Mango Smile, day 1

Plant 3 moving upstairs

Plant 4 moving upstairs. I was really lighthanded (lazy) and didn’t apply too much LST so it is a bush but the flowers are pushing upwards thru the canopy.

A full,day already. Pulled all 4 into the kitchen for a top dressing of Strawberry Fields, seabird guano, and DE. Trimmed a bunch of undergrowth and a few leaves I could not get tucked out of the way of flower sites. I gave them a good drench of pH 6.4 water and they are all buttoned up now.

This is the third floor, with a California Lightworks Extreme 500, a pair of small square Spiderfarmer LEDs, and a monster 4 panel Spiderworks LED. The big LED is hung on a rolling garment rack vertically, and I can adjust its distance to the face of the plants as needed. Right now the Spiderfarmer lights are running at 20%, and the Extreme 500 is at full strength, which can’t be changed anyhow.

The SF lights are on loan from a fellow grower (he replaced them with a pair of Extreme 1000 lights in a 5 by 5 tent). In the tent he has an air conditioner, a humidifier, a carbon filter exhaust fan, and his plants absolutely blow up. I’ll get him to send me some good pics and I’ll post this too.

I have a tough time getting the temps in a reasonable range since this is on the third floor, so running all the lights all the time is probably a non-starter this time of year.

one of the plants that was up there got some pretty severe leaf clawing near the top of the plant, so I’ll have to monitor this - the Extreme 500 might need to run solo, or the Spiderfarmer lights run solo. Or, couple days of this, and a couple days of that. I have about a foot of headroom available, so maybe a couple more weeks in here then outside.

This is the first floor. At the back wall is a four fixture four foot T5 running LED bloom bulbs. Suspended on the sides are a pair of two foot two bulb T5s running 3,000k bulbs. Suspended in front of the tub, pointing in is a six fixture four foot T5 running a mix of 6,000k and 6,500k bulbs. I’m gonna leave the veg bulbs in this fixture in place for about another week, then switch them over to 3,500k bulbs.

suspended above is a Marshydro LED, that I have turned off right now. i Hang Mylar covered foam core boards in the front side openings to bounce as much light as I can back into the enclosure. It is fucking punishingly bright in there, but the plants seem to love it. I put a flange on the floor register and ran some dryer vent hose over to the tub, and have that attached to a fan that blows in the enclosure. keeps the heat down and moves the plants around, there is a similar fan on the other side sucking up cool air from the floor as well.

with the Marshydro LED up as high as I can manage, and turned off, I have a foot and a half of headroom, so prolly a couple weeks left indoors for shaping and nailing the face of the plant with direct light (coming in a 90 degrees). Same approach for the plants upstairs - as much light as possible coming in at 90 degrees. This boosts the development of the flower sites on the lower branches I have trained to the edge of the milk crate, and once I put them out in the sun, they’ll be totally exposed.

that’s the plan anyhow. peace out y’all and happy growing…

Two plants took up permanent residence outside today-I still had a bit of head room, but they were splayed out so much they overfilled the tub laterally. The other two will stay inside for a bit longer but they’ll move outdoors eventually.

the third floor grow space was just getting too hot, and I was kinda tired of climbing the stairs a zillion times a day to check on the plants. In the background of the outdoor shots is a cheap portable greenhouse I bought to shelter the plants during the frequent and heavy thunderstorms we get here, and I can also use it for IPM. Spray it down with spinosad before the plants go in and drench the pavers with a peppermint based repellent. The Combination of the smells is very pleasing. I have a couple rechargeable fans for airflow, and a solar powered UV bug zapper to put in there for good measure.

so, the sprint to the finish line lies ahead. These are the stretchiest plants Ive grown so far. I used every LST clip I had, and probably coulda used more.more.

They spent the night with some gentle rain; amazing what heat they put off even in a rainstorm…

Retired engineer said:

Day 35. Will have 4 posts one per plant. This one was upstairs and needs a break from the California Lightworks 500. It will move downstairs for a couple days of T5 3000k/3500k/6500k lighting.

