Bruce Banner Marries A Watermelon - SIP Grow

[g-one-three]

Day 44 and day 6 of flower:

It’s kind of hard to tell in the pictures but I do think that they might be starting make a change in the right direction as far as coloring goes. I’m thinking the flushing, top feeding, upping their nutes, and ph’ing might have helped.

Only time will tell at this point. They are still growing and I think this weekend I will get in a do a small defole on them. Also clean up the leaves that show sever cal/mag deficiencies so that it is easier to see any new signs of that.

Fingers crossed I am on the right track with them!

Family photo day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

WG day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

WG top day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

Watermelon day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

Watermelon top day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

Banner day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

Banner top day 44

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 14, 2024

I see some nice buds in your future! Hopefully the girls appreciate all your efforts and get inline.

 

[Ke0ncp]

I see some nice buds in your future! Hopefully the girls appreciate all your efforts and get inline.

Certainly hope so Im learning a ton this grow, more than I expected honestly. I’m hoping for smoother waters ahead, though now that they are in flower I think it’s likely I will be chasing them the rest of the grow.

 

[Wastei]

Day 41 and day 3 of flower:

First day of PH’ing nutes to 6.0 and fed them 6gr/gal to fill their reservoirs.

Over all they look healthy and continue to grow. Though as I mentioned previously I think I was too light on their feedings and they look a lighter shade of green overall than they should.

I’ve also attached some pictures of the spotting, yellowing and dead ends that all 3 plants are experiencing.

Hopefully adjusting PH and increasing nutes will help.

Family photo Day 41

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

Watermelon day 41

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

Banner b day 41

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

Banner day 41

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

WG day 41

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

WG b day 41

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

Spotting 1

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

Spotting 2

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

dead ends

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 11, 2024

It's not common for a peat based medium to be alkaline. Peat has a natural pH below 4.0.

I would guess your pH is actually acidic, not alkaline but it's hard to know without any pH tests.

If I were growing in SIP I would invest in a soil pH meter since there's no runoff to monitor or measure pH from.

Here's bluelabs soil meter.

Cheers bud!

 

[Ke0ncp]

It's not common for a peat based medium to be alkaline. Peat has a natural pH below 4.0.

I would guess your pH is actually acidic, not alkaline but it's hard to know without any pH tests.

If I were growing in SIP I would invest in a soil pH meter since there's no runoff to monitor or measure pH from.

Here's bluelabs soil meter.

Cheers bud!

You know, I hadn’t even considered this as an option….

I purchased a cheaper probe and will test it tomorrow when it arrives.

I am interested to see what it says

I never thought that I might need to get a ph agent haha

 

[Virgin Ground]

Interesting. Well I will keep an eye on them and see how they progress.

My tap PH has been wildly up and down. Like 7.2 - 8.4 so not sure what’s up with that!

Are you off gassing your water before use? Mine comes out at 8.2-8.5 and settles in the 7s after 24 hrs.

I don't think that you necessarily have a pH issue but rather the plant may be stressed from environmental factors.
Just my $.02.

How hard are you pushing the lighting?
I'm in the camp of thinking that a plant pushed too hard is an unhealthy one. I don't really run my lights at 100% anymore. My plants have improved since the switch.

The pH range for ProMix is 6.3-6.5. This has been verified through an email conversation with Premier Tech as well as info on their website.
I wouldn't pH for coco.

 

[Ke0ncp]

Are you off gassing your water before use? Mine comes out at 8.2-8.5 and settles in the 7s after 24 hrs.

I don't think that you necessarily have a pH issue but rather the plant may be stressed from environmental factors.
Just my $.02.

How hard are you pushing the lighting?
I'm in the camp of thinking that a plant pushed too hard is an unhealthy one. I don't really run my lights at 100% anymore. My plants have improved since the switch.

The pH range for ProMix is 6.3-6.5. This has been verified through an email conversation with Premier Tech as well as info on their website.
I wouldn't pH for coco.

VG great to see you drop in hope all is well!

At the start of the grow I was pushing lights a little hard. I have since backed off the lights to 917 ppfd and 39.61 DLI which might still be a bit on the high side for what stage in flower they are.

I’ve also been able to maintain a 1.3 VPD in the tent since the flip and a .9 - 1.1 during veg. So I think that I am pretty close to where I should be environmentally speaking. But I am still learning all of this so I am sure there is room for me to improve on all of these items.

I’ve been premixing my nutes 3 gallons at a time, though they have been enclosed after making up the nutes.

My water PH out of the tap has been all over the place lately.

That’s what thought about the PH thing with Promix but wasn’t sure. I have that pen coming tomorrow so I can get a better idea of what it actually going on in regard to the soil ph.

I see you started a new journal! I’m going to pop over there and check it out here in a few!

 

[Ke0ncp]

Day 45 and day 7 of flower:

Ok so I am most certainly seeing a change in the right direction, slowly by surely!

I have the soil ph pen coming tomorrow so I can get good look at what’s actually happening there.

For now I am going to just continue with what I am doing for the time being as it seems to be working

It’s still kind of hard to tell in the pics.

