Morning Lemon AK-47 Collaboration

MIDLIFE CRISIS OMG! Are my plants big enough? Are my buds growing fast enough? Am I doing everything right? Etc. These among many other thoughts are going through most growers’ heads when they hit the midpoint of the grow. The transition into the bloom phase takes a little bit of time and a lot of patients. It’s perfectly normal to have these reactions. Hopefully by this time you should see some signs of bud development in the form of multiple pistils starting to form clusters. It’s important not to jump the gun and blast your plants with bloom lights and start dumping bloom nutrients into your pots until you’ve pretty much finished or are close to finished with the stretching phase. Over stretched plants can lead to loose over stretched buds which is not what we like. Since not every strain will grow and bloom identically or even each plant of the same strain may be growing/blooming at different times it’s important to keep feeding light doses of veg nutrients until you’re sure the stretch is nearly completed. Then switch on the bloom lights and start to use bloom nutrients. This could happen at any point during week 5 or beginning of week 6. During this time, you can concentrate on slightly increasing the light intensity (Use a PAR meter) and adjusting branch positions to optimize the amount of light that’s reaching the bud sites. You are still trying to achieve a nice even canopy if possible. The main cola is usually a little taller than the surrounding branches so if needed you can loosen the reigns and let the lower branches grow up closer to the height of the main cola. You may include tucking/tying down or back some of the larger fan leaves by any means needed. As the buds continue to grow over the next few weeks, they will be producing new leaves and throwing out hundreds of fresh white pistils. A look ahead: In the beginning of week 6 you will do some light defoliation by removing the lower fan leaves and tiny bud sites on the lower 1/3 of the plant. These small bud sites will never get enough light to amount to anything worthwhile. The other reason for doing this is we are creating some slight stress forcing the plant to direct more energy into developing the upper buds’ sites rather than allowing the smallest buds to waste that energy. Some growers will do something called “Lolli Popping” where only the top several buds are left to develop in size and density. It’s very important not to overdo the defoliation on your plants they need the fan leaves to conduct photosynthesis which equals energy! So, if you have a very densely leafed plant you can also gradually remove the lowest 1/3 of the fan leaves over the period of a couple of weeks (6,7) but definitely nail the bud sites. Remember creating small stresses are better than causing too much stress during this key phase. Lastly your plants will be drinking more water and you need to make sure they are getting enough moisture to prevent salt build up from nutrients in your pots. Watering to the point of a 5%-10% run off helps prevent this. I use a digital moisture meter this helps me see what the moisture levels are at different depths of the pot. You can also try lifting your pots before and after watering take notice of the difference in the weight. It takes a bit of practice but keep in mind you need to water each pot as needed not all at the same time each one may be different. It helps to number your pots and use a note book to keep tracked of when you water or feed each plant. Under watering can also cause issues since any left-over nutrients will actually increase in concentration as the soil dries. This is very important since auto flower cannabis can be sensitive to higher concentrations of nutrients which can lead to root/ leaf burn. Over watering can cause roots to rot and lead to nutrient absorption issues leading to deficiencies. Expect to be watering/feeding about every 2nd to 3rd day as needed. More about watering/nutrients will be discussed in week 6. WEEK 5 UPDATE From the looks of things I believe they are done with what ever stretch they had left in them stopping at 20". I would be surprise if they grew in height any more. Seeing a lot more white pistils showing up so the buds are developing a more complex shape to them. Performed bit of house keeping trimming off some lower fan leaves a micro bud sites, leaf tucking was mandatory and finished tying off my branches to allow a nice spread for more light to penetrate the inside of the plants bud sites. Performed a Half-Cropping technique I utilized on my Fast Buds Zkittlez grow where I lightly roll the stems between my thumb and index finger then gently squeeze the stem then gave them a slight bend at that point with my other hand to maybe a 45 degree angle but not taking them to the point of performing a full super cropping by taking them to the 90 degree point. They seem to recover and strengthen the bent area almost over night. I would call this Half-Cropping the stem or so I will coin the technique. Using this creates some stress to mimic an injury that will force the plant to send more energy to repair the damage and hopefully create more resin and terpenes in the buds.*** Warning you may not be able to use a grinder on your weed if you do this technique it will jam it up no shit!*** Increased my nutes slightly still haven't reached the 1/2 strength dosage as of yet. Trying to compensate for AN nutrients in my opinion have a bit of a high nitrogen ratio for the bloom stage I think overly leafy buds add weight but I like to see calyx dense buds instead so this is my ultimate end goal in bud development. I will start adding extra phosphorus and potassium in week 6 to prepare them for some bulking up over the next 3 weeks. I also check my runoff after feeding. ph averaged 6.1 and PPM was running 950 or less. I do this to make sure they are feeding properly and will adjust feedings or just water if needed. They are getting 2-3 feeding a week about every 2nd or 3rd day as needed they are getting thirstier and are watered to the point of less than 5% runoff. Sorry I'm not into wasting nutrients. Light intensity has been challenging since I'm maxed out in terms of being able to raise my lights any higher. I had a few hot spots of 750+ umoles which hit one plant a bit with some light stress. I have been trying to keep the main colas to the outside of the tent where the intensity is lower yet keep the lower buds more directly under the lights and rotate the plants when ever possible. Only time will tell if the leaves will have some light burn over the next few weeks it should show itself. Hopefully they won't look worse for wear by the end of the grow. PPF/PAR meter readings range from 650 -750+ which is pushing it. Giving me a DLI range of 46.80 to 54.00 Moles Per Day Lowered my temperature to 77 F and humidity to 55%. Leaf temperatures are an average of 73 F which gives me a LVPD of 1.07 kPa