General Questions nutrients, thinning out pruning Auto-flower, and light height

[Cab1080]

Hi, I have a small grow area that I am growing my 1st grow in. It is a hydro setup and I am using GH Flora Trio nutrients. 300w Mars Hydro Led. They are starting to flower so I have reduced the nutrients by half and eliminated the Bloom and started giving it powder Kool bloom(2-45-28)instead. How does that sound?
Things seem to be going ok but I am wondering if I should be cutting lower leaves or thinning these out, maybe it too late. Two plants the one on the left is about a a week older and is a Critical Purple Auto and the other is Tangerine Dream Auto. This is my 1st grow so kinda nervous about the pruning aspect of things. Also they are not very tall which could be the strain but I have my light now about 12" away(300watt LED). Wondering if I should move up further to facilitate height growth. Here are some pics I hope help describe my situation. Thanks in advance!

[DoctorJohnson]

You don't need anything but GH FloraSeries for a successful grow. You can use GH's recommended schedule at their website, but dilute it by half, or you can use Nebula's here at GWE. (I use Nebula's)
That said, your plans look great! (Shots in blurple light are pretty useless, though. A good shot, closer up, with plenty of white light works best.)
Your box looks overcrowded! You're not going to have good air circulation with a jungle like that! You might want to actually remove a plant. Some defoliation and a fan will help to keep the air circulating and water droplets forming on the leaves.
Plants that are getting plenty of light (like yours) grow shorter and denser. That's a good sign. As long as the top leaves aren't getting cooked, you can keep the lamp close.

[Cab1080]

Thanks for the advice! And Picture help! Yeah humidity is going to be a concern along with temps. I can keep box about 80-85 and humidity in my area is going up so now the box is at like 56-60% humidity. I have a small fan I rigged up on one side of box now I need one for other side. It has one intake fan in bottom and two exhaust fans up top of box but they are not real powerful. Any advice on reducing humidity in box? I have heard some say a cup of salt and rice set off in a corner. As you can see, not much room for a lot of equipment int there, lol.

[DoctorJohnson]

Remember that when plants get bigger and are really growing, they "transpire" a lot water--that is, they actively take it up from the reservoir and push it out their leaves--so they are in effect working as "humidifiers," like a quart of water per plant per day or more. To deal with that, you need open paths for air (so no jungle) and good air circulation. (My 2'x2' tent as a fan blowing air in, a fan blowing air around, and a fan blowing air out.) Salt or rice ain't gonna do it. They are too slow and can't keep up with healthy plant's transpiration rate.

Some people in warm, humid climates end up rigging dehumidifiers or AC, but I'd suggest (sorry) removing one plant and then some defoliation.

To defoliate, start with any leaves that are damaged, then remove some leaves that are in full shade (and so not really contributing) and blocking air flow. You may be surprised both by how quickly a healthy plant recovers from defoliation (within hours) and how often you have to do it (at peak growth, as often as twice a week).

"Screen of green" growing works well in that regard because you can have a flat, easy-to-light canopy on top and bare stalks down below, which makes air flow easy.

If plucking leaves freaks you out, start with just a few and see how it looks.

There are purists here who say "No defol," but with dense growth in a small box like that, you have no choice or your plant will be dripping.

There are videos on YouTube that are helpful, and of course be sure to read everything here at GWE--awesome site with solid info.

I guess after all that blather I should go check in on my own plant. (I just got a new 60X illuminated loupe from Amazon that I want to try out.)

[Cab1080]

Awesome, thanks I will check out some videos and take your suggestion and start with the damaged or dead ones. That won't be as scary. I may start leaving the box door open too to get better air circulation. I have been searching the web for a solar or long lasting battery or rechargeable fan that is flat that produces a good amount of air. And yea I can't stress enough the info I have got from GWE! So much info, I tell everyone to check it out. Give you the tools to start and then really some in depth info for getting more out of your grows!

[DoctorJohnson]

You can find equipment cooling fans (like PC fans) at http://www.digikey.com. They are a great company with so much stuff it can be overwhelming, but they have salespeople on the phone who can help.

Small fans that can move a lot of air are noisy. Good fans (i.e. with good bearings) are expensive. You can find cheap basic fans on eBay. Remember that flat equipment cooling fans with sleeve bearings (the cheaper ones) have to be kept vertical or they wear out fast.

Yeah, just leaving the door open can help help a lot!

