The experiment seemed to be a success! Not pHing the water down helped tremendously, along with the dry amendments. I did adjust the recipe a bit. Increased the earth worm castings to about 8 rounded 1/4 cups, 2 Tbsp/gal All Purpose 4-4-4, 1 Tbsp Kelp Meal, 1 Tbsp Alfalfa Meal and 1 Tbsp Bat Guano.
The 4 plants in the big tent all got their feeding yesterday and were stripped of their remaining spotted leaves. The color in the leaves looks gorgeous and this morning there was no spread of the apparent nutrient lockout.
The 2 plants in the smaller tent were fed and watered this morning and instantly seemed to perk up seemed to have a much needed sigh of relief.
I am looking forward to the next couple weeks in hopes that their little run of stunted growth is over and they will explode.
Full house 3’s , 5’s, and tote bin in use.
Clones and Domes too.
IMO, 3’s or 5’s are enough for indoor.
5-Gal cloth in tote for “condominium housing”
3’s dry faster than 5’s (also auto-wick better, maybe).
Been cutting the condo plant, love smoking it, too.
Beautiful! I can’t wait to get more comfortable with the whole process from start to finish. I’m glad I got photoperiods for my first grow because from what I’ve been reading photos seem to have a larger margin for error and time to correct. Whereas autos appear to be for more experienced growers because they are on their own timeline. My question with autos is once they start flowering does it matter if you leave the light at 18/6? Because I would love a more perpetual grow cycle instead of waiting for all the plants to be harvested before starting the next grow. If I continue with photos I could, I guess, in theory use my small tent for veg (starting them when the big tent flips to flower) and keep a rotation that way.
It looks like you have quite a few in different stages. Do you find it to be a better flow of material?
Good question that I can’t answer today, for the Autos and 18/6.
Actually works, even on 12/12, eventually.
I read from @OGIncognito, words supporting grow, hours.
However, 18/6 can have serious advantages or consequences.
I would love even 16/8 for tent with plants, clones, and seedlings.
Continuously growing, with multiple stage plants.
Currently, the REVEGER are getting light ON hours increased for benefit of seedlings,.
We shall see who likes it and who becomes smoke.
Making room in tent pictured above, soon.
Alternative to complete harvest cycles is discussed in depth at my posted forum thread
Please do, I learned more from contributors visiting and guiding me.
Zip code for onsite sharing 982XX (PNW-Seattle North).
Did my link to my thread bring you to the beginning of the thread (April 2022) or just recent postings?
Most fun for complete 18 month growing roller-coaster cycle.
It took me to the post that is shown, the last one I believe. Let me go back and scroll to the top! I have a mild case of ADHD and will read something, have questions, search new questions, find more things to search and so on. LOL! But, I do have the magic ability to always go back to threads and read more once I’ve trailed off the path too far.
Congratulations btw. I did notice your badge when I saw your first comment.
I feel the exact same way! This is by far the nicest community I have ever had the pleasure of coming across! And as I learn and graduate as a growmie I certainly want to have enough valuable knowledge to give back as well. That’s why I started my grow journal here and haven’t been shy about sharing my faux pas and “experiments” as far as potential remedies.
Pleasure to be here and meet you
Likewise.
I am embarrassed about the VMOM, because without forum and forum contributors, I would still be with Columbus, probably scrubbing barnacles off the Santa Maria.
No internet in 1984, just one book, I tried to read. Pictures did the trick.
You have a wealth of invaluable support available on this forum, enjoy.
Time for a journal update. The past couple days I have had my candy striper outfit on and been keeping a close eye on the health of the girls after their last nute feed/watering.
2 girls really seemed to understand the assignment and just busted with growth! Maui Wowie #1 and GG4 #3 (which used to be the runt of the whole group! ) - pictured in that order.
As far as the other 4 … … They are all experiencing different levels of the same issue - low soil pH even though I watered with above 7 pH a couple days ago. But, I did not water to runoff the other day so I had an odd feeling that maybe there was possibly a big salt build up in the soil. Sooooooo last night and this morning i did a quick flush with 7.5ish water. Measured the run off and it was around 5.1 . But, I have since done a slurry test and the pH is balancing back out. Fingers crossed they will start feeling better soon!
Below is the sicklings in order from ‘healthiest’ to sickest plant. GG4 #2, Maui Wowie #2, GG4 #1 and Maui Wowie #3 (which used to be my favorite lady).
My experience so far growing in Fox Farms has been a roller coaster of emotions. From other threads I have read about other growmies having the same issues I have with the low pH (even after adjusting the water pH to 6.5-6.8) and salt build up. Because of the popularity and hype I wanted to love it so much, but I am leaning closer, by the day, to using coco the next grow. We’ll see.
Anyways, have a wonderful Monday fellow growmies, and happy gardening!
Big Tent update… I think I’m going to flip the big tent to flower next week. If anyone has any thoughts/opinions/suggestions/etc after seeing the pics below please do chime in!
I know being my first grow that not everything will work out perfectly and there will be roadblocks and learning curves … but, I must admit I feel like a bad canna-mom to a few of the plants.
2 of the plants got hit so hard with the spotted leaves before I did a flush a few days ago. The rapidity of the formations of the spotted leaves made me a bit paranoid it could possibly be leaf rot rather than a specific nutrient deficiency/lockout … soooo in my frantic state I trimmed all the affected leaves just for safety sake. They have since started to try to rally, but still have some spots forming, just not at the rate it was.
5 of the plants are exhibiting a strong case of stunted growth - the leaves and stems just don’t seem to grow much from day to day, but don’t look terrible.
1 plant is my Girl Friday! I love her! She is bushy, a lush green and almost zero sign of nutrient deficiency through spotted leaves.
Today I watered the girls in the big tent with water dressed with 1 Tbsp molasses/gallon and 1 tsp CalMag/gallon. I did not pH the water, it went in around 7.5, because the soil has still been registering quite acidic. When I measured the runoff water it was around 5.8, which is much higher than it was in the past waterings, so yayyyyyy!
Just because, here are the two in the small tent. Their growth is quite slow, but they are improving from what they were last week. They will get their water either tomorrow or the next day.
Day 59 since seed was planted!
Yesterday’s watering session seems to have gotten them back on the right path! As far as the two plants I mentioned in yesterday’s post that received an excessive trim session earlier this week … well, I’m going to chalk that up to being their pre-flip defoliation since I will be flipping very soon.
Today my two fluffy GG4s received their pre-flip trim. I wasn’t near as heavy handed with them as with the 2 Maui Wowies, but did take care of any branches that just weren’t going to make it beyond the trellis. I left as many fan leaves as I could, trying to toe the line of the two camps about pre-flip defoliation (heavy trim and the plant will bounce back - vs - the leaves are absolutely necessary for sugar production and photosynthesis).
The past Monday the light cycle in the big tent was set to 16/8, and yesterday it was set to 15/9. Today I will further decrease it to 14/10 and Sunday they will go to 12/12. Oh my, I don’t know why, but I’m incredibly excited and nervous about flipping!! Haha, sounds silly, but I’m sure this is normal for any new grower.
Been a while. I got worried I was going to have to toss a couple plants, but I’m thinking with some more time they can recover.
Ok, so Saturday I did end up flipping the big tent to 12/12 because the trellis was about 80% full. There hasn’t really been a great big stretch of any kind. I still had 2 plants that are trying to recover from nutrient lockouts.
I did water them with molasses, no calmag since the new spots looked more like potassium deficiency. They drank that water much quicker than before by a couple days, so I can tell that the absorption is getting better from the little changes I’ve been making which is a great sign!
So, today they got some more water with 1/2 the dose of molasses and rhino skin - still no calmag. I’m also still not adjusting the pH of my water. – The runoff today was around 5.5-5.8 on average between the 4 plants which is sooooooo much better than before!! I did do one final round of removing the sick leaves and here’s hoping they stop showing up
The small tent is doing well, kind of slow. I did put it at 16/8 hoping to encourage some better growth at night. Thinking about just switching it to 12/12. I know I have seen quite a few growers on here who have grown even photoperiods in 12/12 since germination and done very well. One person even had 1 plant fill a 4x4 tent on that cycle. So, maybe that is what I will do today is just get everyone on the same cycle.
I have definitely thought about putting them back into a higher lights on cycle … but, they have been at the 12/12 for almost 4 days now and still seem fairly immature. After all the mistakes I have made with this grow, which was to be expected as a noob, I am kind of ready for these girls to flower and put on whatever they are going to produce and move on to the next grow and implement all my new learnings! I’m still going to put just as much care and love into these babies as I possibly can and hold their hand across the finish line. I’m just anxious to get to the next grow, lol. If that all makes sense.
Day 65 - By George, I do believe I have turned this grow around in the last couple weeks, just took a while for my perseverance and effort to come to fruition.
Before we begin, I would like to take a moment of silence for my Girl Friday who decided to expose male genitals yesterday. He was promptly removed and honored. Because there was an opening in the big tent, another Maui Wowie was introduced to her new roommates and now only one remains in the small tent.
The two other Maui Wowies that I have been struggling with a bunch have begun to bounc back two fold!! They are growing new foliage without the spots, their color is coming back and now they are busting with a bunch of pre flower pistols!!!
Just for the fun of it I did drop 5 more seeds yesterday. As they grow I will have some configuration to do, but hoping that as soon as this first round is harvested and dried, the others will be ready for bloom.
) - pictured in that order.
… They are all experiencing different levels of the same issue - low soil pH even though I watered with above 7 pH a couple days ago. But, I did not water to runoff the other day so I had an odd feeling that maybe there was possibly a big salt build up in the soil. Sooooooo last night and this morning i did a quick flush with 7.5ish water. Measured the run off and it was around 5.1 
. But, I have since done a slurry test and the pH is balancing back out. 
Fingers crossed they will start feeling better soon!
