Delps 8 Hydro RDWC Gorilla Glue Autoflower 2021

[Delps8]

When I think of increasing or decreasing nute strength I think of 200ppm steps. I push my plants to the point of nute burn then back off 200ppm. If I have a FSF system and know my nute strength is pushing the max I back off 200ppm. I’m loath to underfeed.

Re. 200 PPM - that would be a 40% increase since I’m at 520. That’s a huge increase but I can see how a 20% (100 PPM) from 520 could fill the bill.

Check out the PPM levels in the attachment. I’ve been at about 66% of the levels recommended for veg. If I stay with the 66% approach, that would put me at 594. Adding 10% to 580 is 638 which is 70% (900*.66=594). That sounds like a good next step.

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the lack of vertical growth. Could that be caused by underfeeding?

These aren’t commercial grows where we’re watching every penny and balancing nute costs against yield.

Agreed.

 

[Delps8]

Bumped PPM to 640 with pH at 5.8. That’s >20% increase vs two days ago.

 

[Delps8]

Bumpity bump bump bump goes the PPM!
Res dropped to 5.7 at 1840. Swapped in the 2 ½ gallons of 100% strength nutes to bring PPM to 700.
Another 10±% bump. pH Upped to 5.9.

 

[Delps8]

Been upping PPM to try to find the right level. I did a res swap yesterday with nutes at 730. pH was 5.9 but gradually drifted down till it was at 5.6 this AM.
Per the Wonder Chart and Son of Wonder Chart, F(calling water) S(tatic EC) and F(alling pH) call for a res swap at lower PPM. I dropped the PPM to 650 with pH at 5.9. I'll know if that's the magic number in a couple of hours.

Humidity in the tent is way up. RH in the garage is 51% and is in the mid-60's in the tent. I was using the inline fan intermittently but have it running at 4/10. The tent has one "regular" fan running and two USB powered fans at the underbrush.

Any feedback on LST'ing these plants? I"ve been thinking LST because…because.

What about pruning? Per the pix, there are lots and lots of fan leaves. I've tucked a lot of leaves but some of the new, smaller fan leaves were blocking what I think are bud sites so I've trimmed them off. There's masses of foliage left, though.

The plants are adding foliage at an amazing rate, which is all well and good, but they are at day 40. They're doing a great job on the "bushy" part but what point should an autoflower actually, you know, flower?

 

[Delps8]

Finally! I've been dealing with falling pH for the last week. It's the same situation I was in back in 2017 and I didn't resolve it back then. pH was consistently and quickly dropping. No visual indications that there was an issue but, pH would go from 6.0, for example, and end up at 5.5 or 5.4 by the end of the day. No issues with roots - clean as a whistle.

For this latest episode of "wrestle the pig - the pig loves it and you just get dirty", I did a res swap a little over a week ago. The previous res was 510 and, since the plant is further into the "transition" phase, the nutes were a little different and the PPM ended up at 540. That was the first res where I saw pH start dropping.
I refreshed the res by adding or deleting nute and moved the PPM from 510 to 580 to 640 to 730 to 650 to 580 to 500. My goal was to find the PPM where the res the pH wouldn't drop. At each of those nute levels, pH was dropping by 0.1 about every 90 minutes.
The latest res, 500 PPM, was set to 6.1 at 0900 yesterday, it dropped to 5.9 by 3:30 PM, and then 5.6 by 11 PM when I added 6 CC Up to get it to 6.0. My thinking was that, if the res continued to drop at the 500 level, I would do one more 10% drop. That would be a 450 PPM solution on a 45± day old plant and I didn't see how that could even "work" so, if that had failed, i would increase the PPM and see if they needed nutes in the 800+ level.

Early AM reading - 490 PPM and ph of 5.9! It's too early to declare victory but it's been 12 hours at essentially the same ph (6.0 vs 5.9) so I'm pretty hopeful.

