My dinafem discovery and subsequent delight

[Dinafem-Mark]

As promised....

Here's a shot of some buds at the back of the room. A bit further from the light.......confirmation my feed has been pretty much bang on. This is how the rest of the buds should look. These buds are nearly 5 foot away from the lamp and are only just out of the devastation to the leaves caused by the lamp.

And a little closer. Still 4 foot from lamp

And worse

But you can see here....thankfully the buds themselves haven't taken any harm. I can't be leaving them much longer though because as soon as any crispness gets to the bud then it's time to chop or the buds are gonna suffer.

Anyway. Try to picture them with no brown leaves and we have the making of some lovely buds. I'm looking forward to chopping these and really seeing what they look like. I will certainly make up for the shit looking end plant with some decent shots of the finished product once trimmed

Crispy crispy.

Two of the Aks I'd say are amnesia leaning which are the girls that are very knobbly and full of long stacked calyxs and I have one which is more kushy looking with more rounded exterior. Can you confirm @@Dinafem-Mark?

Sorry for not finishing up with a primo looking cream of the crop entry folks but sometimes shit happens that's out of your control. If I'd have gone out and bought another 400 instead of using this ancient 600 we would be in a different boat but hey. You all learn.....even me. Sometimes the hard way.

Stay safe folks.

I'm gonna have to rig up another fan and filter and try and make this whole caravan negative pressure cos jeez Louise these girls stink. ......Might have to do the trimming in groom of these girls.

Peace out for tonight

The pheno that has the stacking buds with longer structure certainly sounds more amnesia dominant. The og kush influence will produce much tighter,shorted buds

Do you think the outdoor heated could have played a factor in the yellowing and crimping of the top leaves?

If the tops are close I would maybe give a day or 3 more then harvest the top 40-50% leaving the lower half to finish up

PM me mate when ever you are ready you have a reserved 10 pack from the seeds4diary giveaway @@blackpoolbouncer

All the best and thank you for the picture update very much appreciated.

D-M.

[Dinafem-Mark]

On a lighting note would a cool tube type of reflector help? As these are quite cheep,can be modified with a bugger reflector and you can hook up to existing extraction thus pulling the heat output with the smell via carbon filter

All the best

D-M.

[blackpoolbouncer]

@@Dinafem-Mark Thats the plan mate, gonna harvest the top 6 inch of affected buds this weekend which will nearly be day 70 odd nearly 80 iirc and leave the rest another week.

I dont think its really played a factor as temperauture have been spot on in the room lights on. its only lights off where its warm. Canopy temps have read no hotter than 30 when taken with an infrered thermometer but although not nessesarily clear on the photos it is definitely down to the lamp. All buds on the outskirts are unaffected largely, its like theres been an infrered beam thats zapped them over the last two weeks, good airflow over the canopy. It cant be anything but the bulb, its just strange they showed little to no signs of heat stress earlier on during flower.

to be honest when all is said and done it wont matter as i am giving the 600w back to my buddy and im getting my old 400w unit back of him. on top of that i wont be having such tall plants in there again in the forseeable. I may run a second 400 in there too. Im undecided.

I may just see what i can pull from a 400 now ive got some more space.

Its all very strange really, the closest bud to the lamp is just shy of 3 foot from the lamp which should be absolutely fine. Its even dabbed the buds 4 foot away and is bothering buds even further slowly. Either way with this grow there was nothing that could be done, the lamp is about as high as it will go and given my headroom of 3 foot to the lamp I fully didnt expect any issues. Its like the lamp has let go over the last few weeks and started runing hot.

[Guest Bajer101]

@@blackpoolbouncer Probably one of the main things I have taken from your diary is that you run with a 24/0 schedule. While this goes against the perceived thinking for growing autos, this regime has produced great results for you. As a result, I decided to follow this light regimen. My one observation about using 24/0 is that it results in shorter plants with much less gab between the internodes. This is probably due to the fact that the plants stretch during the dark period while reaching for light. With the 24/0, there is no need for them to stretch.

