Looking ok stretched alot so had to add some caines to support the buds. Done quite alot of defolatin as ther were just many leaves covering bud sites and only using 1 600w so have spaced closer together for more light. Still feeding them doff tomatoe feed and had no signs stress. Goin to add some pk next feed.Had some fkin heat so plants have alittle heat burn so had to higher light alittle also alittle wind burn Owell updates to follow

👋 Here I am with 5 Nori cake seedlings, I want to grow 3 plants of this variety, I will keep the prettiest seedlings and continue the adventure with them🙏🌲 After a short week of growth I place my seedlings in their final 7Liters pot with a mixture that I made. I use unfertilized soil as a base. And I add organic nutrients from GreenHouseFeeding that I mix at the top of the pot (35Grams BioGrow 14Grams Biobloom) Then I water each pot with 1L of water. I use tap water. I lower the pH and sometimes add a little BioEnhancer😘 My Instagram 🌱❤️️ : https://www.instagram.com/hou_stone420/ ------------------------------------------ Equipment used : Light FC3000 Mars hydro. power 25% at 30cm Extractor 6 inch Mars Hydro. power 1/10. ON 24/24h No other fan this week Heating mat Romberg 95x95cm. ON half an hour every hour 👌 ☄️🌠🌠🌠🌟 Have a nice day buddies, thanks for your visit 🤩👋

************** 25.03. Day 58 Flower Day 18 ************** Got some issues with thrips and one plant have some Problems with Calcium deficit. she now gets 0.5 more calmag than before. And all ladies get some neem oil. // RO Water // TEMP 20C // PH 6,4 // CalMag 2ml // 0,1ml Regulator // 0,6 ph- // ************** 28.03. Day 61 Flower Day 21 ************** // RO Water // TEMP 20C // PH 6,4 // CalMag 2ml // 0,1ml Regulator // 0,6 ph- // Neem Oil

