Nice clean setup!
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So today I check on the ladies after work and they look fine
but growth still seems slow since their last trim and they aren’t drinking as much as I’d like.
Then I see the clock and it’s lost 4.5-5 hours. I was aware of a power outage last night but I didn’t think it was five hours, which I estimate cut their daylight short I guess that might explain a slow day.
I figure a shorter day is better than a longer one so I’m not going to try and fix anything.
Yesterday I started adding GH Armor Si. I wanted to avoid an array of supplements but I’m reading silica is naturally in most soils but not water and it aids in trichome production.
Neither basin is due for a feeding so I just mixed the Armor Si into their top-off water, then pH’d it to 6.6 which is a little high but since I knew the basins were already slightly acidic I went ahead.
Any idea if this method of adding the silica could cause precipitation? What does precipitation look like when it happens? Can you see it before it affects the plants?
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Probably not, usually want to add silica first to the water before nutes, but some add it last, kinda like what you’re doing and they don’t seem to have problems doing so.
Looks like a bunch of white powder in the water.
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Just to share a little something I learned, last night I was checking the heat coming off the de-diffused flood light pictured above. It’s within four inches of a leaf and the back of my hand wasn’t too hot but as I tested it I brushed my hand against a diode or those two short metal prongs in the middle, or both, and got a hell of a shock.
I don’t think it’s dangerous but having the cover off the light is not the “abundance of caution” that rules the world these days.
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@Hellraiser I am now 1/13th of the way through your very popular journal. I am saving most of my questions figuring they’ll be covered at some point in the thread, but I have one more time sensitive.
I’m just starting week 4 of flower and I see white haired buds and some trichomes forming. At what point is trim worth saving for edibles? I’m not in a rush, I want potency, but I don’t want to waste either. Most of my flower I want to smoke (lord willing), I’m not that big on dabs or edibles but m’lady prefers the edibles.
If it helps to know I usually decarb ground buds and cook them directly into brown butter. I don’t use boiling water but I could if it’s worth it for large volumes of leaf. But I don’t want chlorophyll cookies either.
Should the farms be productive I’ll be trying your tincture and bubble hash but I’m not there in the thread yet.
Thank you, and anyone else that wishes to chime in. I have asked this before but I suspect I’m going to get a different answer this time.
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Usually around 6 weeks into flowering the trim will be worth saving and making edibles with.
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@EarlyBear, thanks for the link. Along for the ride.
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Hello, thanks for likes & comments.
Girls look healthy & flowers be. 
Had to decide on how to keep Oprah under the lights. 2 colas very close to main light, I trimmed fan leaves on one and butchered a super-cropping of the other. I didn’t want to trim more but it was so dark in the center of my Northern Lights gals I had to trim a score of fan leaves.
Pic is a before, manufacturer’s recommended lights as close as the plants can take, and they look fine but No Touching!
Curious about the droopiness of the leaves here. Plenty of leaves look healthy too.
Finally all the leaves show a slight burn at the tips. Seems one school of thought is that slightly over fed is good, another school of thought is slightly burned is unhealthy. Are we fattening pigs or training athletes? Serious metaphorical question.
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Running on the edge…
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The stretch of flower is real lol
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One of the best results of this hobby is that it has me journaling. Writing is good for a person (see The Sound of Metal) and while my writing does not demonstrate a quiet focused mind my lack of writing is even less focused. I realize a lot just writing it down.
I started with a journal then I added a log that stays in the grow room. The log gets notes about actions and measurements, the journal is more summaries, plans, things to do, and sometimes off topic excursions.
Recently I had to peruse both to compile a record of feedings
So it’s not perfect but there is information. Perhaps it will prove worthwhile to compile ppm, pH, temps and RH info but for now reading the leaves is keeping me busy.
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You ain’t lying’
The supercrop I ‘butchered’ is peeking up, still has 2-3” under the light it was touching before.
