STC3248, Just Another Grow Log! Holiday Harvest!

Beehunter · Mar 29, 2012

Yea mine do the same thing. I just thought my plants were drama queens... But i havent noticed it effecting them negatively.

stc3248 · Mar 29, 2012

PaulG said:
Interesting observation, Shane, I notice my branching annuums and baccatums start bending over about 15 hours into the light cycle. Not wilted, just bent over, and the stems are stiff, and the leaves hydrated. So I went to a 17/7 cycle. I noticed tonight the plants went into the bent posture at about the same time, but only two hours left of light not three. I'm wondering if a reduction to a 15/9 schedule might be a good idea. It might be closer to the light they encounter in the greenhouse as well.

Pr0digal_son said:
Light cycle gets talked about a lot here. Ever look at your plants in the morning after they get some rest from the light?. Mine look like someone snuck Viagra in their feed water. Two days ago I came home from work and my plants were droopy and I chalked it up to them needing water.....which they did. Next day I go to turn lights back on and they have their typical "morning wood" I come home from work and they are droopy after 14 hours of light. My guess is strength of light has a lot to do with it. I also notice stuff that contradicts what people on here say.... I notice that the younger plants with smaller leaves handle it better than the bigger plants... Bigger leaves have more area and lose more moisture? Smaller plants are further from the lights? *shrugs* Not quite sure but I noticed it outside in full sun 80° day also.

PIC 1 said:
Sounds familar, Especially outdoors in the morning plants would be praying to the early morning sun but by late afternoon theyd appear to be wilted looking. Once the early evening shade would start to appear one by one, the plants would perk up. At that point, if neede d I'd give them a drink of water. I like to hydrate the plants in the morming before work. Only later if the evening temps stay above 80ish, otherwise the cooler evenings keep the container soil cool.

Greg

Beehunter said:
Yea mine do the same thing. I just thought my plants were drama queens... But i havent noticed it effecting them negatively.

Don't know it its necessarily negatively affecting them or just overkill...I am on a 16/8 cycle and they start to droop at between 12 and 13 hours. I wonder if dropping to a 14/10 cycle would be better for them? I may switch after today and see what the photos look like. When I know they have plenty of water if makes me wonder if there is a point which the plants can no longer take up enough of what they need in order to keep up and therefore start to lag. If this is the case then I am not sure all the excess light benefits them at all. I had them on 24 hour light for a while and their growth was about half the rate it is now plus the leaves were curling and the stems, veins and some leaves were purpling.

On a separate note none of my big jims have popped after 3 weeks in the germ tray. I threw the last 3 seeds I have into a container/paper towel setup to see if they pop. Little bummed about that because I really enjoy the numex type green chilis. I have one Anaheim plant and 3 poblanos, but they're just not the same. One of two aji amarillos popped and I am 0 for 2 on the scotch bonnets, but they went in later than the rest. Fingers crossed everyone!

Thanks for the comments! I will post the finished video on Sunday...ish.
Shane

compmodder26 · Mar 29, 2012

stc3248 said:
Don't know it its necessarily negatively affecting them or just overkill...I am on a 16/8 cycle and they start to droop at between 12 and 13 hours. I wonder if dropping to a 14/10 cycle would be better for them? I may switch after today and see what the photos look like. When I know they have plenty of water if makes me wonder if there is a point which the plants can no longer take up enough of what they need in order to keep up and therefore start to lag. If this is the case then I am not sure all the excess light benefits them at all. I had them on 24 hour light for a while and their growth was about half the rate it is now plus the leaves were curling and the stems, veins and some leaves were purpling.

I've been on a 14/10 cycle since I began and I always notice that on the larger of my plants the leaves will droop during 12-13 hour mark as well.

PaulG · Mar 29, 2012

compmodder26 said:
I've been on a 14/10 cycle since I began and I always notice that on the larger of my plants the leaves will droop during 12-13 hour mark as well.

Okay, so what's the consensus here? I don't know if it hurts the plants or not, but if they are resting from the light and not stressed, then what's the point of having the light on? Maybe scaling down an hour a day to a shorter light cycle would be more efficient. I'm not sure I want to radically change the cycle overnight. Maybe it wouldn't make any difference.

jsschrstrcks · Mar 29, 2012

I dunno... I notice a similar thing here in florida... but that the sun - no grow light.

It would be interesting for someone (nudge) to do a time lapse, with a ruler in frame... Then run it over the course of a week or so on one light setting, and then another week or so on a different light setting...

