General advice on nutrients please

[tokemon]

Hey guys, I just started my plants on 12 hours they are still pretty young but I want to sex them now and start over if need be. I used miracle grow potting soil for the plants and I already regret it. I was scared off from adding any nutrients once one plant's leaves started getting these cupped edges and young leaves started looking twisted. I'm pretty sure now that the 18 hours of light and it's heat along with a great ventilation system was just sucking the leavs dry. Most of the leaves on that plant look fine now. So to get back on point I have been watering with straight water for about a week but now I'm thinking I can feed them something. What should I feed them right now?

I'm more a fan of simple things rather than complete nutrient mixes. This is not based on snobbery it's because I want to learn what the plant wants and actually understand. What about guano? How do I use it if the plant is already in soil?

Last question for now
How long should I veg these before I flower them completly?

 

[KGB30]

What is your Ph soil level? I did the same thing as you did. I picked a Rapid Ph tester for my soil. I found my soil at 6.5 .

 

[tokemon]

I will buy a ph tester on saturday and get back to you on that. I also brew beer and have seen a product called 5.2 that locks in mash pH at 5.2. Any of you familiar with it? If so would I want to use it gardening?

When you say you did the same thing as me you mean your plants were showing the same stress or you took the same action for stress?

 

[gettinggray1964]

hey tokmon, if the miracle grow you have has time released nuts in it i wouldnt give full strength nuts this early. i would give them something like peters 20-20-20. but at only about quater strength, and everyother watering. you want the water that you give you plants , if you are growing in soil to have a PH of from 6.5-7.0.. anything higher or lower makes your plants stress and slowes down progress. then as your plants get bigger you can increase the nuts to half, as for as the bat guano i don't use it because i can't get it around here. but it is good and so is worm castings.

 

[tokemon]

Thanks for the suggestion of peters 20-20-20. I am toying with the idea of letting the flower finish where they are now. Would this be a waste? I hear they will grow 18 inches during flowering and that would make them small plants by some peoples standards. Based on the system I have What would you guys reccomend I do? Veg them for a couple more months or start making buds?

 

[Growdude]

Thanks for the suggestion of peters 20-20-20. I am toying with the idea of letting the flower finish where they are now. Would this be a waste? I hear they will grow 18 inches during flowering and that would make them small plants by some peoples standards. Based on the system I have What would you guys reccomend I do? Veg them for a couple more months or start making buds?

It all depends on how much grow area you have.
What you can do is vegg the plants but take clones and put them directly into 12/12, this will sex the doner plants. eliminates stress and wasted time trying to revert back to vegg.

 

[BBFan]

How old are they now? How tall? Do you know the strain? Simple nutes are bone meal, dried blood, fish emulsion, wood ashes.

 

[pussum]

I know TBG uses the Miracle Grow potting soil and has yet to have any problems, but myself, I have used it on two grows now and both grows burned at the most crucial time and all I was doing was giving them water. I wouldn't recommend using miracle grow after you start to get a good grasp on the basics. I say finish out your grow to the end with the soil and reflect on the mistakes you made along the way. That will allow you to get over your concerns about using nutes. Get yourself confident in your abilities and start the learning process all over by incorporating nutes into a soil-less grow mix for your next grow. You can do it!

 

[tokemon]

BBfan: the bushiest one, the one with all the weird leaves is about 6 inches tall and so dense you can barely fight your way to the stalk. The other two are about 10 and 12 inches tall. I don't know the strain, it's just bag seed.

pussum:I am toying with the idea of soil-less mix for my next grow. I do find your assumption that I have ever or ever will make a mistake to be mind blowing

What can I do with the fish emulsion or guano now? I'm one week into flowering. Originally it was just too sex them but I think I'm just gonna let em finish and start anew. I still have twisted curled leaves on my favorite plant. The leaves are beautiful green just twisted and curled (the younger ones). I got a pH meter and the best I can tell is around 5.25. The needle jumps around quite a bit though.

I also got my hands on some samples today of Humboldt's new stuff. Of particular interest is 'Bush Master' anyone ever use this? Is it beneficial to keep your plants short and bushy? With all the trouble people go through with chicken wire and string and who knows what else to spread their branches apart, why would you want to make your plant short and bushy?

 

[pussum]

Sounds like you are on the right track. Even the pro's make mistakes from time to time so its a safe bet that us "rookies" are making mistakes hand over fist . That doesn't mean it is a bad thing, it just helps to take us one step closure to formulating the perfect growing conditions and regimen.

Good luck to you and happy farming!

 

[Growdude]

plant. The leaves are beautiful green just twisted and curled (the younger ones). I got a pH meter and the best I can tell is around 5.25. The needle jumps around quite a bit though.

This sounds to me like why you have the twisted leaves, PH 5.2 is to low for soil you should be around 6.5

 

[KGB30]

a PH of 7 is better for the soil

 

[KGB30]

What is your Ph soil level? I did the same thing as you did. I picked a Rapid Ph tester for my soil. I found my soil at 6.5 .

Hope your plants are better.

 

[tokemon]

I need to verify that that's my pH, I'm gonna buy a chemical kit today so I can check it again. The rapidtest thing is cool and all but I don't trust it. The needle swings the entire scale. 5.25 is the only place it ever stopped and stayed and that was as long as I didn't touch it. The instructions say the soil must be muddy wet but my plants aren't ready for more water. If I didn't have so much to do today I would try massproducer's homemade pH tester. I am building his cloner, that's just killer!

BTW, I'm a moron. I been waiting all week for those plants to show signs of sex and yesterday I got this sneaky feeling that I missed some switches on my timer. I have actually been 15 minutes shy of giving them 12 hours of darkness. Maybe that's why I still don't see any signs of flowering?

I can't wait till my next grow, so many things I wanna do different. Not the least of which is keeping track of times and pics etc. The pics I have now are all camera phone pics and from all different stages. It would be nice to have them in order with day number etc. I need a good camera too, especially when bud time is here

 

[KGB30]

It's good to have two meters thats what alot of MP members do. I am going to get a another meter two.

 

[KGB30]

A Good Camer is a another tool a hobbie grower needs. As for flowering I can look it up for you what strain do you have that will give you a good ieal about the plant. If you know the strain you can research it on Google.

 

[KGB30]

Hope this helps

hxxp://img75.imageshack.us/img75/4411/nigeriannightmarexvarious080806qa0.jpg

 

[KGB30]

Preflowering link of pictures:
hxxp://www.google.com/search?source...ZPA_en___US276&q=preflower+marijuana+pictures

 

[tokemon]

The strain is unknown, lots of indica qualities but beyond that I couldn't tell you. I need a magnifying glass too it seems. Damn this hobby is expensive! I'll be breaking the two grand mark shortly but considering the risk/expense/hassle involved in buying high quality grass it's worth every penny.

 

[BBFan]

I'm working on my first indoor grow and I waited for them to preflower before switching to 12/12. The male was easy to spot as it sprouted bananas at about 6 weeks. I was using an 18/6 schedule so I don't know if that made a difference over 24/7. You'll need a 30x to 100x or similar hand held microscope- about $10.00 at Radio Shack- but that will be used to monitor the trich development so you can harvest at the right time depending on your preferences. You won't need it to determine sex. There are some great threads and pics on this site from some pros that show pre-flowers. Good luck with your grow.