InTheShed Grows Inside & Out: Jump In Any Time
I agree with the others that the Carnival looks ready as well. It's been around 48 hours with the 20-10-20... how are they looking as far as taking to their new meds?
Amber = degradation. So the question is whether the plant is producing fresh trichs faster than the old ones are ambering, And how much faster. 
Carnival generally runs longer than 8 weeks - more like 10 - but there is a quick cultivar. I had one that was ready in 9. The others were all 10 or longer. The last one I had went 14 weeks.
If you want to chop, there's definitely enough amber to go for it. But if you're hesitant, take a good look at the fresh trichs. If they're all bright and sparkly and plentiful, it'd be worth waiting.
Carnival generally runs longer than 8 weeks - more like 10 - but there is a quick cultivar. I had one that was ready in 9. The others were all 10 or longer. The last one I had went 14 weeks.
If you want to chop, there's definitely enough amber to go for it. But if you're hesitant, take a good look at the fresh trichs. If they're all bright and sparkly and plentiful, it'd be worth waiting.
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Since it's been in the 90s this week they needed another 3 gallons each last night just before lights out. The pH adjustment should take a week, so I don't expect results yet.
We've been having a pH/MC discussion over in smokey's thread if anyone is interested (starts here), but I'll be going over my whole email conversation with my PremierTech rep here tomorrow.
Thanks Graytail! After looking at harvest times in the Carnival thread, 8 weeks seemed kinda short. I'll check in the sun tomorrow morning and see if I can get an idea if it's putting out any new trichomes, as it's certainly not pushing new pistils.
Sorry I was referring to how they looked taking in the new orchid fert as opposed to the MC. Obviously they are fine or you would have said something and now they are on their second feed so I answered my own question really.
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When I get home I will do a side-by-side on the orchid fert vs MC so we can compare the stuff beyond the 20-10-20.
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Let me see if I can get this to work in a side-by-side-by-side table:
I think we can see that the MegaCrop offers a lot more micronutrients along with Ca and Mg that the other two don't. Looks like I'll need to add cal-mag to the Orchid Food if I'm going to keep using it!
Too bad MC doesn't balance their nitrogen sources.
[OMG, I heard back from Greenleaf in response to my email where I asked them if they had any plans to change their N sources in light of the fact that nitrate-based nitrogen raises the pH of the medium. Their reply was:
"can you give us a science backed reference supporting your claim that Nitrate raises pH levels? I think you are just mistaken."
I sent them three links back: one to PremierTech, one to Mosaic Fertilizer company's detailed description of nitrogen's effects on pH, and one to Purdue University. We'll see...]
| MegaCrop | Grow More Orchid Food 20-10-20 | Jack's Professional 20-10-20 | |||
| Total N • Nitrate • Ammoniacal | 9% 8.5% 0.5% | Total N • Nitrate • Ammoniacal | 20% 12% 8% | Total N • Nitrate • Ammoniacal | 20% 12% 8% |
| Phosphate | 6% | Phosphate | 10% | Phosphate | 10% |
| Potash | 17% | Potash | 20% | Potash | 20% |
| Ca | 5.6% | Ca | 0% | Ca | 0% |
| Mg | 2.3% | Mg | 0% | Mg | 0.15% |
| S | 1.9% | S | 0% | S | 0% |
| B | 0.07% | B | 0% | B | 0.02% |
| Cu | 0.04% | Cu | 0.05% | Cu | 0.01% |
| Fe | 0.07% | Fe | 0.10% | Fe | 0.10% |
| Mn | 0.07% | Mn | 0.05% | Mn | 0.05% |
| Mo | 0.07% | Mo | 0% | Mo | 0.01% |
| Zn | 0.11% | Zn | 0.05% | Zn | 0.05% |
| SiO2 | 0.15% | SiO2 | 0% | SiO2 | 0% |
I think we can see that the MegaCrop offers a lot more micronutrients along with Ca and Mg that the other two don't. Looks like I'll need to add cal-mag to the Orchid Food if I'm going to keep using it!
Too bad MC doesn't balance their nitrogen sources.
[OMG, I heard back from Greenleaf in response to my email where I asked them if they had any plans to change their N sources in light of the fact that nitrate-based nitrogen raises the pH of the medium. Their reply was:
"can you give us a science backed reference supporting your claim that Nitrate raises pH levels? I think you are just mistaken."
