400w AK-48 grow, using coco in a hempy bucket, need help

Hi guys,

I've been growing this plant for quite a while now, almost two months.

It was under 4x 26w CFL bulbs for the first month and a half, but now I have moved it to a 400w MH setup.

Everything was going good under the CFL, however, due to a few reasons it wasn't able to get the water
it needed, sometimes being a day or two late which I found out through my own experience is pretty bad
for how I am doing it!

The problems all started after one of these missed-waterings. Normally the plant would perk up, almost
visibly, once it started taking in water and nutrients again, but this time it just didn't come back. The topmost
leaves started to wither and die. In the midst of that, I thought the container it was in might have been
too small for the size of the plant (it really was), so I transplanted it into a 3 gallon hempy bucket.

Things have been starting to look up now, as can be seen in the pics below. There is definitely new growth,
but the main stem just isn't coming back. Instead, two side shoots have started to pick up the growth;
they can both be seen growing outwards on a diagonal.

What I'm really wondering is what I should do about that main stem. Should I cut it off? There are also some
shoots on the very bottom of the plant that do not receive any light hardly, should I be cutting those off?
I haven't done any LST or pruning yet, I've been pretty hesitant as this is my first time, and I was thinking
I would just learn about taking care of the plant with nutrients, and do ScrOG next time. Now since this has
happened to the plant, it has kind of forced my hand.

I also have a video, I will try to get that posted, it shows the bottom of the plant better.

Here are some pics of the main stem, along with some hard orange balls I noticed before coming off the dead
stem. I looked it up, these are basically sugar right from the plant. After tasting, definitely sugar with, a flavor
almost like how a vaporizer tastes added in.

(Edit: I noticed the pics had their resolutions shrunk down to 800x600 when I uploaded them here. They really
lost a lot of detail so I uploaded them to imgur, click twice for a bigger pic)











Bad pic, shows my bucket good though. I've been noticing something white growing on the coco. I've seen it a
couple times now, it is very white, very fluffy, like a fluffy mold that would grow in a closed container. I've just
removed it, kinda scraped it away. I've read that it is harmless, some feedback on that would be nice.

How much are you feeding it?

I'd say all the deadness, chop it off. The newer shoots will pick up the slack, especially when they're not trying to repair anything. Chop, chop, chop. The plant will eventually fix itself once new growth starts coming out.

yeah i would trim all the dead stuff away and flush your medium completely.. humid in your grow space?

E.

errb said:

yeah i would trim all the dead stuff away and flush your medium completely.. humid in your grow space?

E.

Click to expand...

Alright, I trimmed all the dead bits off, and cleared out some of the bottom branches that weren't getting any light. I flushed it
before I transplanted it.

No, not very humid, although I've never measured it. It doesn't feel humid.

I feed it the recommended dose of FloraNova Grow for plants in the middle of their life. It also gets a shot of peroxide, Cal-Mag+,
Super B+, and some seaweed/kelp based thing the guy at the hydroponics store recommended me.

MisterMan32 said:

I feed it the recommended dose of FloraNova Grow for plants in the middle of their life. It also gets a shot of peroxide, Cal-Mag+,
Super B+, and some seaweed/kelp based thing the guy at the hydroponics store recommended me.

Click to expand...

It looks like the leaves got nute burned then. I didn't think that looked like lack of water. Maybe cut back on the doses, what are you using? Do you have a PPM meter?

dolamic said:

It looks like the leaves got nute burned then. I didn't think that looked like lack of water. Maybe cut back on the doses, what are you using? Do you have a PPM meter?

Click to expand...

Alright, I will try this. I'll bring the FloraNova dose down to the previous step, 'Most plants during early growth', right now I have been giving it 'Most plants during late growth'.

The plant has really perked up since I took those pictures. I'll take some more tomorrow night.

I do have a PPM meter, I bought one off of eBay for $15. When I got it, the batteries were dead and I haven't replaced them. I do have a good PH meter, I spent over $100 on it, it's a 2 point calibration with temperature correction

MisterMan32 said:

Alright, I will try this. I'll bring the FloraNova dose down to the previous step, 'Most plants during early growth', right now I have been giving it 'Most plants during late growth'.

The plant has really perked up since I took those pictures. I'll take some more tomorrow night.

I do have a PPM meter, I bought one off of eBay for $15. When I got it, the batteries were dead and I haven't replaced them. I do have a good PH meter, I spent over $100 on it, it's a 2 point calibration with temperature correction

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So how much are you using? Most plants during late growth tells me nothing. Ounces, grams, teaspoons, tablespoons, milliliters ???
It took me awhile to learn that with nutes less is really more. Some plants react differently to different amounts, just like our bodies. Some foods we like, others react horribly to us. Watch your plants, do one thing then watch. If you do too much in one day you won't know what worked, and what didn't. CHECK YOUR NUTES PPM OR PH FIRST. Whenever you mix them, at least you will have a reading for what you need to do next time. If they liked it use the same amount, if they got burned, take it down. Bells and whistles are nice, but if you don't know how to use them; pointless.

dolamic said:

So how much are you using? Most plants during late growth tells me nothing. Ounces, grams, teaspoons, tablespoons, milliliters ???
It took me awhile to learn that with nutes less is really more. Some plants react differently to different amounts, just like our bodies. Some foods we like, others react horribly to us. Watch your plants, do one thing then watch. If you do too much in one day you won't know what worked, and what didn't. CHECK YOUR NUTES PPM OR PH FIRST. Whenever you mix them, at least you will have a reading for what you need to do next time. If they liked it use the same amount, if they got burned, take it down. Bells and whistles are nice, but if you don't know how to use them; pointless.

Click to expand...

IIRC, the amount I gave them the feeding before it got burnt was 3.75 ml/l. Prior to that I was giving them 2.5 ml/l, which is what I have dropped it back down to. I started at first running a pH of 6.4, I slowly dropped that down, now I give them 6.1.

The water I give them is RO. It's generally three days right now in between feedings, so I have tons of time to watch. The plant has really started to pick back up. If things continue this way, I'm going to veg it for another week, take a few clones and then switch over to my HPS bulb and flower her. I really want the biggest two branches now that are about equal height to pick up and get some thicker stems, then I will flower it.

Hi OP, First off, sorry to borrow one of your pics, second, don't meen to hijack as well. I saw these little ""Goldish color" like resin balls? Cant someone explain what this is, please. I had it too and never figured it out, thanks.

AKBud said:

Hi OP, First off, sorry to borrow one of your pics, second, don't meen to hijack as well. I saw these little ""Goldish color" like resin balls? Cant someone explain what this is, please. I had it too and never figured it out, thanks.

View attachment 2394659

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No problem. I researched it as well, I thought I mentioned something in the post before.

Anyways, they are basically pure sugar, a by-product of photosynthesis. I also saw pictures of buds that had drips of the stuff running down them. You can taste the stuff, it is good.