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

[goaheadanjuna]

I think the warm water is to reduce stress. I always water with luke warm water at any given time. Cold water can shock the roots of many a plants, so i don't see how cannabis is different. This is just my personal opinion and i have no proof of this....but it makes sense. Certainly not going to hurt anywho!

ok cool, nice one, thanks Zemullman, i suppose it does make sense, i mean if we get into a shower and the water is cold it shocks us eh, so why would it not shock our little girls? so you use warm water all the way through? so does that mean you make up your feed in a new batch every time you feed her?

 

[Wise420]

Hey goahead just keep everything as is and you'll pull it off nicely mate

You can trim lower branches. Ive been doing it for years and it's never shown signs of stress.

 

[goaheadanjuna]

Hey goahead just keep everything as is and you'll pull it off nicely mate

You can trim lower branches. Ive been doing it for years and it's never shown signs of stress.

thanks wise ill do that, i wont change any thing then, ill just keep watering her as usual but with just plain warm water, what is it that the pk 13/14 actually does? is it to increase the size of the buds, is it to increase thc production, its just i dont know for sure what its addition to the feed is in releation to the out come
, thanks
Goahead

 

[Wise420]

Check this out, this is a response and a quote off another forum regarding the PK13/14. A member emailed a Canna Rep asking a few questions. Now there saying you can use it as soon as you switch over to flowering? It's all a bit confusing I think.

(Forum user)
I emailed CANNA asking them about the application of PK13/14. My current bottle states that the product should be applied ONLY ONCE at THREE weeks before harvest. I asked the rep what stage in the plants life is this "three weeks before harvest" referring to.

I want to know during which of the following stages is the product supposed to be applied:
1. the stretching phase
2. after the stretching phase
3. when flowers (buds) first form
4. when flowers are mostly formed and begin to increase in size
5. when flower size is set and resin production increases

This was the reps response:

Quote:
"...To begin, there is no such statement on the current label for PK 13/14. The older labels said 5 weeks before harvest which was designed for 8 week flowering crops but removed more than 3 years ago since it caused great confusion with 6, 10, and 12 or more week crops.

I do not know what a stretching period is so here is the best way to use it. First time users should start about 5 - 10 days after the change of photoperiod, about when the first signs of flowers appear, also known as flower induction. Use it for at least 3 weeks. The next several crops, adjust to fit including delaying first application and decreasing the amount of time it is applied. Ultimately you will achieve about a 7 - 12 day window of optimum usage. Longer term crops may require longer app periods (12 days) where as shorter crop response needs less (7 day)It will also save you some money."

 

[goaheadanjuna]

pk 13/14

yea i see what you mean that is confusing, especially if your new to it like me, but it does state on the bottle add it once 3 wks before harveting, then it says dissolve 15ml per 10ltrs of water, then it says add this mixture to the nutrient for 3-6 days, so to me you are adding it for 3-6 days not just once, so its very confusing eh, im glad i have a good source of knowledge i can turn to for advice in situations like this, which of course is right here, but what i want to know is what does it actually do to the plant?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

ok pls enlighten me AE, sounds interesting!!!

Read this copied and pasted post. It describes it well:

The question on flushing keeps arising on the boards and although each individual has their own way i thought i'd give you my thoughts on it

I used to be under the impression that a two week flush was needed at the end in hydro but have since changed my mind completely.My way of thinking is that starving a plant for any amount of time is detrimental to its progress so for me two weeks is a definate no no

What i now do whether in a hydro system or hand watering in coco is 2 weeks from cropping i start to reduce the phosphorus.I cease using any boost/pk13/14 seeing as these have a large amount in and i start to reduce the ec too seeing as plants dont need as many nutes late on.

I run at an ec of 1.8 max no matter how i grow in hydro so i'll drop my ec to 1.4 with the food being made up of 50/50 grow/bloom for 3-4 days,then i'll drop that to 1.0ec till theres only a week left.

The final week i just feed 1ml/grow up until the last 2 days which i'll use just tap water.

