Hi, first time grower here. My first grow has not gone well to say the least as you can see from the photos, (it's Fastbuds Stardawg Auto btw) go easy on me it's my first grow remember, I'll take that it's flowering as a success though haha. I have definitely learnt an important lesson on how vital root structure is to growth I'm certain that's the reason my grow is so stunted, my bad for overwatering like a madman, I have an airpot coming soon that should help me lots. Hoping my next grow will be a bit more successful as I have been learning lots since I first started. Anyway here is my question, do I need to add silica to my grow? I'm using straight coco, with all Dutch Pro hard water nutrients. If I added perlite do I even need the silica? I used silica in this grow but I'm thinking this is also my problem from the huge knuckle looking joints at the bottom of the stems. Any advise on my problems and what I'm doing wrong in general here would be extremely grateful. My other problems have been slight purple streaking, and clawing, I'm guessing this could be down to my poor feeding as I can't be lacking cal/mag using hard water, I have been changing my mind a lot and changing things up too much, as you can see here I practically flushed it with the last feed by adding too little nutrients I'll be sticking to the guide from Dutch Pro from now on, maybe a little less as it still burns the tips a bit using max dose.
This is the best place to learn the proper way to grow in coco.........www.cocoforcannabis.com. Good luck and welcome to GC.
Answer is no you don't need silica but it's a good addition to your roster. Adding more of anything won't magically fix a plant that has deep rooted issues. Also that reply seems quite rude, MickFoster was trying to help you. Catch more flies with honey than vinegar ma man
Mick gave you a link , In there is your answer and more... I wouldnt have defoliated so much your leaves tell you a lot! Perlite or no perlite silica is an important part of the regime do use it, but correctly as an additive. Good luck
Apologies didn't mean to be rude. The thing is I was noticing the coco getting more and more compacted after watering, I have a watering can at least now. In the beginning during veg I was just going for around 5.6-6.0 but then I learned somewhere it should be between 6.0-.6.3 for coco. And I admit I have not been learning enough or doing anything about PPM or run off, I know that's probably why I was clawing and not flushing the new feed enough so I was probably underwatering lol. She's looking much healthier today though. Still wondering if this will flower properly at all, it's literally taking ages to grow, I'm wondering if I should continue with this grow or abandon it? Is the weird looking stalks and the knuckle joints down to too much silica though?
Brings my PH up really high though, I add before the A+B and then add anything else after and then I PH at the end. I would have thought if I added perlite too I would need less silica right? Oh man this is confusing.
Perlite is inert it doesn’t really add silica but it will help with the substrate compaction you are experiencing.
You have the right dose of silica, Perlite or no perlite,... The longer you have coco and water it the more the roots will bind it together and give it the appearance of compacting (not to mention watering will compact) With all respect you seem to have rushed in, but its ok.. There are ways to ph starting 5.5 and moving up over time, But if i was you just stick to a ph 5.8 for the whole grow, Your veg time start 0.8 ec and move to 1.0ec just before flower, only bump your ec as the plants needs it.. try get away with an ec of 1.2 the whole grow, sont worru what feed chart says .. it should equate to roughly 1ml/ litre of BOTH 'a' and 'b' Use boost at reccomended amount and as directed and i always trickle feed my plants with p/k For example if over 2 weeks your insgructed to use 2 ml per litre thay could be 250ml over the grow. Well i divide 250ml over 8 weeks you get the jist then 3 feeds a week . . You get the jist, i find i get denser buds this way. Have a nice breeze over the canopy and make ya temps 25 and humidty rh50/55 Dont defoliate, concentrate on finishing a grow, your gonna encounter so many problems naturally that you dont wana make life difficult just yet. Good luck
No problem, with all this lockdown business I've kind of had to, I should have learned years ago though my pockets would certainly be a bit more thankful lol. Thanks for the advise, that's a good plan, was exactly my thoughts for next grow, follow the light height guide and follow the feed chart, see how it goes. I learn my lessons better one problem a time. Got some perlite coming too.
Just an update, been looking much better over the last few days, I know everyone likes a few good progress photos. I did snap a branch though doing a bit of training, facepalm. Feeling a bit more hopeful now though of getting something useable out of this dwarfdog. Last feed I gave 5.8ph and run off was 6.2 so I will stick with that from now on thanks for the suggestion chuckleberry, got a PPM meter coming now too