Stardate 05012016. Translate, May 1, 2016. Or day 21 in the life of my little green ones. Pics of the plants and th setup follow in these links, which will eventually be removed unless I start a journal here. I've got a calendar that I'm kind of using as a personal journal. Anyway... pics... Plants - User Media - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting Humidifier - User Media - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting Hygrometer - User Media - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting Fan, Filter, Light - User Media - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting So, I've watered them three times now and finally ordered some buffer solution and pH up/down for my meter. I'm a dummy. The plants don't seem to have suffered any ill effects. I think the aerogarden actually does a pretty good job for starting them out. How tall do I want to let them get, or how long do I want to wait, before I transfer them over into some 2 or 5 gallon buckets. I had originally planned for 2 gallon buckets to keep them small, but now that I'm looking at the available space... Five gallon buckets seem reasonable. I don't know. Never done this before. Right now, they're right about 4 inches tall. I've got my Ionic growth and bloom, some Neem oil just in case, and some Calmag. I've also got some general purpose rooting hormone, but it's in powder form, and I wouldn't know how to administer a proper dosage. Thus far, these little ladies have received no nutes. I've got to lower the lights down on the big set up to a proper height (got a chart provided by one of you folks that lists the proper height. So, questions... Do I need to be concerned about having watered these things 3 times with un-pHed water? At what point do I consider transplant and nutrients? Anything that I might be forgetting? At what point do I need to keep things completely black so that this they don't hermaphrodite out on me and leave me with a frown?
Nice set up you got going there. I'm seeing more and more grow tents, its pretty cool. You'll find a lot of conflicting information on this site when in reality. You don't need a PH meter. I never use one. You don't need to check PPM. I never do. Cheap soil is great. I mix 32qts Black Gold Seedling start with 16qts Black Gold Earthworm casings with 16qts Fox Farm Ocean Forest. If your adding nutes, no point in spending extra. Watch your plants to know what to feed. I water when the pots are bone dry and the leaves are sagging. My final transplants are into 2 gallon pots 3/4 full. I find it easier to maintain the roots with less soil. Others prefer 5 gallon or larger. I've tortured my plants and have never had a hermie. Don't worry about it to much, it can happen but it probably wont. Good luck.
Setup looks good,my opinion id give them nutes.it def doesnt look like there damaged by not checking ph.i grow dwc and i do outdoor soil my own mix but not checking ppm is retarded as stated above....u def want to kno that.i never water without knowing both numbers in any medium.n i would also transplant now too.that solo cup is more then likely mostly roots with the size u have above ground
When u do transplant,give them first dose of nutes(id go quarter strength 1st since seems u never gave any yet)there gonna wanna drink from the stress of transplant,so y not throw n nutes..(my opinion).and u shudnt have to worry bout hermie from giving them darkness(im assuming u been 24/7 light since yur asking) but wen u do flip them use a timer so yur dark/light hrs arent changing day to day
Looks alright overall. Possibly the humidifier isn't necessary. pH is one of those things that either really matters or doesn't matter. In soil, it often isn't worth checking the pH carefully because it varies naturally during different times in the plant life and the wet/dry cycle, the soil can buffer the water to an extent so it's not crucial that it has to be 6.5 exactly or whatever. Checking pH, worrying, trying to fix something you don't understand, can be a plant killer. However some water is bad, some products require pH adjustment, so using a pH meter to check that your water/nute mix is not less than 6.3ish or higher than 7.2ish, can be useful. It can also be useful when you have a crazy plant problem, you can test the runoff. This can vary a lot and often seems low, that is normal, but if you have a problem with the plant and the runoff is below 6 it confirms that you should do a flush. The rooting hormone powder is for when you take clones. Soak the cut tip for a while, dip in powder and tap of excess, then pop in to soil/cloner. Start weak with the nutes (there is already some in the soil, especially when you repot) and build up. Don't try to get an amazing yield by giving it loads of nutes, that's not how it works. Transplanting could happen now, they're also probably good for topping if you wanted. If you were worried about keeping them small, but tempted by 5gal containers, topping and some LST will keep them low but still grow a plant big enough to use the root space.
