Ok it's been a little while since a real update and I have some free time so I might as well share! The girls are HAPPY! Had to start with that, because on top of everything else, that is the biggest change from the last update.
I recently ran out of a few bottles from H&G and decided to try something new instead of replacing those over priced colorful bottles. . . . so with Cap holding my hand pretty much the whole way, I ordered Jack's Professional Hydroponic fertilizer from JRPeters Inc. along with there Calcium Nitrate, MOST, and pH Adjuster. I also picked up a bag of epsom salt from my local pharmacy for few dollars. The total cost of completely converting over to this new company and using their entire recommended line, was less than replacing just one of three bottles I ran out of from H&G!! But wait, I didn't even get to the best part yet!
I mixed the new salts up probably more cautiously than necessary the first time, but I wanted to make sure everything was fully dissolved before adding each new ingredient, and I wanted to make sure all the ingredients were going in the right order (thanks again to Capulator for all the help)! I love that my feed water is a clear swimming pool shade of blue now, instead of a dark red/brown rez from H&G that I could barely see through!
The pH was the only thing that was different than what Cap said it would be. He said that his mixture always comes out around 5.7 or if anything a little higher. . . . but mine mixes up at 4.5 pH before adjustment consistently. . . . so I used the pH adjuster also from JRPeters Inc, as per their recommendation for a small batch, and used it to bring the pH of my reservoir up to 5.6 I have fed 3 times now to 10% runoff, and I could not be happier with the results!!
My plants instantly took to the new fertilizer. The next morning I was telling myself it had to just be the placebo effect because there was no way I was seeing healthier and faster growth just 12 hours after watering in the new fertilizer for the first time. . . . but the plants growth rate only got faster and faster, and the color in all the leaves, along with shape only became more and more uniform, even among seedlings that had previously been showing significantly different leaf patterns! Honestly I am compelled to share this with every grower I know, out of all the different product labels I have read that promise healthy plants this and faster growth that, nothing has been as significant a difference in as little time with as little experience as this companies cheaper than dirt fertilizer!
Now I'm not saying I have the perfect recipe figured out or anything, I just mixed up Jack's Pro Hydro at 3g per gallon, then added roughly .05g MOST per gallon, and mixed extremely well. Then I added .7g of Epsom salt per gallon because Mg was a deficiency symptom my plants were hinting at a couple weeks ago, and Cap said .5-1g was OK. Again after mixing thoroughly, I added 2g of Calcium Nitrate per gallon (which is when the water gets that nice blue shade). After all this is mixed, make sure you have room in your reservoir to add between 20-40% more water to dilute the solution to the desired ppm/EC level. Right now I am feeding my plants at 675ppm on my Hanna combo meter which I think is set to .5 scale. That is working great right now under a 1000w light, but I am feeding my plants under a T5 Fluorescent around 520ppm and they are exploding! The recipe I just described at those rates will mix up somewhere in the mid 800's on my meter, which is why room for more RO to dilute the solution is important.
Anyways, that was a whole big update/pitch on my new fertilizer, but I hardly mentioned what the plants have been up to! The first thing to say is that 7 out of 10 plants are now in upgraded pot sizes! I will have my hands on 3 more pots by tomorrow or Wednesday, but for now, the majority of the plants are living in their new 7 gallon homes! Obviously this translates to growth exploding even more, but I only transplanted them last night so that is still on its way! I need to redo the LST that I had attached to the 3 gallon pots to maintain the canopy spread on the new 7 gallon pots, but I should be able to get that done tonight or tomorrow and the plants will enjoy a nice stretch in the mean time :)
The only somewhat bad news is that the plants are growing too fast. . . . meaning I expected them to take longer to recover and adjust to the new fertilizer, but at this rate they are going to be way too big by the time I know the sex on the clones, which I am just now getting roots on. . . so I am in a bit of a pickle! My thoughts right now are just to continue vegging until I could have a full run with 50% males, that way, if I have a high female rate, I am a bit over vegged and might have to take a plant out and make it a mother for later, but I will still be able to fill both trays if there is a high male rate. I may change my mind about this though, because they are already the size my WiFi where when I flipped them and those plants where perfect size for 4 in a tray!
Wow, ok, that was a larger than expected update, but I hope some of you take the time to read it, because non of it is bullshit, and I wish I would have started with this last year! Now for the part that we all know you will look at before reading any of this, a few pictures I took this afternoon. And remember, these were taken 16 hours after transplant, and they look like this!
-Meeks:cool:
