Max's First Grow - Soil - LED - Painkiller XL

[MaxHeadroom]

I'm harvesting this week and thinking about starting some clones on 12/12 next week. Going to experiment with not keeping them so green after week 4.
Investigation is always fun

V

Do you have a suspicion of what will happen if kept less green, or this a pure "let's see what happens" kind of experiment?

 

[Cultivator]

why do u add 0.5ml/l of calmag? how did you come to that dose?

The way i would don it depends on whether you are hard or soft water..

If your tap water is 0.4 or less, add calmag until it has bumped ec up by 0.2. so if water is 0.4, add calmag til its 0.6. Then add base nute to required ec.

If its hard water id add half ro water then do the same as above.

That way should cover the plants needs.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

why do u add 0.5ml/l of calmag? how did you come to that dose?

The way i would don it depends on whether you are hard or soft water..

If your tap water is 0.4 or less, add calmag until it has bumped ec up by 0.2. so if water is 0.4, add calmag til its 0.6. Then add base nute to required ec.

If its hard water id add half ro water then do the same as above.

That way should cover the plants needs.

Cheers Cult,

I got the figure from the side of the bottle. I don't think the water here is hard; I've never had an issue with furred up kettles and suchlike.

EC? ah, yes, electrical conductivity? I don't have an EC gizmo yet. Something to investigate perhaps.

 

[Curly Beaver]

I don't know Max, but I'd be tempted to add 5ml CalMag per gallon (and to every gallon) and water followed by a foliar spray using the same concentration of CalMag on some of the affected leaves, tops and bottoms and see if that helps in 3-4 days, if it does, do them all, if not keep searching.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

I don't know Max, but I'd be tempted to add 5ml CalMag per gallon (and to every gallon) and water followed by a foliar spray using the same concentration of CalMag on some of the affected leaves, tops and bottoms and see if that helps in 3-4 days, if it does, do them all, if not keep searching.

Thanks Beav,

I'm a little nervous about foliar at this stage, but I'll go for it in watering. Let's see what tomorrow brings as I put some Epsom Salts in the water today.

 

[Curly Beaver]

10-4.
By the way, I meant just the affected leaves, not the buds.

 

[Cultivator]

The trouble is with out checking ec you are just guessing at what you are feeding. never ever go off the strength on the bottle, its not accurate at all. some feeds are very strong and some are watered down alot. You must invest in an ec meter and then you will know what ec your starting water is and then you will know your feed strengths. Once you know that its easy as it gets. no ec meter and you get plants to grow but its not a good idea.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

10-4.
By the way, I meant just the affected leaves, not the buds.

Ahhh, makes sense now, cheers Beav.

I noticed the tips are getting nute burn *after* I'd added the first full strength dose of nutes along with Epsom Salts. I'm half asleep these days; can't wait to get some home grown meds for the pain. I spent over an hour in the tent this afternoon tidying away dead leaves and cleaning the floor.

It was a nice distraction. Gardening is very therapeutic.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

The trouble is with out checking ec you are just guessing at what you are feeding. never ever go off the strength on the bottle, its not accurate at all. some feeds are very strong and some are watered down alot. You must invest in an ec meter and then you will know what ec your starting water is and then you will know your feed strengths. Once you know that its easy as it gets. no ec meter and you get plants to grow but its not a good idea.

Thanks for the advice Cult. I'm pretty sure from your videos you use a Bluewand EC meter, is that correct?

 

[VladimirPutin]

You'll get the feeding down next grow Mr Max.

It's real easy to overfeed but also easy to avoid it when you already know what to look out for.

Vlad

 

[MaxHeadroom]

You'll get the feeding down next grow Mr Max.

It's real easy to overfeed but also easy to avoid it when you already know what to look out for.

Vlad

Thanks Vlad, I already have ideas and a little bit of experience lined up for my next grow

 

[sonicDlf]

You can only learn yourself by experimenting , if you don't get nute burn before you learn then your not trying hard enough Lol .

 

[Cultivator]

bluelab ec stick mate. i like them because they last years and they are good for beating the mix . alot of people who mix nutes and leave them for days or week neglect to do this. always mix res well before giving to plants. once you go off ec it will make life easier and you will be able to push plants to the max. my plants always have the smallest amount of nute burn as i push them hard. This is fine if environment is good and you flush plants correctly towards the end of the grow.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

82 days old, 39 days since flip, 25 days since first flower

Here are some gratuitous pictures, just because..

They grow up fast. Painkiller XL is listed as having an 8 week flower period, but there's 8 days between PK#1 and PK#3. I'm getting the feeling from other journals that it's more a guideline than a hard and fast 8 weeks.

