Kings Kush Auto Mars II 400 LED -- COMPLETED

[gasmeter 147]

Monday 06 February 2017

 

Time for an update on progress she is continuing to build structure all the stalks are looking a lot stronger with lots of bud sites.

 

I cut away all the string I had used to tie down the stalks and then pierced holes in the pot rim and used just pipe cleaners to hold down the lower stalks and open her out for better light penetration, because the stalks had lifted the canes as they grew over the last week and she tightened up.

 

All the shorter stalks at the top I used string tied from cane to cane and taped the string to the canes to stop the string slipping to hold the the smaller stalks down and I have used pipe cleaners to hold them to the cane on a couple so they aren't shading the stalk directly below them.

 

Here are some images I took of her today she is well ready for a drink tonite its been 3 days since I last watered and fed her.

 

Kings Kush auto in normal light.

Foliage close up

Node close up

More updates next week

Gasmeter

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[gasmeter 147]

Right lets get up to date with this progress update, as you will see compared with last week she has just continued growing and building structure and bud sites, the top stalks are now level with the tops of the canes again, so they are 18 inches from the light.

 

I will have to try to keep spreading the top stalks sideways as much as possible, I still have 12 inches of height to play with in total if I remove the rope ratchets and hang the light off the clips directly off the bar, which gives me a little wiggle room.

 

Here are some images I took this afternoon she is starting to look ready for a drink, I will water and feed her tonite just before the light goes out, she is needing a drink every 2 days now and she consumes about 1 and a half litres of water containing soil feed and some root stimulant.

 

The run off is caught in a saucer below the pot, I draw off a sample in a 5ml syringe and check the PH is betwen 6 and 6.5, then I remove the pieces of broken tile below the pot so it sits in the run off and wicks it back up into the dirt, which takes a few minutes then I put the pieces of broken tile under the pot to lift it off the saucer so air can get to the holes in the bottom of the pot.

 

Kings Kush auto

King kush top view of the plant and foliage

Kings Kush in grow tent under LED

Close up of foliage

Lower nodes getting bigger and stronger you can also see I have removed the fan leaves which were knackered and blocking light

Mashed up FIM site close up

I think I will continue giving her the soil feed for a bit longer while she is still busy building structure.

More updates soon

Gasmeter

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[gasmeter 147]

I was just reading the posts at the begining of this journal and your advice Cannabissapean that she would get bushy and fill the tent was spot on man. Nice one

Gasmeter

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[Cannabissapean 1,223]

I shall take a great big Bowww.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRZqRjxkHpk

 

Thanks for the updates, Gasmeter.  Interesting growth from the FIM-site.

 

Now you are approaching a critical stage.  You are continuing with Vegetative Lighting and Vegetative nutrients to support explosive growth in Vegg stage, and she is responding well.  Good job.

 

Even so, she is an auto, which means that, even if you don't force her, she may self-trigger and begin flowering at any time.  When you see the white hairs popping out of the main cola tips, that's it.  When she does that it is important for you to accept that and change her nutrients to flowering nutes according to the manufacturer's mixtures.  To help her get rid of the Grow-N nutes, you can give her a flush, and after she dries-out a bit, then give her the bloom-P-K nutes.   If you wish, you can further support her decision to fully convert by using a light-deprivation period of 36 hrs or so, or switching to 12/12 for a few days.  But because she is an auto, you can return to 20/4 thereafter and continue on toward harvest that way.  Alternatively, as other members had suggested, you may simply skip the light changes altogether.  But don't delay in switching over to bloom nutes after she tells you.  The reason is that, because she is an auto, after she begins to bloom, she has started a terminal countdown.  During her final countdown, even with the proper nutrients, she will have only a limited amount of time to stretch further and flower and gain weight in the flowers until she finally gives out.

 

You have done a wonderful job with this King's Kush Auto.

[gasmeter 147]

Your welcome Cannabissapean yes the growth at the "FIM" site is interesting and it will be interesting to see what happens there going forwards.

 

Although she is still building nodes on all the stalks she is flashin her girly bits everywhere so I flipped the bloom switch on about 2 weeks back, thinking she is on the threshold of flowering as she finishes building her structure, comparing her with the images from last years out door grow at a similar point in proceedings as it were.

