First grow. Pretty sure I have to scrap it. Can you confirm?

[Thedadjokeguy]

Greetings all,

First post but have been a lurker. Before I launch in I wanted to thank the community for the plethora of useful information. I have come a long way during this process based on everything that I've learned here. This may be a long winded but from a first timer I need to communicate what i've done as I lack the experience. I think I have to start over and going to do a lot of things differently, but I'd appreciate what you think this smell could be and if it would be safe to vape.

I started my first grow in April. 4 Bucket DWC system. 4 Different strains to figure out what I might like. To be honest I haven't smoked in over twenty years and don't even know if it's for me. However the growing aspect has been fun thus far.

I extended the Veg time for a long time. I did this because I was in no hurry. I was out of work due to Covid and wanted to take this extra time to learn the training process of the plants, which I was amazed on no matter how aggressive I was those things would bounce right back!

Anyway mistakes were made. I did not keep any documentation at all on how long in each stage. I don't have a PPM/ECM meter, keeping it on the cheap, again to figure out if this is for me for this first round. Or for that matter what my PPM is on my well water (all things I learned later).

Anyway I religiously checked this daily for 5 months. I'd change out the water once a week until I flipped to flower about 5 weeks ago. I had to tied them up as the weight of the bud was toppling them over. Didn't have a pump to suck the water out, I was exchanging buckets in and out up/down steps every week. So moving forward I just premixed everything and then added to top them off.

Then the power was lost for 2 days. I kept the water low in the buckets so the roots could get air. They survived it (I think, this is where it gets tricky). That was three weeks ago.

So when first in to flower these things put off very strong smell, the typical weed smell. I quite enjoy the smell. Now they have lost that smell. The lower limbs with small buds on them died and are hollow (the stims) inside. All the plants have this consistent not so pleasing smell. I don't know how to describe it however it is something that I wouldn't ingest. When they were smelling strong and good I'd have no problem smoking that.

I don't see any signs of mold, spots or anything negative. The root system on all plants look healthy, no root rot. Pretty much all the leaves are yellow and about dead, minus the small sugar leafs. Approaching what I believe to be week 6 in flower and have no sign of amber on the pistols at all, 80% is white, 20% clear still I'd say.

I took a small cutting sample of two different plats. Buds don't have that weed smell, I see green growth like it's still putting on weight. But again based on smell I think I'd have a bad day if I tried this stuff. The health of the stalks and branches at this point look unhealthy. I've read the plant puts all it's energy in the bud process and the leaves dying like that is normal. But the main stalk I even had to tie up.

Average temp: 65F in tent, 55-60% Humidity (basement).

I bought a pump and pumped everything out two days ago and starting the flush process now. Might hack it all up this weekend and let them hang. If the stalks are hollow I'm going to assume they died a while ago and the smell might be related to not drying properly.

Any insight appreicated!
Thanks!

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Welcome to CP! Pictures would definitely help us help you figure out what the issue is. If you want to keep your grows "on the cheap" and don't want to have to deal with PPM meters and constant monitoring, then I would suggest trying growing in soil next time. It is a lot easier for new growers to learn in soil, IMHO, because it is much slower paced and you have more time to correct issues in soil.

 

[Thedadjokeguy]

Thanks TreeFarmer,

I will upload when I get home in a few hours. I'll try to get a picture of the current health. I also picked up one of those USB scopes as I couldn't see with a jewelers loop and uploads those too!

 

[MtRainDog]

Hollow stems probably aren't anything to worry about. I believe that's common. But if you say they look unhealthy then hrmmm...a pic is worth a thousand words.

The smell thing you describe is interesting though.

 

[Streetpro09]

Greetings all,

First post but have been a lurker. Before I launch in I wanted to thank the community for the plethora of useful information. I have come a long way during this process based on everything that I've learned here. This may be a long winded but from a first timer I need to communicate what i've done as I lack the experience. I think I have to start over and going to do a lot of things differently, but I'd appreciate what you think this smell could be and if it would be safe to vape.

I started my first grow in April. 4 Bucket DWC system. 4 Different strains to figure out what I might like. To be honest I haven't smoked in over twenty years and don't even know if it's for me. However the growing aspect has been fun thus far.

