Day 59
The bud rot panic has taken a backseat for the moment. My decision to remove the side lights seem to have helped. Or was it opening up the buds? That helped a lot too but would not recommend unless in a similar situation. I cannot imagine it doing any good to the buds. Could have slowed them down a little cos i played a little rough.
Fed them 5ml/l Ionic Bloom (I'm almost out!) + 2ml/l CalMag will explain later + 0.8ml Liquid Silicone + 0.5/ml Mangrove Wood Vinegar to get PH slightly below 6.2.
As have been the routine these past 2-3 weeks, its time for my multi sh!t fert mix. I might need to go into a little detail on my watering schedule thus far. Actually, a LOT of details...
First of all, I have done uniformed watering thus far. Meaning mix/water the same nutes for all plants at the same time. I know its easy to get away when plants are young but when older, size discrepancy becomes more apparent and nutrient needs will become the same.
Lazy + cheap = I don't wanna mix nutes so many times. Don't have cash to buy high end nutes. Even if i got cash, those bottled bloom boosters will likely make me have to mix different ppms for different sized/needs plants. That won't fly with the lazy in me.
I said screw it few weeks back and checked out all the miscellaneous stuff i bought back when I did not know what NPK was? All are cheap stuff with hardly anything costing more than USD3. Found some useful stuff which formed the base of my multi sh!t dry fert mix. I wanted something that is easily available locally. Recap of the mix:
As you can see, we started 2-3 weeks ago with only 25g per plant across the board. Base nutes were at 6ml/l. The next feed was nothing but 7ml/l of base bloom nutes + my usual additives to reach desired PH.
I skip one feeding of the dry fert each time to give me a chance to observe changes. You are not supposed to use them so often but the dosage i calculated should allow me to do so in incremental amounts. I'm also worried about slow release effects but so far so good. Not taking for granted though.
I see deficiencies in larger plants as i always do and expect cos they receive the same dose despite some being much larger than others.
So this dry fert top dress allows me to tailor dosage according to plants without the hassle of mixing individual nute formulas. The challenge is of course not knowing how much to use?
I combined instructions from all packaging to reach a conservative starting point of 25g per plant. Judging by their size and my understanding of them the past month++, I estimate that this amount is barely enough for smaller plants. But i wanted to play it safe. I wanted at least 7 days to observe changes. Changes do happen quick as they are on 24/7 lights on. I expected deficiencies in larger plants but let them be cos this is my chance to see how darker green plants grow and how slightly pale one grows? @jingo mentioned several times that his slightly pale plants grow larger. I seem to experience the same but could just be they lack nutrients and a coincidence? So lets continue to observe..
The second dry fert top dress onwards, i begin to vary dosage based on judgment and observation. Base nutes were cut to 5ml/l and dry ferts increased across the board with larger plants getting 5-8grams extra dry fert than smaller plants. Ratio wise, still would not be enough for the larger plants and I know that. I don't want them getting too dark for my observation purposes. I am of course scared as hell to burn them too bad! Next feed following that was just base nutes at full dose 7ml/l (I see deficiency) + 2 big spoonfuls of molasses for 20 litres water.
I noticed calcium deficiency early on, especially when size difference became apparent. I refused to mix 2 or 3 separate nutes for them though. The dry fert mix also has cal mag and TE. So i thought it should be good. But I did forget that i have been intentionally giving them smaller dosages. Two of the larger plants have been showing mild calcium deficiency for weeks now. Slight lime green on some leaves. I finally got sick of seeing it and added 2ml/l of CalMag to their feed today. Talk about a long ass winding tale, just to explain why i used CalMag today....LOL. I still only made one nute batch...yay!
The larger plants received 40++grams of dry fert top dressed today which is 3 plants in total. One plant is very heavy into flowering mostly all cloudy and got only 30g while another smaller one got around 25g as she is dark enough imo. I plan to feed till last 2 feedings or so before using only PHed water. I'm with @pop22 and @912GreenSkell on this!
This is my attempt at boosting PK and lowering N, budget style! I do like the effect (at least to me) of adding the molasses. Something tells me the order of the molasses going into soil makes a difference but i have absolutely no proof. Say I start the week with the High P Medium K and Low N dry fert. The plant uses P to build buds and mid week I add the molasses for more K so the newly developed bud "meat" gets filled with terps? Sounds too noobish to work?
Even if one claims that the stuff needs time to break down (which is why i crush/mix them and leave overnight but not sure if it helps?), the different order they go in will make them available at different times? Might be a coincidence but I see very good bud density these past 10 days using this method. Even on very sativa strains, buds are fattening and looks fatter than the growers pics on seedbank sites. It was enough to give me bad bud rot panic! Or...Im just having first timer bud hubris…lol
Weather played a joke on me today. Was cloudy since dawn. I gave up and put them on lights cos started to rain. They are heavy now right after watering. Just as i finished taking them in, rain stopped and beautiful sun showed. Lasted less than few mins. Screw it. I need to get to work!
Even Ms Stunted WW2 is flowering nicely. I continue to burn her with nutes cos her soil is too hot to even tolerate 3ml/l. I suspect i must have gotten the lazy man style soil that retains moisture for a long long time. Cos she dont get dry for super long periods. Put her on sunlight too long and burnt her limited amount of leaves. Fan blew on her too hard resulting severe browning of supercropped branch that cannot recover because of constant wind attack! I'm putting a lot of stress on her to see what autoflowers can take and still survive with yields. I don't plan to always have a stunted plant to play with after all
On a good day, my temps and RH are....
