The time has come! Flowering has been initiated and is off to a good start,
The Photoperiod is now running at 11/13 on/off and the intensity of the light has been bumped up to 60% giving me a DLI of aorund 37.5 at 30" hang height in my 2x4.
As the plants where topped a bunch I have found in previous grows the stretch will not be as crazy as if I left them on their own, however the increased pot size may negate that effect, only time will tell :D I also gave them a 2nd watering as the last one was leaving the pots a bit to light. This could be their new normal 1gal one week, 2 gal the next separated by a few days.
They have all been amended with a 50/50 mix of grow and bloom from Gaia, Also added in some extra Insect Frass, Yeast and Bokashi grains, mixed this all with worm castings and compost for the top dress. added the compost after mixing it into the top layer so it gives it a bit of a blanket. made a little video of it and me watering the plants on a speed run. One thing I need to find is a sprayer head that has a 70-90 degree bend on it. I'm tired of watering from overhead as my wand is straight and does not have a bend. Its made of hard plastic and was thinking I would toss the tip in the oven to soften it up and place a coat hanger though it, then bend it ever so slightly and wait for it to cool, can snip off the wire and pull it out once its all done and have a bent tip. or I can get a 2nd wand attachment for it. Just been so busy have not had time to search for it,
the peppers are doing much better as well, after the defoliation from last week they where getting a bit more light but that is all gone now, the plants have taken it back. and they are in shade, the plants seem to like it more. only the one strain likes the intense light of the led's, Fatalii peppers, It might be the hottest ones I'm growing if the goronong don't measure up. The JigSaw peppers are also starting to show some of their variegation in the leaves that make them pretty to grow now they are in the shade more. and its bound to be better then pure purple leaves from the LED"s Butterwort is eating all the gnats as well. so no problem there. Will apply the nematodes later next week to kill em off in the medium. Don't want them getting trapped in the flowers. stupid little fuckers.
I left out some of the extras in the water this week as it was its first topdressing, didn't want to stress it out to much, I will be topdressing every week and diving the total ammount of amendments in 4 parts. vs one big feeding at beginning of the month like its been suggested on the label, I find this helps avoid the N burn I normally see and gives them a bit better of a breakdown for flowering period. It worked really well with my G13 Labs Blue Cindy grow so I am repeating the process and will likely make this my new standard. I will also be adding in some Mg into every other water till stretch is done same with a very light feeding of molasses, I know it has been negative in past grows but going to try it out again with much smaller amounts. 1tea/pot, the extra sugars should work wonders on the Bokashi added into the soil and allow it to thrive.
Plants are starting to get more of a funk to them as well, So i feel that's what was happening with the gifted plant to my parents smelling up the place, it was just entering flowering as it was not in a tent n the lighting must have been to low. And the little cuttings I did last week are fine, no roots but will soon have a bunch of little clones to go. Just in time for spring.
I think that's it.
Big shoutout to Medic Grow for sponsoring the lighting in my tent, They have provided me with 2x Mini Sun 2's in the 240w configuration, They use the v1 growing spectrum that is a all purpose seed to harvest spectrum so their is no hassle of switching it mid grow. If you interested in learning more about Medic Grow products please visit the web link below.
https://medicgrow.com/
https://growdiaries.com/grower/MedicGrowLED