Help me get my grow under control / BOHDI GENETICS

Hello, I am a new member to Rollitup. My name is Sydney and I am currently a college girl who is majoring in plant sciences. I love growing because it is so fulfilling, and its truly the most peaceful and relaxing experience to bring something to life, nurture it and watch it grow.

My equipment that I have purchased for this project is as follows:
Lighting: VIPARSPECTRA PAR600 600W 12-band LED Grow Light
Tent: iPower GLTENTXL1 Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent
Containers: 5lb Smart Pots
Fan & Carbon Filter: I'm buying these this week.
Grow Media: Coco Loco
Strains: Purple Kush x Purple Urcle & GSC x Wookie from BOHDI
Nutrient Line: Kind
AGE/PROGRESS: 5 weeks


I am hoping that you all will help me get this grow under control. I water about every 3 days with nutrients at 50% of the recommendation. You will be able to also see my horrible topping technique in these photos. I feel that growth is very slow due to some drying periods at the start and possible PH issues. I have also considered nutrient lock up, but I am unsure and really could use some advice.

My Questions:
1. How much water is typical for each watering day for soiled plants? I usually wait until the soil is fairly crusty on the top and dry about 3 inches down with my fingers before watering again. I have been just winging the watering amounts for each plant usually until I see some kind of run off from the bags they are in. I have heard that some people can water one plant with upwards to the 1 gallon mark.

2. I am having a hard time adjusting PH for soil and would love to hear recommendations on what method to use to get my PH to the recommended range of 6.5-6.8.

3. I usually use a watering can and mix my nutrients, then I will adjust the PH of this water and then water my plants. This is a problem I feel due to the varying amounts each plant receives from this method. Is this a problem? Any suggestions?

4. I would love to maximize my potential yields. I have the light about 24 inches above the plants, and I have tested the light they are each receiving, which is all well over the 600 mark. They are getting good light for sure. They are on 18/6 cycle currently. My temperatures never exceed 84 and my humidity hovers in the 50-65% range.

5. Topping: Please look at my pictures and someone help me out with explaining if I am actually topping correctly and if not what can i do to fix my problems? I have been trimming underneath the canopy too so that the plants' resources are redirected towards the cola growth. I am not topping these every week. I have been giving them plenty of time to recover from shock they may experience before trimming again. My idea is to keep them nice and short and bushy, and I have looked through grow journals here on the website and mine look nothing like those.

6. I do not know much about either of these strains. Hey! Don't judge at least I am honest . I would love any recommendations overall that anyone may have that I can implement into this grow so that I may have a successful and healthy harvest.


I really appreciate any help that you all can offer me and I am excited to be a part of this established community!!

Thank you,

Sydney

Hi Sydney, Welcome to RIU. I'm rather surprised to be the first to reply.

Just a couple of things.

Do you have a small clip on fan or oscillating fan in there to gently blow on the plants and keep the air from going stale?
If not then get one ASAP, it will bring your temps down a bit too, which you need to do as they are a bit high.
Your fan and filter will take care of the heat when you get round to buying them, don't leave it too long!

You grow in coco loco. Now I'm not from the states, when I google coco loco all I get for results is hair products!! However I imagine its a coco coir product, given the name. If it is then it is classed as a soilless medium, it is not soil. It needs to be treated like hydro, specifically it needs to be watered with a PH of hydro which is 5.5-6.5. Soil is PHd higher as you are aware.
I recommend you check the label or bag or online to be sure coco loco is a soilless medium, but I would think it very strange if it were a soil.

The plants at the moment are very tiny and if they are not auto strains should of been planted into smaller containers/pots so they could fill them out and then transplanted up. They will probably be spending a fair bit of energy on rooting at the moment.
Not sure if it would be worth potting down at this point, I have never had to do this so hopefully someone else can say if it would be worth the stress to the plants or not.

Anyway, check out your medium, if it is coco coir or a soilless mix you need to get that PH right.

Edit, it says its coco coir potting soil, which is mental. Its not soil.

>potting down

Never do this. Just be patient and your plant will thank you. Even if you've given the roots more room than they technically need, the only drawback is slightly retarded growth rate while the roots stretch out. No big deal.

>trimming under the canopy
You don't have a canopy yet. there's basically almost no reason to defoliate ever unless you're scrogging.

You definitely topped too early. Personally, I never top before the 7th node/8" tall, whichever comes first. That's actual inches, not penis inches.

Other than that, just keep on keeping on, maybe pH down closer to 6.0. Patience is your friend.you now have some smaller plants to practice patience on, and you'll be able to see them compared to the ones you got a little helicopter-y on.

I attached a pic of my next round of plants, the shortest literally just got topped today, the tallest only 4 days ago, for reference.

Hello, so after a long period here is my update!

I am having some issues with managing the PH in Fox Farm Coco Loco. The leaves are twisting and the tops are light green. I'm not sure I am ever going to use Coco Loco again. I don't think the trouble is worth the amount of issues I have been having. I cannot get the PH down from alkaline levels.

I am using Kind nutrients. I have 7 plants and they are in the veg stage. The leaves are twisting and show various nutrient deficiencies as you can probably see from the pictures below.

Two weeks ago I made a change from the recommended 1/2 nutrients in the water to the full amount recommended on label for growth. I water every 3 days, and use 2 gallons of water with nutrients on 7 plants. But no matter what, the PH level stays the same.They are always testing at about 7 or higher on PH. I believe this is causing zinc and other nutrient deficiencies due to the lack of uptake from these specific nutrients due to the high PH.

So, what do you all recommend in getting this PH down to a more reasonable point that will be fairly quick?

I would also like to add that my temperatures are hoovering no higher than 75 degrees with a humidity around 60%. I have solid air flow in the tent as well.

Bump, could really use some expert advice here. I truly regret using Coco Loco. I need to get this PH under control.

I don't use coco loco so I can't really help with it but I'd say your plants look good.
They don't look like they are suffering to me.
No need to be so alarmed
Some strains have weird quirks like twisting leaves and almost all new growth appears yellower then the rest of the plant

torontoke said:

I don't use coco loco so I can't really help with it but I'd say your plants look good.
They don't look like they are suffering to me.
No need to be so alarmed
Some strains have weird quirks like twisting leaves and almost all new growth appears yellower then the rest of the plant

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Thank you for your response! Reputation If i can! I just worry about them and I am doing some fimming now. I am just so confused as to why I am getting these alkaline read outs from the soil root zone area.

What do you guys think so far though? I mean am I doing okay for my first grow? any suggestions on cropping/fimming/supercropping?

Thank you

I think your plants look pretty damn good. Your not doing much wrong at all. Your doing great! Relax and enjoy watching the process. When something starts looking bad due to a ph issue you'll know it for sure.

SydneyGirl12 said:

Thank you for your response! Reputation If i can! I just worry about them and I am doing some fimming now. I am just so confused as to why I am getting these alkaline read outs from the soil root zone area.

What do you guys think so far though? I mean am I doing okay for my first grow? any suggestions on cropping/fimming/supercropping?

Thank you

Click to expand...

When do you plan on flowering?

macsnax said:

When do you plan on flowering?

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Well, I know I should wait 10 days after fimming and trimming. I am doing low stress training as well. I definitely want to wait a bit and try and get a good solid yield from my first grow. This is pretty exciting! Any suggestions? Also, does anyone have any idea on the flowering time on this GSC/wookie? I am unsure of it.

Any ideas or suggestions welcome!

If you know who the breeder is, you can get some info here. http://en.seedfinder.eu/ Your plants look good, DON'T LOVE THEM TOO HARD.

SydneyGirl12 said:

Well, I know I should wait 10 days after fimming and trimming. I am doing low stress training as well. I definitely want to wait a bit and try and get a good solid yield from my first grow. This is pretty exciting! Any suggestions? Also, does anyone have any idea on the flowering time on this GSC/wookie? I am unsure of it.

Any ideas or suggestions welcome!

Click to expand...

Well as a fellow bodhi fan
The first thing I would recommend is to spend some time and read through the bodhi thread.
No need to start from the beginning it's a long ass thread and you have relatively newer strains.
Or search the strains on here and the posts will pop up.

I was serious with my first response the plants look good especially for your first grow. Only advice I would offer is for you to remember that they are going to really stretch and likely get bigger then u expect when they flower so plan ahead.

Good luck
And welcome to riu

Yeah what he^ said about the stretch in flowering, that's why I asked. If your going to do more training and wait ten days, you might want to get on it. I see your in a tent, a super crowded tent makes it hard to work in there, and harder to catch issues early if they arise.

First of all, I would like to thank you guys for responding and being so helpful. I really appreciate the great advice given here.

UPDATE: These are two days after fimming/cleaning them up some. They popped back up because I also low stress trained them too. I have plenty of room in my tent as well but I am concerned wit the stretching that you guys mentioned.

My Questions: Due to current height and the fact I just trained them, I would need to start flowering fairly soon. Is there anyway to just cut them back slightly and add netting into the tent (which can be done on the poles since the grow is in progress with zip ties) and focus on getting more yield at this point? I guess ultimately my question is if you were in my shoes and you wanted to delay these and get them bushier for more yield what would you do?

Thanks guys! I think my next grow I will do a journal .

Jypsy Dog said:

If you know who the breeder is, you can get some info here. http://en.seedfinder.eu/ Your plants look good, DON'T LOVE THEM TOO HARD.

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By the way killer link! I love it! Thanks!

The size of that tent I'd move them around and space them out a lil bit and flip the light to flower.
You could put a screen on and wait a week but then maintenance will become a giant pain in the ass.
You should pull some nice bud out of their and each crop you will get better and better

SydneyGirl12 said:

By the way killer link! I love it! Thanks!

Click to expand...

It's nice to see real reviews and tips! Your grow looks great. God Luck in Flower.

torontoke said:

The size of that tent I'd move them around and space them out a lil bit and flip the light to flower.
You could put a screen on and wait a week but then maintenance will become a giant pain in the ass.
You should pull some nice bud out of their and each crop you will get better and better

Click to expand...

I think I will add a second light and spread them out and move into flowering after they've recovered from this recent topping. I will begin my pre-flowering nutes this week. Now, I know in hydroponics you usually have to flush the system 2-3 weeks prior to the ending of flowering. How exactly does flushing work in soil? Do I just stop feeding them closer to the end of flowering and use PH balanced water?

Great work Sydney! Your girls look great. Some big ole green fan leaves. Keep it up! Looking forward to see them flower