Second Outdoor Desert Autoflower In Arizona

Good idea!
 
Sunday Update:
Rained last night and more rain today. Yay! It’s supposed to be mid 80’s to low 90’s for the high over the next week. Lows in the mid 60’s.

Hoping my Tangerine can hang on for a couple more weeks. It’s not looking great although the buds still look good. Only a few white pistols at the very tops. I looked at tricomes yesterday (didn’t get any pics) and am seeing a mix of cloudy and clear. I am drying the small piece of bud i took and I’ll try it later today.

I went back to the veg formula for the last feed (few days ago) but the yellowing amd dying of the leaves continues. It is definitely taking up much less water so I’m being really careful not to overwater.

I took off all of the dead leaves and a lot of the half dead leaves after I took pics.
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Oh and I forgot to mention some thing ate my seedlings about a week after they sprouted, because I didn’t have them protected enough I guess.
 
Have you run a slurry test on the soil in that pot? I'm curious when I see that kind of damage in spite of nutrient changes.

Sorry to hear about the sprouts. :(
 
InTheShed said:
Have you run a slurry test on the soil in that pot? I'm curious when I see that kind of damage in spite of nutrient changes.

Sorry to hear about the sprouts. :(
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No I hadn’t thought of that. Good idea I’ll try that! Thanks!
 
Here are my go-to instructions for a slurry test in case you don't do them often:

Take samples from a few different places (dig down a bit rather than just use the top) and add an equivalent amount of distilled water as grams of soil (10 grams of soil, add 10ml water). If that doesn't make a slurry, use enough to make a stirrable but thick slurry.

Stir it up, wait 15 minutes, stir again. Do that for at least an hour (longer is better), and then put your calibrated pH stick in the water. That's the pH of your medium.
 
InTheShed said:
Here are my go-to instructions for a slurry test in case you don't do them often:

Take samples from a few different places (dig down a bit rather than just use the top) and add an equivalent amount of distilled water as grams of soil (10 grams of soil, add 10ml water). If that doesn't make a slurry, use enough to make a stirrable but thick slurry.

Stir it up, wait 15 minutes, stir again. Do that for at least an hour (longer is better), and then put your calibrated pH stick in the water. That's the pH of your medium.
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Awesome! Thanks or sharing that Shed.

NTH
 
Tomorrow morning is fine. :)
 
My bad, it was only 30 more minutes. 60 min total stirred at least every 15. So the pH of the slurry test with my freshly calibrated Apera was 6.8. The rainwater I’m using is 6.8 and rainwater with fertilizer added is 5.2. That seems a little low to me but the soil pH doesn’t seem to be affected? Our well water pH is about 8, Which I have used a few times here and there if I’m running late
 
Thanks! Remind me if this is soil or peat-based media?
 
InTheShed said:
Thanks! Remind me if this is soil or peat-based media?
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It’s peat based I believe. Sunshine mix # 4 is for sure, and it’s mixed half and half with Promix Moisture. The Promix had composty (haha I made a new word) looking wood/stick chunks in it along with either peat or coir. I’m pretty sure my last grow was the same soil slurry result for PH in straight Promix. I did notice digging down that there wasn’t really any soil that didn’t have at least fine roots in it. This was my longest grow, over the summer, in 10 gal fabric. Besides the nutes that is another variable from previous grows if it could be rootbound? Although I have a feeling the roots have grown out the bottom into the dirt.

I’m drying the piece of bud I took off to scope the other day, I’ll try it tonight and if by chance it seems ready I will take it down tmo. I have a feeling it won’t be ready quite yet tho.
 
Tommboy1973 said:
It’s peat based I believe. Sunshine mix # 4 is for sure, and it’s mixed half and half with Promix Moisture.
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Then your pH should be around 5.8, so yours is really high. It would certainly explain the way the plant looks!

The best way to fix high pH is by changing your nutes to one with a higher percentage of ammoniacal nitrogen for the next two weeks. I use one that is 34% ammoniacal and 66% nitrate, rather than all nitrate like my usual nutes.

If you can't be bothered with that, just try to ignore the yellow and let it run to harvest!
 
InTheShed said:
Then your pH should be around 5.8
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Thanks shed! I went back and found my pictures from my last grows that ran around 6.2, not 6.8. I was wrong before.
InTheShed said:
I use one that is 34% ammoniacal and 66% nitrate,
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Can you share what fertilizer it is that you use? I tried doing a Google search but didn’t have much luck, mostly ammonium sulfate lawn fertilizer came up.

And last but not least my smoke report- I smoked the teeny tiny, smaller than a pea size dried bud piece that I had clipped the other day. Crazy how much they shrink, lol. So small that I was sure it wouldn’t do anything, but I definitely feel something. I’m actually surprised. I will take another look at the tricomes in the am and maybe will be harvesting soon. It’s almost October and this one did start flowering pretty early in Mid July (maybe because of my shade cloth).
 
I use GrowMore 20-10-20 orchid fertilizer along with some other things because it's missing a lot. There are others out there that I can find tomorrow when I'm back on a computer.

But if you're going to take it down soon it's probably too late to make much difference. Though I wouldn't reuse that mix for anything else!
 
InTheShed said:
There are others out there that I can find tomorrow when I'm back on a computer.
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Here is one at Amazon:
Orchid Fertilizer (MSU) 19-4-23 Well Water Blend. Excellent for Orchids & Houseplants - Urea Free (Greencare) (2 Pounds)

[we're not supposed to link to amazon but you can search that and find it there!]

Also, a piece of information I got recently regarding peat-based (soillesss) vs soil-based subtsrates and pH (copied and pasted from my thread):
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"For...soil, the buffer and CEC is much greater than formulated growing media, therefore swings in pH and nutrition are less. Since...soil is highly buffered (depending on its source), it is also more resistance to change. That said, growing media allows growers to manipulate nutrition and pH for plants needs much easier. Managing the fertilizer with the alkalinity of your water is the key to achieving the ideal pH."

This means that soil is less sensitive to both the nitrogen source in the fertilizer (nitrate or ammoniacal), as well as the alkaline content of the water used. But the advantage to "growing media" is that it "allows growers to manipulate nutrition and pH for plants needs much easier." It will respond more quickly to changes you make in response to the plant's needs.
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For those running plants in the same pot for long periods (like those flowering outside), the way to maintain the pH of a soilless mix is to alternate the types of nutrients used between one mostly nitrate (one watering) and then with a fertilizer with much more ammoniacal nitrogen (two waterings) like the one above. Otherwise, quality soil might be the better choice.
 
Update on the Tangerine Dream. I went ahead and harvested 2 1/2 weeks ago. May have been a tad early but I was looking for a very up effect, and was happy with the test bud so I went ahead. I took the biggest colas and dried them in my dorm fridge in paper sacks. Most of the medium and small buds (3 gallon ziplocks) I fresh froze for an attempt at bubble hash later. There are still about a dozen small buds still on the plant. I pulled the big buds out of the fridge yesterday at 69% to start burping down. I ended up with 2 quart jars full of buds (haven’t weighed them yet, I will when they reach 62%).

Trimmed bud next to yet to harvest bud.
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More bud pics
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Ready to go into jars. A bit squished from the paper sacks but I don’t mind.
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2 Qt jars of buds
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Congratulations Tommy! Neatly trimmed and really frosty! Already making plans for next spring? :)
 
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