Thanks folks, It's nice to have some help along the way. I'm not sure that the humidifier is necessary either. I'm looking at 72% right now, which seems really high. It did just rain though, and I left the windows open. So, maybe that's it. Stupid newbie question that I've already asked and read the answer to a dozen times now... What exactly is the range I want for humidity? I suppose I might just keep the humidifier in there for the hell of it, just in case things get dry for some reason... Good question - do these plants take in more nutrients via the roots and chemicals or via the leaves and lights? Temperature is at 72 right now as well. And what is my range here? I guess maybe I'll use this thread as my journal for this forum. One problem that I foresee is the height of the plants. From the floor to about an inch below the light at it's absolute highest possible point is 40 inches. I'll have to figure out a way to LST or something. I definitely don't plan to fertilize them very much. About 1/4 strength the first time. We'll see if we up that to 1/3 the next time around. The soil is organic potting mix from a specialty nursery. So, hopefully it doesn't have anything at all in it. Mix that with about 40% perlite, maybe a little more, good to go on it's own. That's how I started out anyway. Now, when I up the pots to 2 gallons, we'll add in the nutrients. Ionic Bloom and Ionic Growth is what I've got. Also some Neem oil just in case. And some CalMag, which does what exactly? I know there's a lot of controversy over 18/6 vs 24/0 in the veg stage. I'm considering a hybrid. 20/4. If the plant does "sleep," it can have a little bit of time to rest. However, I think of this thing like it's an Olympic athlete on low dose steroids. I want it working and training hard. I don't want to kill it by overworking though. Does that make sense? Anyone see an instant downside to that idea? I'm trying to get them to max out the Aerogarden in terms of height before I transplant them. I've got to wait on the buffer solutions and pH up/down to get here anyway so that I can get a good measurement on my nutrients. Someone kind enough to explain topping to me or provide me with a helpful link? I've heard of the concept and know that it strategically involves cutting leaves off, but I don't know which ones to cut. Thanks for the tip on the rooting hormone. I wouldn't have thought about that. I'd have just ordered more beans from overseas like a dumbass and wasted my money. At what point can I try and take a clone? We'll wait until the chemicals arrive, and then I'll get them transplanted, nuted, watered, and give you guys an update with new pics. Ya'll sub up now, ya' hear?
The topping you will have to watch some vids on. Luckily I had a plant biologist show me how to do it properly. Now I could practically do it in my sleep. I usually wait till I get three or four good nodes before my first top. Then I do those 2 or 3 more times and I wind up with 16 or so beautiful colas. Be kind. Perfect your craft. Give more than you take. We are family.
Lol.first of all yur profile pic is great...with that being said seems yur on right track with staying calm in not wanting to over due it.i do the same with my organic soil,(mine is 35%organic potting soil,35% peat moss,30% perlite)in i use hydro nutes when feeding.u can use whatever u choose,mine is 6 part nute,an easier method is 3part.Topping....when u c the new growth at top of plant,kind of reaching up like small hands praying,cutting that completly off(down to main stock)..this will give u a y affect,basicaly giving u 2 main stalks above where u cut(after few days of recovery.what i do is fim....fimming is basicaly tbe samething but u purposly only cut 70% of the praying hands.this gives u 3-4 branches instead of 2
Lst is simple,on yur 2gal pots or 5gal,whatever u choose.i put drywall screws around my pot,every 2-3 inches.u can use many things but i use twine,($1.99 for 100ft) in simply tie tbe top down just under branches,when new growth starts(roughly 4-5 days) tie that down to a other screw,it will create multiple tops.its very simple just give yur plant time to recover,
Ok, so it looks like the LST could be done with pipe cleaners. Relatively easy. And essentially, the idea is to bend the biggest stem to the side, which gives the leaf below that one room to extend and form it's own main branch. From there, I'd imagine you do the same thing with 2, then 4, then 8, etc branches. I'll watch some videos before I go and perform the operation myself, but I think I've got the general idea.