This Plant is DEAD!

[OverMedicated]

As you may recall this plant was the subject of my last post. Guess what? Those buds are never gonna get stickier than they are right now cause this plant is dead! I was checking to see if just giving it water was helping by giving the top cola a squeeze. Not particularly sticky, but it made a crunching noise. I'm gonna guess that that buds not gonna get any stickier! It's dying from the top down. The lower buds are getting sticky, and they are still moist to the touch. Time to cut her down and get on with my new grow. First pic is top, lower bud in second.

[Bluey]

What humidity and do you have good airflow?

Open the big buds by hand and look closely for a white spider Web nest type fungus... I suspect Mucor.

Same thing happened to me, lost my dozen big buds on each plant to it but saved the smaller lower down buds...first Sign was a browning/reddening of the sugar leaves, long before any mould was visible on opening the buds and inspecting.

[OverMedicated]

Well, I have a small fan, but never have used it. The humidity is just what is in the house, but we keep it between 30 to 50% as I have COPD and need to breathe. I didn't find anything in the buds but bud.

[SoOrbudgal]

Hopefully your experience with this grow helps improve your outcome on the next. Got a plan for the next grow or strains picked out? You want to learn how to grow healthy photoperiods? Do you have seeds or do you buy clones?

[OverMedicated]

Well, I did learn a lot this round. Hopefully some of it will help the next grow, but I don't think you'll be so happy with it as I'm using the same old dirty dirt. I really couldn't do it the way I wanted to right now, so I'll have to tough out another round. The one thing I'm regretting is that I didn't get a chance to box all the dirt, so I have different mixtures in different pots. Makes watering a little crazy as they all have different soak times. I added a couple 50-watt full spectrum panels. That improved my lighting by 6,500 LUX so that's something. As far as photos are concerned... not this round, going with autos. 2X Auto Lemon Haze, 1X Gelado Auto and of course my Magnum Automatic.

Was going to go with photos this grow but decided I had better build up my larders first so that i will have something to get me through should the photos become time intensive.

[OverMedicated]

Since I've always grown autos, I've never learned how to clone. Hopefully when I get goin' on some photos, I will have the chance to experiment.

[3Berries]

I have an auto I thought was done two weeks ago and went to just water. But it kept sucking it up at a 1/2 gallon a day. So I went back to nutes. Looks like this time it is done as it really has slowed down the last two days for watering.

About a week past it's advertised growth time.

[OverMedicated]

I have one that broke off on my desk. Gonna fire her up later tonight.

[OverMedicated]

Don't you have a jeweler's loupe? You can tell when that stuff is ready.

[3Berries]

Yes the trics are cloudy with a few ambers. About two weeks ago it started to brown up and get less odorous. I turned the lights off yesterday and it's going into three days of darkness now.

[OverMedicated]

Here is my first ever photoperiod. @SoOrbudgal An African strain I picked up as a freebie from MSNL.She is just starting week 10. Probably otta do some farmin' on that plant. It seems happy though, it has been getting special attention in the isolation booth. It's my only photo so it has its own space. About 1'X1'.

[Bluey]

OverMedicated you need to use the small fan you have to blow air at your buds. Without airflow the humidity in the buds will be much much higher and it helps to even out the environment in your grow room/tent. It also makes for a stronger and more resilient plant.....airflow is a must!

[Blowdout2269]

Maybe don't point the fan directly at the buds though. I generally try and bounce the air off a wall first. Depending on how close and how strong the fan is, you can cause windburn.

[OverMedicated]

OK, I got the fan on. It's blowin' across hitting the wall and bouncing back over the plants. Y'all gotta realize, I only have the one plant now (the African photo) and I have three new seedlings and an expectant pot so there aren't many buds to blow around.

[Blowdout2269]

Airflow is important whether it's one plant or ten. Even babies can use I slight breeze to help them strengthen their stalks.

[Bluey]

I blow across the tops of the bud to produce movement in the bud and its cooling the bottom of the lights (the LEDS) also....it's a must do to have a reasonable breeze.
I'm using a 30cm pedestal that I oscillate on the lowest setting atm...it has to blow across the top of 7 plants in 12 gal pots, so about 10 feet...works great.
I'm using a 490W wall air-conditioner and a 1200W bar heater to control temps. The room is well insulated but not sealed so get a little bit of air change over there and when I open the door....the AC has a tiny vent for fresh air if I'm away.

