Part 3 - Trying to get it right

[cdnBuddy]

Stretching has pretty much stopped. Picture 2/4 were my best plants, but looking at them today I’m noticing these issues.

Lights are going out in 1hr, so going to do a foiler spray with calmag and hopefully someone knows why I suck at this. I swear my mode is linked to these plants, they do great I’m happy and when shit goes to hell it puts me in a bad mood. I’ve been at this spot for the pas year! I’ve hit them with calmag, upped feed and he list goes on. No matter what i read and follow it goes to hell.

Only 1 plant I’ve grown was pretty solid, though I was hitting her with 1200ppm.

200ppm calmag
800ppm MC
200ppm BE

Though I’m stumped why journals I’ve read when people use MC, LED + Coco usually don’t break 850ppm total. I know each plant is different, so I just sum it up to I suck. I’m lucky I get some bud, so in the end it’s not all that bad. But I’d like some damn happy plants!

End of rant, back to cleaning up and getting buckets ready for their feed when they wake up in 5hrs.

Starting today I’m now going to daily posts with lots of pictures…bad or good.

[Tappy]

Not sure if this is against the coco rules, but could you mix straight earthworm shit into your coco mix before planting? With ewc and your MC + calmag, as long as your PH is in check, you should be good, no?

[Shadey]

I am the same, my moods are linked to how well my plants are doing, strange isn’t it. It maybe a viscous circle, what if your moods are affecting your plants?

You don’t suck at growing buddy, the majority of people have these problems, it’s just a matter of time, practice and developing a knowledge base with your grow medium and nutrients.

I go through this pretty much every time I grow a new strain, first grow is seeing what they do, and don’t like, second one is better, and hopefully the third grow with a new strain is dialled in.

Temp and humidity fluctuations change things, how I grow in winter is different to how I grow in summer, because the plants nutrient uptake changes speed.

Just changing from HPS to LED has screwed me up for the last 6 months thinking it was either nutrient burn or deficiency and not thinking my lights were maybe 8 to12 inches to close lol.

Making mistakes is how we learn what not to do. If you don’t make them, you won’t know how to correct it when it happens, so they are not repeated to often.

OG has a lot of growers, with vast experience and personal knowledge to make their grows look effortles and easy, I am constantly in awe at their abilities, but you can’t judge yourself against others work. It’s not easy, or everyone would be doing it, and the LP’s would be out of business.

Life is a series of corrections until you are proficient in not repeating mistakes, it applies to everything and never ends, because life is in constant change, and changing is the only part that doesn’t change, just to confuse us all lol.

[ifish]

With regards to using RO water , do you use calmag thru out the grow , with every feeding , even if feeding plain water , from seedling stage and upwards ???

[George]

Could be Calcium deficiency because pH 5.8 is too low for a good intake, try to raise it next feed …

[cdnBuddy]

@Shadey

It maybe a viscous circle, what if your moods are affecting your plants?

Could very well be! I’m usually in a great mood, just waking up to see these things sucks lol My stupid ass keeps growing multiple strains…too much to be honest instead of focusing on 1 few at a time. I’m transitioning away from all my autoflowers, so hoping the next round I do better.

@smokenhike

Did you calibrate your PH meter recently ? Calibrated every month, and just did it a few days ago. It holds pretty steady.

How many grams/gallon of Megacrop ?
4.5g’ish per gallon, and the remaining is PK for a total of 1.6ec I have issues either way, but more than willing to go full MC and drop the pk?

How high are your LEDs above the canopy ? If you see the damage mostly on the upper leaves / under center of light where it’s brightest then the LEDs may be too close.
18" above

@ifish

With regards to using RO water , do you use calmag thru out the grow , with every feeding , even if feeding plain water , from seedling stage and upwards ???

So recently I have stopped using calmag in veg, and things are looking great. Once she starts her stretch I’ve been adding epsom salts .5g per gal. I’ve got a bunch of plants in veg that I will be posting pictures soon, and they have been doing great.

@George

Could be Calcium deficiency because pH 5.8 is too low for a good intake, try to raise it next feed …

My next feed is soon, and I will be adding some calmag and increasing the PH to 6.2.

Some stupid questions…

So I’ve read 20+ threads yesterday on various forums about runoff with coco. And it comes down to 2 trains of thoughts…

1. PH coming out in coco doesn’t matter, as it’s buffered and trying to chase it down will lead to issues.
2. PH should match what’s going in?

Does anyone have some insights, as some pots are coming out 6.6+ph which would mean things are locking out.

[cdnBuddy]

On another note my cloning tent is now setup. I ran the pump for 8hrs yesterday with a few drops of water escaping at first but finally managed to stop all leaks!

