GrowinDad
Well-Known Member
I am not an expert, so I am giving some advice to those in my shoes. This is my second test grow, 4 1/2 weeks into flower. Unknown strain. 3 clones off of bag seed mother frmo test grow #1. First piece of advice - think of the first couple grows as experiments.
It is so hard to know what to do, when to keep it simple, what's right, what's wrong, etc. Especially when there are successful growers who disagree with one another so much. One thing I learned recently that you can not ignore: PH your water after everything is added in!!!! I had PHd once, just the water, and was half-assed with the test. Girls were growing fine so I figured I was alright. Last week, here's what was happening...
I posted in the plants problems section, got almost no repsonse and wasn't sure of my root cause. So I got to play doctor. I PHd and realized I had been screwing up royally. My water (after sitting out to remove chlorine) is 7-7.5. But when I add my nutes (Fox Farm trio), PH goes down to about 5.8. Now what to do...
Actions Taken:
1.) got some Home-Garden Drip Clean. It helps remove the salts that can cause lockout plus I needed it for my auto drip system to keep the tubes clear. Luckily I had some on order already for the tubes. I did a flush in PH 6.5 water with teh 4 ml of water. I didn't flood the girls, just enough to get a decent amount of runoff. I normally have little to no runoff with my drip system. I'm using in all water, whether I add nutes or not.
2.) I trimmed the plants. Removed a bunch of the lower stuff that wasn't getting enough light. I'm actually out of ganja at the moment and have been enjoying the leaf I cut off it. No, not the best smoke of course but better than I thguoht it would be.
3.) PHd soil after flush. Coming in around 6.8 with a cheap meter. I am trying to keep a close eye but figure that now that my feedings are all PH appropriate, it'll be okay. I don't want to go overboard. I'm trying to keep in mind that the more things I fuck with, the harder it will be to know what helped, what didn't, what potentially hurt.
4.) Got some Cal-Mag plus. This may not have been necessary, but I see so many people use it. I realize it isn't supposed to be needed if using municipal water. But... the calcium is supposed to help nutes get absorbed so if I had lock-out like I suspect, I figured it would help.
5.) Got a decent electronic water PH tester - best investment ever. So much easier to use than the color coded testers/strips. If you don't have one and can afford one - get one!! BTW - I am just using PH adjuster from pet store. Bottle says okay for plants and so far so good.
6.) Temps has been getting a bit high (85 deg) as the room my tent is in warms. It's my office so I need to keep it comfortable. Humidity was also running low. I figured out a way to bring in some fresh, cool. Temps are better, humidity is up, and now I know they are getting more CO2.
7.) Now deciding how often to use nutes. I use about a gallon a day and am thinking I will use plain PHd water (with drip clean) every second or third day and keep a close eye.
To be clear. I am NOT saying everything I did was optimal, necessary or correct. I tried to get some expert opinions from this site but for some reason my threads never get much response. But what I AM saying is that it seems to be working. I still have some leaves that aren't perfect and I'm not sure if they heal or just stay like they were. What I am not seeing is new yellowing or anything that says to me "houston, we still have a problem". Of course someone may have an opinion on that and please do post it!
So here's how they look after one week of doing what I'm doing. I thought this might help out other newbies caught in a similar situation. I really think it all came down to PH (I hope)!
It is so hard to know what to do, when to keep it simple, what's right, what's wrong, etc. Especially when there are successful growers who disagree with one another so much. One thing I learned recently that you can not ignore: PH your water after everything is added in!!!! I had PHd once, just the water, and was half-assed with the test. Girls were growing fine so I figured I was alright. Last week, here's what was happening...
I posted in the plants problems section, got almost no repsonse and wasn't sure of my root cause. So I got to play doctor. I PHd and realized I had been screwing up royally. My water (after sitting out to remove chlorine) is 7-7.5. But when I add my nutes (Fox Farm trio), PH goes down to about 5.8. Now what to do...
Actions Taken:
1.) got some Home-Garden Drip Clean. It helps remove the salts that can cause lockout plus I needed it for my auto drip system to keep the tubes clear. Luckily I had some on order already for the tubes. I did a flush in PH 6.5 water with teh 4 ml of water. I didn't flood the girls, just enough to get a decent amount of runoff. I normally have little to no runoff with my drip system. I'm using in all water, whether I add nutes or not.
2.) I trimmed the plants. Removed a bunch of the lower stuff that wasn't getting enough light. I'm actually out of ganja at the moment and have been enjoying the leaf I cut off it. No, not the best smoke of course but better than I thguoht it would be.
3.) PHd soil after flush. Coming in around 6.8 with a cheap meter. I am trying to keep a close eye but figure that now that my feedings are all PH appropriate, it'll be okay. I don't want to go overboard. I'm trying to keep in mind that the more things I fuck with, the harder it will be to know what helped, what didn't, what potentially hurt.
4.) Got some Cal-Mag plus. This may not have been necessary, but I see so many people use it. I realize it isn't supposed to be needed if using municipal water. But... the calcium is supposed to help nutes get absorbed so if I had lock-out like I suspect, I figured it would help.
5.) Got a decent electronic water PH tester - best investment ever. So much easier to use than the color coded testers/strips. If you don't have one and can afford one - get one!! BTW - I am just using PH adjuster from pet store. Bottle says okay for plants and so far so good.
6.) Temps has been getting a bit high (85 deg) as the room my tent is in warms. It's my office so I need to keep it comfortable. Humidity was also running low. I figured out a way to bring in some fresh, cool. Temps are better, humidity is up, and now I know they are getting more CO2.
7.) Now deciding how often to use nutes. I use about a gallon a day and am thinking I will use plain PHd water (with drip clean) every second or third day and keep a close eye.
To be clear. I am NOT saying everything I did was optimal, necessary or correct. I tried to get some expert opinions from this site but for some reason my threads never get much response. But what I AM saying is that it seems to be working. I still have some leaves that aren't perfect and I'm not sure if they heal or just stay like they were. What I am not seeing is new yellowing or anything that says to me "houston, we still have a problem". Of course someone may have an opinion on that and please do post it!
So here's how they look after one week of doing what I'm doing. I thought this might help out other newbies caught in a similar situation. I really think it all came down to PH (I hope)!
and also to keeping it simple, growing weed is not rocket science and most of the info we read on how to grow is not necessary (Just the basics).
