Slow grow - Thick stems - Many leaves

[Weedarast]

Hi,

Strain: Barneys Blue Cheese Autoflower
Mediun: soil, coco, perlite, peat, pebble
Vessel: Smart pot
Fert: Greenhouse powderfeeding grow + phed tap water (stood 2 weeks before usage)
Light: 3w white leds, total 144 watts (car led bar lights experiment)
Light distance: 50 cm

As plant showed itself and 3rd level leaves grew, I started LST in week 2. I noticed, that distance between leaf levels was very short. I thought it was N overdose and flushed for 1 week. It grew slow but with many leaves. Then I put light closer - no progress. Still slow growth and many leaves. Here are the photos. Any ideas?


Thanks and Happy New Year to all growers!

P.S. When I shot these photos, LED was on but camera shot a clear pic. Hmm.. it usually left lines as on pic 3. Pic 3 is old one just for example!

 

[Islandgrow]

Hi,

Strain: Barneys Blue Cheese Autoflower
Mediun: soil, coco, perlite, peat, pebble
Vessel: Smart pot
Fert: Greenhouse powderfeeding grow + phed tap water (stood 2 weeks before usage)
Light: 3w white leds, total 144 watts (car led bar lights experiment)
Light distance: 50 cm

As plant showed itself and 3rd level leaves grew, I started LST in week 2. I noticed, that distance between leaf levels was very short. I thought it was N overdose and flushed for 1 week. It grew slow but with many leaves. Then I put light closer - no progress. Still slow growth and many leaves. Here are the photos. Any ideas?


Thanks and Happy New Year to all growers!

P.S. When I shot these photos, LED was on but camera shot a clear pic. Hmm.. it usually left lines as on pic 3. Pic 3 is old one just for example!

Looks good she will stretch once in flower are you applying lst

 

[Weedarast]

Yes I apply LST. Thanks. Started to stretch. Still worried about size. Friend suggested to remove some light. I did it as well.

 

[Scientific]

That plant looks fine to me.
Beware of hitting the flush handle too readily/often/too long. Stripping the nutrients out of your soil won't make it grow any faster...

 

[TheDankBone]

I agree with Scientific. Your plant is doing VERY well. If I were in your position, I'd opt to maybe defoliate a bit and then LST.

 

[Weedarast]

Hi,

Thanks for suggestions. What I did so far:
Defoilated
Friend advised to increase distance between light source and plant so that lux value should not be above 50,000 - Done
Got red LED source as well from GalaxyHydro (300W) - Any idea how this LED works? Has positive reviews.
Plant started to show pistils.

Here is how it looks like!

One more question:

I use Green House Powder Feeding Grow. This is my 2nd plant. I mixed it with water 2 days ago. But only today I discovered that it has some newly produced particles inside the water. When I mixed it I observed carefully and the powder was 100% dissolved. Afterwards I added some PH down and air stones. Is it normal? can I use this liquid for plant?

 

[Scientific]

Friend advised to increase distance between light source and plant so that lux value should not be above 50,000 - Done

If you take that argument to its limit, then underlit, stretched, and spindly is what you're shooting for, which I'm sure you're not.
Decreasing the amount of light to your plant below the maximum it can take is bad advice, in my opinion.

 

[Weedarast]

As I have read 40,000-60,000 lux is the maximum. Isn't it?

What about sediments? Have you seen such a thing?

 

[Scientific]

As I have read 40,000-60,000 lux is the maximum. Isn't it?

What about sediments? Have you seen such a thing?

Outdoors on a sunny day can easily exceed 100,000 lux.

Assuming that you want big, dense flowers and you want them covered in trichomes, you want as much light as possible. Assuming everything else is in place (i.e. water, fertilizer, ventilation) intense light is the difference between a pretty green plant and a plant that is sticky with resin. That's especially true now that she's in flower.

Sorry, I don't know about sediment.

<edit> BTW, I think your plant looks great (though you've obviously got a little tip burn going there, but it's good to push the limits. )</edit>

 

[Stltoed]

If you take that argument to its limit, then underlit, stretched, and spindly is what you're shooting for, which I'm sure you're not.
Decreasing the amount of light to your plant below the maximum it can take is bad advice, in my opinion.

I'm totally with you. There's nothing wrong with this plant. It's genetics. It's gonna be short and stout. Making it reach for light isnt gonna make your situation any better. I would give it more light if i could.

