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A Cannabis Growing Guide - All that you need to know to get started

J Budman

Member
Amazingly informative!!!! Great thread!!! That's why I love ICMag!!! Thanks so much. Hopefully I'll be here in five years sharing all my knowledge.
 

Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.

Good luck with your plants and drop in any time if you have any questions.

I updated the guide with new information, including a chart that shows the rate of THC acid --> THC conversion at different temperatures. It might come in handy when you are cooking with cannabis.
 

Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
No problem, that's why we are here.

The guide is also now available for download in pdf format.

Enjoy
 
Hey man, I need some help. A buddies blue dreams are all messed up and I'm not sure whether it's nitrogen def or mg def. The plants do have pink and purpling stems which according to your guide indicate nitrogen def. However, I had been refering to Mynameisstich's guide and had determined based on that it might be mg def due to ph lockout. When I tested the run off for him it came out super low, like in the 5's so that lead me to believe the blood or bone meal he added to the soil mix (the other seed plants and larger clones were put into a different mix and didn't develop this problem) affected PH so I flushed with high ph water and the run off was 7.0, that was two days ago and they're showing no signs of improvement.

So I stumbled upon your guide here and looked at your nit and mg charts attached to the first page and am starting to think they are nit def due to the purpling stems. That said, I now have to have him wait until the soil dries out from the flush before feeding, if the case turns out to be nit def. The entire plants have turned yellow with some of the larger fans starting to drop off and die. I'm concerned they won't come back for him. The BD's are most of his legal limit and had gone into the flower room (not flipped yet) looking absolutely amazing with lush green, vigorous growth. Growth has basically stopped and the plants are yellow from top to bottom under hps while the other plants in the different mix are looking great.

He had been feeding pretty minimally while they were in the veg room in the cups, and just before transfer had increased feedings until the tips barely burned which is what lead me to think it was mg def and not nit def in the first place, how could there be a little tip burn showing but be a nit def? That's what's confusing me. I'm going to go over there ina bit to get some shots hopefully but anything you can say in the mean time would be a great help! Thanks - B
 
Pictures

Pictures

here's some pictures... The fucker finally dropped some off for me on an SD card! Anyhow, you can see the BD are the only unhealthy plants in the lot, unfortunately for him it's also the one clone he has the most of! Help me help him, PLEASE! Thanks - B
 

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Stress_test

I'm always here when I'm not someplace else
Veteran
Hey my friend blinkisback I beat you up in your other thread man. You better go check it out.
 
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Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
Hey blinkisback

Nutrient deficiencies are really not my speciality but I would have to agree with Stress_test on this one, the plants look hungry to me. The colour has faded from the leaves but there seems to be no other symptoms, which suggests that they are just in need of more food.

Purple colouring on the stems in not necessarily an indicator of nutrient deficiencies. I've had plants with purple stems that were doing great. Some plants just express more colours than others.

Flushing probably won't help because you are just washing out the last of the nutrients that were in the soil. pH 5 is a bit low but you can correct the problem by feeding them a nutrient solution with a pH of 7-8. That will tip the scale closer to 6.5-7.0.

Plants require more nutrients when they enter the flowering stage. They build up energy reserves during the vegetative stage and store them in the leaves (like fat). If your friend fed them minimal amounts of nutes during veg, they might not have enough to support all the growth as the energy is now being directed to the budding nodes. The buds have higher priority at this stage. That causes yellowing of the leaves, which then fall off as the energy has been relocated to other areas. Some yellowing of the leaves is common but if the whole plant is suffering from the same problem, you need to address it.

I would feed them some complete NPK fertilizer. Looks to me like they could use some extra nitrogen. Also make sure that you include Zinc, Manganese and Iron because they are important during the flowering stage. It's fairly common that people forget about the trace metals and micronutrients and then have a hard time figuring out what's wrong.

I would give them a healthy dose of nutes and then allow the soil to dry out before the next watering. It's difficult to figure out what is wrong as long as the soil is wet. Allowing the soil to dry out between waterings will also help to fix the pH problem. Continue to give them nutes until the deep green colour returns to leaves. Then you can back off for a while and see how it goes.

Blue Dream is a Bluberry cross and it is known to be picky when it comes to nutes. Your friend was perhaps aware of this and that's why he didn't give them enough. He might however have been too cautious in this case.

I also suggest that you start a thread in the infirmary.
 

Stress_test

I'm always here when I'm not someplace else
Veteran
Hey Kodiak nice post and spot on the advice I gave him too.

It's difficult sometimes to explain to people that flush is a last resort for plants with lockout problems that derive from nutrient salts building up in the root zone.

One method people use in trying to prevent buildup related lockout is alternating clean water and nutes at watering.

I have fond that if a plant is getting everything it needs every time, there is no salts buildup because it's all being used by the plant.

A friend once showed me a recipe that he used for sick or deficient plants. It works great and plants recover almost over night, but I done a break down on the available nutrients and trace minerals in the recipe and it is so complete that I adopted it for a complete feeding solution for all my plants until they are flipped for flower.

Full coverage of nutrients is the key to healthy plants. If one mineral is missing the plant may shut down and stop uptake entirely. So in most cases a full spectrum nutrient flush will correct most deficiency problems.
 

Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
Sure thing outinit, I'm glad you liked it.


Hey Stress_test

Yeah. There's no need to flush the soil if you are just adjusting the pH. That can be done by making the nutrient solution slightly more acidic or basic.

I could not agree more. Growing becomes a whole lot easier if you make sure that the plants have everything that they need. I always make sure that I have everything covered. I add organic nutes to the soil, mainly guano and blood meal, and use a complete lineup of BioBizz liquid nutes as supplements. The combination has worked pretty well for me so far. Outdoors I use homemade compost that has a lot of stuff added to it, like ash, sea weed, sea shells, sawdust and so on. That stuff is rocket fuel for plants. It gives new meaning to the term explosive growth.

Preparing the soil is half the work, so it should be done with great care imo. It's also good to keep an open mind because it allows us to come up with new ideas on how to grow better weed. I've picked up a lot of stuff by growing and experimenting with all sorts of plants, like chili, herbs, vegetables and tobacco. You can learn something from every plant and that knowledge can then be applied when you grow weed.

Your recipie sounds great. You should post it somewhere. It might come in handy for many growers who are dealing with sick plants or just looking for a good feeding schedule.
 

Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
Anything between 6.0-7.0 is fine. Soil is more forgiving than hydro. The optimum range for growing in soil probably falls somewhere between pH 6.5-6.8.
 
Anything between 6.0-7.0 is fine. Soil is more forgiving than hydro. The optimum range for growing in soil probably falls somewhere between pH 6.5-6.8.

thanx kodiac
ya i wasnt sure and i went trhough 3 books before i found it thanks for the memory update.
 

Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
No problem shorty. Drop in anytime if you have any questions. Best of luck with your plants :)
 

sgapetti

Active member
Veteran
Great info, thanks for sharing. I am making som seed ( first time ) and your guide is most helpful.
 

Kodiak

Mad Scientist
Veteran
Glad you liked it.

If you are lucky, you will find a male plant that looks like this :D

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