phostrogen

[bigpeter]

Hi, For those of you in the UK you're probably familiar with phostrogen, it's available in all garden centers and some hardware shops. When I started growing all those years ago I used this as its got all necessary macro 16:10:24 and micro nutrients and its cheap. About a year ago I switched to H&G A and B coco and to be honest I wasn't to impressed so I'm going back to phostrogen. I've decided to show how good this stuff is by showing a grow. I'm 12 weeks into growing an afghan kush in coco coir drain to waste. As I'm using coco coir I add 1 mil of calmag per litre to satisfy calcium and magnesium deficiencies that are common nutrient problem with coco grows. A 2 kilo box of phostrogen will cost you between £9 and £10. I add half a teaspoon of phostrogen which is 2.5 grams per gallon of water. My tapwater is 300 ppm, with 2.5 grams of phostrogen and 5 ml of calmag ppm is 800 ppm, runoff is 900 ppm. As you can see plant is healthy.

 

[f-e]

The red midrib is N deficiency as the N in Phostrogen is the wrong type. If you use lots of microlife you can get around this. Not in hydro though. It's a soil feed and coco is similar in the fact it can hold a strong eco system. There have been trials even in hydro, where plants could at least live. However it took a good for few days after application before the N availability peaked, and it then took a couple of weeks before it had all become available. Making dosing very difficult.

Thank you for sharing. During the lockdown when traveling was difficult, I was also using it in coco. Just the final weeks, as part of my fertiliser application. It's very interesting to see you getting by on it alone. Even more so, that you pushed away the shop brand for it.

If you fancy it, grab a sachet of microbes from the garden center or B&Q. They should green up a bit. I think they will like it.

 

[bigpeter]

Hi f-e, Thanks for explaining about urea, your post got me reading up on availability of N from urea without urease. But in phostrogen there are two forms of N, ureic N 14% and ammoniacal N 2%. So I suppose all the time I've been using it in hydro I've never used it to its full potential. I've managed to get some real growers recharge and will be applying a solution weekly.

 

[bigpeter]

Little update, Plant has been on 12/12 for 7 days. Coming on nicely, it can be seen that new stem growth is now green. Has been given a half teaspoon of recharge in every feed. Currently being fed half gallon twice a day and getting around 1 litre of run off.

It should be noted that there's no calcium in phostrogen. On previous grows using DWC and Bubbleponics I've had no issues regarding calcium deficiency as I live in a hardwater area and my tapwater ppms are 300 and I've used nitric acid as a ph down which converts calcium carbonate to calcium nitrate, but in coco you will need calmag.


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Spot the drosera capensis, great for catching fungus gnats.

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[bigpeter]

Day 14 of flower, looking good.

Another thing I should mention about phostrogen, it is hygroscopic and will absorb water out of the air resulting in a soggy mess. A two kilo box comes with two 1 kilo sealed bags. As soon as I open a bag I pour it into a sealable container to stop this happening.

 

[f-e]

That's a nice green canopy. They look very good from above. Leaving me surprised by the hard red looking stems.

I dried out some phostrogen in the oven. What was once a nice black oven lining and double glazed door, now looks like a quartz lined kiln. This might be my most buggered oven yet. Second only to the one with the torched rubber seal, from trying to regen my carbon in the combi grill/oven, with a dodged door switch. I actually turned the top layer of carbon to white ash pellets. Just two of my kitchen appliance fails.

Keep them coming pal. You might convert a few of us yet

 

[bigpeter]

Day 21. I've had some ph fluctuation, at one point it was 4.5. After being flushed with a couple of gallons of PH'd nutrient solution it's now 6.2 and holding there. Not sure what caused it but the plant is looking ok with no signs of stress. The plant is now being fed 3.3 grams of phostrogen, 5ml Shogun calmag, 1ml ph down half a teaspoon real growers recharge per gallon of water.

 

[f-e]

Still looking great Peter. Except for that reddening. I know I said N before, but feel I was misled myself. I was told the red midrib was specifically N, but I have since seen it for other reasons.
Your early pics have some taco like Mg that's now gone away. Mg can cause red everything. The other likelihood is P, but the frames do look strong, if a little compact. I can't see it, or any real problem to address except it's visually concerning to see red. Perhaps it's just a little stress from something off in the small numbers.

Thanks for keeping the pics coming. It's surprising to see a garden variety tomato and flower food, doing so well in coco.

 

[bigpeter]

Day 29, I've noticed what looks like slight light burn on the leaves in the center of the plant where it gets most light. I've dimmed and raised the light to see if it stops. otherwise things are okay.

