Mars Hydro Grow Journal: TSL 2000, 1st Time In Coco, DIY Drip Build, 2x4, Jack Herer SOG

[Sangmang]

Tuna can update:

Amazed at how healthy it looks haha. This is a testament to how well plants do in coco in small containers.

 

[Sangmang]

@GoogleGenie this the calmag deficiency you said to look out for? I had these spots on a couple upper fan leaves and it seems to be getting slightly worse. But I also have slightly burned tips on most of the buds. A couple lower fan leaves look like salt buildup symptoms(random necrotic spots). Do I just need to back my feed way down?

 

[GoogleGenie]

@GoogleGenie this the calmag deficiency you said to look out for? I had these spots on a couple upper fan leaves and it seems to be getting slightly worse. But I also have slightly burned tips on most of the buds. A couple lower fan leaves look like salt buildup symptoms(random necrotic spots). Do I just need to back my feed way down?

Hey @Sangmang. Due to the combination of Ca deficiency and nute burn I'd give them a light flushing with Water + CalMag to make sure your coco is well buffered, and see what your run off is coming out at. When you're happy with run off, give it an hour before feeding.

When you resume feeding, i'd recommend going in light, and maybe bump your CalMag up a touch. Don't give any bloom boost with this feed. Just CalMag, base nutrient and bennies if you give any.

 

[Sangmang]

Alright so I ran almost 2 gallons of water + full dose calmag through each plant which brought the runoff that was 1100ppm(yikes) down to 450. Mixed a new res with a full dose calmag and about 30% less base nutes than bottle recommends. Total feed ppm this res is 650. Gonna feed 3x a day to a little more runoff that I was previously. I also added a humidifier/controller to keep my rh around 45% so my vpd should be on point. It's freezing here rn and rh was getting down to 30%

Hopefully this solves the issue!

Edit: I'm looking into an RO system because I'm sick of dealing with that extra ppm tapwater.

 

[GoogleGenie]

Alright so I ran almost 2 gallons of water + full dose calmag through each plant which brought the runoff that was 1100ppm(yikes) down to 450. Mixed a new res with a full dose calmag and about 30% less base nutes than bottle recommends. Total feed ppm this res is 650. Gonna feed 3x a day to a little more runoff that I was previously.

Nice work

I also added a humidifier/controller to keep my rh around 45% so my vpd should be on point. It's freezing here rn and rh was getting down to 30%

Nice!

Edit: I'm looking into an RO system because I'm sick of dealing with that extra ppm tapwater.

I don't blame you. It's why i use rain water. But I've recently invested in a little 3 stage RO I'm using as a portable RO. I'm just screwing a diverter valve into my tap, and using that.

 

[Sangmang]

I don't think I can tell yet if the Cal deficiency is resolved. They look underdeveloped for middle of week 5 to my novice eyes though and the pistils are turning orange. I'm assuming if that's the case that it mostly has to do with how crowded they are in the tent. I'm also not confident in the genetics from growers choice seeds. Also having trouble keeping the rootzone above 60f which seems very cold to me. Root zone temp control is another pro for switching to RDWC. Besides all that everything still looks pretty good.

 

[GoogleGenie]

They look good to me @Sangmang. I notice that the fan leaves are quite a dark shade of green and are shiny. This suggests overfert (which you're aware of i'm sure, with the runoff EC being a tad high). Excess of nitrogen can slow flowering. Just keep your feeds light and they'll be fine. It might take a little longer than expected. They look healthy though, and they do still have a long way to go. Keep doing what you're doing mate They're developing and frosting up nicely.

 

[Sangmang]

Calcium/over fert issue is slowly progressing so I'm backing off nutes even further for a while. New res today is 450ppm calmag & base nutes. I switched to Emerald Harvest calmag which has slightly more N but I also stopped adding the GROW nutrients from the EH 3 part and started using the late flower ratios on the bottles(but like half strength) so overall my ratio will have less N. The leaves are dark green and starting to claw just a bit. I wonder if I'm watering too much. I feed about 400ml 3x a day to each 1gal fabric pot. 10-20% runoff each time. Last res was 650ppm and runoff was staying around there too.

I checked a few leaves under the microscope to rule out pests. Just incase I'm misdiagnosing the brown/rust spots. Im still mostly certain its a calcium lockout issue.

A couple of the oldest fan leaves were doing this and pulled off the plant pretty easily. Seems like a salt buildup/overfert symptom to me as well.

 

[GoogleGenie]

Hey @Sangmang

I think dropping your nutes a touch is a good idea, as long as they are showing signs of over fertilisation. But if the run off was coming out the same as it was going in at 650, it does sound like they were pretty happy there, so you know you have some wiggle room.

I feed about 400ml 3x a day to each 1gal fabric pot. 10-20% runoff each time. Last res was 650ppm and runoff was staying around there too.

Do you feed to run off every feed?
What's the PH of your run off?
Would you say that your coco is always wet? Does it get moist/barely moist?

A couple of the oldest fan leaves were doing this and pulled off the plant pretty easily. Seems like a salt buildup/overfert symptom to me as well.

It might be my eyes - but that isn't mould/powdery mildew is it? What is the air flow like in your tent?

 

[Sangmang]

Hey @Sangmang

I think dropping your nutes a touch is a good idea, as long as they are showing signs of over fertilisation. But if the run off was coming out the same as it was going in at 650, it does sound like they were pretty happy there, so you know you have some wiggle room.

Do you feed to run off every feed?
What's the PH of your run off?
Would you say that your coco is always wet? Does it get moist/barely moist?

It might be my eyes - but that isn't mould/powdery mildew is it? What is the air flow like in your tent?

