[MEGA]Growing advice, tips, tricks and experience: Mark 3

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Hello As SpanoonapS mentioned, we have moved our girls to 12/12. We did this last night.... is it too late to take some clippings for clones? They're just 2 hours into their first 12 hour dark period.... at midnight, when the lights turn on again... we have some tending to do. I know that you should only take clones from vegetating plants, but is one day into a 12/12 cycle already too late to take some clones?
Also, I'm reading all different things about misting the leaves. Some say it's good, others say it's bad. We weren't able to make a fair assumption since we slightly over fertilized and started seeing some burnt curled leaf tips (stopped fertilizing immediately, and also stopped misting)

Lastly, I want to thank everyone here for being so helpful and wonderful. I hope that once I gain enough experience, I will be able to give others advice, as you all have done for us. Thank you

Misting leaves it good for clones as its really the only way they can absorb water when they have no roots. As for cloning, I dont know if this was covered already but basically you get a clean razor blade or something sharp, and snip off the newest growth , if done properly, you will get 2 more shoots, if you do it wrong (FIMing [Fuck I messed up) you will end up with 4 shoots

Anywho, if you JUST recently put you plants into 12/12, you should be able to take a few cuttings from them and have them succesfully root if you keep them warm and either have humidity high or mist them every few hours

I know I probably didn't help much, but I gave it a shot, Im sure AE has some more to add..
-edit-
And those plants looks pretty healthy span, you shouldnt have a problem cloning them if they are only 12 hours into the cloning cycle.
I supercrop my plants during veg (basically just squeeze soft stems until they crunch in between my index and thumb and then they harden, and the plant can move nutrients faster through that branch due to its strengthening, at least that's what I believe to be true, could be wrong, just seems thats how it works for me, the ones I supercrop grow faster, stronger, and have buds just about the same size as the middle donkey dick bud. lol

 

[SpanoonapS]

I have 7 plants (each around 18-20 inches) growing very close together in a 2x4 ft closet area. Heat isn't a problem as I'm using cfl exclusively, I have 10 100w equivalent 6500k "daylight" bulbs. Not a lot of light but the plants are very close together and the closet is lined with foil so they're doing well and growing fast. I live in a seasonal continental environment where the summer temps average 75-90F during the day, and again the CFLs put out very little heat so I think I'm alright there.

I water every 3 days about a quart each (I think I'll start to increase) and I'm going to start feeding them now that I'm switching to 12/12 flower cycle. I bought some Miracle Grow tomato plant fertilizer:

18% nitrogen
18% phosphate
21% potash
0.5% magnesium
trace amounts of iron, copper, manganese, zinc

I know it's not ideal but it was the only fertilizer I saw with magnesium so I thought it would be better than bloom booster.

The two or three plants near the back are developing yellowing problems but the ones near the front (closer to the door) look beautiful. I'm worried that the stress will cause them to turn male...

I'm also debating whether to keep one plant as a clone mother. Guess it depends how many turn female.

I was going to do a guerrilla grow at first but I thought it would be too much work to hump water out to them every few days if I planted deep enough in the woods to conceal them.

And am I right in assuming the amount of chlorine in tap water shouldn't be a concern?

use a small submersible pump to blow bubbles in your water reserve overnight. It will dissipate the chlorine.

85F and up is WAY to hot for plants. 90 = murder... or close to it.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I have 7 plants (each around 18-20 inches) growing very close together in a 2x4 ft closet area. Heat isn't a problem as I'm using cfl exclusively, I have 10 100w equivalent 6500k "daylight" bulbs. Not a lot of light but the plants are very close together and the closet is lined with foil so they're doing well and growing fast. I live in a seasonal continental environment where the summer temps average 75-90F during the day, and again the CFLs put out very little heat so I think I'm alright there.

I water every 3 days about a quart each (I think I'll start to increase) and I'm going to start feeding them now that I'm switching to 12/12 flower cycle. I bought some Miracle Grow tomato plant fertilizer:

18% nitrogen
18% phosphate
21% potash
0.5% magnesium
trace amounts of iron, copper, manganese, zinc

I know it's not ideal but it was the only fertilizer I saw with magnesium so I thought it would be better than bloom booster.

