Diary PCBuds mini-grow
- Thread starter PCBuds
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goingrey
Well-known member
What signs are you seeing?
Ca++
Well-known member
The collapse you spoke of. It's fairly common when the light is increased by a bunch. It revolves around the energy stores in the plant. The switch to bloom food may help, especially if there is high nh4 nitrogen in the grow, though that's generally a soil thing. Your problem with feeding high is the stretch you are trying to avoid. It would be better to slow things down a bit. Let the plant do better, by not wilting it.
PCBuds
Well-known member
Well, I have done all this before and the plants have come around and gotten used to it.
She will probably start shedding her big fan leaves, and I'll end up pruning them off.
I've only got half of the side lights on, and they are at less than half of what I will end up running them at.
The stretching has slowed down and she has about 7½ inches of headroom left.
I turned down the side lights a bit and I'll try do the transition more gradually, but she's got a LOT more light that's going to be coming to her.
I like to broil my plants.
PCBuds
Well-known member
She has perked up somewhat since yesterday.
I'll give her a day or two to adjust, then I'll start pinching off the big fan leaves.
She doesn't need them anymore, and they are blocking light from getting to the smaller leaves and flowers.
She's at the start of her LST program that will harden her off.
(Light Stress Training.)
I'll give her a day or two to adjust, then I'll start pinching off the big fan leaves.
She doesn't need them anymore, and they are blocking light from getting to the smaller leaves and flowers.
She's at the start of her LST program that will harden her off.
(Light Stress Training.
)
PCBuds
Well-known member
I've developed my own growing method where I just remove the fan leaves as soon as I turn on all the lights.
The fan leaves all end up being resorbed then dropped. I figure it's better just to prune them right away. There's plenty of light, water, and nutrition for the remaining leaves to feed the plant, and the dying fan leaves block light from getting to the smaller leaves and buds. I figure that the plant is wasting her resources by deleting the fan leaves herself.
My entire grow is using 334 Watts, including an aquarium air pump and 2 fans.
The lights and their power supplies a using 309 Watts.
I forget how to convert PPFD to LUX but these are the readings I'm getting now,..
I held my LUX meter close to the stalk facing up and raised it up to the top of the main cola. 26,500 LUX
But being as I have lights all around the inside of the closet, with some leaves right up against the lights, I faced my light meter right against the lights all around the closet and got 40,500 LUX
I don't know what that would be in PPFD, but I'm sure that I would be charged with Stunt Lighting and have my plant impounded for 30 days.
Oh well, they gotta catch me first.
I can't help but hear my brain screaming ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA!!! but I keep doubting it, not that I am doing anything to confirm or deny my doubts, but such is life, nothing really madders.
PCBuds
Well-known member
That's possible??
The coco coir is probably from Africa or Asia so the seeds could have been in it?
The only thing is the lack of yellow pistils in the center of my flowers.
Mine don't seem to have that, at least not yet, but different strains could have different flowers?
I'd rather not have a madder plant because of the toxic roots, but I'm not going to remove it either way.
That's too much good luck to throw out.
Meanwhile my lucky plant doesn't have any flowers out at the moment.
I think they open and close at different times, but I haven't really been paying attention.
Ca++
Well-known member
That light meter is x3 iirc, so 800 looking up, and 1200 looking out from the sides
I thought you put a sticker on it?
You are no stranger to doing this I know. Perhaps your older leaves never grew expecting this sort of excitement. I expect you could keep them functioning with more gradual increases though. If you actually wanted to retain them, that is.
I thought you put a sticker on it?
You are no stranger to doing this I know. Perhaps your older leaves never grew expecting this sort of excitement. I expect you could keep them functioning with more gradual increases though. If you actually wanted to retain them, that is.
PCBuds
Well-known member
Yeah, I got A LOT of light happening in my closet.
I actually turned them down about 25% just before I measured because the temperature shot up to 92° F and the humidity dropped to about 28%.
I doubt that those leaves could have handled the light intensity. They probably would have just died off slower.
Those leaves went from this,..
