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Malawi in Hydro

skeptik

New member
I’m going to give a 100% Sativa a go in hydro and would appreciate experiential guidance.


I’ll go with Ace’s Malawi for it’s alleged 10-13 week flowering time in hopes I’ll be able to finish it indoors before our June 1 deadline, which is enforced by rising temperatures. I need to complete 2 indoor grow cycles per year and the longer Sativa flowering time really complicates my grow process. My main hydro system is currently about a month until harvest, but I have to get these 2 Malawis germinating now. In order to do that I have to setup an initial, second hydro system just to get the Malawi seedlings growing and healthy until the main system frees up.


Here’s my setup and environment:


Initial hydro:
2 x 20-liter buckets each with a 6-inch netpot + hydroton
Lighting: 135w burple

Nutrients: Megacrop
Antiseptic environment enforced with H2O2
Aeration: air stone in each bucket
Weekly nutrient change


Main hydro:
2-netpot, 80-liter tank/reservoir
60 x 120 cm LST/ScrOG canopy
lighting: 400w bridgelux EB strip gen1 DIY
Nutrients: Megacrop
Reservoir temp: 16.5-18.0’C, maintained by chiller
Aeration: airstones + waterfalls
Room temp: 21’C – 25’C
RH: 50-60%
Reservoir change at beginning of flower, and again at flowering midpoint


So when my current crop finishes in mid- to late-February, I’ll transfer the 2 Malawi girls, netpots and all, into the main hydro system. I expect to put them into flowering at that point.


This will be long and slow, especially in the beginning.
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rindindoo

Well-known member
Hi!
I am very interested to observe the growth of Malawi in hydroponics. Do you have complex fertilizers? Do you independently calculate the ratio of elements or rely on the formula of the manufacturer? and what is EC (ppm) for flowering?
good luck!
 

skeptik

New member
I hopefully have 3 seedlings started now, but it’s been a strange struggle. Never had issues with seed germination before, but started 4 seeds a week ago -- 24-hr soak, then on wet paper towel until seed cracks, then into 6.5 pH’d rockwool. One popped out the next day and has going strong ever since. Another, when it didn’t appear and I cracked the cube open after 5 days it was an obvious dude. The third poked it’s cotyledons out of the rockwool but they failed to open and it just stalled. Yesterday I used some fine forceps to force the cotyledons open and the top seems to be recovering, but the tap root hasn't grown. We’ll see. A 4th seed was put in rockwool yesterday “just in case”, but tough to see $14 seeds struggling like this.


4964204a5a65a988426b396b2f140948_2006921.jpg


The healthy seedling is putting out plenty of healthy roots. Gonna drop it in the netpot in another few days.


picture.php
 

skeptik

New member
Hi!
I am very interested to observe the growth of Malawi in hydroponics. Do you have complex fertilizers?



I use Megacrop from Greenleaf Nutrients. Specifically, the Gen 1 version, which provides a complete nutrient mix for both veg and flower, although, I add my DIY Hammerhead mix to boost the P and K the last 5 weeks.



: said:
Do you independently calculate the ratio of elements or rely on the formula of the manufacturer? and what is EC (ppm) for flowering?
good luck!


No. That's one of the reasons I LOVE Megacrop. Simplicity. That, and the results at harvest were enough to sell me. Great product. Right now, my ppm is 60, which is what comes out of the tap. I'll bump it up to 200 when the cotyledons start to whither, then raise it appropriately per plant conditions. I've ran it as high as 1800 ppm late in flower.
 

cough_cough_eer

Anita Bonghitt
Veteran
I'm in

I'm in

I plan on growing my malawis in hydro later this year also. I have ebb n flo tables in coco. look forward to see how yours grow.:plant grow:
 

skeptik

New member
Yes, still going. As I said, slow and boring in the beginning...


Looks like 2 successful germinations out of 4 seeds. A poor showing for premium seeds. Is this characteristic of Sativas, Ace or just bad luck?


