Simpleleaf's grows

[simpleleaf]

Dec 31, One day after irrigation, my plants are happier, their leaves were less droopy this morning. My first impression was the plants seem to like the new trace element mix.

I mostly finished trimming off the worst yellowed leaves. This will make it easier to see if yellowing continues to spread, or if the Liquid stem resolves it. I decided to stop the foliar iron until I get Liquid stem optimized. The amount I gave them yesterday results in 1.58 PPM Fe-EDTA per the label, which seems low. If yellowing continues, then an increase in liquid stem is indicated.



I'll be comfortable doubling that iron source up to about 3.16 PPM, none of the other nutrients go out of widely accepted ranges at a doubling of yesterday's micro-nute dilution. I mixed to a basic rate of 0.1 mL/gal.

I'm going to dilute the Liquid trace element mix 1000x. I save old Tresemme shampoo bottles that are dark-colored plastic and seem to block most visible light and have a neat little flip-top cap. I use one for KOH, I diluted it 1000 times. Another dilution of the same amount keeps mixing day simpler, I don't need to keep track of varying dilutions when using the calculator. I have another empty shampoo bottle all washed out and ready to go. Since the 1000x diluted solution is 99.9% water, or something like that, it'll be reasonably close to substitute g for mL and weigh the solution on nute mixing day, just like all the other ingredients.

Total​	Liquid stem​	Water​
mL​	mL​	mL (or g?)​
10​	1​	9​
100​	1​	99​
1000​	1​	999​

Total mL = Liquid stem mL + Water mL

On days when I need to refill the Liquid stem bottle, then I'll still need to use mL on the concentrated Liquid Soluble Trace Element Mix, it's density may be considerably different from that of water. Those syringes are inexpensive should it need replacement (gradations wear off, rubber plunger gets damaged).

 

[simpleleaf]

I changed my mind again, I'll need to continue with the iron-DTPA foliar. The plants began to yellow, so on Saturday Jan 1 they got another foliar. Sunday morning, not a lot of difference, so another spraying. That gave them a bit more greenness, or so I perceived. I've been mixing the spray iron at 0.1 g/L rate, adding a couple drops of dishwashing detergent as surfactant.



I also tried adding 5 g of low-biuret urea (a low dose of 0.5%, Dissolvine said adding urea helps the iron's efficacy), but leaf tips started browning (easier to see under LED lighting), so I decided that for the time being, no added urea. I may, in the future, give another test at 0.1%, but not immediately.

I put an old sock over the spray bottle to block light while it's stored due to reported photodegradation of the iron in solution, so hopefully the sock blocks out most light.

If I want to make up my nutrient solution 5 gallons at a time, I'll need to insure the storage containers block light? I could probably spray paint them with plastic paint. Or instead add the chelated iron to the nutes right before irrigating? How important is protecting against photodegradation of iron in storage of nutes?

The next image is from Dissolvine's user recommendation sheet, I did the highlighting as well as adding the use rate of "0.008 g/L". They have a new-to-me way to express mg/L: g/1000L (I believe both are PPM equivalents).



At this point in time forward, all nutes, when I pour them into the pots, will include chelated-iron DTPA. The rate will probably be 0.02 g/L, but later I may reduce to 0.01 g/L. I think it may be added right before adding to the potting mix because of storage issues with photodegradation, but it also adds another tedious step or two on watering day.

I already measure the nutrient volume when I water, each pot gets 1.4L, so that's 2.8L total, they will take more when they're in bloom and in larger pots, or if I have more pots to water. I should obtain a cheap large dark plastic pitcher to mix it all and dispense from on watering day. Anyway I added this to my spreadsheet for a printout which I use on nute-mixing days:

Iron DTPA 11%​	low g/L​	high g/L​
foliar​	0.1​	0.4​
deficient soil​	0.02​	0.03​
soilless​	0.008​	0.01​

It's not quite what Dissolvine said, but my 1/1000g scales read in g and not mg, so I want a precise calculator answer. To some degree nutrient-mixing time is time to focus on a precise task. In a sense, it's kind of like washing dishes.

