MrHowardMarks' experienced grower journal.

manofmando

Active Member
Questions for the Guru of Ganja or the Wizard of Weed .. alright, I know .. enough.

The top of my widow cola is starting to turn redish in color, but the rest of the plant is staying white as snow. From what I've read, the redish color means it is maturing .. but will the top of the cola mature before the rest of the plant. Do I harvest the top only and leave the rest to grow?

And, the fan leaves of my plants are starting to curl and turn a little brown at the tips. Do you think it's heat stress. The plants are about 6 inches away from a home-made light that consists of (3) 70W HPS and (2) 175W MH lamps .. 560W total. I put my hand under the light and feel no extensive heat .. I've read that if the lamp heat is comfortable to the skin on your hand, then it's okay for your tress .. is it true?
 

Attachments

Quickset

Well-Known Member
Hey MrHowardMarks,

I'm just a fledgling grower to whom this info is eye/brain candy!

+rep for sharing this wonderful journal with us !!! It reads like an unfolding novel !

Thanks,
QS
 

MrHowardMarks

Well-Known Member
^Thanks, I originally didn't intend for if to get this long... I haven't even started blooming :?



Questions for the Guru of Ganja or the Wizard of Weed .. alright, I know .. enough.

The top of my widow cola is starting to turn redish in color, but the rest of the plant is staying white as snow. From what I've read, the redish color means it is maturing .. but will the top of the cola mature before the rest of the plant. Do I harvest the top only and leave the rest to grow?

And, the fan leaves of my plants are starting to curl and turn a little brown at the tips. Do you think it's heat stress. The plants are about 6 inches away from a home-made light that consists of (3) 70W HPS and (2) 175W MH lamps .. 560W total. I put my hand under the light and feel no extensive heat .. I've read that if the lamp heat is comfortable to the skin on your hand, then it's okay for your tress .. is it true?
Yeah, it seems that the plants are getting too much light near the end of the flowering cycle. The bottom branches are much further away than the cola, pics 1 and 2, pic 3 looks pretty normal.

You should taper off the nutes and get ready for the final flush. I ran into this problem once when the tops were right on the light, and the rest of the plant was a foot away. I bent the cola over, and supported it with string tied up to the chain holding the hood. If you don't slow down on the nutes and give them less light in the last few weeks, they will continue to try to grow, and new calyxes will form.

It's not a heat problem if the back of your hand isn't hot, could be overfertilized, since it started at the top. Have you been feeding heavily? Have you flushed at all during flower? If not, it's bprobably nutrient buildup, and excess light, feed them half strength, and flush a week before harvest.
 

manofmando

Active Member
Yep, I've been feeding them heavy. I will cut back from 5 teaspoons to 3. And no, I have not flushed all yet. I was planning on waiting until 2 weeks before harvest. But since I'm using organic nutes, can I cut the final flush time to a week. And for good measure, I'll raise the light further away .. that never hurts anything but the yield.

You're telling me to get ready to harvest soon, but the site I got the seeds from said the flower time is 8/10 weeks. I still have a month to go. Am I missing something, do they look ready?
 

MrHowardMarks

Well-Known Member
Yep, I've been feeding them heavy. I will cut back from 5 teaspoons to 3. And no, I have not flushed all yet. I was planning on waiting until 2 weeks before harvest. But since I'm using organic nutes, can I cut the final flush time to a week. And for good measure, I'll raise the light further away .. that never hurts anything but the yield.

You're telling me to get ready to harvest soon, but the site I got the seeds from said the flower time is 8/10 weeks. I still have a month to go. Am I missing something, do they look ready?
No, they don't look ready...

What I recommend is your next watering, give them plain pHed water... If you use a Humic/Fulvic, or Enzyme, go ahead and use it too... But lay off the nutrients on a feeding a week, with a nice flush of plain water.

With organics, the matter builds up in the soil, the plant doesn't eat it all at once, with an occasional plain feeding, they will eat more of the remaining organic matter, there's plenty of it in there.

If you're using a PPM meter, it can't account for the total dissolved organic matter, if you're peaking at 1200, it's more like 1600...

I think they are being fed too much because of the waxy surface on the leaves, they are very dark green. Also the erradic growth at the tops.

It you bend the tops down, and allow the light to penetrate the bottom of the plant better, you'll use more of the light and get a better result. They look good so far, they will start to fill out in the next couple weeks.

With constant heavy feeding, the results will be compromised, there is an overabundance of nutrients in the soil, and the plant will suffer.

My 2 cents say to bend the tops over, and allow the whole plant to get light, I've supercropped bends into the bottoms of colas a bunch of times.

At the base of the main cola, slowly bend until you feel a slight crunch, not too much, a light pinch and bend, you don't have to be extremely gentle, but don't be superman. Bend it at a 90 degree angle and it'll still fatten up and grow for the light. If it gets too heavy, hold it up with string.
 

bdrsouthsidesunnyshit

Well-Known Member
absolutly an amazing journal you got me hooked! i will definatly be keeping up with this. I am a new grower and i would apreciate all the help that you can give thanks
 

MrHowardMarks

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the interest :mrgreen:

I apologize to anyone who wants links to more information and stuff. I can't load more than one page at a time, and therefore am only speaking from personal experience, or prior research... That being said, I'm not sure of anything, but can give you a decent "guestimate" on what's up.

I learned from trial and error, and trying new things, at a small scale, for example, I'm running 9 DWC buckets, along with the soil. I also had the benefit of helping fellow growers establish their gardens, and learned from their trouble shooting.

Keep it simple it my motto, and if you follow my journal, you'll see how I practice what I preach. :bigjoint:
 

DR. VonDankenstine

Well-Known Member
Very nice brother--hows things moving along? So are you getting ready to flip the lights? Did you run into any problems with the build or did everything goes as planned? Hopefully things are going great for you...
 

MrHowardMarks

Well-Known Member
What's up Doc! :bigjoint:

Nope. No problems, I have 60 definate females cloning, and am setting up a small area to flower some super skunk males for pollination. Taking more clones tomorrow, and a trip to buy a few more bales of moss.

Got a recomendation for amending my mix?

60% Premier Spagnum Peat Moss
40% Perlite
Um... Two 20# bags of earthworm castings per bale.

Someone recommended Dolomite Lime as a pH balancer, but at what ratio? Anyone wanna link me? Or help a dude out?

I tried using the Rockwool chips in the mix... Didn't like the idea, plus it doesn't look good when it's dumped in the garden, had to bury that crap deep. Plus i'm pretty sure it's non recyclable... And insulation is itchy, you shouldn't grow in stuff that makes you itchy right?...

I'm soooo tired and baked, today was a personal holiday we all have once a year... :mrgreen:
 

bdrsouthsidesunnyshit

Well-Known Member
cant wait to see what all your plants are going to look like when they flower i bet it is going to be amazing! Well i just started my own grow journal today it is something i am very new at and as i said earlier any advice would be good. we are hoping to have some seed germinated n in soil in the next two to three days. but plan to update it daily if not more lol. but please any one feel free to give me any advice you want ere is the link to my journal-https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/132306-9-bagseed-grow-journal.html
 

DR. VonDankenstine

Well-Known Member
What's up Doc! :bigjoint:

Nope. No problems, I have 60 definate females cloning, and am setting up a small area to flower some super skunk males for pollination. Taking more clones tomorrow, and a trip to buy a few more bales of moss.

Got a recomendation for amending my mix?

60% Premier Spagnum Peat Moss
40% Perlite
Um... Two 20# bags of earthworm castings per bale.

Someone recommended Dolomite Lime as a pH balancer, but at what ratio? Anyone wanna link me? Or help a dude out?

I tried using the Rockwool chips in the mix... Didn't like the idea, plus it doesn't look good when it's dumped in the garden, had to bury that crap deep. Plus i'm pretty sure it's non recyclable... And insulation is itchy, you shouldn't grow in stuff that makes you itchy right?...

I'm soooo tired and baked, today was a personal holiday we all have once a year... :mrgreen:
Ya- the Dolomite lime will work. Since your using just sphagnum Peat it will take a fair amount of DL---Easy way to get the perfect ratio------mix up all your medium(SPAG/PERLITE/WORMTURDS) then take a gallon of the mix and add 6.5ph'd R/O till wet and let sit 10 mins-next add a quart of the 6.5ph R/O and collect run-off(I know you love it when I say----RUN-OFF:mrgreen:.) note your pH run-off---will be 3.5 to 5.5. Next take another gallon of your mix and add 2 tablespoons of DL and dry-mix well--then repeat the soak and check run-off. If your real lucky your soil run-off will read 6.5- If it is under you can add a little more DL--If it is over 7 use a little less---Now Once you have your gallon perfect you can just multiply that amount of DL by the number of gallons of medium and your pH will be perfect. I shoot for a 6.8 soil pH, then do all my feeds @ 6.3(This allows maximum nutrient uptake and availability as the soil will buffer the nutrients through the 6.3 to 6.8ph range in about 6 to 8 hours from time of feed). Hope all this babble helps and makes since.
 

VictorVIcious

Well-Known Member
ever tried mixing coco-coir in it? I am experimenting with re-using it right now, the last two tables I transplanted are all in the same coir as my last crop. One of the last videos GK did the guy reuses his, I use had been using it in the flowerbeds around the house and decided to try it. I'm using ro water so I am not worried about salt build up. VV
 

MrHowardMarks

Well-Known Member
Wormturds... :clap:

So basically~1 tablespoon per gallon...

What I normally do is give the mix a good rinse of plain pHed water, like a gallon per gallon, and rinse it really well, then I do a pre-nutrient treatment with all the grow shit in it, Mother Earth Grow really lowers the pH, so it might be a problem... But I pH the water, rinse it through, test the runoff, and it stays at the same range, 6.3.
 

yoyoyojoe

Well-Known Member
Hey Mr. Howard,
Love your grow. Had a question about the blueberry. I noticed that about 3 weeks into veg the taller plants are drooping down. I will attach a pic so you can see it. The leaves look totally healthy and they are dark but I feel like the down droop is begining to happen on a few of the plants. I will connect a pic. I am growing the DJ short blueberry and I know you have to so I am just checking in with you.
 

Attachments

Top