I have been rotating my lil plants every watering. I wonder if that helps? Maybe some plastic lazy Susan’s for us folks that don’t build stuff like McGyver here!
Jon's Second Grow, First Grow Journal, Soil Grow Autos & Photoperiod
Fellow musician! I love a wake n bake every morning with a nice sativa and then finger picking my guitar for an hour or 2. I’ll make a note of your CJ!
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- #823
OMG. A lazy susan. I didn't even think of that. That's perfect. Just needs a small motor. Wow cool, thanks.
Off this topic. Somewhere you were talking about light meters and the best levels for seedlings, veg and flower. I can’t find it now...
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- #825
Not sure I would do what I have done. Most people believe that seedlings need very little light, like maybe 200-400 par or something. And indeed, in the right circumstances, that will work just fine. The Sour Apple auto in my Experimental journal about it shows just that. It's vegging so far at 360 par under a 29 watt light in my bathtub and it looks awesome. But the nine autos I just grew all spent their whole lives in the tent starting with the seedling in the Dixie Cup. Granted the lights were like 38" away, but they were on full power. The par level for their early growth was more like 700. And they did just fine. My theory is that seeds sprout into full sunlight every day with zero issues, so obviously they can start in more light than 300 par. I find that silly. But again, MOST will disagree with me. So I don't know what to tell you. You won't lose with the lower par numbers, so if you don't wanna push it stick with that, would be my advice. What I do many think is stupid.
My cheap light directions say 24” for seedlings and veg. 18” for flower. Seems like they are stretching a bit at 24”. I got a light meter app, but don’t know what I’m doing. Guess I’ll go see if I can figure it out...
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- #827
The meters are pretty easy. Which one did you get? I have Korona. I had to buy for $5 the red/blue LED and full spectrum LED options. Then I select which one I'm measuring for, the blurples or the real light. I set mine to par cuz I understand par easier than the other options for readout. And I put the diffuser on, which most require. It's just a piece of normal paper wrapped around the cameras on the phone, that's it. If yours is like that it should work fine.
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- #828
Can you show a picture to show this stretching?
Photone is the one I found. It does work the same way. What kind of reading should I be looking for and at what stage do you adjust?
This is the green c. It’s really the only one that’s stretching. I think that is all from it’s seed helmet upon sprouting. 19 days from germinated seed in the cocoa.
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- #832
I'd have to know a lot more about your grow to even begin to answer that question, and even then I'm not sure I'm qualified. All I can tell you is that I have a Sour Apple auto in veg under 360 par that's almost a two leaf plant, I have a solo photoperiod plant well into bud that's budding at around 1300, and a scrog that's budding at around 1150. The answer to your question is dependent on many factors.
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- #833
That doesn't look too bad to my eyes. Stretch to me is like when you have four or six inches to your first leaf. Looks like you have a couple. One way I know to combat it if you want less is to lower your light a little. Another thing you can and should do is have a fan blowing very gently moving those puppies all the time gently. This will make them develop more cells in their stem and is how the plants develop wind resistance strength in nature. That will help. And you could even, if you wanted to, simply bury the extra stem you don't like. I've done that without any problem although some will tell you not to cuz you don't want to rot the stem.This is the green c. It’s really the only one that’s stretching. I think that is all from it’s seed helmet upon sprouting. 19 days from germinated seed in the cocoa.
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- #834
Yeah man! Us musicians tend to be sativa folk I've found! lol.
Cool. I do have a fan gently blowing in their general direction. Going to add another this week at the top of the tent.
I saw what you said about the brightness of the sun. These LEDs are not really even warm. isn the heat more of a problem than light?
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- #837
One thing I've learned is that determining the starting length and stretch to your stem in seedling stage is part of what sets the whole stage for the growth of that plant. So like with my Sour Apple I got a half an inch or so more than I wanted, before the plant got to where it wanted to be with the light and it stopped "stretching" to the light. So all I did was literally put a half an inch of dry soil on top of my pot. I just look at it as the support structure for the entire plant. You want that stem to be short and solid. But not so short that you can't get a little under the plant. What you have going on is honestly about what I go for, maybe a tiny bit longer than I like. You look fine to me, man. Again, I would encourage you to check out some of the more experienced people that are reading me, for example. These guys know WAY more than I do. I am more than happy to help if I know the answer, I just really want you to understand you are asking questions of someone who may appear to be doing well but honestly is flying fairly blind most of the time. I just ask a TON of questions, to the point probably of being annoying. Lol.
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- #838
It is, but light can burn your plants EASY independent of heat. Especially if you have blurples which it appears you do. I use two for reds in a bud tent. They are likely very similar to yours. Mine have 120 10-Watt LEDs each in them. !0 watt LEDs are garbage. They are super inefficient and super hot and super intense for their size - too much so. I used them for my whole grow the first grow. I couldn't ever get closer than 16 inches in budding cuz it would make the leaves start to burn and the buds turn white. Better LEDs have 1 and 3 watt LEDs. WAY more efficient, and a 3 watt bulb is very unlikely to burn your plant compared to a 10 watt bulb. If I were you I would start saving up to upgrade the blurples. I am not a Mars Hydro guy, but they are a sponsor, and they have a great product line that is not break the bank numbers. Any full spectrum light of this sort will destroy your blurples. BTW - everyone starts with blurples it seems, and then when you upgrade you're the happiest person who ever lived. Just check your leaf temperature by checking the temperature at the level of your highest leaf. If it's 85 or less you're fine on temperature.
Excellent.. thanks! I am getting a better tent and light system from my local hydroponics guy next week. I have a decent budget. So a laser thermometer to check leaf temps?
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- #840
I just have a cheapie temp/humidity gauge. If you wanna go laser and can do that, go for it!