Dookie69

Not quick enough. No response yet [emoji3525]

I have 2 x 200Ah deep cycle gel batteries on a 5kVa inverter (No solar panels yet). It just to keep running during load shedding or any other time a poorly maintained transformer blows up in my area. I have a 240w LED, a Dehumidifier and fans / extraction on the inverter. This will run for close to 5hrs tho Lithium would run longer since I understand they can go to a lower voltage without damage. Then I have a generator to charge the inverter if it comes to that. Sustained high humidity is the killer if you are in a humid area so I focus on air movement and dehumidification. I run autos so the light is less critical. My “emergency light” also forms part of my normal lights, so it runs on its own timer and comes on and off like the rest of them under normal circumstances.

Great debate guys, some interesting takes on the subject. I grow Auto’s in Autopots. All the plants (between 2 and 9 depending) get the same feed because of the common reservoir. This can be tricky when I have a mixture of Auto’s which I usually do (3 of the same seeds 3 times = 9 per grow). A harvest for me takes over a week. I have limited time with my grow so can’t get it done faster. So I have to keep feeding because it might be 8 or 9 days from first to last. Not as bad as it sounds since some mature faster, they come down first. I sometimes do partial harvests meaning I remove all the top bud and will leave the smaller, larf / popcorn for another week to get good light. Anyway to cut to the chase, it’s out of necessity rather than preference that I no longer attempt a final flush (I mean an only-water for 1 or 2 weeks flush). Instead I feed with TA Final Part, which is a ripening agent devoid of any Nitrogen. There is mention above that the plant suddenly start drinking less, much less, towards the end. This is very obvious in the Autopot res which isn’t drain to waste, so the plants only pull what they need. And since they are consuming much less, they naturally “starve” themselves as I assume they do in nature. It follows on then that even if I have a high concentration of nutes (5ml per litre), the fact that LESS of it is going into the plant must equate to a lowering of Nute strength over time. This then might suggest that perhaps those who hand water might inadvertently be over feeding plants in their later stage of life. Anyway, I have discovered that the whole smooth vs harsh thing boils down to your drying process, and the taste boils down to your curing process. I got paranoid I was over drying and cut it a bit short. Some of that bud was harsh. The (almost over dried) bud from the next harvest was silky smooth, burned white ash in spite of having no flush, no period of darkness. They did however have lower temps towards the end. There is a school of thought now that flushing may improve taste, not because of leaching out excess nutes, but because of the shock presented to the plant which can trigger more terpene production….

Overgrow are totally legit. No issues.

Can a new category be added to indoor growing / hydro growing for Autopots and Blumats?

Might as well remove the meter seeing as its only there as an indication of the dimming (and by inference, the PPFD)

My wife went and bought Purple Urkle seeds without my “approval”, I was sceptical till I saw just how purple the bud is turning out. Hope it’s as good as it looks. Maybe two weeks to go….

Merry Christmas everyone. Been meaning to write a follow up on this post for a week now. I was puzzling why this grow appeared to be struggling with deficiencies, considering I follow the feeding guidelines laid out on the GHE schedule, and supplement moderately here and there. I decant my nutes from the 5litre GHE bottles into the more manageable 500ml bottles. About a week or so ago I got to the bottom of my 5l Micro. As I drained it into the 500ml bottle I noticed something solid, thin and dark brown in the funnel. I examined the main 5l container and the bottom was covered in this burgundy crust. All I can surmise is that for some reason some of the salts / minerals in the Micro came out of solution and settled on the bottom of the container, in spite of me shaking the bottle every 500ml of use. If this were the case, surely either the mineral mix would alter, or overall the strength could drop. Maybe I was starving my plants in the Micro range as a result. Has anyone had this problem with Micro?

Have you tried / had success with germinating seeds vs clones?

What is the EC of your tap water after having it stand for 24hrs? And your pH?

Best to do some research. Dr Coco from Coco for Cannabis (web page, you tube) is a great starting point. Even if you’re not growing in Coco. He explains the difference between NER (Nutrient Element Ratio) vs Nute strength and dilution. Also has a killer method for germination.

You need both a PPM / EC pen and a ph pen. However you should change the reading from ppm to EC. Most of us work in EC. Having said that, Ive just converted your PPM reading of 820 to EC and I get 1.6, which is probably twice the strength of a plant that size. To be sure check for yourself, and let us know the EC.

I don’t have any experience with DWC, as I grow in Coco. I believe your problems are all about PH as you said, and adding supplements to a plant that can’t make use of them thanks to a high pH is a futile exercise. My tap water comes out at a pH of around 8.0 to 8.2 and every single time I mix a new nutrient bucket, I have to add pH down, sometimes a lot, like as much as 2ml in 20l. This is especially the case when I add Silicon which buffers the water in the upper ranges of pH (it is base or alkaline) Plants in Hydro, and especially young plants, prefer a ph of between 5.5 and 5.9 / 6.0. When you get you ph pen you will also notice that ph tends to creep up so you need to adjust the reservoir accordingly. It looks like your plant is suffering from lockout, it’s not getting the nutrients it needs.