Yeah runoff every time. Oof my runoff rn is actually very low @ 5.0. I honestly never check that because I always calibrate and ph nutes to 5.8 and let them drift up to like 6.4 ish. Maybe we have a culprit here.

Coco is always wet. I don't think it's mould. The damaged areas are like crispy. I'll check more thoroughly though. Although the airflow probably isn't great. I have more than adequate air exchange(pulling through bottom vent out the top) but I only have 2 small clip fans above canopy blowing across plant tops. Canopy is very dense though so below is probably stagnant. Should I put a fan down there?

 

[Sangmang]

Doing a slurry test rn of the coco fyi

 

[GoogleGenie]

Yeah runoff every time. Oof my runoff rn is actually very low @ 5.0. I honestly never check that because I always calibrate and ph nutes to 5.8 and let them drift up to like 6.4 ish. Maybe we have a culprit here.

Yea you wanna bump that up. The twisted leaves were the hint for me. This was probably from when the nutes were too strong.

Coco is always wet.

Allow it to become moist, or barely moist, but never dry. Never wet isn't good either.

I don't think it's mould. The damaged areas are like crispy. I'll check more thoroughly though. Although the airflow probably isn't great. I have more than adequate air exchange(pulling through bottom vent out the top) but I only have 2 small clip fans above canopy blowing across plant tops. Canopy is very dense though so below is probably stagnant. Should I put a fan down there?

Thats good, if its crispy it probably isn't mould. The more air the better really. Have you or will you do any defoliation of your canopy - this can help a lot with air flow if its crowded.

If there is poor airflow another fan would probably help, you want every leaf in there moving at some point.

 

[Sangmang]

Yea you wanna bump that up. The twisted leaves were the hint for me. This was probably from when the nutes were too strong.

Allow it to become moist, or barely moist, but never dry. Never wet isn't good either.

Thats good, if its crispy it probably isn't mould. The more air the better really. Have you or will you do any defoliation of your canopy - this can help a lot with air flow if its crowded.

If there is poor airflow another fan would probably help, you want every leaf in there moving at some point.

Slurry showed 4.9 ph & 200ppm but I don't know if youre even supposed to slurry for ec.

I was trying not to defoliate to further stress the plants but maybe I have to. I'll also add a small fan on the bottom aiming up I suppose.

 

[GoogleGenie]

Slurry showed 4.9 ph & 200ppm but I don't know if youre even supposed to slurry for ec.

I was trying not to defoliate to further stress the plants but maybe I have to. I'll also add a small fan on the bottom aiming up I suppose

I usually defoliate day 21-25 and Day 45. The later I just remove fan leaves to aid airflow and uncover bud sites. But if you’ve already defoliated then fair enough. I guess just try and keep the air moving around as much as poss. Keep an eye on the areas that don’t have great air flow, especially when the buds put on weight.

 

[Sangmang]

@GoogleGenie I'm feeding @ like 6.4 ph for several feeds in an effort to correct low rootzone ph. Is that advisable? Sorry to keep tapping you for info. I'm also wondering if defoliating and increasing airflow will help them uptake what they need better. I think I'll do that today.

 

[GoogleGenie]

@GoogleGenie I'm feeding @ like 6.4 ph for several feeds in an effort to correct low rootzone ph. Is that advisable? Sorry to keep tapping you for info. I'm also wondering if defoliating and increasing airflow will help them uptake what they need better. I think I'll do that today.

No problem @Sangmang, I’ll help however I can.

I’d say just keep feeding with your solution at a Ph in range. It happens in RDWC too where the plants leech nutrients back into the water which causes the PH to drop when they’ve been over fed. I think same is happening here. Just keep feeding within range. The run off PH is more of an indication of what the plants are up to. Maybe favour the top end of your acceptable range (~6.0-6.2).

As long as your inflow (nutrient you feed) is in range you’re good. And you’re already feeding lighter.

How are they looking? Has flowering halted or is it still progressing?

 

[GoogleGenie]

To clarify, when I said “you want to bump that up” - it was a poor choice of words. Sorry mate. What I meant is, you want to keep your feed strength in a range to respond to what they are doing (I.e telling you they’ve been over fed), so in this case, feeding light so they have plenty of water in the nutrient solution.

 

[Sangmang]

I was thinking flowering has slowed over the last week and they look small for day 37 but I could just be overworrying. I just filled a 5 gallon bucket with trim and its still a jungle haha. You cant tell so much in the pic but there is much more room now for light and airflow. I also added 2 clip fans blowing upwards on timers 30on/30off. They are too direct into the plants I think for constant airflow. I'm just gonna keep feeding on the low side 2x a day and go from there.

You can see the calcium def damage on the leaves up top in the middle in the above pic.

How nice it would be to have 9 single cola plants in there like I originally planned lol.

 

[GoogleGenie]

They look good to me. Coming along nicely.

Good job with the defoliating too. They’ll be thanking you for that.

A suggestion. At some point, turn off your drippers and let the coco become barely moist. Then hand feed your regular solution with a pinch of your bloom boost. Just to give them a K kick. Let the coco become barely moist before turning the drippers back on. Sometimes this can help kick start them back up. I got this tip from a guy at NPK industries - Harley Smith.

 

[Sangmang]

They look good to me. Coming along nicely.

Good job with the defoliating too. They’ll be thanking you for that.

A suggestion. At some point, turn off your drippers and let the coco become barely moist. Then hand feed your regular solution with a pinch of your bloom boost. Just to give them a K kick. Let the coco become barely moist before turning the drippers back on. Sometimes this can help kick start them back up. I got this tip from a guy at NPK industries - Harley Smith.

I'll do that this week!