I'm increasing the foliar iron strength as it's been my perception that it takes multiple sprayings to result in visible greening. I've already mixed the next batch of foliar with doubled iron at a rate of 0.2 g/L (and importantly no urea). I'm using the same 32 oz bottle, so I weighed out 0.19 g iron per spray bottle. I'll find out whether tip burn continues without urea, and whether the Fe solution gets cloudy. Sprayed my plants with it this evening. They'll get watered either tomorrow or Wednesday.

When I disposed of the prior batch's remaining foliar which included urea (put on fruit trees outside), it was not cloudy like it had been without urea and without a sock over the spray bottle. Either the urea or blocking the light better preserved the solution. Dissolvine says the solution shouldn't be kept longer than a couple weeks, "... one or two weeks".

Most of my formulas are based on gallons, so I'm not sure I like mixing metric and U.S. customary measure. On the other hand, for most purposes 95% works to approximate the difference between liters and quarts, for some reason my mind committed that figure to memory, a quart is about 95% the volume of a liter.

I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for iron toxicity. I noted the foliar rate is about 5 to 10 times the root-absorption rate.

 

[simpleleaf]

Leaf tips and the tips of leaf-edge serrations are browning. This was due to foliar feeding iron DPTA and urea, and I'm not entirely certain it was urea which did the damage. I'm going to stop any further foliar feeding of iron DPTA and use solely in the root-absorbed nutes.

In Table 3.6 of Hydroponic Food Production by Howard Resh, iron is included in the amount of 0 to 8 PPM maximum. Thus, Dissolvine's guidelines for hydroponic use ("soilless") would seem a bit high at 8 PPM.

PH STABILITY OF FE-CHELATES IN SOILLESS CULTURE

ISHS International Conference and Exhibition on Soilless Culture: ICESC 2005 PH STABILITY OF FE-CHELATES IN SOILLESS CULTURE

www.actahort.org

Since iron DTPA is stable under both acidic and neutral conditions it became the standard in soilless cultures worldwide, especially in Europe, with dose rates between 1 to 2 ppm, occasionally 3 ppm in the nutrient solution.

The salt buildup had been so great during my last irrigation, I decided to dilute nutes to 300 PPM, so almost a flush. But the water portion added (to dilute) was given a full dose of liquid stem.

I decided I only wanted 2 PPM iron DTPA added, so that should weigh out as 0.002g. Unfortunately, my inexpensive jewelry scale didn't register any weight until 0.008g. I'm going to need a better way to portion this Fe supplement, and I'm not buying a 0.0001g scale! Dissolvine claims it will last a max of 2 weeks when diluted in solution, and it would take me about a month to use all 8 of those PPMs, so it's not a solution. Today I added all 8 PPMs to today's nutrients.

I remembered I had a microspoon a merchant supplied when I bought another chemical. The small end is supposedly 10-15 mg, but of course that depends on bulk density. I'll just use that in the form of "scoops" needed per gallon. From after today that is. I'll start with 1 scoop, and if iron deficiency returns, I'll double to 2, then 4, etc., until I find how many scoops it takes. It's the yellow, double-ended one.

This morning I watered with 300 mL then had to go somewhere. When I came back the plants were obviously much greener. I believe this confirms that one problem has been low iron. I finished the rest of the 1400 mL in similar small, decreasing-volume increments. I typically water that way.

Hopefully the low iron was the only problem, and the plant now just needs to grow new, healthier leaves. Time will tell. It's been through a lot of abuse.

This evening, after watering was completed earlier in the day, and all drainage tested, the leaves are still pointed upward. It used to take 2 days for that to occur after watering back when using the powdered S.T.E.M. The liquid soluble trace element mix is a big improvement.

 

[calvin.m16]

Use Microbe-Lift to get rid of Fungus Gnats, treat water per/instructions every 7-10 days.

Spinosad is another great organic option just not for spraying on actual buds.

BMC – Biological Mosquito Control | Microbe-Lift

microbelift.com

Pour Microbe-Lift solution in all drains, trays, pipes, things that stay wet and you shouldn't see gnats again. If you do then you missed something.

 

[calvin.m16]

Leaf tips and the tips of leaf-edge serrations are browning. This was due to foliar feeding iron DPTA and urea, and I'm not entirely certain it was urea which did the damage. I'm going to stop any further foliar feeding of iron DPTA and use solely in the root-absorbed nutes.

In Table 3.6 of Hydroponic Food Production by Howard Resh, iron is included in the amount of 0 to 8 PPM maximum. Thus, Dissolvine's guidelines for hydroponic use ("soilless") would seem a bit high at 8 PPM.

PH STABILITY OF FE-CHELATES IN SOILLESS CULTURE

ISHS International Conference and Exhibition on Soilless Culture: ICESC 2005 PH STABILITY OF FE-CHELATES IN SOILLESS CULTURE

www.actahort.org

The salt buildup had been so great during my last irrigation, I decided to dilute nutes to 300 PPM, so almost a flush. But the water portion added (to dilute) was given a full dose of liquid stem.

I decided I only wanted 2 PPM iron DTPA added, so that should weigh out as 0.002g. Unfortunately, my inexpensive jewelry scale didn't register any weight until 0.008g. I'm going to need a better way to portion this Fe supplement, and I'm not buying a 0.0001g scale! Dissolvine claims it will last a max of 2 weeks when diluted in solution, and it would take me about a month to use all 8 of those PPMs, so it's not a solution. Today I added all 8 PPMs to today's nutrients.

I remembered I had a microspoon a merchant supplied when I bought another chemical. The small end is supposedly 10-15 mg, but of course that depends on bulk density. I'll just use that in the form of "scoops" needed per gallon. From after today that is. I'll start with 1 scoop, and if iron deficiency returns, I'll double to 2, then 4, etc., until I find how many scoops it takes. It's the yellow, double-ended one.

This morning I watered with 300 mL then had to go somewhere. When I came back the plants were obviously much greener. I believe this confirms that one problem has been low iron. I finished the rest of the 1400 mL in similar small, decreasing-volume increments. I typically water that way.

Hopefully the low iron was the only problem, and the plant now just needs to grow new, healthier leaves. Time will tell. It's been through a lot of abuse.

This evening, after watering was completed earlier in the day, and all drainage tested, the leaves are still pointed upward. It used to take 2 days for that to occur after watering back when using the powdered S.T.E.M. The liquid soluble trace element mix is a big improvement.

I will say you're over complicating your grow and Urea foliar sprays should never be necessary unless your feeding is wonky.

Too much R&D going on. Get a feeding schedule and try to stick to that and keep your environment clean and in check as far as temperatures and humidity go.

 

[simpleleaf]

I will say you're over complicating your grow and Urea foliar sprays should never be necessary unless your feeding is wonky.

Too much R&D going on. Get a feeding schedule and try to stick to that and keep your environment clean and in check as far as temperatures and humidity go.

I'm not a fan of foliar feeding, and this was a bad experience with lots of leaf damage. So, definitely not a convert. However, the reading and research eventually led to a solution. Thanks for your comment!

 

[simpleleaf]

The two pictures were taken Jan 7, and the camera used is ancient technology, not high enough mega-pixels to see the foliar-fertilizer burn. So I picked a leaf and scanned it at a couple different pixel resolutions. The burned tips were widespread on most all leaves.



@calvin.m16 said to watch temperatures and humidity. I agree, it's an area for which I pay little attention because I live in a temperate area where many different kinds of plants grow well if they get enough water.

Bloom tent temperatures are typically 45 to 70°F winter, 70 to 95°F summer. Pots sit on 10" x 20" warming mats during coldest days in bloom tent (which is currently empty).

Vegetative closet temperatures 65 to 75°F winter, during summer can be 70 to 90°F.

Typical daily humidity ranges are 25% to 75%.

Another area for improvement is CO2 injection and maybe cutting ventilation entirely. But I don't want the expense.

My challenge for myself this grow has been centered around reduction of EC, and associated problems of salt buildup responsible for killing one of my strains I had hoped to keep alive, a strain of Blueberry which I really liked smoking and is now gone forever....

 

[simpleleaf]

Leveling a plastic micro-spoon is surprisingly difficult! For now I've settled on 1 leveled micro spoon per L of FeDTPA. Bracing it on the edge of the bottle and dragging a piece of paper over it (not pushing it) seems to level it nicely.

The plants are definitely 80% improved on the new micronutes. New growth looks much better. I irrigated yesterday, it'll be about a week till next irrigation.


The prior irrigation I made a mistake with pH, favoring paper instead of digital meter which led to a too high nute pH. The plants told me immediately they were unhappy, leaves pointing and curling down, so they got a RO-water flush, followed by some nutes with a more typical pH.

My pH objective is 6.3, both in and out. So far, out is closer to 6.0., that's with 20:1 nitrate:ammonium.


The yellow meter reads 6.1, while the red one 6.87. I don't use the red one, believing it less accurate, but do use the yellow one. I'm still not sure about the low and high readings from these meters, I've been targeting the initial low reading before it creeps back up, but I've just decided to start paying more attention to the higher reading, after it's been sitting in the nutes for at least a few minutes, that means I scribble down both low and high pH.

 

[Billy the Mountain]

No offense meant; but you'd be better of with pH drops than using either of those budget pH pens. They're notoriously unreliable.

 

[simpleleaf]

Thanks for the comment, no offense taken. I've been thinking of trying the drops, maybe I will one day.

I've never liked these budget pens, but they work better than Hydrion 5.5 to 8.0 pH paper, which seems to be quite inaccurate for nutrient solutions. They were the cause of last week's irrigation issue. When I restarted several years ago I was using ColorpHast 1-14 pH paper, but it is designed for only single-digit accuracy.

I've never really liked these digital pH pens, so far they're the best thing I've tried. :shrug:

 

[simpleleaf]

Jan 24, yesterday was watering day. I increased FeDPTA to 2 of the prior described mini-scoops per quart. There was still some remaining interveinal-chlorosis striping, so I wanted to try increasing the iron. The newer leaves look much better.



I'm also trying to elicit Mg deficiency, so have been decreasing Epsom salts, yesterday decreased it further to 0.9 g/gal. (started at 1.2, increased to 1.5 during the course of trying to remedy this grow, went back to 1.2 a couple weeks ago, and yesterday to 0.9)

I added 2 more electrical outlets to my bloom tent power supply for more timers, I may run each set of lights on its own timer. It's basically a glorified extension cord, the other end not pictured plugs into a wall outlet. The low-power load of the LEDs allows it. If all three lights are on it would still be less than 400 watts total load on the wire, each light is about 120 watts at the wall, so Google says that is 3-4 amps.



I have a "300w" LED unit that I was not using because it makes vegetative plants sick when used as their sole light source. When it was first sent to me several years ago it came with dark UV sunglasses, so I'm wondering if it makes too much UV and that's why it makes the plants sick? I thought I'd try running it an hour or two a day during bloom, see if it will also sicken the plant then, or perhaps make more trichomes? See what happens. I'm also going to run the two other lights on separate timers, because I want to simulate the "sun moving across the sky" with both on for mid day brightness. Maybe a silly idea, I don't know.

Over the last week I prepared a new batch of potting mix, this time I additionally cut it 50:50 with perlite. See if the plant likes it when used in an up-pot when moved to the bloom tent. I figure I'll take some new cuttings on that day.

 

[simpleleaf]

A photo from Jan 28,



Jan 30. Plants seem to have increased thirst or transpiration this last week, I saw minor dryness wilt this morning and I haven't seen it for months even with longer drying intervals in similar weather conditions. I interpret that as a sign the plant is happier with the iron supplement, like there was a lockout of sorts slowing down the water pump. It was the assigned watering-nutrients day, the sixth day since last watering, but the leaf wilt was new. The plants may be telling me to use 4 days between waterings instead of 5. The nutrients were a new batch with 10:1 NO3:NH4.

pH in was 6.3
PPM in was 790
pH out was 6.7 (runoff)
PPM out was 900 (runoff)

Next watering I will likely use 6:1. The salts are being better uptaken by the plant judging from the 110 PPM increase in the runoff. Before I added the FeDTPA, the drainage-PPM increase was typically 400 PPM and sometimes more, and I was restricting the nutrient's PPM to compensate. Thus, there are multiple signals of plant-health improvement.



After this watering, some of the new leaves twisted up for a few hours. I didn't snap a pic, but it may indicate boron is low. A nutritional label for the micros indicates a low amount of boron at the strength I'm using, 0.04 PPM. The leaf twisting was resolved by the next morning. For now I'll just observe.

Boron was high in the powdered trace elements (which didn't work well but the plants did grow), perhaps one day I'll make a gallon of nutes using the powdered just for it's boron. Alternatively, supplementing with laundry borax is a viable option, I already have some in dilution for another purpose. Howard Resh says boric acid is the best source of boron, but also the most expensive.

Next time you see my plants they should be in the bloom tent. I'll need to train and cut them back some to a lot, so my guess is they'll be on 6 hours of darkness (vegetative) for at least a month following the move while they first get cut-back shock, adjust to a colder environment, then hopefully recover and grow above the wire net.

I don't like letting them get as tall as these two, I'm not sure how many inches I'll trim off, but at least I got the nutritional problem fixed, and got some good runoff data points on nitrate to ammonium ratios.

I think the cutback in the magnesium to 0.9 g/gal increased the rate of lower leaf yellowing, so I'm bumping it back up to 1.2. But maybe it looks more like N deficiency. I prepared the uppots today and sanitized the bloom tent with clorox and surfactant. Hopefully the odor will be gone by tomorrow, today was unusually cold and humid and drying seemed slow.



This ebook by J Benton Jones Jr. looks good,

Complete Guide for Growing Plants Hydroponically

With the continued implementation of new equipment and new concepts and methods, such as hydroponics and soilless practices, crop growth has improved and become more efficient. Focusing on the basic principles and practical growth requirements, the Complete Guide for Growing Plants...

books.google.com

 

[simpleleaf]

Today was the move to the tent, and up-pot day.



These are the densest root balls I've ever grown! I guess the plants like the fertilizer at the lower EC. Apparently I only took one plant's photo, but both root balls looked pretty much the same, they are both clones of the same mother.



Here they are repotted and placed in the so-called bloom tent.



My lighting scheme for this next vegetative stage of about a month is to turn on one light fixture for about 9 hours, and the light-fixture at the other end of the tent for the next 9 hours, with a little overlap in the middle, for a total of 18 hours of continuous light and 6 hours of darkness. See the attached PDF of the light schedule if you want. With more than 2 timers, I find I have to write down what I want to avoid confusion when setting the timers. Light fixtures are laid out as pictured in this old post. Each tent light draws about twice the wall watts of the light in the vegetative closet, so I'm hoping this sequence of lights will be sufficient wattage to keep the plants happy during a vegetative phase. If so, it will use somewhat less power than running both lights at the same time as I have in the past.

I considered reversing night and day hours to take advantage of the temperature benefits, but my tent's intake needs some kind of light blocking box or a different air-intake route. I like the intake that came with the tent on the side near the floor, it's a very fine and durable plastic mesh, mostly transparent of about 1/3 ft². The end which is open creates a beneficial inside-the-tent circulation. With the wrong darkness schedule sunlight can enter the tent during the tent's night which may confuse the plants, so for now, I'm keeping tent darkness and light hours close to actual outside darkness-light conditions. If it gets a little sunlight reflected off the concrete floor, it won't matter, the tent lights should be on as long as the timers are set correctly and they keep working without failure.

I used some old timers sitting in a mostly-unused drawer, but I tested them, they'll work for now -- until they quit working.

The tent light looks a little dim to me, but I'm okay with trying it until the plant tells me it's not working. I can lower the lights somewhat closer to the plants, I didn't need to do that with both lights on, it was easiest to leave them at the ceiling and the plants grew well enough. I have no light-measuring app, don't have the required hardware. But I can move my hand closer and farther from the light, watching how the reflected light brightens with nearness and dims with distance.

Because my hypothesis is the HyberGrow light puts out too much UV light (makes plants sick in a few days), it will only be run for an hour or two a day during bloom when flowers already exist, for now, it is off. If it still sickens the plant on so few daily hours during established bloom, then I'll quit using it.

In the next few days when I feel like doing it, I'll lower the wire net, rearrange the branches by spreading them out, and take some cuttings. My guess is it will take about a month before they'll have grown enough through the net that I can flip to bloom.

The potting mix smells much like a sewer, I guess it's very-well rotted! I made two changes to the potting mix, I added about 50% perlite (by volume), and that comprises the bottom 4 inches of the new, larger pot, the root ball was set directly on top. Potting mix without perlite is packed around the sides. I did not water, but will water in a few days, no more than a week. The irrigation schedule may, likely will change due to the colder tent temperatures and larger pots.

I always shape the contour of the potting mix's surface so water flows toward the stem, so that during irrigation the middle of the pot where the mainstem emerges is always the deepest part of the "lake" until it percolates through, sort of like a shallow bowl. I believe that gives a little better water flow through the potting mix, particularly when watering with multiple small volumes on watering day.

 

[simpleleaf]

No pics today. I finally got two cuttings made and set on the cloning shelf with a 6500K CFL indirectly lighting them. I had a lot of trouble with the potting mix not draining well. So I'm thinking of changing my ratios to include less fine potting mix, so it drains faster. The two plants in the bloom tent lost some height, and I haven't yet put them under the mesh.

Feb 7, I had to delay cutting and cloning day. I found the potting mix did not drain well, so I decided to buy another bag of coarse potting mix. I'm not mixing a great quantity, about half the small black pot, more than enough for two clones. But boiling a large quantity of water takes time, soaking and cooling enough to handle takes time, then more time to drain, which sometimes continues overnight. Lost a day for half a pot of custom-blended potting mix. None of it is hard to do, just time consuming.

The potting mix not draining well has me worried about the larger plants just uppotted, it was the same mix.

Feb 6. Watered today on the old schedule for the smaller pot using 6:1 NO3:NH4. The uppot occurred near the end of a dry interval. The plants looked fine and the mix seemed dry. Really weird numbers on runoff, which I expected. pH was way too high at about 7.8, and the liquid was not entirely clear. I figure it will settle down after the roots grow into it and it's been irrigated a few times.

 

[simpleleaf]

While I've been keeping a detailed diary, I'll spare everyone the details and summarize. I made a potting-mix mixing error, and after 10 days, had to repot in newly-mixed potting mix. I scraped the undesired mix from the smaller pot's rootball, soaked then drained the rootball in pH'd tap water, then replanted with new mix. The bad mix was my error, I had tried some very finely ground silica sand, but it raised runoff pH to very high levels, over 7.8, so it must have had something more alkaline added to it. The package said "Silica", and it had very fine silica sand in it which is non-dissolvable. After the old rootball was soaked in pH'd tap water, then drained and repotted with new mix, runoff pH is still way too high, so I'm decreasing each irrigation's nitrate:ammonium ratio.



FeDTPA is not as available over 7.0 pH, and the two repotted plants are displaying iron-deficiency symptoms again. It's possible that I can increase FeDTPA to compensate.

Selecting which iron chelate to use

www.canr.msu.edu

I'm hoping that incrementally increasing amounts of ammonium will lower runoff pH. I thought of jumping directly to 100% ammonium sulfate as the N source for the next irrigation, but decided it would be better to be patient and incrementally decrease the ratio toward relatively more ammonium.

The two clones are on day 12. I'll challenge them with dome removal on day 14.

 

[simpleleaf]

One of my clones died. I removed the dome and the plant came up with the dome, the stem had rotted at the soil surface. I see a subtle whitish growth on the surface of the potting mix, I presume it's some kind of mold. The clones had failed the 2 week dome removal challenge, and I decided to put them on a warming mat, and I snapped a pic.



The warming mat caused it to seem to rain, created a very high humidity judging from the droplets on the inside of the dome. It was the right one which died. I expect the left one to die too, and I'll have to try cutting and rooting again.

The two older plants are still on 6 hours of darkness per day. Today is irrigation day, and I liked the way they looked, so snapped a pic (but won't have runoff stats until later). I decided the branches were woody enough that I didn't want to break them to put them under the mesh, so I'm just letting them regrow from the topping. It's not visible in the photo below, but I also lowered the lights about 1 foot to get them closer to the plants. The growing tips and new leaves post topping all look great to me, I don't see any yellowing for the first time. Only problem is the slight Fe deficiency due to high potting mix pH.



I was aiming for a bit more rootzone acidification, so irrigated with 1:1 NO3:NH4, 6.2 pH via 3.5 mL diluted sulfuric acid (diluted to maybe 2.7%), 890 PPM, and increased FeDTPA weight by 60% (due to prior high runoff pH and lower availability at that higher pH). If I can't get the potting mix pH lower before bloom, then I may need to get some FeEDDHA. I'm hoping it won't be necessary.

This was all so much simpler in the old days!

Edit: runoff pH 7.9. The good news is the plants look okay except for the Fe deficiency.

 

[simpleleaf]

It seems one clone rooted. The dome has been removed for almost 24 hours, no wilting.



Apparently, I've been doing my clones non-optimally:

(PDF) Vegetative propagation of cannabis by stem cuttings: Effects of leaf number, cutting position, rooting hormone, and leaf tip removal

PDF | This study evaluated the influence of several factors and their interactive effects on the propagation success of stem cuttings of cannabis... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

 

[simpleleaf]

Not a lot to report, I had surgery and during recovery my clones died, apparently I didn't feel like taking proper care of them, or something.

Here are some new clones cut on Apr 28, they're under light from a 6500K CFL, 60 w incandescent-equivalent.



Four cuttings are in water which I don't expect to root, and four other cuttings have been dipped in DipNGrow, secondly the same chemical in powdered form, then planted in sanitized in Kellogg's Palm Cactus & Citrus with no other potting-mix amendments, and covered with a see-through dome.

Those cuttings were from this plant as seen on Apr 21 (plant on left):



You can probably see all the blooms, particularly the right plant. That was unexpected, they were under 6-hours of darkness. I had swapped out a V300 light right above it to a redder LED fixture which closely matched the color output of an existing tent light, and I ran the two fixtures sequentially, one after the other, rather than both on at the same time (light schedule attached). Bud growth occurred over a period of less than 4 months while I played around with fertilizer mixtures among other things.

Here's a pic taken on the April 28th, a close up of the plant on the right, the shorter one with more fully formed buds:



I didn't cut the above plant much due to its shorter height, but the plant on the left got cut back quite a bit, about a 8" to a foot on its tallest branches.



I'll veg the above plants for another month on light schedule #3, and if at least 2 cuttings root, then I'll switch to bloom. I'm hoping to grow some new leaves and top-bud stalks on the left plant, not sure what will happen to the right plant, it's right under the V300.

I was surprised that those buds formed on 18-hours of light per day!

 

[simpleleaf]

I have 4 rooted cuttings which have survived for several days without domes. Clones were cut on April 28, at 2 weeks they failed a dome removal, with wilt occurring at about 55 minutes. I put the dome on for another week, and added 24 hours/day bottom heat for half a week. On the 19th, they survived domes removal. I irrigated with 280 PPM nutrients. It's been two days, they look okay.



The above clones may end up as my only survivors, my older plants got sick, one symptom was high pH runoff. They appear to have developed a manganese deficiency. The last uppot I'd added a couple tablespoons of what was labeled as "silica" and what I thought was fine silicon dioxide, but which may have been potassium silicate. The next two pics are from a week ago (they look worse now).





About a week ago I removed all of the most recent uppot potting mix (did not wash the roots of all potting mix), and repotted with hopefully lower pH potting mix. I don't yet know if they'll make it.



I remember when I did that uppot, once I realized runoff pH was atypically high, instead of repotting I wanted to see if increased ammonium:nitrate would counteract, but it wasn't enough at 1:1. They say hindsight is 20:20.

 

[simpleleaf]

All my plants are doing well again. I uppotted the clones two days ago, yesterday they were two months old counting from the day they were cut from the mother. They got irrigated this morning.



I'm trying the addition of some sharp sand to the potting mix, I wanted to decrease the watering interval. 5 parts Kellogg's Palm Cactus & Citrus, 1 part sand. There's other stuff in it, but all that's new is the sand.



I'll be continuing the reversion of the mother plants in the grow tent, they're looking better.



The tragic series of mistakes with this bloom (grow tent plants) also resulted in a change of my cloning process. I'll now keep a mother only in the vegetative closet and try to keep it trimmed small, once plants go into the bloom tent I will no longer allow top cuttings from the plant which have always introduced too much delay for regrowth.