Seed Stockers Seed Stockers Sampler

[4d-Rock]

I have a 1/2 gallon, solid white milk carton I store my solution in. I mix in a 1 quart jar ( and old plastic coconut oil jar ) i sue as a shaker. I put in 22 tablespoons of MC to a bit less than a quart of water ( need room for it to shake ) I shake the hell out of it and use a funnel and pour it into my jug. them make another batch. I top up the jug with water, ;leaving a little rim to shake it to mix, as at this strength, some nutrient settles out to the bottom. After a few feedings the ppms settle into a level you can predict. My current batch gives me about 420 ppms for 2 Tbsp. Another 1/2 Tbsp gets me to about 500 ppms. I don't swaet it being exact, I usually hit 520-550. With this solution, the nutrients are pretty evenly blended.

Normally I make small batches of concentrate with 25g of MC and 250mL of warm water. It was very handy when dealing with smaller pots that I’m making up various strength feeds for, and better blended as you mention.
with these 3 pots I’m making up 4 - 5 gallons at a time which I think would result in not as inconsistent of nutrient balance.

 

[Boognelson87]

Good stuff guys, thanks for all the info @Boognelson87 , @pop22 , and @GeorgeCloney

The reasoning for the alternating feeds has been that in past grows by now it always seemed that I was getting lockout and things spiraled. So I figured it may be that the peat was holding on to too much and the solution was to alternate feeds. However, as I’ve been monitoring the pH more in this and last grow I’ve noticed low soil pH the last grow (5-5.5) which lead to issues and on this grow 5.7-6pH soil when I’ve been doing higher inputs of 6-6.5. So rather than the issue being over feeding, it’s more improper pH, and now that I’m more on the proper pH range, the plant is looking for more nutrients which aren’t there. That in combination of not having enough runoff in previous grows.

I’ll follow your guys’ advice to take my water (base 50ppm) add Calmag up to 100-120ppm, then top up with Megacrop to about 500ppm. Ph’d to 6.4-6.5ish. And make sure the watering is hefty at about 1.5gallon per pot.

I’ll check on runoffs and report back

Sounds pretty good to me. keep us posted. The Ph definitely makes sense

 

[4d-Rock]

Last night was pretty busy with a full tent swap as well as the next watering.
I mixed up 16L (base 60ppm) topped up to 100ppm with CalMag, then added 3g/gal MC which brought it to 485ppm, ph’d to 6.3
Each got about 5.25L of mix which gave them a reasonable amount of runoff, probably 20% or so. I tested the runoff of each and they all ran between 400-450ppm and 5.9-6 pH. Which sounds pretty reasonable to me, but also reinforces the underfed diagnosis.

Then I swapped all the equipment into my new Mars Hydro 4x2 tent and I’m loving the extra room. The 6’ of vertical space is great. I’ve put the SP150 in on the left and added in my HLG 135w QB288 on the right. This gives a combined 270w for 8sq ft, for about 34w/sq ft. I have them hung around 24-28” above and checking with my light meter, I’m measuring ~30k lux across the canopy give or take a couple k. If it ends up being too much I can also dim down the QB. after running over night the climate in the tent seems to have stabilized around 25C/50-60%RH, so pretty good for this stage.
Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see how they react to the feed and the new digs.

 

[Kyote]

Last night was pretty busy with a full tent swap as well as the next watering.
I mixed up 16L (base 60ppm) topped up to 100ppm with CalMag, then added 3g/gal MC which brought it to 485ppm, ph’d to 6.3
Each got about 5.25L of mix which gave them a reasonable amount of runoff, probably 20% or so. I tested the runoff of each and they all ran between 400-450ppm and 5.9-6 pH. Which sounds pretty reasonable to me, but also reinforces the underfed diagnosis.

Then I swapped all the equipment into my new Mars Hydro 4x2 tent and I’m loving the extra room. The 6’ of vertical space is great. I’ve put the SP150 in on the left and added in my HLG 135w QB288 on the right. This gives a combined 270w for 8sq ft, for about 34w/sq ft. I have them hung around 24-28” above and checking with my light meter, I’m measuring ~30k lux across the canopy give or take a couple k. If it ends up being too much I can also dim down the QB. after running over night the climate in the tent seems to have stabilized around 25C/50-60%RH, so pretty good for this stage.
Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see how they react to the feed and the new digs.
View attachment 1277161
View attachment 1277160

Looking like a happy home for the gurlz

 

[4d-Rock]

So if nothing else I’m consistent, because here we go again with the problems popping up as they stretch and transition to flowering. This time the likely culprit is under feeding but at this point I have no confidence in my ability to read plants

Day 34

The PP is getting it’s stretch on but the leaves are getting a bit yellower with spots and getting a paper-y feel to them.
The purple colour is starting to come in though.
Top view of PP - the 3000K light and auto white balance makes it more yellow than it is

PP leaves

The SLH in the middle is fairing the best of the three but starting to show some signs of lightening leaves and spotting

And poor BCN on the left is having a hard time with some deficiency symptoms showing. Could be progression of Cal-deficiency.

It’s been 3 days since the last feed, I’ll be checking the weight of the pots tonight to see if it’s getting close as it seems like they are drinking faster. We’ll see, I’m open to suggestions on how I salvage the situation.
Heavy watering with feed at 500ppm?

 

[Boognelson87]

So if nothing else I’m consistent, because here we go again with the problems popping up as they stretch and transition to flowering. This time the likely culprit is under feeding but at this point I have no confidence in my ability to read plants

Day 34
View attachment 1277966
View attachment 1277965
The PP is getting it’s stretch on but the leaves are getting a bit yellower with spots and getting a paper-y feel to them.
The purple colour is starting to come in though.
Top view of PP - the 3000K light and auto white balance makes it more yellow than it is
View attachment 1277972
PP leaves
View attachment 1277976
The SLH in the middle is fairing the best of the three but starting to show some signs of lightening leaves and spotting
View attachment 1277973
And poor BCN on the left is having a hard time with some deficiency symptoms showing. Could be progression of Cal-deficiency.
View attachment 1277974
View attachment 1277975

It’s been 3 days since the last feed, I’ll be checking the weight of the pots tonight to see if it’s getting close as it seems like they are drinking faster. We’ll see, I’m open to suggestions on how I salvage the situation.
Heavy watering with feed at 500ppm?

At this point since there drinking fine I think what your seeing is just the aftermath finishing up of prior mistake. Usually once you notice a problem it tends to look like it gets worse for a bit even if issue is corrected. They look to be stretching fine. If drinking is fine. I'd just feed and watch em grow.

 

[4d-Rock]

At this point since there drinking fine I think what your seeing is just the aftermath finishing up of prior mistake. Usually once you notice a problem it tends to look like it gets worse for a bit even if issue is corrected. They look to be stretching fine. If drinking is fine. I'd just feed and watch em grow.

Gotcha, thanks @Boognelson87
You’re right, they aren’t looking better as time goes on. I really hope it slows down because the BCN is not lookin so hot.
another observation is that the lowest fan leaves are the healthiest on the plants. Both the older fans and the younger ones in the undergrowth. I wonder if the addition of the QB exacerbated the issues.

I know it takes time for changes to take affect and all I can really do is keep the inputs correct for the stage its at. I checked them this evening and they could probably use one more day before the next feed. Not happy waiting to seeing the progression...maybe I should stop looking.

 

[Boognelson87]

@Waira may be able to help better than me.

 

[4d-Rock]

After giving them another day all 3 pots were well ready for a watering. Each got about 5.5L of water with 3.5g/gal (540ppm/6.5pH) Megacrop.
The runoff of each was somewhere between 500-650ppm and pH of 5.9-6.0
It’s possible the soil is a bit low in pH, but I think my pH soil spear may be messed up so I can’t check. I calibrate it when I switch from the regular bulb to the spear, and it reads fine with the 7.0pH calibration fluid, but when doing the second 4.0pH calibration it still reads about 7. I’m going to contact Apera about a replacement seeing how it’s only like 6-7 months old.

Anywho, here they are after feed on day 36, here’s to hoping the issues slow or stop.

 

[4d-Rock]

That last feed seemed to help. The spotting that was starting continued to worsen for a day or so, but has slowed down mostly. The yellowing overall is about the same, the lower leaves are still looking good. I may end up doing a bit of defoliation to open up some of those lower sites and get rid of those rougher looking ones.
At day 40 I’ve given another feed, slightly stronger at 4g/gal (600ppm total) 6.3pH. See if that continues to keep them happy.
The runoff for the BCN and DLH were both in the 500-550 ppm range and 6.0-6.1 pH. The PP was slightly higher with 650ppm and 6.1pH, so still I think in a reasonable spot. If I see the runoff ppms climb any higher I’ll probably throw in a plain water.

That PP has been stretching pretty crazily. Luckily I’m able to move the two lights around to accommodate the differing canopies. The other two just started a bit of stretching, the issues may have slowed down the growth a bit or it might just be a strain difference.

Update on the Apera Soil Spear. There was a micro crack on the case near the end of the sensor that is the likely cause of the bad readings. The warranty is 6 months and I bought it about 6.5 months ago, luckily they are still providing a replacement under warranty. Very good and quick customer support over there at Apera.
Though he mentioned that the spear I have they no longer recommend for soil due to soil being lodged into the crevasse in the end that could cause issues. Of course the one they do recommend is like 2-3x more expensive. Well, maybe when this new one goes down I’ll consider it