Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[PCBuds]

You dont have to worry about your plants transpiring too much at the moment, your not in that section of the chart. With high temperature and high humidity, thats when you have to worry about maximizing light and nutrients

I was under the impression that if a plant is in a really dry environment, the air would "pull" or "draw" moisture out of the plant causing it to draw huge amounts of liquids (and nutrients) up from the roots and out?

Almost like a suction?

 

[PCBuds]

I decided to give my piece-o-crap CO2 detector another try.
My cat's not too impressed with it either. Lol

It says in the instructions (But not in the description on Ebay!!), that it doesn't tell you what the CO2 concentration actually is.

It only shows you a change in CO2 concentration from one area to another.
The actual reading is erroneous.

(I wish it would have said that in the damn description. I never would have bought it. I want to know what my CO2 level actually is!)



So you are supposed to let it sit and sniff the air for farts, bad breath, and poisons and stuff for a few minutes, then move it to another area.

So this is the reading in my living room...

And this is what it reads after being in my closet for about 15 minutes...

It did go up, suggesting that there is more CO2 in the closet than in the rest of my house.

So, I guess my "CO2 generator" is working and my plant is getting lots of gaseous carbon. Lol


I set my meter back in my living room to see if the reading dropped back down...

It did go down, so I guess the CO2 concentration in the closet is higher than the rest of the house, but I doubt that it is actually is 891 PPM when normal outside air is around 415 PPM, but I gues it could be close?
I do have 4 pails of wine brewing in my house.


Interestingly, the meter says that my air quality is "good" (the word "good" is flashing) even though my air is full crap.

But it is made in China, where the air is as thick as pea soup. Lol



I remember talking to my uncle years ago and he said that there was a shipment of smoke detectors sent from Canada to Los Angeles.

When the truck got into LA, the whole damn truck trailer went off.

LA was so polluted that all the detectors thought that there was a fire. Lol

They had to send the truck back to Canada to have all the fire detectors detuned. Lol

 

[f-e]

As it's 415 outside, you could compare your room to that.
My gauge is calibrated by outdoor air. Unfortunately it thinks that's 400ppm. It's an older device (It was 380ppm not so long ago. 10% rise while I have been taking notice)

 

[PCBuds]

As it's 415 outside, you could compare your room to that.
My gauge is calibrated by outdoor air. Unfortunately it thinks that's 400ppm. It's an older device (It was 380ppm not so long ago. 10% rise while I have been taking notice)

Good idea

I just put it outside, but it's cold and snowing right now.

I don't know if that effects the reading?

I think it does because the meter has some kind of heater element the reacts with the air to generate a reading.

We'll see what happens...

 

[GanjaLion]

I was under the impression that if a plant is in a really dry environment, the air would "pull" or "draw" moisture out of the plant causing it to draw huge amounts of liquids (and nutrients) up from the roots and out?

Almost like a suction?

It works more like a closed circuit, when you dont have proper air pressure you remove a part of that circuit. The moisture gets pulled from the plant with pressure in the air. If the air is dry or too wet and you dont have proper air pressure, the moisture is going to sit in the leaves instead of being drawn out so it could suck more from the roots. Thats why the leaves droop.

If the plant used energy to suck up water from the roots, it wouldnt have enough supply for its cellular functions. Its all a pressure loop, thermodynamics

Making the air too dry only slows down transpiration

 

[PCBuds]

Well, this is after about 15 minutes outside...

I guess it could be somewhat accurate, at least as far as the difference is concerned?

The numbers went nuts after I brought it back inside...
I'm well into polluted now. Lol

I'll let it sit and warm up until the battery dies and see what happens with the numbers.

At least it's got a rechargeable lithium battery so I don't have to buy batteries.

The numbers are dropping already while I'm typing this.
I'm down to the second level of polluted now. lol

 

[exploziv]

Theres a point when it's not economical from an energy standpoint or possible to carry enaugh moisture up the plant to mantain proper vascular pressure up to the leaves so the leaves will drop. This also protects the plant from severe dehidration, cause less leaf surface is exposed to the sun, in case not enaugh water is available during intense sun and heat (drought) periods.

