ArtistZanner said:

@PooToe You had suggested an app to test the lighting. I too have an Android, and while I didn't get the Tent Buddy, because for some reason, it wasn't shown as an option, I did get one with a 4.8 rating and says it does the same thing. However, I'm not sure how to use it and what numbers I'm looking for. Do I use it directly under the light? And what kind of numbers am I looking for. Sorry to sound stupid, but all of this is so new, and people on here talk about these things like it's every day matters. It's kind of like learning a foreign language. Anyway, I meant to ask you about it last night, but I forgot and just remembered about it.

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PooToe said:

The only dumb question is the one that was never asked.

Not sure which app you have but you use it by placing your camera phone at canopy level and allow the program to calculate the light energy(PPFD) that is hitting the plant. Some apps will only measure LUX which means you'll need to convert it to PPFD. Depending on the stage of the plant a general guideline would be 200 -400 ppfd for clones and seedlings, 400 - 600 ppfd for early to late veg and 600 -900 ppfd for flower.

Lux to ppfd calculator

Convert Lux to PPFD - Online Calculator | Waveform Lighting

Online calculator to convert illuminance (lux) to PPFD (micromoles per second per meter squared).

www.waveformlighting.com

Read this to understand the difference between Lumens, LUX, PAR, PPF and PPFD.

Lumens, Lux, PAR, PPF and PPFD: What Is the Difference?

Understanding Lumens, Lux, PAR, PPF and PPFD can help you better choose LED grow lights for your greenhouse or indoor plants.

www.mokolight.com

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ArtistZanner said:

I hate to constantly complain but I'm going to anyway, because I still have problems.
I'm 6 days away from when I'd like to flip my plants to flowering. However, I'm still battling high humidity and the plants that had "taco leaf" still have it. It's not smoothed out as I had thought it was. Now, I will say, I was very naive when I started because like all good newbies, I planted way too many plants and didn't foresee how that would work out in the space I had. I did move some things around and have widened and opened out my space where I could, plus I bought another couple of lights. So, here's the thing. With battling "taco leaf", which I think is a combination from high humidity and also that the plant was too close to the lights, I'm unsure what to do to fix it before I flip.

I currently have a small space heater in there to get the temperature up, and I also have a full size dehumidifier, which works very well. So I have two questions. Number one, does anyone think I should add another heater to my growing area? Number two, if I go by the guide that came with the lights, then I'm back where I was and I'm afraid the plants will suffer from high light intensity, and I'm afraid I will end up with worse "taco leaf". So I was wondering if I should lift the lights even higher and what intensity should I have the light dimmer at?
I tried using a PPFD app on my phone, and if I did it right, it's coming out at over 650, that's at the top of the plant (the light intensity was around 45%).

I will say that when I started, I thought this was going to be easy, and it was at first. But I'm finding the larger the plants get, the more issues I'm having to deal with. Another thing is, I've heard a lot of people saying they are watering twice a week, but when I water my plants with some run-off, I notice that sometimes the very next day they are feeling dry again. I usually stick a couple of fingers down in the soil to at least the 2nd knuckle, and it's feeling dry. Now, I know that sometimes a plant has a similar look when it's thirsty and when it's been over-watered, and the last thing I want to do is to over-water a plant because I know that's an easy way to kill a plant. But when my soil is feeling very dry, I have to guess that it really does need water. It is pretty warm in there, though by some standards maybe not warm enough, it's about 67-68F, sometimes maybe 70-71F if I'm lucky. But to be honest, I'm not really worried about the temperature, I'm more concerned with the humidity. I'd love to get it down before I start flowering, as I know that's an issue which can cause problems.

I'm just hoping that I can get this either fixed, or on the road to being fixed in the next week before I flip. I think other than still having an issue with "taco leaf", my plants look good, are growing well and I'm fairly happy. But it does worry me that the "taco leaf" affects all the new growth and I'm not sure what the long term affects that will have, if any.

So, the questions are ~ should I add a 2nd heater to make it even hotter in there (hopefully lowering the humidity)? And how high above the top of the plant should the lights be, and at what intensity should I be running them? I know that too low and it could affect growth, but too high and I'm end up exacerbating my "taco leaf" issue.

