HappyHazmat88
Inhale Confidence, Exhale Doubt
Yea they are nice and neatly kept like a bonsai tree... Idk haha just looks very zenHi Happy! Bonsai-ness? I love it!
Meffa's Winter 2021 Grow: GDP, Sirius Black, 8-Ball Kush, Gelato OG, Old School
- Thread starter meffa
- Start date
Good morning @meffa hope you are well today my friend.Wednesday 05-Jan || 62 Days In Dirt || 0 Days Since Watered
All of the ladies were watered today with Cal/Mag, Silica, and Fulvic Acid. They went a good 9 days between the last watering, likely due to my up-potting and topping within a day of each other, but they're growing now and will be moving to flower in the next week or so.
One of my GDP's has something going on that I think is a deficiency but I'm not sure. The leaf tips on new growth are coming in pale/yellowish. Anyone have an idea what's going on? I thought it was a Mag deficiency and foliar sprayed with epsom two days in a row.
How is your ph?
Is it possible 9 days was too long in between watering?
Yellow tips is either ph, watering issues or lack of nutrients?
That's fresh soil with nutrients in it right?
But you just uppotted so roots possibly not into new soil yet?
What nutrients do you use?
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #23
meffa
Well-Known Member
Hi Bill,
I haven't checked pH for the last three grows, I was told with soil you don't have to, especially with growing organically.
I'm using R/O water.
I'm using Geoflora that gets top dressed.
Yes, fresh soil and my up-pot was almost 3 weeks ago. I'm guessing the roots are pretty well into the new soil at this point but don't know for sure.
I let the plants go without any Geoflora for the first 45 days because the soil is pretty rich (Coast of Maine Platinum Growers Mix), and top-dressed with Geoflora for the first time at their last watering 9-10 days ago.
I let them go 9 days without watering, but the pots weren't completely dried out until I watered, and the new growth had been coming in with yellow tips for a good week or so.
The other 6 plants are all fine, including the other GDP.
I'm not overly concerned, but I would like to remedy if possibly vs sitting on my hands not doing anything.
- Thread starter
- #24
meffa
Well-Known Member
@Bill284 I forgot I saved a pretty well written review that someone wrote for Coast Of Maine Growers Mix. It mentions a Magnesium deficiency. It's pretty long but I'm going to add it here in case someone else wants to see it or I lose it myself.
Coast of Maine Growers Mix Review (note they've changed the name around a bit)
I have purchased this particular mix 4 times. And I use this mix as a base for cannabis.
I have grown both auto-flowers and photoperiod cannabis in this soil.
Because I have used this product exclusively for cannabis, I can only tell you how it is for that... and if you are considering this soil for use with your cannabis, this is the review you are looking for!
This soil is marketed as a one pot shot super soil for cannabis. My first impression when opening the bag was the beauty of the soil. Amended with smooth water weathered pebbles and chunks of crustacean shell, the soil is a rich blend of decomposed coir and loamy compost. It is silky to the touch which makes it a pleasure to work with bare hands. I found this soil to be fairly fresh and free of common pests like fungus gnats.
Functionality:
this soil is just a bit too strong for seedlings. Auto-flowers are especially susceptible to primary leaf burning immediately upon breaking the surface after germination. This slows down your veg period a few days. Because of this, I do not recommend using this soil with auto-flowers due to the requirement that auto-lowers be germinated in the pot it will live in until harvest.
HOWEVER, I have germinated from seed photoperiod seedlings which did just fine.
This is strain dependent of course.
Juvenile cannabis plants in veg really break out at a gallop in this soil. And when they do, you will notice early on that many strains will show a magnesium deficiency. This is a slight deficiency, but a deficiency nonetheless and if you don't amend this soil with magnesium prior to planting, you will be forced to use premix or dry mix magnesium in your watering... I did two max doses (10ml per gallon of a prebagged dry mix of cal mag plus iron) and I believe that did the job maybe a little too much actually. I recommend two half strength shots at 5ml per gal of cal mag plus iron dry mix or 2.5ml of you are using botanicare or another premade bottled brand which are both double the strength of the dry mix i use.
The magnesium problem is due to the coir base of the soil. They had to add enough to cover veg... however if they added enough for veg AND flower in the mix, it would be too much and kill your vegging plants by locking everything else out (magnesium is also used as a flushing solution). I do believe there is enough calcium provided with the crustacean shells... but don't hold me to that! More wouldn't hurt!
This is called: the unhappy balance.
They failed to add a slow release amendment to compliment the immediately available and most likely magnesium sulfate they used. Which is a cheap and quick fix. (More on that later)
Further on into flower, you will notice a yellow V forming on the tips... this I believe is a micronutrient deficiency. A shot of hydrolyzed fish and kelp will solve that at the expense of adding too much nitrogen mid-flower.
This paired with a sulfur deficiency due to the magnesium sulfate becoming an early crutch of the manufacturers composition theory, means that fermented fish and kelp will help immensely. The soil is alive... however it could use recharging with probiotics a couple times throughout flowering as well.
The potassium in this mix is through the roof due to the decomposed coir, however the phosphorus and sulfur are depleted quickly and need to be added through watering with a synthetic p/k booster plus sulfur. I REALLY DISLIKE HAVING TO DO THAT. The point to using this soil is that it is organic. Now my pot isn't organic no matter what wonderful hippy flavored crab shells and smooth rocks are in the soil. This is no Bueno.
If you are growing with cfl lights, t5 lights or another weaker light source, you most likely will not encounter these problems because you are not going to be able to push the plant to the point where it is ravenously consuming the available nutrients in this soil.
Now... some good things: the soil has lots of great organic amendments that truly push the fragrance of your flowers into a realm you most likely have never encountered. And for me, that is why I am going to keep using it. Also it really does burst in bud sites... more than my coir drain to waste plants have been showing. Much more.
The skinny: I say this is great soil for quality and average soil for yield. If you want a good harvest you will have to feed. No way around it.
I do not believe the soil is worth 50 dollars per bag. It is much different than fox farms, and much more refined... however, I believe that with a good BTi drench to remove the fungus gnats in fox farms (and after picking out all the wood sticks!), you would get equal if not better yields with more trichomes with fox farms soil which is half the price.
The ph in the root zone could be off causing an uptake issue.
Geoflora usually doesn't have a deficiency, usually!
Have you ever checked the ph of your ro water.
Or the run off.
I think it would be beneficial to check those two things before we do anything else.
Let's get ahead of this before it gets out of hand.
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #26
meffa
Well-Known Member
Hi Bill,
I checked the RO pH when I first started using it but not recently. It was on the high side. I haven't checked the runoff pH and will do. I can check the RO today and will wait for the runoff until next time I water, unless you think I should water it again today to check runoff?
Hey @meffa
No ,if you just watered don't do it again.
Check what's going in for now when you get a minute.
If I had to guess it might be too high but let's see.
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #28
Ok that's a problem.
Way too high for your soil to overcome. That is preventing them from from having all the nutrients available to them.
You will have some work to do my friend.
After you add your calmag and anything else set your ph of your mix to 6.3.
Last thing you do is set ph to 6.3 of anything going into your pots.
This will be important for the rest of your grow.
If you don't that yellow tip issue will be everywhere.
Everything looks great.
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #30
meffa
Well-Known Member
Ok, I'm on it! I was reading about what to use with organic growing and saw lemon juice was recommended to bring the pH down. I saw something specifically for organics called Earth Juice, but if lemon juice is just as good I'll go with that. What are your thoughts on what to use?Ok that's a problem.
That is preventing them from from having all the nutrients available to them.
You will have some work to do my friend.
After you add your calmag and anything else set your ph of your mix to 6.3.
Last thing you do is set ph to 6.3 of anything going into your pots.
This will be important for the rest of your grow.
If you don't that yellow tip issue will be everywhere.
Everything looks great.
Stay safe
Bill
I was debating telling you to do a flush with lemon juice.
But I went back and checked first and they don't seem bad so I didn't think it was necessary at this point.
You can try it with the bad one if you would like to try.
But just feeding proper ph nutrient water should turn her around.
Since your in soil you won't be able to tell right away though.
Let's keep a close eye on all the others though.
And her too.
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #32
meffa
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't be able to flush due to logistics of how I'm setup and cold weather. I really haven't had any obvious issues with using this RO water, and I'm wondering how much better my crops would have been if I have been pH'ing sooner!I was debating telling you to do a flush with lemon juice.
But I went back and checked first and they don't seem bad so I didn't think it was necessary at this point.
You can try it with the bad one if you would like to try.
But just feeding proper ph nutrient water should turn her around.
Since your in soil you won't be able to tell right away though.
Let's keep a close eye on all the others though.
And her too.
Stay safe
Bill
That question I can't answer.
Best practices moving forward is my recommendation though.
Learn from what you have done previously and move forward.
This hobby will give you sleepless nights if you start thinking what if.
Everything looks great just make sure going forward keep track of all the stuff you do.
Log as much as you can here ,that way you will have it forever to reference further grows.
6.3 ph going forward.
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #34
meffa
Well-Known Member
Yeah I can admit that my mood changes a bit when things start going south, which has mainly been that damn powdery mildew! I have a much better plan of attack now between what I'm planning for sterilizing the tents and equipment, to how to treat the plants if it it appears.
I pH'd my very first grow because I was using bottled nutes and thought it needed to be pH'd to break the salt bond (chelation?). I was ecstatic when I was told with organic growing you don't need to pH the water, but I'll start doing it again if that's what's needed.
PM will break anyone's heart.Yeah I can admit that my mood changes a bit when things start going south, which has mainly been that damn powdery mildew! I have a much better plan of attack now between what I'm planning for sterilizing the tents and equipment, to how to treat the plants if it it appears.
I pH'd my very first grow because I was using bottled nutes and thought it needed to be pH'd to break the salt bond (chelation?). I was ecstatic when I was told with organic growing you don't need to pH the water, but I'll start doing it again if that's what's needed.
Disinfect as best you can my friend.
Keep smiling.
Stay safe
Bill
- Thread starter
- #36
meffa
Well-Known Member
Monday 10-Jan || 67 Days In Dirt || 5 Days Since Watered
I was able to up-pot 5 of the 7 into their final 7gl flowering pot. I ran out of soil and was able to move (2) Grand Daddy Purple, (2) 8-Ball Kush, and my one Sirius Black. My plan was for those 5 to flower in the 4x8 and Old School and Gelato OG to finish out in the 4x4, which is why I left those two for last in case I ran out of soil (I must have known in the back of my head!).
This actually worked out well because I'm able to comfortably keep Old School and Gelato with their 3gl pots in the 4x8 until I have new soil ready, and in the meantime I can go to town cleaning and sanitizing the 4x4 with the ozone generator. After scouring every nook and cranny in the 4x8 and running ozone two nights in a row, the tent is pretty pristine if I do say so myself! Time to get the 4x4 up to snuff as well.
Everyone enjoying more space and stronger lighting.
I was able to up-pot 5 of the 7 into their final 7gl flowering pot. I ran out of soil and was able to move (2) Grand Daddy Purple, (2) 8-Ball Kush, and my one Sirius Black. My plan was for those 5 to flower in the 4x8 and Old School and Gelato OG to finish out in the 4x4, which is why I left those two for last in case I ran out of soil (I must have known in the back of my head!).
This actually worked out well because I'm able to comfortably keep Old School and Gelato with their 3gl pots in the 4x8 until I have new soil ready, and in the meantime I can go to town cleaning and sanitizing the 4x4 with the ozone generator. After scouring every nook and cranny in the 4x8 and running ozone two nights in a row, the tent is pretty pristine if I do say so myself! Time to get the 4x4 up to snuff as well.
Everyone enjoying more space and stronger lighting.
- Thread starter
- #37
meffa
Well-Known Member
Hi Bill,
I watered this morning and was checking pH after each additive (silica, kelp, fulvic, cal/mag) and saw the cal/mag brought the pH down from 9.0 to 5.7. I added 1/4tsp of baking soda (2gl mix) and that brought it up to 6.4 My next 2gl mix I used a touch less baking soda and got it 6.3 With using R/O I add cal/mag to every time I water, which means I've been watering with low pH all along.
- Thread starter
- #39
meffa
Well-Known Member
She looks fine, and it looks like new growth coming in is healthy. I just checked runoff on that particular plant after pH'ing to ~6.3 and it was at 6.9 Runoff from the other GDP is 6.95
It seemed to buffer up .6 , so I'm wondering if I left it at 5.7 would it buffer up and come in at 6.3?
It depends on what's going on in the root zone.
I'd try and keep it at the proper level for feeding.
Don't chase your tail.
Stay safe
Bill
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