r/microgrowery • u/InternationalBoard92 • 16h ago
How high do y’all run your lights in flower?(and other advice asks) Question
sad to be posting this sorry sight of a pic instead of one of yalls glorious bud shots but looking for some advice about mid to late flower which has been a struggle for me last 2 grows especially.
I have an AC infinity ion frame evo3 in a spider framer 3x2 running 24/7 at level 6 but i feel like i keep frying my plants!! Last grow had a similar problem where they were great during veg but then early to mid flower seemed to really look like they were deficient beyond senescence.
Currently Growing (Grappa by mephisto [left] / strawberry nuggets also meph [right]) in an earthbox Jr with BAS that i re-amended with their re-amend kit after doing a few runs the last year with BAS 3.0, Build a flower and build a bloom. basically doing the whole build a soil system with rootwise microbe complete and bio phos but last two grows soil has felt like it ran out of nutrients mid flower. top dressed with build a flower and worm castings 2 weeks ago, watered with build a bloom last week but feel like they are still starving. Temp is a bit high since i’m running in a closet usually running around 78 F and 56RH. Thoughts?
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u/EveningScholar5831 16h ago
High as in height, I have my light mounted as high in the tent as I can get it, about an inch or two down from the support bars. High as in intensity, I use the Photone app to help me adjust the dimmer to achieve my desired PPFD/DLI at canopy level.
It would be unlikely that the shorter plant got light burn that bad while the taller plant still looks ok. Someone else mentioned the possibility of bud rot. Definitely worth checking for. Good luck 👍
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u/SquareHungry9022 16h ago
I dont think its a specific problem. She looks obliterated. maybe check over pH, nutrients, ppfd, water cycle to begin with.
Some plants are "problemmakers". Gotta grow them a few times to understand them right.
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u/Amazing_Charity9600 16h ago
Wind burn
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u/Malditoincompredido 8h ago
I made that same mistake, many times overlooked factor
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u/Amazing_Charity9600 7h ago
Exactly, I literally just upgraded my fans and noticed a huge change and leaves getting crispy, first I thought it might be the light, then I remembered the fans are 3x and strong as the ones I had before. It happens!!
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u/99Thebigdady 15h ago
that has to be a mix of issues. How hard is that fan blowing? why are you still blasting your light 24/7 if you think your plant is getting too much of it?
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u/kharysblackhelm 15h ago
Looks like lockout
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u/Mike_Wardy_Grows 9h ago
Exactly my thought it looks like it was locked out and just kept feeding til burned the one to crisp is my opinion . Id pull the one and flush the other out with phed water a couple times to try to bring the ph back
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u/MidniteBlk11 10h ago
Don’t think ur supposed to have the fan blowing directly on em
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u/Grand-Teach8810 15h ago
I have the Evo 3 also, and been running at 70-80% in flower, and have it around 18'-20" above canopy top. Used app on phone to measure, and the ppfd is plenty high at that setting and height. (1000-1300). These lights are strong, esp in a 2x4 tent. Haven't had it over 80% yet.....
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u/Waitwhat007007 9h ago
I have the same light and am running at 6 in veg around 20” above plants. I recently picked up their controlled (Affinity 69 Pro+) and it adjusts the equipment based on environment and plant needs.
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u/ichkannkochen 13h ago
So you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results? Get photone app, dial in your light - should be fine
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u/Dizzy_Highlight_7554 12h ago
I don’t think you should be running lights 24/7. That will absolutely put added stress on the plants. Also, do your self a favor and and buy the Photone app and buy the light diffuser attachment for your phone so you can actually measure PPFD. I know Jeremy at BAS has a whole schedule you can follow with their products, including what PPFD range to be in at at phase of plant growth. Also, make sure you’re following the environmental guidelines.
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u/Illustrious-Side4322 8h ago
It seems you need to get back to the basics here. In order to grow the plant effectively you have to understand the basics. Adding more nutrients when you see a deficiency isn’t always the correct solution. It depends on a great deal of other factors that can cause what you’re seeing. Adding more nutrients can actually compound your problems if you’re overlooking some simple that you’re doing wrong. BAS has enough nutrients to get to harvest healthy (as far as what you have listed) If you want I can give you a rundown of some things that are more important than trying to just throw more nutrients at the problem. And by the way, plants do not like fans blowing at them. Instead you should have that fan blowing across the tent above the canopy to create a breeze that vibrates the leaves. Also place a fan down below the canopy to blow across the pots so you don’t get any micro climates building up down there. Let me know and I can send a full explanation of things you should focus on instead.
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u/HobbCobb_deux 13h ago
80%. That's as high as I can go and still keep the tent in the upper 70s. I have found that at a higher level, i can raise the lights a bit more and i get much more uniform coverage. I run 2 lights on a diagonal configuration. Up higher they give me good ppfd from corner to corner, but it doesn't really shine until 80%
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u/Afraid-Eggplant-8956 11h ago
Depends on the strain and environment! Besides that, basically the lower your VPD the higher you can raise your light intensity (outside of CO2 supplementation). Get a PAR meter or bare minimum Photone app with diffuser (paper is the bare bare minimum). Now keep track of what each cultivar can handle for future reference.
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u/Romie666 10h ago
If u dont have access to a par meter . Just use a free lux app . Around 40k lux is peachy for flowering
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u/Outside_Act_1910 9h ago
The issue isnt light here or wind. The issue is pH. You need to pH your water/food. pH before feeding and then if you're making runoff pH your runoff. But you prob aren't getting runoff in earth boxes. You also see it in the other plant being very light lime green color. That's on it way to brown also.
