Orange Sherbet FF

Anna_J 🌱Week 1!🌱 Day 1: For week 1, I have both my Sunblaster 48W LED strip light and my HLG Elite 360 fixture, which contains two QB96 Elite V2 LED boards, mounted at 48". The HLG fixture is set to it's absolute lowest setting. ☀️- Light schedule: 18/6 ☀️- Total LUX: 7,900 ☀️- Total PPFD: 120 - I removed the humidity domes and turned on the humidifer, which will run on low setting whenever the lights are on. - My circulation fan is mounted at about 40" high and is set to 20% intensity and will run constantly. - Temp: 78F (lights off); 83F (lights on) - RH: 75% (lights off); 84% (lights on) - VPD: 0.68 kPa (aiming for 0.5 - 0.8) Day 2: - Temp: 77F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 60% (lights off); 80% (lights on) Day 3: - Temp: 76F (lights off); 79F (lights on) - RH: 60% (lights off); 82% (lights on) - Increased circulation fan speed from 20% to 40%. The seedlings are now just barely moving in the breeze, which will hopefully encourage strong stem growth. 💧- Watered each plant with approximately 50ml of distilled water Day 4: - Temp: 77F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 60% (lights off); 75% (lights on) - Lowered my Sunblaster 48W 6400K LED strip light by 2-3" to increase light intensity ☀️- Total LUX: 8,600-8,800 ☀️- Total PPFD: 131-133 Day 5: - Temp: 76F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 61% (lights off); 80% (lights on) 💧- Bottom watered each plant with roughly 150ml of distilled water Day 6: - Increased the circulation fan speed from 40% to 60%, causing a bit more movement of the seedlings. Day 7: - Temp: 76F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 58% (lights off); 81% (lights on) 💧- Watered each plant with approximately 80-100ml of distilled water Overall, week 1 was pretty calm and uneventful. Next week I will be increasing my light intensity and making adjustments in balancing my temperature and humidity levels.

Anna_J 🌱Week 2!🌱 This is going to be a bit of a shorter update this week. I'm planning on increasing the light intensity throughout the week. Day 8: - Increased the light intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture slightly. ☀️- LUX: 9,700 - 9,800 ☀️- PPFD: 146 - 148 - Temp: 74F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 60% (lights off); 81% (lights on) Day 9: - No changes Day 10: - Increased the light intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture again slightly. ☀️- LUX: 9,920 ☀️- PPFD: 149 - Adjusted my exhaust fan settings to turn on whenever the temperature reaches 82F or the RH reaches 80%. - Temp: 73F (lights off); 81% (lights on) - RH: 62% (lights off); 79% (lights on) Day 11: - No changes Day 12: - Lowered both my my HLG Elite 360 fixture and Sunblaster 48W 6400K strip light to 36" above canopy, increasing the light intensity ☀️- LUX: 11,100 ☀️- PPFD: 166 💧- Watered each plant with approximately 100ml of distilled water - Temp: 74F (lights off); 80-82F (lights on) - RH: 61% (lights off); 73-79% (lights on) - Had to run my portable air conditioner during the hottest part of the day, for about 6 hours to help keep temperatures under 82F inside the tent. Day 13: - No changes - Had to run the air conditioner again during the hottest part of the day, for about 7 hours. Day 14: - Adjusted my exhaust fan settings to turn on when humidity reaches 78%, instead of 80%. - Air conditioner run for most of the day, about 10 hours

Anna_J 🌱Week 3!🌱 This week i'll be continuing to increase the light intensity and will be making some small adjustments to my humidity levels, aiming to lower the humidity slightly and aiming for a VPD range between 0.8 to 1.1 kPa. Basically i'm aiming for mid-70's RH and temperatures of around 79-81F. I'll also be starting to feed with a low dose of Remo Nutrients this week. Day 15: - Lowered both my HLG Elite 360 fixture and my Sunblaster 48W 6400K LED strip light a couple of inches, to approximately 34" above canopy. I also increased the intensity of the HLG fixture slightly, to approximately 20%. ☀️- LUX: 12,900 - 13,500 ☀️- PPFD: 193 - 203 - Adjusted exhaust fan to turn on to 30% speed when the humidity reaches 77%. - Temp: 73F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 64% (lights off); 70% (lights on) Day 16: - Another increase to the lighting intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture ☀️- LUX: 15,000 ☀️- PPFD: 225 💧- Watered each plant with approximately 200-250ml of dechlorinated water with 0.5ml per gallon of Remo Nutrients' "Micro", "Grow", "MagNifiCal" and "Velokelp". This resulted in a nutrient solution of 136ppm which I pH adjusted to 6.36. Solution temperature was roughly 23.5C / 74.5F. Day 17: - The weather outside has been quite warm, so i've had to turn on my portable air conditioner in the afternoon. I just run the air conditioner in the room that the tent is in and passively intake the cooler room air whenever the exhaust fan turns on. - Temp: 73F (lights off); 80F (lights on) - RH: 66% (lights off); 73% (lights on) Day 18: - Another warm day. Air conditioner run for 6 hours in the afternoon. - Increased the intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture. ☀️- Total LUX: 18,700 ☀️- PPFD: 277 - Temp: 74F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 64% (lights off); 70% (lights on) Day 19: - No changes Day 20: - I probably could have watered today but I will wait until tomorrow - No changes

