My Return to Growing by BudRanger!

[Sunin]

More than making flowering faster (a few days at most) is so they all start at the same time (so you dont have plants with different harvest times occupying your indoors preventing you to start the next badge).

To know for sure we would have to run 2 same plants in more or less same shape and vigour and flower them differently tent by tent. Doable in the future- I am always up for experiments.
Tried night of dark before harvest- I harvest at end of dark normally- did not notice the difference apart from lost day
And I get uniform flower with flower booster from kelp. Usually my plants finish the same. But that said- I know life- now that I said it I am almost sure I will have a slugger

 

[BudRanger1919]

Checked the bottom of the pots and the top soil, both dry after 5 days so right on time for watering. Looking at the chart the first flower feed has 3 products, 1 of which is a fertiliser. Rhizo-Mojo (rhizo, in every feed), Ocean Potion (kelp & various minerals) and Aqua-Marine Bloom (fertilizer and some immediately available nutes). I fed them each 4.5 litres this time.

I did a bit more net tucking yesterday. I also removed a few leaves that were clustered together in clumps, but it was only 1 or 2 leaves on each plant. I am pretty picky with what gets removed, but I am going to have to do an airflow defoliation in the next week or so, they are growing fast.

 

[Eledin]

To know for sure we would have to run 2 same plants in more or less same shape and vigour and flower them differently tent by tent. Doable in the future- I am always up for experiments.
Tried night of dark before harvest- I harvest at end of dark normally- did not notice the difference apart from lost day
And I get uniform flower with flower booster from kelp. Usually my plants finish the same. But that said- I know life- now that I said it I am almost sure I will have a slugger

To know these things for sure we would need several tents with several clones and also have the tools to meassure THC and terpenes at the very least, aka send it to a lab, several samples, its gonna be expensive. Seeds are not good for trials like this. Its complicated to do this on your own I always search google academics for new studies on these things but they still dont show up. Another one that Im waiting for is UV light, there's only one study where the trichomes compared to the other without uv were 5% higher but thats very inconclusive specially for 1 study only.
PD: I dont notice anything with 1 day of dark before harvest either, I give them 2, some people give them 3 my friend gave them 1 and didnt notice anything either. Maybe its just the smell accumulating in the tent since I dont open to check on them but I have an extraction fan, I dont know, hopefully we will get an study on this some day.

 

[Eledin]

Checked the bottom of the pots and the top soil, both dry after 5 days so right on time for watering. Looking at the chart the first flower feed has 3 products, 1 of which is a fertiliser. Rhizo-Mojo (rhizo, in every feed), Ocean Potion (kelp & various minerals) and Aqua-Marine Bloom (fertilizer and some immediately available nutes). I fed them each 4.5 litres this time.

I did a bit more net tucking yesterday. I also removed a few leaves that were clustered together in clumps, but it was only 1 or 2 leaves on each plant. I am pretty picky with what gets removed, but I am going to have to do an airflow defoliation in the next week or so, they are growing fast.
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The stretch has commenced! Hahaha. I do a light defoliation before flower and then at the end of week 3 of flower I lollipop them and remove shitty bud sites and leaves on the top covering buds. The only advice I would give in case you dont know already is that you shouldnt defoliate often at all, you can defoliate them a lot if you want but it has to be in 1 sitting because every time you do they take a few days to recover under stress, if theyre stressed often they might herm.

 

[BudRanger1919]

The stretch has commenced! Hahaha. I do a light defoliation before flower and then at the end of week 3 of flower I lollipop them and remove shitty bud sites and leaves on the top covering buds. The only advice I would give in case you dont know already is that you shouldnt defoliate often at all, you can defoliate them a lot if you want but it has to be in 1 sitting because every time you do they take a few days to recover under stressed, if theyre stressed often they might herm.

At least things have gotten a little easier haha, its mostly just watching now I don't have to do a lot because I am not yet perpetual so I have nothing to do.

I usually do it around week 2 or 3 as well, but Ill keep my plucking to 0 until then. Thanks for letting me know, I would usually just pluck problematic leaves as I saw them when I bent over to water my plants, now I will keep it to singular sittings when its time.

My next seeds will be going into flower a lot earlier. There will be more of them, up to 10, and I think I am going to germinate them at week 3 of flower. My current strain is meant to go for 9-10 weeks, sometimes even longer. If I pop them too early I will run out of space (has happened before).

 

[Eledin]

At least things have gotten a little easier haha, its mostly just watching now I don't have to do a lot because I am not yet perpetual so I have nothing to do.

I usually do it around week 2 or 3 as well, but Ill keep my plucking to 0 until then. Thanks for letting me know, I would usually just pluck problematic leaves as I saw them when I bent over to water my plants, now I will keep it to singular sittings when its time.

