Ive got every kind of pesticide from organics to systemics, literally. I live in central california where they dumped 7 million Tons of pesticides on us last year alone. Most of the bugs here have a huge resistance to even the hardest systemic pesticides, so my motto is prevention. Sterilization and cleanliness is at the forefront of my little operation. I do not grow at all during peak months of bugs, (summer) due to heat and bugs from may-august which decimate most gardens. It doesnt help that my little half acre plot is surrounded by acres of fields that never get mowed and because of That im constantly fighting bugs. However, my wife grows certain flowers to ward off fleas, since we have 6 dogs, and a host of other flowers and herbs outdoors around Our house that keeps the bugs away. My gardens outgrew even the commercial farmers last year due to heavy amounts of vermicompost tea i brewed and poured on this half acre, constantly. Still had fruit producing in december! I actually had four baby neem trees but none survived the winter freezes here, where the temps got down to 17ish degrees some nights, which isnt that cold, but is for central cali imo. I lost my last crop to root aphids. First crop ive ever lost in my life.....i appreciate your input on bugs/pests/diseases. I covered all my bases on purpose before i ever considered growing. Theres not a marijuana bug that i dont have a treatment for, from mites, to aphids, to worms/caterpillars, fungus gnats, etc. Ive got brand new bottles of beneficial fungis, bacterias, pyrethrin in pure form, etc. loads and loads of treatments, cold pressed neem, all that. I need to get some azamax though for my hydro as im sure a lot of what i have couldnt be used in hydroponics..... Edit:also, had this gut feeling i shouldnt eff with molasses, so didnt. Wont either, thanks for the heads up.
can you be any more specific? Do you have any recommended nutes? What do you use in your hydroponics gardens to balance ions?
in terms of prevention, neem oil and silicon. dynagro neem and protekt, foliar throughout veg and into about 1 week of flowering. not only is it probably the best form of prevention, but the silicon will help build your plant structure; makes a huge difference. and the neem helps polish your leaves and provides the valuable precursors to the terpenes your plant produces. basically, your weed will end up tastier and smellier with the use of neem including the benefit of excellent pest control. EDIT: poke, you in cali? whereabouts man??
hey poke I had a crazy thought....what kind of pH down are you using? when I first started hydro I used earth juice's pH down because from what I had heard, it was comprised entirely of....sulfuric acid? carbonic acid? forgot which one. anyways, a relatively mellow form of acid, one that didn't harm the bennies in the root zone as much as others. and man, I had pH that would swing up to 7.5 from 5.7 within a couple hours! I switch to AN's pH down (incredibly concentrated, stuff burns holes through your clothes. by far AN's best product [and only one I would use]), and after the switch I had rock solid pH that wouldn't budge more than .2 points over the course of a couple days! so, I'm just wondering if you're running into the same issues. You use a powder correct? I think it was GH's if I remember correctly, I've been through a lot of threads the past coupla days
Ive been using neem for years. I swear by the stuff, only wished my trees survived. I had no bugs in my garden the year i got those. I think i read the other day that silicon helps with the cell wall structure. Is this correct? Is protekt silicon? Thank you for your patience with me. I only wish mmman would have been more specific product wise, as i googled finding balance in ph and kept finding his "copy and pasted" info on link after link. I cleaned my medium to the best of my ability, putting much more effort into it than most. I tried distilled water, but it had the same effect as tap. And i followed the directions on nutes. Those three components are the building blocks of ph balance and yet, my mileage has definitely varied, which is why some general direction would have helped. I dont think ill use hydroballs anymore. Im going to try hydroton next time. My medium is the size of peas one might eat next to carrots on the dinner plate, some of the hydroballs being as small as a grain of rice. Having to add nearly 7.5 pounds per 10 inch pot is beyond ridiculous imo. Oh well, live n learn.
