Current Culture: Undercurrent 4 New Grow Journal

[Modest Grower]

I put the sensor as close to canopy as possible. I would look into the ph before reducing light. You have a nice set up for canopy airflow so I think you are ok with light but I am green when it comes to light lux readings. Plants looking good though! Happy Saturday

 

[sneekymofo]

I put the sensor as close to canopy as possible. I would look into the ph before reducing light. You have a nice set up for canopy airflow so I think you are ok with light but I am green when it comes to light lux readings. Plants looking good though! Happy Saturday

I was hoping that wasn’t the case…dang. I’ll try dropping pH more into the 5.x range and see if that helps. Every time I push pH any direction if feels like I start chasing it through the week, but I’m gonna give it a try. I’d love to use 100% of these lights. They even have a boost setting I can’t even think about touching right now lol. Thanks @Modest Grower! I’m gonna drop the sensor below the lights to canopy level to make sure I’m getting decent heat readings too. I’m outta town with someone watching things - the last time I did this I lost everything, soooooo

 

[sneekymofo]

….and with a little research Modest I am going to pop it with some Ph Down to slip it toward the mid-5’s. I might have the beginnings of a Mn deficiency that looks like light burn maybe? Thanks again for the info!

 

[sneekymofo]

Got back from vacation, and with previous fails I had been expecting the worst. I asked only to be notified if the room went dark, smelled funny, or water was pouring out, otherwise please leave it alone. I heard the system was low on water which I was expecting with no top offs, unzipped and….

Full-on jungle! Even the Frankenplant gave it the old college try. I know this to be a stretchy girl normally in flower and has gone as far as 200% in crappy conditions, so since I don’t know what they will do I decided this was the week I switch to flower. I don’t have a lot of lateral room to work with and the are currently all sitting at a very bushy 12 inches.

I’ve moved the temperature sensor to be at the canopy level, and picked up some pH UP and DOWN for adjusting to the 5.8ish range if I can do it without too much trouble. The only plant that’s seems to care right now is at front right, but she does look like she might be having an uptake issue.

One weird issue: I set the TDS at 1150, and at about 10 gallons low or so, I was at 1340 when I got back. That was what I expected. pH was still at 6.53. I know I need to bring it down for hydro, but if it stays stable at 6.x for the week is that a good or bad thing (or neither)? Just caught me by surprise so figured I’d ask. Trying hard not to ignore stuff this time around

I guess I’m gonna clean these ladies up a little and get them ready for the switch! Pics to follow…

 

[sneekymofo]

Week One: Flower
Final, pre-flower big trim done, so entering first week of flower! TDS dialed in around 1050 or so, and adjusted pH down to 5.9. Close as I could get without making my butt pucker. Lights about 28” off the canopy and still at 80%. Planning on cranking back up to 100% once I’m out of early flower if they’ll take it. Adjusting for the heat of the day, I’m lights on at night, so the room is looking like it will be about 70 or so with lights off during the day.

Had to do-si-do the girls from their homes to reach them for their final pre-flower trim. The root mass almost made it impossible to get the plants moved from one bucket to the next. Next time this will have to be a week earlier. I was as gentle with the root mass as I could be, but I have seen a few small root pieces in the epicenter, so I know there was some trauma. No pictures since I didn’t have enough hands.

Ahhh…a little more room to breathe! Bottom nodes cleared out for circulation, got rid of future LARF, and even the Frankenplant seems to have enjoyed the haircut. She actually looks like a plant I’ve seen before….

Front left from above. Everything topped, filled in nicely.

Back right was quite a stalk when I thinned her out.

Front left post-trim, more air and got rid of the stuff that detracts….

 

[Modest Grower]

Looking good! Gotta love when you come back from vacation and plants are thriving. I do see more people growing hydro in the 6 PH so I could just be stuck on that because I am new and trying to go by the book. Your ladies seem happy so you obviously are doing plenty right!

 

[sneekymofo]

Looking good! Gotta love when you come back from vacation and plants are thriving. I do see more people growing hydro in the 6 PH so I could just be stuck on that because I am new and trying to go by the book. Your ladies seem happy so you obviously are doing plenty right!