What ive found with me not feeding excessively is that if i feed just water i get yellow leaves after just two days,and if this is a fortnight from the end your plant is stressing for 2 weeks and not reaching its potential.The early yellowing leaves also tells me that if my plants are yellowing after just 2 days they have no excess of nutrient in them and my feeding throughout has been pretty much ideal

Ive tried all different methods over the years and thought i'd try and take a leaf out of the organic pot growers book and reduce phosporous towards the end and just use grow in the make up

Less phosporus means a better burn and smoother smoke,and my bud using this method is as smooth as ive ever had it

Plus I believe that it helps with yield seeing as the plant has a little food to keep going throughout its life

I also believe that folk that insist on using high ec's can address the flushing issue earlier and start to drop their ec's 3 weeks before chop.This will help reduce nutrient levels in the plant without affecting its growth because as i said earlier the plant doesnt need as much food towards the end

And as a final word,if you do use plain water for however long dont ph down it cos all you are doing is putting in exactly what we are trying to get out

Also if I find a better way that suits me i'll have to update this

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Check this out, this is a response and a quote off another forum regarding the PK13/14. A member emailed a Canna Rep asking a few questions. Now there saying you can use it as soon as you switch over to flowering? It's all a bit confusing I think.

(Forum user)
I emailed CANNA asking them about the application of PK13/14. My current bottle states that the product should be applied ONLY ONCE at THREE weeks before harvest. I asked the rep what stage in the plants life is this "three weeks before harvest" referring to.

I want to know during which of the following stages is the product supposed to be applied:
1. the stretching phase
2. after the stretching phase
3. when flowers (buds) first form
4. when flowers are mostly formed and begin to increase in size
5. when flower size is set and resin production increases

This was the reps response:

Quote:
"...To begin, there is no such statement on the current label for PK 13/14. The older labels said 5 weeks before harvest which was designed for 8 week flowering crops but removed more than 3 years ago since it caused great confusion with 6, 10, and 12 or more week crops.

I do not know what a stretching period is so here is the best way to use it. First time users should start about 5 - 10 days after the change of photoperiod, about when the first signs of flowers appear, also known as flower induction. Use it for at least 3 weeks. The next several crops, adjust to fit including delaying first application and decreasing the amount of time it is applied. Ultimately you will achieve about a 7 - 12 day window of optimum usage. Longer term crops may require longer app periods (12 days) where as shorter crop response needs less (7 day)It will also save you some money."

The advice that rep gave seems spot on.

 

[goaheadanjuna]

pk 13/14

hey AE thanks for that, can you pls explain to me what the pk 13/14 actually does? i asked wise but i think he went off line before reading it, i just want to know what adding it does to the overall growth of the plant in the bigger pic, is it to increase bud size?, thc concentration etc, thanks in advance AE,

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Here's a few pics the grow I've got on. You can see the small cannabis seedlings in amongst the tomatoes, chillis etc.

I'm hoping nobody will come and take a closer look, only to recognize and identify the small seedlings. They're too small to look like cannabis at the moment so I'm certain it'll be okay. This weekend I'll have to put the bubblewrap insulation/camoflage up though.

NSFW:

NSFW:

NSFW:

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

When you use peat moss for cuttings etc, do you add dolomite lime or garden lime? If not, were you aware just how acidic peat moss actually is? You should not root cuttings or grow cannabis using peat moss that hasn't had lime of some sort added to raise the pH. Otherwise you will run into all sorts of problems!

Well, I use peat moss beacuse it has a low ph, and I dont add anything to the water I get out of the faucet which has a pH of 8.3 or so, I figure that if peat is around 4-5, and adding 8, that would bring it down to about 6pH, or would that be wrong? Thats just how Ive always done it , and Ive always had 100% sucess, only thing I did different this time was I used cocoir for the cuttings because I was out of peat, I just bought a new bag today , Ill be trying it out again.

And I flushed the larger plant today.
Hoping to get her a bit more healthy before I take cuttings and put her outside

Also looking Nice AE.

Ill be getting pics up tomorrow or the day after

Very nice wise, I like the looks of her

 

[Wise420]

Dont assume the pH will be around 6.0-6.5 mark. You need to be testing the run off. I had a mate who lost 2 plant's recently because he never checked his pH and thought that it was also around the 6.5 mark, but it was at 5. I would adjust the water to 6.5 and flush your ladies and dont feed for a few days.

If your water is coming out around 8.0 you will need to be adjusting it each time you water.

