Utopia Haze and BioBizz Range

Hello!

Yesterday I started the lengthy (80-90 days) flowering process of my five feminised Utopia Haze (Barney's Farm) plants, after a month of vegetative growth.

Substrates:
- BioBizz Light-Mix
- BioBizz nutrients: Grow, Bloom, and Top Max
- Canna trace elements

Equipment:
- 250W High Pressure Sodium dual-spectrum bulb with standard reflector and ballast
- Rhino carbon filter (size:100x300, maximum: 300m3/hour)
- Rvk 100E2-A1 fan, standard ducting
- Black/white mylar sheeting throughout; the length of the chamber has ultra reflective (mirror) mylar
- 20x20cm 5.7 litre pots
- Long Garland tray
- Fan for circulation
- Cheeky little spray bottle for misting!
- Standard digital thermometer and hygrometer
- Analogue timer and surge protector


This is my first concerted effort to grow indoors and would be happy with a 125g-ish yield (250W divided by two). I performed a longer-than-usual vegetative cycle to make sure the plants were comfortable in the soil and finalised my set up (only later buying the carbon filter, etc.). I've been using the nutrient range for about ten days and since then the plants have shot up, initially using just the Grow formula (per litre), but have now moved onto adding the whole range since flowering has commenced.

However, there has been some noticeable negative effects (since nutrients have been added to watering) and I have my suspicions. Firstly, some of leaves of the top tier of the plants are doing "the claw," curling down and shrivelling at the tips. This is most likely not from over-watering, but from pH imbalance and resulting nutrient lockout, less likely nutrient burn, and plausibly heat/low humidity stress (plants are healthy distance from the bulb, roughly 50cm).
Some leaves are also displaying necrotic/deficient tendencies with patchy brown spots on the leaves. Also, a couple of the plants are displaying brightening/yellowing of the perimeter of the leaves.

- Have a look and let me know what you think, please.

I hope this is not lock-out from pH imbalance. I have no way to test the pH of the soil (can purchase kits or meters if required), but have been told on numerous occasions that with organic mediums pH does not need monitoring as the soil has sufficient built-in buffers, hence it is recommended to feed with every water.

I am fortunate to live in an area where the water is luxuriously soft (pH 6 to 6.5), also I use a filter on the tap water so any nasties are taken out. Me and my girls drink the same water

I will be giving updates so stay tuned. Any tips are appreciated, and thanks for reading.

hey,,,
just a heads up,, from my exp with organic soils, checking the ph should be done anyway,even just the liptmus paper to test the runoff. I think your right about the nute lock out,,those babiez look over ferted. Id leach the soil,,so 3 times the soil volume with water,,then you can use a 1/4 strength nute (either right away or Id leave it 24hrs to let soil dry...then nute at 1/2 strenght.)

I use the bio bizz range,,and topmax is the shit,,hell there all good,and as long as you keep to the instructions it should be all good. Ihave found them (the range) to maybe not have enough Mag/Cal so maybe get some of that incase,,

anyhow take it easy and happy growing.

Hey Bunnyface,
Cheers for the pronto reply, I knew I could rely on you veterans to lend a hand

I'll do a top-down flush starting from tomorrow, it's a bit late in the cycle to do it today, and I don't want their roots getting stressed at night from a lower soil temperature.
So three times the volume of 5.7L, that's 15 litres of water flushing the soil per pot. It's quite a lot!?

Do you feed with every water? One of my secondary questions is the feeding regime with organics. Some say every 2 out of 3 waters give them nutrients, the majority say with every water. I guess it depends on an individual's growing conditions... For me I will back off with the fert, I followed the guidelines but was maybe too enthusiastic to feed them since I skipped feeding for the first month.

My non-organic (boo-hiss) element in my setup is the Canna trace mix which provides Fe, Mo, Cu, Mn, B and Zn. They say 1-2ml per litre which sounds about right.
There is no mention of Magnesium or Calcium, what are good sources for these minerals?

