Project 1 - SoMango - First Grow Ever!

@ProjectPonics, checking soil runoff is useful, but only to see if you are feeding more than the plant can take or when to start feeding. Mine starts at around 20EC (10.000 PPM)

@@Athos, Alright so I just got my 60-120x microscope in the mail. I just clipped off multiple leaves that had holes in them new and old growth. I did not see any signs of pests or bugs at all. I seen little black dots on the leaves, then when i zoomed in it just looked like a black little spec, as if it was from the soil or something. Nothing transparent with legs, nothing moving at all. And I inspected 10-15 leaves the past hour front and back from all parts of the plant. So now I'm a little confused... And the leaves look great color wise, new growth is light green then goes to darkish green color. Not very dark green but they are almost as green as the younger plant that looks 100% healthy. Minus the fact of the defects they stand straight up reaching for the light. It started happening when I flushed the plant because I panic when I checked the runoff 3 weeks in from seedling and it was blood orange in the vial. I knew that wasn't right but they looked healthy. I should of just let them be, I feel like it's my fault they turned the way they are. Like I said no actual visual sign of a spider, mites, or any pests at that.

@ProjectPonics, with the purple light it's hard to tell, but how are the leaves coloring? Are they dark green? Also you are feeding every other watering, so that would make it every 6 days at 600 PPM strength, right? I still think you are feeding too often, try a water / water / feeding, that would put you at 1 feeding every 9 or so days, which is safer.

@gutfrero, Yeah lol I topped them wayyy too early. I should of waited until about now to first top them. But I seen a lot of people topping at the 5th node down to the third. I know now for future reference.

@Quexos, Great question! I never really thought that far into it yet haha. I originally was going to grow one plant in a 5-7gal pot, top once and then lst/scrog. But my original plans completely changed and still is as time goes by as you can tell. Now thinking about it, I have 2 plants in a 2x2x4 so I have to plan this accordingly since it's such a small tent for 2 plants. I'll probably defoliate the entire under canopy and leave it 8 main colas. And for the second plant I plan to main-line so I'm going to let that one grow out to be short and a little bushy. That way one can grow tall, and one can stay short. Since the tall plant will be defoliated the light will penetrate through and hit the younger short main-lined plant with no problem at all. That way each plant should harvest nicely. Like I said, 2x 3gal pots in a 2x2x4 with a 300w LED is pushing it. And by the looks of the roots I'm going to have to probably toss them into 5gal pots... but I do plan on flipping them into flower at the end of this month. That way the main plant will be about 40-45 days old and the younger plant will be 35-40 days old. Seems like a good time to according to the dates I planted them!

@Quexos, Yeah I know the parents of two of them. It seems like for 3 or 4 of the red family strains they just added a purple plant to whatever main strain they wanted to crossbreed. And yeah I feel you on the autoflowers vs photo. I prefer photos so far, but this fastberry auto is my first auto/second grow so who knows. The only way I see myself growing autos is if I really want to try a certain strain and it only comes in autoflower, just like the red family... Definitely growing each strain from the red family for sure. I want to try/grow all of them lol.

@ProjectPonics, Look up the parents of some of those strains. They selected the parents for a reason. One of them will probably be the strain that is colored. Then you can find that strain as a photo. I'll be interested to see the results. I'm not sure how I feel about autos yet. I'm not ready for my girl to start flowering. She is still in training!!!💪

@Quexos, he’ll yeah they all look really good. Only wish they made those strains in photos. I’m ordering a 3 pack of devil cream and red poison this Friday.

@Quexos, Lol yeah. I tend to do the same thing, it's my first grow so I'm over concerned and watching it 24/7 lol. I know it takes time, I have my second plant going and she's looking very healthy. I'm going to be more careful this time around feeding, transplanting and topping her. I think I'm going to mainline one with a scrog and just top he other one once or twice and scrog, I plan on flowering fairly early since I have two growing in a 2x2 in 3 gal pots. I'm doing the same thing acting like it's an actual newborn baby haha.

