Flowering Day 53 - Some plants are failing to thrive

Day 53 into the flowering cycle and half of the plants are starting to show signs of sickness. Possibly due to nutrient imbalance. Unfortunately this has been going on for sometime now. But we didn't realize it was not going to self-correct.

Most of the indica plants appear to be thriving. Leaves are green to dark green. But as you can see in the photos the sativa plants have light green and worse yellow green leaves.

The Sativa were transplanted somewhere around 20 - 30 days into the flowering period.  They went from a 1 gallon smart pot to a 5 gallon smart pot.

Aside from that they have received the same low stress training, topping and feeding as the indica.

Damage Control: 

We're trying to figure out what is needed to bring these beauties back to the healthy dark green color range.

History: 

All plants are being fed on an alternating schedule. Nutrients then the next time is plain pH balanced water and then back to nutrients. Both nutrients and water feedings are pH balanced to around 5.5 - 6.5.

On nutrient feeding days the plants receive, MaxBloom and CalMag. We were trying to keep things simple and not use too many supplements.

The leaves below were pulled off one of the sativa plants shown above. We are not sure at this time if this is a nutrient, light, wind or even ectoparasite issue.

Name that sickness

Seriously we would love to know what the issue is and how to correct it.

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Happy Growing!!!

MM's

Day 50 - Trichome close-ups | Super Silver Haze | Super Hash Plant | Northern Lights |

Just rolled past day 50. Plant pistils on many of the indica plants have changed from bleach white to red and curled. Trichomes are being monitored daily for consistency changes.

Two ways to tell when the plants are ready for harvest.

Pistil colors:

<50% darkened pistils the plant is not ripe and the harvested flowers will possess lower amounts of THC.

Many experts will say that THC concentrations have peaked when 60% - 70% of the plant pistils have darkened.

>70% darkened pistils the CBD concentration will start to climb and the high will be more couch-lock in effect.

Trichomes:

When the plant is not ripe the resin will be clear like glass. As the plant ripens the trichomes will become cloudy and then transition to amber color.

Clear Trichomes = unripe flowers, that are still building in THC concentrations

Cloudy Trichomes = highest levels of THC

Amber Trichomes = waited too long to harvest

Using both of these methods in combination is the best way to gauge when your crop is ready to be harvested.

Day 50 - Northern Lights.

Day 50 - Super Silver Haze

Day 50 - Super Hash Plant

So do you think these are ready for harvest?

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MM's

Day 108 overall and Day 33 of Flowering

With this being our inaugural grow. We have been very pleased with the quality of the seeds as well as the growing equipment. We unfortunately learned that one of our best plants had turned into a hermie. This most likely occurred sometime between weeks 2 and 3.

"Hermie" short for hermaphrodite. Meaning that the plant has both male and female flowers. This has both genetic and environmental origins.

Genetic - meaning your seeds or clone came from a plant that was a hermie as well.

Environmental - there are many see below

- changes in the photoperiod. Such as exposing the plants to light during the dark period of flowering
- too much heat
- harvesting too late
- mechanical stress from over training and pruning during vegetative and flowering stages
- over-fertilization

We definitely did not control against all of these factors and are lucky that only one plant went hermie.

Now what to do with a plant that expresses male flowers on only a small area of the entire plant. Most people would suggest tossing the plant because the pollen from a single plant could pollenate the entire crop. We decided to remove the pollen sacks and isolate the plant to the smaller vegetation tent.  We are hopeful that the pollen sacks were removed early enough that the other plants were not seeded.  And by isolating it to a separate tent the plant will be able to grow without seeding in the future. That tent was currently housing early flower clones that we are attempting to re-veg for the next round.  More on monster-vegging at another time.

The isolated plant is now on a 12/12 cycle under 108 watts (12 9w 60w equivalent uncapped LED bulbs). It's interesting to note that the solitary plant appears to be progressing through the flowering cycle more quickly than those under a 600w HPS bulb.

Below are photos of all the plants at Day 33 of flowering. This is day 108 from seed.

Hermie plant photos (under 108w LED system):

Plant photos under 600w HPS system:

Comparison between the two plant set-ups:

Again 600w HPS tent:

Thoughts about the HPS tent.

We are having a little issue with the plants on the right side of the tent. Notice the light green color in the leaves. We aren't sure if this is a natural occurrence as the plants progress through the flowering phase, or if they are low on Nitrogen. We have been pH balancing the water and nutrients. So we aren't sure why only a portion of the crop is experiencing this nutrient deficiency.

And the 108w LED tent:

Thoughts on the LED tent.

This plant appears to be very healthy. It also has a number of hairs turning from white to red/brown.  We are using a jeweler's loupe to look at the trichomes. But we aren't very good at telling if they are cloudy.  With cloudy being the ideal level of THC.

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Happy Growing!!!

MM's