9/10 Went and shook the plants off. I don't think it rained. I think it's just dew. Plants with ailments seem to be progressing well and it looks like they'll outrun the pathogens. It may not be a banner year yield wise but the quality will be great it looks like. GMO is stacking up real nice. The ones in further flower are swelling more and more everyday. Earwigs MAY be back because I noticed a couple of plants where I left a tiny little branch on the bottom have been lollipopped on tje sherb pie and rather quickly too. I suppose it could be leaves dieing and rotting bit I doubt it. If they are here there aren't many and most plants are too far in flower for them to bother. They eat the lower newly developing shoots. Not big dense buds. Luckily. I noticed some pm on the gmo with pm. Looks like it's time for another treatment of k bicarb. I'll probably do that tonight. I'll keep this updated. WENT BACK OVER AND DEFOLIATED A BUNCH OF STUFF. ITS TIME FOR ANOTHER APP OF K BICARB. I CHECKED THE SHERB PIE AND IT DOESNT NEED TO BE WATERED. IT WAS STILL VERY HEAVY. IM THINKING I MAY HAVE EARWIGS THAT ARE FEASTUNG ON LOWER BRANCHES THAT SHOULDVE BEEN PRUNED. I NOTICED SOME LARFY SHIT THAT KOOKS LIKE NEW SHOOTS WERE CHEWED. LUCKILY THEY DONT SEEM TO BOTHER DEVELOPED BUDS. ESPECIALLY ROCK HARD BUDS. I'LL DO SOME RESEARCH AND DO SOME FORM OF APPLICATION FOR THE PM SPOTS I SAW AND THE SEPTORIA I KNOW IS THERE. IM SUPER GRATEFUL THOUGH. THESE ARE VERY HARD TO GROW STRAINS AND I THINK ILL KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK. Also thinking of switching to cha ching shortly on the toasted toffy and the event horizon that's furthest along. 9/11 I Didn't water anything today because things still seemed heavy. I'm noticing the same thing that happened a few years back. Lower secondary or tertiary branches are getting stripped on a couple plants. They never touch the developed buds they want the new shoots. If IT IS ear wigs they are impossible to fight. I put poison down and d.e. around those plantscand we'll see. It could also be rot from dying leaves. I need to treatcsome of the plants with a longer flowering time with plant doctor. I'm going over today to spend a few hours working in the garden. I'll apply something I just don't know WHAT yet. One event horizon looks like it tried to reveg AGAIN which is super weird . I just see a lot of one and 3 finger leaves. It will probably turn out to be great. The other event horizon looks like its going to be incredible. The toasted toffy is getting close too. Temps only reached 62° yesterday. It took FOREVER to shake these plants off. Time to get the leaf blower out. I'm going to bring my trich scope when I go over today. I wanna look at tgat event horizon. Pistols are retracting on the top flowers. This may be a multiple stage harvest. I'll keep this updated. UPDATE: WENT OVER AT FOUR AND WATERED. I MIGHTVE BEEN ABLE TO HOLD OFF UNTIL TOMORROW MORNING BUT I HAVE PLANS EARLY MORNING. I ALSO DEFOLIATED QUITE A BIT. BUDS ARE SWELLING CONSIDERABLY. THE SHERB PIE HAS TURNED COMPLETELY PURPLE. IT HASNT HAD ANY FLOWERS ON IT BUT NOW IT HAS FLOWERS BIGGER THAN A QUARTER! THESE PLANTS ARE VIGEROUSLY FLOWERING. I NEED TO CHECK THE TRICHS ON A COUPLE PLANTS AS THEY DONT HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT. AS I WAS DEFOLIATED I NOTICED THAT SOMWTHING HAD STRIPPED FRESH BUDSITES ON SOME LOWER BRANCHES. IN YEARS PAST THATS ALWAYS BEEN EAR WIGS WHICH ARE IMPISSIBLE TO DEAL WITH. THEY USUALLY DONT TOUCH THE BIG BUDS THOUGH. TJEY LIKE THE FRESY SHOOTS. ILL GO OUT AT NIGHT AND SEE IF THIS IS THE CASE. ITS ONLYVHAPPENING ON A COUPLE PLANTS BUT STILL. THE EVENT HORIZON IN THE MIDDLE IS GROWING DIFFERENT THAN ITS SISTER. YOU CAN TELL THE STRAIN IS THE SAME BUT THIS SEEMED TO REVEG (AGAIN) BECAUSE IM SEEING SMALL FULLY DEVELOPED BUDS THAT I DONT REALLY SEE CONNECTING. CRAZY TRICHS THOUGH. IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE HOW IT COMES OUT. I TREATED THE GMO WITH WPM WITH A QTR GALLON OF K BICARBONATE FOLIAR SPRAY WITH A DROP OF DAWN FOR A SURFICANT. 