This is my first real grow!

[DankDabbler]

Bro your training looks solid to me, and your setup is looking awesome.

 

[PooToe]

Defol looks good! Just remember that when you flip the light schedule to 12/12 your plant is going to go into a "stretch" phase and, depending on your genetics, can double or even triple in size. I use that time to re arrange some of the branches to better fill the net and get as much light evenly to as many bud sites as I can.

I would also hold off on increasing your light intensity. The droopy leaf tips could be an early sign of light stress. I doubt it but better to keep them in growth mode than have to prolong the grow period having to give them time to recover. The plant is healthy and happy. Lets keep it that way. Maybe increase another 50 PPFD every couple weeks until you hit 900 PPFD. That's up to you and how your plant reacts but that would be my general rule.

Look into Daily Light Integral(DLI) so that you can better pinpoint how much light you want to give to your plant. I use it and it simplifies how much light I need to give my plant at all stages of growth.

Here's a nutrient chart for you to use as a general guideline as to what your plants nutritional needs are at different growth stages. The only thing I would change is when to start increasing cal/mag. I would do it a few weeks earlier.

 

[mstrpkl]

Defol looks good! Just remember that when you flip the light schedule to 12/12 your plant is going to go into a "stretch" phase and, depending on your genetics, can double or even triple in size. I use that time to re arrange some of the branches to better fill the net and get as much light evenly to as many bud sites as I can.

I would also hold off on increasing your light intensity. The droopy leaf tips could be an early sign of light stress. I doubt it but better to keep them in growth mode than have to prolong the grow period having to give them time to recover. The plant is healthy and happy. Lets keep it that way. Maybe increase another 50 PPFD every couple weeks until you hit 900 PPFD. That's up to you and how your plant reacts but that would be my general rule.

Look into Daily Light Integral(DLI) so that you can better pinpoint how much light you want to give to your plant. I use it and it simplifies how much light I need to give my plant at all stages of growth.

Here's a nutrient chart for you to use as a general guideline as to what your plants nutritional needs are at different growth stages. The only thing I would change is when to start increasing cal/mag. I would do it a few weeks earlier.

View attachment 2244777

Hell yea, thanks for the info once again!

Im definitely slowly getting the plant woven through the net lol its making a MASSIVE difference! Im pretty sure i would have had to start the transition into flower by now if i didnt start training her. Im gonna be getting a 2nd net for the upper levels around the time i start the transition.

I agree, i doubt its a light problem causing those leaves, but i wont be moving my light any closer until closer to flower time.

I wanna get some calmag so i can keep this plant mega healthy, but im hesitating because the FAQ's for the soil im using say dont add nutrients. Iv seen someome else on this thread say they used a tiny bit of calmag with this soil and it did fine so im tempted. Also tempted to try the molasses idea, just need to keep reading forums and stuff til i see info saying weather its good or bad to use with my soil

 

[mstrpkl]

Defol looks good! Just remember that when you flip the light schedule to 12/12 your plant is going to go into a "stretch" phase and, depending on your genetics, can double or even triple in size. I use that time to re arrange some of the branches to better fill the net and get as much light evenly to as many bud sites as I can.

I would also hold off on increasing your light intensity. The droopy leaf tips could be an early sign of light stress. I doubt it but better to keep them in growth mode than have to prolong the grow period having to give them time to recover. The plant is healthy and happy. Lets keep it that way. Maybe increase another 50 PPFD every couple weeks until you hit 900 PPFD. That's up to you and how your plant reacts but that would be my general rule.

Look into Daily Light Integral(DLI) so that you can better pinpoint how much light you want to give to your plant. I use it and it simplifies how much light I need to give my plant at all stages of growth.

Here's a nutrient chart for you to use as a general guideline as to what your plants nutritional needs are at different growth stages. The only thing I would change is when to start increasing cal/mag. I would do it a few weeks earlier.

View attachment 2244777

I was just rereading this post and realized i forgot to ask you this.

Im going to be getting a 2nd net for this grow. Should i start flower around the time that the plant is reaching up to the height that i want to install the 2nd net? And then just weave the plant through as the stretch starts? Or should i start flower a little after i get a few parts trained? It seems like you said you wait until you have a few branches trained and then finish the scrog off as the plant stretches, so in probably gonna aim for that lol

 

[PooToe]

I would use the second net as a trellis rather than a ScrOG. The ScrOG screen holds the branches down and spreads them out for maximum light exposure whereas a trellis keeps the branches from flopping over.

Your screen is getting pretty full. I would be thinking about flipping the light schedule soon anticipating the stretch that is going to happen.

I usually don't let them go vertical until I see pre flower happening so, if it were me, I would probably flip the light schedule in the next week or so to compensate for the stretch that is going to happen. I've seen plenty of times, and I've done it myself, where the plant gets vegged too long and when stretch happens the flowers get burned being too close to the light because the tent isn't tall enough to accomodate.

 

[AZreefer]

I was just rereading this post and realized i forgot to ask you this.

Im going to be getting a 2nd net for this grow. Should i start flower around the time that the plant is reaching up to the height that i want to install the 2nd net? And then just weave the plant through as the stretch starts? Or should i start flower a little after i get a few parts trained? It seems like you said you wait until you have a few branches trained and then finish the scrog off as the plant stretches, so in probably gonna aim for that lol

Measure the safe distance from the top of your pot to the bottom of your light when pulled up to max elevation. Take 6in off and that's your total grow space. Divide that space by 2 and that gives you an approximate half way point. That can also serve as a comfortable flip point giving you room to double. For me that put my plants about hip high. So just under the hip I did the flip. I'm eye level at my tallest girl.

 

[mstrpkl]

I would use the second net as a trellis rather than a ScrOG. The ScrOG screen holds the branches down and spreads them out for maximum light exposure whereas a trellis keeps the branches from flopping over.

Your screen is getting pretty full. I would be thinking about flipping the light schedule soon anticipating the stretch that is going to happen.

I usually don't let them go vertical until I see pre flower happening so, if it were me, I would probably flip the light schedule in the next week or so to compensate for the stretch that is going to happen. I've seen plenty of times, and I've done it myself, where the plant gets vegged too long and when stretch happens the flowers get burned being too close to the light because the tent isn't tall enough to accomodate.

Thats exactly what im worried about happening. Also since il be gone for about 2 weeks in october, i really need to make sure its all complete before its time to go. So il probably start the flip like you said, in the next week.

Really appreciate all the suggestions!

 

[mstrpkl]

Measure the safe distance from the top of your pot to the bottom of your light when pulled up to max elevation. Take 6in off and that's your total grow space. Divide that space by 2 and that gives you an approximate half way point. That can also serve as a comfortable flip point giving you room to double. For me that put my plants about hip high. So just under the hip I did the flip. I'm eye level at my tallest girl.

Hell yea thats good advice too man! My tents only 4ft tall so i wont be letting it get to my hips unfortunately lol thanks dude!

 

[PooToe]

I'm going to roughly guesstimate that if you veg for another week or two you'll probably see another couple of inches of length on the branches. From the pics I'm guessing your branches are around 10" long from soil line to end of the branch? If you veg them a couple of weeks longer and you get another 2" this should fill most of the net to the walls. You can expect an extra 7" - 10" of stretch. Hopefully no more than that.

If you measure the distance between the net line and the highest point you can hang your light that is the amount of space you have for your flowers to go vertical minus the space you need to leave between your light and your tallest flower. I'm guessing that you are in a 2 x 2 x 4 tent. Your light probably needs a gap of, at minimum, 4" of space at the roof to hang it at its highest position. Your 5 gal pot is probably around 10" tall. You have around 4" from the top of the pot to the net line. This would mean your plant is occupying 14" of the 48" of gross space you have inside the tent. Allow 4" for your light plus the 14" of space your plant is occupying plus 6" of space in between the light and the tallest flower in the canopy and you end up at 34". If your tent height is 48" you can grow 14" verticals. Plenty of space for your flowers if you keep your branches tucked under the net before flower set begins.

You could try and fill the net to the wall and then let them veg a little longer but letting the branches go vertical for a couple of inches before you let it stretch but, again, I don't know what the genetics of the plant will dictate as far as your stretch period so it may be better to be cautious and flip with all the branches under the net before you go into stretch. If the plant stretches 7" you'll have a sea of 7" colas with nugs growing all along the net line just like in the photo I posted earlier showing the bins I used for the pots.

A technique I use to limit the amount of stretch and get closer node growth so that the colas are full and not branches with nugs going up and down with space in between is to match or get close to the lights off temps with the lights on temp during the stretch period. It is a more advanced technique so I wouldn't recommend you do it this time but I mention it so that you know there is a way to limit the amount of stretch if that is your aim and you can use it once you master all the basics.

If you have to leave for a couple weeks I would encourage you to set up a DIY auto irrigate system. I had to leave for 6 weeks so I used a 30 gal plastic bin I bought at Walmart for the reservoir. I had my dehumidifier dumping condensate back into the reservoir to keep it topped off and to taper the PPM's in the solution. I was in week 3 of flower with 2 plants. I used a 260gph pond pump and connected it to an 8 port drip head with 1/2" vinyl tubing. I used a 6" irrigation riser with a barbed hose fitting to connect the 1/2" hose to the riser on one end and the 8 port drip head on the other. I used the drip head to connect the 1/4" drip hose and made a watering ring out of the rest of the drip hose and some 1/4" T's. I used 5 T's. 4 T's pointed down into the soil and the 5th one I used to connect to the 1/4" drip line.
Once all this was done I put the pump inside the bin filled with water, connected it to the timer and ran it the first time on the on setting of the timer to see how long it took before I started to see runoff. Once I saw runoff I programmed the timer to run a little bit longer to make sure the media got saturated, topped off the reservoir and added my nutes.