This issue started when I swapped the res and changed from grow to bloom set the nute level from 510 to 540 . That's a tiny change but, coupled with changing nutes from veg to transition, it was enough to cause problems in this res.

 

[Delps8]

While investigating this issue, I found some background on the WonderChart, including the text for the footnotes that are mentioned in the body of the chart. I found the text of the chart in a posting on 11/12/12 by "Woody J" on another forum.

"Note 1.
When pumping air into a nutrient solution in order to add Dissolved Oxygen, not only oxygen is present, CO2 is also pumped in. If you live near a busy road, this may be higher than normal, so you may get a dropping ph quite often. I have noticed most of the growers who suffer from a falling ph in DWC tend to live in large cities. This may not be a link but it could be.
When CO2 is added to water, it makes it more acidic. This is the precise process which causes acid rain, pollution from power stations etc pouring CO2 into the air, this mixes with the water vapour in clouds causing acid rain.

Note 2.
Most people assume that with a rising EC, it is the plants way of saying, I dont want more food, here, have some back.
What is actually happening is this.
Plants roots take in water/nutrients through a process called Osmosis. Effectively, if you think in terms of the roots having their own internal EC.
The osmosis process will always try to balance out the EC's, taking from the higher side of the barrier and giving to the lower part.
So if the EC of the nutrient solution is higher than the "internal EC", then food & water will flow from the solution to the roots, this is the normal process.
If however, the EC of the solution is lower than the "internal EC", then the balancing will work the other way and nutrition will be leeched from the roots to the solution.
A res change or increase in EC should resolve depending on the other factors such as ph and water levels.

Note 3.
Nutrients flow around a well hydrated plant much more effectively and faster than one which isnt as well hydrated.
How can growers use this?
By feeding at lower levels, the plant needs to take on more water in order to get the nutrition it requires.
So by feeding at moderate levels, this forces the plant to drink more.
By drinking more, it is better hydrated, because it is better hydrated, it needs more food, making it eat more.
So feed at moderate levels rather than overly aggressive levels.
The method of pushing the EC until you see signs of nute burn is damaging to the plants and although many growers use this method, I am not a fan though your plants are not mine!"

 

[Delps8]

Happy to say that the "falling pH" issue is resolved. The PPM sweet spot for these plants is 490, which means that the nute level is lower as they move into flower.
After getting to 490 a few days ago, PPM gradually fell to 460 so I bumped the res back to 500 yesterday. It's been sitting at 490 and 5.8 for about 18 hours.

 

[dick23rk]

Hey delps, sorry I kind of fell behind there. Sometimes i miss some notifications and don't see the updates til I check my subscribed threads section.

Glad to see you got that ph drop issue figured out quickly. The plants are looking quite fine and bushy! I seen you asked about lst and pruning. Lst is a great way to get the branches spread out after topping and you can anchor them down to the lid of your res. I used some screw in hanging hooks, drove them in the lid where I wanted to tie branches too and they worked great. As far as pruning, it's good to get rid of the odd leaves that get in the way of other branches or to open up some airways between the plants and branches for a nice breeze to get through from you fans, this will also help keep mold and bud rot away.

I hope everything is well and I will try to keep more up to date here. Take care!

 

[Delps8]

I appreciate you checking back in. I was hoping that I wasn't just talking to myself here.

"Glad to see you got that ph drop issue figured out quickly."
Thanks. Yes, it was a relief to finally get it figured out and it's been a great hands on lesson. Right now, it's at 470 and 5.8, rising slowly. Having traipsed up and down the PPM ladder, I'm now running around with my hair on fire wondering what's going on. My mindset is much more "Add a quart of nutes and I'll take a look in the morning" now.

"The plants are looking quite fine and bushy!"
I'm amazed as to how well they're doing. And, yes, they're very bushy. It looks like an jungle in there. That's one of the results of topping but I topped a few days too late and didn't tackle the LST as early as I should have.

