Weasel Forges Ahead

[Weaselcracker]

I’m still mopping up a little from the timer mishap, and from the presumed ph mishap before that. Things are starting to look alright again in the flowering room as I remove the issues and bring in fresh new victims.

Left side

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

The original bunny turd plant is the yellow one on the left side. It’s obviously not going to come around. Not sure what happened there. As usual

I have a couple more bunny poo powered plants going in flowering now, so we’ll see if they fare any better.

Flowering

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

The yellow one on the back right is the P Chunk I harvested today.

Last night I was looking at the older Strawberry Blue plant and it looked so leafy and revegged under the light, (the light of my brain cells burning up from smoking too much pot that is) that I removed it, planning to harvest it this morning. But seeing it this morning under more natural lighting, I couldn’t bring myself to chop it because of all those white pistils showing.

SB

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

SB

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

SB

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

So back in she goes.
That plant must be getting a little confused by now. I don’t really know what it’s going to do next, but whatever it does I expect there will be a lot of foxtails involved. That’s OK I don’t mind smoking foxtails. As long as it doesn’t go greener and leafier on me. A whole lot of leaves in those flowers already. Maybe they will leave....?


I chopped this Pineapple Chunk today. Half the plant was a bit revegged- the half that was closest to the light affected by the timer. The other half was pretty much normal. Anyway... it was ready to chop regardless.

PC3

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

PC3

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

In this second pic you can maybe see how the right side of the plant is greener than the left, cause the right side is re-vegging. It’s interesting to me how the plant managed to locate all that nitrogen to produce those super dark green leaves since it has been living on water for quite a while and has yellowed right up as it ate all its fan leaves.

PC3

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

Other than those weird leaves it seemed good though. Trimmed up fine.

PC3

• Weaselcracker
• Sep 14, 2019

 

[Skybound]

I think it was @ilikemsticky who has a friend that grows veggie garden plants with rabbit turds with good results. I asked if the friend is on 420 so you could pick his brain, but sadly that answer was no. Still though, I found it (on your behalf) reassuring that others grew with rabbit dookies. Maybe that's where your plant found the extra N?

 

[romanoweed]

. ah noting

 

[GrizzWald]

Gday weasel.. how's things man?

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks Skybound I did see that comment and appreciate it. Both of my new flowering bunny turds plants are yellowing again so I’m back to messing around with the mix.
Thanks Romanoweed.
And thanks for checking in Grizz.

You know when you’re screaming down the highway late to get out somewhere, eating breakfast with one hand and shaving with the electric razor in the other, driving with your knees, working out in your head the list of shit you have to deal with that day, and one of your tires is making a weird flapping sound and there’s a bad sound coming out of the motor, and you’re almost out of gas?
That’s sort of my normal life.
Then your girlfriend calls a complete halt to everything shrieking that you’re ‘not paying enough attention to her’? That’s kind of what my life has been like for the last couple weeks.

She’s gone back out to work again though, so things are back to normal again. Phew.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I will try to update this journal properly when I get a chance. Overall the plants are doing great and for once I am happy about the state of the grow. Seems like it’s been a long time since I felt that way.

Flowering

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 1, 2019

Flowering

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 1, 2019

Chocolate Mint 4

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 1, 2019

I finally got the feeding thing dialed in better. I think the basic problem was I was underfeeding, based on Skybound’s posted recommendations. Since he is/was feeding multiple times per day while I’m only feeding weekly, it makes perfect sense I’d want to give them a higher dose. Also I’d started giving them Epsom salts which tends to skew the ppm numbers upwards I found. Causing me to water down things even more to compensate.

My nutrient ratios are still kind of wacky but when/if I ever get some cash flowing I will buy some ingredients so I can balance things better. Mainly a good source of P which isn’t tied to K, so I can keep my P levels up without sending K through the roof.


One thing I did want to say. The Z9 (aka Z7) has really saved the day in the cloning department. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to be able to clone plants when I want to again. It’s been a struggle for years. When I can’t get clones of a strain the whole ‘finely tuned machine’ of my grow starts going off the rails in a hurry.
I’d definitely recommend it for anyone having mysterious cloning issues.

Roots

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 1, 2019

 

[Skybound]

I like those shiny leaves, it's indicative of good health. Also, I'm digging that DIY wall mount to get a floor fan up on the wall, very inventive!

 

[GrizzWald]

Thanks Skybound I did see that comment and appreciate it. Both of my new flowering bunny turds plants are yellowing again so I’m back to messing around with the mix.
Thanks Romanoweed.
And thanks for checking in Grizz.

