Titles are Hard

It’s totally normal. As temperature drops, the air cannot hold as much humidity, so the RH (relative humidity) raises. When the temperature drops back down, the RH drops because the warm air can hold more water. Here is a graph of my last 24 hours, it shows similar fluctuations.

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Well, things will be taking an odd variation at first, I do intend to stabilized something reliable and efficient. While also meeting the odd requirements of my life. So I ask two questions.

First and foremost, how am I going to grow these to harvest. I have eight plants, two are of a different strain than the others. I am tempted to do this just to experiment a bit to get my feet wet in growing; separate out the two of the one strain and keep them in veg by giving some light in open air and training them as short as possible. Happy to here thoughts and suggestions on that, I don’t intend to do anything special. It’ll have to get light 24/7 until I can maybe set up a timer for it. Money is especially tight at the time being. For lighting on those two plants though, I have some options. 80w fluorescent, or I have two 120w halogen floodlights. That would lead a remaining three that could be trained with scrog maybe? Something cheap, forgiving, minimally fiddly. I also played with the idea of LST with cages, I think I’ve seen it before but maybe not, I thought of putting net on the cage? Would this make each plant sort of it’s own canopy? Theoretically to allow each plant to still be moved and everything to be watered more easily.

The second question is much less urgent. The future! I’m fairly settled on a six plant perpetual grow… I’m having trouble with sizing. Maybe someone more familiar with potting pot can help. I should theoretically have two tents- I have a 3x3x6. I would have 4 plants in veg, two in flower… So my question is, which tent should be bigger? I can fit 4 5gal fabric pots in the 3x3. Now for the two in flower, what is going to get me equal or better growth? I thought, oh, well I COULD fit up to 4 35gal pots in a 4x4 but that’s a lot of soil to purchase. And probably way overkill. This is for personal use, maybe an ounce or two a month is all I need off it. So I have been thinking smaller. Maybe I use a smaller light in veg, and move this 600w HPS to a 4x4 for flower? Maybe I get a 2x4 tent and a smaller light. So happy to hear thoughts. I like organic. Long term I might do aquaponics, but I’m way off from there. I think I’ll keep it in soil for now, water only, some top dressing of guinea pig manure when I get the chance (you’ll notice that hasn’t happened yet lol). I should also add- I intend to not transplant since finding some wider propagation domes on Amazon.

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Everytime I see this thread title I think it says titties are hard! I guess y’all know where my head’s at.

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Here we have the problem child… the ones abused and grown open air have caught up, but little helmet head is barely keeping ahead of the seeds dropped 3-4 weeks after! I’m curious if the leaf is just all screwed up from that, and no other leaves will show this, or if it may be something worse.

Training will have to start soon, I’ve got one up to 6 nodes, but the others are closer to 3-4. I feel they’ll all even out over time, they’ve come a long way in that regard already. So I’m tempted to just get trellis net to keep them height restricted. The problem I see I I like to take them out one by one, to water and look over. So I’m curious now, netting around a cage? I imagine that it’ll largely be the top that fills- and I’d look for the largest top hoop I can fit or short of that I have a good amount of 16g mild steel wire I’m sure I can crudely form a cage with.

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Everything is starting to even out, sorry I ever doubted any of you little seedlings, healthy plants so far. Will up pot in a week or two, to the final 3 gal… is there a good way to check smart pots for root growth that non invasive? I imagine they won’t all be filling out their pots at the same time.

The first born, I don’t know if the cross has a name yet, so it’s just “those ones”. One is tall, the other is short. Both seem about the same size canopy, so I’m guessing maybe a male and female. Other than that I’m having no indication (that I can see) of sex. One of the Poison Minosas is a little tippy, I’m hoping not to stake it and just let it toughen up.

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I’m afraid not, roots are air pruned in fabric pots so you won’t see them circling around like in plastic ones. I just transplant them few days before flipping so they don’t stress too much … :sunglasses:

WhatsApp Image 2020-06-05 at 00.31.10

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My tippy little Mimosa is now lashed to the net, it was pretty far over.


This Mimosa was losing its seed leaves, didn’t think anything of it, but now I notice discoloring farther up. They were a bit dry for a day or so, I don’t know if that shocked them a bit or what. Will get a white light picture if y’all think it’s worth a look at.

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Two days it took me to realize I took a picture of the plant, completely hiding the symptom leaves!

I have assessed it as nitrogen deficiency, but definitely looking for a second opinion. All other plants are showing no symptoms, so I’m not sure what the issue is, It’s not my largest or oldest, so I wouldn’t expect the others to have issues. I don’t know, let’s see what you guys think.

I do have one other with a slight variation in leaf color; not at all sure on this one.

