need advice from serious growers

[southernlight]

this is my 4th grow. first two were a bust, the third ended with mediocre results.
this grow i have 4 gdp's and 6 pineapple kush plants going under 400w hps. i started the grow using ff ocean forest soil and just transplanted into 3gal pots using happy frog soil.
nutes: ff grow big - heavy feeding every two weeks. occasional folliar spray with "green stay".
i really only need to water once every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks... should i alternate grow big and pure water every other watering or just keep a heavy dose of grow big every watering?
my plants are 12"-18" tall how long should i let them veg before switching to 12/12?
plants are healthy but i do have a little bit of yellow spotting on some leaves, should i be concerned with this?

 

[JBlaze]

Flip them soon, I'm not familiar with growing those strains but they will stretch and the 400 will no accommodate that many plants.

 

[fireman]

First off you should be watering more than once every 1 to 2 weeks. You should be watering at least every 3-4 days in soil. In that case you are giving them way to much water when you water. If so you probably have a lot of runoff and are saturating the soil too much. It is good to let them dry out in between waterings in order for the roots to grow (which they do when they look for water/nutrients in the soil.

I personally feed with botanicare every 3rd watering or usually about once a week. MY schedule looks like this Water, Water, feed, Water, water, feed. etc....

The next watering only give them about 1-1.25 quarts of water.

You can switch to flowering now or you can wait. You don`t want them to get too big or you will have to transplant into bigger pots, which could be a good idea anyway in order to let them have as much room as they need, in flower. When you switch to flower be sure not to feed them bloom untill they start to actually put on flowers usually aroundthe 2 to 3rd weeks in an 8-9 weeks strain.

dont forget to look around for the answers most of the time people wont just give em too ya

fireman

 

[gomer]

I wish you well in your grow.
Why did you start with Ocean Forest and then switch to Happy Frog? If I switched soil I would go the other way around.
Do you have a way to measure the PPM you feed the plants and the run-off?

 

[Phillthy]

you should be watering more often for sure. what is the humidity in the room. do you wait for the plants to tell you they need water (droop)? ocean forest with no amendments usually last just 30 days. after that you may show deficiencies.

 

[panik]

While flowering you can mix some molasses into the watering water. About 1-2 tablespoons per 5 litres. It will you give you juicier and tastier buds. Don't use to much if you've never used it before, it can create a thick layer in the bottom of the pot.

1-3 days before harvest you can pollinate the female. It will make it thing that it should make seeds and will raise the THC production.

2-3 Weeks before harvest you can 'lollipop' the plant. You cut of leaves and branches in the bottom of the plant which will shock the plant and make it focus on the top buds. But be careful if you shock it to much it will kill the plant and we don't want that do we?

Read about nourishing your plant properly because you might be thinking that everything is going swell and poff! your plant just dies on you.

My last words of wisdom will be:
Don't tell.
Don't sell.
Don't smell.

Good luck to you

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Actually, I'd say "12-"18 plants in 3g pots will need to be watered quite sparingly. That's a classic big pot-small plant situation and it will have all the usual problems that start from watering difficulties, but it seems like the OP (who hasn't posted back BTW) at least has some grip on it.

 

[fireman]

Panik where did you hear about Lollipopping a plant 2-3 weeks before harvest and also about pollinating 1-3 days before harvest will raise THC levels. Do you have any place i can read this that can verify good results from these practices.

Im not gonna say i am an expert on lollipopping but I have never seen anyone do it later than the 2-3 weeks into flower which is what i believe you are confusing this with. Cutting off flowers that have developed for 5-6 weeks already would be pointless since they have obviously mostly developed and only need to swell at this point and have already used so much of your nutrients throughout flower.




I`m pretty sure your plant is not gonna just die on you after 1 day especially in soil. I have been in soil for over 5 years and have never had a plant just die on me in a day (considering it usually takes a plant in soil about 1-3 days to react to the nutrient) and by no means i am a master at this art.I do agree with you that SL should be reading to learn about nutrient regiments and such but telling him plant could just die on him is kinda putting a fear in him for no reason.

Like I said before I`m completely interested to read where you heard these "tricks" because i have just never read them on this forum before personally.


Fireman

 

[gomer]

Panik,
I'm with fireman here where did you hear:

1-3 days before harvest you can pollinate the female. It will make it thing that it should make seeds and will raise the THC production.

I have started trimming off lower branches, not to shock the plant but because I determined they would never amount to much. Especially during winter, the mold season. I usually do this earlier in bloom.

 

[southernlight]

gomer: from my first grow i have been using ocean forest. the guy at the hydro shop told me that the happy frog is a better flowering soil... that is the reason for the switch when i transplanted to bigger pots.
phillthy: humidity ranges from 45-55 but typically its right at about 52%. as far as watering i use a soil moister meter and water if needed. i generally water pretty heavy and dump any runoff. which is what seems to be my current problem.

