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Ciao! My last crop just started curing and I’m starting a new one! If you’ve followed my last diary you know it ended with a major problem of bud rot caused by the lack of calcium. This time it won’t happen again!
I’ve cleaned my grow room with hydrogen peroxide, I sterilizing everything also my growing medium, coco coir. I soaked it for some hours in a solution of 250ml 3%vol in 20 liters of tap water. Some nasty stuff came out of it, I had to skim the foam a couple of time and I’m very glad it’s now clean! It doesn’t small bad anymore!!!
After this first step, I’ve buffered it at 5.8ph with sulfuric acid, my favorite mineral acid (sulfur❤️), gypsum, epsom salt and a mix of humic and fulvic acids, amino acids, vitamins.
I decided not supplementing silica dioxide during the growth since it doesn’t dissolve very well in water, I’ve just amended my coco with some very fine sand, I hope that will do the trick!
Note from the future: USE MORE GYPSUM AND MAGNESIUM WHEN BUFFERING
My pot won’t be fully filled at first, I’ll add more medium later to cover the plant trunk; I’ll also add some expanded clay pebbles to prevent evaporation. This pot has 27 liter of volume, I will use 20 more or less.
As nutrition I will stick to megacrop A+B feeding program at 75% of strength as constant drip feeding needs less nutrition in solution.
I have a 300w LED light that I love, its size is exactly as my grow space so light penetration is excellent. I will keep 50/60cm as distance during vegetation and lower it to 30/40cm during flower.
My humidity range will be between 20 and 40% with high temperature. I know this is considered bad but as a user pointed out, cannabis isn’t a jungle plant and doesn’t require high humidity levels. I’ll test this!
My seed has been soaked in a glass full of water for 24 hours and than placed in the final pot, off centered since I’m going to bend the trunk as plant’s training and than apply scrog.
I won’t cut the top at third node this time, I had great results in my last grow but I want to try something new, I feel like the plant can grow way more without topping it.
As dripping system I’m still using blumat, it works great but you have to check the drippers for clogs. They have to be cleaned at least once a month even if nutrient solution is pretty clean, without residues.
Reservoir 20L
Megacrop A 7g
Megacrop B 4g
Magnesium sulfate 2g
Sulfuric acid 6ml
Day 3 - I’m opening the drippers. Very light feed, it’s 50% of suggested rate for veg.
Day 8 - plant is growing fast, it is as big as my last plant at day 13. I’ve layered some clay pebbles on top of the coco+sand. Manually watered adding bio bizz’s root juice, bio heaven and a little more magnesium sulfate since I saw the beginning of a deficiency.
Day 11 - starting LST
Day 13 - reservoir change
in 20L (megacrop @65% strength)
5g megacrop A
8g megacrop B
8g magnesium sulfate (plant has deficiency, I probably didn’t buffer the coco enough)
6,5ml sulfuric acid (tap ph 7.4, solution ph 5.9)
Day 15 - manual feed with stuff I can’t put in the reservoir like bio heaven, root juice and calcium sulfate (saw a little deficiency, of course I fixed the mg and something new pop up). The white stuff you see in the pic on the leaves is the residue of a previous foliar feed with mg.
Temperature (28/32C) and humidity (25/35%) are a bit extreme inside the grow space compared to what I see other do but plant doesn’t care, or so it seems.
Day 16 - defoliated
Day 18 - reservoir change
in 20L (megacrop @75% strength)
5,5g megacrop A
9g megacrop B
7g magnesium sulfate
7ml sulfuric acid
I’ve also amended the coco with some gypsum (calcium sulfate).
Day 19 - plant is growing really well, I made some aggressive bend on the trunk and branches without damaging anything.
Day 22 - defoliated. I know it seems I did nothing but a lot of big leaves were shadowing the small vegetation you can see in the photos.
I supplemented some magnesium through foliar feed, plant seems to need a lot of it. I’ll manually water (with water from the drip system) adding calcium, alongside with amino, fulvic and humid acids.
The difference in vegetation growth from my previous plant is staggering. I don’t think it just because of the pot size, I really screwed up with cal mag last time.
Day 24 - I’ve switched from tie down LST to scrog, I choose to use a 3x3cm squares plastic net cut as big as my pot, It gives me more control on balancing the canopy. It’s is also easier and less time consuming than having to adjust many ropes! Win win!
Day 25 - signs of calcium deficiency again. Ph drifted to 6.7, corrected it.
Day 27 - I’ve manually watered with a liquid calcium supplement. Also have cut out the small growth under the net.
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 7g
Megacrop B 10g
Epsom 6g
Gypsum 3g
Sulfuric acid 7.5ml
Day 28 - ph is a little low, I found some leaves damaged, fixed it with some silica.
Day 31 - omg more calcium deficiency sings, unbelievable!!! The liquid calcium I’ve bought suggests 5ml/L per week, this is the second time this week I’m supplementing it.
I did major bending this morning, almost everything jumped on square, it took me almost two hours.
I broke two small shootings in the process, RIP
Day 33
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 9g
Megacrop B 11g
Epsom 4g
Gypsum 6g
Sulfuric acid 6,5ml
Day 38 - I’m supplementing phosphorus and potassium, I saw some sign of deficiencies in the leaves.
Day 41
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 12g
Megacrop B 10g
Epsom 4g
Gypsum 6g
Sulfuric acid 7ml
Day 45
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 12g
Megacrop B 10g
Epsom 6g
Gypsum 6g
Sulfuric acid 7ml
Day 48 - first crystal are happening on the leaves near flowers. I’m spotting new signs of mag deficiency.
Day 49
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 13g
Megacrop B 11g
Epsom 9g
Gypsum 9g
Sulfuric acid 7ml
Day 52 - I had to supplement calcium and magnesium again. Plant is growing so big and its incredible that the smell is quite weak, I still have to start the air scrubbers!!!
Some branches are growing more than the others so I’m using some rope to tie those down.
Day 54
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 13g
Megacrop B 10g
Epsom 12g
Gypsum 9g
Sulfuric acid 7ml
Day 57 - I repositioned some branches and did little defoliation on the upper part of the canopy
Day 59
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 14g
Megacrop B 9g
Epsom 6g
Gypsum 6g
Sulfuric acid 7ml
Day 64 - switching light to 24 hours/day
Reservoir refill, in 20L:
Megacrop A 15g
Megacrop B 9g
Epsom 6g
Gypsum 6g
Sulfuric acid 7ml
Day 68 - supplemented liquid calcium manually and refilled the tank as day 64