Ice, Rocklock and Crystal, grow. Foliar feeding experiment, started 12/12 Sept. 25th

jawbrodt said:

And here's a couple more, still day 13, just because I had my camera out, and felt like it,lol....

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Looking great man! Can't wait to see how big the buds get!

you make me want to go and take pics for my journal.. see ya

oh and looking good

Holy shit, they must've been hungry as hell. Look at the way the leaves perked up, 2 hours after I fed them....


I'm a tad concerned about the slight upwards curl on some of those upper leaves, but not too much. I'm hoping that was due to the temps being a little high,(82-83*. now 78*) and the humidity being a little low.(28%, now 32%)

Anyway,...did those things react quick, or what?

they sure did man looking great!!

jawbrodt said:

Holy shit, they must've been hungry as hell. Look at the way the leaves perked up, 2 hours after I fed them....


I'm a tad concerned about the slight upwards curl on some of those upper leaves, but not too much. I'm hoping that was due to the temps being a little high,(82-83*. now 78*) and the humidity being a little low.(28%, now 32%)

Anyway,...did those things react quick, or what?

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That's exactly what you want bro! They are eagerly stretching/growing. Mine react in the same manner, it's completely normal and what you want to see.

Is this the first nutrients the plants have gotten?

^Hey, thanks for the reassurance. I wasn't real worried, except for those ones in the back, with the slight curling. It's their second feeding, except for the foliar feedings they've been getting for the last 4 weeks, or so. I fed them last watering(5 days ago) with Calmag Plus and Dynagro bloom. I'm thinking about top-dressing with worm castings, next time I water, for that one last dose of nitrogen, which I hope, will carry them through the rest of my grow. Sound like a plan, or do the worm castings take too long to have much effect?

jawbrodt said:

^Hey, thanks for the reassurance. I wasn't real worried, except for those ones in the back, with the slight curling. It's their second feeding, except for the foliar feedings they've been getting for the last 4 weeks, or so. I fed them last watering(5 days ago) with Calmag Plus and Dynagro bloom. I'm thinking about top-dressing with worm castings, next time I water, for that one last dose of nitrogen, which I hope, will carry them through the rest of my grow. Sound like a plan, or do the worm castings take too long to have much effect?

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I worried some too when my leaves first started curling but no biggie. I would say worm castings can only help, but I wouldn't for-see it making or breaking anything at this point in your grow. I agree with a late dose of nitrogen, it should keep more leaves greener, longer(especially near the bottom). Im sure you have a different brand but I use Fox Farms Grow Big for example. May be a better route than worm castings imo.

^I use Dynagro nutes, and might go half and half with the Grow and Bloom, next feeding. They are still really nice and green, so I don't want to risk using too much N. I did that when I first bought the fert, and it really hurt my yield. I plan to stick with the Grow(veg fert) via foliar-feeding, til week 4, then probably switch to Bloom, entirely. The foliar is keep the N levels up, almost perfectly, and I'm thinking this grow my work out the way I want it to. I want them to be juuussst yellowing, when they're finished. That's preference, of course. Some guys like to keep 'em fully green til the end, but I like mine to be starting to yellow. That leaves less chlorophyll, and the grassy taste leaves the smoke, sooner. IDK, still experimenting, and I assume, I always will be. Keeps it interesting, IMO.


Oh yeah, some good news....they look much better today. Still nice and perky, but not quite as much. That slight curl is gone too, so I can rest my mind. Pheew. Now, it's back to waiting, impatiently.lol


Got good news, guys. They look even better today, still perky, but no curl anymore. Sweet, that eased my mind.

I agree with you on letting them yellow quite a bit before harvest. Not only does it remove the planty smell/taste, but also allows the plant to focus on solely the buds during late flowering.

I kinda like when they react to waterings/nutes lol. Neat to see the leaves yearning for growth.

Kantr said:

I agree with you on letting them yellow quite a bit before harvest. Not only does it remove the planty smell/taste, but also allows the plant to focus on solely the buds during late flowering.

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That's what I was thinking, based on my past results. I had one grow tho went yellow really early(my fault.lol), but still yielded really well, and good potency, too. On the other hand, I had one grow that got too much nitrogen during flowering, and the harvest ended up much worse than the deficient one. The overfert wasn't even that bad, just enough to make the leaves really dark, with a slight curl downwards, and burnt tips. It was borderline fertburn, with no real leaf damage. Anyway, it seemed like the plants put more energy into growing foliage, than budding. The buds ended up pretty airy, and really leafy. Wasn't very impressive, to say the least. That's what I have so far, but stay tuned for futher lesting, in the future,lol......

5 days later, day 21, of being on 12/12.......

They got one foliar feed since the last pics, and last night, got root-fed some Dynagro Bloom, Calmag Plus, and Protekt, all full strength. So far, so good...

Ya know what's interesting? The Crystal and the Ice strains, are both White Widow's offspring, and it's amazing at how different they look. The Ice is clearly indica dominant, with their huge fan leaves, and the Crystal, is very sativa-like, with very thin fan leaves. They are both short strains, and strangely enough, the Crystal is a very dark green plant. From my past experience, indicas are usually the darker of the two. The Crystal always looks like it's riding the edge of fert burn, even though it isn't. Even though it doesn't even have burst leaf tips, or have ever been fed any veg fert, it's always been super-dark green, almost purplish in color. Interesting.


Yes, I am purposely bumping this, because I'm an attention whore.

subscribed

^Sweet. Ya know, I have two more 400 watt HPS's laying around, and am thinking about adding them to the light rail, in addition to the 400 and 600, that are already there. That'd be 1,800 watts in a 3' x 6' area.(100 watts per square foot) Should kick some ass, huh?

jawbrodt said:

Thanks, the T8's are working beautifully.

For the foliar feeding, I mix a liter of water with Calmag at 1/2 strength, add 20 units(from a insulin syringe) of Protekt, a bit of regular MG fert(estimated at 1/8 strength), and a drop or two, of dish soap.(w/o ammonia, bleach, etc..) The Protekt work like PH Up, and keeps the mix at about 6.5. I fed them in two sessions, about 1/2 hour apart,(drying time in between. also, fans are off) 1/2 liter each time, soaking both tops and bottoms of foliage, thoroughly.

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why use soap, ammonia and bleach? wouldnt that be bad for anything alive? i am a newbie so I am very curious as to why this is used and if I should be trying it as well..lol

jawbrodt said:

I started some more training yesterday,(day 10 of 12/12) and I like the way the plants are reacting to it. It's sotra like a SCROG/LST/supercrop, cross, but I'm going to call it LST. That fit's best, I think. I'm hoping this stretching period leaves me with a bunch of 6-10" mini-colas, in addition to the mains, once I release them. Not much more to say, othert than they got a foliar feeding before the training, of full strength Dynagro Grow, and Calmag Plus. Today, I gave them a spraying of straight water. Anyway, here's their current state.....

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Yeah Bro plants are looking awsome at this stage and i like how you trained your plants,I had the same problem with my ladies few days ago,them growing more lanky after i put them into 12/12 with a spectrun change,(i use 250w cfls),so i just supercroped the lot and they have loved it.
We seem to be at the same stage of the growth so will be subbed to join you..
I however have 4 Raspberry Cough ladies so a different strain on the go
Best of luck

Awesome man, do you have a journal yet? If not, send me a link sometime, 'cause I'd like to check it out. How long til they finish?(approx.) Ice and Crystal are both fast-finishers, smokeable just before week 8, and done around week 9. IDK about the Rocklock, it was a freebie, that I don't know much about.

oceanic6 said:

why use soap, ammonia and bleach? wouldnt that be bad for anything alive? i am a newbie so I am very curious as to why this is used and if I should be trying it as well..lol

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You have to use the cheap soap without additives, like bleach, chlorine, etc... The soap breaks the surface tension of the water, preventing droplets from forming,(beading up) making for a 'wetter' leaf, and more efficient foliar feeding. I only add a drop or two, per liter of foliar mix, and it seems to work well. It hasn't caused any harm to them either, if that's what you were worried about?

i read it wrong. I thought you said you use soap and also add ammonia and bleach... But i see what you mean now. thanks for clearing it up

Jawbrodt, your plants are looking great! Good choice in Ice and Crystal. I am trying White Rhino, Wonder Woman, Snow White, and Master Kush next, all from Nirvana. I am continuing with Ice and Blueberry Widow, but dropping Crystal. You will have to keep me posted with your finished products. All of these new seeds have just sprouted. Let me know how your Crystal ends up, I may have to retry that one. She just kept reacting to small amounts of stress and turning hermie, while all the other plants did just fine with the small amount of stress I put my plants under. Great stuff!

^Hey man, sorry to hear you've had problems with Crystal. It's the only strain I've kept going, and have had it since last November, from the first seed I acquired.(cloning) Funny, because one of the reasons I've kept it, is because it's refused to hermie on me, even with massive amounts of stress. I've had light leaks, extended temps near 100*, fertburn, PH/nute lock, you name it, it's had it,lol and not even one banana or pod, ever. Good yielder, too. Ice is my newest choice, and I will be dropping Crystal soon, mainly, because it's such a slow-cloner. I get Ice to clone in 6-7 days, and Crystal takes about 14, every time. I do recommend it though, as it grows some beautiful plants. Maybe it's the phenotypes we've got? I've only had one, and it's very sativa-looking(see pics). Check out some pics from one of my first runs, it turned out pretty nice....

Also, Master Kush is going to be one of my next strains, as well. After all, how could you go wrong with something that won the Cannabis Cup, two years in a row?