I’ve got a 100watts overhead, but am able to dim it so should be more than enough. Looking to fill her up tomorrow with 4 strains, and moving forward I will be growing these till I get things right.

[cdnBuddy]

So hoping this is a good format for me to keep track of feed, issues etc. These are 3 of my future moms, still have 1 more to feed so mixing up more now.

I probably won’t be posting everyday, as these overall are doing good, though noticing a few things.

First of all, my first initial runoff all has high PH! So I dumped quiet about 8 gallons through these 3 pots plants.

Allkush

Date	Water Temp	Megacrop	Calmag	EC	EC Run off	PH	PH Run off	Notes
13/06/2020	20c	700ppm	0	1.4ec	1.14ec	5.8ph	6.75	Flushed down to 6.24ph - Needs more feed! Yellow new growth

Crocketts Confidential

Date	Water Temp	Megacrop	Calmag	EC	EC Run off	PH	PH Run off	Notes
13/06/2020	20c	700ppm	0	1.4ec	1.48ec	5.8ph	6.62	Flushed down to 6.33 ph

Allkush

Date	Water Temp	Megacrop	Calmag	EC	EC Run off	PH	PH Run off	Notes
13/06/2020	20c	700ppm	0	1.4ec	1.48ec	5.8ph	6.62	Flushed down to 6.33 ph

[George]

@cdnBuddy

So recently I have stopped using calmag in veg

If you’re using solstrips maybe you shouldn’t do that, I have always seen that plants need more CalMag when growing under leds …

[cdnBuddy]

@George

If you’re using solstrips maybe you shouldn’t do that, I have always seen that plants need more CalMag when growing under leds …

What amount of calmag do you use?

Just finished watering my plants in flower, and run off was breaking 6.8ph on most plants. Managed to get the ph down, was rather painful doing this lol. Sigh, once these are done I’m running one strain and in smaller pots. Thinking of switching to flood and drain or a drip system.

[George]

@cdnBuddy

What amount of calmag do you use?

I use 1ml per 2 liters of Ionic Cal-Mag Pro but not on every watering, I alternate it with Grotek Pro-Silicate and later Grotek Growth Max.

You should change to soil, on coco you will always have those pH fluctuations, soil acts as a buffer and it is easier. I use Advanced Nutrient pH perfect and never check pH, I think it has an equivalent in coco, maybe you should check it …

[cdnBuddy]

@George

You should change to soil, on coco you will always have those pH fluctuations

I’m going to try a soil grow in a few weeks, but I’ll be sticking with Coco for the time being. I’ve looked at AN, but the cost is just through the roof. I will get this damn thing right! lol

I’ve decided to stop using RO water, just takes too much time waiting to fill all these buckets, and my EC is a .2.

[ifish]

0.2 ec is still on the soft side with 0.4 being middle of the road . You have good tap water but you will still have to top up tap ec with calmag till ec of Rez is 0.4 befor adding your nutes or just plain watering : )

[George]

@cdnBuddy

I’ve decided to stop using RO water,

They say it blocks Calcium, Zinc and Magnesium, could be the origin of your problems …

[ifish]

You only need RO if your tap water etc is very hard
And even then I would try a mix of tap and RO first before going fully RO
Coco , LEDs and RO , screams cal def
: )

[cdnBuddy]

@ifish

You only need RO if your tap water etc is very hard
And even then I would try a mix of tap and RO first before going fully RO
: )

Would there be a reason to mix half and half instead of just going straight to tap water?

I will also bump it upto .4ec, was just reading some posts to see a good starting point.

[ifish]

Rez water after mix ( very hard water and RO ) may drop and fall close to 0.4 and it will hopefully still have all the minerals needed without having to amend after , as you would have to if just using straight RO
But your tap is good quality just slightly soft so just use straight tap with a dash of calmag needed to bring it up to 0.4
If using coco I would use specific coco nutes also as they take into account the coco cations etc all that hokaspokas
: )

[cdnBuddy]

@ifish

If using coco I would use specific coco nutes also as they take into account the coco cations etc all that

I’m stuck with MC for the time being, and may be moving away from coco in a few months. I’ve been thinking of switching to a flood and drain system with Hydroton.

[ifish]

Go soil with flood And drain maybe , and then after grow or two go hydro but still using same flood and drain system : )
So using the soil first you can use up the mc etc then after a while I can talk you into Mapito or similar , way better than them clay balls
: )

[cdnBuddy]

I’m going to try a few soil grows this year. I’m also doing an outdoor grow at a friends place (grew her indoors for 2months topped 2x). It’s doing well since it’s just water lol.

The reason I’m thinking of going with clayballs is so I can reuse them, but I’m awhile away from doing it. I’m prepping for a grow in 2-3 weeks with just 1 strain, which will give me time to focus on 1 plant until I hammer things down.