You know when you’re screaming down the highway late to get out somewhere, eating breakfast with one hand and shaving with the electric razor in the other, driving with your knees, working out in your head the list of shit you have to deal with that day, and one of your tires is making a weird flapping sound and there’s a bad sound coming out of the motor, and you’re almost out of gas?
That’s sort of my normal life.
Then your girlfriend calls a complete halt to everything shrieking that you’re ‘not paying enough attention to her’? That’s kind of what my life has been like for the last couple weeks.

She’s gone back out to work again though, so things are back to normal again. Phew.

We call that Tuesday in Australia.. another realisation of why I'm still single lol.

 

[Dankman_420]

Your garden is looking great! Good job brother It's a great feeling knowing that you can get clones as needed

 

[dr.h00k]

...been some time you've showcased such nice shiny leaves like that... ...rock phosphate and bone meal added when you're mixing up a batch of soil is a good source of P and will continue to feed the plant for quite some time...
...hehehe...can appreciate when life gets hectic...great description!......Grizz, Ya' crack me up!......cheerz......h00k......

 

[Weaselcracker]

So of course as soon as I said my plants were looking good, they decided to prove me wrong. A couple of them were showing whitish splotches, then more got a a sort of dull off-colour look. At first I thought it might just need a little more calcium so I increased that.
Now it’s developed a little more. It’s mostly in the P Chunks. And yes I’ve been through this before. Here we are again.
Maybe some of you guys have some insight on what would cause this?
Part of me thinks it looks like standard issue K deficiency. Which seems weird since my K is so high - but it’s not the first time I’ve said this same thing about the same issue...
I can also imagine I see other deficiencies mixed in with it, but- I could be wrong.
Part of me wonders if I should just boost the feeding levels even higher. I do feel like I’m feeling pretty heavily already but maybe they just need a little more.

I wonder if @Mr. Krip is around these days and has time to take a look and guess at what these leaves might be saying. Perhaps just another indecipherable clusterfuck I don’t know....

Here’s what my feed schedule has been. Previous to last week my Ca and Mg Were a bit lower. I realize these numbers may only make sense to Skybound but who knows.

Thanks!

N - 120
P - 100
K- 245
Mg- 68
Ca- 143

Issues

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 10, 2019

Issues

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 10, 2019

Issues

• Weaselcracker
• Oct 10, 2019

 

[Graytail]

It looks like calcium def to me. Isn't that K level a little sky-high? Mag looks high too.

l bet some straight calcium nitrate would help.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks Graytail - Yeah calcium was my initial thought when I saw the white. I raised the MG to be in balance with the Ca. However, boosting those two does not seem to have made things better- it has just progressed and gotten worse.

Yes the K is absolutely f’n sky high. It’s just something that is a symptom of the nutrients I’m using. I can’t raise my P at all without sending my K through the roof.

The solution for that is to order some basic nutes, such as the calcium nitrate you mention, which is something I’ve sort of been dithering around talking about for too long now.

OK I will do that this afternoon, I have found a couple online sources of smaller sizes, at least for a few nutrients.

 

[Graytail]

BTW, Doc's method pegs the Ca/Mg ratio at 7:1.

 

[Skybound]

Calcium is by far the finickiest element on the menu. It's almost like all the stars and planets must be in alignment for calcium to be uptaken adequately. Cation imbalance, PH, too much P or S, poor perspiration all can hinder/inhibit/restrict calcium movement from the roots to the shoots. Add nitrate to that list as it is needed as a carrier to move the calcium, or so I've read.

My numbers have been on the fritz too lately and calcium has been at the epicenter of my issues easily for 6 months. I got so frustrated that I ditched my own charts and am running Megacrop's numbers for my last few hydro grows. I didn't buy Megacrop of course, I just formulated to their numbers.

I think your safest bet is to get you some Megacrop. No BS, I see a lot of growers having headache free success with it, most notably is Farside because his media is also peat moss. He kills it with Silica, twice as much as I ever ran, but whatever, his results look like MrKrip's fakest fake plants. Very good stable growth and coloration. And that MC has very low P levels which is very good for the microbe herd as I hear they're not fond of high P levels like you're using, and like I've been also using.

What might be a possibility is that your P is so high, that it's bonding with available calcium and pulling it out of solubility? It sucks that you gotta be thinking about 5 different things when trying to plan your feed in a way that isn't obstructive to calcium, but it is what it is.

I presume this is why Doc Bud put so much emphasis on loading up the soil with calcium while intentionally only adding most everything else at moderate levels and potassium at almost non existent levels?

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ordered a couple nutrients. Found yet another Canadian startup company selling a few things I could use.