 

As you say it is a case of keeping a close eye on her and watching for pistles at the tops of the main stalks/colas then I will know she is flowering and to change the nutes to the Soil Bloom, I am just going to let her do her thing rather than trick her, I will leave her on 20/4 she is not far off finished building nodes on all those stalks plus she seems to be enjoying the full light spectrum.

 

I have had to shut down the radiator in the little bathroom where my tent is in order to maintain control of the temperature and humidity, with the radiator on the temperature inside the tent was topping 30 centigrade but the humidity was about 75% and over, I opened flaps to let more air in the bottom to create a draught and get the air moving to cool it down which worked but the humidity was about 40%

 

So now the radiator is off the room temparatur is around 20 centigrade and inside the tent the temperature at canopy height is 28 centigrade and the humidity is about 65% and I have the little desk fan on its fast setting and I rotate the plant every couple of hours throughout the day and keep making sure the pieces of towel hung in string stay damp to help maintain the humidity.

 

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement Cannabissapean I will follow your advice and keep a look out for this pistles at the tops of the stalks/colas.

 

So you like Mr Bean and his crazy antics he never fails to raise a smile, maybe you like Monty Python as well https://www.youtube.com/user/MontyPython I grew up watching them on TV and listening to their records in the mid 70's, we loved their abstract sense of humour plus as we became teenagers we realised they were also taking the piss out of the establishment/government by simply reflecting their stupidity like a mirror.

 

Another favourite was Blaster Bates who used explosives to demolish buildings etc, my friends dad had a few LP's of recordings of him talking about his crazy exploits and adventures at work blowing stuff up, which was very appealing to me as a 13 year old kid, there are loads of videos on YouTube of him, but be aware these were recorded in the 60's and 70's and we did not have any of this PC bullshit back then like we do today. 

 

Gasmeter 

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[gasmeter 147]

Another week has passed and it is time for a progress update, she has been busy building lots of bud sites since my last update and you can see that the top stalks are now taller than the bamboo canes in the pot, I will tie them down better over the next few days.

Here are some images I took yesterday afternoon.

Kings Kush auto side view.

Kings Kush top view

Kings Kush foliage close up

Kings Kush girly bits close up under LED in tent.

She is now drinking 2 litres of water every 2 days, if I leave her 3 days all her leaves are droopy and she looks well sad, during the week I noticed the odd fan leaf tip curling downwards here and there and realised this is a symptom of nitrogen toxicity.

so I gave here just water on Wednesday and Friday and now only a couple of leaf tips are pointing downwards, I will give her only water tonight.

More updates to follow next week.

Gasmeter

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[gasmeter 147]

I have been really busy with work since my last progress update, so it is time for another update, I tied down her stalks better to keep her around 18 inches from the light, then last Wednesday I reset the timer so she is on a 12/12 photo period and it has now been a week, I will keep her on 12/12 just to be sure until I can see a lot more pistles and she stops building nodes.

Since the last update I fed her 2 litres of water and feed using half the recommended amount of the soil feed and some root stimulant, then I just gave her 2 litres of water on Tuesday night before the light went out, she will probably be ready for a drink again on Friday.

Here are some images I took a couple of days ago.

Kings Kush side view

Kings Kush top view

Kings Kush foliage close up

I need to try to take some photos of the main stem at the bottom which is now as thick as my thumb as well as the main stalks coming off.

More updates to follow soon.

Gasmeter

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[gasmeter 147]

Another week has passed and it is now time for another progress update.

Last Thursday I took some more photos of the plant to keep track and monitor progress and in the close up images of the tops of the stalks it was still difficult to see what was going on, there were a few pistles visible, but she still looked like she was throwing sets of leaves.

On Friday morning when I opened the tent to check on her in the morning I could immediately see flowers at the top of every stalk and on all of the side stalks growing off those, so there is absolutely no uncertaintly now whether she is flowering or not.

When I looked in the tent yesterday morning I could see that the flowers were definitely bigger so in the afternoon I took some more photos, then just before the light went off I watered and fed her using the Plant Magic Soil Bloom feed at 3ml per litre and I gave her two litres of water and feed I checked the PH of the run off it was 6.5 and then poured it away.

Keeping the humidity around 50% and lower is certainly easier than trying to increase it, I have the temps around 28 C in the day and 20 C at night.