The two or three plants near the back are developing yellowing problems but the ones near the front (closer to the door) look beautiful. I'm worried that the stress will cause them to turn male...

I'm also debating whether to keep one plant as a clone mother. Guess it depends how many turn female.

I was going to do a guerrilla grow at first but I thought it would be too much work to hump water out to them every few days if I planted deep enough in the woods to conceal them.

And am I right in assuming the amount of chlorine in tap water shouldn't be a concern?

Miracle Grow should be avoided like the plague. I know it's all you have, but it seriously is junk (sorry to be blunt!). They're a bit like cigarette manufacturers, putting all sorts of chemicals in there that you wouldn't want to feed your plants with. Sorry I can't substantiate that statement with info to back it up with, but I've been told this by people who I trust who are a lot more knowledgable than me.

If you're growing plants in the soil in the ground then watering once a week to every ten days is all you need to do. If you plant near a stream you won't have to carry water far. I'm afraid you might be disappointed with those lights. Do you have a ventilation system? Until you get a better set up I would urge you to grow outside if you possibly can, you won't regret it.

Chlorine in the tap water is not a concern, no, as it won't affect plant growth. Cannabis uses small amounts of chlorine as a nutrient actually.

Also - question about topping.

Can we top at anytime? Just put the plants to 12/12 - is it ok to do it now? There is 1 plant in particular that is bushy at the bottom but has a long stem with not much on it. Instead of super cropping I was gonna top it. How far down from the top can I cut the stem?

Yes you can top it, just don't do it to far into 'the stretch'.

Hello As SpanoonapS mentioned, we have moved our girls to 12/12. We did this last night.... is it too late to take some clippings for clones? They're just 2 hours into their first 12 hour dark period.... at midnight, when the lights turn on again... we have some tending to do. I know that you should only take clones from vegetating plants, but is one day into a 12/12 cycle already too late to take some clones?
Also, I'm reading all different things about misting the leaves. Some say it's good, others say it's bad. We weren't able to make a fair assumption since we slightly over fertilized and started seeing some burnt curled leaf tips (stopped fertilizing immediately, and also stopped misting)

Misting is only good for cuttings that haven't rooted, however humidity domes achieve a high relative humidity so that misting is not necessary in this case.

I've grown enough without misting to know it's not necessary and I wouldn't advise it if you're not doing it for a specific reason like foliar feeding etc. I don't want to sound arrogant when I say that but honestly I just see no need for it really.

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Not the most large buds Ive had, but, for flowering on an off season, It'll hold me over till I get my next batch going...(I hope)

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Plant outside I was hoping wouldn't flower, still did under 16 hours of light, hoping it just starts to reveg.

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5 Northern Lights (ones hidden) and 2 Master Kush plants. (Ive seen my plants in better condition, just gotta start taking care of them again, kinda got careless)

Hopefully things go well :D
Getting kind of sick of going to the club, and buying clones infested with spider mites, they dont do shit about it, they just sell the plant with spider mites all over it, wasted a whole bottle of some organic spray in my grow room tonight as I noticed a few areas were getting spotty, thought sun bleaching, checked the bottoms and it was spider mites....

Took a closer look under a 100X magnifier and it has a white head and a black butt, don't know if anyone knows that specific mite, most of them seemed to have died in there, Ill just have to keep spraying every few days to make sure

But, over all, I guess things aren't looking too bad, I've had times where my plants were in much better condition than they are now, lets just hope they start to improve with a flush and some fertilizer

Nice pics, prelude. If you weren't aware, you need to stop feeding those plants outdoors completely. I mean, give them only plain water until that nute burn disappears, otherwise you'll be tasting fertilizer.

The first pic is really good!

 

[SpanoonapS]

AE - The supercrop was a success. We also topped them and moved them to 12/12. Its been a couple of days now and they are beginning to yellow a bit. Looks like they are getting hungry. Should I feed them bloom or grow nutrients?

You also stated that I should feed them less than recommended. How much less? The schedule I have says CNS17 BLOOM 25ML per GAL and PURE BLEND 15ML per GAL. We use a 5GAL bucket so 125ml of Bloom Formula and 75ml of Pure Blend. How much less do you recommend and is that the amount we should feed them throughout the entire flowering stage?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

^ If you're going to supercrop them then don't top them at the same time in future.

