you could get away with way less light, and generally have an easier time
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Can anyone ID the problem ? Older leaves spotting, dry & brittle. Soil PH from. Cheap 2 prong tri-meter shows just under 7 and in the green zone .
Water filtered out of the tap. No idea what runoff PH is.
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Roots are running out of space.
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Yea think ? Transplanted into 1 gal grow bags from cups on the 13th about 2.5 weeks. They are on their own till Monday I’ll transplant into the 5 gallon bags then.
Thanks for the reply…
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Topdressing after transplanting with whatever you have around that’s organic material would be beneficial too: grass clippings, tree leaves, fruit and veg kitchenscraps, dandelion leaves, etc.
I flip mine to flowering when the plant is about the size of the pot.
But since your soil isn’t fully established yet and you already have signs of deficiency you might wanna do it even earlier.
PS: Go easy on the light schedule, they don’t need 24 hours of light, just a waste of electricity and mildly stressing the plants. I only give mine between 13 and 18 hours of light during veg. And between 6 and 11 hours during flowering.
Also I see about half of your soil is vermiculite, which I don’t use, so I’m curious how it turns out for you. If you would run into deficiencies during flowering then it would likely be because of too much vermiculite. I see it as something that takes up space without adding nourishment. Once you start the second grow and you sow or transplant into the same pot, the previous root system then does the same what the vermiculite does with water, except it provides food for the microbes on top of that.
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Just transplanted into 7 gallons grow bags. As per a suggestion off this site I lightly squeezed the 1 gallon grow bags compressing the root ball some so it’s just smaller then the bag, kinda tug it out. Some roots grabbing the bag but lower roots just hitting the bottom.
Tap water is above 7.5 PH the run off just as high.
Latest pics after transplanting. I’m thinking a P or K problem but could be something else entirely. Anyone have a clue ?
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LITFA
Give it some time.
Losing a few lower leaves is no disaster.
It’s all topdressing.
Getting the soil established takes a while, once you have a first rootsystem in there the second grow will fare better because there will already be a thriving microbe system.
Now they are still sleeping, until some roots arrive to play with.
Same with fungi.
So your plant has to rely on its reserves in the leaves to establish its rootsystem until the microbes wake up and start supplying food to the roots, which in return feed them carbohydrates.
To my humble understanding thus far.
Topdressing with some fruit scraps/peels will help speed it all up.
And will also add to the diversity which is so important in a living eco system.
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I’ll do it again next week. Something not right.
Once the microbes get going it might balance out.
Now it’s getting interesting.
Give that bitch some orange juice.
Diluted with 50% water.
Do something crazy once in a while.
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@Eastcoast I really like the vibe @Rogue is putting down, it’s good advice. You have all the right pieces in place, but it just needs time for the soil to become alive. Top dressing is a good idea if you have some material that is vigorously alive and fungally dominant. If you can access a clean forest area, try to grab 1/4 cup of black rotted wood from a fallen stump under some moss. Only take a small amount and leave the area pristine.
Top dressing or making a light compost extract, in addition to some mulch will get you in the right direction.
It seems like the soil is showing an excess of nitrogen and not enough other macros, so I’d avoid adding any green material or other nitrogen heavy additives such as pure worm castings. A little organic coconut water might also help add some sugars and a touch of K.
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Finally got a PH pen tap water clocking in at 7.5+ but I’ve been using the water our water filter on the tap and that PH’d at almost 8. So I am thinking that is the problem. I have an air stone in the water for days or so before using it . Watered in today after yesterdays transplant into the 7 gallon a bags at a PH of 6 using lemon juice. When I checked run off yesterday from the 1 gallon bags it was 7.2+ .
I have some rice hulls coming for mulching and malted barley
for grinding up and top dressing. Also picked up a analog timer, had the digital one but for some reason was not working like should have , that was the reason for 24/7 .
Going to get some white clover for a living mulch.
Thanks for your input guys. Appreciated much.
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I wonder how much vermiculite influences PH…
Could test the PH of half a cup of water.
Then fill it up with vermiculite and test again.
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Ok. I got a hold of some soil from under a tree log upstate today. Just mixed it all together with the crumbling bark , soil, leaves and pine needles. Pushed clumps o& this mix into the containers in a couple of spots . I also crushed some malted barley pushed that into 5he soil and watered it all in with. PH’d 6.5 water.
As of yesterday 2 where 9 inches the other 13.5”.
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Things looking real good , day 45 from popping. Going to let it go another week or 2 until they start to alternate branching.running out of height at 17+” with one of them.
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Vermiculite has the same ph as perlite (~7) so shouldn’t effect a living soil much at all. It does have a much larger cation exchange capacity than perlite, which will help you soil store more minerals and nutrients.
Things look great, they’re liking the larger pots
Yea, a couple of drenches with the aerated malted barley ain’t hurting.
Next run will be done right in the 7.5 gallon grow bags. I’ll start the seed right there. Almost finished with Lowenfels Teaming with Microbes, have Teaming with Fungi up next, need to grab the 3rd book in the series. Very informative and extremely easy read, recommend it to anyone getting involved with this hobby.
Started a small compost pile indoors in a 20 gallon Tupperware tub. Between juicing and coffee grinds there is plenty of scrapes about.The thing is cooking as we speak , 95 degrees in the center of this little pile. Added some rice hulls and bio char , little blood meal , bone meal, worm castings and Kelp meal. Looking forward to top dressing with it in a couple of weeks
I have been crushing the main stem right below the newest leaf sets to try and slow the tallest plant down. I’m just going to let them grow out . Hoping for a male for seeds.
Have a packet of Rutgers Ag. Extension Jersey Beefsteak Tomato seeds. Going to pop a couple of them soon.
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