Grow V2.0 - Cream Caramel & Sweet Gelato -

[btk1977]

Figured I would get the diary started for the new grow seeing as seeds are on their way and the reorganisation of the room is well underway. Going to be useful for me to collect my thoughts and plan for the new grow.

 

Going to be sticking with Sweet Seeds as was so happy with how the last grow went. Plan is to stick with one tried and tested and one new variety as well as a predominantly indica variety alongside one with a bit more staiva. The final choice was Cream Caramel & Sweet Gelato. Felt like I had too many plants in there at the last grow especially with the size the ones in bigger pots got to. I'm thinking if I go with 7 plants and have them all in 23l pots (in between the huge 30l and 7.5l I had in the last grow) it shouldn't hurt my yield.

 

I've almost finished with the big clear out. The tent is in our small box room and during the 5years I was not growing it just became an overflow room for tat which made working in there less than ideal. Have got a load of crap ready for a tip run and only grow related stuff is going back in the room. Will be doing the deep clean, curtain & window wash (keep things stealthy) and fumigation tomorrow when the tent is down, which will also be bleached. Probably all a tad overkill but after having had spidermites once years ago I promised myself I would not cut corners on biosecurity.

 

Was thinking of maybe setting up the bigger rectangular tent I've got, but have decided in the end to stick with the 1.2mx1.2m as the rectangular one would require getting an extra lamp to make the most of the extra space.  I've also got a reasonably sized office filing cupboard with a roller door, thinking ahead to the subsequent grow I might use this as a veg space so I can get seedlings started while the crop finishing off and then drying in the main tent.

 

I've riddled out all of the pots from the last grow and going to do a 50:50 blend of used compost & canna terra pro+. I'd always used the standard pro but the last bag of compost I bought for potting up the 30l pots ended up being a pro+ as its all the shop had and I was really impressed and I like the idea of the lower nutrient content. 

 

Was interesting doing the riddling and being able to compare the root balls that were grown in plastic pots with those in fabric pots, its the first time I've grown in them side by side. The fabric pot root balls were so much denser and spread out uniformly with none of the circling around the sides of the pot as happened with all of the plastic ones which also had far less roots in the center. This has helped make my mind up on pot options and I will be going with 23l fabric pots. 

 

I'm going to stick with same lighting as last time, start with 150w MH, then 400w MH, then 600w HPS and then switch to 1,000w HPS for finishing off the flowering. Will be sticking with lights on 24h, got a great yield last time and the extra electric cost is going to be cheaper than the new contactor & heating that would be required for a lights off period to go smoothly. Nutes wise going to stick with H&G roots excel and Shogun for everything else.

 

Hoping to dial things in a bit better and be a bit more on top of reading the plants during the latter parts of flowering so I can avoid them getting hungry at such a critical point as happened last time. Going to see if I can improve on the yield a bit and get slightly over 1,000g instead of slightly under. Just itching now for those seeds to turn up on Wednesday so I can kick the diary off properly 

 

 

[superfruit]

Good luck mate, will be following along again. Couldn't help myself either, on day 24 

 

A few sweet gelato in the freezer so particularly interest to hear how she goes for you.

[SkyRider]

I'm a big fan of Sweet Gelato (auto). For me it's the best auto strain they do.
Easy to grow, looks good and tastes great imo.

I've only got one on at the moment, maybe 7/8 weeks old or there abouts. Think I'll be cracking another couple shortly though.

If you're looking to improve yield and you're growing just autos, have you thought about doing a constant cycle? Where you plant a couple seeds every few weeks...

Best of luck with your grow and hopefully you enjoy the fruits of your labour

[Sweet Seeds Apolo]

Best of luck with your new crop my friend!

 

Any help you need, we are here to help you

 

Sweet smokes,
- Apolo
 

[btk1977]

@superfruit Thanks for the follow, the original plan was to go for Sweet Seeds' Fast Bud & Mohan Ram but had to change plans due to what was available at Seedsman but the more I think about it the happier I am with this selection, really looking forwards to trying the Sweet Gelato.

 

@SkyRider Thanks mate! Hadn't considered doing a constant cycle but you have me intrigued! I'm following your grow at the moment and really like the idea of spreading the work a bit more evenly as marathon 16h trimming sessions aren't great and nothing worse than overdrying your bud as you didn't get to it quickly enough!

 

@Sweet Seeds Apolo Thanks a lot! Had to stick with Sweet Seeds after how well the last grow went, really looking forward to trying a new variety of yours 

 

 

Day -1 (or maybe -2 lol) Update: 

 

The seeds arrived promptly and I put them in the tried and tested damp kitchen towel midday yesterday. Just sneaked a peak and 24h later they've all started to split their husks and a couple have visible root tips which is very exciting. Have gone for 4 Cream Caramels and 4 Sweet Gelato in the end, was going to do 7 but couldn't decide which one to do 3 of  

 

If they carry on at the current rate they will be going into compost tomorrow. Going to start in small plastic pot for a few days and then transfer into final pot size, being very careful with the repotting. The decision over whether to go straight into final pots or not has been taken for me as I'm not going to get round to picking up the pots until the weekend.

 

 

Lets kick this off properly with some photos taken yesterday:

 

 

 

[growinggold]

Count me in for the ride buddy. What size pots you going of this run?

[btk1977]

Just now, growinggold said:

Count me in for the ride buddy. What size pots you going of this run?

 

Thinking of going for 23l fabric pots, the plants in the 30l ones last time were huge, having 8 of them in there would be too much, but I think 16l might be a bit too small. Will probably change my mind back and forth continuously until I actually go and buy them  

[btk1977]

Day 2 Update:

 

All 8 seeds successfully germinated and went into small pots of canna terra pro+ 2 days ago. I've gone for a split pot in a pot to make potting up into their final pot size a bit easier. Should have had a few photos to go with this post but my phone's screen finally packed up at the weekend, temp phone is has a shockingly poor quality camera and going to well over a week before I get a replacement thanks to some mupet on ebay cancelling the buy it now after I'd paid so got a 3-5 working day wait for the money to be back in my account  Will try and borrow the missus' phone to take some pics before then, but that's easier send than done  

 

Really chuffed with the new room setup, makes such a difference only having grow related stuff in the room the tent is in, I even have room for a swivel chair in there now which will make trimming less uncomfortable. I used the sulfume hotbox in there while I was waiting for the seeds to arrive & germinate and sprayed carpet with indorex which as well as killing any fleas (have cats that bring in dead rats so carpets get done couple times a year) will kill any other bugs. I've also slightly re-positioned the tent to allow for better air flow around it as the was a patch of mould on one of the walls (dealt with it with HG mould spray which works a treat) and definitely don't want mould spores building up in the room!

 

Only outstanding job is to tidy up the wiring as the only sockets are on the wrong wall. I've currently got 2 extension cables running across the floor but need to pin them around the door frame and skirting boards to keep things tidy and get rid of trip hazards as there's nothing worse than coming back to your to find the lights have been off for hours as you caught one of the wires underfoot on your way out of the room...

 

7 out of 8 of the seedlings are looking really happy already, one of them is growing at a bit of a funny angle, think I didn't plant it quite deep enough. It has convinced me to just plant them straight into the compost next time. 

 

I've used just fresh canna terra pro+ in these pots as was worried the compost I'm going to reuse might be too hot for the seedlings. Will be doing a blend of new and reused compost for the final size pots, probably at a 50:50 ratio. The pots were given a good drenching in room temp water and H&G Roots Excelurator @ 3ml/10l.

 

The girls are currently under a 150w MH bulb in the parabolic reflector (actually rewired it this time so I can easily use it on any of my ballasts, rather than using the crappy reflector the 150w ballast was wired to) temps are staying in the 23.5c-25c region but humidity is too low at 40%-45%. I'm going to build myself an evaporative humidifier this evening. Was planning on building an ultrasonic one but lunched out on ordering the parts so going to have to use what I've got kicking around the house. 

 

I'm still using the trusty old SMSCom twin fan controller for keeping temps nice and stable, currently only have the extraction hooked up, will hook up the 4" active intake for when the girls go into their final pots. Going to need to get something to control the humidifier with but that will probably have to wait a week or two before I have the funds. 

