The Gee Spot - You Finally Found It

[Gee64]

And I use fish ferts roughly once every 10-14 days. A bit more often in veg when they aren't on auto watering. Every 3rd watering in veg.

 

[Keffka]

I use fish ferts every 30 days or every new container, whichever comes first

For maturity I watch for stigmas and alternating nodes. Either makes me happy, both make me elated. Maturity is the only reason I watch the calendar. If I don’t see stigmas or alternating nodes but the plant has “the look” and the veg days are at least 54 in number I’ll bloom it.

 

[Keffka]

@Gee64 does the entire surface of your container stay moist when running drip irrigation? I can’t figure out a setup that will cover the entire surface without flooding the container.

I was thinking mulch may be the key, the coverage letting the moisture spread. The only drip emitter that will spray the whole container runs at like 10 gph which is way too much.

 

[Azimuth]

I wait until I see stigmas. Usually day 48-60 but I grew a CBD hemp a long time ago called Candida CD-1 and it took 73 days to pop stigmas.

For maturity I watch for stigmas and alternating nodes. Either makes me happy, both make me elated. Maturity is the only reason I watch the calendar. If I don’t see stigmas or alternating nodes but the plant has “the look” and the veg days are at least 54 in number I’ll bloom it.

Ok. Thanks guys.
I haven't seen stigmas but I'll look a bit closer.

I would top it but I get it if you want her natural. Is the seed feminized?

It's Quaded and, yes, feminized.

 

[Keffka]

Ok. Thanks guys.
I haven't seen stigmas but I'll look a bit closer

Some times it’s helpful to look from multiple angles. The stigmas can be whisper thin and difficult to see, but you can catch a glint from them. I’ve also had plants that refused to show stigmas until bloom proper started.

is the plant already alternating nodes?

 

[Azimuth]

is the plant already alternating nodes?

Only on the stems coming off the main ones. The main stems are still opposite. As I said I never paid much attention in the past but I would have thought they'd all start alternating around the same time, but I guess not.

 

[Keffka]

Only on the stems coming off the main ones. The main stems are still opposite. As I said I never paid much attention in the past but I would have thought they'd all start alternating around the same time, but I guess not.

I get this on my manifolds quite often, even after maturity. Some of the colas just don’t want to alternate until bloom. They will start alternating once the plant recognizes it’s in flower but before that they won’t budge. I haven’t paid attention to see if there’s any relation to positioning or anything like that. It’s pretty common for half of them to alternate and the other half to run opposite.

I’ll start paying more attention and documenting it a bit better and see if I can pickup any patterns

 

[Azimuth]

Nice! I think I'll test the seedling plant I'm about to flip. Very healthy looking but I'm interested to see what the number is (ish hopefully )

Welp, no joy. A solid 5 on brix with a very sharp calcium line. Guess I've got more learning to do.

This is the first pot with all four of the calciums (Gypsum, dolomite, Oyster shell and crustacean) and was cooked about 6 weeks prior to planting and now is pushing 70 days in veg.

Maybe not enough aeration? I used 30% hydroton as I'm trying to get away from perlite, 30% old soil, 30% organics (a mix of equal parts castings, compost, leaf mold and coco) and 10% biochar.

Plant looks super healthy but I guess numbers don't lie. Although I did take course in college called 'Lying with Statistics'.

 

[Azimuth]

I get this on my manifolds quite often, even after maturity. Some of the colas just don’t want to alternate until bloom. They will start alternating once the plant recognizes it’s in flower but before that they won’t budge. I haven’t paid attention to see if there’s any relation to positioning or anything like that. It’s pretty common for half of them to alternate and the other half to run opposite.

I’ll start paying more attention and documenting it a bit better and see if I can pickup any patterns

Yeah, it's out of room. I'm going to try giving it until the weekend but that'll be the outer limit.

I think I'll top two of the mains, one each on the upper and lower node and see what I learn.

 

[Azimuth]

Scoped out the nodes a nary a white hair in sight.

What's interesting is that I have another seedling about 30 days behind this one which has been topped above node 4 and node 1 removed. I left node 2 on for now since I plan to clone it.

On that one (as seems to be the case for the first plant) each of the nodes produces a branch materially bigger, and stronger than its twin. The stronger of the 2nd node pairs has gone alternate but the other is still opposite. Same seems to be happening at node 3 but not yet at node 4.

Looking more closely at plant 1 a similar thing seems to be happening but that one's further along and harder to tell.

I never looked that closely before to notice any of that.

Makes me wonder if the first 10 days at 12/12 thing would have moved it faster. With that we typically see pistils in 30 days but I don't know if you also would get alternating nodes by then as well.

 

[Gee64]

@Gee64 does the entire surface of your container stay moist when running drip irrigation? I can’t figure out a setup that will cover the entire surface without flooding the container.

I was thinking mulch may be the key, the coverage letting the moisture spread. The only drip emitter that will spray the whole container runs at like 10 gph which is way too much.

I use 4 - .5gph drippers in a square pattern adding water to the corners of my square pots and in the round 10gals I place them to drip between the 4 spikes.

When water flows down it forms a pyramid pattern so everything gets wet and mulch definitely helps. put a dripper setup in a tub and run it for 1 hour. See what it delivers, and math it backwards to find your needs, then divide that by how many times a day you want it to come on.

Myco moves water arond too.

I use a cheapo water stick to test for dry spots. Don't test right after watering, test right before watering to check for dry spots. As long as it's even your good.

 

[Azimuth]

And I use fish ferts roughly once every 10-14 days. A bit more often in veg when they aren't on auto watering. Every 3rd watering in veg.

I use fish ferts every 30 days or every new container, whichever comes first

And through most of flower or do you stop after stretch?