@ProjectPonics, Yeah my ph and light part didn't really work that well either. I mainly bought it to help with overwatering. I pulled it out of the pot last week. There was too much growth around it and I couldn't see the gauge! I have my watering schedule dialed in now thought, so I'm not concerned. The best journals on this site are the ones where the growers are patient and light handed. My wife continually tells me that it is a weed! It can mostly grow on its own! I treat my plant like its the Queen of England!!

@Quexos, Agreed. I was told I didn't need to add nutes for the first 3 weeks or so, even though it was about 3 weeks I definitely should of waited. But after rushing home from being gone for 5 days, seeing them droop so bad and knowing they needed water bad I just rushed and thought giving them their first nute feeding would of helped them, although it just gave them too much at once and I believe that's why they're having problems. I have another plant of the same strain, going on it's 3rd set of nodes or about 2 weeks old now, I started it a week before my first one I posted on here. Instead of using the Botanicare Grow. I'm just going to add a little bit of cal-mag to my pH'd waterings. Also I have two different probe ph meters, one test for moisture as well and light. But the pH function doesnt seem to work properly on it as it always stays at the same number which i think is 7-8. Although it does work for the moisture part!

@bobo420, Yeah that's what I figured too, my plants did encounter a little bit of nutrient burn but it looked as if it was a calcium deficiency somewhat before it would start burning a hole in the middle of the leaf. These are more all at the edges of the leaves, even on some of the new growth. But looks healthy overall. I think I'm going to try some neem oil and give it a try. i'll really know by tomorrow when my microscope comes in the mail!

@ProjectPonics, you're welcome. The miners aren't visible on the leaves like mites or gnats but the holes in the leaves would point to them. If you're having a nutrient burn or a deficiency the discoloration would happen on the leaf tops or in some cases it would start from the middle and work its way to the tops but nutrients wouldn't leave the hole with the rest of the leaf looking green and healthy

@bobo420, Thanks buddy, there turning out great minus the problem or two I'm having :/ Yeah but I haven't seen any sort of caterpillars or bugs that are visible to the eye on the plants the past couple weeks it's been going on, which I have topped and defoliated multiple times now and still didn't see anything on the leaves. Only reason I'm confused about it, but I get my microscope tomorrow and I'm going to check each leaf top to bottom and figure it out.

@Quexos, Yeah dude I need to buy a mini-scope anyways, a. to check trichomes and b. to see any bugs if I do have any. About to order one Thursday off amazon. And for now I am about to not give the plants ANY nutrients for the next 7-10 days until I start to flower. Idk what's going on but my plants clearly do not need or want them. It looks like it has nute burn all over the plant, but looks like it also has signs of a calcium deficiency, but yet I am giving them cal-mag just about every watering/feeding. I just gave them a plain watering, and the run off was around 6.2 for both plants. But the PPM for both plants were different, the main plant was 350 and the younger plant was around 430. Which last time I fed them the other day, both plants PPM were around 425. So I can tell the bigger plants is sucking up the nutes according the the runoff ppm. But yet shows signs of nute burn and calcium deficiency. It's getting really fucking annoying not knowing what's going on for as much as I try to correct the problem. So for now it's nothing but plain tap waterings pH lowered to 6.0-6.2, so the runoff pH remains the same as it is now. I'm going to see if the most of the problems go away the new growth. Although I'm sure the calcium problem will worsen if I do.

@ProjectPonics, AArgh!😕 Check under your leaves for any bugs, especially on the leaves closest to the soil. What about leaving off the nutrients for now, and just use cal/mag along with extensive water testing. Or, you could also start from a baseline and omit all nutrients except the ones needed for pH adjustment. Then you can start re-adding them slowly.

@Quexos, Ya man it really has been a problem the past few weeks. And yes before I flushed the soil a week ago. The pH was coming out very acidic, around 5.2-5.5. I did not check the ppm before I flushed the plants, because I did not have a ppm meter at the time. I ran 6 gallons of water through eat 3gal pot. After the flush and testing the run off it brought both plants to a 6.2-6.4 pH. At the moment, every watering/feed going in is at roughly 6.2-6.4 pH and it comes out at pretty much the same. So I know the pH level is good. The PPM when I check the run-off is around 425-450 for both plants. Which seems to be okay and in the right level range as far as I've read and been told. I'm not sure what's going on... I feel like it needs more cal-mag, but I also don't wanna stress them anymore than they are or over feed them. Also still trying to figure out why the leaves look like they're getting nute burn and creating holes in the leaves, but yet the new growth on the plant, the edges have holes as if they are either growing deformed or it looks like bugs could be eating away at it. I feel like if it was nute burn there would be brown around the holes, But they look healthy, just deformed.