I feel like I'm stuck at a point where I'm not doing any better, even almost a week from when my problem first manifested itself.

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trustyagut said:

Hi,
You may be right with the high humidity and lights etc causing your edge roll. During veg I could be half that ppfd. Even now at wk5 flower I'm only at about 680 so far and things are going well again.
I'd say start picking the pots up to feel their weight instead of checking how dry the top is, they should feel very light. My pots are around 20gal and even they get light enough to feel they are ready for a big drink, which at the moment in wk5 flower that's 4L every 3 days but was half that in veg, so about 4L once every week. Although the top is dry the day after I water, it still takes another few days to dry back enough to feel light again, also I found I would hit many little roots when checking the top with a finger.
Did you have an update pic?

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Ninjadogma said:

Be lucky yall aren't in Ventura County. Last week we were dealing with overnight RH jumping to 95% and this week it's 14%. Normally that wouldnt be a big deal but I just harvested a plant last Saturday and goddamn if I didn't do my best trying to keep it between 50-70% environment while getting hit with both sides of extreme during the dry.

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ArtistZanner said:

@trustyagut Here's some photos. Most are of my other plants that I think are fine. Towards the end you will see the plant with the worst case of "taco leaf". There's also a close-up photo of another plant, and there's some spotting on the leaf, I'm not sure what that is and thought I would post in case it's something that indicates a problem.
View attachment 2307291View attachment 2307292View attachment 2307293View attachment 2307294View attachment 2307295View attachment 2307296View attachment 2307297View attachment 2307298View attachment 2307299View attachment 2307300

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ArtistZanner said:

I will take some photos tonight, as my lights are off right now. Maybe I'm not giving enough water when I water. I have a 3L watering can and I can almost water 2 plants with that (it's not quite enough for two). I do have run-off, but it's hard to see just how much run-off I'm getting and I've heard some people say you don't want a lot of run-off, though there's a lot of information out there and it's hard to discern what is really good information and what is just BS. I've got 5 plants in 4-gallon fabric pots, and I've got 6 plants in 5-gallon fabric pots. Obviously the larger ones will take more water. I will try the lifting method, or maybe take my scale out there and weigh them, because it's hard to easily to lift them. But if I weigh them I might be able to guesstimate the weight. I don't know, or maybe I'll buy a meter. I have back problems and so bending over and picking up 11 pots just increases my pain. Yes, I can get to them, but I have to move plants around to get to the ones in the back. I admit that I didn't plan my grow very well. I didn't realise they'd get so big (I believe mine are Indica strains and the leaves are quite large already), and my space is not exactly crowded, but just difficult to move in that space.

Anyway, I think I will try moving the lights up again. Clearly something isn't right.

Would anyone advise adding another heater to the room to try and dry out the room more and get the humidity down?

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PooToe said:

You can use the neem but first confirm you have bugs.

I still think the main culprit is humidity but plants in their weakened state tend to attract bugs.

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PooToe said:

Don't be discouraged. It happens to us all. These plants are pretty resilient so just ride out the deficiency. Just do the best you can with what you have. If your heater isn't quite up to where you would like it to be but don't have the coin to bring in another I would just stay with what you have and do what you can. Your other plants look fine so I wouldn't be too worried. Not much you can do about the weather. Think of it as a good lesson in understanding the plants needs and how these variables can affect it.

Next time you can try and setup a more controllable environment so you don't run into these issues as much. The R tech I mentioned is an easy, and fairly cheap, way of doing that by insulating your space from the outdoor temperature and being able to contain and manipulate it. Sequestering and containing a space will make it easier to control its environment. If you can place your grow space inside your house and your house has some sort of environmental control it will make it much easier to control the environment and keep your plants within the range you desire. I visited the UK many years back and I didn't see much in regard to air conditioning or HVAC in homes. Public spaces yes but homes not so much. Not sure if that is still the case but if you don't have this in your home then you'll sort of be at the mercy of your weather like you are now. Maybe not quite as pronounced, as you have better control in your home, but a better environment than a shed that is open to the elements.

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