9/12 Shook everything off and then used the leaf blower to try to better dry them. Weather is lookingvyo be good for the next couple weeks. Perfect finishing weather for my two that are furthest in flower. I may have to do a staged harvest. Some BOTTOM branches on e.h. are FAT and have trichs on trichs. I'll have to use my scope. I'm switching to cha ching next feed for the three furyhest in flower. Maybe four. The sherb pie had NO flowers last week but it's exploding with really compact buds. The whole plant turned purple. I need to be careful of botrytis with this weather. I've been pretty good about leaving and removing any dead or dying leaves. Even the plant in the ten is filling out nice. I have SOMETHING (behaving like earwigs) and eating "fresh" shoots. It's like lollipopping the new growth on a couple plants. I'll becstaying at the grow from now forward so I'll go out tonight and see what I found. The poison I put down seems to be gone. Anyway I'm very grateful for what I've got. I'm update as I go. 9/13 It's sprinkling a half hour trom my grow. I think it's supposed to be nice though. I found some botrytis on two plants. Two are so close to finishing that I need to closely watch them. I don't want botrytis. I applied k bicarb to the middle gmo as I saw a spot of pm. I spent a ton of time defoliating. This cold weather has brought the fade much faster. Trichs are looking good. WENT THROUGH THE PLANTS AND DEFOLIATED A SHIT TON. APPARENTLY THIS EARLY FADE IS NORMAL THIS YEAR. AT LEAST IN ALL MY CANNABIS GROUPS. WENT THROUGH EVERYTJING! STILL HAVE THE MIDDLE EVENT HORIZON I WANT TOO TIE DOWN BUT I DID A LOT OF DEFOLIATION. THIS ALLOWED ME TO FIND A FEW PIECES OF BOTRYTIS. ON MY PLANTS THAT ARE ALMOST DONE. WE HAVE GOOD WEATHER FOR A LITTLE BIT BUT I MAY HAVE REACHED DIMINISHING RETURNS ON A COUPLE. THAT E.V. AND THE TOASTED TOFFY I DONT WANT GETTING WET. THEY ARE TOO DENSE. TRICHS ARE ALL MILKY AND THEYRE SWELLING. IM SLEEPING ON IT BUT IM ALMOST POSITIVE IM GOING TO DO A SELECTIVE HARVEST ON THOSE TWO. IM NOT LETTI G SHIT ROT AND AGTER LOOKING AT THESE UNDER A SCOPE I WOULDS TAKEN THEM YEARS AGO. GMO IS FROSTY AS HELL. EXTREMELY ARONATIC GARDEN. ILL KEEP THIS UPDATED. Decided to hold off feeding and watering. Defoliated a shit ton throughout the day. Around five I noticed that my shittiest GMO with the yellow leaves had a couple dead interior branches. Upon closer inspection it looked like grey mold. A few tiny buds were destroyed but the branch needed to be removed. Jot any big loss but if it's in the shit that doesn't matter than it's around the shit that does. Found info on event horizon flowering time. Middle of September until middle of October. That could be why I'm seeing coke cans on the bottom branches of that phenome. I've got some decisions to make. I mixed up enough water to water in the morning. I'll mix up feed in the morning. Tje garden has gotten a lot of attention lately. I hope it pays off. I'm leaning on a multi staged harvest of the event horizon amd toasted toffy but we'll 9/14 Hurries morning. Mixed water for this morning last night. WATERED AND FED EVERYTHING (BUT TOASTED TOFFY AND EVENT HORIZON #2 DUE TO THEM BEING CHOPPED SOON.) Everything got a gallon of water and a qtr of food. I had to cut a couple small interior secondary branches on my shottiest GMO due to the appearance of grey mold. I also found some botrytis in both the event horizon and toasted toffy that I plan to take the tops of today. I scoped them and I'm planning to do a staged harvest. Trichs are milky with some amber. Everything is blowing up! I'm not sure what's happening but like it previous years there's a couple plants with leaves dieing near bud sites and an overall yellow appearance. Maybe it's late stage septoria. I cant isolate it due to local laws but if I have to I'll deal with it. Nothing else had anything like that. I hace noticed SOMETHING nocturnal that can eat a small branch and leave it bare. Also eat the small newly forming shoots at the bottom of plants. I shouldve taken off ALL the larfy stuff as it draws bugs but I did things a like different with each plant this year. I'm going to go through the plants again today and I'll update what I decide. Chances are the top half of those two plants are coming down. I'll do a video. 