Haha, well, I fucked up! Even at half strength, that tea was too much with my current soil mix. Not sure what sort of burn this is...I'm used to crispy, light tips with a burn. Woke up to lifted leaf stems and curled/dark edges. Newer growth still looks perfect at this point. Only effecting the larger leaves. I also upped my light a little yesterday and she showed stress by the end of the night. Not sure if that contributed to this...she just looked tired last night, not light burned. I'm assuming this is an abundance of nitrogen from the neem. Anyhow, I'm not stressing over it. Part of giving the tea now was to test my boundaries a little bit. Now I know! Wondering if there's anything I should do to help her along now or just leave it be.
She’s still pretty small, I’d just give her water and look after the humidity and temps. Possibly N tox there perhaps?
Yeah, figured I'd just leave her alone. Little silica in the next watering. She really grew like crazy yesterday though. I think the idea of the tea was good and I learned something. Shoulda done 1/4 strength.
@srfr good call on getting my humidity right. It's tough here, as the indoor humidity is like 35% in the winter. Got two humidifiers going in the apartment, but not enough. Can't get above 55%. Dug out my mini humidifier to put right in the tent and put it on the inkbird at 72%. It cycles frequently, but gets the job done. Leaves are already un-cupping.
I am so intrigued by what I see happening here. Am I seeing the plant using up the excess nitrogen in real time? As the day goes on, the dark spots get lighter and lighter and she's definitely off to the races since yesterday, despite the burn. I've honestly never seen any recovery from anything this quickly. Plants are neat.
Did you apply that tea with the lights on and get the plant wet too? That could be the beginning of light burn from the tea being magnified from the light
No sir. Tiny splash on one leaf, but nothing major. Besides, my lights are still way dimmed and like 36" above the plant right now. Not nearly intense enough to burn. I've done several foliar sprays with the lights at this intensity with no issue. I think what happened is I added a bunch of water soluble nutrients, then turned up my lights a little which got them growing a little faster, lights warmed up the tent a bit, humidity was low, all factors that increase how much water is absorbed through the roots. So she drank all that nutrient rich water I just gave her and it was too much all at once. She's lookin great now though. All good!
This is a 30 hour gif since I woke up to the dark crispy leaves. Day 31 since seed popped. Zero slowdown from the burn. New growth is firing off. Should be ready for the first topping tomorrow.
Topped Thanksgiving morning and she's doin fine. Damage to old leaves is pretty ugly, but they're still perky and doin their job. It's been almost a week since I gave the tea that burned her. Next watering day is tomorrow and was thinking of doing malted barley+fulvic. From my understanding, these just help breakdown organic matter in the soil and I should have no worries of burns here, correct?
You're using worm casting. They contain fulvic and humic acid so I would suggest dropping that. Over use of fulvic acid can lead to some twisted ugly growth that is hard to recover from. Don't love your plants to death.
Gotcha. I have just seen a lot of people doing barley+fulvic weekly so assumed it was pretty safe. I really only used a couple handfuls of castings. Just barely enough to cover the surface and then I raked it in a little before planting my cover crop. Perhaps I'll try the fulvic very very diluted just to see how the powder mixes and sprays. Haven't touched the bag yet.
If that plant needs anything but water for at least the next month then I would try to make a better soil mix. If you really can’t help yourself - aloe is great to apply every single watering. RD
This isn't my forever mix. This is just for a one time grow. Good stuff just shipped out today. Only thing I've done this whole grow so far is aloe, little silica, and that one neem/kelp tea. Regardless, I'm using this grow as a little test lab for myself to see if I can make any observations about how these additives effect the plant, how much is too much, etc. I won't be heartbroken if things go horribly wrong. This is how I learn. I actually had a gut feeling the tea was too strong and considered diluting it further, but I gave it anyway because I was curious what it'd do. Now I have a better idea of just how potent it can be and the effect it had on my plant. I did the same thing learning how to grow in coco. Push till I cross the line, then back off. I know it seems silly to purposely make mistakes, but I feel like you don't always learn a lot when everything goes according to plan. I went ahead and gave the fulvic today for shits and giggles. I'll know soon enough whether it was a bad idea or not, but I'm not stressing over it.