@ProjectPonics, At this point light trimming of leaves won't effect the plant. She is focusing all of her energy on her flowers. Just don't go crazy and give her a massive haircut. 20z. should be easy. My last plant had a good 2 oz. of nice bud. I also had another zip loc bag full of scrapple. (tiny buds, sugar leaves)

@Quexos, hoping the same. They technically only have 10 days left before harvest but obviously I’m going by the looks and trichomes. So I’ll say 2 more weeks before I cut her down. I did do some plucking of the main large fan leaves, like 15-20% so not many at all. which I probably shouldn’t of but hopefully it doesn’t impact it too much. I was trying to open up the canopy to let light get to the buds for these last two weeks. If I get 2 oz I’ll be happy.

@ProjectPonics, you're welcome. Hopefully fresh soil and some clean water will set her straight ;)

@bobo420, They're coming along great, but there are a few problems... as I said it looks like it's getting nutrient burn, happen instantly after the first feeding. All I can do is wait to feed them with a higher pH basic watering, no nutes added. Maybe besides a little cal-mag. But thank you!

@growdoctordc, Lol. I got a good laugh out of that haha. And yeah you're right, they do look better in pictures compared to in person. I always try to think of that when looking at other peoples pictures lmao. And thanks, yeah not bad I suppose for a first grow huh?! I have 3 autos in veg right now, 1x fastberry from fastbuds and 2x bloody skunk from sweet seeds. After these autos I'm going to try 3-4x photos in 2 or 3gal pots with a scrog. I want to invest in another light and bigger tent. Then use this 2x2x4 for my veg/autos. But thanks anyways man appreciate it!

@bobo420, thanks :D

@Quexos,thanks buddy yeah everything seems good! Just trying to keep it that way! I was told to pluck her at day 21 and 42 into flower. So I’m going to prune her one last time to keep them manicured and hopefully we’ll get a nice first harvest! :D

@Quexos, Thanks bro! I think I'm getting it down thanks to the help of y'all. And yeah I've been being extra careful with every little thing I do with these girls lol. Now is the real sensitive part where I have to be even more aware of what I'm doing. Especially since all of my problems are now gone and they look back to 100%. Can't wait!

@Quexos, Thanks! Yeah man they look absolutely beautiful minus whatever is eating them! My 60-120x microscope comes in the mail today so I'll definitely see what's going on in this soil and under these leaves and go buy some neem oil or something to fix the problem asap. Last night was the first night they got 12 hours of sleep so I need to take action now, so in 2-3 weeks when it starts to bud the problem will be gone hopefully by then. Yeah I only got another 8-9 inches to work with, but I'm not too worried about it. I've been doing some lst to them already to keep them around 7-8" tall.

@WKLH1107, Yeah not sure what's exactly going on. Hopefully I'll figure it out as soon as I get a little microscope. Both plants are about 5-6" tall. One has 8 main colas and the other has two. I might flip a little earlier than I wanted, as in like maybe turn the light off for 2 days this friday. Then flip back on to 12/12 monday morning. two plants in 3gal fabric pots in a 2x2x4 is pushing it. I don't want them getting too tall at all. I only got another foot or so to let them grow. And I think they need to be transplanted into a bigger pot. Roots are coming out of both plants on the sides on bottom of the smartpot.

@Shazaaam, Apprecaite it. Yeah it's a nice side hobby, I don't know why I waited so long to start growing myself lol. I plan on low stress training, along with topping and screening it so I can get as many colas per sq ft. I aiming for about 6-8 colas per sq ft so 24-32 colas total in a 2x2x4 but it's going to be very tricky especially for a first time grower. But I have been so much research and watching many many YT videos. Check out my channel! Project Ponics is the channel name, I'll be making videos as I feed, train, scrog, flower, etc. my plant over the next couple months.