Small buds late flowering

What medium are you using? What has been your feed schedule as far as ml/gallon of what? Do you know your tap water ph?

Looks a little like lack of air to the roots to me possibly mixed with potassium deficiency. Hard to tell at this point.

 

I've been growing DWC and promix in fabric pots. Even promix that has perlite included I will add 20% more perlite to. It's one of the tricks of an experienced cannabis grower. Many growers mix perlite with everything, coco, standard potting soil, promix, ect. My favorite brand is precision perlite. I prefer course. It's very reasonable for a good size bag from most good hydroponic supply stores.

Perlite resists compaction, retains water, promotes aeration and drainage. If you're feeding hydro it's hard to have too much. Cannabis roots need more oxygen the more rapid they grow. Ideally your medium is so loosely packed and so well aerating your roots are almost never cut off from air. Fabric pots also help with that. If you mix in 20% perlite and use a fabric pot spaced off your drain tray you can pretty much kiss root rot goodbye.

You always want to have a balanced NPK profile. You don't want to leave out micro. Micro is the foundation of the GH line. It's 5-0-1 so it's basically a nitrogen component. Bloom is 0-5-4 so that's the other side of the npk equation. Feed at double the amount of bloom compared to micro. So if you feed 3ml/gallon of micro add 6ml/gallon of bloom. Cannabis is a phosphorus hog. It likes roughly twice as much phosphorus as nitrogen even in veg.

I would say try a veg schedule starting with 3ml/gallon of micro 6ml/bloom with young plants a week or so old in promix. Once they get some size raise it to 5ml micro 10ml bloom/gallon for the rest of veg. Once in bloom swap liquid koolbloom in for flora bloom as soon as you go 12/12. Liquid koolbloom has additives that help initiate flower. It's built for the beginning of flower cycle. When you add liquid koolbloom change to 5ml micro 5ml koolbloom because koolbloom is roughly twice as strong as florabloom. This will maintain the 1-2-.8 or so rough ratio of npk. This is the basic foundation of the lucas method is the NPK ratio and the simplicity of the two bottle or single bottle system. This also works with GH floranova bloom alone.

When you reach about week 6 of flower taper micro down to 2-3ml gallon again and add dry koolbloom to the routine. This isn't necessary but it isn't expensive either. Dry koolbloom has special ripening additives for end bud cycle. It's also very heavy in p&k to help get the most out of the last few weeks. 2-45-28. I only use 3/8tsp/gallon.

When you are 5 days from chop ph some water and flush with GH florakleen. Water to runoff at least a few cups every other day.

If you work with fairly pure tap water you may want to add 2ml gallon of calimagic to every feeding.

With your ph being that high you know you'll have to knock it down at least a little. Figure out a routine in drops of ph down that gets you in range with your water source. After that you can just follow a recipe and get close enough for promix. With my routine and water source which is about 7.2ph right now I have to add about 6 drops per gallon of gh undiluted ph down to get to 6.2 range.

I feed every watering in promix. There's nothing in it after a few weeks. If you feed just water they starve. Especially if you feed lite like me they need it every day. Just like coco. Most coco growers feed daily as well.

 

u might have had the same problem i did...... When did u purchase ur ph meter?

 

You can also get a cheap bag of dolomite lime. Mix in 2tbs per gallon of promix/perlite. This will buffer your ph allowing you to get away with it being less accurate and act as a cal/mag supplement for a while negating much of the need for calimagic until the mix gets some age and the lime gets used up buffering ph and feeding the plant. I just started adding this to my routine even though my promix also already has dolomite lime in it. They don't put enough in. The other thing you can do is periodically every 3-4 feedings you can sprinkle some on top of the medium after you've mixed it in to make sure you don't deplete it. This is the no till organic soil method of supplying cal/mag. Since we use mostly organic ingredients in promix we can steal some of the organic low cost methods.

 

Especially since you can find #50lbs of it for less than $3.00. I've seen 50 pounds for $1.49 before.

J

 

Even a cheap meter is better than nothing, but I recommend if you do use a cheap meter, get some gh ph calibration solution, and calibrate the meter, every time you use it. That's because with those cheap meters the adjusting screw is set up against its plastic housing, so if you hit the meter in any way ever so slightly it can and most times will lose its true calibration. Seriously, I have seen that happen a lot, you put the meter on the side of your mixing pitcher and go to stir in your nutrients and you hit the meter with your mixing spoon and the meter gets thrown off as much as 1.0. Anyway... I don't have a cheap meter anymore, I use a Hanna GroChek, but I have been there and done the cheap meter thingy so that's why I recommend that you calibrate it before using it and then check that it is still calibrated before you give whatever you are about to give your plant(s).

 

CALIBRATE EVERY 2 WEEKS . LONGEST A MONTH!!!! i did the same thing, i was using my meter i got for 3 months until i dropped it in water and had to buy a new one.. wasnt until then i found out my feeds have been 4.1- 4.2.

 

www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Test-Indicator-8-Ounce/dp/B003Y3F34I
Better then a cheap meter. More reliable.

 

also wasnt until then i learned they need to be calibrated every 2 wks to a month!!!

 

dont listen to this person. ph meters are far more accurate and reliable.

 

If you spend more then $50... Blue Lab, Hanna Instruments, or Milwaukee.

 

How could a meter be more reliable when they need to be periodically calibrated? How often does it say that indicator solution needs to be calibrated? That's reliability.

 

Accurate yes, reliable no.. The solution is way more reliable.