I think all participants should tell us some more about their used techniques, the nutes they use and especially the ones
having bigger more healthy looking plants should mention their tipps and tricks how they keep their plants happy.
Such comps can help others to improve their grow skills and to become better gardeners.
Maybe I'm stupid because I tell my secrets, lol! But I do it anyway ..
I see for instance some peeps using organic soil, half filled cups, small bonsai queens and added worm compost or other organic stuff. Such a technique leads to good results when using 5-15gal pots to allow the plants to develope a huge root system. But for small party cups that's not the right system without a few tricks.
At 1st you would need a soil mix with relatively low EC, only slow released nutrients but at the same time you need the highest drainage you can get to get enough fresh air into the root system. In general you would treat the soil like coco and water up to 5 times the day but with organic ferts like fish emulsion, molasses, compost tee's, kelp or other fermented stuff like bokashi tea. With each watering you need to replace the diluted parts of the available nutes and allow fresh air to be soaked in. Result would be you get improved growth rates like with a hydro setup.
When the drain water runs off below fresh air gets soaked in from above. Roots can take up much more oxygene, water and nutes and even with a small cup and a relatively small root system the plants can grow relatively big and healthy.
Think on 2" netpots in some hydro systems..
You need probably a soil mix with only 200ppm or less to make it work. And 400-600ppm would already be enough for daily feedings. The more often you feed the lower the ppms should be.
Only one member has aerated his organic soil additionally and has added a small air hose deep in the soil near the botton of the cup.This is just another way to allow the roots to take up enough oyxgene and the amounts of nutrients they need to grow big. All other users having big plants use a watering schedule with up to 5 waterings per day or even more.
So one secret for a small but powerful root system is AIR!
I hope others will also tell us some of their "secrets".
So, and now it's time for the "green hotel" saturday morning cupdate.
With some good music to get the needed good vibes..
11 weeks are done and my little lady has already 25% orange pistels. Buds slowly swell up and getting more dense. She smells still woody, spicy and a bit like pepper too but the fuel like smell has almost disappeared.
No colors till now. A few leaves touching the sidelights show some discoloration but unfortunately no purple till now. Probably because I have no UV this time..
Watering: hand watering, 5 times the day, each time ~100ml's, ~20-30ml run off with each watering, no waterings at night.
Nute soup: reduced to 750ppm's, PH set to 5,8, run off has PH ~6,1-6,2., additives MycorrMax, Powerzyme, kelp extract.
Enviroment: 25-26°C and 60-65% with light on, 55-60% with lights off, no CO² but the room usually has 600-700ppms.
Light: 150w 3000 and 1850°k mix from above + 2x 12w 5k sidelights.
Intensity: ~60klx or ~900μMol/s ppfd around the top cola and ~600-700 further down around the sidebuds.
So, enough blah-blah..
Side, top and bottom view frist.
View attachment 4313000 View attachment 4313002 View attachment 4313003
Top cola close up...
View attachment 4313004
Side cola close up..
View attachment 4313005
And a pic in portrait mode with black background. Maybe another week or two cuz there's no amber to date. Still hope to see some purple when she's done but seems its not cold enough..
View attachment 4313006
No2 and 3 are still one week behind because of the repotting..
View attachment 4313007 View attachment 4313008
Next week I'll talk about the sidelights and why I've used 5k with lots of blue.
.
think I have at least 3 weeks left
