Stress+Recovery time=Better yield & potency

[charface]

Thank you. Wanted to know how you could deal with a plant that goes root bound. Got a plant I don't feel like transplanting yet, so was thinking maybe I could top dress with some worm casting until I transplant.

I have straight up sliced them up with a razor

 

[Pwezzy]

I have straight up sliced them up with a razor

Rather not slice up my roots. Contrary to your belief, I really don't like hurting my plants.

 

[charface]

Rather not slice up my roots. Contrary to your belief, I really don't like hurting my plants.

You wanted to know how to deal with rootbound.
Think of it as a medical procedure.

 

[Pwezzy]

You wanted to know how to deal with rootbound.
Think of it as a medical procedure.

Lol, maybe if I was leaving them in that pot, but just wanted to hold off on getting soil and try out some worm casting that I can also give to my plant in flower.

 

[Blue Wizard]

Rather not slice up my roots. Contrary to your belief, I really don't like hurting my plants.

You ever do any reading on horticulture? That's what the book says to do, just don't go all Freddy Krueger on it and you'll be fine.

 

[charface]

You ever do any reading on horticulture? That's what the book says to do, just don't go all Freddy Krueger on it and you'll be fine.

Not only that but If you use grow bags the roots wont swirl out anyway

 

[Pwezzy]

Not only that but If you use grow bags the roots wont swirl out anyway

Yeah, after this harvest going to invest in some diff type of smart/fabric pots.

 

[charface]

 

[Pwezzy]

Update of all 3 plants

Pic 1- 7th week flower

Pic 2- Clone of pic 1 thats going in the flower room next

Pic 3&4- La Blanca fem that i just did some lst, bent and tied down top 2 colas and some fan leaves.

Top dressed all 3 plants with some worm casting today. Anxious to see how that turns out.

 

[whitebb2727]

thats me I have chickens, mini horses and all sorts of other animals. I only use the horse manure, base is promix bx. I add some azomite an let it ride. I have access to all sorts of soil here mi however I can control the quality if I build it myself. Rarely need anything other than water the whole grow and if the do I add more soil to the top and water.

You're missing out on the chicken manure. It needs to be a year old before using but it works great. I just add it in with my compost pile. I've even used it fresh. It's hot and doesn't take very much.

Tomatoes love it.

 

[whitebb2727]

I amended and used my soil at least 4 times.
Only using organic inputs and choosing not to water to run off I had a bad salt build up in my last batch.
Dark yellow run off. Plants were growing slow.
Had to leach all my pots and left over soil from the last run.
It seemed to have a positive affect.
Wasn't sure if the build up was normal or if I did something wrong.
Been experimenting with more frequent watering with less water, going to go back to heavier watering less frequently with some run off.

Yea. Something sounds off.

I've never had that problem with organics. What type of water to you use? What inputs for your soil do you use?

 

[whitebb2727]

I'm beginning to think it's been way more than 4 runs that I have amended this soil lol.
Tap water is 400-500ppm cut with RO to 150ppms.

What have I added?
It changes so I may not be accurate.

Water only for the 1st 4 or 5 weeks.

My plants are sativa dominant hybrids and always like a bit more N in early flower.
Early flower I'll give a top dressing of DTE Bio Live 5-4-2 and some castings.
On average maybe 2 or 3 light feedings 100ppms of epsom salt during the grow.

This gets hard to list as I've experimented at times with adding:
Gypsum.
Fish Emulsion.
Seaweed extract.

Other top dressings instead of Bio Live like FF Happy Frog 6-4-4 or FF marine Cuisine 10-7-7 or DTE Bio Fish.
I hardly use my G.O. Cal/mag+ these days and used it regulary in past grows.

Ive also top dressed during a grow with individual dry amendments at different times:
Kelp Meal
Blood Meal.
Alphalfa meal
Bat guano
Crab Meal
Probably missing some.

I just went through old pictures from about 4 grows back and now think Ive rebuilt this soil many more times than I think by adding Peat, Coco, perlite and other dry amendments to the old soil.

My thinking is that a salt build up is natural over time especially if not watering to run off but I don't have a good understanding of it yet.

That's why I asked if you guys leach your soil after harvest before re amending. In my case I feel I'll need at least check them for a salt build up after harvest going forward.

Hmm. Not sure but maybe it's the water soluble nutrients from various inputs building up.

Shouldn't be a lot of salt build up.

 

[Lordhooha]

You're missing out on the chicken manure. It needs to be a year old before using but it works great. I just add it in with my compost pile. I've even used it fresh. It's hot and doesn't take very much.

Tomatoes love it.

I’ve used it in the past burnt some stuff up in the past lol using it fresh

 

[whitebb2727]

I’ve used it in the past burnt some stuff up in the past lol using it fresh

It will burn. If using it fresh it's better to take a small amount and mix it with water then water it in. Like a cup per five gallon of water.

Composting it for a year works well and it's not as hot.

 

[Pwezzy]

Update of all 3 plants again. Feel like somebody was trying to cover up my post lol smh

Pic 1- 7th week flower

Pic 2- Clone of pic 1 thats going in the flower room next

Pic 3&4- La Blanca fem that i just did some lst, bent and tied down top 2 colas and some fan leaves.

Top dressed all 3 plants with some worm casting today. Anxious to see how that turns out.

 

[Pwezzy]

I got a question!

Ok so maybe I'm not understanding a plant structure correctly or not, but I think I am.
So I know you top to get 2 new colas. But what's the point of cutting or pinching some of the top growth off, when you can just bend the top growth down and tie it down to get the two side growths to become main colas?

Maybe I'm wrong but isn't the point of topping is to make the two small side branches coming out each side of the nodes, the two new main tops. However, you can still achieve that without removing any of the plant by bring the top growth down and keeping it from blocking the two new colas.

Or is it that when you top, the plant creates entirely two new colas that was never there before?


Sorry if it didn't make full sense, as I'm trying to rap my head around this as well!!

 

[charface]

I got a question!

Ok so maybe I'm not understanding a plant structure correctly or not, but I think I am.
So I know you top to get 2 new colas. But what's the point of cutting or pinching some of the top growth off, when you can just bend the top growth down and tie it down to get the two side growths to become main colas?

Maybe I'm wrong but isn't the point of topping is to make the two small side branches coming out each side of the nodes, the two new main tops. However, you can still achieve that without removing any of the plant by bring the top growth down and keeping it from blocking the two new colas.

Or is it that when you top, the plant creates entirely two new colas that was never there before?


Sorry if it didn't make full sense, as I'm trying to rap my head around this as well!!

Nothing new is created,
If you bend the top to the level of those lower colas the plant will now see all of the canopy as top.

If you pinch out the top the tips directly below it become the tops.

Its preference.
I use, topping and bending.

I use to just bend when I worked only with clones.

I top seedlings for sure.

 

[Pwezzy]

Nothing new is created,
If you bend the top to the level of those lower colas the plant will now see all of the canopy as top.

If you pinch out the top the tips directly below it become the tops.

Its preference.
I use, topping and bending.

I use to just bend when I worked only with clones.

I top seedlings for sure.

Appreciate it. Yeah I knew nothing new was created, that's y I think I'ma try not topping and just bend.

 

[charface]

Appreciate it. Yeah I knew nothing new was created, that's y I think I'ma try not topping and just bend.

Eventually if you can get or make seeds to play with I would experiment with topping.

It makes for very uniform plants due to the the fact that seedlings grow branches that are even like this.
Look at the lower branching.

As the plant matures the branches become offset.
Like this

I take my clones from mature plants.
So I don't have the opportunity to really shape them the way I like unless I bend.

Once the plants are larger I do whatever Method suites my need at the time.

To me topping is actually a fun part.
Trying to get that uniformity

 

[charface]

As these seedlings grew after they were shaped, I just watched and if certain branches were outgrowing the others I simply topped them which allowed the others to catch up.


I have not bent anything on these and Im not worried about yield.

But in the past I went the only bend route on my clones and did well too.

Just saying you might enjoy watching how topping affects growth.
Eventually