"I seen you asked about lst and pruning. Lst is a great way to get the branches spread out after topping and you can anchor them down to the lid of your res. I used some screw in hanging hooks, drove them in the lid where I wanted to tie branches too and they worked great."
Great idea. Thanks for passing the along. The 2 OZ sinkers + S hooks is working OK but it would be much better to just hook into something that's screwed into the top of the res.

"As far as pruning, it's good to get rid of the odd leaves that get in the way of other branches or to open up some airways between the plants and branches for a nice breeze to get through from you fans, this will also help keep mold and bud rot away."
I've got three fans - 1 on the canopy and two 4" USB powered fans on the res top. I've done a little bit of clean up here, mainly tucking or, if needed, pruning off leaves the block bud sites but I need to "open up some airways" tomorrow. Good way to put it.

"I hope everything is well and I will try to keep more up to date here. Take care!"
That's much appreciated and thanks for the LST idea.

 

[Delps8]

Interesting things going on with "the falling pH" issue. Oh, oops, that should be "No interesting…". Amazing how quickly things settled down once I got the PPM to the right range.
It seems weird to me that 500± would be the right range because my only other experience was with photos and, IIRC, they use much higher levels of nutes. And, of course, Botanicare wants me to empty the bottle into the res each time, too. But I'm happy as a clam that they're happy as a clam at 500± PPM.
Of course, I wouldn't be a good helicopter plant daddy if I didn't insist on getting the PPM's at the point where EC and pH are both stable. So, to that point, the res was at 490/59 then 480/58 and I've seen this steady progression in the res a few times in the past week so I swapped in a few gallons to get to 530/58 and it's been sitting there for about half a day.
I am so glad to see that.

The canopy looks OK except for Reynolds in the back right. Pix are of an elevation view and a from view. Reynolds is hiding in the back and I would argue that I should have culled that plant a few weeks ago and allowed the other to spread out. I think the plants would have done better but it would have been a lot easier working in the tent with 3 plants instead of 4.

 

[Delps8]

Day 52 now and had a couple of strange things happen.

Two nights ago, I checked the plants at 2330 and noted:
"Really strange. The plant canopies were very uniform. During the day, the individual stalks make an uneven
canopy but, just now, Frank's canopy was absolutely uniform." I didn't make much of it but I did think enough of it to go to the garage (two flights of stairs) to take a picture of it at 11:30 at night.

The first part of my AM check is to measure water levels. To get a water level reading, I've got to kneel down next to the res, aim a flashlight at the "water level gauge" (a big cork with a 6" ruler stuck in it), and then read the markings on the ruler.

After I took the reading, I noticed that the water was…calm. As in no bubbles, as in no air pump sound, as in "What the fuck happened to the air pump!"

The dial on the pump was turned to the minimum position! There was some air being pumped in but at a seriously lower rate. The plants haven't been showing any obvious signs of distress - Tarzan could not make it through all of that foliage - but, over the past day or two, I've been asking "OK, so when does all of this vertical growth happen?"

Checking through pix from the morning before, I can see that everything looked good but it was a different story that a night. Nothing alarming but they were definitely suffering from something by 2300.

Last night, another weird thing. I checked camera that's trained on the Bluelab and it was black. I flipped over to the Kasa app, the app that runs the smart power strip, and all of the power buttons were "off". Huh?

I headed to the garage and the GFCI had tripped. It's a 15 amp circuit and there's no way the normal current draw would get that high. I have no idea what tripped the GFCI but, since that's a potentially fatal event for a hydro grow…how do you protect against that? A UPS for a weed grow. That's a new one to me.

Res change today. 520 PPM @ 5.8.

Did "some trimming". If I ever grow autos again, I'm building at least a 12" riser for the res - the plants are "compact" so I'm working at 14" AGL. There were a few leaves that were in the process of dropping and lots of ash and trash growth so I spent some quality time trimming things back. I've got two USB fans running on the top of the res to ensure that there's air movement so it's now truly a "breezeway". Didn't remove anything up top but did do some leaf tucking.

