more pics. these were taken 4 days into 12/12. ive had some nutrient problems lately, not sure what but the big plant has leaves that turn brown and die starting with the tips. Also the stems are weak and rubbery. I stopped with additives for a while and am feeding Advanced Nutrients G/M/B formula. I flushed two days ago with FloraKleen for a few hours and then did 1/2 strength nutes. Yesterday I went to about 70% strength. Is it bad to flush this early in flowering? What strength should my nutes be? The AN bottle says for mild flowering use 1.40 tsp per Gallon.
Really bushy... Just flipped Those things are gonna break the zippers right off that tent... Do you know your ppm's or are you winging it? Well done if your running with no EC meter. As for the diagnoses... i wont speculate too much... but i would want to know exactly what the ppm's are... cause it could be over-fert... maybe just a bad salt buildup reaction... IDK? My babies are at 1100ish, and i push them past 1500 before they are done... Sensi A+B and some AN supplements. But it can vary so much from grow to grow... so its a hard question to answer. You can let the ppm's tell you whats too much if you've got a meter. Add about 50-100 ppm a day... until they start rising the ppm's themselves... and then cut back 50-100 and level it there. Sounds like you did the flush just fine... its good to rinse out some salts that build up every couple weeks... as needed. couple hours... no prob. GL and nice work so far.
Thanks. Yeah next time I'm vegging half as long. I think that one plant just got too big. This was after about 2.5 months veg. No EC meter yet and I barely even understand how EC and PPM works at this point because I'm so n00b but by next time around I'll probably get it. The Advanced Nutrients sell themselves on being pH and PPM balanced though and most of the time I rarely have to tweak pH. When I add the nutes to my RO water which is around 7.4 or so, the pH goes right to 5.5 - 5.7 range which is perfect. Without a PPM meter should I just do 1/2 strength and probably be fine? Also these are bagseed plants that came from dank that was grown from seeds that were probably purchased or bred and they might even be some brand name strain. They look Indica to me but what do I know. Since I started 12/12 on Dec 4 I figured I'd get to harvest in early Feb.?
That finish date sounds reasonable to me. God bless you for keeping them alive this long... winging it... i would feel blind without those numbers. I hear ya on that AN being pretty right on with the pH. I have been amazed at that... vs. past results with others. As for PPM/EC... and the strenght... Half sounds good... but its hard to tell. The last mix i did i cut the math to about 75% of this website recipe for Sensi Grow, and measured... and it was still about 15% too high... so i had to add some water before i was done. And ive noticed that the plants get more picky the older they get... So, GL To you man!
Thanks bro. I think I found a good thing here: just use the basic 3-part nutes at 1/2 strength and no additives. as long as i have no ppm meter i figure i can do that, or just shell out the $ for the AN additives like Big Bud and use them at 1/2 strength as well since they're more compatible.
I heard this guy... UncleNugs... say he only uses the Sensi A+B... no additives... and with respectable results too.
UPDATE: All plants have been confirmed female. There's pistils and calyxes all over the plants, even the two clones appear to have made the transition smoothly to flowering despite all the stress they've been through. So this grow will be 5 female plants. Hoping for a 1/4 to 1/2 lb. harvest but with the amount of light I'm using and my experience it could be pipe dreams. Currently no signs of hermaphrodites even though they're had sufficient stress and come from unknown genetics. What should I be looking for exactly and in what part of the plant? Is it possible for a plant to be 99% female and have one tiny ball hidden somewhere that screws up a whole crop? I added 4 CFL clamp lights as side lighting in the grow tent today. 2 of the bulbs are 2700K and the other is 6500K just because I broke a 2700 bulb and didn't have a spare but hopefully the mix of the two is in my favor. The T-5 lights are already a mix between blue/orange spectrum. The pistils are continuing to spit out of the plants as their 1st week of 12/12 passes, really looking forward to seeing this grow mature and ripen.
Just felt the need to post some new pics that really can show how giant these babies have gotten. The stem on the big plant is a frickin' tree trunk. I attribute that to the SilicaBlast, will definitely use it again during veg. I really gotta get this PPM thing down though.
The flowers are starting to form and pistils are becoming closer + closer together. Right now they're soaking up tons of water, I have to pour another gallon in everyday. Also wtf is the deal with these nutrient calculators from AN? Nutrient Calculator, Hydroponics nutrient calculator tells me to use 2.34 tsp of the G/M/B nutrients in my 3.5 gallons of RO water. Right now I am basically using this much since I was doing 1/2 of what the bottle tells me to use. But then ANs "new" calculator: http://www.advancednutrients.com/hydroponics/calc/ is telling me to use 10.56 tsp of each in 3.5 gallons which I know would certainly kill my plants. Meanwhile the instructions of the nutrient bottle work out to 5 tsp of each so wtf is going on?
i would use the "old" formula... if it seems to be working. On AN's page... the technical support is pretty responsive for me. 24 hour for email. They can help you narrow down what batch of nutes you've got... and help you find the right #'s for the stage. Im a Sensi user... so im not that familiar with the GMB. GL... Things still seem very healthy.
Yeah, will prob do it that way and slightly increase it according to the chart over the next 7-8 weeks. When I addback the water should it be just pure pHed RO water or should I add a little nutes? thanks
this is where the ppm meter comes in handy. as the water/nutes get sucked up by the plant, you can watch the exact #'s and adjust accordingly. If i were to do it blindly... i would just use reg water... no more nutes. once you've added 100% of the water volume back... its time for a fresh change. With this method... assuming you get it right on the start... AN is balanced enough that i would trust this method. I watch my #'s like a hawk, and can safely get close to 200% addback... but i like to watch the numbers climb about 20-30ppms' a day... so when i add back fresh water... the #'s drop back to the start.
Yeah I'll keep with the pure RO water for addback. Once in a while though I put in a few drops each of the nutrients plus a little SilicaBlast or Cal-Mag+ into a gallon jug of RO water. Since they're in flower now, sometimes I'll use an extra few drops of AN Bloom. The actual buds are starting to form along the stems and I can see where they'll eventually fill in. I'm hoping that big plant will give me 1/4 lb. alone but w/o the proper meters I don't want to expect such a big harvest and get disappointed. I'm gonna get a better camera soon to really catch it.
New pics today! The room is looking good, I'm constantly in there topping off the buckets Here's pics of the big plant, the clone, and one of the other two I started from seed. Also a closeup of the main cola developing. The clone is 16 inches tall and the big plant is 37 so the lights are about 40" high, it sucks that now all the plants are getting unequal light but Im afraid to put the buckets up on anything cause they might fall and spill water over the power strip and stuff. The two plants in the rear are doing okay, nothing special though and theyre hard to reach with the big plant in front. Now starting week 3 of 12/12, hopefully 6-8 weeks to go.
UPDATE: The girls are in the midst of Week #3 of 12/12 lighting. I am hoping for a harvest between Jan. 28 and Feb. 11 which would be between weeks 8 and 10. How do I know when to start flushing the plant? My largest plant is starting to have N Claw so I flushed and went down to 2 tsp each of the Grow/Micro/Bloom for the 3.5 gallons of water in the bucket. Here's some new pics: Family Photo My Big Plant (Over 3' Tall) Back Left Plant, Kinda Shorter and Sparser Buds From Less Light The Two Clones, Very Sparse Buds and Little Growth Due to Being About 2' From The T-5 Lights Bud Porn Nicest Bud Pics I Could Take
wow, nice update. That silica makes some giant stems. No more support needed here. Keep it up man... i am jealous of the health.