2.0 grow update

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Not looking the best. Checked for bugs and continue to spray the plant soap, don't see anymore bugs but leaves are funky. I know this isn't a great grow but using for myself. Want to harvest something if I can. Week 5 flower.
I wouldn't doubt that spraying late into flowering is helping to keep those buds so undersized. Using soap sprays, which are what I use, after week 2 is sure to be tasted in the final product. You should follow up any soap spray in flower with a plain water rinse off the next day. No matter what you spray do it without the grow lights on them and teh fan off to give the soap time to kill the bugs before it dries up. I add 10ml/L of cheap canola oil to my Safer's End All concentrate for better killing power. A lot of the commercial sprays use it instead of neem oil and it's just as effective.

If you have some bloom food high in potassium that will help put some weight on the buds and good old epsom salts will supply much needed magnesium and sulphur for late stage flowering. A dash of CalMag won't hurt either.

Good luck and a Merry Xmas to you and yours!


XmasCard.jpg

:peace:
 

Killaki

Well-Known Member
Not looking the best. Checked for bugs and continue to spray the plant soap, don't see anymore bugs but leaves are funky. I know this isn't a great grow but using for myself. Want to harvest something if I can. Week 5 flower.
Oh man! She needs some help if you want to make it to harvest with anything worth smoking! What are the details?
*I would stop treating for bugs if you don't see any more and focus elsewhere.
 

GrowTime38

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't doubt that spraying late into flowering is helping to keep those buds so undersized. Using soap sprays, which are what I use, after week 2 is sure to be tasted in the final product. You should follow up any soap spray in flower with a plain water rinse off the next day. No matter what you spray do it without the grow lights on them and teh fan off to give the soap time to kill the bugs before it dries up. I add 10ml/L of cheap canola oil to my Safer's End All concentrate for better killing power. A lot of the commercial sprays use it instead of neem oil and it's just as effective.

If you have some bloom food high in potassium that will help put some weight on the buds and good old epsom salts will supply much needed magnesium and sulphur for late stage flowering. A dash of CalMag won't hurt either.

Good luck and a Merry Xmas to you and yours!


View attachment 5050808

:peace:

Medium is DWC hydroponic in hydrostone. I have added Epsom salt but not on the last fill of the reservoir. I am looking into some fresh nutes, something called Nectar of the gods. Never used it but heard good things. Hoping this may give it a boost
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Medium is DWC hydroponic in hydrostone. I have added Epsom salt but not on the last fill of the reservoir. I am looking into some fresh nutes, something called Nectar of the gods. Never used it but heard good things. Hoping this may give it a boost
I did about 50 DWC grows since '01 but have been swinging into organics more.

What are you using for water? RO or distilled only for my plants. We have horrible tap water from a dugout on my property. 400+ppm and pH8+.

I like AN for hydro nutes. Never having to screw around with pH is a blessing.

:peace:
 

GrowTime38

Well-Known Member
I did about 50 DWC grows since '01 but have been swinging into organics more.

What are you using for water? RO or distilled only for my plants. We have horrible tap water from a dugout on my property. 400+ppm and pH8+.

I like AN for hydro nutes. Never having to screw around with pH is a blessing.

:peace:

What is AN? I have grown a few times but still consider myself very new since my grows were never fully planned or well thought out. These were more thought out just didn't get it 100% due to cost and some restraints at the time. I have been looking into nectar of the gods but haven't come across people in this forum that have used it. If you have thoughts on it, I am interested hearing more. I usually let the water sit out for a day or two then mix my nutes in. It is city water so I am sure it isn't great but not the worst I have seen. Any practical solutions for water are appreciated. I had a recirculating reservoir for a while until the roots clogged the drain tube. I want another system I am getting parts for but not 100% on how I will have the water drain back unless I have them higher than the reservoir in the tent. I don't want to have back flow to flood the area.

This is the general setup I am looking for but not sure how he has it all flow back with such a small reservoir.

