So, one of my plants is having this issue where a couple of the leaves are 'clawing' downwards and turning yellow towards the tips. They are also developing spots in the yellowing area. As it's presently only the tips of two fan leaves, I'm not stressing too bad about it, but to keep it from spreading, I cut the tips of the leaves off.
It's day 26 of my hydro experiment, and I am pretty pleased with the way things are going. My PH had been running a little high with this batch of nutes for some reason. No worries, really. I've just been adding 6-12 drops of PH down every morning and evening to allow the PH to range between 5.5 and 6.
It's beginning to smell nice in there when I open the door.
I wanted to take some pictures of the tops to illustrate why to top your plants. I topped, then re-topped, and now I have four tops on each plant.
I'm attempting to LST the four principle branches of each top outwards to encourage multiple flower sites to develop, similar to the scrog method.
Things are starting to get interesting in there. I think I'm going to veg these girls for a week or two more, and then it's flower time! I'm hoping to completely canpoy the lower area and use LST to achieve relatively level flower growth as they reach upwards. I should note that I only have room in this space for them to grow to four or five feet tall, so I'm maximizing space utilization by making them as bushy as possible.
How do these compare to your hydro setup at this stage of growth?
Well they don't really compare because I'm pretty new to hydroponics. I'm still getting my system put together. I've been studying a lot but I'm no expert or anything. All books, no practice.
The only reference I could find to "clawing" or curling downward was from too much nitrogen. Read through it - there's lots of pictures - and see what looks most likely to you. Keep in mind that often times you can have more than one problem at once, because too much nitrogen can lock out calcium, for example.
Like I said, I'm no expert, so until someone a lot better than me comes along don't put too much stock in my advice. I could be right, though. It could happen.
Yesterday, I emptied out the system and mixed a new batch of nutes. Since this is one area where my journal is a little light, I thought I'd expand a little, and get very specific on what nutrients, in what quantities I added to the solution. FYI: The nutrient mix below is created by taking AN's measurements on their little hand out nutrient chart for the fourth week of growth in veg and roughly halfing the recommended amounts.
To ten gallons of reverse osmosis water, I add:
40ml Sensi Grow A
40ml Sensi Grow B
45ml Mother Earth Tea
25ml Humic Acid
25ml fulvic Acid
25ml Sensical
100ml SensiZym
50ml Liquid Karma
In a cheese cloth hung in the reservoir(see pics), I added
2.5tsp BioCat
5tsp Tarantula
5tsp Pirhanna
When I'm done with all of this, I have an EC of between 1.2-1.4.
using ECx700=PPM, this is between 840-980ppm at half the recommended strength. Be careful when using AN nutes. They make things grow fast, but using their suggested dosages will kill your plants dead.
I'm thinking that if this rate of growth continues this week, I'm going to start flowering them next week or the following.
Those of you that do hydro: Would you go head and switch out the light next week if you were me, or would you wait an extra week and let them get a little bushier? I'm concerned about height. I only have about four or five feet above the current canopy to work with, but I don't want to jump the gun and limit my harvest. Thoughts?
I've decided it's time to flower. I'm waiting to see if people think it's a better idea to wait to switch the light until I can load the solution with flowering nutes. If it's better to wait, I'll be switching to flowering on Sunday. Otherwise, it's this afternoon.
As part of the shift, I'll be switching to a 600W Hortilux SuperHPS from my metal halide, and using connoisseur for the flowering cycle. Some of my friends have used it and said you get sick yields. We'll see.
PH is a little upwardly mobile again. It seems to want to hover at 6.1-6.2 naturally if I dont do anything. EC is 1.4(980PPM)
Last night, I swapped the bulb from the Metal Halide to mySuperHPS. Jeebuz that fucking thing is bright! Whoashit! how do people work in rooms with those things burning? I've been reduced to wearing my snowboarding goggles in there when the light is on. whew!