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Nano fabric-pot grow experiment

Hen

Member
Trying out a single micro grow experiment inspired by this guy's mini fabric pots https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=328891

I'm quite new to this, so I'm trying to meticulously log everything in case something goes wrong and I will be able to see what the problem was. I'm trying to keep the grow hidden from the family. It will stop if I get busted, but I'll let you know if it does. I've no idea if anyone is interested, but thought I would post it anyway.

### Intro

Nano fabric pot grow experiment. Can I grow a tiny and healthy plant (Master Kush Auto) in a fabric pot? The fabric pot is made of weed control fabric membrane. It is supposed to keep light out, while allowing the soil to breathe and allowing moisture and nutrients through.

I'm using minimal lighting. One standard 11W home LED light bulb (glass dome removed). It is supplemented with one 14W blurple compact fluorescent designed for plants during vegging, and will be switched for a red 10W(?) COB LED when flowering.The grow box is small and has diamond reflective sheets to help with the wide spread of the lights.

### Week 1

* 28 Feb: Seed broke ground.
* Night environment: 23C 47%H
* Day environment: 25C 46%H
* Coco flushed with tap water 8.3pH and kept moist until day 2.
* Day 2: Advanced Nutrients (AN) pH-Perfect G-M-B at 2ml/liter (half strength). GH pH Down added so final pH is 5.9. Solution kept out for the week so pH will creep up like it normally does. This will be given in small amounts daily on the advice that the coco should not dry out and always have nutrients.
* Day 4: Lowered the LED a little to increase the light strength. Everything looks good. Second set of leaves are visible. A couple of roots are poking out of the bottom of the fabric pot.
* Day 6: Took a break from the regular feed and gave it Calcium acetate (0.5mL/L) and Magnesium sulphate (4mL/L). The water was not pH dosed, as calcium and magnesium uptake is apparently best at the water's start pH 8.3.

***

### Week 2

* 7th March
* Night environment: 22C 50%H
* Day environment: 26C 39%H
* All is looking well. The plant has two sets of well developed leaves that are good size and color. Normal height, I think. I've been quite heavy on the feeding, but there is no sign of burn. I've gone from 15ml to 20ml of watering in the last couple of days.
* Day 7: After feeding with the cal and mag (day 6), I've now started to feed with the Kekkilä Puutarharavinne (Garden nutrient) NPK 5-1-8 (plus B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) because it has zinc and copper, which Advanced Nutrients might not have. I'm trying to give the plant at least some of the microelements even though it may not be absolutely necessary. Still missing molybdenum from the nutrients.
* Day 8: Same as day 7.
* Day 9: AN Micro at 2mL/Liter and Grow at 4mL/Liter (So still fertilizing 6mL/Liter in total). Noticed a bit of algae on the stitching of the fabric pot. Lots of roots peeping out now. More leaves forming.
* Day 10: Noticed the coco starting to get a bit dry on the top. Increased watering to 30mL from 20mL.
* Day 11: Added pic.

BuW9zpf.jpg
 

ice-cream

Member
Mr Sparkle has had much success with his setup, I imagine this too will go go well.
What's the expected number of days until chop ?

Good Luck getting this to 1gpw
 

Hen

Member
Mr Sparkle has had much success with his setup, I imagine this too will go go well.
What's the expected number of days until chop ?

Good Luck getting this to 1gpw
I don't actually know! The seedbank (froebanken) didn't say on their site, but I imagine it's approximately 12 weeks. I also made a mistake with the variety name. It's actually a Master Low (stabilised crosses between Master Kush x Low Ryder).

At this stage in my growing career, I would be happy to see the grow through :D
 

Hen

Member
* Day 13: I was busy and didn't get round to watering until the evening (about 12 hours late). The coco was totally dry, but the plant was not wilted. On top of that, the nutrient feed had turned brown. I thought it might be a bad idea to water with it, but then thought --ah, fuck it. After watering, I had instant regret. I did add extra cal/mag to the feed though.

Week 3 (Day 14)

* 14 March
* Day 14: Increased to 12mL/Liter strength ferts. 4mL/Liter Micro. 8mL/Liter Grow. Added half mL/Liter Epsom salts.
* Today I noticed one of the leaves has curled up and is bone dry. :( I don't know if this is classic over fertilising, or it was because I let the pot dry out completely yesterday.
* Added pic of curled leaf at day 14. The leaf in question is from the first set of leaves. The problem is about half as bad on the other leaf. I welcome your opinions. ;)

a6zJTlC.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

it's a combo of both, leaving the pot to get too dry caused the plant to suck up water at a high rate when it was available, and due to that caused an over fertilization problem, if it is kept moist and at a steady feed these situations don't occur.

But its nothing to worry about, looks like your fine, if things get too dry it's best to just give straight water first or reduced feed rate.
 

