New Grower Will my girls be okay with this?

[milkmann]

Here are my plants at 14 days old. I was keen to let these grow as naturally as possible, however it occurred to me this morning that this might work in being a virtually stress-free way of getting a bit more light to the lower canopy without altering the shape of the plant. Was planning on doing this for 24 hours, then taking it off for 48, then back on for 24 on as many leaves as seems appropriate, all bunched together. Would this stress the plant out/slow down growth or will this be okay? Anyone got any experience with doing this?

On a side note, how are the girls looking overall for 14 days? And what are those brown spots on the Blue Dream?

Cheers! :smoking:

 

[RickX]

Hi dude!
Those brown spots looks like Calcium defficiency. What soil are you using? Do you check pH on the water you use? Did you add nutrients of any kind?

 

[Puddentane]

In reference to your question, it would be better to ponytail them for 3-6 hours in the early part of the daylight cycle and then let them down for the rest of the day. Repeat daily until you see the lower growth sites clear the edge of the canopy. I pinned mine down to help them grow outwards first for a better spread later on. If you have a particular leaf that is being troublesome tuck it. If that cannot be done than cut it in half or remove the offending leaflet from the leaf. Cut nothing that is not onerous to your grow but if it were mine to do I would definitely want to try to get the lower bud sites off to a roaring start. Better in my opinion to have 8-10 heavy bud sites than one major cola. More weight that way, and in my opinion more energy to sustain the plant.

 

[milkmann]

@RickX PM soil supreme. I don't check pH, I know it's important but not NECESSARY and I'm just growing for a personal smoke so not hugely fussed. I have added some root stimulator and some grow, as well as some silicon.
@Puddentane ah okay nice! I'll do that. Thank you for that detailed information, that's very useful to know

The strains I'm growing right now are LSD-25, Blue Dream, some CBD plants, a Red Poison and and Cheese. Have either of you grown these before?

 

[Puddentane]

Have not grown any of those strains which will make following along a learning experience for me. Looking forward to a stellar gro!

 

[RickX]

@RickX PM soil supreme. I don't check pH, I know it's important but not NECESSARY

You dont need to be Pablo Escobar to check your pH. You just need to have interest in your plants to be healthy. If you're not, don't worry, it's not NECESSARY.

If you do, the problem is: Your pH is probably too low right now, and your plant can only get Calcium from pH 6.5, better 7 if using soil. Until you dont fix this, you will still having this kind of problems.

 

[Puddentane]

If you are interested in following along with your pH a good trick is to order some litmus strips. They run around 40 cents or so and simply get a reading of your water and fert. Mix it and shake vigorously. Allow to set for a period and then measure. You can use Citric acid to lower the pH of your water but before you do its best to read up on the technique and get it right. If you are on municipal water supplies you are likely 7.2 to 9. Adjusting your water can help to zero in on that razor blade you are standing on.

One thing I have known and observed for myself is that often you see minor defficiency problems show up early and then mitigate themselves as time goes buy. This is particularly true of new soils that have not had time to age. A small pocket of soil that is not thoroughly mixed can cause some minor problems early on. Calcium is not mobile so it will show up and disappear like Nathan Bedford Forrest. Just watch for a trend.

I will say, using your water and nutrient solutions to help adjust your grow are a very easy way to gently bump the pH of your soils provided you get it right. It is pretty easy once you get the hang of it and will go a long way towards getting trophy plants. I can only grow in winter so I try to get as much yield out of the plants as I can. We all do. That's why we are all here.

 

[milkmann]

@RickX completely agree with you, and of course I want my plants to be healthy. If she doesn't clear herself up I'll look into pHing. I was under the impression soil buffered itself. I did think it would be a pH issue.
@Puddentane thanks for the advice. It might be the new soil, it might be the plant, I've heard Blue Dreams are finnicky to grow. None of the other plants are showing any signs of any deficiencies. Going to give them their first proper watering tonight of 150ml feed so we'll see how that goes!

 

[arpowre3]

Yea dude ponytailing will make them to bush out like crazy.

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