New Grower HELP, Rusty spots and pale yellow new growth.

[organic]

So I just ordered 2kg of dolomite lime. I have read you can top-dress it and in a week or two it will start to have an effect within the soil. On looking I will be able to get the top inch of soil removed to spread the lime before replacing it as this is nice and dry /crumbly. Would the 1tbs per gallon (5 tbs - 20ltr pot) be about the right amount to give or should it be less / more?

So this should turn up around the same day as the cal/mag.

So where do I start? lol

Feed with the cal/mag and grow and top-dress the lime in one hit.

Recommended [FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]0.25 ml/Liter (veg) or 0.25 – 0.75 ml/Liter (flower) cal/mag. [/FONT]

Feed just the cal/mag and wait a few days.

Just the cal/mag and grow or just apply the lime and feed with only plane water.

This seems to be my only issue so far, sort this and I can look forward to flowering.

 

[Muddy]

On the dolomite, 1 tablespoon per gallon of soil. If it's course, try to break it up so it's more of a powder. It will act faster that way. Must mix it into the top layer of soil and then water it in. No problem in adding the cal/mag to the water you use with the lime. Adding your nutrients at the same time is okay. On the foliar, 1 teaspoon of Epsom salts per quart/liter. Do the foliar once a day for 3 days, then wait and see how they react before doing more. Yes, the foliar feed should be pHed to 6.5.

 

[organic]

Thanks muddy,

I will carry on with the foliar feeding for the next two nights then. And will bump this post back up once the rest arrives in a few days time.

 

[organic]

So everything arrived at last Muddy.

I carried the foliar feeding onto last night making it 4 days, only done it once each evening. The plant was soaked both sides every time and aloud to dry before going back under the light. The pot has not been watered for the last 6 days now and has been no sign of wilting.

5 tbs of lime 2 inch deep around the whole pot. This was as low as I could get before hitting roots.

Then to a liter of water tonight.
0.25 cal/mag
1ml-seaweed
1ml-grow
1-lvl tsp Molasses

Re calibrated the Ph pen too and after mixing this up with water stood for 24hrs it came in at 7.18. So did not adjust it. If this is the ph range after adding the above can i do away without adjusting it from now on? It will drop a little more once I start adding the bloom into the mix in a week or two.

At day 23 now with still no proper signs of preflowers which is good. Growth is still coming through at a fast rate.

Still unsure about watering this large pot as a liter seemed to go nowhere. Maybe should have added more? The soil 2 inch down did not stick to my hands. Temps at mid 20s

Should I now start with if its dry finger depth deep, water? this large pot is screwing with my mind regarding watering.

The new growth has been coming through a nice green and the rust spots seem to have cleared. Just hope it does not start again now i have watered the pot.

Its now up to what will be 13 tops and growing just hope this plant starts to explode soon. I have just got a 300w 2700 when is the best time to switch over lights? Wait till the buds start to show or do it once there are a few preflower definitely showing.

Again sorry for so many questions

Forgot to take a photo when the plant was out not best light to show off a plant I can add a new one tomorrow when I take her out.

Above day 23 Below day 19

 

[Muddy]

It's going to take at least 10 days to 2 weeks before you start seeing the effects of the lime. I would go ahead and give the pot a through watering with some run off. Check the pH on the run off. That will help to get the lime down deep into the pot. Stay with the veg lights and nutrients until vertical growth stops, usually somewhere around week 5 or 6. Then make the switch to your bloom lights and nutes.

 

[organic]

Okay muddy, I will do this today.

Do I need to PH the water ? I have a bucket ready with about 20-30 liters just in case you said to flush everything out. The Ph having just checked stands at 7.44

Should I check the run off as soon as it starts to flow or wait and let some drain out first? How much would you recommend to run through the pot. 6 liters caused about 1/2-1 liter of run off last time so should I stick with this or run a lot more through to get rid of everything and start again.

Should I add any grow, seaweed, cal-mag ect on say the final 2 liters? and if so how much As I know I wont get to water again for at least a week or more after watering / flushing. Would it be worth adding any of the lime to the water? it is powdered strait out the bag.

Leaves are still a pale yellow, no real signs of the rust spots and still growing okay. I have opened it out taking just the inner leaves out to allow light and air in as it was getting a little congested but there is enough new growth there that it will soon fill in and I've stood the pot up on stands to maybe allow some air in from the bottom. There is an inch or so of perlite there.