Bumped the PPFD to 800, 740, 680, and 625 but within a few hours, Hamilton (740) started showing signs of distress so I dropped output by 50 PPFD. I'm on an 18/6 schedule yields DLI's of 49, 45, 41, and 37. I should have culled the smallest plant - it would be good to have the room for the others and I could bend Hamilton over and get more light on Frank (800) and Joe. First world problem - too many weed plants.

EC and pH change gradually and in the expected manner. The key to that has been to get the PPM to the figure that the plants want. For this grow, that's 490 - 520. It's really nice to have a stable res. Thank you Bluelab.

No major vertical growth yet but I've been told that it will happen any day now.

 

[Delps8]

Day 57
Per the pix, I cleaned up a lot of the undercarriage. There was some debris there but it was dark as a whale's ass and a fair amount of leaves that were failing. I followed the "200 µn/s" advice from the You Tube video "Episode 43: Latest Research in Cannabis Cultivation with Dr. Allison Justice". Start that video rolling and skip ahead to about the 39 minute mark. The interplay between the interviewer and the good Doctor (I've forgotten her name) was interesting.

Canopy is very full but not seeing lots of stalks bearing bud sites popping through the canopy. Looking down into the canopy, yeh they're there, but buried in the foliage.

The res has been really stable to the point of being a joy to work with vs the total goat rodeo of my previous grow. I can control how the res behaves by adding a gallon or two of RO water or nute water. Sitting pretty at 470 PPM and 5.8.

Looking at the pix, one is a canopy shot but the others show closeups of flowers. The final pix is looking down the stalk of a plant to the bud sites that are below the canopy. If I were to "remove fan leaves that are blocking bud sites" does that mean removing all of those fans leaves?

 

[Delps8]

Long time, no updates…

The res has been stable at around 450PPM. At that initial level, PPM will drop about 10 PPM/day and pH will rise about 0.1/day. The plants are finally flowering and water consumption is up.

Hamilton was the first plant to create resin, per the pix of the bud. Once buds started popping up, growth slowed down, and it doesn't have any "stems shooting skyward" growth. Reynolds, the runt of the litter, and Joe are leading the pack in that respect. In the back right of the tent are a couple of power strips. At one point, the tops of the colas were at the bottom of the power strip. Two days later, they've grown 4".

I spent the $$ on a dehu. SoCal has a weather phenomenon called "June Gloom" and that brings lots of humidity with it. I tried a small Waykar dehu but it wasn't able to handle the 35% RH test so I'm using the larger Waykar, the one that's labeled as good for up to 4500 sq ft. The garage is 500 sq ft so that should have no trouble handling it.

The uneven canopy makes it harder to adjust light levels. I was using these values for PPFD/DLI:
760 49
600 39
800 52
850 55

That averages out to 753 PPFD and a DLI of 49 - pretty high but the plants were doing OK. Then Joe and Reynolds pulled an Icarus. In the space of two days they were way closer than they should have been to the light so I had to back off the light. Last thing I want to do is fry my plants this close to the finish line.
650 42
600 39
650 42
600 39

I've been thimking over how to create tie down points for LST. I'm not really keen on drilling holes in the top of the res. Replacing the res top would be really hard to do. I don't know if I could even find a replacement top and a replacement res is > $400. My preference is something is that is non-destructive, that is easy reconfigurable, that offers a lot of tie down points, and that allows me to remove it easily. I've come up with a design that I think will work and will give this a try over the weekend.

Instead of a series of fixed attachement points, I'm using "DIYMAG Magnetic Cruise Hooks", through which I will thread a length of plastic tubing. The hooks can be moved anywhere on the surface of the res and, since it's a loop of plastic tubing, I have an infinite number of tie down points.

"OK, tubing that runs through S hooks — what keeps everything held down to the top of the res?"

