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Out of control Fatalii

S

streetbmx

I just chopped the hell out of my plant, and I'm not sure if i should have.

I've been growing a fatalii plant in a 5 gal DWC bucket. I have it under a 150w hps and 110w flouros. It is about 3 months old now. It started budding about a month ago. It is currently on General Hydroponics Flora series, koolbloom, and calmag+ using the recommended doses for the flowering stage.

The problem, or what I thought might have been a problem is that the plant will not stop growing. Every couple days the branches would Y off and ~6 new buds would appear. It was to the point that it is about to out grow the 2x2 tent. The canopy of the plant was getting too cluttered.

So my logic was to start pruning off the new growths too allow more energy to focus on fewer buds.

I ended up in this same situation during my last grow which was a bhut that only yielded one pod.

So I guess my question is what can I do next time around to stop my plants from growing out of control? Weaker nutrients? Better pruning in the earlier stages?

And what advice can you guys give now that may help me maximize my harvest of this fatalii?

Pictures.

5 Aug 09. Couple days before first fork of main stem and budding started
IMG_0205.JPG


22 Aug 09. Starting to get a bit crazy. Had some nutrient problems here which are fixed now, i think.
IMG_0219.jpg


30 Aug 09. Trimmed off the lower leaves.
IMG_0237.jpg


5 Sep 09. Pre-Chop. First started noticing bud drop occurring today.
IMG_0241.JPG
 
Usually something like this is in a Marijuana growing forum but your problemn is easy enough to see.

Yout whole setup is far too small for what you'e trying to produce-Peppers need space not jst light and heat.

You need to at least triple the size of the box it's in and go from there.
 
Sam Salmon said:
Usually something like this is in a Marijuana growing forum but your problemn is easy enough to see.

Yout whole setup is far too small for what you'e trying to produce-Peppers need space not jst light and heat.

You need to at least triple the size of the box it's in and go from there.
Click to expand...

Ehh a 6ft x 6ft tent doest not sound practical for growing a single plant. Thanks, but no thanks.
 
How about a 3x3 or a 4x4?

You could also cut the nutes way back,it doesn't need to be fed but once every couple of weeks. At least cut the nitrogen back and maybe boost the phosphorus.

Good luck.
 
Hi there.

IMO your nutrients are too strong and your light a little close.
Note the hooking under leaves - normally means your nutes are strong.

Are you testing ph and e.c/ cf/ ppm?

I have used GH nutrients for a Trinidad scorpion and 7 pot over the last 5 months and had good results. I hardly ever went over 1.0ec (10cf) and had roughly 40 - 50 good sized pods.

I used the micro, grow and bloom in equal quantities throughout but next time im going to be defiantly cutting down on the micro towards the end (5x higher in nitrogen than the grow nutrient) to keep them smaller.

5 months old and had been hacked in half once already
DSCF1786.jpg


Typical pod size
DSCF1767.jpg


After being cut down
DSCF1791.jpg
 
Thanks for the tips Toleman. I do keep the pH around 5.8 to 6.2 however I do not have an EC meter yet.

I am using the suggested feeding schedule from GH. Right now I am following the bloom phase recommendations at 5ml-10ml-15ml/gal of grow,micro,bloom. I do mix it a little weaker than that though, I calculate for 3 gallons but actually use 3.5 gallons of water. Should I cut this back even more? What amount of nutes per gallon are you using?
 
After playing around with some online calculators (GH flora calc and and ppm to ec converter) Im guessing that my ppm is around 1500 (2.14ec) so I probably could safely cut this solution strength in half.

Could this high strength nute solution also be contributing to my excessive bud drop?
 
streetbmx said:
After playing around with some online calculators (GH flora calc and and ppm to ec converter) Im guessing that my ppm is around 1500 (2.14ec) so I probably could safely cut this solution strength in half.

Could this high strength nute solution also be contributing to my excessive bud drop?
Click to expand...

Hi there - I should think so. You need to think about the water you are using too - especially if its hard as this contributes to the reading.

I have a few water butts so I use rain water which comes out less than 0.1 ec. I then add 20ml of each into 20 litres (just over 5 US gallon) so im using 60ml total - your using over 100ml total in less water than me.

Things to look for:

Dark, dull and/ or hooking under lower leaves - over feeding
Light green/ yellow - underfeeding

Another thing to look for is the ph rising or falling. If your water starts at ph 8 and you add your nutrients it may become 7.5. you then add you ph down to bring to disired level. If it keeps rising every day its normally due to the plants using more nutrients so the higher ph water ratio is increased. if they are using more nutrients than water they are probably too weak.

And if it goes the other way - ph keeps falling. This means more water is being used so your ph neutral nutrients ratio to water is increasing, thus pushing down the ph level. This normally shows nutrient is too strong.

Its not always the case though - rock wool in hard water and porly washed clay pebbles can swing your ph.

Chris
 
streetbmx said:
I have it under a 150w hps and 110w flouros.
Click to expand...

That's a nice little growing chamber. Where did you get that flouro fixture? It looks like it would be just perfect to get 8 plants ready for the outdoors.
 
12 hours really isn't a lot of light, I'd suggest 18-20 hours for optimum results. Also I would suggest continuously using a balanced formula instead of switching from grow to bloom. Chiles continue to grow as they flower so they don't need to go through a bloom phase like certain other plants. I'd use equal portions of micro, grow and bloom at about 1/4 - 1/3 of whats recommended
 
bmx dwc is nice soo is plant! cant wait to get mine started real soon. you guys think plant would have a harder time going from out to in or in to out?
what was your growing medium before hydroton/ what did you germinate in, if rockwool i have not been sucessfull with yet not sure what i'm doing wrong.
 
Thanks to everybody for the help, advice, and compliments. I think this week I may try and give the plant a good cut, flush the nutrients out, and try for a weaker solution. I do have some flowers that I think will set fruit but im not certain yet as most of them have tricked me and just go and fall off.

Now for the Q&A.

ZanderSpice said:
That's a nice little growing chamber. Where did you get that flouro fixture? It looks like it would be just perfect to get 8 plants ready for the outdoors.
Click to expand...

I think it is a great little light, very bright. Its from HTGSupply for ~$70 (http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduc...htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=51907)

Noshownate said:
what was your growing medium before hydroton/ what did you germinate in, if rockwool i have not been sucessfull with yet not sure what i'm doing wrong.
Click to expand...

My grow medium is actually silica stone, only the top layer is a cover of hydroton. I did germinate in rockwool and I have done pretty well with it. Just make sure its not soaking wet and does not dry out too much. I usually give it a good shake rather than a squeeze to get the excess water out. I do plan on trying something else once I run out of rockwool, probably SureToGrow or RapidRooters
 
STBMX-
More light, less nutrients.
Potawie knows his light and I'm with him- I'd up it to 18.
The general consensus is that the online calculator from GH is primarily geared towards dope and is way too nutrient heavy for most peppers- it's a good reference but not a starting-off point. Flower/bud drop, leaf curl, that brainy look to the leafs rather than smooth- all symptoms of too much nutrient. When I grow in DWC I draw up the GH calculator numbers then cut the dosages in half and move up from there.
There's nothing wrong with the size of your grow chamber for the one plant as long as you're minding it well- it's hard to tell from the perspective but it seems that you've got a good foot between the plant and the lights. I do notice ducting so I'm assuming you're cooling your lights? All I would be concerned about is burning leafs but if you're watching your distances you should be ok with that. The problem you're going to keep having is a simple math equation- good tent+decent cooled lights+healthy DWC pepper= a LOT of chopping down of perfectly good pepper producing branches. I'd be expanding the operation.
 
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