The BioBizz stuff looks great, look forward to reaping the results.

hey,,,
yeah,,3 times the volume of soil with water,,I have 3 gallon pots,,so I take them to the shower and flush with tepid water,,yeah its alot but has to be to flush the nutes/salts outta the pot.

to answers your question,,yeah I work (in flower) on a 2 days of topmax and bio bloom and bio heaven. then the 3rd water and just bio heaven.(unless im in the final flush then its just water) Its really on what you prefer or more whats your soil like and whats pre mixed in, and how the plant looks.. But exp. will tell you more than anything..... I have yet to see results from the bio heaven,,but the topmax gives great results compared to not using it. I tryed one with one with out on first grow and wow,,what a difference.
also from my exp with biobizz (like with any ferts) to start off with less than or up to half strenght and work up to full strenght after maybe over two weeks or so. the plants teel you when they need stuff with leaf discolouration.
I too work for the first 30days (veg stage) with out adding ferts,,just use the soil cause Its foritfed,,,

On your Mag/Cal situtaion the topmax had both,and the biobloom only has traces of it in there. Along with traces of all micros but cause they are in so small amounts,its not listed on the bottle. For organic sources you will genrally find that they are a full complete(macro and micro) nutes. A good way to get organic cal and mag is by pre mixing Dolomite lime into the soil. A top dressing could be used and then as the feed/water goes over it ,it drains through taking the elements into the soil...so not only a good pH buffer but is also a good source of Mag and Cal.(infact thats pretty much what it is. it also makes phosphates more avaible.)

hope that helps abity....
And just so you know you dont want to much mag or cal but just enough. In ppm its 50-100 for mag and 100-500 of cal. average ppm= Mg 75 and Cal 200.

o also,,about your pics,,nice looking plants, but the one where you have put the boxes around the 'burnt' edges,,thats fert burn,,defo,

anyhow hope that all helps and dont worry they will be fine after a leach....
take it easy.

I've gave them a quick flush today. Nothing drastic like 15 litres a pot, probably about 1-2 times the volume of the pots (5.7l) each.
Did not measure the pH of the run-off as I am a lazy bastard and have yet to buy pH-testing apparatus.
Only thing I noticed was a fraction of the run-off from two of the pots had brownish (nutrient) residue which dripped to start with, then the escaping water was totally clear, but otherwise nothing of note.
Can't check on them now as they are sleeping, tomorrow I'll post an update with more photos of the burned plant. It's nutrient burn for sure - three leaves have gone almost totally necrotic. Symptoms are similar to Phosphorous deficiency, which is weird. Maybe an O.D. of P!
It's so strange considering I have barely fed them for five weeks. Will let the soil dry tomorrow and start again with water-only and 1/4 then 1/2 strength as you said.
Cheers

edit:
Oh - by the way, the others are looking beautiful, even the yellowy-edged one has balanced out.
Also, under normal light they are all looking lushly green, even the burn case. Taking photos under HPS had a tendency to make plants appear yellowy/deficient.

your going to need a PH tester or you going to have more lock out dud

Yes, working on it. Looking at electronic all-in-one meters but might just go for a cheap solution right now.

Plant on the left definitely suffered burn and/or lockout but is on the mend after the flush.

Every plant is displaying pistils now, having started flowering last Sunday (five days ago).

I'll go at 1/4 then 1/2 strength when I do reapply nutrients, as bunnyface suggested earlier.

theyre looking awesome,
im currently on my 3rd grow and have gone back to biobizz light mix and full bio nutrients,
my last grow was in hydro using canna and the qaulity was imho no where near as good as using bio bizz, im also giving molasses on every watering now, ps im 3 weeks in flowering,
heres a pic to wet the mouth,
good luck bro.

Ok, update for end of week 7, day 19 of flower.

I was not present for over a week and had them just watered during that time. They were looking a bit mingy but I've managed to spruce them up and they are doing well. Still no pH meters but I am being very careful adding nutrients now. Our water rules here (pH 6-6.5) and I'm growing in soil so I'm no that concerned. At present I am doing Water, Food, Water, Food, etc. Sometimes I do a couple of clean waters after a feed.

They are loving the BioBizz stuff; after the week of unattended watering I came back and fed them straight away, and they literally started bursting with bud sites.

Lazy hazes, they are so slow... only another sixty-ish days of this!

Three days and two feeds later.

One week of which I was away and they were only given water, so they are a little behind but blooming well.

I did some pruning today; got rid of the useless, yellowing fan leaves towards the bottom of the stack. Must have chopped/pulled off two (compacted) hands-full of leaves. Hopefully this well help juice up the colas lower down as more light can penetrate the canopy.

