Hi all.

If anyone has any experiance of using bio nova nutes it would be great to share experiances. Unfortuntly not many people seem to use them and the company doesnt give much info on feeding shedules. dont want to go wrong!!

using bio nova BN SOIL supermix 3.5ml/litre + BN PK 13+14 at 0.8ml/litre.
The supermix is ration npk 5-2-4
the pk is 0-13-14
Generaly water on one day (ph'd to about 6.2) and nutes on the second again ph 6.2

I am growing Jack flash (vegged for over 2month) and nebula (vegged for about 5weeks). grown in allmix. jack flash in approx 20liter pots and most nebulas in approx 10litre pots but some in 20 litre. 6 x 600 sodium aircooled reflectors fan in and fan out which take air from the room and runs through the reflectors venting into chimnley spelling???.

Just going into 5th week flower. They are looking bushy and the buds are forming nicely but they are much more pale than I would expect. Dont think it's a N deficiency as with bio nova you continue using the same grow nutrient all the way through with just the addition of pk in the flower. if fact i wonder if this gives them too much N. ratio 5-2-4 and i am giving the 3.5/ litre with addition of pk. was wondering if it could be a magnesium deficiency as we have hard water (ph above 7.5) and i have herd the calcium can lock magnesium out. The supermix does contain magnesium, however i dont know if it is enough 0.9%Mg. They have all had at least one feed of epson salts at 1tsp/7litres.

Lower down there is some yellow leaves and some leaves that are yellow but still with green veins. However I would kind of expect this. I am more worried about the general overall pale colour.

I flushed all the plants last week with 3 x the volume of the pots with water that i ph'd with phos acid to about 6.2 as the run of was suggesting the ph in the soil was somewhere towards 7. however i dont think it really brought the ph of the soil down as the runoff was not that different than before i flushed.

Since i have flushed there is also some browning around the edges of the leaves at the top of the colas.The effected leaves have curled upwards. It has only happened to the nebulas. jack flash uneffected. Happened to approx half of the nebulas. lower leaves unaffected.
thought there was a possibility it was heat burn so have moved lights futher away. now approx 2ft away and also are air coolled reflectors. the overall heat in the room is a bit high (approx 29-30 deg c) however it hasn't really ever seemed like much of a problem so far.
the curling and brown looked a bit like nute burn but seeing as hey have been flushed and i have not raised the feed levels i don't think it is.

hmm tra la la mystery!!
yeah really would appreciate any comments I am hoping to get enough smoke off them to last me a good while and make the electricity bill worthwhile! anything help to make sure ti goes okay is much appreciated.

loving growing them anyway. beautiful plant I garden a lot but this is now my favorite plant to grow. wish i could do it outdoors naturally though.

cheers

the dutchess

some pics of overall grow setup and one of the nebulas with effected tips and some pics of plae growth
nebula

nebula

overall room


pale?

pale?

buds

High. Real nice lookin set up you have there! There is no reson atall to ph your water. You compost will do that for you. 6.2 is dangerestly low. If it gets down to below 6 you are in big shit! I would allso cut down on nute levels and see if they pick up. They must not have too long left now in bloom so cuttin nutes levels wont be a problem. Not many growers use pk13-14 here in compost.
Good luck
hantshaze

Hey. ta for your quick reply!

the reason i was taking the ph so low is because when i was testing runnoff from the pots is was very high. i was watering with low ph in an attempt to balance it out and stop it getting any higher/ and hopefully lower it a bit. For example

pot 1- i poured in water at 6.48ph and out came 6.6.
pot 2- water in at 6.47 out at 6.91
pot 3-in at 6.32 out at 6.51

this led me to believe rightly or wrongly (who knows this is the first time i've done this) that the actual ph of the soil was getting on towards 7 and that some nutrients might be locked out. i flushed with 3 x volume of pots at ph 6.2 in an attempt to adjust down but when i checked it the ph was still high, it hadnt changed much.

do you think that i should stop using the ph down even though the ph in the soil is high and my tap water is getting on towards 8. what if i adjusted it to 6.5?

i also tested ec
pot 1-water in ec 0.5 out 2.8
pot2- in o.5ec out at 1.7
pot 3- in 0.5 out at 3

didnt really know what it should be. i know that when i make up the nute solution it is about 1.8 ish.

i flushed with 3 x volume of pots and this took ec back down.


will try ur suggestion and reduce nute levels a bit.


cheers allllooot

As far as I know bionova do not make a single product that could be called organic in the uk.

You are looking at out of balance chemical nutrient burn.

Sounds like your treating allmix as if it was an inert hydro medium, it ain't - it's a compost and will naturally resist (buffer) changes in PH. This in normally seen as a good thing as all of us compost growers using organic nutes with hard pH 7-8 tap water in the UK can merrily water away without worrying one tot about pH, ec etc.. It's generally easier for compost to cope with high pH water than low.

What are you using for pH down - phosphoric acid per chance? - if so that's even more P being added into the equation.

The Bio Nova website says pH adjustment is very unlikely to be needed with their nutes.

For next time -maybe go hydro with coco, or organic nutes with compo. In my personal opinion chem nutes and compo togethor is kind of wierd....

Not really sure what the best course of action is to get the most of your current crop, as I doubt you've got much of a microherd left. Certainly no more pH down......

Have you grown succesfully in this tent before? if you haven't that looks a lot like ofgassing which is a big problem with some white ntents could be totally wrong but thats what it looks like .

Hiya Dutchess,

You are going to get massive leaf drop over the next few weeks, everyone of the leaves that are yellowing will shrivel up die and then drop off. I would remove the dead/dying leaves daily or you will end up with loads of dead crispy leaves mixed in with all the bud and these could cause bud rot mould throughout the whole grow in a couple of days, especially if the r/h is to high. Good luck.

Peace,
GG

This is why I've learned to get an understanding of what I'm doing, and am still learning. What you've got here is a prime example of throwing everything at the problem and learning nothing.

The reason I say this is because you could, as has been said, have an off gassing problem. You just wouldn't know that because it could, as OT1 said, and is probably correct, a major nutrient problem caused by the massive fluctuations in your grow.

Next time, keep away from the PH pen. Do not use it. I too learned this the hard way.
Leave the PK 13-14, and any other additives, except maybe some seaweed here and there, until you are happy with results with just Gr & Bl.

Most importantly, decide what you want to do - Grow organically, or chemically. If you choose organics, learn all about the function of organic growing, what each element does in it's natural habitat, what it means to the plant, then you'll understand better what you're supposed to be doing and when.

Cheers everyone for all your input. I have a lot of learning to do.

If I was to try again I would probably forget the bio nova nues and opt for bio bizz and go fully organic. bio bizz appears to be much more widely used (as well as being fully organic) meaning it is much easier for a newbie to find info on feeding schedules and such like online.

I also appreciate that the ph down was not such a good idea when growing in compost, have now stopped using it.

On the plus side the plants have not got any worse, the buds are starting to swell and the hairs are turning brown so all being good I should still get a good crop. The plants are getting more yelow and leaves are turning crispy and falling off but as we are quite neer the end now (halfway through week 7) Im not too worried and am just removing them to let the air circulate through.

the pictures of the orange frazzled tips that i posted before did not get any worse. i think it was actualy heat burn, as it stopped once i raised the lights another foot.

Last week i reduced the feed levels by to just 2.5ml/litre and they have only been watered this week as i think they are within 10-20 days of finishing.
nebula is supposed to go 56-62 days and jack flash 60-70 days. I wonder if anyone can tell me if there is a danger of stopping feeding too soon??was wondering if they should have one last feed.

also should i just water with normal amount or should i leach the pots with several times their volume? if leaching them is this best done straight away or in the last week before harvest.

plummer and papaduc I was interested about your comments about offgassing, I hadnt really considerd that before. I m not using a grow tent but i have lined the carpet with some thick pvc pond liner that was abandoned at an old garden nursery. I guess pvc does offgass and is harmful to humans so it stands to reason that it would be to plants as well. also have some reflective white plastic on one wall where i blacked out the window. If toffgassing is the prob would it help to leave the extraction fan on when the lights are off as well??

many many thanks to all you helpful growers, your help and comments are really appreaciated, and i will keep you updated. might post some photos later when the lights are on.

love and light

the dutchess

Why? Do you switch off your fan when the lights go off?

If so, you've just found the answer to your problem.

Leave fans running 24/7, full whack. If you have anything like lino or pvc in the room, keep your temps down below 30c at all costs, and keep a much nice fresh outside air blowing into your grow area as possible. This is important anyway, but even more so with things which can potentially give off slight fumes.

Get some Biobizz nutes, they're very easy to use, don't ph anymore, and get that environment sorted. Watch the difference.

yes i do. all the fans switch off when the lights go off. as so neer the end doubt it will make much difference now. but next time...

some of it's looking almost ready , would having the fans running at nightime also help prevent bud rot as well as offgassing?

getting excited

cheers

the dutchess

Keeping your fans on will make a massive difference to every aspect of your grow. You'll see yourself. Don't switch your fans off at all.

It will reduce all sorts of risks, from budrot and Fungus to off-gassing
It will improve the health, size, vigour, appearance... every aspect of your plant.
It's hard to think of many aspects of your grow that having the fans running won't dramatically improve.

One thing I've learned first hand is the huge difference it makes. It's something almost all new growers massively underestimate the importance of.

right, i guess that makes alot of sense. swapped fans over so they are running 24/7. going to cut this weekend. despite all my newbie mistakes it's looking really good which just shows that with a bit of experience I could get some really great results!

thanks for your input

Nice one. Hope it goes well