Yeah but you gotta be careful cause on an 8 week strain it DOES roll over into couchlock land pretty quick (like a week maybe?), and on a 7 week strain lookout! lol Just gotta watch it cause every strain's different. If it's primarily indica it'll mature much faster at the end. Sativas are of course much more forgiving regarding the harvest window, and sometimes, even have 2 or 3 harvest windows, each preceded by a 'swelling'. I hear some of the really long flowering sativas (like 16 weekers) will have 3 swells and 3 harvest windows. How long can YOU wait? hehehe
Drella - FYI coco coir actually holds fertilizer salts MORE than soil, so I don't know what the hell is actually in ProMix, but if it has coco in it bet on it holding salts. If your plants' leaves are looking good with no burn and they are saying that they can take a couple more feedings, I would feed through week 7, flush with plain distilled for the last 2 weeks (this is where I use plain distilled with 10 mls of Clearex AND 2 TBS OF MOLASSES per gallon), and then cut em if they're ready at 9 weeks, which I'm sure they will be. Your strains are all hybrids, and most lean toward sativa, so I would think 9 weeks is going to be the earliest. They prob won't take much longer that that either though.
Lookin' good!
thanks dc, great info! what's couch lock? is that when you don't flush it enough?
all of my plants are indica, except for the OGKGC monster, but it's only half (OG Kush is a sativa, and green crack is an indica) but my buddy who i got it from said it's a 8-9weeker. the rest i thought were indica, i just vegged them longer. i youre saying they're sativa i take it as a compliment because they are so dense, its hard for me not to chill in the bloom room all day! makes sense that a sativa would be more forgiving on the harvest window, thanks for the knowledge. i guess the trichs and swelling calyx's, from bottom to top, will be my chop gauge.
pro mix is peat moss and perilite, a soiless, nute free medium. i know people say soiless is less forgiving, but look at my grow. im a noob, but i have a lot of growing experience other than canibus, (ive worked on a farm, and have always grown things,) i dont know what im doing right because i have 5 different strains and i feed them all the same strength. im using he dc beards method of listening to the plants, its working for me so far.
i dont know if the plants needed another feeding, im a noob. i guess im like everybody else, we always want them fatter!
i gotta look into that clearex, is it really necessary. im gonna use tap water and a name brand hydro growers molasses for flush.
WOO HOOO where headed for a Harvest? Can we car pool, I don't like to toke and drive.
ok man, but next time you drive!
From what I've read, coco coir is much more of an aerated substrate than soil with much less buffering qualities, making it much less forgiving for the grower. I'm not sure about how much nutes or water the substrate itself will actually hold as compared to soil, and I also haven't ever found the need to monitor anything other than my input water using a PH pen, so I really can't comment on those areas. But I do know coco has a tendency to 'hold on' to the leftover fertilizer salts requiring more frequent flushing, and it's very easy to get your Phosphorus locked-out by the salts building up in the substrate. I tried coco once and ended up with a crop of phosphorus-deficient plants. Went back to soil and now everything's great again. I know a lot of people use it and like it, but I find soil to be a lot easier and much more forgiving to work with.
what ive heard is all the coco's out there are different. ive heard the hydro farm brand is bunk. i do know that my riu buddy shrubs first has coco "dialed in". what i do know is im happy with the sunshine mix because ive had no problems, i have heard horror stories with coco though, some say you gotta flush it first?
I think it's also important to check the ph (and tds) of your runoff once in awhile,at least when using coco it is.Again I have never grown in soil so I can't compare the two either.But,the fact of the matter is a lockout can be caused from an excess amout of salts or (and this is a much bigger deal in hydro) your ph could be out of the accecptable range.And even though you tested the PH going in,it's more than likely different coming out.Checking the PH of your input water is very helpful,but it doesn't tell you the PH of your medium.
So,although in either case all you have to do is flush with PHed water and it will fix the problem.If you test the runoff first you can get a better idea of what your problem actually is.
On the other hand the soil has great buffering capacity,which is why ph is not as big of a deal(Or at least that's how I understand it).I believe this is why there are a lot less problems in soil.
Sorry D,not trying to "hijack" your thread as they say.
youre not hijacking, a lot of great info for people interested, like me. all respectable debates are great!
glad i could help brotha. im sure we will all be waiting! of course for the harvest as well haha
yeah i know, thanks for giving us the inspiration boomer, hope everythings going chill with your mother's, good luck with everything bro!