PP Bagseed Outdoor Grow Journal - 2018

[Potplant]

Yay some signs of life. Ok cool, yeah I hope it's cos they going to sleep and also cos of the spray I put now. But the too of the one plant is curling alot almost like those small ones. I will definitely send a picture 2mrw from all angles to see how its growing. If it's a bit of too much nitrogen it's ok if i don't flush it out tonight and leave it for almoat a day and water by 2mrw late afternoon? Or around 15 hours from now, i also put them back on the paving cos the grass was keeping it too moist at the bottom and slow drainage. Much better on the paving as the pot warms up as well so it helps to dry it up a bit.

 

[Emilya Green]

Flushing is primarily to remove salts in the soil when someone uses synthetic nutrients. Let me explain the futility of flushing to get rid of your nitrogen. Those plant stakes are designed to release nitrogen every time they get wet. Flushing will not change and possibly may increase the amount of fertilizer in the container. To reduce nitrogen being applied you will have to find those stakes and remove them.
Also, don't set some arbitrary time to water... let each container tell you when it is time. Each plant at this point will be recovering at a different rate. They may not all use water at the same rate, so you can't water at the same time... especially that sick one. If that one uses its water even in 5 days I would be surprised.

 

[Potplant]

Roger that. I have removed all of them already! Did it this afternoon. But now I understand what flushing is for, synthetic fertilizers. So in my case it won't make sense to do it. Now when you say let all the water get used up, these are new pots so not used to the weight yet, must all the soil right to the bottom be dry or like a few cms from the bottom?

 

[Emilya Green]

ah... if you have removed the spikes, which are indeed synthetic fertilizer, then flushing will be effective in removing the extra nitrogen. When it is time to water each container, flush away. It does make sense to do it.

regarding the water, within 2 or 3 cm is fine, all the way down is better. While you are in veg, this is not a race to see how soon you can water. You are telling the plants by holding out a bit to grow more roots to seek out all of the water in the container. If you make it too easy, they won't grow those extra roots. The more roots you have by the time you get to flower, the more water you are going to be able to give them, and the bigger your buds will get because of it. If you have weak pathetic roots that have never been stressed and can not take up large amounts of water, you will end up with weak pathetic buds. You are not being cruel by waiting to water, you just think you are. Actually the very best time to water is about 20 minutes before the plant starts wilting from lack of water, and the closer you get to that line, the better you did in growing new roots.

 

[Potplant]

Perfect, that makes sense. So il wait for it to dry up all the way then il water it properly. You right, thanks for reminding me, it's not a race. Some of them had some lovely roots, i just hope it picks up now. I'm so excited now, i feel I'm doing everything right lol. Just gonna wait and see. You are a godsend. The in detail responses is exactly what I needed and what I was looking for!

 

[Potplant]

Ok so today around 12 I went to have a look to see of the plants were ok and the one with all the stains on it was looking bad and I wasn't happy with the soil as it was looking mushy, and wasn't draining properly. So I started to empty out the wet clumpy soil to repot half of it at least with nice soil and as I was taking out the wet soil I noticed a food stick and it was half of it and it was stuck to some roots! So I took it out and more soil and replaced it, then I gave it a good watering all the plants. Came back this evening and she's looking much happier, well maybe I'm just seeing things but that's how I feel. Pots were almost dry so 2mrw before midday I'm gonna give them a good soaking,oh and I'm using ph'ed down water, lemon in the water and it looks like it's making a difference. Will update 2mrw as to how the plants are looking.

 

[Emilya Green]

t was looking mushy, and wasn't draining properly.

I have to try to get you out of this mindset. The water doesnt drain after the initial runoff, and it very little of it "drys out" or evaporates.

The plants USE the water, or it really doesn't go anywhere. Your soil on that one is mushy and the plant is unable to uptake the water because those bugs destroyed a lot of the finer roots in that rootball, so of course it is still wet. Remember I told you that I wouldnt be surprised if it took 5 days to use the water in that container? The roots are not healthy and that shows in the plant above. New dry soil will help a little for the next day or so, but you probably also just gave the plant some unneeded shock with all your fussing. Unless you can back away from doing something to these plants every day instead of just letting them develop solid rootballs without your intervention, you are in danger of not making it through this grow.

I am more curious how the leaves look now after spraying them... any changes visible... are they nice and green? Are all the leaves starting to reach up to the sun? Have you been able to notice any more brown spots, or does it appear to be stopping?

Prove the water thing to yourself. Fill another container with your soil/sand/whatever mix and water it to saturation. Tell me in a week if it has "used" all the water.

 

[Potplant]

No no, it was just that one pot. It was cos of the soul for sure, cos I remember that I didn't have alot of good soil when was mixing it and this pot only this one had alot of like cement, that's the look I was getting when I watered it. The problem was that the water wasn't soaking in after I poured water the very first time. All the other plants the water soaks in the first few seconds, from the get go this one was just pooling up. I'm glad I did tho otherwise I wouldn't have found the plant stick. You are right, that's why I'm not watering them every evening like I used to. I only watered it like less than half of a proper watering so I could add the ph'ed down water.

