Help! am I about to ruin my crop?

[Light Addict]

Hey folks, Ive just put trays of salt and sugar in my closet grow space, in an attempt to lower humidity is it going to ruin my crop?. I just read somewhere that salt is bad. I am in last to weeks and want to get em frosty, but dont want to ruin her. Help from the wise is needed.

 

[DirtyDanny]

I doubt it will do anything at all............unless its a VERY small closet. You need a powerful discessant like damp rid or silica gel to make a noticable difference.
Trying to lower the humidity isnt gonna make your nugs frosty.....
If your nugs arent frosty yet with only 2 weeks to go......you have a light intensity shortage!
You dont have enough light to kick the Trichs into overdrive....

 

[elious]

If I'm not mistaking, what you're saying isbthat you've out trays or bowls (or something like that) full of sugar and salt into the grow space, is this right? Because if it is, you don't have to worry about anything. Putting salt into the medium is a mistakes if this is what you've done then undo it by getting what you can out and then doing am intense flush. But if I read what you wrote correctly, you have no worries brother.

 

[Light Addict]

Ok first I doubt it is light deficiency as under 400 hps with over 1000 watt of Cfls for side lighting. My plant is nice and frosty but I want more!!!!!!
Just wanted to try and bring down the humidity

 

[DirtyDanny]

Ok first I doubt it is light deficiency as under 400 hps with over 1000 watt of Cfls for side lighting. My plant is nice and frosty but I want more!!!!!!
Just wanted to try and bring down the humidity

OK.............why did you not just post the pics in the first place?
You made it sound as if you DIDNT HAVE ANY frost at all with 2 weeks until harvest......
As you said "I am in last to weeks and want to get em frosty"..........
So we can only draw conclusions from your vauge question?????
Anyways, lowering the humidity during late stage flowering is just a precaution against mold, bud rot, pests, ect.
Im by far no expert........but I personally have never heard that lowering the humidity will increase trich production.

 

[elious]

Dirty Dan has my vote. Humidity in excess is bad but low humidity isn't going to significantly improve anything its just going to help keep your plants from contracting problems.

 

[Resin Raver]

Tbh mate if your plant isn't frosty with trichs @ 2 weeks to the chop, I don't think its ever going to be. Changing your humidity levels will not add/increase trichomes bro. Atb with your final weeks in bloom. RR...

 

[Jimmycricket]

You are fine. But having a bowl of sugar and salt in the room isnt doing anything lol. Its not hurting either but its almost the equivalent of me putting a bag of marbles in the room so that the nugs get bigger.

Nice plant though man, you did a good job.

 

[Cheesus]

Hey folks, Ive just put trays of salt and sugar in my closet grow space, in an attempt to lower humidity is it going to ruin my crop?. I just read somewhere that salt is bad. I am in last to weeks and want to get em frosty, but dont want to ruin her. Help from the wise is needed.

Hi man!

She looks lovely, really good.

I would recomend that u try the cold water flush in combo with turning the lights of for atleast 36hrs before cutting her down, this might give them a frostier look, but.. it can give you upwards of 30% more thc in the allready existing trics.

ive done it once so cant say it did that or this, but it seemed to like the dark period.

cold water may trick the plants winter is around the corner, and make them wanna give it all for the last week or so.

hope it helps

/cheese

 

[p604]

nice buds.. tell more about how you are growing? soil? hydro???

 

[count duckula]

nice looking plant LA!

 

[Light Addict]

Right sorry here is a rundown: soil and perlite mix. Five week veg under cfl using all plagron nutes: terra grow and terra bloom, sugar royal, greensensation, pk 13-14. Moved under 400 hps to flower with 4 big cfls (over 1000 watts) for side lighting. I ph and adjust it down with lemon juice. I also changed the day cycle to 21hrs 36 mins during peek flowering, keeping a 12 hour dark period. To end im flushing with molasses.
Hope that clears everything up. Oh yeah and I gave it shit loads of lst from about 2nd week up till about half way through flower.