Definitely feed them nutrients but if you want better results I would at least try feeding one plant just with Biobizz fishmix, an organic fertilizer made from fish waste that your plants will love. It feeds the soil unlike other fertilizers, which in turn feeds the plants.

The recommended amounts of feed to use given by the manufacturers are almost always too high. In fact, that's the norm for some reason. I've not used that nutrient but feed them a quarter the recommended amount or less and slowly titrate upwards each feed until your plants seem happy. Sometimes it's a bit of trial and error.

.................................

I've just planted my Buddha Red Dwarf upside down!! I also planted a French Marigold flower on the top since this is a 'companion plant' that repels aphids.

I drilled a hole in the bottom of a pot a few inches in diameter and used lanscaping fabric with an x slit in it to allow the plant to fit through but prevent soil falling through.

NSFW:

NSFW:

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

I stopped feeding them about 2 weeks ago, was going to cut some buds off today but its raining, and Im pretty sure it'd just be a hassle to get them completely dry and trimming, not to mention more likely to get mold or mildew.

But yeah, My indoor wasn't doing so good lately, bought new clones from a club around here , and the plants were infested with spider mites. I couldn't identify what type, but, they had white heads and black bottoms, I sprayed and believe I killed most all of them, but my clones that(all except 1) I sprayed are reacting some what weird to the spray, the new foliage is all bent and is growing in an odd gnarly looking way, the rest of the plants are fine though. Kind of confuses me, But, Its weed, Im sure it'll start growing normal soon enough.

My outdoor plant is looking really good, Im just wondering how to harvest without killing it, Ive been taking buds here and there and trimming them and putting them in a jar and rolling them around every few hours. and burping the jar, I just can't figure out how to chop the biggest buds without killing the plant, I know Ive mentioned this idk how many times, but yeah...just wanna keep it alive without killing it.

All the spider mites I believe are gone, but i will continue to spray every 2-3 days for a week or so to make sure they dont hatch and continue to live (those nasty bastards, couldn't help but get all itchy and feel weird when I found out about the spider mites , saw them under the 60-100X magnifier I have)

Been watering about every two - three days, soil is getting dry pretty quick, the largest plant I have in my closet (Master Kush) I can give a gallons of water, and by the next morning, itll start to wilt again. so, think thats going to be another I throw outside once I take a few cuttings.(It's not root bound, I can't even see roots at the bottom.

My plant outside that started to flower doesn't look like its continuing to make progress, looks like it has stopped and is going to start trying to veg again, who knows with the weird ass weather we've been having down here I dont know what the plants want to do...Its June , normally its hot as hell already (90-95), and dry as can be, but lately its been 70-76 degrees outside and raining quite often(very odd for this area at this time of year) anywho,

I hope to have my first dry piece of bud from my outdoor plant either tonight or tomorrow , cant wait to try it out..., especially since Im no fan of outdoor grows. (at least what Ive seen from them) but this doesn't look too bad, no bugs, not all dirt encrusted , quite a bit of crystals for a short outdoor grow that I wasn't expecting to even get buds from, lol.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

^ If you're going to supercrop them then don't top them at the same time in future.

Definitely feed them nutrients but if you want better results I would at least try feeding one plant just with Biobizz fishmix, an organic fertilizer made from fish waste that your plants will love. It feeds the soil unlike other fertilizers, which in turn feeds the plants.

The recommended amounts of feed to use given by the manufacturers are almost always too high. In fact, that's the norm for some reason. I've not used that nutrient but feed them a quarter the recommended amount or less and slowly titrate upwards each feed until your plants seem happy. Sometimes it's a bit of trial and error.

.................................

I've just planted my Buddha Red Dwarf upside down!! I also planted a French Marigold flower on the top since this is a 'companion plant' that repels aphids.

I drilled a hole in the bottom of a pot a few inches in diameter and used lanscaping fabric with an x slit in it to allow the plant to fit through but prevent soil falling through.

