Pity about the spots on the leaves from the pressure spray, but good looking plants and you planting some veggies for the fall. Happy growing all around there @pbaker1111
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Welp, this is one of those kinda discouraging moments! I found a couple tiny spots of botrytis on my small Ethos plant. I removed those spots and doused the whole plant with full-strength hypochlorous acid solution. Am going to keep a keen eye on it and see what happens.
This situation has me wondering about risks and benefits associated with early harvest. I understand an early harvest can dramatically reduce yield, but about how much potency loss would you incur by harvesting a week or two early? Are we talking 5-10% or more like 50-60%?
On another note, I always expect botrytis to occur in the inner part of the plant due to the increased moisture, but in my experience it’s always occurred on the outer/top part–the driest part of the plant. What gives? I’ve heard/observed that caterpillars tend to search for the tender leaves that naturally occur on the ends of branches. Could that be why the botrytis occurs way out there? If so, that could teach me something about the relative impacts of those key variables.
Anyway, three of my four big plants are still completely mold-free, and I have a good treatment for the moldy ethos plant. I have a couple small autos coming along, too. Life is good in Virginia. Have a great day!
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Good question about the potency loss from early harvest.
I don’t know. But I’d like to find out.
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Mr Baker,
’
Your instincts about caterpillar vectoring the Botrytis is correct!
If you think about bacterial/fungal spores, they’re a lot like pollen…not as dense or visible as pollen but spread the same way, through the air and hitching a ride on hairy, dusty, sticky insects.
An insect feeds on the plant, injuring tissue…which gives the bacterial/fungal spores direct entry to the the wounded tissue.
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Ethos grandpa’s stash x end game. This poor plant has a bad dad. I think I overfed. And then, when experienced growers would have known to back off, I overfed even more! Lol!! Anyway, she’s had a few small patches of botrytis. I think next year I’ll spray the straight acid solution instead of diluting. The finish line is approaching with this one. 
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ILGM LA Confidential. Seems like this one is gonna grow through October. Hoping for health as the buds swell. This plant has been a champ since minute one. I confess she’s been my fav since May.
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Ethos grandpa’s stash x Punchline. This plant has done well, despite being overfed. Seems like the ethos plants I’ve grown this year don’t want much in terms of bloom nutes. I’ve had a little botrytis on this one, too. But thankfully just a very little. By the way, this one smells absolutely incredible. Trying to keep it growing for another two weeks or so.
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ILGM Gelato. Buds have developed rapidly in the past week or so. No trouble to report with this baby. I guess she’ll grow through October. I know I’m making a lot of assumptions here, but I think I’m gonna have space issues when it comes to harvesting this plant. May have to do it in two sessions.
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Three mephisto autos. I am planning to harvest the tops of those two larger plants and hanging them up. Because I am juuuust about out of weed. 
Peace and health to you from Virginia!
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This is an ethos grandpa’s stash x crescendo. A family member has grown this baby from a seed that I started for him. The plant was about 8’ tall. It got a couple tiny spots of botrytis, and my family member got nervous he was gonna lose the whole plant, so we took half of the plant down last weekend. During an initial wet trim, I chopped off a tiny piece. I dried it quickly, smoked it, and got ripped. So despite the early harvest, I think this will be fine stuff!
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I have a lot to report. My outdoor Harvest was interesting. I harvested about a pound, but I lost a whole plant and more than half of another due to botrytis. It was unbelievable. 
A real challenge I could not overcome.
Anyway, I have a question, and I know you could help.
I am about to start two photoperiod plants in my tent. I am planning to use FFOF, and I’d like to amend it with some stuff right off the bat. What should I add that doesn’t need time to “cook”? While I’m at it, is there another bag soil mix you’d recommend over FFOF? @sssportsmfg @happilyretired @chrisj
I hope you have a great day!!
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I am loco for the coco. I run dakine coco mixes. Foxfarm pops hot for metals in testing.
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A good soil mix that has nutes added to start should give you plenty of time for the “additives” to cook, I use Gaia Green and at about three times the rate on their bag. We are growing high energy plants that we push to the limits, organics are very forgiving, but you have to be careful with the “hot” organics like guano’s that are immediately available. The main thing is to keep your inoculates at a high level to allow the continuous breakdown and availability of nutes to the plant.
Marty
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I probably would not ammend that ffof soil. Its already hot. I like tupur and pro-mix hp. But you should really consider Roots organix media. There soil is great! And there organics are top notch. If im going organic thats what id use. But i do a hybrid mix of organics and salts.
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FFOF is already pretty hot as previously said. I would not amend it at all. It’s more of a factory pack ready to go on the hot side. if I were to amend it with anything I would probably add minerals. But I don’t think it’s necessary. Back when I paid attention to growing in soil a lot of people and I mean a lot of people would put Ocean Forest at the bottom and sides of the pot and happy frog in the middle for the plants to transition from. But it’s been a while. 
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I was thinking about that a few days ago. I can still see that little picture (of the cross view of the pot) in my head. But I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw it. Maybe @LoCoRocK remembers? 
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I used the FFOF with the Fox Farm nutes and BBP this year. I personally had my best year outdoors to date.
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The next harvest is always the best harvest…
OooOh - that need quotation marks gosh dang
That’s funny right dere!!
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Marty, your explanation is much appreciated!! And I’ll benefit from it right away. But it also makes clear how much more I need to learn… I need to do some reading!
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Thanks to each of you for the soil thoughts. I have a lot to learn. I have two seedings in black gold solo cups right now. They popped on Oct. 27. Both are ethos. One is a grandpa’s stash x crescendo. The other is Zsweet Inzanity. My dad grew Crescendo outdoors over the summer. Despite a way-too-early harvest, the high is just amazing. I want to make my own! The Z Inzanity was a freebie.
I’m watering distilled water from the top. Any of you water from below? I’m using a little heat mat on medium setting. I used it with the autos I started over the summer, and they seemed to really like the extra warmth. Also, it dries my medium out faster, which I like.
I figure I’ll be ready to transplant in a couple of weeks. Until then, I’m going to work on setting myself up for success. I’m going to prepare some new containers (I’m thinking air pots) with some new medium. Based on your feedback, I may try something other than FFOF. I will spend a little time reading.
I moved my tent to a room inside my house. For me, that’s a huge upgrade. In my garage last winter, I couldn’t control humidity at all, and I was only able to exert minimal control over temp. Because my setup is vastly improved this winter, and because I have a year’s experience under my belt, I would like to improve my grow this winter.
Specifically, I’m going to do some topping, training, and defoliating. During September, I visited a close friend in Montana. While there, I visited a dispensary called Flathead Lake Herb. The lovely couple running the place also grew all the cannabis in the shop! I spent some time chatting with them, and they graciously shared some tips with me. During the nice convo, this couple convinced me that I really need to learn to remove bud sites and leaves in order to produce the best flower. So that’s what I am going to attempt.
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