 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
AN is Advanced Nutrients. Their basic 3-part nutes and many supplements have pH Perfect technology built in so you don't have to worry about pH. The base nutes are no more expensive than others but like others the supplements cost a bundle and almost all aren't needed. I only use the Big Bud for my flower booster and Rhino Skin for silica when doing DWC. Any brand of CalMag will do and only needed if you use RO or distilled water which is what I've always used. Epsom Salts for extra Mg and S plus I'll pulverize some vitamin supplements of my own to feed them. Vit. B-1, ascorbic acid, (Vit. C), citric acid, zinc and some selenium. Don't know if that helps but it helps me so why not the plants. As I use organics in my mix I also add carbs to feed the bio-herd.

I've never run RDWC but there should be pipes coming out from the bottom of each pail that run back to the controller tank that keeps the right level for all the pails. You can easily run 4 plants in one RubberMaid tub with nothing more than an air pump and a couple airstones so IMO all that gear and plumbing is redundant and prone to leaks and equipment failure. It certainly won't grow plants any better. Single pails suck as when the plants get larger the level goes down too fast concentrating the nutrient sol'n and having the pH bounce all over.

The shorter tubs hold 35L when filled to an inch below the net pots and the taller ones hold 50L. I'd do a top-up and testing every 3 days. The lids on the tubs are the same size so when I went from veg to flower I'd just mix up fresh nutes in a tall tub then lift the plants off the short tub and drop it on the fresh tub. Easy to cut the holes in the lids with a sharp knife but I went and rented hole saws of teh right size to get better holes.

12 hole one for doing a SoG type grow. Extra hole for adding water, taking samples etc. I use a drill pump to suck all the water out if needed.

AutoProject.jpg

Or just a single hole one for a Scrog. DIY net pot using a 2L tobacco can. Apres harvest.

ScroG.jpg

:peace:
 

GrowTime38

Well-Known Member
Some of the leaves below are still dying. I don't see bugs, I mean I have researched pics and do not see the eggs under the leaves. The sugar is thicker each day. I did add nutrients to the last fill which was tiger bloom and Epsom salt for a 5 gallon fill. I still spray every other day with insecticidal soap. Looking into the advanced nutrients as I liked the simplicity of them but still researching.
 

Attachments

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I'm not seeing any nice white pistils on the buds you show. That's either they've been fried from the sprays you've been doing or the plant is done with producing new flowers.

A good portion of the trichs look cloudy as well. No pics of the lower parts to see the dying leaves? I see some nute burn on that first pic so wondering if it's not some toxic salts buildup affecting lower growth. Leaves will go yellow/brown all over and turn thick and crispy id it is. Fading to yellow all over and being soft and limp is the normal demise of lower leaves later in flowering.

Any idea what your nute strength is either EC or ppm?

:peace:
 

GrowTime38

Well-Known Member
I'm not seeing any nice white pistils on the buds you show. That's either they've been fried from the sprays you've been doing or the plant is done with producing new flowers.

A good portion of the trichs look cloudy as well. No pics of the lower parts to see the dying leaves? I see some nute burn on that first pic so wondering if it's not some toxic salts buildup affecting lower growth. Leaves will go yellow/brown all over and turn thick and crispy id it is. Fading to yellow all over and being soft and limp is the normal demise of lower leaves later in flowering.

Any idea what your nute strength is either EC or ppm?

:peace:

I will have to get a measurement tomorrow with the lights on. What is the best way to rid the salt buildup? I will update once I have measurements.
 

Observise

Member
What is AN? I have grown a few times but still consider myself very new since my grows were never fully planned or well thought out. These were more thought out just didn't get it 100% due to cost and some restraints at the time. I have been looking into nectar of the gods but haven't come across people in this forum that have used it. If you have thoughts on it, I am interested hearing more. I usually let the water sit out for a day or two then mix my nutes in. It is city water so I am sure it isn't great but not the worst I have seen. Any practical solutions for water are appreciated. I had a recirculating reservoir for a while until the roots clogged the drain tube. I want another system I am getting parts for but not 100% on how I will have the water drain back unless I have them higher than the reservoir in the tent. I don't want to have back flow to flood the area.

This is the general setup I am looking for but not sure how he has it all flow back with such a small reservoir.