[Mr.furley]

You keep saying "Lux" and "full Spectrum" and "led" so I'm going to send you down a rabbit hole.

If you're using a lux meter on your phone with led lights then you are not getting a correct idea on "Quality" of light or usable light and could be doing your plants harm. Lux measures intensity and is used mainly in HID grows indoors were you manually switch out a blue(mH) to a red(hps) bulbs for flower 27k lux to 70k lux. A PAR meter is used under led grow lights, Photosyntheticlly Active Radiation or a PAR meter measures the quality of usable light, Daily light Integral or DLI takes it a step farther with the maximum amount of usable light over a area in a 24hr cycle a plant can handle after that it's unused and wasted energy( light saturation point) or light burn.

Typically at 18/6 a vegging plant is kept at 350 ppfd (photosyntheic photon flex density) uMol/2m/s (mircomoles per sq meter per second) with a gradual increase to 750 ppfd uMol/m2/s mid to late flower. With a quick lux to par conversion on Google, 65k lux × 0.017 your rough par reading is 1105, almost twice the usable quality light not factoring in DLI.

I don't feel and by no means recommending that converting lux to par is a very accurate way to grow but if you should go with it then targeting 40k on the top end using a LUX meter to convert lux to par for flowering.

[Mr.furley]

3Berries which would make the problem worse. SoOrbudgal in the great words of Beavis and Butthead huh huh "Math" I have a meter and use it to set the dimmer at net height, the ol' back of the hand trick for Hid lights doesn't work for led's other then that it's like runoff for me, I don't check unless something is fishy even then it only a piece of a bigger picture.

[3Berries]

This video explains LUX vs PAR.

https://youtu.be/S6iaSiPKs1w?t=55

[OverMedicated]

Mr.furley you are a genius! I worked with lighting in the music industry but had no idea. I'm just a meat and potatoes rigger. I'm glad you're on our side!

[OverMedicated]

Ok I installed the PAR meter and did some readings using Mr.furley 's numbers and found out I didn't need the extra light panels I spent last night and today installing. (bother) Took those out. Now my new grow as well as my old photo are getting the correct amounts of usable light. 350 for the seedlings and 750 for the flowering photo. Ain't science wonderful? Pics. New grow 2X Lemon Haze 1X Gelado! 1x Magnum of course. And here's the African Queen sleeping in her own privacy booth.

I'm using a hodge-podge of soil (I know it's not wise) two of my pots have a high concentration of Miracle-Gro and some Walmart dirt. The other two are more sticks and little chunks of wood. IDK maybe cedar and some dirt from IDK? But it will be interesting to see how they grow. Using 3-gal. pots I don't expect much more than 12 to 15 inches tall, but I have been surprised I had one 30 inches in a 10-inch pot! And say what you will... that was with Miracle-Gro and yes, it was potent, but I've been having trouble lately with the buds not being sticky. They still have the desired effect, but I wonder if they are living up to their potential? Maybe that's what they mean by the trouble with Miracle-Gro, IDK. I can do this grow and find out.

[OverMedicated]

You'll recall in my earlier post that I had some buds that were not sticky and did not smell. Miracle-Gro was the grow medium and the suspect cause.
But.
Eureka! I have it! I think I figured out the Miracle-Gro thing. Yes, without a doubt it affects flowering. In particular... aging. Miracle-Gro touts longer stronger flowers. By retarding the aging process, you would get a younger, longer, stronger bud, but it would not age out! Therefore, never fully mature and that is what is happening to the buds on these plants. They are only allowed to become young adults... not the mature buds we want. The trichomes never mature because the plant never matures. It just gets old and dies!

[Bluey]

Looking good.

Raise your light levels slowly....you should be at about 30 to 35% of Max light at your seedling stage and aim to be at about 100% a couple of weeks after flipping.

You can safely go higher than 750ųmol/m²/s, although that is a good safe target for you.

[OverMedicated]

These girls are getting a good safe 350 PPFD. They are on an 18/6-hour schedule and could go to 24 hours, but I won't. No need to flip these girls are autos.

