So we are at the end of week 4 of flower 🌹 and the garden is exceeding my expectations at this point. I am a big time defoliator, however, a change in my day job has left me with significantly less time to devote to the garden. In the past I would defoliate every 3-5 days. Doing so would Keep the garden shorter with greater development down in the lower areas of the plants 🌱. Due to my new work schedule, I have changed the way I defoliate and I am only defoliating every 2 weeks. I did a major defoliation the day I switched the light cycle to 12/12, then I waited till day 14 for the next trim out, and then waited till day 28 to do the 3rd defoliation. Knowing how these plants grow, I am thinking that the day 42 defoliation will probably be my last as the plants don’t really put out too many additional leaves 🍁 after day 40 of flower. I have noticed that by waiting 2 weeks in between defoliations the garden has stretched considerably more then if I were doing a defoliation every 3-4 days, and the resulting stretched out arms have great bud development from the top all the way down. The lowers are less developed, however, I fully expect them to develop more now that the defoliation has taken place and light is now penetrating to those lower areas. Overall I am super happy with the grow thus far!!!
“Keep It Safe, Keep It Green, & Smoke 💨 It Up!!!”
@Nutria, my best highest yield for this setup was 37.25 oz’s. I’ve learned a lot since then, so provided I don’t have any unexpected wacky ness I think 🤔 I’ll hit that nunber. My largest yield was with 3 plants in the room, so with 5 as long as they are not overcrowded I am pretty confident.
@MagicMikesMeds, 40oz are achievable, 1.5gr/w is a common result with this kind of leds. If you look at the emitted spectrum you can notice a lack of IR wavelenght (≥700nm) in white leds, thus it is suggested to run higher temps than you would usually do under hps for example. Follow a VPD chart with a ±1c temp difference between air temperature and leaf temp.
@Nutria, this is my 3rd round growing under the Timber Grow Light COB LeD fixture so I am more than aware of its excellence. My goal for the 5x5 room is 40 oz’s, and I should have the perfect room temps to make a run at that number...
@MagicMikesMeds, exactly! I do the same and am constantly tweaking or trying something new every cycle just to track a new data point. @Dudegrowsweed just rec’d a book on his diary which I just read called marijuana cultivation reconsidered. If you like the plant science end of things it’s a great and layman’s terms informative read👍. Glad to see someone taking the defo into late flower - it’s a reassuring👊 Cheers😎
@TheBudWhisperer,I can understand your concerns about the late Flower defoliation, however, there is still significant leaf material intertwined in the buds to perform photosynthesis. I’ve noticed that the buds that have direct exposure to light have the best growth and development. By getting the light down further into the canopy through defoliation I get much lower bud development then you would had you left the heavy coverage of fan leaves. Controversial yes, however, my best run weight wise was one in which I religiously defoliated my plants every 4 days from the start of flower through to flush....people argued with me that the method was only hurting my yields, however, the numbers just don’t lie. I believe in data and vigorously track the data from my grows to see what works best for me in my garden. It’s science !!!
@Eauderay,the 2 different gorilla 🦍 genetics (Gorilla Bomb & Royal Gorilla) are both starting to throw out new pink/purple calyx’s. At first I thought that all of my plants were herming, due to the fact that it looked like nanners at 1st, but as they started to develop I could tell they were new calyx’s that we’re expanding the buds. 2 of the 5 plants are roughly 6 feet tall at their highest with the other 3 ranging from 3-5 feet. This weekend should be the final defoliation as I will be completing week 6 this week and that puts me at 42 days. Should be the final defoliation and that will leave roughly 4 weeks to fatten up ( I like taking my plants to full term - 70 days for these strains...
“Keep It Safe, Keep It Green, & Smoke 💨 It Up!!!”
@TheBudWhisperer,yeah it came down 2 weeks early and I have already dried all of it. I trimmed half and then just ripped the other half from the stalks to dry. I’ll run the plant through the bubble washer in a couple of weeks so in the end I’ll just have lost a little weight in trichomes. Oh well, it happens to the best of us...
@Stress_Bud,I was going to start to flower them but I noticed a Calcium deficiency popping up, so I’m gonna do a full res change out and give them another week to eliminate the deficiency
I couldn't help noticing that you've placed lots of sticky traps. If you actually have pest problem, allow me to suggest you adding diatomaceous earth combined with propolis and pyrethrum. If rapeseed is in the mix it gets even better. This totally exterminates pretty much everything that flies or crawls. Peace
@vovaTHEKUSHMASTER, the sticky traps are strictly preventative. Last round I noticed an uptick in fungus gnats in my garden mainly due to the fact that my geographic location is loaded with them and it was the right time of year.
My medium is Growstone GS1 and is pure hydro, so adding diatomaceous earth gets really messy. I have found that covering my medium with aluminum foil and placing the yellow sticky traps next to the main stalk of the plant prevents the gnats from getting into my medium and eating my roots. So far this round, there are a few gnats on the traps, but I don’t see any flying in the room so it seems that they are achieving my desired results...