A few things. I never use lime and I don't seem to have ph problems. In the beginning of the grow I try to keep my solution around 6.0 as time passes I raise it and shoot for nothing over 6.5. I've noticed with this method my soil ends up around 7 by the end of the grow. As I've mentioned, I don't buy expensive soil any longer, I see no benefit. I use Scott's premium potting soil for containers, add worm castings, spaghnum peat moss and perlite. For four cubic feet of soil it's less than twenty five bucks, which buys you one bag of ocean forest. When I did use ocean forest and happy frog, I had gnat problems, I don't with the scotts. Also on the spider mite thing. I bombed my room after my last grow, no signs of spider mites. Any spots you may see on my plants are due to dripping nute solution from watering.
Here's the girls going into their fifth week of vegging. Thanks for the info on the NY47 DST. That only leaves the extrema to identify as far as sex and I just looked at it again and I still think it's going to be a female. The preflowers aren't showing any pistils but they continue to be snug against the stem. The little one in the party cup is one of the shackzilla's. I am going to have to repot her this evening. I don't think she has been able to break through the bottom of the seed starter cup, I'll probably have to cut the bottom off when I transplant later tonight. I like to transplant about an hour before lights out to give the root system time to rest before the next light cycle.
And the date went very well, I'll be seeing her again and I have the feeling she might be the type of woman to pose for me as a background when taking pictures...time will tell.
As you can tell in the pics, I have one hps and one mh burning.