Winter Weedy Wonderland - Auto Grow - Royal Queen Seeds

[Lady Cannafan]

11 brix is one off from “high” or high enough. Not much further to get there! I usually put a big drop right on the glass and close the lid. The lid spreads the liquid out evenly with capillary action or surface tension.

That's encouraging! I had a nice big drop, but it just didn't seem to spread correctly. So, I used the eyedropper tool provided with the kit and tried to spread it around. That made it a little better. Guess I'll try for bigger drop next time too.

Next up is the Royal Gorilla with all the leaf damage from thrips and then shooting a few VPD tests. Gotta get some coffee, brrrr azzed bitter cold out and coffee makes me think warm. LOL

 

[Gee64]

That's encouraging! I had a nice big drop, but it just didn't seem to spread correctly. So, I used the eyedropper tool provided with the kit and tried to spread it around. That made it a little better. Guess I'll try for bigger drop next time too.

Next up is the Royal Gorilla with all the leaf damage from thrips and then shooting a few VPD tests. Gotta get some coffee, brrrr azzed bitter cold out and coffee makes me think warm. LOL

If you guys like meandering journals of ADD with interesting content, you'll love GeeSpot. We are all over the map in there, but it has a ton of info in it. All worded in laymen's terms so it's easy(ish) to read. Lots of pictures too.

 

[Waywardwayne]

It takes like about this

Not a ton but it’s more than one drop for sure. It’s like three drops maybe.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

See, thrips are good! Your almost there. Aphids outright suck. Mites are in the middle.

That crisp line is your issue. This is an easy fix to rid yourself of the thrips.

Calcium is a lot more than a nutrient. It's the key piece. It conditions the soil as well as acting as a nutrient. It creates tilth and in conjunction with Mg, is the main player in your CEC. So if it's low, lockout and PH issues are occurring. She needs Calmag.

Use an organic one if possible, or buy some prilled dolomite and make your own.

Low dose calmag used a couple times is far superior to one big dose. Calcium works on contact to fix the soil, and in 2 or 3 days it's into the plant fully. Once the line gets fuzzy then lay off the calmag.

Try one dose as per light feeding instructions on the container, wait 48 hours, then brix her agsin and follow the refractometer results. You want fairly fuzzy.

@g-one-three has dialed in photographing refractometer results. G, you got some examples for Lady C of good and bad here?

Then monitor weekly and when the line is almost crisp again, you give her some more calmag.

When that line goes crisp you are about 2 weeks away from the classic brown-spots-on-the-leaves calcium deficiency, which means she is stressing for 2 weeks before you hear about it. Starving for cations too, and nitrogen gets locked by magnesium when Ca gets low, so you are in the beginnings of a big crash. Full starvation.

Calmag her today and in 2 days your golden again.

If you get clawed leaves, which are indicitive of nitro toxicity, thats calcium releasing all the locked up nitrogen at once. You want that to occur before flipping to flower, where a nitro bomb can really hurt.

So, my GH Calimagic calls for 1 tsp. per gallon. I have been increasing that to 2 tsp. per gallon for the last few grows with the FFOF. My plants improved (visually) when I started increasing that dose.

Should I go back to 1 tsp. per gal., in your opinion?
And I have been doing it with every feeding. Should I continue that until I get the fuzzy line, if I read you correctly?

It's the only Calmag I have here, so it will have to do for now.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

It takes like about this

Not a ton but it’s more than one drop for sure. It’s like three drops maybe.

I first looked at that and wondered what you were showing. I was looking for green. Now I see the water. UGH....coffee NOW!

 

[Waywardwayne]

Drink up! I should have specified what was in the photo my bad

 

[Gee64]

So on the topic of brix. Calcium sets the stage, nothing works without it, but phosphorus is the big actual nutrient. So fix Ca 1st to set the stage. Then focus on P.

You need the plant to eat a little bit more P every day than it ate the day before. That doesn't mean tons of P, just a smidge more than yesterday, and that's because as a plant gets bigger it requires more P to fill it's larger size, so if you use veg nutes in veg, and flower nutes in flower, veg will be low in P.

Add a bit of flower Geoflora to your veg mix, maybe 20%, and your brix will climb early in your plant's life. No bugs

Then look at watering. In soil, water and oxygen share the same space in the rootball, and all foods must be combined with an oxygen molecule to be recognized as food by the plant.

No O2 molecule.... No entry into the root.

So if you overwater, it doesn't matter how much food is in the pot, she will starve.

Thats how over watering kills plants. It starves them to death.

 

[Gee64]

So, my GH Calimagic calls for 1 tsp. per gallon. I have been increasing that to 2 tsp. per gallon for the last few grows with the FFOF. My plants improved (visually) when I started increasing that dose.

Should I go back to 1 tsp. per gal., in your opinion?
And I have been doing it with every feeding. Should I continue that until I get the fuzzy line, if I read you correctly?

It's the only Calmag I have here, so it will have to do for now.

If you are using 1 tsp/gal every watering then yes, increase it to 1.5 or even 2.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

So on the topic of brix. Calcium sets the stage, nothing works without it, but phosphorus is the big actual nutrient. So gix Ca 1st to set the stage. Then focus on P.

You need the plant to eat a little bit more P every day than it ate the day before. That doesn't mean tons of P, just a smidge more than yesterday, and that's because as a plant gets bigger it requires more P to fill it's larger size, so if you use veg nutes in veg, and flower nutes in flower, veg will be low in P.

