Update
Day 28 of 70 under 12/12
Well they say give the bad news first and then the good news will fix it all. Hummmmmmmm?
Ok, today was a flush day!
During the flush I was doing the clones in the solo cup starter hempys. I had just given them their second drinch and places them all on the drainage rack on my work table. "BAM" my table collapsed sending all the clones to the floor and some landed on their little heads, but all came out of their cups and spilt coco and perlite all over the place. I scooped up the clones and placed them back in their cups and tried to get as much coco and perlite that I could. Well now they are not Hempy solo cups, the are just a clones in a coco perlite mix but still in the cups. Will see how it goes, that shit went everywhere. The clones were two weeks old yesterday and I was very impressed with the amout and density of the root mass. Seven of the 8 clones made it, started directly in the solo hempy cups. I did the same thing when I sexed the plants got all 10 clones rooted in straight coco. I like the method but would prefer to have an aero cloner, but just can't justify the cost for the amount of plants I do.
Now for the reason I flushed today, the pH of my rinsate is fine, Going in it 5.8 to 5.9 coming out is 5.9 to 6.0. YEA! Think I got a handle on the coco. The problem and it is inherent with coco is the tendency to hold salts, and since the nute I use are chemical base the salts build up. My ppm going in is approx 850 with each batch of nutes i make up, Each time I check the ppm in the runoff it increases until I flush, I usually wait to flush at between 1300 to 1500 ppm. The salts have been increasing with each watering/nutes, and yesterday when I checked the rinsate it was 1480 so today was a flush day. Now is the time I'm glad I have the drain plug. I take untreated rain water, fill to the top, I have my drain hose tied up so the liquid stays in the bucket. That takes about 3/4 gallon, I let that sit in the bucket for about 10 to 15 minutes to help desolve the salts then I remove drain plug and let it drain rapidly and completely. I do this passing about two gallons thru the bucket. I then treat 5 gallon of aerated rain water with 25 ml silica and 25 ml Cal/Mag. I follow the same method as the untreated water, filling the buckets with the two gallons of treated water, the last fill is drained from the drain tube.
I will begin using nutes tomorrow. One thing I did notice this time is BW1 has tip burn on the very tip of the leaves and BW 5 has some minor clawing. I think it was really time to flush. I have been flushing about every 3 weeks, may make that two weeks and try to control the tip burn and clawing.
Other than that the ladies are doing just fine, I am so impressed with the way the maintain color. Both plants look great.
They are for sure Sativa dominate, trained for 4+ weeks, started flower at 2 inches above the ring or around 10 inches, they are now above 28 inches. I can imagine what they would look like had I not trained them Manifold (mainline) style.
BW 1
BW 1
BW 1
BW 5
BW 5 the canopy's are both equal height.
BW 5
Both of the ladies in the cabinet.
Well thats it for tonight, see you next week with another update.
GR
