Mountains Kush 13:11 IR experimentation

Thanks to GrowDiaries and Zamnesia, I'm testing this "Kalini Asia", which is a Kush from the Hindu Kush mountains. Two seeds were dropped into water for 24 hours, then straight into 0.5L AirPots, I will proceed to seedling selection after a few days. Seedlings were growing under IKEA Vaxer led for the first days. Very excited about this run, hopefully she will turn pink, but this is not going to be easy with the summer heatwave.

So I've spotted a huge difference between the two seedlings, one being vigorous and the other one slow, selection will be easy. RIP seedling 02, good luck seedling 01!! Thanks for stopping-by 👊

I got my hands on a brand new TS-1000 from MarsHydro. My micro veg room is much brighter with the TS-1000. "IKEA Vaxer" did a great job (LM301B inside!!) but the coverage was limited. She went through her 1st topping surgery, I plan to mainline her or flux her depending on her shape. So far the lowest nodes haven't been touched, just in case anything happens at the top nodes (so I can re-build the manifold if needed).

Soooooo things were looking good in the MarsHydro micro veg room but since my main room is now empty I'm moving all the plants into the big room, with x3 "LM301B" boards from InvisibleSunLed, for a better coverage and more space. That KaliniAsia is becoming really cute, with big indica leaves and a dark green foliage, I'm already a fan! This was the last week into the small 1gal/3L container, I guess roots are exploding in the pot, so I'm gonna transplant her into the final container, which is the official Zamnesia 9L textile pot. Stay tuned!

Wow, growth has exploded during these last days, I guess the transplantation into the 9L textile pot was more than necessary! About the training, I'm sort of following the fluxing approach, but in my own way, I remove the nodes appearing from the bottom of the stems (they grow backward) but keep all the other nodes alive. She's doing really well with a vigorous growth, healthy leaves, and a nice shape coming along. I've proceeded to the 2nd and last topping surgery, on her two main apexes, these were growing too fast in comparison with the side stems that I'm trying to "flux". I will tell by the end of next week, the final number of main stems. Stay tuned!

Everything is looking good, vigorous growth and nothing to worry about yet. I'm gonna give her a few more days into the veg stage before flipping, I'm waiting for some deep red + far red strips to improve my lighting setup and try to play with the "Emerson Effect". I plan to use the infrared strips 5 minutes before lights turn off, and 5 minutes after lights have turned off. This should allow plants to receive 13~14 hours of light during flowering stage, leading to bigger buds and better resin production. Stay tuned!!

So this was the last week into the vegetative stage, blooming was triggered by the middle of week 7. My setup was improved with two infrared strips by SecretJardin. These are placed between my three LM301B boards by InvisibleSun. These red strips are made of 126 diodes on 3 lines : 1st line 660 nm + 2nd line 730 nm + 3rd line 660 nm. Using the deep red + far red spectrum 15mins/day before darkness should trigger the emerson effect, in order to push the light schedule up to 13-11. This will lead to a faster flowering cycle, a bigger yield and a better resin production. This is highly experimental and poorly documented so I'm still digging, but so far after 3 nights all my plants seem to love it. The setup was also improved by adding Blumat irrigation carrots, these will help me not to water everyday and always make sure my babies have something to drink. I have already tested these carrots by leaving the plants alone for 3 days, you need a big water tank but wow it's really working! The KaliniAsia is looking gorgeous, fully healthy with a lot of main stems, I can't wait to see her full of flowers! Thanks for stopping-by 😎

Sooooo the 1st week into the flowering stage is behind us, that KaliniAsia is still fully healthy, she started to stretch and she's showing her pistils and expanding a bit more everyday. The 1st week was under a 12/12 light schedule, with 15mins of deep red + far red before darkness (5 mins with the lights on, 10 mins once the lights are off). I want to experiment the 13-11 light schedule with infrared, but I don't want to mess with the current run, so the 13-11 schedule will start by the 2nd week of flowering. That way, I'm sure they understand the flip, we will see in a few days how plants react to the 13-11 light schedule, I'm confident this should work, and speed up the whole blooming process.

The 2nd week of blooming is now behind us, that KaliniAsia is a beautiful bush, still fully healthy, I have the feeling that the deep red + far red addons are really working, I see bud sites exploding everyday, much faster than usual. We are now under a 13/11 light schedule and she seems to love it so far. Thanks for stopping-by!

The 3rd week into the flowering stage went pretty well. Stretch seems to be done. I am now confident about the IR trick, it looks like the emerson effect is really working, I see buds fattening up at full speed, much faster than without the infrared strips. Would it be possible to push the light schedule up to 14:10?? I'm not sure at all, but I'd like to hear your opinions! This could be another experimentation for my next run. Thanks for stopping-by! 😎

So the 4th week into the flowering stage went pretty well, only 1 minor issue to note: some thrips managed to get into the growroom. Since the plant is already full of flowers, spraying anything is not an option. So I've released a few ladybugs into the room, they will do the job for me. For this reason, I was unable to do a proper photoshoot, didn't want to take the plants out and see all my red workers fly away. Otherwise, she's blooming at full speed, loving the IR spectrum before darkness, only a few weeks to go now! Some slight defoliation was done by the beggining of the week. Thanks for stopping-by!

I was away for two weeks, so my plants only had some Blumat irrigation carrots to rely on. I came back and noticed an empty reservoir. These things do work! However, I won't recommend this method for more than a few days. That KaliniAsia was seriously underwatered, and slightly underfed. That being said, she made it through these tough conditions and is still expanding her elongated colas. Last meal was given and she will only have plain water until harvest, which should happen in 10-12 days.

Only a few days to go now, trichomes are turning amber so I'll chop that lady in the next 48 hours. Flushed with 'CleanFruits' from GreenBuzzLiquids. Stay tuned for the harvest post! 😎

Soooo it seems that my IR technique really worked, and did shorten the flowering cycle by ~2 weeks. I will keep the IR strips in my blooming tent in order to trigger the Emerson effect on every plants I grow. I highly recommend you to try it by yourself and see what happens. Thanks for stopping-by my diary, and happy growing!