hey cep do you do your own tissue and sap analysis? or are you sending samples into somewhere every week.
where can i get this done?
CLASSIC root disease...Either hemp canker or fusarium. My garden had a few plants that looked like this in 2011 but it was still my best year to date.
Next time I see you I will tell you some trade names of products that you can mix in before planting that will keep this from happening.
That is ca. Can you get quickly albion or jh biotech ca? If not cano3 would be my choice. I do not like ca25 cause of the cl.
Don't overdo the ph...6.8 is where a lot of bob wilts blueberry fields run
What's the final verdict here? Canker or calcium?
Hello all
Let’s just jump right in...
Lighting. I run lights in my garden till the second or third week of June. I went to this site: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html and figured the day length for the solstice in my area. Once I had this number I matched the current day to that length and put the extra lighting on the morning side. If I remember, the lights came on around 4:30 am and went off once the sun was up. There are less people awake in the early hours versus the night so I felt this was a little more low key.
Here’s a shot from June 7th showing the spacing of the bulbs. I use 40w cf’s roughly 15-20’ apart. I’ve not seemed to need any more light than that. Installation is smooth using twist lock light sockets on two strands of wire. I plug it into a gfi plug and forget about it. Personally, I feel lights are more important with clones versus seeds, but this is only from observation. I've also witnessed plants pulled out of serious flowering with the use of concentrated lighting. Perhaps double the density you see here and left on for, I believe, 18 hours.
Training. In the above picture you can still see the 2’ diameter rings we use for initial training. This stage gives us an even plant and is useful for setting up what will be main support branches. This next shot shows when we usually put the next ring on. Timing in all of these steps is critical. Do it too late and you’re struggling to get the plant in the right position being able to train the tops where you want them. I pointed out some of the initial training that was done when the ring went on.
Here’s the same plant 17 days later.
The astute observer will notice there is now a “cap” on the concrete wire support ring. These are cut 5’x5’ and fit nicely over the rings. Again, timing is key. Placing the caps on when the plants are at the stage below ensures you can put the tops in a nice even canopy.
As the plants continue to fill the space, we come in with 5/8” rebar cut to 10’ lengths and more hortinova. In these shots we did not use t-posts at the bases of the rebar, but did this last year for more support.
10 days later. It would have been much harder to put the netting on at this point. When the growing tips get 12-18" beyond the existing netting, we come in with another layer lightly draped over the outside of the plant and allow it to grow through that layer. The timing on this additional netting is dictated by plant growth.
Here’s a shot from this year’s garden probably the day we put on the netting as the bottoms still are not fastened to the rings. Also notice how the netting is only loosely around the plants. We're looking to have the plants grow through the netting, not be forced through.
For me, one of the keys to big plants (in this case higher yield, not just super tall or wide) is an even canopy with lots and lots of budsites. We let our plants veg to three or four feet and then take a large set of tip cuttings off the plant. 6-8” from all the main leader shoots. This creates a much more ball shaped plant. This first picture is a plant with a more traditional, small topping approach. You can see how there are fewer large growing tips than the next picture. That plant had a larger set of cuttings taken from the tips. It’s my feeling that you are changing the balance of growth auxins by removing that material.
We also prune up the insides to remove spindly growth and vegetation not getting good light. The improvement in ventilation inside the plant as well as the majority of growth going to quality budsites is well worth the effort...and it does take maintenance!
Well, that’s all for now. Perhaps we should go into soil prep next? I’m mixing mine now for this summer...
Happy gardening - Butte
Was reading through the highlights of the thread, and picked up on this gem of information from Butte. Seems like something that is lost in this thread, nobody tops the plants anymore. I also like how he defines "Large Plants" that maybe we should go back to. We seem to be getting caught up on 12ft tall or bust attitude. Just thought I would share.