Am I Not Feeding My Girls Enough?

[RobGee]

Hi all, I haven't been able to pull my most recent girls out of their funk. Just built out a new room and environment is super solid, but my girls are not happy. Thinking they might need more food, but scared to give them too much if its some other sort of other issue as they are already stressed. Any input would be appreciated.

1. Are you growing from seed or clones?
GSC and OG Kush clones
2. How old are your plants?
two stages, 6 weeks and another set is 10 days
3. How tall are your plants?
2.5" and 1"
4. What size containers are they planted in?
7 gallon fabric
5. What is your soil mix?
went from 1 gals with ocean forest/lightwarrior 1-1 mix to straight coco
6. How often do you water and what type of water do you use?
not drinking fast at all, bout once a week right now
7. What is the pH of your water?
comes out around 7.5, been adjusting to about 6.2, just lowered down to 6.0
8. What kind of fertilizer do you use and what is its NPK ratio?
Canna - BioVega, Rhizotonic, Cannazym w/ some Cal-mag from Grotek
fed 700 ppm last week and just hit them with 850
9. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything?
no
10. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights")
They are all in 4x8s with 3,000HPS over them, turned 1 off cause I was worried I may have transitioned them from the T5s to 1,000s too soon
11. How close are your lights to the plants?
between 4-6 feet, smilers girls are much further away and look happier
12. What size is your grow space in square feet?
400 square feet
13. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space?
65F night 78F day, RH 45%-65%
14. What is the pH of the soil?
Still unsure how to check, made slurry samples, but they've been reading the same PH ands PPMs as plain tap
15. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space?
Not in the air, haven't dug through the soil tho
16. How much experience do you have growing?
Bout 10 years, last few rounds have been coco with good results, but all soil up until then

 

[Seamaiden]

Oh boy... where do I start?

First, yes, they are seriously hungry. I've never used those fertilizers, and I don't believe in Cal-Mag products, so get yourself a Ca-only product, and that in conjunction with the Cal-Mag will bring that deeply, sorely needed and missed Ca back into play.

You don't say how much you're feeding of each product, either. The folks who are familiar with your feeding program will need to know this.

Don't do a slurry test with tap water, do it with RO or distilled.

They're just so hungry, for EVERYTHING, that I'm also wondering if the coir you transplanted into was rinsed and pre-charged for you already (I don't know which brands do this, I'm cheap so I do it myself). If you bought something like Botanicare bricks (the kind you expand yourself) and didn't pre-rinse and pre-charge, there's your problem right there and it starts with flushing hard with a charged solution (that would be along the lines of what you use to precharge--a mild vegging solution that's very heavy on Ca and Mg alongside {I use a ratio of at least 4:1 Ca:Mg} at an EC of around .3 or so, at a pH of 5.8-6.2, 6.0 is usually the sweet spot for most strains IME).

I have to say that I'm not sure how much I like seeing all that root material not actually planted into the coir, either.

ALL of this said, if one of the cats who does this a lot more than me comes in and gives different advice, I may defer to them.

 

[straincreation]

Like sea said those girls are hungry. Also yes those roots need to be covered up bro. Top um up with a cup of whatever medium your using. Also half of the plants look like there in coco and the other half look like there in soil? If there that big and not drinking alot they need some more root treatments. Bump that rhiztonic up and how much are you feeding at this time?

 

[Seamaiden]

They are all transplanted from FF Light Warrior to coir. I don't recall brand mentioned. I appreciate you taking a peek!

 

[RobGee]

Thx for the input guys. Had a buddy suggest that the Bio line from Canna takes awhile to become usable in a medium so I'm pretty sure the girls are extremely starved. Also usually use Canna coco and I believe its charged because never have had serious transplant problems until this cycle and we just switched to Gold Label coco. The small ladies went straight from rock wool to coco and the bigger girls were in OF/LW 1 gals before going into coco so thats why some of em have perlite on top.

Sea, do you have a Ca product you like the best?

Recipe last time was: 10mL BioVega, 8mL Rhizo, 10mL Cannazym and actually didn't get any CaMg last feed :( came out to 850ppm

Much Appreciation!