Hen

Member
it's a combo of both, leaving the pot to get too dry caused the plant to suck up water at a high rate when it was available, and due to that caused an over fertilization problem, if it is kept moist and at a steady feed these situations don't occur.

But its nothing to worry about, looks like your fine, if things get too dry it's best to just give straight water first or reduced feed rate.
Thanks for the info. I had no idea it would work like that. If I ever forget again, I'll do exactly that method.
 

Hen

Member
I wasn't going to post until week four, but things are happening fast here!

Week 3 continued

  • Day 16: Bought a new bottle of nutrients. Added 5mL/Liter, plus 1mL/Liter Magnesium and a pinch of calcium acetate. Here is what the nutrient bottle has

    NPK 4-2-7

    total nitrogen (N) 3,7%;
    nitrate nitrogen (N) 2,1%;
    urea nitrogen (N) 1.6%;
    water-soluble phosphorus (P) of 2.2%,
    water-soluble potassium (K), 7.2%;

    Other nutrients

    boron (B) 0.01%,
    copper (Cu) chelate of EDTA-0.004%;
    iron (Fe) chelate of EDTA-0.05%;
    manganese (Mn), EDTA chelate was 0.03%;
    molybdenum (Mo), 0.0003%;
    zinc (Zn) chelate of EDTA 0.007%.

  • Day 17: Just noticed what look like flower sacks, so I guess it's a boy. This is fine as I wanted to make some seeds anyway. I guess if you wanted to see some lady bits, the rest of this post will be of no use to you :D I'm not sure how long it usually takes, but I'm pretty impressed it only took 17 days to show sex.
  • Day 18: Some pics

    Side view

    fNAkdeQ.jpg



    Second node - Brown spots - Looks like a potassium deficiency

    QoCKD0n.jpg



    Third node - Light spots - Not sure about this deficiency.

    b1QzM8f.jpg

 

Hen

Member
Rest of week three...

  • Day 19: Coco still looked a bit dry so gave 50mL today.
  • Day 20: Deficiency worsening. Not so sure about potassium now, so I'm going to go with calcium. Looks similar to these pics. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5323959&postcount=10 I will also revert back to AN fertilisers at the recommended 1:1:1 ratio. Day 20 pic:

    FiAulPJ.jpg


  • Day 21: Back to AN at 12mL/Liter. The plant has shot up! Strange, it doesn't smell of anything. Don't know whether because it's too early, or because it's a boy.

    Day 21 pic

    PzCTE3E.jpg


    That ends week 3.
 

Hen

Member
Week 4

  • Day 22: It's starting to smell! As it was growing quite close to the light, I had to move it to the side because it was running out of vertical space. I swapped the blurple CFL for a red COB (a red boost for flowering). I've also noticed the upper part of the stem is getting quite soft. It's not underwatered and shouldn't be suffocating because it's in such a small airpot. Perhaps it's something related to its deficiency.

Day 22 pic

Ptapleb.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

if you have a soft stem at the top, is just the plant is growing at a quick pace, it will harden up with time, its a good thing, as for the deficiency, just make sure your ph is decent, cause if its out, calcium and phosphorus could be getting locked out
 

MrBungle

Active member
Thats a neat lil fabric pot.. about the size of a yogurt cup? I could use about 50 of em!! :D

did you glue the seams or sew em?
 

Hen

Member
if you have a soft stem at the top, is just the plant is growing at a quick pace, it will harden up with time, its a good thing, as for the deficiency, just make sure your ph is decent, cause if its out, calcium and phosphorus could be getting locked out

Hey thanks, Mr.S. I've noticed now it goes hard and soft at different times of the day :D

Do you think pH 5.8 is ok for coco, or should a hit 5.5?
 

Hen

Member
Thats a neat lil fabric pot.. about the size of a yogurt cup? I could use about 50 of em!! :D

did you glue the seams or sew em?

Yeah, about that size. It's stitched with a blanket stitch. I'm no expert on stitching though :D Maybe there is a better technique.
 

Hen

Member
Week 5

  • Day 28: Lots of flowers. Most of them are dropping before they open though. It's apparently normal for males to be taller, but I never thought it could grow so tall in such a small pot. The deficiency doesn't seem to be getting any worse.
Week 5 Pic

Sf4DRLC.jpg
 
Im sure the weedblock works great.She probably needs to get water at least 2x a day. This will improve things a lot. Never let coco get dry, ever. Make sure you water to at least 10% run off to keep it flushed of salts. Best of luck. Tuned in. Peace
 

Hen

Member
Ok, so I got a little pollen from the male, and then gave it the chop. I'm just in the process of gutting an old PC case for an "invisible" grow --after which I'll pop another bean. That one won't be another detailed log though.

I've learned a few things from this which I'll try and pass on to the next grow. If it turns out to be a girl, I'll post some pics towards the end.

Thanks for the advice and tips.
 

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