Hi all New to the site and on my first grow, quick list of set up 1.8m x 1.2m x 1.2m grow tent 6" extractor fan with carbon filter (passive intake) 200w Cfl for seedlings then 600w HPS at about 4 weeks for the rest of veg and flowering Using Bio bizz all mix soil 4 x Double Berry strain After doing a lot of reading on here I just wanted to hear some views about topping. Is It worth it? do you do it? will it guarantee a higher yield? if I top my plants will I also need to LST or can I leave them? Next I was wondering if anyone has used BIOBIZZ nutes? I have found a dosage chart on their website but i'm worried about over doing it so could someone please tell me if the chart on their website is a safe amount to use? All this being said would you recommend that (as it is my first grow) I just leave the nutes and topping alone and just worry about getting to harvest with healthy plants and develop my technique on the next grow as they are about 4 weeks old and doing really well? a lot of questions I know but would appreciate some advice
You have a big tent for 4 plants, so topping them is a good way to go. They are quite robust plants, once they have about 6 pairs of true leaves, you can take the top of the plant off with little worry. I've taken the top 5 inches and used it as a cutting, works well, but you might prefer to take the very tip as soon as you can. LST is recommended, but that can be very very minor. When you top them, if you take a little effort to make the top growing tips grow apart for a week, when you do leave them to grow they will no longer be right on top of each other. You don't have to do anything elaborate, just a couple of bits of string will do. Topping once will definitely give you a better yield. More than that will produce more, smaller buds, which makes it hard to say. If you put the work in, yes, otherwise maybe not. Since you have a massive tent and 600w lights, you don't need to work too much to get a couple of ounces per plant. I use Biobizz, and I have found it okay but less than idea. Typically the will need to do at least 1 good Cal-Mag feed after about 6 weeks from seedlings, and again if that wasn't already during the first week or so of flowering. The BioBizz doesn't contain those salts, which is why they also sell algamatic and half a dozen other additives. They may be organic, but they are not an easy 2-part system. I find the feeding chart too strong, but it does depend on the strain. I've had plants that can take everything you feed them, and then others that freak out at the lightest feed. The usual "start at half strength and work from there" advice applies until you know what you're doing. Bear in mind, if you grow your plants in 1 gallon pots, then transplant them to 3 gallon pots before you flower them, you might not need to feed them much at all. On the other hand, if you LST them a lot and veg them for a long time, or you only stay in 1 gallon pots, you'll need to feed them more often and calcium/magnesium/molybdenum/boron deficiency can be more likely. If that becomes an issue, there's no harm in replacing a biobizz feed with a miraclegrow or some other multi-purpose feed as a one off.
Thanks for the advice. I know the tent is quite large but I didn't want to overcrowd it so ill see how I get on and maybe put more in there next time. I'll take your advice and top them with a bit off LST to space the 2 main colas a bit and hopefully get some half decent buds a bit lower down as well. I'm gonna go with half the nutes from the chart and see how that works out plus use the cal/mag nutes you talked about. I was hoping for 3 ounces per plant but maybe thats a bit ambitious?
I have the 1.2m x1.2m tent with 400w HPS. I can easily have 4-5 plants in that, so I would expect to have 8-10 plants in yours, maybe 8 if I was doing lots of LST and 12 or more if I was just doing like a SoG. The only thing is 600w isn't quite enough for the whole tent, really, so maybe 5-6 is better, You'll have plenty of space to move around, anyway. If you get less than 2oz per plant, you either didn't veg them long enough, didn't use a big enough pot, or didn't feed them enough, because you have enough light-power and space to grow some very nice plants. 3oz is not unreasonable for your setup, maybe more, but it depends on what happens in the next 12 weeks or so!
I use biobizz and follow the schedule without any problems. I think the cal/mag problem depends on your tap water and what's in it. Average tap water has enough but if it's very soft or you use RO you'll need a boost.
Different tapwater has different amount of calcium in, even at different times of the year, different soil mixes have different amounts too, and different plants require different amounts, especially if they are grown for a long time in the same soil. So to say that you don't need it because tapwater is enough, is wrong, but to say that you definitely need it because BioBizz isn't good enough, is also wrong. Also I have Barneys Farm LSD which can take quite a lot of feeding, full strength, but then I have Dr Krippling Mango Chutney, which can barely take a half-strength feed without getting nute burn. That's why you have to find out what works for your own specific plants, which you can only really do with a little careful trial an error. Your plants will tell you, but if you have vigorous plants you are more likely to need a top up. There's a biobizz feeding schedule that says you need alg-a-matic when you're not using their all-mix soil. That is exactly because their all-mix soil includes extra cal/mag, so when you use the light-mix you need to add extra. They also sell a few other supplements. I'll attach an example feeding schedule that uses only the grow/bloom/max plus an epson salt feed. This is for illustration purposes! It's as good a schedule as any other, plenty of people will disagree and plenty of people will think it sounds good, that's because everyone has different plants and different setups. If you use 100w of CFLs and veg for 6 weeks you will need a lot less feeding than if you use 1000w HPS and veg for 6 weeks!