I also put up a webcam in the tent, not really sure what I hoped to accomplish, I’m not worried about unwelcome guests larger than a bug. I can see the canopy, see that everything is running; light, fan, humidifier. I can see if someone opens the tent, although it won’t trigger activity even when I water or move the plants. It does tell me every morning when my lights turn on, which has a benefit. I do worry if I don’t check every day one day the bulb won’t strike and it’ll all die.

Water continues to be an issue… I was watering by submerging then for a couple seconds once or twice a week. I figure I won’t want to do this with 3 or 5 gal pots so I bought a sprayer; it works great. Except I watered all my plants and only used a third of the water. So either there is something cool happening, or more likely, I need to give them more water. I refuse to water until the soil is dry, so I’m concerned… as weird as it sounds, how do you guys water? I can’t ever seem to get a grip on it, or maybe I’m expecting to much. I water until the top soil shines, and don’t water again until the top 2” is dry. That seems to be the suggested way, it seems to be working. Just can’t wrap my head around it. As always, KISS and LITFA are keeping me from over watering or treating that nitrogen deficiency. Very glad I stuck with that early on, I would’ve drowned my seedlings.

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Lot of things to comment on here…

For starters, Nice job so far! Things are definitely coming along nicely ^^

For watering, I’m still getting used to it myself, but the best method is literally, to just lift the pot and feel the weight. After a couple weeks of lifting and watering, you’ll know when a pot is dry and not. George had a great idea of filling another pot the same size just don’t put a plant in there, and now you have a dry reference pot to lift and compare weights with. Obviously the plant adds some weight, especially as it gets older, and bigger pots are harder to tell, but it’s totally a thing and the best way to tell outside of getting a Soil Moisture Meter of some kind. Can do the finger method but again, you can’t tell what the bottom of the pot is looking like, with your finger, so you could think they’re dry while the bottom is basically submerged, and adding more water is only going to slow them down or hurt them. Get used to lifting the pots every single day before you water, lift them again after you water, and you’ll be able to tell from there.

I wouldn’t flower out more than 4 plants at a time in a 3x3 regardless of pot size, unless we’re talkin ~6inch clones in a SOG… I have the same size tent and have completely filled it with 1, 2, and 4 plants. If you do 4 plants I would flower them no more than ~1.5ft tall tall. Can wait a bit more than that but you’ll likely have to do a lot more maintenance to make it manageable. Some strains will quadruple in height, and some won’t stretch at all, it just depends. Once you know how the strain(s) will react then you can flower when they’re bigger, but first time, I’d keep em on the shorter side.

I’ve been experimenting with a water only soil mix, but 3gal pots aren’t enough for the full flower cycle IMO, so I’d recommend flowering in 5 or 7 gallon pots if you’re doing similar. It’s that or have some nutes on-hand like maxibloom/jacks/megacrop just in case you need them later. Don’t forget calmag. Could also amend the soil as you go if you have soil amendments instead of using nutes.

Your trellis/net is a bit wide spaced. Most recommend 2inch squares or so but its whatever. I used a net like that for my first two grows and ended up not needing it on 1.5 of those. The one plant that did need it, did better with plant yoyo’s than the net for keeping buds up and I ended up having to chop up the net to get it out of the plants. Just some thoughts ^^

The flourescents would likely work fine for vegging some plants for as long as you want. Likely won’t need the floodlights at all and I’m not sure how good that would work regardless. You definitely want to flower with that 600w HPS though. Need a good penetrating light for flower. LM301 LED’s, HPS, or CMH is the way to go for that.

Think that’s all I got for now, keep up the good work, you’re definitely off to a good start :wink:

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I completely agree ^^^^, I am also using fabric pots, what I do is water them slightly in rounds and repeat until I see some runoff, that way I give them some time for absorbing the water before I start watering again. I know they don’t like wet feet so just a bit runoff.

As for the pics, I think it is Potassium deficiency, as I see yellowing, some blotches and burnt tips, but wait for other opinions … :sunglasses:

Captura

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That’s good to know, I was going to flower all 8, simply because I don’t know if they will keep alive well enough out of the tent. But the tent is really only slightly more humid than the rest of the basement. Once they’re happy and established in 3gal pots I’ll move some out. I’m thinking on flowering in 5gal pots, I can fit 4 in there. The net is what it is, I couldn’t find anything I liked so I just got whatever. I plan to build a trellis net once things are more cemented. This one will at least give some support, it is very wide. It was also a bit bigger than 3x3 so I had to fold it, stretching it a bit. I have a second one I might use, I don’t know, the plants are around 16” now, so I’m not far off from your suggested height.

You’re totally right on the pots, I’ve got a vacant pot with dry soil, but I think since their so small I’m having trouble telling the weight of the water beyond full or empty. If that makes sense. I have a bathroom scale I can use, but again they’re kinda small to measure, but I think they out-limit my kitchen/lab scales.