Glad you asked! The other item I need is "The Hillman Group 290039 Zinc Fender Washers, 3/8" x 2", also described as a honkin' big washer. The fender washers go on the underside of the reservoir top and "snap to" the magnets, thus holding the hooks in place. The magnet on the hooks has a 22 lb pull vertically but requires only 7 pounds to move horizontally so when I want to move or remove a hook, all I have to do is slide the washer and the hook apart.

Setting up a tubing should be pretty easy - a 19" length will create a 12" diameter loop. All I have to do is cut off my piece of tubing, thread it through the hooks, and tape up the ends. I'm thinking of using tubing to create a loop but there's no need to create a loop or even to use tubing. You could set the hooks up in a square and run dowels between them if you wanted.

I'll post some pix once I get it set up.

 

[Delps8]

The res top is too thick so there's very little adhesion. A while back, I pondered using a length of chain but decided against having N pounds chain on the res top.
"If this shit was easy, it wouldn't be fun." = my version of the Ranger expression "This place sucks. Let's stay a while."

 

[Delps8]

Pix attached. Growth has been slow but steady. It looks like four plants are in three different stages of flower and I'm surprised how different they are even though they're the same strain from the same grower.

The PPFD on the is about 600µm/s. There have been a few stems that were really tall so I bent them over but it's really crowded in there.

From the close up pix showing the buds - I realize that's weeks away from harvest but it's great to see. This has been a cake walk compared to the unsuccessful grow I did in 2017.

Being June, we're supposed to have cool and moist weather in the mornings. Hah hah. Santa Ana's all week - yesterdays high was 86°. I ended up buying the Whynter 14k BTU AC unit. That's a lot of BTU's so is should be able to deal with a 20 x 25 garage. Unfortunately, that's not the case. It struggles to get the temp into the low 70's even though it's only been up to the mid-80's. Bummer.

The driver for the Mars runs a steady 125° so I'll soon I'll have the parts for an extension cord between the driver and light in a few days. That will help reduce the heat in the tent.

Res has been really stable - I waited two weeks between changes. And, wouldn't you know it, I'm getting dropping pH again. Started PPM at 450 and it pH dropped to I've gone down in 10 PPM increments to 410. I'm going to add some water and see what the res does overnight. Does cannabis usually reduce nutrient needs in flower? Is it an autoflower thing? 400 PPM seems awfully lower to me, that's all.

 

[Delps8]

I think one of the plants is pretty close to harvest time. What say you?

 

[Delps8]

Joe is getting really close to harvest time. I posted the above pix on another site on June 19 and the responses were 10 to 2 weeks. Reading through those threads, it was pretty common for new growers (like me) to think that their plants were closer to harvest than they actually are so I'm going to sit tight on this for a while.

The has been a dream to work with. I've done a res change about very two weeks without noticeable impact. The res uses 29 gallons of nutes so it's not as if they're lacking for nutes. And it's been very, very stable.

After starting to flower, I've had to drop the PPM from 500± PPM (on the 500 scale) to < 400. For that past week, the res has started at 390 and then dropped to 370 while pH has gone from 5.6 or 5.7 to 5.9 or 6.0 and then back down when I add nutes. I attribute this to abiding by the advice in the Wonder Chart and Son of Wonder Chart.

The only issue I have with Wonder Chart is the remarks for Falling, Static, Falling which reads "Lower EC if over 1.4, raise EC if lower than 1.0". What's the advice when EC is >1 and <1.4? Son of Wonder Chart comes through in the clutch - swap the res and lower the EC. Words to live by.

Biggest issue I'm dealing with is canopy height. Per the pix, the canopy looks like your favorite ski resort — two plants towering over the others. In this case, Joe is in the back left and is all of 24" tall. Frank, the big bushy plant in the left front, is at 30". Each of those plants has an even canopy. Hamilton and Reynolds each have at least a dozen stems shooting toward the sky, with most being 36" and some at 40". I've canted the light but even with the left side way lower than the other, lighting is uneven . I've bent over some of the stems on Hamilton and Reynolds but there are still a couple of colas that are getting just over 700 µm of light whereas Joe is only at 450±.

