Five Little Widows Under LED, G-R-O-W-I-N-G

[Addo]

Before and after a little LST

 

[TorturedSoul]

Any estimation of how soon you'll be initiating the flowering phase?

 

[Addo]

Any estimation of how soon you'll be initiating the flowering phase?

To be honest I really don't know, I don't really have a time constraint as of the moment. Essentially, I need to harvest by January in the latest. I would say once I get the nutrient strength down, and my ladies start putting their clothes (leaves) back on, I will consider switching to 12/12. The way that they are progressing height wise, I would assume they will stay somewhat squat during the stretch. I really want to give my roots time to heal and to expand, I think DWC re-potting is somewhat un-stressful, along with LST, I'd wager that they fluff up before the new week.

A little data for the last week

The average temp is 73.2 dipping to 63 at night, humidity at 58%, and VPD at an average of 1.17 dipping to .80 at night.

Close of business, two, seven-gallon tubs, and one three-gallon tub

 

[Addo]

Thoughts on veg time for my five ladies to get over a pound? Supposedly under ideal conditions in a meter square setting I could net 500 grams but you know.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Is your LED actually a 450-watr device, or is it marketing lie "450 watts?" And can you post a PAR chart for the height above the canopy that you'll have it at?

I couldn't really speculate in regards to how long you'd need to keep the plants in the growth phase for that , other than to assume you'll want your tent to be pretty full at harvest time. But I'm wondering whether your goal is attainable.

 

[Addo]

Is your LED actually a 450-watr device, or is it marketing lie "450 watts?" And can you post a PAR chart for the height above the canopy that you'll have it at?

I couldn't really speculate in regards to how long you'd need to keep the plants in the growth phase for that , other than to assume you'll want your tent to be pretty full at harvest time. But I'm wondering whether your goal is attainable.

It pulls 450 from the wall and is marketed as a 600 HID replacement.

I'm sitting slightly higher at 75% simply to reduce stress after the defoliation.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Ah, okay. I was wondering if you had a junk Chinese LED. As opposed to a... name brand Chinese LED . They're okay.

You'll probably want to aim for 1,000 across your garden, or as close to that and as even as you can get. Slightly more won't do you any harm, but your plants won't derive any additional benefit from it unless you're adding CO2. But you should try to avoid going much higher, if at all possible. Due to the nature of the beast, that'll end up meaning that you'll get less than that near the perimeter of your space. That's in the flowering phase, when you're running it 12 hours per day. At 18 per, 600 to 675 is fine (IMHO). Works out to be about the same, in practice.

Yes, you could probably meet your goal... in theory. That assumes the plants are capable, you're an ace gardener, no disasters, blah blah blah. Could be eight to nine and a half ounces. Like the late Fats Waller used to say, you pays your money and you takes your chances, lol.

 

[Addo]

Interesting,

Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if I can check any of those boxes. Now, after the re-potting I've noticed a decent amount of water volume gone in both tubs. That being said the EC and PH are stable day after day, which according to our friendly guide its perfect conditions.

On to the bad news, I was able to recreate my issue with my res being an awkward color, having growth, and a slight organic smell. After a blunt, I came to the conclusion in my attempt to prevent light leak, and provide circulation I simply made the res too warm. As a little experiment, I dropped the temperature significantly, along with the water pump. I just want to see if my added bennies can win the day.

Finally, I decided to FIM Champ in an attempt to stunt the main cola slightly. Not that it's something significant right now, but I would prefer a bush. As it stands all of my ladies are somewhat growing in a mushroom shape, but I'm aware that won't last in flowering. I've been contemplating a scrog but its unfamiliar territory, and I have to slightly move the lids to check and replace nutrients. I've dumbed it down to a water pump transferring out old res and putting in new res, but I'm not completely sold, thoughts?

 

[Addo]

A small visual update, 48 hours of growth, FIMing, and fan leaf tucking.

Friday

Sunday

 

[Addo]

Ladies are currently bathing in a chemical concoction of water culture focused nutrients. I started the #MarsHydro ts3000 at around 18 inches and have just let them grow into it. I've somewhat been playing with the nutrient concentration and am running everything under a very reduced feed plan. I think based on looks and feedings that I just about have it dialed in. My EC comes in at 1.1 right now plus water which results in 1.3. However, I think I can push it up 1.2 or 1.3 without over feeding. I'm not a big fan of pushing my ladies to burnt tips, but things happen and well see how it goes. I've included one natural light shot with top development due to LST and tucking the fan leaves, and my nutrient tracking thus far

Attempting to give other tops a chance at the best light by tucking, so far there's about 11 exposed all around. Champ was also FIM'ed to give the rest a chance to catch up and level off.

 

[Addo]

The room which might turn into a scrog

Root Progress

Oakra swull

 

[Addo]

Started messing with a trellis, began cleaning up the bottom new growth and whatever I dont think will make it to the net before the flip at the end of this week. I have yet to top, and only two ladies were FIM'ed in an effort to push some hormones around. All ladies have shown sex and half of their stems are one inch in circumference while being a perfect cylindrical shape. I wanted to wait until my nets filled up some more, but I assume with the vigorous growth it will get there in time. This will be my first time using a metabolism booster so well see what happens and if I can tame any growth with two levels of adjustable netting.

 

[Addo]

Today marks the first day of 12/12 and a transition from veg to flower, I'm expecting some decent growth simply because of how bushy they are. Ill likely say three weeks until all growth stops, and then well start counting flowering days.

 

[TorturedSoul]

You don't count the first 40% of the flowering period (aka "the stretch") as flowering days?

 

[Addo]

Well I guess I mispoke, the following diagram is more along the lines of what I was referring to. Bloom boosters are not used until the generative period and stretch is just more veg, but it still falls under flowering. This mixed with the possible shock of going into flowering, and buds finishing late under LED's. I just like to give it some time before I start throwing flowering around thats all.

 

[Addo]

24th

27th

I accidently topped the same plant twice, but she's vigorous and so far no slowing down. Being the stalks little monsters I'm expecting a dominate cola to emerge. They're just so small and stiff, that the only wiggle room is undergrowth shooting up. However, we're at least getting new tops and filling the trellis quite a bit. I'm not expecting scroging results, just trying to get an even playing field.

The Kardashians are hungry, I've topped off a few gallons since Saturday at around 1.1 EC. Today she's at .6EC but PH and water levels are fairly stable.

Champ is the same but he's rocking .8EC and a lower starting PH of 4.9 which was corrected.

The dynasty have water table reduction, stable EC at 1.1, and stable PH. I'm assuming they're just recovering and will enter full growth soon.

 

[Addo]

Me time

 

[Addo]

Today is essentially the end of week one transition, growth picked up, and all ladies received a fairly brutal defoliation. The Kardashian required a little extra finesse. They grew threw the trellis at a fairly unimpeded rate and I was only able to train here and there. Luckily, I have these training clips that allows me to fight the stretch, but I will likely need another trellis in the future. Final thoughts, The Kardashian could be considered actively flowering, but they showed sex before 12/12 so ill hold off a bit. This is only relevant because they are still on veg nutrients, an even heavier dose and won't be switched to flower nutrients until they show signs of bud production or stretch stops.

All root systems smell wonderful, are noodle viscosity, and are growing in density. This particular picture is the inside of a 14-gallon tub, and you cannot see it, but the roots are roughly three to four inches dense at resemble a wall. The stems on some of these ladies makes me think they're going to be big producers, but what the hell do I know.

The current feed schedule, my ladies will need a few days to recover and get back on track so well give them some maternity leave and start counting again after that.

 

[Addo]

Beginning of week three flowering

Root zone

Res Change

Tops

Defoliation before and after

Leaves under true light

No real issues so far, the Kardashians are very stretchy but have allot of tops. Champ is slightly behind that, and the dynasty were allowed to veg out but during that time developed main colas that are too thick to manipulate. In a few days I will proceed to remove a few larger fan leaves from the canopy for air circulation and light penetration.

 

[Addo]

Today marks about week four in flowering or day 22 flowering for at least the Kardashian, I feel that the dynasty might be closer to day 15 or so. They started shooting up and branching out, so I took it as they recovered from their previous defoliation. That being said, all ladies were severely defoliated as I am fighting with humidity at the moment. The following pictures are in no particular order but were taken today.

Bud development is best on the Kardashians, champ has tighter internodes and good development however she has a single cola that hijacked dominance. Dynasty are super bushy, so they had to go through a massive loss of leaves and underdeveloped growth to allow for some light penetration. Additionally, the bud development is not quite there yet which accounts for all of the stressors these two have endured. However, coming from root rot, and PH issues to flourishing and simply delayed a week or so, I commend them.

In closing, things are going to be automated despite res top offs. I believe that my thinning was a little brutal but having everything available in stable res with plenty of oxygen should allow them all to bounce back fairly quickly. Until roughly day 29.

Kardashian

Champ