No harm done with the barley/fulvic! I could definitely see the increase in nutrient uptake. New growth again turned very dark green and really sped up for the day. Was half expecting the same result as the neem/kelp, but she looked perfect in the morning. No cupping or leaf damage. I took advantage of Amazon black Friday deals to pick up an odd size tent that solves all my problems. It's 60x32x80. It's going to fit perfectly where I want it, it has plenty of height, easily accommodates the 24inch diameter of 30 gal grow bags, and actually has enough room for two plants. Cramming two 30 gallon bags into a 2x4 seemed like a poor decision as they'd fill the tent wall to wall. Didn't even realize this size tent existed, but it's absolutely perfect for me. I'm considering starting another seed while I wait for shipping so I have a seedling ready to go into the good soil. I'll have to drag out the veg time in my current grow, but I'll have the height to deal with that. I can't really grow indoors past May due to high temperatures, so I'd like to get at least one cycle in the new soil before I spend an entire summer tending to cover crop alone, lol. I won't have time if I wait for this one to be finished.
Five days since topping at the 3rd node. She's very happy, if you ignore the old burn damage. I can certainly tell she is flush with nutrients...I think this is the greenest plant I've ever grown, lol. It's right on the edge of too much, but she's pushing through. Just gonna stick with water till the leaves lighten up, which I assume will be a few weeks. Overall, I'm very impressed with the rate of growth compared to my coco/perlite days. The site that taught me how to mainline notes several times that it takes longer to finish the mainline in soil, but I'm right on schedule. I also started another seed. Ethos - Cotton Candy Grapes. Been in soil 48 hours. No sprout yet. Thirty gal pot arrives tomorrow. Good soil and amendments on Thursday. Tent on Friday. Things are coming to a head and it's exciting!
Funny how what you're into changes your perspective on things. Two months ago, I'd think "boring recycling", now I think "exciting free worm stuff", haha. Pull and peel cardboard.
I forgot how much not fun it is to setup a new tent, lol. Especially annoying setting it up while my stuff is already being used in another tent! Almost finished. New inlet fan should arrive today. Waiting for paint to dry on a rolling stand I made, then I'll fill up the 30 gal. Perfect sized tent for a small grow, if you ask me. I have a little too much light for the space, but they're dimmable...it's a good problem to have.
Finally, everything is situated. I'm in love with the new setup. This is my first time with an intake fan and it's a game changer with the AC Infinity Controller 69. Intake and exhaust are now automated for different times of the day. Way easier to regulate temperatures compared to running exhaust only for air exchange. I need a currently out of stock plug to incorporate my humidifier into the system. Very impressed overall though, especially for the price. Also got the 30 gal filled up, seeded with cover crop, and watered. This soil feels so much different than what I'm used to. So spongy! I put in 2.5 gallons of water without even getting the bottom damp. Going to slowly bring it up to saturation day by day. I have time, my seed didn't germinate They are very old, so it's not a surprise, but a bit annoying. Tryin again.
After years of using the coco loco to start seeds, I'm finally realizing, it's just a terrible choice! I've had decent luck with it in the past, but these old seeds are finicky. It just holds moisture weird. Dries extremely fast up top and very very slowly at the bottom. To keep a small cup ideally moist for seed starting, I need to mist the top several times a day. The bottom gets water logged and the top is always drying out. I used that Oly Mountain Mix to start this last one and I watered it once on day one, misted the top lightly on day two even though it was still probably good, and I had a happy seedling on day three. I'm thinkin maybe I'll just run the rest of the coco loco through the worm bin. I'm done with it. Having the same issue with my 10 gal plant. Top is pretty dry, bottom is still very wet. I realize a certain amount of that is normal and good, but it seems like extremes on both ends. I definitely see the perks of the classic no till formula. It's just really easy to work with! Cotton Candy Grapes on the way, finally! Plant in the 10 gal is doing well, despite having wet feet. I hope she starts drinking more soon though. Knowing when to water is not straight forward right now. Cover crop sprouted REALLY fast and within hours of doing a MBP top dress...coincidence? I'm not sure, lol. I may have over done it. May have to chop and drop some before she even goes in.
Apparently my wish came true. I had been watering the 10 gal 56oz every third day and getting a little runoff. Two days since my last watering and the bottom is bone dry. She's drinkin! Put in 96oz without runoff today. So weird how they flip a switch like that. I also got my bag of Montana Grow silica today so I went ahead and top dressed with that. Hopefully that'll help it deal with any uneven drying in that coco loco.