I extended the Veg time for a long time. I did this because I was in no hurry. I was out of work due to Covid and wanted to take this extra time to learn the training process of the plants, which I was amazed on no matter how aggressive I was those things would bounce right back!

Anyway mistakes were made. I did not keep any documentation at all on how long in each stage. I don't have a PPM/ECM meter, keeping it on the cheap, again to figure out if this is for me for this first round. Or for that matter what my PPM is on my well water (all things I learned later).

Anyway I religiously checked this daily for 5 months. I'd change out the water once a week until I flipped to flower about 5 weeks ago. I had to tied them up as the weight of the bud was toppling them over. Didn't have a pump to suck the water out, I was exchanging buckets in and out up/down steps every week. So moving forward I just premixed everything and then added to top them off.

Then the power was lost for 2 days. I kept the water low in the buckets so the roots could get air. They survived it (I think, this is where it gets tricky). That was three weeks ago.

So when first in to flower these things put off very strong smell, the typical weed smell. I quite enjoy the smell. Now they have lost that smell. The lower limbs with small buds on them died and are hollow (the stims) inside. All the plants have this consistent not so pleasing smell. I don't know how to describe it however it is something that I wouldn't ingest. When they were smelling strong and good I'd have no problem smoking that.

I don't see any signs of mold, spots or anything negative. The root system on all plants look healthy, no root rot. Pretty much all the leaves are yellow and about dead, minus the small sugar leafs. Approaching what I believe to be week 6 in flower and have no sign of amber on the pistols at all, 80% is white, 20% clear still I'd say.

I took a small cutting sample of two different plats. Buds don't have that weed smell, I see green growth like it's still putting on weight. But again based on smell I think I'd have a bad day if I tried this stuff. The health of the stalks and branches at this point look unhealthy. I've read the plant puts all it's energy in the bud process and the leaves dying like that is normal. But the main stalk I even had to tie up.

Average temp: 65F in tent, 55-60% Humidity (basement).

I bought a pump and pumped everything out two days ago and starting the flush process now. Might hack it all up this weekend and let them hang. If the stalks are hollow I'm going to assume they died a while ago and the smell might be related to not drying properly.

Any insight appreicated!
Thanks!

I wouldn't worry a bit about hollow stems. I get them allot and have read somewhere that it isn't unheard of in hydro.

 

[SoLowDoughLow]

Welcome to CP! Pictures would definitely help us help you figure out what the issue is. If you want to keep your grows "on the cheap" and don't want to have to deal with PPM meters and constant monitoring, then I would suggest trying growing in soil next time. It is a lot easier for new growers to learn in soil, IMHO, because it is much slower paced and you have more time to correct issues in soil.

Agreed, if you're doing DWC, you need a ppm and pH pen. You can get away with not having them in soil though

 

[SoLowDoughLow]

I wouldn't worry a bit about hollow stems. I get them allot and have read somewhere that it isn't unheard of in hydro.

Yeah I almost always have hollow stems. Sometimes like a fucking half inch in diameter

 

[Armdog]

I wouldn't worry a bit about hollow stems. I get them allot and have read somewhere that it isn't unheard of in hydro.

If you are going to grow in hydro you will have to have a ph meter. You probably have either a high or low ph and the nutrients are getting locked out. There are some rules when running hydro and the real important one is PH. And less nutrient strength is better. I run mine at 1/3 the recommended dosage with GH Flora Trio. You will get it figured out trust me. Just follow the basic rules and you will love it. I run RDWC SYSTEM , I am assuming you are running bubble buckets. Pound the air to them.

 

[Armdog]

If you are going to grow in hydro you will have to have a ph meter. You probably have either a high or low ph and the nutrients are getting locked out. There are some rules when running hydro and the real important one is PH. And less nutrient strength is better. I run mine at 1/3 the recommended dosage with GH Flora Trio. You will get it figured out trust me. Just follow the basic rules and you will love it

Keep your PH between 6.2 to 5.9 in veg and 6.0 to 5.7 in flower. Also keep an eye on your water temperature. I have a chiller and keep mine set at 68 with a 2 degree rise or fall. It is definitely more expensive to run hydro vs dirt. But if done the correct way it is unbelievable how rewarding it is.

