Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[PCBuds]

She grew another 1/4".

She looks happy.
There are purple stems but those leaves appear healthy and are reaching up.

 

[ReikoX]

Some of the purple is likely genetic. The Dark Devil produced dark purple buds.

 

[PCBuds]

Some of the purple is likely genetic. The Dark Devil produced dark purple buds.

Oh yeah, right.

Maybe even the stalk and stems are more inclined to turn purple?

 

[ReikoX]

Yes, pretty sure the stems and petiole are purple due to genetics not nutrition.

 

[PCBuds]

Yes, pretty sure the stems and petiole are purple due to genetics not nutrition.

I was thinking it was the light.
Everything was green until I turned up the lights, then in a day or two everything was purple.

I think it's a stress response to lot's of light (especially LED light).

When this plant was a seedling with really close nodes, the stems were purple.
When I turned off the side lights, it started to stretch and all the new growth was green until I turned the lights back on just recently.


I'm going to watch out for purpling with the next seedling and turn down the lights if I see any purple.

I'm thinking that they don't want to stretch if they get too much light.

 

[PCBuds]

I found this...

"It’s not always one variable. Purple stems and leaf petioles are typically from lacking phosphates. Genetics can be naturally purple but it’s more rare. Too much calcium is the usual cause of phosphate lock out. Older mature or stunted leaves can have their petioles turn purple. Once this happens the leaf will not grow any bigger. LED lights too close can sometimes cause some purpling on the side facing the light."





I've found that it was the surfaces facing the light that turned purple.
The shaded side was still green.


These are some branches from a previous plant.

The green areas were where a branch was shading the area.

 

[PCBuds]

She's looking good.
The leaves aren't perfect, but I think she's fine.
I'm not going to over think it.

She's 6 weeks and two days old today, so she's got about another month to fill in and beef up.


I took a bunch of pictures.

A little popcorn bud on the bottom branch, we'll see how it turns out.

 

[PCBuds]

Yes, pretty sure the stems and petiole are purple due to genetics not nutrition.

The purple stripes on the stalk and branches of my current plant do look different than the purpling that I had before.

The current plant looks more like a genetic trait where as the other one looks more sunburn with tan lines.


I'm thinking that the purpling may be a combination of genetics, nutrition and light.

The excessive light may trigger a genetic response and nutritional changes that stress the plant causing the purpling as well as light shining directly on an area causing "tanning".

I think my current plant would still be green if I didn't turn up the lights.


Either way, I'm digging her new look.

I think the stripes look cool.

They look better than a suntan. Lol

 

[PCBuds]

So, here's my theory.
(remember, I just make stuff up. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. lol)



My plant was happily growing along with 5000 lux.
She was all stretched out reaching for the light with huge fan leaves trying to soak up as much light as possible.

Then, I turned up my lights to 20,000 lux and she went into Holy Shit mode and had to shut down her fan leaves.

They were receiving too much light, with too much photosynthesis and couldn't deal with it and were transpiring way too much.

So the entire leaf was shut off in response.
As a reaction to that, the entire leaf stem turned purple.
Perhaps because of a nutrient imbalance or concentration, or a PH imbalance causing lockouts.
(but I think as a perfectly normal and healthy reaction.)

So now, the leaf is no longer receiving juices, and is giving it's juice back to the plant.

Then the stem ties into the branch where the "water vein" that feeds it is also shut down and turns purple, but the rest of the branch that is feeding the flowers and upper regions of the branch are still green.

Then the branch ties into the stalk where the same thing happens.

I figure that all the big fan leaves are early leaves and their "water veins" would be on the surface of the stalk where the purple veins will show.

The veins feeding the newer parts of the plant would be deeper inside the stalk and still delivering nutrition.

 

[PCBuds]

Well, I did it again...
I removed more than a dozen leaves.

She doesn't look too bad from this angle.

I dunno ?
I'm having a hard time picturing a 450 gram plant out of this?

Maybe?

 

[Sampas92]

Buds you need to increase the light levels by small increments for them to adjust

 

[q3corn]

Hey Buds!

I also subscribe to your theory that the decaying leaves are just giving their nutrients back to the plant. That happens with my plants a lot. And I think Sampas is right, the bump from 5k to 20k would be a shock to anyone!

 

[PCBuds]

Buds you need to increase the light levels by small increments for them to adjust

I was thinking that the leaves would end up being shed either way, and now they are out of the way so the remaining leaves get full light with no shading, and the plant isn't wasting any resources dealing with shedding those leaves?

I've got it cranked now, and the lights are at 35,000-40,000 LUX.

