Emmie's Vegan Fertilizer, Pineapple Chunk 2020 Celebration: Experimental Soil Grow

[Emilya Green]

Topping After Maturity
We started seeing pistils about 5 days ago, but well before that several of the main branches began to alternate the nodes instead of doubling them on a cut. One of these branches so far on each plant has decided that it was the oldest and most mature and they have each asserted that they will be the dominant node.
This won't work in Emmie's garden, and each of these three have been trimmed, whack-a-mole style... and with that cut we let the plants decide what they are going to do next, and probably it will be to rise up the other side of this same set of branches.
In these two pictures you can see the nodes that decided to be queen of the hill, and who have now suffered from their arrogance. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

 

[Old Salt]

Topping After Maturity
We started seeing pistils about 5 days ago, but well before that several of the main branches began to alternate the nodes instead of doubling them on a cut. One of these branches so far on each plant has decided that it was the oldest and most mature and they have each asserted that they will be the dominant node.
This won't work in Emmie's garden, and each of these three have been trimmed, whack-a-mole style... and with that cut we let the plants decide what they are going to do next, and probably it will be to rise up the other side of this same set of branches.
In these two pictures you can see the nodes that decided to be queen of the hill, and who have now suffered from their arrogance. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

Yes, right away oh Queen of Hearts! The axe is sharp. They won't feel a thing. Can we finish our game of croquet now?

 

[SQl2kGuy]

The canopy is a luscious green as always @Emilya!!! And your watering tips are excellent!!!

In veg, when the canopy gets thicker, we can expect the lower leaves to get cannibalized due to less light right?

In your experience, does a plant naturally focus most of its growth on the top two thirds of the plant?

It is interesting, ... because in my SOG, ... with plants that are essentially 2 feet tall with minimal side branches, the lower leaves are still healthy ... even at week 8 of flower.

Whereas, with a plant I let grow naturally to 3 feet tall with a single center primary cola, it has a full canopy ... and at week 8 of flower it lost all the lower fan leaves.

So essentially, a healthy plant can naturally lose its lower fan leaves in veg and/or bloom right?

There really is so much to growing ... and then curing ... and you provide tips the whole way through ...

You really are a fountain of superior knowledge

 

[Emilya Green]

The canopy is a luscious green as always @Emilya!!! And your watering tips are excellent!!!

In veg, when the canopy gets thicker, we can expect the lower leaves to get cannibalized due to less light right?

In your experience, does a plant naturally focus most of its growth on the top two thirds of the plant?

It is interesting, ... because in my SOG, ... with plants that are essentially 2 feet tall with minimal side branches, the lower leaves are still healthy ... even at week 8 of flower.

Whereas, with a plant I let grow naturally to 3 feet tall with a single center primary cola, it has a full canopy ... and at week 8 of flower it lost all the lower fan leaves.

So essentially, a healthy plant can naturally lose its lower fan leaves in veg and/or bloom right?

There really is so much to growing ... and then curing ... and you provide tips the whole way through ...

You really are a fountain of superior knowledge

The amount of die off down below has a lot to do with the thickness of the canopy and the penetration ability of your lights. If the plant can tell that lower leaves are no longer productive, it will oftentimes cannibalize those leaves so that nothing is wasted.
The lower leaves and even the first cotyledons, are your canaries in the gold mine, and if there are any complaints about root space, pH, lack or over abundance of nutes, it is these lower leaves that will take the damage, and because they are so close to the action, they are always the first to go when things get rough.
So in your shorter well trained plants, the canopy is maybe thicker, but its overall distance from the bottom growth is much shorter and if there is any penetration at all, the inverse square law of light intensity comes into play. A short plant will oftentimes get more light to the lower canopy than a tall plant who has forced the lights to be 4' away. This is one reason that a vertical grown plant will oftentimes lose its lower leaves... they just are too far away from usable light.

There is no rule or standard behaviour that forces a fade onto our plants. Popular growing techniques such as starvation at the end cause a lot of this, as well as not maintaining incoming trace elements all through the grow that accumulate and are stored just to prevent a fade at the end when supplies run short. Given the proper nutrition, such as in an organic grow where the nutes are available 24/7 all through the grow, a healthy plant does not lose its lower fan leaves and they keep adding energy to the grow right up to the end. I learned recently that I have been not giving enough potassium in my grows, and once I correctly began to supplement it, I never lost another fan leaf to some unexpected and unexplained cause. In my last 2 grows I didn't lose any fans to a fade at the end and all the undergrowth remained healthy, providing me with over an ounce of good oil producing pot on each plant. With MegaCrop this time, I also do not expect to see any sort of fade due to nutrition, and I have increased the focus on my LED lights to provide for even better penetration.