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What of these droopy sugar leaves? The plant looks healthy and I’m happy with her, but I wonder what she’s trying to tell me. pH is in the low 6s and I fondled her roots, no signs of slime (they get hydroguard regularly)
Plan of action is plain pH’d tap top offs until Thursday when’s she’s due for a feed. Ppm just now was only 685 which is low but there’s tip burn and clawing which doesn’t reconcile with under-feeding.
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I see you are feeding heavy. I will be watching to see how it effects your plants since you are basically in a hydro setting. Feeding much above 50% slows my autos down in coco. I used the flora trio for a long time. And have one in this grow on it. What ppms are you at? And you are on just the food and cal mag right?
These are looking good 
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That’s a helpful observation, that I’ve been feeding heavy. The sources that lead me to an AeroGrow used GH flora series and recommended a light feed schedule that I lose sight of with ppm talk. But when my Northern Lights (left side) were struggling in veg a lighter feed aided recovery.
I am not with my papers but I don’t think I’ve had a ppm count over 900 for the northern light girls, and the Quebec Blues on the right score just under 1100 at the 75% mid late bloom feed. That’s from memory.
I’ve been adding Armor Si via top off, mixing 5ml into a gallon, regulate the pH, and giving each basin about half weekly. I feel increased rigidity from that.
Thank you!
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Yeah, That is pretty high for an auto. Feeding at 1/2 strength, 2.5ml cal mag and 2.5 ml of silica. I average about 650 ppm That is with ro water. With how I feed. I am in the 750 - 800 average right now in flower. About 200 ppm is from the cal and silica. I am also using Big bud in that too.
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This is my pH chart. I number by color. It is the single most used item to service my grow.
Anything solid orange or red sucks and doesn’t get a number.
Peachy, which can have a little orange in it, is 5.2 up to about 5.6. A strong tint of orange is down near 5.2 which is on the edge, my pH drops as the girls drink in flower.
If I have peachy orange I get my pH up with a tap water top off if at all possible. Silica makes this easier. I’m down on pH up, I’m down with pH down.
I yearn for the color of hungover urine, the solid yellow of dehydration. This puts me in the high fives, acceptable by any standards.
Above that is the pale yellow of healthy urine, like straw. I think I have some trouble distinguishing the darker yellow about to become hungover from the darker yellow about to become minty.
Minty is that first bit of green tint that indicates a pH up around 6.5. Today minty gets pH down but during the veg state of this grow it was allowed. I think that was a mistake and my future grows will be faster if I don’t tolerate any mintiness.
Any thing blue or green is kept away from the plants of course.
They tell me I’m color blind but in spite of the evidence, I’m not so sure.
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This is not a photogenic grow
I can’t get around to the back and I can’t get above it. The extra lights aren’t that hard to move but this is about buds not photos.
I believe my left basin is going to be ready at least a week before the right. I hope so as the buds are developing much faster. That’s awesome, I can stagger the process and start new seedlings while the slower girls fatten up. Would that make this a perpetual grow?
I’ve decided to go with Grove bags for curing. I’ve got pruners and rubbing alcohol to clean them. I’ve got a couple silicone trays for dabbing, are those good for catching kief and trimmings?
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Welcome to my world. That’s why I had to limit my scrogs to only 36” deep. My plants sit in the corner of a room. Makes it difficult to trim.
Good choice. 
We use the silicone trays to put butter in, if it’s the kind I’m thinking about.
I think kief is sifted onto a sheet of wax paper, but not real sure. We have only made butter. Sorry not much help there.
Yours are fattening up nicely! 
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They look good. Was that one of the emergency blankets you used for the mylar? Every time I see all the squares. It reminds me of a kitchen wall 
Having one finish before the other can be nice as you don’t seed as much room to dry them in. And yes, once you start staggering them for in and out times. That is more in line with a progressive grow. I like mixing autos and photos for that reason. I can start an auto while a photos is in flower. Or run the auto till the photo is ready to change. Makes it easier for me. No extra veg room needed.
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