Hash Hounds Brixperiment with Doc's Kit

[Doc Bud]

That's an amazing plant!

First time no bud rot, eh? Also your first time going for higher brix....coincidence? I don't think so......

I can't wait to see what you can make that kit do! That's not a plant, it's a shrubbery! Dang...

 

[Hash Hound]

Doc,

I have had bud rot that has destroyed from just a bud or two to maybe an ounce on every grow so far.

I inspected the plants yesterday and they were rot free. Spotted one nanner though.

Any idea what makes those buds get so big at the top like a base ball bat shape rather than the pine cone shape? It seems like the top 10 inches or so are almost a different plant. Is that the sweet spot for a 600w or something like that. Both the PE and Diesel are like that, so I don't think its the strains. Last time I grew Diesel it was more normal type buds.

I did use the Digital+ HPS from HTG this time with more blue.

Question on the fabric pots I will be using;

Is there an advantage to letting them sit in a small pan that catches run off and let it set in that? Or is it better to let them drain to run off?

 

[Doc Bud]

Doc,

I have had bud rot that has destroyed from just a bud or two to maybe an ounce on every grow so far.

I inspected the plants yesterday and they were rot free. Spotted one nanner though.

Any idea what makes those buds get so big at the top like a base ball bat shape rather than the pine cone shape? It seems like the top 10 inches or so are almost a different plant. Is that the sweet spot for a 600w or something like that. Both the PE and Diesel are like that, so I don't think its the strains. Last time I grew Diesel it was more normal type buds.

I did use the Digital+ HPS from HTG this time with more blue.

Question on the fabric pots I will be using;

Is there an advantage to letting them sit in a small pan that catches run off and let it set in that? Or is it better to let them drain to run off?

Definitely there's a sweet spot for every light, and with plants as large as yours there will be a difference between top and bottom. I wouldn't worry about the male flower. You're letting them go for amber, so that's to be expected. Has more to do with the strain than anything else.

You'll get your brix over 12 with the kit I think, so disease is a thing of the past from now on bro.

I really don't like the idea of a fabric pot sitting in water.....I can't say I've tried it....but I wouldn't do it.

 

[cannasensei]

These aren't catch trays there flood trays ya dig?

I'm very against top feeding in soil unless watering in a top dressing. Especially with fabric pots. Top feeding causes soil compaction, not good for a plant that loves an airy soil.

Pour your feed into the tray and continue to top off until the pots has stopped absorbing then dump the excess. This is the only way to see the full potential and benefits from smartpots in my experience.

Plants look epic!

 

[Vapedogg223]

These aren't catch trays there flood trays ya dig?

I'm very against top feeding in soil unless watering in a top dressing. Especially with fabric pots. Top feeding causes soil compaction, not good for a plant that loves an airy soil.

Pour your feed into the tray and continue to top off until the pots has stopped absorbing then dump the excess. This is the only way to see the full potential and benefits from smartpots in my experience.

Plants look epic!

You can flood them...I did for the deep root soaking...but then you drain. All Doc was saying is that he wouldn't leave them sitting in water. But either way, I don't see compaction being a problem with this soil.

 

[cannasensei]

I caught that. Not disagreeing there lol. Always dump the excess. Always. But soil compaction is a legitimate concern in any mix. The chances of seeing a huge problem are almost nil but why compact soil and adversely effect the plant. We all know docs got a solid mix. As evidence by thus and his own journals, but if u think its kicking ass now immagine what it'd do staying fluffed

Not saying its wrong to top feed, obviously, its been done for thousands of years. So I apologize if that was the way it sounded. Merely giving my (admittedly unsolicited) experience. Ill have to do a top vs bottom side by side for ya guys... ud never touch the top soil again.

 

[Hash Hound]

Thanks for the input guys.

I will probably water with a tray of some sort just to catch the water at time of feeding to let the run off get absorbed back in, whats left will be dumped within an hour. Maybe I can try 2 top feed and 2 bottom. We'll cross that bridge in a few weeks.

Similar to the 5 gal buckets I am using now. I have an elbow in the bottom of the bucket with a small clear tube riser of about 4 inches. The end of the elbow on the inside of the bucket is under a piece of that perforated corner bead for drywall. I have it in an X pattern, covered with a small piece of landscape fabric. I leave it up while I water, then between a half and an hour, I will turn the elbow down and drain the pot. That allows a little air to reach the bottom

Had I not already got the fabric pots, I was going to place something in the bottom of the bucket with a bunch of holes in it like a plastic food colander. That way after the elbow is turned down, it lets air into the bottom of the pot. My friend even suggested maybe pushing some air in on occasion.

