Hello Grasscity community, I'm a newbie grower and this is the third White Widow (Greenhouse) plant that I've ever grown, and also the first time with a tent and decent lighting (400 watts HPS). Let me first summarize all the specifics before I give you the pictures which show why I require some help. Pot: SmartPot 38 Liter / 10 Gallons Soil: Organic Soil Base 30 Liter / 8 Gallons: 1/3th Basic Soil The Basic soil is a mixture of: Organic Fertilizer, Lava Meal, Peat (No clue what kind of peat exactly) 1/3th Perlite 1/3th Compost Mixture (75% EWC & 25% Compost) Nutritional Amendments: 1 part Dolomite Lime 2 parts Kelp Meal 3 parts Basalt Rock Dust Lamp: 400 Watts HPS Vegetation Stage: 2 weeks 18/6 (Used the HPS lamp because I didn't have a MH) Flower Stage: Currently on day 5, 12/12 Water Information (2013 report taken off the website for water quality): pH Average: 8.42 (Very High) EC Average: 0.49 Lamp Height: 60 cm / 23.6 Inches Topping on the Soil: 50/50 mixture of: (Base soil & Nutritional Amendments) + (Neem Cake & Coco Coir) Watering amount: Every 2-4 days depending on how quickly the soil dry's. Humidity: Unknown Temperature Night: 20-22ºC / 68-71ºF Temperature Day: 26-28ºC / 79-82ºF Extra information: I sadly don't have any pH- or pH+, nor do I have any pH and EC testers. (Wish I did) As you can see below in the pictures, the new leaves have a yellowing starting from the base, and the older leaves (some deformed) also have a slight yellowing down the veins. Is it perhaps any form of deficiency, or anything else? I expect that the pH of the water that I use is just far too high, is there anything in my home which I would use to lower the pH amount down? Please share with me your insights and knowledge, thanks GrassCity!
Yea, they look fine. I would've vegged a bit longer, especially with a 10 gal pot. You could've pulled a half pound off that thing. That light can get closer too, I used to cool my 400w with a desk fan so it wouldn't scorch the tops, kept it 10" away (open reflector, like yours) Just a thought... I've been using my extra perlite for a self-irrigating system for my smartpots and supersoil ala Noobwannab's swicking thread in the organics forum, going into week 5 and it's working perfectly. No over or underwatering to worry about, my soil mix has about 30% peat 30% compost 40% perlite. You might have a well but I'm going to throw it out there anyway, do you aerate your water before use? Mine smells like a damn swimming pool coming out of the tap, aerate for a few hours and it's gone. I'd get it tested to find out exactly what's in there. If it's high in calcium then you can dial back on the lime in your mix, ½ cup per cu ft works well for me. Water softeners are bad too. I'd suggest scrog, but you probably won't need it forcing flower this early. Looks like you're on track for a successful grow, all you'd have to do is give them water from here on out, but a little compost or botanical tea won't hurt. You set up for brewing?
@[member="lager88"] Thanks lager88, that's reassuring. @[member="Not Sure"] Thanks for replying! I was actually looking into noobwannB's post about the self-irrigation, another idea that I had for the future was to set up a wicking bucket system, because many people seem to have quite some succes with those, but the idea of noobwannB with the perlite seems great too. I'm actually planning to buy a bag of perlite tomorrow, since I have to make a new batch for next growth anyway. (planning to do more than 1 plant at a time) I've checked the water report again, and the average calcium is 45 (mg) miligrams per liter. I honestly don't know if that's high, low or normal. As for my water, it doesn't smell like a swimming pool at all. The water in my area is drinkable straight from the tap, but I could ofcourse let it aerate for a few hours, it honestly seems like a good idea to me, because I only drink water myself and notice that everytime when I let it stand for a few hours, the taste because smoother. So thanks for throwing that out there, I'm definitely going to try that! I'm still planning on making a brewing set up, I've got a 5 liter / 1.3 gallon bucket ready for that (which should be enough I hope), I have some extra EWC and such left, but I don't have an airpump yet, which would come on handy. Sadly, I don't have the money at this moment to buy that, but I'm certainly planning to invest.
Your plants look good to me,but if you're worried about your PH. (I'd recommend checking it just so you know what it is.) I'd grab a test kit from Walmart or your local hardware store. Walmart has them in the pet section. I got a kit for ponds for about $6. In a pinch you can use distilled vinegar to lower your PH.
@[member="Inked"] Oh man, how I wish that my country had such a wide availability of supplies. I will look into distilled vinegar and a pH test kit, I would probably have to buy a test kit from an aquarium shop. @[member="Not Sure"] Hey Not Sure, could you perhaps also tell me why you suggest SCRoG?
The PH dropper solution kits will work ok when using just plain water but once you start adding nutes it discolors the water run off making it difficult to compare to the PH color chart. The PH of your water run off is the most important PH reading. In soil don't worry about EC since you wont get an accurate reading anyways. EC is more for hydro growers then soil growers. You want your PH run off to be around 6.5. You can get a cheap digital PH meter for liquids off of Amazon or Ebay for around $10.00 or so here not sure where you are and how much that would be but I would also get some PH Up & Down buffer solutions and a small bottle or packet of calibration solution for the digital meter. Also your waters PH is pretty high I would look into a different source for your water or a filter like your kitchen faucet. Even a cheap one would be better then nothing. An aquarium shop may even carry a basic digital Ph meter but may be higher priced then getting one online.
