3-Way Nutrient Royal Rumble

[No3odiesShad0w]

So the light fixtures were really annoying me. I had one more XS1500pro just hanging around, so I shoved it into the 2x4. Now instead of running 2 lights at 100%, in running 2x at 75% and 1x at 50% intensity. I was using 500w total across both tents. Now I'm using 525w with the addition of the 3rd light. The plants also have an even DLI of 40-45 now 👍. That's what I wanted.

The 2x3 tent has a few calcium/ magnesium deficiency spots on some leaves on the birthday cake. Not sure if it's pH related or if the grow dots just don't have the amount of nutrition that these plants need or the amount of calcium that they need??? I'm just going to start adding Cal-Mag to the water just to be safe. Not a high dose but a supporting dose. Don't need blossom end rot.

I'm rooting some ginger to plant in my window planters this year. It's looking like I have 3 nodes growing off this piece of ginger. Would be awesome to have my own ginger done I just started making my own ginger bug and brewing my own ginger ale. Probiotic goodness. I've never been more regular in my life and I'm losing weight. Also started my kombucha over again. I've been craving it and I don't want to pay $5 a bottle.

I have my mushrooms growing. The tubs are doing great as always but the bags were iffy until I stood the bags up and introduced some oxygen into them and FINALLY they colonized in 7 days. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to fold the bag and compact it during the substrate colonization period. Still learning 3 years on 🤓

[No3odiesShad0w]

It's not a lot but those brown spots and those muddled colors are def signs that it wants more calcium and magnesium. Meanwhile the purple punch looks like it wants potassium.

Question is, how do I amend grow dots?
I can't add more grow dots. I will destroy my bloom with nitrogen. I can add TPS silica and Cal-Mag. The silica is 0-0-1.3 on the npk scale. Not a lot but maybe just enough for the purple punch and the Cal-Mag just enough for the birthday cake.

The general hydro is kicking ass though. That Terpy.... In so proud of that mistake/sacrifice turned out to be beginners luck and I got a nice blackberry pepper speedy kinda plant out of it. I think I'll be using the GH in future grows. Especially if I like the smoke.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Bluey what pH you think I should try? The water goes in at 6.7-6.8 without adjustment. I add the recharge every 2 weeks. That's supposed to help with the pH .... If you believe what they say....I could lower the pH a bit more but I can't go to low of calcium is already the issue. Maybe there's not enough calcium or magnesium in the grow dots? I remember watching a few episodes of the dude grows show and Scotty talks about having his chemist add more calcium and magnesium into the recipe multiple times and it still not being enough.

It's minor now because it's only 3 weeks into bloom, she's still got 6 more weeks of growth. It could go bad really quick. .... Like that purple punch I tried growing 2.5 years ago. It was going great and in 1 week it went to shit.

[Bluey]

I'd up the pH a little and low dose some calmag and cross my fingers

[No3odiesShad0w]

Bluey see the thing is I could just toss on some of that nature's living soil organic crap on there and they'll probably be perfectly fine. But that would give skewed scientific results. Granted I'm not going to screw myself over for science because I need these to be successful but at the same time I don't want to mess with the integrity of my experiment..... They certainly got plenty of nitrogen with all the tip burn on the leaves but definitely not enough calcium or magnesium.

[No3odiesShad0w]

It moves fast. That's why I didn't trust calcium magnesium issues.

[Bluey]

It does move fast. You could increase pH for mag uptake, lowering pH will reduce uptake, add epsom salts and perhaps even a little dolomite lime for the cal which will have the effect of raising the pH also.

Dolomite lime is calcium magnesium carbonate so you may not need the epsom after all.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Since these are mineral salts, I'll stick to the bottled stuff. It's crazy because the purple punch looks fine but the Birthday Cake looks a mess

[Bluey]

Yep. Some of my plants look like they are dying if given the same diet as perfectly healthy plants beside they..same everything......different needs

[No3odiesShad0w]

Another week down. Week 4. Day 33 of Bloom

Already getting plenty of smell in here. Plenty of frost. The 2x4 is absolutely killing it. Everything about this grow is great. The Nature's Living Soil is performing as it should which is no surprise but the big surprise is the general hydroponics. I'm really happy that my little creation is growing so well in the mineral salts. She looked so terrible when I first started and now she's so beautiful. The EC is slowly going down and in the next week it's going to drop more as the amounts of nutrient go down.

The grape caper smells really interesting. I can't even describe it. It's definitely grape It's definitely grape candy but I can't tell you exactly what kind of grape candy it is. It wants to taste like nerds but it doesn't taste like nerds nerds has that unique kind of taste to it It's a very very different kind of grape taste. ......err smell? I don't know but I know I'll figure it out eventually. It's definitely a really interesting grape candy kinda smell.

The Sour Orange has a really strong smell of tangerine skins but like tangerine skins that were left out in the sun It's a very kind of fuely kinda orange smell. Which I'm happy with. It is called sour so I'm expecting there to be some kind of funky notes.

The 2x3 side looks nice.... In some instances. I think I might have stabilized the Cal-Mag issue with the birthday cake. I gave them a heavy 3ml dose and then a 5ml dose for 8L of water and I'll give one more 5ml then 3ml dose before leaving it at 2ml for the remainder of the grow.
I've also given them NLS original and some flower power as well as 2 whole cups of worm castings with plenty worms in them. I'm just going to have the NLS help out the Grow Dots on this grow. Ever since adding it 3 days ago, I've noticed the first signs of any kind of frost in the 2x3 tent.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I think I got my genetics picked for the next grow. It's about 6 weeks from harvest, so I'm already planning the grow. Also decided of any of these seeds doesn't pop, I'm going to use the Hot Cakes by Going2fast I really enjoyed the flower and certainly want to grow it again. Since I had to add fertilizer to the grow dots side, they automatically got disqualified from the next round. I'm just curious how well GH trio would do with the Earth box system. 🤔🤔 It could be half DWC with the basin while the top is Coco growing. It should work. It's working just fine with the fabric pot and sub irrigating.🤔

If all goes well in this grow and in this next one, I'll be able to take a break during the summer months when growing is the most challenging. Don't have a sealed room because of the window AC unit. The AC is BAD at keeping the rooms environment stable. The biggest issue is the amount of humidity it dumps back into the room when the compressor turns off, which triggers the dehumidifier, which ends up dumping a bunch of heat into the room. All summer long I have them battling each other. I don't get nice colors on plants because I can't get low temps. We'll see. It all depends on how much I have in stock and how much I actually use.

[Bluey]

I battled with the issue of the AC & the dehumidifier compromise for a bit.. I installed a second AC double the size of the first that runs on a thermostat that sorts that problem and seem to have reached a half decent compromise. Once I get temps down to 22⁰C ish in late flower the dehumidifier efficiency starts to fall off something chronically but I can still fill the flower room and keep a decent environment....summer is challenging hey.