Thanks man! I think so too.
Looks good man, I have the same strain currently in my grow of 6 different strains at 25 days, and it is the second strongest/largest so far. Couple questions if you don't mind..
1. Where do you get this 'kelp'? is it powder or what? brand/where you can buy?
2. How have you kept your pH stable?
I just had a problem last week, where I would lower the pH to around 6.5 since I'm in soil, yet the run off was testing at 5.2! Plants were showing signs of trouble, so I started flushing them like crazy and still took tons of gallons just to get them back up to 6.5. Some are still at 6.2 or so but I don't want to overwater everyday as I give them at least 4-5 days to dry out between watering. I'm thinking that the previous 3-4 waterings since I used a pH lower everytime to get it to 6.5, it has built up each time and lowered the soil overall to 5.0-5.2 which was killing my plants? you think?
Hey man, first, congrats on the grow
. Sounds like fun!
1. Kelp, from the ocean
.. AKA seaweed... No but seriously.. There are a lot of products out there from what I've seen, ranging from liquids to add to your nutes/foliar sprays all the way to powders that you mix in with your soil. There used to be a really good thread on RIU that I can no longer find about KELP, with information on whats in it, and what the best kind is... From my recollection, there are good and bad kelps to use, however mostly all kelp.. for-PLANT products are ascophyllum nodosum.. If you look closely, some products contain it in small amounts already- such as GROW BIG by Fox Farms..
Personally I use a product called, "Bio-Weed" from GO (general organics).. I just went for 100% kelp, organic, to add to my nutrients. This stuff is a green muck, 5mL per gallon is the highest dose on the bottle. Just thick, seaweed. Makes the grow /soil smell like the ocean, because of the seaweed. Very pleasant, actually.
You want cold processed kelp, the kelp that is processed ASAP as to capture all the growth hormones, auxins and etc. Seaweed is naturally high the plant chemicals required for growth - which is why seaweed grows like HELL (see: california kelp fields, 100ft long reeds of kelp). By grinding that stuff up and processing it cold we can then add it to our soil, and cover our roots with natural hormones that makes the roots/cannabis grow like hell
.
That's a pretty basic outline of what kelp is/does, I'm no scientist, just regurgitating what I've read /heard and believed to be true.
2. Honestly, I sort of wing my pH. I water with water that has been pH balanced to be in the proper pH range, then
I just assume that the pH buffers in my Fox Farms Soil will keep my pH steady if I keep watering with 6.3-6.8. (not to totally go against someguy 15 below me LMAO)..
However, last round when I started bumping up my Fox Farms nutes (tiger bloom and big bloom) I started to notice some deficiencies, very very SLIGHT that didn't affect the crop whatsoever, however the def. did kind of fry up some foliage. Maybe 5-15%. -==-
This made me realize that the Fox Farms line was way more acidic than I was used to, and that I needed to flush my soil every once in a while to clear out all the dissolved salts when using Fox Farms nutes in high amounts. You see, last crop was my first time using the fox farms lineup, and I plan on using it again this run. This leaf burn occured about 40-50 days into
flowering, with me never have flushed the soil, even after 50 days of veg. So my soil was probably about as acidic as it would ever get. As a note I measured my pH runoff at like 5.3 initally, after 3 gals of fresh water @ 7.0pH , it was at like 6.1 and that was cool with me, and the plants seemed fine. I figured my soil would be slightly more acidic than my nutrient solution anyway, and I just kept feeding with 6.8 pHd water figuring they would average somewhere from 6.3-6.5 once it settled into the soil.
Possible, also peat moss tends to go acidic after a little use, and most soils are composed of peat. The lesson learned is you can't just ph your water to 6.5 and let it ride. I would b checking the run off at least once a week to make sure it's where you want it.
Yeah, like I said above I don't really do that and don't have many problems. Not to be a dick, or claim to know the right way, but it just works for me. But different strokes for different folks, I always say. Not saying I don't ever have a problem, I just don't have consistent problems and my soil runoff is between 5-6 at any given time that I measure it..
To everybody - my BASIC recommendations for growing are: A decent pH meter (electrode replaceable, and reads to .01. Mine is both and cost $45), pH up/pH Down, CalMag, GOOD soil, & lastly some type of filtered water. Using all those, it's pretty easy to control the variables. City water sucks - flouride, chlorene. I use a brita filter on the tap, and it gets rid of those terrible chemicals. The pH meter lets you know your measurements are reliable, Calmag adds the essental micronutrients that is the MOST COMMON deficiency BACK into your water (once your filter takes it out), good soil keeps the pH steady, and you know its bug free. Everything else after that should be personal preference
.
Thanks!
