Skybound's Journal

[Dankman_420]

Not much bro. Got the day off and it's been raining like hell all day. Stuck in the house. Thinking about up potting some clones from Solo's to #1's

 

[Skybound]

Not much bro. Got the day off and it's been raining like hell all day. Stuck in the house. Thinking about up potting some clones from Solo's to #1's

Leave them in solo cups till they will no longer tolerate it. I want roots busting out everywhere before consider potting up. They might fuss a little up front, but reward you more on the back end. Just my 2 pennies ...

 

[ilikemsticky]

I like to see roots coming out the bottom before I pot up--- im interested in knowing what your leaf ph is im thinking that's the way to go for you!

 

[Skybound]

I want roots cicrling the bottom and forcing some to grow back up into the root ball and populate the upper regions as well. Fill out the entire pot, then daddy will consider a larger pot, but not until.

I'm eager to see how the leaf sap ph works out too. I'm wanting to lower N and increase Ca and K, but by how much? So many questions, lol.

 

[Skybound]

I bit the bullet and ordered the leaf sap PH meter. I wont be able to sleep if I'm still second guessing that balanced nutrients will result in higher brix levels. I also intend to add Amino Acids into the feed to get more organics into the menu. FWIW, I am not even remotely considering switching to organics or hi brix super soil kits, but as a hydro grower, I do wish to grow the very best bud possible for me, so I am pursuing this hunch to the farrest extent because from what I've read, it all makes total sense that balanced feed will produce the best plants, the healthiest plants and the PH or the leaf sap can tell me how close to 6.4 my sap is. If this chart is valid, I will be able to tweak my feed in Hydro Buddy till the result is the desired PH in the sap. I know I am very close now, so I don't expect my sap PH to be too far from 6.4. At any rate, I'll have a really good idea by the end of the week if I will be able to achieve high brix with a more refined feed schedule.

 

[ilikemsticky]

I bit the bullet and ordered the leaf sap PH meter. I wont be able to sleep if I'm still second guessing that balanced nutrients will result in higher brix levels. I also intend to add Amino Acids into the feed to get more organics into the menu. FWIW, I am not even remotely considering switching to organics or hi brix super soil kits, but as a hydro grower, I do wish to grow the very best bud possible for me, so I am pursuing this hunch to the farrest extent because from what I've read, it all makes total sense that balanced feed will produce the best plants, the healthiest plants and the PH or the leaf sap can tell me how close to 6.4 my sap is. If this chart is valid, I will be able to tweak my feed in Hydro Buddy till the result is the desired PH in the sap. I know I am very close now, so I don't expect my sap PH to be too far from 6.4. At any rate, I'll have a really good idea by the end of the week if I will be able to achieve high brix with a more refined feed schedule.

that's going to be fun watching you hope it works for ta bud!

 

[Skybound]

that's going to be fun watching you hope it works for ta bud!

The really good part is that if it pans out, I could definitively say what all of the ppm for each element needs to be, then nobody else has to get a meter unless they need a strain specific profile, but other than that, whatever numbers I can pinpoint can be shared online and the user can then extract those numbers from their own nutrient line and grow high brix hydro, or as close to that as is possible.

But conversely, if it doesn't pan out, this will have been another expensive lesson and that'll suck balls!

 

[Bode]

Highya Skybound,

Congratulations on the knowledge you have accumulated thus far. Experimentation is so much fun. I've played around with hydroponics some. Certainly not to the extent that you have. I do like to grow in soil, and still study about it. One question I have is can you get hi-brix without the microherd (soil biome)? I'm of the perspective that hi-brix is a product of soil borne bacteria and fungi (and arthropods, and nematodes, ...) Of course I don't know, only suspect. It will be a great chance to prove one way or the other. So, thank you very much for this information! Cheers

 

[ilikemsticky]

The really good part is that if it pans out, I could definitively say what all of the ppm for each element needs to be, then nobody else has to get a meter unless they need a strain specific profile, but other than that, whatever numbers I can pinpoint can be shared online and the user can then extract those numbers from their own nutrient line and grow high brix hydro, or as close to that as is possible.

But conversely, if it doesn't pan out, this will have been another expensive lesson and that'll suck balls!

good luck sky ill be waiting the results!

 

[Big Sparks]

going to pull up a seat for this one.

 

[Skybound]

Highya Skybound,

Congratulations on the knowledge you have accumulated thus far. Experimentation is so much fun. I've played around with hydroponics some. Certainly not to the extent that you have. I do like to grow in soil, and still study about it. One question I have is can you get hi-brix without the microherd (soil biome)? I'm of the perspective that hi-brix is a product of soil borne bacteria and fungi (and arthropods, and nematodes, ...) Of course I don't know, only suspect. It will be a great chance to prove one way or the other. So, thank you very much for this information! Cheers

My knowledge on all related topics surely is not what it needs to be, but if you'll accept my spit balled answers, I'm of the belief that high(er) brix levels can be achieved in hydro by including as much organics as possible, though if we were to get right down into the nitty gritty science of it, we'd find that all of the microbes are breaking down elements into the forms that can be uptaken by the roots, so hydro is just that minus a lot of other processes that naturally occur in soils.

