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Hi All. This is my 3rd grow and boy have I come a long way. Im still not a pro, but I have learned alot. My second grow was unsuccessful because of my lack of experience in growing in promix coco coir. Heat also being an issue. Anyways back to the Velvet Bud grow.... Apparently Velvet bud is a descendent of Purple bud. Velvet bud is produced by Seedsman. I didn't pick this strain. It was given to me because of a order blunder from the local outlet...so this is how I ended up with it. My set up is: 800mm x 800mm x 1250mm grow tent 400w MH/HPS 400w digital ballast 100mm centrifugal extractor fan 4 x 20L pots Soil medium : promix coco coir perlite mix 50/50 Pots lined with filter floss Hydroponics system using normal 3 part nutrients system. Grow nutes Micro nutes and Bloom nutes by EHG. Seedling stage: 3 out of 5 seeds germinated. Seedlings where ready for transplanting into the bigger pots after about 2 weeks. Used a humidity dome to keep the fellows warms as temps where still cool. I felt that the seedlings responded well to a temp of 24 celcius. 15% nutes of bloom grow and micro. Two seedlings flourished while the 3 guys lagged behind a bit. Unfortunately no pics of the seedling stage. Vegative stage: Once these guys got into the bigger pots they just took off. Ramping up the nutes gradually to 90 % of the recommended dosage with Grow, Micro and CalMag( a definite must for growing in coco coir). I only topped these plants once, then after a few days I LST the 4 main branches by pulling them down with pipe cleaners. The above picture is after 3 weeks of vegging since I put the seedlings into these pots. Good vigorous growth for Velvet Bud! I ended up using an auto pot for one on the right. I also added an airstone and pump. You can clearly see the difference! Im not doing any testing. Im just following the schedule on the nutrient bottle but dosing slightly less and seeing how the plants respond. I add a table spoon of CalMag to every 10L of normal tap water. 18/6 light schedule with MH globe. Temps where a little low so I added a temp sensor switch to my extractor fan. When the light comes on it also acts as a heater, so when the temp got to 25 celcius the extractor fan would come on and cool the tent and plants down with cool air from the outside. Above is a picture of the temperature controller. The sensor is in the tent, it also has a heating as well as a cooling option. This controller really helps with keeping a constant temperature. The above pic is at 4 weeks veg. Nice lush vigorous growth.Plant is looking really bushy and healthy. Velvet bud is responding well to the nutrients. Grow 20ml/10l, Micro 10ml/10l and Tblspn CalMag. Normal tap water with no testing. You're probably wondering what that piece of acrylic is for....well its a budget way to replicate a ventilated hood. I'm not using the temp controller anymore as the outside temps have risen so now I have the extractor fan running constantly. I had a piece of perspex(acrylic) clear cut to fit the tent perfectly. I used a holesaw to cut holes into the acrylic glass directly under where the globe would be. I did this because when the extractor fan creates the negative air pressure inside the tent, its will pull the tent tight around the edges of the acrylic and force the cool air from the bottom compartment into the above compartment directly over the globe therefore also keeping the globe cool and keeping my plants cool. Its also adjustable. I also have been using a humidifier on and off. I usually only use it weather depending. During this time I also took six clones. I used a rooting hormone and rockwool cubes all six clones rooted after 10 days. Velvet Bud takes good clones!!! I gave 4 away (good karma) and added 2 clones to a fourth pot. I had to leave for a month and had to ask very nicely if she would take care of them. I had to mod the grow to make it as easy as possible for her maintain. So I bought a tray to fit the tent and ripped out the single auto valve I had, stuck it in the center of the tray, chucked the plants in, filled the tray with hydroton balls, made a watering schedule and nutrient mix levels( 20ml/10l bloom 10ml/10l micro 1/2 Tblspn CalMag) 10l and Mondays and 10l on Thursdays and had to leave for a month wondering if my girlfriend would take good care of my babies........ Whoo hooo!!! So after a month of flowering I return to this!!! Velvet Bud is looking so good and really is starting to smell so good. Nice sweet fruity smell ! My girlfriend did good!!! Box of chocolates for her!! I was mostly impressed with the two clones I had planted into the fourth pot front right in the picture. Heads as big as the rest and looking super healthy with fat nugs forming on the stems. Week 6 of flowering and Velvet Buds are swelling up and are just smelling irresistible!! Another wider pic at 6 weeks. Tents is so full!! 😁 The above pic is at 9 weeks flower. Buds are full of trichomes and have been flushing. Trichomes are not completely cloudy though so will defs have to go for another week. 9 weeks.... Buds are so fat they are starting to lean on each other with only the tent sides holding them up! Thats all for today folks.....will continue with this grow story once I have harvested. Its just about ready. Till then..chow