WEEK 5 UPDATE
Wow, what a stretch looks like she's almost done pushing my set up to the limits.
More than ample inter-node distance should let plenty of light to the buds sites. Absolutely stunning form on this girl. I continued to pull the largest fan leaves to the rear and sides of the main cola and tuck a few here and there.
End of the week started removing the lowest older fan leaves and micro bud sites. Started implementing slight stress by giving the stems a slight bend (30-40 degrees) using my half-cropping technique.
Fired up the bloom lights end of the week and cut back to 20/7.
A few of the lower/middle fan leaves are showing a magnesium deficiency the leaf stems are reddish while the leaves not showing the deficiency have green stems. I've come to the conclusion the magnesium deficiency is being caused by an excess of calcium. I will lower my cal/mag dose next week, supplement with Epsom salt (Magnesium sulfate) and try raising my ph closer to 6.5
Gave them a nice nutrient feeding then alternating with applications of P31 microbes, LABS (Lactic Acid Bacteria Serum) and Organic Blackstrap Molasses. I've also started using a wet then dry type watering cycle to induce additional slight stresses during bloom.
She's already starting to give off a nice diesel smell announcing herself to me as soon as I walk in the house.
Looking forward to week 6, I'll be introducing higher light/PAR values which will force the plant to protect itself by producing more trichomes over the next few weeks up to harvest.
For information on making your own LABS to increase your plants terpene potential.
https://themodern.farm/why/
https://www.marijuanaseeds.com/mighty-weapon-for-boosting-cannabis-yield/
@Philindicus, I feel that's a solid judgment call. You got me thinking about it yesterday and I read up on calcium toxicity side of things and the related consequences. I believe you're correct. That's not "copper spotting" that's burn.
Learned from this. Cheers man and good luck knocking down the Cal๐. No P deficiency yet? Probably good๐
@Grey_Wolf, @JinksyGrows,So after doing a bit of research I've come to the conclusion my magnesium deficiency is definately being caused by a excess of calcium. So something is out of wack. We all seem obsessed over deficiencies that excess nutrients causing issues is often overlooked. ๐
@Philindicus, love it! thanks for the details - great info to digest. I'm using 20L airpots for the first time... same fall :) I have yet to see the root system and assess once I harvest - thankfully no gnats, just springtales probably from watering the coco at lights off :) . I fertigate once daily now at lights on and that seems to work very well with the coco still slightly damp at the next watering. I liked the idea of the airpots simply for the increased aeration. Really good points on the roots growth and behaviour of cannabis plants. And thanks for sharing your approach - I need a few more grows under my belt to get to know my roots :) .
@HazeyBobby, I'm using 3 gallon maxipots with 1020 reinforced seedling trays to catch any runoff. I just use a small wet vacuum to remove any excess runoff. 2 pots fit into each one. 8 pots fit nicely in a 2ft by4ft guerilla shorty tent. I love the pots they are fairly deep over 11 inches. It seems when running autos when the roots hit the bottom of the pots it triggers bloom in my opinion. After using air pots and getting hammered with fungus gnats from every angle I've found using mosquito bits BTI in the bottom of the maxi pot and adding some to the top of the soil I've pretty much eliminated the issue. I fell for the airpot fad. Personally feel it all a bunch of hype. Essentially air pots air prune the root tips which is fine for trees/plants which tend to have larger fiberous root system. Pruning fiberous roots force them to grow the finer feeding type roots. This root pruning is not needed for cannabis to grow feeder roots. I feel air pruning is creating unessesary stress on the root system.I premoisten my soil mixture before I put it into the pots rather than adding a dry mixture then over sturating the pot with water until the root system is large enough to use the water. Moistening the soil firstalso gives your microbe herd a head start breaking down the nutrients making it easier for your root system to absorb them. If you have a good soil/ coco mixture theres plenty of oxygen reaching the root system. In my case I typically have roots coming out of the bottom of the pots during week 3. End of week 4 is the first time I will water to slight run off to see what ppms I'm dealing with. Week 5 if they are too high they will get a small flush to get the runoff under 900 ppm using 0.50 ppm scale. Then I add my nutrients to the last 1/2 hallon of flush water. Then I start a wet then dry watering/ feeding schedule checking my runoff ppm and ph weekly. This system seems to work well for me based on my watering style/ habits.During bloom I typically can get 3 feeding/ waterings in a week until the plants start slowing down during the late bloom phase. Last 2 weeks during flush/ripening I use some drought stress to trigger the plants natural instincts to increase resin and terpene production.
Hot damn. Magazine quality buds Phil. Fantastic work and photos. Kinda feel like I can taste the pictures, haha!
Great success, great bud. Enjoy๐๐
@SirDillton, Most of my grows tend to dish out 1.5 to 2 oz per plant of quality bud fairly consistently using soil and 3 gallon pots. I think they have the potential to grow fairly large if grown in 5 gallon pots of coco coir which would definately increase harvest amounts. They handled the stress I put them through quite well and still produced some very fine buds.
@SirDillton, Yes, I'm may be able to start harvesting at least one maybe two next week just waiting to see some more amber trichomes to show themselves.๐
LAB! ๐๐ช๐ช๐ช. And on a diesel strain too! Crazy dank smell man.
For me, I dare use it only on the last two weeks. (Unless I already am feeding it to my other grow).
@HazeyBobby, yes it is. I try to match different strains by harvest times in weeks but it's difficult to match growing conditions to others diaries. Using two lights gives me a bit of flexibility. Height is more of an issue for me. I'm beginning to think I may try FIM or topping with some of the larger strains at some point. I'm still trying a bunch of strains to see which ones are to my liking. Then I'm going to go back and do a 2nd round with each strain.
killing it as always Phil! Looks good, sucks about the bug but at least ya got him early!
The amount of growth you have from day 7-14 itโs absolutely Insane. ๐คฏ
@SirDillton, They are doing alright. I think my soil mix is too hot this time around because I have some nutrient burn on the leaf tips starting. Gave them a flush they were over 1800 ppm. Took them down to under 1000ppm. The next couple of weeks I will see how good or bad it was.
Nice! Ya Grow Diaries has some issues. All my diaries I recently started wont save mine either I enter 78 and 70 both ends up on 50. Hey is that one in center going to be a solo cup grow?
Some lovely looking ladies. Been hearing alot of good things about @rocbudinc lately. Think they'll be the next genetics I grab. Anyways Fantastic work. Keep doing what your doing and may the ganja garden gods bless you with good fortunes the rest of the way.
Holy smokes, 21 days and they're already so big! I see why you're semi-concerned about the stretch. If you go for 24/0 I hope it works out๐. If it doesn't, no worries! Back to 18/6.
Cheers man and continued luck with these fast buggers, this week.