I'm in the same climate as you, with similar sized plants, and they're responding well to 1.5tbsp/g FoxFarm GrowBig. After I've used 4g of nute water, I'll switch to a straight water flush (usually, 5 days with nutes, 3 without). About every month I'll add a tbsp of neem oil as an organic insect repellent. I water every time the top soil drys using well drained pots in trays. Occasionally, before i switch back to nutes, I'll super-soak the plants, letting water run through the pot and into the tray. Colorado is dry. I can see my plants turn "sad" within 20 hours of my last watering. One plant, left for 48 hrs in a small pot, was toast. your box probably keeps a good deal of humidity in it, but as you enter bloom, you'll want to ensure that humidity doesn't cause light, fluffly buds, or worse, budrot. Getting your box well ventilated will increase your work watering, but will also produce more potent buds in flowering. I water every day, sometimes with the new clones, I'll only water every couple days. A big part of your watering schedule is going to be based on the size of the plant, and the size of the growth medium. It's a balance trick, constantly changing. My NYCD, twice the size of my indica, drinks about twice the water as well, even though they share pot-size and environment. Mile-high growers gotta stick together, eh?
Thanks Grape, ill take that all into consideration I had a few questions though; Now does that mean that you water with nutes, then give it a thorough watering w/o nutes and then switch back with the nutes for the following watering? And how long did it take for you to bump up to the 1.5 tsp per gallon? O and also you said it was 1.5 tbsp...did you happen to mean teaspoons? Thanks! (303 Represent!!) haha
I think you should up your cfl lights to atleast 42 watt bulbs, and thats 42 not 42 equivalent. It seems to me like it hasn't grown a strong root system, that is why it looks so droopy and compact.
I've been looking for some larger cfl's but the 100w equivalent daylights are all i can find. Also, it looks pretty bunched up and floppy alot cuz ive been tying it down, atleast 8-9 times so its a pretty bushy girl. I'll keep an eye on her though
I have a 2g. Pressure Sprayer, so it generally takes me 2-3 days to empty it. As such, my schedule is about 4-6 days with nute water, then 2-3 with plain water. It's all relative to when I refill my sprayer. "Eat that, empirical method. I'll give you an independent variable, c'mere!!!" "Every Feeding - 1 tsp/gal" says the back-of-the-box. When I started, I fed .5tsp/gal. I increased .5tsp. every week. Well, I kept going, without any stress from the plants! Finally, when 2 of my smaller plants showed signs of nitro-lock, I stepped back the dose (after flushing with water for a week straight, then removing stressed leaves) and wound up at just under 2tbs/gal. I have a handy spoon from Miracle Grow (do-not-use), has a .5tsp on one end and a 1.5tbs on the other. So I went with the easy to measure 1.5 tablespoons/gal. I shake well, add 3 tbs. to 2 gal. of water and shake well again. I'm running a 1000w. mh@16-40 in. to canopy. This means my plants can USE all that fertilizer, as each is receiving ample light (10k lumens@12 in. and diminishing with distance). Without a sufficient light source (5k+ lm.) you're likely to burn your plant over time with that much fertilizer. So far, so go. No nitro-lock or, well, any signs of poor health. vigorous growth on my sativas, and moderate growth on my indicas. Good growth even in the smaller clones (not the fresh ones).
Quick update.... So i gave her another gallon but this time with half a tsp of Grow big(twice as much as the last time), like 2 days ago and she's already showin even more progress. Here's a couple shots of her over the past 2-3 days or so: (The first 7 point leaf ) ...the next day, (day after nutes) And here's a new present me and some friends pitched on, for 50 i'd say its pretty sick...the name is still pending though... Comments or opinions or questions or whatever are always welcomee peaceeeeee
Here's another little update, things are lookin great I was also planning on switchin her into flowering here within the next couple days, also i was gonna take a clipping so i get another one going. I had a few questions concerning the two. One would be, can i take a clone and then switch her into flowering pretty much right away or should i let her heal up a bit before hand? And also, im gonna have to water within the next couple days, should i just start the blooming nutes then or wait a little bit into the cycle to do that? And any other advice or words of wisdom pertaining to the switching into flowering process would be greattt peace yalll
I dont think it matters, you can take a clone at any time, the prevailing wisdom is to take it at the peak of vegetative growth. I also hear taking clones 21 days into flower produce super clones also known as "monster cropping" which are said to produce shoots like crazy hence the name. Google it!
