1st Grow - bubbles, CFL, too many plants

I wish it were as simple as the ph roller coaster. I would be happy with fluctuations both ways. Unfortunately, it only goes one way, back up toward the original ph of the tap water - 8.3.

After some research I have found that a lot of tap water has built-in buffering capacity due to the dissolved ions. So basically, I add acid, it goes down for a very short while, then ramps right back up to the original ph (or very close to it) because the buffers are binding up the free acid.

If I add acid long enough, eventually the buffers are all bound up, and then I will see sustained ph drop. And THEN I can worry about the roller coaster you mention, Illegal Smile.

I REALLY didn't want to have to deal with RO water and added micronutrients etc, so I'm not happy about this. What I may try is a Brita filter, or maybe a sock full of activated charcoal, to pre-treat my tap water and hopefully take out some of the buffering capacity so I can bring it down from it's "native" 8.3 ph.

This just couldn't be easy, could it? Maybe in my situation it would be easier to go to soil. Dang.

At the very least, for the next reservoir, I will pre-ph the water for however long it takes to use up all the buffer and get a sustained ph level, at least prior to adding nutes and giving it to the plants.

In fact, I may just pull the res, give the roots another little air bath, and see just how short the bounce-back time is, and just keep on adding acid until the buffers are gone, THEN start my gradual decline down to the appropriate zone. Would probably be a lot better than constantly and artificially bouncing these guys from 8.3 to 7.7 several times a day

I finally got my pH under control. For semi-hard, very alkaline tap water, a quick run through a brita filter does WONDERS for "debuffering" the water so you can actually control it. I will do my first reservoir change today hopefully - but I have to find a "spigot" for the bottom of my tub to make changes easier.

The plants I didn't mess up on the transfer from paper towel to rock wool are looking pretty good - the 3 leaders are about 3 inches high and 8 inches wide. I was kind of hoping for faster vertical growth, but I'm happy with the fatness and vigor/health/color, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed here. Hoping the overdue reservoir change will spur some faster growth.

The close-ups are LA Woman, Kandy Kush X Skunk, and Thai X S-Skunk. You can really see the indica vs. sativa genetics in the leaves. Being my first grow, I know I'm not doing this perfectly, but it's still very rewarding doing and learning as I go. These were all freebie seeds so that' why I have the mix that I do.

P.S. I just pulled the lights up to take pics - they are normally 2 inches from the plants.

P.S.S. - that LA Woman is STRONG - definitely the winner so far in veg growth.

there looking good.

PT
You my have problems with the Thai x Skunk as they go wild and will fill the whole grow space
Is that the Skunkman cross?
Good luck look GREAT now
Green Dave

Green Dave said:

PT
You my have problems with the Thai x Skunk as they go wild and will fill the whole grow space
Is that the Skunkman cross?
Good luck look GREAT now
Green Dave

Click to expand...

Thanks guys!

It was labelled "Thai S-Skunk" from G13 Labs. I assume it's their "Thai Super Skunk" F1 hybrid. Not that I know what the flip an F1 hybrid is. Probably has nothing to do with really fast, fuel-efficient cars.

So I gave the 2 teenie weenies the axe. Now there are six - and WOW i never expected such a tremendous root network. The LA Woman and Kandy Kush X Skunk are practically "married" - didn't even try undoing those.

Really starting to re-think my "skinny and tall" box. Vertical scrog of some kind would probably be best for this dimension but that may be too advanced for me just yet. Due to the many, low wattage CFLs, I assume, these things are REALLY fanning out to grab every bit of light they can. Wonder if it's too late to start training them. Would be simple enough I guess to put screen on the walls.

Noticing brown spots the past 2 days for the first time on 2-3 plants. Probably because it's been 3 weeks since reservoir change (havent been re-nuting either just a little water top off the whole time - doh?). I did it today - with a fancy new drain valve and pipe on the new reservoir - thanks RIU! The new res is at "1/4 strength" nutes again. If they are digging it I will bump that up. Brita water started at 6.5/200 and after ph, nute, ph, it was at 5.78/568 when the plants went in.

they look healthy man...that tin foil is hurting my eyes though...black tape works better than that stuff

Hey PT
here did you find the drain kit? want to put some in my tubs
Green Dave

Green Dave said:

Hey PT
here did you find the drain kit? want to put some in my tubs
Green Dave

Click to expand...

Ah - there is no kit per se. I went to HD only to get rejected. However, this thread gave me the info I needed:
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/278582-lets-build-bubble-bucket.html

To simplify just for the drain bit, just get:
1/2" pvc ball valve (usually a red handled thingy on a white plastic body) - "solvent" kind, not "threaded"
1/2" pvc pipe (you only need 2-3 inches, HD has like 16-inch pieces)
pvc solvent (I used something called "red hot" - you don't need primer - just a one step glue)
assorted grommet pack (by the wire nuts in HD) you will actually use the 3/4" grommet
screen (for pipe opening inside the res)
1" 'spatula style' drill bit
anti-microbial caulk

Cut about 2-3" of the pipe, put the red hot (solvent/glue) on it and inside of one end of ball valve housing - set for 30 seconds, let dry 1 hour before touching water.

Drill 1" hole in tub - then ream it out a bit more with a round file. remove flash / sharp edges.

