So I did a Topdressing like two weeks ago, a rather light one I believe… I priced some leaves yellowing/dying lower on the plant which may just be from lack of light, but I was thinking maby I should do a light topdress with the craft blend?
You said it can be hot, should I mix it in with some wetted compost and let it sit for a few days?
Lastly, I’m 3 weeks and 3 days into flower. Is it too late to cut a few branches that I think should go? When I see most people defoliate, seems like a lot will take even the leaves off drom the bottom of the plant… I left the leaves and just snipped of branches/shoots. Here’s a pic.
Correct. Not uncommon for plants to "cannibalize" themselves, so to speak. As you pointed out, they aren't getting light anymore, so the plant effectively sucks the nutrients/etc. from the leaf until it falls into the soil and continues the process.
"Hot" is a bit of a confusing term in living soil because it can mean two things.
The word "hot" is typically associated with either root burn, or nutrient burn, and in some cases both at the same time.
Take root burn for instance; this happens because the organic amendments are decomposing at such a quick rate that it creates literal heat. Stick a thermometer in your compost pile one of these days, seeing temps of 150F or more is not uncommon. Needless to say, if the roots are exposed to these temps, you'll literally fry your roots because the substrate will heat up to 150F+ temps, burn your roots, and kill your plant quick.
Like Alfalfa Meal, very mild NPK of 2-1-2 or whatever, right? But it decomposes quickly, so quickly that it can cause high temps like listed above. In this case, the plant suffers from root burn, but not nutrient burn.
The NPK of the Alfalfa isn't what caused the burn, the rate at which it decomposed caused the burn.
Nutrient burn is something we're all familiar with. Put too much
readily available nutrients in the substrate, and your plant will absorb it, whether it needs it or not. Blood/Bone Meals, guanos, and anything with excessive Phosphorus will be your likely culprits of nute burn in an organic garden.
A good rule of thumb; if your NPK values are <8, you will likely never see nutrient burn. The catch to this is that you'll need to top dress every week or two.
Using a light bloom mix such as a 4-8-4, or 4-6-2 allows us to top dress weekly, with the only negative consequences being diminishing returns.
Outdoors, or underneath DE bulbs or LEDs such as yours, weekly top dresses are not uncommon.
As for the removal of bottom growth on the plant; short answer is to consistently remove the bottom 1/4-1/3 of growth, long answer below.
3-4 weeks into 12/12 is my final prune for the plants, personally. Pruning is an ongoing process. We aren't defoliating, we want those fat fan leaves to keep "fueling" our fat buds, so to speak. So much so, that we prune the undergrowth that is below the main canopy. The main canopy being your top buds, and the fan leaves associated with them.
3 weeks into flower is a good time to not only cut off the last of your undergrowth, but clone the branches you remove into "monster crops" as I believe they're called. Anything that is "shaded" beneath the canopy, I personally remove. If it hasn't made it to the canopy by week 3 of flower, its obviously never going to hit the canopy, so it can be removed.
Removing undergrowth is necessary. The undergrowth that doesn't get enough light can throw bananas out on you, as the buds underneath the canopy believes its near the end of its life cycle. It isn't uncommon for these underbuds to throw bananas. It also takes resources from the precious canopy.
All that said? Just watch it grow, and combine your own observations with what knowledge you've gathered online. You'll develop your own style/approach to things that tailor you personally, and will eventually find yourself being able to answer many questions yourself after enough trial and error. Fucking up will teach you way more than most of us can.
It’s hard to tell I know, going to keep it much cleaner next time… thoughts on what/if I should do anything?
@kratos015 I tagged you bc youve been helpful and didn’t think you’d mind, but this is for anyone to answer
My personal rule of thumb for pruning is keeping the bottom 1/3 of the plant pruned and clean. I do this for all of the plants that I grow, its a huge deal. Increases air flow/circulation, makes it more difficult for pests/mold to colonize the plants, makes your top buds larger, removes your chances of bananas, and so forth.
I do this from clones in solo cups up to week 3 of flower. 12 inch clone, bottom 3-4 inches of growth is removed. 3ft tall plant, bottom 1ft of growth is removed.
You'll get some skinny branches that look like they're attempting to reach the canopy. Prune the tiny buds on the skinny branches until you have just the top cluster of buds on said branch. Eyeball that branch until week 3 of flower, if it doesn't reach the canopy by week 3, cut the branch off and clone it if you desire.
Just be mindful about cloning plants in flower for "monster cropping". Can make for big plants, but takes weeks to make those clones viable. The clones have to reveg, and then stay in veg for a few weeks before you attempt to flower them. Its a 4-6 week process taking clones from a flowering plant. Making them go from flower, back to veg, and back to flower again too quickly can and will result in problems.
Have you ever ran into problems adding a topdress that you ended up not needing, and locking out nutes? I know organics can be a little more forgiving, but could see it causing issues still
Never, however, that is exactly why I use light amendment blends such as 4-4-4, 4-8-4, 4-6-2, etc.
Mixes with such low NPK values will ensure you pretty much never overfeed. You could top dress twice a week with that stuff and you'd never experience any lockout related to over-fertilizing. The only consequence would be potential waste from diminishing returns, that's it.
The only ways you could lock out nutes from overdoing things is applying too much P, or applying too much Ca, Mg, and/or K.
Nitrogen is difficult to overdo in organics as much more than the plant is using Nitrogen.
P, Ca, and K are the most common nutrients to overdo. Ca especially, as some soil recipes seem to call for a lot of it. I've found it best to omit Gypsum if Crab Meal and Dolomite Lime/OSF are being used.
Stick with NPK values < 8, and you'll likely never see nutrient related issues. If you do, its more likely from overwatering than actual nutrient issues.
I meant my lack of defoliating, you think I made the right choice not defoliating too much? That’s what I meant by keeping it cleaner.
I do chop and drop my leaves ontop of the straw. I didn’t think about it spraying the straw/leaves though, good idea. Do you spray just water, or you probably add aloe/coconut sometimes huh?
I have this blumat system I STILL havnt set up, someone sent me a helpful link to setting it up though.
Lastly, you think I should topdress some craft blend? The plants look good, but want to stay ahead of any issues.
I'm guessing when you say "defoliate" you are likely referring to pruning undergrowth and not actually removing fan leaves, yes?
If you're in the middle of week 3, it might be too late to go crazy with pruning, however you should be able to prune a little bit at week 3. Weed is a tough plants, even in flower. Removing branches may seem counterproductive, however in the long run it'll be more stressful for the plant to leave certain branches on the plant. As the plant will be constantly attempting to get buds to grow that receive little to no light, that too can cause stress.
I always spray the mulch with water first prior to watering the actual plants. I water until the mulch "changes color" so to speak from being soaked in water. After that, I let it sit for a few minutes, then come back and individual water the plants in the bed with my hose+shower attachment.
Anything like coconut water, liquid fish, or what have you, I just put it into a 1g bottle, dilute with water, and hand water it in.
I top dress every 1-2 weeks (depending on plant size) for the exact reason of staying ahead of the game. This way, as the plant is absorbing the last of the previous top dress, the newest top dress will begin decomposing and will be ready once the plant needs it.
I don't think Craft Blend is that hot. I use that stuff straight and don't have any issues. The seabird guano is what I noticed is hot.
Craft Blend is pretty much just the ingredients from Coot's recipe combined in a bucket and sold by BAS, isn't it? Should be light enough to top dress every 1-2 weeks without any negative consequences.
Pretty much all your guanos are going to be extremely hot, even the low NPK value ones. It decomposes extremely fast, so if top dressing with it, use it very sparingly as you don't want it causing hot spots in your soil. Guano can burn roots in under a week, takes no time at all.
I'd put guano in a compost pile, and then wait for the compost to be ready and apply it that way. All the benefits of the guano without any of the root burn.
