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[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 5 (2012-2013)

drug_mentor said:
If any Aussie growers can recommend a good organic liquid fertiliser for cannabis it would be great. In the meantime I will try and stop by some nurseries and see if they have anything with an NPK ratio similar to 5-3-3.
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If you want organic there aren't that many liquid products. Heaps of granules and mixes though. For cannabis specific liquid fertilizers try hydro shops around your area. Biocanna is widely available but the ratio is a bit lacking in N. Veg formula is 3.5-1-5.5 Flower formula is 2.5-2.0-5.0. If your soil mix has plenty of N it isn't a problem. In pots it will be low in N towards the end of the season. Smoke tastes good though and there is a heap of other stuff in there also.
 
justsayknow said:
^What species of nematodes were they? The only ones I know about are the native aussie ones and they tend to cause problems with certain crops. Usually solonaceaus type crops. I am interested in the idea of beneficial nematodes but would bet they are heavily restricted in certain areas ie australia.
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I don't know the species, but if you go on Amazon it's "beneficial nematodes"
 
drug_mentor said:
Since I am waiting for the soil to dry out so I can transplant, would it be a good idea to give a foliar feed in the mean time? This seems like a decent way to get nutrients to the plant without wetting my soil. Since most of my deficiencies seem to be trace elements, I was thinking I could use a seaweed extract/plant tonic that has trace elements instead of an actual fertiliser, my reasoning for that is I was going to give them a nice feed with ferts once I transplant and I don't want to risk burning them. Does this sound reasonable? Or am I as well to go ahead and foliar feed with a fertiliser?
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If you have a good fertiliser it should be okay without the seaweed extract since it should have everything the plant will need, but adding a little won't hurt. Just remember to adjust the dosage down for foliar spraying, which I am sure you already know to do.

drug_mentor said:
Neither of the fertilisers you mention are available in Aus to my knowledge AE, I certainly haven't seen them and a quick google search seems to yield results with UK based companies. I know the NPK rating I have isn't ideal for cannabis, it is actually the closest one to correct I could find, believe it or not most of the rest have even less P in them than this one... If any Aussie growers can recommend a good organic liquid fertiliser for cannabis it would be great. In the meantime I will try and stop by some nurseries and see if they have anything with an NPK ratio similar to 5-3-3.
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I realise now that companies stocking it only ship to europe. Such a shame since it's the best one I've ever used.

If I were in your shoes I would troll (trawl?) the australian cannabis cultivation forums if nobody here can help edit: I see JSN has added his suggestion so you might want to try that. I would keep in mind though that the NPK is only one small aspect of the nutrient, you also have Ca, Mg, S, and many others, as well as other additives like molasses. That's why it's probably best to be cautious about new fertilisers even if the NPK seems right.
 
I just read that soil bacteria excretes a Ph of 7, so if you have enough of it, it will keep your Ph at a good steady level. And I also read that these bacteria are needed in order for the plant to even use nitrogen, and thy don't work at a Ph below 7. So they make a layer of slime that allows them to work if their are enough of them. So they could also keep your soil at that level if their are enough of them.

Also read that Nematodes and Protozoa eat bacteria, so if you have enough good bacteria, you will attract other good things. Or if you buy Nematodes it could keep them alive when you have no pests left.
 
Was hoping for a bit of advice regarding re potting outdoor cannabis, I currently have two plants in 125mm containers I want to repot, I plan to finish them in 510mm containers. Basically, I also have some 290mm containers, I was wondering if it would be better to re pot into the 290mm ones and then again into the 510mm ones, or if I am as well to just go straight into the final one. I was thinking it would be better to repot incrementally to decrease the chances that my plants roots will outgrow the final container, as I figure they will grow in a tighter fashion if places in gradually increasing containers first. However, I have never repotted anything before the last few weeks, and it does occur to me repotting out of a pot as large as 290mm could be a bit more difficult than with the small ones I have been using, I have also considered it could cause un necessary stress to my plants.

If anyone could shed some light on this topic that would be great. :)
 
drug_mentor said:
Was hoping for a bit of advice regarding re potting outdoor cannabis, I currently have two plants in 125mm containers I want to repot, I plan to finish them in 510mm containers. Basically, I also have some 290mm containers, I was wondering if it would be better to re pot into the 290mm ones and then again into the 510mm ones, or if I am as well to just go straight into the final one. I was thinking it would be better to repot incrementally to decrease the chances that my plants roots will outgrow the final container, as I figure they will grow in a tighter fashion if places in gradually increasing containers first. However, I have never repotted anything before the last few weeks, and it does occur to me repotting out of a pot as large as 290mm could be a bit more difficult than with the small ones I have been using, I have also considered it could cause un necessary stress to my plants.

If anyone could shed some light on this topic that would be great. :)
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You are right in your thinking that it is better to transplant in increments. It definitely helps the roots grow into the container. Have you ever heard of superthrive? Its a stress supplement that I give to my plants whenever I transplant them, it seems to work well.
 
Anyone ever have a plant or two fall from a decent height, say about a metre, that also came out its pot and everything? Did it do alright?

I been using a multi tier greenhouse, re potted a couple of my plants today and I guess I overestimated the strength of the shelving on my greenhouse. I actually noticed it was struggling when I went to check on them a few hours later, and it was as I was removing all of my plants that the shelf gave out and my last two fell from about a metre high.

I think it is lucky I had just repotted the larger one today, as all the dirt came out of the pot and actually buried the plant as well. I dug it out and amazingly the rootball was intact, so I filled the pot with dirt again and repotted it. It lost a small side branch and some leaves and has a slight bend near the top of the main stem that was not there before. The smaller one didn't come out its pot, just landed on its head and lost a few blades of leaves and also has a slight bend near the top of it. I don't really see a visible cut on either at the bend site, but was not able to spend too long examining them.

I am not too stressed about it as I have more plants than I need/will probably end up keeping. Just wondering if there is now a very good chance these plants will now be quite likely to hermie or if it will be business as usual after a couple of days. One of them was my second biggest plant, which I had identified as a definite keeper, now I wonder if I should replace it by the next largest that hasn't copped any stress of this magnitude.
 
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Should be fine. I had something knock one of my pots over so that it was completely upside down for probably a day or so and the stem was bent at a 90 degree angle. The plant came back great guns. They are pretty tough.
 
Flushing. Whats your tech?

I am currently finishing up my first grow. I was curious as to how long before harvest I should be flushing my ladies with ph balanced water. I have read of people literally "flushing" their plants by pouring excessive amounts of water until they get a large amount of run off but this method is not appealing to me as it seems very unnatural. My medium is FoxFarm Happy Frog (amateur, I know). Would really appreciate some quick advice as I would like to harvest within the next week or 2.
 
If you are using liquid nutrients as well and you are worried that the salts will effect the taste stop putting them on now but continue giving the same amount of water. If you are just using that organic soil then you shouldn't need to do anything just water as normal. I put a similar question up last year and the general answer was that flushing is for hydro grows not soil.
 
Even if you were growing hydroponically and were flushing at the end, you are supposed to use non pH-balanced tap water.

pH adjusting your tapwater in organic compost growers is unecessary and possibly counterproductive to the soil biology and can cause nutrient lockout. Even using things like citric acid as opposed to nitric acid or phosphoric acid comes with it's own difficulties and limitations.

As said by justsayknow, organic grows do not need to be flushed at harvest. I would even argue that the people need to start questioning the general approach to flushing in hydro grows as well. A gradual nutrient taper towards the end produces far more favorable results than simply starving your plants, but unfortunately people are very dogmatic when it comes to cannabis cultivation and tend to only want to listen to the consensus, because if everyone says it then it must be right. Particularly on other american boards often impossible to get people to let go of even the most basic principles, like late harvesting always equals more CBD which is responsible for a more couch lock high, or perlite has to be added to every commercially available potting soil because it's somehow lacking in aeration without it even though they've never tried it without to actually compare growth or the concept of potting up instead of planting in one final huge pot leads to better growth. People are afraid to try new things but if they just opened their eyes for once they would see maybe some things need a re-think and maybe they need to start being a bit more open minded. It's not a dig at anyone here, just rather an observation made whilst discussing on other forums. It does my head in.
 