 

[zyNc973]

growing weed? thats like some laid back ganga man hippy shit, ROFL. ive always thought about growing weed, and i probably will someday, but ONLY if i have my own place(like a small apartment). yea i think that parts pretty obvious, like you need to have your own property to do it successfully without a problem, and thats the smart thing to do. hell yea if i can get a free incoming supply of weed, ima take that route. problem is if you get caught MAKING it, you can get in even bigger trouble than if you get caught BUYING it. dont fuck yourself.

 

['medicine cabinet']

^two plants magically started gorwing in my closet under a few large 200W CFL bulbs and with little ventilation to boot, and the smell wasnt too bad at all. matter of fact, have had bags of weed that stunk more than the two live plants did. plus it is fun to come home every day to see how much they have grown in the past day. there were a few times when i was like holy shit! it must have grown and inch in 24 hours.

i have a question....

somehow a seed sprouted and planted itself. its about 4 weeks old and seems to not be growing as much as it should. today i noticed that the tips of two of the leaves are dry and crumbly almost. no discoloration, and plenty of water so i know that isnt the problem. it also started eating 20-20-20 food, in VERY small amounts.

any ideas on why the tips of the leaves on the bottom of this baby plant are kinda crispy? it looks healthy besides that.

 

[Vader]

^If you're not willing to admit to growing weed, then don't post about it at all, the style of your posts is not any kind of defense and makes them difficult to read.

 

['medicine cabinet']

and if you are not willing to answer my question then dont bother posting...thanks.

yeah, i grow weed. it was meant to be tongue in cheek....

 

[Vader]

Modding means that you will end up making posts that do not directly answer people's questions, but which help them in other ways. In this instance, I was advising you on a way to get more responses to your posts (notice that your cup doth not runneth over?). So, I'll ignore your rather curt request that I not make helpful posts in my forum, and just focus on the "thanks":

You're welcome.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Well, I use peat moss beacuse it has a low ph, and I dont add anything to the water I get out of the faucet which has a pH of 8.3 or so, I figure that if peat is around 4-5, and adding 8, that would bring it down to about 6pH, or would that be wrong? Thats just how Ive always done it , and Ive always had 100% sucess, only thing I did different this time was I used cocoir for the cuttings because I was out of peat, I just bought a new bag today , Ill be trying it out again.

And I flushed the larger plant today.
Hoping to get her a bit more healthy before I take cuttings and put her outside

Also looking Nice AE.

Ill be getting pics up tomorrow or the day after

Very nice wise, I like the looks of her

Hiya Prelude,

I can tell you that whatever the pH of the water, even if it's got a lot of lime in it, the peat will be way too acidic to make a difference, by far. In no uncertain terms, you need to add dolomite lime, otherwise you'll get poor results.

If you look at any commercial potting medium that uses peat or peat moss, you'll see that they always add lime to sweeten the pH. It's not optional, it's a necessity. I really don't know how to emphasize the importance of this enough. I can guarantee that your results using peat moss without adding lime will be poor since it's just not suitable on it's own.

The tap water will not lower the pH enough since it would probably take years to get enough calcium deposit from the tap water to raise the pH to the 6.5 level. If the tap water lime was enough then manufacturers would not routinely add lime to their peat-based composts. Trust me, it's not some unusual gardening practice. It's common practice all throughout the gardening world. When you make the change I'm certain you'll never look back.

I'll tell you what, if you don't believe how much of a difference it makes, why not just take several cuttings and lime a couple of pots of peat moss, but not the rest. Then assess just how much of a difference it makes. But if you do any research you'll find that every source will tell you to add lime (whether it be dolomite lime or garden lime - get dolomite if you can) to peat moss to raise the pH as it's far too acidic. The pH of peat moss from Canada from example (which is probably what you are using) is about 4.5. The idea pH sweet spot from cannabis is about 6.5-6.8, so that means your peat moss is one hundred times more acidic than the ideal pH cannabis enjoys (the pH scale is logarithmic)! This massive pH difference simply cannot be corrected by the lime in tap water, unfortunately. If the pH of the medium is too low, you will have problems with nutrient lockout (could explain some of the issues you've been having).

Adding dolomite lime is also important since it contains abundant amounts of both calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), both of which cannabis needs in relatively large amounts. Because sufficient calcium levels often is missing from nutrients, adding dolomite lime to your medium will prevent issues with Ca/Mg deficiencies from ever happening. The dolomite lime adds lots of both Mg and Ca, unlike normal garden lime and acts as a buffer, usually not raising the pH above 7, and so is much much better than the garden lime you normally find in garden centres/ nurseries.

