Yeah I read a bit about silica helping with heat stress and it helping make a sturdier plant overall. I can't seem to find the Dyna-Gro brand where I am. I have seen Dutch Master and Flairform equivalents though. Have you had any experience with either of these? I had planned to pick some up before summer hits again. Cash is a bit tight at the moment.
I haven't tried any of those and I'm relatively new to this product. But having grown without it for years I can see an obvious difference now. Yeah, I wouldn't rush it if money is tight. But once you have the silica, you can use it in a drench right up to harvest. Good stuff!
So when you say right up to harvest, how long after germinating and planting the seedling should I start using this?
So I went in tonight to do some maintenance on the screen. I've been messing with the settings on my camera trying to improve the HPS dominated lighting, so I took a few pics while I was in there. Day 4 of 12/12. Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 . . . and my little abused, stunted, dwarf plant has thrown out some side shoots finally . . . . . . and my room as it looks right now. So after this weekend i'm going to stop tucking and let them stretch up. I'm also thinking about getting in under the canopy and removing the majority of what's not catching light, to help air circulation underneath the screen. Although i've heard very contrary opinions as to whether this is a good practice or not. Also, while I was tucking, I supercropped them for what I think will be the last time. All of the tender new shoots were given the thumb and forefinger treatment. This is something I should've started earlier in the grow, i've come to realize. I'm also keeping a very close watch for preflowers. The Bud Juice (that i've started supplementing the Canna Coco A+B with for flowering) i'm told induces earlier flowering. There are a couple of formations on some nodes throughout the garden, but they're still too small to identify.
You can start using it on any plant that has roots, just follow the label and it will work. I wouldn't use it all the way to harvest but you can with no problem. And here's a new tip I've just learned from folks here. You can feed any of your plants 100% coconut water diluted down to 1/4 cup per gallon. It has calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, and it doesn't harm the plants as far as everyone is saying. It's something I'm gonna start incorporating soon.
Yeah I'll definitely be getting some silica down the track. So the coconut water is a sort of cal mag substitute? Sounds interesting. I went ahead and trimmed out some of the undergrowth that wasn't getting light, and gave them a good feed. I'll get some pics up later tonight once my lights come back on.
Sorry it's taken me a bit longer than I thought to get some new pics up. Unfortunately I've been a bit busy over the last week or so with "real life stuff". You all know how that can get in the way. So anyway, we're now in week 2 of flower. Still no definitive sign of gender yet. Hopefully some time this week we'll see some calyx's appear. The only tops I've tucked this week are the large main tops which were going a little out of control, so I had to tuck them in order to keep them at the same level as the other ones. At first I thought I'd flipped too early, but the way they seem to be still spreading out, I'm pretty happy with my timing. Again, only time will tell. I don't know if it's the Bud Juice or the stage of growth they're in, but all the new tops seem to be growing a lot faster than they used to before i flipped them and started feeding them the Bud Juice. So, here are a few more pics of how they look now after being trimmed down below. Again, sorry for the lighting. Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 Lil' freaky deaky
Hey everyone. So I went and checked on my garden tonight when I got home from work. What I saw gave me a smile from ear to ear. I was so happy that I took some pics to share with you all. (As you do ) Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 . . . and my super freak . . . Group shot As you can see, I can now refer to my up and coming garden as "the girls". Now I just have to treat them nicely and hope that mother nature doesn't pull any dirty tricks on me. ^_^
Just to let you guys know my current feeding schedule:- In 10L of water Coco Canna A 40ml Coco Canna B 40ml Flairform CMX 10ml Bud Juice 25ml PH'd to 5.9 At the moment I feeding them every 3 to 4 days. I'll be feeding them only nutes for the first 4 weeks of flowering. Week 5 I'll be introducing PK 13/14 for a week, so probably 2 feedings, then flushing with ph'd water for the last 2 weeks. 2 days of dark before the chop. What do you guys reckon? Am I pretty well on the money with what I plan to do?
I think so, sure it will do fine! Keep checking your girls for male parts or little "bananas" and if you see them, remove them carefully. My BooBerryCookies is a female but I still found a male part on her..it happens.
Just a quick update. I was hoping to keep going with the nute only schedule to pump the girls full of goodness during the first 4 weeks of flowering, but I checked them on Tuesday (fed them Monday) and they were looking a little bedraggled. So I did some reading and came to the conclusion that I'd have to give them some straight Ph'd water, as my instincts were telling me they probably had a build up of salts from constant strong nute feeds. So I Ph'd 20L of water and "flushed" each of the 3 larger pots with around 6L each. The one in the small pot only took 2L before I got runoff, and that one had been repotted more recently anyway. They are all looking much happier and healthier now. Pics to follow when I get home tonight.
Pics as promised. Week 2 day 6. (Day 20 of flowering) Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 . . . and look at Freaky Deaky go! Definitely mixing perlite in next time. And the group shot. I wasn't sure if I should go back to feeding them half strength nutes the next feed, or give them straight Ph'd water again to possibly leech more of the salts away. Any suggestions? I'd appreciate any advice I could get at this crucial time.
So I've been giving this some thought. What I might do is soak them through with 1/4 strength nutes. That way they're still getting some nutrients buy at the same time I'm rinsing out some of the excess salt that had built up in the coco.
It's looking good man! Keep doing what your doing. I don't think you'll need nutes anymore after this next feed. Just monitor for deficiencies
Thanks Leafy. I've learned so much from this grow hey. I'm just glad I snapped out of "over-complicating" things fairly quickly. Just to clarify, when you say I won't need nutrients after my next feed, do you really mean that I should water them with only plain pH'd water for the last 4 1/2 weeks?
That's usually what I do but some plants can take a lot of nutes. Some growers feed all the way up to harvest or a couple weeks before. I always stop feeding half way through and just look for deficiencies. I do this cuz it's easier to give another feeding but not so easy to reverse stress caused by over feeding. So if you've given them a feeding and you are at 4 weeks, the next couple feedings should be just water to keep the medium hydrated. That should put you at around 5-6 weeks by the time you'd be feeding them more nutes...but by that time it's already time to flush. So think about it. Perhaps you can squeeze in another feeding in a week and a half from now before its time to start flushing. Hope that's not confusing..
No mate. Not confusing at all. I just wasn't sure how they'd cope with me not supplying them with nutrients through flower. I went ahead and "flushed" them with a 1/4 strength nute solution. The only thing I kept at full strength was the PK 13/14. It doesn't seem to have affected them much at all from what I can tell. The bottom leaves have stopped dying off a little, but that's about the only difference I can notice. Well aside from the buds getting gradually bigger. They're still yet to start filling out properly though. Hopefully that'll start happening next week. Fingers crossed.
Everything seems to be still on track. My buds are getting bigger. Leaves are still dying and falling off the bottom of the girls but they seem otherwise healthy. I'll try to get some pics up tonight. Stay tuned.
Week 5 Day 1 (Day 29 of flower) Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 . . . and FD is surprising me more and more every day . . . Group shot