Al B. FAQt

[xxtoadxx]

so what your saying is... when im using just straight up water to water my plants, since i feed every other watering, use ph down to hit 6.2-6.6 and not just say fuck it if it read 7-7.5? bad bad bad?

 

[purpdaddy]

Al look im not trying to fight with you just thinking maybe im wrong but i am openm inded....how do you maintain a succesfull grow with your ph in the 8's?

 

[corral hollow kid]

so what your saying is... when im using just straight up water to water my plants, since i feed every other watering, use ph down to hit 6.2-6.6 and not just say fuck it if it read 7-7.5? bad bad bad?

Are you growing hydro? or some hybrid/hydro/soil setup?

My nutes are in my reservoir and nuke my girls EVERY time I water. How do you feed "every other watering" with a "hydroponic" system?

and yes. If you have a "hydroponic" system then your "target" pH is 5.8. Anything over 6.2 (I think) and your locking out nutes.

Look back a few pages in this thread, Al has posted the ph/nutrient scale. It's in vivid color!!! But it's all here in Black and White!!!

I gotta go check my pH.

 

[toast master]

Hey chumlie ... im pretty sure al wont give up on ya... just try to follow instructions to the letter.... dont wonder off.... stick to the plan... and if you do... welllll .....you know what then... buds a bunches....

 

[Al B. Fuct]

sometimes being patient is much better than lobbing one in there..lol good luck

Patience is a topic I haven't touched on recently. New growers are expectant and anxious to do the right thing and you can't fault them for having enthusiasm. However, it's that enthusiasm which more often than not leads to disaster. Noobs kill with kindness, overwatering and overfertilising with astounding regularity.

This process does take time! It's a minimum of 14 weeks (yes, 3.5 mos) from beans to buds. We shortcut that by several weeks in SoG, where mother plants supply a constant flow of clones to be flowered.

New growers should work on spending as little time as possible on the plants. Sit in the grow room & fawn over your work if you must, but resist the urge to fiddle and change things.

Al-- Thanks,for the input. The downward line is the cool air intake from under the house.

Yeah, that's what I kinda thought was happening. It's gotta go somewhere and under the house is a great place. Cuts noise and reduces any heat signature, while the latter isn't really too much of a worry.

So I am still having a hell of a time finding 50% H2O2 - can readily find 35% H2O2, so I just ordered a bunch of HyOx (35% H2O2 from Advanced Nutrients) at $20.00 per gallon, $28.00 after shipping.

That's not too bad. Will last you a while.

This morning I put 35% H2O2 into my tank at a rate of 8.5ml/L. I corrected the pH back to 5.8. Then I partially filled the e&f pots BELOW the level of the RW cubes...I hope! I let that set for about 20 minutes, then pumped it back out. I let the system e&f 1 complete time after that to try and get the H2O2 mixed in good throughout the system.

good, good, good

The pH seems to be stabilized again at 5.8. BUT...just to be sure I dosed the tank again and let it sit for a couple hours. The water is clearing up and the smell is going away.

yep, that's what we want! When your tanks remain clear & pH steady, you're on top of it.

I seriously don't know what I would have done if you had not turned me on to the wonders of H2O2. Thanks again Al!!! I'll get to cleaning and let you know how it goes.

Yep, you may have to do a little work to mechanically remove what the chemicals are having a hard time getting to.

Light, Air, Water, Nutrients, pH & Pathogen Control. Is that all I need?

That's the whole crate of bananas.

Oh Yeah - I ordered calibration/cleaning solutions for my pH & ec pens!!! I Gotta know what the pH is at ALL times!!! (I got ec vs ppm because Ionic nutes use ec instead of ppm for target ranges)

Yes, you have to have accurate metering. Otherwise, you're like an electrician without a voltmeter.

The scale doesn't matter, my TDS Truncheon is calibrated in EC & ppm. ppm is the preferred scale in the US and due to the number of US users on cannabis boards, is a widely used figure in cannabis discussion forums.

do you have to wait until you see preflowers before you can put a plant into flower. i thought if you started the plant on 12 hours of darkness it will flower.

You can't sex the plant until it is showing preflowers. If you chuck it in to flower before you know the sex, you have a 50% chance of wasting some of your flowering area space on males.

Even if you do get some females out of the plants that you flowered before they were showing preflowers, cuttings taken from plants in flower are notoriously slow to set root. A plant which has been in flower is thus not useful for cuttings, so those prematurely flowered plants won't be good mums. If you do manage to get a cutting from a flowering plant to set root, that clone will itself be in flower. If you want to use it as a mother plant, it will have to be re-vegged. It can take 6-8 weeks to return a plant in flower to full veg state growth. In the meantime, it will throw out some weird, mixed habit growth, with long 1-bladed fan leaves and slow vertical growth.

The right way to do it is to sprout your beans, grow them to sexual maturity (showing preflowers), take cuttings, root them, flower those cuts to determine sex of the donor plants, then proceed to take batches of cutting off the now known females which have remained under veg lighting.

What do you think about dutchmaster, and dutchmaster gold you, Al, are anybody else?

No opinion. I use Canna 2-part nutes because they're easy & reliable. No 3-part confusions going on in this op.

DAMN!!! Getting close to that 100 page mark!!!

It's madness. The readership stats on this thread are going a bit mad, up to 427/day, climbing every day. It is starting to get a little out of control... I'm spending too much time at the PC.

hmmm u have pics chumlie of ur sick plants from maybe ph over 7.0? maybe im having the same prob? my ph meter reads my water at like 9.0.... then i add grow big and it lowers it to 6.2.-6.6 with cal-mag.... i have used ph down once, but is it necessary? is 9.0 crazy ph or what? if i fed my plants with 9.0 ph what would they look like?

You'd see a lot of nute deficiencies as almost all nutes would be locked out.

5.8 is the place to be.

 

[xxtoadxx]

thanks again

 

[firsttimegroww]

Albf im trying to do sog as well and you said cut everything on the bottem 1/3 AND all branches that are longer then a couple inches?
But Almost ALL my branches are longer then a couple inches, if i cut them all off i will just have the main stem. Is that right?

 

[Return of the Spork]

Ill tell you what, this is the first thread I check when I get on the forums. I learned method from everywhere else, I learned details from you.

 

[Old in the Way]

THanks for the reply Al.

My Veg room where all seedlings are being raised to be parents/mums
1kw MH 2-2.5ft from seedlings (8 days of veg so far)
1200ppm Ionic Nutes, 5.8ph
74-78 f. lights on-has hit 80 twice
69-72 f. lights off-has hit 67 once
50-55% RH (at times as low as 45 and high of 60)

I don't think I have anything "going on" in the veg room other than the original stretch a week ago immediately following germination.

Everything is growing well-just a few of the severe cases from my original query are waiting for the stem to thicken up and better support the vegetation. They are healthy and thickening steadily so they should recover. Height restrictions are not an issue for me so taller mums do not pose a problem for the space.

I can clone for sex by week 4 or 5 instead of waiting for preflowers right?
Or whenever the plant has suitable branches?

Again thanks for helping to fill in the blanks.

 

[xxtoadxx]

hey corral thx for the advice, im using ocean forrest fox farm soil 3.5 gallon pots since clone

 

[Phinxter]

Al B. a buddy of mine recently gave me a 50 pack of rapid rooter plugs for cloning to try out his method... which he says gets him 100% strike rate in 6 to 9 days.
he failed to mention how moist he leaves them

have you ever used or seen rapid rooter plugs used and if so how much moisture would you recommend.
the packaging says to soak in water to rehydrate them however i notice this leaves them soaked.
they are very sponge like so i squeezed out excess moisture leaving them only damp as you describe for RW cubes.
any suggestions from anyone thats used these please chime in as i dont want to waste 40 or so clones due to not knowing how to use these rapid rooters.
here is a link to the exact same product
High Tech Garden Supply

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Albf im trying to do sog as well and you said cut everything on the bottem 1/3 AND all branches that are longer then a couple inches?
But Almost ALL my branches are longer then a couple inches, if i cut them all off i will just have the main stem. Is that right?

In SoG, you're looking only to grow the top cola an the few buds down the mainstem from it. Should wind up looking like these:

Ill tell you what, this is the first thread I check when I get on the forums. I learned method from everywhere else, I learned details from you.

heh, thanks

I don't think I have anything "going on" in the veg room other than the original stretch a week ago immediately following germination.

ah, ok

I can clone for sex by week 4 or 5 instead of waiting for preflowers right?
Or whenever the plant has suitable branches?

Nope. Have to wait until there are preflowers before you can sex them.

Folks, the rate of questions and posts in this thread is starting to get out of control. I'm putting about 6h+/day in this now to cover them all and that's become excessive. I have to get more done in my own op. Apologies if I don't get to your queries for a day or two, but I gotta get my own house in order.

 

[potroast]

Thread closed temporarily ...

 

[Al B. Fuct]

OK, thread's back open. I'm still pretty busy, so if you have a query, please be patient.

 

[GypsyBush]

Welcome Back...!!!

 

[Phinxter]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great to have you back.
1st question i have is regarding LED lights to supplement my 2 x 23 watt cfl ... ok ok just kidding. LOL sorry
really tho my question maybe should be in your clones section.
i have been getting much better results cloning since reading your thread on the subject . my question is this regarding 1 strain i have "urkle" and its very bushy.
i have 2 choices in clone material from this plant would you recommend shorter clones with softer lighter green new growth or longer clones with a thicker more mature stem?
clones are rooted in rapid rooter plugs in a clear tupperware tub with the lid on under a 4 tube T5 and hand watered with tap water

 

[Al B. Fuct]

1st question i have is regarding LED lights to supplement my 2 x 23 watt cfl ...

Won't work worth a damn unless you use an Aerogarbage with 50% molasses, 50% Carbo Load and 50% fulvic acid.

i have 2 choices in clone material from this plant would you recommend shorter clones with softer lighter green new growth or longer clones with a thicker more mature stem?

Stem material which has gone woody will set root, but the fresher material is usually quicker to root and more vigorous. Ideal cutting material is fresh growth with a thick stem, >5.5mm dia seems to be a good target.

 

[fitzyno1]

Hi Al, welcome back.

Around a month ago you were comparing circulating DWC to flood and drain.
Now, one of the problems you mentioned with the circulating DWC was that it could overflow, because the roots could clog up the exit pipe, for the nutrients.
This here exit hole...
View attachment 195353
I thought that if i got mesh, hot glue the mesh 1/4 the way up from the bottom of the buckets (inside the bucket offcourse), i could prevent the overflow from happening, but now i'm skeptical, because the roots might grow into the mesh and make matters worse.
This is the nylon mesh i got...

It has 1mm holes. The buckets are 5 gallon and the plants will be fully grown.
What do you think?
Would it be possible to clog the 'hole' mesh up?
Or do you see anything else that could go wrong?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Hi Al, welcome back.

Around a month ago you were comparing circulating DWC to flood and drain.

I was? I did? Are you sure it was me?

Now, one of the problems you mentioned with the circulating DWC was that it could overflow, because the roots could clog up the exit pipe, for the nutrients.

This really doesn't sound familiar. Can you link me to what you say I said?

Where's pix of the rest of this system?

 

[Phinxter]

AL B. in your mind is there any hydro method that is suitable for rooting clones or will this always be a hand water due to the clones tender needs ?
granted it gives me a reason to be in my grow room a couple times a day to check on them but just like you i too can be a lazy stoner at times and forget my clones