Gr8ful - Soil - Blue Mystic - N.L. - Aurora Indica

[Gr8fulMedHead]

They are looking alot better, but is that a little nute burn on the leaf tips, or is that just from the issues earlier on?

Hey NEPharmer, I was thinking the same thing about the stress, glad you confirmed it. I think the tips are the residual effects of the past few weeks. The leaves are getting a lot healthier looking but the parts that were fried are just not gonna come back, I have trimmed some of those off.

I was reading in Jorges book about pot sizes and he said most growers would rather use a tall 5 gallon pot as opposed to a short and wider one. Anyways, I decided to wrap a home depot bucket in a black platic bag to help block the light and cut some holes in it for drainage for 1 of my tall Blue Mystics to test that theory. I have 7 gallon shorter and fatter buckets and I planted the other 16 inch Blue Mystic in it. Same soil mix, 50% Fox Farms Happy Frog and 50% Pro Mix with some extra perlite stirred in too. I watered them in with plain RO water with PH in 6.5 range, still waiting on my pen tester to come in.

 

[HempRocket]

Sounds like you're getting the hang of all of this.

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

Sounds like you're getting the hang of all of this.

Thanks Hemp, I am learning everyday thanks to you and the rest of the 420 folks that are following this grow!

The transplant seems to have taken well, 1 of the Blue Mystic Ladies was reaching towards the lights and looking good, the other is not showing much stress but it is early I know.

Also, the power went out last night for a period of time, not sure how long but 1 of my fans did not turn itself back on when power came back on so my sensor that is at canopy level said 91 Degrees. I immmediatley turned the fan back on and it dropped right away. However it was about 6 and 1/2 hours since the power went out, so I am not sure how long they had the inteense heat or how long it took for the heat to increase that much. Anywho, they look as good as they did yesterday so hopefully we will not get any other heat stress out of my little ladies.

I ordered 6 black 5 gallon buckets to test Jorges theory about using a deeper bucket rather than wider and lower ones. The other reason I will probably buy 6 more is that the 5 gallon buckets will fit 6 to a table so I could have 12 in those buclkets between my 2 work surfaces / tables. I will hold off a while as unless I get my wife her card I may not need to get them right away.

 

[HempRocket]

 

[phdtje]

Hi Gr8fulmedhead,

Your plants are growing well. I think should back off with nutrients for a while though, they look very burned.
The burning should recover slowly when going to good nute balance, now that they are transplanted, they should have at least an ok soil balance or even a good balance.

Is the root nutrient containing salts like NPK, you're saying 1-1-1 ? And is it also contain hormones and other sweet stuff?
Do they still need that? I don't know about the brand and the schedule.
Also for the Ca/Mg, isnt that supplied in the Grow fertilizer? Sometimes you need some extra though, but not often for continues time, as far as i know.
I would in this case only give them the Grow fertilizer and if they need it, some Ca/Mg.
First time water of course when transplanted. Don't know how much there is in the soil. Just build up very slowly when starting, unless seriously spotting defiencies, which in vegative mostly N, which is spotted first.
What does the Grow schedule say?

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

What does the Grow schedule say?

Hi phdtje, I am following the General Organics nute schedule to the T the last 10 days or so. My plants were really suffering before I started that routine. I really credit the bounce back to the nutes, I know the edges of the leaves look a little crispy and I believe that is just residual wreckage from a nute deficiency. I have however laid off the nutes the last 2 waterings, I have 6 black 5 gallon buckets arriving today so I will transplant the rest of them in the next 24 hours using only RO water. I figure a couple waterings with straight RO H2O and then slowly reintroduce the nutes following the schedule. The guys at the grow store told me all along my problem was they needed the nutes but I was afraid of burning them. When they were looking weak after week 2 I tried to give them a quarter does 2 times and they kept getting worse, maybe needed to keep with the nutes at that time to stop the slide but I was too afraid of nute burn so backed off. Live and learn, I still need to get it through my fat head that some need water when others do not, do not need to water all of them at the same time. I am learning and trying to follow advice as I am totally green at this, no pun intended! However, I have been more on the conservative side as opposed to trying to aggressivley fix the issues I have had.

I will post some more pics in the next couple of days. Been moving stuff around in my veg room to try some different layouts and also doing that in my staging area trying to maximize my space, make it clean and start making some space for more plants when I get another card/patient/ie my wife

I am experiencing some heat issues unfortunatley, need to wash the sock on my carbon filter i think. Any body have any recommendations on cooling device / Air conditioner as I want to start researching that before I add another T-5 this spring?

 

[NEPharmer]

The more you grow you will start to get a good feel of when each plant needs water or not. I just pick up each pot daily and feel the weight, if its light enough I water/(add nutes when nec), if it still has a little weight to it Ill hold off and check again the next day. Depending on the size of the plant, and the size of the pot, they will drink very little, or drink a ton. Other variables come into play aswell, but thats the basics.
An a.c. would really help with your heat issues, they have those stand alone units that you can tie into your vent, you just set the temp where you want it. I grow in a basement where the temps stay pretty low, so with my lights and just a 6" exaust and some fans for circulation it stays where I want it. How are the plants looking now, are the still improving?

