A question for any late harvesting DWC growers out there: plant hunger levels in late late flowering

[Weaselcracker]

I’m asking the DWC crowd because I think here it’s usual to monitor ppm to see exactly how heavily the plants are feeding. I’m not in DWC so don’t have a good way of answering my question.

In particular, I’m wondering about the feeding habits of plants that are left to finish late- as in left for an extra week or two to fully ripen, as opposed to the early 8 week style chop I see most people doing.

Do the plants stop feeding if you leave them long enough? I’d assume that they obviously have to, eventually. They definitely slow down or stop drinking.

At what stage do they start slowing down their nutrient intake?

Has anyone paid attention to this?

 

[Lewydeville]

Hey @Weaselcracker I’ve actually got 3 plants in late flower in dwc 11 weeks since flip. I’m very close to harvest but give me 3/4 days and I’ll hopefully I’ll have some figures for you. I’ve never really documented very late feeding habits I tend to just top existing buckets with fresh water and boosters in the last week or two. I do check the ppm each day and off the top of my head I’d say they slow up feeding considerably. I’ve given a light res change to a G13 x tonight and I’ll monitor ppm for the next 4 days and hopefully I’ll have a better answer.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks Lewydeville!

 

[No Pain]

I’m asking the DWC crowd because I think here it’s usual to monitor ppm to see exactly how heavily the plants are feeding. I’m not in DWC so don’t have a good way of answering my question.

In particular, I’m wondering about the feeding habits of plants that are left to finish late- as in left for an extra week or two to fully ripen, as opposed to the early 8 week style chop I see most people doing.

Do the plants stop feeding if you leave them long enough? I’d assume that they obviously have to, eventually. They definitely slow down or stop drinking.

At what stage do they start slowing down their nutrient intake?

Has anyone paid attention to this?

Hey @Weaselcracker I have payed attention to this for quite some time and the addition of a blue lab guardian proved me correct ..I let mine go on extended periods of time ,towards the end they only seem to take up water and very little nutes and start leaching from the leaf's.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks so much No Pain

It’s been on my mind since our discussion with @Emilya and others, in some thread or other, where some people protested against starving the plants at the end when they ‘need food the most’. Probably some of this mindset relates to an earlier harvest.

I harvest on the late side, and my plants stop drinking by the end of flowering, and it makes perfect sense to me that they would stop feeding as well.

I’ve been continuing to play around with feeding levels in late flowering. So far the buds seem to turn out best on a light feed, but I’m still testing.

What I find interesting is that the plants deplete the leaves no matter whether I continue to feed full strength, half strength, or not at all.
For example here is a recently chopped Carnival plant, after ten weeks flower, which I fed at half strength for the last two weeks. I’ve fed others at full strength and the fan leaves ended up more or less the same.

Carn 2

• Weaselcracker
• Feb 11, 2020

Carn 2

• Weaselcracker
• Feb 11, 2020

They seem to stop drinking, and feed off themselves at the end- no matter what is fed them.

I realize that the chlorophyll level mainly relates to the N level, and I don’t have any way of testing exactly what the plant is extracting from the leaves, other than that. But I tend to assume it’s choosing it’s own diet at the end.

I’m sure these questions have been answered a million times over, outside our cannabis forum bubble

 

[Lewydeville]

This is the G13 x Blueberry Headband that received the fresh res 24 hours ago. Just over 11 weeks since the flip. It’s been well fed with no flush and still fading fast.

I’m finding this very interesting and the results are surprising even after just 24 hours. Ppm has dropped overnight and she’s still clearly feeding well. At the end of the week I’ll post the full figures. I know it’s not scientific as were not going to know which of the nutrients are being taken but I’m sure this is going to change the way I feed my plants in late flower.

 

[No Pain]

Thanks so much No Pain

It’s been on my mind since our discussion with @Emilya and others, in some thread or other, where some people protested against starving the plants at the end when they ‘need food the most’. Probably some of this mindset relates to an earlier harvest.

I harvest on the late side, and my plants stop drinking by the end of flowering, and it makes perfect sense to me that they would stop feeding as well.

I’ve been continuing to play around with feeding levels in late flowering. So far the buds seem to turn out best on a light feed, but I’m still testing.

What I find interesting is that the plants deplete the leaves no matter whether I continue to feed full strength, half strength, or not at all.
For example here is a recently chopped Carnival plant, after ten weeks flower, which I fed at half strength for the last two weeks. I’ve fed others at full strength and the fan leaves ended up more or less the same.