No sense spending money on the additional 4 hours if 12 will suffice... no?

stc3248 · Mar 29, 2012

I'll scale back my light cycle to 14/10 for the next 3 nights and I will post the first photo from the night I started my time lapse vs tonight's and tonight's vs Sunday night's. Should show us something, but their growth isn't all vertical and linear, as they get bigger much of the real growth is lateral. Plus many of the plants are pushing out buds right now which might slow the growth a bit too. We should still be able to tell if it makes a drastic difference or not. Might actually speed them up having a little less stress??? I suppose we're gonna find out!
What would be the real test would be to have two complete setups and run two trays of the same plants side by side one on 16/8 and the other on 14/10 or even 12/12 and see which does better, especially if you could hold the temps constant on both stations 24 hrs so that the only difference was the light cycle.

MGOLD86 · Mar 29, 2012

LOVE the video Shane. That is so freaking cool! I can't wait to see it going for a while, gonna be epic!

I agree with Greg, all you need is some 70's porno music Bow chika wowow.....

stc3248 · Mar 29, 2012

Its fun to stay at the....

MCA!
Piquine Chiapas...

MGOLD86 said:
LOVE the video Shane. That is so freaking cool! I can't wait to see it going for a while, gonna be epic!

I agree with Greg, all you need is some 70's porno music Bow chika wowow.....

Thanks, great idea! Might just download some!

PaulG · Mar 29, 2012

You rock, man! : )

edit: removed unintended quote

As for the lighting, I'm going down an hour a day to 13/11, which
will be our outside daylight on April 7. That way the change in light
cycle is gradual, and they are already at the ambient cycle when
they go out to the greenhouse. Right now I'm at 16/8, so that will
take three more days, then some days to get used to the light. And
then hopefully the gallons will be potted up by then. Maybe I'm crazy?

stc3248 said:
I'll scale back my light cycle to 14/10 for the next 3 nights and I will post the first photo from the night I started my time lapse vs tonight's and tonight's vs Sunday night's. Should show us something, but their growth isn't all vertical and linear, as they get bigger much of the real growth is lateral. Plus many of the plants are pushing out buds right now which might slow the growth a bit too. We should still be able to tell if it makes a drastic difference or not. Might actually speed them up having a little less stress??? I suppose we're gonna find out!
What would be the real test would be to have two complete setups and run two trays of the same plants side by side one on 16/8 and the other on 14/10 or even 12/12 and see which does better, especially if you could hold the temps constant on both stations 24 hrs so that the only difference was the light cycle.

You are right on - interesting indeed.
In the meantime it will be fun to see how turning
down the lights affects the plants.
I can't wait to see the results of your investigation!

mjdiamond83 · Mar 29, 2012

That's a great looking plant Shane! Hope those scotch bonnet seeds pop for you soon!

stc3248 · Mar 29, 2012

Paul you were like #'s 198 and 199...Matt (mjdiamond83) snuck in and took #200! Now I'm...

ALMOST FAMOUS!

[background=rgb(111, 143, 82)]Almost Famous[/background]

PaulG said:
You are right on - interesting indeed.
In the meantime it will be fun to see how turning
down the lights affects the plants.
I can't wait to see the results of your investigation!

Not sure light dropping the light down will shock the but increasing them definitely could...kinda like not hardening off. The video has a few gaps in it due to operator error, but its looking pretty good. Going to suck with the lights going off at 6 in stead of 8 though.

mjdiamond83 said:
That's a great looking plant Shane! Hope those scotch bonnet seeds pop for you soon!

Thanks! Blooming like crazy, but still not setting pods. The Pequin I put in the ground already has its first pod!

I hope so too, I really wanted to get a Scotch Bonnet going.

mjdiamond83 · Mar 29, 2012

I'm still confident you'll get them to sprout. How many days has it been? They were taking about 7-10 days for me, and not a single one I've started hasn't germinated. I hope I didn't pass along all the duds!

stc3248 · Mar 29, 2012

mjdiamond83 said:
I'm still confident you'll get them to sprout. How many days has it been? They were taking about 7-10 days for me, and not a single one I've started hasn't germinated. I hope I didn't pass along all the duds!

Been about 13 days...ughhh. The others WAY past that. They may decide to pop soon. I'm sure its something on this end.

stc3248 · Mar 31, 2012

Yesterday was kind of a bummer. I came home to a snapped limb on my star Mucho Nacho...damn dogs! Worst part was the limb that they snapped had the largest pod on it! Grrrrrr. On top of that when I checked the camera for the time lapse it had shut down again because I forgot to plug it in.