 

[Doc Bud]

You can flood them...I did for the deep root soaking...but then you drain. All Doc was saying is that he wouldn't leave them sitting in water. But either way, I don't see compaction being a problem with this soil.

This soil won't compact as much as some other soils.....but....see below

I caught that. Not disagreeing there lol. Always dump the excess. Always. But soil compaction is a legitimate concern in any mix. The chances of seeing a huge problem are almost nil but why compact soil and adversely effect the plant. We all know docs got a solid mix. As evidence by thus and his own journals, but if u think its kicking ass now immagine what it'd do staying fluffed

Not saying its wrong to top feed, obviously, its been done for thousands of years. So I apologize if that was the way it sounded. Merely giving my (admittedly unsolicited) experience. Ill have to do a top vs bottom side by side for ya guys... ud never touch the top soil again.

I do believe you're exactly on the money here Sensei! I always give everything in veg a few good bottom feeds and it's always a very positive result when I do. I'll have to try it in bloom, but I worry about the weigh of 60+ gallons of soil and the weight of all that water. I'd have to re-inforce the way my trays are set up....which might not be a bad idea. I do think having the large containers helps a lot, however. Once you get over 7 gallons or so, with plants the size of ours I don't think the bottom watering has as great of an advantage.

But, I could be wrong and I'd be willing to make changes as necessary!

Either way, your plants are killing it, HH!

 

[Hash Hound]

Sensei

how deep are your trays? Do you feed with nutes from the bottom also?

If it were to suck up all you put in for a normal feeding, do you keep adding until she's not thirsty any more?

I have done wicks before. But even then I would fill up the reservoir by adding over the top.

By the way in my current grow, the dirt is as high in the bucket it has been since transplant. So I really can't imagine it being compacted. You can see that a few pics back how high the dirt still is.

It is a mix of Promix Organic, some perlite. It's a fairly light mix. I normally feed with an old washing machine hose attached to the bottom of a 6gl bucket. I aerate the water until ready to use, brew a tea, lift it up on to a shelf and let gravity do it's thing.

 

[cannasensei]

This soil won't compact as much as some other soils.....but....see below



I do believe you're exactly on the money here Sensei! I always give everything in veg a few good bottom feeds and it's always a very positive result when I do. I'll have to try it in bloom, but I worry about the weigh of 60+ gallons of soil and the weight of all that water. I'd have to re-inforce the way my trays are set up....which might not be a bad idea. I do think having the large containers helps a lot, however. Once you get over 7 gallons or so, with plants the size of ours I don't think the bottom watering has as great of an advantage.

But, I could be wrong and I'd be willing to make changes as necessary!

Either way, your plants are killing it, HH!

Thanks doc. Its always made sense to me... I admittedly never exceeded 7 gallons (waste of soil to go any larger in my setup) so u MAY be onto something with the larger pots. But in the same regard more soil means more water means more wight = more compaction in theory. Water weighs about 8.5 lbs per gallon. So watering a 60 gallon pot would mean more water weight overall sitting atop til absorbed. I'm not honestly sure how that one would work. Something I may have to play with outdoors this year eh? Thanks for the idea mate.

I see no harm in reinforced anything especially tables u depend on. And experiments as u know can lead to great things. Lmk if u do and what comes of it, would love to give it a look see

Sensei

how deep are your trays? Do you feed with nutes from the bottom also?

If it were to suck up all you put in for a normal feeding, do you keep adding until she's not thirsty any more?

I have done wicks before. But even then I would fill up the reservoir by adding over the top.

By the way in my current grow, the dirt is as high in the bucket it has been since transplant. So I really can't imagine it being compacted. You can see that a few pics back how high the dirt still is.

It is a mix of Promix Organic, some perlite. It's a fairly light mix. I normally feed with an old washing machine hose attached to the bottom of a 6gl bucket. I aerate the water until ready to use, brew a tea, lift it up on to a shelf and let gravity do it's thing.

The trays I use are just simple 16" saucers bought at the shop. They're about 2" high on the sides and hold about 1 gallon water and a 5g smartpot before overflowing. And yes sir.. bottom feed everytime. The ONLY time water touches the top of my soil it when I give them 32oz with vitamin b on transplant to water them in. Otherwise never again unless I have to top dress with super soil in which case ill water it in 1-2x then back to bottom feed.

I agree ur soil looks great, and again I apologize if I made it sound urgent lol. As I said the odds of you actually SEEING a problem from it are almost nil. Ud about have to dump the whole bucket at once to compact it to a point of starting to actually harm the plant. But consider this, the cannabis thrives off the beaten path, not because seclusion, but because the ground is not beaten.

It would grow likely just fine on the path, dry hard compacted soil (see dirt road) but we know the fluffy fresh soil off to the side will provide more air to the roots. Which anyone who's grown hydro knows this means explosive growth.