9/15 I'll have to add pics and videos tomorrow. Last night I did a final check of the trichs on event horizon #2 and toasted toffy. Everything looked great so I proceeded to do a "wet trim" outside (ill use the leaf blower to clean up) and cut the tops off the plant. I know this injures tje plant but it also makes them go crazy thinking they are dying and the buds and trichs swell. I had one plant last year I got two harvests off and a bunch of fresh frozen for concentrates. I looked this morning and I madecthe right decision. These plants are DONE. I've got another event horizon but it's not quite there yet. I'm going to leave it as long as I can. If the injured plants pick up pm or something (already had septoria) then the flower will be used for extracts or I'll do a Cervantes wash. I imagine concentrates though. One GMO isn't doing as good as the rest. Yesterday I had to cut three branches off due to grey mold on the stalk. If laws allowed it I'd isolate that plant. Luckily since I spend so much time going through the garden I'm able to find this kind of stuff. The GMO'S look wonderful (even the one with some yellow leaves that I cut the branches off) . K bicarb has kept pm at bay so far. This strain has TONS of trichs. It's like trich on trich on trich. I can't wait to try it. It smells amazing. Sherb pie is completely purple with rock hard buds that smell amazing. It's quality over quantity this year. The big one in the 50 (I think red runtz) is swelling more everyday. I'm going to switch to ch ching soon. The plant in the 10 had TOTALLY SUPRISED ME. I've never grown a plant lime this. It started out with dark purple in the middle now buds are swelling and calyxes are EVERYWHERE! This plant is growing extremely fast! You'll see what I mean when I put the pics and the videos up. I'm not going to do the event horizon harvest until I get both plants and all of both plants. It will be a while before I finish the toasted toffy one as well. 9/16 I'm glad I took those plants. Weather is good but plants were soaked thos morning. I need to go out at night and see what is eating new shoots. Flowers are looking great. I need to do another app of k bocarb sometime. I'm suprised the pm has pretty much stayed with that one plant. That two other GMO's flanking it are doing awesome! Purple, sticky stinky. It's got the whole package. The one in the 50 has some huge flowers that won't require much longer. The one invthe 10 has some time left. This is clearly a sativa dominant hybrid. The buds are swelling like crazy. It went from NO buds to having little purple calyxes to flowers that look like cat-tails! I can't wait to see what rhis year brings. Once I get things dry and manicured I'll give you guys a look at how the first stage of the first harvest went. I'm super happy. Spent a large part of this morning shaking plants by handcand removing any dead leaves or anything that could cause rot then I went over them with a leaf blower. I'll need to water tonight I imagine. WATERED AROUND 3:00 PM. MY FAVORITE GMO STARTED DROPPING. WATERED EVERYTHING A GALLON EXCEPT I SPLIT ONE GALLON ON THE PLANTS THAT HAD BEEN CUT. IM EXTREMELY TIRED BUT I NEED TO GO OUT AT NIGHT AND SEE IF I CAN FIND EARWIGS CRAWLING UP THE STALKS. WEATHER STILL LOOKS GOOD. BUDS SWELLING PISTOLS RETRACTING AND MORE AND MORE LEAVES DYING. I CANT BELIEVE THE SIZE OF THAT SATIVA LEANING HYBRID IN THE TEN!