So i just took two clones from her and i bought 4 soft white 100w cfl's(equivalent) and the only thing holding me back from switching to flowering is the nutrient situation...what kind of nutes should i use and when should i use them? Im fine with sticking with FF but if i could get something cheaper that would be great. And do you need the two, big bloom and tiger bloom? or does one just do something better or what? Any advice would be great, i wanna get her flowerin ASAP!!!
So today i bit the bullet and switched her into flowering I went and picked up some tiger bloom to start things off and then once more funds come in ill be given her some big bloom as well. I am also in the process of making a mini box for the clones i took to see if i can't get two boxes going pictures soon to comeeee peace yall
The flowering stage has been going for a few days now and i can already see a difference Ive got a few questions thought.... First on is that there are alot of leaves that dont seem to be getting any light and not really having a purpose so should i prune them or just let them chill and if they fall off then they fall off. I'd like to clean it up a bit cuz theres just a mess of leaves.... not that thats necessarily a bad thing Anyways leave me some feedback and shit
Looking sweet man! YES, totally get rid of any leaves that are not getting good light. Any piddly branches and leave should be cut off. It forces more energy towards the top. Check out my latest update in my journal for a good example. Keep it up man. Just you wait, another month from now the magic will be happening.
So it turns out my timer doesnt work So im gonna manually do it until i figure something out. does anyone know of a good but cheap timer that works??? thanksss
Hey Live I picked up a timer from home depot that was like 12 or 15$. Not sure what your budgets like but the one i got is digital and was like the same price as the other kinds. good luck, and your plants are looking really nice.
I found a timer at walmart again, i should have just sprung for the 8 dollar one the first time haha. Either way it works and im thinkin im gonna try and return the old one because walmart needs to be knocked down a notch haha Anyways, things are lookin great. She grew up into the light a little bit and burned a few leaves but i tied it down so hopefully it wont happen for another while but we shall see... And also the clones i took 11 days ago still havent rooted :/ they're still green but no roots. I dont have a heating mat so does that mean they wont root or will it just take longer?? Thanks and let me know what you think (ps thanks for the timer help anyways jeebo)
Things are goin pretty good, she's grown up into the lights a few times but other then that i think things are going pretty smooth. I wired the fan that was blowing on her to up in the top corner of the box so there'd be more room in there, ill get some pics of that up soon. But here's some of the progress. peaceeee
Well, we're startin to get some results Its been about 2 weeks or so and you can see the start of some buds with alot of white hairs So here's some pics, one of them of the stem, the picture quality is shit but i just took it to try and show that its probably like 3/4 inch thick! i thought that was pretty sweet haha. Anyways im almost out of room so i was thinkin i would go get another rubbermaid and thrwo that on the bottom, cut holes in that and the bottom of the current box so i could then sink the pot its in so i'd get another foot of room or so...atleast. let me know what you think
Very ncie. rich & dark. good shape. And you've entered flowering! Excellent. I'm stoked to see them boom. As far as the cloning... Heat helps a lot. put them on top of your fridge...that's perfect for them (as long as you keep them wet. the extra heat will dry them out quicker, any kind of "mini-greenhouse" you can make with any clear plastic will keep them from drying too much). When I was doing straight cut-clones (even with CloneX Gel) I was only getting 15-20% rooting, and it took weeks. Once I switched to a bubble cloner with water heater and greenhouse lid...I got 100% everything I stick in there roots within a week. a couple of clones took almost 2, but 90% of them were healthy and outgrowing the rockwool in under 2 weeks. I am amazed, and in fact, I had to get rid of a lot that I wasn't expecting would root. I bought a Pineapple Sage plant (actual sage, not a cross between Pineapple Kush and S.A.G.E.) 2 weeks ago, and I've already propogated it 7 times, all successful. Same success with my Thyme and Mints as well. For <$50 you can have a bubble cloner that will root 60+ plants per week. There's tons of ways to make them. I used the rockwool tray and dome from my LGS(local garden store) a air pump & stone and aquarium heater, all from my LFS (local fish store). The aquarium heaters are the priciest part. Without that, the unit would have cost me less than $20. And here's a dirty little gardeners secret...when spring comes, go get leaves off of willow trees, chop them up and boil them (low boil) for a few minutes till the water turns green and smells (distinctly). You've made Willow Tea, which contains a high concentration of a natural hormone plants usee when producing roots. I tested this last year, with plain water in a vase. The willow tea water rooted in less than 72 hours with high success rate, while the pure water took over 2 weeks and most of the plants didn't make it. Neither was fertilized in any way, and grown in direct sunlight in late summer.