Riddle me this — how can seeds from one strain, all from the same vendor grow so completely differently? Instead of calling this grow a "grudge match" I should have named this "Twins", in honor of the movie of that name.

Another part of the learning experience has been that the "seed to harvest" time may not be what the vendor stated. Yes, I topped all four plants so that most likely has caused a delay but, as of today, I'm on day 89. Frank and Joe might be chopped in the next couple of weeks but Reynolds and Hamilton are…a month out? So much for "8 weeks".

My reason for kvetching is that, after sending two sets of seedlings to their graves, I went with autos so the grow would be done by June and I could avoid the summer heat because they would grow so quickly. Ha ha. I ended up having to get both an AC unit and a dehu. The AC unit is the Whynter 14k BTU beast and the dehumidifier is the Waykar that's supposed to dehumidifier 4500 feet. The garage is 20 x 25 so the Whynter is at its limit but it's keeping the tent temperature <= 80°F and, between the Whynter and the Waykar, RH is <= 52%. RH here in OC ranges from 100% overnight (I'm 10 miles from the ocean) to 50's during the day. Outside air temp have been mild, hitting low 80's, at most.

The camera is level in this pix - the plants in the back are up to 1' taller than the plants in the foreground. Same strain of seeds, same vendor.

DeVito family on the left, Schwarzenegger on the right.

 

[Delps8]

The fall from grace…

With the exception of my getting some nute water on a few leaves, these plants have had a charmed life. That has ended.

Per the attached pix, some leaves on Reynolds (the runt of the litter, in the back right) have light yellow/white spots on them, the edges of the leaves are curling upward, with some of the tips turning yellow or light brown.

Facts Bearing on the Situation

• This is one of four GG autos that are in day 92 of the grow in RDWC + RO.
• The plant at issue and it’s “twin” are about two weeks behind the other two plants in the tent.
• Res temp is chilled to 68°F.
• The res is in a garage that has not be used by a vehicle for about 2 weeks. The garage door and the back door to the garage were open a few inches overnight last night.
• Temperature, RH, and VPD data are in the pix.
• The canopy in the tent is very uneven which has made the PPFD very uneven even though the light is canted up to the right The height of the canopy for Reynolds is uneven - some of the colas are 6” taller than the foliage in the pix and those colas (is “stems” the right word?) were receiving significant more light than this foliage. The tallest stems were > 800 PPFD but the rest of Reynolds, including the affected leaves, was less than 600 PPFD. Other plants in the tent are at 425±, 500±, and 600±PPFD.
• I’ve been changing the res at two week intervals. This res is 9 days old. I’ve been dropping TDS in response to pH dropping. As a result, pH has been very stable but TDS has fallen. A month ago, TDS was 400; by 6/24 it was 370; 6/28 was a res change and I started with 380 but stopped at 300PPM by 7/2; and PPM has been 280 for a few days with pH dropping from 5.8 to 5.7 over night so I added 2 gallons RO and the numbers are now 260 @5.8. The bump in pH was due to the addition of RO. About 2 hours after I added the RO, pH has dropped to 5.47.
• The white spots are discoloration of the leaf. I rubbed my finger over the spots and there was nothing on the surface. The backs of the leaves are a healthy green color. There is no evidence of mold or insects.
• Leaf surface temperature ranges from 74°F to 76°F
• I have two 6” fans on the res top, aimed up; one 4” fan aimed that the canopy; and the 4” Infinity is connected to an InkBird humidity sensor and it runs constantly to reduce RH. The flaps are open, exposing the front and left side of the tent. The right side of the tent is ⅓± open.
• Nutes are Botanicare Kind and, right now, are at about 20% strength. I’m using CalMag at recommended strength.