NSFW:

NSFW:

Haha, thats awesome, growing it upside down, Have you done this before? Do you notice any difference with the plant, Ive seen many people growing tomatoes upside down, but didn't really notice different results, Wonder if it would effect the way bud will grow, but hey, thats awesome, props to you if you thought of that on your own, lol, Id love to see a plant flower upside down...

But thanks for the advice, any tips for my plants indoor? they are starting to act a bit odd, especially the clones I took, Im wondering if its because they are 3rd gen clones or what.

And that plant outside that started to flower, once it starts to reveg, can I take clones from it again, or once is it once weed flowers the branches harden and you can't really take clones, (Since Ive always been one to just grow by seeds and chop when Im done, Ive never had the chance to see what happens when a plant goes back into veg, or if its even worth keeping around after flowering and harvesting or should I just buy a new plant to put there?)

I just like the one I have out there because it has 6 different branches all as thick as the middle and produced close to the same amount as the center branch

-edit-
Curious AE, have you ever grown poppies?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Haha, thats awesome, growing it upside down, Have you done this before? Do you notice any difference with the plant, Ive seen many people growing tomatoes upside down, but didn't really notice different results, Wonder if it would effect the way bud will grow, but hey, thats awesome, props to you if you thought of that on your own, lol, Id love to see a plant flower upside down...

But thanks for the advice, any tips for my plants indoor? they are starting to act a bit odd, especially the clones I took, Im wondering if its because they are 3rd gen clones or what.

And that plant outside that started to flower, once it starts to reveg, can I take clones from it again, or once is it once weed flowers the branches harden and you can't really take clones, (Since Ive always been one to just grow by seeds and chop when Im done, Ive never had the chance to see what happens when a plant goes back into veg, or if its even worth keeping around after flowering and harvesting or should I just buy a new plant to put there?)

I just like the one I have out there because it has 6 different branches all as thick as the middle and produced close to the same amount as the center branch

-edit-
Curious AE, have you ever grown poppies?

I've never grown cannabis upside down before so I don't know how it'll go. They might get a bit of extra airflow and they also don't suffer from pests or diseases as much. They also would get more light and it saves space since they're not taking up floor space.

As for the poppies, it's funny you should say that because I am growing them on my allotment - I sowed them yesterday. I'm growing Persian Whites. The ones at my friend's house have already germinated and are growing well now that we've identified the cotyledons amongst the weeds.

Yes you can take clones from the plant once it's reverted back into the vegetative stage. I would read up on revegging though. There should be some info on the boards that explains it better than I can.

My tip for the indoor plant would be to grow in pure coco and not some DIY mix or a potting compost. If it's good coco and you've got a nutrient designed for coco, with an EC and pH meter you can't go wrong, especially since potting up in so many stages isn't necessary. If you get a coco nutrient buy Hesi brand, since they're the best.

I stopped feeding them about 2 weeks ago, was going to cut some buds off today but its raining, and Im pretty sure it'd just be a hassle to get them completely dry and trimming, not to mention more likely to get mold or mildew.

But yeah, My indoor wasn't doing so good lately, bought new clones from a club around here , and the plants were infested with spider mites. I couldn't identify what type, but, they had white heads and black bottoms, I sprayed and believe I killed most all of them, but my clones that(all except 1) I sprayed are reacting some what weird to the spray, the new foliage is all bent and is growing in an odd gnarly looking way, the rest of the plants are fine though. Kind of confuses me, But, Its weed, Im sure it'll start growing normal soon enough.

My outdoor plant is looking really good, Im just wondering how to harvest without killing it, Ive been taking buds here and there and trimming them and putting them in a jar and rolling them around every few hours. and burping the jar, I just can't figure out how to chop the biggest buds without killing the plant, I know Ive mentioned this idk how many times, but yeah...just wanna keep it alive without killing it.

All the spider mites I believe are gone, but i will continue to spray every 2-3 days for a week or so to make sure they dont hatch and continue to live (those nasty bastards, couldn't help but get all itchy and feel weird when I found out about the spider mites , saw them under the 60-100X magnifier I have)

Been watering about every two - three days, soil is getting dry pretty quick, the largest plant I have in my closet (Master Kush) I can give a gallons of water, and by the next morning, itll start to wilt again. so, think thats going to be another I throw outside once I take a few cuttings.(It's not root bound, I can't even see roots at the bottom.