I sent them three links back: one to PremierTech, one to Mosaic Fertilizer company's detailed description of nitrogen's effects on pH, and one to Purdue University. We'll see...]
Nice spreadsheet shed! I guess your not surprised with greenleaf's response. I am going to the garden center today to try and find some fertilizer with higher Ammoniacal nitrogen.
I’ve noticed this too, but with hydro. Takes several days of 2x/day using pH down before it settles.
Part of it is my water. Thanks, limestone aquifers.
Even with RO it still doesn’t get all of it. I am upgrading my RO, so that will help get the rest I think.
But, no wonder I had to drop silica. That really amplified the problem, and made it way worse. like 3x-4x/day having to down it to keep it in range.
Not seeing that with gh trio. Well, not near as bad anyway. Started adding silica back to it recently, and it’s more like once a day for a day or two and the pH settles in just fine.
I love the concept, micro nutes, and price of MC, so hopefully things get worked out at some point.
I’m contemplating giving it one more shot, but cutting it back a little. In flower, cut it back to like 4g/gal with a little PK boost or something.
I know I'm late to the party, but I say "yes" to this weekend's chop session. Lots of amber, mostly cloudy, and just a few clears.
And your cells. UV kills cells,causes cancer and mutates DNA.
Wonder how strong the UV is in some of these lights?
I'm sure the led companies took this into consideration...
And your cells. UV kills cells,causes cancer and mutates DNA.
Wonder how strong the UV is in some of these lights?
I'm sure the led companies took this into consideration...
I use dedicated UVB fixtures from California Lightworks. One little 24w unit covers a 4x4. I run UVB the last 2-3 weeks of flower, 3x-4x/day for an hour. Love it.
However I do take a lot of precautions with it too. First it’s on a timer that has an “on” indicator light. Second, I also put a “sign” on the tent with UV times listed and a warning.
Sign makes me double check the timer light, and then I check the time. If it’s on then I wait. If not, I unplug the light and carry on.
It can definitely be a problem if precautions are not taken. A little dab will do ya. I do like the results though. It’s not a massive difference, but one of those “every little bit adds up” kind of things when you have all the big pieces in place, and are in the micro tweaks phase.
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Thanks smokey! Getting a better blend of nitrogen sounds like a good idea for anyone whose pH is getting out of whack.
I hope so. They're response to my links was:
"thank you for the information. We will have our team review this and get back to you with an appropriate response. "
Thanks BL!
I love that you are always looking out for us, even when you're not operating at maximum capacity.
Excellent idea! Safety first.
That sounds like what I would write in a “professional email” if I wanted to ask the recipient if the “letters F O mean anything to you?”
It would be nice, but at the end of the day there are other dry products out there that can do the job. Might need a dash of micro nutes, but whatev.
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That's the search mV! I'm open to all suggestions.
Speaking of spreadsheets and mixing up nutes to replicate the MC, I added a new tab to @FelipeBlu's Nutrient Profile Calculator for the GrowMore Orchid Food I have. This way I can see if there is a way to get close to the MegaCrop numbers using what's on hand.
Here is a screenshot of 5.5g/gallon of MC:
And here is the equivalent N content using the GrowMore, some Cal-Mag, and some Armor Si to raise the K:
You can see that my K number is much lower than the MC, and I would need to bump the Armor Si up to 13.5ml to get up to the 205 that MC provides. That's a lot of added silica (398 PPM!) and well above the recommended high dose on the bottle. And I'm missing some micronutrients in the mix as well, though some of those may be in my tap water anyway.
In addition, the nitrogen in the cal-mag is all nitrate (same in all the cal-mag brands), which is counterproductive here. Oof!
Another way to do it might be to blend the MC, the GrowMore, and the Armor Si together, like this:
Still low on the calcium/magnesium but I get a better blend of nitrogen and higher K numbers as well.
This build-a-bear stuff is hard!
I was all over town today looking for fertilizer. Not much luck alot of them they don't list the type of nitrogen. When they do its azole have you heard of that shed?
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Not unless it's an alternate pronunciation for asshole!
Doesn't mention using it for straight nitrogen, just as an anti-fungal.
Azole - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Doesn't mention using it for straight nitrogen, just as an anti-fungal.
It was on a lot of label as the nitrogen content.
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