Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[PCBuds]

The 450 was just as they needed a rest, to get back on form. Life begins at 600 imo

180lm/w is about 2.4umol/w I think. I would have to look at some examples. Everything measured as LUX, falls within PAR, so it's a reliable way forward. Though that would just say 252x2.4=605umol. Which over a meter, would be 605ppfd, if you didn't account for 20% in losses. Say 500ppfd, which seems a little generous. Suggesting 2.4 is too high. Anyhow, you don't have a meter to spread them over, so you have a higher concentration than 500ppfd. I was guessing about half a meter, to be knocking on for 1000ppfd

I remember reading up on all that and watching a bunch of videos by Dr. Bugbee.



I did manage to get my head wrapped around it but I forget now.



What I ended up doing was to just keep an eye on the ammeters and just go by that.

I like to keep my LED strips running at about half so they don't get too hot and should last longer.
I wrote the total amps for each ammeter running their connected strips at half maximum current.
(My strips are 700 milliamps max and 350 at the test current.)


I have managed to have all the strips running at the test current but last grow I had them turned down about 25% below test current.


I just found out with my 2 foot ceiling strips, that I can run them at well over half power and they didn't get too hot to touch.
I ran them at over 4.0 amps instead of 2.8 amps and they were fine.

 

[PCBuds]

180lm/w is about 2.4umol/w I think. I would have to look at some examples.

I've got some specs on my strips,..

From what I remember, my strips were intended for commercial lighting applications for people to see, so they are using lux instead of PPFD.

Grow lights are measured differently.

I know that there are different light meters that account for LEDs as far as human vision is concerned, or for what the plant sees and uses.

 

[Normannen]

I turned down the lights, hung a wet towel and I've been spraying the plant with RO water.




I've found out over the past few grows that I need to actively correct for the rise in PH that always happens.

My PH was almost 7. That's way too high for coco.
This is a post from last year.

@f-e noticed the same thing.

View attachment 18931099


When I first switched to coco, and my Maxigro and Maxibloom nutes, I also started using RO water.

I wasn't monitoring PH and just mixed the nutes and watered the plant. The plant did fine.

It wasn't until I started checking the PH on the next plant that I realized that my nute solution was at about PH 4.2 with the RO water, so I PHed it up to 5.8 and that's when everything went south.

I finally checked the PH of the reservoir and it was almost 7. I had rust spots on my leaves from calcium deficiency from lockout.


When I unknowingly watered my plant with nutes at PH 4.2 the plant was fine.

then stop giving nutes at all. get water with low EC and about pH 6

 

[PCBuds]

then stop giving nutes at all. get water with low EC and about pH 6

Oh, no, I can't do that !!

She needs to eat to stimulate obesity.
She's just got a bit of indigestion from eating like a pig.
She just needs Rolaids with her meals.

Other guys have noticed the same thing in hydroponic grows.
They would nute the reservoir low and let it creep up to 6.2 then lower it back down to about 5.5

That way the PH floats through the range and nothing gets locked out.
But the PH always floats upward.

These leaves are scorched from light bleaching.

It's not a PH or nutrition thing.

If I would have turned up my lights slower and started sooner the leaves would have adjusted but the plant wouldn't have stretched.

I wanted a tall plant to fill the closet so I only lit from the top.

Then once I had grown the framework for a strong tall plant I switched her into high gear.

I did it fast like pulling off a band-aid.
It doesn't hurt as much when you do it fast.

 

[Ca++]

Yellow veins, and at the leaf base, suggests iron, if it grew that way. However, they drained that way. Very quickly. I would have to do some reading and reasoning.

PAR and LUX have no exact conversion. PAR being a count of everything, and LUX having a bias towards giving what we can see better, a higher score. So we are not counting things like far red in the same way. With PAR giving a proper count of photons, and LUX suggesting it can't really tell, unless you make a big change.
However, our light sources are white LEDs, and are not so drastically dissimilar, that we can't get close.
Take the LM301B, it lists 220lm/w and just under 3umol/w. Your LEDs are about 20% less. So 2.4umol/w is fair finger maths. It's probably not worth getting the calculator out though. Thing like the transmission losses from LED to leaf are so varied, this can only ever be rough.

 

[PCBuds]

The lights are off now, so I took some more accurate pictures,..

She's looking pretty good except for the bigger leaves being a little pale and she's droopy.
We'll see how she picks up after the lights come on.


I noticed that the flowers of my lucky plant open up at lights out.
There's far too much sunshine during the day. Their faces would cook right off.

 

[PCBuds]

Yellow veins, and at the leaf base, suggests iron, if it grew that way. However, they drained that way. Very quickly. I would have to do some reading and reasoning.

Yeah, I figure that the plant is draining the leaves that it doesn't need anymore.
The small and medium leaves show no signs of drainage.

I figure that it's better to just remove the bigger leaves and spare the plant the effort of evacuation.

She's got tons of nutes at her roots. She just needs to start sending the nutes where she needs them now.

PAR and LUX have no exact conversion. PAR being a count of everything, and LUX having a bias towards giving what we can see better, a higher score.

I'm mostly just curious about it. It would be cool to have my closet measured just to know, but it doesn't really matter.

I've figured out what seems to work through trial and error and I don't need to get lost in the numbers anymore.
Except PH. I need to keep checking those numbers.
PPM too, but I just use my ½ and ¼ teaspoons and just check the PPM for reference.