Actions Taken

• I’ve set up a 4” fan to move air over the affected leaves.
• I’ve dropped the PPFD so that the tallest colas are receiving 650 µM.

Nutrients - My approach to TDS and pH has been to follow the Wonder Chart and Son of WC. If pH drops more than 0.1, I’ve been dropping the TDS by 10 PPM. This has lead to a very stable pH level but nutrient level has dropped significantly. Could this issue be a nute deficiency caused by too few nutes? Is this a nute deficiency that’s occurring because the plant is in flower?

Light - I don’t see how it could be a light issue - there are a few colas that were getting 200± PPFD more light than these leaves and these leaves are getting “normal” amounts of light. Also, the issue is, so far, very localized.

Temp or RH - both within very close to optimal.

I would appreciate any feedback that might help me resolve this issue.

 

[Delps8]

The plant with the curly leaves still has curly leaves but doesn't have any other symptoms of problems. I've done a res swap and am dealing with pH falling slowly till I get the PPM down to the right level (340 dropping to 240). Frank, the big, bushy plant, will be harvested next. The top colas have lots of amber tricks but the % of amber drops when I check the trichs further down the stems. Lots of leave yellowing. I'm thinking that Frank my get chopped this weekend.

Hamilton and Reynolds a maybe a couple of weeks out. Joe and Frank were short and squat vs Hamilton and Reynolds who have lots of stems. Amazing that these are the same strain.
I'll post some pix in the AM.

Big change of heart here re. photos vs autos. After killing off two sets of seedlings, this grow was just a "make it go" grow so the only training of any significance was to top the plants. I've labelled autos "LSF's" ("little short fellas") because I was comparing them to photos. But a better way to think about it might be that good things (sometimes) come in small packages.

The fact that they're pretty much oblivious to extra light is a big win in my book. I live in SoCal where our betters are not able to provide a steady supply of electricity. That's what lead to the demise of my 2017 grow. If I had been growing autos, a power outage wouldn't have mattered. OK, the air pump isn't running on unicorn farts but, if push came to shove, I could blow air through a straw for a few hours, if I had to. Ooops, did CA ban straws?

I've got 2-3 weeks before the end of this grow and I don't think I want to start another grow before September. Temps jump from 76° in May to 82, 83, and 81 for June, July, and August and then drop 6° in September so I can give my AC unit a rest. And my wallet - CA has the 3rd highest electricity rates in the US. Dunno - if we're paying all that $$ for electricity then perhaps it's a good thing that the power goes out every now and again since that saves money, right? ;-)

If anyone is reading this thread and if that anyone knows anyone who wants a used Mars SP3000, I'll have one for sale at the end of this grow. The SP3k has a lot of great features - good light output per $, good light output overall, good spectrum, movable driver, dimmer, and a very good light footprint. And, it's cheap! Mars is selling them for just under $300 now so I figure somewhere in the $2xx range is a fair price. I've got the original box so I can ship it safely. Lemme know if interested.

At the moment, it's back to Maytag repairman. After "jumping through hoops of flaming shit" in 2017 trying to deal with falling pH, the pH is falling slowly in the current grow and I'm pretty certain I've got a handle on it. Some of that is that I've changed my equipment so it's easier to deal with things but the other piece is that "experience" thing.

 

[Delps8]

Going into day 109 of a grow where I chose autos so I would have the harvest done before June…

Top pix shows Frank on the left, Hamilton and Reynolds on the right. All at day 109, Frank is 30” and ready to harvest while the other two are 40”+ and will be another couple of weeks. Same strain, same supplier.

I topped each of the plants and cleared out the underbrush so there’s a lot of foliage underneath the canopy. The colas at the top are very mature but the buds down the stalks don’t have any of the advanced coloring. The closeups are from sugar leaves about half way down the stalk. They certainly don’t look as mature as the colas that the top but, per the pix, there’s amber aplenty.

Time to stop taking pix and start harvesting trichs!*

OK, that’s a…stretch (har har).