Family photo Day 45

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

WG day 45

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

Watermelon day 45

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

Watermelon top day 45

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

Banner day 45

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

Banner top day 45

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

IMG_2339.jpeg

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

IMG_2340.jpeg

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

IMG_2341.jpeg

• Ke0ncp
• Mar 15, 2024

 

[Ke0ncp]

Mine comes out at 8.2-8.5 and settles in the 7s after 24 hrs.

I had promised you in my previous grow journal that I would see what mine looks like after 24 hours considering our water makeup should be pretty similar and I’m never actually did that….

So here we go.

Today my water is coming out to 7.6 out of the tap.

After nutes I am at 7.0 even.

I mixed up 2 gallons worth of nutes and split the batch into two 1 gallon jugs. I’m going to leave 1 with the cap off and the other with the cap on and see what the difference in PH is this time tomorrow.

 

[Virgin Ground]

I had promised you in my previous grow journal that I would see what mine looks like after 24 hours considering our water makeup should be pretty similar and I’m never actually did that….

So here we go.

Today my water is coming out to 7.6 out of the tap.

After nutes I am at 7.0 even.

I mixed up 2 gallons worth of nutes and split the batch into two 1 gallon jugs. I’m going to leave 1 with the cap off and the other with the cap on and see what the difference in PH is this time tomorrow.

I haven't been around much so it's probably been mentioned but did you calibrate your pH pen and check batteries?

I know that here in Minnesota the municipal water plants flush their systems a few times per year. They usually do it in the early spring.

This could explain some of the fluctuations in your tap pH as well.

Could be that MC doesn't work well in self watering pots. I know they make a hydro 2 part version. I think it's the same components from the one part but split so you can fine tune it a bit.

I'll see if maybe one of the other growers is using MC in SIPs. See if they are doing anything differently.

 

[Ke0ncp]

did you calibrate your pH pen and check batteries?

The pen comes tomorrow so I will be able to see what the promix is ph’ing at. I have 2 ph meters for liquid and they say the same thing.

Could be that MC doesn't work well in self watering pots. I know they make a hydro 2 part version. I think it's the same components from the one part but split so you can fine tune it a bit.

I'll see if maybe one of the other growers is using MC in SIPs. See if they are doing anything differently

I know there are other SIPers out there using promix and MC which is what’s kind of throwing me off :/

I will get it dialed in, eventually hahahah

Thanks for asking around though I am always interested in someone else’s experience

 

[Ke0ncp]

So here we go.

Today my water is coming out to 7.6 out of the tap.

After nutes I am at 7.0 even.

I mixed up 2 gallons worth of nutes and split the batch into two 1 gallon jugs. I’m going to leave 1 with the cap off and the other with the cap on and see what the difference in PH is this time tomorrow.

22 hours later

Open Nutes came in at 7.2 and closed one stayed steady at 7.0. I would have expected the opposite.

 

[InTheShed]

Keep an eye on whichever plant this is, because it looks a bit light-stressed:

Yeah I have upped their nutes as that’s what it looks like to me too. If by the end of the week they are not looking happier I will increase by another gr/g

Remember that excess K locks out N, and you're pretty high on the K at 6g/gallon already.

As for the ph thing, I guess technically promix is a soiless media so maybe I should be aiming for lower than I am thinking…

The manufacturer of ProMix considers their product to be pH buffered for shorter grows, but over time nitrate fertilizers (like MC) will cause the pH of the ProMix to rise (details in the first post here). ProMix is pH'd at the factory to the mid to high 5s, so if the pH of the medium is above 6.2 it will make the plant begin to show deficiencies. To fix that you can change nutes or begin to introduce sulfur into the medium from above.

I did a full flushing of all three plants yesterday with about 2 gallons per plant. Then I top fed to about 1/3 their reservoirs and then filled the reservoirs with 6gr/gal.

If they still look like they're N deficient, try a good flush and re-feed from the top) at 5g/gallon instead.

 

[Wastei]

Keep an eye on whichever plant this is, because it looks a bit light-stressed:

Remember that excess K locks out N, and you're pretty high on the K at 6g/gallon already.

The manufacturer of ProMix considers their product to be pH buffered for shorter grows, but over time nitrate fertilizers (like MC) will cause the pH of the ProMix to rise (details in the first post here). ProMix is pH'd at the factory to the mid to high 5s, so if the pH of the medium is above 6.2 it will make the plant begin to show deficiencies. To fix that you can change nutes or begin to introduce sulfur into the medium from above.

If they still look like they're N deficient, try a good flush and re-feed from the top) at 5g/gallon instead.

If he's in pro-mix/peat it often has a pH of 5.5-6.5 on local peat mixes. Never had any deficiencies. The picture looks like Mg def and K tox to me, those two goes hand in hand with excess light.

Like you mentioned Promix is lightly amended and without any buffers to compensate for low pH the only option is to raise pH on the input at mid to late flower.

 

[InTheShed]

Like you mentioned Promix is lightly amended and without any buffers to compensate for low pH the only option is to raise pH on the input at mid to late flower.