Insert and seat grommet into tub hole. Move the grommet around while gooping some caulk into the outer "groove" of the grommet.

moisten and twist and shimmy and fanagle the pipe into grommet.

put more caulk all around the grommet area inside and out of the tub. MAKE SURE your tub and grommet area are clean and dry before hitting it with any caulk!!!

put screen on inside pipe with rubber band or something.

let dry 24 hours.

I went one step further and got a little 90 degree fitting that went into the outside part of the valve housing, to make draining it downward into a bucket or jug easier.

OK so 24 hours later the ph is at 6.8. WTF. That's 1 point above the 5.8 of last night at reservoir change. I knocked it down to 5.8 tonight.

I'm at 1 gallon of water per plant now. finally noticing they had a nice little drink in 24 hours - can only guestimate - maybe 1/4 gallon or so.

I guess now I have to start doing alternating water / water+nute topoffs. Man what a pain.

There was definitely more brown areas (nute starve looking, not burn looking) on some plants, but all have definitely rejuvinated from the fresh water, nutes, and somewhat better pH.

Hoping to post better pics for week 4...

OK here we are at week 5 - have been on 12/12 for 5 days now. Man, what a difference from week 3! These things EXPLODED once I got on top of the pH, nutes, and changing the reservoir.

I had to have a friend come over to take care of them a few days - he did not raise the lights high enough - and so 2 of the main tops were literally growing into the lights and got burned real bad.

Is it too late to prune these back? My box is hairier than that of a 70's centerfold. I'm going to have quite the challenge checking around for pollen sacs. Without a magnifier, I cannot tell sex from new veg growth at this point.

Power Towel said:

OK here we are at week 5 - have been on 12/12 for 5 days now. Man, what a difference from week 3! These things EXPLODED once I got on top of the pH, nutes, and changing the reservoir.

I had to have a friend come over to take care of them a few days - he did not raise the lights high enough - and so 2 of the main tops were literally growing into the lights and got burned real bad.

Is it too late to prune these back? My box is hairier than that of a 70's centerfold. I'm going to have quite the challenge checking around for pollen sacs. Without a magnifier, I cannot tell sex from new veg growth at this point.

Click to expand...

Exploded is right! You still postin?

Holy cow - my box is just not big enough, and the Sativas are going to keep poor little LA Woman (Indica) from gettting much light unfortunately. Thanks to little screw-in eyes and kite string, I'm able (barely) to keep the monster sativa out of the lights at least for now.

The good news - starting to get some pretty little buds going. Yeehaw!

7 weeks total - 3 weeks of 12/12. They took a while to get going on the flowering, but I am SOOO psyched. They look SO pretty. Never seen a live flowering bud in person before. So cool!

Sorry the pics aren't better today - a little busy but thought I'd post the update. 8 weeks of 12/12 now. You can't see it so good in the pics but MAN this one plant is putting on some serious weight - at least, as far as I can tell - this is still my first grow. The main cola is is about 16 inches long - kinda fat on bottom, skinny on top. The other 2 are more like 8 inches long and fatty fat on top. Still getting longer and filling in.

The "main" is getting a bit too tall for the CFLs directly above it - so I had to remove and re-arrange some of the lights. Down to 253 watts of CFL now - 46 of which (2 bulbs) are being practically wasted on the little dwarf down below. It's an irrational attachment thing - I know I should let her go but oh well.

OK it's been 12 weeks of 12/12. I noticed sex after 3 weeks of 12/12, so I guess officially it has been flowering only 9 weeks? Man I am SOOOOO ready to smoke this. 6 or 7 days ago I did a res change and dropped to about 200ppm nutes - because I wasn't sure how close to ready it was. Didn't want to starve it if it needed longer, but I also want to make sure it is not too full of nutes at harvest.

Still have quite a few white pistils left - and the brown/orange ones haven't really fully receded yet. Trichs are about 50/50 clear/cloudy.

The website said 9 weeks flower time - but this was from seeds so I suppose that can vary. 2 identical seeds did so crappy they were discarded.

Nice grow man, they look pretty much ready when you are.
and those are some monster colas man!
good job

U have made a newbie very proud, and yeah go head hang em up and enjoy

Thanks!

Still no real signs of any amber. Lots of trichs still clear - I guess maybe "most" are cloudy. I just took some off 3 days ago for a quick dry and smoke and it was NOT very potent. The bitch of it is I've had my nute level really low for 2 weeks now in anticipation of harvest. I hate to go a full batch of nutes now and everything just to have them ready the next day. I have to do something, though. Indecision is a bitch.

I just now grabbed a kind of dead-looking tidbit off a big cola. It was pretty dry already - just tossed it in the pipe took 2 pulls.
Hard to describe high. I do feel SOMETHING - it's really quiet where I am right now so it's like, low-level noise/sound alterations, it's def. positive. Like, I can sit and trip out if I want, or I can think pretty coherently also. Not super-stoned like 2 hits like that would normally do. Then again, I've been smoking a few days in a row now.

I have to wonder how potency should be judged now considering it isn't fully dried and cured. I'm definitely going to give it more time for the moment - it's still growing, depsite the fan leaves shedding, and no significant signs of ambering at all. The calyx's are still getting fatter also.

u smoked a male ?? O_O

16 weeks of flower. All done. These is the main and 2 sides, there is of course a lot more. Not bad for 300 watts of CFL and 22 square inches and first grow!

Now, we wait for the dry and cure...