Northern lights. Curling sideways

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Goldpan67

Member
Thx Tim. That makes perfect sense.
What I have is an HM digital ph80 for ph.
I use a truncheon stick that has a linear row of leds that have 3 measurement scales printed to the side.
EC, tds 500 and tds 700.
So if I dig down a bit for a soil sample and mix with distilled water, will that work with my ph meter?
If it tests too acidic, is it too late to add some garden lime or something?
I’m in 3rd week of flower but buds are really just getting started. You can see by the picsDA0406AE-D600-481E-AC3F-AADCE8E2F11D.jpeg
 
T

Tim1987

Well-Known Member
I'd take a sample from the top, as you suggest, and take one from the bottom. Then compare the two.
IMHO
If your ph is low, it's never too late to add lime before flower.
If you want to raise your ph, I'd suggest dolomite lime. It has magnesium as well. Great for flower.
You can "scratch" the lime into the surface of your soil. Then water it right in. Just top feed it :peace:
Just determine your soils ph first.
 
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Goldpan67

Member
I have dolomite lime, but it’s in granular formFBD7A1EC-DD76-402E-8959-D3FCDB899E50.jpeg1F2272F8-67F5-4582-9C7E-A70E95C3BB72.jpeg
That’s a standard size bic lighter
I could crush it up a lot smaller I bet. I did throw in a bit of that when I built my soil
 
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Goldpan67

Member
Getting a sample from bottom would be pretty tough. I could try and dig some out of the drain holes maybe.
She’s probably close to being rootbound by now.
 
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Tim1987

Well-Known Member
Goldpan67 said:
I have dolomite lime, but it’s in granular formView attachment 4127360View attachment 4127361
That’s a standard size bic lighter
I could crush it up a lot smaller I bet. I did throw in a bit of that when I built my soil
Click to expand...
Sounds fine.

But first. Find out your ph, before adding lime.
If you look at the chart I showed, you'll notice calcium, magnesium lockout when ph is low.
You could have heaps already. It's just that the plant can't metabolize it. So it looks deficient.

FIND OUT YOUR PH BEFORE ADDING ANYTHING.
plz :P
 
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Tim1987

Well-Known Member
Goldpan67 said:
Getting a sample from bottom would be pretty tough. I could try and dig some out of the drain holes maybe.
She’s probably close to being rootbound by now.
Click to expand...
That's what i would do. Yeah
Just use something like a pencil to loosen a little soil, from each drain hole. You shouldn't need more than a tablespoon of soil for a sample
 
Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
To late for dolomite lime. Takes months to become available to the plant.
Its in soil and as long as the PH is vaguely close the roots will adjust the PH to their own requirements. Most soil growers don't bother PH'ing.


Back to orig pics. I wouldn't worry. Its been slightly over N'd judging by the tips but the plant looks otherwise healthy. This may of been caused because its a new mix that wasn't cooked long enough. ??
If you just flushed heavily then you may have lost allot of nutrients you had in the soil (which is why its called leaching).
If it was me id be pretty happy with them.

3rd week in flower pic looks fine.
More yellowing will follow.
GL with the grow.
 
Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Tim1987 said:
http://www.dolomite.com.au/products/what-is-dolomite/


Dolomite lime takes months to fully break down. Doesn't mean none of it is available. Granted, it'll take a couple weeks to start activating.
If it does turn out to be a ph issue. What's the harm?
Click to expand...
Not saying its not useful it was a big part of my soil mixes until I discovered it takes months and months to become available to the plant..6 or more from memory. It is handy to buffer the Ph of the soil and if the OP has added it to the soil the PH should be high 6's- which is fine.
I now add Gypsum instead.

Plant looks pretty healthy. I wouldn't buggerise around with it to much perticuly when its finishing.
 
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Tim1987

Well-Known Member
Lucky Luke said:
Not saying its not useful it was a big part of my soil mixes until I discovered it takes months and months to become available to the plant..6 or more from memory.
I now add Gypsum instead.

