fmgeek

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Q: Thanks a lot for all the good information. - R
A: You're welcome! Thanks for the note!
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Q: Could using too much neem cause leaf burn?
A: I have not seen neem oil cause a "burn." (I can't say the same for Doctor Doom or other pyrethrin pesticides.)

However, (this just in from his Free Weed podcast Danny Danko (High Times cultivation editor) says that you could block air and moisture intake through the leaves with a neem coating. He says neem's killing action takes place right away, and that you should just spray it on and rinse it right back off after 15 minutes or so with water. (Water would need to be soapy or have some other emulsifier in it, I think.) This sounds plausible, since the stomata (breathing holes) are located on the undersides. I don't know whether the neem action happens that fast, but I'm trying Danny's idea for a few weeks.
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Q: what do you think about foliar feeding vegging plants with seltzer water? i heard it absorbs the oxygen from the carbonation and makes them bigger and healthier.
A: That's a good question, and I honestly don't know, but I'd guess that any advantage wouldn't be noticeable.
I'd worry about additives (quinine?), low Ph, and whether stoma on the bottoms of the leaves would be able to collect CO2 (plants intake co2 and exhale oxygen) from bubbles of it popping for such a short period of time on the leaf tops, where foliar water/nute collection would take place.
However, I highly recommend foliar feeding. Especially until flowering starts. After that point, the benefits may be outweighed by the risk of molds and mildews accumulating in the moist flowers.
I suspect most benefits reported from seltzer water are attributable to regular foliar feeding that may not have otherwise taken place.
(of course, I may be totally wrong!)
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Q: Hi, I have a question about nute burns. I think I'm suffering from using too much and I need to know what to do about it. I'm ready to flower but I don't want to feed them with some of the leaves burned on the tips and curling a lil bit. If you have any info on what I should do,please let me know. Thanks
A: Hi, thanks for writing. As you suggested, it does sound like stress from too strong a nutrient mix to me. I usually flush with clear water and it clears up in a few days. If you're in a soil-like medium, flush with 4-5x your container volume. (In hydro, just replace rez with clear, PH'd water.) Check the water draining out the bottom to get an idea of how "hot" you were, and use that to inform your future nute levels. If the future, regular flushing will go a long way toward preventing this. When I was in soil, I did Sunday flushing with PH'd water and added nutes on Wednesday. In hydro now, I change reservoir weekly to prevent "selective feeding"-caused nutrient imbalances. I would wait to flower until the leaves flatten out. Sometimes I snip "stressed" bits and wait for new healthy growth to appear. (Yellowed/browned tips should regreen eventually, but I usually write-off any "bad" growth.) My rule with nutes is "less is more" but it's a fine balance between too little and too much. Obviously, too much is more dangerous. Too little will just cause slow growth (and faded color.)
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Follow-up Q: Hey, thanks a lot. I've been just waiting it out and they kinda seem to be coming back to life. I was thinking about snipping the burned leaves but I didn't want to stress the plant anymore than its already been through. I wanted to flush them but I just had mold problems with my last crop.Again .thanks for the info.I'm a newbie with MS,and trying to gain as much info as possible
A: Stress during veg stage is not a big deal as long as everything is corrected before flowers start to form. Before flowering starts, you're really just building your scaffolding. No clipping after flowers start, is my rule. (I prune brutally during veg to shape the plant to my tastes.) Your mold probably happened because the water sat still too long. Air movement/exchange will prevent that. Also, make sure you're letting your medium mostly dry out before rewatering. ______________________________________
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Q: you are not very educated in the world of mmj your supposed facts are all fucked up. learn more ,thanx
A: Oh. Well durn it. I only wish you had been able to tell me which of my facts are "all fucked up." Good use of our time, master gardener.
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Q: Hey, Wondering where one can get starter plants/seeds?
A: Lots of folks buy clones on craigslist, and there are lots of reliable seed vendors online. I personally have used the website everyonedoesit.com for seeds.