 

[Seamaiden]

Why would it take a while to become usable? That doesn't make any sense to me, it's a liquid fertilizer, right? If that's the case, most of it is readily and directly available for the plant to take up. If it's not being taken up, then other parameters have to be more closely examined, the first I'd hit would be pH, then VPD (vapor pressure deficit).

Canna is supposed to be one of the top brands, but I don't recall folks' opinions on Gold Label. If it were me, I'd do several slurry tests using RO/DI or distilled water, as I mentioned above, but I still don't think it's a lockout, I think they're extremely hungry.

I loved BioLink 6% Ca, because it's organic and a (relatively) high rate, but I hadn't been able to find it available last time I looked. I've also got Calplex, but it's a 3% solution.

You have a bit of a problem right now due to their size and current condition. It's very likely they haven't been able to lay down much in the way of immobile elements in their tissues, so even if you get them greened up you may encounter other problems, and in my experience with coir it's usually a Ca-, which is hard to correct once observed.

 

[Natural]

i think you've been high on your ph..but how do you mix? I mix nutes wait for an hour then ph..wait another half hour then check. usually my ph rises quite a bit in the waiting process

 

[caveman4.20]

4-6 ft. from the older plants is too far and they look like they have been shocked, more then likely before the last transplant, I'm guessing root bound in the last container, some plants take over a month to rebound depending on the amount of stress throwing them into shock.....

IF indeed I'm right
Shocked plants should not be fed heavy (especially small plants) but the treatment of the medium is the most crucial for the stressed plants and if growing in a organic medium a living soil approach is recommended which would address the problems coming from ph, ppm, etc....
One thing overlooked with the organic approach is that that the sun water and air are the MAIN food, all these bottled things and soil amendments are just supplements to help the process along .....

Kiss, organic approach is a living soil should have beneficial fungus and bacteria which bacteria is fed proteins/carbs and fungus is fed seaweed,kelp,fishy type shit......
but see if your plants healthy the plants will feed the fungus and bacteria through exudates , of course I'm not talking about maximizing yields. Let's get those plants healthy again first

 

[Myco]

I've used the Bio line plenty, albeit not in coco.

But the concept of the nutrients not being usable in the medium for a while is bro-science at its finest...

I'm not a coco expert so I won't bother to add any input on top of what others had mentioned, just wanted to add my .02 about the "takes a while to become usable" comment.

Does your buddy work at an indoor garden supply shop? :rolleyes:

Sorry... Don't mean to come off as a dick, I hope you get your problems sorted out. Good luck!

 

[straincreation]

Ya sorry my friend but your buddy hasnt the slightest clue what he is talking about. If he grows or not is irrelevant . Canna is chelated salts. This means they are available immediately . There is no down time you should feed at night and see results by morn. No if and or buts. So as i mentioned above if your not seeing results then your problem lies in the rhizosphere. Wouldnt say its lock out. Cant help unless youanswer some more of my questions..
like yco said i dont grow in cocobut i do use canna. And can give you a generalization. If not. Well BOL.
happy farmin;)

 

[straincreation]

They are all transplanted from FF Light Warrior to coir. I don't recall brand mentioned. I appreciate you taking a peek!

Fo sho.

 

[RobGee]

Ya, my buddy is not any sort of scientist, most likely regurgitating information which seems to happen a lot. Ive got a good idea of the approach now, gonna cover up exposed roots and hit with a Ca heavy dose of food.

Strain, what questions are you referring to?

i think you've been high on your ph..but how do you mix? I mix nutes wait for an hour then ph..wait another half hour then check. usually my ph rises quite a bit in the waiting process

I usually fill rez right after watering, then add nutes the day before feed and adjust ph an hour or so before feeding. I did have an issue w/ a ph tester so it def could have been off. Now ph has been 6.0-6.2.

Thanks for all the input!

 

[RobGee]

Why would it take a while to become usable? That doesn't make any sense to me, it's a liquid fertilizer, right? If that's the case, most of it is readily and directly available for the plant to take up. If it's not being taken up, then other parameters have to be more closely examined, the first I'd hit would be pH, then VPD (vapor pressure deficit).