I realize that I most certainly will not be able to achieve as much brix as a typical soil grow. I just want the peace of mind knowing I can achieve higher than your typical hydro grower, plus also I am in pursuit of the perfect feed chart in hydro, so finding the perfect synergy for high brix will help me with that as a side effect. Right now, my highest brix reading was between 7 and 7.5 which from what I'm reading is straight garbage, so it can only get better, lol. It would be nice if I can get my brix higher than 12, but that might just be me being overly optimistic.

Aside from balanced food, I will also regular be adding fulvic, humic, kelp, 16-L aminos and twice weekly compost teas. I'm getting the meter tomorrow, so maybe within a week I'll have something more definitive to add to the discussion, but right now I'm mostly guessing.

 

[Skybound]

going to pull up a seat for this one.

Welcome Big Sparks. You a hydro or soil grower?

 

[Big Sparks]

Soil. Living Organic Soil- Coot-style kit from buildasoil seems to be the easiest way for me. RO water and teas only. But i have grown in straight Pro-mix HP for awhile. Some of the biggest buds, and plants ive grown indoors. But when growing in living soil, yeild is not as great (only sometimes), but the taste is second to none! And, i get tired of ph adjusting feed all the time. I like simple, and maybe even a little lasy. I can come home tired af from work, give my girls water with maybe a little aloe flakes (wetting agent), and liquid seaweed/fish hydrolysates. And done. No ph. No worries. Microbes in the soil and teas that are added take care of all that. But i can still appreciate a great soiless grow. Fast in veg, big in flowers!

 

[Bode]

I'll hand it to you, SB, if you figure how to hibrix a grow in hydro, you should parley that into a retirement fund. Many others would be interested also, I'm sure. Look at Doc Bud. He figured it out for soil. Fun, eh? Cheers

 

[Skybound]

Soil. Living Organic Soil- Coot-style kit from buildasoil seems to be the easiest way for me. RO water and teas only. But i have grown in straight Pro-mix HP for awhile. Some of the biggest buds, and plants ive grown indoors. But when growing in living soil, yeild is not as great (only sometimes), but the taste is second to none! And, i get tired of ph adjusting feed all the time. I like simple, and maybe even a little lasy. I can come home tired af from work, give my girls water with maybe a little aloe flakes (wetting agent), and liquid seaweed/fish hydrolysates. And done. No ph. No worries. Microbes in the soil and teas that are added take care of all that. But i can still appreciate a great soiless grow. Fast in veg, big in flowers!

If you're here to watch a hydro from the sidelines, I hope not to disappoint. I am far from a typical hydro grower now in that I use my own tailored to my plants line of nutes that I built from salts. I'm not a wiz, just an avg grower that asked the right questions I guess. If I didn't use Hydro Buddy, I would not be able to do any of this, or should I say I never would have been desperate enough to force myself to learn all the math needed for calculating elemental PPM. Still, I now know how to use that app to my advantage and I do like to share my findings to the community as it was here that I learned my green thumbing skills. That said, it would be nice to locate another hydro grower that mixes from salts to compare numbers with.

With all the other hydro growers, when they talk about a dose in ml/Gal of BrandX Super Bloom, only other users of that brand can make the slightest bit of sense about generally what's in the sauce, but when mixing salts, it's then totally about elemental ppm of each element in the juice. I find this extremely helpful to diagnose deficiencies and toxicities and generally gives me the freedom to tweak as needed to accommodate specific dietary needs. At any rate, I anticipate becoming even more empowered when this new PH meter comes. Good times, right??

I'll hand it to you, SB, if you figure how to hibrix a grow in hydro, you should parley that into a retirement fund. Many others would be interested also, I'm sure. Look at Doc Bud. He figured it out for soil. Fun, eh? Cheers

AFAIK, Doc Bud is an actual botanist with a degree and the like, I'm just a random guy hoping to get lucky. I consider myself very lucky now with the extent of control I have over my feed that I have already replaced every nutrient I will ever use or have used, and in a life time supply quantity. My desire for hibrix is very new, less than 2 weeks in fact, but I do incorporate organic products where practical, I am in search of the perfect elemental ppm for each element throughout every stage of growth, so potentially grafting high brix into a path that is going the same direction seemed like a no brainer. The worst that will happen is that I'll know what high brix is but am unable to achieve it, but the end result will be that my feed regimen will be more better than it is right now and currently it is very good, like really very good, more better gooder!

 

[Weaselcracker]

I did load Hydro Buddy on to my PC, but with my current visual impairment my comfort zone focus is about 5” away from the screen. Works out ok for a phone but it’s hell with a full screen. Surgery this week
and I’m looking forward to trying to dissect my feeding ‘program’ if I can even glorify it with that title. It’s been something that’s bugged me since the beginning. I don’t like flying blind and just dumping in the bottled stuff the way they tell you to. I would at least like to know what I’m feeding them.

