Hi all, I'm almost 4 weeks into Mick's method and as a guy who had no clue about growing pot, I'm amazed at the results. My first grow yielded 19 oz's and the 2nd, 20 oz's, with 4 plants in a 4x4. And cheap lights no less! Here's some 1st, 2nd and 3rd week pics. I started lst but don't have any pics yet, I'll work on that. And time for the 1st top too. !/4 strength Maxibloom from start to finish, no mess no fuss and so, so simple.
Mick i thought it was 1/2? My plants are good. Did you make a chart for the Growmies yet? Oh im trying to find info on maxibloom with autos. Never grew autos. Any info is always appreciated. Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I have grown a few autos but I'm no expert.......I fed them the same as the photos I grow. My last grow I only used 1/3 tsp. of MaxiBloom all the way through and the plants were perfect.
Thanks Mick. But I think I've screwed things up. After my last post I started LST using wires from those lawn flags used to mark weeds in lawns.. After 4-5 days I noticed the tips of the new growth turning white. My first thought was nutrient burn but I ruled that out as I'm only using 1/4 tsp of MaxBloom per gallon, always PH'd to 6.0. Now I didn't check the runoff for PH until I noticed the problem, it was always 6.1 with my previous grows but this first runoff was higher than I expected. Three 6.3's and one 6.4. The following day the runoff's ph was even lower, Two 6.3's and two 6.2's. Today it was Two 6.2's nd two 6.1's. 6.1 is normally what my runoff would yield so it's coming back down to normal and I'm hoping the problem clears itself up in a week or two. I think I contaminated the coco media with rusty LST pins. Pics on my phone but I'm having trouble getting them to my puter, I think my cloud is full and need to delete. I'll post some pics as soon as I can.
Thanks Kb. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I contaminated the soil with those metal tie down pins I used. The last two days my runoff ph was back to normal with all four plants going in at 6.0 and out at 6.1. Hopefully, the problem will clear itself in a week or two. But that screws up my veg/flower schedule a bit. The only other thing I've done differently this time was to put a layer of perlite on top to keep the fungus gnats down. And thinking back to my last grow, I had one of four plants showing the same white tips. But I used wire coat hangers as suggested by LBH's tutorial. When I harvested, I noticed one wire coat hanger pin that I missed when I pulled them. I just can't remember if it was in the same pot where the white was showing and didn't make the connection. Now that I've also figured out how to permanently delete pics in my iCloud, I can finally post these. Hoping all is well with everyone.
Hello all, I think those white tips are slowly diminishing, but I'm blind as a bat too so fingers crossed. It doesn't seem to be getting any worse so I think I'm good. I only hope I didn't remove too much under the net, I tend to get carried away at times. Beginning week 8 here and I'm flipping them today. I just can't seem to make that 5 week veg schedule and I think it's because I wait too long to top them. But I think I'm doing it right, waiting until the 4th set of leaves before topping, then again after 2 more sets. I put the screen down about a week ago and feed twice a day now. Here's some pics.
Hey thun, looks like you are rocking it. They usually go crazy a week or two after flip. Looking forward to the next update!
AskEd, thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I didn't realize they grow like that after the flip, but wow they've taken off like crazy. I've been tucking the branches daily the last couple of weeks, trying to keep the branches of the canopy all at the same height. I've got so much to learn and plenty of time left to screw things up! Beginning week 10, 3rd week of bloom and I'm still seeing just a touch of white on the tips. The PH runoff is still 6.1, and going in at 6.0 so I think the problem's getting better. The canopy looks a bit chaotic with leaves turned around and such but that's due to the tucking of branches from from one square in the net to another. They straighten right out after a day's light however. Pics...
Wow! They have really spread out! They are looking fantastic my friend, they have the momentum going full speed it appears. By white tips - do you mean the light colored new growth? I was looking to see what you were referring to, the plants look really happy.
AskEd, about 4-5 days after I used those metal pins to train the branches I noticed the tips of the leaves turning white. After checking the runoff's PH, I noticed it was higher than I was used to. I've never had a problem with runoff PH levels so I assumed it was due to those metal pins contaminating the coco. Light burn crossed my mind but I didn't think that would cause the PH level in the runoff to go wacky. But that's just a guess, maybe it does. Whatever was causing the tips to turn white, seems to be correcting itself...I hope! I'm giving each plant 3/4 gals of water with nutrients twice a day instead of a gallon because I'm getting so much runoff, 60 maybe 65%. Lugging 3 gals vs 4 up and down a flight of stairs made sense. Now I mix 1/4 tsp per gal of MaxiBloom in a translucent 5 gal bucket filled with 3 gals of tap water, PH'd to 6.0. The only downside I can think of might be less oxygen uptake with less water. I keep thinking about those guys who feed 3 times a day. I realize not everyone can find the time to feed in coco everyday but I'm retired now and although it sounds like a lot of work, it's a breeze from a bucket with a brew masters spigot. Just connect the tubing from the spigot to the Hydro Halo and open it up. It takes about 5 mins per plant and then I'm lugging at least a gal and a half of runoff back up the stairs to drain. I love my new hobby and with the wisdom of experts like you and Mick, well, it makes it even easier.
Hey thun, man you are doing a lot better than I did on my third run! Really great job here man. I don't think your metal pins are doing any damage. For years I used metal tomato cages in my coco grows and I never had any issues with that. In DWC if some rust forms in there then that can be a problem with the excess iron but in coco a shot of iron is a great thing - it helps with the calcium/magnesium release issue, but that's another conversation. You look to have your system dialed in pretty good, ph of 6.0 going in is perfect, no ph worries. But those tips to me look like hot tips - that is tip burn from a little too high a concentration of nutes. Your plants are a dark green as well with a little bit of shine and those are indications that the nute mix is a little strong. I would say to back off just a little, what ppm/EC are you getting? You are on the right track with watering the plants more frequently, coco loves that. Your runoff amount seems a bit excessive though, you really just need a little runoff. You could easily cut back on the watering amount and add another watering cycle. If you want to do a high frequency amount of watering then automating is the way to go. I hit mine 4 times a day (every six hours) and there's no way I could pull that off without my trusty timer! But if you have the spunk to hand water them that frequently then your plants will enjoy the waterings and the meaningful quality time together. Your issues are very minor, just a little tweaking and you be damn near perfect!
AskEd, thanks again for the compliments, but I owe most if not all of mu success to Micks K.I.S.S. thread. I was going to buy a couple of bags of Fox Farm soil and just happened to click on Mick's thread. I read the first 10-12 pages and I was hooked. It sounded so easy, and it is. So far I'm averaging 5 oz's a plant and with 4-$80 cheap lights! I'm having a hard time convincing my wife, the warden, to let me spend much more when I'm getting such a nice yield with these cheap ones. Tonight I decreased the nutrient from 1/4 tsp per gal or 3/4 tsp per 3 gals to 5 1/8th tsp's per 3 gal tap water. I never gave nutrient burn a thought thinking the amount I was using is only 1/4 strength of what they recommend...learning everyday here. I also emptied the 3'x3' botanica drain pan tonight before I started, to get a true measurement of my runoff. I fed the adjusted 3 gals and poured the runoff back into the measured bucket I started with. I figured 2 and 1/4 gals runoff. Perhaps the buffering I did before I started got rid of the bad coco. Seems like I threw half of it in the garden because it sank to the bottom of the buckets I was using. I don't know? I'm thinking better drainage might be better for the plant? The water levels are hard to see in the pics but you can see them if you look hard, in the 1st pic it's at the bottom edge of the top piece of tape on the left. Sorry about the purple light, the lights in my cellar suck. A third feed right now would be tough, my lights-on cycle is at night. I run them at night because I also run a small electric ceramic heater and I'm a little nervous about running both the heater and lights at the same time on the same circuit. And I'm also nervous about running that heater at night when I'm sleeping so I run the lights at night which keeps the tent's temp at 75 and the heater during the day which keeps it about the same. Great little heater, turn it on with 1 knob and when the tent reaches the temp you want, turn the other dial until the heater shuts off. When the temp drops 5 or 6 degrees, the heater kicks back on. On my 3rd season with it and well worth the $20 bucks. Good weather's on the way here in Central MA but it's still cold in my cellar. Here's some pics of the runoff and heater. I don't own a ppm meter but will check into that. Thanks again AskEd.
I feel you on he cheap lights, I have damn near the cheapest ones I could find at the time and they have been stellar, the yields are great and potency is fantastic. Being from TX I still trip out when I hear about adding heat for a tent LOL It's definitely not an issue we have to tackle down here. I'm impressed that you have your grow so dialed in without a TDS pen. It is a great tool to have in your kit, you can see how hard your base water is and see exactly how strong your mix is. If I could offer one piece of advice when shopping for a pen, make sure you know which ppm scale the pen uses (500, 700 or both) because some pens don't specify or make you dig through the manual to find it. Even better is if the pen has a EC option, there is only one scale and no confusion. They all measure the same thing so it's a matter of choice which one you use, but a reading of EC 1.7 is a pretty good max to stay under. Looks like Mick's method has served you well, got my chair pulled up!
Hi all, beginning 5th week of bloom and I had a couple of set backs last week. I noticed one of the plants shoot up and get way too close to the light. Normally, I try not to look at the lights as I'm blind in one eye and trying to protect the good one, but I also noticed that two of the cheap lights lost their bloom switch. So throwing good money after bad, I ordered two new cheapo's. And I had to lower the pots so the dumb grated platform I made had to go. The only way I could think of was to un-string the scrog net, take it apart and remove the plants. So I'm srogging no more but I think they've been trained enough at this point.
Hello again, hope all is well. Monday started week 7 of bloom and I don't know what to think about my progress. The plants seemed to respond well to AskEd's advice to cut back on the nutes a bit. They look better to me. But I'm wondering if losing the bloom switches on 2 of 4 lights, stunted some growth. I know all the lights worked when I flipped them, but I don't know when I lost the 2 bloom lights. Maybe I should have kept tucking those taller shoots in the back right but when I tried to tuck one of them, it snapped and bent at a 45 degree angle. A little duct tape straightened it out and it's doing well but I should have tucked those taller ones sooner. Then they grew within 10 inches of the lights and that's when I decided to untie the net, remove the plants and lower the base. It appears I've picked the wrong grow to show off. If I had a duck it would drown.
Hi all, It's been a month since I posted last and I think all is well with my grow. Beginning week 11 since the flip and I'm starting to see some amber in the trichomes. In the future, I won't be growing different strains in the same grow. The two High Octane plants on the right, stretched crazy high after the flip and the two on the left didn't stretch as high and produced a nice even canopy, especially the Mr. Big Stuff, front left. And those tall stalks on the right grew skimpy buds between long lengths of bare stalk while the MBS produced beautiful, long continuous buds that look like shish ka bobs. I really screwed up by not tucking those tall stalks on the right and ended up using a roll of duct tape to support the breaks I made trying to fix things. I finally bought a couple of support nets and they seem to have helped. I'm close to harvest I think...with a Hat Tip to AskEd for the kind words and advice. The wisdom he and and Mick freely offer make it easy, Thanks guys!