I had two limbs fall over, is this normal? I tied up any remaining loose limbs. Trichs are cloudy none amber yet. This shit smells so dankolicous. One limb from sweet tooth, one from blue hash. shit is sticky and has trics all over the leaves on this shit.
It is "normal", but preventable. Generally it happens on indoor grows due to lack of wind in the environment and lack of silica in the soil. Make sure a fan is blowing on the plants and start using silica blast and it won't happen again. Not much you can do for this grow, though.
No indoor soil really has a high silica content. Indoor soils are significantly different in composition than dirt you find outside. The fans are why you didn't have problems until this point. Silica will ensure you never have them.
I've never heard of silica blast, bulletcatcher, could you tell me a bit more about it? I see from the description it strengthens organic plant fibers, this seems like it would strengthen the stems no doubt, but how does it affect the flowers?
supposedly it increases their size, but has a more noticeable impact on their overall weight via thickening of the cell walls in the plant fibers. I just started using it this grow, so I won't know for myself until a week or two on the full size of the flowers, but the stalks came in incredibly strong after I added it. It affected the already-grown stalks as well. They used to kind of lazily come back when pressed down, but are now extremely springy and show no drooping from the buds.
interested in more info about silica blast too. when do you start using it? in veg or start with flowering?
Silica has been found in VERY high concentrations in plant tissue that is under attack from fungi and around insect bite wounds. This has caused researchers to draw the conclusion that it plays a role in defending plants from pests but to the best of my knowledge has never actually been proven. It has been proven that silica helps to protect plants from stress caused by high or low temps. I haven’t been able to find any information on why it helps with cold but the tests showed clear results. It protects against heat by increasing cell rigidity in the guard cells of the stomata giving the plant better control over air flow in and out of the leafs pores which helps the plant regulate moisture better. This could also increase photosynthesis by allowing more co2 into the leaf for light cycle reactions, my own theory so very unproven . Forgot to add. You can use silica from start to finish. Since silica is mobile in the plant I don’t see any need for it during veg. Start adding it when you switch to 12/12 and the plant will move it around to where she needs it. Also a cautionary note. Silica is very alkaline, I add 1/2 a tsp to 1 gallon of 7.25 ish tap water and it raises the ph to over 8.5 before nutes.
if i use silica and then ph down ...will it hurt anything? all these damn chemicals...i might try organic next time