Scary, right?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The bud rot panic has taken a backseat for the moment. My decision to remove the side lights seem to have helped. Or was it opening up the buds? That helped a lot too but would not recommend unless in a similar situation. I cannot imagine it doing any good to the buds. Could have slowed them down a little cos i played a little rough.
Fed them 5ml/l Ionic Bloom (I'm almost out!) + 2ml/l CalMag will explain later + 0.8ml Liquid Silicone + 0.5/ml Mangrove Wood Vinegar to get PH slightly below 6.2.
As have been the routine these past 2-3 weeks, its time for my multi sh!t fert mix. I might need to go into a little detail on my watering schedule thus far. Actually, a LOT of details...
First of all, I have done uniformed watering thus far. Meaning mix/water the same nutes for all plants at the same time. I know its easy to get away when plants are young but when older, size discrepancy becomes more apparent and nutrient needs will become the same.
Lazy + cheap = I don't wanna mix nutes so many times. Don't have cash to buy high end nutes. Even if i got cash, those bottled bloom boosters will likely make me have to mix different ppms for different sized/needs plants. That won't fly with the lazy in me.
I said screw it few weeks back and checked out all the miscellaneous stuff i bought back when I did not know what NPK was? All are cheap stuff with hardly anything costing more than USD3. Found some useful stuff which formed the base of my multi sh!t dry fert mix. I wanted something that is easily available locally. Recap of the mix:
As you can see, we started 2-3 weeks ago with only 25g per plant across the board. Base nutes were at 6ml/l. The next feed was nothing but 7ml/l of base bloom nutes + my usual additives to reach desired PH.
I skip one feeding of the dry fert each time to give me a chance to observe changes. You are not supposed to use them so often but the dosage i calculated should allow me to do so in incremental amounts. I'm also worried about slow release effects but so far so good. Not taking for granted though.
I see deficiencies in larger plants as i always do and expect cos they receive the same dose despite some being much larger than others.
So this dry fert top dress allows me to tailor dosage according to plants without the hassle of mixing individual nute formulas. The challenge is of course not knowing how much to use?
I combined instructions from all packaging to reach a conservative starting point of 25g per plant. Judging by their size and my understanding of them the past month++, I estimate that this amount is barely enough for smaller plants. But i wanted to play it safe. I wanted at least 7 days to observe changes. Changes do happen quick as they are on 24/7 lights on. I expected deficiencies in larger plants but let them be cos this is my chance to see how darker green plants grow and how slightly pale one grows? @jingo mentioned several times that his slightly pale plants grow larger. I seem to experience the same but could just be they lack nutrients and a coincidence? So lets continue to observe..
The second dry fert top dress onwards, i begin to vary dosage based on judgment and observation. Base nutes were cut to 5ml/l and dry ferts increased across the board with larger plants getting 5-8grams extra dry fert than smaller plants. Ratio wise, still would not be enough for the larger plants and I know that. I don't want them getting too dark for my observation purposes. I am of course scared as hell to burn them too bad! Next feed following that was just base nutes at full dose 7ml/l (I see deficiency) + 2 big spoonfuls of molasses for 20 litres water.
I noticed calcium deficiency early on, especially when size difference became apparent. I refused to mix 2 or 3 separate nutes for them though. The dry fert mix also has cal mag and TE. So i thought it should be good. But I did forget that i have been intentionally giving them smaller dosages. Two of the larger plants have been showing mild calcium deficiency for weeks now. Slight lime green on some leaves. I finally got sick of seeing it and added 2ml/l of CalMag to their feed today. Talk about a long ass winding tale, just to explain why i used CalMag today....LOL. I still only made one nute batch...yay!
The larger plants received 40++grams of dry fert top dressed today which is 3 plants in total. One plant is very heavy into flowering mostly all cloudy and got only 30g while another smaller one got around 25g as she is dark enough imo. I plan to feed till last 2 feedings or so before using only PHed water. I'm with @pop22 and @912GreenSkell on this!
This is my attempt at boosting PK and lowering N, budget style! I do like the effect (at least to me) of adding the molasses. Something tells me the order of the molasses going into soil makes a difference but i have absolutely no proof. Say I start the week with the High P Medium K and Low N dry fert. The plant uses P to build buds and mid week I add the molasses for more K so the newly developed bud "meat" gets filled with terps? Sounds too noobish to work?
Even if one claims that the stuff needs time to break down (which is why i crush/mix them and leave overnight but not sure if it helps?), the different order they go in will make them available at different times? Might be a coincidence but I see very good bud density these past 10 days using this method. Even on very sativa strains, buds are fattening and looks fatter than the growers pics on seedbank sites. It was enough to give me bad bud rot panic! Or...Im just having first timer bud hubris…lol
Weather played a joke on me today. Was cloudy since dawn. I gave up and put them on lights cos started to rain. They are heavy now right after watering. Just as i finished taking them in, rain stopped and beautiful sun showed. Lasted less than few mins. Screw it. I need to get to work!
Even Ms Stunted WW2 is flowering nicely. I continue to burn her with nutes cos her soil is too hot to even tolerate 3ml/l. I suspect i must have gotten the lazy man style soil that retains moisture for a long long time. Cos she dont get dry for super long periods. Put her on sunlight too long and burnt her limited amount of leaves. Fan blew on her too hard resulting severe browning of supercropped branch that cannot recover because of constant wind attack! I'm putting a lot of stress on her to see what autoflowers can take and still survive with yields. I don't plan to always have a stunted plant to play with after all
On a good day, my temps and RH are....
Scary, right?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
I respect your gut instinct because that's the way I grow, but I don't think I would ever attempt to do it the way you're doing it.
