Slow progression White Russian or?

[Siouxx]

Hy there,
the thread i am about to start is a bit related to the fact that i am unsure of my plants progression rate.
Although, the plants are looking good, the height of my plants (30-40 cm) in week7(counting from cloning) is somewhat that makes me question if something is wrong.

Here are the details:

I am growing Indoor White Russian in Soil, cloning from an 3 different 1 yo mothers.

I have 2* 600W HPS lamps, using Guanokalong powder, then Guano Grow and guanokalong Extract.
Watering every 3 days, hum: is around 43%-60%(Day-Night) 18h-6h
Temperature is between 20C-28C. PH of the water is 6.8 and am adding lemon acid to lower it from 8.3ph (Spring water) to 6.5-6.8.
I have constant air flow intake of fresh air into the system and filter to take it out. One went that moves above the plants.
There is a IONIZER and hum. devices in the Tent.

I did made cutting on the long leaves to make room for branches to evolve.
No LST or topping so far.
I am using Neem to control the pests. Usually in night rain i am adding teaspoon of neem powder.

Now, i do understand that Indica is way smaller than Sativa, and White Russian is about 80%Indica, but i still have the feeling that my plants are not progressing as they should do.

It may be a thread that seem a bit foolish but i would appreciate any advice to understand how i can improve as a grower.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Clones normally don't show the same vigor in growth when compared to a plant grown from seed !

30 to 40 cm in 7 weeks sounds about average if that included the aprox 2 weeks for clones to form roots & all... ya doing alright, give another 2 to 3 weeks i should suspect they will be ready for flowering.


Oh BTW welcome to the forums

 

[Jimmycricket]

watering too much can slow the growth. Not saying you are because I dont know if you are, but if you are that will happen.

To me they do not look too small though.

 

[Siouxx]

Thank you all for comments.

While i am continuously thinking on what may indeed slow the growth and removing options like deficiency of some kind, the over watering is one option that stays opened.
I am using 15L pots and each 3th day they receive about 1L of water. It is only then i do get the leakage on the bottom.
Now it would be reasonable to consider that i might have to much density of the soil so the water is not drained well.

Now i am thinking wouldn't the leaves show the inward curling if that indeed there is to much water??

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Could be light distance & the inverse square law of light effect ?

Could be that you are using a HPS bulb for vegging aka wrong light spectrum to support optimal growth conditions !

 

[Siouxx]

well, as i have 600W HPS with air cooling tube, my minimal distance is always about 60-70 cm from the highest top. They get pretty Hot.

And to be honest, i did switch about 10 days aggo from 5000 K to 2050 K. Sylvania GroLux.
My practice experience is relatively small, but in theory 2050 K should keep the plant to grow almost same way as it contains 15% of blue spectrum which should be enough. I wanted to keep the branches to be bushy instead to explode all over the place and have read that the yellow specter does just that.

Perhaps i should change it back to 5000K for another 2 week or just continue as it is? As long as i dont encourage the preBloom effect by those lamps.
(taking in hand i do not want them to grow higher than 130 cm when rdy for harvest.)

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

well, as i have 600W HPS with air cooling tube, my minimal distance is always about 60-70 cm from the highest top. They get pretty Hot.

And to be honest, i did switch about 10 days aggo from 5000 K to 2050 K. Sylvania GroLux.
My practice experience is relatively small, but in theory 2050 K should keep the plant to grow almost same way as it contains 15% of blue spectrum which should be enough. I wanted to keep the branches to be bushy instead to explode all over the place and have read that the yellow specter does just that.

Perhaps i should change it back to 5000K for another 2 week or just continue as it is? As long as i dont encourage the preBloom effect by those lamps.
(taking in hand i do not want them to grow higher than 130 cm when rdy for harvest.)

Excellent more info


Ye lights are to far away, you can get them pretty close as they are in air cooled reflectors... should be looking at 45cm & may get away with as less 30cm.

I use a 400w bulb myself in a normal reflector at 25cm of height !


In general its the pure HPS bulbs which cause premature stretch of plants/elongation of nodes etc.

I've also used grolux myself in flowering and some late vegging & the bulbs are pretty good in my own opinion, unfortunately i never used MH for veg preferring a gaint CFL 125w 6400k for veg.


Chart for light hanging stuff, just a guide line that is all.

 

[Siouxx]

Seems that we found what might have been the problem. I did play on the safe side but lost in the speed.

Knowing that the top should ideally receive about 25.000lumen, according to this chart it would be good to stay as close to 13inc.
At the range i`we had they did not even get 5.000lumen.

Thank you for all the help, i appreciate it a lot.

 

[KingJohnC]

You should be able to lower your light. Place your hand underneath the light and move it to the point you can not feel any heat from the bulb and move your light above your canopy to that position, raise the light as your plants grow.

Here are some lumen versus distance charts, they do not take heat into account

 

[Siouxx]

Thank you all for great answers.
I do have so much more to learn. According to the graphs and calculations i have indeed slow down the growth for week or two. They needed more lumen.

In a way i am happy because that issue is easy to handle and repair.

Thnx all again, and i will put some more photos when i enter flower stage.

 

[Siouxx]

Here is a small update on the progress.

After 10 days of a small observation, it turns out that the distance from the top was indeed to big which made the progress slow.

Right now i am inducing flower time for the girls.


The average height is about 55 cm.
Although i am concerned if that is a bit to high, could anyone confirm if that is indeed so.?
i am afraid that this strain would grow from 55 cm into more than 130 cm in the flowering period.

 

[KingJohnC]

Most strains of cannabis will stretch 2x-2.5x during flowering. If your plants are too tall you should consider Super Cropping your plants.

 

[Siouxx]

Thank you for suggestions.

This seems like great solution although the execution might crave for some practice i guess.
If SuperCropping can be done at mid of flowering stage due to consideration of possible to much height.

Would that technique reduce the yield if it is done app. 3-4 weeks before the end??

 

[KingJohnC]

Super Cropping if done in flower should be done early in flower to reduce the total height of your plants.