Here are some of the images I took yesterday.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush top view in normal light.

Kings Kush foliage in grow tent under LED.

Kings Kush flower close up in grow tent under LED.

Kings Kush main stalk at dirt level in grow tent under LED.

More updates to follow next week.

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

Hey guys time for another update on progress since last week, I got very busy during the week and forgot to reset the timer so I decided to leave her on 12/12 for another week and I will reset the timer this Wednesday.

This afternoon I took some photos of her and while I have her out of the tent I adjusted the light so it is a close to the tent roof as possible to gain more space between the tops of the stalks and the LED which is now about 20 inches from the tops of the tallest stalks, which I can bend downwards as they get longer over the next few weeks.

Just before the light went out I fed and watered her using the Plant Magic Soil Bloom feed at 3ml per litre and I gave her two litres of water and feed I checked the PH of the run off it was 6.5 and then poured the run off away down the bog (toilet).

So here are some images I took this afternoon.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush top view in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up one under LED lamp in tent.

Kings Kush bud close up two under LED lamp in tent.

Kings Kush bud close up three normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up four normal light.

More updates next week, happy growing guys.

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

Another week has passed time for an update, well Wednesday came and went and I forgot to reset the timer again, this week I will definitely change the photo period to 18/6 until she is done.

I am well pleased with her progress she is quietly building buds and when you look at each of the stalks you can see the bud sites are consistent in their size as she shares the love, and now I see the trichomes becoming more and more visible each day.

This afternoon I trimmed off a few fan leaves that were yellowing around the bottoms of the lower stalks and I also adjusted the pipe cleaners I have used to tie down the stalks to pull them downwards a bit more to get more light penetrate the foliage.

I watered and fed her tonite just before the light went off at 19.00pm, I gave her 3 litres of water with 4ml of Soil Bloom per litre, checked the run off and the PH which was 6.0 then I threw away the run off and put her back inside the tent a couple of minutes after the light went out.

Here are some images I took yesterday afternoon.

Kings Kush inside grow tent under LED grow light.

Kings Kush bud close up under LED grow light.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush top view in normal light.

Kings Kush bud sites on stalk in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up in normal light.

I will update again next week, happy growing guys.

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

Time for a quick progress update, last Wednesday I reset the timer for the light and changed the photoperiod to 18/6 until she is finished.

I watered and fed her last Wednesday with 3 litres of water with 4ml of Soil Bloom per litre, when I checked her on the Thursday morning I noticed that the smell in the room and within the grow tent was not as strong and a few fan leaves had gone pretty yellow, which made me suspect she was suffering from nutrient lock.

So on Friday night just before the light went off I flushed her with 4 litres of water and then checked the PH of the run off and it was about 6.0 when I checked her in the morning the level of smell was increased back to what it was, so I knew she was transpiring properly again and able to use the water and any nutrients in the soil.

It is now 3 days since she had a drink and she still looks OK I will wait until tomorrow and then give her just water again, then next time a little feed in the water.

Anyway here are some images I took yesterday evening.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush top view in normal light.

Kings Kush stalk tops and buds in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up under LED light.

Kings Kush bud side view under LED light.

Happy growing guys.

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

It has been two weeks so it is time for a progress update, after my last update gave her 3 litres of water with 3ml of soil bloom feed per litre of water, then four days later I gave here 3 litres of water with the same amount of soil bloom feed, each time I checked the run off PH and it was 6.0 to 6.5

Last night before the light just before the light went off I gave here 4 litres of clean water, then in 3 or 4 days I will give her some feed again, I have also lowered the lamp after checking the specification on Mars Hydro web site, so it is closer to the top of the plant, unfortunately they sent me a manual written in German because my order was fulfilled in Europe due to the fact their UK distributor did not have it in stock.

Anyway here are some images I took last night before I watered her.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

 

Kings Kush colas side view in normal light.

Kings Kush bud in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up in normal light.

Kings Kush colas under LED light.

Kings Kush top of cola under LED light.

Kings Kush bud under LED light.

Kings Kush bud close up under LED light.

More updates to follow soon, happy growing guys

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[Crentz 22]

Beautiful looking plant, they look like some sticky buds?

I'm also using Mars Hydro on my grow and found this image a while back for light distance, not sure if it applies to the Mars II model though. 