My plant outside that started to flower doesn't look like its continuing to make progress, looks like it has stopped and is going to start trying to veg again, who knows with the weird ass weather we've been having down here I dont know what the plants want to do...Its June , normally its hot as hell already (90-95), and dry as can be, but lately its been 70-76 degrees outside and raining quite often(very odd for this area at this time of year) anywho,

I hope to have my first dry piece of bud from my outdoor plant either tonight or tomorrow , cant wait to try it out..., especially since Im no fan of outdoor grows. (at least what Ive seen from them) but this doesn't look too bad, no bugs, not all dirt encrusted , quite a bit of crystals for a short outdoor grow that I wasn't expecting to even get buds from, lol.

Just don't judge your weed until you've cured it. Pre-cure a lot of bud is very mediocre.


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A warning to all growers photographing their grows with mobile phones (particularly the outdoor grows more vulnerable to theft)

People are wising up to something called 'geo-tagging'.

It's pretty simple. Go into your phones camera settings and turn geotagging off. It's turned on as standard with iphones, and *some* HTC phones.

Also, if you're going to take your phone to a grow, or use it as a camera for your hydro setup you need to put it in flight mode to ensure it's not checking your location either by GPS, HSDPA or wireless sniffing. (even the most basic, non GPS phone can embed rough location by triangulation from the telemetry feeds from the nearest mobile masts)

When you've got your images on a PC, to be ABSOLUTELY safe (i.e to make sure you're removed the make, model and phone number) you need to remove what's called 'exif data' there are various freebee utilities online that will do it for you, but the easiest way is to open the image, hit print screen, open MS-Paint, paste into paint then cut the picture itself out, open a new doc and resave. Esentially a picture of a picture.

So, to recap, simply:

1) Go to camera settings - check geotagging is turned off. Check before taking pictures as it can turn itself back on on iphones.
2) As a gg'r turn flight mode on before going to your grow. If you get nicked, your location track is useable evidence, and you're fucked.
3) Not vital, but probably wise, remove all embedded exif data. Google if unsure how. (I've notice quite a few people here already do this)

But probably the easiest and best solution and what I practice is - Don't use your phone to take pictures of you breaking the law. Your phones don't really belong to you. They belong to the networks. You have NO data privacy...

Use a cheap digital camera. Yes some of the expensive ones geotag as well

 

[Vader]

^Wow, great minds think alike, I was just coming in here to post a link to this thread. Please, everyone, strip exif data from your photos before posting it in here, you don't want the whole world to know your name, your address and the fact that you grow cannabis. Be safe guys.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

What are the chances of that, hey? Some people say when you suggest it might be an issue for you to put on your tin foil hat, but I think if there's a photo of your grow and the freaking coordinates of said grow, then it's definitely something to be concerned about. It would be so easy for a theif or the police to just come and take it. It's a real concern we should be aware of, especially since I've heard two anecdotal reports through the grapevine that there have been a couple of incidents where people have ended up having their guerrilla grows nicked.

 

[SpanoonapS]

AE - you suggested we use a different formula for bloom. Unfortunately we can't get it at the present time. We are stuck with the CNS17bloom and Pure Blend. Should that be ok?

 

[SpanoonapS]

ah we just fed them... it said 25ml of cns17bloom so we used 10ml p/g. It said 15ml of PureBlend so we used 5ml p/g

 

[Artificial Emotion]

^ you should be able to find some sort of organic fish emulsion very easily. Biobizz fishmix is very cheap and sold by all good grow stores. I am very wary of hyped up cannabis products in general. You have to be extremely careful you're not just getting a piece of shit product that's been well marketed with fancy labeling. The main ones to avoid are anything made by Advanced Nutrients (it's amazing how many products they come up with and convince noobs they need) so if you avoid that you might be all right.

A lot of nutrients either don't have the right NPKMgCa levels and as a result will cause deficiencies as well as toxicity when you up the dose to compensate. Any nutrient that requires the addition of epsoms salt is not worth using since it should have enough magnesium in the first place if it's any good.

