This is going to be a weird post...
I had no intention of growing cannabis this winter, I’m pretty well stocked up.
A series of unrelated events led me to starting a winter grow.
First, an experiment went south. We were trying to grow tomatoes and maybe lettuce inside the house…bust. Not going into explaining.
Second, I was waxing the car before winter, around Halloween and I whacked my shin on the running board getting a tennis ball sized hematoma on my shin. I have poor circulation in the legs …that little bump laid me up worse than I ever thought it would. Anyway… (getting older sucks)
Doctor put me on Furosemide (Lasix) to reduce the swelling and potassium pills to supplement what I’d pee out. The extra potassium made me feel funny…doctor says …don’t take them. I do have a potassium rich diet, doc didn’t know.
Sooo anyway…
I got bored…really bored. Went through 5 books…then decided to start growing. Heck it is my hobby.
I grow Autoflower exclusively, turnaround is about 12 weeks germination to harvest. Since I really didn’t need to stock up so I only grew 3 plants and decided to experiment. That’s where the potassium pills came into play.
One potassium capsules contained 10 meq …equivalent to about one banana.
I broke one in each cannabis plant bag 3 times, one before preflower, one during preflower, one during flowering.
The plants are now going into their second month of life, 8 weeks, Monday.
With approximately one month left before harvest I can honestly say I have never had this much ‘frosty bits’ on the plants. Pictures can’t tell the whole story the smell is fantastic.
Researching deeply into the need for potassium in cannabis production I came to find out most growers do not use enough. There is a fine line between success and failure. Too much will build up salts in the soils that hinder good growth, nutshell version.
Since Autoflowers have such a quick growth cycle adding in the measured amount I’m using, I feel that will not happen during this grow.
I reuse my soil…in between grows, I replenish the soils with amendments
I will add a good water flush before amending after this grow to remove excess salts. I always flush before harvest anyway but more couldn’t hurt.
I do believe that increasing the amount of potassium in cannabis grows does lead to better product. Take a look at 8 week old plants. But time and tasting will tell the true tale.
Trichomes on sugar leaves ok but on the shade leaves…not very often.
Thick bud production.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I’ve been growing cannabis for over 25 years but just recently got into autoflowers so still learning.
I have never worked with indoor soil enhancement but I know potassium is crucial.
All of my grows have been outdoors in the ground.
With strong turpines, the mice will stay away and outdoors, even the deer won't eat it.
I’ve always thought I had good results but not like some I’ve seen. Keeping it more organic inside is a learning experience. Before I went toward the organic side in soil I was growing in hydroponics system. Mixing all those fertilizers, measuring all that stuff out was time consuming plus if ya got one thing wrong…well better luck next time.
I’ve watered with banana water before but this is much better. Most of the white papers I got dealing with potassium were mostly talking about deficiency not over use. Then out of the blue my mentor of years ago contacted me. Haven’t talked to that guy in about 12 years…he moved left no way to contact him. He said it was almost impossible to over fertilize with potassium in the quick window of growing autoflowers.
But not hog wild measured feeding is best.
If my car never took a bite outta my shin…I would have just been keeping on. Things happen for a reason you just gotta look for the good in it.
Some big bummer brings about something new and good.
I grow outdoors, so my cycle is much longer. I add it to my organic soil recipe, which includes castings and various guanos and sea kelp in it to begin with. I also swear by my compost tea, it's liquid gold. And yes, always a good vigorous flush regiment prior to harvest.
You grow looks great!
