Update on Strawberry Fields Soil: Roots Organic Dry

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thcoso

thcoso

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Here is Day 37 of Flower. Today's date: April 20, 2021
Grow: 4 Gorilla Glue and 4 Blue Haze in a 5X5X7
Last Top Dressing was 2 weeks ago
Still adding a small amount of molasses, Cal Mag and a 0-10-10 at 1/8 to 1/4 strength depending on the strain at a pH of 6.5-7.5

I keep having pH problems. Every feeding I check the pH of the water to ensure what goes in the dirt is pH at 6.5-7.5; however, 4-5 days later, the soil pH keeps dropping to 4.5-5.8. This has now happened 2 weeks in a row. I assume the microbes in the soil breaking down the organics is causing this. I start my slow flush (10-14 days) this weekend to prepare for harvest. I'll be surprised if it continues to keep dropping during that; however, since I'm aware of it, keeping it under control by applying a small amount of RO water (1/4-1/2 gallon) set with its pH a little high (7.6-8.1). I'm finding the small amount of water with a slightly high pH works better than a small flush (1-1.5 gallons of water) that is set to the pH I actually want.
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thcoso

thcoso

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Day 42: Flower Gorilla Glue and Blue Haze

The 8 gallon plants, especially number 3, has runoff below 5.5. But I pH'ed my last few water/feedings no less than 6.5. The 5 gallon pots are normal. So, the only possible explanation is the extra 3 gallons of heavily amended Strawberry Fields Soil (See earlier post for exact soil mix) is causing the drop.

Fixing the pH in number 5 became a real issue. I flushed her with 1 gallon of 6.5 water--no change 5.23; then I flushed her with 1/2 gallon of 7.3--came up a little--5.46; flushed with 1/2-1 gallon of 8.1--came up a little more--5.53.

Apparently, it's going to take a lot of flushing to solve this pH issue, and I dont want to strip the nutes from only one plant. So, I transplanted from the 8 gallon pot back down to a 5 gallon pot--removing the 3 gallons of soil added during the last transplant.

Since it is day 42, it's time to start the slow flush of 14-21 days.

This flush was applied to almost totally dry soil in the 5 gallons and mostly dry in 2 of the 8 gallons. The other 2 eight gallon pots were not draining out excess water. The 5 gallons were flushed with 1.5 gallons, the 8 gallons needed the drainage issue fixed--then 2 gallons of water each. This flush is mainly to rinse away excess Nitrogen and level the pH across the board.

I started brewing 4 gallons of tea: 5 tbs Terp Tea, 2 tbs Molassas, 2 teaspoons of Seabird Quano. This will be the last feeding (IGNORE THE LAST POST WHERE I STATED THAT). I was off on my day count.

To access the ladies to fix soil issues, clean the tent, remove excess foliage, thoroughly check each plant and turn/move them to new spots int the tent over the next 3 days. This is the first time the flowers have not been held down by the net in quite awhile. They had grown much, much taller than 3 weeks ago (the last time there was no net).

While doing chores, the lights went out. I kept them on for an extra 30 minutes trying to solve number 3's pH issue as stated above. I performed the transplant in the dark. Afterwards, I put it back in the tent and left them to sleep.......
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thcoso

thcoso

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Day 43: PROBLEM!!! PROBLEM!!!!

Number 3 has taken a turn for the worse. She has dry and dead leaf tips, tacoing and losing its overall "healthy" look. Due to the timing, there are a few things to eliminate as the problem.

Could be
1. pH lock
2. root rot due to the 8 gallon pots not draining
3. root lock from transplant shock
4. the flush and removal of 3 gallons of soil caused nute deficiency
5. light stress
6 heat stress
7. overwatered for the past week due to drainage problems
8. something else that is unexpected or very unusual


After closer inspection, it's obvious what happened-I released the ladies from the net, raising the canopy by 8-10 inches w/o raising the lights; moreover, I had plant number 3 draining in a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket, raising it another 8-10 inches. Since only the very top of the plant is affected, during the transplant, I inspected the roots and loosened them to help prevent the roots from binding--they looked great.
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thcoso

thcoso

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Day 44/45: Flower: Last Tea Feeding, 1875 watt hair dryer added to the tent to help keep the temp up during the dark cycle .