 

[Stltoed]

As I have read 40,000-60,000 lux is the maximum. Isn't it?

What about sediments? Have you seen such a thing?

Unless you can measure light I wouldn't worry so much about light measurements. Follow the manufacturers recommendations for light distances and settings, look up conversations regarding your light and read your plant. This one is telling you its not a sativa

 

[Stltoed]

If the sediment didn't come from the air stone or not quite totally dissolved nutrients im not sure what to say. I kinda doubt it's from a reaction from a Ph adjustment. Wierd stuff does happen though. Ph Up will cloud water if theres an interaction.

 

[Weedarast]

Thanks for advice! I'll keep posting.

 

[Weedarast]

I'll share my thought concerning your post:
That's right. Sun produces lots of light, but this light is almost equally distributed between 400-700 nm wavelenghts. In my case this is LED and it's more focused on 470+-20 and 600 +-50 nm. So, I thought maybe too much of 470 could give the plant too much energy (as chlorophyls are very effective at that range) and that's why many branches come from. And because of relatively less red it does not grow.

That's just my unprofessional opinion. I'm still learning.

 

[Scientific]

I'll share my thought concerning your post:
That's right. Sun produces lots of light, but this light is almost equally distributed between 400-700 nm wavelenghts. In my case this is LED and it's more focused on 470+-20 and 600 +-50 nm. So, I thought maybe too much of 470 could give the plant too much energy (as chlorophyls are very effective at that range) and that's why many branches come from. And because of relatively less red it does not grow.

That's just my unprofessional opinion. I'm still learning.

OK, now here's my unprofessional opinion (because what else is the Internet for?)

I think yer overthinkin it.

I do agree that lots of intense light seems to encourage dense, bushy growth--the opposite of the spindly, stretchy growth that you get with not enough light. But other than requiring some defoliation to keep air circulating in the bushy plant, I don't think that that's a down side.

At that very least, I'd suggest that you max out the light in flowering. I have seen the difference that intense light can make in the quality of the flowers, and it is not trivial!

Whatever route you decide to go, that's part of the fun of growing your own--trying different stuff and seeing how it works.

And like I said, your plant looks good, so I think it's going to finish great. This is all at the level of fine tuning.

 

[Stltoed]

OK, now here's my unprofessional opinion (because what else is the Internet for?)

I think yer overthinkin it.

I do agree that lots of intense light seems to encourage dense, bushy growth--the opposite of the spindly, stretchy growth that you get with not enough light. But other than requiring some defoliation to keep air circulating in the bushy plant, I don't think that that's a down side.

At that very least, I'd suggest that you max out the light in flowering. I have seen the difference that intense light can make in the quality of the flowers, and it is not trivial!

Whatever route you decide to go, that's part of the fun of growing your own--trying different stuff and seeing how it works.

And like I said, your plant looks good, so I think it's going to finish great. This is all at the level of fine tuning.

Yep. I'm with you Sci.

Just huck some photons at the thing.

It's popular with light manufacturers to have a veg and bloom switch on their lights. So should you actually use them? No. Get your plants stable and put the boots to them. Watch them, if they stress then back off. It makes absolutely no sense to give your plants less light during veg, and save the special spectrum for bloom.

 

[Weedarast]

Scientific,

I very much appreciate your advises. Thanks! Sorry, but this conversation seems very interesting and would like to get more info about this topic, cause this grow is an experiment (as I use vehicle led bars ). What do you think, will defoliation stress this plant? I have been told to be careful during flowering stage.

 

[Scientific]

Just huck some photons at the thing.

LOL

It's popular with light manufacturers to have a veg and bloom switch on their lights. So should you actually use them? No. Get your plants stable and put the boots to them. Watch them, if they stress then back off. It makes absolutely no sense to give your plants less light during veg, and save the special spectrum for bloom.

I'll take an even more extreme position that since most growers seem to be giving their plants less than the maximum amount of light, they should forget the fancy light switches and just give the plant as much light as they have available all the way through the grow, regardless of color. There are limits of course--you wouldn't want to bathe the plant all in blue or whatever--but if in doubt, more light. Fiat lux!

 

[Weedarast]

Hi,

Update and question:
I installed Galaxy Hydro 300 in addition to 2x72W Vehicle led bars. Every day it's growing 1 cm. I measured lux of GalaxyHydro and made it closer to get lux value above 30,000 3 days. Leaves started to curl up and some spots appeared.

​​​​​​​Here are pics: