Swiss Alpine Rocket Advice (with pics)

[s7ber]

Hey Everyone,

I live in Lausanne, Switzerland and my friend just left the country and gave me his plant. He bought the plant in a store about 3 weeks ago (in Switzerland it is legal to have up to 3 plants) and had it in a field for a while. Now the plant is in a pot on my porch.

It gets about 12 hours of direct sunlight every day (too much?) and I water it every night (too often?). I have not used any sort of fertilizer or anything like that. In the beginning my friend had the bottom 3 branches tied down with strings, to develop 3 different growing sections. I took those strings off now.

I am pretty sure it is a female plant, i took some pictures of the nutes. Compared to other plants i have seen on this forum, my plant looks fairly skinny.

Please take a look at the pictures and give some advice on what to do next.

Will this plant grow some decent buds?

Thanks for any advice

Stefan

s7ber Reviewed by s7ber on 07-22-2006. Swiss Alpine Rocket Advice (with pics) Hey Everyone, I live in Lausanne, Switzerland and my friend just left the country and gave me his plant. He bought the plant in a store about 3 weeks ago (in Switzerland it is legal to have up to 3 plants) and had it in a field for a while. Now the plant is in a pot on my porch. It gets about 12 hours of direct sunlight every day (too much?) and I water it every night (too often?). I have not used any sort of fertilizer or anything like that. In the beginning my friend had the bottom 3 Rating: 5

[s7ber]

Is the pot big enough? Is it bad that it's black and heats up in the sun?

[s7ber]

What exactly is that? I put some Nitrogen rock fertilizer in the soil today.

[s7ber]

PUSH!

[stinkyattic]

hey those redish parts on the stem is npk deficiency, might wanna get some organic nutes whitch have (N)(P)(K)

Purplish petioles (leaf stems) is SULFUR defifency. Although some strains are kind of purpley anyway.

To say "NPK deficiency" is really confusing. Each of those fertilizer components has its own deficiency signature; N def makes poor, pale growth and interveinal chlorosis. P makes purple veins and stunted, deformed new growth. K makes small, weak, branching and overall sickliness and vulnerability to pest attack.

The plant shown has none of those outward symptoms from what I see. It's very healthy looking. Maybe a little lanky and that black pot should be sprayed white if it's going to be outside.

Organic fertilizers take a while to work and aren't the best choice for correcting deficiency. They're best for adding as a soil amendment and as part of a regular fert schedule.

That plant COULD be getting too much water. Just make sure to let the soil mostly dry out before you water it. Watering outdoors shouldn't be on a schedule so much as dependent upon how much transpiration took place during the day. Sunny, dry day= water your plnat. Cool overcast or cool humid day= leave it alone.

[s7ber]

Hey thanks for the tips,

I don't think the plant needs a fan because it's outside and theres a good breeze every once in a while. I noticed the black pot getting pretty hot so i put the black pot inside a metal pot (picture coming soon), it doesn't get quite as hot as the black one.

If the purpelish stems are in fact caused by sulfur deficiency, how do i go about correcting that? Is there sulfur fertilizer?

I've switched to watering the plant every other day now, it's very hot here right now, around 36 degrees celcius (95 fahrenheit?) every day and it hasnt rained in a while.

Cheers
Stefan

[stinkyattic]

Some fertilizers have sufate in them.
In general you should use ferts that have micronutrients in them too, and you won't get micronutrient def unless there's a pH problem.
But that plant actually looks pretty healthy. Just keep your roots a little cooler and water less and yopu should be fine.