[Cab1080]

It's still a jungle up in here! I have removed what seems to me to be a lot of leaves on two different occasions. Should I go a lot more aggressive?

[Canuck147]

I would thin your jungle out more.

[Campesino]

They are starting to flower so I have reduced the nutrients by half and eliminated the Bloom and started giving it powder Kool bloom(2-45-28)instead. How does that sound?

This doesn't sound good at all!

You maintain consistent nutrient levels, but increase the ratio of Bloom during flowering. You need to follow a nutrient schedule!
This is GH schedule for your nutes: http://gh.growgh.com/docs/Feedcharts...TW_03216am.pdf

The amounts in the GH recipes are about 2x higher than you should use, but the ratios for the base nutrients are correct. We are serious about cutting the recipe in half, if you measure EC you will understand why.

Notice how "Gro" is phased out and "Bloom" is increased during flowering.

If you want to play with Koolbloom then you need to be watching EC or PPM. You should watch this anyway, but using boosters without paying attention to EC is a recipe for disaster. EC meters are cheap and an excellent investment in your grow. If you have any EC/PPM questions I'll be happy to help.

[Campesino]

Inuart88 I really don't want to argue with you, so please don't take this as an argument. The issue really isn't about nutrition, it is about salinity. If you can keep salinity down then you can add more nutrients to the water. If you start with RO water you can add more because there is none to begin with. If you make the water to salty, it will hinder the plants ability to take in water, which is what causes "Nute burn".

Nutrient companies recommend both an EC or PPM and then suggest recipes to achieve them. The EC/PPM recommendation is the one that they expect you to follow. You can certainly verify that with them.

You can train plants to grow with very high levels of salinity, but it hinders rather than helps their growth.

[Chefbjy]

I didn't say I don't like you lol. I don't agree it's based on the size of the plant. If your medium is holding onto 4k ppm that's going to burn your plant if it is within the range of the feed chart your less likely to burn your plant. Even with plain phd water inbetween your medium will still hold onto certain nutrients. All plants will not react the same to the same feed schedule. If your run off is sitting at 2k ppm and another is sitting at 1k obviously you need to back off the dose.

Yes bigger plants will require a higher ppm but that's not saying they need more nutes. You have to feed the soil not the plant.

And yes everyone should get a full spectrum of unbiased information. But more is not better. I'm sorry I pissed you off, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just know from experience full strength is not always best and you should pay attention to what's going on in your medium.

[PRIMO]

Shampoo rinse repeat. We love consumers who use twice what they need to. Said every manufacturer ever.

[DrPhoton]

Agree with Dr J, to have a better idea why crowding and poor air curculation is bad for plant health and performance. Have a look at my article on environment conditions.

[Inuart88]

Wondering if I should check it an article.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning 1080, if they were mine. I would definitely take a bunch of more of those big leaves that are blocking bud sites, especially if you are having high humidity problems, even if you ain't having humidity problems, I'd take a bunch more of those middle leaves, like Canuck147 says, you need good air movement going thru that plant.
GoodLuck

[Canuck147]

I agree with D.A.A.S.69 - another reason for thinning it now, is you have to plan ahead just a little bit - meaning - once your buds get developed and fatten up you want to guard against too much moisture in the middle. Moisture only encourages mold to grow.

[Cab1080]

Thanks for great reply's! I am going to give a few more days and then go in and do a better job at cleaning it out. For what it's worth I have been using the nutrient schedule I found here and started adding the Kool bloom on suggestion from a friend https://www.growweedeasy.com/wp-cont...t-schedule.pdf. I am going to get rid of Kool bloom.

They are drinking a lot of water that's for sure! I change out water on Saturday's and add with roughly 3 gallon of water and on Wednesday morning this week I was like " I best check that out". Container about empty and and air stone a sputtering. Good thing, bad thing, indifferent thing? Maybe bad because all that water going to support ye jungle and not the bud sites??

[Cab1080]

Ok, pretty excited here. 1st grow. Thanks to all the great help I have got here from members and the GWE site, I think I am ready for harvest at least the tops buds at least. I grow in hydro bubbleponics and am flushing now with florakleen I think it is. What is proper flush time? I took some small buds the other day. Here some pic of those. But 1st pic of current grow box, 2nd pic of next cabinet I am going to convert to grow box but use for drying now, and some pics of some unimpressive buds!