I moved my germ station back to its original location, I think my recent slump in seed starts has to do with them getting too hot while I am at work and not here to monitor them, so hopefully I will get some to pop now with the original setup.

I ended up having to move up the lights on the grow shelf...so not sure how much we will be able to tell what a difference the light cycle makes, but I will keep the video rolling a while longer....here is the vid so far. The seemingly short day or night cycles were due to operator error. The plants really are doing really well in there! No 70's porn music, but I did reach back for a golden oldie from that era...

On a separate note. I just got a pm from Jamie (romy6) with this photo attached...

He's really got some great looking pods! These are the absolute best ones he's produced ever, because they're in a package which is headed my way!!! Wooot! Jamie wrote: "Top left are african tunisians. Very tasty mild pepper. You will love it. Above that the green/orange is a hybrid chocolate bhut gone red, middle is brain strain, top middle are my small mystery peppers, top right are 7 pod reds. Just below that is a dorsett naga, Bottom right is yellow 7's, middle is a 7 pod barrcackpore. Don't let the small size fool ya it is damn hot. And bottom left are yellow cardi scorps." Don't know if I'm up for a super eating vid or not...maybe though! THANKS JAMIE!!!

Today is gonna be a great day!!!
Shane

PaulG · Mar 31, 2012

The video is coming along, Shane. I'm amazed by the amount of movement.
The little guy in the lower right corner practically goes to bed!

I'm still on a 16/8 light sched. Didn't notice so much drooping last night,
but am going to check again tonight before scaling back anymore.

Hey! Have fun with those peppers! Jamie rocks!

stc3248 · Mar 31, 2012

Think I may have screwed up...so I was weeding and, um do these look like dandelions?

Pulling those 2 weeds created a gap in the raised bed, wonder what I can put in there???

Spankyscolts · Mar 31, 2012

Shane ok todays my day for trying to catch up on some Glogs as I was skimming yours I kept seeing reference to a time laspe video but couldn't seem to locate it, maybe you can direct me.How many peppers do you have growing? Are the lady bugs working out or have you gone to more drastic measures.Loved the shot of the little mantis he looked intense lol. Good looking peppers my friend, kind of wanted to tray and skim and catch up with everyone then if I had more time come back and dig a little deeper...see ya alittle later

stc3248 · Mar 31, 2012

Spankyscolts said:
Shane ok todays my day for trying to catch up on some Glogs as I was skimming yours I kept seeing reference to a time laspe video but couldn't seem to locate it, maybe you can direct me.How many peppers do you have growing? Are the lady bugs working out or have you gone to more drastic measures.Loved the shot of the little mantis he looked intense lol. Good looking peppers my friend, kind of wanted to tray and skim and catch up with everyone then if I had more time come back and dig a little deeper...see ya alittle later

Spanky, the time lapse is the video posted this morning at 9:28...the photos were all taken at 1 min intervals then sped up. It covers from the evening of the 26th through this morning. I ended up having to move the lights up about 3" toward the end of the video, so its hard to tell how much they've grown. A ton for only a few days though. If you watch you'll see how the plants droop toward the end of the light cycle then under the flashlight you can see them spring back up each night. I still have the camera rolling, but don't know how much longer I am going to keep some of those plants in there. My lights are already topped out, and I need to harden some of those dudes off!!!
Thanks for checking it out!
Shane

PaulG · Mar 31, 2012

stc3248 said:
Think I may have screwed up...so I was weeding and, um do these look like dandelions?

Pulling those 2 weeds created a gap in the raised bed, wonder what I can put in there???

They look like Round-up Ready dandelions! Good thing you got those out of that bed!

stc3248 · Apr 1, 2012

PaulG said:
They look like Round-up Ready dandelions! Good thing you got those out of that bed!

Those two were really hard to pull! Lol...Putting a bunch in the ground/5gallon containers today...might have to pull a few more or I am gonna be as overcrowded as a Cali Prison around here!

Spankyscolts said:
Are the lady bugs working out or have you gone to more drastic measures.Loved the shot of the little mantis he looked intense lol.

They're working, only problem is I think there is some residual Neem on some of my plants because they won't go near them but the aphids will. Its a losing battle which will eventually hit some sort of equilibrium. I was really enjoying the rapid growth once I put the plants back in the gh, but that constant 70+ degree heat was also acting like an aphid incubator. I am going to build a couple Ladybug hotels and put one on each end of the yard and I will resupply their #'s each month by adding another box of them to the equation. That should help tip the equilibrium in my favor.