Let's Do Some LST

    Grow Goals Week 9 of Flower ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ 🌦️ VPD of 1.2-1.5 kPa for Late Flower 🌙 Diurnal Temp Difference of 10°F / 5°C 🌦️ Minimum Air Movement 0.8 m/S ⬇️️ Decrease RH to 40% 🔆 Change Light Schedule to 11 Hour Days 🔆 Maintain DLI at 40 (Daily Light Integral) for Late Flower 🚫 No Mycorrhizae 🚫 No Microbes 🚫 No Sugars ⬇️️ Reduce All Nutrient Concentration by 20% Each Feeding 🚜 Remove Yellow Leaves 🚜 Defoliate Anything Suspicious 🔎 Pest Inspection 🔎 Mildew Inspection 🔎 Trichome Watch (20% Amber / 80% Cloudy) 🌦️ Prepare the Drying Area ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾          🔆  Changed Light Schedule to 11 Hour Days    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ Several years ago I first learned about switching the light schedule to 11 hours days / 13 hour nights during the last week to “finish up'' certain strains that refuse to ripen. The original Haze strain was rumored to never ripen unless it was hit with 11/13 at the end. Colombian strains are rumored to need 11/13 at the end. Haze is apparently several equatorial sativas, and Colombian strains are equatorial sativas as well. This makes sense - 11/13 is essentially a death signal for a plant that has never experienced that phenomenon. In nature, cannabis plants begin blooming when days begin getting shorter, which is after the ⚝ Summer Solstice ⚝- around June 20th. 9 weeks of flowering would place the harvestdate at about Aug 23. Below are links to a couple of sun graphs. Kabul is near the Hindu Kush Mountains (indica), and San Juan de Pasto sits very close to the equator (sativa).       San Juan de Pasto, Colombia (sativa)     www.timeanddate.com/sun/colombia/pasto     Kabul, Afghanistan (indica)     www.timeanddate.com/sun/afghanistan/kabul   San Juan de Pasto receives almost 12/12 all year round. At the latitude of the Hindu Kush Mountains (Kabul), it is a different story. Summer Solstice kicks off with 14 hour days and by the end flower, days are still 13 hours long! Kabul doesn't even see 12/12 until a full month after harvest.   I have switched the lights to 11/13 (11 hour days) for the last week of flower.         🌦️  Prepare the Drying Area    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ One question I always struggle with during drying and curing is when to stop the drying and start the curing. Cure too soon and mold grows in the jars. Dry too long and the flower tastes like chlorophyll. I store my flower long term with 62% Boveda packs. Technically, one could use Boveda packs to dry and cure, but 10,000+ packs would be needed due to the very slow rate of moisture transfer. A better idea is to turn the entire Lung Room into a giant 62% Boveda pack! I will be converting the Lung Room into a drying room for 2 weeks. The first 3-4 days, a dehumidifier set to 60% will be needed as the plants are shedding a lot of moisture. After that, I switch on the humidifiers to supplement moisture and keep RH from dropping below 60%.   This is where having a grow room A/C that is oversized for that room is important. By having an A/C that is too large for the room, we ensure that it has very short cooling cycles. With a longer A/C run time (during each cooling cycle), the dehumidification increases.   I also maintain temps at 65°F / 18°C when drying. Bud Rot can still grow in these low temps, but it needs 85% RH to thrive. Controlling the RH at 60% will help mitigate this threat.       🚜  Cheap Trichome Camera    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ For me, it is far easier to count amber trichomes from a picture versus trying holding a loupe up to my face. I initially bought a cheap 60x clip on scope, but I need less magnification. Other clip-on macro lenses only go up to 10-15x.   Buying a used DSLR camera and expensive macro camera lens is not currently in the budget. Right now I just need something to inspect the trichome colors and don’t require that beautiful depth of field that we see in award winning macro shots.   I had a 30x/60x loupe sitting around. It's that same cheap Jarlink brand loupe that every new grower seems to own. I used adhesive Velcro Tape, one side on the back of my phone and the other side on the loupe. The loupe’s 30x lens stays firmly in place. The pictures are so good that I bought an additional 20x, 40x, and also a 45x loupe for about 8 USD / 8 EUR each.      https://growdiaries.com/diaries/165223-grow-journal-by-negotiatebubble#gallery=7069126   You will also need a cheap photographer's tripod to get a steady shot (15 USD / 16 EUR). I also recommend buying the cheapest Macro Focusing Rail Slider you can find. You can use your phone’s manual focus, but I find the focusing rail is more efficient for taking multiple photos. I found one for about 18 USD / 17 EUR.     Macro Focusing Rail Slider     https://a.co/d/hGh3wNS       Phone Mount for Tripod     https://a.co/d/eB2LoZl       Adhesive Velcro Tape     https://a.co/d/ftWztvz       🔎  Pest Inspection    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ While testing my 20x loupe on my phone, I happed to see a red pest resting on top of the bud. I was not able to to focus in time for a shot, but I think this is either aphids or spider mites. I inspected further and could not find another one. I am going to begin harvesting in the next few days, but would love to get photo of the evil little things. *** UPDATE *** It turned out to be thrips. The traps DID have thrips on them, but I was looking for larger pests and did not realize how small Thrips actually are. Going forward, pest inspection will include slapping the buds over a colored sticky sheet to see what falls off. Doing that during trimming helped me snap a photo of a live one. Luckily, it appears to Onion Thrips which mostly damage leaves and not flowers.       🔎 Mildew Inspection    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ No signs of Powdery Mildew or Bud Rot. The tent still has a slightly higher RH than my 45% Lung Room, but there is nothing I can do about that at the moment. I have defoliated most of the leaves and have increased the air movement.      🔎  Trichome Watch    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ #1 and #6 have a golden hue to them that means harvest near. The others seems to need a bit longer.      ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________      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