 

[donpaul.p]

ive not tried the 24 or 48 hours of dark before harvest but this is suppose to help with trich production, is their any chance of a close up pic of the buds,

not sure what you mean by giving them 21 hours as a day cycle, are you saying you give the plant 12 hours of dark followed by 21 hours of light,

keep it at 24 hour days and 12-12 is the best option, you can finish plants sooner using diminishing light routine but this can slightly lower yield, so you could go from say 12 light 12 dark to 10 light 14 dark, this will speed up harvest time but growth is slower so you will end up with lower yield, but this late into flower it will not make much difference,

but if you are giving it more than 12 hours of light each time the lights on then this may be affecting trich production, i wouldnt mess around to much with the light schedule, id keep it at 12-12 or use dls from the start of flower to the end,

let us know what you mean by 21 hours of light, are you saying your days are now not 24 hour and you are now giving the plant 12 hours of dark followed by 9 hours of light or something similar,

plants use something called carcadium rythem, unsure on spelling, but their bred to a 24 hours schedule so i would not mess about with the light schedule to much unless you plan on doing this over a few generations of crosses,

if it was me id stick with 12-12 from start to finish or possible if i wanted a strain to finish a week earlier then id go with deminishing light schedule but this is best used with glr for veg,

so let us know what you mean but the 21 hour thing,
the plant will bulk up at the very end of flower, the calyx or seed pods will swell and trich will turn cloudy to amber, so either use a scope or mag glass to check trichs and wait until all are cloudy or mosly cloudy then it wont be far from harvest, the more amber trichs you get the more couch lock affect you get,

if your giving the plants less light like 12 hours dark and 9 hours light then you would of been much better increasing the dark period to say 14 hours then the light period to 10 hours, keeping the day as 24 hours make sense as these plants are grown under 24 hour days, so messing this up only in the flower stage could cause the plant to go hermie, if its been used to 24 hour days then its best to stick with this, so id of gone 10/14, 14 been the dark period, that way the plant finishes slightly quicker but yield might be slightly less,

your plant looks great and will be a nice yield, so the last thing you want is the plant going hermie, it looks frosty enough to me but a close up pic would be better,

 

[GigaGrew]

if your trying to follow the same sort of system ive read about, then its about 50-80 humidity in veg then about 40-30 in flower and then as close to zero humidity as you can for the last week to stress it to death producing trichs.

there is no getting around it my friend, unless you can play with the local humidity somehow (central heating ofen dries the air), a dehumidifyer is really the only thing that will take you where you need to be.

 

[donpaul.p]

you would need a good sealed grow space to keep humidity down that low, the moisture from the soil and plant will keep the humidity up, i think it might be easier with hydro as you could seal the top of the pot and just have the stem coming out, but if i leave my grow door shut with the light on then the humidity slowly creeps up as it just draws the moisture out the pots and the leaves

ill try and find some info on the humidity method, will be interesting to read how it works and what benefits it actually has,
we know the plants produce trichs to make the buds less eatable to animals, this then gives the plant a better chance to reproduce so it produces trichs to stop the plant been eaten,

here is some more info in details
Evolution of Trichomes

In nature, only the strong survive, and it is hypothesized by biologists that trichomes evolved as a defense mechanism of the cannabis plant against a range of potential enemies (1). Trichomes, from the Greek meaning ‘growth of hair,’ act as an evolutionary shield, protecting the plant and its seeds from the dangers of its environment, allowing it to reproduce. These adhesive sprouts form a protective layer against offensive insects, preventing them from reaching the surface of the plant. The chemicals in the trichomes make cannabis less palatable to hungry animals and can inhibit the growth of some types of fungus. The resin also helps to insulate the plant from high wind and low humidity, and acts as a natural ‘sun-screen’ in protecting against UV-B light rays. But since trichomes contain euphoric properties attractive to humans, it may be man who has had the most influence on the plants’ development through many years of favoring strains that consistently produce more of these gooey resin heads.


