Week 5, the first week of flower, was a good week. I started the week off on Sunday by switching the light timers all over to 12/12. Also on Sunday, it was time to water, so I did a flush using Fox Farms Sledgehammer by itself with ph corrected water. To get a drain out of the bottom of the pots I had to give each plant 1 gallon each. This was the first time so far in the grow that I gave them enough water to actually drain out of the bottom of the pots. I know the idea of watering until it drains out of the bottom is the old tried and true method, I believe it leads many people to overwatering their plants more often than they think. It also leads to extra humidity, and if you're having trouble with humidity being too high, the larger amounts of water will only make things worse. So I try to water with amounts that are gauged by the size of the plant and how fast the dirt drys out and they need more water. I like to be able to water every 2 or 3 days. My goal is to water/feed two to three times a week. I did this flush at the beginning of flowering just like Fox Farms suggests, which I'm sure is to help clear some of the salts from the nutrients. The soil stayed wet for a few days. On Wednesday I added a 4th grow light to the area. This is another of the same lights. Each light is pulling a true 585-590 watts. It was nice to finally have one light for every two plants. On Thursday I gave them 3/4 gal of water each with week 5 nutrients according to the Fox Farms Soil feeding schedule. I also did a small bit of pruning of the larger fan leaves to allow more light down to the entire plant. You can see the total amount of leaves I trimmed off in the wreath picture. On Friday I finally finished the fresh air vent into the room. Its drawing air from under the house, which is much cooler. I installed a charcoal filter under the house using 6" ducting into the room. The 6" duct fan pulls in the cooler air in and helps a lot. The room a/c unit doesn't have to run nearly as much. The air under my house is currently staying between 58*-62*. I have the duct fan hooked to a temperature controller, so it's only on if the air gets to 75* or higher. On Saturday I rotated the lights about 45* so they are at a diagonal. This allowed me to move the plants around and give them more room to expand and they don't shade each other as much now. On average the plants grew about 7" this week. I really don't want to train these plants at all, no bending over the tops, because I want a baseline of what the plants produce on their own. But if they keep growing and don't top out soon I will have to. I only have so much room for the lights to move up.
I think these have nitrogen toxicity, wondering what others think? Yellowing of some leaves, I noticed the clawing in some upper leaves. Buds don't seem to be growing much. Any thoughts?
It's hard to say when the pictures are under that light, try to take pictures under normal lighting for better diagnosis.
From what I can tell in these pictures there's actually a Nitrogen (N) abundance and some Phosphorous(P)/Potassium (K) deficiencies which may also be the cause of your buds' poor development (a picture showing where the leaves yellowing is the worst would really help!)
Hope this helps! Good luck and happy growing :)
Nitrogen Toxicity/Abundance, I believe is my problem. As suggested by BluntZilla in my other question it could be lacking P and K as well. Here are pictures under normal lighting in hopes that someone can help out.
Theyre not showing any signs of other deficiencies/toxicities at the moment just the Nitrogen abundance mentioned.
Yes lower the "Grow" or the Nitrogen source in your fertilizer by about 50% but never stop it completely since it may cause a shock and unnecessary stress!
Keep a close eye at your plants and adjust the fertilizing accordingly! if the color goes back to normal then stay at that diet with a slow increase, and if they start showing deficiencies then increase the nutrients accordingly!
Hope this helps! Good luck and happy growing :)
Great job bro the only thing id change is I would definitely look into getting your self an LEP lamp it would replace all those leds be cheaper to run not as hot as HID but gives you super lumens with the spectrum of led it would have doubled your yield easy and you'd only need one from GAVITA 1930lep
@EasyRaider, definitely man PH and sanitation and pest control are the things that are usually overlooked but stillgreatly important to the plants health almost as much as the light lmao happy growing man keep it
@GACiNATI, That would be great, and probably a great upgrade in the future. I would need two for the coverage space that I would need. Actually, four of them for how I plan to set the room up. As things progress, lights will definitely be upgraded.
Learned a lot from this grow. The nutrient problem was probably more of a pH problem. I just found that my pH meter was a full point off. The buds have been stalled since halfway through flower, and I'm pretty sure pH and nutrient issues were a big problem. Need to make sure to fix those problems for the next grow. Also trying autos for the next run, and a different nutrient line. But yes, lights are a must upgrade.