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

I grow in a basement where the temps stay pretty low, so with my lights and just a 6" exaust and some fans for circulation it stays where I want it. How are the plants looking now, are the still improving?

Hey NEPharmer, yep they still seem to be improving, I am slightly encouraged. I think i am going to try another oscillating fan before I go the AC route as the one I have is not as good as I thought it would be. I also have another fan (not oscillating) that blows straight behind some of the plants. So when I can find one that looks good, plain and sturdy, no electronics, i will buy it and give it a try. I am going to do some transplanting over the next 24 hours and take some more pic's so you guys can check them out.

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

Just a quick update, checked my PH for the first time with the new Pen and found that my PH is between7.0-7.1. I checked my soil PH by putting 1/3 soil 2/3 water in a cup and let it settle a bit and it appears the soil PH is 6.3. I dumped the soil water into a different cup and tested the PH again and it was also 6.3.

 

[NEPharmer]

I'm not sure if this method works, are you saying that the original ph of the water was 7.0 and then you mixed it with the soil and got a reading of 6.3? I suppose it can give you a pretty good idea, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. I ussually just use my meter to know the ph of any water or nute mix going in so I'll have a good idea of where my soil is. If your transplanting now, you will be able to moniter all of your feedings and waterings ph from here on out and be able to keep it in range much better. I could be missing something here though, so let me know if thats the case. Good luck bro!
NEPharmer

 

[phdtje]

Don't forget that you are only adding some water pH 7.0 to the whole pot usually containing much more water, like at least 3 or 4 times the amount you add. So it wont fluctuate that much.
Also don't underestimate plant's abilities to regulate soil pH themselves.

You could be right about the nutrients and their needs. To me it looks like this: Looking at colors and also bit at shape of leaves, the total yellowing of the lower leaves is due to lack of N.
The yellowing and the bit pointy tips, curved and/or burned edges, bit of stiffness in the burned leaves, is due to too much K. This is the yellowing on the sides of the leave, usually leaving central nerves greenish, sometimes the yellowing processing towards center of leaf and can turn orange colored.
Looking at leaves hanging, this could also be due to N deficiencies. Green leaves are also a bit pale greenish. Could be due to too much again most likely K, but this will most of the time will be at the same time as burning showing in the same plant. So for those which hardly show any K excess it´s most likely out of the question. Remains us with palle greenish, could be due to lack of N, but could also be due to much water in the medium. This way the nutes wont get taken into the system fast enough, lacking air and oxygen.

I think that´s about it what i can say about the situation.
Again some plants look having N deficiencies, some look they have K excesses, some in between. Judging on average is usually best, don't stare blind on one or two plants going not too good, average is what it is about.
Increasing average good yields.

edit
Except for the plants that look best, take their averages; water dose, nutrients, pot weight, also feel humidity in soil with your fingers. Compare that to the plants that look less healthy, not necessarily small. Use some plants, even sacrifice them to check and try things out. It's for collective they must understand.

Just in general, too much nutrients can cause a plant to stun growth, or grow slowly, although leaves are not very big and not all are green, if they are abundant compared to plant size then it could be general too much nutrients for all elements, so also N.
Looking closer at some different strains from your pictures, i think only 1 or 2 strains had or have had a bit of N lacking.
Different kind of fertilizer can cause different effects. Sometimes reading difficulties from plants if difficult and sometimes when discovered already a lot damage been done, though you might conclude differently from plant checking. can be a pain in the arse. So sometimes you are only going from bad to worse to trash bin action and restart.

Just begin slowly, add 1/4 of recommended like you did, increase slowly but keep increasing. Start acceleration of increasing nutrients only when plants want to almost grow about 25% or more compared to the current size they have at the average doses of nutrients in about 2 week time, in vegetative phase. Usually when they want to grow to adult phase. When starting flowering and accelerated pre flowering grow kicks in, plants can even grow more than 50% in 2 weeks time. And usually then is when you start accelerating the nutrients increasing.

The thing is with too fast increasing nutes, you can have temporal lock outs, which can screw up your increasing benefits. Usually they only need a bit. Vegetative phase growth and needs are normally quite steady if climate remains constant, except for when reaching maturity, they'll need a bit more maybe. Also don't be afraid to just water or half dose some time, same when increasing nutrients, increase dose one time or 2, then reduce to what you gave before increasing. If they take it well, after 3 or 4 days, go to the increased dosage. I usually took it per week, for increasing, sometimes a just bit sometimes more, if they didnt take it well, reduce to original dosage of previous days or week. then couple of days or a week later try again. This about flowering stage mostly, they want to end their lives with a bang of flowers, you just gotta help them. Specially when it's hormonally stimulated seed from seed banks, stuff wants to grow and produce, not always a fan of though.

