I agree with SCMC on the plant being over fed and his suggestion to back off the epsom salt. Epsom salt doe NOT need to be applied all the time. I usually use it once or twice a grow mainly to make sure the the plant gets a good supplement of magnesium. When I charge my coco the day before transplant and once about mid way thru my vegging phase. Watchers input on possible the transpiration rate being a cause could also be something to think about. Now for the bad news, the very same thing happened to me late in vegging and most the way thru a bloom cycle last year. The plants made it but did not turn out well, but I had a bad soiless mix(my fault) and my temps were way out of control(again my fault). It was my first indoor grow and I tried to use my outdoor methods of growing very unsuccessfully. Good luck and really pay attention to what tothehead and SCMC are advising, these guys continually produce good grows.
[quote name='"sarscarab"']I agree with SCMC on the plant being over fed and his suggestion to back off the epsom salt. Epsom salt doe NOT need to be applied all the time. I usually use it once or twice a grow mainly to make sure the the plant gets a good supplement of magnesium. When I charge my coco the day before transplant and once about mid way thru my vegging phase. Watchers input on possible the transpiration rate being a cause could also be something to think about. Now for the bad news, the very same thing happened to me late in vegging and most the way thru a bloom cycle last year. The plants made it but did not turn out well, but I had a bad soiless mix(my fault) and my temps were way out of control(again my fault). It was my first indoor grow and I tried to use my outdoor methods of growing very unsuccessfully. Good luck and really pay attention to what tothehead and SCMC are advising, these guys continually produce good grows.[/quote] Thanks for checking out my journal, Sars. Its been a fun ride so far, good to get all the mistakes out of the way now! Bummer to hear your results weren't that great man, especially as much time as you have to invest in these things. I've dropped the Epsom and lowered my feed a bit. Waiting on my EC meter to arrive so I can have the last piece of the puzzle!
The EC meter is a very important part of growing indoors, maybe outdoors as well but I never used one with any of my outdoor grows. A jackass nosey neighbor stopped my outdoor growing. Too risky. I am sure you are on the right track, good luck.
Update Got my Canna PK in so I will be adding that for the next 7 days only per their instructions. My EC pen should be here any day. Day 40 of 12/12 Feed has been reduced for a week now per some friendly GC advice: 7.5 ml Canna A/B 2 ml Canna Rhizo Ph'd tap water I've been defoliating the really bad leaves daily but each day I check her I notice she has a whole bunch more newly deteriorated leaves. Discoloration consisting of yellowed brown tips that seem to take the leaf over pretty quickly. I have also noticed the problem has traveled up the plant. Last week the problem was limited to the middle of the plant, this week the middle looks great and the top is suffering. Is this a good or bad sign, GC? Enjoy the lovely scenery below
Big thanks to SCMC man, the plant looks really good now. Once I cut off all the fugly leaves and fed her at the reduced feed levels for about two weeks she has recovered nicely. She stinks more everyday and the trichomes are blowing up! Big thanks GC community!
That's excellent news hombre! This is a very important learning experience and now you know how the problem starts, what it looks like, and how to effectively resolve it. Just wait for next time!
Yeah man much appreciated. slow and steady like you said bro. So let me ask, Should I keep with the PK until I harvest? Bottle says only give it for a week but I know not to go off the label's directions.