Artificial Emotion said:
the concept of potting up instead of planting in one final huge pot leads to better growth.
People are afraid to try new things
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Am testing the potting up one this season. Same strain, same ferts and soil just that one is getting gradual potting up the other one has gone straight to the huge pot. Will be interesting to see how it goes. So far identical.
 
the toad said:
^ nice rant, no argument from me.
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Thanks mate, I hope I didn't come off as rude to anyone or offend anyone.

justsayknow said:
Am testing the potting up one this season. Same strain, same ferts and soil just that one is getting gradual potting up the other one has gone straight to the huge pot. Will be interesting to see how it goes. So far identical.
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IMO there is a happy medium between growers that pot up in too many stages and growers that don't pot up at all but plant straight into huge pots. Don't get me wrong, when I say 'huge' I am talking about planting a tiny little seedling in a huge something like a 50L pot. I've seen people do as many as 10 stages until their end pot size but that is overkill IME.

Say you are ending up in a final 15L pot, a sensible approach would be to start off in a cup, then pot up into a 1-2L pot, then a 6L pot and finally the 15L pot which is sufficient in my experience. Even just going straight into the 6L pot and foregoing the 1-2L pot would work. You will notice that if the bulk of the soil space is occupied by roots, it will soak up the water a lot quicker and the soil will dry out noticeably faster. This leads to the roots getting more oxygen because of a faster wet-dry cycle and more yield as a result. Planting straight into a massive pot with a tiny seedlings leads to the soil staying damp for ages and ages and possibly even becoming anaerobic and sour. You are right to actually try it out on your own though, side by side grows are always useful.
 
Artificial Emotion said:
I am talking about planting a tiny little seedling in a huge something like a 50L pot.
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Yep one has gone into a 50L after being germinated and grown in a >1L pot for 4 weeks the other has gone from a >1L pot to an 8L pot and will finish in a bigger one. I usually use 400mm which is around 30L but am considering going 50L.

A faster wet and dry cycle is great especially if you around to water every day. When it gets to 40C everyday with baking dry winds the roots can cook in smaller pots if they miss a watering. I would be better off putting them in the ground for that reason but I like the idea of being able to move them if I have to.
 
justsayknow said:
Yep one has gone into a 50L after being germinated and grown in a >1L pot for 4 weeks the other has gone from a >1L pot to an 8L pot and will finish in a bigger one. I usually use 400mm which is around 30L but am considering going 50L.

A faster wet and dry cycle is great especially if you around to water every day. When it gets to 40C everyday with baking dry winds the roots can cook in smaller pots if they miss a watering. I would be better off putting them in the ground for that reason but I like the idea of being able to move them if I have to.
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I actually had a similar problem this year when I grew outdoors. The watering was so much I am not going to bother with containers like that again, instead I will opt for the cultivated earth/soil in the ground. If the pots dry out rapidly that's ideal, really I should have said my statement was more for indoor grows so sorry for the confusion. Hope your grow goes well by the way. Forgive me for not remembering but what strains are you doing again?
 
Pakistan Chitral Kush x Afghani 1 home made cross. Its showing heaps of vigour now that summer is almost here. Hopefully it will give some nice colour during the flowering stage. Seems that a fair percentage of the PCK offspring show colour.
 
Are you going to inbreed those purple individuals to fix that trait? I'm not trying to tell you what to do but if I were in your position I would try and fix that trait if I could.

I am jealous of the climate you are able to grow in. I live in the South East UK and the climate is pretty much the best in the country, more or less, but it still pales in comparison to places like Spain or even where you are. I'm sick of dealing with mould, even with mould resistant strains, it's a pain the in arse.
 
Yeah I think I will but I don't want to go over board with numbers so it could take a while. As soon as I get another purple male it will be put to use for sure. So far more than half of the hybrids have had purple but no males.
How long do you think seeds will stay viable in the freezer? Just a frost free domestic fridge freezer nothing special.

Yeah the climate here is pretty sweet for outdoors. Even better in the aussie tropics they seem to go year round and can grow long finishing sativas. Better suited to hybrids and indica's in the south.
 
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