wish you would have let me know you were changing over. I would have bought a few thousand shares of Duct Tape, INC.

you'll get much better results with the HPS in the end I think and you shouldn't have to flip to 12/12 as soon either.

we got almost 2" here overnite. how 'bout you?

RKY

RKY-

Hey, yeah I totally shoulda told you about the duct tape thing. I'm sure I'll need more, but if you want to buy some stock in ZipTies inc. you might as well because I'm going through those like potato chips at Oprah's house. We didn't get any rain the night you got 2", but a few days before that like 1.5" all at once. I'm in the big thompson valley. Remember that flood we had last year? Evacuated us for 4 days. Didn't get a drop of water in my house thank God. Since we survived that 500 year flood, I wasn't too concerned about the bit of rain we did get. : ) In fact my garden is still crushin it and the tomatoes loved the rain!

As far as flipping to 12/12... I'm actually thinking tonight or tomorrow. Both the Pineapple Chunks have stretched to filling 1/2 of their screens, and the Money Makers aren't too far behind. If anyone has any thoughts about flipping now, I'd love to hear them. I really don't want these girls to get too big, and I think I'm pushing it already. Here's a couple pictures:


Under the 1000w HPS, I have maintained exactly the same temperature as before. It occasionally gets to 93 degrees during the day, but as I'm flipping to 12/12 soon (keeping them dark during the day hours) that shouldn't be an issue at all. During nighttime hours, temperature drops as low as 88, hovering between there and 90, so I think that's optimal. I do have a heater, and day/night controller for when it gets really cold if I need them. I'll be keeping the difference between day/night temp to 10 degrees.

I haven't bothered checking the pH or TDS of the nutrient solution I mixed the last 2 times I fed them, and they look like they are loving me for not overanalyzing their food. Simple. Oh well, live and learn.

Thanks for watching,
MC

tl;dr - Thinking of flipping to 12/12 tonight or tomorrow. Thoughts?

That looks great MC! And yeah, knowing how tasty those Pineapple Chunks are going to be, and how much they will explode on you when you flip, I would definitely go for it now.

With temps that high, make sure you watch your humidity during the darkness when you flip...I nearly destroyed a crop with that a couple of years back. I had a bad habit of forgetting to empty the dehumidifier's 1 gallon reservoir...which caused it to shut down over-night too many times...

That was a lesson learned...

Just smoked my last of the pineapple chunk...it is first on my list for next grow!

Continued best of luck,
ICB

Hi ICB,

Thanks for your input, I really value it especially because you've grown one of these strains before! I am absolutely flipping the lights off for the first time tomorrow morning. Mmmmmmm.... Pineapple chunk.... Only a few more months.

It's about to get real, up in here. I can't wait.

Here's a question for everyone... I bought a Hortilux Blue MH lamp, so I have that in my arsenal as well now. Since the Pineapple Chunk is stretching, do you think I should flower for 2 weeks under the MH instead of the HPS? I'm thinking I might do that, if for no other reason than the pictures

Speaking of which here's some under fluorescents:


Couple leaves still showing deficiencies or stress, but I flushed them with 3-4 gallons each @6.0 pH tap water. I then added full strength nutrients on the vegetative II phase of the nutrient schedule (same as before, but less rhizotonic and the addition of Bio-Boost). Hopefully this will deliver some of the micronutrients we're lacking. They're definitely lacking nitrogen as well,mso I increased their Bio-Vega to the top end of the recommended dose. Also added CalMg, no Superthrive. No pH test. Just applied liberally.

Thanks everyone,
MC

hey MC,

do some internet searching and alot of people use MH for the last 2 weeks of flower. promotes more trichs.

i think stretch is almost un-avoidable. not like i'm a plant whisperer, but I think it's the plant trying to get as big as possible before it flowers so that it produces the most flowers possible (a reproductive urge kinda).

have you thought about simplifying your nute regime? also do some searching for Lucas formula and the why's behind it and you could make your life a lot simpler. that's all SME and I use. it works and it works well. you can do it with one bottle of GH floranova bloom. or GH micro and bloom as a 2 part system. just a suggestion...

Hey MC,

I think they look great man! That's gonna be filled in no time at all...probably is already as I write this!

You know, you could spend a lot of time "chasing perfection"...but sometimes you end up swinging back and forth in and out of the recommended PH ranges, causing lockout of various nutrients, which I think is ultimately the culprit the vast majority of times...this then causes a multitude of symptoms to show, which makes you chase something new...it's maddening sometimes.

SME recommended adding some dolemite lime to my mixture to help buffer PH swings...since then, besides the flushing cycle every 30 days, I just "ride it out" ...and everything seems to take care of itself...

