Week 6: Overall a very good week, but lots of time and effort needed to make it through. My tent now has a complete green canopy and the ladies are beginning to compete for space. Each one has developed a unique look and growth pattern, and one in particular stands out, OB3. She has gone through a dramatic cycle each day, happy and perky when I first check on her in the morning (8 hrs. after lights on) but gets very droopy during the last 4 hours of lights on. She has also stretched the most I’ve tried many things this week to appease her – 1) Adjusted watering from afternoon to morning, no difference. 2) Lowered light intensity 20%, might have been a slight improvement but inconclusive. 3) Adjust light schedule 1 hr. per day to allow for watering at first light, this will take a week. 4) Lower shelving to allow more space from lights and reduce wind stress on top colas, just done last night, we shall see if this helps. At this point I feel I might be taking away from then others, particular the indica dominate BBs, by adding this the additional space between lights and plants after lower the intensity. If changes 3 & 4 don’t help reduce the stress OB3 is saying she’s under, I will turn the lights back up and look for other solutions to her afternoon droopiness.
Managing nutes has also become more interesting this week. After a feeding near the end of last week, there was some slight tip burning, seen most acutely on the smallest but the most quickly maturing BB3. The 5-gal of both strains have much less tip burn that either 3-gal so they seem to be able to better absorb the half strength doses of nutes. I’ve deviated from feeding every other watering by throwing in a few extra nute free waterings in-between the feedings while also watering down the nutes given to BB3 in response to the tip burn. This virus is causing supply chain disruptions, so I decided to stock up on soil and nutes for my next grow. I was going to stick to just FF 3 part but decided to throw some Terpinator into this grow since I had it on hand.
Along with dropping my shelves from 18” to 12” high at the end of this week, I also installed a larger air filter and fan. With the onset of flowering, the previous 4” filter/fan setup was beginning to limit my ability to drop the humidity below 55-60% inside the tent. While I can drop the humify in the grow room to the 40% range, something bigger was needed on the tent ventilation side to manage all the moisture these 4 ladies are beginning to put out. In comes a 6” fan and filter from Vivosun with the 4” setup moved over to the 1’x3’x6’ side of the tent for use in drying. It’s annoying how loud this 6” fan is, but it’s getting the job done. In fact, I was very impressed with how much larger this 6” filter is that the 4”, likely has 3-4 times the charcoal in it over what the smaller one had.
I’m open to all comments and advice this community can provide. Anyone have any ideas how to make OB3 happier towards the end of the day?
Grow Summary:
4'x3'x6' 2 in 1 tent
250 watt full spectrum LED
FFHF & FFOF soil w/FF Trio
Dutch Passion autoflower genetics
Congratulations on getting back in the game.
I didn’t read most of your post, but you sound enthusiastic and that counts a lot.
Enjoy the process. Flowering plants are simply wonderful to be around. And enjoy your harvest.
@growdoctordc, Thanks for the support! Yea, this has quickly moved from a hobby to an obsession 😍. I'm only half way through this first grow, but my genetics library is already 18 strains deep...
I was wondering why my girls didn't look anything like yours. I thought I did something wrong... 😀 I just took a look at your other diary and there they were!
Either way they're both looking great. Can't wait to see how they turn out. 😎👍