Day 53 and this girl will not quit growing, I've got string crisscrossing all over this box keeping everything down. Since I put it in this box 2 and half weeks ago this plant has easily trippled if not quadrupled in height, overall size pretty much fills the whole box. Now I know I need to veg a little less for the next batch. Finally started to see some pistils forming tonight too, hopefully nothing else follows. Those strips help me keep track of when the plant is getting to close to the light, not for a scrog. Might have to think of adding a screen for the next round.
She is drinking a ton of water now, I would say a half gallon a day. A few of the lower leaves are turning yellow and dropping off but I attribute that to the lack of light and no real deficiency at the moment. Got bud sites popping up all over, haven't even tried to count how many there are. Leaves are still canoeing down and can't figure out why, potassium or manganese deficiency maybe? Temps haven't gotten above 78 at the top of the canopy since I got the new fan installed.
Still a little bit of vertical growth, a lot of the tips were within 6" of the light. Not sure how long the reel of string was, but I used the whole thing tieing up this plant like a hostage. Got it all down as even as I could with just string at about 12" below the hood. I broke a few branches during my endeavours though, none snapped completely off but they are not supporting themselves. Going to have to keep an eye on them. Noticed just a touch of nute burn so eased off on that. I'm going to try and find a small humidifier to put in the cabinet with the plant. I think that might be causing the canoeing and sad looking leaves, humidity levels in the room vary from 10-30%. Otherwise the pistils are coming out in abundance and looking nice so still excited about the outcome.
Wow. You're packing a lot of light into a small space, 600 watts in only 3 square feet of area (18x24, right?). I think you could easily cover three times that area and still have enough light. I'm currently covering a 3x3 area with a 400 watt, plus a few cfl's in the corners. But as long as the plants aren't bleaching and you are able to control the heat, why not? I'm really curious to see how they finish, you are pushing the max light limit which makes it more interesting, so I'm following along to see how it all works out. I do think they look stressed, but as you mentioned it could be factors other than the light level causing it. GG
Oh yea, 600 watts is a lot, I initially wanted to do just 250 and somehow got talked into a 600. But like you said, now I got it available for when I go to a bigger room. Not really any bleaching and the color is still nice and green and growth has been phenomenal so I'm not terribly worried about the curling. Definitely would like to figure out the cause of it though.
Maybe ask around the hydro section and see if anyone can suggest something, I know I've seen pictures of plants with similar leaves but I don't remember what the cause turned out to be. I did a few grows with DWC, but the last couple of years it seems we have had extended power outages pretty frequently and the result was usually dead plants, definitely think about a back-up battery operated air pump. And I was sort of tired anyhow of pH checking and lock-out and EC and reservoir temps, it just seemed like a lot of work and maintenance to flower a few plants. Then a day without air bubbles and they are toast. What are your water temperatures actually? 78 is a good temp for the air but I think it might be on the high side for the water in DWC and that could be causing your roots to work less effectively. GG
Sadly had to do some cropping tonight. Came home from a couple days away and found several shoots growing either into or very close to the light. Since I have no more string or no more places to really tie any to I just clipped the tops that were coming to close. Probably not the best thing but I don't really have any other options. You saw the picture of how big she was when I started this box.... if it wasn't for all the string I already am using she would EASILLLYYYY have been over 4ft tall by now. Considering a height of only 6-8" when I transplanted the growth has more than exceeded the expected 2-3 times and approached more alone the lines of 6-8 times the size as when flowering started.
Leaf Curling update!! I think I have figured out the problem with the downward curling of the leaves to be to low of humidity. I bought spray bottle and started spraying the leaves every once in awhile and most of the leaves have flattened out real well. The stalks that I trimmed the other day have these bulges forming. They don't look like any male flower I was able to see on any other sexing posts so I'm not terribly worried about a hermie quite yet.
Alright, so an update. Finally back from an awesome trip to the beach and I return to find a jungle. She has just continued to grow, one shoot grew up past the light a good 4-6 inches. Lots of tops were touching the light and overall it was a disaster. Took the shears to her and just had to cut off a lot of growth in order to get it all back where it needed to be. Also cleared out a lot of dead/dying leaves from the lower branches. I know its a weird thing to complain about, that it won't stop growing like a freaking weed, so I can't really be too upset about that. Otherwise bud sites are plentiful and tons of white hairs are everywhere.
Another update, so I've been in flower now for about 8 weeks and I'm a little disappointed in whats been going on, pistils are still appearing but the plant continues to grow up without the buds growing fatter. I've had to do another 2 rounds of heavy trimming just to keep it from growing into the light. I know a sativa will take longer but I feel like it should be further along at this point. Also cleared out a lot of the undergrowth. I almost feel like the lower branches are growing better than the upper branches, the upper growth just looks spindly compared to whats happening a few inches down. Perhaps the plant is still to close to the light? There is also virtually no smell, this seems strange to me when I hear so many other logs with heavy smells in the first few weeks of flower.
So last night after my last post I un-tied all the existing ties and decided the only way to really bring my plant down was to re-do the tying. I was able to get the overall top down about 4 inches from where it was. I'm hoping if the shoots happen to grow some more, the plant will have retrained lower so I can tie it down again further on. Really I want these buds to start filling out some, its been a long time in flower for them to still look so thin. Since I flushed out the basin the leaves have started to straighten out better too, mostly in the newest, top growth.
So I'm pretty certain for my next grow in this box I need a screen. The amount of growth I've experienced is unprecedented and I feel my techniques in trying to train this plant lower have hindered her growth. And Yes, that is all one plant. Otherwise I'm on a new nute regimen. My nutrient solution consists of -distilled or bottled spring water. My faucet water is absolute crap, not even drinkable. -10mL/gal of botanicare pureblend pro bloom -5mL/gal of botanicare cal-mag plus -1 mL/gal of B'Cuzz PK 13-14 -0.25 mL/gal of General Hydroponics Floralicious Plus My last feeding (2 days ago) consisted of approximately 50% of this solution and 50% of plain water. No negative signs yet so thinking the half strength is good so far. I'll up it to 3/4 strength on the next feeding. I topped off the container today with regular, bottled water so probably do the nute addition in 2 more days, 3 if she doesn't drink as much as I expect her to. The bud growth seems to be best on the lower branches still, not sure if the upper branches just can't quit growing or the excessive light has anything to do with it. I'm thinking this plant, maybe not a white widow, whatever it may be, is a sativa dominant and will be a much longer flowering period. I'm at a full 8 weeks so far and my girl still looks a good month off. I'm expecting the harvest to occur at 12-13 weeks flowering at this point.
So for anyone that's still following along I chopped her tonight. She never really recovered from the extended over-nuting and I think there were so many problems on this plant I would never figure out how to fix her. So hopefully I'll be able to get some decent hash from whats left. I'll be modifying the cabinet a little bit before I get something else in there to include a screen. Gotta figure out a good way to get that set up and I'll get it up and running again. Thanks for all the views and I'll be back.