Emmie's Vegan Fertilizer, Pineapple Chunk 2020 Celebration: Experimental Soil Grow

The Celt said:
That’s interesting, wonder if the 12hrs dark would be enough to initiate bloom with really long days like that.

Even with what I had read and posted earlier, not heard of anyone trying more than 15hrs daylight.
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That is indeed the $1M Kryptonian question... would the plants stick to their earth written genetics and go to flower anytime the dark exceeds 10 hours, or would they adjust into the longer cycles of the kryptonian day? I'm betting that their genetics will win out and that it would take generations of the kryptonian cycle to rewrite their genetic imperatives to flower any differently than they do here on earth.
 
The real million dollar question is this;
What’s the optimal day length? At what point do you experience diminishing returns where extra flower time isn’t worth the extra flower weight?
.......what’s the sweet spot?
 
ChefDGreen said:
The real million dollar question is this;
What’s the optimal day length? At what point do you experience diminishing returns where extra flower time isn’t worth the extra flower weight?
.......what’s the sweet spot?
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And that could be strain dependent...
 
So with @Emilya 's help I've stopped the lockout for the most part. I have battle scars but the girls continue to flower well at 4.25 grm. Here's a couple pics. Since I have a staggered start and strains I'm any where from 2-4 weeks from finish. Trichomes are really jamming.

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End of Bloom, Day 49 - 6 days till predicted end

Most of the pistils have pulled back or changed color now, with just a few white ones on top on just a few of the buds, but as of this morning, still no amber trichomes up top. It could happen any day now... we will certainly be harvesting this week.

MC at 4.5g this morning was probably not enough, even right here at the end. After taking my pictures, after the feeding, I second guessed this decision after seeing another leaf showing calcium deficiency up top, just barely.... 5g would have been more appropriate according to the indicators built into the system. No big crisis though, we maybe have one more watering before the end. We will get to that end without losing ONE leaf.... without crispy frying ONE leaf.... and without yellowing or fade. And look at these buds... tell me that old grower's tale about why going without a fade they could not have expressed themselves like this... please.

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I have been forced by circumstance to cease growing for the time being...That said, your threads are my goto for information. I was always drawn to this forum for the complete lack of 'Ego Trips' that are so common elsewhere. Im sorry to see they found us :/.
Open discussion and trial/error is how we bring cannabis into the accepted world. There is no place for back stabbing, name calling, and down right pettiness.
You have never hid your method or your failures or your solutions. Those that feel the need to castigate you should be ashamed.
I too miss the grow room of my past where I could curl up with a good book and read amongst my plants :D

Peace :D
 
Things are looking great in your garden Em. :bravo:

Now for more silly questions from the new kid on the block... (I know, I know, stupid is hard to fix... lol)

I observed your light height was considerably higher than your tallest cola. (9.5 inches is a beautiful sight)

So with a lower light height, would you have expected an increase in yield from the remainder of the canopy, due to better light penetration?

I'm trying to comprehend the benefit of the SCROG technique, and of course proper light usage/positioning. You have a mostly even canopy, with the exception of the large cola in that one space. So I know you didn't fry the top of that cola. Yet I'm curious as to why you used the light source less aggressively, proximity wise.
I would have been tempted to lower the light in search of maximizing the garden's yield. I see you didn't do that, your grow is gorgeous, now I'm questioning if I have the proper understanding. :nomo:
 
No question is silly, and yours are actually quite good. First, I learned an interesting thing during stretch that I didn't talk about, but now that you have reminded me I will go into it. Careful readers will remember that all through veg and even during transition, I was moving the plants around quite a bit. I was trying to rotate each container 180° each watering and actually rotated them around the room to new positions under the lights about every 3 waterings. Toward the end of stretch there was a period in there where I was getting 1 inch or more growth each night, and what happened was 2 plants recognized a spot in the lighting pattern where the light was not as intense, and they each allowed one kola to rise up into that relative dead zone where it was safe, inbetween the most intense cones of light coming out of the reflectors. I knew that if I moved the plants any more from those positions, those top buds were going to get fried, because up there 10-12 inches from the light, directly under a reflector was of such intensity.
I mapped out the intensity of my lights at various heights and mostly confirmed those readings in this grow with the light meter, but the problem was that my canopy was not even... I had besides the 2 tall ones, 3 different heights. After putting one plant on a box, I still had 2 main levels of buds and I had to balance out the maximum amount of light I could put on the top set, all the distances, and still try to get good usable light 18" into the canopy. I could have reduced the power of my lights and came in a little closer for deeper penetration, but I had the tops of those bigs ones to deal with. At 12" my lights are lethal even at mid power... so a little distance was necessary.