[gasmeter 147]

Hi Crentz thanks, yeah the buds are nice and sticky with resin and she still has a few weeks to go yet.

Thanks for the light image, yes the distances are the same as in the specifications for the light on the MarsHydro online store

https://www.mars-hydro.com/uk/led-grow-light/mars-ii/mars-ii-400-led-grow-light-uk.html

I totally forgot to check the distances once she went into flower, I was keeping it at 18" from the top of the plant, I now have the light a bit less than 12" from the top of the plant and I have kept a close eye on her over the past few days and she seems happy.

[kingslemon 28]

Very  beautiful plant Gasmeter  soon you will harvest

[gasmeter 147]

HI Kingslemon thanks, yes only a few weeks to go now and she will be ready to harvest

[Crentz 22]

Just flipped mine into flower today and forgot to lower the lights also, seeing this again just reminded me?

[gasmeter 147]

Time for a progress update I was going to do this last night, but as I was looking at the images I took two days ago I realised that I could see amber trichomes on some of the leaves at the top of all of the main stalks, so I got two magnifying glasses and used them to take a closer look and confirmed what I could see in the images, I thought the leaves were just getting lighter and she was slowly using the nutrients in them.

This afternoon I took some more images of the plant which I do every couple of days to monitor progress and I can see lots of amber trichomes appearing now, so I will giver 4 litres of water tonight before the light goes off to flush the soil and start preparing her ready to harvest in the next week or two, I was thinking he still had a least two weeks to go, that was until I noticed all the amber trichomes.

Here are some images I took this afternoon.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush colas side view in normal light.

Kings Kush single cola side view in normal light.

Kings Kush cola top in normal light.

Kings Kush cola lower buds in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up in normal light.

Kings Kush trichomes close up in normal light.

The trichomes on the buds lower down the colas are still nice and milky so I will need to keep an eye on those over the next few days and watch for amber trichomes appearing so I harvest her at the right time with a good mix of amber and milky trichomes.

More updates to follow soon, happy growing guys.

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

Time for another progress update, after I gave her 4 litres of water last Tuesday night I checked the PH of the run off which was 6.0 it then took 5 days before her pot became nice and light again, so on Sunday night I gave her 4 litres of water again and checked the PH of the run off which was 6.0

I remove any fan leaves that had gone yellow where she has consumed all the nutrients within them to keep the canopy tidy and let more light hit the buds, I have been keeping an eye on the trichomes using two magnifying glasses as well as taking photos of her every couple of days and I can see amber trichomes appearing on water leaves on the buds at the tops of the lower colas as well as some on the water leaves on the buds lower down each cola.

Here are some images I took yesterday.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush canopy top view in normal light.

Kings Kush colas side view in normal light.

Kings Kush cola top side view in normal light.

Kings Kush bud close up in normal light.

In the information for the Kings Kush it says 9 weeks flowering time, but I note that in all of the test grow videos they say the plant is flowering as soon as they change the photoperiod, not from the point where there are bunches of pistles visible at bud sites all over the plant, so from the point where I could see pistles at the bud sites the end of this week will be week 8 although I reset the timer to 12/12 a couple of weeks before this.

From looking at the trichomes she could be ready to harvest this weekend or next weekend which would be bang on week 9, I think the number of weeks are a guide, the actual state of the trichomes is a better and more accurate way to measure the plants maturity, what do you guys think.

More updates to follow soon, happy growing guys

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

Time for another progress update, it took 7 days before the pot became light and she was ready for a drink so I gave her only 2 litres of water on Sunday evening just before the light went off and I checked the PH of the small amount of run off and it was 7.0 this is not a problem simply because it is the last time I will water her before I give her the chop and harvest.

I managed to take some images of the trichomes to get a better idea of how close she is to harvest and I can see all the trichomes on the water leaves lower down each cola are milky with a smattering of amber trichomes mixed in with them so it looks like a good strong hit profile so as soon as the pot becomes light again which will probably be tomorrow I will harvest.

Over the weekend I popped another Kings Kush bean to get the ball rolling for the next run, I put the bean on a piece of wet kitchen roll and placed it in a drawer on Saturday evening and on Sunday evening the shell had split and the tap root was visible, so on Monday I potted it water the soil the make it damp and placed the little plant pot in the grow tent and by Tuesday morning it had broken ground, baby Kush is doing fine I am well pleased with her.