My res is feeding 7 plants, 2 are small and bushy and the remaining five are monsters for indoor Auto’s, between 1m to 1,2m high and very wide. (by my experience and standards these are big for autos, bigger than I’m happy with, growing into my lights). I had five in my 5x5 and had to take one out, the remaining four are bursting out of the open windows. They are cramped in there man, I can’t get in to do anything, I’m pulling acrobatic moves just to attempt some defoliation. In hindsight I think I left them on the GHE “Growing” nute mix for too long, should have switched them to “Pre-flower” earlier! The pheno’s that were showing those issues mentioned earlier in this post are ok now, I believe it was a general starvation plus a calcium shortage, thanks to their explosive growth. Bearing in mind the Autopot is not “drain to waste”, in other words every drop in the res ends up in the plant and out on transpiration - seven plants going thru 40l per day for probably close to 2 weeks so far! Sucking my nutes dry man! Anyway we are probably half way through flowering, they should start using less soon. I’ve also got them on Bloombastic which I haven’t used since the little sample I originally had, finished. It’s looking good, even on the lowest feed of Bloombastic (half a ml/litre), but it’s costing an arm and a leg. Anyway thanks for the interest guys. Ps My EC varies between 1,4 to 1,7 in Flower, however considering the Si, Cal and sometimes Epsom Salts I add, I’ve started running the GHE between 70 and 90%.

Hey CreX thanks for your advice re Chelated Calcium. I got some and have started using it.

Here you can see one leaf stacking directly on top of another, literally no stem / stalk between them.

Lighting was 24/0 till pre flower, now 20/4. (All the others in the grow went into pre flower and flower at a similar time). I had one of these Gorilla Glue autos in my last grow which did the same, just became bushy. I isolated her / it in a separate space and tried 18/6 then 12/12 and eventually she pushed out skinny black bud that was completely useless, she used a lot of energy and nutes to achieve nothing!

It was part of a 5 pack (GG Auto) from Groen seeds. 2 or the 5 turned out like this. The other 3 produced some proper fire. The seeds cost just under R500 for the five so it’s not a big deal, I haven’t tried to contact the seedbank to complain or anything. I’m just curious to see if anyone can tell me what they make of this. I took a pic of a leaf last week which I’ll post if I find it, it’s like a ten finger leaf, basically 2 stacked directly on top of one another, and if there is zero space between nodes!

Two out of six Gorilla Glue seeds ended up like this. The others grew fine and yielded well. The plant appears to be an infertile female, all it does is push out leaves. It looks like it’s pushing out leaves where pistols should be. Is this a genetic throwback of some sort? For reference I have uploaded a pic of two plants the same age. The Gelato 41 is a small plant, the Northwrn lights is over 1m high. All germinated at the same time. My “Asexual” gorilla glue: Small Gelato 41: Large Northern Lights: All on day 58 from germination. I’m guessing I should cull her right? The last one like this eventually pushed out miserable little black buds which hardly resembled weed at all.

Respect to the OG’s out there man. Pushed thru years of trial and error in the face of serious consequences. Before the days of YouTube, hydro shops and easily obtainable seeds. You were the pioneers in this country, got us to where we are today, freely offering your hard earned experience to us young’uns (myself a new growing ballie LOL) I’ve been at it now for only 14 months man and I’ve got so much practical stuff to learn. All you OG’s: Thank you thank you thank you.

Actually the soft water Micro has more Calcium, to make up for the lack of it in the tap water. If I run just 100% nutes (flower) my EC is only around 1,4. With CalMag at a deficiency feed it comes to 1,7 or 1,8. There is the 0,3 which GHE assumes is in the average tap water (especially in places like London where the water is very hard). So I’m thinking I have to up the base somehow, ie with CalMag / Si or whatever. Remember I’m running CO2 so I’m theory the plants should take higher levels of nutes. (But how much remains a mystery) Finally I have 8 plants on an Autopot system and they are currently going thru 40l per day! (Remember it’s not to waste!) I’ve been keeping the VPD ok, struggling with humidity a bit, but still they are sucking like crazy. This might indicate a weak feed problem, that they have to transpire so much to get their required nutes?

My phone lives on a prayer. Thanks for the info. Interesting. Ps I think GHE works on the average tap water EC to be around 0.3 to 0.4. So some of the minerals needed are already there thanks to the municipal water. Now mine is 0,1 so even if I run 100% nutes I still don’t get close to their recommended EC per growth phase. Thus I must be constantly under feeding to the tune of 0,2 to 0,3 EC, which I ought to make up with other suppliments, like CalMag right?

CreX what alchemy is this? [emoji6] I’m looking up Ca EDTA and this is what I get, looks like it’s for human consumption? Is this the right stuff? Then what’s Spliff 1 and Spliff 2? And Duo? Thanks CreX.

CreX how do you feed Epsom Salts, how much and how frequently? Mostly it seems to be used as a foliar feed during veg, not much info out there on how to apply it in a reservoir. I also couldn’t find out when to add it into the mix, before or after the GHE nutes?, before or after pH’ing? Typically if I want to add CalMag, Silica, and say H2O2, I run as follows: 1. Silica 8ml per 20l bucket; 2. Mix and stand for 1hr 3. Calamag low dose 2g granular/20l 4. Micro (all GHE at 70-80% if I use CalMag and Silica) 5. Gro 6. Bloom 7. Ph down (over 2ml when using Silica!) to achieve pH btwn 5.7 and 6.0 8. Dilute H2O2 3% at 1ml/l or Biodyne 401 So if I want to feed Epsom Salts instead of say Si and CalMag (as I’m led to believe in Flower the plants no longer require extra Calcium) where in the mix and at what quantities? I’m using food grade Epsom salts in fine granular form. Thanks