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The 7 problems for legal cannabis growers on Reddit · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily.
• 0:03
  I've been on Reddit and Reddit describes itself as the heart of the internet.
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  Now my colleague Matthew will describe Reddit as another body part because of
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  the interactions he's had with people on Reddit over the years and it can certainly
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  be said that there are a lot of well self-appointed experts a bit like me really
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  on Reddit and they get frustrated with the common questions that get asked.
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  However you're on Reddit so you've got to expect people to just go on and ask
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  beginner questions, noob questions.
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  That's what it's there for. If you want to have a thorough, in-depth,
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  deep discussion with other experts, then go on another forum,
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  an expert forum, I would say.
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  I've been looking particularly at the legal cannabis subreddits,
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  as they're called, or threads.
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  And if you were an expert, you'd probably be on another thread or forum.
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  Like ICMAG forums or Grow Diaries or something like that.
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  But the legal cannabis one is an interesting one and
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  i thought i would summarize the seven key
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  problems that come up again and
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  again on these subreddits because then
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  you will know what are the common issues that
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  occur most commonly in legal cannabis when
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  people are growing the crop and you won't
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  have to go onto reddit to find them or look at them so that's
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  a good one you won't have to be subjected to that interaction so
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  the first common problem on reddit is
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  stretch and the seedlings particularly
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  are stretching really really tall before
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  the first cotyledons or just after the the first seed
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  leaves the cotyledons and that's due to beginners not
• 1:43
  using the correct grow lights they might be
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  using a normal desk lamp or they
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  might be using cheap leds that they bought off
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  ebay or some other timu or something like this
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  and they're just not up to the job they might
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  say you know 800 watts 600 watts 400 watts
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  but they take that with a pinch of salt
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  if you want a good grow light grow to go to a grow shop choose a reputable brand
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  a lot of the you know purple horror lights they'll get terrible stretch and
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  this is and the people will put them too far away from their plants and you'll
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  get this stretch and the seedlings will keel over.
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  Literally just drop over, get far too leggy as we call it in horticulture and
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  the plant will be weak thereon after.
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  So stretch is the first problem, probably the first common. The second most
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  common problem is calcium deficiency and people come on and they don't know
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  it's calcium deficiency.
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  They say, what's wrong with my plant? And it's got.
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  Black necrotic growth or scorch or
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  dieback in between the veins of the
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  leaves and that's calcium deficiency that's the
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  classic signs of calcium deficiency it means the cells
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  in the young leaves are not getting to form calcium pectate
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  which is what forms strong cell walls just the same stuff that's in jam makes
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  it jam thick and that's because they're growing in a hydroponic system but they're
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  using a standard fertilizer garden fertilizer like Miracle-Gro or Tomorite or
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  Phosphogen and they always lack calcium if they're a liquid.
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  Now you want to be using a proper hydroponic fertilizer like Liquid Gold if
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  you're in the UK or Goldleaf as we call it in the US.
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  That contains every essential nutrient including calcium.
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  You might even want to add an extra bump of an addition of a CalMag so that
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  gives you belts and braces.
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  Something like legal cannabis needs a lot of calcium. So you might want to add
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  a CalMag as well to get even more calcium.
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  And that will prevent this issue that's so common on Reddit.
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  It's the second most common one I would have thought.
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  So calcium deficiency is the second most common one I've seen on Reddit.
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  Third most common is people asking, are these male flowers?
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  They're worried with legal cannabis, you don't want male flowers,
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  you don't want the pollination because that will allow seeds to form
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  and about 50 percent of the time they
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  are male flowers they look like little bananas the anthers
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  the male bits and as they develop on
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  the normally close to the stem next to
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  the ptl the leaf stalk and then about 50 percent
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  of the time they're not male flowers they're just the developing ovule
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  of the female flower and people are just getting really paranoid
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  so you can have male plants female plants and
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  hermaphrodite plants in legal cannabis so as
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  soon as you get some male flowers though in a grow room you'll
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  get pollen everywhere and so they'll all seed so you need to be really careful
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  that's why people are coming on to reddit and asking is this
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  are these male flowers because they're paranoid about getting seed formation
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  so that's caused by using poor quality seed unfeminized seed and stressing the
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  plants you know if you're using these terrible lights if you're bashing the
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  plants around growing them in those red cups that seem to be popular in America,
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  I don't know what you call them,
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  rather than actual pots, then that can be an issue.