Anna_J 🌱Week 4!🌱 This week i'll be topping the plants and continuing to increase the light level. Day 22: - Increased light intensity of HLG Elite 360 fixture ☀️- Total LUX: 18,400-19,500 (odd that i increased the intensity and yet it’s measuring the same or lower than Day 25) ☀️- Total PPFD: 283-285 💧- Watered with a 411ppm solution of dechlorinated water mixed with 2ml/gallon of Remo Nutrients’ “Micro”, “Grow” and “VeloKelp” and 1ml/gallon of “MagNifiCal” and Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate), pH adjusted to 6.19 💧- Runoff = 1950ppm, 7.13pH 💧I'm surprised and concerned with my runoff levels. 1950ppm is crazy high. I considered flushing with plain water today but decided to wait until the next watering, mainly because i didn't have any more dechlorinated water prepared. - Topped both plants and removed lower side branches Day 23: - Turned off the humidifier to try and lower the humidity levels a bit, to promote faster drying out of the soil so that i can give the plants a good flush. - Temp: 71F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 62% (lights off); 65% (lights on) Day 24: - no changes Day 25: - Today i flushed both plants each with about 1 gallon of dechlorinated tap water, pH adjusted to 6.3. The pots were still wetter than i would have preferred but i didn't want to wait any longer on the flush, as i could see Cal-mag issues starting to worsen in the leaves. - To flush, i added water to each pot, about 200ml at a time, then waiting 5 minutes for saturation, then another 200ml... until i'd passed about a gallon of water through each pot. - I put each pot on a wire rack, for better drainage and airflow. - My runoff PPM's came down quite a bit, where the first 200ml of runoff was testing at the same 1800ppm but when i discarded all the runoff and then collected the last 200ml, it had dropped to approximately 850ppm. - Unfortunately, my pH is still higher than i'd like, at about 6.8. Day 26: - no changes Day 27: - The plants look a little better better after the flush, although the signs of Calcium & Magnesium deficiency are still coming out in the lower leaves. - Temp: 73F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 65% (lights off); 70% (lights on) Day 28: - The Cal-mag deficiency is still working it's way through the lower leaves but overall i'd still say that the flush has helped the plants look a bit healthier. - I did a slurry test of some of the leftover Promix Organic Herb & Vegetable mix that i had. I mixed some with a little bit of distilled water and the tested the pH, which was quite high, at about 7.3. I was intending to repot the plants into 5 gallon fabric pots around week 6 but i think i'm going to do that next week instead. I'll probably switch back to Promix HP, since I think it has a slightly lower natural pH due to be treated with a bit less lime than the Organic Herb & Vegetable Mix. - Today i did a little bit of leaf tucking to help keep the branching sites exposed. - At some point i'll be topping the plants again, likely next week.