I don't run the PK 13/14 clear to the end. Over use could be very detrimental to the final product. My suggestion is to cut it out by about 20 days before harvest and use a potassium dominant program in place of Canna A+B until the flush. In the last 10 days of feeding I am typically running a system like Botanicare Ripe or Advanced Nutrients Overdrive which are both a 1-5-4 at a low EC (0.8ish plus tap EC). With the Canna A+B you are locked into that 5-4-3 without the PK13/14 in the last 2 weeks when you're not running the Cannazym 0-2-1. With the Cannazym available you could be running just 3ml/gallon of the A+B with 15ml/gallon of the Cannazym for a ratio that is closer to a 2-5-3. This provides an ideally low EC level. Having the Cannazym right now would also be a benefit due to the dead roots under the surface of the coco from the prior nutrient burn. Digesting these dead roots is what those enzymes are designed for. This is one of many reasons why enzymes work so well in a variety of hydroponic applications when the health of the plant has suffered. In a DWC system you'd be able to see the brown, necrotic, roots. The same is true in the coco whether or not you can see it. The final 10 days it's all about water, water, water. There's plenty of nutrition available to feed the plant in those last few days, so don't flush her right away. This makes the timing of when to stop using the PK13/14 a little difficult with an unfamiliar strain so in your case I would say use it as long as you desire but anticipate at least 20 days from the time you stop using it to the date of harvest. Really, a salt is a salt so it's more about approaching the end of flowering and trying to utilize what remains in the media to it's fullest potential. The plant has reached a stage of ripening and the high levels of phosphorus just aren't necessary. Neither are Nitrogen or Calcium, two things Canna A+B are the highest in. I like the effect of more Potassium on my ripening plants and for the sake of conversation I think that Canna is dramatically deficient in potassium, especially for bloom. Once the PK 13/14 is cut out the Canna Coco base, on it's own, is going to still leave you thinking that you could do better. There are a lot of options here and I think it's best for you to try and decide if you want to spend some money and pick up an enzyme or Potassium dominant nutrient replacement, or just run the PK and the Canna until you flush. Do what makes sense to you and learn from it. Lots of grows in the future, might as well learn as much as you can early on.
Picked up some Cannazym, might as well stick to Canna as I'm already running the rest of the line. Should be here in a week. Haven't got to mess with my EC pen yet. Had company in town all last week so haven't had time to devote to this thing. Hopefully it's not a big hassle trying to figure out how to gauge my feed levels with it. Thinking I'll continue with the PK and A/B for now until it gets here and switch to just Cannazym and a reduced A/B feed then. I'll try your recommendation. Run that until about ten days out from harvest and cut all nutes and roll with just water. Right now I'm not seeing any orange hairs. All white but with lots of trichs. Sound like a plan man?
[quote name='"Neverender CC"']Picked up some Cannazym, might as well stick to Canna as I'm already running the rest of the line. Should be here in a week. Haven't got to mess with my EC pen yet. Had company in town all last week so haven't had time to devote to this thing. Hopefully it's not a big hassle trying to figure out how to gauge my feed levels with it. Thinking I'll continue with the PK and A/B for now until it gets here and switch to just Cannazym and a reduced A/B feed then. I'll try your recommendation. Run that until about ten days out from harvest and cut all nutes and roll with just water. Right now I'm not seeing any orange hairs. All white but with lots of trichs. Sound like a plan man?[/quote] Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. The EC pen is super easy to use. Mix your nutrients as you like and then test the EC. If it measures higher than you would like then simply add more water to the solution and the EC will drop while keeping the ratios of elements fixed. Lots of fresh, meaty, white hairs means the plant is actively producing a large number of flowers right now. This is a good time to carefully inspect your plant for signs of hermaphrodism. Normally it is environmental stress, not nutritional stress, that encourages hermaphrodites to produce male stamen. With you little lady trying to get pregnant she will sometimes do the job herself. Keep an eye out for small yellow stamen emerging from your flowers and remove them with a set of tweezers if you see one. Orange hairs are an indication that the plant is slowing down flower production and entering ripening. Once the hairs recoil into their flowers or change color this is a good indication that you should now watch the trichomes for them to become milky and amber. Then it's harvest time.
The EC sounds easy enough thanks for the rundown. Gonna give it a try tonight. I'll post some pics soon. I haven't seen any balls yet. Poor lady is getting pretty bare besides her flowers so they should be easy enough to spot if they do pop up. The nute burn napalmed practically every leaf. Valuable experience for sure, I'm sure I lost a lot of potential bud growth from that. There's not too many full grown fan leaves left to soak up light.