Better question how heavy is the bag and did that run off come out quick as in are you running on the dry side ?, and a little bit better judge of run off is to do a watering to soak in with some run off but then come back and water again to force a bit more run off to measure as that initial watering can give you spikes or little noticable changes.
In my experience excess n goes the way of dark green and clawing more than what you have not yellowing, thus why im guessing something else is out of balance, another question how are the leaves under those top ones, are they say darker green specifically where they are shaded by a leaf above
Thank you for your questions! I am fundamentally a noob with a lot to learn so these questions are invaluable.
I usually water until the bag is heavy. I usually water twice as you described, more or less (water once until some runoff, wait, then water a little more and measure that final runoff). She takes a long time to dry out - about a week between waterings. I water when the bag feels light and the top soil feels dry.
I wouldn’t say that the more shaded leaves are greener. I’d say that all the top of the plant (the last couple weeks of growth) is yellower tinted regardless of how much light it seems to be getting.
Note that she’s been in 12/12 for 3 weeks now and recall that in your thread you suggested I could safely increase light. Could this just be a matter of not getting enough daily light now that she’s in 12/12? I increased power on my lights from 50% to 66% which resulted in an increase to ~450-500ppfd.
Did some defoliation today and took off three branches that weren’t going to be viable. Being a glutton for punishment I decided to try to root them despite the fact that they’re 20 days into 12/12.
possibly the shade question was in regards to say light intensity, but yeah if you stayed at your same light level from veg and just went 12/12 and am only tuning it out now, consider you essentially cut the light received by the plant by say 33% if you were on a 18/6 before “350ppfd x 12hrs vs 350ppfd x 18hrs” in a given day
Like 350ppfd at 12hrs is a DLI of 15, and upper end most run before say C02 is 45, and say if you were 18hrs before you would of been in the 22 DLI range
Also that ppfd on the app likely is lower so your 550ppfd measured might be more in the 450 range and at 12hrs your like 19.5DLI so still likely lower light over all compared to say veg.
Your numbers add up. Checking photone my current DLI is ~20 at the plant top. So would you suggest I may need to add even more light? Or is it better to wait and see how she does at this light level?
If I bump up to 90% that brings my DLI in the app to 30. Will making this sudden change harm the plant?
Hmmm, in retrospect the runoff measurements are low for a plant in week 3 of flower. Maybe this plant just needs more nutes. Could be the result of overcorrecting the previous problem…
If you want to experiment with higher ppfd definitely increase it slowly gives the plant time to adjust and you a chance to back off if the plant reacts poorly.
I think increasing your nutrients at this stage is a good idea. 550ppm is very mild, where does that fall within what the nutrient mfg recommends?
As nocal said, typically one would increase their light over the first couple weeks in flower if being gentle just observing the plants in the process, if you have less cares well …
As for your EC “which is easiest measurement to follow compared to PPM or TDS cause they can vary dependent on scale used and EC is the base of them anyways”
If your EC is going up and pH is also going up while going through its water that typically means the plant is taking in more water than the nutrients also given, now its better to work with changing one variable at a time when possible so keep that in mind, as increased light will have the plants demand more water and different nutrient uptake, saying that it may benefit you to drop your feed a little lower pH wise say in the 5.8-6.0 range as with consumption naturally the plants root zone goes through a swing of its uptake range as nutrients are brought into the plant typically starting low and going high, now your pretty close so its a minor thing but issues do tend to pop up around that 6.3-6.4 range at least for me in coco when pH starts creeping a little to much.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve bumped from 66% to 80% at this point which brings the lights to ~600 PPFD or 22 DLI. It’s only been 24 hours but the plant seems happy about it.
I guess I’ll leave it here for a few days and make sure she’s happy before trying another bump up.
This is what the plant looks like from above. New growth kinda faded with some burning on the tips and edges. Which to my rather ignorant eyes would suggest light burn. And yet, if anything, I’ve been using too little light, (if the app is to be believed, that is).
There is so much to learn. Thanks everyone for being so patient with us noobs.
no idea why you’d trust that app. if your light was soft, that plant would stretch. look at your stem! how many total watts are you running, btw? you have a kill-a-watt? even a solid lux meter could help…
is it me, or are all three of those panels aimed at the same spot?
I’ve watered the plant very infrequently since she was potted. Usually every 7-8 days, sometimes less. I’m growing in Biobizz All-mix. A little over a month ago I did discover that my runoff EC was very high and performed a flush to bring runoff down to EC 1.7. Since then I’ve watered four times (most recently yesterday) and this is the first time that runoff EC was low. When I’ve added nutes I’ve used BB BioGrow, BioBloom, and Top Max, but I also have Hesi products available from my last grow. I have been adding 1/2 strength product since flushing. Hope this helps.
I wouldn’t say I trust the app. I’m trying it because others use it most notably @Mr.Sparkle who gets incredible results in a cabinet about the size of mine.
The lights are 15W Samsung panels. Until recently I was running them at 50% so if everything is linear that would be 22.5W total. Does that seem excessive to you?
I agree with you that stretch is a practical measure of whether the plant is getting enough light. I move the side panels around to give both top and side lightning. Thanks for your reply.
I contacted the supplier of my lighting and they inform me that I cannot use a light measuring app or device with these lights because it will underreport. So yeah I’m burning my plant.
@Mr.Sparkle I’m cc:ing you on this because I thought you’d find it interesting
gives the plant time to adjust and you a chance to back off if the plant reacts poorly.
