Weasel Forges Ahead

That’s what I’m hoping. It’s been one of those things where only the PC was acting up, and all the other girls seemed fine, so naturally I blame her.
 
What does your feed offer Weas? Screenshots or NPK listing would be great for comparisons. My studies are beginning to suggest that it's hard to tox certain elements like K, S, and Ca, and if that's true (I hate saying if true), it would be less likely to have a toxicity in any of those 3. I learned years ago that very low RH mixed with some wind burn can cause a K deficiency somehow, but I doubt that now.
 
Hmmmm yeah- While I haven’t had a problem with too much N, Penny’s remark did send me scuttling off to search articles again. And I happen to be reading one now, from somebody who sounds like they know what they’re talking about, which says just that- K is pretty hard to OD on.

I’ll just go do another quick test mix by the ml to double/triple check I’m correctly reverse engineering the mix I typically used to feed the PC.

I’ll post it over in your Making Your Own Nutrient Concentrates thread.
 
Y'all are describing too many of my issues. How interesting.

The dopes in the details. Seems like

Interesting how often . as in every time. I have noticed my flowering buds do super fine till bout half way thru flower. Then they just. Kinda. Stop..

So sad

Course with my bugs and mildew and bad karma and being a libra and stuff. Well. Who woulda blamed the details?

Not eye. Indeed

Cheers. Most interesting
 
FWIW, I've read that there's a fine line how much nitrate (NO3) she should uptake and if she takes more (and she will take more), the plant has to use up more stored energy to process the excess nitrate. It's not an exact science and I myself am slowly feeling that out, but I'm near certain ideal NO3 is in the 95-100ppm range. I was warned not to read too deeply into the consensus that N needs to be dropped after the stretch. It is still needed in good quantity through bloom, but around week 3 to week 4 it should be reduced a tad and P and K elevated.
 
Also, I frequently catch static for focusing too deeply on the ppm and less so on the ratios one to the others. I do admit being guilty of this, but unless someone can/will definitively state that X is the perfect ratios for cannabis, than I could make my needed adjustments, but until I find better info, I don't know the ratios either so must discover them through trial and error.

That being said, it is possible that what I interpret as 95-100ppm of NO3 might be a fraction/ratio to P or K, or maybe Ca, I'm not sure. But for the ranges I run which is generally about 800 on my 0.5 tds meter, ideal NO3 is as I said.
 
I'm pretty dim on the soil chemistry stuff, but I think the plant can use either K or C to build tissue, but C is more productive for the structures - they're stronger. So plants with an elevated K/C ratio will have weak stems.

K should be lower than most people use, but it's best to ride the edge of deficiency - kinda tricky.
 
Graytail said:
I'm pretty dim on the soil chemistry stuff, but I think the plant can use either K or C to build tissue, but C is more productive for the structures - they're stronger. So plants with an elevated K/C ratio will have weak stems.

K should be lower than most people use, but it's best to ride the edge of deficiency - kinda tricky.
Click to expand...

That's about spot on from what I read. Doc Bud's brix kit also found the good ratio K to Ca. I'm trying to find the same in hydro. I'm confident that I am very close. The good thing about DIY nutes is I can change whatever I want.
 
Ok I measured typical mid strength and high strength bloom mixes with the Botanicare bottles I used in the past. I’ll post that stuff over in that other thread later.

But basically- the high strength bloom mix gave me P and K levels approaching double of what I understand to be a good target. N, Ca, and Mg were all low at around 80% of target, with a couple micronutrients not represented at all. If I can believe the results.
The lower strength mix was still 40-50% high on the P and K levels.

So - everything a little screwy. which I don’t have much trouble believing.
 
Weaselcracker said:
Ok I measured typical mid strength and high strength bloom mixes with the Botanicare bottles I used in the past. I’ll post that stuff over in that other thread later.
Click to expand...


I decided not to bother the thread posting that stuff. If my plants had a high P and K level before - well now they don’t. The plants all look happy with their new diet so I’ll watch them and see if I can connect any dots.


Graytail said:
I'm pretty dim on the soil chemistry stuff, but I think the plant can use either K or C to build tissue, but C is more productive for the structures - they're stronger. So plants with an elevated K/C ratio will have weak stems.
Click to expand...


Weak Stems R us, around here. Especially I think in the last year or so, but maybe it’s just something I notice more because I’m scrogging less than I used to. I generally quit topping plants too. I’d been hoping for more natural looking plants, ones with colas. Meaning colas that point the right direction, but instead I mostly grow plants that look about as perky as a drunk octopus. If they made plant viagra my colas would be the ‘before’ picture. I was chalking this up to my shortage of movement fans, and it could be that, but I’m not sure.
Here’s a small Chocolope I just harvested. I tied it to the stakes and propped it all up for the photo so it would look like a plant.
This one was 10.5 weeks in flowering. I think I’ll leave the next one another week and see if I can burn off more of that sugar leaf that makes for a lot of trimming.
A lovely smell to this one. Not sure there’s a lot of ‘lope’ in it, but I can sort of picture that. It could be a very sweet fragrant melon smell. Also it very much reminds me of the jasmine I used to always smell in Asia. In Thailand they like making garlands out of the flowers and they smell incredible. The last time I was in Kathmandu it was springtime and in some areas the streets are lined with a similar smelling tree. We called them jasmine trees including most locals, but someone later told me they’re called Parijata, I think. They bloom at night and the smell is intoxicating. Anyway the Chocolope has a lot of that scent in it. I also like the high a lot- though it has a sort of Ritalin-like effect where I get manically/happily fixated to whatever it is I’m doing and can’t stop even to eat.
Chocolope

Chocolope


Chocolope

Chocolope


Chocolope

Chocolope


Chocolope

Chocolope

 
I’m feeling very optimistic about my new Hydro Buddy mix. Not only did the plants survive the last feeding without getting toasted, they all look vibrant and healthy. There are a few plants in there with issues, but they had the issues previously.
A couple of the new PCs. The one on left in the first pic is one of those with a few issues. In reality the colours aren’t nearly so wacky as they appear in the photo, I just liked the picture.
PC3

PC3


Right side

Right side



I ordered a couple 120w Q board LEDs for flowering and plan to add them to the mix. Huge thanks to Graytail and also Grizzwald for the help finding some! I’m hoping I’ll be able to use them to finally be able to take some better photos in flowering, with more of a natural spectrum. Naturally I’m also hoping more light will grow better buds.


