No luck with anything since December!!!

I tell ya, I have had no luck what so ever since the last harvest in early December 2011. My first several grows went well, I would even say too well, without any problems. Since then, I have ran into root rot, high temps, low humidity problems, nutrient lock out, spider mites, can't get any clone to take root (taken around 75 clones over the months and only maybe 6 or 7 have gotten some roots, but for whatever reason they die shortly there after), seeds won't germinate, pump died in the middle of the night and as a result the plants didn't recover, had a power outage for almost a week, and a few other things. I went from getting 14oz. off two plants to not getting anything in 7 months. Goes to show, even when you use the same techniques as previous good grows, it doesn't guarantee that it will work the next go around.

Frustrated!!!!

Sorry fo your troubles,Things have to get better.

Don't touch me..j/k Just learning exp but it sucks bro.

Well I would say most growers have ran into the same problem after a while of growing, well maybe not such a long stretch of bad luck, but won't admit too it

When it happened to me I figured, ya just gotta step back to basics and look over yer notes and figure out where you slacked off

it will pass bro

happy growin

I can honestly tell you that my first grow was my best (pics in My Album). That was Jan 2011 too. I'm back on track now. I experimented too much, tried too many things, started using RO and buffering incorrectly. My plants look great now though (indoors and out) but only after a long learning curve. My cloning and veg has always been ok though.

Keep it simple, I switched to Canna nutes and now I'm back on Hesi, from the first grow. I veg my plants a bit more now, like the first grow. I callibrate my PH/EC meter several times a week. I use Neem oil as a preventative measure. If u act like u have bugs then u will have less chance of getting them.

Sometimes we just can't see the wood for the trees, can we?

I can relate, murphy has been working overtime here too, frustrating as hell.
It seems I have been thrown every problem one could encounter lately just like you.

flamethrower1 said:

I can relate, murphy has been working overtime here too, frustrating as hell.
It seems I have been thrown every problem one could encounter lately just like you.

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Look on the bright side - We could write books on 'how not to grow cannabis' !!

Seriously though, mistakes have to be made to be learnt from and I now feel I can deal with anything. I've had spider mites but that was ok coz I love neem. Also thrips which I found difficult to rid. Fungus knats seem harmless to begin with. You have to perservere and u will be back on track. Don't give up. If it hadn't been for my first few harvests I would've thrown the towel in months ago. Once my PH meter was majorly out and I acidifed 2 lights worth.

I'm growing some of my clones outdoors this year and so re my friends. I wanted to see my plants grow naturally and it's so easy outside. Nice long slow veg peiod etc. Back to basics I suppose.

Keep a photo diary and a log of what you feed them. May just be a case of the too muchs. You can panic if things slip and then it can spiral out of control.

Thanks for the comments and support everyone. It has been very frustrating. I was contemplating giving up, but my passion and love for the plant took over. I'm planning on starting over from the very beginning, but I don't know what to change, or what to do different since I was doing everything pretty much the same. The problem started when I tried a new technique, new strain, new set up. I learned quickly that soil isn't for me, lol, bubble buckets aren't for me either. I reverted back to using an NFT system that I built. It looks bad ass, it's like the hummer version of NFT systems lol. I was using a homemade aeroponic tote to start seeds and clones. It worked decent, but it leaked alot. So I built a "cloner/aero bucket" that doesn't leak. Stopped using rock wool, and bought neoprene inserts, 2 in net pots, and got some dip n grow to start clones. Out of 10 clones, 2 got roots, but only after almost two months of waiting.

I'm just gonna step back, re think everything, "get my mind right", and start over. Something has to give eventually.

Coho said:

Don't touch me..j/k Just learning exp but it sucks bro.

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LMAO I have cooties

I think that when u have to switch ur mind set from soil to hydro it is quite difficult plus u have to be extra sharp in recognising defs and follow ur ppm religiously. Why not save the equipment for future use and go back to soil which is the easiest. I tried coco, unsuccessfully, Ca/Mg buffered incorrectly and I won't experiment again for a while and when I do it'll only be a small % of the room. Try and stick to two easy strains, preferably the same floration time, height and feeding schedule. I will only do a couple at a time now. Why complicate the feeding ?

Iahad....the weird thing about it is I think hydro is easier. For some reason I can't get anything to grow in soil. To me, hydro is simple. Here is the way I see it: In a hydro set up, water is a clean slate, with the exception of the ph levels, and if using tap water, the small amounts of sediment that's already in it. I can ph my water, and change it up or down as needed, typically I only have to take the ph down since most tap water comes out around 7. I use my TDS meter and see how many ppm are in the tap water at first, then I just measure out the nutrients and add to the water. I know exactly how much is in the water, how much ph down to use each time, and what my ppm will be based off of the measurement I used. I don't know, hydro just seems more like a blank canvas and I have full control of what exactly is in the water.

lol Everyone says soil is easy, but for me, it's like a muddy glass of water, stuff is in it but you're not exactly sure what it is. You can add different nutes to the soil, but if you don't know what your base soil already has in it, and the exact amounts then you could very easily over fertilize or under fertilize.

noxiously said:

Thanks for the comments and support everyone. It has been very frustrating. I was contemplating giving up, but my passion and love for the plant took over. I'm planning on starting over from the very beginning, but I don't know what to change, or what to do different since I was doing everything pretty much the same. The problem started when I tried a new technique, new strain, new set up. I learned quickly that soil isn't for me, lol, bubble buckets aren't for me either. I reverted back to using an NFT system that I built. It looks bad ass, it's like the hummer version of NFT systems lol. I was using a homemade aeroponic tote to start seeds and clones. It worked decent, but it leaked alot. So I built a "cloner/aero bucket" that doesn't leak. Stopped using rock wool, and bought neoprene inserts, 2 in net pots, and got some dip n grow to start clones. Out of 10 clones, 2 got roots, but only after almost two months of waiting.