 

Think that just about covers everything and will get some pics up asap. 

 

[growinggold]

If you don't mind I'll take my old seat.

[badbillybob]

if you dont mind, lets see some pics   

Edited March 21, 2021 by badbillybob

[btk1977]

On 3/21/2021 at 7:31 PM, badbillybob said:

if you dont mind, lets see some pics   

 

Been slack as fuck I'm afraid, bloody gear box died on the van at the same time as a load of family drama kicked off and I've barely had the time to keep the girls alive so have been offline, for a while...

 

I've also been slack at taking photos so there's going to be a big gap in the middle but will get some up over the next day or two. 

[btk1977]

Managed to get a few quick photos taken during the first few weeks but between then and now I've barely had the time to keep the girls fed & watered so I'm sadly missing any photos of the main veg/first half or so of flowering. I'll update the diary anyway with the photos I do have and what i can remember from back then. Will then post what I remember of the period I have no photos for and will then get some current photos up and sum up where things are at now.

 

Day 11:

 

The Sweet Gelato seedling that wasn't doing to well in my last update didn't make it sadly, so at this stage I've got 4 Cream Caramels & 3 Sweet Gelato. They were all coming along nicely at this stage in their small pots and at day 11 I did the pot up into their final pots. 

 

The potting up went really smoothly, using the 2x pots with the internal one cut in half worked a treat, made it really easy to get them out without breaking up the compost so leaving the roots intact. I also watered them first to help the compost stay together. 

 

I potted them up in a 50:50 mix of new canna terra pro+ and the compost from the last grow (I riddled all of the old roots out). I was given some Mycorrhizae Fungi Inoculant so decided to use it, I sprinkled some on any visible roots and put a healthy spinkling in the bottom of the hole I planted them in in the final pots.

 

At this stage they were watered with h&g roots excel, temps stayed in the 24-26c region and I could not get humidity above mid 30s. They were under the 400w HPS at this stage.

 

 

 

e2a: I have photos for day 16 & 26 which I'll get up later tonight or tomorrow

Edited April 26, 2021 by btk1977

[btk1977]

Day 16 & 26:

 

At this stage they were being given:

 

H&G Roots Excel @ 3ml/10l

Shogun Silicone @ 1ml/l

Shogun Zenzym @ 2.5ml/l

Shogun Calmag @ 1ml/l

Shogun Geisha foliar spray every 2weeks up until flowers started to show (only on 3 plants)

 

I switched over to the 600w HPS, temps were in the sweet spot but humidity was low. Feed wise I gave them no grow throughout the whole veg period, they just really did not need any, not sure if its cos of the reused compost which had nutes left in it, or if the enzyme additive was breaking down the dead roots/plant matter and providing them with sufficient nutes this way. They were lush & green & vibrant so wasn't going to complain either way : )

 

I had planned to do loads of LST and for that reason I had planted the girls towards the edge of the pots when they went into their final pots, but I only got round to doing it properly on one of them, by the time I got to the others they were a bit too big and I was worried about snapping stems. The one plant I did the LST on properly has branched out and grown more than the others but is probably best part of a week behind the others.

 

I decided to give the foliar spray a go on 3 of the girls (2 cream caramels & 1 sweet gelato), they had 2 applications and the girls that were sprayed seem to have responded well to it.

 

Overall at this stage everything was going well despite (or maybe because  ) I was extremely hands off. They were really vibrant and growing at a decent rate.

 

You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the photos as they were done in a rush with the HPS on

 

 

[btk1977]

Day 27 - Day 64 (today):

 

Due to severe time constraints I was ridiculously hands off, poked my head into the tent every other day and fed/watered them but that was it. The veg period went better than I could have hoped for, they did start to show pre flowers what felt like very early and by the time the stretch had been under way for a week or so it was clear they were going to be a lot smaller than during the last grow.

 

I'm really not sure why they have ended up smaller, even the plants in the 7.5l pots during the last grow were bigger and they seemed to pre flower and flower faster & at a smaller stage, although I need to cross reference my last grow diary to get a better feel for the differences. I do have a couple of theories, theory 1: something to do with having reused compost (i've done it loads of times in the past without issue but that was with photoperiods) maybe there was too much bloom nutes left in the reused compost and its caused them to flower earlier. Theory 2: my 400w/600w bulbs are duds. I don't know how many times they were used before my big hiatus. Going to skip using the 400w next grow and get a new 600w bulb.

