Poison is the Antidote

Week 9! This week starts out on a bit of a precarious note, where we find ourselves struggling with what we believe is a worsening Magnesium deficiency, possibly caused by lockout due to high pH. We had hoped to have switched to flowering this week but instead, we're reducing daylight hours from 18 to 16 so that we can begin regular foliar feeding of epsom salt. We're running out of time though, as Plant #1 continues to grow and we want to make sure we have adequate headroom for the flowering stretch. Day 57: - raised light fixture 2 to 3 inches. - adjusted on/off schedule to 16hr days - foliar fed with dechlorinated tap water with .5tsp per gallon of epsom salt, resulting in a 370ppm solution, with pH of 6.9. Applied fine mist spray at lights-out. Day 58: - it's hard to tell but it looks like the foliar feeding may have helped slightly, with a bit more green coming out, rather than yellow. - we're a little unsure whether to foliar feed again tonight or whether it's better to wait a day or two in between. We might do another foliar feed tonight but slightly less strength. - UPDATE - we ended up foliar feeding with a 210ppm epsom salt/dechlorinated tap water solution, applied at lights-off. Day 59: - both plants are looking a little better and a little more green. - we finally replaced the LST "tie-down's" that we had in place prior to transplanting Plant #2 into its 7 gallon pot. We'd been weary of putting extra stress on Plant #2, to minimize any transplant shock. Within 2 hours of applying the tie-down's, the tops had all recovered and were pointing to the light... a good sign! - we're suspecting that part of our Magnesium (and Calcium??) issues are that we may have an abundance of Phosphorus which is causing a bit of a lock-out. We hope that by starting flowering, the plants will start using up that Phosphorus and we hope that this helps bring a bit of balance. Day 60: - tonight will be the first night of 12/12 light cycle. - we've replaced the Sunblaster 24W LED strip light, which emitted light in the 6400K spectrum, with the Sunblaster 24W T5HO strip light, which emits light in the 2700K spectrum and will be better for flowering, although, given the relatively poor coverage, it isn't going to make much of a difference in the grow. The main reason we even have it in there at all is that it helps keep the sides of the tent from collapsing in due to the negative pressure caused by the exhaust fan. We've considered just using a piece of PVC pipe to do the same thing and saving energy costs on a light that doesn't really do anything. - both plants are looking a bit healthier. Plant #1 is due for some defoliation but we'll likely wait until next week. What are your guys' thoughts on the guidelines of defoliating during week 1 and week 3 of flower? I think we're going to try to follow those guidelines. Day 61: - Plant #1 is feeling dry, Plant #2 still feels wet. We'll wait another day to water. - defoliated Plant #1, trimming off side branches from each of the 8 main tops. Left most fan leaves in place. - Foliar fed both plants with .5tsp Epsom salt & dechlorinated tap water, measuring 270ppm, pH 7.0. Applied at lights-out. Day 62: - watered Plant #1 with dechlorinated tap water with .25ml/gal of BioBizz's "Bio-Grow", "Bloom", "Top Max" and "Acti-Vera" and .25ml/gal of Remo Nutrients' "VeloKelp". This resulted in a weak nutrient solution measuring 170ppm. pH adjusted to 6.2. - runoff ppm test came back extremely high, measuring over 3000ppm!! 😳 pH was better than last week though, measuring 6.5. - we flushed a few extra litres of water through the pot, until ppm's were around 2,000, which was still much higher than we'd like. Day 63: - no changes - Temp: 68F-79F - RH: 58%-64%