My gardening drills, the easy way....and a Help Desk if you're "needy" LOL. Questions? Fire away, I'm here to help.

[Old Uncle Ben]

Being short days, for convenience sake I moved the biggest (and oldest) plants to the greenhouse. Gave them full sun for a while too. All indicas. Drowned the bastards with rain water. They are wicking off soil moisture fast.

The C99 stuff is still under 18/6. Really getting too big, need to go 12/12 on them too.

UB

 

[singlecoiled]

Jan. 8, growing like "weeds". Afghani's in the background.

View attachment 18943877

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Happy gardening......

Nice strain choices ! I love Master Kush and a smoking some as we speak. (just a puff or two).

Please let me know how strong the odor is during flower. Many recommend Master Kush as low odor, but I wonder. I had three going (turned out male) and they stunk strongly in Veg, I was suprised...

View attachment 18949630

 

[mr.brunch]

 

[singlecoiled]

Like I said, lime is basic, raises the pH especially Quick Lime.

Again, don't worry about your pH. I often water with my well water only or mix it with rain. It is very hard with a very high TDS of Mg and Ca bicarbonates. Aquifer runs thru sandstone and limestone.

Recommend you ignore the forum pH posts. Folks will screw things up with a lot of cannabis supplements and rocket fuels and and quickly blame their fuck ups on pH or epsom salts.

What is a "fancy premix soil"? Does it feed for a long time? If so it's got a slow feeding prill in it. Is it one of the "super" soils?

I have a super soil too! Whatever is stockpiled outside or laying around in bags.

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Washed builder's sand is sitting in the bucket. It's stockpiled outdoors.

Pine bark fines plus vermiculite is a really good mix. Just use a balanced NPK food with micros and you're good to go.

UB

Wow Uncle Ben, I'm sure you ruffle quite a few feathers swimming away from the Bro Science school of fish. No Bloom Nutrients? OK, your an outlaw. Now no PH needed? Sacriledge, the bro science posse will be coming for you soon after that one !

Just kidding by the way, as I say I wish there were more of you around. I would like to mention however that new growers can benefit from monitoring PH. I agree that hitting exact PH numbers in soil is pretty silly and hard to detect properly, but you can monitor PH in and PH out with PH drops to make sure your not too far north or south... Yes, runoff PH doesnt tell the whole story, but it gets you in the neighborhood. I use drops and as long as everything stays yellow to green (5.8-7.3) I dont obsess over it. I also like to vary my PH feeding just a bit, one high one low. Just experimenting, but everything stays in the acceptable PH window this way. I do avoid using PH up or down and use Silica to adjust PH (Protekt)

My first grow went to hell and it wasnt until I checked PH that I found something was wrong with PH (well under 5.0 due to bloom nutrient salt buildup)

Love my General Hydroponics drops, no calibration needed..

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Nope, have no clue what my pH is. Proof is in the pudding, plants look fine.

Been at least a week and still no flowering response. Waiting game is on.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

C99 stuff today. Shorty back left was germed week or so after the biguns.

I sometimes forget to water and end up with necrotic or nasty looking leaves. Been plucking a few.

UB

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

My first grow went to hell and it wasnt until I checked PH that I found something was wrong with PH (well under 5.0 due to bloom nutrient salt buildup)

Doesn't sound right. Either your measurement is not correct or the Bloom food had salts that are acidic like sulfates. Ammonical salts are acidic too but usually not found (if at all) in bloom foods in any great degree.

 

[singlecoiled]

Doesn't sound right. Either your measurement is not correct or the Bloom food had salts that are acidic like sulfates. Ammonical salts are acidic too but usually not found (if at all) in bloom foods in any great degree.

The reason I say that new growers should check PH is that until you have a few grows under your belt, its good to know your not too far off with PH... I tested too late on my first grow, and the drops showed a PH of LAVA red (ph under 5.0)... Drops dont lie and dont need calibration....My plant was completely locked out and this was water going in at 7.0 coming out like dragon fire.. Why, I am unsure. (although I would bet money it was salt buildup from a newbie grower making mistakes and following the Fox Farm Feed schedule) If I had tested PH earlier, I could have saved that grow...

Loving your C99 and Master Kush choices, two strains that I've been considering for a while. Please let me know how strong the odor is with C99 and Master Kush in flower. These are two strains that many seedbanks sell as "low odor" but I am getting mixed signals, many reviews say they really stink.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

The reason I say that new growers should check PH is that until you have a few grows under your belt, its good to know your not too far off with PH... I tested too late on my first grow, and the drops showed a PH of LAVA red (ph under 5.0)... Drops dont lie and dont need calibration....My plant was completely locked out and this was water going in at 7.0 coming out like dragon fire.. Why, I am unsure. (although I would bet money it was salt buildup from a newbie grower making mistakes and following the Fox Farm Feed schedule) If I had tested PH earlier, I could have saved that grow... Pic below, my very first grow.(fail)

Loving your C99 and Master Kush choices, two strains that I've been considering for a while. Please let me know how strong the odor is with C99 and Master Kush in flower. These are two strains that many seedbanks sell as "low odor" but I am getting mixed signals, many reviews say they really stink.

They're is no such thing as "low odor" weed. They haven't shown sex yet but already smelling pretty strong. I grew one indica last year (Cannacopia Lapis Mtn. indica) and you could smell an ounce baggie sitting in an ice chest in your car with doors closed a mile away! It was just nauseating, permeated everything. The empty ice chest smelled for weeks when I opened the lid!

 

[singlecoiled]

They're is no such thing as "low odor" weed. They haven't shown sex yet but already smelling pretty strong. I grew one indica last year (Cannacopia Lapis Mtn. indica) and you could smell an ounce baggie sitting in an ice chest in your car with doors closed a mile away! It was just nauseating, permeated everything. The empty ice chest smelled for weeks when I opened the lid!

Yeah, I guess I should call it lower odor. Northern Lights has almost zero odor until the last three weeks of flower. It smells amazing and strong after curing, but stays low key most of the grow. C99 and Master Kush are also supposedly low odor, (lower odor that is)

I tried growing White Widow and knew three weeks into veg there was no way I could pull it off... It stunk more in Veg than my flowering Northern Lights !


ILGM low odor recommendations:

ILGM low odor

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Yeah, I guess I should call it lower odor. Northern Lights has almost zero odor until the last three weeks of flower. It smells amazing and strong after curing, but stays low key most of the grow. C99 and Master Kush are also supposedly low odor, (lower odor that is)

I tried growing White Widow and knew three weeks into veg there was no way I could pull it off... It stunk more in Veg than my flowering Northern Lights !


ILGM low odor recommendations:

ILGM low odor

Ozone generator will take care of it.

 

[CocoNut 420]

Every now and again with coco I get a clone stem turning soft, like mush and the clone fails?

This is a new thing, iirc I didn't ever have problem in years of using rock wool cubes

Any suggestions what the cause is and how to prevent it in coco?

 

[oldmaninbc]

Ozone generator will take care of it.

Ozone generators work well but they can be harmful to your health if used without due care. One time I forgot my ozone generator was on for an extended time and caused harm to my plants and also caused my favorite plant to go hermaphrodite.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Every now and again with coco I get a clone stem turning soft, like mush and the clone fails?

This is a new thing, iirc I didn't ever have problem in years of using rock wool cubes

Any suggestions what the cause is and how to prevent it in coco?

Rot. Use a rooting hormone that contains a fungicide.

 

[CocoNut 420]

Rot. Use a rooting hormone that contains a fungicide.

Is it worth soaking all of my coco in H202 or bleach?

I've been recycling the coco and using again,
the last thing I need is hassle from it.

 

[CocoNut 420]

Question:
Does removing this really re direct growth?

As in will removing that improve anything at the top?

Let's say I make hash, would I be better leaving them when weighed against any benefits of removing them?

I don't like trimming them but ideally it would be better to have them than not if removing them isn't really re directing growth to the point of it being worthwhile?

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Is it worth soaking all of my coco in H202 or bleach?

I've been recycling the coco and using again,
the last thing I need is hassle from it.

Without looking at it I don't know. Coco holds up real well for a while but when it starts to break down it will lose its structure and hold too much moisture. I used it as a trial for orchids years ago. Why it's popular in pot forums I don't know. I guess because "everyone is doing it".

 

[CocoNut 420]

Without looking at it I don't know. Coco holds up real well for a while but when it starts to break down it will lose its structure and hold too much moisture. I used it as a trial for orchids years ago. Why it's popular in pot forums I don't know. I guess because "everyone is doing it".

I can tell you that it's not dusty and fine.
Current plant

Last grow

It's still working well.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Question:
Does removing this really re direct growth?
View attachment 18950583
As in will removing that improve anything at the top?

Let's say I make hash would I be better leaving them when weighed against any benefits of removing them?

I don't like trimming them but ideally it would be better to have them than not if removing them isn't really re directing growth to the point of it being worthwhile?

I never remove any healthy, green productive foliage. My problem is neglect regarding keeping up the watering drills. Those unattended plants stress out with some leaf sets turning necrotic. I just pinch off the petiole.

I think your question is about apical dominance and yes when you top the auxins/growth hormones that normally collect at and near the terminal tip, the end, will be re-distributed to dormant foliar buds residing in the leaf petiole axils. Meaning, the plant will branch. Best done during veg stage. Same "stimulant" applies using root pruning pots. You're topping but doing so underground.

Uncle Ben

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

I can tell you that it's not dusty and fine.
Current plant
View attachment 18950586
Last grow
View attachment 18950587
It's still working well.

You don't have the sides to make this happen but that rootball could use some topping with soil or shredded coco. Every part of a submerged trunk will induce root output and it's all about the roots!

I added a big heaping hand of soil to a 2 gal. pot yesterday, meaning the lower branches were at soil level when I got through watering in.