Jon's Final Florida Journal For Real

[Jon]

Was the line on your refractometer crisp or fuzzy? A crisp line means calcium is low.

Brix is a mix of calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, carbon, microbes/fungii and adequate light to drive it all.

Calcium needs to be proper 1st. Then the others.

Also too much nitrogen will lower brix.

If the calcium line was fuzzy then O2 is likely good, so phos, carbon, and microbes should be looked at next. And of course, not too much nitrogen.

Thanks Gee. I don’t have lines, mine is digital. I just get a number. But the quality of the drop I manage to squeeze seems to make a difference. As does the ambient light level. I gotta do some research and see if there’s a best practices. It’s hard to get a full, complete drop by just squeezing a leaf, at least the way I’m doing it. Is it always hard? But if I had to guess between N or Ca I’d go with the N overload. I have a few tips curled down in the low leaves. How would that happen? Too much GeoFlora? Too often on the Wholly Mackerel? But all three of the plants colors seem good all around. How would I increase Calcium?

 

[NickHardy]

Which sensor did you get? & Co takes a bunch of leaves probably 3x standard 3” across leaves and puts them in a ziplok type bag without the zip cheapo things) and bashes fk out them and sort of rolls them with basically a wooden billy club. Then takes a wooden toothpick and pricks a tiny hole in the corner to drop the 1ml of precious hard won green liquid out.

I have managed to beg and cajole her to do this only two times previously.

Tomorrow I need about six

I don't like my odds of success.

 

[Gee64]

Thanks Gee. I don’t have lines, mine is digital. I just get a number. But the quality of the drop I manage to squeeze seems to make a difference. As does the ambient light level. I gotta do some research and see if there’s a best practices. It’s hard to get a full, complete drop by just squeezing a leaf, at least the way I’m doing it. Is it always hard? But if I had to guess between N or Ca I’d go with the N overload. I have a few tips curled down in the low leaves. How would that happen? Too much GeoFlora? Too often on the Wholly Mackerel? But all three of the plants colors seem good all around. How would I increase Calcium?

Once your grow is growing, EWC as a top dress will maintain calcium, but to actually increase it, a liquid calcium solution is needed.

Calmag or dolomite water or such.

I'm not familiar with whats in Geoflora, but if its high in nitrogen then that could do it.

It's not actually the nitrogen directly.

Nitrogen requires more water to work, so the plant uses more water when it gets fed nitrogen. That excess water waters the sap down and brix tumbles.

 

[Gee64]

This is an analog refractometer. You look into it like a mini telescope. The left scale is brix. This is 10.5 brix but see the line, its mediocre fuzzy. Calcium is fairly good. A crisp line would mean low, a really fuzzy one is primo.

 

[Jon]

Once your grow is growing, EWC as a top dress will maintain calcium, but to actually increase it, a liquid calcium solution is needed.

Calmag or dolomite water or such.

I'm not familiar with whats in Geoflora, but if its high in nitrogen then that could do it.

It's not actually the nitrogen directly.

Nitrogen requires more water to work, so the plant uses more water when it gets fed nitrogen. That excess water waters the sap down and brix tumbles.

Thanks @Gee64 - well I can add calmag easy enough. Think it would be better to do that than to do nothing? I normally would have by now but I was trying to stay as true to organic as I could. Since I’m not actually organic, guess it is better to bite to bullet and just add calmag?

 

[Jon]

This is an analog refractometer. You look into it like a mini telescope. The left scale is brix. This is 10.5 brix but see the line, its mediocre fuzzy. Calcium is fairly good. A crisp line would mean low, a really fuzzy one is primo.

Yeah I watched a couple videos on how to use them. My eyes are not great, and I wear glasses. After the videos and digesting that I’d have to recognize the difference between a sharp line and a fuzzy one, and seeing how finely it’s graded with the lines close together, I figured I’d be better off with digital. That said, I can see that with digi you lose the gradient lines. My numbers don’t show up on the display either sharp or fuzzy, lol. That would be ideal. I will have to do the best I can with it.

 

[Jon]

Which sensor did you get? & Co takes a bunch of leaves probably 3x standard 3” across leaves and puts them in a ziplok type bag without the zip cheapo things) and bashes fk out them and sort of rolls them with basically a wooden billy club. Then takes a wooden toothpick and pricks a tiny hole in the corner to drop the 1ml of precious hard won green liquid out.

I have managed to beg and cajole her to do this only two times previously.

Tomorrow I need about six

I don't like my odds of success.

I got a milwaukee brand MA871.

 

[KeithLemon]

I got a milwaukee brand MA871.

Cool I like Milwaukee products. I do not know anything about this thing, but it looks cool.

