5x5 LED - T-Time grow time

Randomblame said:

Along with the current low temperatures the slow growth is nothing unexpected with only 13h of light. I would switch to a 20/4h rhythm, then the low temperatures would have less of an effect.
I usually change to a 12+1 or 12+2h rhythm only if I want to have a kind of pre-stretch. Thus, the internodes can be extended without inducing flowering. The elongated internodes are already visible on the SweetTooth plant.
If you have moved them in the final pots, you should keep 20/4h, so the pots do not cool out so much at night.
Rootzone should be 18-20°C.

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Thanks for the tips. I moved them to big tent now wchich should be warmer. Want to keep the 12/1 schedule and see what it does.

Heres a snap from today. Will plant them to final pots (coco) tmrw.

I've never heard of that light schedule before, and after reading a little bit about it, all I can say is there is one big hole in the theory: it's the DARK period - not the light period - that triggers flowering. That's why the 11/1 or 10/2 veg cycle works so well, as it gives the plants time to convert starches into sugars inbetween intense periods of photosynthesis.

I've tried 11/1 and 10/2 for myself and it works. But I only use it when I want maximum vegging, which is rarely (as I usually have to slow them down in-between 8-9 week flowering cycles).

There also seems to be a bit of bullshit regarding the GLR from what I can see, as proponents claim "nowhere on earth is there 18/6 or 20/4". I guess those guys have never been that far north or south where the sun never sets in summer? Nor to parts of Russia where Ruderalis plants have evolved to grow naturally PRECISELY due to the fact there is such a difference in photoperiod between northern summers and winters.

Hey, if it works, fine. But clearly it isn't, as your plants look a bit underdeveloped and stretchy. Now that you've mentioned the GLR, I'm almost certain that's the reason why they're not growing fast.

Have you done it before to compare?

No, thats my first time trying GLR. I put them in the big tent now where the temps are a bit higher. If they still be growing slow like before I'll be able to pin point it to the light schedule and will switch to more conventional 18/6.

T-Time said:

No, thats my first time trying GLR. I put them in the big tent now where the temps are a bit higher. If they still be growing slow like before I'll be able to pin point it to the light schedule and will switch to more conventional 18/6.

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The daytime temperatures are certainly higher, but at night it's still cold when you're not heating.
Keep an eye on the coco night temps! If they fall below 15°C you will further see slow growth.

T-Time said:

No, thats my first time trying GLR. I put them in the big tent now where the temps are a bit higher. If they still be growing slow like before I'll be able to pin point it to the light schedule and will switch to more conventional 18/6.

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I'm betting it's lighting schedule - especially if that's the only real thing that's changed. If you want to veg fast, try 11/1 or 10/2.

Thanks guys, I'm making notes of everything.

@Prawn Connery - so it's 11on, 6off, 1 on, 6off and same with the 10/2 right ?

Edit:

Sorry, You said that You use 10/2 and 11/1 to slow the plants down and then recomment to try them to speed the veg up ? I'm a bit confused

Sorry, I should have explained myself better. It is 11 hours on, 1 hour off, 11 hours on, 1 hour off each 24 hours. The idea is the plants need a minimum of 1 hour at the end of a light cycle to respire and convert all the stored starches from photosynthesis into sugars and produce growth-regulating hormones.

Plants will do this anyway - effectively "switching off" photosynthesis (or at least at a much reduced rate) - after a long period of light exposure, typically one "day" cycle or 12+ hours of lights on (depending on genetics etc). So instead of running your lights for 18 or 20 hours continuously and then giving them a dark cycle at the end, with 11/1 you are creating two separate day/night (or light/dark) cycles every 24 hours. The same applies with 10 on/2 off.

A lot of people seem to think if you give your plants less than 12 hours of light they will flower. Wrong. If you give your plants more than 12 hours of dark they will flower (generally speaking).

If I simply want to maintain a normal rate of growth for my vegging plants (effectively slowing them down), I switch to 18/6 or 16/8. My plants are on 18/6 at the moment with the LEDs running at about 40% max. If I want to max them out, I switch to 11/1 or 10/2

You are a gold mine when it comes to information. Thanks for sharing it!

Haha, looks like we said the same thing but meant something different...

Great minds think alike

Ladies went to bigger pots (coco).
I decided I won't be planting the Sweet Tooth for couple of reasons.
First -it started stretching in early stages and I was afraid it would keep doing so.
Second- it's a late finisher.
Third - I would have to feed three different strains from one nute tank. Too big compromise.
Forth - I still got plenty of it left for smoking

Two plants on the very left are Chronic and they seams to be the fastest growing but not by much. The rest are Northern Light.
Will be topping them next week.

