Indoor growing problems.

Hey tokers,

my first post here, i live in south africa so i'm growing swazi plants, which are hardy tall and long lived, the climate here makes it possible to grow all year round. These swazis are meant to be grown outdoors to achieve their maximum size which can be up to 3 metres but i'm growing indoors, limiting the size of the pots the plants grow in limits their size and their life-span and causes flowering

I've run into problems using nutes, specifically biobizz and im wondering if anyone knows why even when using trace amounts of the nutrients that these plant's stalks turn red, the leaves brown, go dry and die?

this photo is a harvest from earlier this year, using a completely neutral fertlizer with a bit of biobloom and that went fine, i haven't changed my tactics, but i've lost 3 plants already to this problem, any ideas?



I have a new seedling now, i'm not feeding it yet, want to try bat guano this time but I don't want that same problem recurring and without using nutes I don't get good bud density.

That stuff looks like its been cut at least a month early if not more ?

You must have an excellent climate there butr plants will still almost always flower on photoperiod I have never seen that swazi stuff but it doesnt look great, might just be the time of harvest though.

Are you growing on a windowsil or something ?

Mouse

yeah i'm just growing it ghetto, I have a 6m x 3m south facing window, the plants take sunlight during the day and I use a mini hps lamp at night during veg, yep these were cut prematurely, the plants grow through the winter here, theres no sensi its all outdoor, they just keep growing and flower multiple times so you can wait forever

I'm not an experienced grower at all, i'm getting to know it before i buy expensive seeds... and i have hundreds of nice big dark swazi seeds. still... plants are dying on me...

If your gonna go ghetto do it proper ghetto. Get the biggest container you can find fill it with 100 litres of really good quality dirt mixed with some perlite, add lime if the soil doesnt contain it. Possibly even Bat Guano or blood and bone meal. Keep em on ph'd water until the trichromes are all cloudy and a bit amber under a 30x magnification (more if you can find it).

Have a spy at subcools super soil to get to grips with making soil mixes and see what is available locally as well.

GET SOME GOOD GENETICS !

There are cheap good genetics out there. Order a shed load of feminised skunk #1 It rocks, easy to grow, hard to kill and if done properly its not far off top shelf smoke. AK48 is another very hardy strain but there are hundreds find one you like.

I hope this helps

Mouse

How much have you been feeding ?

What soil have you been using ?

How often have you fed ?

Mouse

Maybe it's the strain man, I've never heard of that. Do you have the option to buy another bottle of nutrients? I don't think it's any deficiencies.


How are you feeding them? and how often?

Seagrow is a brown thick neutral fertlizer for all types of plants, i use 1 tsp of seagrow per 300ml of water, after week 4 i start with trace amounts of biobloom (i use a pen-casing and just measure a drop in the same 300ml) fed once a week.

Soil i'm using now is a perlite/coco/biomix with all kinds of good stuff in it.

pots are small, 4 litres.

I know I can get better seeds, better lights, and go into all that but its just for fun, I don't have to grow, getting weed is as easy as getting bread and coffee but i'd like to know how for the future, for when getting weed is harder and investing in good seeds is possible.

theres a grow shop here, they have all the different nute types, I've decided to leave the biobloom and try bat guano. first the stalks turn read then the leaves start turning brown and drying out, when that happens plant stops growing.

checking the root system after cutting the dead plant shows massive root development, i'm wondering if it isn't oxygen deprivation,so this time i've put pebbles and rocks at the bottom of the pot to see if that helps.

if I dont use small pots the plants just get too big, the last one that died got to 1.7m before it gave up.

the plants i'm growing are used to this enviroment, using lights isn't a necessity at all. I haven't noticed an improvement in growth after buying a 250w mini hps.

Bio bloom is an excellent fert, I would also get the bio grow and possibly the top max (have a look at their grow schedule and start around half). Guano is also excellent.

A teaspoon per 300 ml sounds heavy for a plant food. Maybe its just me. Whats it say to give on the bottle ?

Mouse

What you are describing is nute burn / lockout from too much p and k by the sounds if it.

it looks like nute burn... it does, but I give it so little, tiny amounts, like a drop of biobloom every week, the seagrow is non abrasive its like kelpack, instructions on the bottle say you can feed as often as you like with no chance of burn, the last one that died was given so little biobloom that it can't be that. That photo was from a grow that was given much more biobloom than instructed, leaf tips were yellow but they didn't go brown and die. characterstic of the problem is a nasty smell coming from the plant, like sewage.

I wonder if the biobloom itself hasn't gone bad, I mean I have had it for more than a year.

I have had mine for ages and I dont worry, Might be ph if your in allmix with no added lime. It could also be the coco locking up mag. Nasty smell is not good. Might be root rot. Tried using beneficial bacteria ? I recommend trichaderma and Myccorhizal fungi Great stuff

Mouse

i'm using worm casting this time too, forgot to add. It must be root-related if after a days vegging that the plant smells like ass... it means that something its been drinking is doing it. I'll try the funghi, I can get that, this time I plan to keep the nutrient to a minimum, use a bit of epsom salts, worm castings, bat guano tea and thats it.

some other questions: how do you know when the plant absolutely must have water? I mean, even watering once a week may be too much if the soil itself never dries and with nute build up at the bottom where all the roots end up compressing would be the cause... its my 4th grow attempt.

It droops The pot is light weight and if you put your finger in two inches its dry.

I let my plants get completely dry I mean really dry then as soon as they begin to droop at the bottom I water, I give them a soaking at least 30 percent runthrough about 5 litres per 10 litre pot. I do the same when I feed. I also keep very careful track of my runoff PH and EC to see how much food my plants are eating and how long it takes them to eat it.

I dont feed until Week two ish of flower in 10 litre pots, just water and roots excel or rhizotonic til then. Never leave water in the bottom of the pot tray Always empty them. It causes root rot and signs of over watering not only that but nothing is flushed out of your soil, your plants might eat all of one nutrient and not have enough of another. By flushing through with every feed/watering I get out with the old and in with the new kinda dealy.

At first I only water once a week in veg. Then it speeds up as the plant gets bigger, at the moment its every two days and it will probably get to being every day (alternative feed and water usually but I only feed when they are hungry, its just the setup is pretty dialled in now)

Epsom is only sometimes required around the third week of flower. Make sure you add lime to your soil but not too much, dolomitic lime is best (contains extra mag so you probs wont need epsom).

Just the ramblings of a guy who likes to grow good pot, take it or leave it

Mouse

EDIT here is my thread journal thingy https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/465639-my-never-ending-quest-best.html

well by the value of my experiments so far thank you for not laughing your ass off

yeah with this grow I'm going to lay off the nutes and watering until its absolutely required, this biomix soil i'm using holds water very well and I get no run off at all if I water less than 750ml per 4litre pot, I like that because the 2nd last plant that died, I gave it loads of water before and when that rotting started, the water ran off dark and stank and I don't know why.

so I'm going to take it easy, note my actions and see how it grows through to feb next year when its ready ... it doesn't matter, you know I get my green so cheaply anyway and theres loads of opportunities to experiment, I mean i can buy a 100g of bud for the same price as 10 seeds, it just sucks when the plant gets to the 3/4 months old starts flowering and then dies :/ these plants flower from month 4 through month 6 and even longer! they take ages

maybe they are just not suitable for indoor growing.