I also ordered 3 more Passion #1 beans from Dutch Passion unfortunately when the package arrived it did not contain any beans, so I gave them a call and explained that the package was empty and they have sent out some more beans, so as soon as they arrive I will definitely pop two of them and get them vegging ready to go outside.

Anyhoo here are some images I took today.

Kings Kush side view in normal light.

Kings Kush top view LED light.

Kings Kush cola side view LED light.

Kings Kush cola top LED light.

Kings Kush cola side view normal light.

Kings Kush cola top normal light.

Baby Kush

I will take some images when I harvest her tomorrow, happy growing guys

Gasmeter

Likkle more

[gasmeter 147]

Harvest time

By last Thursday (4th May) afternoon her pot was very light and the few fan leaves still remaining were looking very droopy, and the bud was well sticky with resin, so I took some photos of her and then I started to harvest her by removing any fan leaves on each stalk then cutting off the stalk and hanging them on a rack for drying clothes.

When I had finished harvesting her and all the stalks were hung on the clothes rack my finger tips had a nice layer of amber resin on them, it then took me about half an hour to rub up about a gramme of charas, which was handy I only had a couple of spliffs worth of commercial to last until my friend called by the next day with half an oz to refresh my stash.

By then it was about 18.30pm and I was starvin so I had some grub and a cup of tea, then I was ready to smoke up the charas, so I used some old fan leaves and rolled a spliff with some of the charas which I rolled into a thin sausage instead of trying to crumble it, because it was just so sticky and quickly became very squishy after a few moments of being handled.

The aroma of the charas was a herbal smell with a hint of pine or eucalyptus and tasted similar when smoked, even with old fan leaves the smoke was nice and the charas just melted it was well sweet, I like to draw deep on a spliff and the smoke was surprisingly smooth and cool, I used the last bit of the charas in a spliff with some commercial bud and that was a really nice smoke.

The hit from the charas gave a clear high with a slight body hit, providing a really nice vibe and it had legs and lasted hours, and it was nice mixed with some commercial herb too, I got well red.

Earlier this week on Tuesday (9th May) I noticed that the water leaves on the stalks hanging on the clothes drying rack were dry, this will be because she was ready for a drink when I harvested her, plus I have not been able to control the humidity, so that evening I trimmed the bud off the stalks, there were 21 stalks, I left the bud on the tops of the colas on the last bit of stalk.

So in total there was 150 grammes of dry bud and 100 grammes of stalks, plus 25 grammes of leaf material I trimmed as I harvested, most of the leaves had plenty of sugar on them, so I will use them along with the stalks to make canna butter and make some brownies with them, seeing all of the bud piled up in a heap once I had trimmed the last stalk was a great feeling, plus I was also able to rub up about half a gramme of charas.

I am well pleased with a yield of just over 5 ounces of bud from my first indoor run, as you can see in the image above I have not bothered to trim all the leaf around the bud due to the fact they were covered in sugar and I need to buy some proper clippers.

I had a spliff using bud from the top of one of the colas and the smell and taste is herbal with a hint of pine or eucalyptus just like the charas, and despite the sugar leaves the smoke is cool and smooth, I rolled two spliffs with the charas that was another nice smoke, she just keeps giving.

It will be interesting to see how the smell and taste develope going forwards, I will smoke what is in the jar last in a couple of months time.

On Wednesday the 3 Passion #1 seeds arrived, so placed 2 of them onto damp tissue paper on a dish and placed it into a drawer in the dark and when I checked on them this morning they had both germinated and they had little tap roots.

So earlier this afternoon I potted them on soil for seedlings that contains no food and popped them into the tent with baby kush who is growing nicely.

I mixed up some of the Canna Start this afternoon and I will start feeding the Kings Kush now she has grown a couple of sets of leaves, I will keep the 2 Passion #1 girls in the tent until they are nice and strong, then I will move them outside.

I will have to start a new indoor journal for baby kush and once the Passion #1 girls break ground I can start an new outdoor journal, I was thinking about popping all four Passion #1 beans, but I need to be cautious I am still spazing about on crutches, although the bone is slowly healing I still need to be careful and not make things hard for myself or the plants.

Happy growing guys

Gasmeter

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