Don’t use advanced nutrients
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I will have to get a measurement tomorrow with the lights on. What is the best way to rid the salt buildup? I will update once I have measurements.
Flushing some water thru reduces the salts in pots but for a hydro setup you need to reduce the EC/ppm a lot so the plants are forced to steal nutrients from the older leaves and to use nutes stored all over to feed the buds. Can just take out a portion of your nutes and top it back up with water. RO or distilled is what I use all the time. This late in flower some Epsom Salts and potassium help to grow the buds and add to the resin. Most people don't have just K tho. I do but I'm not most people. ;) N and P are easily scavenged from other leaves and put where the plant needs the. K is as well but the plants like more K late in flower. No N if possible.

:peace:
 

GrowTime38

Well-Known Member
So it seems the EC is high. I added only water but will grab some distilled to flush it. I can make a banana tea extract type thing for potassium but that is a decent amount of work for a weak supplement. Here are the pics and the UOM is PPM.
 

Attachments

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
So it seems the EC is high. I added only water but will grab some distilled to flush it. I can make a banana tea extract type thing for potassium but that is a decent amount of work for a weak supplement. Here are the pics and the UOM is PPM.
You don't want to be putting something like a banana tea in your tank man. Bound to cause problems and the amount of K you'll get is not much. There's up to 4X as much K in a baked potato than there is in a banana but I don't recommend you make a tea out of that either.

If nothing else I'd go to a health food store and get some potassium citrate 99mg, crush up a few tabs and stir that in. The citrate form is water soluble but there will be some sediment from the filler used to bulk up the tablets. Capsules would be OK as you can pull them apart and dump out already powdered stuff. No gel caps tho I doubt they make that in gels. I use a mortar and pestle to grind up stuff like that. Vit. B-1, Zn, Sn, ascorbic acid, (Vit.C), and a little citric acid.

I have a bag of potassium chloride plant food but bought a bottle of Earth Juice Meta-K to use instead to be a little more organic in my grows. Still going to use Big Bud a week before the flip and until the end of week 5 but just the K and a couple others like Epsom after that.

:peace:
 

GrowTime38

Well-Known Member
You don't want to be putting something like a banana tea in your tank man. Bound to cause problems and the amount of K you'll get is not much. There's up to 4X as much K in a baked potato than there is in a banana but I don't recommend you make a tea out of that either.

If nothing else I'd go to a health food store and get some potassium citrate 99mg, crush up a few tabs and stir that in. The citrate form is water soluble but there will be some sediment from the filler used to bulk up the tablets. Capsules would be OK as you can pull them apart and dump out already powdered stuff. No gel caps tho I doubt they make that in gels. I use a mortar and pestle to grind up stuff like that. Vit. B-1, Zn, Sn, ascorbic acid, (Vit.C), and a little citric acid.

I have a bag of potassium chloride plant food but bought a bottle of Earth Juice Meta-K to use instead to be a little more organic in my grows. Still going to use Big Bud a week before the flip and until the end of week 5 but just the K and a couple others like Epsom after that.

:peace:
What is the ideal EC in this phase, week 5 of flower?
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
What is the ideal EC in this phase, week 5 of flower?
That depends on things like strain, a hungry indica can usually handle way more than a sativa. RH, lower RH use lower EC to prevent burn and toxic salts buildup.

By week 5 I'm feeding less than at the start of flower when the plants eat up to 4X as much as full veg or after the stretch. I'd be less than 2.0 for most plants and not much over 1.0 when my RH is in the low 20s like it is now if my exhaust fan ever came on. RH is staying around 40% with two pans of water in there and no exhaust running.

By the end of week 6 I want to see older fans starting to go yellow and limp as the plant steals nutes from them. With my 3-part nutes after the stretch I'm feeding Lucas Formula style using no Grow and half as much Micro as Bloom with a dash of Epsom Salts and maybe a little K.

There is no ideal EC that covers everything. By week 5 you should be limiting N and P. Too much N retards flowering and too much P gives buds that 'chem' taste.

:peace:
 
Top