I was using two testers and getting dif readings which drove me crazy, finally ditched the Hanna and stuck with the BlueLab, so hopefully its dialed. Ph has been 6.0-6.2 and I believe I've got good VPD, days temps are 75-80 w/ rh 50%-60%, night temps 68-72 w/ rh 50%-60%

 

[caveman4.20]

Coco has trichoderma (fungi) naturally so next time you could add kelp/seawead/fish like feed that fungi and keep it alive and have incredible results, just learn what kills those natural microbeasties and don't do that and you should be good. Peace

 

[Canalchemist]

I was using two testers and getting dif readings which drove me crazy, finally ditched the Hanna and stuck with the BlueLab, so hopefully its dialed. Ph has been 6.0-6.2 and I believe I've got good VPD, days temps are 75-80 w/ rh 50%-60%, night temps 68-72 w/ rh 50%-60%

Make sure you store that Blulab properly, I am not sure what happened to mine but it died before 18 months, and they said no warranty, so I got a Chinese one for $20 because I saw some people saying they need to be calibrated all the time but they seem to do pretty good. I rarely use it anyway.

 

[straincreation]

I was asking how much you were feeding the others were answered. If i recall right you said you were feeding light. Was just wondering how ligt.
Happy farmim;)

 

[Canalchemist]

I know it is a huge job, but I would flush with tipid water real well, then get a known strength of fertilized solution PH'ed with some b vitamin at the recommended dose and feed them, check your runoff when you flush for ppms and PH. That Gold coco is guaranteed under .5 ec last time I checked.

 

[RobGee]

Just an update, was able to pull these girls outta their funk and finish em off pretty nice. Girls were hurting......(check photos from early in the post) Love this plant!!!
Wanted any input on how there looking before chop. Basic Canna program, A & B with Rhizotonic, Cannazym and Boost with the addition of CalMag at the suggestion of the homies. Backed of food week 6 and gave them plain water flush for the last 10 days or so (went 8 weeks). OG and GSC, the OG always yellows out on me pretty major once I start flushing while the GSC stays super lush. Had a few of the GSC's bigger fan leaves start clawing out. Last couple photos show yellowing OG and curling GSC. Thoughts?

Thanks all, much love

 

[HeLLMuTT]

Just an update, was able to pull these girls outta their funk and finish em off pretty nice. Girls were hurting......(check photos from early in the post) Love this plant!!!
Wanted any input on how there looking before chop. Basic Canna program, A & B with Rhizotonic, Cannazym and Boost with the addition of CalMag at the suggestion of the homies. Backed of food week 6 and gave them plain water flush for the last 10 days or so (went 8 weeks). OG and GSC, the OG always yellows out on me pretty major once I start flushing while the GSC stays super lush. Had a few of the GSC's bigger fan leaves start clawing out. Last couple photos show yellowing OG and curling GSC. Thoughts?

Thanks all, much love

Looks like a nice turn around to me man. Well done on sticking it out.

I'd smoke some of that! ;)

 

[Seamaiden]

Just an update, was able to pull these girls outta their funk and finish em off pretty nice. Girls were hurting......(check photos from early in the post) Love this plant!!!
Wanted any input on how there looking before chop. Basic Canna program, A & B with Rhizotonic, Cannazym and Boost with the addition of CalMag at the suggestion of the homies. Backed of food week 6 and gave them plain water flush for the last 10 days or so (went 8 weeks). OG and GSC, the OG always yellows out on me pretty major once I start flushing while the GSC stays super lush. Had a few of the GSC's bigger fan leaves start clawing out. Last couple photos show yellowing OG and curling GSC. Thoughts?

Thanks all, much love

First thought--this is the difficulty in trying to crop many various strains using a single feeding regimen.
Second thought--fuck YEAH you turned them around!
Third thought--they're looking pretty close to being done to me, without seeing very well whether or not they're still pushing out tons of new pistils or if they're mostly just fattening up.

What are your observations on that issue? Are the buds still fattening up?