Trouble is I’ve only got a 4x2 tent and no other space to grow. It’s all stealth too as I’ve got kids who, incredibly, know nothing about what I’m up to right under their noses. I’d like to keep it that way until they are adults. The other issue is that I like to travel just about more than anything so I have to plan my grows around work and leisure travel. I might even get my next seeds in BEFORE I chop!
What are your thoughts on day night differential OS? What is Day/Night Differential (DIF)? - Definition from Maximum Yield Is this concept void if we are running 24/0 light?
I meant more like, Everybody has there own obstacles, and we just have to make due with what we can. I have definitely gotten very used to living in a legal state, and not worrying about the law or other people. Hell, in the summer I grow plants right on the front porch (cause I can!). The travel thing definitely makes it tricky. I get lucky and really only travel in the summer while growing indoor cannabis in the winter. Cheers Os
My take on 24/0 and constant steady temps is you just get less stem elongation or tighter nodes which is usually more desirable, except perhaps with the really short, tight noded, super bushy plants where it might be helpful. So I try to avoid temp swings on the front half of the grow as well as avoid humidity swings. For me this is way easier to achieve using 24/0. The 10’ F swing I was referring to at the very end of the grow is a different kind of thing. At that point in time, stem elongation and any vegetative growth factors are really a moot point. Instead it’s more like giving plants a cooler period to sort of encourage them to precede on to senescence and literally become ripe for the picking. A really skilled gardener with really good environmental controls and a wide range of temps/humidity available to operate in, can certainly steer plants quite effectively to do what you want. For instance if you know you have a super short tight noded plant, you may want to introduce a cool period daily at day 15 to try and get some stretch and node spacing. Then a week or two later, go back to constant temps to keep it from stretching out too much. Since I grow 6 different strains at a time, none of which I have run before, I use the shotgun approach and just try to run stable temps throughout the day. When I can make it work, I do gradually drop my temps a few degrees, a few times as the grow goes on. In a perfect world I would start at 82’F for about a month, then drop to 80 for two weeks, then 78 until I think I’m 2 weeks from finish, and then finish at 76’F. All this stuff with influencing environment and maintaining good dryback with respect to watering, falls under the category of “crop steering”. I think you will find it interesting. There is a lot of recent info out there now on the net about Cannabis Crop Steering. It definitely influences the way I do things. Or try and do things. Cheers Os
Wow thankyou for such a thoughtful response! I’m currently just working on the ability to keep my grow environment stable but I find all of these topics interesting so I will look into the crop steering for future reference.
I'll be pulling the girls out of the tent today for their weekly MPB/EWC top dressing. 3rd for Blacklight CBD (Day 55) and 4th for SODK (Day 60). I may just stop at 4 applications as last run I gave a little too late in the life of the plant and got a lot of foxtails, making it tricky to know when they were done. I'll see how I feel next week. I'm guessing they have at least 3-4 weeks to go at the minimum. Crashing Christmas which I was hoping to avoid but at least I should have a good yield.
Time for an update! Both plants got some MBP today. It’s the 5th application for the SODK (Day 67) and I just pulled the mulch back and sprinkled it on. Scratched it in and watered with plain water. Did the same with the Blacklight CBD plant (Day 62) but mixed the MBP WTU a litre of EWC and half a tablespoon of neem. (I saw what looked like a fungus gnat fly up from the soil so thought a little neem may help. The EWC should too). That’s her 4th application of MBP. SODK: And here’s the Blacklight CBD: I gave them both a defoliation again today so they look a bit knocked about but both are doing pretty well. I swapped their positions around in he tent to make them more manageable and I lifted the heat mat up under the CBD plant as I’ve got a theory that she’s slowed a little due to cooler temps. The heat mat was under the riser pot before but now it’s under the saucer. I think it will speed her up:
Looking really good. I like the creative heat mat setup. The cooler temps do slow things down a little. Some strains are fussier than others when it comes to cool temps. Looking at the SODK, she looks like she will go 90 days. Next week I would do one more mbp application couple with another round of defol. The defol could even happen before then if ya felt like it. Just keep taking the leaves with longer stems like you’ve been doing. This is the “bud plumping” stage. Cheers Os
I really appreciate the reply. I will do another MBP application next week. I didn’t want to do another EWC top dress as she’s still got slight tip burn which I assume means there’s plenty of goodness in that soil mix. I’m even avoiding the aloe now. I’m quite sure it’s a 90 day plant now which takes me to Christmas Eve. I was planning for a late November finish but here we are. I’m not disappointed though as she’s absolutely loaded with bud sites. The defol is an ongoing process. She doesn’t seem to mind at all thankfully. The only change for her is that I’ve upped the lighting by 10% to 110w which seems to be going ok. I want a bit of penetration to the leggy bits I’ve trained from underneath. Still chopping a few but the healthy ones are still there.
I got stuck in today and did a pretty big defoliation on the Blacklight CBD (Day 66) and an even bigger one on my SODK (Day 71). Once I got going I couldn’t stop. The difference is incredible and light is easily penetrating through everywhere now. I watered them with aloe and Fish Brew and will just keep their environment ticking over as it is and hopefully I’ll see a ton of energy going into those greasy bud sites. SODK left, BLCBD right: The SODK looks pretty greasy suits the light off and the flash on:
I could not get this photo lo load in that post! No idea why but sometimes grass city just does that... Anyway, looking greasy!
The structure of the SODK looks all weird and ugly as I’ve been pulling the longer branches out to the sides with wire. She got so tall that I was getting some unhappy leaves close to my light. It’s a bit of messing about as I turn my plants 1/4 turn at least twice a day so have to undo the wires each time and redo them, but it does allow light to get at parts that it probably wouldn’t. Sometimes I think I spend too much time on this hobby but I do enjoy it…
It’s Thursday, MBP top dress day. The defoliation went down well on Monday and both plants are plumping up. I defoliated even more off the Blackight CBD plant today. I’ve notched the LED up again from 125w to 150w so I’ll watch them closely to see how they react. I’ve increased the heat mat thermostat to 26°C (79°f) as the probe is sitting on top of my lava sip wedged under the bag. I think my soil temps have been low still since the cold weather came. Outside is sitting right on freezing now so it affects everything. Just trying to get the most out of the last few weeks. Blacklight CBD day 69: SODK Day 74:
I gave my Blacklight cbd her 6th application of MBP yesterday. I noticed she’d been stalled a bit the last few days due to extreme cold around my way making it difficult to keep my grow space warm. I seem to have got her going again but have also noticed quite a lot of fungus gnat larvae (tiny maggots) just under the mulch layer again. I’ve dosed them with BTI and will let my pots dry slightly. I’m not too concerned as I think I can deal with them easily enough like last time. More sticky traps down too. SODK in bondage: