[Redseal]

Naturally being one of my grows things are going wrong already, with the first signs of mites.. AGAIN (even though I spent half a day cleaning everything with bleach after the last grow) I'm checking them every 3 days now and getting rid of anything I find.

And I know all the pots are too small, I just wanted to use all the clones up which meant squeezing more pots into the space.

Plant 1. This was a clone using the chopped tip from a topped plant and it's easily the best looking of the lot. Growing in just a 3L pot with almost no feeding so far and it seems to be thriving. The biggest leaves I've had on a HB so far. The gunk on any plants is old Spidermite Control spray.



Plant/s 2: Three clones in one pot. They seem to be doing alright, apart from some odd colouring to the leaves on the top of one of them (that doesn't show up in the pic). How can one clone look different to the others, in the same conditions.. hmm.



Plants 4 & 5: These are about 3 weeks into flowering and not looking so healthy. They seem to be suffering exactly the same yellowing problem as the mother did when flowered. The ph is spot on, the EC levels are fine.. they just never seem to improve. It's like they can't use the organic feed, which would suggest the soil is very lacking in micro organisms?



Feeding them all with Bio Bizz as per usual, plus I thought I'd chuck some Cannazym in aswell to try and get some activity going in the soil.

Next update when things look more interesting, or when it all goes wrong :p



Edit: I forgot to say, I was thinking of trying a non-organic feed on those last two to see if it helps them out quicker.. bad idea or not?

[MandalaMike]

Hi Redseal, it's good to have you back with another grow.

Originally Posted by Redseal

Naturally being one of my grows things are going wrong already

Don't be so hard on yourself... :wink:
Spider mites are all over the place during the summer months...you can carry them in to the grow area with your shoes, clothes, they can be in your hair...and of course they get sucked in by the vents (unless you have a filter).
You have to live with the fact that you can contain them but you might not get rid of each mite. The plants can cope with small populations of mites so it's not tragic. Keep checking regularly and wipe them off with your fingers in between sprays.

Originally Posted by Redseal

And I know all the pots are too small, I just wanted to use all the clones up which meant squeezing more pots into the space.

Ok, you are going to make things a LOT easier on yourself if you put your plants into a decent pot size because that's the major reason why you get the nitrogen deficiency during early flowering.
You see by then the plants have grown and grown and there is not an ounce of nutes left in the soil.
I spoke to Bio Bizz recently and they said that their ferts work by "feeding the soil" and thereby feeding the plant. Now that's not a direct feeding and does not compensate for a deficiency of this magnitude.

I can't follow your reasoning that you have space problems because a larger pot is not going to take up that much more in width.
My suggestion is that you repot those flowering ladies a.s.a.p. Give them a mild 10-15% feeding with a complete mineral fert in the meantime to perk them up. The fert should have an NPK formula like 5-6-6/4-6-7 or something similar.
Don't repot in the Light-Mix since it has very low levels of phosphate - buy quality universal soil from the garden center with balanced NPK levels for fast growing plants. Good companies are Compo Sana and Klassmann for example. Above all don't add any perlite, coco, etc. into the soil which will just "dilute" it.

After repotting give them a few hours more light for a week so that they can recover more quickly and root faster.

Mike

[Redseal]

I usually flower in 12L square pots about 30cm square, which I can't fit enough of into the flowering area (there's more than just the Hashberry in there at the moment) hence having to use the smaller ones. It's more a problem of getting them all under the cooltube than the floorspace, as they don't spread the light all that well I find. I'll try and squeeze that first plant into a bigger pot though as it seems to be doing well. Everything apart from the bottom two plants are just in some cheap compost I got out of an unused gro-bag, which they seem to really love for whatever reason. I've not had a single problem of any kind when using it.

