Hey fellow DGC, hey Scotty, Dude & Guru – love the show & all the info.
I’m growing a few different strains for my 2nd grow, which are maybe a month in veg, along with a Blue Dream auto, in a 4×4. i’ve had a few issues along the way, and i have a couple questions. At the onset, at some point, I overwatered a bit, but they kinda came out of that.. now I have some questions about whether to cull a runt, and a new growth leaf deficiency(?) …I’m gonna attach a picture of the garden but as a general overview, here is a little background. here’s what I’m growing: –3 dolato, 2 from seedsupreme and 1 from bagseed from some of my fav. bud that came from WA (gelato41 x dosidos), –2 candyland from garden of green (platinum cookies x gdp), –1 sherbet dab from bighead seeds (unknown cookies cross) and –1 pineapple chunk, barney’s farm. (?) 2 of the photos are from today, and one is from about a week ago (where you can really see the runt.)
they were planted in coco-peat in solo cups under a 100w maxsisun LED, and a 150w HPS added periodically to raise temps. at a few weeks they switched to 3-gallon fabric pots (not impressed with the vivosun fabric pots & will be switching) … and shortly after transplant they switched to the 330w Electric Sky ES-300 v3, which is what they’re under now @ about 24-28″. haven’t decided whether to add another ES-300 for flower, or make do with the ES-300 + the 150w HPS.
they’re planted in a mix of coco and soil; i used about 2/3’s of a blend between Mother Earth Coco+Peat and FF Coco-Loko (which is relatively fortified, but the M.E. is not) , and about 1/3 happy frog. i added about 10%+ of earthworm castings, along with small amount (a tablespoon or 2) of dr. earth dry amendments 4-4-4 and some bio-char. watering PH 6.2-6.8, mix of bottled spring water, distilled, and a little tap. need to iron out my water . (and watering.) Recharge once or twice weekly.
temps between 79-82F during lights on, humidity between 60-70% . try to keep close to VPD optimal. lights off is usually in the mid 70s and around 50-60%.
I will be getting an AC Infinity fan and a carbon filter prior to flower- which reminds me, I was planning to put this in the tent, and just dump the tent when it reaches temp/humidity, but then I heard yall say having it in the tent could result in terpene loss?? or is that only if it’s scrubbing the air inside ? is this OK to exhaust this way? currently i’ve been controlling RH by venting the tent with fans manually.
but i digress; predictably, after being planted into this relatively fortified but hopefully not-too-hot mix, they seemed happy and well-fed for about 3 weeks or more, and as soon as i saw signs of potassium deficiency, i gave them a mild shot of liquid organic nutes with a little extra kelp (BioThrive Grow 4-3-3) . anyways, aside from the overwatering early on , everything seems to be going decently.. the pineapple chunk was very angry but is slowly bouncing back; my 3 questions are as follows:
1) One of the dolatos is pretty runt-style and is lagging behind. it was very weakly looking early on; it’s definitely looking better now, but still spindly and smaller than the others. (I should note that 2 of the dolatos are about 1-1.5 week younger than the others due to, ahh.. germination issues with them in particular) . Should I cull this one completely or give it a chance? even if i cull it, i will still have 1 each of the 2 different dolatos i have. leaning towards keeping it..
2) The Sherbet Dab was the strongest, most vigorous, happiest, fastest growing plant.. leafy and just crazy . it grew beautifully and then It seemed to hit a wall around 1 week ago.. where the new growth in specific started looking kind of wilted(crinkled? idk), mottled, and just not right in color or appearance. What is the most likely cause of a plant that grows super vigorously like that just kind of hitting the size it is right now and really slowing down? it got a veg. feeding also, but new growth seems to continue to show the same, albeit not as bad. (i am not blanket-feeding them , either, i’m assessing each plants watering & feed independently)
3) can i put the carbon filter inside my tent if it’s only used to exhaust the tent? will this result in terpene loss? no, right? always planned to hang it and dump it.
so that’s just about all i’ve got at the moment… as far as the newly unhappy Sherbet Dab, I’ve switched its position inside the tent, wondering if it was getting too much light (i’m running 20/4 for some reason, started off this way and decided to leave it until flower bc i wasn’t sure if switching to 18/6 now would cause hormonal stress) just want some general thoughts/advice. Thanks so much for all the information & sorry for the long post!!
From Prohibition land, -SC
Wow… Really have to apologize for the very long length of this post.
Wanted to inude all pertinent info and I believe I went overboard. Lol. Will try to shorten in the future. Thanks in advance DGC.
As an update, I think the wilting may be wind burn… as it only affects plants on the right side of the tent. Thoughts???