Just the nutrient and see how you get on but if you run into trouble don't hesitate to send off for a bottle of something like fish mix/fish emulsion since it should only cost about the same as a macdonalds meal.

 

[SpanoonapS]

circumstances in my life will not allow me to purchase anything... even a macdonalds meal....

We used less than recommended doses of cns and purebloom for now... they look good.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

^ you never know, it might work really well after all! The point was just a general one anyway and I'm not necessarily slagging off your product as I don't know much about it in actual fact, to be honest.

Just remember, after feeding at the dose you're using, if there is further yellowing and the plant obviously looks like it's not been fed properly then increase it by 5ml per litre. Keep doing this for about a week and keep doing so until you reach the desired level.

Also you need to look at what a magnesium deficiency looks like. You'll find that even with the nutrients you're using you may in fact have to add supplemental Mg from an epsoms salts foliar spray on the underside of the leaves so the dissolved nutrient can be absorbed quickly.

Foliar sprays are the most effective way for a plant to absorb nutrients rapidly to correct nutrient deficiencies as quickly as possible rather than using a soil drench and needing to wait ages. You'll find a foliar nutrient spray can start to correct a specific nutrient in as little as a matter of hours. This was recently demonstrated with foliarly-administered nutrients tagged with radioactive isotopes that ended up in parts of the plants such as the foliage and roots in less than an hour or so. It was remarkable and pioneering results demonstrating the efficacy of this method.

I would also think about making a rudimentary actively aerated compost tea. Just get a bg handful of worm castings.

 

[SpanoonapS]

I looked up magnesium deficiency - This picture is NOT my plant

NSFW:

If I begin to see it I will do what you said... standby for THAT question

 

[minddetergent.]

That doesn't look like a mag deficiency anyway as the oldest leaves would be affected first, mag is a mobile nutrient so the plant will always move it from the oldest leaves to the growth tips.

A mag deficiency will show by lower leaves yellowing but the veins will stay green and then the leaves will turn brown and curl upwards. Like AE said a foliar feed is the best way to fix this problem. Magnesium is the central atom in chlorophyll so its very important the plant has access to sufficient amounts.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

The phone Ive been taking pictures with is old , it doesn't have any of those options , so, I dont think I have much need to be worried about, And the clear pictures are taken with my g/fs phone who lives a few miles down the road.

Was that tip for people growing without a script for marijuana?
Or are people actually going online, finding these pics and finding the area?
Guess I can still put my phone on airplane mode when I take pics though.
(either way, Im sure a 12 gauge and my M1A1 carbine will keep people out of my garden)

Well, gotta go shopping for some more pots, go have a look at the local clones and buy some more neem oil, or some type of product for gnats , I was thinking of buying some sand as well to put on the top of the soil on my pots so fungus gnats will stop going in there. I believe I have them , not so badly infested, but, bad enough to where I see one flying around on occasion, annoying little bastards.

 

[Vader]

Sorry guys, no poppies, weed only. For that matter, no psychoactives at all other than cannabis please.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

The phone Ive been taking pictures with is old , it doesn't have any of those options , so, I dont think I have much need to be worried about, And the clear pictures are taken with my g/fs phone who lives a few miles down the road.

Was that tip for people growing without a script for marijuana?
Or are people actually going online, finding these pics and finding the area?
Guess I can still put my phone on airplane mode when I take pics though.
(either way, Im sure a 12 gauge and my M1A1 carbine will keep people out of my garden)

Well, gotta go shopping for some more pots, go have a look at the local clones and buy some more neem oil, or some type of product for gnats , I was thinking of buying some sand as well to put on the top of the soil on my pots so fungus gnats will stop going in there. I believe I have them , not so badly infested, but, bad enough to where I see one flying around on occasion, annoying little bastards.

You're not still using that droid phone?

Sorry guys, no poppies, weed only. For that matter, no psychoactives at all other than cannabis please.

Was that a recent change of the rules vadar? edit: (not that I'm complaining). edit: actually it doesn't matter anyway since it's not like I'm after any info wrt poppy cultivation myself.

I hope it's not just me that's having issues with Bluelight at the moment. Must be a problem with their server or something.