 

[HempRocket]

Also don't underestimate plant's abilities to regulate soil pH themselves.

Plants do not regulate soil pH!!!

 

[HempRocket]

The thing is with too fast increasing nutes, you can have temporal lock outs, which can screw up your increasing benefits.

High phdtje, I was reading your advise and I wasn't sure what you were trying to say here. As we are all still learning about how to grow our beloved plants, are you able to explain what "temporal lock outs" are?

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

I'm not sure if this method works, are you saying that the original ph of the water was 7.0 and then you mixed it with the soil and got a reading of 6.3? I suppose it can give you a pretty good idea, but I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Hi NEPharmer, I read somewhere that is how you test the soil PH, not sure if it is the right way or not but i did the test for shites and giggles as I got my new pen!!

You could be right about the nutrients and their needs. To me it looks like this: Looking at colors and also bit at shape of leaves, the total yellowing of the lower leaves is due to lack of N.
The yellowing and the bit pointy tips, curved and/or burned edges, bit of stiffness in the burned leaves, is due to too much K.

phdtje, I will try to start diagnosing plants individually, I am sure a lot of you would be horrified I treat them all the same!! My parents always treated me and my brother the same after all LOL! I try to water them individually but the nutes I have treated all plants th esame from the get go, I will try to be more scientific as I understand what you are saying about experimenting, I am looking for yield but i am also not naive enough to think that at my first grow I am gonna hit my numbers. I am going to have to take more time when I water and feed and document a lot better if I do individually, but I can comprehend the benefits down the road.

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

My transplanted babies in their new buckets, all had massive root balls or at least amounts of roots when I did the transplant.

6 more ladies waiting for their day in the big bucket!

Blue Mystic #2

NL#5

BM #5

BM #1

BM #3

BM#4

NL#2

NL#3

Aurora Indica #1

NL#1

AI #2

NL#4

OK, so I transplanted 4 more as that is the space I had to work with and I did the ones I LST'd as they drank more H2O and I think they were the most ready.

I tested the PH of my RO water and it was 6.9 today and when I tested the run off water it was 5.5. I tested the runoff 3 times and always came back to 5.5, same with the plain ole RO water at 6.9.

I am playing around with my room layout a bit and starting to learn how this process will be able to be dialed in. I now think I have most of the mechanics down as far as what goes where and how much of this and that I need to mix. Next I think I need to start learning more about th eplants themselves and what their needs are instead of taking a one size fits all like I have been doing.

Thank you all for the input, I am starting to see the thought process involved in growing and how I should be approaching my learning curve going forward.

eace: Brothers!!!

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

Hi Guys,

I am starting to think about flowering my blue mystic #3 and 4 as they are about 19 inches and 22 inches tall. I did read another post saying do not flower for 10 days after the last transplant and that sounds smart, I figured I would wait a week but another few days will not hurt.

Question on my flower room. I have a metal exterior door that seals pretty well but I can still see a trace of light a few spots where the rubber seal does not do its job. Last night I did put some foam weather stripping along the sides of the inside of the door which should help the cause a bit. And I thought I would put a door sweep at the bottom and top so that should help too. I almost thought about hanging a velvetcurtain or something but thought it may get nasty with the dirt, water and everyting else in there.

My fear is having some of my girls Hermy on me as they are feminised seeds and I know light leak could screw me. Any suggestions or do you think i will be ok with the precautions I am taking? I just worry about th efoam weather stripping falling off as it does not seem to be sticking too well.

Thanks.

 

[placerville]

IMHO trying to seal out the light is a good idea, but I grow outside during the summer and no way to seal out the lights there with beautiful results.

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

IMHO trying to seal out the light is a good idea, but I grow outside during the summer and no way to seal out the lights there with beautiful results.

LOL! There is no substitute for mother nature, unfortunatley I live in a neighborhood and fairly populated area. All of the corn fields around me have been hit for decades by the guerilla growers and farmers with their own land. No way I am going outdoors for at least 7 years. That is when I believe I can move to a rural area and start my own mini farm

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

So far my weather stripping seems to be working, sealed my flower room light tight.

I have been adjusting my PH with nutes in the water to be in the 6-6.5 range and it seems like the run off is testing at 5.8 or so with my new pen. I have calibrated the pen 3 times since i got it and it appears to be off by .1 every time I check it, maybe just hard to dial in. I also forgot I bout a Luster Leaf soil PH tester so I tried it on my blue mystics and Aurora Indica soil as I watered both today. The BM was 7.0 and the Aurora's soil said it was 6.5. I know it is a cheap tester and I read reviews saying they work ok for some, not so for others.

I have been adjusting my PH up the last couple waters as that is what the PH pen had indicated was needed so hopefully that will help me dial in a little more health into these ladies.

 

[Gr8fulMedHead]

Oh I almost forgot, when nutes added the PH is usually around 5.2-5.3. I put in a little, little splash of PH up and it goes to 6-6.5. I am probably adding a teaspoon per gallon at most to bring it up.