This is my first attempt at a medical grow in California. I'm growing 2 La condifential, 1 dj short "flo", and 1 soma lavender. They are all 3 weeks - 1 month old clones purchased from a nearby dispensary in San Francisco. I'm growing these plants for personal use as pain and anxiety medication. It works great for me and I'm very optimistic about the efficacy of the strains I've chosen for myself. The grow is a CFL stealth operation constructed for under $150. You may need to open the pictures in viewer and magnify them to read the specs on the box I made. It uses co2 fermentation, 12v fans for exhaust, odor eliminating cfls(work great), thermostats that will shut it down permanently if it gets over 100 degrees, and its all up to fire code. I'm using 8,000 lumens in veg with mostly 6500k light and a little 2700k for both chlorophyll A and B. When I get to flower, I will use about 12,000 lumens all in 2700k, and I may decide to install a 70watt hps security light and install 2 more 120mm exhaust and intake fans to compensate. My question is, you can see deficiencies in the plants. Without telling anyone anything, except that I've been very cautious about overfertilizing, can someone tell me what their best estimate is as to whats beggining to ravage my plants? Brown edging on leaves, yellow leaves that are new growth as well. Also the 2 La Confidential that are in the same container, are 100 % indica. They started out with very fat leaves, and the leaves are very thin now almost like a sativa. My system is very dry and about 8000 lumens or so on 4 plants and the lights are no more then 3 inches away from any of the 4 plants. Ive heard that leaves will get skinnier if in a dry environment, because the leaves need less surface area to dry off moisture or something, but in addition to being skinny they also have brown/purple edging. The stems are tough as nails as they have been blasted by fans relentlessly, and the growth is optimal despite symtoms. Ive given them all Schultz micronutrient plant food plus, which contains zinc and iron and some macronutrients, but no boron, magnesium, or other trace minerals. The superthrive is meerly a rooting hormone with vitamin b1, and the rest of the nutes are plant food with organic macronutrients in proper proportion, something like 15 5 3 or something. I have not measured ph, but i use bottled water to water my plants; It's not mountain water, its meerly super filtered and purified water. I dont overwater or underwater, and I use supersoil from homedepot. I have had springtails but they are subsiding now and no other parasites or vermin to speak of. Please help.
Are you growing these legally? Why grow stealth? "This is my first attempt at a medical grow in California." Also I suggest you try those hydroponic 3 part nutrient solutions. Mix them in to your water. They come with general guidelines to help you mix up a solution with the proper potency. Get a PH tester, I think the liquid ones work well. Make sure your water PH is correct ,around 6. Test the PH right before you water, after mixing nutes and such. I use lemon juice to lower my PH (I use tap water), but you can find other acids from gardening stores, or hydro stores. It is normally called PH Down. I never had to raise the PH, so I can't say much about that. Baking soda anyone? EDIT: Also mounting CFL base-up kinda sucks, the heat gets trapped in the ballast (raising the ballast temps) and more like is emitted from the sides.
A couple of them looked really streched. The yellowing is a nute deff. Probably nitrogen. You can use a three part like that dude said, or...you can simplify it and buy a one part like FloraNova.
Ill measure the ph. I've looked up deficiencies before and seen pictures, I was just hoping someone could look at my plants and say "thats magnesium def", or "thats a ph problem"; it seems a lot of these defeciencies/overdoses of particular micronutes/macronutes/trace elements/ph look exactly the same in a lot of these pictures.
grow is legal, I am taking into consideration the people I am renting from. The less they know the better in my opinion; if they do discover it I have my recommendation posted inside of it. I am under my limit of 6 mature 12 immature.
they look stretched but they arent. the internodes are actually very very close. the dj short "flo" in the transparent container is growing strangely but is not stretched. I have cut a lot off of these plants to give light to the shoots.
Do you have a shot of the whole box? I would like to see relative size. In your scetch it looks a little small.
its 3 feet tall, 3 feed wide, 2 feet deep gonna start flowering at 12" gotta say these odor removing cfls are a revolution in growing! 1 of these badboys completely eliminates the smell from my box and my room. i cant smell anything, infact if i turn on a second bulb in my ceiling fixture; i can take bong rips, leave my room, and come back 2 minutes later and the smell is completely gone. it even kills micro-organisms and releases carbon dioxide. do your own research- i did http://www.goodmart.com/products/553730.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjP1qj8YSxM
figured out the problem. it was trace minerals and micronutes and nitrogen. plants are recovering just fine now.
good looking plants which odor elimination cfls are you using? where did you get them? I've been looking for some at walmart, lowes, and home depot but I came up short.
I rememer I used Compact Flourescents for my very first grow.I even used Co2 haha. Looks like they got stressed.What temperature is it in there?? The leaves are yellow, so they need more nitrogen,PH level?
davoplant, why do you laugh at that? I was thinking about adding some artificial CO2 to my CFL grow but seeing you laugh at it I wanted to inquire as to your experience.
Im using the 21 watt 2700k bulbs, i bought at a place called home depot, but you can easily get them from a lighting supply shop. http://www.buylighting.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TCP28923F&click=12191 my plants are still having problems, but they are over the worste of it. i cant believe micronutes make that big a difference. i had them on 24/0 a week ago, now they are on 22/2, im gonna put them on 20/4 tommorow, then 18/6 in another week. 2 weeks from now they will go to 12/12.