Swapping from organics to synthetic?

[BigBuddha]

In and of themselves those products can be used to good effect, but my own personal opinion - for what it's worth - is that right now you have girls that are under pressure and in the infirmary.

The way I see it is this..

If I was sick and healing from an illness, would I want someone to come along, force-feed me loads of red bull and cocaine, and then make me go down the gym to put on extra muscle?

Hmmm.. with this in mind, I tend to think that what would be better for the overall yield is to sort out this res issue, get them on a good mineral nute regime and let them rest for a while before adding anything else.

Just my 2 cents.. but I tend to think that the biology and life of a human isn't THAT far removed from how plants work.

 

[Jeff]

Yea good call bigbuddha I always read things and get over exited lol I just want the best for my girls ile start them at half strength on the new bloom nutes and see how they go. I woz just thinking this might help the slime issue if I only add a bit of the tea which is already diluted. But wot u say is totally true ile perhaps leave it a couple of weeks till there back on track. Thanks mate!

 

[BigBuddha]

Yea good call bigbuddha I always read things and get over exited lol

Like I don't do the exact same thing!!

I just want the best for my girls ile start them at half strength on the new bloom nutes and see how they go. I woz just thinking this might help the slime issue if I only add a bit of the tea which is already diluted. But wot u say is totally true ile perhaps leave it a couple of weeks till there back on track. Thanks mate!

They'll like that I reckon. Once they get a breather and recoup you can look at adding small amounts of the boosters.

Weed is just a weed, but because most of us have a kind of commercial-grower mentality rubbing-off on us a lot of the time, we forget that for small percy grows we really need to make sure that our environment is near-perfect if we want to see bigger yields and better girls. THEN start adding boosters and wotnot.. because if the plant can't use them properly.. why bother adding them?

Of course.. we're human so most of us want to ignore that and stuff them full of additives to give us bigger buds.. because really.. if we're honest, it makes US feel better.. not the plants.


As an example.. I'm getting better results under a 400w MH bulb than a 600w one. The reason being is that the 600w tips my temps over the near-perfect range.. but with the 400w the temps are stable and the girls are finding the easier enrivonment better for making big buds rather than trying to resist the heat etc. So, even though you'd think that more light = more bud (and I did for ages) this isn't always the case. These are pretty much established scientific facts.. but how many of us actually pay that much attention to them on a day-to-day basis?

I know I don't, and I know about them which makes it even worse!!

 

[Jeff]

Yea that is so true I always think I've found the perfect grow secrets but all they need is dirt and water let's face it there just weeds like u say! I only grow 2 autos at a time just for personal so I dont have to buy of dirty scrotums on street corners lol! But I want to try and get the best possible smoke out off my little grow cuz I am a bit fussy when it comes to taste and smell. I hate the damp mouldy smelling shit I usually get mugged off with! my last two grows wernt all that good but after 9 months of trial and error I think ime getting there ime getting a led light soon cuz I had the same thing with my 150watt hps the heat woz to much ive tried everything but soon as the sun comes out its back up in the 80s I think this is my only option to solve it! Ile go easy on the girls for a bit then ile have a play with a few additives when there happy i would hate to ruin it now. Thank you for your help everyone!

 

[BigBuddha]

Oh, well, if you're a light smoker, Jeff, and want quality over quantitiy.. I'd get some organic batmix soil and grow that way in future because the quality and flavour of the bud - in my humble opinion - can't be beaten by a country mile. Myself.. I'm a greedy fucker, so I'm trying to balance quality with quantity and that in itself causes me to overdo the additives & lights, and sometimes and I go off reading all sorts of shit about plant science and end up so confused I can't remember if plants need water or bleach!

I have a dream.. and in that dream I'm a sensible toker, so all I'd really need to do is grow myself 2oz a month maximum. Now, I could do that easy with one or two well grown, big autos every 12 weeks under probably only 250w of light. I'd focus purely on organics and make sure that it grew well, rather than big and fast.

Unfortunately, that really is a dream for me because I smoke about 2oz a week and that's only because I can't grow more quickly enough!!

I bought a Wilma big4 last month but I chose to hold-off for a while longer before going hydro. I still think I can do a LOT better in soil and get most of the flavour & quality (and quantity) I'm after because really.. my heart lies with organics. But.. I'm starting to come around and use mineral nutes now and so far so good.

Even though I say go batmix.. that's not actually the ONLY way to get the yummy guano flavour in the bud.. you can do it with hydro too by getting some vintage guano powder and making tea with it. Although it's organic, it's perfectly fine for hydro systems as you filter out the particles before adding to ya res. So.. I guess what I'm saying in waaaaay too many words as usual.. is to look at guano tea if you want a seriously nice tasting bud, or just grow in batmix soil organically. I also highly recommend blackstrap molasses as that really adds a nice sweet flavour, and it's packed full 'o' minerals. You won't need a lot of either of those two things to get a tasty undertone to the bud and you can just add them mid-flowering as natural boosters.


Cheers mate. I'm sure you'll do fine as you have a passion for cannabis plants. That much is obvious.

 

[Jeff]

Cheers buddy I do try ime not really getting much at the min and it's not the best but I won't give up till its nice! Lol. I've got molasses and bat guano and a load of other stuff I've got a cupboard full off it! The more I look back tho it wasn't the things I woz useing i kept reading things then buying everything! :-s it woz the environment being to hot I think all along. I got a new thermometer with a hydrometer on it and I found out my humidity woz 20 and the temp woz 85-90 so I got another decent therm to see wich one woz out and it read 90 so all along I thought it woz at 75-80 it woz 10 degrees hotter! I've got it down a bit by adding a mist maker and that brings the humidity up to around 50% and things seem to be going allot better if I can get 3 oz every 2 months ile be happy thats my goal ime sick of spending my hard earned cash on .7 for a tenner! Lol. I only tried dwc because I thought I would have more controll over what went in and it woz easyer to overcome problems but then I got organic nutes wot a nob! Oh well ile see how the new res change goes! I think ile get the other stuff out of the cupboard wen it warms up a bit and do a few outside organically. Ime deffinatly gona give this tea a go tho everyone seems to do it do it must be the shit. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge Buddha happy Tokin!

 

[BigBuddha]

Sounds like you're learning lots and every mistake we make gets us one step closer. 3oz every 2 months is easiy achievable with one auto.. and easily beatable with a bit of experience and a good environment. You also sound just like me. I looked at all the stuff I've bought but never used and the only explanation is that I got suckered in reading about it, but before I used it must have read about something even better ha ha.

 

[The Medicine Man]

Ok.. as I don't have access to new nutes for at least the rest of the month, I have to work with the hand I've been dealt, so what I've got available is some Plant Magic Grow & Bloom (hardwater version) which has an NPK of 2.0-0.4-3.0 and 2.2-0.5-3.2 respectively. Their booster is just a mineral PK 13/14 with a touch of N. I don't see any point in following their feeding chart so from that selection of nutes.. what would you do.. say.. give her just bloom nutes until she's done?

Incidentally, I also have some topmax laying around so what do you reckon on adding a bit of that to the mix?


That's interesting what you say about providing low P in flower.. because you're the first grower I've heard say that. << That's not a barbed way of saying you're wrong.. I'm just interested in unusual methods like that because the more I grow the more I realise how many of the things we cling to are 30yrs outdated or just plain scientifically wrong; there's so much urband legend in the growers world, and most growers say that high P nutes are required for bigger buds. However.. [lightbulb moment] it's just occured to me that the PM nutes I've got are actually quite low in P.

Hmmm.. now that I'm replying to you the penny is dropping on that point.

Yea, there's a lot of information that's been hung onto for a long time. High P can actually inhibit certain microbes from growing and colonizing. High K is where buds gain density. The PM stuff sounds good just looking at those ratios. It's almost just like what I run the whole life cycle. Phosphorus will also cause buds to taste like crap. When using a lower P fert, flushing is a bit easier. Plants during the flowering phase actually require a load more N than people think. I've heard that plants require twice as much N in flower than they do in veg, but Im skeptical of that. Too much N will cause the leaves to claw for sure.

This is a 3-1-4 feed all through it's life.... Low P didn't hurt this one.

And don't worry about hurting my feelings by asking questions, either. I love to help and I love to learn, so ask away!