 

[PCBuds]

Theres a point when it's not economical from an energy standpoint or possible to carry enaugh moisture up the plant to mantain proper vascular pressure up to the leaves so the leaves will drop. This also protects the plant from severe dehidration, cause less leaf surface is exposed to the sun, in case not enaugh water is available during intense sun and heat (drought) periods.

Hmmm....

That's making me think that I should pinch off a few fan leaves?

But, I'm kinda wasted again, and don't want to do anything stupid that I will regret.


So, I just pushed the two big fan leaves down and out of the way of the new branches that were being blocked...

I won't do anything more at least until tomorrow when I'm sober.



Those fan leaves aren't necessary anymore because the plant has plenty of light and nutrition and are going to end up being shed eventually anyway.

I just roasted the fan leaves off my last plant, and I wonder if the plant is wasting resources supporting the fan leaves when the new growth isn't droopy and is reaching eagerly upward.

Maybe it's better to just remove them.
There's plenty of growers that prune the fan leaves from their plants.


I dunno, I really wanna rip those leaves off, but I'll sober up and think on it.


If I remove the fan leaves, she may put her energy into growing taller and filling the closet to give her room for flowers and buds?

 

[PCBuds]

The numbers are dropping already while I'm typing this.
I'm down to the second level of polluted now. lol

I breathed on the sensor and the CO2 level shot up to over 5000, then I waved a piece of cardboard over the sensor and the reading dropped to less than 1000, so it is registering changes in CO2 anyway...

As long as there is more CO2 in the closet than in the rest of the house, then I'm happy.

Now I don't need the exhaust fan running and the RH can more easily stay around 40%.

 

[PCBuds]

She's looking pretty good.
She's almost 15" tall.

I don't like the way this big fan leaf is blocking the branch and smaller fan leaf under it.

I wanna pinch it off!!. Lol

And she's all bunched up at the top...

I figure if I give her a good pruning, she can spend her resources elsewhere? Like maybe in her stalk so she gets taller?





I found another lady bug .

It's the one with no spots.

I'm going to call her Dotty, because she ain't got no dots. Lol

 

[PCBuds]

I found this...

That's good news.
If there's no bugs to eat, they will eat my plant to keep themselves alive until they find some meat to eat.

I've gotta do some pruning anyway.
Maybe they can do it for me so that I don't have to bother. Lol

 

[PCBuds]

She fell asleep again, a few hours before lights out.

 

[GanjaLion]

Do me a favor and grow your plant indoor in that snow like condition, so i can watch your plant die. Cause im finished wasting my time trying to give you advice in your stupid thread. Your welcome your plant stopped dying after you raised the rh... go sober up

Edit: I also feel bad for all the lady bugs you steal from your yard and hold hostage to starve in your closet!! haha

 

[PCBuds]

She woke up eager to grow...

 

[PCBuds]

I managed to leave my plant alone for the most part.
I did remove a single finger from two fan leaves to open up a space for a lower branch.

I'm going to try to just LITFA and leave the plant with all her leaves.
She can shed her leaves when she needs to.

I did turn the lights up to about 8.5 amps total and she is adjusting to the light levels without too much of a problem.


The top of the main cola...

 

[f-e]

Let me have a crack at this one..
The holes the moisture leaves through, are the stomata. They look like a pair of lips. When inflamed, they open up. The moisture within them, keeping them pumped up and open, comes from within the plant. The moisture within these lips is lost to the atmosphere. I'm not talking about the moisture passing through the opening (their purpose), I mean the lips themselves loose moisture to the air.

This means, as the air gets drier we will loose more moisture through the opening. Until the air is so dry that it dries the lips themselves, closing the opening.
Low moisture within the plant will also lead to drier lips, thus closed.
Higher RH won't dry the lips, but will effect water loss through evaporation being restricted.
There was one article spoke of extremely high RH closing them. Perhaps as fluid didn't flow into them from the plant so quickly. Which is fluid that would carry other things. Such as K and it's role is increasing turgidity? It's stiffness basically. I don't do big words.

 

[PCBuds]

OK, I get it.
And thanks for not using big words. I'd have to look them all up.
I was mixed up with Turbidity and was going to check my reservoir for floaters. Lol

I still want to grow this plant at around 40% RH which I think should be OK.

