Let's Do Some LST

    Grow Goals Week 5 of Flower ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ 🌦️ VPD of 1.2-1.5 kPa for Early Flower 🌙 Diurnal Temp Difference of 10°F / 5°C 🌦️ Minimum Air Movement 0.8 m/S    🔆 Maximum Light Infiltration 🔆 Maintain DLI at 40 (Daily Light Integral) for Early Flower    🚫 No Mycorrhizae 🚫 No Microbes ⬇️️ Reduce Sugars    🚜 Remove "Grow Backs" 🚜 Light Defoliation    🔎 Pest Inspection 🔎 Nutrient Deficiency Inspection 🔎 Plant Happiness Inspection _____________________________________          🚜  Canopy Control for Too Many Nodes    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ I have updated my Grow Process for late veg to include better canopy planning for the number of nodes per plant. I am using larger fabric pots this grow, and I am inexperienced on how to fill them out.    Removing sucker branches this late has likely stressed the plants. My updated grow process for next time will be to “lollipop” only the sucker branches, while most leaves stay in place. Exceptions to this rule will be any leaf removal that achieves air flow under the plants, reduces the number of places for pests to hide, or provides better access for my watering wand. See Week 6 for details on why I have decided to minimize the amount of lollipopping that I perform.    Any previously removed bottom buds that have attempted to grow back are also removed again in this week of flower. I do not want the plant to expend any more energy on extra popcorn buds. Besides, there will be plenty of these around after I accidentally snip a few colas in half during trimming!    Since the branches grew too close to the lights, I am using Metal Plant Props to control the canopy, which has mostly evened out. These plant props are the other half of my LST arsenal. This amount of LST this late in flower is not favorable, but my colas are now getting optimal DLI and will ripen at the same (according to each strain’s genetics). Even a small 10 cm difference in height can mean a loss of 100 PPFD, or around 8-10% in light intensity!      18 in. H x 1.50 in. W Steel Plant Prop     https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-18-in-H-x-1-50-in-W-Steel-Plant-Prop-611872-HD/100584404#overlay      Week 12 Canopy   https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165223-grow-journal-by-negotiatebubble#gallery=6962253         🌦️  Additional Vent Added to Lung Room    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ I have added a second passive vent to the door of the Lung Room. As mentioned in Week 11, I now have the Lung Room fan pulling cool air from the hallway, while the hot air exits the room passively through vents in the door.    See weeks 6 and 7 to catch up on details about my Lung Room.       🚜  Reduce Sugars and No Microbes    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ Plants DO NOT uptake sugars. Rather, they send sugars down to the soil where microbes feed on these sugars, mine the nutrients that are locked away in the soil, and then these unlocked nutrients are then ready to go back up to the plants. Fertilizers bypass the need for microbes since their nutrients are already unlocked and available to the plants. So why use microbes when using fertilizer? Micronutrients. If a micronutrient becomes scarce, the microbes will act as a safety net. Perhaps a set of genetics is more hungry for a specific mineral, for example.    This week, sugars are being reduced for the same reason that we are no longer adding microbes: avoid feeding too much nitrogen at this stage of flower. The soil microbes are more than happy to keep supplying that N, so we need the microbe activity to calm down by providing less food (sugars) to them.    Teaming with Microbes is a great book to find out more about the soil food web. Fun fact, plants alter the types of sugars that are released in order to steer different kinds of bacterial activity below the soil.     Jeff Lownfels, “Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web”   www.jefflowenfels.com/books-by-jeff-lownfels         🌦️  Minimum Air Movement 0.8 m/s    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ Wind speed should be at least 0.8 meters per second at the canopy. See Week 8 for how I measure air flow. I have observed that the leaves need to be only slightly moving to achieve 0.8 m/s. I have 3 cheap box fans bolted together to cool my lights at the top of the tent and this is more than enough air flow without using canopy fans.    A few small fans blowing underneath the canopy have been added to prevent mold and mildew. These fans are plugged into a cycle timer that turns on every 3 minutes for a duration of 10 seconds. This will prevent the fans from beating the crap out of nearby leaves. If you do not have any air flow in your grow space by week 5 of flower, then now is the time to correct this.        🚜  Water + CalMag In Between Feedings    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ The maturing buds have developed quite a thirst. I am feeding nutrients twice per week and now have started watering in between those feedings. I am still adding CalMag to pH’s water. Next week, I will start decreasing the humidity in the grow space. Less humidity will increase the water transpiration, further increasing the thirst.         🔎  Pest Inspection    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ I am enjoying being pest free since closing the lung room door. I will continue to use yellow sticky traps to monitor for any infestation.       