[Bluey]

OverMedicated I've never grown autos ever and know zero about them. My veg stage goes for at least 6 weeks once I've topped them twice and got them trained into position....I think I'll switch off the supplemental red booster about 2 weeks before harvest and switch back on the deep violets..I need to read up more on that...I don't think it will impact yields but should increase turpines & perhaps THC...that's my current understanding but I guess different strains and different plants will result in lots of lovely randomness

[OverMedicated]

Bluey I will increase the light on these puppies to 750 when I start to see buds forming. Then I'll most likely turn the light up to 20/4. Here they are after only 7 days. Check out the Auto Lemon Haze in the bottom left-hand corner. That girl is stocky, almost pot-sized (3-gal.). I believe these bigger stronger plants are due to you Bluey for getting me to turn on my fan! Seems that little breeze is more important than I gave it credit for. They are just barely blowing but it seems to have done the job. Soil is just right @21-Celsius. A nice blanket. Well, because the soil is already fortified with nutrients so there is not much to do other than water them for now. I tried feeding plants potted in Miracle-Gro and ended up with a terrible nitrogen burn. I could do one more thing, pH balance my water. That would probably speed up growth. But Miracle-Gro is already pH balanced in the upper 5's to the low 6's, so I don't worry too much about that either. I'm sure the low Ph of the soil pulls the water's pH down significantly.

[Bluey]

To start I know nothing about 'autos' so keep that in mind.
Your light schedule requires a slow or staggered increase..lets say at flip your at about 50% to 65% (375 to 500) of your available 750 ųmols, slowly increase it over the next 4 weeks so max light comes in at mid flower...I go a bit further than that but also bring max in a couple of weeks later.
I don't know what you mean by 20/4...I would have thought all flowering cannabis requires a 12/12 photo period for healthy flowers and max yield, if that's what you mean. But I don't know for autos.
Your pH is the most important metric and you need to feed it the correct pH to suit your grow medium....speak to other growers who use the identical grow medium to yourself or the manufacturer of it....they will publish a pH range and you will learn what those levels mean for different nutrient lock outs....so it pays to vary your pH a little and know which way to go depending on symptoms.

For soil a pH of 6.5 to 7 is normally pretty good...but it can fall well outside that range depending on the soil.
Coco feed @ pH 6 should keep all growers out of trouble...but not always...lol

I use an Apera PH60 to test my nute mix..its super accurate and requires rare calibration..I always use the cheapest nutes available from any reputable manufacturer and the only supplement I use is silica during veg...but I honestly think I'm wasting my coin..I doubt it does 3/5th's of farkall.

[Mr.furley]

OverMedicated
You need a pH thingy for water, get some stripes or a pen please. Nothing we do to help will work if you don't know your water pH. It's all we ever talk about round here.

You going to be able to get something to feed them for flower? I'd stay with synthetic, MG makes a bloom booster, can't believe I just said that.😖 I'd imagine you'd need some P&K soon.

[Mr.furley]

Bluey
20/4 means just that. Autos don't need a light change do to the ruderalis Gene in the plant and will AUTOflower at roughly 30 days from seed regardless of light schedule so most growers run them at 18/6 to 24/0. This is why DLI can be your friend. Some random chart for 24/0

[Bluey]

What is the advantage of growing autos? Smaller light, less heat, smaller setup? You would have to use the same amount of power over a 24hr period as I see light levels are about half of what I run but the DLI is still similar.

[Mr.furley]

All of what you mentioned and yes power consumption is pretty balanced, some will disagree. Other factors is you can grow them in a veg room like me, light doesn't initiate flowering so you have a flexible schedule to work with your plants as photos it's 12 hrs off limits unless up in green lights, Biggest reason..... Autos typically go seed to harvest in under 100 days some drop as earily as 70 day.

Yield can be smaller from a fast plant but then again Iv hit lbs (plural) in a sq meter under 315w led, so do many others on here.

https://www.growweedeasy.com/photoperiod-vs-auto-flowering-cannabis-strains

[Bluey]

Thanks.

I only have 1 room. The work i have put into it was a lot...I considered a multiroom approach but given the way I have sorted this room with control and automation I figured that was enough. To only have to nail 1 successful crop a year and I have enough for all my great friends...everybody.

I'm striving for the perfect crop and loving my failures..it's humbling

[3Berries]

I just got done with an auto and was quite pleased. Almost ready to jar. 15 weeks, I ran it a week past what I should have. Ran it on a 20/4 hr schedule once going.

Bubba Kush from ILGM.

[OverMedicated]

a week past what it should have been should give you a nice couch lock effect.!