If my lights are discoloring the plant, and I can't raise them, should I dim them or keep them on high during flower?

[Bantersaurus]

I'm worried that dimming them will cost me yields, but there's no other option - I can't raise my lights and my tent is too packed to really die down the colas (I tried). Take a look at the photos below for more info. As you can see, there's a certain height beyond which the colas will start discoloring, but most of the plants aren't above this height, so I'm considering just leaving the lights so that the yield overall is better.

There is a slight cal/mag issue, but it may be from too much. I'm giving it Mega Crop and Bud Explosion; I skipped the cal/mag for a week, but I might start adding it again.

 

[Simplicio]

You have a dilemma.
Reduce yield with light burn, or reduce yield with less light.
The top colas will thank you for dimming the light, but the lower buds won't like it.
If you can afford the time, dimming lights, harvesting the top when ready, then letting the bottom go awhile might work.

 

[Bantersaurus]

You have a dilemma.
Reduce yield with light burn, or reduce yield with less light.
The top colas will thank you for dimming the light, but the lower buds won't like it.
If you can afford the time, dimming lights, harvesting the top when ready, then letting the bottom go awhile might work.

Yep, it's quite a pickle, haha. I can't really afford to harvest separately as I only have one tent to do everything in. I think I will just put up with the damage done to the top colas - the inner and bottom colas are largely unaffected, and even most of the top colas aren't really affected. It's just the highest level of colas that are getting badly burnt. I did dim my lights back a bit, and I'll be adding more cal/mag. Not much else to do in this case unless anyone has some creative solutions.

 

[Olderfart]

You don't need to dry in your tent, you can hang in a big cardboard box and lead a dryer hose from the box to the air intake of your tent. A computer fan or two in the box to keep air moving is a good idea, and a humidity meter in the box allows adjustment of humidity. Air intake from the tent can be adjusted by partial blocking of the hose with tape or adjusting the amount of overlap between the hose end and the tent intake.

If you do this, you can harvest in stages, and you won't have to scorch the high stuff. That's what I did, and it worked a treat.

 

[Bantersaurus]

I thought of a possible management strategy, but wasn't sure about whether it'd be too taxing. What if I just defoliated the mostly yellow leaves? They're not really taking light in well, and they're blocking the bud sites. It's only like 5 - 10 % of the plant, but still.

 

[Olderfart]

I thought of a possible management strategy, but wasn't sure about whether it'd be too taxing. What if I just defoliated the mostly yellow leaves? They're not really taking light in well, and they're blocking the bud sites. It's only like 5 - 10 % of the plant, but still.

If you can keep the top colas happy rather than scorched, I expect you will get more and better bud in the end. The colas themselves can be scorched, not just the fans. Chopping everything too close to the light before the bud is ready doesn't sound like the best plan to me.

 

[Bantersaurus]

It took a lot of sweat and effort, but I was able to raise the lights about a foot or so. They are literally touching the top of the tent now, but at least the coverage is better (more of the tent is illuminated) and it won't fry the top colas as much. I raised the power up a bit, too, since they're further away, but still not at 100%. I'll be monitoring them to see if I can raise it even more.