New Grower 44 days and starting to flower, now what?

[BRICH999]

Ive read so many journals and am pretty convinced they are done with the veg stage and onto flowering. White hairs are shooting out everywhere and they seem to all have stopped growing vertically in the last day or so(17-21" tall). Alteast I think? The tops now are white hairs instead of new leaves pushing up.

So I gave them the last veg feed tonight. Im unsure about flushing. Ive only used distilled water and half strength or less on nutes the whole grow. Im not against flushing, just dont want to waste lots of water unless it will help especially since right now im still buying by the gallon. Also if necessary how much do you use to flush? Ive read from 1x container size to 3x container size. Since im running 4x 3g pots 36g of water doesnt sound fun. Also after the flush just give em a few days to dry up a bit then begin flower nutes at similar strength?

Plants are NL autos and nutes are dutch master a+b, silica, add.27, and calimagic. Sorry I didnt pull plant out for pic but hope it helps. Thanks in advance!

 

[Truu]

They seem to be doing great. Looks like they are cupping a little from heat. But as far as flushing goes. You could give them a 1.5 to 2 gal flush and they would be ok. I used to run 3 gals and that's what I would do. Any clean water will greatly help rinse salts. If you have a salt cleanser like clear-ex use it. After you flush you should water at 1/2 to full strength nutrients. A flush can be very beneficial at the transition from veg to flower. Helps to prevent salt in the end of flower. However I recommend doing every week to every 2 weeks.

 

[BRICH999]

Thanks a bunch for the help, ill be picking up flower nutes monday so ill take a look for some salt cleanser. When you say water after the flush are you meaning giving them a few days to soak up the water from the flush, or add flower nutes to the end of the flush?

Also while im at it im really close to ordering a 4' and 2' 4 bulb t5 for angled side lighting so I can space the plants and lower the led and still cover them all. Good idea or bite the bullet and add a mh/hps? Feel like the mars II 700 isnt giving me enough coverage as close as I want it which is why the plants are fit together like a puzzle in the middle.

 

[Truu]

When you flush you are cleaning out salts and nutrients held in the medium. So you need to replenish the nutrients back in immediately after you flush. If you don't you have a better chance of running in to problems.

Go with the t5s it will keep the room cooler than an hid. And they are great for side lights.

 

[BRICH999]

Ok thanks again. I guess I dont understand the salts that are building up. Time to do more homework. Also was considering hid because of heat. I turned my lil heater down when you said the leaf curl could be heat stress but ive had to keep a heater running to keep it 74-82 in there since the led doesnt throw much heat at all.

 

[Woolly]

I would not do a flush unless you were feeding with max strength every watering, with 1/2 strength or less and straight water you won't have much of any salt built up. I do a similar feed 1/2 strength and cycle between clear and feed during veg and transition to flowering nutes with no flush between. I only flush at the end with ~ 2 weeks to go to make sure there's nothing in the plant when it gets the axe.

 

[BRICH999]

I guess I still dont understand where the salts come from. I could understand if I were using tap water, but with 50% feedings with a watering every 3rd I think im going to do a heavy soak to slight runoff then top with a couple gallons of bloom nutes. Im excited and nervous at this point and really appreciate everyones input. Just trying to learn all I can and look at these as my research project for my first grow

Edit: milliard 4' 4 tube t5 on the way. Looks good quality but supplies seem quite limited and not sure why. Will see in a few days. Probably not bothering to change to flower bulbs this grow. Wish they had a 2' 4 bulb in stock too

 

[elsamurai]

if you flush,just use declorinated ph tap water let it drain off for a little while and then water with nute's. not sure about the "salt's" maybe a build up of nute's the plant cant use?

 

[Woolly]

The ingredients in fertilizers; potassium chloride, ammonium nitrate for example have salt in their compounds naturally which the plant does not uptake and therefore can and will hang out in your soil. Hope this helps ! And you can have salt in your water either from a well or city supply, very very low ppm but enough waterings over a long time with no leaching could build up.

 

[BRICH999]

Thanks a ton for the help and info. So I ran a gallon of straight distilled water through each and that had each pot dripping well. After I added 3ml calimagic, 3ml silica, 10ml add.27, 7ml A and B to a gallon and PH'd it and fed them. Based on the dutch master calculator I should stay similar till the end? I see peoples feedings get really complicated when flowering so I want to make sure im not missing anything.

Plants are not happy with me btw. They should have been watered yesterday but I waited till I went to the hydro store today for flower nutes. I underestimated how much they are drinking right now as they were sagging like ive never seen this morning. Hopefully they will perk up soon