24/0 goes against all perceived wisdom, but with autos being so new the rulebooks are being thrown out the window and it is grows like yours that are writing the new rules.If the plants can use 24 hours of light then we should definitely use it. Max crop in the least amount of time. Who cares if it costs an extra 20 quid in leccy!

[bluntz27]

@blackpoolbouncer Hi, hope your buds aren't too damaged mate ​

Just thought id say, ive ordered 2 bags of the clover you use. As your plants look THE SHIT . Thanks again for your diary.

[blackpoolbouncer]

@@bluntz27 cheers mate. Nah the buds look lovely. Its only a bit of superficial damage to the leaves. Top 6 inch is coming off tomorow and that will let the lower stuff finish up nicely.

You will not be disappointed with clover mate. Just having that gets you a long way to growing the best plants you can.

Also @@Dinafem-Mark been having a think about what ya said regarding light off temps.

The more I think about it I think you might be into something. Maybe down to the change in lights off temp as it's been a constant for so long it might have caused them some stress and weakened the plants defences a bit. I don't know for sure but it's environment related for sure whether it be the light/reflector or the change in lights off temps. That is I suppose the only variable as the plants looked super healthy up until very recently.

Its either that or they have succumbed to some sort of disease that has weakend there ability to cope with radiant heat.

Either way. It won't be happening again as the room is getting a fairly major overhaul ready for summer and the blistering temps in my caravan. Temperatures are becoming amenable outdoors so the I take air will be coming from there mostly for the next grows.

@ I completely concur with your sentiments regarding stretch. Don't get me wrong the plants would still get to 4 or 5 foot if left untrained but the internodal spacing is I find much closer together.

Running 24 hour light is nothing new in the growing scene outside of cannabis and can be a way to grow some super plants if there suited to it.

24/0 for the win. I've been saying it for ages. Proof is in the pudding.

But overall it's a combination of things that make growing big auto's easily.

Good environment.good compost and good practise. With a bit of training to squeeze the best from then they grow themselves.

The compost really does the hard work for me.

It seems through luck/experience I've hit upon a pretty bombproof way to grow big auto's and I've got all the ingredients right. Its all pretty easy really when you think about it

Peace out folks

[Guest UK Caregiver]

I run 24-0 in my auto grows. Create the perfect environment... then leave it alone on 24-0... I think people sometimes put their other problems with their plants down to 'the plants needing a sleep'. I don't think auto's do either. Auto's are C3 plants I believe. They don't need sleep. They can sleep when they're dead!

Funny what you said about getting your 400 back. I use a 250w + a 400w instead of a 600w. Even then, I have just bought another 250w hps to replace the 400w.

I would love to see what you could do with one of the dimlux 630 cmh. I know you're busy, so they adjust themselves to keep the environment bang on, which would suit your needs. You can also use cmh 12'' from the top of the canopy and I ain't talking vertical here. Light aimed down. I know with the D Papillon 315w cmh, I can get it 10'' away for the sweet spot. No excessive fans. For each 315w cmh, heat wise, you wouldn't tell hardly any difference from a 250w hps. I love your grows and think you are a great grower, which is why I'd love to see what you could with cmh. I've got a 315w cmh in a dr60, 4'' rvk with filter attatched, rvk is running at 50%-70%, depending on time of the day. Waste of light that is anyway as each 315w cmh lamp cover 1mx1m, but the plant is loving it in a dr60. Maxibright are knocking out some decent kits too. £219 on fleabay for their vertical kit, or £249 for the mini supernova. They are only twice as much as a normal hps kit now. I'm having a bit of a break in 2-3 month', then coming back armed to the teeth with cmh + vertical 250w hps lamps. The 315w cmh lamps + ballast draws 340w total, is equal to 500w hps, which draws about 550w total for that 500w. I reckon your yield would go up with the 630 cmh. It doesn't need to go up don't take that the wrong way. The daylight lamp is 4200k, so perfect white light. Easy on the photo's and the eyes.

