Kalashnikova, Kera Dwarf & Some AK For Good Measure - All Autos - First Grow!

Another quick update....

I've lst'd the dwarf and the kalashnikova, I have also added as much soil as I could to their pots, I hoe that will stimulate some growth as the dwarf has slowed down a lot, the kalashnikova not so much. I have also committed a cardinal sin with my AK, I re - potted her . She was completely stunted and root bound in that little container, I hope what I have done will give her a better chance in the long run.. We shall see!



These were taken after the maintenance!
 
I have also committed a cardinal sin with my AK, I re - potted her .
Your plants are looking great Ozmo, but I really don't think its a big sin to repot. I started mine in 4 oz peat pots, then to 1gallon pots, moved to 3 gallon, and then to 7 gallon, and the plants really didn't notice anything as far as I could tell.. they were ready to flip to 12/12 at 60 days. I just made sure that the mix, sunshine #4, was already damp with my nutes solution when doing it so that the roots are less shocked, and I don't have to overwater to soak the new soil.
 
Happy Wednesday to everyone! Quick update....

Some issues have arrisen, caused by mistakes unfortunately but it's all experience. It would have also been easier if I'd stuck to one strain of plant for my first grow, as I now have 3 plants which have all had the same growing conditions (light, nutrients, pot size etc) but are displaying different symptoms/ailments which is quite stressful!

I'll start with the worst...

Kalashnikova: I think this one is nitrogen toxicity, but it doesn't seem as extreme as photos I'm seeing else where which makes me wonder if I am diagnosing right, it is quite dark green (it's darker than all the others) it's leaves tips claw down, not all of them but most, there is a very small amount of distorted growing (only one leaf) the leaves seem thicker than the other plants and they have a slight shine to them (again, nothing like I'm seeing in photos) and it is growing incrdibly slowly. I plan to flush with ph 6 water and take it from there, any other suggestions are welcome!

The patient:


The other 2 are doing ok, but look like they might be suffering a magnesium deficiency which I must have caused by not ph'ing properly. It's my fault, I thought my ph meter reacted much quicker than it actually does, so I have basically messed up the pH on every feed so far to some degree (what a knob). I have flushed both of the bigger plants, so I hope they won't be affected too badly.

Team shot:


The cash crop I planted last week is flying along, I have a good feeling about that one!

Peace ✌️
 
I repotted the two big ones into 3 gallon pots. Probably my biggest error so far was planting in pots that were too small, i naively thought a plant would grow to the size of its pot! They were developing problems so I had to bite the bullet, strangely they weren't showing any signs of stress after a couple of days so I might have got off lightly! I'll post some pics tomorrow
 
Photo update...
Here are 2 very different plants! .

First up, Kalashnikova (the healthy one!)


I repotted and flushed her 3 days ago, I have been away since then but she looks like she is loving life again, repotting doesn't seem to have caused any stress in this one.

Kera dwarf - the sick one!




I flushed and repotted this one at the same time, this one was showing more signs of distress so it's no surprise it's still having problems. From what I can tell, she is suffering from heat/light stress, I think this because it's the leaves closest to the light that are affected, other things I have read said this could just be signs of general stress (she is growing very slowly too). I think there is some nute burn in there too so I am going to feed less than 1/4 strength until I see some improvement.

One thing I have learnt after leaving my plants for a few days is I need to stop fiddling with them, they are the healthiest they've been for a long time and its because I haven't been here messing things up! Less is more!
 
Hi, I don’t know if anyone is still following my journal, if you are and you can answer this I would be very grateful!
I have been religiously adjusting the ph of the water I have been using, as I said in my previous post I measured the ph of the run off in my 2 bigger plants last week and it was under 5 in both circumstances... which isn’t good right?! I put it down to those being the oldest therefore I’d had longer to mess something up, but now I have measured the run off of all of my plants (the youngest being 2 weeks old) and they are all super acidic... so I am right in thinking that is what the plant is trying to drink, so they have all been locked out of nutrients most of their lives?! Does everyone have this problem? Because I haven’t heard anyone mention it in hundreds of journals I have read?
So I see the only soloution as raising the ph of the water? So when it gets to the roots it is in the correct ph range? I would be really grateful if someone could just say, yep that’s the one or correct me?
Here’s hoping
 
Hey Ozmo. I'm definitely watching but I'm of absolutely no use to you here! Only started checking pH recently and have never checked runoff.
Raising the pH hmmm. Your logic sounds good. Although I would worry it's just addressing the symptoms and not the cause. If there is something in the medium (it's soil right?) acting like a buffer it would keep the pH down. Or maybe it's lost the buffer that kept it up. I don't know, I'm just throwing ideas out there.
I think if it were me I would do a huge flush and lay off the nute feeding totally. If there was still no improvement I would try your idea of bringing the pH up on the next watering.
Fistbump:peace:
 
Hey Ozmo. I'm definitely watching but I'm of absolutely no use to you here! Only started checking pH recently and have never checked runoff.
Raising the pH hmmm. Your logic sounds good. Although I would worry it's just addressing the symptoms and not the cause. If there is something in the medium (it's soil right?) acting like a buffer it would keep the pH down. Or maybe it's lost the buffer that kept it up. I don't know, I'm just throwing ideas out there.
I think if it were me I would do a huge flush and lay off the nute feeding totally. If there was still no improvement I would try your idea of bringing the pH up on the next watering.
Fistbump:peace:
Hey man, thanks for the input!
I tested the ph runoff because the dwarf (one of the bigger 2) was just sick and I couldn’t work it out, so out of interest I thought I’d check... the dwarf was by far the worst, it’s run off came out at around 4! Which explains why it looks so deficient in everything! All the others were around 5.5... i have since found some sources saying you SHOULD expect your runoff to be around 3/4’s to 1 point lower/more acidic than what you put in, this is caused by the nutrients being held in the soil as they are also acidic.... which still confuses me... why are we all preparing our water with the ph that our plants require only for it to be immediately put outside that zone by the soil it’s sat in?! Mind. Blown! .

I’m going coco next time for sure!
 
I got a tdm meter today and some litmus paper, I was suspicious my ph pen is a bit sketchy and I was right. Using litmus paper and my meter for back up I can't go wrong... Surely?!

The dwarf was well out of whack, the runoff was at 1900.. no doubt it's nearly dead! Flushed until ppm out was similar to that going in, the pH of run off was also low so I raised that (using baking powder or bicarbonate of soda as it's called here, I've found other growers using this as pH up.. it's much cheaper!
Runoff pH was at 6 and ppm 800when I finished.

Kalashnikova was also out of whack but not as bad, now I've fixed that I hope to see the girls putting on a bit of weight.
 
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