First timer - organic grow questions

N

Northwood

Well-Known Member
Unclebilly said:
All the time, just the top growth though.


See this picture for reference, Thanks for the help!
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My suspicion is that you have some sort of environmental issue - ultra-low humidity, too hot, too much light, perhaps no air movement or a ventilation problem. I'd also avoid putting your plants through severe dry/wet cycles right now. Heck, some grow mediums when dry on top are just as dry in the middle and bottom because they wick water so well.
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
Unclebilly said:
All the time, just the top growth though.


See this picture for reference, Thanks for the help!
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Yeah man, thats something in your environment. You got a fan that blows around in there and one changing the air in the room?
 
U

Unclebilly

Member
m4s73r said:
Yeah man, thats something in your environment. You got a fan that blows around in there and one changing the air in the room?
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yeah I have a 24” tall oscillating tower fan, Maybe I need a clip on 6” around the top of the canopy ? Because my fan only covers the bottom half I guess. I also have a 6” inline with carbon filter running 24/7. My humidity is 42ish most of the time. And mid 70’s for temp
 
U

Unclebilly

Member
m4s73r said:
May back those leds off a bit or supercrop.
So I'm going to give you a visual. I want you to imagine that you pot is a giant garbage disposal. The garbage is your nutrient mix, everything from each harvest that is organic, fan leaves, stems, roots, main stem, trim, finished runs of bubble hash ect. All of that is your organic mulch or your garbage.
Now for this garbage dispose to work correctly it need a few things to always be true. Its needs to be properly Moist. You are creating a microscopic environment. It needs to be dark and moist. Nice and Moist. So Moist LOL. Second, we need to have 2 levels in a bed, Soil and mulch. That little space between the soil and the mulch is the teeth of this garbage disposal. Thats where all the life lives that keeps this beast chewing shit down. Now like any good beast we need to make sure it gets its vitamins and minerals. (Thats your nutrient mix. I use Craft Blend from BAS) It needs to keep its teeth nice and white (PH) As this beast consumes it will slowly get more acidic. The nutrient mix counters that. Make sure you got some oyster shell to keep your ph good. Now we cant let this beast starve so we need to keep a constant every growing supply of food. Thats where your clover/cover crop comes in. Grow that, chop it down and feed the beast.
I got a bed thats got dirt thats aged 5 years doing this type of grow. I dont do any teas, I dont do any barley, or sst's. I water it, grow cover crop, and mulch. I top dress amendments and EWC a couple times a year. I would order some Jobes Organics Tomato Bloom spikes. They will see you through harvest.
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love this analogy ^^^ thanks a lot! I ordered some! Fingers crossed!
 
U

Unclebilly

Member
Hey folks. So here’s an update a couple days later, I have been watering when pots are light and my moisture meter says dry which has been about every 2 days. I have since elevated my oscillating tower fan on some buckets so air is blown over the entire height of the plants (gently) and I added another fan on the bottom to blow around the base of the pots.

There should be plenty of air flow and my 6” inline exhaust runs 24/7.

temps are steady about 70 during dark periods and 75-79 during lights on. RH stays about 45-50 %.

I top dressed a tablespoon per gallon of this tomato food because it was the only organic one I could find locally. It’s only ingredients are dehydrated chicken shit and bone meal. I mixed It in the top layer, mulched with straw and watered it in following these pics.

My tap water is very hard- about 550ppm so I have been using RODI water pure H20, with <10ppm

quick tangent about my water:
-when I just process the RODI, I get a reading of about 5 ph, if I leave it out for 24 hours, I get a reading of around 8... I don’t know the reason for sure. I have read many theories about the H20 grabbing carbon dioxide molecules and becoming acidic... I’ve also read that because there are no minerals in RODI water, that the meters can’t get accurate readings so disregard what they say... but they are consistent every time I fill a bucket... so I’ve been leaving it for a day or a couple days and ph’ing down using blackstrap molasses until I read 6.5 for safety

Buds are starting to form up nicely in week 2, but I still don’t know why the top leaves are sad all the time. I notice on a couple spots the outer rim of some fan leaves are lighter green.

thanks for following guys and thanks for all the help. These things would be long dead without this site LOL.
 

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hillbill

hillbill

Well-Known Member
Just restocked Tuesday with 4 bags 2 cu ft Back To Nature Cotton Burr Compost. A couple 3 year old bags got me through the Pandemic. 4 cubic feet bag of perlite and 3.8 cu ft bale of Pro Moss made my day. $98 for all.

Actually, just stopped in to highly recommend Back To Nature Cotton Burr Compost. Been using indoors and out for 12 years. Contrary to what it says on the bag, it is awesome in containers.
 
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m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
hillbill said:
Just restocked Tuesday with 4 bags 2 cu ft Back To Nature Cotton Burr Compost. A couple 3 year old bags got me through the Pandemic. 4 cubic feet bag of perlite and 3.8 cu ft bale of Pro Moss made my day. $98 for all.

