I’m a little late here, but I think you’re doing great!
The long veg times is what turned me off from doing scrogs. But I’ve been reading a lot about different methods lately since I had to shut my grow down, and I’m wondering if bending the main branch over and getting the lowers to come up wouldn’t be faster than multiple toppings?
I also didn’t run my net as high as most seem to recommend. It made tucking a little more difficult than it probably should’ve been, but I believe I was into the net fairly quickly compared to most. Like I said, I tried once and bailed for faster growing methods. So these are theories on my end, definitely not something I can suggest will work. But perhaps some of the other guys following along can weigh in on?
So Gold Leaf has lagged behind Chocolope consistently this grow. It reacts poorly to nutes (always burns a bit and stunts) and the leaves are much more leathery as they grow. As I continued to think about it, I realized that my grow tent probably rarely breaks 60F. Our nights have been in the 30s and days in the 50s. I inverted my day and night lighting so that any heat from my LEDs would be emitted overnight. Plus electricity is a lot cheaper then. I also have a 5 gallon bucket of water with an aquarium heater in it. But still, the tent was cold.
My feeling is that Chocolope is less cold sensitive than Gold Leaf, and the growth issues I’m seeing are related. Yesterday I added a low wattage miniature space heater to the space with the thermostat turned down low. Can’t be sure about much, but it does raise the temperature closer to ideal in the tent. Hopefully this will be a help. I will be keeping a very close eye on the plants for drying or cooking.
Current update photo - definitely continued progress but more on Chocolope (left) than on Gold Leaf. No signs of pistils just yet.
The heat is helping! Gold leaf is looking a lot better, which may not be obvious from the photo but it is in the tent. And maybe the first signs of flowering. Merry Christmas!
The heater is continuing to make a huge difference. One downside - keeping up with the additional water needs. That dry, hot air combined with my ventilation has me watering every other day now.
Probably not much different than the last post, but a photo nonetheless.
Another minor update… more bud sites making themselves obvious. Chocolope is running out of tuck space but I’ll keep tucking fan leaves and hope it doesn’t make my light height difficult between the two strains.
Today I think I performed my last tuck. I’m a bit obsessed with it, and considering both plants have flowers, I really think I ought to stop. Feedback on this is welcome. Some photos from a different angle this time.
I’m wondering how many of the bud sites will result in strong tall bud colas. I count about 38 buds on gold leaf and 26 on chocolope. Surely they won’t all grow tall and thick.
Things continue to look good. I reduced the thermostat level on my heater as the tent reached nearly 90F overnight. Keeping humidity levels reasonable with a 5 gallon bucket of water and aquarium heater.
Your plants look great. I have a scrogged GL going that just started week 3 of flower myself and also have combatted super cold weather. I have had a heater in my tent the whole time but right now I am combatting serious cold issues. I am DWC so I had to get water heaters too. I also feel that the GL is nute sensitive at least during veg.
Latest image, slight changes. I’m becoming concerned about light coverage and considering supplementing. I was about to pull the trigger on a second Platinum P300 and put them on both sides, but the price on those units just jumped by $100. Maybe add two cheaper “blooming” units on the sides of my P300, not sure at this point.
A slight amount of chlorosis on Gold Leaf. I checked soil pH yesterday and it was quite high on GL both in the soil and on runoff. My well water is quite high, about 8.3-8.4, which might explain some of that, but Chocolope is in a better range at about soil 6.2, runoff 7.2. Measurements being taken with a Bluelab pen, glass bulb. I’ve sprinkled some iron sulfate on the GL soil and gently watered it in. That should slowly start to reduce pH.
I am running a Florakleen flush on my reservoir today. I only had PPMs at 800 but still had clawing occur after the last res change. Going to flush the reservoir with Florakleen and go back down to 700 PPM tomorrow. It’s such a finicky plant but it seems to grow through it quickly.
I’m a first time grower and Im needing help with how ling i need to have seeds in lights. Some people say to use 18 hrs light and 6 to sleep. I started my seeds at 12 hrs on and 12 off. Am I doing it right? Please help.
@Vargas041204, no you should be starting with long “days” and short “nights.” Once your vegetative growth is large enough, you move to 12/12, which triggers flowering.
I suggest starting a new thread to ask about this and you’ll get a lot more responses from experienced individuals.
Today marks 3 weeks since flipping to 12/12. I’m happy with the number of sites but not extremely excited about the size of bud growth, especially compared to where @Bogleg is, for example. Considering one of three options - either adding a second P300 or adding a number of CFL reflectors around the perimeter. I have a huge box of GE Reveal 2500K CFL floodlights that were used at a previous house. I could easily make a fixture for them. The final option is do nothing and just see how this P300 performs on its own.
I started with 12 and 12. So will it be ok if I start with 18 and 6 starting tomorrow morning? They have been sleeping since 9 am. Would it be ok instead of having them on at night?
