Mars TSL2000. I read 40-50 DLI is the sweet spot. Is that incorrect? Does that light not have enough red?
I didn’t see your reply until after tending to the plants. Ironically, I raised the light a bit because the tops were looking stressed.
regarding removing buds and stems, my question is when? I know it’s too late now. Included our pictures of where they are today. I seem to always get them to compact. Too many side branches with little buds.
It’s a learning process. I’m being patient. I just seem to be making the same mistakes.
mistakes" - eh, I don't see evidence of mistakes. Your plants are doing really well and these discussions will, hopefully, get move things to "great".
"sweet spot" - I grow my autos at a DLI of 80± because that's the DLI for 1kµmol at 20/4 (or so - it's been a few years since I grew an auto). Photos in flower generally get 40mol but I think I've done 41 or 42. My goal is to get as much light on that plant as it can use because that's how it grows the fastest. I use that approach because I've spent a lot of time reading research into growing cannabis and the research indicates that's the approach that ends up with the highest yields.
"enough red" - if that's the light you've got, it's got enough red.
Lights for a small tent generally have a fair amount of blue because that will tend to keep plants smaller and bushier which means they won't outgrow the tent.
Ah ha, that's for a 2' x 4' tent (same here!) - that spectrum has more blue than I'd like but, if that's the light you've got…
No doubt about it, you can get a great crop with that light. Great equipment helps but a grower can still f*ck things up — I completely hosed my last grow even with "top of the line" veg and flower LED grow lights and my OC approach to grow lighting.
I don't clean up the under carriage until about the second week of flower. Prior to that, the leaves on the plant are all playing a part in building the "infrastructure" so I let them contribute to that. After week two of flower, the plant has completed vegetative growth so I remove them. My focus is on harvesting flower so the buds under the canopy are of no value to me.
Lots of branches is a characteristic of as plant that has received good amounts of light - lots of branches, lots of small leaves, and limited internodal space.
The plant below, a photoperiod, is probably the best shaped plant I've grown. It was topped and LST'd using fishing weights. I've toyed with the idea of mainlining/manifolding but chicken out.
I think it's a good shape to emulate, if you've got room in the tent, of course.
The canopy is very even. These are the PPFD values on the canopy which were taken at the high points of the canopy, starting in the left rear, left center, left front, center rear, center center, etc.
A lot of those variances are a function of the light, eg the last four readings were all on the right end of the light where the output falls quite a bit.
