm pretty sure she's just ready to start juicing those flowers. My lights kick back on in about an hour and half; I'm gonna take a nice peak at her and see how she's looking. I've never done any low stress training before, but I've read a lot about the techniques (seems VERY simple in concept), and bought a roll of twine to start tying down some branches. I can already see how tying back a few things is going to just completely open up the buds to the lights.

I'm also going to play with some chicken screen wire with some of the plants. I know it's not the 1st choice for SCROG; but I don't mind taking a side cutters to it and making some bigger hexagon holes. I'm playing around with the idea of flowering my photo strains sooner (as they are going to take up the tent for at least 2+ months), but I also ordered up a slightly smaller area tent to go alongside this one; so I could always throw the three photo's in there under a 400W HPS to flower out while I start the 1000W veg on my next cycle of auto's. Would I be a foolish person to try to cram 15-16 auto's in a 4 foot by 4 foot by about 7 foot tent (so 1 plant per square foot.) And would it help if, that when I ordered this huge batch of seeds, I tried to get strains that 1.) had very short life cycles, like seed to harvest in 60-70 day type strains and 2.) were shorter vertical height auto strains? The appeal to me with the auto's is the very fast turn around. I would rather have a lot of smaller plants going than just one or two auto's that I let go for another month to try to get them a little bigger.

I'm going to try to make a table with all the strains I'm trying and make a chart of the breeders stats on the plant; so hopefully I can have short plants next to short plants and have them all close to finishing around the same time. Then, if it turns out I have some strains that don't like a 18/6 regiment of mH or HPS lighting, I'll have that spare tent with my photo's on 12/12 HPS lighting that I could always throw 'em in.

 

[KindredSpirit]

Everyone is lookin good bro, and that's a hell of a list of goodies you have coming! :dance: :dance:

 

[stylez]

Definitely a lot of menu items, you'll be able to choose from. Much luck.

 

[herbal.experience]

nice shopping list!

enjoy those beans.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Alright guys today is delivery day on some goodies! My pH calibration kit, my 400 CFM inline fan, my new smaller foot print tent; and a bunch of soil additives and nutes; my Pro Mix soil will be here by next Tuesday at the latest (which is fine, don't even have the seeds yet.) I also ordered up another digital timer for the second tent and some of this stuff called "ONA - Odor Neutralizing Agent." My carbon scrubber has done some amazing wonders for those STINKY STINKY plants; but yesterday I had a buddy stop over (who doesn't smoke much) and he told me he could smell them going into the room in the basement. Which is a half hearted victory for me (I honestly can never smell them until I get the tent open), but the fact he can detect it made me a little paranoid. Granted it's only one the 1 room and it's downstairs (absolutely NO smell upstairs), I want to make sure there is an even LOWER chance of smell being present. I'm not terribly worried in any case, but I don't want to get sloppy and suddenly the water meter or electric meter reader shows up and goes "hmmm either someone's growing or I'm having a 70's flashback." Not to mention; I don't want to limit what company I can have over (like family) just because I'm growing some medicine and worried about the smell. I did a little reading on the ONA product line and scoured some forums; seems like they work alright for smaller spaces; so I think I might be alright with my tent. Got a Quart sized jar and an ONA mister (one of those electric doohickimus that you hang or mount on a wall and it sprays a concentrated mist of odor neutralizing agents into the air.)

I tried my hand at low stress training the Auto White Cheese. Not sure if I did this right but it SEEMS okay. I took twine and tied one end to the pivot in the bucket handle, then I started pulling down all the lower branches so they were nearly horizontal (keeping a mindful eye of how much pressure I was applying), then tied them down. I kept doing this until all the lower branches were tied down to a much more horizontal position. Then I moved up to the next set of nodes and tied those down. Finally got to the main stem and gently tied that down, so now it's curving like a quarter moon on it's side with the points down. Then I started tucking big fan leaves under the branches, so it's a fairly even horizontal canopy and almost ALL of the bud sites have some direct light on it. I'll try to get a picture today so you guys can see or advise in case I messed this up.

I decided to move my photo's into the other tent when it gets here. The light schedule just isnt going to work out for what I have going and what I'm going to have going. I'll get some pictures for the next update.

 

[Springa]

Great update. Congrats on an early Christmas! LST seems to be working so far for you. I'm cramped for space not sure if this would get in the way?

 

[Muddy]

15 or 16 plants might be a little tight in that space depending on what size pots you use. One of my spaces is about 40" x 40" and I'm able to comfortable fit 9 plants in 3 gallon pots. Twelve might be the max you want to put in there.

Bear in mind that most strains take longer than what the breeders advertise, so those 60-70 days strains are more likely to take 75 - 85 days to fully mature.

I'm also going to play with some chicken screen wire with some of the plants. I know it's not the 1st choice for SCROG; but I don't mind taking a side cutters to it and making some bigger hexagon holes. I'm playing around with the idea of flowering my photo strains sooner (as they are going to take up the tent for at least 2+ months), but I also ordered up a slightly smaller area tent to go alongside this one; so I could always throw the three photo's in there under a 400W HPS to flower out while I start the 1000W veg on my next cycle of auto's. Would I be a foolish person to try to cram 15-16 auto's in a 4 foot by 4 foot by about 7 foot tent (so 1 plant per square foot.) And would it help if, that when I ordered this huge batch of seeds, I tried to get strains that 1.) had very short life cycles, like seed to harvest in 60-70 day type strains and 2.) were shorter vertical height auto strains? The appeal to me with the auto's is the very fast turn around. I would rather have a lot of smaller plants going than just one or two auto's that I let go for another month to try to get them a little bigger.

I'm going to try to make a table with all the strains I'm trying and make a chart of the breeders stats on the plant; so hopefully I can have short plants next to short plants and have them all close to finishing around the same time. Then, if it turns out I have some strains that don't like a 18/6 regiment of mH or HPS lighting, I'll have that spare tent with my photo's on 12/12 HPS lighting that I could always throw 'em in.