Jimster
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It sounds like you have turned the corner, hopefully. Regarding feeding, I'm not sure what you are feeding them, but I would go with a 1/4 dose and see how it responds. It should green up pretty quickly but you don't want to flood it with nutrients. Once you find a comfortable level, keep it in mind for the next grow. You could also try foliar feeding, which is simply water soluble fertilizer sprayed onto the leaves in a very dilute concentration. This is safe if done carefully and provides results very quickly. In any event, go easy on the nutrients... lesson learned! :)Hi again,
Thanks for all the help!
After reading your replies I decided to flush both plants again. My run off for both plants was around 2000 ppm so it seems like I definitely had a salt build up. I found a bit of water in the collector plate from my previous watering 2 days ago and the ppm of that was 4k ppm.
I didn’t think compost could be so harmful to a plant since it’s organic matter but I guess I learnt the hard way… as usual.
Now that I’ve flushed the plants what does this mean in terms of feeding?
Also I’ve read that molasses helps with salt build up. Is it a preventative solution or can I use it to actually break up the salt build up?
@az2000
But, it wasn't funny then.).
Lol! Thanks for the advice.
@Jimster
-Some of the growth looks better, but some doesn't. The top looks very pale compared to a couple spots on the lower level. Is this just an effect from the camera or is it looking like this?
Yes you’re correct the improvement/deficiencies are in random places.
-How much water is your soil holding?
Not sure how to measure this but when I came to flush them, it took about 1.5-2 litres before there was any runoff. My pots are around ~ 30x30 cm (13”x12”).
-I'm not saying this to be smart or abrasive, I just wanted to show that you shouldn't be struggling like this since it was doing well and then went south. Did you feed it any other nutrients at all?
No abrasion felt lol My first grow went much smoother than this (apart from a split main stem from LST :cry: ) and I thought I was going to do a better job second time round but I think the compost messed things up. And no I haven’t given it any nutrients at all.
-How much baking soda is used?
Very little since I was worried of its effects on soil ph. Mainly used cinnamon powder!
-Also, the 250W HPS is good for flowering, but you would do better with a MH bulb during vegetative growth, if you can find one to work with your ballast
In my last grow I switched from MH in veg to HPS in flowering. Both 250W. For some reason when I came to set up the MH again it's ballast was buzzing quite loudly and it’s in my room so I couldn’t stand the noise. Decided to just stick to an HPS this time and ill figure it out for the next grow. (For clarification, I dont have a digital ballast, each bulb has its own specific one)
The HPS is great for flowering but lousy for vegetative growth. From an article I recently read, it can result in a significantly lower THC value than if grown with some blue in the light. I thought it was bullshit until I read it thru and it made sense. I had a bulb that made a hell of a racket with my magnetic ballast. After about 10 minutes, it stopped buzzing... the only time that I ever had a ballast buzz like that, and it was just from 1 particular bulb. If you have a spare, it might be worth your while to try it. My ballasts are about 35-40 years old, but still work great.
Things are starting to look better, so keep up the good work! Plants need very little nutrients, especially when they are younger. FWIW, I have been following some posts regarding the nutrient levels spiking in indoor grows shortly after switching to 12/12. I'm unsure of why this happens, but it is something to consider if your plants start to struggle shortly after flowering.