So no it wont likely have a detrimental effect on anyone's grow. But you will also never see full potential this way IMO. That's one more thing working against the Plant.

Shoes ... you gonna wear the old tired ones that are tatter torn compacted and too small anymore, sole so smashed the bottom of ur feet can't breathe ? Or u want the new ones, clean shiny, that new memory foam liner Dr scholls insteps and an arch support so high the winds beneath ur feet are almost turbulent? I could probably give you 100 more redundant metaphors and analogies but I wont lol. . I like to give the info, and allow others to form their own opinions to share. And when o have time do a tutorial on it. Ill post up. Idea by side with the next journal

 

[Doc Bud]

So no it wont likely have a detrimental effect on anyone's grow. But you will also never see full potential this way IMO. That's one more thing working against the Plant.

You're making all kinds of sense! I do think there are some advantages of top feeding for certain reasons....like helping the plant remove waste and as you mentioned, top dressing. But overall, bottom feeding makes all kinds of sense, barring other factors.

My trays are supported by 2x4's on top of cinder blocks. It's probably strong enough, but I'll upgrade to 4x4's and do some 'spiramenten. I'm always looking for an edge and I'll take anything I can get.

 

[cannasensei]

Very good point to make doc. Reps.

I grow organic so flushing and leaching are not concerns, but if you are running chem ferts/when I was. It was feed, feed (both from bottom), water (top) repeat and so on. Net fabric plastic idc what pot you use, if your using soil a leaching should be done at least once monthly with chem ferts. We've all seen toxicity before.

eagerly awaiting the sperimentation!!! Thanks for kind words doc. Wish u lived closer... we could benefit from one another greatly Haha.

 

[Doc Bud]

Very good point to make doc. Reps.

I grow organic so flushing and leaching are not concerns, but if you are running chem ferts/when I was. It was feed, feed (both from bottom), water (top) repeat and so on. Net fabric plastic idc what pot you use, if your using soil a leaching should be done at least once monthly with chem ferts. We've all seen toxicity before.

eagerly awaiting the sperimentation!!! Thanks for kind words doc. Wish u lived closer... we could benefit from one another greatly Haha.

I'm running all organic too....except for occasional calcium nitrate, which really should be listed organic.

As for benefiting from one another... I agree. I've got a little brain trust here that I bounce ideas off of. I pretty much left them in the dust when it comes to soil and feeding....they mostly follow my lead on that. But these guys have skills that I won't get for a while......like 15+ years of growing.

I have all kinds of room for improvement when it comes to canopy management, rotations, and probably even trimming and drying. I haven't tried even half of all the methods out there when it comes to those things.

There's always something to learn!

 

[cannasensei]

Remember that last line and the sky is the limit! If ur not learning something new everyday "your doin it wrong!"

 

[Hash Hound]

Test buds of my Pineapple Express are improving from a very good not to stony, not to buzzy high to the same high with a clear perspective overtone. Lulls you into thinking you aren't really high until you attempt to actually function.

Like taking 15 minutes to write those two sentences. ya mon

 

[Hash Hound]

Here is a little update on the vege. Watered about 4 hours ago. Sure look healthy for no feedings since the start.

They will be going into another room most likely this weekend.

Doc would you put these right into flower or give them a week or two to get used to the new pots?

Pineapple Express, 35 days, notice the lowest branch how far it is reaching since I cut the opposite branch.

Diesel, 29 days,

Mohan Ram, 29 days,

White Widow, 17 days,

 

[Doc Bud]

They look great! If possible, give them a couple days to get some root action after transplanting. Remember to water with transplant water!

You're gonna be real happy.....you're rockin' it.

 

[cannasensei]

Love mohans leaves

 

[Hash Hound]

Just wrapped up the last grow 50/50 tris and a few ambers

The Pineapple was starting to show some nice colors, but 11 is all I would give her. She showed hairs at 2 weeks so this is 9 weeks since hairs.

Posted most of the pics on the eye candy thread
Come on folks let's see some eye candy! Here's some for ya

Root ball of the Diesel

Diesel main cola

Pineapple Express

 

[Hash Hound]

out with the old in with the new

After an near catastrophe of not being able to use the flower room, things worked out and all is well.

So here we go;

I will give then them 7 to 10 days then 12/12.

Sprinkled the Root Zone on the bottom of the hole, and a little on the side of the root ball. Watered, then gave them each a pint of Transplant.

I will mix the Brix and Stress this week.

here is the soil in 7gl fabric bags. So far they seem nice. easy to lift with handles. We'll see when they get a good soaking how easy it is to maneuver them.

root ball of the Pineapple Express

All set

Diesel

Mohan Ram

White Widow

Pineapple Express