Add a bit of flower Geoflora to your veg mix, maybe 20%, and your brix will climb early in your plant's life. No bugs

Then look at watering. In soil, water and oxygen share the same space in the rootball, and all foods must be combined with an oxygen molecule to be recognized as food by the plant.

No O2 molecule.... No entry into the root.

So if you overwater, it doesn't matter how much food is in the pot, she will starve.

Thats how over watering kills plants. It starves them to death.

Yeah, I get the overwatering part. Been there done that.
My plants are on the self watering bases where the water is wicked up. I am pretty happy with how those are doing so far.
I'll up the Geo Flora today in the feed, I think? LOL
Going to go play......

 

[Gee64]

Yeah, I get the overwatering part. Been there done that.
My plants are on the self watering bases where the water is wicked up. I am pretty happy with how those are doing so far.
I'll up the Geo Flora today in the feed, I think? LOL
Going to go play......

Oh your bottom watering. Are you adding calmag to the trays or to the soil surface? Calcium is the heaviest mineral in the pot and always moves down. It works best when top watered.

 

[Gee64]

Also, brix is heavily dependant on healthy myco, and hydrolysed fish fertilizer, not emulsion or hydrolysed emulsion, keeps myco in tip top shape. Myco needs to be the healthiest and strongest thing in the soil. It's job is to manage the microbes. So if you aren't using hydrolysed fish ferts, then there's a few more free brix points

 

[Gee64]

In fish fertiliser land, emulsion means "We took the good stuff out, and this is what's left". Hydrolysed is complete fish ferts.

 

[g-one-three]

See, thrips are good! Your almost there. Aphids outright suck. Mites are in the middle.

That crisp line is your issue. This is an easy fix to rid yourself of the thrips.

Calcium is a lot more than a nutrient. It's the key piece. It conditions the soil as well as acting as a nutrient. It creates tilth and in conjunction with Mg, is the main player in your CEC. So if it's low, lockout and PH issues are occurring. She needs Calmag.

Use an organic one if possible, or buy some prilled dolomite and make your own.

Low dose calmag used a couple times is far superior to one big dose. Calcium works on contact to fix the soil, and in 2 or 3 days it's into the plant fully. Once the line gets fuzzy then lay off the calmag.

Try one dose as per light feeding instructions on the container, wait 48 hours, then brix her agsin and follow the refractometer results. You want fairly fuzzy.

@g-one-three has dialed in photographing refractometer results. G, you got some examples for Lady C of good and bad here?

Then monitor weekly and when the line is almost crisp again, you give her some more calmag.

When that line goes crisp you are about 2 weeks away from the classic brown-spots-on-the-leaves calcium deficiency, which means she is stressing for 2 weeks before you hear about it. Starving for cations too, and nitrogen gets locked by magnesium when Ca gets low, so you are in the beginnings of a big crash. Full starvation.

Calmag her today and in 2 days your golden again.

If you get clawed leaves, which are indicitive of nitro toxicity, thats calcium releasing all the locked up nitrogen at once. You want that to occur before flipping to flower, where a nitro bomb can really hurt.

Here's a crisper line that was remedied with Dolomite water. I have had them crisper than this but I seem to have deleted all my refractometer pics from older grows.

This is a fuzzier line from a plant with good calcium content.

 

[Gee64]

@Thirvnrob has patiently spent a few grows on balancing top and bottom watering to create high brix. Maybe he can weigh in here.

 

[Gee64]

Here's a crisper line that was remedied with Dolomite water. I have had them crisper than this but I seem to have deleted all my refractometer pics from older grows.


This is a fuzzier line from a plant with good calcium content.

Thanks G

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Oh your bottom watering. Are you adding calmag to the trays or to the soil surface? Calcium is the heaviest mineral in the pot and always moves down. It works best when top watered.

I do one container from the gallon as a top water, and the rest goes into the trays. 5 gallon pots.
I used to only top water my plants, this grow is the first that I have not when I got the self watering bases.

So, that is a conundrum I guess. It's started to get a little complicated now.....

I do not have any fish fert here, I've never used it, have no idea what I would look for or how to use it. How would I use it with my nutrient mix when the plants are watered and fed?

 

[Gee64]

Here's a couple more from google images.

Great calcium.

Terrible calcium.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Here's a crisper line that was remedied with Dolomite water. I have had them crisper than this but I seem to have deleted all my refractometer pics from older grows.


This is a fuzzier line from a plant with good calcium content.

The first leaf I tried this morning had the fuzzy line at about 9, but the liquid didn't seem to spread evenly on the glass plate. The second leaf showed a clear line at 11.
I'm learning with that refractometer, so as I go I'm sure I will get it dialed in on using it. Thanks!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Here's a couple more from google images.

Great calcium.

Terrible calcium.

Okay, terrible calcium meaning not enough or too much? I need to adjust this before I feed today. Waiting for the rainwater to come to room temp.

 

[Gee64]

I do one container from the gallon as a top water, and the rest goes into the trays. 5 gallon pots.
I used to only top water my plants, this grow is the first that I have not when I got the self watering bases.

So, that is a conundrum I guess. It's started to get a little complicated now.....

I do not have any fish fert here, I've never used it, have no idea what I would look for or how to use it. How would I use it with my nutrient mix when the plants are watered and fed?

You mix it as per the instructions and top water it in every 10-14 days. I don't bottom water, it complicates LOS, but Rob has it dialed. Azi went full top watering to learn brix, and is just starting to incorporate the reservoirs back into it, so maybe @Azimuth can weigh in too.