6 weeks later I came home to a tent full of frosty nugs!!! There were around 15 gallons of solution still in the reservoir and the solution PPM was at 380. The res tank started at 1200 ppm.

The Rig

 

[mstrpkl]

I'm going to roughly guesstimate that if you veg for another week or two you'll probably see another couple of inches of length on the branches. From the pics I'm guessing your branches are around 10" long from soil line to end of the branch? If you veg them a couple of weeks longer and you get another 2" this should fill most of the net to the walls. You can expect an extra 7" - 10" of stretch. Hopefully no more than that.

If you measure the distance between the net line and the highest point you can hang your light that is the amount of space you have for your flowers to go vertical minus the space you need to leave between your light and your tallest flower. I'm guessing that you are in a 2 x 2 x 4 tent. Your light probably needs a gap of, at minimum, 4" of space to hang it at its highest position. Your 5 gal pot is probably around 10" tall. You have around 4" from the top of the pot to the net line. This would mean your plant is occupying 14" of the 48" of gross space you have inside the tent. Allow 4" for your light plus the 14" of space your plant is occupying plus 6" of space in between the light and the tallest flower in the canopy and you end up at 34". If your tent height is 48" you can grow 14" verticals. Plenty of space for your flowers if you keep your branches tucked under the net before flower set begins.

You could try and fill the net to the wall and then let them veg a little longer but letting the branches go vertical for a couple of inches before you let it stretch but, again, I don't know what the genetics of the plant will dictate as far as your stretch period so it may be better to be cautious and flip with all the branches under the net before you go into stretch. If the plant stretches 7" you'll have a sea of 7" colas with nugs growing all along the net line just like in the photo I posted earlier showing the bins I used for the pots.

A technique I use to limit the amount of stretch and get closer node growth so that the colas are full and not branches with nugs going up and down with space in between is to match the lights off temps with the lights on temp during the stretch period. It is a more advanced technique so I wouldn't recommend you do it but I mention it so that you know there is a way to limit the amount of stretch if that is your aim and you can use it once you master all the basics.

Yea you got most of those measurements pretty accurate lol the light i have from vivosun is the aerolight, which has a fan in the middle of it that blows down at the plant, so il definitely need some space between the top of the tent and the light.

Ok so im assuming probably around 6-8 weeks of flower, depending on the genetics. Il be gone in the beginning/middle of October, so i gotta really try to time this right. With that being the case, i might have no choice but to start flower cycle tonight, or il have to wait a couple weeks and start it just a little later than would usually be best and just find a way to train it so it doesnt grow up so much. Pretty difficult choice actually lol the thought of flipping to flower righmeow is pretty tempting

 

[mstrpkl]

Ok so check this out. Maybe someone can help me understand this.

So i opened My tent up to rearrange some stuff, like move my new tent cam and lift the fan and the light. Well i tested my light as i lifted it. At about a foot away, it showed the PPFD i originally screenshot, about 650ish. Well i checked again after lifting my light roughly 6-8 inches, and the PPFD actually went UP, to almost 850! Thought that was odd, but maybe caused by the fan in the middle. Probably taking up space where lights could be and causing an issue with the light distribution. So i lifted it even higher, to the very top of my tent, and checked again. Well this time it went WAY up, showed values over 1100!

Does anyone think this could actually hurt my plant? Or should i let it run? Im thinking i should let it run but maybe someone here will have some insight for me.

 

[PooToe]

What phone do you use? If you use an android phone you can download Tent Buddy. It does the same thing as the Photone app but it doesn't require a diffuser filter. If not it seems you're going to need the diffuser to get correct readings. Not sure why it's doing that.

You can use this chart as a general guideline in terms of light height and placement until you're able to get your app working correctly.

 

[mstrpkl]

What phone do you use? If you use an android phone you can download Tent Buddy. It does the same thing as the Photone app but it doesn't require a diffuser filter. If not it seems you're going to need the diffuser to get correct readings. Not sure why it's doing that.

You can use this chart as a general guideline in terms of light height and placement until you're able to get your app working correctly.

View attachment 2245604

Hell yea thanks dude. Downloading that app now, its not exactly called that but i think i found the right one. Im gonna use that one when my lights on tonight, and then il try another trick i saw online today, i guess i can use some 1 ply toilet paper as a light diffuser for more accurate ratings. Im gonna try both methods on both apps and post my results tonight.