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Wicked cool! Where'd ya get the clips. I was thinking about making some with repurposed bread bag clips, but those look amazing. Where in tarnation you find them? I'm just beginning to learn about LST and am intrigued.
This is definitely the most advanced grow system I've ever seen, start to finish. Super impressive. And almost opposite of my outdoor grow style, which is extremely low tech. My hose is probably my most expensive piece of equipment
Do you supercrop as well?
Fantastic job on your grow, some things I've never seen before, very exciting to me.
Blessings and luck with your harvest. I'm very humbled.

You can get the clips on Amazon, or a local grow shop probably has them. One trick I’ve learned is to make the first bend near the main stalk, and make sure the bottom of the clip is resting on top of the fan leaf below the node if there is one. Leave it like that for a few days then move the clip further up the branch. That will get the leaf pointed downward initially, and it will rebound when you move the clip, so it is not obstructing a flower site.

best to start as early as possible since most nute systems include either silica (salt based systems) or crab/shrimp tea (for organic systems) to stiffen branches…once ya start with this stuff you maybe have a few more days before the branches get too stiff to bend. I’ve super cropped, unintentionally, a branch or two. Just leave the clip in place and the branch will probably repair itself.

once the branches are of the same girth as the openings on the clips I pull the clips and move further up the plant if possible. A buddy left all his lower clips in place on a recent grow and they were anchored in place. Releasing the restraint on the lower branches also let’s the plant seek its own sweet spot, and makes watering and top dressing easier.

I also grab the branches from the first node very early and pin them down horizontally and keep them growing that way until they reach the edge of the milk crate. I can use the milk crate and a binder clip to further anchor them down, and once they’ve decided to grow the way I want them to, I release the restraint. I use the metal wire that holds insulation in place between floor joists. It is easily bent, and has some memory and wants to spring back to its original shape…bend it it in half, let it rebound a little bit, pinch the ends together to hold it in the soil, and pin a branch down…

Ready for the storm. Fans are on low and curious how long they will hold a charge. I thought about running an extension cord to the greenhouse and running powered fans, but not too keen about a live cord running across the deck in the rain, so battery will have to do…

main stalks are gonna need some support soon; I’ll handle that and another light defoliation to clear for air movement tomorrow…I’m done messing with plants for today.

Day 40; big contrast between the pair of plants outdoors and those indoors. The outdoor plants are tall, lanky and have pretty impressive internodal spacing up the main stalk. I removed most of the LST restraints to let them bounce back and find their own sweet spot. Tons of developing flower sites that have a good deal of space between them. great airflow thru the center of the plants; the last defoliation helped a lot.

the indoor plants are not as tall, and the flower clusters are spaced more closely together. The one in the right is at the margin of acceptable headroom to the suspended LED. I turned the LED down to 50% power, and the pair of two foot T5s running 3,5000k bulbs pointing in from the sides are on for the middle 6 hrs of the lighting period. The LED and pair of four foot T5s are on for the entire 16 hr lighting period. I’d really like to finish these 2 inside, but that prolly ain’t gonna happen so they stay inside for as long as possible to benefit from all the side lighting.

Day 43. The outside plants are branching out into a bowl; the tallest branches on the perimeter of the bowl are from the first and second nodes after I pinned them down to go horizontal. Tons of flower sites, and the internodal spacing is so large these individiual flower sites might develop on their own vs. growing into a larger cola as they merge with adjacent flower sites up the stalks

the indoor plants are staying “squat” and the individual flower sites on the branches are close enuff together they should merge into some pretty large colas.

they got a good shot of Mammoth P and pH6.4 water. I gave the outdoor plants more water/feed since high temp and sunny skies are predicted for the next couple of days, and they dry out pretty quickly. Sometimes toward the end of the day if it is hot/sunny, they show signs of wilting. A good shot of pH6.4 water, and they bounce right back. I have yet to see the indoor plants tell me they need more water/feed…

