Photoperiod K Deficiency???

[beachbuds]

@Waira and @Tom Sowell yes, it’s supplements and teas from here on out for the big girl. Thanks for the Earth Juice suggestion, don’t have that one but will check it out. Yellowing on leaves near the top has stopped, but I’m still dropping 5 or so lower leaves a day. And these leaves are completely dead. Brown, shriveled, crispy and already off the plant. I’m picking them out of the soil. Seems a bit aggressive for normal fade as I’m only at week 7 with a solid 3 weeks to go on this strain. Buds look similar for the stage they are at now when I compare to pics of when I grew this strain previously on the fox farms trio. I’m hopeful still that I can keep fattening up the flowers and salvage this grow. .

This was my first living soil attempt. When I mixed this blend I really didn’t know what I was doing with the amendments and why there were even in there. I was just following a recipe for SubCools supersoil that I found online. This grow, some forum reading, some time on buildasoil.com, and of course your suggestions have helped fill in some key gaps. I built another blend using recipe 420 as a base, additional kelp meal, and 4X the amount of Azomite rock dust before all this learning took. place. It’s been cooking for a solid 5 weeks now. I pulled it out of the container to mix it a few days ago and the moisture looks good. This batch of soil smells much more earthy than my previous batch, which had a little stink to it still when I put it in the pots. Not a rotting anaerobic smell, more of a blood meal pungent smell, probably indicating the lack of proper cooking. Regardless, I’m going living soil blend#2 a go with some Blue Haze , Great White Shark, and White Lights autos from new420guy seeds next run. Eventually I’ll build from scratch completely and swap the blood and bone meals for more sustainable choices. For the scale of my grow and my intent as a sustainable grower, living soil and Blumats are what I really want to get dialed in. Plus I’m going to add 50ppm of an 4:1 Ca and Mg to my water reservoir from here on out. Not supposed to need it in living souls however it may be a nice insurance policy.

The spider farmer QB and the Autocobs are a great combo. 210 watts powering a 3x3 and very little heat. I was concerned because I ran out of vertical space in that tent and right now some colas are literally 6-8” from the light fixtures and have been for 2+ weeks. I was sure I was going to see light burn however so far they just seem to be thriving. The PPFD 6” under those lights has got to be in excess of 1000 umole. I guess this strain can handle the higher photon load nonetheless I’m tracking daily for any signs of light burn as it may be cumulative. I can dim the sf1000 and reposition the Autocobs to the corners of the tent as needed. Not sure if going into week 6 is too late to supercrop, nonetheless I’ll do it if I have to. Good times!

 

[Kinezokyprios]

Next time try a rich organic soil and supplement with certified biological slow release granules fertiliser for roses or strawberries or tomatoes (2 spoons before planting and every 20-30days add a spoon of granules in the soil). Start the plants in a light soil and transplant them to your final pot. You can finish with plain water but a kelp tea at the beginning of flowering or an organic bloom booster in every second watering from the beginning of flowering till the end will also help.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

build a soils craft blend nutrient mix and build a flower top dress are great for amending used soil or top dressing to build depleted soil up during a grow for the next round.. go check out mrOldboy's threads..hes using sip containers tho.
gl

 

[beachbuds]

Will definitely check those build a soil products @Tom Sowell. Thanks @Kinezokyprios for the slow release suggestion. My goal is to not use chemical salts of any kind, even organic ones do slow release granule fertilizer mixes probably out of scope. If I get the soil recipe right for my the specific variables of my garden I should be able to do water only 4month grows. Of course cultivar variability adds significant uncertainty so remains to be seen. That’s why I want to understand what each of the specific ingredients in a soil blend contribute vs focusing on using specific blended mixes or “boosters”. I know it’s the more theoretical and labor intensive road but it think i will ultimately l learn more and become a more adept grower able to flex to changing dynamics. Failure is just more potent learning for me and I don’t have much to loose other than a few bucks and my time.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Craft Blend:

Ingredients all Equal by Weight:

1. Thorvin Premium Kelp Meal
2. Karanja Cake - Terviva
3. Alfalfa Meal
4. CalPhos
5. Camelina Meal
6. Crustacean Meal
7. Fish Meal
8. 3x Fish Bone Meal
9. Soybean Meal
10. Sul-Po-Mag (Also Known as K-Mag or Langbeinite)
11. Organic Malted Barley
12. Premium Calcium Montmorillonite
13. Basalt - Local Colorado
14. Gypsum
15. Oyster Flour

Build-a-flower:

In the Recipe:
Worm Vermicompost: 10%
BuildASoil Pinto Bean Compost: 10%
Prospectors OMRI listed Compost: 10%
Premium Oly Mountain Fish Compost: 50%
Canadian Sphagnum Peatmoss: 10% (Water Holding and Texture)
Pre-Charged Bio Char Made In Colorado: 10%
Fresh Comfrey Leaf (Home Grown By Jeremy Silva) 1% by Volume or about 2 Gallons of Rough Chopped leaves per yard.
Kelp Meal - 1/2 cup Per Cubic Foot
Neem Cake (Just Enough for some pest control) 1/4 Cup Per Cubic Foot
Fish Bone Meal - 1/2 Cup Per Cubic Foot
Gypsum - 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot


i do water only.. (occasional aact, molasses, and usually add organic calmag@ about 250 ppm to ro water

you can add other things if you want..