 

[Gee64]

And through most of flower or do you stop after stretch?

I go all the way thru. Once I'm on autowatering I use smaller amounts, usually 1 litre with 1.5-2ml in it twice a weekish. After stretch I use it less and not at all once scenescence starts.

 

[013]

Hydroton for aeration?

 

[Gee64]

Hydroton for aeration?

I like perlite. Coarse perlite is my preference.

 

[013]

still have some chunky perlite on hand but mostly use pumice now. Need to find chunky pumice source tho.

I was commenting because Azi said he used 30% hydroton for aeration but didn’t think clay balls would offer much help. Maybe it was typo

 

[Gee64]

I've heard hydroton works, but I run my used soil thru my worm farm and the worms are fine with perlite, so I have never deviated.

Hydroton may work in a worm farm too but I'm big on if it's working stick with it, and I know perlite, so I havent tried much else.

 

[Gee64]

Scoped out the nodes a nary a white hair in sight.

What's interesting is that I have another seedling about 30 days behind this one which has been topped above node 4 and node 1 removed. I left node 2 on for now since I plan to clone it.

On that one (as seems to be the case for the first plant) each of the nodes produces a branch materially bigger, and stronger than its twin. The stronger of the 2nd node pairs has gone alternate but the other is still opposite. Same seems to be happening at node 3 but not yet at node 4.

Looking more closely at plant 1 a similar thing seems to be happening but that one's further along and harder to tell.

I never looked that closely before to notice any of that.

Makes me wonder if the first 10 days at 12/12 thing would have moved it faster. With that we typically see pistils in 30 days but I don't know if you also would get alternating nodes by then as well.

Weird, all Azi's posts just came thru now. I was wondering what @013 was talking about when he mentioned Azi and hydroton. It all makes sense now!

 

[Gee64]

I didn't get a chance to see the plants yesterday as I was out doing yard work from sun-up til sun-down but I did get a rare shot of the desert over the fence in it's green state which only happens for a week or 2 each year.

And these 2 came wandering by. The local ranchers free range here in the spring when the alfalfa is growing and all the grasses are green.

The deset flowers are all out and the cactii should bloom soon.

I wasn't going to do an outdoor grow this year but I see that blue and think "I can't let that go to waste", so I will probably grow 1 of the RVDV clones in the yard in a pot.

 

[Gee64]

Welp, no joy. A solid 5 on brix with a very sharp calcium line. Guess I've got more learning to do.

This is good news Azi, trust me, it is. Now you know why you have bugs, you aren't photosynthesizing optimally. Start with calcium. I use prilled dolomite, not powdered, plus gypsum and oyster shell, all in the global mix and cooked in. If your calcium line is crisp that must be fixed 1st.

If you want you can mix up some dolomite water or use some commercial calmag, but you need it in that soil. Don't use tons at once, slow and steady thru the surface and low dose in the reservoir. Once you get a fuzzier line you can flip to a maintenance schedule and on your next grow you can fix the soil.

Next up, get a handful of dirt out of your pot and squeeze it. Does more than 4 or 5 drips come out? does it drip hard when 1st squeezed? If so, it's too wet and air is compromised and your plant tissue is likely high in nitrogen (proteins/aminos, your carbs to proteins are out of whack, your not photosynthesizing carbs properly) from the inputs in the soggy soil melting into the moisture but you aren't making enough sugars to properly power the plant cells to use all the aminos, so bug think "Yeah!!! free protein!" and come for it.

This will start the brix climbing AND get calcium working. Be patient and see where it goes, don't change anything else yet. You could have everything else perfect, but if calcium is low you don't stand a chance.

Don't panic. You found your grief, now lets spend a few weeks slowly dialing it in.

This is the first pot with all four of the calciums (Gypsum, dolomite, Oyster shell and crustacean) and was cooked about 6 weeks prior to planting and now is pushing 70 days in veg.

Maybe not enough aeration? I used 30% hydroton as I'm trying to get away from perlite, 30% old soil, 30% organics (a mix of equal parts castings, compost, leaf mold and coco) and 10% biochar.

I suspect the combination of biochar and leaf mold is making it too wet. Can you cook a batch with no biochar, and go 10% leaf mold. See how that reacts. 5% may even work better. I prefer perlite over all other areators for 1 reason, its really easy to add it right at the time of uppotting and adjust by eye, not percentage. The white color gives you a good visual.

Plant looks super healthy but I guess numbers don't lie. Although I did take course in college called 'Lying with Statistics'.

I've said this to many before you Azi, what you see and what you get are 2 very different things. Low brix usually means too much nitro, so they look lovely and green.

You need to fix that excess nitro before flower or you are robbing weight and bud density.

Slow and steady is important now, you only have 5 things to check. Calcium and air come 1st. Then you need to boost microbes, then worry about phosphorus, and when those 4 are good, carbon will take care of itself from the air.

I would correct the air now by ensuring the soil is just right on moisture, then after the calmag watering dries down I would go straight to an EWC, kelp, and molasses tea. Heavy on the molasses. 2 tablespoons to 5 gals of water, 1 cup of EWC, and a quarter cup kelp.

Brew the molasses and kelp for 24 hours, then add the EWC for another 24 hours, and then cut it 50/50 with RO water and serve.

You may see some nitro toxicity but thats a good thing. You need to burn it out of your soil now until balance returns, then you are good for flower. You may also see some tip burn, thats to be expected.

When you fix calcium the food becomes available, The CEC system is now working, PH corrects itself, and then boosting microbes causes excess and the plant needs to catch up.

Once it starts to photosynthesize better it will be able to use all the extras. 2 sets of leaves after this occurs and your back to pretty again.

Let the dump trucks make a few laps, then check brix again, then reassess. This alone may put you into high brix.