Big Bud Development & Feed Reductions - Bloom Week 6
2024-02-05T05:00:00Z→2024-02-11T05:00:00Z
This has been some week. I’m not really sure what to make of it in terms of the bud growth, but things have really just taken off since Week 4 of Bloom after their last “special haircuts” 
Here I am again circling back on that one pic I took at the end of week 4. The comparison here is pretty alarming for me. Granted I am coming from a previous grow where I thought every possible thing went wrong, so for me this feels like unchartered territory. However with three plants that had over 25+ bud sites exposed once the lights were flipped to 12/12, even I wasn’t expecting this kind of a turnout -
These bud sites are getting fat! There’s no other words for it. Taking these out of the tent for feeds and weigh-ins has really opened my eyes just to how much the buds have developed. I’m always reluctant when I buy equipment given how green I still am to cannabis growing… but I really am now a huge fan of the Spider Farmer lights I setup back in December. Would highly recommend them to anyone who’s new to the field and looking for something to adequately cover a 4x2 or 5x3 grow space
Just to highlight more of an example here, there are a couple bud sites that are really took me by surprise this week -
I’m pretty content at this point not to touch the lights any more. Have not seen any hints of light burn and based on the growth, I’m going to just leave things as is. Although the stems are holding up and appear very sturdy (Even with doing light stress training they retract almost immediately) I am going to keep my eyes on them to ensure the buds stay upright and not tilt too much. More of a play-it-by-ear approach for now
One thing this week that I have been noticing, is that my feeds are just now starting to decrease. I tried to map this out in another thread I created to get some viable feedback, but for what it is worth my feeds were basically running as follows:
- When doing a dunk - plants did not need to be fed for up to 2 days
- When doing a top watering - plants did not need to be fed for up to 1 day
It was only up until Friday (Day 40) where I finally observed that the feeding habits are starting to change. I prepped my dunk water and everything without even weighing the pots to start, and soon it came to my surprise that they were not yet ready for water as the pots were still too heavy. Needless to say - they haven’t been fed since mid day Friday when they were finally just around 15 ½ lbs.
I’ve also been seeing now that the pH is gradually needing to be lowered in order to maintain a pH of 6.5-6.6 in the soil. I’ve been adjusting it to around 6.9-7.0 in order to get the runoff numbers I need to meet. PPMs have not adjusted much resting between 1300-1400 and have not seen any hints of issues on the leaves
Gives me the impression that I am beginning to reach the end of the grow here. A tad bittersweet, as this has really been an interesting grow in terms of learning and caring for the plants. Probably am not going to be doing any trichome checks for another week or so, but it is def something to keep monitoring now that the feeds are going to slowly wind down in the upcoming weeks
Just hope I have enough room on my phone for photos. I’ve really been going hard with them the last week or so. These flash photos right at lights out are quite stunning 
Grow Environment Specs:
- Plant Height: 22 inches
- Day Temps: 75-77°F
- Night Temp: 68-71°F
- Humidity: 44-50%
- Watering Volume: ⅔ gallon per plant
- Watering pH: 6.9
- Watering PPM (With nutes added): 765
- Lamp Height: 14 inches
- PPFD: 800
Nutrient Feed:
`NOTE - Nutes are prepped in a 1 gallon container filled with ¾ gallons of water
- TPS Silica: 12 ml
- CaliMagic: 5 ml
- GH FloraMicro: 25 ml
- GH FloraBloom: 60 ml
- H₂O₂ (For sterilization): 2 ml
- Total PPM: 3300-3400
Additional notes outlined below:
- Checked soil weight within pots. They all weighed roughly between 14 - 15 lbs when dry, and between 19-22 lbs after feeding/dunking
- Water used tested at 5.9-6.0 pH after adding nutes. Treated with pH Up until desired pH was met at 6.9-7.0 pH and runoff is showing pH readings between 6.5 - 6.6
- Mixed in bloom juice into feed water until PPM was met (BJ: 700 + W: 65 = 765)
Start of Week 6
Canopy still going strong
End of Week 6
in the room. It’s creating heat etc. If you run outside the tent you will have better control
just keep giving them that love! Thanks for taking the time!
I know when it’s close to harvest I should be excited too… but I think I’m finding I enjoy the grow just as much as anything now haha