its me again now,
so now after reading that it seems trichs actually do protect the plent from low humidity and from uv, how come this is not that widely known, so i was wrong about the humidty not doing anything, by the sounds of it the lower the humidity the more the plant needs protection, it seems the same with uv which i mentiond above,

i need to read more about this humidity method and see if we can adjust the amount of trichs according to the humidity,
sorry for any confusion its a method i have not heard of or come across anywhere,
so it looks like humidty and or uv plays a roll but by the sounds of it it would need to be started early on to increase trich production, i think if you just did it the last week or 2 in flower then it woud make very little difference, you would need to start reducing humidity early on in flower,

theirs a bit of info on why the plants produce trich, just use the search engine and search for why does cannabis produce trichomes,

its basically to stop the buds being eaten and also to protect the plant from the sun and low humidity levels, so as far as i can tell uv and or humidty would play a part as long as it was started early in flower

@GiGa, thanks for the info mate, i would not of searched for it if you never posted that info,
reps my friend

 

[DirtyDanny]

we know the plants produce trichs to make the buds less eatable to animals, this then gives the plant a better chance to reproduce so it produces trichs to stop the plant been eaten,The chemicals in the trichomes make cannabis less palatable to hungry animals

Please try explaining this to the motherf#@king deer around my property!!!
They dont seem to agree with your statement
Thats why its all indoors for me from now on

 

[donpaul.p]

try this link, covers everything about trichs and its all ready on this site
Increasing trichomes and growth

 

[GigaGrew]

here is a little snippet from elsewhere that talks about plants and humidity in general (including MJ) but doesnt mention the super dry last week.

(this shows why you dont want it too dry)

Plants and Humidity

Humidity has a major impact upon the overall performance and final yield of plants grown indoors. The level of humidity will alter how your plants function and if you can successfully take control of it as a grow room environmental factor then you will see a significant improvement in the performance of your plants. This article intends to explain in straightforward terms what humidity is, how it affects plant development at various life-stages and what you can do as a grower to manage your humidity for maximum effect.


Humidity Explained

Humidity refers to the amount of water vapour that the air holds at a given time. It is usually expressed as a percentage in relation to the maximum amount of water vapour that the air will hold at current temperatures. This particular and most common form of humidity measurement is known as Relative Humidity (RH) and is usually expressed as a percentage. Taking humidity and temperature into account together makes sense since they are directly related, i.e. the warmer the air, the more water vapour it can hold. So, at 100% humidity the air cannot hold any additional water vapour - unless the temperature were to change.


Plants and Humidity: Introduction

A common misconception in indoor gardening revolves around the idea that plants do not like high levels of humidity. This quite simply isn’t true! Plants love high humidity (especially in vegetative growth), but all too often indoor growers create low humidity environments to avoid potential pathogens that are not really an issue until the flowering stage. This “play it safe” attitude is understandable as nobody wants to have a fungal or bacterial problem but through careful humidity management throughout your plants growth you can avoid any such problems whilst also significantly improving your growth rates.


Plants and Humidity: The Science

Your plants’ ability to remain suitably hydrated and capable of absorbing the necessary nutrients for growth greatly depends on how efficient water transportation is within their systems. The humidity of your growing environment can potentially disrupt this process as it is a controlling factor on how much moisture transpires from your plants and therefore how water is moving through the plant from roots to leaves.

To understand the effect of humidity on water transport there are a couple of points you need to understand. Firstly, water tends to move from high humidity areas to low humidity areas. Secondly, the humidity inside plants has been found close to 100%. The rate at which water leaves your plants (via transpiration) will increase the lower the humidity in your grow room. Since the humidity inside your plants falls in the region of 100%, the humidity of the growing environment will also need to be relatively high to avoid potentially damaging over transpiration. This is particularly relevant before fruits and flowers begin to form.

