Zkitzz in Self Watering AC Infinity pots (Coco)

Welcome to the grow with the absolute worst plant training on the web. It all comes down to changes in lighting as I will explain. A quick rundown of my mistakes on this grow. I experimented with infrared lighting on this grow, and it encouraged much much more stretch between nodes than I wanted. My LEDs are old COB lights and I always thought that more red light would be helpful. Maybe this was overkill. They grew so quickly that quadline plant training felt impossible. My plants are normally short, so the only explanation is the supplemental IR lights. I don’t anticipate using these again. Here is a quote from the Mars Hydro site…. “IR lights utilize far-red wavelengths to elicit a shade avoidance response in plants, leading to accelerated stem growth. There are two procedures known as PS1 and PS2 which contribute to plant growth. Plants exposed to supplemental IR light alongside both blue and red light showed an increase in photosynthesis, the promotion of robust stem growth, proper node spacing along with more flower buds. IR light also appears to help plants transition between different stages of growth, sleep and wake cycles, during the later stages of development. In addition to this, flowers will not bloom until adequate levels of IR radiation have been introduced.” - Mars Hydro website and seller of my UV/IR lamp. I had to buy a new 8’ tent to accommodate their height. Never experienced growth like this….never! I also messed up some early plant training by using branch clips to bend branches which resulted in several broken branches. Between quadline training, which cuts the plant back to four primary branches, and then breaking some of those limited branches, it won’t have nearly as many bud sites as possible. I failed to add silica, so the stems are long and weak from their excessive stretch….so if these buds put on much weight I could have a mess in my tent. Overall, I feel I could have done much better without adding IR lighting. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m using these feeding reservoirs, I would have performed better with converting to a SCROG. However, these reservoirs need to be removed every few weeks and rinsed out for algae. I still highly recommend these AC Infinity watering bases…very effective growing tool. I simply add about .7 gallons each day and they take care of themselves. As a reminder, I’m using Coco Loco as my medium. Start of week photos uploaded. I am amazed at them reaching 54 inches tall. Wednesday: on the Flora nutrient trio, I reduced micro, added more bloom to nutrient mix. Also using Liquid KoolBloom (0-10-10) to attempt to bulk up the flowers at 5ml/g. Forgot to add it, but planning to add homemade Terpinator to future feeds. Friday: Up to 57 inches tall today. Unbelievable stretch even with IR light turned off. Decided that the stretch should be over, so I’m turning the IR light back on to help with flowering. Supercropped one very tall branch. Sunday: two plants drinking considerably less from the reservoir. Will research to see if late flwering plants drink less. Really amazed at how tall these plants are under infrared lighting.