I have my plants on a 18/6 sked. They have been under the light and growing strong for the last 16 days in a soil without any nutrients. Should I start using my nutrients yet. I plan on using a 14-6-6 mix. Its pretty light but im worried about doing it to early...here are my pics...
usually, after about 2 weeks, or when the plant has 3 alternating internodes, you start feeding 1/4 strength. for me, 1/4 strength is about 250 ppm...
Yeah, I'd go ahead and start them at 1/4 strength nutes. Watch for any burn. If none, go to 1/2 strength on the next feeding. And so on and so forth until you find out what she can handle.
I would give a half dose of nutrients now, then next water no nutrients, then next water after that, normal dose of nutrients... And if you can do something to get that temp down, do it! 85F+ is bad bad bad, and over 90F is going to eventually lead to an early death.
I didn't think it was to hot in there but you are right...I'm holding at about 87 F and they are doing way better...just started something called soiltabs...you put them just beneath the roots when transplanted into 5 g buckets. 3 weeks in, maybe 4 more days before they reach them I m praying that by then they will be strong enough to handle it..its 14-6-6 You are right though, lower the temp even if it feels cool in your growing space, pay attention to temp/ humidity!!
No one has asked what kind of soil you're using.... SO... what is your growing medium? Most people choose a medium pre-mixed with nutes. And at this point I wouldn't give it anything. Wait until your 4th or 5th node... seriously. The initial leaf's (the round ones) are called Cotyledons and they are a natural source of nutrient for the plant until they yellow off and die. Give it another week or so, its technically still a seedling... Just be patient. I would agree with everyone else. When you are ready to add nutes, start with 1/4 and examine her for a few days. If all is well do 1/2... if all is well go for the full 100% p.s. 87 degrees is way to hot dude. 80 max.... 76 is exactly where you want to be. I also want to add that your plant's leaf's are like its face. It will tell you when it needs something. Right now your plant looks beautiful... keep it that way!!! Don't give it a damn thing except PH balanced water... You are balancing your water right? Your plant won't even absorb the nutes unless the PH is balanced between 5.5-6.5
I'm working on ways to keep it cooler, and I don't have a ph tester. The soil is just Scott's topsoil. No added nutes. I'm going to use soiltabs which you put directly in the soil under the roots after they have 3 alternating nodes. They were at 3 when I transplanted but I put the tabs at least an inch below the deepest root. I don't know what to do about the water and ph...I'm ultra new!!
Well its a really good thing you haven't fed it anything yet. Because I bet your Ph is off and if that's the case then your plant won't absorb anything. What will happen? You will fix your Ph and then your plant will die from nute burn because it absorbed all the nutes you've been putting into it for the last few weeks. Here's what you do, Go to your local hydro store... hopefully you have one, or you can go on ebay and get a PH kit. Some people will disagree with this statement, but I honestly don't think you need a ph soil tester. Get a water PH kit, test and balance the water that you're putting into the soil, and also test the runoff of the soil. If you put in balanced water with a ph of 6.5 and the runoff tested at 5, then you know your soil is acidic and you need to fix it. You do this by increasing the ph of your water to say 7-7.5, water the plant again, and then test the runoff again. It should balance itself out. You can keep watering and watering and watering all in one sitting until you've balanced the ph. Once it does, continue adding the ph balanced water of 6.0 for normal watering cycles. They thrive with a ph between 5.5-6.5. Just read the directions on the kit and you'll understand how to do all of this. Or there are some instructional videos on youtube. If you do find that you have acidic soils, then you can go to your local garden store and get garden lime. add 1 tbsp per gallon of soil. This will raise the ph, but it will never go over a ph of 7. This works well for people who's soil is very acidic. Do you have a fan in your grow room? That usually cools things off, if you already do then you'll have to figure that one out on your own. Just my two cents... I wouldn't use soil at all. The drainage is not very good, unless you mixed in perlite with your soil it could be okay. Its really hard to find sterile soil, unless you put it in your oven for a couple hours, and sterile soil is necessary because some soils contain diseases and other things that you don't need. It isn't organic. I use peat moss because it has the texture of soil but its a little more aerated, I use perlite for drainage and vermiculite to retain water. I don't know if you plan on transplanting this thing again but if you do, its never to late to change soils. Here is a picture of my test kit. It was $12 and came with everything you see in the picture. Ph up, Ph down, test mediium, test tube, and sucky dripper thingy. I dunno what its called.
yup.. your soil is alkaline. 7.2 is too high, even though its just above neutral. I would balance water to about say... 5.5 and flush that through, it should bring your soil down to maybe... 6.5 or maybe even higher still. You have to kind of figure this part out on your own. You have to balance it out with something more acidic, but just because you're putting pH'd water of 6.5 in to balance it, doesn't mean that's what is going to come out. Do you understand? You want the water you're balancing the soil with drastically acidic (5.5), to level out how drastically alkaline the soil is(7.2)... get it? You can sit there and flush through as much water as its going to take to balance the pH runoff. I have, and do it all the time. My plants love it. After all... your soil can only absorb so much water anyways, right? Whats the difference if you add more and it just runs off? i keep my plants around 6.0, but 5.5-6.5 is optimum If you met me in person... you would understand why I'm so detailed. I hate missing things... I like to do it right the first time lol I'm glad you can appreciate that.
I got a better testing kit today, the exact one that you posted and it turned out that I was right. ph of tap water was 6.5-7.0 and runoff was about 7.2...I added ph down and balanced the water to 5.5 and the runoff read as 6.0 +/- .5. I also got some stuff to prevent any bugs. I cant wait to see how they look pretty happy. At the store I talked to the owner and I'm looking into ways to keep my grow room as cool as possible. Might be time to upgrade the hood/light next! I don't even smoke weed I just love the mission!