I do think you are right - I gave up on pH a long time ago, and really GH does a ‘decent’ job holding it near center. But since I was in such awful conditions, pH being 1/2 point out of range was the least of my issues. I think now I have less problems and I can dial it in. I had drifted away from the tried and true stuff during the fire fighting of the last decade or so! And, frankly, I bought 100% of a light…I’d rather USE 100% of a light lol. I do have to say: it is so much nicer going into a grow room and not coming out in a flop-sweat. Temps are holding at the new point at 70 off, 76 on. I wish there was room for a chair now

 

[Rexer]

I do think you are right - I gave up on pH a long time ago, and really GH does a ‘decent’ job holding it near center. But since I was in such awful conditions, pH being 1/2 point out of range was the least of my issues. I think now I have less problems and I can dial it in. I had drifted away from the tried and true stuff during the fire fighting of the last decade or so! And, frankly, I bought 100% of a light…I’d rather USE 100% of a light lol. I do have to say: it is so much nicer going into a grow room and not coming out in a flop-sweat. Temps are holding at the new point at 70 off, 76 on. I wish there was room for a chair now

Hey @sneekymofo
Nice setup you have going!

You will see a nice difference in your girls if you dial in your PH.
Set it to 5.8, and let it drift to 6.5ish then rest back to 5.8
This will allow your plants to absorb nutrients better.
The drift upwards is caused by air passing through the water (as well as your plants feeding).

Also, I'm not sure if you've seen this before but it helps a lot as a guide!

 

[sneekymofo]

Hey @sneekymofo
Nice setup you have going!

You will see a nice difference in your girls if you dial in your PH.
Set it to 5.8, and let it drift to 6.5ish then rest back to 5.8
This will allow your plants to absorb nutrients better.
The drift upwards is caused by air passing through the water (as well as your plants feeding).

Also, I'm not sure if you've seen this before but it helps a lot as a guide!

Thanks @Rexer! I hadn’t - it’s nice to see it all in one place. They’ve definitely been added to my reference docs. Thanks much!

 

[sneekymofo]

WEEK TWO: Flower

I kinda skipped this week - life happened, the girls were doing well with the pH change. By the end of the week I had just been doing pH’d water top-offs and TDS and pH were in a more than acceptable range still so I decided to skip the water change out and be lazy for a week. My first two weeks of flower are set to get the same nutes anyway…

Girls are stretching just a bit (maybe at 50% total 1.5 weeks into 12/12), but so much less than I‘m used to. In a previous grow these things would‘ve been in the lights already. I’ve cranked the LED up to 100% and just loosely watching for signs of light burn, but no signs now after a week of extra photons. One of the plants sexed, so happy to see her confirm her feminized seed status!

There is my lovely lady! But you still have to squint a bit….

Filled in nicely from above (front-left plant)

Looking happy so far!

Roots are crazy with this system - may actually do root trimming next time!

 

[Modest Grower]

Happy Friday! Things are looking great and the system seems dialed in!

 

[sneekymofo]

Happy Friday! Things are looking great and the system seems dialed in!

Thanks Modest - apparently pH matters! Lol

 

[Modest Grower]

H

Thanks Modest - apparently pH matters! Lol

Haha well you dialed your other skills in even more when not doing PH so now you are firing on all cylinders and the ladies love it

 

[Modest Grower]

I bought a nice device that tests for all sorts of things ppm, ph, temp, etc. But I find I only really check ph. I do check ppm but it doesn't really dictate my decisions yet. So I could have gotten away with a cheaper pen but I love my toy anyway. Long story short, when growing hydroponics weed, a ph tester is a friend indeed

 

[sneekymofo]

Week 4: Flower

We’ll, I’m beginning to think I’m secretly trying to kill these ladies on their maiden voyage. I got called out of town again and left them in last weeks water AGAIN. Wow - I don’t deserve what they are doing for me right now and I know I am paying for the abuse in the end, I just can’t see it yet.

Anyway, way behind on trimming so spent some hours getting that taken care of. The canopy got a little lopsided without my S&M routine to keep them all in line, but I can work with it.

