DTE meets MEGACROP!

[UndergroundFarmer]

The G-13 and the extra Cloud Walker were transplanted this morning and now all of the batch of seeds sprouted in DTE are in their 1.5 gallon pots except for Romulan.



Here's the veg tent after the larger ones got their first cut for manifolding:



I did notice some nitrogen deficiency in the vegging plants. I suspect it was from being in their cell pots in the 3-3-3 too long without getting fed again. I will either switch to smaller pots or back to solo cups or just start with 4-4-4 like Mr. C does once the 3-3-3 runs out. I noticed all the newer growth up top (which is now gone!) was coming in a much healthier shade of green, so no worries. This picture was taken just before I repotted the smaller ones so it's even more crowded than this now. They get their manifolding haircut next weekend. The two uncut ones are the autos, of course. Pineapple Express and Wedding Cake are starting to grow again in earnest and I'll resume defoliation next week. I'm still waiting for Purple Kush to fully recover. The worst burnt by Megacrop and me are in their own thread (Ag Trag) until they recover or don't. Romulan was a victim of me taking off the humidity dome a bit too early. G-13 looked bad for a minute too but bounced back within a week.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Here's the veg tent as of this morning.

Purple Kush at center is now burnt from high pH. Even a few feeds later of the Soul nutes at 5.5, I'm still getting pH readings above 6.0 in spots. I took much of the dead stuff off Alien Tech and Peyote Z--z. Their pots were light this morning so at least they are still drinking.



I transplanted most of the ones from the nursery this morning into 1.5 gallon pots. I mixed three pots of 70/30 coco with a pot of worm castings plus 12Tbspns (6 oz) of D-T-E 4-4-4 Veggie Garden. I got to mix three whole batches of this stuff for eight going into 1.5 gallons pots and a pair of autos going into 3 gallon pots. I didn't get their pictures yet but the transplanted babies all were happy last time I peeked in the now packed veg tent. An extra Cloud Walker, a G-13 and a sickly Romulan seedling will be transplanted next week if they are caught up enough. The biggest one was a Canuk Cheese Auto, oddly enough. The next-biggest ones were the BC Mangos for Project Ambika.

Anybody near St Louis wanna try Megacrop?

[UndergroundFarmer]

Apparently, the pH buffering in the Megacrop isn't strong enough to stay balanced in veg. I have started dropping the pH to 6.2 for the six in veg. I think Peyote Z--z is starting to grow again after a week.

[UndergroundFarmer]

As I said in the comment above, you really need to water to runoff with Megacrop when you're in veg. And use your goshdarned pH meter now that you got it. Peyote Z---z and Alien Technology got a case of nute lockout from the soil pH going too high. The other four in veg were probably headed for trouble but tested at 6.5 after a fresh feed. The two in trouble tested at 6.9 and 7.0 even after a feed! Here's everyone in veg on the Megacrop:


Left to right, back to front are: Wedding Cake, Super Lemon Haze, Alien Technology, Pineapple Express, Purple Kush and Peyote Z---z.

Here's seven crammed into a 4x4 until the last harvest dries:



Back four are Tangie. PPD, GSC and Lavender are up front.

Here's the seedlings in the first wave of DTE grows:



Since this pic was taken, the fourth Mango sprouted and the leggier sprouts all got prop wires and full-time exposure to a gentle breeze. I've replaced the Purple Urkle that didn't sprout with a Cloud Walker by mistake and then a PU. It was a crazy weekend with my first dry sift hash.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Yeah, I expect my bag to last darn near forever. I caught a mite infestation (I thought) in two of my vegging plants. Next week, I caught a soil pH problem (6.9 and 7.0). I've got to get used to watering to excess when feeding again. I flushed with 6.0 water to fix. I think the unused potassium raises the pH too high in veg and needs to be washed out. The flowering plants don't have a problem at all. I just need to make myself test soil pH once a week now that I have that nice new Bluelab soil tester. It's worth it.

[SoOrbudgal]

I have not used the Mega Crop for a long time, i ran out never reordered it. Lasted me forever an worked darn good.

[UndergroundFarmer]

It sounds like a monster movie, doesn't it?

I have been looking to start growing in coco with dry amendments a la Mr. C on YouTube. I visited a few grow shops around here before getting tired and frustrated at no one having the right Down-To-Earth mixes in stock. The guy at the last shop was the garrulous type. We went on and on about grow stuff and about how the shears on the wall behind the counter were used to cut down a Cannabis Cup Winner. (Third place in its category, but still a cup winner.) He'd pointed out the Megacrop which was on the same shelves as regular dry amendments and I the dummy didn't bother to pause and do my due diligence because it seemed I could buy this one bag and do it all seed to harvest.