1 Sweet Tooth and 2 N.Lights are left on the side for another week , just in case.

Looks good mate. If your really want to fine tune things, you can swap your plants around to match the fastest growers with the fastest drips. It's almost impossible to get every drip flowing equally, so that's what I do to try to even things up a bit.

I'm really impressed by how neat your grow is!

Thanks Prawn. Thats my zen garden. I feel much better when its neat

Did some work today and I managed to set the flow rate at 200ml/min in each pot. I couldn't find a nice big sprinkler but I had a lot of small ones. I just kept adding them until I've reached the flow I wanted

Then I moved to the small improvements. I did't like that I couldnt see the water level in nute tank so I've added a white label behind the level indicator tube. Much better now

Oh and new toys came in today
Each one of those smart babies will have different task:
1 - main lights, fans and water pump for cooling
2 - far red lights
3 - nutes pump


Im still thinking to add a temp/humidity like @ANC suggested but trying to get my head around it. If I connect the thermostat to my main extraction fan, my lights wont be cooled when it will be off.
For the humidity part I was thinking I could connect a small fan blowing at water surface of my cooling rez, making it effectively a small humidifier.
There is always something to improve

Thats how they look now.
When they will reach 5-6 nodes I'll be cutting them above 2nd node to get only 4 main branches.

Update

I filled the main nute tank to full only to find out that the gromet for the level indicator is leaking :/ and the label I've put behind it got soaked with condensating water so I had to take it off.
Had to empty the whole thing and redo it with the screw on type fitting.

Plants are growing strong but after I've moved them to big tent and gave them proper enviroment (temp, humidity, light) they still stretched on GLR light schedule so now I am confident enough that it was cousing the strech. I've switched them to more conventional 18/6 shedule. Live and learn!


They got first nute feed at 1/2 of the strenght ( a bit much I know but I'll andjust that tmrw) and got topped after 2nd node.


Now I'm at the stage I want to add the temp and humidity controller.
I had a look at that HYG-E 7001 that @ANC suggested but I'm not convinced it will do the trick.
I've started looking for something myself and found that http://www.ink-bird.com/products-humidity-controller-ihc230.html . I'll have to read more abojt it but I think it will do for what I need it for.

Thats it for now

You can counter stretch by raising dark period temperatures a degree or two above light time temps.
Inkbird is a good company, they do free giveaways on one aquarium site I belong to. They are also good with customer service.

New toy installed in the tent today



Trying to find that Inkbird IHC-230 controller but its not avalaible on ebay or amazon anymore. Will have to find some replacement damnit

I was looking for controllers after finding this... https://www.rollitup.org/t/jbs-cheapo-diy-large-capacity-ultrasonic-humidifier.956647/#post-14017196

It's not the IHC-230 but...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Humidity-Controller-Humidifier-Hygrometer-Humidistat-Control-US-PLUG/322296726692?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Inkbird-C909-Digital-Temperature-Controller-Humidity-Cooking-3-TYPES-SENSOR-PROB/322374311810?hash=item4b0f019f82:m:mFINHJtCyrgICT7GDy4jYCA

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DAYTON-1UHG3-Humidifier-Control-Plug-In-120-V/381023013586?_trkparms=aid=555018&algo=PL.SIM&ao=2&asc=47300&meid=0eb52a6d8fb3472594dc862db1a4f149&pid=100012&rk=1&rkt=2&sd=142649605830&_trksid=p2047675.c100012.m1985
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-110V-Pre-wired-Smart-Digital-Air-Humidity-Control-Controller-Hygrometer-US/281777927630?epid=1540433012&hash=item419b45f5ce:g:ZHoAAOSw241YZKsE
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-110V-Pre-wired-Smart-Digital-Air-Humidity-Control-Controller-Hygrometer-US/281777927630?epid=1540433012&hash=item419b45f5ce:g:ZHoAAOSw241YZKsE

Ive ordered two of those https://gearbest.com/testers-detectors/pp_679417.html?currency=EUR&vip=764180&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqerf6tnh2AIVirztCh1jHgj2EAQYAiABEgJoTPD_BwE
One controlling temp by motorized air damper and the other for humidity controlling by floating in cooling rez fogger.
Will be redoing my main control box to fit those.

Watch this space.

ah man, looking good in here T!

loving all the info

lukio said:

ah man, looking good in here T!

loving all the info

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Cheers Lukio, lots of knowledgeable people here

Sloooow grow.

Plants look ok, nothing special. I think I topped them a bit too early and they are recovering from that.

PPM sits @450 (95 is tap water)
PH 6.2