Winter Weedy Wonderland - Auto Grow - Royal Queen Seeds

[Lady Cannafan]

10 is better for the brix, but the calcium line won't change. If it's crisp and clear, she needs calcium.

So, I probably need to get some of the Dolomite mixed and add to my water/feed?
I have fish fert coming this afternoon too.

 

[Gee64]

So, I probably need to get some of the Dolomite mixed and add to my water/feed?
I have fish fert coming this afternoon too.

Definitely, or use calmag if you have some on hand. If you use calmag go by the "light" feeding mix on the bottle, and if you mix dolo-water up, try for under 70ppm. 50-60ppm is safe and if it's not enough then use it for 2 or 3 waterings.

All at once can cause problems sometimes. Burnt tips and clawing to be a couple.

Check her dry soil surface and see if it's starting to crust. Thats a tell for calcium deficiencies too, but it can show up on the refractometer before the crusties start, so you may not see crusting yet.

Quite possibly some free brix coming up

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Mine takes a week or so. It stinks but only if you smell it closely.

I wonder if the mixture could be prolonged by refrigerating the unused portion until needed?
As I say that, I'm thinking....I'm going to try it anyway. LOL

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Definitely, or use calmag if you have some on hand. If you use calmag go by the "light" feeding mix on the bottle, and if you mix dolo-water up, try for under 70ppm. 50-60ppm is safe and if it's not enough then use it for 2 or 3 waterings.

All at once can cause problems sometimes. Burnt tips and clawing to be a couple.

Check her dry soil surface and see if it's starting to crust. Thats a tell for calcium deficiencies too, but it can show up on the refractometer before the crusties start, so you may not see crusting yet.

Quite possibly some free brix coming up

Will do, I already have the Dolo mixed up. I am assuming I will use either the cal/mag or the Dolo, not both.
I'm going with the Dolo on the next water/feed if I see that it needs it, which I'm sure it will.

 

[Gee64]

Will do, I already have the Dolo mixed up. I am assuming I will use either the cal/mag or the Dolo, not both.
I'm going with the Dolo on the next water/feed if I see that it needs it, which I'm sure it will.

Yeah, 1 or the other. They may be slightly different, but dolomite is a calcium-magnesium mineral, usually 2.5 or 3 to 1 calcium to magnesium, which is great for LOS.

Here's a tip for you if you rebuild your own soil.

Kelp meal is awesome stuff, but it's expensive.

I was in an equestrian/cattle feed store and noticed large 3gal buckets of kelp on the shelf and thought "Geez how much gol' dang money is that sucker worth?!"

Well it turns out that it's a high end food additive in competetive equestrian and horse racing circles, but the giant bucket was only $40, when a half gallon is $25 at a grow shop, AND it's food grade, so it's top notch.

So if you need kelp, check a cattle/equestrin feed store 1st

 

[Lady Cannafan]

BRIX test:
I will start labeling my posts as BRIX test to make them easier to find searching the thread.

Another random brix test halfway through the grow day. One of the Flowering girls, Royal creamatic. Sampled a lower outer leaf, and the BRIX was a fairly fuzzy 11.

Also did the IR gun VPD in several areas of each plant and they are between 1.2 and 1.3 pretty consistently near the tops.

At 5:00 I will sample one leaf from each of the 4 plants for Brix, and do the VPD samples as well.
I'm pretty confident on what I'm seeing on the refractometer, so I won't be taking photos every single time.

 

[StoneOtter]

Damn! I feel like my whole world has been turned upside down!

I thought I was in for a Azi talk when I said I was going to cloth for this grow! When I got nothin I thought something was wrong! I see said the blind man!

