Yet another newbie first grow...

farmerfischer said:

When you say tap water, are you city water or well water?

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Sorry, Australian. Yes, city water.

Local is considered on the harder side compared to nationally and sits about 220ppm. It's not too bad really but we just got the rainwater tank sorted and would rather use that for all my gardening because it's there.

We have a bit of an iron issue that seems to bother my lillies and hydrangeas outside. But my other outdoor plants and the ladies do great with it though we have to use bottled water for cuttings because the water is just too hard. Had to add Calmag with our GH but that's it for the most part.

roseypeach said:

we're on a well, our ppm is under 200 if it's not a drought, gets a touch higher with more rainfall. We use GH, it auto buffers which helps a lot.

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We're anywhere around the high7's to low 8's( ph) ( Well water) I'm not sure of the ppm's, I gave my t.d.s./p.p.m./e.c. Milwaukee meter away 2years ago to a buddy running hydro.

All I had to do today was top up the tank and clear away a couple of dried leaves.

Can't wait to try my own product. It's starting to smell pretty good in there.

Couple of better buds further back but I'm lacking the skill to capture them.

I'm so far pretty happy with how the cheap eBay LED panel is doing but I can't help but think a 250W HPS would have been better for the same wattage.

Temps sitting happily at 26.5°C lights on and around 18°C lights off occasionally dipping if it's cold over night. Now that I need the carbon filter 24/7 it can get cooler at night whereas before I had the exhaust fan mostly off at night to hold head in. Humidity hovers around the 45-55RH mark. Although it has snuck up slightly since the lady has bulked out a bit. The Reservoir has an aquarium heater in it so it sits pretty well rock solidly at 21°C and I'm topping up about 8L every three days.

The real question is do I trim out some of the fan leaves to open up the middle a little or am I just better off leaving it?

roseypeach said:

We have a bit of an iron issue that seems to bother my lillies and hydrangeas outside. But my other outdoor plants and the ladies do great with it though we have to use bottled water for cuttings because the water is just too hard. Had to add Calmag with our GH but that's it for the most part.

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The local tap (city) water has a bad name for being hard and tasting terrible but I just think it tastes like home! So far the combination of the water and my H&G nutes has needed very little adjustment to get it back to low 6 pH. The Rainwater on the other hand needed a little up. How does the Cal/Mag affect the pH?

Once upon a time the area I live in used to be market gardens so the soil is nice and light and we don't have too much trouble growing anything but the citrus and chillis in particular seem to love it. We however rent a property where the veggie patch out the back (about 12x6m) wasn't used for many years and the weeds have taken a pretty good hold. It's been hard work clear sections to grow in but we're making headway. Actually going to try and grow some of this years Chilli in very similar hydro tubs outside. Possibly even some strawberries.

Got some supplies in the mail today

White Widow Fem
OG Kush Reg
Northern Storm Auto Fem
and I think G13 Haze Reg

Second two were freebies. Should keep me going for a little while.

Anyone have tips on extended seed storage? I heard in the fridge but my 5year+ (possibly up to 15year) bagseed still germinated all four I tried... and they were just kept in an airtight container in my toolbox.

420GreaseMonkey said:

The local tap (city) water has a bad name for being hard and tasting terrible but I just think it tastes like home! So far the combination of the water and my H&G nutes has needed very little adjustment to get it back to low 6 pH. The Rainwater on the other hand needed a little up. How does the Cal/Mag affect the pH?

Once upon a time the area I live in used to be market gardens so the soil is nice and light and we don't have too much trouble growing anything but the citrus and chillis in particular seem to love it. We however rent a property where the veggie patch out the back (about 12x6m) wasn't used for many years and the weeds have taken a pretty good hold. It's been hard work clear sections to grow in but we're making headway. Actually going to try and grow some of this years Chilli in very similar hydro tubs outside. Possibly even some strawberries.

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CalMag doesn't really affect the pH at all, its used for calcium and magnesium deficiencies in plants, both hydro and soil.

We've got four raised beds here and like yours, they're really overgrown and thick with weeds from the last tenants. They did nothing with them so three years of no use really did a number on them. We got the long one nearly cleaned out but then we had two weeks of rain and that set us back again.

For now, I've got brussel sprouts, kale, chili peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes going along with some dill, oregano and parsley.

Your question on trimming the leaves to open the middle, don't do it, only remove the dead or dieing leaves. Some people remove Some of the fan leaves to allow light to hit bud sites. But think about it, them leaves are capturing light to help make food for your plants. Just my opinion. Lol

farmerfischer said:

Your question on trimming the leaves to open the middle, don't do it, only remove the dead or dieing leaves. Some people remove Some of the fan leaves to allow light to hit bud sites. But think about it, them leaves are capturing light to help make food for your plants. Just my opinion. Lol

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absolutely!

I forgot to address that, my bad. You want to keep your leaves as long as possible. Think of them as your plants solar panels, without them they cannot get enough light to thrive. There's been a lot of discussion about defoliating around the forum, about the only time you want to mess with them is when your heavy into flowering and you need light to the bud sites below. I just bend them under the buds to get extra light to them, in hydro it's a lot easier than in soil grows because the plant is a lot more limber and they can tolerate being bent and pushed under neighboring branches without snapping or fraying.

