Hello Fellow Coconauts!
I am just now ending the first week of flowering, and this is usually the time when I have issues with my grow. I can handle Veg just fine, but there is something about flowering in coco that has been tough to nail down when growing several strains. As a result of the different strains I grow I have accumulated quite a few different nutrients. Dialing in the right level is completely possible given the shelf of stuff I have.
Here are the statistics:
I'm growing 10 different strains: An indica dominant homemade strain, a 50/50 homemade strain, Cronic, Sensi Star, Sour Kush, Sour Cream, Wappa, Warlock, Motavation, and Ice. They are in 3 gallon SmartPots with Canna Coco which was amended with Humboldt Nutrients Myco Maximum (Micro Organisms and some humic). The bottom of each planter contains a 1 inch layer of GrowStones (resemble lava rocks but they're made from recycled plastic). This aids in draining the planter and keeping the base from becoming soggy.
My tap water is very clean, and soft, 59ppm and 7.4 pH every time I test it. I allow it to rest for at least 24 hours. I have two 18 gallon plastic tubs, 1 5 gallon Homer bucket, and two 5 gallon drinking water jugs I use to store my water. At any one time I have around 40 gallons of water on hand. Each watering, at this point, takes around 17 gallons of solution to get adequate run off.
Temperature ranges from 60 on the very low to 78 on the very high. Most of the time it is between 68 lights off and 76 lights on. Humidity has been between 45% and 55% recently, and was lower a few weeks ago (30% to 40%). I don't have much control over humidity at the moment but I think it is cool.
I use a Hanna GroChek Combo pH/uM/ppm meter. I always pH balance to exactly 5.8, I am using TechnaFlora Nitric Acid pH- down.
My most recent feeding was at 325ppm and included:
Canna Coco A @2ml/gallon
Canna Coco B @2ml/gallon
Canna Rhizotonic @2ml/gallon
Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus @1ml/gallon
Humboldt Nutrients SeaMag @2ml/gallon
I collected and tested the run off from all the plants to establish a base line. The average run off was about 1350ppm with the high of 1750ppm and a low of 1000ppm. The run off really just tells me how hungry a plant has been and what environment I have it chilling in. I know it isn't an accurate description of the actual ppm in the media but I can compare my levels to previous run off from other grows with over feeding and learn a lot. My heaviest feeders are usually around 1,500ppm in the run off. My light feeders need it closer to 700ppm. So this tells me I have about 80% of the zone I should be aiming for, which is exactly how I've been feeding and what I wanted the whole time.
As I was feeding I noticed that a few plants, namely those closest to the light, were displaying an issue I battle every grow. A combination of Potassium deficiency, Magnesium deficiency, and what could be nutrient burn. The edges of leaves are curling, the area between veins is bleaching, and it looks a little like heat issues. Since the only leaves affected are those closest to the light, on the plants that are closest to the light, and the plants are within 1 foot of the 1000w Eye Sunlux HPS I expect the issue to be with the proximity to the light and the burning up of chlorophyll.
Here are the sicker plants:
The other plants are doing fine more or less. Some have had a variety of past issues, mostly related to underfeeding and a calcium deficiency prior to incorporating Cal-Mag Plus. Some tips are a little crisped from a previous strong feeding too. Looking at new growth, and previous problems, I can safely and fairly say that at these ppm levels all the plants are doing great now but could be on the brink of something bad.
Right before lights out tonight I foliar fed with a combination of SeaMag and Liquid Karma (with a touch of soap surfactant) to battle the deficiency in the leaves while I can. I figure if I can get the Magnesium and Potassium right where the plant needs it this could help slow the issue and allow me time to dial things in. I focused on the sicker plants but made a point to hit all of them with at least a spritz. The flowers are all very small at this point and I did what I could to keep them from getting sprayed. I figured this would be my last chance to foliar feed, I'd never tried it before, and I'm desperate for a nutritional solution to the problem given the balanced nutrition present in the media.
I plan on the next feeding being on either Sunday or Monday next week. Monday will mark the 14th day from switching to 12/12, and the beginning of what I consider to be the first "real week of flowering."
The plan is to feed with a <800ppm, ~1.4EC, solution containing (per gallon).
Canna Coco A @7ml
Canna Coco B @7ml
Canna Rhizotonic @5ml
Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus @2ml (to offset water softness)
Humboldt Nutrients SeaMag @2ml (to offset water softness and increase the magnesium supply)
Botanicare Liquid Karma @10ml
DynaGro Pro-Tekt @2ml (for the silicon)
Advanced Nutrients Nirvana Bloom enhancer @3ml (basically just an organic tea concentrate, don't bash it)
General Hydroponics Liquid Kool Bloom @1ml (for the PK increase, also includes some Mg)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a bunch of different stuff, but I know what the ppm's are of each nutrient (within reason) and have it all in a pretty good ratio.
I have been using Canna for a while now. The issue I find with it is that it doesn't contain enough Magnesium, and seems to lack that late PK boost plants need in flowering. Hence their own (expensive) supplements. I'm using the Liquid Karma, Nirvana, and KoolBloom like a Canna Boost replacement. The Silicon is great stuff. The Cal-Mag and SeaMag help get the Mg ratio in a better place, at a 3:1 with Calcium rather than 4:1 or worse thanks to the 59ppm in the tap water. The extra Iron in the Cal-Mag Plus helps out, and the potassium and phosphorus in the Sea Mag make it a very balanced additive.
Of the 750ppm's or so, about 450 of that is the Canna Coco nutrients. The extra 300ppm is intended to balance out the cal-mag-potassium issues I see during bloom. I make sure to get a bunch of run off to ensure I wash out residual salts, especially sodium, and to keep the media close to the level I'm giving it.
Up to this point I've been doing all kinds of shit. Different nutrient mixes come and go. Topped the plants, wound up with a bunch of extra females. Check out my journal for more.
Here are the pictures.
Any advice is appreciated. I'd really like for this grow to go better than anything else I've done and am hoping the community will help me out.
The solution I'll be applying tomorrow is dropping my tables to get the plants further than 12 inches from the light (at the closest). Right now some leaves are as close as 8 inches from the glass and those seem to be the only ones bitching much. I'd love to avoid flushing... For the record this is a personal use medical grow for two people. I have the maximum number of plants allowed for myself and the person I live with... it was terrible having to toss good plants for the sake of legality. I will not be selling any of this, it's all going into jars for the summer time when I switch to a long outdoor soil grow.