Anna_J 🌱Week 5🌱 This week I'm hoping to continue correcting the high runoff pH & PPM levels. The flush i did last week was very helpful but I'll be changing my growing medium this week, hopefully lowering the pH and getting back to a feeding schedule that keeps everything in a safe range. I'll be transplanting from the 1 gallon plastic pots, into 5 gallon fabric pots, just like i did for my Tropicana Cookies plants (check my profile for my other dairies). I'm also increasing the light intensity some more this week and I'll be aiming for a VPD range somewhere between 0.9-1.2 kPa. The nights are getting a bit cooler outside and i may have to consider switching my light cycle so that i'm running the lights throughout the whole night, otherwise i'll have to make some adjustments to my fresh-air intake to limit too much of a temperature swing between 'lights-on' and 'lights-off'. Day 29: ☀️- Increased light intensity of HLG Elite 360. ☀️- Total LUX: approx. 24,500-26,000 ☀️- PPFD: approx 375 - Distance to light: 28 inches - Temp: 73F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 68% (lights off); 72% (lights on) - VPD: 1.01 kPa Day 30: - Today i transplanted both plants from their 1 gallon plastic pots to 5 gallon fabric pots. - I used Promix "HP" mix, instead of the Promix "Organic Herb and Vegetable" soil that i had in the smaller pots initially. I'm hoping the "HP" mix will have a slightly lower natural pH, as it's apparently treated with less lime and buffering agents compared to "Organic Herb and Vegetable" mix. 💧- Watered each plant with about 3/4 gallon of plain dechlorinated tap water, pH adjusted to 5.95 Day 31: ☀️- Today i switched the light cycle so that the lights are off between 12pm-6pm, instead of 12am-6am. This was mainly because the night air is getting cooler and was causing the temperature inside the tent to drop a bit lower, causing the humidity to be a bit higher than i'd like. I'm trying my best not to use the portable air conditioner if i don't have to yet, as i know i'll be using it lots more once flowering gets underway. - As a result of switching the light cycle around, the plants ended up receiving around 30hrs of light. Day 32: - The deficiencies are still showing in the leaves. - The pots were still a bit heavy from the plain water that i gave the plants when i transplanted them a couple of days ago. I really wanted to let them dry out a bit more before feeding but i really do need to get some nutrients into these plants. 💧- I watered each plant with about 0.5-0.75 gallons of dechlorinated water, mixed with about 2ml/gallon of Remo Nutrients' "Micro" and Grow" and about 1ml/gallon of "MagNifiCal" and "VeloKelp", resulting in a 355ppm solution that i pH adjusted to 6.2. Day 33: - I removed all the "BudClips" from the plants and replaced them with traditional tie-down's. I don't see myself using BudClips much aside from maybe just during the first few weeks. A nice idea and a fun little gift to have received but i think i'll stick with traditional tie-down wires. - I topped one of the plants for the 2nd time and removed a couple of side branches. I'm aiming for 8 main tops on each of these plants. - I raised the HLG Elite 360 light fixture by just an inch or so and increased the intensity slightly in order to maintain the 25,000-26,000 LUX levels across the canopy. - Temp: 73F (lights off); 80F (lights on) - RH: 70% (lights off); 72% (lights on) Day 34: - Today i switched the air intake of the tent during 'lights off' from the fresh outside air to the room that the tent is in. I ran the dehumidify mode on my portable AC to see if it would help bring the humidity level down in the tent. I can say thar the AC unit doesn't do much over the course of six hours. The RH of the tent dropped by maybe 1%, sitting around 70%. The AC unit did heat the room and the tent up though, so the increase in temperature helped improve the VPD. - Temp: 76F (lights off); 81F (lights on) - RH: 70% (lights off); 70% (lights on) - VPD: 0.92 kPa (lights off); 1.01 kPa (lights on) - I gave both plants a foliar feed, consisting of distilled water mixed a tiny bit of epsom salt, producing a 175ppm solution. pH adjusted to 6.25. I applied the fine mist spray and turned off my main HLG Elite 360 light and left the plants under just the 48W Sunblaster strip light for about an hour, after the water droplets were gone. Then I turned the HLG fixture back on, resuming the 25,000-26,000 LUX light levels. Day 35: - No changes - Minor leaf tucking

Anna_J 🌱Week 6🌱 I'm a bit late posting this week's update. Things have been recovering nicely since the nutrient lockout issues back in Week 4. I'm continuing to increase the light intensity this week and continuing to try to keep my VPD in range, which is fine during "lights on" but more challenging during "lights off", when the humidity stays around 70% but the temperature drops to 71-72F. I've been switching my air intake from fresh outside air during "lights on", to just intaking from the room that the tent is in during "lights off". Both plants are very similar to each other in structure and size. I'm hoping that they continue to show vigorous growth so that they catch up to the taller, more 'leggy' "Tropicana Cookies" plant. I'm hoping to switch these into flowering in another week or so. Day 36: - LST on both plants - Temp: 72F (lights off); 80F (lights on) - RH: 71% (lights off); 70% (lights on) Day 37: - No major changes Day 38: ☀️- Increased the light intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture. ☀️- LUX: 30,000 ☀️- PPFD: 450 💧- Watered with 3ml/gallon of Remo Nutrients' "Micro", "Grow" and "MagNifiCal" and 2ml/gallon of Velokelp, resulting in a 575ppm solution, pH adjusted to 6.17. 💧- Unfortunately, i only made around 3.5 gallons of nutrient water, which wasn't quite enough to water until runoff. I typically leave my water out for at least 24 hours to dechlorinate so i'll have to wait until next watering and will make sure i water until runoff. - Temp: 72F (lights off); 78F (lights on) - RH: 71% (lights off); 72% (lights on) Day 39: - No changes Day 40: - LST adjustments ☀️- Increased light intensity of HLG Elite 360 fixture. ☀️- LUX: 31,000-32,000 - Temp: 71F (lights off); 78F (lights on) - RH: 70% (lights off); 72% (lights on) Day 41: - No major changes - Plant selfies! Day 42: - I was hoping to wrap up the week by watering all the plants in the tent but the Orange Sherbet pots are still a bit heavier than i'd like, having more moisture in the soil than my Tropicana Cookies plants, where the pots were very light. I decided to only water the Topicana Cookies and i'll leave the Orange Sherbet until they suck up a bit more of the water in their pots. Check my other current "Tropicana Cookies" diary for more details.

