The Purp: Organic Soil Grow

[adudecalledjay]

Looks like the plants didn't mind too much! I only see one burnt tip, at least you know her peaks now! Haha

Ha ha true!! I guess that's another benefit of keeping a journal... hopefully I look back on this next grow and remember to come in a little lighter with the amendments this early on.

 

[adudecalledjay]

Well I hate to report problems... but I got problems! The soil mixture I made is way too hot. It might be fine later in the grow, but my early veg plants are not happy with this mix. Especially Purp #2. More burnt tips/edges and droopiness like being over/under watered. I flushed both plants until I had a run-off of 6.9-7.0 pH and 1.0-1.1 EC. It took about 1.5 liters of water pH'd to ~6.3 for each plant. My starting EC was well over 2.

I suspect lowering the lights sped up the nutrient uptake... not sure if it works like that but it would make sense intuitively.

Here's the worst of the two plants:

Final run-off is now:

Plant #1: pH 7.0/EC 1.0 (from pH 7.1/EC 2.5)
Plant #2: pH 6.9/EC 1.1 (from pH 6.7/EC 2.2)

Man, I thought hydro was supposed to be harder than soil -- so far soil has presented its own challenges! One thing they both have in common is you have to keep an eye on them daily. Things change surprisingly quickly.

 

[adudecalledjay]

June 20, 2020

Lights
Type: Mars Hydro TS 3000W
Light Schedule: 18/6
Distance from Lights: 41"
Par: Avg 400 μmol/s/m2

Watering
Just transplanted and haven't watered yet as I'm recovering from an over-watering situation.

Soil
Plant 1 & Plant 2:

800 ml coco coir
800 ml clay pebbles (only because it’s what I have on hand -- would have used perlite instead if I had some)
400 ml manure compost
400 ml mushroom compost
400 ml earthworm castings
½ tbsp bat guano (heavy feeding is 1 tbsp per gallon, so let’s 1/2 that)
1 tbsp Rock Phosphate (45 ml per 4000ml of soil - same as bone meal)
2 tbsp Green Sand (90 ml per 4000ml of soil )
26ml (~2 tbsp) Bone Meal (45ml per 4000ml of soil or 1:89)
10 ml (~2 tsp) Kelp Meal (14.8 ml per 3790 ml of soil or 1:256)
1 tbsp epsom salt
1 tbsp per plant mycorrhizae at roots during transplant

Environment
Temperature: 28C Day Cycle / 20C Night Cycle
Relative Humidity: 60% Day Cycle / 75% Night Cycle

Updates
I'm afraid I made the noob mistake of overwatering. The plants looked like they were clawing and I thought it was from an over-fert condition due to my crazy EC (6.1). So, because I thought the issue was over-fertilization I flushed like crazy over a few days, which just exasperated the issue!

The good news is I finally know what's wrong.

I thought this might be a good time to up-pot as there's obvious signs of nitrogen deficiency. It also gave me a chance to figure out the appropriate moisture level. I was aiming to water at around 30% moisture, but it's looking like it should be somewhere closer to 15%.

Here' the transplant from the net cups... that went well. Was really easy!

I lightened up on the bat guana and used just half a tbsp instead of a full one when transplanting, but I added in extra worm castings. I may kick-start my first watering with some fox farms Grow Big and Big Bloom -- undecided yet. I don't want to swing from overwatering to overfertilizing!

Well, let's hope things improve over the next week. I'll likely trim up the bottom leaves once they've recovered fully. Not just to pretty them up... I usually clean up the bottom growth once I hit 5 or 6 nodes for good airflow.

 

[bebecillo]

You should look at the moon calendar to understand when your plant is going to be hungry, what days to water, prune, etc. Just like waking you up at 4am and serving you thanksgiving dinner will mess you up for the day, overwatering and overfertilizing will have their toll as well.

 

[adudecalledjay]

Well to put a nail in the coffin, both my plants turned out to be males!!!

I'm thinking about dropping some more beans (maybe 4 this time in case I get more males).

The part I'm not sure of is why these are showing so early. I'm hoping they aren't an autoflower variety. I have another thread open right now with that question.

 

[adudecalledjay]

I'm going to wrap up this grow thread and start another one. I have 2 seeds I know are feminized, so next grow is going to be
1) White Widow (fem non-autoflower from CKS). I grew this before in hydro and got over a pound dried. It's a nice sleepy smoke for before bed. I didn't really like that there were lots of green leaves that were crazy hard to get out the bud, so I'd like to try this again and see if it was just a phenome issue. It was a bit of a harsh smoke for my preference. Also, I never really saw any white powder... that would be really cool.
2) Green Crack (fem non-autoflower from CKS). This is another hydro grow that yielded over a pound dried. The variety I had the buds were really hairy... like no leaf matter at all. Just hairs. It was such a smooth smoke, relaxing and energizing at the same time. I just want an exact copy of what I had before and I might make a mother plant out of her.
3) The Purp (reg non-autoflower from Jordan of the Islands). As you know I have two sickly males from this grow, so let's try this again and hope for a girl!

Once I start the new link it'll be in my signature.

See you on the next grow!

 

[adudecalledjay]

Well looks like my journal is still listed as "In Progress", so I may as well provide an update

I moved both of these male plants into the garage tent under 15W leds... figured I may as well get some pollen out of the deal.

I didn't water them for 12 days to let them dry out a bit and gave them a good watering today.

So far I've collected about 1/2 tsp of pollen. I'll grow them out a few more weeks as I don't have any immediate plans for the tent and really don't care about then energy draw of 2 x 15w lights on 12/12.

 

[GrowUpJr]

I'm going to call May 25, 2020 "Day 1"

June 3, 2020 (Day 10)

I have my new 4x4 grow tent set up in the basement! And I also have my new light set up. Looks like Mars is talked about a lot around here, so I think I can mention the brand: MARS HYDRO TS 3000W. This light is bright!!! At 41 inches I'm reading a ppfd of 400 μmol/s/m2 -- slightly more than the 300 they are used to under my seelding lights.

Yes, Mars is good if you haven't got a confirmation. Jumping in late.