Dragons

[SweetSue]

Black Friday sales.... I always forget to budget. Won't happen this year either, but I've no shortage of seeds.

I'm curious, Of all your possible options, which potential cross excites you the most and why?

 

[Habitual]

supplemental for my own reference, going to sample on one coco hempy female.

Here is a post by "delta9nxs"

“it is a fact that cal mag is necessary for optimum growth. Just ask any commercial or professional grower.”

Well, yes, that's true, but I am a professional grower and I don't use any calcium or magnesium supplements because I don't have to. That's because I use a nutrient that already contains more than adequate amounts of each and I run ph at levels that allow for sufficient uptake. In the greenhouse hydro industry growing tomatoes with drip irrigation in perlite culture many operations use bulk nutrient preparations that are dry and come in two parts. One part contains everything but calcium nitrate, the other part is calcium nitrate. They keep them separate to prevent magnesium sulfate and calcium nitrate from interacting. Just as the gh flora series, techniflora nutes and many others do, liquid or dry. The one part flora nova gets away with everything in one bottle as it is a colloidal suspension that separates during storage, thus preventing the interaction. However, there are many nutrient packages that don't contain sufficient cal-mag. Pure blend pro is a classic example. You absolutely must use cal-mag with it to avoid disaster.

I am currently using maxibloom for flowering. It is a one part product that does not have any reactions until you put it into solution in water. It contains ample amounts of cal-mag.

The calcium/magnesium deficiency most folks run into eventually using hydro nutes is caused by ph being maintained at levels that don't allow for decent uptake. Not by the nutrients being low on either calcium or magnesium.

I know I run the risk here of opening up a whole can of worms on proper cannabis hydro ph, but here goes anyway.

Most of the ph charts you see are incorrect or misleading. Most would have you believe that if you don't run at a specific ph you are running the risk of lockout of one element or the other. Some depict uptake of elements at different ph points that don't even overlap with their recommendation for ideal ph, usually at around 5.8.

The truth is that there is no such thing as ideal ph and there are no finite points where lockouts occur. Every application is a compromise. However, the 5.8 recommendation is right in the middle of the range where you get the least calcium and magnesium uptake. You are still getting some, but usually not enough. You either have to get above 6.0-6.1 or below 5.5 to get adequate uptake of calcium or magnesium. I believe that above 5.5 phosphorus availability starts diminishing so I start my input solution at 5.2. As nutrients are used and evaporation/transpiration occur the ph will climb. The girls love it and show no symptoms of deficiency.

So, if you are using ro or distilled water and your nutrient shows calcium and magnesium on the label try running your ph between 5.1 and 5.4 for a while and see what happens. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

If you are using ro water it is probable that you have very hard water from your tap and you decided to use ro water to solve the problem. If your tap water is over 200 ppm at the .5 conversion (milwaukee meters), you probably have too much calcium in your water. The calcium in your tap water plus the calcium in your nutrient solution can add up to an over abundance of calcium. An excess of calcium can cause a magnesium deficiency. You see the mag deficiency first and you think you need more magnesium so you add cal-mag thereby aggravating the situation. You can run into a similar scenario adding epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) to your solution. Too much of one nutrient can cause problems with uptake of another.

If your tap water is below around 150 ppm and doesn't contain more than 70 ppm calcium (only a water analysis can tell you this) try correcting ph to 5.2 for a while. With Ro water, if your nutes show Mg and Ca on the label, try 5.2 for a while.
Or you can blend ro water and tap water in proportions that get your tds below 100 ppm, then try 5.2 for a while.

My tap water is slightly over 200 ppm most of the time, so I blend tap 40%/ro 60% and end up with a reading of around 80 ppm before nutes are added. I chose this ratio because of the ph buffering capability inherent in the tap water mixed with ro at this ratio allows me to get away without using ph adjusters, either up or down. 2 gals tap plus 3 gals ro plus 2 level tablespoons maxibloom gives me 5.2 at around 950 ppm every time. I have visually perfect plants showing no signs excess or deficiency.

Well, I hope this little discourse helps someone be a better grower. " Quote

 

[SweetSue]

Nice share. Provocative. Thought-provoking. I'll revisit this a few more times until I understand all of it, but I surprised myself with how much I did understand. Whew! There's hope for me.

I like having you around.

 

[Habitual]

Sue you mentioned Weasel was doing low ph so i wanted to look into it before just being outright dismissive. Turns out its application could be useful in my coco hempy so why not dedicate one plant to it?

 

[SweetSue]

He's also playing around with alternative cal/mag sources. One of my favorite lab rats. I admire a curious nature.

