First "serious" outdoor grow

[TheTreeBoundRat]

they look ok . Id conside mulching a little on top to heat any excessive heat of the top of the soil also and during the heat of the day or afternoon dig in and feel if the soil temps are too high. If so rap shade cloth around the pots to keep soil temps down. I have top do it here in the tropics or I find the roots get cooked.

 

Peace

[grokking]

hey everyone thanks for all the advice. Forgot to mention that I mixed the soil with that coconut husk stuff (name escapes me) about 1/3 before putting the plants in the larger pots. Would be interested in people's thoughts on that stuff compared to perlite? I also placed an inch of stones at the bottom for drainage (lurking on ozstoners for the last few months has been educational). In hindsight some shade cloth at the bottom would have been a good idea

 

This is how the smaller one is looking. It's definitely a lighter shade of green in the leaves. I gave it some yates fertilizer this week just at 1/2 strength. It still doesn't seem to be growing very well. I've noticed in the last few days that at the top of the stem where all the leaves are appearing there seems to be a slight brownish tinge to the leaves closer to the main stem? The 2nd pic shows it though it's a little blurry

 

 

The other plant seems to be going fine. Its putting on new leaves everyday now and the stipules all seem to be growing well. I wasn't going to give it any ferts just let nature take its course, thoughts?

 

 

Good idea on the mulch coming into the hotter months and the PH tester I think I'll buy one. Whats the optimum PH level to aim for?

 

cheers

Edited October 9, 2009 by grokking

[BaronS]

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners...?showtopic=9128 has nutrient vs PH for soil and hydro. Generally in soil aim for 6.5.

 

Something I haven't seen specifically discussed is that gardeners using pots for similar plants generally suggest running at a PH .5 to 1 points lower for the same medium in pot vs garden.

[grokking]

Thanks for the link Baron

 

I tested my soil it was 6.8 and my water is 7. Should I try to bring my water's PH down before watering the plants or add something to the soil?

 

Both plants seem to be going fine. The small ones is still just growing not very fast. but it still looks healthy

 

 

the larger one has some spots on some leaves. Wind damage? I also think it might be starting to show some preflowers. On the fifth node there seems to be some thin white hairs coming out next to the stipules. The picture doesn't really show it

 

[BaronS]

plants look healthy and despite that PH being higher than recommended you are basically looking at a 'neutral' level. I'd probably aim to nudge it down over time, NOT force it down quickly.

 

Something you might consider is to just continue on your existing treatment for a while, see if soil PH is stable or drifting in one or the other direction.

 

I have an as yet unproven thought (gonna take some work, and maybe some sacrificial plants) that _particularly in soil grows_ it _should_ be beneficial to drift between lower and upper PH range, allowing the plant easiest access to certain nutes while in the low range and others when high.

 

Your water is a bit high but rather than direct sampling of the water I'm more into watering, rest, test. Test the soil PH to see how it is affected by your water.

 

You need to temper my advice a bit, I have some somewhat 'odd' ideas.

[FDL]

Looking good dude, im doing my first outdoor grow too are you using nutrients at all? Or just watering them? I have three and one of them is much like yours growing but alot slower compared to the others.

[grokking]

I only gave them their first nutes about 4.5 weeks in, until then was just feeding them water. But the veg growth is looking good now so I think I might start them on nutes with a bit more regularity. I'm pretty sure the small one is a male. It's got those little bud preflowers

[grokking]

My mate who was growing from the same seeds has given me his 2 plants to take care of. They are both looking healthy. They're in searle's premium potting mix with some coco coir.

 

One of them a few of the larger leaves seem to be curling down inward a bit at the tips (not too sure if it's an issue). He gave them some nutes at half strength earlier in the week due to the newer leaves having a yellowish tinge around the veins (he thought there might have been a general deficiency). After a few days the yellow has gone but the leaves are still curling a little.

 

I've got some noob questions about nutrients and PH levels. the tap water I've been letting sit and feed the plants with has a PH of 7.4. When I add nutes at half strength to the water it brings the PH down to around 6-6.4. I've used a soil tester a few times now and the soil is still giving me PH around the mid 6s.

 

1. Is there a way to add something to the water to bring the ph down without nutes? or add something to the soil before watering?

 

2. Is it alright to add nutrients at 1/2 strength every time I water? (once every 3 days for only the last 2 weeks) should I change to a more regular lighter schedule?

 

3. Should I move nutrients to something organic like dynamic lifter or will that possibly piss off the ladies?

 

 

Apologies for the long post still learning a bit as I go

 

the first girl

 

 

girl with the curls

 

 

the large one, its in a larger pot

 

 

The other plant is male and has been sent into exile, though we were planning to get one of the females to go to seed. Do I just leave a female to grow around him and nature takes its course?

 

cheers

Edited October 22, 2009 by grokking

[MUD]

grokking,

You could do that, but you'll get a lot of seedy buds. I'd keep the male away from your ladies. If you want to pollenate it: collect the pollen into a freezer bag & keep this in the freezer until your buds are growing. Then I'd take it out of the freezer & place that bag over one of the bottom buds or smaller branches down there making sure not to spill any onto the bigger buds, tie it up with a rubber band & give the branch a good shake to spread the pollen all over the bud or branch. Leave it on while you're looking after your other plants then just take it off carefully. you don't want to get pollen over everything! That bud or branch will go straight to seed mode & the rest should be sinsemella.

 

note: If you do it this way once the seeds start forming your buds will mature at a similar rate, so do it about 6 weeks before you plan to harvest. You should have matured heads & healthy seeds.

 

MUD.

Edited October 28, 2009 by MUD

[grokking]

Thanks for the tip

 

I moved the male away a few weeks ago when his little flowers preflowers started to show. Depending on how the other females are going size wise down the track I was thinking of taking the smallest one to seed

 

Here is the male. He was my stunted one though he is healthy just growing a little weirdly. Veg growth is all at the bottom.

 

 

Here are the other 3 females. The one on the right I only moved to the larger pot earlier this week.

 

 

I'm a little worried by what is happening to the lower leaves on them. The only thing I've done different lately is change the fertilizer. I was giving them Yates Thrive but changed to the Seasol powerfeed just last week. I've only given it to them once at 1/2 strength. Still only watering them once every few days but have sort of backed off on that because starting to get some rain a little sporadically

 

 

Would greatly appreciate some experienced advice

 

edit: after looking at some photos here

 

http://www.greenmanspage.com/guides/plant_abuse.html

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/problems...-pictorial.html

 

I'm sort of leaning towards maybe a nitrogen deficiency?

Edited November 6, 2009 by grokking