I removed the floodlight-style bulb. Number 3 was under this one when it suffered the heat/light stress.

I raised the MarsHydro TS3000 and SP150 their max height w/o removing the hooks.

Each plant was fed around 1/2 gallon of tea each along with enough water to provide runoff in the tray. All the plants I tested the runoff were around 6.5.

All standing water in the trays is removed to lower humidity.

I added a dehumidifier to the tent. The tent is right beside the internal French drain, so I raised the unit about 1 foot, then, I ran a hose from the unit downhill to thhe French draIN.

Between the hairdryer, dehumidifier and the cloud line 6, the tent is staying in between 77-87 degrees with a RH in the 50's, and at times, in the 30's

I reset the net to flatten the canopy.

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thcoso

thcoso

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Week 7 Flower: Day 49: Update on sick Gorilla Glue plant.

One of my Gorilla Glue ladies, girl No. 3, was still not happy. My attempt to make her happy last week: large flush, transplant to ensure roots were not bound, small feeding to replenish P, K, Ca, Mg and a small amount of N, raised the Mars Hydro Lights, removed a smaller light to lower the temp and reduce light stress, but none of these solved the problem. Actually, she is not recovering. I removed most of the damaged leaves last week so I could easily see if the new growth. Once again, she had brown edges and crisp tips on the tops. The lights are not too intense nor too hot, apparently, the light adjustment had no effect. But, knowing this along with the passing of 5 days and the fact no other plants are showing any signs of distress--I now know what is going on......

This started with a pH problem with this plant only. 2 weeks ago I fed them their last compost tea. I forgot to pH the tea before I started feeding. I fed 2 plants with 2-3 liters of compost tea per plant BEFORE I checked the pH. The pH was around 4.5. I instantly flushed the 2 affected plants with tap water pH to 7.2 then, corrected the pH of the tea to 6.5, then started over on the feeding. The details of this is a few posts up under "Last Tea Feeding" for complete details. In short, I didnt write down which 2 plants I fed the acidic food. Fast forward to last week, plant No. 3 is sick.

Here is the chain of events that kept knocking her down.
1. ph too low--nute lock out that weakens the plant,
2. this hinders her ability to use and process water fast enough,
3. since water is not being used and processed correctly, the light becomes too much.
4.To eliminate root rot, I transplanted her and loosened the roots. But instead of helping, it most likely caused more stress due to transplant shock.

These events, in this order makes the most sense.

Day 47:
I started by flushing her with 6.5 tap water until the run off consistently read 6.5 (somewhere around 5 gallons of water)
I gave her 24 hours for the excess water to drain out of the 5 gallon pot.[

Day 48:
I flushed her with 1 more gallon of 6.5
I mixed up 1.5 liters of a small feeding: MG Flower and Veg 18-7-21, Mg, Ca, 0-10-10, and pH 6.5.
I flushed all the other plants with 3 more gallons of water on the 8 gallon pots and 2 gallons on the 5 gallon pots
On plant 3, to make sure the food reaches the bottom part of the roots, I added a small amount of 6.5 tap water.
I removed most of the damaged leaves from plant 3 to determine if new growth shows signs of recovery

Day 50:
Plant No. 3 seems to be happy. She is looking like her sisters again. New growth is same shade of green as the others, edges are not brown nor are the leaves crispy.

Fixing the pH allowed the girl to absorb the food I provided, which in turn allowed the plant to process water more efficiently giving the outer leaves the strength to use the light for photosynthesis

Here are before and after

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HarryHood

HarryHood

250
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right on! nice work diagnosing the problem and bringing her back.
 
boomgagem

boomgagem

Supporter
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Great read. Wish there were more of these diaries using their coco loco line
 
thcoso

thcoso

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Day 57 Flower

Did the final flush before harvest sometime in the next 7-14 days. All the ladies except for plant No 1 are under 200ppm (a couple lower) on runoff with No 1 around 250ppm. No matter how many gallons of water I put through her, it stayed above 250ppm. But it was in the 400's. I took down the net and to tie the big buds to the tent and I added another small light to cover a corner. I removed most all the fan leaves along with handfuls of small, fluff buds that were light starved and lollipoped them again. Hopefully they will start showing their fall colors along with some good yellowing.
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thcoso

thcoso

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Great read. Wish there were more of these diaries using their coco loco line
Thanks. There wasnt too much online about the Strawberry Fields when I researched it, so I decided to use it from seed to harvest and log it all. I hope it helps. But I have to say, I like the results I've had with Strawberry Fields.
 
thcoso

thcoso

237
63
Week 7 Flower: Day 49: Update on sick Gorilla Glue plant.