 

[Armdog]

Yeah I almost always have hollow stems. Sometimes like a fucking half inch in diameter

I have hollow stems sometimes with no Ill effects.

 

[Thedadjokeguy]

Hello all,

Thanks so much for the responses, I feel like i'm in great hands here. I smelled the bud samples I removed yesterday again today. Already they smell different, smells more like plant matter then what I smelled yesterday. I think drying, even just 30 hours removed whatever it was I was smelling.

Also during inspection today I see amber! I closely inspected these two days ago and there was none. I'm feeling a lot better after what I saw and from your responses. Attached are the pictures (be gentle, first grow ever). For scale they are about 5' and change high pictured

Edit: CBD, Jack H, Northern Lights, and something else I can't remember off the time of my head. I am doing broad spectrum Head,Body, 50/50head+body, CBD high too see if I like any of them. Which point i'll know what to experiment with.

 

[Artisan_tek]

Hollow stems probably aren't anything to worry about. I believe that's common. But if you say they look unhealthy then hrmmm...a pic is worth a thousand words.

The smell thing you describe is interesting though.

hollow stems could be from lack of calmag.


@Thedadjokeguy do you happen to know what ph your running? if your plants arnt at the proper ph it cant uptake the correct nutrients. well water is usually pretty hard.

also with you being in dwc and in flower those plants are going to need fed. make sure your feeding them the correct amount of nutes.

Edit: after looking at your pics imo it almost looks like root rot or something in the root zone.

Edit#2 - ive also seen hollow stems on clones i cut. broke them and didnt notice. they never rooted so i looked more closely and there was a tiny break at the bottom. the stem had become completely hollow and brittle by that point.

 

[Streetpro09]

Looks like you have plenty enough to try and see what you like. I kinda like your idea of running different buzzes to test them out.

 

[Thedadjokeguy]

hollow stems could be from lack of calmag.


@Thedadjokeguy do you happen to know what ph your running? if your plants arnt at the proper ph it cant uptake the correct nutrients. well water is usually pretty hard.

also with you being in dwc and in flower those plants are going to need fed. make sure your feeding them the correct amount of nutes.

Edit: after looking at your pics imo it almost looks like root rot or something in the root zone.

Edit#2 - ive also seen hollow stems on clones i cut. broke them and didnt notice. they never rooted so i looked more closely and there was a tiny break at the bottom. the stem had become completely hollow and brittle by that point.

No calmag was used (will be used next time fore sure!). I followed the general hydroponics flora/bloom/grow chart only. I followed the chart exactly. Doing the bloom formula since the change over.

However, later I learned you need to take in account the PPM of the water. Which I do not know what the PPM is of it. In terms of PH, after adding the neuts and letting it rest 20mins PH consistently read 5.7. I left it at that without adjustment for the entire process. The roots in the bucket are amazing good. Only thing i'm confident in. Massive pile of them, no darkness, nice light color through out.

I'm glad you mentioned the smaller limbs broke off and hollow inside, that's what I was seeing and figured I was in trouble.

 

[SoLowDoughLow]

Hello all,

Thanks so much for the responses, I feel like i'm in great hands here. I smelled the bud samples I removed yesterday again today. Already they smell different, smells more like plant matter then what I smelled yesterday. I think drying, even just 30 hours removed whatever it was I was smelling.

Also during inspection today I see amber! I closely inspected these two days ago and there was none. I'm feeling a lot better after what I saw and from your responses. Attached are the pictures (be gentle, first grow ever). For scale they are about 5' and change high pictured

Edit: CBD, Jack H, Northern Lights, and something else I can't remember off the time of my head. I am doing broad spectrum Head,Body, 50/50head+body, CBD high too see if I like any of them. Which point i'll know what to experiment with.

I'm guessing you overfed them, and they got nute burned and locked out. Like others said, start out around half strength, see how they react, and go from there. Definitely check the ppm of your water before adding nutes too, just to see where you're at. It's so much easier in hydro to deal with a hungry plant than deal with a plant that is overfed and locked out.