So is it natural for the plant to lose its lower fan leaves? No, it is not, and it always points to something that caused it to happen, whether it just is the lack of light to the lower canopy in an artificial sun grow room, or something else that could have been avoided. Does this losing of a few lower fans mean the plant is unhealthy? No, it is simply a reaction, not a crisis.

 

[Vulx]

That's some violent love you show there.. Again I'm feeling some strange form of empathy for the plants - as much as one can for decapitated flora anyway.

If there was a category for "Most Metal Grower" you'd be a clear winner.

 

[SQl2kGuy]

The amount of die off down below has a lot to do with the thickness of the canopy and the penetration ability of your lights. If the plant can tell that lower leaves are no longer productive, it will oftentimes cannibalize those leaves so that nothing is wasted.
The lower leaves and even the first cotyledons, are your canaries in the gold mine, and if there are any complaints about root space, pH, lack or over abundance of nutes, it is these lower leaves that will take the damage, and because they are so close to the action, they are always the first to go when things get rough.
So in your shorter well trained plants, the canopy is maybe thicker, but its overall distance from the bottom growth is much shorter and if there is any penetration at all, the inverse square law of light intensity comes into play. A short plant will oftentimes get more light to the lower canopy than a tall plant who has forced the lights to be 4' away. This is one reason that a vertical grown plant will oftentimes lose its lower leaves... they just are too far away from usable light.

There is no rule or standard behaviour that forces a fade onto our plants. Popular growing techniques such as starvation at the end cause a lot of this, as well as not maintaining incoming trace elements all through the grow that accumulate and are stored just to prevent a fade at the end when supplies run short. Given the proper nutrition, such as in an organic grow where the nutes are available 24/7 all through the grow, a healthy plant does not lose its lower fan leaves and they keep adding energy to the grow right up to the end. I learned recently that I have been not giving enough potassium in my grows, and once I correctly began to supplement it, I never lost another fan leaf to some unexpected and unexplained cause. In my last 2 grows I didn't lose any fans to a fade at the end and all the undergrowth remained healthy, providing me with over an ounce of good oil producing pot on each plant. With MegaCrop this time, I also do not expect to see any sort of fade due to nutrition, and I have increased the focus on my LED lights to provide for even better penetration.

So is it natural for the plant to lose its lower fan leaves? No, it is not, and it always points to something that caused it to happen, whether it just is the lack of light to the lower canopy in an artificial sun grow room, or something else that could have been avoided. Does this losing of a few lower fans mean the plant is unhealthy? No, it is simply a reaction, not a crisis.

Honestly @Emilya ... one day I hope to have a grow journal with plants that rock and I am able to pass on this valuable wisdom ...

I am growing 4 CBD plants for my girlfriend in my upcoming third grow ... and I really want them to turn out well for her ...

I paid attention in your last grow and this grow, ... and I want to challenge myself to see how far I can get this time without the leaves turning yellow ... or getting heat burned ... or topping too often ... etc

Hey, maybe Santa will bring me a green thumb for Christmas ...

 

[Emilya Green]

Veg, Day 42
I last watered on Monday and they didn't quite need it today even though I premixed my MC in the bucket this morning ready to go. The girls appear to be on a 5 day wet/dry cycle at the moment, and I am hoping to see that shorten to 3 days in the next couple of waterings.
Looking closely at my firm timeline (I have 1st class airline tickets) I need to do the flip on Christmas Eve, so that flowering can definitely start on or around the 1st. Even though this will not quite be 2 weeks from the transplant, I am confident that by the time we are through the first 2 weeks of stretch, the roots will have found their own in these 5 gallon containers.
I am upping the MC to 4.5 g/g this time, and increasing the SC to 1 full scoop, which puts the application level at 1.5g/g instead of the 1g/g I have been giving. SK has stayed at the same level, at .4g/g and if my Bud Explosion comes today, I will add it to the mix also, but I suspect that will have to wait until the next watering. I plan on giving the BE from flip to the end of stretch, and then again at the beginning of week 7 till the finish.
The leaf damage on the lower fans has progressed some again during this watering interval, with the already damaged leaves being tagged for removal by the plant. It is an odd presentation and while it reminds me of how a magnesium deficiency presents, there are no spots as are typically seen, and the problem is not progressing up the trunk and is remaining with these leaves. It is a good thing that I don't remove leaves for pictures, or there would have no doubt been more leaves affected by this internal shift of nutrients in the plant, but I think that by being patient and non reactive, the plant has been able to sort this out by itself. Besides these few lower leaves being cannibalized, there appear to be no other problems with these very large plants.