 

[Normannen]

the flowers

 

[Ca++]

A plant will keep all it's leaves, if you let it. Leaves are drained because the plant needs these food stores, as the feed isn't enough, typically. Or I'm considering there were available products of photosynthesis in them, that the plant couldn't make quickly enough, given any amount of feed.
Be interesting to see what's going on, as it's repetitive

 

[PCBuds]

My plant has more emaciated leaves,..

The bottom two colas look like crap.

I don't really care if I end up deleting them. (I have pruned the bottom two branches on previous plants)
Those two colas never amount to much anyway.

They look healthy enough, just wilted. They might come around and perk up?

 

[PCBuds]

So, I took a leap of faith and removed a whole bunch of leaves.

If you look at a couple of my past plants, they seem to have the same amount of leaves that my current plant has, so I'm not worried.

 

[PCBuds]

She's filling in,..

I figured out a simple way to raise the humidity,..

The towel is in a pitcher of water and it seems to keep wicking the water up.
I just have to add water to the pitcher.

 

[Normannen]

various options
1. if your soil is soaking wet it's root rot. let your soil dry up.
2. if your soil is not soaking wet, there might be dry spots between the roots and this plant is not properly irrigated, which pisses the plant off, happens.
3. the luck plant is killing your plant. transplant the luck plant as we are not sure what it is and if it is compatible with cannabis. (for instance, tomatos and tobacco are a nono in the same pot other than for humidity needs, also because of active competition)

 

[PCBuds]

various options
1. if your soil is soaking wet it's root rot. let your soil dry up.
2. if your soil is not soaking wet, there might be dry spots between the roots and this plant is not properly irrigated, which pisses the plant off, happens.
3. the luck plant is killing your plant. transplant the luck plant as we are not sure what it is and if it is compatible with cannabis. (for instance, tomatos and tobacco are a nono in the same pot other than for humidity needs, also because of active competition)

Huh?,??
Various options for what?

My plant is fine.
Everything you see is on purpose.

The only reason I added the wet towel was because the humidity was reading in the low thirties.

The only parts of my plant that are growing now are the flowers.

She's only 6½ weeks old.
She's got another month to go.
Stay tuned and watch her colas fill in until you can't see any stems.



I took some pictures with the lights off,..
It gives a better picture of what she really looks like.

 

[Normannen]

Huh?,??
Various options for what?

My plant is fine.
Everything you see is on purpose.

The only reason I added the wet towel was because the humidity was reading in the low thirties.

The only parts of my plant that are growing now are the flowers.

She's only 6½ weeks old.
She's got another month to go.
Stay tuned and watch her colas fill in until you can't see any stems.



I took some pictures with the lights off,..
It gives a better picture of what she really looks like.

View attachment 18932986 View attachment 18932987 View attachment 18932988 View attachment 18932989 View attachment 18932990 View attachment 18932991
View attachment 18932993 View attachment 18932992

yes I remember you put the towel there, we discussed your humidity was low.
and yes I look forward to seeing the colas ripen and fill out,
but
your plant is not fine,
something is yellowing your leaves and drooping them on the lower branches and that does not happen when humidity is low in the air, I know cause I ride in the 20s...heck I shouldn't talk my plants rn look like shit, so take with a pinch of salt, I was simply commenting because it seemed as if you were worried about leaves drooping and yellowing, but I'm sorry, I was wrong.

 

[PCBuds]

but
your plant is not fine,
something is yellowing your leaves and drooping them on the lower branches

Light bleaching.
LST (light stress training)

She went from 80 Watts of ceiling light at more than a foot away on Dec 4th to over 300 Watts an inch from the lights by Dec 9th.

The few remaining drooping fan leaves have stabilized and are still contributing to the plant.

This one is croaking.
I removed it.

The two big fan leaves near the top are holding their own but are shading the cola tops below.

I might just keep them.
It adds character to the plant.



My lucky plant is doing the same thing.
The leaves are all warped, scorched and waxy, but the flowers look great !!

 

[PCBuds]

,.. that does not happen when humidity is low in the air, I know cause I ride in the 20s...heck I shouldn't talk my plants rn look like shit, so take with a pinch of salt,

Well, my humidifier didn't work out.

The left side of the towel fell off the hook, fell down past the waterline of the reservoir and started draining onto the floor.
Not really siphoning, but wicking.

I ditched the whole damn thing and now I'm using the fan to dry out the soaking sponge before it rots.

Then I removed all the fricken hygrometers,..

.., but I'm sorry, I was wrong.

No, I'm sorry. I was wrong.
There is NOTHING Wrong with growing in low humidity !!

High humidity is for newborns and infants.
Once a plant is a toddler, there is no need for humidity.

It was only after I gave in and started trying to crank up the humidity that I ran into problems, especially MOLD!


I remember someone posting a link to a YouTube video of a guy growing in Nevada in 20% humidity, and his plants were fine.
He just had to keep the roots wet and always watered.
The plants learn to hydrate themselves.
You shouldn't have to worry about root rot in 20% RH
A bubbler in the bottom helps too, even in soil.
Oxygen to the roots.

 

[PCBuds]

My plant is beefing up.
She's filling in and getting heavy.

 

[PCBuds]

A new picture from today.
She's beefing up,..

 

[PCBuds]

Some progressive screenshots showing her filling in,..