 

[J.James]

No calmag was used (will be used next time fore sure!). I followed the general hydroponics flora/bloom/grow chart only. I followed the chart exactly. Doing the bloom formula since the change over.

However, later I learned you need to take in account the PPM of the water. Which I do not know what the PPM is of it. In terms of PH, after adding the neuts and letting it rest 20mins PH consistently read 5.7. I left it at that without adjustment for the entire process. The roots in the bucket are amazing good. Only thing i'm confident in. Massive pile of them, no darkness, nice light color through out.

I'm glad you mentioned the smaller limbs broke off and hollow inside, that's what I was seeing and figured I was in trouble.

Welcome! Glad you have picked up helpful info here.

I'm not a hydro guy but one of the first things I try to teach people is that most nutrient companies base their suggested feeding charts on 1000 Watt HPS as the light source. How much nutrition your plant needs is based on the amount of light the plant is given. What light are you using and how many watts is it at the wall?

 

[Thedadjokeguy]

Just wanted to provide a friendly update. After so many responded and some took ownership of the problem with me, it wouldn’t be right to leave you hanging without knowing how things are going!

I followed through with harvesting last weekend. I removed everything and the net in prep (have you spotted my mistake yet?). I cut the first plant at the base. Because it was top heavy it fell over, rest followed like dominos. Note for next time. Only untie a single plant at a time. The net pot lids acted like seesaw and when the plants tipped over. All the clay balls in there went with it. If you’re not careful that’ll knock you on your ass in a hurry. Those things are hard to keep in a dust pan when trying to clean up.

After cutting all four and hanging them, I worked on what looked like WW1 and cleaned up all the cannon balls. I took a small limb with 3 nugs on it. Tried my hand at trimming them. Honestly I was impressed with my dexterity, being able to get close to the stim and remove the leaves while leaving the rest unscathed. I then put those 3 nugs in a jar to take upstairs. It’s my little control jar as a quick status check of how things are doing without having to run down in the basement. Just something for an early warning sign that I can keep a close eye on from my man cave.

So the nugs in the jar I burp a couple times a day. If you remember I stated that the smell wasn’t pleasant in my original post and was concerned. Well, what’s in this jar smells strong as intended and even makes my mouth water. Very appealing smell too it. I put Jack in the jar by the way.

The plants hanging however haven’t changed. I believe this has everything to do with the stims still providing and feeding everything even when cut. But once they dry out more it should match.

I have a small fan blowing in the tent (not directly on the plants) have the tent fan on low speed. The zipper broke on my grow tent. Technically didn’t last a single grow. I’m not a name and same kind of guy but I’ll just say the tent brand starts with a V. If I enjoy this I think rather than go with one big ass tent I will get a couple tents. That will allow me to stagger stages and give me more consistent time to play. Also to continue to try multiple different strains. I’m getting a head of myself as I don’t yet know if this is for me. But man do I enjoy growing.

I know that jack in the jar (lol that sounds funny) wouldn’t have had enough time to dry properly. I bought a vape, I quit smoking 5-6 years ago and want to keep it that way. Anyway think I’m going to give it a go a little too soon anyway this weekend. If you read about some crazy guy in the news that might be me after ripping on it.


What light are you using and how many watts is it at the wall?
The light I'm using is Viparspectra Timer Control Series TC600 600W LED. 15amp circuit so about 1800w at the outlet.
AC AC Infinity Cloudnine T6, 6” fan.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I've found it easier to remove one stem/branch at a time and just leave the pots in place until I remove every stem. I used to cut the plant at the base but that was just a pain in the ass for me to deal with.

 

[H.A.F.]

I've found it easier to remove one stem/branch at a time and just leave the pots in place until I remove every stem. I used to cut the plant at the base but that was just a pain in the ass for me to deal with.

That's why I grow like Circ de Soleil - no net

 

[treefarmercharlie]

That's why I grow like Circ de Soleil - no net

I don't use a net anymore, either. I've just found that, if I cut the whole plant down, then by the time I get to the end of the plant to remove those fan leaves they are so limp that it just becomes a pain in the ass to manage. If I keep the plant "fresh", by taking one limb off at a time, I can just "snap" each fan leaf off by tugging on them at the right angle and fly through the whole plant that way.