 

[Jon]

Cool I like Milwaukee products. I do not know anything about this thing, but it looks cool.

Lol! That’s how I felt when I got it @KeithLemon. It’s actually really easy. It measures the sugar content in your plant, ie, the health of the plant. You mash up some leaves and squeeze out a drop of liquid (it’s green, lol). Drop it on the lens and press read. That’s it. It gives you a number you don’t like and then you gotta ask a bunch of questions.

 

[Gee64]

Thanks @Gee64 - well I can add calmag easy enough. Think it would be better to do that than to do nothing? I normally would have by now but I was trying to stay as true to organic as I could. Since I’m not actually organic, guess it is better to bite to bullet and just add calmag?

If you feel there is a calcium deficiency then yes, fix it as quick as you can.

Keep using EWC and in awhile you may not need the calmag. If calcium is out everything else will soon suffer.

Calmag is my favorite rescue tool. I try not to need it but when you do you do.

 

[Gee64]

Blackberry Moonrocks

I’m getting excited about this girl. I love the self made canopy she’s got and her emerald green color. Her structure is pretty cool too. She is much more side branchy than she appears. I have chopped them, you can see the nubs in the stems. She’s getting ready to flip. Check out the extent to which I have cleaned this one out all the way to the present colas almost. Long, straight branches with no bends. Whose plant is this again? Lmao. With a few more days of growth plus the stretch and with continuing to chop all side branching, every top should become quite significant. In the side by side picture you see her size relative to the SG. She is likely to at least match her in the stretch.

Thats such a cool shape, flower it out like a bouquet.

How tall do you think it will get?

 

[Jon]

If you feel there is a calcium deficiency then yes, fix it as quick as you can.

Keep using EWC and in awhile you may not need the calmag. If calcium is out everything else will soon suffer.

Calmag is my favorite rescue tool. I try not to need it but when you do you do.

I think at a minimum the Skywalker needs it. I noticed a couple tips starting to turn a bit. They all get a half watering tomorrow. Tell me @Gee64 if this is bullshit or has validity. I never knew the mulch trick to pull your feeder up and get them roaring. What I occasionally do is, if the bottom of the pot is still wet or damp but the top is dry, I’ll give them a “Half feeding.” I basically just use a half gallon instead of a gallon, and water super slow all over the entire medium. If you water slowly enough, I’ve always thought you can kind of feed just the top half of the pot in that fashion. Maybe at least give the upper roots a fighting chance? Anyway, I’ll do that tomorrow with all them and give them all a shot of calmag. Can’t hurt.

 

[Jon]

Thats such a cool shape, flower it out like a bouquet.

How tall do you think it will get?

Idk @Gee64. The specs if they’re to be believed say she maxes at 3.94 feet (for real, lol). I’m comfortable to call that four feet. I don’t know, but doubt, that the breeders base those stats on a coco or hydro or SIP grow. I think they’re based on a basic soil grow. So I think mine will potentially be bigger than four feet. She’s 18” tall at the moment and still firmly in veg, and she just now hit her higher veg gear and is drinking at a rate I expect. Faster than she has to this point. With autos I find you can easily tell when they hit that gear. Never grown one in soil organically but it seems to be how they “work,” as I experienced this in auto/soil/nute grows as well. If so it would likely be true growing them your style too. When the plant hits that next gear, it usually means about maybe a week or ten days til she starts to pistil and flip, as a sort of general rule I’ve noticed based only observation. Strain dependent of course and sometimes they never find that gear depending on their genetics. Example: I grew two White Widow autos. One was a freebie and mystery breeder seed - usually whatever they have extra stock of cuz it didn’t sell. That plant was shit. Then I grew one from a source I knew was good, and it won PLOTM. Good genetics are important with autos. Maybe more so than photos. An auto with sub par genetics is not worth growing at all. I stick with a small handful of breeders that I know will give me results. I’m much more comfortable using a new breeder I never tried with a photo. Lots of crap autos out there.

Anyhoo - if I were to pin down a prediction I’ll say she maxes at 4’8”.

 

[Jon]

Calmag or dolomite water or such.

I'm not familiar with whats in Geoflora, but if its high in nitrogen then that could do it.

It's not actually the nitrogen directly.

Nitrogen requires more water to work, so the plant uses more water when it gets fed nitrogen. That excess water waters the sap down and brix tumbles.

I'm getting the distinct impression that it’s a lot easier to crash your Brix than it is to bring it back up…?

 

[Melville Hobbes]

The specs if they’re to be believed say she maxes at 3.94 feet (for real, lol).

Lol, that's 1.2m converted to imperial.