To this in 3-4 days.
The new leaves and flowers look fine. They seem happy and healthy.
So now it's all about the flowers and colas filling in.
We'll see how it goes.
She's drinking around 4 liters a day of nutrient solution.
I've got that pretty rich too,..
The PH in the reservoir has been climbing up over 6.0 so I am siphoning it off every day, PH'ing it down to ~4.5 and pouring it back down the tube.
I PH my fresh nutes to ~5.2 to help keep the PH from rising out of control.
I water the plant from the top down and pour it in right at the stalk.
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PCBuds
Well-known member
Another way that I have tried to measure my light intensity is with the LED strip specs and my current/voltage meters.
My strips are 180 lumens per watt.
I have 48 LED strips (the four ceiling strips are double length and count as 2 each).
These are my current power readings,..
So, (19.7 × 2.18) + (19.2 × 3.75) + (19.1 × 3.27) + (19.2 × 3.38) = 242.3 Watts.
(The reading from my Watt meter at the outlet includes the waste of the power supplies)
So, 242.3 × 180 is 43,614 lumens.
I have no idea what that is in PPFD or if it's even realistically applicable?
I could have all 48 strips mounted on the ceiling aiming down and I'd have the same 43,614 lumens in the closet.
I'm sure that would roast my plant from the top down.
Damn that is a lot of light for such a small place. But I think that if increase your air humidity and drop the temp a bit you should be able, keeping the intensity of light to regreen your leaves. And stop actively acidifying with nutes, I tried it to, I got yellow leaves, I dunno if in your setup it would work, but I stopped giving a damn about pH and they are getting greener just with misting with tap water. I currently have no clue what my pH is.
PCBuds
Well-known member
I turned down the lights, hung a wet towel and I've been spraying the plant with RO water.
I've found out over the past few grows that I need to actively correct for the rise in PH that always happens.
My PH was almost 7. That's way too high for coco.
This is a post from last year.
@f-e noticed the same thing.
When I first switched to coco, and my Maxigro and Maxibloom nutes, I also started using RO water.
I wasn't monitoring PH and just mixed the nutes and watered the plant. The plant did fine.
It wasn't until I started checking the PH on the next plant that I realized that my nute solution was at about PH 4.2 with the RO water, so I PHed it up to 5.8 and that's when everything went south.
I finally checked the PH of the reservoir and it was almost 7. I had rust spots on my leaves from calcium deficiency from lockout.
When I unknowingly watered my plant with nutes at PH 4.2 the plant was fine.
PCBuds
Well-known member
It's not just the grow space that's small, she's in a rather small planter for such a big plant, and she's drinking 4 liters of strong nutes every day with probably 4-10 times as much light as a normal grow.
With a normal grow, a subtle rise in PH might not be noticeable or even happen at all, but with everything cranked up so high, everything gets amplified.
The PPM limit is probably about 450 as well.
I'm going more than twice the speed limit there too.
Ca++
Well-known member
The 450 was just as they needed a rest, to get back on form. Life begins at 600 imo
180lm/w is about 2.4umol/w I think. I would have to look at some examples. Everything measured as LUX, falls within PAR, so it's a reliable way forward. Though that would just say 252x2.4=605umol. Which over a meter, would be 605ppfd, if you didn't account for 20% in losses. Say 500ppfd, which seems a little generous. Suggesting 2.4 is too high. Anyhow, you don't have a meter to spread them over, so you have a higher concentration than 500ppfd. I was guessing about half a meter, to be knocking on for 1000ppfd
180lm/w is about 2.4umol/w I think. I would have to look at some examples. Everything measured as LUX, falls within PAR, so it's a reliable way forward. Though that would just say 252x2.4=605umol. Which over a meter, would be 605ppfd, if you didn't account for 20% in losses. Say 500ppfd, which seems a little generous. Suggesting 2.4 is too high. Anyhow, you don't have a meter to spread them over, so you have a higher concentration than 500ppfd. I was guessing about half a meter, to be knocking on for 1000ppfd