 

[bigpeter]

After an inspection this morning there is evidence of overfertilisation and light too close (sf2000) I had this lamp10 inches above the canopy. I've been pushing this plant a bit too hard. So I've lowered the feed from 3.5 grams per gallon to 1.5 grams and flushed untill I got 900ppm runoff (was 1280ppm) , I also raised the light to 14 inches and also dimmed it. I'll be keeping a close eye on it to see how it reacts. Hopefully I haven't done to much damage.

 

[f-e]

Good to see you posting still
I'm not sure about light burn. Light bleaches. For every light burn pic, there is another issue causes the same symptoms. Or so it seems. You have thinning towards the leaf tips and that little twist to the side. Red looking chevons. I would have a read of P which they are using quite a bit of right now. It can lead to Mg issues. Giving shared signs.

 

[bigpeter]

To be honest I'm not sure if this is light burn, nute burn or a combination. Its not got any worse since yesterday. The cola in the center seems to be affected the most while smaller colas on the edge are not affected at all. Just to be safe I'm raising the lights and weakening the feed strength.

from the edge farthest from the lamp

 

[bigpeter]

Day 35, The plant has survived being over fertilised but has a few scorched leaves. Most of the pistils have turned orange as a result but there are new white pistils appearing. I've been using phostrogen for around 40 years and the time I decide to show the world how good this stuff is it all goes tits up, well not quite. The plant is still alive but seeing as this happened at week 4 of flowering it will affect the harvest. I've pushed plants at 1250 ppm or 2.5 EC with no problems in the past but I guess this pheno couldn't take it, so it's had a flush and is now at 800ppm or 1.6ec. That's the beauty of coco, PH or EC problems can be so easily adjusted.

 

[Guest]

Day 42. Despite some problems with over fertilisation the plant is still coming along. Afghan kush strain flowering is fairly fast at anywhere from 35 - 56 days.

 

[bigpeter]

Hi all, I chopped plants down 2 days ago, most trichomes were cloudy but I saw no amber.

I live in a rented accommodation owned by an association that has quite a few properties nearby. Other tenants have told me that the association is making upgrades to electrical consumer boxes to keep up with regulations, they are also installing new smoke alarm systems for the same reason so it looks like my harvest was well timed.

I wasn't too happy with how this grow went as I really wanted to show how good phostrogen is at growing cannabis. When all the necessary repairs have been carried out I'll be doing another grow. I have 3 barneys farm sweet tooth that I'll be growing but not in coco coir. I'll be growing in a vermiculite perlite hempy bucket.

 

[f-e]

I feel your pain. Remember Covid can always give you a couple more weeks. If you get to book an appointment, you look all willing for the following week. Then when that comes, it's 10 days self isolation. I was recently screwed by the now 5 yearly safety inspection to. I had the metal box and alarms on separate circuits a couple of years ago, but they lost the paperwork. Its not so much loosing the crop that bothers me. It's having to clear up everything, as they want to be at every power outlet. So go moving stuff to find hidden ones.
After they had done, they announced "we just need to get your carbon up" Which was unexpected. A new carbon monoxide alarm, over the door, which is why he looked up as he said it. I generally hang my own, but it's a phrase I have heard many times, where people can build a room but just need a hand to get the carbon up. Thankfully my confusion was justified, as he had missed the adequate battery powered one. Be prepared They will do about 2 properties a day.

Thanks for the thread. I thought you had gone, as the post at 42 days (#14) is authored by 'guest'
I'm sure it will smoke alright. It's quite far along. Many prefer it early to late anyway

 

[bigpeter]

Update on the afghan kush, after drying and final trim came in at 4.5 ounces. Not to bad but I know it could have been a lot better. So I've not had the electricians in to do electrical upgrades but I've sprouted a seed anyway. A change of plan, instead of barneys farm sweet tooth I'm going for barneys farm liberty haze. Here she is at 3 days old germinated in 50/50 perlite vermiculite and being fed ph'd phostrogen at 200ppm.

 

[bigpeter]

15 days old and going well. Potted up to a deeper pot as roots were growing out of the small pot. Currently being fed 2.5 grams phostrogen to 1 gallon water. My tapwater is 320ppm, with 2.5 grams of phostrogen it's 580ppm . I'm using nitric acid PH down. It's getting real growers recharge once a week.

 

[f-e]

I hope you can get your electric sorted while it's still manageable BP

 

[bigpeter]

Update. I managed to kill the plant. I thought it was hard to overwater a plant in perlite vermiculite mix, well I managed it. Plant started to die from the bottom up leaves paling and turning almost white before falling off and growth came to a halt. At this point I planted a second liberty haze seed in coco coir as a backup in case this plant died. I took the plant out of its pot a saw a very poor root structure / possible root rot, so I destroyed it.

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I am planning on letting the second plant develope a good root structure and then potting it up into a 3 gallon hempy pot but with a different perlite vermiculite ratio, more like 75/25.

This plant will be topped within the next few days

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