I sort of hate the new ‘thanks’ emoji with the hearts bursting out of its head. It is way too enthusiastic. Like if I actually did that to someone in real life they’d probably punch me. But... whatever. I don’t dare to say anything myself. I am going to send my associate Mr Wu to talk to the head of this forum about it. I let him handle all my forum management PR these days.

But- thanks!

What might be a possibility is that your P is so high, that it's bonding with available calcium and pulling it out of solubility?

Is this a typo- did you mean K, where you wrote P?

Thanks for the idea on mega crop. I see they do sell 500 g packages now in Canada. They are something like $13 -with $45 shipping on top. I’m actually better off just buying the 10 kg amount and then my shipping would only be about 200%. I will just go check out Farside’s journal and confirm that everything is working well for him.

 

[Skybound]

I agree, the thanks emoji is a bit much. A simple hand wave would've been a more appropriate, not over the top, emoji for this and every other situation, but whatever, I'm glad to at least have that. I remember way back (months ago, lol) when the option was to like, or not to like. That was VERY stoner friendly.

That was not a typo, I did mean P. Though sadly excessive K would still inhibit Calcium, just in a different way. The cations need a certain (unknown to me) balance or ratio to each other, but because calcium is imobile, it's deficiencies are felt the hardest. This is why it's easy to fix a Mg or K def, and since NO3- is usually in rich supply, not having NH4 is hardly ever a problem., But P (anion) in higher concentrations will bond with available cations such as calcium and become a colloid that falls out of solubility. Microbes can break those apart again and pass them to the roots at a later time, but the high P and high K is likely both giving your Ca grief.

I've read that high P soils don't keep highly active microbe herds, and in your case where you feed once every few days, I think the microbes are needed to manage your soil. Megacrop's formulation is low P, so I presume it will work well for you and allow your microbes to build out. Ooo, another thing you should look into is how to elevate your CEC. The higher your CEC, the more cats the soil can hold (Ca++), plus also it seems high CEC and microbes go hand in hand. If you can track down both or either of these, look for "Soil Menders Minerals Plus" and "Planters II". Both look like phenomenal soil amendments that have high CEC, the first has a 7:1 Ca:Mg ratio and the 2nd has a 10:1 ratio. I found both at Custom Hydro, but you might be able to locate them way up north too. I grabbed 10lbs of the first and 4lbs of the Planters. I can't wait to put some roots in that shit! My first soil plant is almost ready to up pot and I'm eager to see what the Planters will do to the roots.

 

[Weaselcracker]

OK cool thanks a lot.. I thought my P was already quite low by your stated standards, whereas my K is so high, so that’s why I asked about the typo. I think I will empty one of my virtual shopping carts which I haven’t quite pulled the trigger on, and put my available money into a load of Mega Crop. I went to look at Farside’s plants and they look perfectly healthy so that stuff should work for me too in the same peat moss mix.
As usual we are sort of wandering the line between hydro and soil. I continue to think of my grow as hydro. Im sure I’ve got a few microbes in there somewhere though.

 

[Skybound]

OK cool thanks a lot.. I thought my P was already quite low by your stated standards, whereas my K is so high, so that’s why I asked about the typo. I think I will empty one of my virtual shopping carts which I haven’t quite pulled the trigger on, and put my available money into a load of Mega Crop. I went to look at Farside’s plants and they look perfectly healthy so that stuff should work for me too in the same peat moss mix.
As usual we are sort of wandering the line between hydro and soil. I continue to think of my grow as hydro. Im sure I’ve got a few microbes in there somewhere though.

My P levels were at 65ppm, and I'm now at about half that. I just remember you tried to run my numbers in peat and it didn't work well, so it was decided to target numbers that were closer to what you used for years.

IMO, b/c you can only water once every few days, you're in soil, though are supplementing with ferts every feeding because there's nothing amended into the soil like there is in Doc's kit which is why the Brixers only fert their soil every other feeding. Though in Doc's kit, a lot of other concerns get regularly addressed in the alternating of feeds, sprays and re-amending. IMO, it's like a room full of balloons and popping them up to the ceiling. when one floats down low, you pop it back up and move on to the next balloon. I plant to take the same approach with more or less the same materials.

1) Keep the calcium plentiful and K low in the soil,
2) keep the microbes working,
3) recharge the CEC
4) supplement with a foliar

Perhaps that's a practice you can also adopt, ie foliar spraying. IDK, maybe you already do? I just started like 6mos ago after years of not spraying.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Oh OK, whoops, that was just another complete mistake on my part- for some reason I thought your P was higher. No I do not do any spraying and generally my plants are lucky (?) if I even get time to look at them. I feed them once a week.