To utilize a scrog, you have to have an even canopy, and the typical way to do it is to let the plant grow vertically only 10" and then it gets laid down horizontally under the scrog screen, and all growth is kept under that screen while it branches out. When that extremely even screen is filled and you send the plant to bloom, the stretch will raise the buds up vertically from the screen equally across the screen, and then using this super even canopy you can bring your lights right in to their hot spot. With the distance between my COBs the sweet spot would be 16" above a perfectly even canopy, and I could throw down a perfectly even layer of light at that height. Then I would just have to adjust my wattage to the max that could be handed at that height, and it would penetrate quite far into that canopy, probably the entire thing. SCROG is a lot of work, but if you want to get a huge amount of product out of just a few plants and really efficiently use your lights for max gm/watt... scrog is the way to go.
As far as aggressive goes, all through the grow I have tried to give the maximum amount of light that can be handled at that stage of life and I have been trying all the time to use the most light that they can handle before the leaves started reacting in a negative way. Once we got into flower, the aforementioned height differences made it impossible to be exactly where I wanted to be on the efficiency curves of these lights, but I was close. Looking at the penetration into the canopy and the way I opened up the centers using the tomato cages, even at 18-20 inches this COB light did a great job. Although I could have maximized my yield by putting in the extra work to have a more even canopy by supercropping or whatever it took, and getting my lights right in the hotspot, the increase in yield over what I am going to get this week would not have been so significant that I am going to kick myself over it. The plants can still do pretty well in less than optimum light, but going the other way and giving too much light can cause significant problems. I have fried my share of plants... now I err just a bit on the low side.
 
Funny you mention light height. I've Been thinking about this grow and last grow, and height of my plants. They are all pretty consistent in height this time, except for the Zamaldelica witch is a beast! I added 200 more watts this grow and was more aggressive when it came to height. I have shorter plants with shorter internodal length. But the flowering is so much more advanced than last grow. I also learned the manufacturer's claim that 15-18 for flower isn't the end all be all. I was so focused on the lockout I quit measuring my light height. Next thing I know I'm at 12-13" with no ill effects to the plants. So they are staying at that height.
 
Emilya said:
2 plants recognized a spot in the lighting pattern where the light was not as intense, and they each allowed one kola to rise up into that relative dead zone where it was safe, inbetween the most intense cones of light coming out of the reflectors.
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You know when you try to explain something to someone, sometimes you can learn new insights into a subject? That just happened here. I have just proven to myself that the strategy of cranking up the lights in the transition and really trying to lay a good strong cover of light on the girls to restrict stretch, works. The two tall buds are proof that stretch still happens when you do not do that.
Next time, I am evening the canopy prior to the flip and really cranking down on the light, right at the sweet spot so there is perfectly even coverage.
But it won't be nearly as hard next time though, will it? I have a NextLight Mega that I will be using at that point, with perfectly even coverage in a 4x4.
Life is good. Enjoy your day everyone!
 
Final Bloom, Day 50 of 55
This is the hardest time of a grow and the patience that is required to not snip and sample and to harvest early, well let's just say that it helps a lot to have a previous harvest's product to get you through this trying time.
So far, no amber at the top... its coming though... any day.
The plants look as predicted... a slight bit of Calcium spotting on our indicator leaves is still progressing slightly because of the 4.5g feed, but other than that and the little bit lighter green all around, everything is doing well. Watering day is tomorrow again, and we will go back to 5g for the win!
Today, a bit of garden cam action... the coffee just wasn't strong enough at 6am this morning to get some good pictures in.
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Emilya said:
Happy President's Day to the USA. Thank you again everyone... I am feeling much better this morning and feeling very well loved. This weekend, trying to make me feel better, Ms. J. checked out the number of followers that I have on this board compared to any of these keyboard bullies, and she reported back to me with a very pleasant surprise... it turns out that according to those numbers, and numbers don't lie, I am the popular kid by a very large margin!
:woohoo:
A great big thank you to the 400 or so of you out there who follow me and my work on this forum!... that number means more to me than any monthly popularity contest ever could!
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U have a great deal of good knowledge ,and you stand up to what you believe . Thanks for all your hard work and the love you have for this amazing plant..Have a good day....
 
Emilya said:
Final Bloom, Day 50 of 55
This is the hardest time of a grow and the patience that is required to not snip and sample and to harvest early, well let's just say that it helps a lot to have a previous harvest's product to get you through this trying time.
So far, no amber at the top... its coming though... any day.
The plants look as predicted... a slight bit of Calcium spotting on our indicator leaves is still progressing slightly because of the 4.5g feed, but other than that and the little bit lighter green all around, everything is doing well. Watering day is tomorrow again, and we will go back to 5g for the win!
Today, a bit of garden cam action... the coffee just wasn't strong enough at 6am this morning to get some good pictures in.
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Wow!! them girls are pretty.
 
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