HYDRO How to finish strong in flowering

[MeowMeow]

So far so good with these 🤞 I forgot to write down the day I initiated 12/12, but I think they're around week 5-6 of flowering?

Just curious, do you all have any suggestions to finish strong with a good harvest and good bud quality? Like any special techniques or supplements?

[Wayzee]

They look awesome mate!! Keep up with defoliation, not sure what food your feeding them but they look pretty healthy to me....

[MeowMeow]

Thanks, I appreciate that! The nutrients are General Hydroponics Flora trio, and adjusting to 5.8-6.3 pH (for hydro).

[Allenpro]

I use Fox Farms Trio, Sesame, beatie blomz & chi ching. I defol the hell out of them at the flip and then 21 days later.
The top buds do not seem to share the light they get so you need to make sure the lower ones are not blocked

[MeowMeow]

Yes, I feel like they may need to be defoliated at least some. The bottom of the tent is pretty much in total shadow. I've heard that some light should be getting through the plant to make sure all the buds get light...

[Allenpro]

Its tough love and they like it

[Allenpro]

Dont disapear on us I want to see those after they swell in flower.

[dirtymike]

Canna PK 13/14

[Allenpro]

Never used the canna line of nutes but I have seen some awesome grows using it.

[Bluey]

I tend to go a little conservative in veg but once I go to flower I tend to ramp things up a bit.

You want low RH and low temps so at that stage Id be at about 45%RH and 23 to 24⁰C

Hold these temps if you can and lower RH to 40% 2 weeks out from harvest then drop RH as low as you can go last two weeks without rising temps. Low RH will give you the frostiest and highest THC that strain can make. Low temps will keep your buds tight and dense. The highest possible quality.

you will need to give those a trim, remove all the leaves not in the light and make sure all your buds are getting full light.

Heaps of airflow. Measure air temps in the room but not under the lights

Suppliment your flower nutes with a PK suppliment. They do love kelp/seaweed extract in flower but not one with high N. I don't use kelp any more. It will give huge buds but the quality drops off re high THC and less frosty too.

[MeowMeow]

I tend to go a little conservative in veg but once I go to flower I tend to ramp things up a bit.

You want low RH and low temps so at that stage Id be at about 45%RH and 23 to 24⁰C

Hold these temps if you can and lower RH to 40% 2 weeks out from harvest then drop RH as low as you can go last two weeks without rising temps. Low RH will give you the frostiest and highest THC that strain can make. Low temps will keep your buds tight and dense. The highest possible quality.

you will need to give those a trim, remove all the leaves not in the light and make sure all your buds are getting full light.

Heaps of airflow. Measure air temps in the room but not under the lights

Suppliment your flower nutes with a PK suppliment. They do love kelp/seaweed extract in flower but not one with high N. I don't use kelp any more. It will give huge buds but the quality drops off re high THC and less frosty too.

Bluey Thanks for the tips. Just curious, how do you keep the RH that low? I have a dehumidifier in the room but it needs to be emptied constantly, and still gets up to 65% in the tent at night. I think I need to add extra clip-fans, too.

For defoliation, how much should I defoliate at 6 weeks in flowering? Should I defoliate a lot, or just the biggest leaves? I realize now I should have defoliated earlier in flowering, but I can see the bottom of the tent isn't getting any light so I know air/light isn't getting through the plants.

For a PK supplement, I'm using General Hydro Flora nutrients, so I was looking at their "Liquid Koolbloom" 0-10-10 "bulking formula" (KoolBloom listing: https://www.amazon.com/General-Hydro...dp/B002DV8TBQ/)

I was also looking at their "Ripen" 0.5-7-6 formula since the strains are supported to be 8 weeks and are currently 6 weeks from 12/12. (GH Ripen: https://www.amazon.com/General-Hydro.../dp/B07JMHZTLD) Then again, I feel like it's going to need longer because the buds are still mostly white pistils.

Sorry to go so long! No need to answer or anything. Just putting all my thoughts out there.

[ductwizard]

hey meow here's a thought, can you hook your dehumdifier to a condensate pump? they are mostly used for a/c work but have a float switch and pump out using a 3/8 plastic tube. they are cheap and h.d. or lowes carry them

[MeowMeow]

ductwizard I will look into that!

[GrowNinja]

Question:

Whats your intake -> exhaust situation ?

Clip fans that move the air around is great, but air renewal is important and for me at least is the most efficient way of managing RH. I don't really use humid or de-humidifier.

[MeowMeow]

I have a big CanMax exhaust fan, and then the intake holes at the bottom of the fan are propped open to let fresh air in. It makes it pretty breezy in the tent (I can see the leaves moving) but I thought it might help to add a little extra airflow above the buds with clip fans? I think my biggest problem with humidity is I live in a humid part of the country, and the humidity outside and in the rest of the house is often 60% or higher.