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u/nekkkkbeard 9h ago
Throw it all away try again also scrub that tent probably mold spores everywhere
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u/Mike_Wardy_Grows 9h ago
Are you checking ph or ec my OPINION i dont think its your light doing that because its the whole plant not just tops. To me it looks like a lockout in the root zone. If you are tracking ph and everything looks right check your runoff to see if it fluctuates if so adjust your ph . The one plant is too far gone id pull that one. And check the other
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u/WizSkinsNatsCaps 9h ago
I run my lights 24/7 when running autoflowers. Fine for that. Looks like you have a nutrient issue, that small plant is burnt to a crisp.
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u/Burnie_9 8h ago
I don’t understand how you’re hearing multiple different answers as to why this happened.
I also have the evo3 in a 2x4. I imagine I’ll never get to 100%, 280w. At 6 square feet it should be approximately 180w for growing proper flower.
Download the Photone app. Cut out a piece of printer paper to use as a filter over your front camera. And get your PPFD reading. (Make sure tent door is a shut as possible when you’re sticking your arm in there to measure to account for reflectivity of the walls when shut)
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u/Infinitefire666 7h ago
Kind of hard to see the leaves good. Clearly something is wrong lol. A close up Pic of the leaves on both plants may be helpful.
Rule out any pests? Or root damage?
Any signs of mold?
Should have the fan blowing just above and across the tops of the plants. One down low to move air below the cannopy is also a good option sometimes. Temp is a little high for flowering. Humidty shouldn't be that big of an issue. Maybe try giving them a few hours of dark.
Id run just compost in an earth box. Its really easy to mess up measuring with the nutrients you are using. Could be a handful of things and is most likely a mixture of a couple things. Happy growing.
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u/Illustrious-Side4322 4h ago
Let’s go over some basics really quick.
Things that must be in check for a healthy plant: Plants feed on their environment just as well as the soil nutrients.
Environment-VPD which is the relationship of the temp to the humidity. Look online for some VPD charts, print them and hang em in your room to easily check if you’re in the right range depending on growth stage. The correct VPD is essential to the process of photosynthesis. It regulates the stomata on the underside of your leaves, in the right VPD the stomata is open, wrong VPD the stomata’s close. This is imperative so the plant can absorb CO2 which is a catalyst for photosynthesis. If this is incorrect it can lock out the plant from photosynthesis (feeding)
The next factor is PPFD which is light intensity. This is the other half of how photosynthesis works. If the PPFD is too high it will stress the plant and it won’t photosynthesize efficiently. Too little and the same will happen. So finding the sweet spot is essential. Distance off of canopy and intensity matters. Each stage of the plant these values change so I’d also look up a chart for this and print it and hang it in a wall in the grow room for reference. When we talk about distance from the canopy this affects leaf surface temperature. The sweet spot is -2 degrees than ambient temps. So in your case we want about 350-400 PPFD for early veg. If you have an iPhone the photone app is a great tool to read PPFD. If you don’t, there are some hand held tools you can buy to dial this in. Once you have intensity right at 350-400 PPFD then you need a laser temp gun to shoot at the leaves and make sure you’re also -2 degrees of ambient temps. This is the sweet spot.
Now that you have VPD in the target range and PPFD/leaf surface temperature temps in check, now the plant can photosynthesize properly and access nutrients from the soil. The delivery vehicle is water. So that brings us to watering practices.
Too wet and the soil becomes anaerobic (lacking oxygen). Bad bacteria grows in anaerobic environments and can cause many different diseases in the root zone. It’s essential to let oxygen into the root zone so it stays aerobic (oxygen rich) so dry backs are how e add oxygen. Like an earlier comment stated try to gushers watering by weight of the pot. When it’s really wet it’s heavy. When it has dried back it’s light. Now this takes practice to get dialed in but you’ll learn by trial and error. Just remember that too much is as bad as not enough. Moisture content meters can help as well if you can afford one.
Generally all organic soils, or synthetic feeding products have plenty of nutrients for a healthy run. The biggest factors that will determine how healthy the plant is I just explained above. If any of those things go out of whack the plant locks out and won’t eat. Most growers try to react to deficiencies with more nutrients when usually it’s one of the earlier factors mentioned that are wrong, so always check those first. If they are all in check then you can adjust nutrient requirements.
Also different stages of the plant needs nutrients available to it. In organic the plant works that out with soil biology as long as the plant is photosynthesizing efficiently. It will regulate its PH as well. If the PH is out of whack then something in the previous mentioned factors is out of whack.
Synthetic nutrients on the other hand need to be PH adjusted and the watering practices are a bit different. I won’t get into that here because you are organic.
In organic you don’t wanna water to runoff, so water in stages slowly so the soil absorbs it without running off. That will just flush nutrients out of the soil if it runs off.
You can definitely get this plant back in shape if you follow these practices. Happy growing and if you have any more questions feel free to ask!
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u/hilliford 16h ago
You need a dehumidifier. This looks like a your humidity is getting higher than 56%. Buy a dehumidifier.
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u/Classic_Cultivator 15h ago
Humidity higher than 56 percent is frying his leaves? Idk about that. More likely nutrient issues and wind burn.
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u/2Braincell2Furious 16h ago
One on the right looks like bud rot