Week 7 flower update
I figured out what was going on with my plants. My tap water actually contains a lot of carbonates, which means there’s already plenty of calcium and magnesium in it. Because of that, I shouldn’t have been adding 0.5 ml of Plagron CalMag, since that product is really intended for soft water.
The extra calcium started pushing the root zone pH locally up to around 6.5. That made nitrogen more available, but at the same time it partially locked out phosphorus. Because of that the flower development slowed down, while cell elongation increased before proper bud growth resumed.
As soon as I realized what was happening, I started dropping the PPM pretty aggressively, step by step, and completely removed CalMag from the feed.
While the plants were recovering from the salt stress, I also cleaned up the lower weak branches (about 10% max) to help redistribute energy to the stronger tops.
Right now I’m focusing on stabilizing the root zone.
Current numbers:
Input: pH 5.5 / 575–600 ppm
Runoff: pH 6.38 / 730–760 ppm
Plants are slowly coming out of the stress. They’re drinking 3 times a day, about 15 liters total (7.5 L per plant).
The flowers have started growing again, after being stalled for about 3–4 days.
Because of the pH imbalance (too much nitrogen and calcium) the plants started stretching like crazy. The branches were growing so fast they were already hitting the lights and the top of the tent.
My tent is 180 cm tall and the pots are about 30 cm, so I basically ran out of vertical space.
I had to bend the branches almost 90 degrees, laying them over each other just to keep the canopy under control. Some of them are literally tucked under the carbon filter, and the rest are tied down with wire to keep them away from the lamps.
Not the prettiest canopy right now, but it keeps everything below the lights and still getting good exposure.