Hi all. I'd like to share a few pictures of my girl and see what you all have to say about how she's doing. This is the first time in a numbers of years that I've started a grow. I was a noop then and I'm a noob now so I'm hoping to learn as much as I can in hopes of making the next grow bigger & better. I think I have a pretty good setup but space is sort of tight. It's large enough room 4x5x8 but it does double duty as I also keep an 80 gal compressor in there too. I started out with two girls in there however last week I discovered that one of the girls was showing signs of becoming a hermaphodite. running short on space and not wanting to take any chances I moved her outside to live out her life in a secure spot far from my house. The one left indoors should enjoy the extra room I vegged them under CFL for about 5 weeks before sexing them. At that point they were nice and bushy and about 29" tall. After sexing the vegged at 18/6 for anther week or so until I realized that I would run out of space if I let them get much bigger. The pics below are at about 3 weeks of flowering & were taken tonight started from seed STRAIN -unknow (bag seed from what I told was some sort of kush) POT SIZE: started in 6" pots until they were about 10" before I moved them into the 20" pots they are in now. SOIL: MG organic potting soil with a fair amoun of perlite added NUTES , non added during veg, but 1/2 dose of MG tomato (one large scoop in 5 gal of water) 1 week before 12/12. Last week I used the same dosage of MG bloom booster. LIGHTS: 400watt HPS hydro grow hood VENTING: I have a small fan sucking air in to the room down low to bring in cool air. The light hood vents out though the top of the room using it's fan. NO SMELL NO TELL: I have two homemade active carbon scrubbers. One in the room and one attached to the vent coming from the light hood. WATER: well water take before the conditioner. untreated it's PH is 6. I was running problem free right up until I started adding nutes to the mix. The ph took a nose dive but I didn't see it until the plant started showing signs. My old PH meter was showing 7 . POS meter... The new meter works much better. I made a slurry mix of some dolomite lime and gave them a good soaking. I backed that up tonight with a flush of ph'd water using baking soda. Run off was showing a ph of 6.5 Anyway Here's the pics & thanks for looking having trouble loading pics...
I dont know anything about MG soil or ferts. but that second pic is either a lock out of some kind or possibly a toxicity. also the "one large scoop" method of measuring doesnt seem to precise. There are a few who use MG products and swear by them. I am sure they can help you out.
The plants look pretty good.:thumbs-up: Dump the Rapitest, they're fer shit and totally unreliable. Better off with a pen. If that's too pricey an aquarium test kit or litmus paper will at least get you in the ballpark. I'd suggest NOT adding a lime slurry then using chem fertilizers. The lime is alkaline and MG fertilizer is acidic. They don't get along well and can do crazy shit to your ph. If you want help on using MiragleGro stuff hit headcase with a PM. He can help you out.
From personal experience with MG organic, you need to start adding some Epsom Salt and Dolomite Lime to your watering a few times a week. Basically take both, add it to your water, and bubble with a water pump for a few hours to make a tea. This will help with the lack of cal/mag and the PH problem in the MG soil. I personally would also do a cap full of Hydrogen Peroxide as well. I've also used the tomato MG fert as well. BE CAREFUL with it, it can burn like hell. Otherwise it looks like you are on the right track! asssit:
don't use a full scoop....its more than a tbs but more so by the gallon it will be off unkess you adjust the amout of h2o also flush as much as possible you pH seems OK, every strain is different so you need to run her a few times IMHO stop feeding 4 weeks before finish over all they look sweet but i would flush them real good 1 time a week then feed like every 10 to 14 days MG perlite has nutes...just a heads up organic soil ? I'm stoned but i don't use MG soil as it has nutes i use mg ferts in plaint top soil and oyster shell some compost and some perlite and thats it mg perlite and mg nutes is ok.... for clones stay away from mg perlite at start I never mix mg products except the peralite its cheap and not too hot so its OK with the ferts flush a lot and feed a lot and grow trees good luck
Thanks for all the good info, what a great group you have here at GK. Would 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of epsoms salt in 5 gallons of water be a good start? I think I have the ph under control for the moment. The plant looks good and seem to be growing well. The rapid test PH mete will have to do for not. It may not be accurate but it apears to be at least consistan. At least I can tell if the PH starts to move . I've noticed that the PH drops as soon as I feed with nutes . It drops off right away but slowly rises ove the next hour or so. From what I've read that's a normal reaction. I'm following the other thread on PH meters. Once I do some reasearch I'll be upgrading my ph meter. What I have now has got to be better than nothing. I assume the function on the reapid test that checks the nutes is useless for our application. Toker: As for using the large end of the scoop when mixing up the MG, it was in 5 gallons not per gallon.That's about 25-30% strength, are you saying that I should back off more? I'm using the MG Organic potting mix not the regular MG potting mix. So far it doesnt seem to be anywhere near as hot as the regular stuff. Next time I need to do my shopping someplace other than Home Depot. If they had plain perlite I would've for sure gone that rought. I didn't feed the plants any extra nutes at all until the plants were about 30" tall in the 20" pots. I also gave them a really good flush before I started adding nutes. I'm doing the best whith what I have to work with. I'll post some follow up pictures in a few days. things are looking good tough :eusa_angel: What do you guys think will happen to the plant I put outside? It was about 32" tall and looking as good as the one in my original post. I notices several bud sites starting to get balls so I removed it from the room. It went back in to veg mode since we still have more than 12 hours of light.I'll be surpised if it will have time to finish before we get a frost. other than that it looks like it's going to live despite all this friggin rain. Guess I just answered my own question.... Anyway thanks so much for the suggestionsasssit: Cheers
