Well, lets see. First time grower. Starting from seeds, successfully germed 97/103 seeds, so the seeds we're viable, was worried about that. Mixed black gold potting soil 1 part to promix 2 parts. Dixie cups with ziploc bags then into humidity domes. All grew well for the first couple weeks, took them out of the domes, transplaned into 4" Containers, same soil mix but with 2" or peagravel in the bottom. Average room temps are 80 during the day, 75 at might. Humidity staying between 50-70 at this stage. Lighting is 18/6. Plants are growing under T8 bulbs, Approx 2200 lumens/sf, full spectrum with a few grow light types in there too. Did not check PH for the full first month and a half of this grow, didn't know it was important.
Big mistake I think. Anyways, moving on, 2 months in, transplanted into 6" containers, lost about 30 of initial plants by this stage but I started with 100 and only have room for about 18-22 full size plants so this was ok and expected. 2 months in...started noticing the bottom leaves turning yellow and dying on all the plants. I'd studied enough to know that this was most likely N deficiency, and also that it was probably brought about by a PH problem. I read this post where a guys said to a new grower "If you wanna get frisky...start by playing with your PH first." I took that to heart. I have well water, really good well water. I tested it with a 4-way probe (piece of ****) and it really didn't tell me much. Bought another probe, PH only, started testing my water cause it seemed a whole lot easier than testing my soil, water came in at about 7.2. I'd read that about 6.4 was perfect for soil so I went out and bought a jug of PH down, figured I'd treat the water to 6.4 and eventually the soil would land there too. Thus began my nightmare of playing with the PH... I think the first time around I got it right because after a couple weeks the yellowing of the leaves went away, but as time went on, I couldn't seem to get the PH in the water right, it either took too long to change or I kept overshooting my mark, or it would test good then by the time I was done watering it would be down to 5.0...all kinds of stuff. So I went out and bought 2 digital PH meters to test them against themselves, probe style meters, and ***...those 2 rarely ever came in the same, usually about .6 away from each other, along with the 3rd analog style being different also. So, I went out and bought a capsul/color chart testing kit. Now I'm up to 5 freaking PH testing gadgets, still trying to get it right, all the while my damn plants are getting worse. 90 days in, or around there I transplant into 10" Containers and begin the 12/12. 2 weeks later, about now..I've got 31 confirmed females, average height is 24-30". 1/3 of them are in the promix/black gold soil and 2/3 are in Sunshine #4 with aggregate. All have 2" of peagravel in the bottom. I don't have any pest problems that I know of, I wait for the top to get crusty before I water them. All the roots looked great 2 weeks ago when I transplanted. My Capsul/Color gauge said with the untreated water and the sunshine #4 i had a PH of 6.5, so I just went with it. At this point I was ready to roll up shop, ARRG. Anyways, as far as nutes go, I knew there was some in the soil, didn't know how much, and basically got the feeling from the forums that less can be more which made sense so I did 2 different feedings with miracle gro (nitrogen strong blend) at 1/2 strength, earlier on, about 2 weeks apart. I haven't give them any additional nutes for like a month and a half because I'm worried about over fertilizing and I don't have my PH right. Please please help me out here, any and all suggestions. I just took these pics this morning...these plants have looked like this for a couple weeks....and it seems to be getting worse, slowly though. Any help?
