My Return to Growing by BudRanger!

[Eledin]

Also are you giving them any types of hormones? They help a ton when youre growing in big pots. I use hemplex from trabe which is a kelp concentrate made in a way that it preserves most of the hormones with a cold process. There's also alfa boost which comes with hormones, microorganisms and also many other goodies, alfa boost is GOOD but I dont know if you guys have it there. The hormones I mention are, of course, natural and organic, nothing of those synthetic shitty hormones that make your buds feel like a sponge and taste like shit.

 

[BudRanger1919]

I went from 20 liters regular textile pots and this last grow I changed to 25L TUBULAR textile pots. Not only I have more space in the tent now but they grow way better and bigger! I have a leaf that is as big as my head hahaha. Consider that too, the bigger the pot the bigger the plants, and tubular pots are great, roots love growin downwards more than they do horizontally.

I think I am going to go with the 28L then, because I have to fill a 4 plant space with 3 so I will stick with the 28L I have for this grow then. Now that I am using LEDs maybe I should consider fabric pots again. I ran DE HPS at 750w minimum, and that + how dry my areas is = it dried my pots out too much and caused me issues. But that may not be such an issue with LED lighting, so I am considering the change back.

Also are you giving them any types of hormones? They help a ton when youre growing in big pots. I use hemplex from trabe which is a kelp concentrate made in a way that it preserves most of the hormones with a cold process. There's also alfa boost which comes with hormones, microorganisms and also many other goodies, alfa boost is GOOD but I dont know if you guys have it there. The hormones I mention are, of course, natural and organic, nothing of those synthetic shitty hormones that make your buds feel like a sponge and taste like shit.

Yes I do have a water fed product line that is meant to feed the soil, and I have been using them, but I am making lots of silly mistakes haha so it might not look like I am doing anything right this round. I have powdered products, and one of them is a kelp/seaweed and hormone product/"plant tonic", as well as something similar for flower of course, and inoculant products for veg and flower. Ontop of that I have top dressing products that are more directly for feeding, but I only just gave it to them, a little late though. I should have put the top dressing in 5 days ago.

I will go through my product line tomorrow and make sure I have or don't have something like Hemplex or Alfa Boost. There are a number of products to be used at different times, and some of them have grow/bloom versions. Only as you said, it could be that I need a fresh liquid product like you suggested made in a certain way to preserve hormones instead of a dried powder, and in that case I can purchase an equivalent product.

 

[Eledin]

Hey dont get me wrong, just because they have a few affected leaves doesnt mean the plants dont look good, they look great! Big and nice buds, be proud of them . I had grows where my plants where so badly damaged that I could only use them for extractions, Im pretty sure thats not remotely close to your case, theyre healthy enough! Kelp meal does have hormones but yes, its not the same. Ideally you want hormones that you can apply via foliar spray because if you have to put them in the water the dosage is way higher and less effective. When theyre in flower then you have to put it in the water but before that you will save money and make it more efficient if you use it foliar, no more than once per week and only if the product specifies it can be sprayed (I use Hemplex which es the most expensive one on the leaves and then when I have to use them in the water I use alfa boost cause its cheaper and has more goodies for flower. Alfa boost also adds lactobacillus, something that you wont find in most microorganism mixes and its used a lot in korean natural farming (they cultivate them themselves, you can too but its not expensive).
As for rooting hormones (mostly auxins) you can make your own, its very easy:

Do it yourself (DIY) lentil root booster

Hello I was preparing my germinated lenti root booster as I do every time for my seedlings and I decided to share with you guys how I do it. This is nothing new but something that many might not know, I didnt invent this. Now lets begin, first, what are auxins...

www.thcfarmer.com

This is only for when theyre little though, or for transplants, auxins and cytoquinines are the two main hormones in weed (theres more but those are the major ones). Auxins promote root growth and cytoquinines promotes plant growth, they work in balance so you dont want to be adding auxines when the plant is looking to grow instead of root. Hemplex and other hormone liquids contain a balanced ammount of both so both jobs are performed properly.

 

[Eledin]

Sorry I had a mental fart, I was in another post and confused your plants with the other poster hahaha yours look even better! No leaves dying or anything.

 

[Eledin]

Oh, about the possibility of the pots drying to quick if you swap to textile pots, you can add vermiculite. Its excelent at holding moisture and good for the soil aswell, so good at holding moisture and so sterile that is used to grow mushrooms! Of course many weed growers also use it, you probably already knew it existed before I mentioned.

 

[Mikedin]

Oh, about the pots drying too quick, you can add vermiculite. Its excelent at holding moisture and good for the soil aswell, so good at holding moisture and so sterile that is used to grow mushrooms! Of course many weed growers also use it, you probably already knew it existed before I mentioned.

Careful with it though, too much and that pot will never dry back… Experience is …. Experience hahaha, but yes it’s great for water retention especially if you’re running outdoors it’ll keep those pots from drying back in 24 hours

 

[BudRanger1919]

Oh, about the possibility of the pots drying to quick if you swap to textile pots, you can add vermiculite. Its excelent at holding moisture and good for the soil aswell, so good at holding moisture and so sterile that is used to grow mushrooms! Of course many weed growers also use it, you probably already knew it existed before I mentioned.

