Building a plane in flight

Hello everyone, newb here with newb questions.

Background to question: 11 months ago I was given a clone seedling that I had no background information on. I had zero grow equipment and wasn't looking for the plant, it was given to me as a gift. Not expecting the plant to live, I stuck in a window for the winter, and just gave it water when it was dry. Amazingly (to me), the little plant kept going, and started flowering in February or March. At this point I thought "heh, maybe I can keep this gal alive and get some bud off it." I decided that I would gradually start building an indoor grow set-up and maybe I could get some clones off this plant. Come summer, I repotted and put the plant in my backyard...it continued to grow and I think it reverted back to vegetative growth with the natural light. I cut the buds off and dried and smoked 'em, it was pretty tasty and stony herb, woo-hoo!

Fast-Forward a bit: Plant kicked ass all summer and in late August I set up a 5X5 grow tent in my basement and built a Cutter Electronics LED panel (4 cobs). Then I built a aeroponic cloner and cut clones. now I have the mother and 5 clones growing (as per Colorado law). I built another 4 light cob led panel and all plants continue growing.

Soil and nutrients: plants are in 3 gallon fabric pots with Black Gold natural and organic soil mix mixed with perlite. The nutrients so far are Fox Farms Grow Big (3 tsp per gallon) and Big Bloom (2 TBSP per gallon). Lights are on a 24 hour cycle. I have a six inch fan blowing air in, and a oscillating fan moving air around. Temps are between 75-79 degrees.

Mother plant did fine when I paid it little attention, but now that I am fussing over it, it seems to have problems...maybe a nitrogen deficiency? The clones look like they are starting to have the same problem. This is a unplanned grow and I was building the grow room/lights as I was going, but am still hoping to get some herb from these plants. Planning on a more planned grow this winter.

Please look at these pics if you have time and let me know what you think the problems are, and how I can fix them. Looking to learn from this grow so the next one is better. Sorry if I left out any info or if the post is too long.

Some more info: When new shoots take growth off the mother plant, they are nice and healthy looking as are leaves hidden in the interior of the plant. I was only fertilizing once per week, but upped that to each watering for the mother, hoping to get the lush green leaves back (just this past week). I can post more specific photos if requested.

What is your ph? No need to use bloom ferts when in veg. I would foliar feed them. It looks like a cal mag and or nitrogen def. How often do you water?

that big plant needs pruning back

then spraying for pests and mold

then potting in a bigger pot

indoor plants need to have airflow or you`ll get mold and bug problems also that bushey is no good not even a 2000w hps will penetrate all that lol

researching said:

What is your ph? No need to use bloom ferts when in veg. I would foliar feed them. It looks like a cal mag and or nitrogen def. How often do you water?

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Thanks for the reply. PH is 7.5. Is that too Basic (vs. Acidic)? I water when my soil meter reads "dry"...seems to be every 3 days on the mom, every 4-5 days on the little ones. What are you using to up Calcium/Magnesium?

romohigh said:

Thanks for the reply. PH is 7.5. Is that too Basic (vs. Acidic)? I water when my soil meter reads "dry"...seems to be every 3 days on the mom, every 4-5 days on the little ones.

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I only fuck with coco, but it seems you should be closer to high 6's or 7.0ph. It would be good, as mentioned to prune her a bit or spread her out a bit. A good leaf wash with benefits is organocide. It is mostly fish oil, kills bugs, washes leaves, provides nitrogen, and makes the leaves nice and shiny. Maybe throw a little cal mag or epsom salt in the water too for magnesium.

I will disagree about the pot only since it is a fabric pot you wont get root bound. The only drawback is that you will need to water more frequently than if you had it in a larger one. I guess it all depends on how long she is going to stay a mother.

researching said:

What is your ph? No need to use bloom ferts when in veg. I would foliar feed them. It looks like a cal mag and or nitrogen def. How often do you water?

Click to expand...

THE KONASSURE said:

that big plant needs pruning back

then spraying for pests and mold

then potting in a bigger pot

indoor plants need to have airflow or you`ll get mold and bug problems also that bushey is no good not even a 2000w hps will penetrate all that lol

Click to expand...

Do you think a 5 gal. pot will do for the big one? What do you recommend for pruning on the mother? Any good pics of how the mother should look, so I can prune accordingly?

The easy way to prune it back is with some scissors under light and just cut off the leaves that get no light. Almost like an inside lollipopping. Another way is using bamboo stakes or the like to open up the canopy.

And thanks for all replies everyone, I really appreciate the help and knowledge!

romohigh said:

Do you think a 5 gal. pot will do for the big one? What do you recommend for pruning on the mother? Any good pics of how the mother should look, so I can prune accordingly?

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I`d go 2x to 10x its current pot size

I`d remove the lower 4 nodes of the plant and see how it looks

I`d take away anything looking shitty that don`t wanna grow use them for clones if they take

I guess I`d go with 4 to 8 main tops coming off of the main stem and see how much light I could get them to soak up

I mean look at the 3rd pic down of your mother plant the whole lower half of the plant looks like a waste of space the top and middle will grow so much better if you clear out the main steams, you don`t want to lock moisture in by the stem mainstem gets rot the whole plants done for

I put red circles where I would remove loads of leaf and branches

then I`d spread the tops to get more light into the plant

Thanks for the tutorial pic Konassure! Off to the nursery to get organocide and a bigger pot. Looks like I'll be doing some pruning tonight. Will check back later and post new pics when done pruning. Really appreciate help!

Hey all- thanks again for the advice. Did some pruning and staked out the canopy...did I take too much off...not enough? Have some cal-mag coming tomorrow and adjusted my PH down to 6.4. Also sprayed with organicide. Still thinking on the re-pot, as I really just want to get the plants healthy and then flower. I know this is pretty elementary to most of you, but I'm having a ton of fun trying to figure this out and appreciate your help.

Oh, the tiny plants are wild strawberries I pulled from up in the mountains. They taste great when I find them in the summer, super small though, about the size of a finger nail. Just growing them for kicks to see if they do anything.

Update- switched over to 12/12 about the middle of October. ATTENTION OTHER NEWBS: I wish I had kept a more detailed journal of what I was doing, and my next grow I will do just that. I almost lost 75% of my plants due to an under-watering problem back in October, fought off a thrip attack (luckily caught it early on), screwed up my PH for awhile, and seemed to constantly struggle with nutes.

Regardless, here we are on Dec. 11th, and I hope I'm getting close to harvest...hopefully about a pound (sarcasm). Just a couple of pics to show the plants...will try and getter better pics when the lights come on tonight.






Looking forward to being done with my 1st grow, so I can do it better the next time.

Question: I know it's hard to tell from the crappy pics, but any guesses as to how much longer until harvest?