Anna_J 🌱Week 7🌱 This week's update is a bit on the brief side. I'm not feeling a ton of pride in the garden right now. The plants have not been doing as well as I'd like. Runoff levels were testing at very high EC/PPM's and despite pH not being terrible, the plants just have been a bit on the sluggish side. Another issue i've had is that, with running two strains in the tent, the Orange Sherbet and the Tropicana Cookies... the two plants are feeding very differently. Check out my Topicana Cookies diary for details on that plant but generally, the Topicana Cookies plant is suffering from nutrient deficiencies, where the runoff PPM's are actually quite low, which means the plant is very hungry, whereas the same nutrient solution is causing salt buildup with the Orange Sherbet plants. So for this reason, i'm feeding each of the two strains separately, to better tailor the feeding to the plants' actual requirements. I'm also going to be better addressing my VPD range, especially during lights off period, where my RH stays the same but my temperature drops, causing VPD to go out of ideal range. I'm hoping to straighten things out this week, as i was originally hoping to have flipped to flower this week but i will hold off until the plants are doing a bit better. Day 43: - Minor LST adjustments on both plants. - Temp: 70F (lights off); 80F (lights on) - RH: 70% (lights off); 69% (lights on) Day 44: 💧- Watered with dechlorinated tap water, mixed with 3ml/gallon of Remo Nutrients' "Micro", "Grow" & "MagNifiCal" and 2ml/gallon of "VeloKelp", as well as 1/4tsp epsom salt, resulting in a 630ppm solution, pH adjusted to 6.15. 💧- Watered each other two plants with about 2.5 gallons of water, creating about 0.5 gallons of runoff. - I collected the first 200ml of runoff and tested it: - Runoff - Plant #1: 1470ppm, pH 6.12) - Runoff - Plant #2: 1570ppm, pH 6.06 Day 45: - No changes Day 46: - LST adjustments. Adjusted tie-downs and some minor defoliation of side branches on Plant #1. - Turned on my portable air conditioner during lights-off and switched air intake from fresh outside air to the air from the room that the tent is in. - Adjusted my AC Infinity Cloudline T6 exhaust fan during lights-off, to constantly on at 60%, rather than on only when the RH reached a particular level. During lights-on, i switched it back so that it turns on to 40% when temp reaches 81F or RH reaches 71%. - Temp: 73F (lights off); 80F (lights on) - RH: 70% (lights off); 70% (lights on) Day 47: - No changes Day 48: - Minor LST adjustments and defoliation of side branches on Plant #2. Day 49: 💧- Watered with dechlorinated tap water, mixed with 3ml/gallon of Remo Nutrients' "Micro", "Grow", "MagNifiCal" and "VeloKelp", resulting in a 500ppm solution, pH adjusted to 6.25. 💧- Watered each other two plants with about 2.5 gallons of water, creating about 0.5 gallons of runoff. - I collected the first 150-200ml of runoff from each plant and tested it: - Runoff - Plant #1: 1570ppm, pH 6.18) - Runoff - Plant #2: 1870ppm, pH 6.00 - This is still far too high. I considered flushing with water right away but I was out of dechlorinated water so i prepped another batch and will do a plain water flush next watering. ☀️- Light levels across the canopy are currently between 30,000-35,000, or around 440-500 PPFD.

Anna_J 🌸Week 8!🌸 First week of flowering! I switched the light cycle to 12/12. I'm still dealing with some deficiency issues and honestly I would have liked a bit more veg time to get things sorted but my other Tropicana Cookies plant is just stretching too much and needed to be flipped to flower to avoid getting too big. I'm running the dehumidify function of my portable air conditioner during the dark period, to try to keep my VPD from straying too far. I'm having to start to do more of a balancing act with my fresh air intake, switching it from fresh (and very cool) outdoor air to just intaking from the room that the grow tent is in. I'm trying to avoid the tent getting too cool while keeping the exhaust fan running steadily at 50%, to help keep the humidity from climbing too high. Day 50: - increased intensity of HLG Elite 360 fixture. Moved it up to roughly 30" above the canopy and moved the Sunblaster 48W LED strip light up as well, while maintaining roughly 32,000-35,000 LUX. - the Sunblaster light will only be on a few more days, as its a 6400K spectrum light and I'll be swapping it out for two 24W T5HO strip lights at 2700K. Day 51: - update coming soon! Day 52: - update coming soon! Day 53: - update coming soon! Day 54: - update coming soon! Day 55: - update coming soon! Day 56: - update coming soon!