a question about flushing and feeding. Is it acceptable to flush with clean water, say 10 gallons for my 20" pot and then feed right away? Or, is it better to flush and then feed when the pot starts to dry? I've been doing mini flushes every other or every third time I water using plain water. The next time the plant looks dry I feed. I don't see a problem flushing with plain water followed by a gallon or so of nute'd water. Of course I realize I'm only guessing.:anibong:
1. The Rapitest is worse than nothing. It's inaccurate and gives consistent false reading. Get a liquid aquarium test or litmus paper. Both are less than $10. Until you have something reasonably accurate you have absolutely know idea what you're doing with ph adjustment. 2. You're flushing to much. Simply feed your plant and water your plant. Flush only when you see problems of ph fluctuation, overferts or lock out of nutes. 3. When you do flush wait until the pot is dry to feed again. A little explanation as to why we flush. The idea is to rinse the fertilizers and/or chemical salts from the growing medium in the case of problems or to aid in correcting an improper soil ph (this one is near impossible IMHO) By flushing randomly all your doing is rinsing usable ferts and micro nutes out of the soil then replacing them. 4. Small amounts of Mag can be helpful when needed. If you don't know the consistent deficiencies in your soil it's best to wait until your plant exhibits some sort of need. 5. If you live in the northern hemisphere you've missed the window for outdoor transplant (unless you're in a southern state) Toker- What's with the flush flush flush gig? Every week? What, you the H2O fairy? I'm picturing some mad stoned grower with a box of miracle-gro in one hand and a hose in the other...feed flush feed flush feed flush hHHAHAHAHAHhahahhahahaha......
RubberResin, So if You had $150 to spend on a ph tester,which one would you choose? I with you on me flushing too much. According to the rapid test soil testing kit K, P,N were all depleted. Since this test kit uses soil samples mixed with powder from the capsules It should be much more accurate that the electronic fertility test funtion on the meter pictured above, YES? It makes sence since I've over flushed the plant. NO more of that!! Thanks for the explanation of flushing, I got it now. cheers
As for the plant I transplanted to to the outside, I understand there's no way it will finish. With that in mind, am I to understand that outdoor plants start to flower well before we have 12/12? I'm MD (at sea level)so we are just now starting a natural 12/12 light cycle. I would guess that I have may 6 weeks of decent temps left. I'll keep tending to it & see what becomes of it. If nothing else it will prove to be an excellent learning experience :thumbs-up: thanks again
I've bought expensive meters and cheap ones. The expensive ones break and the yellow 30$ milwaukee meter has stood the test of time...twice. Had the first one for two years before it died...WELL worth it. The other one is going strong one year plus. Bought a 150$ milwaukee one and the probe lasted 2 weeks. Joke. You could buy five of the cheap ones and I guarantee they'd all last longer than 5 years.
you should flush with pure plain non chlorinated water the last two weeks before harvest.no nutes at all,or your buds will be harsher and not taste as organic and pure.a few days before harvest stop watering plants and keep them in 48 hrs uninterupted darkness and then cut them down.the lack of water and light ,signals the plant to finish flowering.you will have more colors to your buds purples,reds,oranges,etc. also thc is at its highest potency in the night hrs right before sunrise.keeping the plants in 48 hrs darkness gives you maximum thc potency when cutting down your girls..hopes this helps
Dude, if I had $150 to spend and it was my garden I'd pop for a $40 Milwaukee then spend the rest on soil, a nutrient regimen and some fun genetics. Not knocking your grow. You have obvious talent and if you want to up the game these are the first to help. Bet you could do it all for $150
Awesome! That's the kind of information I was looking for. :thumbs-up: To be honest, I think I have more luck than I do talent when it comes to growing MJ, but thanks for the vote of confidence. cheers this little nugget has double in size in just 24 hours so I guess things are OK for the moment.
I tried a bit of super cropping about 10 days ago. I wish I had started doing that when she was much smaller. I can't wait for this one to finish so I can start another and really make her zing.:flyy: todays view from above. There are a few leave getting rusty spots.. It looks like a Calcium deficiency but I'm not doing anything until I know the real ph of the spil. That meter I bought today had better get here quick. That's my black lab for a size comparison. Here's a non super cropped branch. about 3 1/2 weeks in to flowering.
Cal/Mag deficiency. Pick up some liquid Ca/Mg, Dolemite lime or Bone meal. If you run organic, Ca and Mg are normally lacking so one has to make up for it. Those rust spots on the fan leaves wont go away, but you shouldnt be getting anymore once they recover. :thumbs-up:
Ok so I've added Epsom Salt at the rate of one tbs per gallon along with a hand full of dolomite lime mixed together with 5 gallons of water. The water was ph'd to 6.8 & airated for a few hours prior to watering. Here's a picture of the same supercropped branch. Lots of rusty spots but the new grow looks ok I guess. Would you say that that's an acceptable amount of growth in 4 days?
4 days later She seems to be holding up well.This pic was taken 3 1/2 days after watering. She's just starting to look a bit dry. Tomorrow I'm heading out of town for 4 days so wanted to be able to realy soak her down tomorrow morning. Tomorrows watering will incude some blackstrap molasses too. I can't wait for her to finish. maybe another 4 weeks??