I am 100% new to living soil, so their components and ingredients aren't as fresh to me as say training information, so next grow I will try that. My problem was my globes kept things even dryer than they were already, and my pots would dry out from both the heat from the globes and the dry air, and one time mid flower I had to do a medium flush because of build up via evaporation despite 20% runoff watering. But I was running a pretty strong globe. Heat was always a massive issue for me. I am coming to learn why LEDs are so different to grow with. They have a completely different effect on my grow environment. Maybe fabric pots are back on the menu.

These were some of my old flowering fabric pot grows I saved, I used them for years until I upped my light wattage above 600w. You might notice I still like to use paperclips for LST securing haha. I didn't top much at all back then, all I did was keep the top of the plant tied down constantly and my plants did the rest. Ignore the chaos of the 2nd image haha. These pictures are from like 2017-2018 and I was still figuring out what to do.

Would you say that LED lights effect fabric pots differently in terms of evaporation etc?

Careful with it though, too much and that pot will never dry back… Experience is …. Experience hahaha, but yes it’s great for water retention especially if you’re running outdoors it’ll keep those pots from drying back in 24 hours

Thankfully I am in the camp of under-doing something as you can see by 2 of my poor plants begging me for food lol. I will remember "less is more" in this case, thank you for the advice you guys!

 

[Eledin]

I am 100% new to living soil, so their components and ingredients aren't as fresh to me as say training information, so next grow I will try that. My problem was my globes kept things even dryer than they were already, and my pots would dry out from both the heat from the globes and the dry air, and one time mid flower I had to do a medium flush because of build up via evaporation despite 20% runoff watering. But I was running a pretty strong globe. Heat was always a massive issue for me. I am coming to learn why LEDs are so different to grow with. They have a completely different effect on my grow environment. Maybe fabric pots are back on the menu.

These were some of my old flowering fabric pot grows I saved, I used them for years until I upped my light wattage above 600w. You might notice I still like to use paperclips for LST securing haha. I didn't top much at all back then, all I did was keep the top of the plant tied down constantly and my plants did the rest. Ignore the chaos of the 2nd image haha. These pictures are from like 2017-2018 and I was still figuring out what to do.

View attachment 2197307
View attachment 2197308
Would you say that LED lights effect fabric pots differently in terms of evaporation etc?

Thankfully I am in the camp of under-doing something as you can see by 2 of my poor plants begging me for food lol. I will remember "less is more" in this case, thank you for the advice you guys!

They look fine to me! But of course more years of experience will bring better yields. As for the question about LEDs and textile pots, yes LEDs usually produce less heat but you should have a thermoygrometer in the tent to check temperatures and humidity anyway. If the humidity is low and temperature is high then you could definetely use some vermiculite. If you start by using 10% of the total volume of the substrare being vermiculite its a safe start, you wont cause overwatering problems. If you need more because they still dry too quick, you can go to 20% vermiculite. I dont need vermiculite but I still add it because of the ionic exchange that happens in the soil. Vermiculite attracts possitively charged ions so its gonna act as a nutrient buffer for your roots, its always good to add some but in my case is more perlite than vermiculite because otherwise my pots would take way too long to dry (I live in a humid area).

 

[BudRanger1919]

Girls are getting larger and are looking healthier. I am happy with the new growth. I would have been happier if I had of top dress fed them a week earlier, but that's a lesson learnt. Looking better.

I continued LST and spread them out. There are 1 or 2 small branches on each plant that have just made their way to the top, but aren't large enough to be tied down yet so I am going to let grow straight up for the rest of the week.

Next update they should be in their new 28 litre pots.

 

[KushCultivator]

It is great to see your girls are thriving and looking healthier!

 

[BudRanger1919]

It is great to see your girls are thriving and looking healthier!

Thank you for the kind words! I am pretty happy to see them bounce back too. I was a bit worried for a week or so there. There are still remnants of my mistake, but I am not going to defoliate any slightly ugly leaves unless they look like a problem. So forgive a few shitty leaves haha.

They were already dry 2 days ago, so it was time to transplant. They were in 1 gallon pots for a month and are now in their new homes, 28 litre pots, filled with a full spectrum living soil and I watered them with 5 litres each. The roots were not root bound but boy were they close. After I watered them and the soil reduced in volume slightly I covered the top layer with a few handfuls of dry soil. As I top fed just 1 week ago I did not mix in any top dress in with this transplant.

Due to the new height of the plants I re-adjusted my light back up to 30 inches, but kept the intensity the same for now. I released them all from their LST, and let them be for 2 days.

2 days later I came back and re-applied the LST and took this picture, so they haven't re-adjusted themselves yet. I am very happy with the branching, and only 1-2 branches on each plant have yet to be tied down. They are currently JUST at the height of the canopy, so I need to let them grow another couple inches before I tie them down. I am probably going to let the girls go for another 2 weeks then flower them. Sometime in the next 2 weeks I am going to hang up all my new equipment my old flower tent.