I wonder if the mixture could be prolonged by refrigerating the unused portion until needed?
As I say that, I'm thinking....I'm going to try it anyway. LOL

Also, I didn't bubble it. Just a stir and draw to add to my water. I think bubbling could be better.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Skip all that. I Deleted it. I'm not using distilled water, I'm using rainwater.
I'll be back. LOL

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Okay, So...here we go. I'm using rainwater. How many Tablespoons are you guys typically using per 1 gallon of water with the Dolomite mix?
I'm trying to get to just under 70 ppm and I'm using much more than I thought I would be.
PPM meter is working fine.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

I thought I was in for a Azi talk when I said I was going to cloth for this grow! When I got nothin I thought something was wrong! I see said the blind man!

Also, I didn't bubble it. Just a stir and draw to add to my water. I think bubbling could be better.

What is your amount of dolo mix to 1 gallon of water? I'm having a tough time with this, it seems like I'm using too much to get it to around 60 or 70 PPM.
I would like to have someone elses' amount to guage by. But I think with me using rainwater that might make a difference??

 

[Joe Brewster]

What is your amount of dolo mix to 1 gallon of water? I'm having a tough time with this, it seems like I'm using too much to get it to around 60 or 70 PPM.
I would like to have someone elses' amount to guage by. But I think with me using rainwater that might make a difference??

Test your rain water first to see what the ppm are before adding the lime

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Test your rain water first to see what the ppm are before adding the lime

It's at 6 ppm. Which sounds pretty low. What is yours?

Edit: Michigan rainwater is supposed to be around 20 ppm or less.

 

[Joe Brewster]

Haven’t used a tester in years lol
In god we trust

 

[g-one-three]

What is your amount of dolo mix to 1 gallon of water? I'm having a tough time with this, it seems like I'm using too much to get it to around 60 or 70 PPM.
I would like to have someone elses' amount to guage by. But I think with me using rainwater that might make a difference??

I use low ppm RO water and it takes me about 45ml of the dolomite concentrate to get my target ppm. My preferred watering is around 50 ppm because I water with it more frequently but at a lower ppm mixture.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

I use low ppm RO water and it takes me about 45ml of the dolomite concentrate to get my target ppm. My preferred watering is around 50 ppm because I water with it more frequently but at a lower ppm mixture.

Thank you! And that's per gallon, right?

Methinks my PPM meter isn't so good after all. LOL

 

[g-one-three]

Thank you! And that's per gallon, right?

Methinks my PPM meter isn't so good after all. LOL

Yes but I will say my concentrate is 1/3 cup prilled Dolomite lime to 1 quart of water. So it may vary on what you need to use to bring your mixture up to your ideal ppm.

 

[Azimuth]

Damn! I feel like my whole world has been turned upside down!

Don't you fret, GDB! I'll be back to it before you know it. (probably because I'm not gonna share it too early. )

Just need to try a few side trips first.

I thought I was in for a Azi talk when I said I was going to cloth for this grow! When I got nothin I thought something was wrong! I see said the blind man!

Not from me, SO. GYOG!

I think the SIP is a great platform for growing large plants and even rookies can have great success with it. But I'm after big, healthy plants as measured by brix levels so I want to find a way to make the two compatible for me. Others have had success so I think I can, too.

So, my position on SIPs hasn't changed, which is that I think they can be such a game changer for many growers that I think everyone should try at least one round with it. From there you decide for yourself.

It's at 6 ppm. Which sounds pretty low. What is yours?

Mine's single digits as well.

 

[JiggiLotus]

In theory sort of yes, but in reality no, and that's because leaf temp differential from ambient temps is mainly driven by light intensity.

So if stretch is over and light intensity/hanging height won't change, you can set intensity reliably for long term, because the plant has pretty much stopped growing upwards.

Then if room temp drops or RH changes, VPD may go out of whack, but as ambient temp/RH alters, the 2 degree offset will hold.

Prior to the end of stretch you are both growing closer to the light, which increases intensity and changes the 2 degree offset, and the roots are developing, which gives the plant the ability to handle more light. So in veg you are adjusting and temp taking all the time.

Every day in stretch, so using a buddies gun once won't help you then. It may make today corrected, but tomorrow you will need another temp reading to correct things again.

Good VPD, including proper light intensity will definitely aid in better brix. Brix is 100% about proper balance, however you can grow full synthetics in DWC and VPD/light adjusting will greatly aid your grow, but achieving high brix in a mycoless environment, or any unnatural environment really, is almost impossible.

I say almost, because even tho hydroponics is a hack, you can always hack a hack to make it work, but it's expensive and very labour intensive. Brix rebels against hacks, it needs to operate as the genetics want to, not how we want it to.

But if you really like science and lab work and foliars and reservoir changes, it can be done. You basically need an educational setup such as a university lab or a private lab.

I imagine you could buy a USB attachment, but I don't think phones have IR laser pointers in them.

Bugs are the big indicator. If you don't have any pests and you don't use bug spray, your brix are probably high. If you have thrips your only a few points low, mites your mid level at best, and aphids are you very low brix.

If you are growing with LOS, like Lady C is, your usually standing in line to enter the ballpark, and it's only a tweak or 2 away. So getting high brix can happen quickly. Remember, in the presence of adequate light and minrrals, brix comes down to 5 things. Calcium, Oxygen, Carbon, Phosphorus, and microbes/fungii.

Usually low calcium and or overwatering, and quite often both because overwatering flushes calcium, is the cause or at least a major factor.

If it's carbon, then likely the light is too intense and leaves are too hot closing stomata and choking CO2, and if you correct those 3, then the plant responds by propogating healthier microbes, so that only leaves Phosphorus, and it's rarely phosphorus.

If it is P, then it's likely from too much because of a synthetic source adding way to much that bypasses microbes/fungii, or very poor myco that can't mine P from organic sources.

Most soil mixes and ammendments contain adequate P for LOS to at least get to 14-ish.

Folks who use low P veg soil can suffer from low brix in veg.

Good high brix LOS veg soil is just veg soil with added P and proper calcium. And myco/microbes of course.

The one thing that brixers rarely talk about is nitrogen. Our belief in needing tons of it is a synthetic thing.

Plants don't need essential amino's like humans, they can manufacture all their own, and they make it from nitrogen that the atmosphere supplies and microbes fix.

You do need nitrogen sources such as alfalfa or blood meal, or kelp meal, to balance your browns to greens during cooking, and brixers will look for a wider variety of nitrogen inputs here to build a better mineral spectrum, but once things are up and running, added nitrogens crash brix AND create tissues that bugs love.

Very healthy green looking plants can easily be low brix bug attractors because of too much nitrogen. It's like steroids. It builds tons of tissue, but not healthy tissue.

Not quite a direct answer, but once your head wraps around it the answers appear. Then it gets very straight forward.

It takes repeating, no one gets it in one go. Too many adjustments, so you learn them one at a time. Always start with calcium and oxygen.

its probably a good thing phones arent equipped with lazer pointers lol

 

[Gee64]

What is your amount of dolo mix to 1 gallon of water? I'm having a tough time with this, it seems like I'm using too much to get it to around 60 or 70 PPM.
I would like to have someone elses' amount to guage by. But I think with me using rainwater that might make a difference??

I mix 1/4 cup of prilled dolomite into 1 quart of water and shake it hard, then let it sit for a day or so, shake it again, and that's my concentrate.

The ppm is over 2000, so my pen won't measure it. The ppm pen maxxes out at 2000.

Once the concentrate is ready, I mix aprox 3 tablespoons into 1 quart of water, and the ppm meter, which I calibrate regularly, comes in at 60-70 ppm usually.

As the concentrate sits it disolves the dolomite further, so ppm's constantly climb, so you can't just arbitrarily use 3 tablespoons every time, but it's always 3-4 tbsp/quart of RO water to get 60-ish ppm dolo water.

It's the concentrate that gets nasty stinky after a couple weeks.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Once the concentrate is ready, I mix aprox 3 tablespoons into 1 quart of water, and the ppm meter, which I calibrate regularly, comes in at 60-70 ppm usually.

There it is! I was thinking I had to mix 3 ish tablespoons into one GALLON of water. Big difference between a gallon and a quart.
My ppm meter tops out about the same