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

The lead plant took advantage of the increased nutes and went wild with growth the last 2 days. Taking a cue from SQL, this precocious plant decided to get tall, and she sent 4 nodes up to the top with accelerated growth. This will never do. She was now 1 fully grown node taller than the other two in the tent. She has been whacked back down to the size of the other plants. We are no longer doubling nodes every time we make a cut, but these big 4" cuts are going to dramatically accelerate the lower growth. This is going to become the widest plant. We will call her Bertha... Bertha Budd.

Big Bertha Bud.!. a common uk term for a very large lady without the bud. Looking good emmy and seeing the. still in vigour show the use of extra can be managed well and I LOS as well. I am getting braver now I am less reliant on needing growth spurts so will be adding shogun boost at 5ml/10L with the 14.2g Mc , 5ml calmag,5ml silica on the coco pots and will be trying the shogun in the Los too. It has kelp and some other stuff for flowering but doesnt have N. No issues with organic soils I do not think either. Hard trying to fathom cycle properly with the auto a but only a couple of weeks left for 2 strains ( 6 plants) so hopefully wont have a negative effect using a boost . Their pk warripr product is a 9/18 ( wont use in los) so I will reduce the MC to use that in small amounts too. I am also planning on using a finisher by them too called dragon force that I think is a similar thing to terpinator. A few are well in flower at only 17 days too but were supposed to be a 8 week seed to harvest as well but that would be in a few days time and they dont looknthere to me yet so hence another two weeks before harvest time starts. Have a total finish tine of around Jan 10th for them all so should give me time to test a little out with these additions too. Love what your doing here. I am hoping to use it to help the next no-till run in the LOS and mc together.
great work and info Emmy Thanks you.

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

Honestly @Emilya ... one day I hope to have a grow journal with plants that rock and I am able to pass on this valuable wisdom ...

I am growing 4 CBD plants for my girlfriend in my upcoming third grow ... and I really want them to turn out well for her ...

I paid attention in your last grow and this grow, ... and I want to challenge myself to see how far I can get this time without the leaves turning yellow ... or getting heat burned ... or topping too often ... etc

Hey, maybe Santa will bring me a green thumb for Christmas ...

not just the thumb or it will look like gangrene !! you need the whole hand at least , 2 would be better . Least then you will only look like a Genetically confused Hulk !! lol. Merry Christmas

 

[Emilya Green]

Saturday I watered our girls with the 4.5g mix of MC, SC and SK. The plants exploded with growth during the next 24-36 hours and added several inches to their height. It is totally amazing what an immediate cause and effect relationship there is to the growth cycle and these nutes. This stuff is exactly why we give nutes... not to just give enough that our plants survive, but to supercharge them into extraordinary growth!
I am beginning the flip at 4pm when their lights go off for their night. After 36 hours of darkness, I will resume their schedule with 12/12 lighting, hoping for a start of bloom on or around Jan 1.
Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy New Year!

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

Saturday I watered our girls with the 4.5g mix of MC, SC and SK. The plants exploded with growth during the next 24-36 hours and added several inches to their height. It is totally amazing what an immediate cause and effect relationship there is to the growth cycle and these nutes. This stuff is exactly why we give nutes... not to just give enough that our plants survive, but to supercharge them into extraordinary growth!
I am beginning the flip at 4pm when their lights go off for their night. After 36 hours of darkness, I will resume their schedule with 12/12 lighting, hoping for a start of bloom on or around Jan 1.
Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy New Year!

