Holy Tulips 13:11 IR experimentation

Thanks to DutchPassion, I'm testing this "Mokum's Tulip", which is a cross between Gelato & Sherbet. Seeds was dropped into water for 24 hours, then straight into 0.5L AirPot. Seedling will grow under IKEA Vaxer led for the first days. Very excited about this run, I've only had great results with DutchPassion's strains so far 👌

First doses of nutrients were added, some root stimulator and nitrogen from GreenBuzzLiquids. She's looking good so far and has a vigorous growth.

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 Mokum's Tulip is starting to look very good! 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 a 9L textile pot. Stay tuned!

Sorry I took the pictures while she was really thirsty 😝 That slight underwatering situation apart, she's looking very good. 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.

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 MokumsTulip is looking gorgeous, fully healthy with a lot of main stems, hard work on training will surely pay off. Thanks for stopping-by! 😎

Sooooo the 1st week into the flowering stage is behind us, that MokumsTulip is still fully healthy, she started to stretch and she's showing her pistils and expanding a bit more everyday. Gorgeous plant! 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 MokumsTulip is beautiful and 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 2 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 Mokum's Tulip was seriously underwatered, and slightly underfed. That being said, she made it through these tough conditions and produced some massive colas! This is her last week, trichomes are ready. Only 7 weeks in flower, I guess my 13-11-IR light schedule really helped speeding up the flowering cycle.

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