If you've done a good job with your plants, the leaves will start to change and wither near harvest time, another good indication you've let the plant go to its maximum potential beforehand.

roseypeach said:

absolutely!

I forgot to address that, my bad. You want to keep your leaves as long as possible. Think of them as your plants solar panels, without them they cannot get enough light to thrive. There's been a lot of discussion about defoliating around the forum, about the only time you want to mess with them is when your heavy into flowering and you need light to the bud sites below. I just bend them under the buds to get extra light to them, in hydro it's a lot easier than in soil grows because the plant is a lot more limber and they can tolerate being bent and pushed under neighboring branches without snapping or fraying.

If you've done a good job with your plants, the leaves will start to change and wither near harvest time, another good indication you've let the plant go to its maximum potential beforehand.

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Thank you both, that is pretty much where I was already at but I keep seeing all these people getting carried away with the scissors. I will carry on like I have been then

roseypeach said:

CalMag doesn't really affect the pH at all, its used for calcium and magnesium deficiencies in plants, both hydro and soil.

We've got four raised beds here and like yours, they're really overgrown and thick with weeds from the last tenants. They did nothing with them so three years of no use really did a number on them. We got the long one nearly cleaned out but then we had two weeks of rain and that set us back again.

For now, I've got brussel sprouts, kale, chili peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes going along with some dill, oregano and parsley.

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We have the very same problem! Just trying to get more in every year. At the moment it's Kale, Cavell Nero, Broccoli, the last of the pumpkins and Broad Beans. Plus a bunch of herbs and the Lemon, Orange, Lime and Kumquat trees. I also have a fig in a large pot but I've struggled so far to get much from it... Coming into spring means it's going to get busy soon though.

Growing what we do is a great way to get outside but it has also helped get our weekly grocery bill down to under $30.

Just a little update at 35 days in by my count. Went away for the weekend. topped up the reservoir before we left and it was about 12L lower when I got back after three days. Lady looks happy as larry and is packing on a bit of weight now. Not much to do in there but tidy up and keep the nutes topped up at the moment.
Smell is getting very good as well. Not overly strong and quite sweet.

Got a cheap jewelers loupe to tide me over until my digital microscope arrives. Most pistels are still white anyway so I've got time.

Thankfully it's the time of year to start chillis, strawberries etc. Having plenty to do in the garden is stopping me from pestering the lady too much.

As always, excuse the poor photography.

Well I have a dilemma. Hermie problem has resurfaced with a vengeance. Number of nanners is up and they seem to be setting deeper into the buds in larger bunches making it much harder for me to try and control them. Everything has been kicking along just fine so I think it may be just a bagseed thing but there is a small chance of a light leak as I can just see light coming out around the door. Next run will be with OG Kush or White Widow seeds from MS.NL so that will at least exclude the potential bagseed problem and let me focus on dialing in other aspects.

Now I have to decide whether I try to let her finish off (she's not quite six weeks into flower) or chalk this grow up to learning experience and get started on the couple of improvements to my setup I wanted to make for my next grow.

So far the list of improvements includes:
-Better sealing of the door
-Can just see a hint of light escaping, don't want light going the other way. Could even put a 2x2 tent inside the current cupboard.
-Improved ventilation
-At the moment the temp and humidity are perfect (25-26 with lights on) but heading into summer it's going to get hot... real hot
-Part of this will be investigating cooling methods. Being so dry where I am it may be a perfect opportunity for a mini swampy to help with humidity as well.
-Better Carbon filter
-Currently using a DIY 10L bucket job which is doing well but will probably struggle when I up the air exchange rate
-Stand/table for the pots
-It's bothering me more than I want to admit that I can't get at the reservoir at the moment for testing/mixing.
-Better Light!
-If budget doesn't allow I can run this one again, It done OK so far, but it was never meant as a permanent solution.
-Tidier Electrics
-At the moment it's still a bit of a mess (at least to me) so the plan is to make it so that all timers/plugs/leads are in one spot and far from potential spills.

Honestly, I'm thinking of just letting her finish and pull the nanners as best I can. She still has a lot she can teach me for future grows and since I wasn't expecting any usable buds from my first couple grows anyway I'm not really going to be down on anything except a couple weeks. I'm still surprised I made it this far at all.

Most of the improvements I want to do can be done while she's still in there as well, it's only really the ventilation and wiring I need to get into the back corner for cutting holes etc.

Opinions welcome!

Busy couple of days so I'm only just getting around to this.

Was away for a few days and when I got back there were amber trichs all over the top canopy about 1:50 and the majority of the others were cloudy. Since I'm away again tomorrow I decided to call it and chopped. I was hoping I could wait until I'm back but think that might've been too long.

Pretty happy with how it turned out. My trimming could use some work but otherwise it's pretty good considering I wasn't expecting much at all. Have found a few seeds from my hermie problems but it's nowhere near what I thought it would be. Looking forward to cleaning everything out and starting the next lot. Beans are ready waiting to be popped.

Thank you so much to everyone that has helped so far. I have many improvements to make but I wouldn't have gotten this far without endless trawling of RIU.

Cheers