Worm castings makes an excellent soil additive, you might want more perlite but only you can tell how much. Maybe even a little dolomite lime if your soils don't already have some. For pH, 7 or higher is too high, 6.4 or lower is too low.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Thanks SME...once again, great advice. The new growth looks healthy, and the older leaves look like they are getting worse...the first few leaves on the bottom are crisped up and burned off...I think I just put them through too much with the PH bouncing up and down, and the alkaline "bath" I gave them. I think the Fox Farms Ocean Forest was just too hot. I think I read that another of our forum growers is using it as well, with similar PH issues. The Fox Farms Happy Frog does have earthworm castings and dolemite lime, so am going to mix that in with additional earthworm castings tomorrow when I transplant. The plants are 8-10 inches tall now, so am hoping that in 10 days or so (about 5 weeks vegging) they will hit 12 inches, and I will flip them to 12/12. I will post picture on Saturday as usual! Thanks, ICB..
Time for the weekend update! After a rocky start, and some great advice from SME, I do believe my garden has recovered nicely. This past Thursday I transplanted, and discovered that all of my plants were root bound after just 3+ weeks above ground! I had never seen such robust root development so quickly, and am assuming it was a combination of this amazing light and the FFOF/FFHF mixed growth medium!! I had been so concerned/preoccupied with chasing my PH issues I wasn't paying attention to the signs of my plants being root bound!! Trying too hard to make everything perfect I guess!
So, all four plants are now in 5 gallon buckets filled with 40/40/20 mix of FFOF/FFHF and earthworm castings. I am back to watering with straight up well water that all of my previous plants have loved, and the ladies are looking much healthier. You can see significant older damage, but damage is limited to the fan leaves, and all the new growth seems very healthy, and wow are they taking off. All are about 8-10 inches tall, am planning on switching to veg state next weekend.
This was my first experience with 100% indica, and they seemed to be suffering from the nute burn/magnesium issues...you can see here the 80/20 Indica Sative mix is the healthiest looking, is only two weeks old now (the others are 4 weeks) and has pretty much caught up in size already!!
Here is the family pic!
Family Shot
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Here is the Blueberry
Blueberry under lights
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Blueberry
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Here is the Northern Light Blue
NLB under lights
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NLB
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Here is the White Rhino..seems to be the one hurt the most
White Rhino under lights
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White Rhino
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And here is the CBD Critical...the Sativa genetics make it easy to tell the difference..very fast growing, healthy looking..
CBD under lights
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CBD Critical
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So I think I am over the crisis, and looking forward to starting the veg process next week!
Questions, thoughts and recommendations are welcomed as always!! ICB
They're already vegging, I think you mean that you're going to start flowering.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Hahaha...yeah, thanks SME...it was a late night last night!! I feel so stupid not realizing they were root bound, I can't believe they developed so quickly! They have really rebounded nicely since the transplant, no shock at all...seeing some great new growth already in just the last day since I took the pics!
I am very surprised by the difference between the 100% Indica and the hybrid, both in terms of speed of growth as well as hardiness...absolutely no sign of nute burn or magnesium deficiencies in the hybrid...I am now realizing that all of my previous experience has been with either hybrids or Sativa's.
Have you or anyone else here experienced any differences like this before? Any recommendations or thoughts on the difference in cultivating Indica vs. Sativa?
Each strain can be different which is partly why sticking to one or two strains and using clones is better. That way you get used to that specific strain and have fewer problems. There are some basic differences: Sativas generally grow taller and stretch more; Indicas typically grow shorter and bushier. Sativas usually take longer in flower than Indicas.
For LED grow lights, Indica and Indica dominate hybrids would probably be best...
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
I have found that keeping the lights further away from the plants works better than trying to keep them at 18" I am running mine at 38" right now and I will let the plants grow up to within 28" of the lights. With the 5 watt diodes I get very good penetration.
The further away the light the less it will penetrate, even with 5w diodes. It'll be better than 3w diodes further away but that's a basic law of lighting. The further away it is, the less intense the light at the canopy.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
This is an ongoing experiment to be sure! From a horticultural POV, I can certainly understand the relative ease of growing just one or two strains. However, I decided that for my first "official" run, I wanted to sample several different strains to evaluate the effectiveness of the medicine.
I have a high THC content strain in Blueberry (rated at 19%); a moderate THC content strain in White Rhino (rated at 11%), a moderate THC/CBD content strain in Northern Light Blue (rated at 11%/2%) and a low THC high CBD strain in CBD Critical (rated at 6%/6%)... I am hoping that by trying out this wide range of medicine, I will be able to identify a specific strain/trait/characteristic that will work the best for me.
I have also chosen to go with 100% Indica, or in the case of the CBD Critical, and 80/20 Indica dominant strain, as I have noticed in the past that the Sativa "spacey/racing/euphoric" head high can sometimes bring on panic attacks in me, and am hoping that the Indica "couch lock" body buzz will not do so.
And as far as the distance of the light from the canopy, I am trying to stay relatively constant at 12-16 inches...moving the plants lower as they grow. As the shortest is now at 10", and the tallest is now approaching 13", I have decided that this weekend I am moving from 24 hours of light to 16/8 for a few days, and then to 12/12. I have read a lot about this approach in various locations, and it does seem to make some sense to try to approximate mother nature a little more in order to minimize stress. Of course, mother nature is never 24/0, so I guess I am contradicting myself here!! LOL....
Any thoughts as I enter into the flowering stage? Any experiences with specific strains and anxiety/panic attacks? My overall goal is to treat broken back pain without bringing on anxiety...I hate the dilaudid they give me by the bottle....
As always, I appreciate any and all comments. I will post my weekend update pics on Sunday as usual!!
I try to improve on nature when growing indoors...
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.