A Low Budget Micro TLA Grow - With Added LED - Two Cream Caramel Photo Period

[ajagunle]

Time to tackle CC2, the one at the back

An unrestricted bush shot

I have removed 4 or 5 tertiary shoots, all leaves with an approachable stem and now realise the main stem is in an 'S' shape and growing in the same direction as CC1. I also removed at least 2 secondary shoots that were too weedy and over-crowded to develop into anything other than future challenges.

I can at least see the main stems now and when leaves grow back I will top the next few secondary's and separate the cluster of shoots at the top of the main stem.

They look quite strange without the restraints.

With the screen back on and the sponges holding the tops as low as I can keep them it is clear I need to start filling the gap between them.

 

[jon705]

Looking good AJ, those are some seriously tight nodes bro! I would leave them be and stop topping for a bit, just let them grow up into the screen now and keep tucking the growing tips back under the screen, as the branches grown along the bottom of the screen the secondaries will become mains, all at pretty much the same height, if one or two get to tall top them to bring them back in line with the canopy, hope this helps bro

 

[ajagunle]

Hi Jon, thanks for the advice.

I shall take your lead on this and practice super-cropping to keep the tips low. And remove the sponges. Would you raise the lights another 11”? Currently at 27”.

 

[ajagunle]

Whilst I am waiting for the girls to show a bit more leg a little aside;

I grew the same strain for several grows in a row, when I realised that CFLs have heat challenges that are beyond me and ended with 2 clones of clones ( 4 'generations' from the original seed) taken 3 wks into flower from their 'parent', rooted with nowhere to go, so I made a little room on the window sill, they get direct sun for half of the day.

They have both been defoliated throughout with some fairly aggressive bending and twisting. They are in 8" pots and have been fed hydro flowering nutes once a week. Day length gets to about 12 hours halfway through September so maybe 4 or 5 wks into flower, days are getting really short and with constant rain they have had little or no sun for the last 3 days.

Whatever I harvest will be a nice little New Years' bonus.

The 'Thickening' has begun;

 

[PeeJay]

I have two plants going that I trained into a screen 6" above the medium. I'm interested to watch how you go about filling your low screen. Diggin' the mad scientist vibe of your journal. Subed up and +reps.

I'm not quite clear what you were doing with the sponges. If you get a chance can you go into more detail? Thanks!

 

[ajagunle]

Welcome PeeJay and thank you for the reps and the compliments.



The sponges were my way of trying to make up for starting beans too early. I started the seeds on the window sill and they had stretched quite a bit by the time I had the room ready. I bent the stems over but the tops were still too close to the screen, the sponge is just keeping the tops an inch or so below the screen, wedging them down. I hope that makes sense, not very elegant and I shall do my utmost to avoid having to find a better alternative, the stems have stiffened now anyway.

 

[PeeJay]

Seems to have worked, elegant or not. I didn't do a good job of documenting how I filled my screen. Pretty much, I FIMed at the fifth node before transplanting into the scrogs. The plants were about an inch below the screen then. I sent the main stem in one direction, and the four branches below the FIM the other direction. Dominant growth got toped as I worked the screen.

 

[ajagunle]

It's great when you get them growing in opposite directions! Have you seen the Journal with Fluxing? I think that technique has got serious potential for us with limited space, very cool!

Seems to have worked, elegant or not. I didn't do a good job of documenting how I filled my screen. Pretty much, I FIMed at the fifth node before transplanting into the scrogs. The plants were about an inch below the screen then. I sent the main stem in one direction, and the four branches below the FIM the other direction. Dominant growth got toped as I worked the screen.

 

[ajagunle]

The screen is a 2” square, I have numbered 3 secondaries in the space of about 1”!

Did someone say ‘Room for a little one’? There is for a Northern Lights Big Bud Auto for the next few weeks at least.

Good growing all

 

[danklover79]

Coming along nicely AJ, good job so far!

 

[PeeJay]

It's great when you get them growing in opposite directions! Have you seen the Journal with Fluxing? I think that technique has got serious potential for us with limited space, very cool!

I'm watching the fluxage with great interest. I have two beans down and will fluxigate one, probably. Since I veg and flower in different spaces, though, I can use a porta-scrog screen to define the dimensions of the flower space while I'm vegging. FIM tuck and top worked out well on my first run. Only one of the two new babies will ever see flower - well see what happens.

 

[PeeJay]

I'm also liking what Alex is doing - using zipties and pinning the growth to the top of the screen instead of forcing things back under. Lots of fun things to contemplate when you read through folks' journals.

 

[Green Knight]

Coming along nicely AJ!

 

[ajagunle]

Coming along nicely AJ, good job so far!

Thanks Dank, Too much hanging around waiting at this stage!

 

[ajagunle]

I'm watching the fluxage with great interest. I have two beans down and will fluxigate one, probably. Since I veg and flower in different spaces, though, I can use a porta-scrog screen to define the dimensions of the flower space while I'm vegging. FIM tuck and top worked out well on my first run. Only one of the two new babies will ever see flower - well see what happens.

I love all the new words! Sorry to hear your sad news on one of your new beans, it may surprise you!!

I'm also liking what Alex is doing - using zipties and pinning the growth to the top of the screen instead of forcing things back under. Lots of fun things to contemplate when you read through folks' journals.

I take my screen out regularly so I need to tie them down, not up, but I have a cunning plan!





I think we are limited mostly by our imagination!

 

[ajagunle]

Thank you GK! You have set the bar pretty high for output from a small space, it might be a long veg!!

Coming along nicely AJ!

 

[stealthgrow]

All caught up on the journal and subscribed, nice work so far, keep it up.

 

[ajagunle]

All caught up on the journal and subscribed, nice work so far, keep it up.

Good to have you along!

 

[ajagunle]

I am having difficulty in finding the sweet spot for strength of nutes. My tap water has a background TDS of 250+ and a ph of 6.7, the ph is a 'strong' 6.7, it takes 14+ cc of ph down to lower it to 6.2. I collect rainwater in butts and this has a much lower TDS and a 'soft' ph that requires little up or down to see changes. As the rainwater is stored in butts and may have all sorts of organic matter in it, alive or dead, I have boiled and filtered it before use, giving a TDS of 30 and ph of 7.4.


If I follow manufacturer's feed charts for seedlings I get a TDS of 800+, broadly in line with general practice of successful growers, but....

With tap water it took several days before ph dropping began to be an issue that needed adjusting every 12 hrs with the addition of unwanted chemicals. With a minimal background TDS I relished the opportunity to feed the girls on a full diet, I was not expecting the ph to start dropping immediately. I came to the very unscientific conclusion that the 250 background TDS reading was buffering the ph and TDS available to the plants was the reading minus 250, so I should aim for the previous sweet spot with tap water -250?

When the TDS is over 700 the plants drink more than eat which leads to the ph rapidly dropping to 5.4 every 12 hrs. I have diluted the reservoir to 550 TDS and adjusted ph to 6.2 and after 12 hrs ph remains the same and TDS has risen slightly to 580.

I have further diluted the res. To 500ppm and will work my way to their new sweet spot.

 

[KingJohnC]

when your pH rises and your ppm drops your plant is using more nutrients then water. when your pH drops and your ppm rise your plants are using more water then nutrients.