I’ll update ya’ll on the smells and tastes after drying and curing! So far both are packed with ice and smell very potent, a little overpowering still, so I want to give it some time before they’re cures and can show their true terpene profile!

The tale of the Goddesses is ending. Through this grow, I have given tribute to matriarchs-my grandmother and my mother who have influenced who I am in this world. I’ve showcased their art, photographs, and their lifetimes. I shared our family history through old photos while also showcasing the art of Alphonse Mucha in the Art Neuveux style he created in the early 1900's. The femininity reflected in his art elevates women to Goddesses with their flowing hair and floral backgrounds. In the diary I indicated I wanted to be a healer in my younger years. I wasn't a medical professional by career choice, but I provide natural nontoxic solutions for cleaning and beauty products and have for my family and friends for over 25 years. Not only are the items healthy and clean, but they are also effective and save you money. And who doesn't want that? I added the song Woman by Iris Gold. Have a listen in you tube or amazon music. Shoot for the stars and may all your dreams come true. My cover for Harvest and Smoke report is Alphonse Mucha’s poster for Job cigarette papers. This is one of the most famous works in design history. Taking its cue from a new kind of female beauty, its modern girl has hair with a life of its own. The tendrils look more like the floating tentacles of a jellyfish. This is in vast contrast to the style of the times when women wore their hair tightly pulled up on their heads. For most people, though, the Job poster is less likely to be associated with belle époque Paris of early 1900’s, than the swinging 1960s. Its blissed-out smoker and trippy swirls made it an obvious choice for the bedroom walls of a later generation of freedom-seekers. In posters for perfume, beer, biscuits, bicycles, and Job Cigarettes (1896) he blurred the barrier between fine art and commercial art, between commerce and philosophy. The weekly diary covers I presented show Mucha’s style - organic and ornate, graceful and dynamic, with curving, swooping lines and Byzantine borders, lettering, and frames. The iconic 'Mucha woman' had curves, flowing hair, pastel robes, and often a halo of light or flowers. His women burst with life. I have mixed emotions about my grow and harvest. My results indicate I have a lot to learn. This was my 3rd grow and I still have problems with over feeding my auto girls. wh For all future grows I will reduce any synthetic fertilizer to 1/4 to 1/2 the recommended dosage. Overfeeding caused clawing and canoeing followed by nutrient lockout. While I was trying to correct this problem, flushing for 3 weeks to get out the excess fertilizers and salts, the girls were already overmature and past harvest. Checking trichomes at 10 weeks, there were few trichomes and didn't see much more until week 12. I checked with my phone camera at 10x magnification every other day. I saw lots of clear, then clear and milky, then all milky but never did I see any amber trichomes. The plants began to reveg based on the King Crown buds developing (see pics in week 15). The CBG may have degraded to CBN since I was 3-4 weeks late in harvest. If that is true, I don't mind since I need sleep medicine too. I lost Circe at the end due to aphid infestation. Ater several power washing with the hose on jet, we could not get the bugs off. So, I chopped her and into the trash she went. I did only minor defoliation near the end of the grow but neither plant was very leafy. For future grows, I will defoliate on a schedule, do some stress training maybe fimming, lollypopping, and defoiliating. Note to self: when buying seeds, look for more growing information on the strain such as when trichomes are expected and days to harvest. Knowledge is power. On the flip side, my happiness comes from the completion of a grow the harvest was 57 grams of smoke and 26 grams trim was not the highest yield but workable for what I need. As I indicated in the beginning, my plan, in addition to enjoying the smoke, is to put CBG in my health & beauty products. So, you don't have to wait for me to make mine, I've loaded a pain salve recipe above from Emily Kyle for a CBD or THC. The recipe shown makes 3/4 cup but can be doubled or halved. I'm, so excited I have decarbed my CBG trim and will use to make this formula while the buds are curing. I will also include some Lemon auto which is 17:17 CBD:THC to give it some other cannabinoids. I'll also put the recipe in the recipe diary. CBG will go in the coconut oil I use in my toothpaste ( recipe loaded in recipe file) If you follow me, check my recipe diary periodically as I will add new food and beauty recipes in future grows. For my readers and followers, I express my sincere gratitude for all the comments, likes and views and thank you for responding to my questions. I always hate having to pick one answer because they are all good. Just know that I learn from every one's answers. In closing, this Grow Diaries community is the best. With all the love and positive vibes I received, I got overwhelmed at times. As this was my medical grow, many of you sent me good vibes and prayers for continued healing. I feel your energy and it keeps my frequency up. I have enjoyed meeting and chatting with all of you. I'll be starting my next grow soon so follow along with that one too. Sending you love and good vibes 💚💫💫💚. Enjoy your smoke💨💨 Happy growing 🌱and have fun🎉