Looking great emmy and what a perfect flip date too. We were only just discussing tomato rings a day ago on a thread and bingo !. be interesting to see how you use yours Emilya. Have you seen those new training springs for stem spiralling. was telling Prof flora about them the other day. Rhe vids on the site are impressive with its use for running the stem along it. shows multiple used in a pot to. Neat little aid. not sure who makes them now but new out.
Inam braving it with the MC and using Shogun pk warrior 9/18

after Farrside05 did a little number crunching and came up with a 3ml per gall to 5gMc , 5ml of calmag and the same of shogun silica. This stuff has been a good addition in the past and I am hoping to use the Dragon force towards last week of flower too ( think it's a similar to terpinator/flawless finish ect.. but full of carbs . I did notice a lot of oils when last used it so have to finish the race with it.
In the Los , I am still not braving the mc but did topdress with a charge and some sumo boost for good measure

. Let's see how they boost over next few days.
It's also defol day today for some of the girls. too much busyness for me

Looking good in here and certainly not doing any bad so far. nice pioneering work
Merry xmas to you and yours Emilya

 

[Emilya Green]

Thanks @Ganjagrandaddy and yours are looking great too. It is also very encouraging to see a couple of your lower fans doing exactly what mine are doing... looks like magnesium, but I think it comes and goes with this stuff... mostly goes I think, once you get up into the higher dosages.
I haven't seen the spiral things yet... I will have to look them up. The tomato cages seem to be exactly what I have been looking for in the grow tent. My typical response to the buds getting too heavy was to pull out my large collection of bamboo and with twine and bamboo, fix up a corset that would hold up the weight. The problem with this is that the corset bunched up the plants in the middle and the lower canopy suffered as a result. The tomato cages get larger toward the top, allowing the tops to spread out naturally and anything that needs to have additional support can be held in place with the cage and some plant tape, just like I do with my heavy tomato bearing vines. I hate the idea of screens or room wide trellis because it hampers your ability to move the plants around and rotate them in relation to the lights... the tomato cages allow total movement.
Merry Christmas to you and yours too @Ganjagrandaddy ... I hope Santa is very kind to you all this year!

 

[StoneOtter]

Always a place for beauty here Em. I will and hope you will enjoy Christmas too. And the best new year ever!

 

[Emilya Green]

Thank you @stoneotter and I hope you and Mrs Otter and all the Otterettes have a Happy Christmas too! Happy New Year!!

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

Thanks @Ganjagrandaddy and yours are looking great too. It is also very encouraging to see a couple of your lower fans doing exactly what mine are doing... looks like magnesium, but I think it comes and goes with this stuff... mostly goes I think, once you get up into the higher dosages.
I haven't seen the spiral things yet... I will have to look them up. The tomato cages seem to be exactly what I have been looking for in the grow tent. My typical response to the buds getting too heavy was to pull out my large collection of bamboo and with twine and bamboo, fix up a corset that would hold up the weight. The problem with this is that the corset bunched up the plants in the middle and the lower canopy suffered as a result. The tomato cages get larger toward the top, allowing the tops to spread out naturally and anything that needs to have additional support can be held in place with the cage and some plant tape, just like I do with my heavy tomato bearing vines. I hate the idea of screens or room wide trellis because it hampers your ability to move the plants around and rotate them in relation to the lights... the tomato cages allow total movement.
Merry Christmas to you and yours too @Ganjagrandaddy ... I hope Santa is very kind to you all this year!

Thank you . back at you with christmas bells on Emilya.

The rings top one is even better once tied up to it. to reduce height I just slid them along the ring and they naturally reduced height as they go round them. can save a bend or two if all the mains take similar centre stage and leaves the middle to use for 1 as well I had about 6 mains rotating together as they stacked up. good luck

heres the spring Low Stress Training (LST) for Cannabis | The OG Spring

 

[MrSauga]

Merry Christmas Em! Happy Holidays and best wishes to you and yours!

 

[Emilya Green]

Merry Christmas Em! Happy Holidays and best wishes to you and yours!

Merry Christmas to you too MrSauga! You remain as one of my very favorite members on this forum. May 2020 turn out to be your best year ever! Thank you for your support and thank you for so many incredibly interesting discussions!

 

[ChefDGreen]

Merry Christmas Emilya! I hope you and yours are well and warm. Sending Positive vibes your way this holiday season. You’ve been an excellent teacher for me, so I thank you.

 

[Emilya Green]

Merry Christmas Emilya! I hope you and yours are well and warm. Sending Positive vibes your way this holiday season. You’ve been an excellent teacher for me, so I thank you.

Merry Christmas right back to you Chef and sending you best wishes for everything in the coming year! Someday soon I am sure that you will be teaching the the new people too... it just seems to be in some people's nature to be giving. Thank you for being you!
And always remember on this fateful night to guard your hash...

 

[ChefDGreen]

Hahahaha! Love that meme! I’ll make sure to lock up the Who hash before I hit the hay tonight!