ProMix is buffered with lime to get it from its natural ~4.0 to the high 5s. In my experience it's fine as is for shorter grows, but with the nitrate content of MC and longer veg times, the pH will climb high enough for the manufacturer to recommend lowering it using one of the two methods I mentioned. I had a years-long email conversation with one of their grow scientists.

 

[Wastei]

ProMix is buffered with lime to get it from it's natural 4.0 to the high 5s. In my experience it's fine as is for shorter grows, but with the nitrate content of MC and longer veg times, the pH will climb high enough for the manufacturer to recommend lowering it using one of the two methods I mentioned. I had a years-long email conversation with one of their grow scientists.

It's fine for short veg and flower but you're better of transplanting before entering flowering in Promix to not have to add back gypsum.

I've never had a peat based medium go high in pH in mid to late flower. That's from gardening and growing weed for 30+ years with many different plant foods.

MC goes low in pH if anything from my experience, that's using RO and the reason why they keep changing their formula to combat pH related issues. They've added more carbonates two times in a row and tried to compensate that with higher Calcium nitrate and MKP in the new formula to create a higher and more stable pH.

They've gone from 5-12-26 to 8-12-28 because of pH related issues. I've also had a long conversation with sales reps from Mega Crop and I believe there's no "grow scientist" replying on their incoming mail. They were even trying to talk down on users experiencing problems on other forums blaming user error instead of admitting to the problem. I wouldn't take their words as gospel.

 

[InTheShed]

It's fine for short veg and flower but you're better of transplanting before entering flowering in Promix to not have to add back gypsum.

I've never had a peat based medium go high in pH in mid to late flower. That's from gardening and growing weed for 30+ years with many different plant foods.

MC goes low in pH if anything from my experience, that's using RO and the reason why they keep changing their formula to combat pH related issues. They've added more carbonates two times in a row and tried to compensate that with higher Calcium nitrate and MKP in the new formula to create a higher and more stable pH.

They've gone from 5-12-26 to 8-12-28 because of pH related issues. I've also had a long conversation with sales reps from Mega Crop and I believe there's no "grow scientist" replying on their incoming mail. They were even trying to talk down on users experiencing problems on other forums blaming user error instead of admitting the problem. I wouldn't take their words as gospel.

The grow scientist was at the folks who make ProMix. My emails with Greenleaf could have been answered by chimps!

 

[Ke0ncp]

Keep an eye on whichever plant this is, because it looks a bit light-stressed:

Yes I noticed that too. I need to raise my lights a little as the plants have grown a tad close to them.

Remember that excess K locks out N, and you're pretty high on the K at 6g/gallon already.

It does look like N deficiency, at least what google shows me. But what’s odd about this to me is that it started really bad when I was at 4 gr/gal. And what’s frustrating is that MC on their packaging suggests 6gr/gal. I know this is a ballpark range, but they then suggest to increase the gr/gal “until your plants leaves are a healthy GREEN color!”

The manufacturer of ProMix considers their product to be pH buffered for shorter grows, but over time nitrate fertilizers (like MC) will cause the pH of the ProMix to rise (details in the first post here). ProMix is pH'd at the factory to the mid to high 5s, so if the pH of the medium is above 6.2 it will make the plant begin to show deficiencies. To fix that you can change nutes or begin to introduce sulfur into the medium from above.

Thanks for the link there. I will take a look at that. I have a new soil ph pen sitting in the grow room so I can see exactly where it is currently.

If they still look like they're N deficient, try a good flush and re-feed from the top) at 5g/gallon instead.

They are starting to look better. Slowly but surely.

It’s most certainly been an interesting ride so far on this grow. Started off really strong and then I’ve been on the struggle bus since.

Today I want to get in and do some clean up on them. I’m going to get rid of any leaves that have any dead spots on them. I’m not going to touch lower yellowing leaves as I don’t want that to move up to the next node.

 

[Chuckeye]

Yes I noticed that too. I need to raise my lights a little as the plants have grown a tad close to them.

The usual recommendation is to hold you hand palm side down at the top of the leaves. If it feels warm the lights are too close.

It does look like N deficiency, at least what google shows me. But what’s odd about this to me is that it started really bad when I was at 4 gr/gal. And what’s frustrating is that MC on their packaging suggests 6gr/gal. I know this is a ballpark range, but they then suggest to increase the gr/gal “until your plants leaves are a healthy GREEN color!”

Their feed schedule gives recommended amounts at each stage of growth. When were you feeding 4g/gallon ?
Did you work your way up to 4g/gallon ?

Since you flipped relatively early I would say you are in their normal veg range which is 4g/gallon.

I don't increase feed until I see them "ask" for it. And that is the beginning of yellowing on the bottom leaves or light colored new growth.

Today I want to get in and do some clean up on them. I’m going to get rid of any leaves that have any dead spots on them. I’m not going to touch lower yellowing leaves as I don’t want that to move up to the next node.

I would also take the lower yellow leaves, they have done their job. I like to monitor the next fully green level up...

Cheers

 

[Chuckeye]

BTW > I have had plants burnt to heck @ 5g/gallon in mid flower...

The feed chart is only a recommendation, you need to "read" the plant

More is not better !

Cheers

 

[Ke0ncp]

posting error see below whoops LOL