2nd Try.. Purple Train Wreck needs a fixin!

Hi guys n gals. This is my second attempt, the pictures are from Friday 7/26/19 end of week 3 from the clone shop.

My first was medical mass and I proceeded to neut burn .. light burn .. and every other burn to those poor plants. Needless to say it did not turn out great.

This time I am fairly confident I still don't know what I am doing however I have made a few adjustments to how I monitor things like PH and PPM as well as added another ES 300 on top of a 180 (So I can burn the plants more) I also added a CO2 bag, humidifier, 2 extra fans for more climate control.

I am using the 3 basic fox farm neuts as well as ocean forest soil also by them. (Don't judge me!)

I feed 2 times a week with a gallon of water for each plant.

PH is measured after neuts are mixed in with water and is typically between 5.8-6.2 (Soil Meter says 7.0..)
PPM on week 3 was 750 going and 2300 ppm runoff and I plan to flush with another gallon next watering.

So I have a lot of questions.. lol

What are the brown spots? Matching the pictures it looks like PH Fluctuation but that would mean my meter is definitely off. However I really have no idea.

Should I remove the leaves?

Am I correctly monitoring the PPM and flushing properly for soil?

Does it appear that I topped the plants correctly??

WHEN should I prune the leaves below the canopy and how much should I take off above the canopy for optimal air flow and light penetration?

The plants are about 3 feet from the lights right now and I can only raise the lights about 6 more inches. Judging by the pictures, how much taller will the plants get?

I can't think of anymore questions atm but I really want to nail this one!
Any help is greatly appreciated =)

Anyone? =)

codylee said:

Anyone? =)

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Okay you say soil. Exactly what medium are you using? You say OF. Your runoff is crazy. Don’t flush anything considering your feeds. Just water a few times but don’t overwater. Take something long and thin and pierce everywhere through your medium. Especially multiple times through the hardened root mass under the plant. It will not hurt it. It will help oxygen and it will help use the retained nutes in the mass. For a start.

If you are feeding every time I suggest watering twice for every feeding. Flushing is of little help to the roots. Cultivate, aerate and wait. Then straight water. No need to pH adjust. But wait until it actually needs water. Then water thoroughly. Enough so some reaches the bottom. It will trickle down. Those are the roots most responsible for water and nutrient uptake. Higher roots believe it or not want oxygen.

hotrodharley said:

Okay you say soil. Exactly what medium are you using? You say OF. Your runoff is crazy. Don’t flush anything considering your feeds. Just water a few times but don’t overwater. Take something long and thin and pierce everywhere through your medium. Especially multiple times through the hardened root mass under the plant. It will not hurt it. It will help oxygen and it will help use the retained nutes in the mass. For a start.

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Hi thanks for the answer. Let me see if I got this straight

1. I need to stab the roots gently with something thin all the way to the bottom to aerate the roots especially at an angle to get under the plant?
2. Afterwards I need to water them without adjusting the ph but do not give them a gallon of water like I have been doing, maybe half that?
3. Then I need to wait until they really do need water and give them a good flush before continuing my feeding schedule?
4. After all of that should I continue to feed the plants once with the gallon of neuted water and then water them twice afterwards? Will this manage my ppm better?

codylee said:

Hi thanks for the answer. Let me see if I got this straight

1. I need to stab the roots gently with something thin all the way to the bottom to aerate the roots especially at an angle to get under the plant?
2. Afterwards I need to water them without adjusting the ph but do not give them a gallon of water like I have been doing, maybe half that?
3. Then I need to wait until they really do need water and give them a good flush before continuing my feeding schedule?
4. After all of that should I continue to feed the plants once with the gallon of neuted water and then water them twice afterwards? Will this manage my ppm better?

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Doesn’t even have to be gentle. I mean pierce the hell of it all. Especially under the plant. It will be hard. You won’t like the feeling probably but honest they’ll be better immediately.

Wait until it’s fairly dry. Then water thoroughly enough to wet the medium. The piercing helps get it down low.

With your runoff ppm I suggest two straight waterings. They will not be deficient. Then suggest feeding once and watering twice.

Do not worry about runoff pH.

hotrodharley said:

Doesn’t even have to be gentle. I mean pierce the hell of it all. Especially under the plant. It will be hard. You won’t like the feeling probably but honest they’ll be better immediately.

Wait until it’s fairly dry. Then water thoroughly enough to wet the medium. The piercing helps get it down low.

With your runoff ppm I suggest two straight waterings. They will not be deficient. Then suggest feeding once and watering twice.

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So I woke up this morning and it seems its spreading to the other leaves Got at least one new leaf looking like this on each plant..

I did however take your advice and start stabbing the root mass, and I am actually removing them from the buckets today (might help aeration)

I am waiting until they dry out now. For my next feeding should I be adding the tiger bloom if I want to send them into flower over the next week or two? or should I wait until this problem is resolved before doing anything like that?

codylee said:

So I woke up this morning and it seems its spreading to the other leaves Got at least one new leaf looking like this on each plant..

I did however take your advice and start stabbing the root mass, and I am actually removing them from the buckets today (might help aeration)

I am waiting until they dry out now. For my next feeding should I be adding the tiger bloom if I want to send them into flower over the next week or two? or should I wait until this problem is resolved before doing anything like that?

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Needs calcium. Give cal mag plus you can foliar spray magnesium on. A tablespoon per gallon of water. Unscented Epsom salts.

Cal mag per instructions. Usually a teaspoon or 5 ml per gallon.

hotrodharley said:

Needs calcium. Give cal mag plus you can foliar spray magnesium on. A tablespoon per gallon of water. Unscented Epsom salts.

Cal mag per instructions. Usually a teaspoon or 5 ml per gallon.

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Heya.

I should mention I am using purified water so I should have definitely been using CALMAG from the beginning as far as what the internet is telling me...

My question then is, how often should I put the calmag into the feed if I am feeding 1 time a week then watering 2 times a week? Do I add it each time I feed or every time I put water in?

codylee said:

Heya.

I should mention I am using purified water so I should have definitely been using CALMAG from the beginning as far as what the internet is telling me...

My question then is, how often should I put the calmag into the feed if I am feeding 1 time a week then watering 2 times a week? Do I add it each time I feed or every time I put water in?

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If using purified I’d say a little each time. Not an entire teaspoon. Perhaps 1/2.

For the future, as well as for flowering these girls, you can make a sort of tea from eggshells, it helped me overcome a calcium deficiency. 10 to 20 eggshells, inner membrane removed, rinsed, dried, and crushed, to one gallon of water. Bring the water to a boil, add the eggshells, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 24 hours. Strain and use to water your plants. Eggshells are calcium carbonate, and have magnesium, zinc, iron and phosphorous. You can also mix the used eggshells into your soil for the next grow. For this grow calmag is more efficient, and has micronutrients like iron and zinc.

CanadianJim said:

If you've already got calmag, there's no reason not to use it. The eggshell tea is more of a preventive, that can be used in addition to a lot of regular nutes as it has no nitrogen.

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Oh okay! Do you have any suggestions on the post above by chance?

hotrodharley said:

Needs calcium. Give cal mag plus you can foliar spray magnesium on. A tablespoon per gallon of water. Unscented Epsom salts.

Cal mag per instructions. Usually a teaspoon or 5 ml per gallon.

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Update, I did a lot of googling the other day and am really starting to understand what is on the back of the fox farm neuts. Needless to say my feeding methods was a bit willy nilly and next grow will be much better start.. for now lets save these girls!!!

So I watered with just the calmag which has 1% nitrogen 3% Calcium 0.9% magnesium. I used my usual purified drinking water with a PH of around 6.3 after neuts and a PPM run off of 1900 down from 2300.

They seem to have perked up a bit from the other day but I'm not too sure. I'm including pictures of the back of my bottles to give you guys a better sense of what I'm working with so you don't have to look it up for this next question.

Looking at the feeding schedule in the past, whats on the back of the bottles and by how the plants look. What should be my next move as far as pushing these gals into flowering and a feeding schedule look like??

CanadianJim said:

For the future, as well as for flowering these girls, you can make a sort of tea from eggshells, it helped me overcome a calcium deficiency. 10 to 20 eggshells, inner membrane removed, rinsed, dried, and crushed, to one gallon of water. Bring the water to a boil, add the eggshells, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 24 hours. Strain and use to water your plants. Eggshells are calcium carbonate, and have magnesium, zinc, iron and phosphorous. You can also mix the used eggshells into your soil for the next grow. For this grow calmag is more efficient, and has micronutrients like iron and zinc.

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Wow that is a great DIY option. I may just do this if the calmag I got is insufficient enough. Thoughts?!

If you've already got calmag, there's no reason not to use it. The eggshell tea is more of a preventive, that can be used in addition to a lot of regular nutes as it has no nitrogen.

Hey =)

Just wanted you guys to look at my plants for week 6 and tell me I'm headed in the right direction here.

From those pictures before to these pictures at week 6 I feel like I'm properly feeding now.

Basically what I did was flush the system, switch to my city water at 200ppm (fixing calcium issue without calmag) and fed at half of what I was at a ph of 5.8

So.. How they looking pro growers?

I wouldn't call myself a pro, but they look good to me. By week 6 I assume you mean 6 weeks since you flipped the lights to 12/12?

CanadianJim said:

I wouldn't call myself a pro, but they look good to me. By week 6 I assume you mean 6 weeks since you flipped the lights to 12/12?

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No that's week 6 in total Flipped last Friday. So the 9th

There are minerals in tap water that are needed by plants. Calcium for example.

codylee said:

No that's week 6 in total Flipped last Friday. So the 9th

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That's some quick bud growth for just 8 days.
Nice.