As SME says, YMMV !

Look forward to seeing that screen full of BUDS !! ICB

Rky,

I think about switching nutrients every day. Truthfully, I've come to terms with the canna nutrients, and since I already own them I think I'll continue with this grow. At least I don't have to spend any more money on them for a while. I did the GH micro/veg/bloom formulas before, and they were way simpler than the canna. Granted, all my problems were ph related I believe at this point. These are getting easier as I continue on, so who knows, I may love them by harvest. Who knwos?

ICB,

About that screen being filled.... Check this out.


Bigger, huh? Yeah I'm a little worried about overgrowing my screen here with stretch! Should be an interesting ride.

No time for a proper update right now. I took this picture of sample leaves from each plant so I could diagnose each one separately based on the deficiencies chart... But the hell with that. Overall, the plants look great. Also these leaves are some of the worst I could find. And I forgot to take the artistic filter off my phone before taking them. I'm not going to worry about these too much, but just for kicks, here's what my leaves would look like as hipsters.


All for now. More stretch updates later. And buds soon!
MC

And the stretch continues. The money makers are really catching up to the pineapple chunks.



I'm so outgrowing this screen..... Oops.

MC

Well it is day 7 of flower and just before the lights went out for the girls, I took a look at them. They are looking excellent, but I have no idea how I'm going to handle 2 more weeks of stretch.

The Money Makers are growing quite a lot, but they are so incredibly bushy. Their stems and stalks are so much more rigid, the distance between internodes is much shorter... they feel like little trees more than any cannabis plant I've ever dealt with before. Overall they are both showing very indica dominant phenotypes.

The Pineapple Chunks on the other hand, are also growing quite a lot, but in a far more stretchy, pliable, sativa fashion. There one branch that is so long I had to tuck it under the PVC scrog frame to even out the canopy. Here is the garden.


The Money Makers are dark green, and seem to be developing pre-flowers pretty quickly.


Both Pineapple Chunks are looking pretty good also. They are a lighter green than the Money Makers, but still quite healthy looking. Here are some close-ups.



I haven't been logging my feedings in here because the nutrient deficiency problems have for the most part cleared up. Anywhere I'm seeing yellow growth is pretty easily explainable by: broken stems, leaves being rough-handled while pulling under the screen, and in some cases I think being too close to the hot exhaust of the dehumidifier.

ICB mentioned that I need to keep an eye on the humidity a week or so back, and he was right... It runs constantly. Luckily, I have my dehumidifier hooked up via a hose to my drain, so as it condenses water, it immediately dumps it down the drain. This saves me at least a trip a day to empty the bin, which is so nice.

What hasn't been nice has been watering these plants. Don't get me wrong, they are growing fantastic, but getting my watering can (or anything) under the screen and to the plant base has been difficult without bending weird and hurting my back. The CO2 and heat combination seems to be fine for the plants, even though it gets as high as 99 (!!!!! I know, but only for a tiny bit, only once... clam down). Mostly though, lights on it stays between 93-95 which is hotter than the Solar Storm. The plants are not showing any signs of heat stress though that I am seeing. They are growing like crazy, but also drinking like crazy, and transpiring like crazy, which (along with heat) dries out the soil more quickly than I'd like.

Night temps drop to 83-85, and humidity stays at 40% thanks to the dehumidifier. The heat from that running all night is what has kept the temperature about 10 degrees above the ambient in the basement, which has also eliminated my need for an auxiliary heater and day/night controller that I had already purchased. So I decided to return the day/night temp controller.

With the money I got from returning the day/night controller, I decided to treat myself to a nice drip system. Using the components below, I now have a loop system that can go around the base of each plant. I'm using a 1500 gph pump, 15' garden hose, a 4 port drip manifold, and various drip fittings I don't have time go into now, and a 20 gallon botanicare reservoir I already have from my hydro days to hold a pre-mixed solution. Don't worry, I'm not using buckets.


Today I assembled the drip system completely, and tested it. It works great. I'll be putting the loops around the plants tonight, and getting my solution mixed and aerated with an air pump and 4 port manifold. Here's what the finished product looks like:



That's all I got for now. Thanks for watching!
MC

Hey MC...wow are those things exploding ! You sure have got your hands (and screens) full...hahah..Just wait until all those flowers start popping up everywhere...the smell of sweet pineapple..

Good idea on that dehumidifier...not having to worry about draining the reservoir is very nice. I try to turn the extra work into a positive by collecting all that water and use it for watering the plants...give my RO filter a break..

Nice progress man!

ICB