Still no pre flowers.


Just light through window - no flash

Back under the light.

 

[az2000]

Should I check the run off as soon as it starts to flow or wait and let some drain out first? ...

Should I add any grow, seaweed, cal-mag ect on say the final 2 liters?

According to the NCSU Pour-Thru of testing soil ph, water for saturation (10% runoff), wait an hour to allow equilibrium, pour a little more (12 oz for a 3gal pot), capture and measure that runoff. (They say to use distilled water for the 12oz pour which displaces the water that has sat in the container for an hour. I'm not saying you need to do that. Just illustrating waiting a bit, even 30 minutes, before getting runoff appears to be more accurate.).

The other night someone posted that if you use low PPM water for flushing it can strip the nutrients from the soil. They said to add (something) to raise ppm above 200. If you're not fixing a toxicity or burn problem, you might want to add tiny amounts of calmag and nutes until ppm is > 200. (I don't know if what I read is true. But, it sounds plausible. 200ppm is still low. Doesn't seem like it would hurt -- if you're goal isn't to flush nutrients out.).

 

[organic]

Thanks AZ, I will have a read through all that. Seems all I do in the evenings theses days is read up on growing related stuff to the point my head hurts and I have added a load more questions. lol

I wait and see what muddy suggests to my above questions and take it from there.

 

[organic]

What a difference a few days and some changes can make.

I got myself a proper reflector for my 300w and when it arrived I noticed the vent at the top. This was something I had not done to my banking tray reflector. So I added slits to it. I was amassed how much heat comes through, it was not something I had though about being a CFL with a good fan over the plants.

I have also backed the light off, I have been a bit anal about keeping it as close to the plant as possible with it again being a CFL its gone from being 1 - 2 inch above to 6

I gave it 5 liters of water, No PH adjusting.

First 2 liters had 1ml grow, 1ml seaweed, I upped the cal/mag from 0.25 to 0.50 PL and a lvl ts of molasses.

The next 3 liters where just water and 1ml seaweed.

I did check the run off at the 4th liter and 5th and both times came out with a ph of 5.2 > Will this rise as the lime kicks in over the next 14 days? Altogether about 1 liter of run off maybe a bit more.

I order the Bloom tomorrow and hope that is all I have to buy for this grow lol

Pre flowers....

I am confused here. The calyx is formed on quite a few of the nodes as I can see the tear drop, Only one has shown but really need a magnifying glass to see it. There is no look there's two white hairs yet without getting up close. The nodes are also beginning alternate so its slowly getting there.

Ive clipped the main stems fan leaves off as theses where in the way and I had run out of room as I kept tearing and stabbing them trying to pin the branches down. It took me about 15mins to make that first cut as I was a little unsure whether to do it or not and hope I don't cause it to grow some balls now instead.

I have been pinning this plant down but have now stopped allowing it to grow upwards for time being, each branch has at least two nodes plus top.

Where am i in terms of cycle, least when you turn 12/12 you have a starting day /week to work from. How many pre flowers will show before it starts to stretch? only as I am worrying I will end up with a tiny plant. Going from past grow it should double in hight, If I can get each upward branch to a foot tall I will be happy. As right now the whole plant sits about 2 inches total. And i don't know where I stand on feeding etc. Carry on with the grow and extras for the next week or two?

Right now is day 29 the plant looks a lot happier now then a week ago. Whether its to do with me adjusting the light and added slits or the extra cal,mag per liter, losing a leaf or two or not phing anything I don't know but it has the nice green look back to it.

Nice and green once again,

Slits added, the heat never crossed my mind

 

[Muddy]

Sorry I haven't gotten back in here sooner, been very busy with other issues. Yes, your run off is still on the low side but it will come up as the lime starts to take effect. But the plant is looking better. Good job! At 29 days you should still have about 2 weeks of vegetative growth. I would expect you to see rapid growth, maybe as much as an inch a day, for about the next 2 weeks. During that time more pre flowers will emerge and small buds will start to form. There may be a little delay since your low pH is locking out the nutes, which may account for the late pre flowers. In the end that could mean that your plant will take a bit longer. We'll know better once the pH starts to come up.

I'm not a fan of clipping off the big fan leaves. They are the engines that drive the plant and the energy stored in them is utilized by the plant towards the end of the grow. If they are blocking any buds sites I just tuck them out of the way. I know others like to clip them but that never been my preference.