May 23rd - Day 93 : So intricate moment here. I'm considering harvesting one of the two, but a friend is telling me to wait till it's 20% amber or at least more cloudy. He's an experienced grower and has been of a precious help from the start. This grow is dedicated to my boy Droomba. I'm at week 7 of flowering and Fastbuds says 7 weeks. I'm going to push it for a week or two

Man what a busy week. I left for a small vacation with the family and left the plants in the care of someone and luckly everything is still alive lol. Then today I almost forgot to post my weekly diary because I was busy build my new grow office and moving all the equipment in. The room I built is where all the plants well eventually end up ones my coco and perlite arrive. This washing machine strain is growing really strong. Not surprising seeing as how nice ripper seeds strains have bee so far. Only one plant of the 15 ive done has been a dud. Roots are at the bottom of the 1 gal pot and well need to be transplanted soon. Well that's all for now so happy growing everyone.

The production of trichomes is improving every time and the terpene profile is great, without a doubt a good BHO will come out of those flowers

Excited for my first Sweet Seeds run. Amazed I’ve had these seeds for almost a year now and literally jus popped them in the soil right from the pack. Lightly watered and cup misted with water on top. Took 3 days to break the medium. Only way to go is up from here!!! My first official grow All comments welcomed HELP ME!!!!!! Lmao

Checkout my Instagram @smallbudz to see the Small budget grow setup for indoor use, low watt, low heat, low noise, step by step. 01/11/2019 - Started using BioBizz Alg-a-Mic on spray, using it once per day at lights off, 1 or 2 puffs to create a light mist, only on non feed days, I mixed 0.1ml on 100ml water 6.4 PH. 03/11/2019 - Gave her 250ml plain water with 6.4PH 05/11/2019 - Gave her 0,15ml of each BioBizz Grow, Max and Bloom on 300ml water 6 PH didn't manage to get it higher to 6.3 at least. 06/11/2019 - She started to show some pistols, probably entering pre-flower. 07/11/2019 - Soil was to dry due to 2930c temps gave her 0,500ml of 6.5PH water with 0,25ml Grow, 0,25ml Max, and 0,45ml Bloom BioBizz.

good growth and nice tasty weed :)

18.1.25: Gorilla 🦍 Cookies 🍪 is firmly in week 2. The plant is looking very good, sturdy. I have been feeding with about 200 ml of dechlorinated water PH'd to 6.3 with the following nutrients;- ♡ 4ml Biobizz Bio-Grow ♡ 4ml Biobizz Fish Mix ♡ 2ml Cal-Mag and ♡ 1/4 g sprinkling of Ecothrive Biosys. Trying to give the extra boost of Nitrogen to keep vigorous growth, and maintaining the nice lush green 💚 Cal-Mag was used from the beginning of this week. Thanks for checking out my diary 🍃 ✌️