[Bluey]

Bluey Thanks for the tips. Just curious, how do you keep the RH that low? I have a dehumidifier in the room but it needs to be emptied constantly, and still gets up to 65% in the tent at night. I think I need to add extra clip-fans, too.

For defoliation, how much should I defoliate at 6 weeks in flowering? Should I defoliate a lot, or just the biggest leaves? I realize now I should have defoliated earlier in flowering, but I can see the bottom of the tent isn't getting any light so I know air/light isn't getting through the plants.

For a PK supplement, I'm using General Hydro Flora nutrients, so I was looking at their "Liquid Koolbloom" 0-10-10 "bulking formula" (KoolBloom listing: https://www.amazon.com/General-Hydro...dp/B002DV8TBQ/)

I was also looking at their "Ripen" 0.5-7-6 formula since the strains are supported to be 8 weeks and are currently 6 weeks from 12/12. (GH Ripen: https://www.amazon.com/General-Hydro.../dp/B07JMHZTLD) Then again, I feel like it's going to need longer because the buds are still mostly white pistils.

Sorry to go so long! No need to answer or anything. Just putting all my thoughts out there.

I run a 50ltr/day dehumidifier. On my last grow I had a jungle in my flower room and I couldn't get it any lower than 40% with 5 plants, large too, more than a pound of bud each. I supplemented that with two air conditioners and one of those is quite good at removing moisture also. So full climate control in the room. I cannot get temps below 22⁰C and dehumidify effectively as that is too low a temp for the dehumidifiers to work well so RH starts to rise at that point. I drain to waste, the dehumidifier has a drain. I can automate the dehumidifier using its own built in hygrometer, not very accurate, or the power point controlled by two other hygrometers I have in the room wifi connected and it's all automated.

I use an industrial wall fan and a floor fan for full room air movement both are like 18" and both oscillate.

At this stage I'd only remove the leaves not getting direct light. It will help with lowering humidity and if they are not getting full light they are not doing much. Trim them over 4 or 5 days to reduce stress. Leave everything on getting good light.

I don't use anything but base bloom nutes and PK so can't comment on those other things, but stay away from plant growth regulators (PGR). Google it.

[GrowNinja]

Hey bluey, do you have any photos of your setup ?

[Bluey]

Here's one of my grows with a link in the first post to a previous grow. 100s of pics

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/621507-white-widow-x-sour-diesel-orange-zkittles-x-sour-diesel-sativa-x-photoperiod

[GrowNinja]

Awesome, thanks !

[MeowMeow]

Thanks for the excellent advice Bluey . I did what you said about the leaves and the buds seem to be fattening up magnificently. I think they're about 7 or 8 weeks from 12/12 now. Not sure how long is left.

I do think I could have taken more leaves but I noticed some of the top leaves are starting to turn yellow, so I figured better to leave extras in case they die. I'm certain I need to move the grow light higher but that's not an option so I'm just trying to ride it out to the end.

I decided to stick to the GH Flora trio by itself since it seems to be doing okay. I think I want to fully research the different General Hydroponics Bloom/PK supplement options before I choose one to give to my plants, and I haven't had time to do that yet. Life gets in the way!

Hopefully I'm at the home stretch, but the buds still look almost totally white, so I'm worried they're going to go a lot longer than I initially expected.

A guy at the hydro store convinced me to give a 600W HPS a try to try to achieve closer to 2 pounds in a 4x4 space. After growing with LEDs for a while, the buds definitely seem bigger/longer compared to under 600W of LEDs, but I also think the HPS may be making buds take longer to mature in the flowering stage. Or maybe it's just the particular strains. It makes me wonder if the "bigger yields" from HPS is actually coming from the plants just straight up taking longer to finish maturing, so buds have more time to get bigger. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty hopeful about yields here!

[Bluey]

Fantastic looking grow but I suspect you are light burning/bleaching your top leaves.

A 600W full spectrum LED is sort of equivalent to around 800W+ of HPS. Watch your temps. Keep them under 24⁰C now..RH around 50% and lowering.

Edit. Aim for quality first, quantity second. Quality is everything.

[MeowMeow]

Yeah, you're right about the light burning/bleaching. I noticed that the 3 tallest colas in the back are getting bleached on top. I need to see if I can find a way to attach the fixture directly to the top of the tent, which would add another 8" or so. The fixture came with those triangle metal hanger thingies that add like 8" of height for no reason. I was reading on GWE to get some zip ties and use them to attach the fixture to the top bars of the tent.

Thanks again for all the advice 🙏

[Allenpro]

They do look great but dont get i a hurry now, after the pistils draw in and turn brown is when the home stretch starts, no pun on stretch intended. They have a lot of swelling to do between now and harvest.

[Bluey]

Some under canopy lighting would help heaps here. Keep plucking fans out of the way of the buds. Not much point moving them out of the way as you should have a breeze that strong that those buds are moving around now. Lots of breeze to get air changeover and lower temps in those buds.