Little input please : nirvana northern fem af grow in rdwc

senor buzzy said:

High there ,Growing 1 nl fem af in rdwc with mixed results.Seeds are from nirvana. Using an Apache 120 LED and dr 40" x 40" tent.Using Organic Advanced nutrients ,ph corrected to mid 5.s as needed. Doing rez changes when ph tanks.Usually about 1 or more weeks but not much longer than a week most times. Maybe i was a bit to frivolous with the nutes ,but mostly looking good. Questions are : Started from seed around Oct 21,2010.Vegged @ 22/2 lights for maybe 8-10 weeks.Saw the signs of female pistils and cut back on lights slowly to 18/6 now to hopefully expedite the budding phase. Switched to bloom nutes about 2 weeks now. Not much in the budding dept. but she seems to be trying to flower up. Do i really need to switch to 12/12 to push the flowers? Read here ,18/6 or 20/4 will be the best for yeild so I'm grasping here for the truth. Are these really AFs or maybe semi Autos? Please give me a bit of council here. Recirc.System seems to be doing the job intended and ph drops most days with increase in ppms also,so seems as if using more h2o than nutes. Only using about 1/4 to1/8 streangth nutes as full strength seemed too strong.My girl seems to get a mag deficiency about every week. Canoeing leaves with yellowing edges.Added more nutes( advanced iguana juice bloom now, earlier iguana juice grow) to supplement this alleged def.and seemed to do nothing.Must I get some Cal-mag or something? I really want to remain organic so what do i need to do?Plant looks perfect in every other way. Short,thick and loaded with leaves,no stretch,massive roots(white).o yeah, using label rates of voodoo juice for roots 1st and 2nd week of bloom. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Talk to me ​

Click to expand...

Hmm, I wouldn't use 1/4th strength nutes.

Generally, I tend to use about 25% less, but not just 25%. Maybe you're confused about that?

As for adding Cal-Mag, I don't think that's the worst idea, but you seem to want to keep adding things to fix things and I think you need to look at your base nutes first. Of course, if your pH has been running fine, you would think you were doing it right.

But I read this again and it seems like you think the plants are using more nutes than water - uh, if you're not giving them enough nutes, they're going to suck em up quick too.

I think you need to up the nutes that you're using, switch to 12/12 and you'll be rocking and rolling. Though I understand wanting to go low with AN, Iguana Juice is a different breed. It works well at full strength for many a grower I know.

Good luck!

I'm with sensi on this one you mix up full strength then pour some out or dilute it with tap or r/o water. Double check your ph meter is calibrated they need to be checked weekly.

Switched to 13/11,Flowering has started as you folks and others have said it would. So much for the all things auto forum that says"20/4 with autos for a much better yield". I know non autos need the lights flipped to signal the plant to bloom. Anyway, I upped my nutes a bit. Seeing decent results and know this will only get better as the final weeks run out. Only using bloom nutes now. Advanced iguana bloom and a bit of hammerhead. Planning on using the hammerhead more as fruits build. Looks to me as if i need to do a mini flush but cant find much on this subject anywhere. Found a little about peeps who do these if they think too much salt/unused nutes build up in plants,but not any real cut and dried instructions. Symptoms are as follows: PH is holding great with out much fluctuation.Must add some down every couple days and good to go. PPMs are holding at the higher rates. Right now getting some canoeing leaves and some of the same leaves are drying up/ shriveling type action. Looks like maybe another rez change is needed. This is on older fans mostly, and not alot of them yet. Usually i drain entire rezs and refill with phed room temp h20 ,then add in the nutes and recheck the ph at least daily. i adjust the ph about once a day ( if needed). This seems to be workin like everybody says it will. In the past,on this crop, if these symptoms appeared ,(and they did) i would maybe run straight h2o for a day or 2 and remove a couple of f--ed up fan leaves and symptoms would stop and grow will proceed as needed. I'm thinkin, 7-8 more weeks and ready to chop. All info says northerns need about 9 weeks bloom time so patience is needed. PPMs are a different story with these an organic nutes. Can not run them anywhere near what chemical nutes ppm ranges run. Learning as i go. At least my girl is using h2o at a much better rate now and with a little help from my friends, this will be a successful first time hydro grow. Kinda a stoney reply i know ,BUT im workin at communicating effectively my concerns and worries with you guys who HAVE grown hydro successfully and are willing to advise an older FNG who has done the outdoor gorilla grows mucho times, with mucho successes to make the transition to hydro techniques. Yer help and knowledge is GREATLY APPRECIATED. Thanks for all and to all.Gonna take some digital pics and enclose soon ,showing the final stages of this LED/Organic/Hydro/Hopefully Chronic/Northern (Semi-Auto?)Grow.