Week 4.5

My cut off for shifting the plants to flowering mode was 14 inches or one month.  At one month the plants range from 12-16 inches and are very robust.  From the reading the literature I decided that before switching to 12 hour light cycle I would let the plants undergo 36 hours of darkness to activate the hormones that will engage flowering.  The 12 hour light cycle began this morning with two HPS lights and one MH light for 12 plants.  During the two weeks between changing out water/nutrients I noticed that as the plants grew there was less water returning to the reservoir after every watering.  Possibly because the roots were slowing down the water and using it before it drained out of the medium.  It got to the point that I had to supplement the reservoir with an additional 5 gallons before change out.  Monitoring the reservoir is more important now that I’m switching to watering two times a day every 12 hours for 10 minutes each time.  I anticipate having to use upwards of 35 gallons of reservoir water every two weeks.  It should take about 10 days for the first pistils to appear.  At that time I will use “Canna Bio Boost” at the beginning of the second week of the reservoir prior to change out.  Once in flowering mode I no longer foliar leaf sprayed with Canna “Rhizotonic”.  At this point I realize I may have misinterpreted the guidelines for using the CoCo A/B Nutrients for this particular medium.  It’s said that the nutrients should not be used in a recirculating system but that’s what I have in a hybrid form.  The excess water is returned to the reservoir to recirculate and I refill when the level is low.  Possibly the advice to not use the nutrients apply only to medium-less system because my plants are growing like fiends.  Two more notes: 1) the rule of thumb after switching to a 12 hour cycle is that the plants will only double in height thereafter so I anticipate the plants to only reach 24-32 inches at harvest.  Actually ideal for indoor gardening but the harvest may only yield 300-350 grams/plant.  2)  The company literature states that these nutrients run fine in tap water and the additional minerals may be good for the plants.  Using tap water would cheaper.  I’m willing to experiment with tap water but key is letting the chlorine gas dissipate from the 5-gallon jugs for two days before added to the reservoir. 

It’s probably a type of leaf crinkle virus in the potted plants.  They are in flowering mode (12 hour light cycle) and pistils have emerged.  I will continue to use a mixture of nutrients that include fish extracts, molasses and vitamins.  These are my disposable plants and any buds from them is extra gravy so I can have a little fun experimenting with nutrient mixtures.  It should be noted that my hydro plants show just a trace of the crinkle but it’s really not noticeable unless you knew they were in the contaminated soil for a few days as seedlings.

There was still the matter of those four extra plants in 6” pots of coco medium.  I switched them over to a aeroponic tank.  Normally they were too far along to do this but I was out of options and room for the roots.  I washed  off as much of the medium as possible then placed each bare rooted plant in a netted pot that was secured under the lid of a 20 gallon container.  Ten gallons of nutrients are sprayed on the roots every other 30 minutes.  They went through some transplant shock but appear to be on the mend.