Set pH to 5.82 and TDS to 1120 now fully in my ‘Mid-Flower’ phase - or at least that’s what the dosing chart calls it lol. I’m trying to leave lights as close as tolerable as I let some of the under growth get out of control before pruning and I’m trying to reach deeper than I’d like (insert any number of jokes here).

Temps have been amazing and consistent: at 100% light averaging 78 days, 69 nights with RH floating between 66% and 55% respectively.

So that’s about it on the grow side: abuse, forgiveness, still chugging….

Here you can see they got a lil outta hand, trimmed them back and LSTd a few colas that were being light aggressive. Sorry girls - that was all on me….

Got the bottoms opened up for ventilation - they were awful. Couldn’t shame myself into before and after pics

Canopy still kinda even, although Frankenplant just disappeared in the back. She’s there, just stout….

Bud sites looking pretty good for now

Hopefully I’ll stay planted and this week will be the beginning of a much friendlier grow for these girls.

 

[sneekymofo]

Week Five: Flower (A Little Early)

Checked in on the ladies this evening - doing very well with a pH of 6.12 and TDS at 1010 after a crammed top-off a few days early. I will be out of state for 10 days, so gonna hope like hell this thing is dialed in…. Like I said: I think I’m secretly trying to kills these poor things.

Color looking good - one of my favorite colors in the world!!! I love looking across a sea of bud sites…

Another view. I love the structure of Super Lemon Haze….although they haven’t begun their typical stank…

This is the secondary phenotype. Still going strong, but DEFINITELY the lower yielder of the two, so I’ll have to compare quality

And look at Frankenplant! She pulled out some early frost! Look at her go!

Light readings bright and strong - plants getting blasted with light!

 

[sneekymofo]

Week 6: Flower (late)

Spent most of this week gone, came back to find my girls alive, but to use the term ‘well’ might be stretching it a bit. I was sans about 20 gallons of my 40 due to evap and drinking activities whilst I was out of the state. TDS was slammed up beyond 1400 and pH was crashed into the lower regions, around 5.4. Didn’t have time to do anything with them except an emergency top off procedure to weaken the sauce a bit, which brought TDS down to 930 and pH to 5.8. Not going to do a nute change since I’m fairly close to my next weekly scheduled change (2 days right now) and while the nutes are a little light right now, they will be brought back in line on Saturday.

I will take and post some pics later of the damage to one of the ladies: looks like things got a little to ‘hot’ nutrient-wise for one of the phenotypes and I have significant nutrient burn on new foliage up top, but I’ll clean it up when I get off work tonight. So I guess until I get a top-off tank for this thing, 7 days alone is as far as she goes without human intervention. I guess that’s good information to have. The other two phenotypes seemed to be no worse for wear, except they lost some of that wonderful emerald green color so I’ll have to spruce them up.

Side note: I took mothers for each of the phenotypes, but only one survived the lack of attention while I was gone. What do you folks use to water your dirt when you can’t be there to provide love and attention? I’ve used those water globes before, but I couldn’t find them before I left town…. I’ll post some pictures of that carnage as well.

I’m really glad I wasn’t going for radical production totals….I have a feeling all this abuse is adding up to weight reduction at Week 11. Sigh - I’m a plant abuser…..its only a matter of time before someone reports me lol

 

[sneekymofo]

Here we can see I burned this girl up pretty good up top….

….but it is isolated to the phenotype that is the front right. Neither of the other two (including Frankenplant) seem to care about the TDS jump…

Poor mothers! I’m ‘thinking’ that the two on the left ‘might’ have some tissue damage lol.

 

[Modest Grower]

Hey! Not too bad for a week away! They will bounce back and look fairly good to be honest. As for watering dirt, I heard you can use a wine bottle with a cork (hole drilled in the cork for water flow) but I used a pump in a tote on a timer. You can set it to run for x seconds on whatever day you want. Was pretty slick

 

[sneekymofo]

Hey! Not too bad for a week away! They will bounce back and look fairly good to be honest. As for watering dirt, I heard you can use a wine bottle with a cork (hole drilled in the cork for water flow) but I used a pump in a tote on a timer. You can set it to run for x seconds on whatever day you want. Was pretty slick

I think I’ve got my next watering management system! Thanks Modest!