Looked into DLI, and if my readings are correct then my plant is getting way too much light. I used a calculator and came to a value of about 71, where the optimal value for my plant right now is around 50. I think thats gonna cause problems if i leave it like that for long. But thats assuming my readings were even right in the first place.

I think im gonna have to hold off on flower for roughly another week or 2....
Unfortunately the timing just wont work out for my vacation, gonna be gone 9/29 for 2 weeks. Dont wanna miss the right time for harvest. Il just have to manage the growth with my net in the mean time.

Definitely gonna plan my next grow out a little better lol but the next grow should go even smoother since i have everything setup how i want it, and i should have an automatic water system hooked up relatively soon as well. Making sure i have access to enough distilled water is gonna be the toughest challenge i think lol

Heres a picture from my tent cam this morning :)

 

[mstrpkl]

What phone do you use? If you use an android phone you can download Tent Buddy. It does the same thing as the Photone app but it doesn't require a diffuser filter. If not it seems you're going to need the diffuser to get correct readings. Not sure why it's doing that.

You can use this chart as a general guideline in terms of light height and placement until you're able to get your app working correctly.

View attachment 2245604

Where did you find tent buddy app for download? I cant find the real one lol

 

[AZreefer]

Hell yea thanks dude. Downloading that app now, its not exactly called that but i think i found the right one. Im gonna use that one when my lights on tonight, and then il try another trick i saw online today, i guess i can use some 1 ply toilet paper as a light diffuser for more accurate ratings. Im gonna try both methods on both apps and post my results tonight.

Looked into DLI, and if my readings are correct then my plant is getting way too much light. I used a calculator and came to a value of about 71, where the optimal value for my plant right now is around 50. I think thats gonna cause problems if i leave it like that for long. But thats assuming my readings were even right in the first place.

I think im gonna have to hold off on flower for roughly another week or 2....
Unfortunately the timing just wont work out for my vacation, gonna be gone 9/29 for 2 weeks. Dont wanna miss the right time for harvest. Il just have to manage the growth with my net in the mean time.

Definitely gonna plan my next grow out a little better lol but the next grow should go even smoother since i have everything setup how i want it, and i should have an automatic water system hooked up relatively soon as well. Making sure i have access to enough distilled water is gonna be the toughest challenge i think lol

Heres a picture from my tent cam this morning :)

I think you've gotten too into the light readings. Your plant doesn't look like it's gotten too much light? Your girl looks healthy. Wait and see what she says vs what you believe she needs with the light, yeah? You look like you're doing good. Real good.

 

[mstrpkl]

I think you've gotten too into the light readings. Your plant doesn't look like it's gotten too much light? Your girl looks healthy. Wait and see what she says vs what you believe she needs with the light, yeah? You look like you're doing good. Real good.

Well i just barely changed the light height, so I wanted to get ahead of any possible problems before they happen lol but i agree i think this plant is doing really well right now

 

[AZreefer]

Just watch. If she is praying real hard, leaf tips pointing way up, when you check on her then she wants more light. If she dances away and squirms she wants less. Check her a few times a day after a light change for reassurance.

I had to make a few changes to my light height and these were the tips this community gave me.

I had stretch problems at first so I lowered my light in elevation but then I was hitting my head on it so I elevated it as high as possible then increased my intensity to make up for the elevation. Had to keep my eye out for the symptoms but found the sweet spot.

Just pay lots of attention to what her leaves do.

 

[mstrpkl]

Ok so my suspicions on the light being too strong were correct, i found 3 leaves with sunburns :( pretty mild since i caught it early and have been watching it closely. I used both apps to measure light intensity, and i used them both with and without the 1 ply toilet paper diffuser method. I trimmed those leaves off, i figured its better to remove any damaged leaves as i notice them.

I turned my light intensity down to 70%, which brought my light intensity down to better levels, although still maybe a little high. But since the rest of the plant seems just fine, im gonna guess that itl be alright if i leave it at 70% for now.

The first 4 screenshots are with light on 100%, then theres pictures of the plant to show the leaves, and then the last 4 screenshots are with the light at 70%

 

[Farmville]

You need to get a piece of paper wrapped around the top of your phone with tape on the back. This will take the diffuser warning off the app and make your Photone app actually work. There’s no way you are getting 2k ppfd off that light. The way I know is the manufacturer ppfd tent map doesn’t go that high. It’s okay it’s just the app being weird without the step it said for you to follow being completed

 

[HerbalEdu]

accuracy of the photone app will depend on the quality of the camera inside the phone, some phone with low end camera will give funky results with the photone app ...