Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[PCBuds]

Seem to be putting together a good case for VPD/RH. It's strange how little we saw this with HIDs. It has to be related to the IR. I have looked and looked, and IR research hasn't got past the fact it's heat, so would cause more moisture loss. No physiological effects that I can find proof of. However, I suspect the IR wakes the plant up to the idea there will be moisture loss, with the effect being to close the stomata somewhat. Regulating moisture loss. I would be interested in pulling that dome off while it's looking good, but in the presence of some IR and a stopwatch. Just to see if IR does delay or even stop the droop. An r50 perhaps.

I just tried to put the dome back on and she is too big now.

I'm just going to leave everything as it is and see what happens.
I did raise the lights a bit and spread open the 4 side lights because they were going to hit the leaves.

It will be interesting to see if she grows accustomed to her new environment and stops her daily nap?
I did add that 1500 lumen center bulb just three days ago as well as removing the dome at the same time, so that was a big shock to her.

Then today, I half dropped the planter in the sink while changing the reservoir and then filled the reservoir with 10°C solution, so she's getting a lot of LST.

Most people LST by bending and breaking branches.
I'm LST'ing her by making her do jumping Jack's every day and giving her a cold shower. Lol

She'll be one tough plant if I don't kill her. Lol

I think with LED, the required water movement can meet demand as the RH drops, until the point where the roots say no, as it's just too saline to be pulling up that much. It long been known that low RH needs low EC in order to see the plant getting no extra food as it's water demand increases.

I'm kinda thinking that she maxed out her energy intake and conversion for the day and the roots and everything just kinda shut down to give her time to get those resources where she needs to put them to deal with the new light level?

My thoughts often return to calcium and it's relationship to water uptake. Calcium antagonises Potassium. Low potassium often shows as lower leaf moisture content, and I think the curling back under, not just drooping.

She's got everything she needs in the reservoir and she's not showing signs of nute burn, so I'm not concerned.
We'll see what happens as she gets older.
My guess is that her new leaves will be perfectly adapted to her new environment and will look happy and healthy ...

The only change that I have planned from now on is to raise the lights as she grows.
(my plans may change due to an alcohol related incident though. Lol)

I really shouldn't be making up such holistic theories though. I have not been near a horticultural college.

I make up all my theories. I know just enough to know how to do things the wrong way to see what happens.

I didn't even take biology in high-school because I didn't want to cut up a .

I won't do experiments on my but I don't mind killing a plant. Lol

 

[PCBuds]

The lights just came on and she still has a bit of droop left.
We'll see if she reaches up later on, and I'll try to take note of when she starts to fade again.

 

[PCBuds]

The numbers in the closet look good...

The plant looks good too...

 

[PCBuds]

The plant looks OK...

The roots look cool ...

The submerged roots don't appear to have any root hairs.
I figure that's how the plant manages to not drown without supplemental oxygen ?

 

[PCBuds]

About the focus, I can understand the pain. I had VHS camera in my childhood, and I have 3 old compact cameras, but not any of them let me handle focus really manually. I would love a camera with mechanically adjustable focus. Btw I stil use one of the old compact cameras (a Canon Ixus 310 HS) for making photos of plants. I bought it used about 10 years ago, and can make a lot better pictures, than my Note8. I can adjust ISO, exposure time, white balance, and a lot of things, not like on phone. And of course, it has much bigger sensor than a phone, so even in full auto mode, it can make way better pictures. Those old compact cameras must be very cheap on used market nowadays, so this is another option, what may worth to be considered, i think.

I took your advice and bought a used Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

$47 on ebay.

It's got manual focus, lots of pixels, image stabilization, and an optical zoom lens.

I'm pretty sure it can download directly to my smartphone. (USB 2.0)

 

[Sampas92]

My new born in the coco experiment is a bit like yours on the paller side of shade..hows yours in the cabinet doin?

Peace

 

[PCBuds]

My new born in the coco experiment is a bit like yours on the paller side of shade..hows yours in the cabinet doin?


Peace

She looks good.

I've been doing good with the LITFA but I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to research and find a camera to buy. lol
(I suck at technology. lol)


I lost track of the sleep timing of my window plant today, but she appeared to not flake out as early and not as long today.

I'm not going to change anything with the window plant to see if she adjusts to the environment and stops flaking out.

This is her right now, 7 hours after lights on...

 

[PCBuds]

I slept in a bit late and didn't see what my window plant looked like before the lights went off.
This is her now an hour after the lights turned off...

 

[aliceklar]

I slept in a bit late and didn't see what my window plant looked like before the lights went off.
This is her now an hour after the lights turned off...

Looking good, PC. All that LITFA must be paying off

 

[PCBuds]

Looking good, PC. All that LITFA must be paying off

Yeah, I'm not physically pestering the plant, but I am still stressing her with too much light, too much water and not enough RH. lol

I am going to leave everything the same now to see how she turns out.

I usually mess with a bunch of different things at once, then I don't know what factors are involved in any changes.

I still think that she will stop the drooping as time goes on.

I won't replace the reservoir anymore because it's too much stress for her (especially when I drop the planter in the sink. lol), but I intend to add some Hydrogen Peroxide to the reservoir once it starts growing algae.

I figure it should kill the algae and oxygenate the water.
I will apply lots of LITFA and just give her a drop at a time (as opposed to the 4 Tablespoons that I would probably add otherwise. lol)

 

[PCBuds]

It's 2 hours before the lights come on and she is almost fully awake...