Obviously, if humidity is very low then plants will lose too much water leading to the threat of damage caused by dryness. Consequently, the development of new leaves may suffer, older leaves could curl or even shed, and flowers/fruit occasionally die before or soon after opening.

Whilst low humidity is obviously not desirable, high humidity can cause problems too. Excessively high humidity and serious lack of ventilation sometimes encourages the spread of fungal diseases including Botrytis (Bud Rot) and Mildew, as well as stem and root infections in the very worst cases. However, with a reasonable amount of care and the right equipment this scenario is very easy to avoid.


Plants and Humidity: Recommendations According to Different Life-Stages

Although the following recommended levels of humidity apply to most plants it is worth noting that exceptions do exist. For example, the majority of species respond positively to 50-80% RH during vegetative growth, but Cacti prefer much lower settings of 30-35%. Please only use the suggestions that follow as a guide.

Since humidity is clearly an important factor, we highly recommend investing in some basic monitoring equipment to allow you to accurately monitor and measure your humidity levels. Your cheapest option is a Digital Min-Max Combo Meter, which precisely reports both humidity and temperature.


Young Cutting and Seedling Stage

At the beginning of your plants life relative humidity should ideally be between 70-80% RH. Use of a Hi-Top, Aeroponic, Jumbo Aeroponic or Heated Propagator will enable you to create these conditions with minimal fuss. All of them incorporate ventilation panels which can be opened and closed to preserve, increase or decrease humidity when deemed necessary. A high humidity setting is advisable when plants are young because it encourages them to devote most of their energy to growing roots and foliage rather than attempting to correct the humidity balance by over transpiring. As a result of increasing the humidity at this crucial stage, roots form at a faster rate, plant health improves and growth is significantly more vigorous.


Vegetative Growth Stage

When your plants are ready to be moved out of a propagator and into their main growing environment the optimum relative humidity should be around 50-80% RH. Creating an enclosed grow room using reflective sheeting or by using a grow tent or BudBox will make controlling your environment much easier. The suggested humidity in vegetative growth are slightly lower than they were in propagation because at this stage your plants will start growing leaves and shoots at a rapid speed, increasing the surface area from which water is able to transpire. This puts less strain on each leaf in terms of transpiration meaning the difference between humidity inside and outside every plant doesn’t need to be so close. Your plant also needs to maintain a certain degree of transpiration to draw water and nutrients into the plant to fuel all of this new growth.

Due to the fact that your plants will now be growing in an artificial light controlled environment, you need to consider dark cycles - when humidity usually decreases. Counteract this accordingly by setting up your grow room so that humidity is about 10% higher at night compared to the day. Be warned though - if at any point humidity drops below the suggested rate for a prolonged period of time plants stand the chance of experiencing potentially troublesome issues, including over-fertilisation.

To keep your grow environment within the optimum range of humidity a humidifier should be employed.

Flowering/Fruiting Stage

High humidity can remain present in the growing environment up until the flowering/fruiting period at which point it should be lowered to significantly reduce the threat of rot. An effective solution to preventing humidity from rising too high is with adequate ventilation. By extracting hot and humid air and replacing it with cooler less humid air from outside your grow room, high humidity will automatically become less of an issue. A suitable setting at this stage would range from 35 to 60% RH.

 

[donpaul.p]

how ever i have come across this info a few times
Very low humidity causes heat moisture stress and slows or limits growth.

 

[donpaul.p]

theirs just to much info and not enough proof in my oppinion, about the best option involves using sage brush to produce some chemical that tells other plants that its under attack,
it releases a chemical when insects nibble on the sage brush leaves,
but again not much proof and plenty of words saying one method works and not others but none seem to have any clear proof or side by side results, i think if their was a magic trich method then we would of all heard about it by now