A few leaves continue to go yellow despite evidence of nute burn on the tips of most leaves. There are some brown splotches in the middle of the yellowing leaves - pictures to follow once I get someone to hold a torch. The room the tent is in is quite dark and as we all know, getting meaningful pictures under LED is rather tricky.

Now to do some research on leaf patterns and common problems. One possibility could be a pH swing from the 7.2 soaking they recently got. Today's watering contained 1ml per litre of CalMag adjusted to a pH of 6.5

 

[ShiggityFlip]

A large pH swing will certainly cause some interveinal browining on the leaves.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

A large pH swing will certainly cause some interveinal browining on the leaves.

+reps for 'interveinal' ;-) The pH swing wasn't too dramatic - feeds are pH'd to 6.5, but like a numpty I forgot to pH when they got water only - that was 7.2 pH. Yes, it does seem to be between the veins.

This post makes me think it's still a magnesium deficiency Plant Abuse Chart

These girls are subjected to 111 watts per foot of genuine at-the-wall watts of LED. Next time son & heir comes round I'll take some pictures of the affected leaves.

The plan going forward is to always check pH and to increase the dose of CalMag, with the occasional splash of Epsom Salts.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Sounds like exactly what I would do if I were you. Good plan!

 

[MaxHeadroom]

Sounds like exactly what I would do if I were you. Good plan!

Thanks. I sounded so confident when I said it but really I was hoping for comments yay or nay

 

[MaxHeadroom]

You can only learn yourself by experimenting , if you don't get nute burn before you learn then your not trying hard enough Lol .

Very true. One has to slightly exceed one's limits in order to find them

 

[MaxHeadroom]

Ruminations, Musings, Actions and the Documentation Thereof

This is going to meander a little as I jot down my thoughts and actions to ensure a complete record. The girls are 83 days old today and despite my best efforts they are still alive. Feel free to comment on my ruminations and advise if I'm taking a wrong step. This is my first grow after all.

Today the air stones and pump arrived so the water got an hour of intense bubbling before the girls could wait no longer. They were drooping and gasping for a drink. I have 2 ten litre containers on order, but for now I have 4 containers with a total volume of 9.5 litres to stand the water in to dechlorinate... or do they?

I read that some water companies use chloramine rather than chlorine. Cloramine doesn't evaporate but chlorine does. Anyway, they got their weekly soak. It took 4l of water per girl to get a satisfactory amount of run off. The more mathematically inclined will work out that some water was almost direct from the tap. I bubbled the fresh water as I pH'd everything and added CalMag - they got 3ml each plant as I don't want to shock them with a huge dose at one go. Something I must investigate; apparently molasses binds to chloramine. I read this in passing somewhere and must follow up on this.

I water slowly and in stages using a 250ml measuring jug. Each plant gets a jug full, then I go back to the first plant. This takes time because I check and adjust pH when starting on a new container. This gives the soil time to absorb the water and not just drain straight though when the soil is bone dry. If I dumped a gallon of water into a dry pot at least half of it would run straight through.

The saucers the girls stand in are 5cm (2 inches) deep and 40cm (16 inches) across. I watered until the saucers were almost full, then using clean towels I soaked up the excess. I ended up picking a few cannabis leaves out of the washing machine when I removed the towels a few minutes ago. *note to self: discard the leaves on the worktop before visitors turn up later* I did this because of the burnt leaf tips and it is the best I can do in terms of flushing unless I cut the scrog net and carry them to the bathroom. This is another thing I should investigate - can I remove the scrog and expect the girls to stay supported?

One thing I've not documented in this journal is the RH%. During veg I aimed for between 40 - 60%, which was achieved using a wet towel wicking water up from a container. Since seeing the first flower, the towel has been removed and the aim of staying between 40 - 50% has mainly been achieved. This gets tricky on soak days as it creeps up to 54% - opening the tent for 10 minutes helps lower the RH. I have a couple of 15A controllers for induction motors doing nothing, so I'm toying with the idea of a 5" carbon filter hooked up to the redundant 5" in line fan (remember the cool tube debarkle?). That way I can drop RH further and dial it in by altering the speed of the fan. Currently I have a 4" filter in the tent.

Vertical growth has all but stopped. Instead the buds have been fattening up. This stage is slooooow and not as exciting as the very obvious growth of the earlier stages. Instead of seeing vegetative changes in a single day, it now takes 2 days to notice that the buds are bulking up.

The time I used to spend with my head in the tent looking on in awe at the growth has been diverted to making a new enclosure. It's almost ready. I just need to plan how to flush the girls in situ. So far lining a trough for them to sit in, then siphoning out any run off seems favourite. The trough will serve a dual purpose if I decide to go SWICK.

Apologies for the long spiel. I wanted to jot some thoughts down to refer back to.