🔎  Nutrient Deficiency Inspection    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ Some deficiency symptoms have appeared on #2 and #6. Let’s troubleshoot:    First, let’s look at any changes in my grow process during the past few weeks or compared to my last grow. I am using a new brand of organic soil this grow. Happy Frog soil is higher in Potassium than my previous soil, aeration is far better, and has a slightly higher acidic pH. I have also recently begun adding Magnesium Sulfate to the nutrient solution along with the CalMag. As visualized in Mulder’s chart, too much Magnesium can block uptake (antagonize) both Calcium and Potassium:      Mulder’s Chart   https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/e10f0411/dms3rep/multi/mulders.png    Second, let’s look at the pH. Incorrect pH will lock out nutrients even if they are all present. I calibrate my pH meter before each feeding and I have recently increased nutrient solution pH to 6.3 (previously 6.2 pH). When testing the nutrient run off, input was 6.3 pH and run off for all plants was around 5.95 pH. What about overfeeding? Below are the testing results measuring (I happen to use EC instead of PPM) nutrient strength.    When testing the nutrient run off with an nutrient input of 3.95 EC, the increased runoff EC is below. #6 looks decent. #2 matches a few other ones, but is a different strain and has a history of deficiencies alongside other plants that did not exhibit the symptoms. During week 4, both #2 and #6 started to exhibit CalMag deficiency symptoms when the other strains were fine. I am now confident that the additional nutrient hunger in W4 was genetic.    #1   +0.92 EC #2   +1.41 EC #3   +1.41 EC #4   +1.49 EC #5   +1.07 EC #6   +0.92 EC    Third, let’s look at the visual symptoms. Most people jump to this prematurely. For leaves on #2, I see dark spots along the veins of a leaf. One leaf is coarse and twisted just a bit. Yellowing has begun on another leaf. #2 visually appears to be Magnesium deficient. On #6, I see dark spaces between the veins of the leaf. The underside of the petioles are red. #6 visually appears to be Phosphorus deficient. #3 might have early stage Calcium deficiency as I am seeing golden orange spots appear.   #2 Symptoms   https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165223-grow-journal-by-negotiatebubble#gallery=6977168      #4 Symptoms   https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165223-grow-journal-by-negotiatebubble#gallery=6977169      #6 Symptoms   https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165223-grow-journal-by-negotiatebubble#gallery=6977170    I use the below sites for visual troubleshooting. Despite seeing a ton of advertising for the author lately, The Cannabis Encyclopedia actually has some of the best photo examples and graphics for troubleshooting in my opinion. He authored a lot of growing content before modern legalization (my very first grow book, for example). Also, GWE’s “Plant Doctor” site also has many photos as well.      The Cannabis Encyclopedia   https://marijuanagrowing.com/nutrients-chapter-21/      Plant Doctor   https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-symptoms-pictures    #3 and #6 deficiencies are likely too much Magnesium. I will be stopping the Magnesium Sulfate, performing a maintenance flush, and then feeding with full strength solution again after the flush (minus the Magnesium Sulfate). #2 appears to be Phosphorus deficiency. I will react by slightly increasing Phosphorus, but this is an ongoing investigation.      🔎  Plant Happiness Inspection    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ #4 has two suspect leaves, but is happy otherwise. I am undecided on whether the spots on the leaves are a physical defect of some kind, so I am not ready to list this as a nutrient related issue. None of the other leaves have these visual symptoms and the markings are irregular.      ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________      Fabric pots to prevent root binding.   I am taking the Syn-ganics approach. Using soil with microbes + mycorrhizae added to the nutes. Mycorrhizae will be phased out during flowering as the high phosphorus environment halts fungal germination (Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower's Guide to Mycorrhizae by Jeff Lowenfels)   Enzymatic (Sensizym) will assist in breaking down dead root material in the soil. Any brand enzymatic that can break down cellulose will do just fine.   Agsil16H Potassium Silicate is pre-mixed at 148g per 1 gallon of water. Silica will aid plant strength/structure and also make the plants taste terrible to pests. As a side note, plants with too much nitrogen input taste sweet and delicious to pests!   Bacillus Thuringiensis subspecies Israelensis (Bti) (aka Mosquito Dunks) solution is added to the nutes to kill any larvae based pests such as gnats. Mixing Mosquito Bits into the soil is also a great idea.   Seaweed Bottled Mix Ingredients (NOT an endorsement. I purchased this with my own money) ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ - Ecklonia Maxima Kelp - Fish Hydrolysate - Blackstrap Molasses - Humic Acid / Fulvic Acid - Select Amino Acids (L-Alanine, L-Arginine, L-Aspartic, L-Cystine, L-Glutamic Acid, L-Glycine,   L-Histidine, L-Isoleucine, L-Leucine, L-Lysine, L-Methionine, L-Phenylalanine, L-Proline,   L-Threonine, L-Serine, L-Tryptophan, L-Tyrosine, L-Valine) - Calcium Phosphate - Arcanite - Sugars - Yucca Extract - Tryptic Soy Agar - Plant Hormones, Plant Growth Stimulators and Vitamins (Auxins, Cytokinins, Gibberellins,   Abscisic Acid (ABA), Adenine, Indole Acetic Acid (IAA), Adenosine, Zeatin, A (Carotene),   B1, B12, C, D, E, K, Biotin, Niacin, Choline, Pantothene, Folic Acid, Folinic Acid) ________________________________________________________________________________    I Build My Own Custom Grow LEDs https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165481-grow-journal-by-negotiatedbubble   Custom Built Modified Grow Tent Frame https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165474-grow-journal-by-negotiatedbubble   Custom Built Watering Table https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165482-grow-journal-by-negotiatedbubble   VPD Chart and Calculator spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dta8AptwIIgo728nAu4l9acrWYWPdrljjV4uzXwGJ0Q/edit?usp=sharing   My Custom Nutrient Spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1grolLVrJLQVSdK7sdnR7dS86axWIzDgW1iWWZIFHhiA/edit?usp=sharing