@George1961Im pretty sure I’m watering them right, I just have to convince myself, lol. I’d say potassium is likely, I’m on the fence and just happened to fall on the Nitrogen side first. I’m curious if I maybe over soaked it? Is it possible to wash all the nutes out? This is an organic mix I bought at Home Depot, not super sure all what’s in it. Hoping to make a soil recipe myself, I just need to understand plant nutrition better, so this seemed a good starting point.

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I was always told that when buying citrus fruit it is best to choose ones that feel heavy for their size. Same deal

I totally agree with the lifting to see how dry they are. You’ll get a baseline pretty fast.

I dont like to scrog for the same reasons mentioned above. I like to be able to move my plants. I just top, tie down, then tie down a little more. This gets me to where I want to be. I aim for canopy uniformity rather than number of branches.

All the best

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I always have great respect for organic growers, their recipes and amendments but I am more on the bottle side, as it is easier for me to know what they have and what I’m giving them. I think for pH buffering and good working soils they always use big pots. You would have to give them four or more times their size in water to flush all their nutes out.

What brand of soil are you using? Someone’s just don’t last until flower and you have to start adding nutes, some pics in normal light would help to see if they are starting to be hungry … beer3|nullxnull

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I’m with George, it looks like Potassium to me, the blotches are the telltale.

Cheers
G

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My intention isn’t to scrog as much as trellis. Just to keep everything sort of under control. Although I do have height restrictions, since this is a 6’ tent with a huge AC hood so it’s a bit tight. 4’ from light to floor. I intend to just let them shoot up as they please, I just keep them from falling over and water them.

The soil I’ve used is Better Homes and Gardens “Natural and Organic Professional Container Mix”. It had a very similar composition to recipes I was favoring, so I just went ahead and grabbed it. These are my two oldest plants, they have been in the soil the longest.


Plant 2

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They say that soil last for three months, so it would be fine. Your plants look great, maybe just time for a transplant … :sunglasses:

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They certainly seem happy, aside from some little problems. I was thinking the same, it’s about time for the 3 gal. Maybe a good time to decide who stays in the tent and who sits under the T8s I set up today. I’ve set it up as sort of a waiting area. I have plants that don’t need the HPS and humidity, and mother plants should also do ok, they’ll only see down to 30-40% humidity and they might face some light pollution. Honestly, I’m considering a cull, of sorts. Leave the four best, the others will come out. If they don’t make it, they don’t make it. They’ll still get all the love and care the ones I send to flower will, but they have to rough it a bit… like a month. The upside is they have lots of room, I have about 9’ of space between the floor joist and foundation. I’m considering a low wattage MH lamp to replace the tubes, 80w doesn’t seem like quite enough. Cost is the major factor here, I’m broke! As soon as that first harvest rolls in the medical cost drops, then I have more breathing room. So half focused on next grow, half on just keeping these alive with willpower and no money. Lol, actually, it’s too bad it does look like Potassium deficiency, I don’t think I can fix that by peeing on it.

I try to stay organic just because of myself personally, I am quite anxious. When it comes to bottled nutrients it seemed like a lot of marketing bullshit that I don’t have the knowledge to see through yet. So when in doubt, I always revert to “how did man do this before”. It may not be the best, but it’s proven to work by history. Hopefully as I grow as a grower I’ll get more comfortable with it, but I treat my plants kind of like others treat electricity. Why? I know what electricity is going to do. I studied that. Plants? I don’t know man, they’re fucking weird. Lol.

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I know what you mean, I just found my way to make the plants happy and will keep it for the rest, you must do the same. If you want to keep organic there’s a simple way to add Potassium, hope you like bananas … :stuck_out_tongue:

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I actually quite dislike them, but was also considering buying some composting worms this weekend, so hopefully I can amend the soil and keep not eating bananas, but there are worse things in the world.

I also can’t believe I didn’t think of bananas… I couldn’t think of something potassium rich aside from potatoes.

The plant will receive treatment this weekend; how long after recovery should I wait before up potting? It’s one of my bigger ones sadly, but if it’s not healthy enough to put through flower it’s not going to stay in the tent. If that’s the case, is there any harm to leave it in a smaller pot to control growth? Essentially I need to “pause” half of them, I guess. (Well, we’ll see how many boys we get.)

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I think transplanting it to fresh new soil could help in its recovery. If you wait first to recover before transplanting it, then you should wait more before flipping it after done.

I normally transplant them before showing sex and flipping. If later on I find a male it’s easy to pull it and put another plant in that hole, they don’t all have the same timing.

I like to leave them to their normal rythm so they don’t get stressed … :sunglasses:

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