If at first you don't succeed

From the last HID grow I did with temps at 96 and RH @ 25, humidity killed any chances of that plant from producing any trichs, scent or stickiness. It basically cooked them all off. We had a heat wave for a good 3 weeks. That was the mother of the Afghani clones I just finished off and while her buds were nice and big, they were light and airy with no scent or stickiness. That was an extreme case though.

I do believe higher humidity is important for the plant’s overall growth during the vegetative period. Right now, you are RH 35-40 during flowering and that would be what I strive for once I flip them. The Afghani clone I just grew under the LED suffered as if I had grown it under the HID with RH of 20 or so. Same problem, barely any trichs and scent but bud size severely suffered due to the low humidity and I suspect the lower powered light.
Mid 50s RH is a good compromise I think.

@ImpaLa604, thanks for your comments. I’ve never really posted the soil recipe I am using but since you kindly asked:

My base mix is equal parts peatmoss, compost and/or wormcastings and perlite for aeration.

To this I add (per cu.ft. or 7 gallons of base mix):

1C Kelp Meal
1C ground Neem Meal
1C ground Karanja Meal
1C ground Malted Barley Sprouts
1/2C Mineralized Phosphate (high P guano)
1C Crabshell Meal
1C Oyster Shell Flour
1C Gypsum
1C Ground Eggshells
1/2C Dolomite Lime
1/2C Feather Meal

I used Promix Veg&Herb instead of peatmoss for this go around and Promix HP works real well. The compost/wormcastings were homemade from my worm bin or outdoors (dried leaves and rotten felled trees are a good source). Peat moss would work as well, you just need to inoculate with some mycos to get the microbe population going.

Mix all ingredients well and moisten with water until you can form a clump with your hand that will hold shape yet readily crumble. The mix was cooked for about 3 weeks since Alfalfa generates heat while decomposing. I would turn the mix over if it starts smelling ammoniated and moisten if it gets too dry. You can cook them in your final pots.

Anyway, I think that is all the basics. This is a water only recipe. I use tap water with a PH 8.0+ and 190 PPMs. Once in a while, I do a molasses/water feed (1T per gallon) to feed the microbes especially prior to flip. Veg is when I follow the wet/dry cycle to promote good root development. It also kills off a lot of microbes so I give them a tea of what I have available.

Hope this gives everyone some ideas and try their own hand at making their own soil.

edited to remove Alfalfa from mix.

@canagen

Wow! Thanks for sharing, that’s quite the recipe.

Our base mixes are identical but if I don’t use peat I usually buy Black Gold Organic potting soil as a substitute and the plant growth appears the same regardless. Never tried Pro Mix, maybe I will next time.

This is what I add (per cu ft):

1/2c Neem Meal
1/2c Kelp Meal
1/2c Insect Frass
1c Glacial Rock Dust
1c Gypsum
1c Oyster Shell Flour
1c Basalt

Cooking for 3 weeks before use.

I’m still fiddling with my recipe but it has worked very well for me. Other than the obvious differences it sounds like we follow the same practices overall. I use carbon filtered tap water but I adjust it to 6.8 and rarely water to runoff unless I want to check its pH which sits around 6.5. Occasionally watering with some teas. The major difference is the amount of amendments we both use, dang! Have you run into any issues running that mix?

For my current grow I decided to experiment with amended coco and followed the exact mixture that mr.canucksgrow on youtube uses. I actually don’t really agree with his method but I want to see for myself. Throughout veg the plant has looked fantastic. I just recently switched to flower so we’ll see how it turns out.

Yes I think that most all ‘recipes’ floating around is a variation of the Clackamas Coots orginal mix. It started out as a simple mix and then just went downhill from there. heh heh…

My three current plants are in this mix. The youngest GDP is the second plant to run through that pot. I had a seeded female in there and I wanted to see how many plants it could sustain before running out. In my previous grow using 15G pots, I was able to run 4 plants through without a topdress or re-amendment. I did run into some N tox with that mix, possibly due to adding alfalfa, bone and blood meals. I did not use them with this current mix and so far, no toxicity issues. There may be deficiency issues later on but I am still in the veg period. We will see.

Your plants are looking real good as well. Do you have a grow log going? I love weed porn!

Here is the small GDP under natural light. New growth was getting too light green for my liking so I top dressed with 1/4C mixed neem/karanja and watered with molasses added. Also snagged more worms from the bin to get them munching on the previous roots. Should keep them busy for awhile.

Do they look underfed to you? I don’t know if the soil is getting exhausted or if it was caused by this:

Temps went down to ~65 one night. It has lost the purpling so I don’t know. What do you think?

Should be fine

I agree☝️, should grow fine with time

Clackamas! I was trying to remember the name… Subcool also had a good looking mix but I haven’t tried it yet.

Unfortunately the ‘Grow With Jane’ app does not want to work on my phone. I’ve tried reaching out to support but haven’t heard back yet. If I can’t get it sorted I might just start a thread, not sure yet.

I have the google pixel 3 if anyone here knows of a fix…

I may have found an ideal seedling light.

Took the plastic lens cap off to expose the diodes and kept at ~15":

Looks like it has regained its color and responding well to the light.

Is this the one that had the Brown coloration to it

Yes though it looked purplish to me. But my concern was the lime green coloration it had prior to my topdress.

What is interesting to me is while the affected node had outgrown the coloration, the stems of its fan leaves did not. I wonder if that is normal.

Here you can see the stems alternating between green and purple.

I doubt if it will affect the outcome of the plant. Just another tidbit of info to store for later use.

Yep, many of my leaves have purple stems. I heard it could be sunburn or nutrient deficiency, however, I know it is not either of these with my plants. Therefore, I think its normal.

Genetics play a role in the purple stems too. If it was a problem there would probably be other symptoms soon after they turn purp

Just a weekly update:

GDP I @ week 11:

GDP II @ week 6:

If you look close enought, you’ll see a little Afghani poking its way out of the solo cup. One of my home grown seeds. Looks viable.

Punch Pie @ week 8:

Looking great

Thanks.

Just some interesting observations on my soil mix. It can only sustain one grow in that 7G pot. With a neem/karanja meal top-dress, it seems to have recharged the soil.

As well, I am noticing minor magnesium deficiencies in the GDP although the PP does not. A light soil drench with Epsom Salts helped but it tells me I need to increase the Dolomite Lime in the mix.

Just more stuff for me to chew on.

Cheers everyone and have a safe and happy holidays.

My respects! Organics it’s strong.

For the next cycle, I want to use organic fertilizers from Green House Seeds, they are praised in our Russian-language forums.

Getting close to flip. I believe I finally have some control over the environment with temps that hover between 68-75 and RH 51. That’s been for the whole week.

Here is my ghetto extractor setup:

I had to jam a plastic lid in the hose to further reduce air flow.

Also did some defoliation though it went against my grain but have noticed wet spots where leaves would remain in contact. Should be flipping once they have gone over the stress.