Hps is finished prety much. I still see a vertical 250w hps as a great lamp. The other's, not so sure anymore.

[Dinafem-Mark]

It just looked very similar to problems I've seen year after year both in my garden and friends. When temps get stable around the mid 60s low 70s it can effect the indoor temps creating hot spots and a more humid environment

Just a thought mate

All the best

D-M.

[Topdraw]

Loving the clover compost @@blackpoolbouncer, my ww are flying along and started tying down at day 20 with 0.5 of Calmag added to start them off. Unfortunately after returning home today it looks like I'd been a bit brutal and one of them has snapped around node 5. Pretty gutted but notice the same happened to you with a critical a while back. Should I expect to lose yield or will she recover. Is there a best time to tie them? I.e. Just after watering?

Looking forward to seeing your harvest reports.

Cheers TD

[bluntz27]

@@blackpoolbouncer, ive just potted my autos into clover,ive noticed a difference in 24 hrs. Its great compost, glad i bought it. Thanks i wouldnt of ever known about it otherwise

[Catb]

I've just been reading through your grow diary, great pics with excellent advice. I'm on my first auto grow and someone said I should change from 18/6 to 24/0. Is it okay to increase the light cycle when they're 21 days old?

[Dinafem-Mark]

I've just been reading through your grow diary, great pics with excellent advice. I'm on my first auto grow and someone said I should change from 18/6 to 24/0. Is it okay to increase the light cycle when they're 21 days old?

You'll be fine mate adding a extant 2 hours on and Imo comes at a good point in the grow. I would add 1hour on earlier and 1 hour later going of on the light cycle

All the best

D-M.

[blackpoolbouncer]

@UK Caregiver I think your bang on right. I'm not 100% but if you were to ask I'd say canna is a c3 plant with specific adaptations...most stuff tends to be with a few oddities.

Cmh I believe too is the way forward from hps. A 315w Cmh would be a perfect little addition indeed and would give me plenty of light with a little supliment from hps in my space. Interesting you say they run cooler. Its certainly something I'm gonna look into for this next grow.

@@Dinafem-Mark I get what your saying......but.

Its definitely the lamp/reflector. Another 6 or 9 inches further away I'd have been grand. Today's photos tell the story. After removing the top 4 inches of buds from directly under the light the rest is unneffected.....just a slightly too hot canopy is all. Which is down to me running out of headroom and not checking my temperatures regularly like I should down to it being a zero involvement flower period pretty much.

@@Topdraw brilliant stuff mate. Glad there flying along and you like the clover. Aye I ended up decapitation my critical jack at the above the 4th node which only left me with 8 branches and we all know how she turned out. 225g or something daft and loads of buds. No biggie imo. And certainly not a problem if done intentionally.

Folks that say topping or training auto's hurts yeild don't know what there talking about or they don't know how to grow weed to get the yeilds in the first place.

As far as when to tie...I generally do it when the plant is ready....I try and Ben the main stem over at 90 degrees as soon as it advances from the 5th node....auto's grow fast and new growth soon becomes woody so rather than thinking when's the best time to bend cos of the water content causing turgidity but rather bend it when the plant is at its most supple anyway. @@bluntz27 dude I'm glad ya like it.....I knew you would. It truly is the king of compost for me next to homemade organic supersoil but that's another story. There entire range is second to none.

@@Catb as mark mentioned an increase in light will not hurt them. Get it shining flat out and jobs a good un. Glad ya enjoyed it mate. Best of luck on your first grow.

Right......so that's caught up with the diary....onto an update of massive proportions

[Guest b33lz33bub]

Alright fella - the buds are still looking tip top mate, once the scissors have been in action no one will know......

