Noob first time grower seeking advice
Genetics:
So I have 2 sour diesel plants currently attempting to flower, I sprouted them both from seeds and as far as I can tell the seeds are all feminised which some research tells me is due to the mother plant being stressed into a hermaphrodite state. (seeds acquired from inside dried buds that were purchased) I sprouted probably just under 20 and although all but maybe 2-4 sprouted I only kept two in my possession due to the fact that I have no desire to start a cartel and that this is just supposed to be a small personal sized project. Of course tho, I am not a murderer, the other plants were given away to friends and planted in wild in the mountains and not even any of them became male which for me was as good as confirmation of the hermaphrodite theory.
Environment:
In order to understand the space I am growing in.... picture a cardboard house moving box, those big ones, now stack 3 of those on top of each other and line the inside with aluminum foil (hey i'm on a budget, don't judge me haha) ran a box cutter down and across on the front and made a little door that can open and shut for observation / care taking which is then covered additionally by one half of another moving box thats attached to the stack of 3 sort of like a false front. Small fan sucking air out of the box, another small fan pulling air into the box from another spot and one more small fan inside aiming up to keep the air circulating and to not allow the plants to be sitting in stagnant air. Pot size gradually increased as plants grew bigger starting from solo cup up to what they're in now (refer attached pictures). The light I got my hands on is once again very budget however so far seems to be doing an ok job as far as I can tell, the light is a 300W (if u trust china on the wattage) LED and multi spectrum grow light that was purchased cheaply online. Growing medium is just a "high quality" organic potting mix from the hardware store that's supposedly good for fruits and veggies and flowers etc.
Getting caught up:
I knew that I didn't have much space to work with when I set out on this journey and so I decided that in order to speed up time to harvest and keep size of the plants to a minimum I would put them straight into a 12/12 light cycle almost straight away however they did receive a small period of 18/6 light until I thought they were strong enough to receive less. I've run into several issues one being learning not to over water. after approximately a month or so of growth the lower leaves began to all get sick and drop off and it appeared to be progressing up the plant. I tried feeding nutrients, I tried more watering / less watering, I tried to fix the PH balance and eventually I diagnosed them with leaf sepsis which apparently they got from my over watering and poor humidity control. both plants were looking pretty sick at this point but I treated with an insecticide for pests and I also treated the plant with a copper based fungicide for the leaf disease. Although the already affected leaves still died and dropped off the majority of the plants seemed to be getting healthier and the less affected higher leaves were starting to recover. Some plants grow taller, fatter, shorter, slower, or faster I can accept that but my 2 plants have been neck and neck their whole way through keeping up with each other in leaf amount plus height and everything else too and now all of a sudden as of about 2 weeks ago one of them has become extremely more dominant gaining several feet of height out of nowhere forcing me to raise the height of the grow light to avoid leaf burning and then in order to give my shorter plant its fair share of the energy during their daytime I had to prop up its pot on books so that the dominant one doesn't steal all the precious light. what's interesting is that both plants were neck and neck even in the amount of pistons they had produced in their nodes and then all of a sudden when this growth of one happened I could swear I cant see as many if any white pistons on it at all and what's more I've noticed that towards the bottoms of the plants u can barely even bump one of the fan leaves and they just disconnect from the main stem like they were never connected.
Issues / Questions:
Large fan leaves appear to just be dropping from the plant when barely touched as if they were never or very poorly connected in the first place. Is this just the normal leaf shedding that happens during flowering or is this abnormal? probably lose one or two leafs every few days but sometimes maybe only once or twice in a week.
What can I use in the future as a growing medium? I am absolutely fed up with dealing with all the weird things that come in the non sterilized organic potting mix that I purchased such as weird amounts of nutrients and pests. Also I believe my pots are currently home to a family of SpringTails and I don't really know how to get rid of them, so far all I've tried was starving them of moisture because apparently thats what they like and I'm not too worried because I've read that although creepy they shouldn't actually cause any harm to my girls. Is that true to the best of anyone knowledge? should I not worry about it at this point but use a different medium next time?
I'd say I predict i'm halfway through the flower process and as such the only nutrient I am giving now is liquid potash (potassium, k) due to research I did indicating that towards the end of the flowering stage they don't need any nitrogen at all and that they need 2:1 potassium to phosphorus throughout their entire life. The reason I stopped all nitrogen is because the nutrients I was using prior to now were very high in nitrogen and I felt that a good kick of potassium would set them on the right path. Am I right to be doing this? also anyone know a good way to calculate what NPK I have if I want to combine a liquid nutrient with an organic one? because the only phosphorus I could get my hands on at the garden store was granulated and dosage is grams per meters squared and without specific NPK as appose to the ml per L and exact NPK of the liquid potash and other fertilizers.
Why is one plant all of a sudden growing so much more powerfully than the other whilst also not appearing to be making any progress on flowering while the smaller plant appears to be very progressed into flowering. (keep in mind I did think I saw pistons that then disappeared on the bigger one and I am almost willing to bet my life it isn't a male plant, it's got no balls and I can see pistons but it's like the start of them which makes no sense since they were already present earlier.
If I wanted to go to some extra lengths to ensure a good crop or a successful flowering is there any must have devices that I did not list under my "environment" heading? Perhaps something for humidity or CO2 maybe? open to suggestions since all I got so far is light and airflow.
Will the bigger but slower flowering plant likely catch up and be harvest-able around the same time as the smaller faster flowering one from your guys' experience?
And finally if this big fucker just wont stop growing what steps can I take to control it's vertical height without having to damage it's growth or yields too much? could I literally just bend it over at the top and let it hold itself there with the pressure from being pressed against the side of the box?
Reference Images:
Top view of the plant that became larger but flowering slower.
Side view of the plant that became larger but flowering slower.
Top view of the smaller but faster flowering plant.
Side view of the smaller but faster flowering plant.
View from pot height on how bare the lower stalks are and how I had to raise one girl on books.
Thanks for reading guys and girls, like stated above any sort of assistance or attempts to answer any of my queries will be much appreciated and I hope everyone has an awesome rest of their day.
Much Love
GuerrillaGrow69
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Originally Posted by GuerrillaGrow69
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