Lighting The Bucket Strikes Back! (3 autos with LEDs)

[sielm]

Thanks for the tip brokencage! I will definitely slow my general nute schedule. The AA and FB are already dark green, and I don't want them to be overfertilized!. BTW yes, they still have some curled leaves. In fact they all had these claw-like leaves since the beginning, specially the GPA and the FB. My guess is that my starting soil mix was too strong for the seedlings: I used Compo Sana Universal soil, which I believe has an ec of around 1.8 mS/cm, and added additional worm castings and perlite. That probably made the mix too strong. The soil probably has enough nutes ATM, and unless I see any obvious deficiencies, I will only use PK13-14 in a weak dilution once or twice max. The other nutes I have (Compo Guano, Plagron Terra Bloom) all have significant amounts of N, so I won't use them unless I see the need

Regards!

 

[The Squid]

Hey sielm. The 'claw' that you are referring too is the classic over-ferting sign. I can't quite remember how this has been going for you, but yeah just back off on them for a while, just use plain water and see if they get better. Sounds like you already had it covered I just wanted to stop by since I am subscribed.

 

[sielm]

Yes, I thought that too. The thing is, they all had some curled down leaves since the beginning, and even though they still have some, they look much better each day. The Fast Bud is maybe the worst looking of the trio, although it was somewhat ugly since the beginning.

They all are different strains, so using the same nutes for each of them might not be optimum. I have mixed some PK13-14 with good quality water, and got a nutrient solution with pH 6.5 and ec 0.68. I think this is a mild solution, so I will probably be feeding them with this PK13-14 mixture soon. The purpose of course is to fatten those budsites! At the same time I will be holding the addition of nitrogen, because this PK has 0% N.

The AA#2 has already sprouted above the coco substrate :booya: and I will be feeding it with a mild solution of liquid humus/root stimulator (pH 6, ec 0.76). I have read that when using coco, I should be feeding nutes with every watering, measuring the pH/ec of the runoff water and applying water flushes if/when the runoff ec is too high. The only worry I have here is the amount of water to use each time: the pot is only 1 liter so I should not use too much water. But if I don't use at least 300ml or so, I would not get enough runoff to measure the values...

Well, I will be visiting them soon, and will take some fresh pics. And probably LST them a bit more

See you around!

 

[sielm]

Hi all! Today I used PK13-14 with the Green Poison, Assorted #1 and Fast Bud. Each one got 150ml of a mild water and PK13-14 mixture (pH 6.5, ec 0.68). Let's see what happens these following days... If I see any overfeeding symptom I will flush. I just hope they use all the nutes and continue a healthy grow. Will have to keep an eye with curled leaves and burnt tips!

Green Poison Auto: applied more LST today. The smell is definitely improving she looks really good!


Assorted Auto #1: no LST applied today, I think she does not need anymore ATM. Looks good, although the smell is not strong.


Fast Bud: applied more LST today. I also removed a couple of dried fan leaves. This one has the best smell!


Assorted Auto #2: she sprouted yesterday above the coco I watered it with a mild solution of water and humushemp (a biological root stimulator/growth nute). The solution has pH 6 and ec 0.76. I used 200ml, and got approximately 100ml of runoff with pH 6.2 and ec 0.22. I think maybe 200ml is too much for a 1 liter coco pot (almost 50% runoff). The ec value looks too low, does that imply that the coco kept all the nutes inside?


And a final group shot before bed time, (GPA lower right side, FB left, AA#1 up, AA#2 right):


See you soon fellow gardeners!

 

[The Squid]

Looking good and still coming along nicely for you, awesome.

 

[brokencage]

Looking good.Youl be in no time.

 

[sielm]

Thanks all! The GPA and the AA#1 are 40 days old today, and the FB is 39. I took some time to measure ec and ph values from the runoff water, using water with ph 6.9 and ec 0.32. I know this ph is a bit high, but I had no means to change it ATM. I will comment about each one individually:

Green Poison Auto: I used 700ml to water this plant, and the runoff had ph 6.7 and ec 3.31!!! After that I used another 500ml to flush some more. The last part of the runoff had ph 6.8 and ec 2.42. I think this ec is still high, probably too much... Anyway the plant is looking good, although there are some clearly clawed leaves. I will have to watch this one carefully. Now the soil in this pot is really wet, and I won't be able to water it for several days. I am thinking of flushing it again in a week or so, maybe using distilled water to get a good cleaning.


Assorted Auto #1: used 400ml on this one. The runoff had ph 6.9 and ec 1.10. I think ec is OK but ph is on the high side. I'm not sure if using water with ph lowered to 6 would help... I'll probably water the plants with such water to try to compensate. The Assorted#1 has some burnt tips, but looks like the less overfertilized one.


Fast Bud: I also used 400 ml on this one. The runoff had ph 6.6 and ec 1.78. In this case ph looks OK but ec is maybe a bit high. This one has a few burnt tips and several claw like leaves. Weird shaped leaves are common since it was born, however. And since it smells sooo good, I think this one is doing quite fine too.


Assorted Auto #2: I only poured some drops of water and root stimulator on this one. Obviously I didn't measure any runoff. I will probably begin alternating waterings for this mini coco experiment, instead of watering a little each day.


Summarizing, I wish I had bought these meters way before! I think my previous harvests would have been a lot better, and probably this one too. We'll see if these ladies do well with more care on my part

Thanks all for reading!

Bonus pic!

 

[The Squid]

Nice update, hope you get all that straightened out it doesn't look too bad.

 

[sielm]

No pics today, sorry. My cell ran out of battery and I had no way to recharge it...

As of later the temperatures here have been gradually increasing, and this affects the temperature inside the bucket too. The bad part is that the humidity has not decreased a bit! The girls are growing more and more leaves each day, and all this makes the conditions inside the bucket a bit dangerous IMO. Temperature is currently 28ºC. Humidity is 60% when the light has been on for hours, and it rises to 80% when it's night time! I was afraid this could cause mold to appear on the girls, so I decided to prune fan leaves which were impeding a good airflow. I did this to all the 3 grown plants. I am afraid I might have pruned a bit too much, but I hope this will help air circulation inside the bucket, as well as better lighting for lower budsites. I applied more LST to them afterwards too. I will have to check some DIY way to lower humidity because it doesn't look like ambiental humidity is going to decrease soon...

Anyway, I'll update as soon as I can, and let's hope my cell won't leave me down this time!

I'm out! Bye!

 

[brokencage]

Next time remember you can cut half a blade from a leaf instead of removing the whole thing.this would help light penetration and air flow while keeping the leaf to feed the branch.You can also cut a bit of plastic bag and lay over the top of the pot.Just cut a slit in the plastic to go around the stem.This will help with the moisture evaporating off the soil and adding to the over all humidity.