All the plants the leaves are pointing upwards but the small leaves that are starting on top are still curled up a bit, but I'm not worried cos I know they will come right. The small leaves are a nice green now, the other plants are not looking sad and rusty and yellow, you can see they waking up. Definitely the spray and the lower pH water. I only want to water it 2mrw again at least 24 hours after my top up today at midday with the lower pH water. Do you suggest that I leave it until the plants are asking to be watered. I'm only concerned about the pH levels now. Do you think the amount of pH water I put is OK and I should only water again when needed and going forward I'm only going to be watering with the ph'ed down water so at least I won't have to keep referring to it as that and just say water, lol.

 

[Emilya Green]

sounds like you are on the right track... lets see if you can save that worst one

 

[Potplant]

I certainly hope so! Time will tell. Will update 2mrw with pics. Just didn't get a chance today.

 

[Potplant]

Ok so the past few days the weather has been really hot, today and 2mrw is no exception. 32 and 34 degrees respectively. So the pots are drying up quicker than normal. So gave the pots some water and gave them a but of the magnesium spray as well. Here are some pics. The worst plant of the lot is going to be the last pot from now on:

 

[Emilya Green]

That is excellent! Even the most severely damaged one is showing signs of healthy new growth. I am convinced now that our diagnosis was correct and that the prescribed treatment is working! Keep doing what you are doing... it is working well.

 

[Potplant]

Yes they are aren't they! I'm so glad. Soon after I give them the new water the leaves starting perking up a bit. Can't wait for the eggshells to ferment so I can add the calcium. So far it's looking good, no need to tie any branches isn't it?

 

[Emilya Green]

Yes they are aren't they! I'm so glad. Soon after I give them the new water the leaves starting perking up a bit. Can't wait for the eggshells to ferment so I can add the calcium. So far it's looking good, no need to tie any branches isn't it?

There is still time for that... let them recover for a week and get stronger. I want to see you get to a good strong repeatable watering cycle... and then I want to see that watering cycle go from 2-3 days down to needing watering every day. By then the plants will be thriving and the roots will be strong. Prepare yourself for this by getting some larger containers and some good organic soil to fill them with... Your plants should, if you keep doing what you are doing, outgrow these containers in a few weeks in that hot African sun.

 

[Potplant]

Damn, bigger pots, how much bigger should the next set of pots be? Yes definitely, I have to give them enough tien to recover and grow, I want to see few new tops first before I do anything apart from water. In 3 to 4 nodes time do you say it will be good to top again or leave it as is?

 

[Emilya Green]

I top 3 or 4 times before flower... shooting for 12-16 top buds on each plant. You may not have time for all that, but I would definitely work on it after they recover a bit. Definitely wait a week or so after all this shock you have introduced, but yeah... work on making each plant a little wider before flower.

And yes, don't hurry to the bigger pots because you want to establish a healthy rootball in these current containers first, but outside in the sun there is no reason to keep these plants small. I would double the size of these containers in 2 weeks. Successive uppotting is the way to go... you are on your way to having a great harvest... but if you keep them in these containers, your eventual yield will be reduced accordingly.

 

[Potplant]

Ok perfect! Today it was really hot in the morning, 34 degrees and the plants were getting baked, so I decided to put them back to their original position cos in that position it gets indirect sunlight till 12pm and then direct sunlight till 4ish. But then it started raining and hailing a bit. I noticed that the really sick plant that pot is not draining as much as the others. However, I am not doing anything to these plants till they recover. So I'm sure in their original position they won't get sun burn or anything like that. Ok so in 2 weeks time il get bigger pots, will have to get more compost tho. I'm not gonna think about topping, up potting, or anything like that, cos I'm thinking too much about it, I'm just gonna leave them and let them do their thing.

 

[Potplant]

Ok so I'm starting to really about my plants now. Not looking good, I really need to get a pH tester so I can test the pH I'm putting in and also run off water. All my issues and deficiencies is because of that. My rough estimate with the lemon juice and water is not ideal, I'm gonna get a pool kit from my sisters pool and use it to test the water. I hope it's functioning. Here's pics that I took now:

 

[Potplant]

Ok so i finally got hold of a pH meter and I got the strips and the one where you put the water in and add the chemicals and it's turns a certain colour. So my tap water is definitely above 8. The phed down water I was using recently was around 7, so I made a batch of 6.8 or so water and I flushed all the plants. The two sickest plants the soil was like sludge, like cement, I definitely mixed these two wrong and I had that feeling from the get go. Unless, it's OK if it's all mushy, drainage is very very slow. Like water pooling up instantly slow. So in my head I wrote off these two plants and did a kwik soil change for them. I hope they handle the stress, if not, it's OK there's 4 more. I have good hopes for these because now I will be watering with water around 6.2 or maybe even a little lower. And I'm only gonna water in 2 days or so for most plants and a little oner for the sick plants. All in all, I know better now than I did 4 days ago. I'm definitely gonna get some good compost or fertiliser for when I'm putting these girls into bigger pots. Any suggestions?

Here's a pic of the sludge that came out the two pots:

Here's a pic of the pH of the water I was flushing with :

Here's a pic of the runoff water, that I managed to get:

Here's a pic of a leaf from the worst plant. If she recovers, it's a miracle:

I wanted to know, whats the white gravel looking things in the soil that I see in other people's pics.

Here's a pic of the 4 not so bad plants:

 

[Potplant]

I don't know why but I'm not getting the option of editing my posts?!