gl

 

[beachbuds]

@Tom Sowell. Thanks for those build a soil product ideas. Hard to argue with the quality of what those mixes contain and experience reviews from users look stellar. No doubt they would be powerful, the only think I don’t know is the “why” those mixes have what they have. Some things are obvious, but others like camelina meal or malted barley...? Are they redundant sources of something or do they have a special unique function? I appreciate that at the end of the day build a soil provides an averaged 4:4:2 NPK for their craft blend, which seems pretty balanced, I just wonder how the kinetics of that release occur over time and whether that even matters.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

@Tom Sowell. Thanks for those build a soil product ideas. Hard to argue with the quality of what those mixes contain and experience reviews from users look stellar. No doubt they would be powerful, the only think I don’t know is the “why” those mixes have what they have. Some things are obvious, but others like camelina meal or malted barley...? Are they redundant sources of something or do they have a special unique function? I appreciate that at the end of the day build a soil provides an averaged 4:4:2 NPK for their craft blend, which seems pretty balanced, I just wonder how the kinetics of that release occur over time and whether that even matters.

i doubt they would waste time and money adding redundant ingredients to, well anything ..their mixes are products of years of trial and error.. easy enough to google malted barley and camelina if you need further explanation..
easier and cheaper than sourcing your own ingredients andspending a decade figuring out the right ratios.. i dont work for them, just giving good advice. choose your own path.
gl

 

[Kinezokyprios]

If you find something ready and cheap it is better to use this than to waste time and money or anything else valuable into making your own. It is more creative to be economic than to master an unnecessary art. If I could I would process my own manure for my garden plants. In reality, it is not difficult to purchase from a shepherd that has his sheep a few kilometers from my home and probably he will give it to me for free. But the neighbors will murder me if I make my own manure pile and let it cure there over the summer, plus the toxicity and the diseases and pests It will contain will take me ages to control effectively. So, in reality, it is cheaper to buy ready fertilizers, be it packed and processed manure or organic granules. The same goes for compost, it is not that I cannot purchase a compost bin and I would be glad to compost my kitchen's organic waste, but again living in an urban/suburban area means that keeping a balanced relationship with the neighborhood is more profitable for me. This is another perspective on the issue but reaches the same conclusion as Tom Sowell, practicality is more important.

 

[beachbuds]

Thanks again @Tom Sowell snd @Kinezokyprios. The beauty of this message board and growing communities in general is that everyone can approach growing from a different angle and do what suits their particular situation best at that moment in time. Concepts like “practicality” and “ease” are entirely subjective. I do deeply appreciate your advice and experience and I may very well end up trying exactly what you recommend at some point along my journey. I just need to go through my process to arrive at where I need to be. I’m a research scientist by day so I approach everything from a discovery mindset and I’ve been trained to be skeptical. It’s just how I’m wired so please don’t misinterpret my lack of following your advice immediately or my questions in general as any kind of value judgement on the quality of your grow skills/methods. In my learning it’s just proving to be difficult to sort anectodal theories/examples from actual truth due to the complexity of the plant itself and the variety of growing conditions that people use. Details make a huge impact, obviously.

My concerns on the build a soil craft blend were based off the following product description directly from their website:

“BuildASoil Craft Blend started with a big workshop full of the best and cleanest soil amendments available. I quickly became spoiled and would use all of the BuildASoil ingredients together and in different combinations that aren't available here online. After discussing re-amending with a buddy and also Nutrient Tea Brewing he mentioned that I should combine every nutrient that we have into a fertilizer pack of the cleanest ingredients for everyone to use.”

Although I get that logic to some degree, it kinda feels like “just dump it all in there to cover all the bases” sort of logic rather than a targeted approach to amending soil. Also easier to market and convince people it’s bomb product. But it definitely doesn’t sound like a decade of study went into making this blend, although I clearly don’t know the whole story. So far I don’t dispute that the ingredients look solid though. I’m going to order some and will try it. My concern is the moment one of these suppliers goes out of business or discontinues their line for whatever reason, if I rely on black box products or blends that are built with ingredients that are impossible to source, I’m stuck. That’s why I want to learn a basic core soil mix from ingredients that I can source in my area easily. Knowing what each ingredient does is key so I can do substitutions as needed pending availability.

Finally, after a week of Tiger bloom+big bloom+cal mag+molasses, things seem to have stabilized. Think the damage was pretty bad though before I caught it. Regardless, should be able to finish it off with a decent yield.

 

[beachbuds]

A few bud pics taken last night of the big mama, midway through week 7. That leaf burning pattern is simultaneously concerning yet beautiful