Noticed some brown rust looking spots on leaves on all four of the lowryders this week. Pretty much only on the larger, lower, more developed leaves. After talking with the guy at the grow shop I'm going to start using some cal mag each time I water, particularly because I'm just using PH'd RO water. Still continuing to use their top feed nutrient blends, a little less than directed every other week. Hopefully using the cal mag will help correct this issue. Added the Cal Mag to my water until I hit about 100ppm on my TDS meter which was almost exactly 1.5ml per gallon. I'm using less than directed on the bottle to start with as i'll be using it every time I water from here until flush, and this should also just be supplementing what's already in my soil mix.
The tent has been staying a little cooler this week as I continue to tweak my intake and exhaust fan settings. Also the AC in the space outside the tent has been running more as it's been hot outside. That's been keeping the temps at 76-79 degrees during the day for the most part. Keeping the humidity at ~51% with the lights on. With no dehumidifier it goes up to about 60% with the lights off. I added another oscillating fan to the tent at the end of last week to help keep more air moving around the buds.
Hey buddy. Would you be alright with me offering some pointers? This is some very handy generalized advice to get all growers off to a good start. So cannabis plants LOVE heat and humidity. It is the buds that hate it. In veg we want to take advantage of this fact to help our plants grow along much quicker and more vigorously. In veg we can look for temps of 79-84 MAX with lights on & no more than 9 degrees less with lights off. If we allow for too much temperature swing between lights on and lights off while the plant is still growing vertically up to day 20 of flower, We will cause the plant to stretch ALOT which we do not want. So in veg & early flower, Keeping our temperature gaps nice and close between lights on and off is key. Utilizing humidity in our rooms during veg will also help out a lot with more rapid growth but we must introduce it properly. In our rooms we have our temperature and humidity set-points, But when we combine those 2 it forms a third set-point which is the most important & that is called VPD, Vapor pressure deficit.
I strongly recommend every new grower or old grower who has not learned it yet, To study and understand it & implement it into your room, Logging your numbers daily.
https://cerescann.com/importance-of-measuring-vpd/
For soil, We generally want to go for a PH of 6.1.
This website does a GREAT job of illustrating it with a nice graph & very good detailed explanation for soil.
https://autoflowerseedshop.com/cannabis-ph-chart-guide/
As we briefly touched on before, During veg & early flower we want our temperature gap's nice and tight to avoid stretch. Why exactly our plants stretch in response to this is a genetic trigger being activated by the environmental stress essentially telling the plant the end of the season is closer than it really is. In veg & early flower the plant is still in its first stage of development which is to grow up wide and tall so when it produces seed, It can cast them out nicely. Remember, Whether we are growing our plants for seed or bud their genetic responses do not change as they gh sidedo not know any different. Once the plant has finished that first stage of growth by weeks 4-6 of flower with most strains, It is by day 20 of flower. Autoflowers you have to watch for it, But once the plant has finished this goal its new mission is to focus 100% on producing nice big flower clusters & to get very sticky so it can attract pollen to it successfully.
So once that vertical growth is finished, We actually now want to begin to expose our plants to larger temperature swings between lights on and lights off. This will help activate that genetic response and allow us to draw out the most potential from the strain utilizing the plants genetic triggers to environmental stresses at the right times. When we are in flower temperature will really play a big role how our buds form up, If our rooms are too cold below 75 they will form very small buds but very very dense. If we grow our buds out at temperature over 80 degrees we get bigger buds, But they can develop airy and foxtail which we do not get much weight from. Also higher temps will defuse the resin glands over time destroying them. We can also take this a step further with doing light deprivation in the last 2 weeks using less light to simulate cloud cover. Very cold feed temps on the last flush is very good too. If you do not have them already, Get yourself a good PAR meter & thermal laser temp gun to monitor your plant top temperatures & optimize how much light your plants are getting. When we do the pull down, We never want to trim the plant wet or break it down at all. We want to hang it hole in a environment set to 45-50 degrees at 60% humidity for up to 16 days. This allows the plant to break down any potential left over starches or sugars or nutrients within it during this time the plant will produce even more resin & terpenes, This is where you get the true craft cannabis finish.
Happy growing friend!