I never used hps for veg just mh..if you have a digital ballast you dont need a conversion..I was using it 2 week into flower but it doesnt seem to prevent stretching much and was slower to start flowering so switched back to hps from flip..got some good advice i see maxibloom with protek, neem and calmag if needed will do ya right...also i like mad farmers ph up as it has 3 types of buffers and might hold ph better for ya
Yeah the ph swings really threw me for a loop tbh, i was like "should this be happening?" Ive been reading a lot of good stuff about ANs products. Im sure ill try their product line sometime down the road. Tryin to be frugal this time around as Im tryin to save some money for family stuff. Yes i am using the gh ph down. I bought it based on countless reviews i read that made the exact same claim you just did about the AN ph down. Im not going to add anymore unless the ph is way off for days. The plants arent reacting right to the acid and its making my res look nasty. Hopefully that cannazym gets here soon as i saw a broken white root floating in the res today... Edit: just saw you asked where i am .40 miles from bakersfield in tulare county. Where are you? I thought with a digital ballast (mines a quantum) you must have a conversion bulb? Do they even make 600w mh bulbs? I know the only "true" bulb im aware of is the digilux 600w mh, at least thats the product claim. Ive heard a lot of good things about metal halide in vegetative but only have experience with t5-t8s, cfls, and hps. Hps has always had explosive growth. Ive read the mh bulbs are expensive and last half as long.... The different brands I mentioned on the last page are mh conversion bulbs that only cost 25 dollars, so i was going to try to get one of each brand and give them a try. My interest is peaked on the plantmax ($25 on 1000bulbs.com) and the digilux which is like $75. I have at least 6 bulbs for hps as it is. Im using a cheap bulb now from the website i listed above. I dont put my eye hortilux 600w hps bulb in Til flower as ive seen a definitive difference.
yeah don't use that dogshit anymore. I can guarantee you if your problem is at all related to my problem, switching to another pH adjuster is your answer, and all that nastiness in your res will go away. wont get rid of your dust, though and the cannazyme will do you well. I switch to AN's pH down and it works great. my only issue is that it takes some getting used to. It's so incredibly concentrated literally a drop of this stuff would change the ph in my 5 gal by a whole point in lower tds rates. and to answer your previous question, yes protekt is silicon. and it definitely helps build cell structure. You'll notice a huge difference in the rigidity of the leaves. the only reason why I stumbled across it is because of neem. You can use dish soap with neem oil to cut it, but I read protekt works just as well with the added benefit of the silicon. tried it out, never went back. that's one of my prime foliars. my schedule goes like this : Day 1) foliar, Day2) spray with water to open stomata Day 3)No spray, plant rests Day 4) start foliar again and I always put the neem and silicon solution through a filter, like one of those reuseable coffee meshes to get all the chunks out. and always sprayed at lights off. that neem can burn holes straight through your leaves if it clumps up at all during lights on. But I'm you knew most of that stuff about the neem, seeing as you use it regularly...try cutting it with the protekt, you'll never go back to using dish soap again! oh yea, and I only used distilled or RO for it, to keep down any buildup on the leaves after the water evaporates. And warm water helps the dilution of the oil, too. Yes! I use madfarmer's GetUp. It's more stable than the GH liquid up and doesn't have any dyes in it. great product. comes from near where I live as well
ah man when you said central cali you weren't kidding. I think I've driven through Tulare maybe once on my way up to whitney or something. I'm from San Diego. Going to school over in Europe right now though. If you're ever down around socal feel free to shoot me a message or something we could burn down some of that homegrown if ya like
Do they make AN ph up/down in powder form? I hate paying for liquids. Dont last as long, goes bad, yadda yadda... You know.. Plants are looking a little better last few days, ill post a pic in a day or two after the lst gets a little better. Gotta love manipulatin those whore-moans (har har)
nah conversions are for magnetics that arent switchable but you can use it in a digital it will just use it in the hps setting...digital ballasts automatically detect the bulb and switches accordingly
Forgot to answer your question. After I cleaned the res the last time I didnt notice anymore sediment on the bottom. There might have been a little but nothing like that atrocious mess before. checked phs and ppms a min ago. Left (bigger plant) was 6.7 ph and 756 ppm Right plant was 6.4 ph and 650ish ppm Been keeping my daily log here, on these pages. You can see what looks like nute burn from the last nutes I had (full strength) whereas your guys' recommended 1/4 strength seems to be doing better. If you look close you can see the lower leaves getting bigger already as the hormones are diverted Love that shit...hehe
So we've all been going crazy trying to fix these ph fluctuations! I stumbled across this guy with the same experience. Apparently its the ph down by gh in dry form Thinkin you were right dishphead Going to keep reading.... Edit: This thread, lots of people saying their ph wont hold with gh ph down and that they get it down to 5.8 and by morning its 6.7. O.O https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/a-good-ph-down.20420/ Those same people recommend AN ph down.
