2 More Absolute Beginner Questions

[Hawk518]

7/23/23 – Sprayed both plants w. Captain Jack’s. Wondering when I need to reapply (or if the one spraying wiped them out). Looked all over online and the label itself and still couldn’t figure it out.

 

[Sueet]

You can use it as soon as four days. I would venture to say that one application will likely be enough since you are growing outside, but you will have to keep a close watch on your leaves and re-treat if/when you see excessive damage. When I grew outside I never actually treated my plant, I just physically removed any leaf hoppers I saw and the plants never minded a small amount of damage on their leaves.

 

[Finnicki]

Why not set up some umbrellas over the plants to deflect the rain? Didn’t read enough to know if your plants are in containers or in the ground. If in containers, raise them off the ground. In pots or bags, use flat landscaping bricks under containers edges to create separation below. Roots like air.

 

[Hawk518]

7/24/23 – In an attempt at LST, I bent the stems down a bit. Haven’t tied any of them down. Should I?

Also, I’ve seen a lot of vids / articles on lollipopping. Should I trim any of the lower branches off? Which leads me to wonder if I can try using the cuttings to clone new plants. Or is this just crazy talk?

 

[Wastei]

7/24/23 – In an attempt at LST, I bent the stems down a bit. Haven’t tied any of them down. Should I?

Also, I’ve seen a lot of vids / articles on lollipopping. Should I trim any of the lower branches off? Which leads me to wonder if I can try using the cuttings to clone new plants. Or is this just crazy talk?

Don't remove any leaves yet. Plant is still small and all of the leaves receives light. Lollipopping is mostly done indoors to control height.

A good technique is twisting and pinching dominant tops to encourage auxillary shoot growth. Kelp/humic mix works well to create a good bushy structure.

When doing LST you should mainly tie down the most upper top shot to promote the lower shots to become dominant and grow creating greater coverage.

 

[Hawk518]

Wondering about the switch from Veg to Bloom in an outdoor grow. Since it’s outdoors, I have no control over when the flip occurs, right? Just need to wait til there is less than 12 hours of sunlight. Looking at charts for N. VA, it looks like we’re not under 12 hours of sunlight til late September. So, just stay the course for another month or am I missing something?

 

[Azimuth]

The number's well less than 12 hours of darkness, more like 10.5ish. We often use 12 hours indoors just to be safe. So, won't be long now. Stay the course.

 

[Sueet]

Your plant is already stretching and starting to flower from what I can see in the last pic.

 

[Hawk518]

Your plant is already stretching and starting to flower from what I can see in the last pic.

Wow - glad I asked!
So, when do I start counting week #1 for flower?
Am scheduled to feed GeoFlora veg nutrients on Monday.
Do I still give them the Veg nutes or switch to Bloom?
Thank you!

 

[Sueet]

Wow - glad I asked!
So, when do I start counting week #1 for flower?
Am scheduled to feed GeoFlora veg nutrients on Monday.
Do I still give them the Veg nutes or switch to Bloom?
Thank you!

I'd go ahead and switch to bloom and count this as week one.

 

[SmokingWings]

Wondering about the switch from Veg to Bloom in an outdoor grow. Since it’s outdoors, I have no control over when the flip occurs, right? Just need to wait til there is less than 12 hours of sunlight. Looking at charts for N. VA, it looks like we’re not under 12 hours of sunlight til late September. So, just stay the course for another month or am I missing something?

The sunlight at dawn and sunset is a lot weaker than most of us realize. Our eyes have adapted to these lower levels so we are able to see reasonably well. To the plants the lower levels do start the production of flowering hormones even though we think that there is still to much light.

Looking at charts for N. VA, it looks like we’re not under 12 hours of sunlight til late September.

You can take a look at the sub-forum for growers from N. VA located on this message board. There might be messages there from growers who are discussing when the flowering starts in that state.

 

[Hawk518]

8/31/23 - Been having issues w. a few leaves on my outdoor grow plants. Any idea on what's causing this? Guessing some sort of deficiency. But of what? I've been giving them GeoFlora Veg and now Bloom. Starting to worry about the discoloration - pruned off the problem leaves yesterday and there are a couple more today.

Also, thoughts on using really strong black tea as a spray for insects? I've been told it works well and that the caffeine is deadly to the bugs.

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Wastei]

8/31/23 - Been having issues w. a few leaves on my outdoor grow plants. Any idea on what's causing this? Guessing some sort of deficiency. But of what? I've been giving them GeoFlora Veg and now Bloom. Starting to worry about the discoloration - pruned off the problem leaves yesterday and there are a couple more today.

Also, thoughts on using really strong black tea as a spray for insects? I've been told it works well and that the caffeine is deadly to the bugs.

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated!!

I see a minor thrip and grasshopper damage. Other than that I think you might need a little bit more N. Maybe you were a little blit quick with changing in to bloom nutrients?

You're growing organic so your job is to keep adding microbes and feed those as much as you focus on watering the plant. EM-1(Lactobacillus), compost and EWC teas do wonders growing organic!

 

[Hawk518]

9/25/23 - It's been raining far too much here in VA. Need to get both of these plants stabilized. They're leaning far too much. At this point, is it ok if I put a pole next to the stalk to tie plants to OR would that totally damage the roots?

 

[Sueet]

You'll be fine to stake it, just wiggle it in slowly.... some small roots will break, but it won't be a huge problem. I usually try to keep my stakes not quite at the edge since I know roots follow the edges so often.

 

[Hawk518]

10/11/23 - OMG! What is going on with these two plants? Any ideas? Whatever it is, it does not look good! We've had a lot of rain and it's cooling off quite a bit here in N. VA. This looks like more than just Thrips (I'm using SNS-203 to try and get rid of them). Near panic mode...

 

[Wrecked11]

On the first picture look where the dead leaves are and see if there's any mold going on

 

[Carcass]

The first pic is bud rot, so you need to cut that part out of there to possibly keep it from spreading...be sure you get all of it, or it'll come back with a vengeance.
Not sure what's up with the black on the leaves, but the white dots look like spidermite damage...
Look the plants over real close- there may be more rot hiding in there- if you catch it early, you can minimize the damage.

 

[Hawk518]

The first pic is bud rot, so you need to cut that part out of there to possibly keep it from spreading...be sure you get all of it, or it'll come back with a vengeance.

That entire bud should be clipped? The whole stem? Thanks!!

 

[Carcass]

That entire bud should be clipped?

That would be the safest way..but if the rot hasn't eaten into the main stem, you may get away with just cutting that part out...but keep a real close eye on that area for the next couple of days in case it tries to come back...