 

[PCBuds]

She's 29 days old today and about 11 ½" tall.

I raised the lights about an inch because I think she's starting to stretch and I don't want her to hit the lights while I'm sleeping.

I added a liter of nute solution and checked the PH and PPM...

I stirred in 8 drops of PH down and brought the numbers down to this...

I forgot to use RO water to bring down the solution PH.
I'm going to fill my 15 liter bottle with RO water because I'm going to be using it for both plants.

 

[PCBuds]

She's got some damaged leaves at the bottom...

She looks good up top though...

She's ruffled and curled, but she's the right color anyway. lol

 

[PCBuds]

I made some agar gel.
I mixed it up thick with ½ cup of water and 1 tsp of powder.

It's looking pretty clear...

I'll wait for it to harden then see if I can get it out of the molds.

 

[PCBuds]

It turned cloudy as it hardened...

But, Holy Crap !!
Is that stuff ever cool!!

It bounces around like a rubber ball !!

I covered up some of it to keep it from drying out and one piece on top to see what happens and if it dries out ?

Now I'm going to get stoned and think up some kind of ridiculous experiment to try.

I'm picturing aquarium tubing going in and out of a cube filled with roots???

Maybe a transparent tubular tripod stand made out of gel standing in a big glass punch bowl or something.
The possibilities are endless !!

You guys need to try this !!
I propose a competition.

Remember, this is not a science project.
This is and art project.

We're building organic living root sculptures. Lol

 

[f-e]

I wonder if your pH has been high. Making iron phosphate.

Just thinking out loud really.

 

[PCBuds]

I wonder if your pH has been high. Making iron phosphate.

Just thinking out loud really.

Yeah, that's certainly possible.

The water in the tray was replaced just 2 days ago. I put in 1 liter of solution at PH 6.05

There was about ½ liter of solution left in the tray today and I added another liter of the same solution to it and the PH came out at 6.37

So my half liter of solution must have been really high to raise the total to 6.37 not to mention what the PH in the planter is.

Those messed up leaves were from the start of the plant before the roots worked their way into the tray that had proper PH and I wasn't top feeding to wash properly PH'ed water through the media.

The PH in the planter is probably crazy high and it was probably even higher when the plant was young because there wasn't any wicking or any real transpiration or evaporation on.


I think she's fine now because she's got proper PH at the bottom roots that can probably feed the whole plant, and she has a high PH in the top of the planter to make those elements available to her that need a higher PH.

I think that I'm going to go even lower in the tray to make sure she gets the full range of PH and nutrient availability?
The PH keeps drifting up anyway. I may as well start off low.

I don't know what I should aim for?
The charts aren't agreeing about manganese...

What do you think?

 

[PCBuds]

I was thinking that my gel may be a bit too "stiff" for a seed to push itself through, so I made another batch with ¼ tsp of agar...

That didn't work, it just fell apart...

So I put it back in the cup and put it back in the microwave.

Apparently, you can re-melt it.
It worked !!, so I added another ¼ tsp of agar to the liquid and stirred it in...

This batch turned out just about perfect !! Maybe a pinch less agar would be best?

Did I mention how cool this stuff is ?? lol


You could make a bunch of pieces and "glue" them together with more liquid agar to make a fancy 3D shape, like Lego blocks.

And the stuff doesn't stick to the molds.
They just pop right out. There is a bit of suction that holds them in, but you just have to break the seal.



I put one in water to see if it dissolves or swells or anything.

 

[Itsmychoice]

You really should try a proven clone so you could see how it turns out and compare to what it looks like under good conditions. That poor clone though, she would be in for a beating. I will be getting some agar

 

[Sampas92]

Seem to be putting together a good case for VPD/RH. It's strange how little we saw this with HIDs. It has to be related to the IR. I have looked and looked, and IR research hasn't got past the fact it's heat, so would cause more moisture loss. No physiological effects that I can find proof of. However, I suspect the IR wakes the plant up to the idea there will be moisture loss, with the effect being to close the stomata somewhat. Regulating moisture loss. I would be interested in pulling that dome off while it's looking good, but in the presence of some IR and a stopwatch. Just to see if IR does delay or even stop the droop. An r50 perhaps.

I think with LED, the required water movement can meet demand as the RH drops, until the point where the roots say no, as it's just too saline to be pulling up that much. It long been known that low RH needs low EC in order to see the plant getting no extra food as it's water demand increases.

My thoughts often return to calcium and it's relationship to water uptake. Calcium antagonises Potassium. Low potassium often shows as lower leaf moisture content, and I think the curling back under, not just drooping. I really shouldn't be making up such holistic theories though. I have not been near a horticultural college.

Remember im a noob and im here to learn from someone that knows more than me so, heating a space by radiation for example an regular heater, affects the plants diferenctly than heating the air with the minimal radiation possible? Will the outcome be the same with same leds without ir for example?
What do you think?

Also, do you find that folks that have ir their led lights get by easier than the ones without, or looks the same thing and the ir leds somehow dont produce the same result?

For example, my temps get down to night temps 24c to 22c, rh also from 55 to 50, 2 hours before lights out, would that contribute to them droop?i ask because mines droop like you know, but i dont know when they start to droop, in the day off ill keep an eye on them one hour before and after the temps switch.

Peace