Thanks for the comment re my pics and good luck with your growing mate. I hope I've managed to convince you, but if not, hopefully you'll find out yourself how much of a difference adding dolomite to peat moss actually makes

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Here's a couple of photos of my Blue Widow and Blue Hash. Unfortunately I left them out in the cold greenhouse overnight, so the first true leaves have slight kinks in them, but luckily they've almost fully recovered and are doing really well.

The other seedlings in Root Riots, after being planted in their special '511' medium (5 parts bark, 1 part perlite, 1 part sphagnum peat moss, with some dolomite lime and organic base fertilizer) are doing really well and are really starting to pick up.

The 511 medium is the best medium for growing weed fully stop, IMO. For bonsai mums however, the 'gritty mix' is much better IMO, as it stays stable for much longer.

For my hanging basket I intend to use the 511 mix but instead of the perlite, I'll be using turface (seramis in the UK), since it retains water better. The seedlings will be able to be transplanted into the hanging baskets really soon, so I can't wait!

NSFW:

NSFW:

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, Still having the same problem , I believe the larger plant is root bound, it was hailing 2 days ago so Im going to wait to put it out for a few more days.

My seedling is looking pretty well, the leaves are surprisingly large compared to past plants Ive had that were Northern Lights , Dunno why though...

So , if I'm giving the plant enough water/Nitrogen etc , it should be fine, and if it continues to do what its been doing then its probably root bound and ready to go outside?

Looking good AE, you gonna be growing those outdoors or in?

And wise, that plant turned out very nicely

Looking good Gurner

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Hiya Prelude,

I can tell you that whatever the pH of the water, even if it's got a lot of lime in it, the peat will be way too acidic to make a difference, by far. In no uncertain terms, you need to add dolomite lime, otherwise you'll get poor results.

If you look at any commercial potting medium that uses peat or peat moss, you'll see that they always add lime to sweeten the pH. It's not optional, it's a necessity. I really don't know how to emphasize the importance of this enough. I can guarantee that your results using peat moss without adding lime will be poor since it's just not suitable on it's own.

The tap water will not lower the pH enough since it would probably take years to get enough calcium deposit from the tap water to raise the pH to the 6.5 level. If the tap water lime was enough then manufacturers would not routinely add lime to their peat-based composts. Trust me, it's not some unusual gardening practice. It's common practice all throughout the gardening world. When you make the change I'm certain you'll never look back.

I'll tell you what, if you don't believe how much of a difference it makes, why not just take several cuttings and lime a couple of pots of peat moss, but not the rest. Then assess just how much of a difference it makes. But if you do any research you'll find that every source will tell you to add lime (whether it be dolomite lime or garden lime - get dolomite if you can) to peat moss to raise the pH as it's far too acidic. The pH of peat moss from Canada from example (which is probably what you are using) is about 4.5. The idea pH sweet spot from cannabis is about 6.5-6.8, so that means your peat moss is one hundred times more acidic than the ideal pH cannabis enjoys (the pH scale is logarithmic)! This massive pH difference simply cannot be corrected by the lime in tap water, unfortunately. If the pH of the medium is too low, you will have problems with nutrient lockout (could explain some of the issues you've been having).

Adding dolomite lime is also important since it contains abundant amounts of both calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), both of which cannabis needs in relatively large amounts. Because sufficient calcium levels often is missing from nutrients, adding dolomite lime to your medium will prevent issues with Ca/Mg deficiencies from ever happening. The dolomite lime adds lots of both Mg and Ca, unlike normal garden lime and acts as a buffer, usually not raising the pH above 7, and so is much much better than the garden lime you normally find in garden centres/ nurseries.

Thanks for the comment re my pics and good luck with your growing mate. I hope I've managed to convince you, but if not, hopefully you'll find out yourself how much of a difference adding dolomite to peat moss actually makes

Ill try it , but I really don't think it'll make much differnce, Ive usually had about 95% success rate with just peat, this time I added cocoir and I figured thats what screwed it all up, guess Ill take 4-5 cuttings with peat & dolomite , and 4-5 cuttings straight peat, thanks for the info , appreciate it.