I went to a farm store got good size bottle of PH up PH down and a bottle of cal mag and the cal mag is all I have needed. It cost me $40. My PH does not seem to move and the plants are happy PH about a solid 6.0 all times. I hope I dont need it. It has to be beginners luck on my PH. Plants are growing quick.
Ok so last night i was baked and it was 1 am or so. I ordered an ph down then decided that a ph of 7.4 was just too damn high for my plants, so unlike normally where i measure and junk, i eyeballed my gh ph down and added it to a jug, filled with res water and shook it. Poured it into the right smaller plant and it phed just fine at 5.7. Knowing it will rise I left it. Then i did the big plant and to my horror, it phed at 3.2 Whoa thats low i thought, so i drained half the res and added tap water that had been bubbling for days, bringin the ph up to 3.7 I know thats disgustingly low, scary low, but i said effit, i was tired, so i went to bed. Got up this morning and waited a few hours. At 12 hours since id added ph down i tested again. Both reses reported 6.1 ph. Couldnt believe it. Kinda shocked me. Now im dead set thinkin this gh ph down is utter crap. I read enough last night to come to that conclusion. I also decided to just stick with hps. Mh bulbs are expensive and 50/50 on peoples opinion of them. Sure id love tighter nodes, but, im just trying to get these plants healthy enough to take clones, go bigger, so i can grow 4-6 plants, veg for two months, flower for 1-2 months, then pull a couple pounds outta this and stop again for the summer, before it gets too hot. Also, was going through the bombest bud i ever smoked last night and found a seed. Looks viable. Wife smiled and said, i already know what youre thinkin! Hehehe Alrighty, jus wanted to give an update. Im not stressin at all. This growin is a walk in the park compared to shit i deal with daily. Plus, i dont feel right if im not workin hard for what i want. Just the way i am i spose. Til next update...
glad to hear you decided to up and go for the AN man. I'm surprised I didn't mention the powder ph down earlier on, sorry bout that! in any event, I know exactly what you went through man and it is a freakin pain! like you, though, I did everything I could, was always flushing and cleaning out my res and wiping everything down, tried putting aluminum foil over EVERYTHING to prevent even the smallest light leaks, nothing. It was absolute hell and I can empathize with you on that. You and your plants will be MUCH happier once you have a stable pH. I often wonder if it's just the dry powders that do that. I'm using GH's ph down this time around, but the liquid kind (cuz I left my AN back in the states) and it works just fine. It must be something with the powders, I'm not entirely sure what though. And remember, that AN is super concentrated. when I say it'll burn holes in your clothes, I mean it. So if you get it on your hands when you're working with it, use a rag or paper towel to wipe it off, or rinse water over it, don't just wipe on your pant leg! I also suggest a dropper to apply it. I tried it with measuring spoons and it was so concentrated I would often overshoot my target pH because I couldn't get small enough a dose. when I say drops of this stuff I mean drops!!
Appreciate the advice with An. Will surely take it. Looks like im gettin the beginning of a cal mag def on the bigger plant. Googled cal mag def with maxibloom and others confirmed it will be an issue, which is odd since maxibloom contains all the same ingredients of cal/mag at twice the percentage. Ph is at 6.2 on smaller plant. 6.3 on bigger plant. Edit: whats odd is it looks like cal mag def but also looks nute burned. Even though nutes are at 1/4 strength. Funny enough, a few posters on that thread i posted said the exact same thing! https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=151456 Edit: dropped the ph to 5.8 on both reses after adding 1.5 capfuls (less that 1/4 of recommended dose per gal) Plants both perked right up. Only gave calmag to def lookin plant Ppm was 880ish - including 160 ppm tap water. Didnt test ppm of smaller plant. Cant wait to get some an ph down, this gh stuff really makes the ppm rise and is very unstable stuff. I was surprised to find both phs at around 6.2-3 just now. Which means its holding there. Read a lot of people saying they have to add a shitload before it holds the ph in the correct area. Guess were gettin there. Have had no new leaves getting new "salt" buildup since i eliminated the splash from having not enough medium.
http://boards.cannabis.com/attachments/plant-problems/281235d1325194867-brown-spots-some-twisted-leaves-some-tips-curled-down-phchart.jpg