The two on the flanks shot up big time, and I changed formation from a pentagonal 2-1-2 to three in the back row (the stretchers together), and the two squatter pots in the front row. The theory is the shorter pots might accelerate in height pretty soon and will have more space to grow into, thus maximising the use of light.

I have a couple questions, the first is about the distance from the light. Right now the stretchers are way too close to the 250W HPS - less than a foot away - yet seem to be coping fine. Canopy temperature is not more than late 20s (Celsius) / mid-80s (Fahrenheit). It is comfortable to leave my hand at their range, I have a strong fan blowing towards the top of the plants. The differences in temperature between roots and canopy is obviously driving the stretching, as were the lower temperatures experienced at the periphery of the old formation.

So, what is an advisable distance to have these girls from my light?

Secondly, I LST'd the stretchers before, if they continue to spurt upwards, would you recommend pinning them down again? This was my backup plan as I know these Hazes can comfortably get to a metre tall.

Third and lastly, I have been reading many people's posts which swear by adding molasses. What would you recommend to a noobster like me?

All in all, not bad so far considering it's my first proper grow effort indoors. The closeup shots are of the shortest girl in the pack, at the front left in the larger photo of the squad.

Close up of the front right girl this time around. Hope you like 'em.
Doing nicely, but I am suspicious the girls are moderately Mg/Ca deficient.
The stringy ones will flesh out and develop a long central cola in time, I reckon. The next photos will concentrate on them.

Other than one of the girls being a bitch (on the left) and the others showing moderate bitchiness (see my problems thread), I'm ambling towards the half-way mark of the flowering. I got a proper pH meter way too late.

The two at the front are surprisingly squat. It just just shows how random phenotypical expression can be even from five standardised, feminised seeds (granted there is variation in the conditions of environment).

According to Barney's Farm this plant takes 70-80 days, I am assuming they will take a month more at least. I estimated 84 at the start owing to inefficiencies (me being a retard). The stringy ones are fleshing out very slowly but fans leaves have encountered problems as described in other threads, consequently the buds are a bit retarded. Still, a month left and I expect them to swell to about 3 or 4 inches in diameter around the main stem, especially when they resume normal-looking growth (fingers crossed they are fixing, bit too early to tell).

The two sluts at the front are wank material, though
Wish I could have cloned them. The cola of the girl in the front right is looking exactly how it is marketed. By the way, they are producing an incredibly citrus-y scent. I guess it is the Top Max doing its job!

I got some spectacular shots because of the dual-spectrum bulb I'm using. It flickers between the red/purple tones and the green/blue ranges (I have shots of both from the same angles on the closeups). The reddish shots just look that much more malevolent, don'tchya think?

Enjoy.

One girl fell over and tried to scrog itself while I was away, haha.
It's on the left hand side now.
The skinnies are beefing up.

looking good,
+rep for them girls.

amazing. it's a joy for the eye, rep!

Muchos grassy-arse, people

So, the last two weeks is definitely about letting the stretchers fatten up, they might need a week or two more owing to stress/inefficiency earlier on. Now every single water and feed is pH 6.5 RAWRRRR

The one that is now on the right (moved from middle) had a skeletal structure that has suddenly exploded with bud sites - it is the late bloomer. I predicted eighty-four days (Barney's say seventy to eighty), so they are on schedule. Especially the two squat ones which are so juicy it's insane. Time to start getting prepared for the cure.. by the way, they emit a luscious smell: a lime-orange, citrus tang! mhmmmmmm!

p.s. the one that fell over while I was away (plant now on the left, strung up) plumped up considerably. Light was able to penetrate towards bud sites all along the stem. It has given me ideas for late-stage titling (horizontally) for future grows with sativa-dominants. By appearance it increased its bud volume by a third in about a week!

Barney's suggest 70-80 days.

One of the girls is looking ready.
All I've got is my shitty magnifying glass on my penknife so I can't really make out the trichomes too well.
I'm getting a better piece of kit to have a zoomed in look.

- The close up is of the girl directly behind the tall one in the foreground.
- So far as bud development goes, the other squat one could do with another week, I think.
- The two other tall ones are on par with that one.
- The tall one in the foreground looks like it could do with another couple weeks, seriously skinny buds.


Anyway, I started flushing today.

Is staggered chopping advisable? I'm a rookie and would have liked to cure them all at the same time for convenience.

Suggestions, as ever, appreciated (that's why I'm posting here)