Plant has been getting straight pH balanced water this last week and minimal nutes.
It is showing some slight nute burn so I let off a bit and raised the light canopy about 6”. I discovered that what I thought was a calcium or potassium deficiency was actually a rookie grower error by me. I have an RO system that I use to water all my strains in the grow room including this one, but when adding nutes to the water, it takes too long so I had been filling them up with well water. When I had originally tested the well water, I must had used a faulty testing agent as after testing it this last week, I was showing a pH of 7.5 vs. my RO of 6.2. Thus, every time I was adding nutes (multiple times a week) I was significantly fluctuating the pH between regular feedings and nutrient additions. To make matters worse, when I originally thought it was nute burn, I flushed each plant with well water and likely caused additional stress.
Anyway, I have since learned that the well water needs to be treated, I only utilize RO water the last few days and plan to do so over this next week.
Also, I have turned off the CO2 system as I was starting to see signs of heat stress on a couple of the strains (Plant #1). The literature I have reviewed suggested that these strains might be able to handle heat closer to 90F but it was also causing issues with high humidity so when I added a dehumidifier, it pushed the day temp to between 90-92F and the overnight temps were not getting low enough (maybe 85F or so). Maybe I could leave out the dehumidifier, but I was getting rH of 70% and didn’t want to risk any bud rot or mildew growth. So for now, I have turned off the CO2 and am getting high temps of 81F with 60% humidity and overnight temps of 74F and 50% humidity.
Plant #1 had some heat related curling of leaves as well as some of the lower leaves showing impact of the pH fluctuations. My hope is we will be steady until harvest.
Plant #2 has shown the least signs of stress and is fattening up its buds very nicely. Late in the week, some of the leaves started turning brown from the pH issue but my hope is that with RO water only, we will be on the right track.
Over the next few weeks I will start monitoring the trichomes for a nice milky color for harvesting.