Those two going yellow are in mostly All Mix, the same batch which I used last grow and saw exactly the same yellowing on every plant that was in it (not just the Hashberry) within a short amount of time. I've read quite a few comments about the dubious quality of All Mix bought a few months back (which is when I got mine).. it's like it's really lacking something Never again, and I mean it this time :p Hopefully it's a Hashberry coco grow after these ones if the clones root ok

I think I've got some Canna mineral based feed around (will have to double check) so I'll try it on the worst of those two plants to see if it helps or not.

Cheers

[Stan Laurel]

Hey Redseal
Real sorry to hear you're still battling with the spiders from mars, just one of many injustices in the world.
With regard to your cooltube, as I know the brand you're using I can honestly say that modifying it to give a better light spread should be very easy. All you need to do is remove the internal reflector, and then get a traditional style reflector drilled out to line up with the screw holes in the tube. All that's then needed is for the new reflector to be fastened to the top of the tube
As you know I run the same tube but with a 600w bulb, and this gives a good spread of light over my 1m2 area, so another option might be to upgrad to 400w.

As for the soil dilema, I stick by my guns and say dump the Allmix You now I like the J.A.Bowers multi in the U.K, but if you really want to stick with designer brands I've just read Soma's book and he rates the Canna pro blend.

See ya, and good luck

[Redseal]

Originally Posted by Stan Laurel

With regard to your cooltube, as I know the brand you're using I can honestly say that modifying it to give a better light spread should be very easy. All you need to do is remove the internal reflector, and then get a traditional style reflector drilled out to line up with the screw holes in the tube.

I'd already hacked the reflector out a while ago and experimented a bit, but couldn't really notice an improvement in light hitting the plants when checked with a light meter I'm running it without a reflector at all now, with the tube lower than some of the plant tops like in this exaggerated pic..



It seemed like it could be more efficient

If I ever get a spare £200 I think a digital 400W light and new fan could be on the cards :wink:

[Stan Laurel]

Interesting, I've got a feeling that your subconcious self is trying to go vertical. Afterall, it's only 90 degrees from zee orizontal!

[Redseal]

Heh.. if I had the room I think some kind of cylindrical SCroG would be attempted, to get buds all around the tube. I've seen it done with fluoros with very good results..

A few more pics of one of the older plants. I think it's somewhere around 23 days 12/12 now. I don't think the yellowing's getting any worse, though the spotting on the leaves is spreading.



Already a few hairs turning brown.

And the spotty leaves.. all I can think is acidic soil? The fact it happened on the previous grow aswell with the same bag of soil would point a finger at that anyway. Fairly sure it's not a fungus or anything.

[MandalaMike]

Originally Posted by Redseal

Those two going yellow are in mostly All Mix, the same batch which I used last grow and saw exactly the same yellowing on every plant that was in it (not just the Hashberry) within a short amount of time.

WHY are you growing in this soil again?
We had exactly the same discussion in your first grow where I commented:

"There has been a discussion on All-Mix at another language forum and the general concensus is that this product is not a good choice for indoor cannabis gardens. The NPK levels are probably too unbalanced/potent. What I would suggest is that you get quality potting soil like Compo Sana from a local nursery and repot them in this fresh soil. "

All-Mix contains too high EC level and too much nitrogen for flowering cannabis and indoor grows.

I don't understand why you are repeating the grow in this soil again. The symptoms are just like in the first grow and this will go on.

Mike

[Redseal]

Well, this grow was mostly to use up what was left of bags of soil and all the clones I ended up with from my practising, hence a couple of them ending up in All Mix again. I don't remember previous grows having those spots on them I must say.. just a bit of burning.

As I'm going coco next you'll never hear that soil name again :wink: I've got one in coco/clay at the moment to play around with (as it's all new to me) and it seems a doddle compared to trying to get soil dialed in.. touch wood I'm just following the same EC levels as I read in that Satori coco grow.

[Dr.Ganja]

hi mike what kind of compo sana soil do you recommend?
i have seen those at a garden center and they are half the price of light mix!!