 

[Skybound]

I did load Hydro Buddy on to my PC, but with my current visual impairment my comfort zone focus is about 5” away from the screen. Works out ok for a phone but it’s hell when th a full screen. Surgery this week
and I’m looking forward to trying to dissect my feeding ‘program’ if I can even glorify it with that title. It’s been something that’s bugged me since the beginning. I don’t like flying blind and just dumping in the bottled stuff the way they tell you to. I would at least like to know what I’m feeding them.

I hope you get your eyes back soon, it's frightening not being able to see well. When you do get up and running though, you will get extremely familiar with your nutes. Even if getting salts isn't practical up in the bush, you'll still be able to mix and match any synthetic blend with a guaranteed analysis on the label. Then it's just loading up which bottles you want considered, dial in your targets, and viola, how much need from bottle A, bottle B, C, D, E etc and how close you are to each target. Now I can communicate by saying, "hey Weas, I'm getting some fat buds if I hit'er with the 65-70 of P right after stretch", and no more "you have a calcium deficiency, so use twice as much CalMag".

 

[Weaselcracker]

Totally. That’s my short term goal is just to see what I’m actually feeding them now, and mix and match from what I have on my shelf. I’ve got a bunch of nutes I don’t use- contest winnings and whatnot. I’m sure I can come up with something way better than what I’ve been feeding them.

In particular, the P Chunk clone that I’ve been running for four years or so... Basically on paper I’ve officially given up on it now and have new PC phenos from seed growing. Its gotten more and more sickly and prone to problems over the years. I started a thread on it and there was no real conclusion except that maybe the cutting was just too old and has lost its vigour. But part of me still thinks that maybe somehow it just needs something I’m not giving it. The fact that it can appear perfectly healthy all the way through into early and even mid flowering - if it can do that why can’t it go all the way? Anyway- it would be ‘fun’ to piss around with it a little more before completely walking away from it.

 

[Skybound]

Totally. That’s my short term goal is just to see what I’m actually feeding them now, and mix and match from what I have on my shelf. I’ve got a bunch of nutes I don’t use- contest winnings and whatnot. I’m sure I can come up with something way better than what I’ve been feeding them.

In particular, the P Chunk clone that I’ve been running for four years or so... Basically on paper I’ve officially given up on it now and have new PC phenos from seed growing. Its gotten more and more sickly and prone to problems over the years. I started a thread on it and there was no real conclusion except that maybe the cutting was just too old and has lost its vigour. But part of me still thinks that maybe somehow it just needs something I’m not giving it. The fact that it can appear perfectly healthy all the way through into early and even mid flowering - if it can do that why can’t it go all the way? Anyway- it would be ‘fun’ to piss around with it a little more before completely walking away from it.

yeah, you'll be 100 times better off targeting your feed instead of pushing as hard as manufacturers recommend. As far as the PC cut you had, it's my experience that the characteristics of a mom doesn't express identically and equally in every child, so though you do have a descendant of the original, it's possible those choice expressions have wandered off into the gene pool? I notice this in my lines usually after the 2nd generation. Like Thick Stems for example, the seed mom was harvested, first gen is mid bloom, and I have 2 from 2nd gen in veg that both will see bloom. I'm yet to get 2 off each. I hope to keep the thick stem expressions, but I also favor the short stature, well stacked colas, frostier and generally a more favorable skeleton. I recently learned in high brix studies that calcium is responsible for "sturdy stems" so needless to say I revised all future feed charts to have a wee bit more Ca. I don't want to overshoot any mark when learning new values. I started everything from the deficient side of the spectrum months ago and have been gradually increasing this and that in search of the sweet spot that gives me perfect even looking leaves and stems. That's still a work in progress, but each augmentation gets me that much closer, and now learning about brix has expanded my understanding of my nutes. I began having 7 different feed charts, now I only have 4. If you target to my most current, that WILL grow your plants very similar to mine which IMO are more or less fantastic. Granted, using various other liquid nutes, your feed will have some degree of error, but at least you'll know in advance how far off target each element is, then you can make the executive decisions. It was that scenario that lead me to purchase all salts, and eventually, not even brands of those, just lone ingredients. With all the nute brands out of Canada, I'm confident you'll be able to find everything you need, likely more shit than I can locate. For shits & giggles, here's my current targets. The only misses is sulfur, but those results are still quite good.

 

[Skybound]

The bits of gold I'm able to get from reading up on brix is to be careful with the nitrates which is what our N is, so I've just reduced that by 5 PPM, am also marginally increasing Ca from my previous of 100ppm, now to 110-105. Also, K is mentioned a lot in the reading, plus relating to the other forms of tissue analysis, wine and beer makers also test their potassium levels, so mostly N, K and Ca, at least in the brix pages I'm looking at.