myles117, thanks a lot... you were completely right, thanks... some of the runoff water was as low as 4. I'm surprised things are looking as good as they are considering the PH lockout that must have been happening. + rep to you my friend so day 25... I flushed probably 30 gallons of water through the pots yesterday... two plants at a time. It pretty much took all day using un-adjusted tap water (let aerate with bubbler overnight, has PH of 7.5-8). Then I put some nutrients back into the medium with PH 7 water. The soil should be around 5.5-6 now. Considering the amount of stress, the girls are looking pretty happy, as close as 3/4 inch from the bulbs more pics prob tomorrow when I get some AA's... BTW is there anyone else out there who has had success with this method? For the next batch i'll be looking for something that stays super short, and doesn't branch much.
You say the soil should be 5.5.-6 now? Hate to be the bearer of bad news but you want it to be up around 6.5-6.9 Hydro you would aim for 5.5-6.0 I'd love to not be the one to tell you more flushing may be needed but better to let ya know now then later. Those tops are looks great. They rly poppin up for that light
hmm.. well thanks for letting me know myles. I flushed the most humanly possible that I could in the time provided haha... I'm wondering, if i am using just straight promix HP, is it considered soil? I've heard with mediums like coco coir, it is better to have a lower PH than that of soil. Anyways the runoff water was reading 5.5-6, and I was adding water with PH of 7.5-8, does that mean that the soil PH might now be somewhere in between that? Or is the soil considered the same PH as the runoff water? Either way i'll make sure i check the PH of the soil with a soil test kit. day 25 of 12/12 from rooted clone: Temps are 75F and RH is at 65. Any ideas how to get the humidity down? I've heard of Damprid, but i'm not sure if they sell it around here... not to mention if it's safe or affects taste. Can silica gel packets can be trusted around weed? They put it in beef jerky, right? anyway here's what they're lookin like... the tallest plant is about... 13.5 inches tall from the soil level.
the runoff is usually a bit higher then the actual soil ph. Think about it this way.... the water goes in at 7.5-8. When it comes out you say its now 5.5-6. This means that it read the 5.5-6 after being altered all the way from its original 7.5-8. Chances are the actual ph of the soil is 5-5.5 as for dehumidifying, is the air outside of the grow area dry? If so, you could jusst pull the old air out and pump in dry air. This is what I did since I grew in an attic space. If not, I'd get a lil dehumidifier. The silica packets aren't gunna be strong enough to control such a laarge area of air.
fuck. just read this: "Promix also contains agents to stabilize the PH levels (measure of acidity) at 5.5 to 5.7 thus eliminating the problem of adjusting PH levels of the water which is crucial to indoor growing. In other words, so long as you use Promix you do not have to understand anything about PH .. or EC or PPM. In fact all you need to know is that when the plants go dry, you need to add some food to the bucket of cold tap water and feed your plants. Fairly easy I think. FYI, if you do the same with any other type of (potting) soil, you will have to adjust PH of the water all the time just like in a hydro table." guess i know what's up now. Promix has acidity "stabilizers" in it.
thats pretty strange.... gues with promix you go for a hydro type range?? I've never heard of this before. Never used promix for weed either though... just when potting bedding plants and things like that.
thanks man! Yeah i dunno myles, it's just something someone wrote on a weed growing website somewhere; I'm not positive where he got his info from... but it would really explain my RO water being pH of 4 earlier. As for the lockout that seemed to be happening, i got some "green up" that I foliar sprayed with and some safers "defender" to prevent the brown spots/speckles, which apparently happen in higher humidities. Some kind of fungus er something. I got the humidity down to 55%. I did as suggested by myles and connected some ducting to extend my intake for the chamber outside the room. But I could see it being pretty cold in the winter, i will have to find a smart place to put the intake ducting. more pics soon
day 29 Pots are finally drying up after the flush, the humidity is at 55% (better) and temp at 75F. Seems like some of the bud hairs are turning orange, probably from stress. The white spots on the leaves are from the "defender" fungicide stuff i sprayed, it had some floaties in the spray solution which fixed themselves to the surface of the leaves. Also, I wanted to know if the buds were tight, so I couldn't help but squeeze one and it was pretty dense.
those buds are on their way to gettin real fat!!!! Have you fed em since the flush or are they still finishing dryin out? Im so glad to see em this happy. You must be one proud stoner. As for the hairs, they tend to start turning color around this point. the newer hairs will be white longer and the old original ones will turn first. Howd ya fingers smell after the gentle squeeze? Bet it was reeeeal dank
yeah man i let them dry out until this morning, which took an incredible amount of patience... i could tell by the leaves that they were waiting for nutes but i needed the roots to dry out first... dude the smell of these when you touch em is very... awesome. Can't wait to burn soma these bushes down! day 31
Paid $300CDN with bulbs from my hydro guy, couldn't find any other like it on the net. It's a "Pro light" 6 bulb setup with excellent reflectors and 2 switches. it's about 2.5 inches thick, 4 feet long, 19.5 inches wide, and uses 324 Watts. I've switched the blues(6500K) for red(3000K) except for two. so 2 blue, 4 red. combined with my 40 watts or so of x-box fans(surplus store), i'm using about 360 watts to flower 16 plants. I re-arranged the plants a bit today, long to short. that way, the plant tops are very close to the light... close as 1/2 an inch. Those are getting some intense high quality light. Most people who think HPS lights are the only good way to flower. They do have a higher lumen rating... however lumens are measured from 12 inches from the bulb; and light intensity diminishes incredibly with distance. plus i've got no shadows really. very even light. oh and temp is at 74.4F its day 33 of flowering 12/12, no veg time.
I think i might go with option as first part of my hydro grow. Thanks for the inspiration bro. I will put a chair down and watch rest of grow +REP + Subscribed -BH
Lookin' nice bro, they are starting to fill in nicely. How often, if at all have you had to trim to keep the light penetrating to canopy?
thanks huecotoph, i trimmed most of the lower growth, fan leaves and shoots earlier on, and more again throughout the grow... I pinched off more lower stuff from the shorter plants to encourage more top growth. Because my pH was pretty low at one time, many of the bigger fan leaves went yellow so i removed them.
where you said you vut the fan leaves and shoots early on... in da future leeave da fan leaves and just cut the shoots. The energy harnessed from thosse leaves will only aid the plant elsewhere If they fall off or become real sickly then obv chop em
My understanding is that you shoot for closer to hydro range with soilless mediums like promix and sunshine mix etc..