When I finally did read the instructions fully, I found that the hitch here was that Megacrop in soil/coco is to be mixed up and used every time the plants are watered. D'oh! I ended up ordering the DTE stuff online. Before it came, I had this mad idea that I'd give Megacrop a fair shot. So I will be growing all of my normal bud-producing grows in DTE a la Canuck while I've switched all ongoing grows to Megacrop until harvest and all future grows for seeded bud will be fed that exclusively after transfer from their seedling pot. I say this because the next seeded grow is just beginning in half-gallon cell pots in a mix of coco/perlite/worm castings/DTE 3-3-3 Starter Mix and it's too late to go pure Megacrop. I decided Mega would be most useful for seeds because it supplies ample nitrogen throughout the grow. I've also learned that females pollinated very early make only seeds and don't bother much with resin. I could let you examine a seedy Blueberry bud from my last grow and one of the unpollinated buds and you wouldn't know that they were the same strain if I didn't tell you that. There's isn't much of a point to trying to get anything but seed from them when they are like that. It will be interesting to see how the unpollinated colas stack up with Mega with its generous dose of potassium; I had a bit of a deficiency of K last grow, Tangie was most affected with crispy leaves, Blueberry didn't fill out as hoped but Kosher Kush didn't seem to mind.

Megacrop can be used in virtually any kind of growing discipline although the bits that are slower to dissolve may clog aeroponic nozzles. For 3.5 gallons of feed, I use about a tablespoon of Mega, stir well, then dilute to target EC. The first time I diluted it from flowering strength to veg strength I was stunned to find that the pH remained at 6.5 after not having to adjust pH at the flowering strength! Apparently, it is pH buffered which has to be a boon for beginning growers and big fertigation operations alike. NPK is 10-7-18 plus 5.6% calcium. Let's face it: for cannabis growers, we could use a NPKCa ratio for grading nutes since calcium always seems to be a common deficiency. Hydro growers can use RO water and probably not have to add Cal-Mag. Magnesium is 2.4% by the way. I've noticed only a bit of nute burn while using it so far. I think I'll keep EC pretty conservative for vegging plants.

The Down-To-Earth stuff will need about another month to get fully going. I've started seeds in cell pots with the 3-3-3 starter and that should get them through their first month. Next they'll be transferred to one gallon plastic pots to veg out in 4-4-4 Vegetable Garden mix, then to 3 or 5 gallon fabric pots to flower out in the 4-8-4 Rose and Flower mix. I've chosen to only use fabric pots for flowering now because it's so much easier getting plants and root ball out of plastic pots intact. They will get worm castings in every mix plus top dressings. The plan is to try to follow Mr. C's plan as closely as popsicle. I'm growing indica-dominant stuff for a December harvest too so I can see how much color I can get out of them when grow room temps below 65F and RHs under 60% aren't so hard to achieve and the girls have a chance to properly fade after their last feed.

For the first DTE grow, I've got six photo fems and two autos started: Chocolate Mint OG from HSO, G-13 from ILGM, Purple Urkle and Romulan from Pyramid, Cloud Walker from Green House, Sweet Zombie from Expert, plus a Canuk Cheese Auto and a Seedsman Magnum auto. Romulan is an old favorite of the shop owner who sold me the Mega. I thought I might bring him a few clones later. I've grown a stunted SZ before but loved the one bud I got from her.

For the initial Mega grow, Project Ambika, I've got four BC Mangos going, three of which are sprouted. After they leave these pots, they will be on Mega until harvest. I'm changing up how I do seed grows for a while. The plan is that the four will be raised together until males start showing flowers. I will leave just one male and one female together in the tent and scrap any other males; any extra females go to flower out for sinsemilla. After the new year, I will repeat this whole cycle with another six indica-dominant photo fems and three or four regs, possibly Tuna God or OG Kush or even Blueberry Kolache F1. After that, I will focus on sativas and double up on seeded projects because there are so many like Golden Tiger and Mother's Finest I'd love to get grown out before the seeds get much older.







This is from Sunday when the seeds were sown. The mix was made a few days prior so the 3-3-3 could hydrate by the time I was ready to plant. These pots all had wispy mycorrhizae growing at the surface a few days later I took this pic. I've got a feeling these seedlings will do great. I had to replace one Mango and Purple Urkle will be replaced if it doesn't hatch by Sunday. I had to prop up the Magnum with a bit of soft wire because its head was on the ground last night. To my astonishment, she found her footing overnight.