Hi Y'all! First off, I have been growing for the past 9 years and still learning. I have run the gamut from soil to Aero CFLs and led to HPS (big and small)and back again. Again, STILL LEARNING! The set up that i am running right now is a room that is 6x6x7. Lights: 1x1000 (air cooled hood)watt hps and 1x400(drop in) watt hps Medium: living organics, planter bed 3x5x2 Plants: gods gift, super haze, female clone from bagseed which I have nicknamed whomper. Water: ACT, but there is a catch. i dont know whether its heavily fungi or bacteria. its a 35 gallon res. with a few airstones and some compost and mycos hanging out which i continually feed and fill with filtered tap. i am always open to criticism... Question: The God's Gift plants are quickly maturing as we come somewhere close to week six of flower, which is not a big deal, but i see to potential issues. Because i am mitigating heat issues with the drop in 400, I only have it on for 5 or so hours during the peak of the flowering cycle(to simulate a high noon feel). where it gets trippy for me is that i have noticed what I thought were hermi flowers, they end up turning into gnarly calyx bracts. I will attach photos to exemplify. Is this a sign of too much stress? also the buds that are in between the drop in and the hood seem to have a duality issue. I mean that the sides facing the 400 that is only on for a few hours during flowering, although closer to the buds, are developing newer flower bracts where as the side that gets the solid 12 hour exposure seems to be maturing out. Part of me thinks that it might be the massive root systems starting to really duke it out for space, but in my conception of the growth cycle I don't think that there is extensive root growth in the later stages of flowering... Who got some thoughts? SG1 if you are reading this, I would love to hear yours. Like i said, I have been growing for some time now, im surprised that i have not seen this before... i must be attached
mo pics of the childens... https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xwLHczHAO-M/UQORVyhe6JI/AAAAAAAAAkA/s2eox9TxxTI/s487/IMG_0131.JPG
Water: ACT, but there is a catch. i dont know whether its heavily fungi or bacteria. its a 35 gallon res. with a few airstones and some compost and mycos hanging out which i continually feed and fill with filtered tap. i am always open to criticism... First off, get your butt in here and do some reading if you want to make ACT properly - Microbe Organics This site is run by our very own Microbeman, who also has an ACT sticky in the Organics forum - http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1110985-act-aerated-compost-tea.html You will find everything you need to know about compost teas, recipes and how they work between those pages. An ACT should not be perpetual - it should be made and then completely used until you need another one. You also need a very strong air pump - a fish tank pump simply won't provide the proper levels of dissolved oxygen that you're looking for to breed bacteria. Your answers to fungal dominant or bacterial dominant teas will also be answered in those pages. HTH J Ps - you cannot grow or breed mycorrhizae in a tea solution. Save it to be used once at transplant, preferably your first transplant from cup to larger container.
Jerry, Thanks for your input! I am not ignorant to the complexities of ACT. This site offers great advice and practical knowledge for those getting familiar with organics. And you are for the most part correct about the shelf life of most compost teas. I have found that what works best for me is to perpetuate the teas for consistency. The mychorrhizae I inoculate into the soil for the most part at planting using cultures grown in pitri dishes on a potato dextrose agar medium, however i have found that it will also hold in the tea for quite a while, when the tea dies off and starts to smell a bit stronger(not to be confused with the scent of a rancid anaerobic concoction, once things go anaerobic you have to start over, akin to cycling fish tanks and aquaponics) I add more starches and sugars to feed the beast. I use clover as an under story crop to help off set the heavy nitrogen depletion from vigorous growth, so i throw rhyzobium cultures into the mix. Also I am using an industrial diaphram air pump. If any thing it is a bit over kill, but that too is okay because the turbulent environment retards cultural development. my watering needs are enough that the kids go through tea pretty quick, within two weeks its down to the last 5 gallons so I add water and feed the mix so to keep things fairly clean. Sometimes I even use the water from my koi pond because the plumbing in my house is old and the filter i use gets spent pretty quick. As stated in my first post, I have an indoor planting bed, so I go straight from rooting medium to the big show without containers. pardon my oblivion but what does HTH mean?
That 400 sounds like its stressing the plants to me Idk about ACT I just add micro to my soil Sent from iPhone 5