Once again she passes my expectations, late to the show with trichome production. I'm surprised there is purple on the bud, maybe Purpinator does work. I thought I could see hints under the grow lights and thought my eyes were deceiving me, I was just being hopeful. But nah 2 of the 3(under the UV) have developed a beautiful tone of purple. I was never going to bother with a deep freeze but maybe the whole bud will change given conditions, that would be something, fingers crossed. 🤔 was a little skeptical that reducing temps humidity would change density, but it does, buds are solid something I've not been able to achieve before. Rule of thumb is never to surpass 60% RH in the flowering phase and try to progressively reduce it down to 40% in the last 2–3 weeks before harvest. The plant will react as it seeks to protect its flowers, responding by producing denser buds and a higher concentration of resin. Cannabis plants are sensitive to sudden temperature changes, especially in the flowering stage. Extreme heat or cold can impact bud density and overall yields. In nature as a defense mechanism from cold, the plant sensing sudden dips in temperature will attempt to remove the pockets of air within the bud, it achieves this by compacting itself in doing so to better protect itself from cold snaps which are normally indicators in nature that worse weather is on the way. Terpene levels are the highest just before the sun comes out. Ideally, you want as many terpenes present in your plants as possible when you harvest. Cannabis plants soak up the sun during the day and produce resin and other goodies at night. The plant is at its emptiest from "harvest undesirables," so to speak,k right before the lights come on. Freshly cut buds are greener than dried buds because they still contain loads of chlorophyll. However, when rushed through the drying process, the buds dry but retain some chlorophyll, and when you smoke it, you will taste it. Chlorophyll-filled buds are smokable, but they aren’t clean. Slow drying gives the buds enough time and favorable conditions to lose the chlorophyll and sugars, giving you a smoother smoke. How the plant disposes of the chlorophyll and sugars by a process of chemically breaking them down and attaching the decomposed matter once small enough to water molecules, which then evaporate back into the ether. Time must be given to the process to break down the chlorophyll and sugars. Think of it like optimizing the environment for decay. Plant growth and geographic distribution (where the plant can grow) are greatly affected by the environment. If any environmental factor is less than ideal, it limits a plant's growth and/or distribution. For example, only plants adapted to limited amounts of water can live in deserts. Either directly or indirectly, most plant problems are caused by environmental stress. In some cases, poor environmental conditions (e.g., too little water) damage a plant directly. In other cases, environmental stress weakens a plant and makes it more susceptible to disease or insect attack. Environmental factors that affect plant growth include light, temperature, water, humidity, and nutrition. It's important to understand how these factors affect plant growth and development. With a basic understanding of these factors, you may be able to manipulate plants to meet your needs, whether for increased leaf, flower, or fruit production. By recognizing the roles of these factors, you'll also be better able to diagnose plant problems caused by environmental stress. Water and humidity *Most growing plants contain about 90 percent water. Water plays many roles in plants. It is:* A primary component in photosynthesis and respiration Responsible for turgor pressure in cells (Like the air in an inflated balloon, water is responsible for the fullness and firmness of plant tissue. Turgor is needed to maintain cell shape and ensure cell growth.) A solvent for minerals and carbohydrates moving through the plant Responsible for cooling leaves as it evaporates from leaf tissue during transpiration A regulator of stomatal opening and closing, thus controlling transpiration and, to some degree, photosynthesis The source of pressure to move roots through the soil The medium in which most biochemical reactions take place Relative humidity is the ratio of water vapor in the air to the amount of water the air could hold at the current temperature and pressure. Warm air can hold more water vapor than cold air. Relative humidity (RH) is expressed by the following equation: RH = water in air ÷ water air could hold (at constant temperature and pressure) The relative humidity is given as a percent. For example, if a pound of air at 75°F could hold 4 grams of water vapor, and there are only 3 grams of water in the air, then the relative humidity (RH) is: 3 ÷ 4 = 0.75 = 75% Water vapor moves from an area of high relative humidity to one of low relative humidity. The greater the difference in humidity, the faster water moves. This factor is important because the rate of water movement directly affects a plant's transpiration rate. The relative humidity in the air spaces between leaf cells approaches 100 percent. When a stoma opens, water vapor inside the leaf rushes out into the surrounding air (Figure 2), and a bubble of high humidity forms around the stoma. By saturating this small area of air, the bubble reduces the difference in relative humidity between the air spaces within the leaf and the air adjacent to the leaf. As a result, transpiration slows down. If the wind blows the humidity bubble away, however, transpiration increases. Thus, transpiration usually is at its peak on hot, dry, windy days. On the other hand, transpiration generally is quite slow when temperatures are cool, humidity is high, and there is no wind. Hot, dry conditions generally occur during the summer, which partially explains why plants wilt quickly in the summer. If a constant supply of water is not available to be absorbed by the roots and moved to the leaves, turgor pressure is lost and leaves go limp. Plant Nutrition Plant nutrition often is confused with fertilization. Plant nutrition refers to a plant's need for and use of basic chemical elements. Fertilization is the term used when these materials are added to the environment around a plant. A lot must happen before a chemical element in a fertilizer can be used by a plant. Plants need 17 elements for normal growth. Three of them--carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen--are found in air and water. The rest are found in the soil. Six soil elements are called macronutrients because they are used in relatively large amounts by plants. They are nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and sulfur. Eight other soil elements are used in much smaller amounts and are called micronutrients or trace elements. They are iron, zinc, molybdenum, manganese, boron, copper, cobalt, and chlorine. They make up less than 1% of total but are none the less vital. Most of the nutrients a plant needs are dissolved in water and then absorbed by its roots. In fact, 98 percent are absorbed from the soil-water solution, and only about 2 percent are actually extracted from soil particles. Fertilizers Fertilizers are materials containing plant nutrients that are added to the environment around a plant. Generally, they are added to the water or soil, but some can be sprayed on leaves. This method is called foliar fertilization. It should be done carefully with a dilute solution because a high fertilizer concentration can injure leaf cells. The nutrient, however, does need to pass through the thin layer of wax (cutin) on the leaf surface. It is to be noted applying a immobile nutrient via foliar application it will remain immobile within the leaf it was absorbed through. Fertilizers are not plant food! Plants produce their own food from water, carbon dioxide, and solar energy through photosynthesis. This food (sugars and carbohydrates) is combined with plant nutrients to produce proteins, enzymes, vitamins, and other elements essential to growth. Nutrient absorption Anything that reduces or stops sugar production in leaves can lower nutrient absorption. Thus, if a plant is under stress because of low light or extreme temperatures, nutrient deficiency may develop. A plant's developmental stage or rate of growth also may affect the amount of nutrients absorbed. Many plants have a rest (dormant) period during part of the year. During this time, few nutrients are absorbed. Plants also may absorb different nutrients as flower buds begin to develop than they do during periods of rapid vegetative growth.