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  So male flowers, third most common problem on Reddit.
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  Fourth most common problem is posting a picture of their well-developed flowers
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  and buds and saying, is it ready to harvest?
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  And most of the time it's not ready to harvest. It's become a bit of a meme really on Reddit.
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  You know, people posting seedlings and saying, is this ready to harvest?
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  With that crop, You want half of the trichomes to go amber before you harvest.
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  For that, you need a hand lens.
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  So if you've not got a hand lens, you need one. You need one to look at pest
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  and disease anyway. So get yourself a hand lens.
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  They're actually on the Utrema website. We have these LED UV light hand lenses
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  that are really good, times 10 magnification.
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  But just any hand lens will do. Any magnifying glass will do.
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  So are they ready to harvest?
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  The fifth common problem is spider mites or thrips.
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  So they're the two most common, I was going to say insect pests,
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  invertebrate pests of legal cannabis.
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  Spider mites are an arachnid. Thrips are an insect.
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  You don't want them on there. they will spoil your crop and make
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  it completely unusable and so
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  lots of people have these especially if they're not growing in a grow room lots of
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  people on reddit seem to not use a grow tent which seems
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  a bit silly the sixth most common problem on
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  reddit is stunted growth or slow
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  growth and this is most commonly seen
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  in what i want to say dwc deep
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  water culture but it's not even that it's like these home
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  hydroponic units and you've got
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  a bit of rock wall and a big tank and then and that
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  tank though that sat below the plants is not even being aerated
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  so you can't really call it dwc it's just a tank
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  of fertigation solution and they're hoping that the
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  plants will grow and you're just getting stunted grow because there's
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  no aeration of the roots you're getting root rot similar to
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  a cracky method so that and often as well you get that where people are mixing
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  the crops so this is not so often in in legal cannabis this is more you find
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  this more on reddit when people are growing tomatoes and leafy vegetables and basil particularly.
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  And the plants are interacting the crops are interfering
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  with each other you're not optimising for one particular the nutrition
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  for and the conditions for one particular crop and as
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  I say you're not aerating so you get stunted poor growth they
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  also get stunted poor growth where people are not using any fertilisers or
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  they just dug some soil up out of their garden stuck it
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  in a pot and put some seed in see some crazy pictures on reddit of absolutely
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  terrible plants so yeah you'll see stunted growth very routinely you might see
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  the odd picture of yellowing leaves which are symptomatic of nitrogen deficiency
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  especially if they're just growing in soil okay and then the,
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  very common final seventh problem
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  you find on reddit and people post the picture they don't know it's a problem
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  they post a picture and say don't these plants look amazing or what do you think
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  of my crop and that and the crop and the the grow room or the the room that
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  they're in is really overcrowded and there's just too much plant material and
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  they're still in veg phase.
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  Or they say am i ready to flip and that means am i ready to to put on a flowering photo period,
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  and the plants are already way too big to be
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  flipped the plants are going to reach the lights they're going to scorch
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  you're going to have to pull them down it's going to be a hell you're
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  going to stimulate because it's so overcrowded you're going
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  to have fungal diseases the plants are going to scorch
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  it's a disaster so really common problem
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  that people don't realize is a problem but they're heading for you
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  know disaster or people haven't defoliated enough and
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  things like this so they are the seven most common problems you find on reddit
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  stretch due to terrible choice of lights or beginner lights calcium deficiency
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  due to the use of standard garden fertilisers rather than a hydroponic specific one.
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  Problems with people not knowing what male flowers are or them having male flowers on their crop.
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  And four, when people not knowing when to harvest and just asking,
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  is this ready to harvest?
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  Fifth, spider mites and thrips, people saying, what's on my plants?
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  Sixth, stunted growth in really simple DWC systems or when they've had mixed crops.
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  And seven, overcrowding and flipping too late into the flowering photo period.
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  As I say, this is legal cannabis.
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  Don't follow any of this advice or information if you're in an area where growing
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  cannabis is not legal or if you don't have a license to grow it legally.
• 9:48
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• 9:51
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• 10:20
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• 10:23
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• 11:12
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• 11:21
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• 11:31
  for that and if you're interested in getting an advanced copy then let me know
• 11:36
  okay thank you very much for listening until tomorrow that's been hydroponics
• 11:40
  fairly hydroponics daily for today reddit problems thank you.