Wow already five weeks in to VEG. Still planning on eight, but am experiencing dissenting opinion.
Lighting: no changes to UV this week (still 3x 5mins) but did increase the whites to 200W, 630umoles. The spectrum didn't change all that much.
She got bushy as hell. Here was Friday, just before a water with feed (1gal)
Yesterday got a huge prune, got rid of a bunch of undergrowth to allow for better airflow at ground level. I tucked some tops under the net and removed some leaves in key locations.
Here she is today, immediately following a water (1gal).
And I developed my feed schedule. It's handwritten now, I'll get it into viewable format tomorrow at work.
Looking good. Two days ago I increased the UV to 3X 10mins, still at the middle of the day separated by 10mins or so. I also turned off the blue spectrum to encourage more upward growth. I finalized my nutrient schedule all values mL per gal, and will follow water/water/feed and increased to two gallon each.
I am seeing some discoloration on the older leaves. I don't know what it is yet, am monitoring for now.
My clorosis and withering got a bit worse, I increased my Cal/Mag supplement to every watering instead of only at feedings. It's helped a great deal, I think it's coming under control. That was one of my experiments with this run- the advice given here by several members indicate that the reason LED requires so much more cal/mag than HID is that the temperatures are lower. Of course I assume this is referring to leaf surface temperature (LSTemp), but ambient air temperature plays into that as well. I've been running the tent hotter than the last grow- typically 84-88F with RH77%, which results in LSTemp of about 80F. There are still fundamental differences between my supplemented Quantum Boards and so-called "traditional" lighting sources- namely in the green spectrum and infrared. I am trying to understand these and other differences.
Growth: has been great this week, with several pruning sessions. Some pruning to eliminate discolored leaves, but also to keep the undergrowth from restricting airflow.
Lighting: Last week I turned off the blue to allow for more upward growth, which I was able to achieve. That growth allowed several sites to be tucked under the net. As I begin to introduce the schedule to induce flowering I made some changes today- I turned the blue back on yesterday, and today turned off the red. I increased the white to 220W, which resulted in a net increase of only 20umoles at 24". In the upcoming week the plan is to switch to 12/12 and increase the white more to maintain the daily light integral (DLI). The transition to flower will likely take about a week, I'm anticipating AUG25 to be day1 flower.
My clorosis seems to have been solved once I increased Cal/Mag to every watering as opposed to feed-only.
I'm having a continuing issue of leaf curl, mostly 'tacoing' downward. I've been working on getting my humidity down over the past week. My last run I was able to get away without a dehumidifier, but I'm struggling to maintain the environment now. I can get the RH down to around 60 but the extraction fan runs continuously. That has lowered my temperature drastically (75F) and I'm well below my target range. Since then the leaf tacoing has worsened, but honestly I think I've been seeing this through veg. I think I'm looking at a nitrogen toxicity. My feeding schedule already calls for a reduction in BigBloom this week, from 15mL/Gal to 10mL/Gal. I am considering lowering even further, at least for the next feeding.
I got a dehumidifier last week, have been working on dialing in the environment. It's a balancing act between how often the extraction fan runs vs maintaining temperature. I've gotten it fairly steady 84F with 53-57RH during the day when the extraction runs 30sec every 2.5mins, and at night with the extraction fan staying on constantly 76F 55RH
Turned on the reds today. I plan on turning off the blue next week. UV is a single 1hr block, will be increasing each week in larger amounts to reach about six hours for the final three weeks of flower.
Water/Feed is still every other day (water, water, feed) but have increased the volume to 3gals each. Have been getting 1gal runoff.
Missed the update last week... While flowering is exciting, there just isn't much to do except maintain the environment and water/feed schedule.
I did a major defoliation at the the end of week 2. While lots more vegetative growth has emerged since, the plant is nowhere near as thick as it was. That helped a great deal and only minor pruning is planned for the remainder of the grow.
UV is at 4hrs, of course blue supplemental remains off, whites still at 220W all of which provides around 1000umoles at the top of the canopy.
Upward growth (stretch) as slowed, and the energy seems focused on flowering.
In retrospect, was still too bushy. I ended up doing some more sculpting. Removed the bottom net, no longer needed support in that area. Lowered top net and to support more than just the top three branches since stretch is done.
UV is up to 4.5hrs, increasing to 5hrs today. Overall light distribution is improved, haven't measured in awhile but more will be able to take advantage.
Performed first real flush a few days ago (week 3 flower) the next and final flush will be end of week 6. Otherwise have been following nutrient schedule.