Plant looks pretty healthy. I wouldn't buggerise around with it to much perticuly when its finishing.
Click to expand...
I've always used gypsum in soil myself as well. Tomatoes, capsicums, cabbages, leafy greens, LOVE the stuff. Especially marijuana. Not because gypsum raises the ph. But because gypsum doesn't affect ph at all.
A quick Google will confirm it too.
Here's a great article I just found at the top of a search.
Besides it all being great info, the lime and gypsum is explained down the bottom.
:peace:
https://onpasture.com/2014/06/02/when-to-use-lime-gypsum-and-elemental-sulfur/

OP, your plant does look healthy overall. I am simply trying to answer your query about calcium. That's all. To try and relieve your curiosity.:hug:
 
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Goldpan67

Member
I knew when building my soil, that I wouldn’t need any nutes for most of the grow. But didn’t expect to see the yellow tips after I went to 12/12. And at that point, I still hadn’t added anything extra, just water. So maybe the plant doesn’t need the N that has always been there. The soil cooked for like 6 weeks before using. I wasn’t aware of the time needed for the dolomite to do its thing.
In my mind, that time was going to be for the myco’s to establish and populate.
I started the seedlings in happy frog soil in quart pots.
So after I went 12/12, I saw hairs within a day or so. So I thought they were just itching to flower before I let them.
And that’s when I figured they also would need some P and K nutes as well. I found it odd that the bloom nutes had no K at all !?
I also thought during veg that leaves were a bit too green and might be a bit heavy in nitrogen, but there wasn’t any serious burn going on either.
After seeing the flowers pop so fast, I thought growth would be more rapid after that. But when I peek in on them twice a day, it’s hard to see growth. Everything is in slow motion. Lol
That’s when I figured bloom nutes were needed.
 
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Tim1987

Well-Known Member
Goldpan67 said:
I knew when building my soil, that I wouldn’t need any nutes for most of the grow. But didn’t expect to see the yellow tips after I went to 12/12. And at that point, I still hadn’t added anything extra, just water. So maybe the plant doesn’t need the N that has always been there. The soil cooked for like 6 weeks before using. I wasn’t aware of the time needed for the dolomite to do its thing.
In my mind, that time was going to be for the myco’s to establish and populate.
I started the seedlings in happy frog soil in quart pots.
So after I went 12/12, I saw hairs within a day or so. So I thought they were just itching to flower before I let them.
And that’s when I figured they also would need some P and K nutes as well. I found it odd that the bloom nutes had no K at all !?
I also thought during veg that leaves were a bit too green and might be a bit heavy in nitrogen, but there wasn’t any serious burn going on either.
After seeing the flowers pop so fast, I thought growth would be more rapid after that. But when I peek in on them twice a day, it’s hard to see growth. Everything is in slow motion. Lol
That’s when I figured bloom nutes were needed.
Click to expand...
Your plant is fine dude.
No stress :peace:
 
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Tim1987

Well-Known Member
If you screen it through a fine sieve it'll dissolve faster. Mortar and pestle is great too.

I've used ground charcoal before, to raise my ph, before too. It acts faster than limes too. Wood ashings are a good source.

Sorry RIU is having a spastic, and won't upload your quote.
My reply was to answer your post, you quoted yourself, a few posts up :peace:
 
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OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
@Goldpan67 are you using any of that DeuceDeuce yet? If not you should at about 1/3 the amount of the Bloom now then 2/3 as much Bloom after the stretch. Some sulfur would be good as well to boost resin production. Some odd looking ratios for their nutes compared to the non-organic kind.

Organic nutes aren't like hydro nutes as they need a good micro-herd in the soil to make them more available to the plants. Hydro nutes are more like mainlining dope to a junky compared to snorting it. :)

During the stretch the plants want more P but after they like a lot more K than P tho P needs to be there too.

That spotting and yellowing in your pics on the previous page does look like problems with Ca and Mg and if both are screwing up the cause is most likely pH out of whack.

When you water your plants to saturation let it sit overnight then add enough water to get some runoff to test the pH then. I takes a while for things to stabilize and to be able to see the true pH in the root zone. Just pHing your water to the ideal won't do much to change the pH overall in the pots so if it's too high you have to pH the water way lower to make any difference to the soil. If too low the same thing only higher.

ProMix has some good info on plants in general so check out this about pH and some of the other articles are worth perusing as well.

Good luck and good harvest!

:peace:
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Just looking at all the stuff Humbolt sells. Next time somebody rants about all the additives AN flogs I'm sending them to Humbolt's site for a look at all the stuff they flog. Prices are way higher than AN as well.