 

[Gee64]

I think at a minimum the Skywalker needs it. I noticed a couple tips starting to turn a bit. They all get a half watering tomorrow. Tell me @Gee64 if this is bullshit or has validity. I never knew the mulch trick to pull your feeder up and get them roaring. What I occasionally do is, if the bottom of the pot is still wet or damp but the top is dry, I’ll give them a “Half feeding.” I basically just use a half gallon instead of a gallon, and water super slow all over the entire medium. If you water slowly enough, I’ve always thought you can kind of feed just the top half of the pot in that fashion. Maybe at least give the upper roots a fighting chance? Anyway, I’ll do that tomorrow with all them and give them all a shot of calmag. Can’t hurt.

1st, the gentler you can water the better it is in organics. The soil has a structure to it that the microlife uses and lives in, so watering gentle helps not damage that structure.

I like to keep my entire rootball damp all the time. Like a sauna, or a fairly wrung out sponge.

If thats your geoflora pot, yeah its best off damp all the time. More damp and less damp is ok, just not soggy or dry.

As for calmag, or a tea, or anything you are putting into the soil, I find if you gently water to full saturation, then add the tea or feed or calmag, it seems to get through the entire rootball better.

The "gentle" is why I like dripper heads.

I lift my pots every 4 or 5 days and if they are getting light I increase dripper times as the grow progresses.

 

[Jon]

Lol, that's 1.2m converted to imperial.

Lol! Of course! I didn’t do the math in reverse. You damn Europeans and your cursed metric system. Why must I be forced to think in base 10 if I don’t want to?

 

[Gee64]

I'm getting the distinct impression that it’s a lot easier to crash your Brix than it is to bring it back up…?

it is . All brix is, is a measurement of how much sugar is stored in a leaf, or the entire plant for that matter. Sugar is a product of photosynthesis.

So the more photosynthesis taking place, the more sugar.

Anything can interupt photosynthesis. A light failure, improper watering, bad ph, nutrient deficiencies, etc. What promotes it, other than light, which drives it, is the amount of carbon, oxygen, calcium, phosphorus, and microbes to process it all.

So if you have high brix and an issue, like my light crashing, then photosynthesis gets compramised and sugar stops being produced in excess, and the plant starts to draw sugar from the leaves and brix drops.

When you fix the problem and start producing sugars again you need to 1st support yourself, and then start paying the sugar bank back to see brix rise again.

Its something you really want to stay ahead on. Over 12 is A-OK, but you have no buffer for an Oopsie. I strive to become over 12 as early in the plants life as possible.

Carbon often gets overlooked in the early stages. The carbon a plant feeds the microbes is from CO2 in the air. We all know plants breath CO2, but what most fail to realize when starting out in organics, is that microbes eat carbon.

Its their favorite food.

They can't eat CO2 in the air, they need it from the soil, so you need raw carbon in your soil for the microbes until the plant gets over 12 and can start feeding carbon (sugar) to the microbes. Like priming the pump, so to speak. Healthier microbes means more food, phosphorus in particular.

Coco is excellent carbon. It's density is perfect. Perfect carbon raises brix quicker in a plants life.

 

[Gee64]

That bouquet will be gorgeous at 56" tall!

 

[Jon]

1st, the gentler you can water the better it is in organics. The soil has a structure to it that the microlife uses and lives in, so watering gentle helps not damage that structure.

I like to keep my entire rootball damp all the time. Like a sauna, or a fairly wrung out sponge.

If thats your geoflora pot, yeah its best off damp all the time. More damp and less damp is ok, just not soggy or dry.

As for calmag, or a tea, or anything you are putting into the soil, I find if you gently water to full saturation, then add the tea or feed or calmag, it seems to get through the entire rootball better.

The "gentle" is why I like dripper heads.

I lift my pots every 4 or 5 days and if they are getting light I increase dripper times as the grow progresses.

Thanks. Makes sense. So once you get them praying as you like, you are able to keep the pot moist all the time and they still pray?

So this morning I gave them all a hit of my Humboldt’s Secret CalMag plus Iron. Great calmag. Gentle. It’s 2-0-0. I use it for the daily calmag requirement when growing in coco, exactly cuz it’s light. I also have the Blue Planet powdered CalMag Pro Formula, which is 8-0-0 with 15% C and 5.5% Mg. I use it for emergency use. Lol. I gave them all a hit of the light stuff.

The color on the clone is great imo, what do you think? (She’s still coming up this morning in the picture)

Also, here are some leaf tip pics of the Skywalker concern. Any thoughts on these? She’s the only plant showing this, and all have identical pot mixes.

Thanks @Gee64.

Oh, also I included a picture of the light bars to show you how much reds get added with the flower booster jump to 680 watts, and a picture of the garden wake up environment. I’m great with those numbers for lights out.