Carn 2

• Weaselcracker
• Feb 11, 2020

Carn 2

• Weaselcracker
• Feb 11, 2020

They seem to stop drinking, and feed off themselves at the end- no matter what is fed them.

I realize that the chlorophyll level mainly relates to the N level, and I don’t have any way of testing exactly what the plant is extracting from the leaves, other than that. But I tend to assume it’s choosing it’s own diet at the end.

I’m sure these questions have been answered a million times over, outside our cannabis forum bubble

Yes I lost track of that thread . It was in a discussion about "Flushing" . I still feed to the end meaning I do not just run plain water in my system the nutrient strength is on the minimal side though . When they slow on the uptake and start pulling from the fans its the final ripening stage in my eyes . That's why I say the plant will talk to you and tell you when she is getting close to the finish line .

There are other factors that dictate this timeframe .On a breeder quoted 9 week hybrids I usually run closer to 14 weeks on a 12/12 light cycle. I just recently started playing with a 11/13 cycle from start of flowering . Now one thing that I need to mention in regards to this timeframe and breeder quotes so it cannot get taken out of context is breeder quotes are just that quotes as the last run in my experimental tent was Charlotte’s Angel by Dutch Passion and I communicated with the breeder prior to growing her out and through that communication I was given very valuable information . That being that in this breed they had 4 pheno types and the true range between all 4 was 9(indica dom)-14(sativa dom) weeks and the quoted timeframe was 11 .

So in conclusion if someone was running or testing this theory on feed and where dead set on following breeder "Quotes/Estimates" and had the Sativa dominant strain that ran 14 weeks without letting the plant tell you when she is wrapping things up , you are looking at her being finished at 11 and not only will you be picking her early but you will not see/witness the feeding digress. Most People now i say most not all take breeder quotes way to seriously especially new growers. The only true way to know how long its going to take a specific pheno to finish is to run it all the way out and if you took clones and run those you can pretty much set your watch to the timeframe it will take to finish given you gave the clones the same envoirment etc

 

[No Pain]

This is the G13 x Blueberry Headband that received the fresh res 24 hours ago. Just over 11 weeks since the flip. It’s been well fed with no flush and still fading fast.

I’m finding this very interesting and the results are surprising even after just 24 hours. Ppm has dropped overnight and she’s still clearly feeding well. At the end of the week I’ll post the full figures. I know it’s not scientific as were not going to know which of the nutrients are being taken but I’m sure this is going to change the way I feed my plants in late flower.

I see some fresh pistils in your pics ..with your stated timeframe as well as the food uptake I would venture to say she is in the latter part of the second(last) stage in flowering . Me seeing this in my garden Im usually looking at another weeks. Happy Testing

 

[Lewydeville]

Hey guys I’ve got the final numbers from the test.
The five gallon fresh res consisted of:
20 ml bloom nutes
10 ml pk booster
10 ml calmag
10 ml silicon
Giving a ppm of 700. I topped up to the exact level each day with the same water before taking a reading. I used a bluelab truncheon so not as precise as a meter but should give a decent guide.
Start - 700 ppm
Day 1 - 650 ppm
Day 2 - 600 ppm
Day 3 - 500/550 ppm
Day 4. - 550/600 ppm
Day 5. - 600 ppm

Take from it what you will as it’s not scientific by any means but I think the plant was still feeding. Be nice to have a bit of time and test some clones at a few different levels. Interesting and definitely worth more thought. I gave her the chop today.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Looking great and thanks for the info. What strain?
It would be very interesting to plot out the plant’s feeding habits throughout flowering. No doubt that’s been done (?) but if so I’ve never seen it.

 

[Lewydeville]

Looking great and thanks for the info. What strain?
It would be very interesting to plot out the plant’s feeding habits throughout flowering. No doubt that’s been done (?) but if so I’ve never seen it.

Thanks mate. From what I see most feeding schedules stop with the nutes at 8 weeks after tapering off from week 5. I don’t think this can be right for every strain. Next run I’ll take readings from a lot earlier say week 4. This way we’ll hopefully see more of a trend and be able to compare feeding habits of mid to late flower. There are always going to be lots of variables even with clones, I think a definitive answer is never going to be possible but we may gather enough info to change our thoughts on late flower feeding.