 

I quickly switched to the 1000w HPS when the flowers started to form as I know that bulb has only done 3 grows. I was definitely starting to panic a bit at this stage, couldn't imagine plants half the size of the last lot coming close to the same yield. As it is now that the buds have chunked out I'm thinking I won't be too far off that last grow but should have a lot less trimming to do as they're a hell of a lot fatter & denser.

 

Once the stretch started I was worried I would have the same issue as the last grow where they all suddenly went from tip burning to starving in no time. They were still really dark green at this stage so started with just 1.5ml/l bloom and then really suddenly 1 started showing some yellowing on the older fan leaves and then quickly went a bit down hill along with 2 others. THey were still budding up nicely but definitely looked hungry, I used 2ml/l grow +2ml/l Bloom to start with as figured the stretch was burning through nitrogen and then shifted over a few feeds to 4ml/l bloom (along with roots excel, 1ml/l silicone & 1ml/l calmag). 2 of the plants kept their lush green fan leaves, 2 lost quite a lot of fan leaves to yellowing and the other 3 were somewhere in between.

 

I'm really not sure why I had such sizeable discrepancies between them, will stick to just new compost on the next grow to at least get one variable out of the way.

 

Other than that which has been a bit frustrating I'm chuffed with how the buds are looking on most of them, one plant is looking a bit sparse but think its a bit of a slower developer. 

 

I'll get some current pics up tomorrow night and update on anything else I've missed.

[btk1977]

Day 65:

 

Light: 1000w HPS

Nutes: Shogun Bloom 3ml/l; Shogun Silicon 1ml/l; CalMag 1ml/l

Temps: 25c-28c

Humidity: 40%-50%

 

Really not sure what to expect from this crop, the plants are substantially smaller, like half the size of the last grow, but the buds look a hell of a lot thicker and denser and they do seem to be closer to finishing than at this stage on the last grow. I doubt I'll be in the 30oz region this time but I'll be happy if its around 25oz, comes in a couple of weeks sooner and involves a lot less trimming.

 

About half the plants I'm really happy with, the other half have lost a fair few fan leaves as I didn't up their feed in time (weird how I've yet again ended up with half the plants being way more hungry than the other half) but still seem to be chunking up nicely. The smell this time is so much stronger which has been a nice surprise.

 

I've started to tie off some of the branches to open up the plants a bit to try and get some air flow around the fat colas. Got 3 or 4 done last night but then I split a couple of branches (fingers crossed doesn't seem to have killed those 2 branches and its the runt of the pack at least) and called it a day  

 

I'm planning on taking advantage of the extra available floor space compared to last time and getting the next lot started in the flowering tent seeing as the light is on 24h and they can be protected from the 1000w bulb by the canopy, could potentially shave a couple of weeks off the grow if I can get it to work without having to set up an extra tent/light. Plan is to monitor over the next few days and then pick a day to get them in their initial small pots.

 

 

This is Cream Caramel plant no.1, pretty chuffed with how those buds are shaping up considering I haven't done any training and its one of the ones that i seem to have hit sweet spot with feeding level wise:

 

 

This is sweet gelato plant no.1 and is the only plant that had a proper LST treatment during the first few weeks, its definitely got more budding stems and I'm not sure if its further behind e.g. the plant above or if its just not going to bud up as thick as its spreading it over more stems. If the yield ends up around the same then might as well stick with the hands off approach and keep the trimming time down  She's also desperate to be opened up a bit and is on the to do list for tonight

 

 

 

This is Sweet Gelato plant no.2 and is one of the ones that I didn't ramp up the feeding levels quickly enough (they went from needing no nutes to 3-4ml/l practically over night part way through the stretch)

 

 

 

Still have 4 more to get out of the tent and photograph, ended up with an impromptu day off so going to try and get them photographed today as well but wanted to get the ones I took this morning up into the diary. Trying to get back into the habit of it!