Lookin spooky at night…

Day 46, inside plants. The taller one is at the limit vertically; I’m keeping the LED suspended above at around 50% power, and will tinker with the lighting periods for the T5s that surround them in the tub.

the shorter one sits on a stand in the tub, so it has a good deal of headroom left. I foresee the taller one moving outdoors in a week or so, and keeping the shorter one in the tub for lighting from 3 axes (above, front, back, and sides).

these, along with the outdoor ones, are on the NFTG Roman schedule, and developed a semi-impermeable layer of calcium. When I fed them, the last 500ml of nutrients would be standing water in the pot. It’d drain eventually, but that took a while. I scuffed up the top of the soil with a BBQ fork and the percolation rate is much better. I read EWC will help with this as well so they’ll get a top dressing of that tomorrow along with a generous dose of SLF100.

Outside plants, day 46 as well. These are the lankiest plants I’ve ever grown; 90% saliva so that is no surprise. Gave the top of the soil a good scuffing with a BBQ fork to improve percolation, and they will get a top dressing of EWC as well tomorrow.

another awesome day of weather ahead, full sun and temps in the low 90s. I’ve been giving these outdoor plants an extra water/feed around 1500 when I see signs of the leaves wilting on really sunny/hot days. After about 30 minutes, all the leaves are praying upwards. The inside plants don’t get this supplemental water/feed since they don’t dry out so quickly.

Day 51; inside vs. outside. Same strain, same germination date, same feeding schedule. Outdoor plants were indoors for the first 4 weeks, then moved outdoors where they’ve been sheltered from storms by a portable greenhouse I bought. The inside plants are getting nailed with a mix of light from above, front, back, and both sides.

maybe a bold assumption, but I can keep plants shorter indoors by flooding with light from every conceivable direction…I am gonna finish them indoors and that should be quite the contrast…

Day 60, taken with macro lens during the golden hour - last hour of daylight. Casts a nearly horizontal barrage of light which with the right subject and orientation yields no shadows, or something like that.

the advertised harvest period for these is 75 - 90 days, so I'm gonna be patient and wait until the 75 day point to start thinking about the chop, but they look pert close to ready now. no clear trichomes to be seen really, all cloudy and just a few ambers showing up. supposed to have another few days of awesome weather here so the sprint to the finish begins.

ill post up some whole plant pics in a few, then will pull one of the other ones out of the tub enclosure for some more photo stuff tonite...

Looking great! It's fun to see the difference between the indoor and outdoor plants. I'll stick with indoors for now. That outside stuff is too much work .

Retired engineer said:

Two plants took up permanent residence outside today-I still had a bit of head room, but they were splayed out so much they overfilled the tub laterally. The other two will stay inside for a bit longer but they’ll move outdoors eventually.

the third floor grow space was just getting too hot, and I was kinda tired of climbing the stairs a zillion times a day to check on the plants. In the background of the outdoor shots is a cheap portable greenhouse I bought to shelter the plants during the frequent and heavy thunderstorms we get here, and I can also use it for IPM. Spray it down with spinosad before the plants go in and drench the pavers with a peppermint based repellent. The Combination of the smells is very pleasing. I have a couple rechargeable fans for airflow, and a solar powered UV bug zapper to put in there for good measure.

so, the sprint to the finish line lies ahead. These are the stretchiest plants Ive grown so far. I used every LST clip I had, and probably coulda used more.more. View attachment 5172341View attachment 5172342View attachment 5172343View attachment 5172344

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What's with the small yellow tins on the fans?

PioneerValleyOG said:

What's with the small yellow tins on the fans?

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Those are citronella candles; i never light them, just let the airflow bring the fragrance into the enclosure. Keeps bugs away. I take them out when I am couple weeks from harvest to let the plants air out without them in place.