When roots show at the bottom of both rockwool cubes they're going into the big netpots. Hopefully, within a week. This morning I added 1/8 veg nutes to the rooting chamber rez to get them feeding a bit.

IMG_20200203_102602918.jpg


IMG_20200203_102602918.jpg
IMG_20200203_102602918.jpg

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skeptik

New member
Regrets for the formatting issues. I'll get it figured out eventually, but I also have to say, the inability to edit posts makes the preview button critical
headbanger.gif
...


Probably just me, but ICMag's handling of images seems bizarre...
 

Old Fogey

Well-known member
I have had great success with Ace Malawi grown 12/12 from seed (11hrs 30min ON - 12hrs 30min OFF). I keep the plant in coco/perlite mix in a 1ltr pot and feed very lightly (EC 0.7) with a regular hydro nutrient (not coco nutes) with 1/4 strength cal mag until the plant shows its sex (24-30 days). At this stage the plant is 8 to 10 inches in height with maybe 4 or 5 sets of leaf.

I then re-pot into 1 gal coco/perlite and switch to coco nutes at regular recommended feed rates plus PK 13-14 at 0.33mls/ltr (around 22% of full strength) all the way to the flush.

The plants finish at around 30-32 inches in height with a dominant main cola of about 15 inches in length and as thick as your wrist/forearm with half a dozen lower branches of vigour with nice tops in a classic Xmas tree shape

Attached is the main cola of a purple pheno that was ready in about 70 days flowering. The bud was rock hard and heavy, excelient yield of maybe 4oz.

Good luck, Ace Malawi is an outstanding plant well suited to indoor growing.

Peace
 

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cough_cough_eer

Anita Bonghitt
Veteran
Thanks Old Fogey, just the type of info I was looking for. Now I'm really looking forward to growing my Malawi's'. I hope mine do as well as yours.:woohoo:
 

skeptik

New member
I have had great success with Ace Malawi grown 12/12 from seed (11hrs 30min ON - 12hrs 30min OFF).
<snip>
Good luck, Ace Malawi is an outstanding plant well suited to indoor growing.

Peace

Excellent! That's encouraging. First time with a full-on Sativa so wasn't sure how it would react to hydro and there's not much out there in the way of grow journals.

Curious about your 11.5/12.5 from seed light schedule. You haven't seen an advantage to using like a 20/4 schedule, then switch to flowering schedule at 4 weeks? Seems like it would beef up their veg growth, but I know a lot of folks use a flowering schedule from seed and just looking to learn the "Why?".


So you start with 0.25 nutes then go to full + P-K at around 4 weeks? Have you found them sensitive to higher P-K during flowering?I appreciate you jumping in. Please don't hesitate throwing out some advice. I'm in the phase right now where I always have problems -- getting the seedlings to develop roots for hydro. Always a struggle for me and not sure why.
 

rindindoo

Well-known member
in the store of resellers I came across the seeds of 2014 Oldtimers Haze, germinated in a makeshift substrate with biohumus, sprouted 6 out of 6.
recently finished malawi for seeds, grew on a coconut, focused on flowering like NPK 50 \ 50 \ 150, not more than ppm 500 (250 HPS)
 

dubi

ACE Seeds Breeder
Vendor
Veteran
Welcome skeptik,

Thanks for supporting our work and for your interest on giving a try to our Malawi :)

I'm 100 % organic grower so i can't help much with the recommendations for hydro cultivation, but i will be able to help with the other growing variables and regarding the progresses of the genetics during their development.

Our Malawi is a very highly worked and tamed sativa line, the flowering is moderate for a tropical sativa of this kind, she will take a few more weeks to finish compared with typical indoor indica dom hybrids, but Malawi grows very fast and stretches strongly in early flowering so the extended flowering time will be balanced with shorter growing time to prepare the flowering.