I’m also very optimistic about the Z9 for cloning. The jury is still out. It’s been three weeks and most cuttings still aren’t rooted. So- way too long. But they haven’t all died yet. About 1/4 of the ones in perlite have rooted and the rest are mostly on the verge of rooting. As pitiful as it may sound these are way better results than I had before.
Roots

Roots


The aero-cloner I’m less sure about, but one more has rooted and the rest at least look healthy and slime free, which is a lot more than I could say about anything I had in there before. Also I finally re-re-re-discovered my floating thermometer and got my temps in the correct range only a week ago. We will see.
 
Hey mate, buds look awesome.
H&G root excelorator 0.3ml/litre
Clone gel as usual, straight into coco watered with that mix in cups.
I get 100% doing that and mega roots.

WP_20190523_15_59_30_Pro.jpg
 
Hey mate welcome and thanks for the tip :thumb: Roots excelurator- I’ve looked at it before and was never 100% clear if it has beneficials in it, and lately that’s been the magic bullet I’ve been looking for.
I cloned in coco for ages and it used to work great for me. I found perlite similar but even more forgiving. I dunno - my cloning totally went for shit the last while. I don’t think there anything wrong with any of my methods- it’s just those invisible fungi and whatnot out to get me.
I’m really thinking that this z9 stuff will save the day. I live in bacteria paradise. Most people use hydroguard and similar products- it’s been hard to get stuff like that in Canada lately.
 
Mate it was a pleasure to help you with all the technical data I was able to educate you with. As you could tell, it's a passion of mine, how the plant absorbs and uses the light provided and the specs I've researched, to find spectrums of the highest intensity for plant consumption.. :rofl::rofl: ok ok, pleasure to give you the name of panels and tell you to talk to greytail about that :rofl::rofl:
 
Yes yes I could feel the passion for sure. Just glad you’re so far away or you’d be here fondling my new lights and spewing math equations.
 
Aside from the cloner, how are you cloning, straight into some media, or do you use starter cubes/plugs? Do you use a heat mat? Do you wet&dry cycle the media? Aside from spraying the dome daily when going in to rewet my starter cubes, I feel the heat mat and the wet/dry cycling is why I am 100% successful. I use bennies about every 3 days and unrooted cuts get some of that too, but I feel it's not really appreciated until there's roots. Aside from that, my cloning solution has always been a high PK bloom nute and something with organic acids (fulvic, humic, amino) mixed to about 250-300 TDS. For me, they root in 10-11 days like clock work. I'd like to shorten that by a day or two, but I need to learn some more shit first.
 
I’ve got some sort of mould/rot/slime thing going on. I think I can assume it’s due to the huge amount of mouldy fungal type beasties that fly around in this environment. It’s a sort of ‘rainforest meets swamp’ scenario. Don’t leave your tools out -they’ll be rusted, covered with moss, and growing mushrooms as soon as you turn your back. Old vehicles around literally have mushrooms growing all over inside them and all sorts of sinister looking mould patches.

Most people seem to live in urban settings where things are infinitely more controlled. It’s not like that here. Not really a dividing line between the inside of my house and the outside- which is basically a slavering mob of deer, bacteria, mice, rats, bats, bears, mushrooms, birds, squirrels, coons, mould, slugs etc etc. They all come and go. If it wasn’t for bacteria and fungi this place wouldn’t have any culture at all...

For methods I’ve tried almost everything except a fog cloner. I don’t feel like cloning is rocket science- give a cutting the right environment and it should root. I’ve had the usual 90-100% success rates with most of my methods at certain times- then things will mysteriously fizzle for long periods For the first while I cloned in rockwool cubes by the book, then tried a DIY aerocloner, cloning in water, cloning in soilless, then in a tub of coco with heat mat underneath. The coco did well for me for quite a while till it started mostly failing. Then I wandered through a bunch of methods again including a bubble cloner, till I started using perlite only which has overall been my most successful way. Also I wasted my money on this store-bought aero-cloner which definitely hasn’t paid for itself.

The perlite method is about the same as the coco method. I generally use a tub or tray full of perlite about 4-5” deep with a heat mat on low underneath.

Yes I do a wet-dry cycle. I put everything in quite wet and let it run. The cuttings root best when things get down below 10- 20% moisture level. Perlite wicks a nice even moisture and can get amazingly dry feeling before the plants wilt.

I don’t use a dome. My Rh is 80-100% most of the time and domes have never done anything for me except make the cuttings rot faster. The sky is my dome.
A new issue with the last few rounds- as I showed a pic of a while back, the stems would all be green with what looks like bread mould within a day or two of putting them in the perlite. :laughtwo:

Nah I’m sure this can solved wth bennies. The Z9 stopped the green mould from appearing, and there aren’t any other signs of rot so far. The recharge seems like it stops the green mould, but it’s not well suited for cloning. It has molasses in it and gives the cuttings and everything else a black coating which doesn’t seem to promote rooting.
 
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