Well in that case... ahem ahem, excuse me ... sliding thru.... Sub'd!
Looking good so far.
Just curious why did you top your girls there?? I run SOG and never top. Topping slows things down too much for my likes.
Reps on the organics - you have a nice selection of plants there UC - good luck with your grow this round, I'm sure you will improve on the last run.
Blumats work great for getting the ladies thru some time away. Our last run during the Summer we went on vacation for 3 weeks and then another week so 4 weeks out of 9 weeks in flower and all the ladies pulled thru not very many issues at least not any to complain about. Getting the blumats dialed in is the trick. Keep an eye out until you are comfortable they are working as expected. I've had a few run away on me and make a mess on the grow room floor. Plants were ok tho.
Hey there BB.
Good of you to slide by. Pull up a chair and have a brownie.
I top in order to keep a low and even canopy. Based on the experience of others it seems that SCROG produces the best yields per square foot when growing indoors with LED's. It also seems that with the SCROG method, the majority of the buds are of a high quality due to the even light distribution and intensity throughout the canopy.
The other route to optimum yields appears to be going 12/12 from seed or within the first couple of weeks of veg using high plant counts (not topped) with small pots or in planting beds.
I don't care to mess with scrog frames and nets and I prefer to let a plant mature a bit before flowering it out so that rules out both of the above grow methods.
SOG with plants topped and trained to maintain a low canopy seems to be a compromise between the two.
I get good light penetration, there's not much wasted space, plant canopy can be maintained pretty evenly, and the canopy depth can be maintained within the penetration capability of my lights. So far it seems to be working well for my needs and garden setup.
To date, I've never been in a hurry to go from veg to bloom. In fact, I usually find myself with too many plants in the veg tent without any space in the flowering tent.
You're in organic soil right?? I wouldn't over think the PH thing. I haven't used a PH meter in .... 1.5 years or 8+ runs with no issues.
Let your micro-organisms regulate the growing medium and you should be fine. Once you start messing with PH the amendments you use to change PH will only be temporary to ease YOUR mind and won't really do anything long term in your soil and depending on your choice of amendments could actually do more harm than good.
I don't take one plant growing weird like that as a soil issue. Most likely its a genetics thing. When I get a plant that gets wonky I let it go... if I don't see improvements and plant starting to look more canna like, I cull and move on, not worth messing with. IMHO
Sometimes we get something like that from a clone.. mutant = compost. I usually get my wife to cull and compost. She's really good at selective gardening. Not every plant is 100% worthy. If you keep a sickly plant around it will attract baddies you do not want in your grow room. Passing along some of my experiences ... TIFWIW.
Emphasis on soil buffering capability or soil ph has been preached to me over and over and over and over and over......since my early years in 4-H and beyond.
I've attended numerous workshops over the years about the importance of soil ph and managing soil ph buffering capacity which were hosted by US and state department of agriculture guru's many of whom were highly qualified with PhD's in agronomy, chemistry, botany, microbiology, and other areas of specialty that I can't even spell. Not once did any of these experts even whisper that soil ph buffering capacity is not important or that it was irrelevant.
Practicing what they've preached has always served me well over the years so I've been reluctant to just throw caution to the wind and ignore soil ph completely.
Something else to consider is that many beneficial bacteria do not like acidic soils. If soil ph dips below the mid to low 6's the fungi to beneficial bacteria ratio get thrown out of whack with fungi becoming heavily dominant.
If we are to depend on the soil microlife for nutrient availability shouldn't we be paying attention to ph in order to promote healthy microlife? To me it all seems intertwined.
I understand the logic behind the "don't worry about ph when growing organically" thing but I'm reluctant to change what may be outdated ways. Maybe it's because it's never been explained to me in a way that is convincing enough to counter what I've been taught and what I've experienced over the years.
This is a subject that I'm very interested in and have an open mind about.
Anyone that can make me see the light get's a lifetime supply of free brownies.