Best wishes!
 

skeptik

New member
Welcome skeptik,

Thanks for supporting our work and for your interest on giving a try to our Malawi :)

I'm 100 % organic grower so i can't help much with the recommendations for hydro cultivation, but i will be able to help with the other growing variables and regarding the progresses of the genetics during their development.

Our Malawi is a very highly worked and tamed sativa line, the flowering is moderate for a tropical sativa of this kind, she will take a few more weeks to finish compared with typical indoor indica dom hybrids, but Malawi grows very fast and stretches strongly in early flowering so the extended flowering time will be balanced with shorter growing time to prepare the flowering.

Best wishes!
Thanks, dubi. I've been expecting you to drop by. :)


Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.
 

Old Fogey

Well-known member
There are a lot of different phenos and they flower for varying times. So you will have to tailor freeding schedules to each plant individually as you go along. That Purple Malawi showed sex around Day 24 and should have been chopped closer to 60 days of flower than the 70 or so it had.

I had a Fruity pheno that was pale green from another grow and it was perfect at 112 days from germination after showing as female around day 32 with lights 11.30 ON 12.30 OFF the whole way through. Like the Purple (also a Fruity type) it was a good feeder and a heavy yielder but was much more potent and louder in odor.

I hope to find a Killer pheno next time I run it, I have two packs of 12 Regular in storage so the odds are good. But another Green Fruity like the last one would be great, I wasn't able to keep it due to spider mites. I made some F1 crosses with the Purple pheno and some Peak Seeds Blueberry males which might be interesting.

After flowering has commenced you can pretty much follow a feed chart at Low levels (I use Canna Grow Guide) until you are sure Normal or even HIGH levels are not too hot. Be careful with PK 13-14, at the first sign of intolerance cease application. I like "Trickling" PK 13-14 from the emergence of the first fruits all the way through to glush if the plant will tolerate it. Rates from 0.25mls to 0.4mls per litre depending on strain and tolerance.

It is important to feed very lightly prior to showing sex, you want the plant to be as snall as you can keep it at this point without making the plant sick or stunted. Super low feed in 1 litre pots is ideal. Otherwise you will have difficulty controling the final size, it is a very vigorous plant.

You will love Ace Malawi, good luck. Consider starting a grow journal, I will follow it for sure.

Peace
 

Old Fogey

Well-known member
I use lighting at 12/12 from seed (actually 11.30 ON - 12.30 OFF) for pure sativas like those from Ace to keep size in check. When the Malawi show sex they are about as big as an indica veged for 17 or 18 days, say 8 inches max with no lateral growth and they still finish at 28 - 32 inches in height with productive lower branching. As Dubi says above, Malawi stretches a lot in early flower. If you have height restrictions like me, I recommend 11.30/12.30 from seed and very light feeding until sexed. If you are scrogging, then obviously a decent veg would be ideal.

Peace
 

skeptik

New member
2 weeks since sprouting and finally some progress. I've learned the hard way that getting seedlings started for hydro, either in rockwool or rapid-rooters, is tedious, but if the critters don't show growth or roots out of the bottom of the netpot after 3-4 days of being in the pot, there's probably some infection in the root area that's stunting growth and remediation is in order. This was happening to the one Malawi that stayed in hydro for the past week, so 3 days ago I executed my SOP for dealing with it. Submersed the netpot, including the rockwool and hydroton, in a 25 ml 3% H2O2 per liter of tap water and let it soak for 20 minutes, then back in the hydro bucket. The change was obvious the next day when the leaves started to show the "happy hands":


Z



...and the indication that things are back on track, roots:


2Q==



That said, the second plant was looking so poorly I chose to treat it in the same way with peroxide, then planted it in soil. If it recovers and looks healthy, maybe use it for breeding, else, another (3rd) wasted seed.
 

skeptik

New member
Your links between the img codes are wrong, noticed that when trying to quote.
Yeah, I noticed. I'm about to give up on this site. Don't believe I've seen a board that makes it so difficult to post, then, to add to the frustration, no ability to edit. Geesh!
 
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