One of my Gorilla Glue ladies, girl No. 3, was still not happy. My attempt to make her happy last week: large flush, transplant to ensure roots were not bound, small feeding to replenish P, K, Ca, Mg and a small amount of N, raised the Mars Hydro Lights, removed a smaller light to lower the temp and reduce light stress, but none of these solved the problem. Actually, she is not recovering. I removed most of the damaged leaves last week so I could easily see if the new growth. Once again, she had brown edges and crisp tips on the tops. The lights are not too intense nor too hot, apparently, the light adjustment had no effect. But, knowing this along with the passing of 5 days and the fact no other plants are showing any signs of distress--I now know what is going on......

This started with a pH problem with this plant only. 2 weeks ago I fed them their last compost tea. I forgot to pH the tea before I started feeding. I fed 2 plants with 2-3 liters of compost tea per plant BEFORE I checked the pH. The pH was around 4.5. I instantly flushed the 2 affected plants with tap water pH to 7.2 then, corrected the pH of the tea to 6.5, then started over on the feeding. The details of this is a few posts up under "Last Tea Feeding" for complete details. In short, I didnt write down which 2 plants I fed the acidic food. Fast forward to last week, plant No. 3 is sick.

Here is the chain of events that kept knocking her down.
1. ph too low--nute lock out that weakens the plant,
2. this hinders her ability to use and process water fast enough,
3. since water is not being used and processed correctly, the light becomes too much.
4.To eliminate root rot, I transplanted her and loosened the roots. But instead of helping, it most likely caused more stress due to transplant shock.

These events, in this order makes the most sense.

Day 47:
I started by flushing her with 6.5 tap water until the run off consistently read 6.5 (somewhere around 5 gallons of water)
I gave her 24 hours for the excess water to drain out of the 5 gallon pot.[

Day 48:
I flushed her with 1 more gallon of 6.5
I mixed up 1.5 liters of a small feeding: MG Flower and Veg 18-7-21, Mg, Ca, 0-10-10, and pH 6.5.
I flushed all the other plants with 3 more gallons of water on the 8 gallon pots and 2 gallons on the 5 gallon pots
On plant 3, to make sure the food reaches the bottom part of the roots, I added a small amount of 6.5 tap water.
I removed most of the damaged leaves from plant 3 to determine if new growth shows signs of recovery

Day 50:
Plant No. 3 seems to be happy. She is looking like her sisters again. New growth is same shade of green as the others, edges are not brown nor are the leaves crispy.

Fixing the pH allowed the girl to absorb the food I provided, which in turn allowed the plant to process water more efficiently giving the outer leaves the strength to use the light for photosynthesis

Here are before and after

View attachment 1120315

Update: 1 week later--she did a full recovery
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Edinburgh

Edinburgh

2,692
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I was at hydro store yesterday and was lucky to get last 2 small bags of happy frog, my guy told me that stuff is a flowering mix and has a lot more potassium in it.
 
thcoso

thcoso

237
63
I was at hydro store yesterday and was lucky to get last 2 small bags of happy frog, my guy told me that stuff is a flowering mix and has a lot more potassium in it.


It will definitely do the trick. Over the past grow, I had to buy 4 bags of Strawberry Fields to fully support the grow. I still have almost 3/4 of a bag unused, and I plan to reuse most all from this grow. The point of this grow diary is coming to an end-------unless I keep it going by logging how SF does when being reused..........Hmmmmm...................
 
thcoso

thcoso

237
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Day 70 since flip (about 60 days since swing pistols on most all of them) but they are still not ready. Here is the one farthest along at 60x.

Here are pics of some of the buds.
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