Mephisto Genetics Papa E Does Sour Crinkle!

[PapaEmeritus]

Hey again friendos. Here's the Day 21 update, a day late.

So, for week two my nutrient strength was 580ppm. I'm new to using ppm when I make up my nutrients, so I did some reading and it looks like that's a bit higher than it should be, even though I couldn't find any hard-and-fast data on ppm levels for autoflowers. I didn't see any obvious signs of overfeeding but figured I might as well drop it down a bit for awhile. This week's nutes come in at 550ppm. Not a huge drop but like I said, I'm still getting the hang of ppm. Temps vary between 75-79F, and RH is 38-45%. I have a humidifier outside the tent that I could kick on if need be but the plants seem to be doing alright, so..

I did one little bit of LST on the larger plant. I'll probably do more but I am still a bit skittish about bending her around too much/too hard. Gotta start channelling my inner @autobeast though, lol.

Gonna be popping two more seeds soon too. I'm sure these two ladies still have a bit of stretching & spreading out to do but I'm feeling pretty good at my ability to get a two-plant perpetual going in here as long as I get a little more aggressive with the LST.

Pics! Nothing too spectacular this time, but there's some stretch on it's way!

Bigger of the two ladies. She's already bushier today. I'll tell you - that Recharge is no joke. Using it for the first time on this grow and it's great so far.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[PapaEmeritus]

Day 28! Not a whole lot to add - the plant on the left is definitely smaller/slower than her sister on the right, but they're both rolling along doing their thing. They've been getting nutes at 560ppm this week and looking lovely. Run-off ppm's are in the 160-200ppm range so they seem to be eating just fine. Anyone with more experience in hand-watered coco who could advise on ppm levels, that'd be awesome. I'm thinking of kicking the strength up a bit once flower kicks in but maybe not. Overall though, I'm loving the coco coir/smart pots combo. Having the little bit of experience I have just from this run already shows me just how much I was guessing at with my hempy buckets. Not to say that hempy buckets are bad, but I feel like I have a lot more control over things this way. And it's been really freaking cool to see the little bits of root poking through the pots. I'm really psyched to see how the rootball compares to my hempy runs when it's time to harvest.

Anyway, pics! Finally found my confidence with LST - did alright so far but my next runs I think I'll start a little earlier and be more aggressive. The tupperware on top of the tower fan contains two Blue Toof in rockwool. One sprouted on the 10th, still waiting on the second.

Thanks for looking!

 

[slowandeasy]

Day 28! Not a whole lot to add - the plant on the left is definitely smaller/slower than her sister on the right, but they're both rolling along doing their thing. They've been getting nutes at 560ppm this week and looking lovely. Run-off ppm's are in the 160-200ppm range so they seem to be eating just fine. Anyone with more experience in hand-watered coco who could advise on ppm levels, that'd be awesome. I'm thinking of kicking the strength up a bit once flower kicks in but maybe not. Overall though, I'm loving the coco coir/smart pots combo. Having the little bit of experience I have just from this run already shows me just how much I was guessing at with my hempy buckets. Not to say that hempy buckets are bad, but I feel like I have a lot more control over things this way. And it's been really freaking cool to see the little bits of root poking through the pots. I'm really psyched to see how the rootball compares to my hempy runs when it's time to harvest.

Anyway, pics! Finally found my confidence with LST - did alright so far but my next runs I think I'll start a little earlier and be more aggressive. The tupperware on top of the tower fan contains two Blue Toof in rockwool. One sprouted on the 10th, still waiting on the second.

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Thanks for looking!

Measure EC, it is universal. PPM numbers vary by conversion. Some are .5 and some measure .7 conversion. What is your nutes you using currently? And I will say it a thousand times, measuring runoff of Coco is a complete waste of time. It is not accurate whatsoever and is meaningless, especially when you use Fabric pots.
I have grown hundreds upon hundreds of plants in Coco. If checking run off helps you sleep at night, that's all it is good for. I hate to see people wasting time on useless things. Anyways, they look good, and I look forward to seeing your progress. Good luck, slow

 

[PapaEmeritus]

Measure EC, it is universal. PPM numbers vary by conversion. Some are .5 and some measure .7 conversion.

