Day 29
Overall I have no big plans for the girls this week. Just letting them recover from topping last week, and I'll continue to adjust the LST wires as needed. Also, I have decided to stop measuring the plant size every day as it is a bit pointless this far into veg. Instead, I will measure the girls at the end of each week.
I started this week by feeding the plants' compost tea as well as foliar feed them. I have a small hand sprayer which works well as I only have a couple of plants. The bendable nozzle is convenient as it allows me to feed all sides of the plants easily. I just need to be careful when I do the underside of the leaves with the nozzle pointing upwards so I don't get my face full of wormpoop juice.
I gave each girl around 2 liters of tea, and I completely forgot to check the pH. Sigh. Also, it is worth noting that I gave the tea to the plants just after the lights out so that the tea didn't burn on the leaves.Β
I noticed some light green/yellow tips on the new growth at the very top of the right girl. New growth further down doesn't show any yellow tips, so I suspect that I might be dealing with light bleaching. I checked the light level at the canopy, and it was up around 850 PPFD which is relatively high. (I completely forgot to raise the lights as the plants grew. DOH!) I moved up the light around 10 cm and then measured around 640 PPFD at canopy level. Hopefully, that will sort out those yellow tips but I'll keep my eyes on it.
Day 30
All I did today was to once again cut back the cover crop a bit and tighten the LST wires. I did pull a bit too much on the left girl and heard a "crack". Turn out that the branch broke just right by the main stem but I think it will heal just fine as it was a really small break. Time will tell.
Day 31
Today was moving day and I finally moved out all tomatoes and pepper plants. Good to have a bit more space again considering how cramped my tent is. I also did some more cover crop trimming and it is insane how much it grows.
I removed a couple more leaves from the right girl as they weren't getting any light that far down on the plant. The branch on the left girl that I broke yesterday looks like a lost cause at this point but I'll give it another day or two to see if it heals. Kinda doubt it but let's see. I also tightened all the LST wires further and gave each girl around 2.5 liters of pH 6.0 water.
The tops are looking good in the propagation tray but no visible roots yet. I gave them a bit more aloe tea.
Finally, I hung up a CO2 bag in the tent. One of the problems with my setup is that the tent gets quite hot due to the powerful lights and since the tent is so small I can't fit an AC in there. Hopefully, the CO2 will help with the heat problem now when the weather is getting better which means that the tent will become even warmer.
Day 32
Today I went on a field trip to a nearby horse ranch to hunt down and gather compost worms. I gathered around 50 red wrigglers, cleaned them up, and added them to my pots.
Even though I watered the girls yesterday, the right one was dry today, so I gave her around 2 liters of pH 6.5 water. Thirsty girl but then she is also large and bushy, making sense that she drinks more than the other plant.
Yesterday, I hung up a CO2 bag in the tent, and unfortunately, it really smells like shit. Literally. I hope the smell will decrease with time because right now, it stinks pretty bad when I open the tent. Ugh.
Finally, I removed that broken branch as it was clear it wouldn't make it.
Day 33
Ahhhhh, the wonderful feeling of opening up the tent and get hit by a wall of shit smell. My girlfriend even bitched me out that the entire apartment stinks. This was the first time I bought this brand of CO2 bags and I seriously doubt that I will repurchase it...
More watering today, and I gave each girl 2.5 liters of pH 6.5 water. At least all this watering keeps the humidity at a reasonable level, but I really should get around to hooking up the Blumat system, so I don't need to hand-water all the time. I'm way too lazy to have to water every day.
I did some additional defoliation on the left girl. Nothing crazy. It was just removing a few leaves that weren't getting any lights at the bottom of the plant.
I also installed a scrog net but am not thrilled about how it fits. I'll leave it for now but think I will have to make my own in the future.
Finally, I managed to put up a plastic pocket on the wall of the tent. Something that I have considered since getting the tent but never gotten around to doing. It is just a place where I can put the tools that I use most - scissors for cutting back cover crop and defoliation, PAR meter to check light levels, pH meter to make sure that my water is ok, and glasses for inspecting the plants.