I think theses problems are caused by low humidity around the tops of the plants rather than excess heat. I ran an AC unit for one crop , before returning it to the shop - long story, and I noticed that where the unit blew the cool and (more importantly) dry air directly onto the plants I got these problems, but the rest were lush and green right through to the end. I was running a sealed room so looked in Vapour Pressure Deficit theory and it that seemed to explain why there were problems.

[blackpoolbouncer]

So here we go. Again apologies for the late reply.

As I said ten days ago I harvested perhaps 20 flower tops. I only took of the top 4 inch which had crispy leaves and left the rest growing.

As you will see today, although there was some crispy leaves the buds are untouched and look scrumptious.

Dinafems genetics have really stood out and out of the three Aks I have run two would be keepers......one amnesia leaning pheno and the star of the show is the kush leaning pheno. Both quite different and beautiful.

The Amnesia leaning pheno absolutely fucking batters me....almost a bit too strong if I'm honest and I keep catching myself out when I have a joint and put too much in and ending up in a mess haha. This girl when ground smells like, and I know this is gonna sound weird but it reminds me of the smell of really good coke, a kinda bitter organic smell. Very unusual indeed. The buds on her are very knobbly and hazy looking and typical I would say of it lineage. The buds look how I'd expect. I'm impressed with the density of the buds with the Amnesia leaners as I thought they may be a bit airy but they are really solid and dense.

Still....Nothing like the kush leaning pheno. She is a beast compared to the others. She is gonna be rocking on for between 8 and 10 ounces on her own.

The buds are super solid chunky things of a really good size and is certainly the star performer in the room. If there was one to keep this girl would be it.

Comparatively of the two purple trainwrecks neither would be keepers. The smell of the bigger girl (only 3.5 oz) did not compare to the taste. She smells lovely but the smells struggles to translate into a hearty smoke. Strength is average. Smell average. High is average. Yeild is less than average.

Then there's her sister who is a right old oddity. Weird structure entirely and I'll not pull a great deal of her. Maybe a couple oz. She was the little girl at the back that could only grow 30cm wide left if a 10 litre pot. Luckily she was only gown to fill the small space at the back of the room.

Overall dinafems genetics once again stand out above the crowd. My friends also running a couple auto's now and the second I walked in the room I could tell ya which is dinafem and which is the hso.

I'll not be gambling with humboldt stuff again.

I honestly can't impress on folks how good dinafems genetics are. They really are stand out stuff.

The girls have been on nothing but plain old tap water for the last two weeks. We're on about day 90 now so they have gone a bit longer than I was expecting but there looking ripe now so the remaining 75% of the crop comes down tonight once my friendly neighbour the drug squad operations leader goes home.

Chopping these girls outa the tent is a MAJOR security risk. They absolutely honk!!

Anyways. I waffle as usual. Here's some pictures. I'm sure you will be able to work out what's what.....bear in mind these are only from the buds that were looking sorry for themselves in the last update. The majority of the crop is still to come down yet.

So without further ado.

As you can see from some of the shots that I've taken without doing any trimming how the top leaves are crisped up but the buds are left intact and it is entirely nothing to get any knickers in a twist about. Just a lesson learnt for next time about this light.

Oh and the girl who is out on her own...she is the smallest of the three Aks which has had most of her top buds already harvested. you can hardly even tell I've already taken an oz or two off her

Oh and for anyone who is interested....these are the roots of a sunflower I've just planted grown in clover

I'm glad a few folks are starting to try the clover. I've spent years not being fully happy with composts outside of canna and I'm glad I can share what I've found with a community who really appreciates it.

It was only really pot luck I tried it on my canna. It seems to be formulated just perfectly for cannabis and with a 100% peat substrate it makes it nigh on as perfect as it can be.

So hope you enjoy sorry for the shite pictures. Zero time has been really taken to get the best shots so I've just kinda snapped a few random quickies while I've had the chance so at least I've got a continuous record. So many shots I have taken I don't have the time to select the best ones so they are what they are.

Happy smokes folks

Top marque's again to dinafems breeders. Massive respect