No, I didn't top any of them, but sometimes I think maybe I should have. I tied a few of them down with wires, like this: I'm a little worried that they might grow too tall on me, especially since this is my first time.
It looks like I had made a mistake with the sexing, and so now it seems I only have 3-4 females out of the 9 total plants. I don't mind too much, since this is my first time, and it'll be easier for me to grow a fewer number of plants. I'm hoping to share pictures in a few days of the beginning buds.
At least there was a few ladies among them mate.....shame it's not the 7 you first thought, but 3-4 will still provide a very nice amount of quality MJ! Sadly I think you are right about regretting not topping em too....I topped all mine once, and then the 4 tallest again to give the others time to catch up....the results are insane!, so many bud sites at the top of the canopy now, I keep losing count when I try lol. Always next time though looking forward to seeing some baby bud pics shortly!
I wanted to wait longer before sharing pics again, but I ended up taking pics this morning, to note the progress of my favorite female plant. She's looking healthy so far, with no signs of problems. I like how compact and dense this plant is. This is the start of one of the buds:
I got rid of my male plants today, and made some canna-butter with them. Then I rearranged the remaining 3 females, to make them more spaced out. As I was moving one of them, I forgot that she was tied down to a wall, and I accidentally yanked her hard. I heard at least 1 root snap. She still seems to be pretty sturdy. I'm guessing maybe I just slowed that one down a little bit. Now that I only have 3 plants, it'll be much easier to spray them for my IPM.
Hello PP117, Huge fan of AP gardens. Currently growing Shishito peppers, Basil and Kale in hydroton with gold fish in one system. It is usually difficult to get good Potassium numbers in AP due to the fact that fish food is formulated with just enough K for the fish and not much more. This is why some AP gardeners supplement with seaweed extract. Definitely subbed to see how it turns out. I am experimenting with AP cannabis as well. The trick is to have enough P, and more importantly, available K for the flowering cycle. N is abundant. It looks to me that a few of your leaves are showing signs of low K (interveinal chlorosis). I had similar problems in my AP. Other than that, they look great! The growth rates in AP systems are incredible! Have you tried feeding your fish Kelp meal? Goldfish seem to like it. One can also foliar feed with a Kelp extract to temporarily mitigate a K deficiency. Get the K up before you switch to flower. The leaves should darken up a little. -PG
Hey PG! Thanks for joining! I'm so happy to finally have a fellow AP enthusiast on board! I was using lots of seaweed extract in the beginning, similar to how lots of AP folks use it. But a really well-informed member here named Clackamas Coot informed me that the extract might not be the safest/best product to use, due to the manufacturing process. Obviously I had never heard that before on any of the AP forums. This is a post where he explains the difference between the extracts and the meals: http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1169188-organics-lounge.html/page-844#entry20517498 Currently I'm adding kelp meal to the system, and sometimes wakame and dulse too (simply because I have them on hand for culinary uses). Sometimes I also add some dried comfrey and nettle, for additional nutrition. And sometimes I add some fulvic acid. Basically I'm using some of the tricks I learned from the organic people on here, only I'm applying them to AP. It's pretty experimental, and I won't have good feelings about it until I see the cannabis getting through the bud stage successfully. Recently I ordered some alfalfa meal, and I will experiment with adding that to the system in small amounts. CC made a post recently about how alfalfa meal has all the nutrients necessary for most plants to thrive. I also started using ProTekt (potassium silicate), both foliar and in the tank, and that also contains some potassium. I didn't hear tricks like these on the AP forums, and I'm glad to have learned them here. An interesting thing is that now that I removed my male plants, and now that I'm left with just 3 females, there should technically be a lot more nutrients available to the plants, since there are less plants eating. Some of the buckets in my system are now empty, so I'll have to sew some seeds in there soon (hopefully today). I'll probably just grow some random green vegetables, until I can get enough mj clones to start a new round. This is how the buds are looking today. Note that these pictures are taken under red HPS lights, so the color isn't accurate at all: This is how the same view would look when using Auto White Balance on the camera (instead of setting a custom white balance for the red lights): And then these are some green beans I harvested from the same system just now:
What type or style of AP are you working with? Flood & drain, constant flow, bell siphon, etc.? Also, What type of fish? Another technique to getting K to individual plants in an AP system is direct dosing. One can brew a kelp tea with some alfalfa, ewc and molasses. Then, water the affected plants with your brew. If it is a flood and drain, time it so a little goes in every time your tables are drained. A friend in the AP industry is currently working on a sophisticated, computer controlled AP software that monitors the water and has automated dosing. The dosing units he uses come from the aquarium industry and have stepper motors that can deliver exact amounts of liquid at programmed times. These units can be set up on a timer without the computer program. The simpler way would be the former. A bit of work, but if you sped time in the garden, and with good timing, it can be done. AP cannabis can be done, and done well. Every harvest from my AP trials brings me closer and closer. Looking forward to your progress! Experimentation is a good teacher. Mistakes are lessons learned. And if not for the people who raise the question "why not" and challenge the status quo, the world would still be flat and we would still be in the dark age. -PG
@[member="PfefferGeist"] : I'm using a constant flow top-drip system. I have 7 2-year-old goldfish in a 100-gallon tank. Sometimes I detect trace levels of ammonia, so I'm thinking this is a good number of fish for me. The plants are growing in individual Dutch (bato) buckets full of hydroton. I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible, and if things become too complex (i.e. too similar to hydroponics), then I'd probably just switch to soil for the next run. My goal isn't to go for maximum yields, but rather to make a decent amount of weed in the easiest possible manner. Thanks man! Great to have you along! There isn't much that you missed earlier. Pretty soon is when the interesting stuff should start happening. Here's a quick summary: -I'm using seeds of various genetics from an amateur indoor grower who says he saves the seeds from his best plants (originally I thought they were bagseeds, but I found out later that they were not). -Out of 20 seeds, 9 had sprouted. -1 was a runt from the very beginning, and another was sick from the very beginning. This was before I even had them in the AP system. -Unfortunately, the runt and the sick one ended up to be 2 of my 3 females. -I have 1 really good looking female which I'm very happy with. That one was healthy from the beginning. This is the plant that should show us how well my system can grow cannabis. -I cloned all 3 females, but I'm hoping to make my good female into the mother plant. I'm hoping to be able to pull a decent number of clones from that mother in about a month or so, so that I can start another round with 8 females in the system. -I'm using 2 600 watt HID lamps. I started them out with MHs on 16/8, and switched to HPS on 12/12. I might switch one or both of them to MH during the last 2 weeks of flowering (if I get that far! ), because some say that increases the amount of THC. -On Sept. 12th I switched them to 12/12, so this is the 11th day of flowering. -I foliar spray them every 5-7 days with a mixture of: neem, aloe, fulvic acid, and silica. I haven't had any pest infestation problems at all. I also want to mention that there are red wriggler composting worms ALL over the grow rocks. This is usually a sign of a healthy AP system. This means that there is vermicompost constantly available for the plants. Today's shot of my best plant:
15th day of flowering. The plants have started stretching, and the buds have started developing pistils.
Looking sweet bro! I'm beginning to think I should have started flowering a lot earlier, first 2 weeks is usually when they stretch the most, and I only have about 8 inches of space available for the tallest 4 already and I'm only on day 3. Live and learn I guess....lol.
I did that last grow, didn't realise how much they stretch and ended up with 2 beasts too big for my tent that's the main reason im trying autos this time ^^
Pictures from today, 18th day of flowering: -This is my biggest and most robust plant. -This is my plant with the biggest buds. She is the one who was sick from the beginning (but started looking better later). She ended up to be a hermie, and last week I pulled pollen sacs from about 5 of her nodes. I'm just going to keep a close eye on her, and pull off any pollen sacs I see. So far she hasn't been forming any new ones. If I had more plants, I would have tossed this hermie. -This is my weakest looking plant. She has looked small and weak from the beginning. -These are some buds:
Damn mate, first off finding only 3 are girls and now the biggest is hermie.....that sucks Wouldn't be so bad if you were later into flowering, but I guess all you can do is check for sacks methodically and keep your fingers crossed!
26th day of flowering. The buds are looking fine, but some of the older leaves are looking messed up. I'll post some more complete pictures soon.
I wouldn't worry about older leaves looking messed up. I am at the same point in flowering as you are right now with a pro mix medium. My plants are 4' tall so I have been losing leaves left and right on the lower part of my girls. As long as they are just yellowing it's probably lack of light to the lower parts of plant. Unless it starts to climb up the plant I wouldn't sweat it. Aeroponics is really interesting, great journal man keep it up.