Nice, I was going to use buckets as well but the perlite just seemed a lot easier. I aerate my water just to remove the chlorine, I think that most municipalities treat the water with something, in my case it's definitely chlorine but sometimes they use chloramine which doesn't have any smell and won't evaporate through aeration. There are conditioners that break it down or you could just filter it, but you might want to check with the entity that supplies your water, they'll probably have a water report on their website. Yea, a good airpump can cost as much as a decent bottle of nutes but it lasts much longer and will brew thousands of gallons. Here's the one I use active air 45lpm $43.99 free shipping I wasted another $40 on good airstones, couple bucks on pvc pipe and caps works 10x better and is easier to clean. Oh, I mentioned scrog because you've got one plant under a 400w, in a 10 gal pot growing in supersoil which means you don't have to deal with lots of runoff... perfect conditions for a scrog. Only thing I'd add is the self-irrigating perlite to make it that much easier. It would certainly increase your yields here, if you were vegging for another 4 weeks or so.
@[member="tplat"] I'll look into getting a pH meter for sure, I agree that my waters pH is quite high. I actually had the idea to collect rain water and mix that with tap water 50/50 to get a balanced pH (since I don't have any ways to test pH yet). The only problem with rain water in the area where I live, is that I live in the middle of a big city, and there's cars driving around me 24/7 (it looks like a freeway), all these cars are spewing out finegasses which make me very reluctant in using that. What would your opinion be on rain water based on what I just said? @[member="Not Sure"] That seems like a pretty good pump to me, I was aiming for something similar, but I might just a used one for a cheaper price, I'm fine with that aslong as it works well. I'm getting myself a 100 Liter / 26 Gallon bag of perlite tomorrow, they are quite a decent price around here, and I figured that I could use that amount if I'm planning to make a wicking system comparable to yours. I just checked the information of my tapwater, and it seems to contain a small amount of chloride, so I'm setting out some water for tomorrow after this post. I'm really curious what the results will be like. I also just heightened my plants a bit, it's around 15" away right now (I still need to buy chains to lower my lamp.) Hopefully I can get an eb & flow tray for not much, that would really make me and my plant happy. Could you by any chance tell me where you got your tray's? I've checked your journal and you seem to have pretty nifty round ones and a few squares, those seem perfect to me! EDIT: I forgot to add that just today a good friend of mine gave me a bottle of growth solution that he had left. http://www.idrogrow.com/soil-nutrients-plagron-alga-bloom-1l.2.1.22.gp.1096.uw.aspx The NPK ratio is: 6-12-10, now I haven't used it yet, but I was considering doing so because I'm unable to make any ACT right now. Do you think it's a good idea, or would it waste the soil and ruin the plant?
I wouldn't use any bottled nutes, I think you've covered all your bases with the organics. Top-dressing with castings can substitute for a compost tea, and 1 tbsp of kelp meal in a gal jug, let it sit for 2 days or more is a basic botanical tea. The only thing you might want to add to your list for the future is some kind of silica additive. Dyna gro pro-tekt, advanced nutes makes another brand, there's a few out there. The round basin is 10 gal, I found it in the pond section at Lowes for $10, I'll be using 2 of those with 20 gal smartpots, each in a separate scrog frame under my 2 600w lights. The square basin is from a seedling starter tray, they're like $7 and those are 3 gal smartpots. I'll be planting the 3 gal right into the 20 gal, then when it comes time to re-use my soil again, I'll just pull out the 3 gal pot and sit another one right back in the hole (hopefully, sounds like a good plan anyway) Cheers!! edit: Here's the link for that round tub
I guess that I'm going to have to give the nutes back then. Top-dressing doesn't like a bad idea at all, I just hope that my plant grows a litte bit more in height, because she's only growing in width at the moment, it's a bit hard to top-dress at the moment because the leaves are so low to the ground already. I've checked out the website of Dyna-Gro Pro-tekt and notice that it brings along quite some benefits. Did you personally notice a big difference once you started to use this additive? Was it also noticeable on the fields that they discribe on how it benefits the plant?
Silicon additives are supposed to strengthen the cell walls of the plants making them more resistant to heat, bugs and aid in nutrient uptake. I know some outdoor growers that swear buy it. Another new product on the scene is neem cake, its supposed to help provide a steady supply of nitrogen and help make plants more resistant to bugs. But it can be pretty strong so mixing it in your soil in small amount and let it cook for 30 days before planting if not it can burn plants. Its made from neem seeds. If using in pots its recommended to use a very small amount. http://www.neemresource.com/NeemCake.html
@[member="tplat"] Oooh, good to know for future reference, because I topped my plant with a mixture of my soil and neem + coco coir (50/50). I don't think the concentration of neem in the mixture was that high, because it didn't give me nuteburn so far, but it's good to know that it could happen if I make any mistakes.