Actually, just stopped in to highly recommend Back To Nature Cotton Burr Compost. Been using indoors and out for 12 years. Contrary to what it says on the bag, it is awesome in containers.
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I use that as well. Good stuff.
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
Unclebilly said:
My tap water is very hard- about 550ppm so I have been using RODI water pure H20, with <10ppm

quick tangent about my water:
-when I just process the RODI, I get a reading of about 5 ph, if I leave it out for 24 hours, I get a reading of around 8... I don’t know the reason for sure. I have read many theories about the H20 grabbing carbon dioxide molecules and becoming acidic... I’ve also read that because there are no minerals in RODI water, that the meters can’t get accurate readings so disregard what they say... but they are consistent every time I fill a bucket... so I’ve been leaving it for a day or a couple days and ph’ing down using blackstrap molasses until I read 6.5 for safety
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Inline RV water filter. I have hard city water. Comes out 7 ph. but its got lots of crap in it. really gunks up my sprayers. So i got a couple of inline RV filters and now my misters stay clean. Those should filter enough for your plants from you hard water. And as long as you limed your soil mix correctly then you should be fine using tap water.
 
U

Unclebilly

Member
m4s73r said:
Inline RV water filter. I have hard city water. Comes out 7 ph. but its got lots of crap in it. really gunks up my sprayers. So i got a couple of inline RV filters and now my misters stay clean. Those should filter enough for your plants from you hard water. And as long as you limed your soil mix correctly then you should be fine using tap water.
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do you think the RODI water is a problem?
Here are some pics from right now. I don’t know what else to do to fix this. Nitrogen toxicity? That’s the only thing I’ve read that looks similar, but I don’t know how that would be the case.
 

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U

Unclebilly

Member
JimmyJackCorn said:
I'm no expert, but if my leaves looked like that the first thing I'd adjust is my lights. Those LEDs might be too close even though the temps are fine.
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i also forgot to mention that I also did that! Pulled them up about 18” from the tops

perhaps it will take some time to correct. It’s been about 36 hours
 
hillbill

hillbill

Well-Known Member
My town has incredibly hard water which seems to cause all sorts of deficiencies. Several deep deep wells in limestone and dolomite. I try to use collected rain as well as water from my livewells.
 
U

Unclebilly

Member
hillbill said:
My town has incredibly hard water which seems to cause all sorts of deficiencies. Several deep deep wells in limestone and dolomite. I try to use collected rain as well as water from my livewells.
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I just set up my rain barrels actually after the winter with plans to do that. I have only been using RODI <10ppm water so I’m wondering if anything, am I low on certain nutrients that would normally be abundant in a municipal water supply. Like everything I tend to over analyze. I mixed half RODI and half tap water so there’s some of those trace elements needed. Let’s see if that changes anything lol,
 
canna_420

canna_420

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
So first thing, I would supercrop that to let the rest of the plant catch up a bit. Just my opinion.
What is your light source?
Based on what i'm seeing so far you could be overwatering, but I doubt it. I think your light is to close to those tops and your humidity is low.

If your watering till the pot is heavy with no run off at all then I say Good job. If you ever want a measurement always do 5% water to soil. So 1 gallon of water per 20 gallons of soil. Easy. With small fabric pots I went 10 percent. Mainly due to run off from fabric pot. I got sick of it when I did 25 gallon no tills and i just suran wrapped the pots. left the bottom fabric.

Secondly. Small fabric pots like that are horrible for organic grows using living soil. 2 main reason. Cannabis drinks water fast. so you need something that wont dry out. IF you were to dump those pots you would find a lot of dry soil in them. Since we are already there, I would make sure to water with a whetting agent. Either yucca or aloe. that will make sure all your media gets properly hydrated. Peat can be a PITA once its good and dry.
Third your soil mix. Looks good. Couple of things to consider adding in as you go along. Vermiculite. Its got an amazing cation rate, holds A LOT of water, and adds silica to your mix. I use it in my HugelKultur bed. Consider it part of your 1part Perlite.

Third, You really, REALLY need to go to the local nursery and buy a bag of composted mulch. Ask them for the best shit they got. Make sure its composted good. Ask them to show you some. I get Back to Nature Cotton Burr from mine if I need it. $10 2 Cubic Ft. And fill the tops of all those pots with that. Clear just enough away that its not on the stalk of your girls. But unless you plan on spending money on nutrients and bottle you need to get to mulching bro. Like big time. you should have grown a cover crop over those and killed it off before you put plants in it.

I like what you got going on. Ive subed your post look forward to seeing how this turns out. Check my sigs, I got a couple of 4x4 Organic no till beds going on.
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Does vermi actually add usable silicates?
 
OSBuds

OSBuds

Well-Known Member
Unclebilly said:
76F lights on and around 68-70 with lights off.
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There is a prevailing consensus that 75 °F is the ideal ambient temperature to grow Cannabis under HPS lighting without CO2 supplementation. This experimental result indicates that an 84 °F ambient air temperature is required to achieve the same optimal leaf surface temperatures when using plant-optimized LED lighting-- and that a 75 °F ambient air temperature with LED lighting would not achieve optimal leaf surface temperatures, slowing metabolic rates and leaf and flower production.
www.blackdogled.com

Leaf Surface Temperature with HPS, MH, CFL and LED Grow Lights

Effects of Different Artificial Grow Lighting Technologies on Leaf Surface Temperature Table of Contents Abstract FLIR Image of a BD240-U Introduction Why does Leaf Surface Temperature (LST) Matter? What is the Ideal Leaf Surface Temperature? What Affects Leaf Surface Temperature? The Evidence...
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