The other big plants that I've grown, had very few leaves.

​



I was also wanting to start giving her lots of light as soon as possible so that she has more time to make use of it and grow some big buds.
It's also an autoflower, so it only has so much time to grow and finish.

All the leaves that I removed were dying and I was debating whether or not the plant was better off with them or without them?


I'm going to try what you suggested with my next plant. I'm going to try to slowly increase the light right from the beginning.

It's going to be tricky, because I don't want her to stop stretching which appeared to be the problem with this current plant.

I'm also going to start my next plant with the side lights, and have them turned down to see if she stretches or ends up with close nodes.

ReikoX was thinking that the 3500k side lights promote stretching.
I was thinking the light being from above gets her to reach for the light?

I'm thinking that if I start off my sprout/seedling with really low side light levels, it will stretch, and maybe once it's got a few sets of well spaced nodes, I can start turning up the lights without her stopping the stretch?

I dunno? Every plant I grow is a different experiment. Lol


So, I'll see what happens with this plant. If she still beefs up and fills in with buds then I know I can grow the plant tall with a low light level then just flip the lights.

But instead of flipping the lights from 18/6 to 12/12, I'm flipping the lights from 5,000 LUX to 40,000 LUX. Lol

She does have a month to go and may just fill right in?



She looks pretty damn good with huge potential.

 

[PCBuds]

Hey Buds!

I also subscribe to your theory that the decaying leaves are just giving their nutrients back to the plant. That happens with my plants a lot. And I think Sampas is right, the bump from 5k to 20k would be a shock to anyone!

Hey q3!

I'm wondering whether the plant is wasting her energy on the decaying leaves, or if they are just an energy and nutrition storage?

It may take a lot of effort to dry out and discard a leaf?

There is plenty of nutrition in the water and maybe the plant is better off pulling its nutrition from her roots?

I also wonder about the huge bump from 5k to 20k and now to 40k?

Is it better to do it slowly and start sooner, or is it better to just do it fast like ripping off a bandaid?

I dunno?

 

[q3corn]

Well, the shock from too much light is definitely something that happens to plants, especially giving them 4x the lighting they had the previous day! Also I let the decaying leaves stay on and get digested, I consider fan leaves to be extra food storage for the plants, and they pull from there when they need it. My thinking is: the plant needs those nutrients for the flowers, otherwise it would let the leaves remain, right?

 

[exploziv]

Do the light increase gradually. It will be better for them and much more energy effiicient. That way they will be able to get used to the light intensity better and really use those photons.

 

[PCBuds]

Well, the shock from too much light is definitely something that happens to plants, especially giving them 4x the lighting they had the previous day! Also I let the decaying leaves stay on and get digested, I consider fan leaves to be extra food storage for the plants, and they pull from there when they need it. My thinking is: the plant needs those nutrients for the flowers, otherwise it would let the leaves remain, right?

I've done it both ways.
I figure that if I remove them, they don't block any light and the photosynthesis happens right at the flower and its small leaves.

I dunno?

 

[PCBuds]

Do the light increase gradually. It will be better for them and much more energy effiicient. That way they will be able to get used to the light intensity better and really use those photons.

That's what I'll try with my next plant.

It's going to be hit and miss.
I want to start turning up the lights as soon as possible and as bright as possible without "stunting" the plant with close nodes and end up with a short plant.

I'll keep a close eye on it to check for purpling.

Perhaps once the plant is about 12" I can start turning up the lights.
The roots should be at the bottom of the planter by then.

She might still keep growing/stretching even if she gets some purpling at that point?

 

[q3corn]

I've done it both ways.
I figure that if I remove them, they don't block any light and the photosynthesis happens right at the flower and its small leaves.

I dunno?

You got a shit ton of lights everywhere dude, i don't think any leaves are gonna be getting in the way

 

[PCBuds]

You got a shit ton of lights everywhere dude, i don't think any leaves are gonna be getting in the way

Lol.

Yeah, there's a lot of light in there. Lol

That's why I'm thinking I don't need any fan leaves.
The smaller leaves that are left should be plenty to photosynthesis everything it needs ??

Then the plant doesn't have to support all that foliage, and can focus on growing big flowers.

That's my guess anyways.

It may not be too energy effiicient, but I only grow one plant at a time and it doesn't add up to too much for me.

I'm just aiming for a big yeild.
It would be nice to get a gram per Watt though, in fact, I'm going to have to do better than that if I want a one pound plant.

My lights are just under maximum right now and I'm drawing 325 Watts from the wall.