justanotherusername
Member
Colour me all sorts of frustrated.
I've done maybe a dozen or so grows before and had outstanding results. My setup is a two-level grow cab - flowering up top, mothers down below. All of my other grows in this cabinet arrangement have been indica variants, but this year I switched to a sativa dominant variant (G-13/Haze - feminised seed from Barney's Farm). My last indica grow in this box produced about 150 g. from about 2 sq ft. of screen - yes, it's a small space, folks.
I grow in bubbler systems and the flowering is done SCROG. I'm using Advanced Nutrients in both grows because I've had good results with them before. The mothers are under an array of LEDs mounted to circuit boards - 1632 5mm LEDs in blue and red. This was my main light and I've gotten good results from it. It consumes 87w. But this year, I bought a new fixture for flowering and moved my original light down to the mothers. The flowering cab is using a 126w LED fixture which has four colours in it and is brighter - about 40w more and visually much brighter and more intense. It has 126 1w LEDs and it is much more penetrating when compared to the 5mm LED unit. Needless to say, I don't keep it as close to the plant as the other one. Both cabs have light shielded intake and exhaust fans and I have good air movement in both cabs. I've checked both cabs for light leaks and found none.
I check on them both twice daily and adjust pH as needed. Both grows are generally pH stable though I get some spikes in pH (~4.7 on the low side and ~6.5 on the high side) just after a nutrient change, but since I'm checking them frequently, these out of spec conditions don't last for long. Temps in the upper cab run ~72F and ~69F in the lower cab. The EC of the upper grow has been building (due to the nutrient schedule I use) and is at 2.18 right now.
Now for the problem - the sativa plants just won't reach full flower. Hell, they barely produce any flowers! Twice now, I've placed rooted cuttings in the grow, they do fine. When I say they do fine, I mean that they produce copious leaves of good size and colour, the branching is good, the roots look healthy, the plants grow up into the screen and are spread out across the screen just fine. That is right up until I change the lights and from then on, they just slowly peter out. The leaves that emerge get smaller and smaller, I get a few scraggly flowers, but eventually the plant just sort of dies. The small leaves just turn brown and wither. The first time through, I pulled the plant after 8 weeks because it was largely dead. I'm in the middle of a second trip down the same ugly path - this time I'm at 4 weeks in and it's doing the same thing.
I'm so frustrated now that I've wasted three months on trying to get these silly plants to go into full bloom. I've grown sativa variants before, but not in this cabinet and not using SCROG. I've never had this much trouble just getting a freakin' weed to do what it's supposed to do naturally. It's especially frustrating since I know I've gotten a decent result with my indica grows with the same equipment.
Anyone out there got any ideas?
TIA,
justanotherusername
I've done maybe a dozen or so grows before and had outstanding results. My setup is a two-level grow cab - flowering up top, mothers down below. All of my other grows in this cabinet arrangement have been indica variants, but this year I switched to a sativa dominant variant (G-13/Haze - feminised seed from Barney's Farm). My last indica grow in this box produced about 150 g. from about 2 sq ft. of screen - yes, it's a small space, folks.
I grow in bubbler systems and the flowering is done SCROG. I'm using Advanced Nutrients in both grows because I've had good results with them before. The mothers are under an array of LEDs mounted to circuit boards - 1632 5mm LEDs in blue and red. This was my main light and I've gotten good results from it. It consumes 87w. But this year, I bought a new fixture for flowering and moved my original light down to the mothers. The flowering cab is using a 126w LED fixture which has four colours in it and is brighter - about 40w more and visually much brighter and more intense. It has 126 1w LEDs and it is much more penetrating when compared to the 5mm LED unit. Needless to say, I don't keep it as close to the plant as the other one. Both cabs have light shielded intake and exhaust fans and I have good air movement in both cabs. I've checked both cabs for light leaks and found none.
I check on them both twice daily and adjust pH as needed. Both grows are generally pH stable though I get some spikes in pH (~4.7 on the low side and ~6.5 on the high side) just after a nutrient change, but since I'm checking them frequently, these out of spec conditions don't last for long. Temps in the upper cab run ~72F and ~69F in the lower cab. The EC of the upper grow has been building (due to the nutrient schedule I use) and is at 2.18 right now.
Now for the problem - the sativa plants just won't reach full flower. Hell, they barely produce any flowers! Twice now, I've placed rooted cuttings in the grow, they do fine. When I say they do fine, I mean that they produce copious leaves of good size and colour, the branching is good, the roots look healthy, the plants grow up into the screen and are spread out across the screen just fine. That is right up until I change the lights and from then on, they just slowly peter out. The leaves that emerge get smaller and smaller, I get a few scraggly flowers, but eventually the plant just sort of dies. The small leaves just turn brown and wither. The first time through, I pulled the plant after 8 weeks because it was largely dead. I'm in the middle of a second trip down the same ugly path - this time I'm at 4 weeks in and it's doing the same thing.
I'm so frustrated now that I've wasted three months on trying to get these silly plants to go into full bloom. I've grown sativa variants before, but not in this cabinet and not using SCROG. I've never had this much trouble just getting a freakin' weed to do what it's supposed to do naturally. It's especially frustrating since I know I've gotten a decent result with my indica grows with the same equipment.
Anyone out there got any ideas?
TIA,
justanotherusername
