First grow, help is appreciated

hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
[QUOTE="SICC";3783775]Hope you get it under control, bugs and buds dont mix :peace:[/QUOTE]

They kinda look like thrips. Look like grayish whitish brownish almost transparent and tiny.
Real hard to see when they fly around. I almost though it was dust til it went down against the air current of my carbon filter. I have only seen them while grooming soil. It may just be 1 or 2 for now. I hauled ass to get something for them. I didn't even bother with the neem yet. I put down a layer of DE and I hope that takes care of them. Before I moved into the room I cleaned the hell out of it and sprayed the hell out of it for bugs too. It had to have came from the soil. I don't think the soil came like that though. I store the bag in my garage and one day I left it open by accident for a few days. I have only seen them on my newly potted plants. SO I think I will be trashing that soil just in case heh. I haven't seen any on or near the AG so I think I will be ok. I will give it a few days and if I see anymore I will spray the neem. And BTW she is getting super fat. that big clump of bud in the middle is joined with the cola now. About maybe 9 or 10 inches long. 1/3 of the plant is cola. heh I ended up adding some bloom formula to the nutes the other day too. I think this is their way of thanking me. I also had to raise the light because she is still growing up. I will measure and see how tall she is later. I am guessing almost 30 inches now.

K now I can relax.
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
OK I was stalking my girl and noticed lots of leaves showing deficiencies. I broke down and fed her 1 last fat meal. heh 2/3 power on the BC and 100% on the micro bottles. She is getting fat. Acouple buds look to be closer to done but most are all white hairs. I guess I will just harvest a couple branches early. I trimmed up a couple of lower dead leaves. One I went to trim and it jumped off. heh No bugs on her at all that I noticed. She is looking nice, check her out. The buds are getting so heavy that branches are spreading and she is wider than tall. heh
 

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hempstead

hempstead

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Ok I measured her. She is only 26 inches tall but she is 32 inches wide. heh The main cola is 10 inches down into the middle and all those little side branches are like 3-4 inches plus lots of little nuggets. I can not wait to smoke her. heh
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
[QUOTE="SICC";3784809]I would look thru here and see whats going on

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688[/QUOTE]

That is a nice thread. Thanks.
I think it is a combination of many things. Definitely a calcium deficiency since day 1. That post has the exact picture of my lower leaves from day 1. It also looks like a couple leaves in the back were bleached by the light in a hot spot or something. She will make it or I will harvest it and smoke it anyways. lol

I got GH Flora Micro and Bloom (Lucas Formula) for my next grow. Two parts is definitely gonna be easier. I think I have decided that I am gonna wait for everything to finish that is in there now. Clean up then start my next grow. I am gonna do Lowryder, Easyryder, and Afghan Kush Ryder in 2 bubble buckets and 1 hempy bucket. I will go 18/6 the whole grow to conserve a little power. But that will be a couple months from now. heh
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
howak47 said:
buds are lookin great man keep it up :)
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Thanks man.

I guess I should check ph every day. The new formula was fluctuating alot. That is what my problem was. It is stable for now. I got my new meter but I am waiting on stupid pH buffers to set it. It is way off. By the time I get it I won't need it anymore. lol

So today I was looking into how I am gonna hang and dry this. How do you guys dry out? DO yahs have a closet or one of them dry boxes or do you just use the same area you grow in? I do not think I can do the latter. It will be too hot under the light. I may build a DIY carbon filter and set up shop in a rubbermaid bin. I have a couple pc fans and a couple pc power supplies. Hmmm. WHat do you guys use?
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
I just woke up and checked the pH. It was almost 7 after being under 6 last night. WTF
I have her in plain water now, nothing else. I will admit I got great results with Technaflora until it was time to flush with their recommended product. Never again. heh Distilled water for flushing from now on, that is it. She is soaking in water til harvest now. I don't care if she will end up a little immature but she will be far better than the crap I have been smoking for 2 months. Now I need to build a box to dry her in. heh
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
Oh yeah BTW diatomaceous earth kicks ass. I haven't seen any signs of bugs in my garden. I killed the only 2 I saw before putting it down but still, I haven't seen any life other than plant life in my tent. I have been doing a little reading and lotsa peops mix it with their soil. I do not know how well that will work because on the bag it says water does away with the effectiveness. I dunno maybe it still works. NO MORE FUNGUS GNATS or THRIPS or whatever them things were. heh
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
I was just playing in my garden and the stupid gnats are there but few and far between. They look like specs of dust almost except they fly against the wind current. heh
MY soil pH is quite acidic, I checked it today thinking it was making my leaves curl like they do because I barely water these plants. After watering with water that is about 6.5-7 pH the runoff is almost down to 5. SO I added some fun stuff. I read that MagiCal will help with acidic soil so I flushed with pH 7 RO water and then watered with MagiCal. I hope this helps them.

I do have some good news. The other Northern Light is also a female. These are some stretchy ladies. Maybe I should've put them under fluorescents instead of right into HPS. The nirvana mystery freebie is growing nice. It looks like a nice indica. It has been under a CFL 24 hours a day for about aaaaam 8 days now. I may move it into the flower room soon.
 
"SICC"

"SICC"

Well-Known Member
Congrats on the female man, you should just tie the tops down on the NL, and keep her nice and short
 
hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
She is almost done. Buds are maturing fast and fan leaves are getting pale. I am getting excited. I am building a dry box for her. It is a 35 gallon tote and I have 2 pc fans. I am gonna make a carbon filter for the dry box. I picked up lotsa stuff at wally world today. They didn't have any activated carbon at the one I checked. I will try another tomorrow.

The older Northern Light has been growing nice, stretching a bit but still growing nice and healthy. I have her in bondage. heh I am using a little LST on her and she is breaking her bonds. I am only using a small pot for her and I think I may get her to grow around the whole thing. I will post some pics tomorrow. The wet rat seem to be in limbo. Sometimes she grows sometimes she doesn't. She feels ok but still looks sickly. I ran out of twisty ties and when I get some more I am gonna LST the other northern light. Once the aerogarden is out of the tent there will be alot more room. That is when the nirvana mystery freebie goes in. It is looking like a nice indica plant. SHort and stocky with thick leaves. It has been going 24/7 under a cfl in a closet for almost 2 weeks now. Well good night I will post some pics tomorrow.
 
wyteboi

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
If you are gonna try to check the ph of the soil with runoff , then you have to water the pot real, real good , then go back about 15 min. later and pour a lil more water in the pot and catch the first few drops of runoff right after you water the second time. going from 7 to 5 is not good , but im tellin u ur soil is not 5, if it is then something is terribly wrong.(and if it is then ph up will NOT help) I am gonna have to find a post in regaurds to ph and soil to help you to understand.........
 
wyteboi

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Here is a good post but its only the tip of the burg!

Kriegs said:
Hey, UB... keep up the great work. Your threads are all in my subscription list, and the first places I go to enjoy some good info and debate. This seemed to be the best place to put my latest spiel..

For various reasons, I've been involved in an off-and-on study of humic acids, composting, and the fundamental nature of "potting soil", all in my spare time of course. As most growers SHOULD know, "potting soils" are about 98% composted wood and sphagnum peat by weight and volume. The other 2% is little bits of this or that, depending whatever marketing tack the manufacturer wants to deploy to sell their bags of rotten wood (ie.. this has "special kelp", mycorrhizal inoculants, or "feeds for 3 months" or whatever).

I got into it because of being repeatedly flamed for using tap water at pH 8.0 without adjusting it down. Why do I do this without a care? Well, the breakdown of natural organic matter creates large amounts of humic substances. "Humic substances" is a HUGE catch-all category of material -- some is fully soluble and easily washed out, some hangs on the soil like a film, other humics hang together in a matrix that agglomerates or separates depending on what is going on around it. Generally, these humic films separate and kick off little bits of organic acid when exposed to alkaline material, like my water. Ergo, I would bet a buck-two-fifty that yes, my water hits the soil surface at 8.0 and by about 1 or 2mm down, is neutralized to 7.0 My plants NEVER see water at 8.0.

So anyway, I just wanted to re-up my humics understanding to be sure of my approach, and then thought it could be useful to others if for no other reason than to eliminate unnecessary steps and stress, and focus on what counts.

Now, there's a helluva world underneath those little tidbits. Here's an article with some insight to it, and how it relates to commercial compost and soil production:

http://jeq.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/37/4/1608

You don't have to be that great of a scientist to understand it, as dense as it is with references and procedures. The simple output is that commerical soil producers have honed in on the fact that the most beneficial humics are created early in the composting process, and longer and now-outdated composting processes actually strip out beneficial humics. The longer processes may make a "nicer looking" soil, but it has less function to plants as it provides less active and available humics, and more refractory material.

Bottom line: commercial potting soils have a lot of humics, and do not need any assistance with acid buffering (which is what you're doing essentially, when you add vinegar to your water... trying to help your soil do a job it's already well-equipped to do).

One of the primary characteristics of humic substances is an abundant mix of readily available and slow-release carboxylic acids (a multitude of organic acids all carrying the COOH group, including acetic acid.. AKA vinegar). Check this for basic COOH info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboxylic_acid

So, why aren't potting soils a highly acid intolerable environment for MJ? Because these materials only dissociate into acids in the presence of un-neutralized bases. Otherwise, they remain grouped up and essentially neutral.

Enjoy...
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........another.......

Uncle Ben said:
Such fun, eh! :D
Folks that do the pH adjusting drills regarding regular potting soils don't know what they are talking about. As I constantly say, soil is a powerful buffer. Do an experiment like I have - run water adjusted to a pH of say.....5.5 thru one pot and 9.0 in another pot, of the same potting material of course. Test the latent runoff, the stuff that barely drips out the drainholes after sitting there for 15 minutes. You'll find the pH value drifting back close to the original pH value of the soil.

I know of no bearing humates have on pH values other than stuff like peat moss which has a very high amount of humates, the acids. Of course those are organic acids and subject to microbial action.


Speaking of confusing lol. I do know that certain addtions will impart a pH change either short term or long term, like peat, urea, bone meal, ashes, lime, etc.
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hempstead

hempstead

Well-Known Member
wyteboi said:
Here is a good post but its only the tip of the burg!



........another.......
Click to expand...
I didn't pH my water for my plants. I know the soil buffers the pH. But if the soil pH is off then the pH is off. lol Unless every bag is mixed individually I don't think it can be very consistent. ([FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Perfect for containers and ready to use right out of the bag. Ocean Forest® is pH adjusted at 6.3 to 6.8 to allow for optimum fertilizer uptake.) I am sure occasionally some is over 7 and some is under 6. MagiCal sort of works like adding lime to a soil but faster from what I have read.[/FONT]
 
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