 

[Sunin]

lovely.
so much space

 

[Eledin]

Huge improvement! They look way better now, congrats man! If anything, they seem like they could eat more and since you want them to grow I would up the dosage a bit. The progressive yellowing happening on the lower leaves indicates that theyre taking some nutes from the leaves. Its okay because those leaves are gonna go away anyway, but if you want to push the nutrition for them to grow more you can. If you see that some tips from the leaves start to yellow or even brown its the plant telling you to go to the previous dosage, if leaves start clawing and/or deforming and showing a shiny olive green, its telling you she is having too much nitrogen. I always burn a couple of tips because otherwise I dont know how far can I go with nutes, going from seed you never know until you try.

 

[Eledin]

Also I would remove all the fan leaves that are completely shadowed. You dont need em and they are taking resources (the bigger the leaf the more it costs for the plant to mantain it) and not producing much due to lack of light. Plus you wont need to remove as much material at once when you defoliate them for good at week 3 of flower. (Personal opinion)

 

[Eledin]

Forgot something important that can be confused with using too much nutes. If the tips are only yellowing and browning on the top of the canopy its most likely caused by light stress, while if its random instead of only on the top of the canopy its probably nutes.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Huge improvement! They look way better now, congrats man! If anything, they seem like they could eat more and since you want them to grow I would up the dosage a bit

Hey there thank you so much for the tips! Nutrition when it comes to living soil is totally new to me, all I had to do with coco was follow a PDF guide with exact dosages, but we all have to start somewhere lol. 1 week ago I gave them a top dress, BUT, this was only a dose for 1 gallon as they were in 1 gallon pots, I did NOT apply a 28 litre dose when I transplanted them. Would you suggest mixing in top dress? I used handfuls of soil to cover the top soil, so it would be SUPER easy for me to scoop that loose soil back, apply the top dress, then cover it up and wait for next water. Right now I believe I may have to wait around 1 week for the pot to fully dry out.

Also I would remove all the fan leaves that are completely shadowed. You dont need em and they are taking resources (the bigger the leaf the more it costs for the plant to mantain it)

You got it, partner! I will defoliate the really large fan leaves that are being light deprived. I will also pay close attention to leaves already being eaten too.

Forgot something important that can be confused with using too much nutes. If the tips are only yellowing and browning on the top of the canopy its most likely caused by light stress, while if its random instead of only on the top of the canopy its probably nutes.

I think you are onto something here, there is 1 plant in particular that was hungrier than the other 2, but the other 2 did also show lower leaves turning yellow and eating themselves before I top dressed a week ago. The new growth is happy which makes me happy. Would you suggest applying a proper dosage for 28 litres evenly around the whole pot (perhaps minus the table spoon dose I already top dressed with)?

Right now I have my Spiderfarmer 480w on 30% which is approximately 130-150w. They are just over 30 inches away from the light. They aren't showing any signs of light stress, but I haven't touched the light intensity for about 2-3 weeks. As I am sure you noticed, I made a series of mistakes, and I didn't want to mess with them by changing too many things at once.

 

[Eledin]

Hmm okay yeah, so what I would do is add that top dressing well mixed with the top soil minus what you fed them already (unless it was 2 week ago or more, in which case go full dosage). Lights are too far and dimmed, impossible to have light stress like that I agree. I would put them closer or give more intensity though, I understand you not wanting to overwhelm them but its time, specially before they change to flower so they can addapt. I have 120W panels at 8 inches from the plants, as long as the temperature doesnt go higher than 82ºF I dont dimm them. Yesterday I had them at 80% cause it was really hot but today I went back to 100%. Now, its not good to do this often, but in nature they also have that, cloudy days where they get less light, so as long as you dont go too crazy, like changing the light every other day, you should be fine. So far none of them hermed on me because of me addapting the light some days.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Hmm okay yeah, so what I would do is add that top dressing well mixed with the top soil minus what you fed them already (unless it was 2 week ago or more, in which case go full dosage).

Yes it would be minus 1 dose for this instance, as it was very recently added. Many handfuls of top soil is loose so I scooped back until the soil was damp and applied 4 table spoons of top dress and 1 table spoon of mineral composite then mixed it in. I didn't water it in as I watered only a few days ago when I transplanted and its still damp a few inches below so it probably wont do much good until I next water, but its mixed in.

Lights are too far and dimmed, impossible to have light stress like that I agree. I would put them closer or give more intensity though, I understand you not wanting to overwhelm them but its time, specially before they change to flower so they can addapt.

Thank you man I appreciate the kind advice. I have done as you said. I increased the light from 30% to 40% (200w now) and I will begin to gradually increase it every couple of days.

They have re-adjusted themselves after the LST. I also tied down the 2 main tops again. I forgot to sterilise my clippers so I will defoliate the shaded fan leaves next time I am in the tent.

 

[Sunin]

looks like they love their new pots
I will watch here adjusting the LEDs with kind advises of Eledin and learn on it as I will drop mine under stronger lights soon too Thank you both

 

[Eledin]

Theyre looking great! I think you will have a pretty harvest