 

[Habitual]

Update

End of week 3

I haven't been feeding daily yet they still dont dry out (wish they did) but they use the res up in 2 days and dry out in 5. I expect this will change soon as they finally started some vertical growth.

one male is acting weird, (posting pic) feed is the same I thought I dryed it out. I tried a few varied feeds, swung ph a bit over a few days (6.2, 5.8, 5.4) added ca-mg+ still looking worse.

The greenest and healthiest un sexed plant, received full strength lucas from day one (second photo). So they will all get Lucas from the morning on when water is warmed up.

Male with DEF probably scrap him not wanting this picky shit to move forward...but going to see if it just wants heavy feed first?

Unsexed Plant and fave so far this will be breeding stock if it fems or not.

Fem for breeding.

And some roots from fem pictured.

 

[SweetSue]

And some roots from fem pictured.

Sweet picture Hab.

I glad I rescued Emerald. I hate to admit defeat. I figure there must be some way to get to the prize. She surprised me by bouncing back.

Your young plants are luscious-looking. Makes me want to plant something. Lol!

 

[Habitual]

Thank you for the reps Sue...

 

[AngryBird]

Love the roots. Thank you for good info here and will surely grab a seat

I will learn how to choose which plant to use. Do you want to save the male with bad leaf color or just scrap him? They take a few days to recover sometimes.

 

[Habitual]

Def male did well on full dose nutes. Fems received lst to fit better later on.

 

[AngryBird]

 

[Habitual]

Update end day 28

Staminate flowers are opening, Moved to flower side and placed in front of fan. I find the structure and vigour of both plants to be uniform with well distributed clusters. Both flowered nice and early and have proved to be acceptable as parents, great stable well known genetics to use for Cross breeding.

 

[Habitual]

Flower Cab 23"wide x 22"deep x40" floor to light

 

[Habitual]

Had a hard time finding silver nitrate, so i said fuck it! I was gonna order some silver wire but it's $60 an oz. Fuck that! So i went to the bank and $50 later I have 2 troy oz coins 99.99 and two 1 gram wafers 99.99 . I found a few 9 volts and some clips so I am set to make some colloidal silver ...

 

[SweetSue]

Had a hard time finding silver nitrate, so i said fuck it! I was gonna order some silver wire but it's $60 an oz. Fuck that! So i went to the bank and $50 later I have 2 troy oz coins 99.99 and two 1 gram wafers 99.99 . I found a few 9 volts and some clips so I am set to make some colloidal silver ...

You are so freakin' cool! Go Hab, Refuse to be put off by screwed up economics. I'll be watching for the end results of this little science experiment.

 

[SweetSue]

Flower Cab 23"wide x 22"deep x40" floor to light

AHA! I just noticed what you're using to keep your plants off the floor of the cabinet! Where did you get one of those? Don't tell me. Really, don't tell me here. That never even occurred to me. Damn! My friend that was the manager of the local Dollar General just got fired. She had stacks of them in the back.

Hmmmmm....... Need to talk to the new girl.

Nice depth on the cabinet. My tiny closet is all of 13", front to back. One of the reasons it's wide open. Now I'm so used to the light and the company of the plants there's no turning back. .

 

[Habitual]

You are so freakin' cool! Go Hab, Refuse to be put off by screwed up economics. I'll be watching for the end results of this little science experiment.

Yea I dont get it $22.50 in silver used on a $5 coin lol. But it will make fem seeds for as long as I live.

Giving one coin to my 4 year old nephew so he can be play with "superman's treasure". Uncle won it for him in an arm wrestle, lol I had a photo of kryptonite on my Iphone ...

 

[SweetSue]

That's delightful! He'll eat that up. Lol!

 

[Habitual]

Update Day 31, this is my favorite Female. I will seed all others but this will be the Grade 1 seed imho For pure breed strain.

 

[Habitual]

post 200 I know this information is widely available. But these are the parameters I will be using .

Colloidal silver generation. This solution blocks ethylene production that is required to produce female flowers so allowing for male parts to grow. It will not do the same on a male plant!

I make 500 ml at a time thats enough for most plants.

Here is what I know it's best to use 6-9 volts. Lower voltage erodes smaller particles of silver into solution. Clean anode/cathode every two hours this eliminates junk and gunk in the bottom. The higher the dissolved o2 in solution the better, Use distilled or RO water only never add sodium. 35-40 PPM is what you are aiming for. Spacing of the electrodes or wires is best at 2" or below, I like a 1" gap between them, never touching of course!

Once made, spray your plant once a day. continue daily spraying until the male pollen sacs appear ready to release pollen, do not stop spraying at first signs of male flowers.

For a photoperiod plant that is a known female/clone, begin spraying her a few days before going 12/12. With an auto, start spraying at first sign of sex/pre flowers

If you are going to pollinate a whole room of target mothers then just place her in front of the fan and kick the shit outta her!

Start plants to be selected for reversal 2 weeks prior to those being pollinated.