Day 34
Today my girlfriend was hiding in bed, under the cover, as I opened the tent. Just in case... Sure, enough. It still stinks.
No big mission today. Just a quick maintenance mission where I cut down the cover crops a bit and removed another few leaves to increase air circulation. I also repositioned and tightened the LST wires. That was it.
Day 35
End of week 5 of vegetation and another fairly easy day. I gave each girl 3liters of pH 6.2 water, tightened up a couple of LST wires, tucked in a few branches into the net, and super-cropped a couple of branches on the right girl. The left girl is 24 cm tall and the right one 34 cm tall.
I also moved the tops out of the tent as very little light reaches the floor of the tent now when the girls are getting bushy. I put them under a ViparSpectra light together with my tomatoes and chilis. I still have no exact plan what to do with the clones if they survive but maybe I'll plant them outdoors and see what happens.
Yesterday, one of the main branches broke on one of my girls. I taped her with electrical tape and added some support. So far so good as the canopy got back up without any drooping leaves. It's the first time I taped a branch and am wondering how long the tape should stay on?
Just leave in on a week and check it. Just dont let it go unsupported when you take the tape off. May tape a few weeks depending on how bad it was. Happy Growing!!!
They look good !
I smiled reading about you forgetting to raise the light or to adjust the pH while at the same time you obviously take a great care of your ladies and have a green thumb:) ...
Well..The same happens to me and no: it's not age or negligence π
@@Weedelfe, Thanks!
Yeah, growing sure keeps you humble. Usually, when I think that I have a grip on things, I find new and exciting ways to fail spectacularly.
I feel like I should maybe make a list of things to check once per week and add checking light level/height to that list. I'm happy though that I bought a PAR meter so I can easily check light levels and adjust accordingly. No more guesstimating. Yay! (now I just need to remember to do it...)
@@Weedelfe, I would love to continue growing as I really enjoy the whole process. However, I really need to use up some of the cannabis before I plant next time since I don't want to keep large amounts at home.I still even have a bunch left from the previous grow so there's plenty for me to consume.
I would love to be able to give it away to friends but it is illegal to grow where I live so my friends have no clue. Gotta stick to the 3 golden rules of being an illegal grower: No Smell, No Sell, No Tell
It's not that bad though. I'm thinking about using this break to build a hydro system for my small tent and grow some lettuce and herbs. Maybe even give tomatoes a try. So yeah, while not growing cannabis I'm still hoping to improve as a gardener. I've been interested in learning more about hydro for a while and this seems to me like the perfect opportunity.
I'm also going to work on my Raspberry-Pi based, fully automated, watering system and I'm hoping to have that done before I start next grow.
@love_2_grow,Well... You can lower your stock by +/- 90 % making hash and/or please some friends and also stock properly for a long time and have several strains available to variate pleasures. Writing this because it feels like you'd like to grow again instead of having to take a break :)
Congratulations again for your last grow and the top result !
Happy plants ! One can feel love coming out from your culture space !
Imo your temp is ok ( both for veg and flo)but.. I find your RH very low.. 37% is the level that you want to reach at the very end of flowering (and it would still be the low range). See how they behave with a 60/65 ( you might need a air humidifier) !
@love_2_grow, 58,5% is fine ! And yes 30Β°C a bit too high. CO2 will help. On my side ( very hot here in summer) I also use a product by Bio Technology: Elycitor. Very good for soil and roots at normal dosage ( 0,3mg/L),. At 1mg/L, it also allows to grow up to 35* C max preventing stomas closing ( but certainly not trichomes evaporation).
@@Weedelfe,
Thanks for the tips. My humidity has in fact gone up now when the plants are getting bigger (and the tomato plants in the tent helps as well). I haven't updated the diary though as I want to see the environment in the tent stabilize after changing the light program yesterday. I'll give it 3 days and then check what the average is. Right this moment the RH is 58.5% (got a wireless hygrometer which allows me to check remotely) but it is also in the middle of the night (for the plants) so the lights are out.
The same goes for updating the temps. Right now it is only 19.4 degrees in the tent but yeah, it is nighttime. During the day yesterday, I saw temps around 30 degrees but will also wait a couple of more days before I update the diary.