So how do I know which conversion to use? From the reading I've done there's plenty of info on both but not much on which one to use, so...is it just personal preference or does it depend on my meter? I just have a shitty one that came with a PH meter that ended up being garbage and got replaced.

My nutes are more or less Lucas with Maxibloom as the base nute. Armor Si, Maxi, Floralicious, Recharge (every other week) and CaliMagic.

And I will say it a thousand times, measuring runoff of Coco is a complete waste of time. It is not accurate whatsoever and is meaningless, especially when you use Fabric pots.

Well, it's not though. I'm a relatively new grower - this is my fourth grow, and so far this has been the most informative grow to date. Now that I'm in coco rather than hempy buckets I'm not only seeing better, healthier plants, I'm able to immediately see that what's coming out is less than what's going in. With every one of my hempy grows, *something* went wrong, and I had no idea until it was already fucking my plants up, because not only did I not know to check the runoff, it likely wouldn't have been a 1:1 measure due to the reservoir holding onto nutes and getting weird concentration and stagnation issues. So even if the results gained from testing the runoff now that I'm in coco aren't dead-balls accurate, it's still data and tells me clearly that the plant is consuming nutrients.

If checking run off helps you sleep at night, that's all it is good for. I hate to see people wasting time on useless things.

I can dig it. But I'm going to be running a maximum of four plants at a time for the forseeable future, and testing the runoff takes me probably two minutes.

You definitely do have more experience than me, but just telling me "trust me, I'm an old head and this stuff is garbage" doesn't really tell me anything, you know? Tell me *why* you came to those conclusions. Why, besides it being potentially inaccurate, is it a problem? Why is it even worse in fabric pots? How else other than visually observing the plants is one to determine things like nutrient consumption or catch PH/salt buildup issues before they start to affect the plant? For someone like me who is still pretty new, I'm still learning a lot - especially about what the nutritional needs for my plants are and what to look for in regards to deficiencies so having one more (reasonably accurate) data point than I had before is super helpful. :smoking:

 

[slowandeasy]

So how do I know which conversion to use? From the reading I've done there's plenty of info on both but not much on which one to use, so...is it just personal preference or does it depend on my meter? I just have a shitty one that came with a PH meter that ended up being garbage and got replaced.

My nutes are more or less Lucas with Maxibloom as the base nute. Armor Si, Maxi, Floralicious, Recharge (every other week) and CaliMagic.



Well, it's not though. I'm a relatively new grower - this is my fourth grow, and so far this has been the most informative grow to date. Now that I'm in coco rather than hempy buckets I'm not only seeing better, healthier plants, I'm able to immediately see that what's coming out is less than what's going in. With every one of my hempy grows, *something* went wrong, and I had no idea until it was already fucking my plants up, because not only did I not know to check the runoff, it likely wouldn't have been a 1:1 measure due to the reservoir holding onto nutes and getting weird concentration and stagnation issues. So even if the results gained from testing the runoff now that I'm in coco aren't dead-balls accurate, it's still data and tells me clearly that the plant is consuming nutrients.



I can dig it. But I'm going to be running a maximum of four plants at a time for the forseeable future, and testing the runoff takes me probably two minutes.

You definitely do have more experience than me, but just telling me "trust me, I'm an old head and this stuff is garbage" doesn't really tell me anything, you know? Tell me *why* you came to those conclusions. Why, besides it being potentially inaccurate, is it a problem? Why is it even worse in fabric pots? How else other than visually observing the plants is one to determine things like nutrient consumption or catch PH/salt buildup issues before they start to affect the plant? For someone like me who is still pretty new, I'm still learning a lot - especially about what the nutritional needs for my plants are and what to look for in regards to deficiencies so having one more (reasonably accurate) data point than I had before is super helpful. :smoking:

Hey whatever floats your boat. You asked for experienced growers help. PPM conversion is very important, you have no idea what you are even testing without knowing that. Meters can have .5 or .7 conversion. For example, let's say you are making nutes and use your meter to check the strength. Your meter says 500ppm if your meter is .5 conversation. The same nute water would measure 700 ppm on a .7 conversion. So, a person could say "Papa I use Maxibloom @ 800ppm", but he might have a different meter. Making 800ppm water with a .5 meter could result in over feeding. Or vice versa could cause a deficiency.
Run off is inaccurate in Coco due to many different factors. First and foremost and above most people's head is due to Cocos Cation Exchange, I will not get into that.. Next, Coconut trees are grown by salt water. Coco can hold high levels of salts without negatively effecting your plants. If your Coco drys out, salts build in the Coco. And Fabric pots hold tons of salts as well. Look at the pots later in your grow, they will be stained with salt build up. These facts, not my personal opinion.

As your plants grow, they dry out faster. You feed more often. The Coco builds up salts, your fabric pots start turning white. Your runoff will be much higher than now. With your logic, you would decrease your feed due to false readings.

I have personally grown/flushed countless numbers of plants. When you flush your plants at the end of your grow, your PPM/EC will be off the charts. Literally, higher than your meter will read. That's with straight RO water. It will take 3-4 days to start coming down. With a fabric pot you will get very high readings for much longer than plastic pots. I have done side by side experiments, many.

I get that it only takes a second to check the run off. I just don't want to see a new Coco grower use runoff numbers as a way of adjusting your feeding. Don't let numbers fool you into adjusting your feeding. Plus to accurately measure any runoff, the amount of runoff collect must be the same Everytime. Adding an extra cup will alter the readings.

Yes I have much more experience than you, but I am only trying to help. I am not trying to convince you of anything. Reading your plants is what any grower should do no matter what method they choose to grow. Good luck, I will follow along.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

@slowandeasy Thanks for the extra info, man. I feel like you might be taking my asking for clarification the wrong way though - I'm not trying to doubt or disrespect, just looking for the reasoning behind what people are telling me so that I can make the best decision I can for my grows, you know? No need to get upset.

 

[slowandeasy]

@slowandeasy Thanks for the extra info, man. I feel like you might be taking my asking for clarification the wrong way though - I'm not trying to doubt or disrespect, just looking for the reasoning behind what people are telling me so that I can make the best decision I can for my grows, you know? No need to get upset.

I'm not upset, you asked for clarification and I gave you some. You did disrespect me. Good luck.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

I'm not upset, you asked for clarification and I gave you some. You did disrespect me. Good luck.

Ooook, man. Apologies if you felt that way. I'm just a relative noob trying to get the info behind different grower's opinions. Not sure how else to do that other than asking questions, you know?

Anyway, thanks for the good luck wish - appreciated.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

Day 35. Just about done with the pre-flower stretch. I'm really glad I finally got the knack of LST - I was worried I was gonna snap a stem or something but the plants can definitely take it, and it's made a huge difference in getting everything leveled out & soaking up the light.

The lady on the right has really started drinking - she gets a little over 40oz once per day, and the past two days she's been super light at watering time so I'm considering moving to twice daily feedings just to make sure she stays wet. The lady on the left is getting about 32-36oz per feeding, and both seem to be eating pretty well - I know that PPM isn't the most accurate measurement in the world, but they've been getting 560ppm in and giving between 130-180ppm out and they look great so if it ain't broke don't fix it, right? Though I do wonder if the numbers I'm getting indicate that I could be feeding heavier. I guess I'll have to do some more reading.

And in the back there we have a week-old Blue Toof. She's has a bit of a rough start but she seems to be hanging in there. The new leafset coming up look twisted, but they're green so I'm gonna let her do her thing and see where it goes.

Both plants are showing some very light purpling of some of the stems. I know that can be an early sign of P deficiency but overall both plants look great, so should I be doing anything more than keeping an eye on it? I know some strains just show a little color in the stems naturally but not sure about SC. I have both dry and liquid Koolbloom so if either of those will help, I can throw a little in my nutes no problem.

Pics!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Seabass]

Nice job on that LST @PapaEmeritus . Plants are looking happy and healthy.