I went through a bunch of them and even their bud booster doesn't have sulfur and the P-K ratio is back-asswards too. They recommend using Equilibrium with the 3 things you have already have and it has 12% more Ca with 2% Mg. They have Ca in almost everything and most without added Mg. End up ODing on Ca.

Checked out their Micro and still no sulfur nor zinc which is very important and I grind up my zinc tabs to feed my plants a bit more of it. Not labelled natural so if you want to stick to organics only it's not for you.

Personally I wouldn't use their line but I mainly grow in soilless or DWC with 3-part AN nutes but very limited products. Just the 3-part, Rhino Skin for silica, Big Bud for bloom. Some other CalMag, epsom salts and my own mix of vitamin/mineral supplements that I use myself. Did get a free 500ml bottle of Bud Factor X and have a small amount of Bud Ignitor from a few years back I'm using this grow but unless I see real monster colas from it I'll just be using the Big Bud on it's own when I run out of those two.

Not trying to bash anybody's choices, just pointing out what I feel are deficits in Humbolt's lineup.

:peace:
 
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Goldpan67

Member
Agreed. Any time I see a feeding chart that says you have to buy 14 different products to have a complete array of nutrients, I just roll my eyes. The only reason bought them is that years ago I was given a half quart of the natural grow and I just can’t remember what I did for bloom nutes. I ended up using only like a tablespoons or less of the grow during the whole thing! In fact I still have it, but figured it could be spoiled by now since it’s partly fish based and has not been refridgerated half the time.
That grow was the easiest, least stressfull, worry free batch I’ve ever done. It produced well and I nailed the drying/curing process to boot. So that’s why I went back down that road.
I do have access to real compost that I can make myself, such as rabbit and chicken manure, egg shells and certain kitchen waists.
Wonderful stuff for the green house and outdoor gardens. But every time my wife brings home some surprise clones that have soils from unknown sources, I get some kind of pests to deal with. Mainly spider mites. I freakin hate those little bastards!
Although I can veg an absolutely beautiful and healthy monster cannibis plant in the greenhouse here in Alaska. We just don’t have the light schedule in the late summer and fall to flower well at all.
So I’ve wanted to just do a no chemical grow with like 2 or 3 ingredients. I’m trying to keep it simple.
As you can tell I tend to over think some things.
As far as hydro goes, I’ve had 3 bouts with dwc. Every time the veg goes fantastic, but when flower time comes, I’m chasing ph all over the map and it locks up on me. Done with dwc!
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I'm up north too so other than autos I can't get any outdoor plants flowered before winter sets in or at least a killing frost when the buds are still tiny. Nice long days tho so could kill it with a blackout greenhouse. Up a ways out of Peace River, AB.

Wife raises chickens and grows lots of veggies every year and we got tons of compost but same thing. Bring that stuff inside and it's bug city. Mainly mites and thrips. Might try some autos outside in pots this year for the heck of it. Stash them out in my north woods.

Need to be able to control the light cycle and save them from early frosts then could veg some plants inside and stick them in big pots around June 1 and veg until mid-July and start flowering. Cover the greenhouse at 10pm and open it up at 10am. In the open they don't start flowering 'til mid Aug and we've had frost by then some years tho with global warming we've got much later but ya never know.

I was going to set up a 4 tub DWC flower room but decided to stick to soilless for now. Can veg upstairs even when it gets hot in pots and flower down in the cool basement all year round. Just keep sticking pots in the flower room as they are ready and then have staggered harvests of many strains. Doing a lot of CBD now.

:peace:
 
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Goldpan67

Member
What is a good CBD strain? I need to read up on that. What I would like is the oil. I really don’t like the high thc because I’m such a light weight. I rarely smoke or vape. I only grow because I love to grow stuff, I give it away to certain people that truly appreciate it, or can not afford it. I’m not into selling.
 
Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Goldpan67 said:
What is a good CBD strain? I need to read up on that. What I would like is the oil. I really don’t like the high thc because I’m such a light weight. I rarely smoke or vape. I only grow because I love to grow stuff, I give it away to certain people that truly appreciate it, or can not afford it. I’m not into selling.
Click to expand...
Im growing a CBD Crew Shark at the moment. Its my first CBD grow.
https://howtogrowmarijuana.com/weed-strains/cbd-shark-weed-seeds/
 
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