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Q: How far from the top of the bucket do you place your grid?
A: Mine slides up and down on the frame.. It's usually sitting between 3" when they first go into flower to maybe 9-12" above the container edges by the end. The trellis is, in this system, intended to hold the plant down, instead of holding it up, as in most SCROG grows.
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Q: I have always had a problem with mites. What can I do about that? Any tips and ideas you have, I'll appreciate.
A: Mites is an easy one: Diligence! I spray every week, twice as often if I actually spot a mite (or the telltale group of tiny bite marks on top of the leaves you're surely familiar with.) I try to alternate between Neem Oil and some other product - liquid ladybug, etc. Spray the undersides of the leaves. Prevention is the cure. Good air movement and lower temperatures go a long way to natural prevention.
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Q: I have a few places I can grow, like the attack, garage, and spare bedroom, which would be best? (I have animals, I know that plays a part.)
A: Where to grow depends on a few things: Which location will be easiest to ventilate? Insulate? Will you need a new circuit (or more?); will you be able to pull wire from your main panel? Height isn't much of a consideration fir the plants using my system, but comfort matters, so attics and crawl spaces may or may not be fun to work in. (I am mostly in my attic, with some vegging in my spare bedroom.) In previous houses, I've just divided a bedroom into 1/3 for veg and 2/3 for flowering. You will probably want to keep any animals out of your grow area. The possible damages are many and varied.. From eating your buds to peeing in your containers, it's all bad! Your grow areas should be pretty much sealed except for ventilation anyway, so this should keep most pets out.
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Q: I need some advice how to take care of my plants. How often do I feed them? What levels do I feed them? Do I need to feed and water them every week or every few days? Please let me know. Thank you.
A: How often and how much to feed depends on a few things. (Among others: Container size/type, medium content, drainage, temperature, and humidity will all affect dry time.) To find out how often, you can water your plant just until it comes out the drainage holes, then just check every day until it's dry. You can be sure by waiting, the first time, until just a bit of leaf sag starts. Don't let them wilt.. Watch carefully once the soil feels dry! This is your "how often" time, all other things remaining equal.
I find most folks growing in good medium (Sunshine#4 or better) water about twice a week, but your mileage may vary.
When I grew in a dirt-like medium, I watered with plain water on Wednesday and with nutrients on Sunday. Also flushed weekly.
As to how much -
re: water - just until/before it comes out the bottom.
re: nutrients - I like a quality nute starting at about 1/2 strength in soil, 1/4 strength in hydroponics. Increase strength to tolerance (varies by strain - indicas in soil might use up to 1800ppm) until 2 weeks before harvest.
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Q: Thanks for the tips!! People treat info like its gold!! What's a good way inexpensive way to keep a room cooler?
A: Hmm, that's a toughie. There's no substitute for a good air conditioner and tons of exhaust, but if you're running the lights in your flowering room from 8am to 8pm, reversing that will go a long way to helping. Venting the air directly from the lights helps too. If you don't have vented hoods, you can just hang the exhaust hose above the light and make a nice dent.
Right now is a good time to buy an AC unit... they don't cost that much to run if you combine with overnight lighting and good ventilation.
I am flowering in my attic and I have a cheap-o portable AC (8000btu) up there (bought on CL.org for 80 bucks) exhausting through one vent, and a 400CFM vortex fan (under 100 bucks) exhausting through another.
Before I switched day-to-night a couple of weeks ago (by extending the night a couple of days in a row) my temps were crossing 90, but now I'm back to 75/62. I don't think the AC kicks on that much at night, since it's cool outside, but I will test it tonight with my Kill-A-Watt meter and let you know.

Q: Simple and easy idea!! I am late in flower right now do you think it'll effect the plants much if I just swap them To a complete opposite cycle?
A: They won't mind a few extra hours of sleep; not enough sleep and interrupted dark cycles are what you want to avoid. I did my turnover in about 4 days, but I'm pretty sure you could do it with no stress in 2, probably even one.
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Q: Thank you so very much for getting back to me, and sharing what you know!
A: Thanks for the great questions! I am happy to share, and will incorporate these ?s into my infopost.

Thanks for the great info! I'm near the end of my 7th week with sativa strains in 5 gal. Root builder pots. Using happy frog soil with added perlite. I'm not sure how long to flush or how often . I understand that it is a good idea to use 3-5 times the container size . But how long should I do it for? Thanks in advance.

good luck trying to make a pound in 5 gallon try 25 gallon and up

Originally Posted by motocycoplumber

Thanks for the great info! I'm near the end of my 7th week with sativa strains in 5 gal. Root builder pots. Using happy frog soil with added perlite. I'm not sure how long to flush or how often . I understand that it is a good idea to use 3-5 times the container size . But how long should I do it for? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the question! I'm not sure what you mean by "how long" ... once you've decided on the amount of water you'll flush through your container, it's just a matter of running it through at the rate the medium will allow. If should take a few minutes per plant. (If you mean during what phase of growth.. flushing can help during all phases of growth!) This can be done as often as weekly. Many pros water twice a week.. once with nutes, and then a good flush in between; salts can build up very quickly. To find out how much buildup you have, you can run water through just enough to collect a bit of runthrough water, which you can test to get an idea how "hot" your soil is.

Maybe you mean "how long before end of my growing cycle should I flush for smooth harvest." This is a flushing of the plant, and not just of the soil, and is a bit different... it just means feeding with clear, Ph'ed water (and a flushing agent like Final Flush or, Final Phase, if available) If so, for you I would suggest tapering nutes down at about 2 weeks before expected harvest, so that the last 7-10 days are nute-free. Up the amount of water you normally use by 1/2 (so instead of the usual 2 gal, or whatever, you'd use 3.)

If you can, I always recommend Ph balancing the water you're flushing with, but if you're in the 7.0 neighborhood out of the tub, as I am here, it's not a huge deal. I still like to run a gallon of Ph balanced water through after the "bathtub flush" is complete, just to keep everyone comfy.

One thing I like to mention about sativa varieties; When they say flower times of 8-10 (or even 12 or 14) weeks, you should be aware that sativas will ripen over a period of time. Especially if you're growing "christmas tree" style. Less so for the above described trellising system. Anyway if you can be patient and take down only those nugs that are ripe and wait for the rest to ripen, drawing your harvest out over a period of 2-4 weeks, you'll end up with much higher and more consistent quality.

Originally Posted by lighting

good luck trying to make a pound in 5 gallon try 25 gallon and up

Bigger is definitely better in a soil-based system, but I didn't find a noticeable difference, yield-wise, when I used an 18g container in my hydro setup. It's really just a bigger reservoir, I think, as long as there are room for the roots if your container.

Maybe this is because in hydro, the roots don't do get to do any root-zone bio-farming like they do in soil or soil-like media.

Again, the same is not true for soil... I've seen BIG difference between 5g and 20g containers.