I would cull it just on the basis that you have an overcrowded tent. So if you have a runt then it will only help you and the other girls to get more space in there. I would be running three or four 5-7 gal plants in a 4×4 if I was going for what is best for the plant. Don’t forget you need some fans and possibly a dehumidifier if you are not doing a constant exhaust. If I was pheno hunting I would probably run up to sixteen 3 gal bags on a short veg, and would try to sift that down to about nine 3 gal bags with very small, trimmed and trained plants. The yield will be much better with less plants in larger bags or pots. You have to decide what your goal is. If you are going for more weed then keep your future number at 3 or 4 ladies. If you want more variety or want to breed then more plants in smaller pots can help but will lower your overall yield. If I were you I would cull the one you don’t like, raise the short ones to meet the height of the bigger plant and flip it now. If you let all these veg too long you will not have room to work and they will not have room to grow. I’m struggling with too many plants myself right now so I’m right there with ya.
1) I agree keep the runt around if you have 3-4 more weeks to veg it out; sometimes the slow starters will surprise you with a great finish (reason for culling would be lack of space in your tent; which may become an issue for you once you flip to 12/12, but cross that bridge when you get there); 2) the mottling looks like hunger to me, try a small pop of liquid synthetic grow feed and see how it responds; 3) using carbon filter on your exhaust is great; won’t pull any extra terps off.
Happy growing and goodluck!!
I had a runt in my last grow. It might not have grown at all if I hadn’t pride the seed husk off of it. It grew much smaller than the other plants. It’s stalk was crooked and twisted. Lowest yielding plant I have ever grown. Also the most potent brain fuck weed I have ever smoked. The runt is all gone. I wish I had more runt.
When you are measuring the temps, is this measurement taken at the canopy level? Where is your thermometer positioned?
Do you check the temperature on the floor as well? Curious if on the plant with the funny leaves, if the root zone is too cold, which will decrease the amount of water it takes up, which means more water and less oxygen in the root zone. This combo will cause nutritional uptake issues. Maybe place the temperature gauge on the lower right side of the tent.
If you can avoid a heavy, constant wind directly on the plant that would be best. You can always bounce the fan off of a tent wall to get indirect airflow to the plants.
A carbon filter in the grow room will not “steal” your terpenes. A hot light will cook the terpenes off and volitize them into the air. If it is a really hot room and the carbon filter is in there, it will remove that smell from the air, but it isn’t ripping them from your plant.
I agree with the other people about leaving the runt and see if it is just a slow vegging strain. They are also correct in the fact if those are all female, your tent is going to be very full in the flower stage. So culling might come still.
man, such awesome replies!!! thank you all for that. that’s awesome. really appreciate the feedback.
I have given some thought about the possibility of overcrowding. was originally meant to be 6 plants, ended up with the 1 extra dolato.. 7 is definitely alot more awkward than 6 . I’m planning to somewhat mitigate this by staying in 3-gal pots; i had originally planned to go to 5 or 7 gallons w/ the 6 plants. i’m not huge into LST , my training is usually just 2-3 simple tie downs and maybe a re-tightening or 2; between this and topping 1-2 times, i was able to shape a decent canopy with my last grow (2 plants). i’m planning to do the same here. . a kind of hybridized style . complicating this further is that the runt actually looks really healthy now. (tho a bit spindly).after a bit of soul searching, i don’t really wanna get rid of any of them, which i think means i’m gonna have to be more strict with training and management. thanks again for all the responses.
I will also try to flip relatively early; i was thinking about 1-2 more weeks –i just watered, lightly defoliated, and light LST’d 4 of them today and I thought maybe 1-2 weeks sounded right; do you all think that’s too long? I feel like once the blue dream finishes (2 wks max, roughly) that will free up alot of space. but they are indeed all from feminized seeds . 7 photo fems + the auto.
Chad- my thermometer/hygrometer is hanging in the pocket of the tent, about 1 ft above the canopy, up and to the left. (from the front door/ angle of the photo). i plan to add a couple more of these as well/ will also have one hanging at canopy level when i add the AC infinity (i think). . but for now i will definitely try to put it down in the bottom right corner as suggested & see what the temps are down there. it never gets much below the high 60s in the house. i’ve also repositioned the 2 fans. (one on the floor and one clip-on), to try to lower the direct airflow.
i’m kinda scatter-brained right now, so i apologize if my response is all over the place. i just really appreciate the feedback. for now I plan to continue to veg these ladies to let the smaller ones fill out; meanwhile i’ve begun shaping the others . thanks again & sorry if i missed anything in this reply.
Don’t kill it. Some plants are just small. Some take off once the flip is made.
Thanks Stone Root! Just saw your comment . I didn’t kill it. It’s still very spindly l, but I went ahead and topped it (scary.. lol) and it HELPED. it was growing one big, tall, prominent apical stem.. soninwemt ahead and took it down about 3 nodes (felt like I was chopping her in half ). She really, really seemed to like that & is filling out now!
Thanks to all the great ppl here . I’m stoked to be a member & love this community. Waiting to see if my Sherbet reacted positively to the calmag I gave her last night, and if she doesn’t look better, I’ll be making another post asking for help.
Thanks again to everyone who answered (if anyone even sees this)