I'm just gonna step back, re think everything, "get my mind right", and start over. Something has to give eventually.

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For your clones your probably cutting them wrong. you want to take off a few nodes which is where the auxins are located, use the root gel on these areas of the cutting to make them root, if u dont have and nodes taken off its almost certain your cutting will not root.
That is why it is better to give a vegging plant a bit more light so they have less stretching and can have more rooting areas in the medium.
also the use of taller cubes for cuttings that are more stretched out... and dont stick the stem through the bottom of the cube or the moisture will wick out of it and they clone will shrivel and die.

my success rate is about 60 percent. i definately want to switch to an aero cloner sometime and see how that works out.

My cloning success rate is 100% but I use Jiffy's. I then select the strongest in veg for the main room (Pics in my outdoor thread). If ur better at hydro then stick to it. you could always do a grow journal and some e-hand holding with ur RIU friends. People like problem solving so would prob be happy to help.

I'm so glad that I've finally cracked my problem. It's a pleasure going there now rather than a stress. I'm increasing production by adding more lights now.
Good luck !

lahadaextranjera said:

My cloning success rate is 100% but I use Jiffy's. I then select the strongest in veg for the main room (Pics in my outdoor thread). If ur better at hydro then stick to it. you could always do a grow journal and some e-hand holding with ur RIU friends. People like problem solving so would prob be happy to help.

I'm so glad that I've finally cracked my problem. It's a pleasure going there now rather than a stress. I'm increasing production by adding more lights now.
Good luck !

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Im sure if i picked the best branch of my plant and cloned only 5 clones i would get a 100 percent clone rate,

I'm talking about taking 35 clones off one mother, lets see your 100 percent rate happen then.

mundaiis said:

For your clones your probably cutting them wrong. you want to take off a few nodes which is where the auxins are located, use the root gel on these areas of the cutting to make them root, if u dont have and nodes taken off its almost certain your cutting will not root.
That is why it is better to give a vegging plant a bit more light so they have less stretching and can have more rooting areas in the medium.
also the use of taller cubes for cuttings that are more stretched out... and dont stick the stem through the bottom of the cube or the moisture will wick out of it and they clone will shrivel and die.

my success rate is about 60 percent. i definately want to switch to an aero cloner sometime and see how that works out.

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I cut right at the node, and usually have two or three nodes above it. I've seen some of the rooting gel, but never used it. I have dip n grow, this blue powder stuff called Rapid Grow, got it at a local hydro shop, and this cheap white powder that's called "Rooting Powder" lol, picked it up at the local department store, it cost like $4 and some change. I can't remember getting a clone to root when using dip n grow, the Rapid Grow I got a success rate of maybe 10-15%, and the cheapest stuff I was getting a rate of around 75-80%. I went back to the cheap white powder, and the success rate went back up. The problem is I can't get the roots to grow much more than what they have. They stick out of the rooter plugs about 1/4 in and they stop growing. Not sure what the deal is, but it's been driving me crazy.

I always keep the bottom of the clone inside the rockwool or rooter plug, never let it hang out the bottom. In the past when I really didn't care about cloning and was just doing it for fun, I had a success rate of atleast 90-95%, and that was taking 30-40 clones. I didn't think the cheap white rooting powder would work, that's why I took so many. I ended up throwing away most of them because I didn't have the space to grow them out. I would take the clone, dip it in the white powder, stick it in some rockwool, toss it in a netpot in my home made aero tote and they would have roots within a week, and within two weeks the roots would be atleast 8 inches long-----(that's what she said lol).

Maybe it's time to make a new aero tote and use that again.

noxiously said:

The problem is I can't get the roots to grow much more than what they have. They stick out of the rooter plugs about 1/4 in and they stop growing. Not sure what the deal is, but it's been driving me crazy.

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I think you should feed them!!!! lol, once you got the roots you definately want to feed them.

I spent 8 months on failed grow after failed grow. Tried Coco, soil, all kinds of supplements went back to DWC could never get seedlings to thrive. Then figured out it was chloramines. A measly 0.007 EC coming out of my RO filter (smelled like pool water) was preventing anything from working. I figured it out when I used the RO water in a fish tank, fish died within 1 hour. Kinda creepy that we drink this stuff by the gallons and they say there's nothing wrong with it. I think its a conspiracy man.

mundaiis said:

I think you should feed them!!!! lol, once you got the roots you definately want to feed them.

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Lol, I do feed them. I do feed them very lightly, but they are being fed. What I noticed is that they are having some new growth on some of them even though the roots aren't growing. On some the roots even started turning a little brown and shriveled up, but it still has new growth coming in. The only thing I can think of doing is scraping everything and starting all over again. Sure, by the time I finish it would have been a whole year since the last harvest, but I need something to stick.

I have a few new ideas on a system. I purchased 5 DWC bubble buckets a few months ago, but I couldn't keep the slime on the roots at bay when using those. I did notice that I had a good success rate of my clones rooting when using them though. I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the bottom of the lid that goes on the bucket, and inserting my small net pot that I am using. That way I can just take the net pot out once the roots have established themselves and just transplant the net pot into the home made NFT system.