I just checked the numbers and got this...

Then as I stood there with the door open, the RH quickly dropped to 38%.

I was considering turning on my exhaust fan to bring in cooler air to get my closet into the yellow/green zone, but it would also bring in drier air and remove the CO2 from the closet.
So I'm just going to leave things as they are.

I'm pretty sure that the plant itself is raising the RH because the water level in the planter is dropping, and it's not all evaporation off the soil surface.
The water level was dropping much slower when the plant was small.

The plant does seem to look OK, except for that ruffled look but it's mostly on the new growth and that's kinda normal.


I removed two more single fingers and tucked the fan leaves under the lower branches.

That's all that I'm going to do for pruning.

I noticed that the new branches are a light green with no purple, so there is still a lot more light to add before purpling starts I guess?

It's only the fan leaves that have purple stems. Everything else is still green, even light green.

Perhaps by turning up the lights slowly, the plant will continue to grow/stretch as she adjusts?

I didn't start with the bloom nutes yet, I do have lots of preflowers, but no actual flowers yet.
I'll wait until I have dime size buds before I switch nutes, as ReikoX mentioned.


She's got quite the hefty stalk and she is really quite rigid.

She should easily be able to support herself as a bigger plant.

 

[Sampas92]

You need your exctration fan on or something moving air up since co2 is heavier and lays in the bottom part of that cab, from what iv read
i look at the cola and comes to my mind too much light.

one thing that i would like to ask to all of the more experienced growers here..
When people do grows the light comes from the top, hence scrogs, mainlining etc..
Normally the leafs point to the scource of light, if centered or more dispersed like led light bars, it doesnt matter they point and pray for the light

he have light all around

If the girl was under ideally temps and rh, maybe less light if its too much, how the leafs would be?
pointing up?
maybe some leafs would had some odd positions like when you tie up a fan leaf and she bends herself to point to the light?

I ask because, when the girl is ready to start to get side lighting, how much of some odd position would be confused with something else, in bad terms when in reality was nothing bad.

I ask because i dont see alot of people with a setup like this.

Buds i think you should get a space a tad bigger space for better management of light everywhere like you have..
i still continue to think its too much light in so little space..
also get an hygrometer and something to humidify the air, it will help the girls and your floor

Peace

 

[PCBuds]

You need your exctration fan on or something moving air up since co2 is heavier and lays in the bottom part of that cab,

I do have convection going on.
The air comes in at the bottom and flows out at the top.
I will test my CO2 levels at the plant and on the floor to see what the readings are.

from what iv read
i look at the cola and comes to my mind too much light.

... i still continue to think its too much light in so little space..

Oh yeah,.. it's way too much light.

That's what I do.

This is her right now 1 and 1/2 hours before lights out.

That's from too much light.
She's had enough for today.
She'll get over it and adjust.

also get an hygrometer and something to humidify the air, it will help the girls and your floor

Peace

I've got two hygrometers and the wet rag, and the RH is about 42%
That's as high as I want to go.


I've done all this stuff before at even lower RH.

I'm not killing my plant.
She'll be fine.

 

[PCBuds]

...
When people do grows the light comes from the top, hence scrogs, mainlining etc..
Normally the leafs point to the scource of light, if centered or more dispersed like led light bars, it doesnt matter they point and pray for the light

he have light all around

If the girl was under ideally temps and rh, maybe less light if its too much, how the leafs would be?
pointing up?

I can only speak from my experience because I've only every grown with side lights.

I think that there is a combination of aiming to the light and aiming up against gravity.

I had seedlings on the window sill with a light from above that turned on at sunset and off at sunrise.

The seedlings would lean towards the window during the day then aim straight up to the light at night, but once they got bigger they stopped leaning towards the window and just stayed aiming straight up.

I kinda think the plant itself and all its branches grow straight up but the leaves aim towards the light.
(or away from the light in my case to hide from it.)

My side branches are reaching out, around, and up, while their leaves are going up and down to get light until they've had enough.

Hopefully someone will chime in with some knowledge, but I've upset a lot of people because I refuse to behave in class. Lol

I've been torturing plants and killing bugs.