My next seeds will be going into flower a lot earlier. There will be more of them, up to 10, and I think I am going to germinate them at week 3 of flower. My current strain is meant to go for 9-10 weeks, sometimes even longer. If I pop them too early I will run out of space (has happened before).

Will you have space in the tent for up to 10 plants which will share indoors for up to 2 months with those big ones there or are you gonna veg them somewhere else? In 2 months theyre gonna grow a lot. I veg for 1 month tops, chop the 6th or 7th node and go to flower with 5 or 6 nodes, with the stretch of flower I cover everything. Next run Im even gonna go shorter, 3 weeks of veg and toping the 5th so I will have 4 nodes per plant. I always end up removing a couple of shitty branches so with 4 nodes I think the 8 branches will grow nicely, Ive seen pictures of plants with 4 nodes and properly defoliated and they look good but you cant top so early if the plant is stressed for example. In that case waiting for 1 or 2 more nodes is better.

 

[Eledin]

Also leaves that are yellow and droopy you can remove without stressing the plant, the ones that fall on their own almost when you touch them. Those are no problem but for the rest of defoliation leave at least 5 days to recover before the next one and dont do too many, in flower I wouldnt do more than 1, 2 at most, delays flowering and more risk to herm.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Will you have space in the tent for up to 10 plants which will share indoors for up to 2 months with those big ones there or are you gonna veg them somewhere else? In 2 months theyre gonna grow a lot. I veg for 1 month tops, chop the 6th or 7th node and go to flower with 5 or 6 nodes, with the stretch of flower I cover everything. Next run Im even gonna go shorter, 3 weeks of veg and toping the 5th so I will have 4 nodes per plant. I always end up removing a couple of shitty branches so with 4 nodes I think the 8 branches will grow nicely, Ive seen pictures of plants with 4 nodes and properly defoliated and they look good but you cant top so early if the plant is stressed for example. In that case waiting for 1 or 2 more nodes is better.

Oh sorry my bad, I have 3 tents currently so no sharing of space thankfully! I have my old Shorty which is 2x2 for seedlings/clones, then I have my new 4x4 veg tent currently not in use as they just went to flower, and then I have my 5x5 flower chamber which right now has my 3 plants I vegged a little longer to try and fill out the space.

So the 10 plants would go in the 4x4 until they are ready for flower, then they go in the 5x5 after the Grifters are done, and I am wondering at what week I should pop the seeds. This wont be a bud run by the way, this will be a pheno hunt dry run before I run more expensive seeds. I will just have these next seeds in 3 gallon pots, but I will have up to 10 of them.

 

[BudRanger1919]

End of week 1 of flower. The stretch continues. LED is still at 60%. The "fluorescent" setting on my camera has completely fixed my pictures, including ones taken directly under the LED light and I tested that today.

I haven't done any more tucking because at this stage I need a bit more stretch for them to fit comfortably. I usually stop tucking at week 2 so I doubt I will get much more done but I am happy with how I have filled it out so far.

The last 3 days my plants have been real stinky, but today it was extra stinky.

 

[Bdubs]

Increase your intensity if you want to keep tight node spacing. As long as they are not tacoing progressively, keep increasing it on her. As long as your room temps can be controlled and leaf temps are not too high you are good to increase it.

You can also shoot to 100% intensity and immediately lights to Max distance and let them cruise. She will stop on tallest tops when she gets close enough as she wants then work the lowers.
Some ideas if your looking.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Increase your intensity if you want to keep tight node spacing. As long as they are not tacoing progressively, keep increasing it on her. As long as your room temps can be controlled and leaf temps are not too high you are good to increase it.

Right now temps are not an issue, I have to run a heater to keep the temp in minimum range haha so I can crank it!

You can also shoot to 100% intensity and immediately lights to Max distance and let them cruise. She will stop on tallest tops when she gets close enough as she wants then work the lowers.

I am indeed just below max distance right now, so I will start this process. I just went in to the tent and turned her up to 80% (580w) which is a bit of a jump, and I will increase it again tomorrow if I notice no change.

 

[Bdubs]

I don’t know your light. All I gotta say is that you are at the whim of the Light Limit Factors. The plant will tell you what’s up.

 

[Bdubs]

I am excited!

I bet they like this!

 

[BudRanger1919]

I don’t know your light. All I gotta say is that you are at the whim of the Light Limit Factors. The plant will tell you what’s up.

I am using a SpiderFarmer SE7000, so the max it can go is 730w. This is my first run with LEDs, but on the 1st day of the flip they were praying hard so I increased to 60%, now 80% of course. But I am at max distance, so I will crank it over the next few days.

I am excited!

I bet they like this!

Me too! I can be a bit of a turtle with change , but trusting the boys and girls here has done me right since I have been here so I listen.