 

[southernlight]

fireman: thanks for the watering tips. i have never measured out how much water i have been giving. i was told once upon a time that you want about 10% runoff when watering and that is why i've been watering so heavy.
i also believe that i have given way too much fertilizer... should i flush or just water with pure water for the next couple waterings?

 

[southernlight]

jblaze said 10 plants is a lot for 400w. i have a greenhouse and here in so cal the weather has been perfect for outdoor right now. should i throw a couple outside?

 

[fireman]

I cannot say that runnoff is the worst thing for your plants, but int theory you are basically just washing away nutrient when you have runoff (like leaching). If you plants havent really shown any nutrient burn, like believe I said before is pretty hard to do with FF nutes since they are "organic."

Leach if you are showing Ph issues ( yellowing and necrosis on the leaf tips mainly)

Personally i would just wait for your soil to dry out as much as you can ,without hurting the plants obviously, and then give it a normal watering of about 1.25-1.75 quarts for the size you mentioned earlier with about 1/2 to full strength nutrients phed to 6 -6.5. Then you can go another watering without nutes to see how your plants react to this cycle and so on and so on. As they get bigger you can add more water but not huge amount obviously. Im not going to comment too muh on a feeding regiment of FF as i use Botanicare only. I would suggest searching on FF regiments from other people


be sure to use this site to your advantage, all your answers and more are sitting here 24/7
keep up the good work,

fireman

 

[panik]

Panik where did you hear about Lollipopping a plant 2-3 weeks before harvest and also about pollinating 1-3 days before harvest will raise THC levels. Do you have any place i can read this that can verify good results from these practices.

Im not gonna say i am an expert on lollipopping but I have never seen anyone do it later than the 2-3 weeks into flower which is what i believe you are confusing this with. Cutting off flowers that have developed for 5-6 weeks already would be pointless since they have obviously mostly developed and only need to swell at this point and have already used so much of your nutrients throughout flower.




I`m pretty sure your plant is not gonna just die on you after 1 day especially in soil. I have been in soil for over 5 years and have never had a plant just die on me in a day (considering it usually takes a plant in soil about 1-3 days to react to the nutrient) and by no means i am a master at this art.I do agree with you that SL should be reading to learn about nutrient regiments and such but telling him plant could just die on him is kinda putting a fear in him for no reason.

Like I said before I`m completely interested to read where you heard these "tricks" because i have just never read them on this forum before personally.


Fireman

Pollinating your female right before harvest, I was told by my friend. I've been doing this if I have had a male available ever since. I haven't gotten any bad results so I have kept doing it in the belief that it gives me good results. But I don't have any real proof or facts.

Your lollipopping talk got me all confused. But I've never done it so I've might got a few things mixed up, yes.

And I never said anything about a plant dying in a day. But if you don't know your nutrients you might get it wrong that all I meant.

 

[fireman]

I understand what your saying brother no worries. For your own good I would personally suggest your stop pollinating your harvest towards the end as this could possibly leave pollen in the room for the next harvest and cause seed production.

Didn`t mean to get on your case if it seemed like I did. Just not the best idea to spread uncommon practices without any information to show cause for such practices.

If you are dead set on pollinating your plants i suggest you run a test to see if there is actually a difference and then show us the outcome. I`ll check it out for sure, but can`t imagine it would have a positive effect.

Fireman

 

[southernlight]

fireman: i do have a little bit of nutrient burn on 3/10 , however the plants still look healthy.. i will probably just wait it out and see what happens.
As far as 10 plants being too many for 400w anyone with advice there? i have plenty of space in my grow room... i figured if i can lollipop all 10 and still have room why not. but will i have better buds by using the same amount of light for 6 plants?

 

[southernlight]

fireman: i do have a little bit of nutrient burn on 3/10 , however the plants still look healthy.. i will probably just wait it out and see what happens.
As far as 10 plants being too many for 400w anyone with advice there? i have plenty of space in my grow room... i figured if i can lollipop all 10 and still have room why not. but will i have better buds by using the same amount of light for 6 plants?

 

[fireman]

See how much room the 10 plants are taking up. A 400 watt light only covers about a 2 x 2 space technically. The light will reach further than 2 x 2 obviously but past that its starts to diminish in lumens, thus less light for the plant.

Also since the 400 doesnt penetrate the canopy very far lollipopping isn`t a bad idea.

Lemme know how it goes brother,
Fireman

 

[itsus]

keep a plant of each in veg if you can, or just send them to me i have 4 400's over 9 plants, still not enough. as for watering and nutes, grow big is pretty strong shit, i only use 1tsp every other watering with a about a tbs of big bloom.

 

[southernlight]

itsus: i have a bunch of tiger bloom left from last grow... should i be using that in the same manner that you use the big bloom?
i don't have enough experience to feel like i should be mixing nutes. mix both to one gallon or to a gallon each then combine?