Need some advice from seasoned pros.

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by auto146, Mar 2, 2011.

  1. A couple questions.

    Are hermies inevitable? It seems even the most experienced growers on this forum have had them. For now I'm only taking clones from a known female.

    My mother plant seems like it stopped growing. She also looks sick. The leaves seem dry and papery. It also looks like it has a zinc deficiency. I have added a weak solution of Big Bloom to the soil. She's 5-6 weeks old and about 18 inches tall. She's been topped and LSTed and has 4 main branches. She is in a 3 gallon pot with FFOF and perlite. Also, the stems are purple. The plant just got flushed with 8 gallons of RO water. Runoff ~ 7.0-7.1. The mother and her clones all seem to drink very slowly.

    Should I just put her into flower and use one of her clones as the new mother?

    Should I add some nutes and see what happens?

    Should I try pruning the root ball and get some new soil in there?

    I think PPMs are more of a hydro thing, but I've been measuring my water when I do mix nutes. In soil what would be a good base PPM by week to start with before I start tweaking for my particular strain?

    Week 1-3 or 4 - no nutes, the soil is good enough.

    Week 4 and 5 - 450 ppm

    Week 6 and 7 - 800 ppm

    Week 8 and 9 - Flush with RO

    I plan on keeping the plants small through LSTing with these. They will be cloned in rockwool then moved to small 1/2 gallon pots, vegged for 1-2 weeks then transplanted into the final 3 gallon pots for flowering.

    Is mixing different nute companies OK as long as I don't go over a certain ppm?

    Things I have at my disposal

    FoxFarm - Big bloom, Tiger Bloom, Ocean Forest and Happy Frog soil.

    House and Garden - Soil A+B and Cocos A+B

    Botanicare - Cal-Mag and Cocogro coco fiber

    Advanced Nutrients - Big Bud (A sample the guy at the hydro store gave me)

    Sunniland - Calcitic and Dolomite lime.

    Lilly Miller - Vitamin B1 plant starter.

    RO water filter - comes out at 12-15 ppm my tap is ~300 ppm at 7.4ph

    Unsulphured Molasses

    Superthrive

    And of course a PH meter and a ppm meter.

    Sorry the questions are all over the place, Thanks in advance. :wave:
     
  2. Bump for help. Also, how can I make my questions more appealing to answer?
     
  3. id say your root bound take plant out of pot cut bottom of rootball off replant and in two weeks youll see new groth come on lots better
     
  4. I'm a firm believer that you should pick a nutrient program and stay with it from start to finish. Companies design their nutes to work in conjunction with the rest of their line. A little Cal mag from a different line won't hurt but don't go overboard on mixing this and that. Stay consistent...I'm a hydro guy so I live ppms but they are equally as important in soil grows. Your runnoff Ph seems a little high to me. These are just my personal experiences and opinions, I'm sure there's others that would disagree with me...some pics would be nice as well.
     
  5. Hermies are not inevitable. I haven't had one for many years, not since I started really knowing what I was doing. :p And I've never had a hermie from a feminized seed from a reputable breeder.

    Honestly I'm having trouble following the rest of your post. What I got is: your plant is sick, you have a bunch of ideas as to what but not really why, no pics for us to see, and you wonder about mixing nutes. Hard to diagnose the plant with the info you've provided, in general if you plant has a problem best not to try anything new, identify and fix the problem you have before you end up introducing new problems. I would not mix nutes from different companies unless you really know what you are doing. Follow the fert's directions for mixing by volume rather than ppm for a soil grow, and then only do so at half strength.

    To make the questions more "appealing" -- post pics when possible, and compose and edit your thoughts in a linear fashion rather than stream of consciousness. If you aren't sure if it's clear compose it but don't post it yet, try doing something else for 15 minutes then come back and read what you wrote to see if it still makes sense.
     
  6. What are your temps? Cold temps can cause slow growth. It's more difficult for plants to absorb nutrients in cold damp soil.
     
  7. Thanks for the reply toasty.

    I posted pictures of the plant before I did anything to her in the sick plants section. It is linked in the third paragraph of my OP; the word zinc. I guess a lot of people missed it because I put it in a bad spot.

    I also realize the questions are all over the place. I have plants in different stages of growth, and I'm a noob that bit off more than I can chew :eek:. As I read the forums there are answers to questions that aren't very consistent. I'm trying to get a bunch of specific-to-me questions answered without making a whole bunch of posts. I also post to this website using Tor and it makes my connection really slow. Sorry about that.

    Almost a constant 80. There is very good ventilation. Probably 15 times room volume every 5 mins.

    ------------

    I also have some new pictures. I guessed about some things. The sick plant got a flush. Then a couple of days later I trimmed all the bad fan leaves. A couple of days later I made this thread. Then owenefortwenty suggested it was rootbound. Decided to trim the rootball and took some pics. Filled her back up with dirt and soaked her good with RO. Today she looks the same. I hope that fixed her. More suggestions are always welcome, but what is done is done :). Does that look rootbound to you? I really have no idea what it looks like. The roots looked healthy and white.

    I'll stick with the feeding schedule suggested by the manufacturer of my nutes. And I'll only pick one ;). I was just wondering about ppms because I made a spreadsheet on my computer to keep track of the details of each plant. I'll attach it, but please don't laugh. It's a work in progress. Also all the plants I have are not accounted for in the sheet. I was keeping track of things in a notebook, but the spreadsheet is easier.

    Anyway, thanks to all the contributors. I value your time and it's greatly appreciated.
     

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  8. More pics. Oh, and I'm glad to hear about the hermies. :)
     

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  9. dude transplant to a bigger pot at least 5 gal if she cant root she cant grow
     

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