 

[Eledin]

They are looking so healthy! Gratz man its going great. If anything I dont know if I mentioned or someone mentioned this before in the post but some tips seem to be a little bit light stressed, since I dont see the ones below having the same yellowing I assume its the light. If it was when they were smaller thats fine then but if not maybe you dont wanna turn those lights to max. It would be great if you could meassure the umols depending on the potency and the distance. Being spiderfarmer, dont they tell you? When I see their panels in Amazon they say how many umols you get at which distance at full potency. The max umols that plants can tolerate in flower is 1000 or less, but if you have a good pheno and clone it you can get to 1200umols nowadays. Or maybe a super stable strain from a seed bank. Maybe Im outdated with that info since I have not searched for it in a long while so feel free anyone to correct me, I know there are some real light nerds out here
Example of the beforementioned yellowing

 

[BudRanger1919]

If anything I dont know if I mentioned or someone mentioned this before in the post but some tips seem to be a little bit light stressed, since I dont see the ones below having the same yellowing I assume its the light. If it was when they were smaller thats fine then but if not maybe you dont wanna turn those lights to max.

No worries, I can do this. I have lowered the percentage to 70% for now then, see how she looks tomorrow morning. If they were stressed at 60% though would you suggest lowering it further instead?

It would be great if you could meassure the umols depending on the potency and the distance. Being spiderfarmer, dont they tell you? When I see their panels in Amazon they say how many umols you get at which distance at full potency. The max umols that plants can tolerate in flower is 1000 or less, but if you have a good pheno and clone it you can get to 1200umols nowadays. Maybe Im outdated with that info since I have not searched for it in a long while so feel free anyone to correct me, I know there are some real light nerds out here

I need to get one of those light meters, I hear the apps on phones are not very accurate so I will order one online, they don't stock them in the local stores. This is what it says on their website about distances and umols. They say I am meant to have it at 24" which is 6 inches lower than I have it but they are still stressed. Without a meter I am probably pretty blind here.

 

[BudRanger1919]

I guess there is only one thing for it. Here are some closer images of my tops I just took. What do you guys think, are they pissed at me?
The tops of my plants have just grown past 30" marker, and the LED light is back on 60% (430w). LED is still 30" above.

 

[Eledin]

The one on the back left is the one that seems affected by something, could be light stress could be PH (not likely since you water them the same) or nutes. The other 2 have just a few tiny yellow tips nothing to worry about. I had the same happen to me this grow in 1 out of 4 and in my case it was nutes so I have to make a special badge for the special lady. Does the one on the back left has more yellowing besides the leaves on the top or only the ones on the top? If it shows in leaves no matter where they are its most likely that she wants less nutes, you dont have to make a special badge like I do, use less nute water with her and then finish her with only water, its much more convenient, but mine was looking a little bit worse than yours with the edges affected aswell so I have her on a light diet and supplements hahaha. All the affected leaves went away with the last defoliation and she is not showing any signs now. (Not because they were affected, they were still pretty functional, but I had to remove them anyway).

 

[Eledin]

No worries, I can do this. I have lowered the percentage to 70% for now then, see how she looks tomorrow morning. If they were stressed at 60% though would you suggest lowering it further instead?

I need to get one of those light meters, I hear the apps on phones are not very accurate so I will order one online, they don't stock them in the local stores. This is what it says on their website about distances and umols. They say I am meant to have it at 24" which is 6 inches lower than I have it but they are still stressed. Without a meter I am probably pretty blind here.
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I have the feeling that it might be nute related then, we'll see when you check the rest of the leaves.

 

[BudRanger1919]

The one on the back left is the one that seems affected by something, could be light stress could be PH (not likely since you water them the same) or nutes.

They are due for their first feed in a few days actually, start of week 2 is when they are meant to get it so that might be it. I will be mixing in a balanced top dress next water, so it might be needing some nutes. Its a top dress for early flower that still has some nitrogen in it but not as much as the veg top dress.

Does the one on the back left has more yellowing besides the leaves on the top or only the ones on the top?

I went in and had a good look, and its all the same colour basically, so I think she may be due for a feed. I also looked at the bottom of the plant, and a few shaded leaves at the lowest point of the plant are showing signs they are being consumed on the edges.

I have the feeling that it might be nute related then, we'll see when you check the rest of the leaves.

Yep, when I got on the ground to check, lower leaves are starting to be consumed. Do you think it could be light stress on these girls and nute issues, or no way to know until I address nutes?

I watered them 3 days ago, and they will need a water tomorrow. Last dry back took 5 days but they were almost drooping by that point, so tomorrow might be a good time to add top dress before I water. Tomorrow would also be the start of week 2 and on the chart it says to top dress feed start of week 2.