If you like to read I like to write Hi, getting started growing and have some free time to post on these boards as an outlet for excitement, frustration, info, or whatever because nobody that I know personally will ever know about this. I know that many people have opinions about Greenhouse Seeds and blah blah blah I've read it all and really don't care, I just needed something to get started with. This is an evolving project, I'll occasionally be getting some new strains and equipment so nothing is set in stone yet. Here's a bit of history on my grow. I did tons of research and thought that I knew enough to cut some corners and I was definitely wrong but failure is generally how I learn because I really dive into things. I started with regular potting soil "Scott's SuperSoil" from hardware store, it was infested with gnats and I am pretty sure it hurt my plants pretty bad with the gnat larvae eating the root hairs and the hot soil burning them with nutes. I used perilite on top of the soil and H2O2 + water during waterings after letting the soil dry almost completely to get rid of gnats and so far gnat free for over a week. I flushed the potting soil until water ran clear but I still no matter what the PH of the water going in it was always around 7.5 coming out (I even ran water at PH 4 through it in a pot without a plant just for shits). The lights that I was using were 3x2 T12 34w flouros with a 5000k and 3500k bulb in each. Everything started out really well germinating on paper towel, transplanting to rockwool, excellent growth until a couple days after putting them into the potting soil, their growth is horribly stunted and leaves discolored to yellow starting at the tips and working its' way in and turning a brownish gray and curling then eventually falling off. Not sure if they were burnt or nutrients were locked out from the PH that I couldn't manage to change. These results were very far from satisfactory so I built a DWC system and bought better lights, my power company is offering rebates for energy star rated lighting so my new lights were close to free and I wasn't very happy with the quality of the fixtures that I bought the first time. Now I'm running 4 t5 32w 6500k daylight deluxe and 2 t5 32w 3000k soft white bulbs and the old t12's will become side lighting when the plants get bigger and I'll probably switch all of those bulbs to 5000k if I can't find 6500k bulbs for it. The transplant to net pots full of hydroton went well and the roots really surprised me with how healthy they looked, I was expecting the worst. Currently I'm running Liquid Karma at about 6ml/gal and 1/4 strength General Hydroponics Flora series nutrients that I'm planning to slowly raise over the next couple weeks as the plants grow. I couldn't get the roots through the net pot when I transplanted so I put them in a coil in the bottom of the pot and some of the root tips are hanging through the holes a bit (i think it'll be OK like that?) with the water just below the pot. The bubbles keep the entire net pot moist except for the very top bit of hydroton. I have 4 12" airstones being fed by 2 4-watt air pumps and the bubbles are awesome. I still have 3 plants in soil, 1 "haze" bagseed that I found and put into seed starting mix now that I'm a bit smarter and 2 others that aren't doing so hot but surviving. I'm on day 20 or so and the plants still look like seedlings and I hope all is not lost, I'd really like to get at least 1 decent mother plant out of each strain except the "haze," that's for an LST/SCROG/CFL grow log later if it's female. If it turns out male or if it dies I really don't care, so it'll probably end up as my best plant with my luck. Luckily I am very close to Cali, so if all else fails I'll head there and pick up a sizable selection of clones from some friends and get started that way but I really like to do things for myself. Pics will come soon as well as my plans for my SOG flowering chamber but for now my girl wants to go to lunch. I hope that it sounds like I'm finally on the right track, what's a good time frame for bumping up nutes or what should I look for in the plants to know to bump up a whole nutrient regimen? It really bothers me knowing that I'm hurting something alive especially because I'm trying to help.