White Russian Soil Grow, First grow x 4 seeds

millions have said it for years, and ive said it for years, if your smart about growing it. its WAY safer than buying it from others. (even if its your friends you get it from) theres always transportation etc...

grow your own, keep your mouth shut, stay outta the trouble, enjoy the high!

 

lets see. ill start with: seems like a lot of people have this problem ( i wouldnt call it a problem) the timers are what i like to call extremly analog haha, meaning (at least on mine) your using a dial and getting it close as you can to that time. they arent accurate to the minute all the time. for instance i thought i had mine to cut on at 7am and go off at 7pm the dial was sitting RIGHT on top of 7am HOWEVER it wouldnt cut on till 7:22-7:24 everyday. i realize you want it to start at a certain time and all but the main thing is your photo period dosent get interupted. chances are your timer cut on early but it would have done so at the same time everyday. meaning instead of buying a new timer, id just let it cut on and off at those times (unless those times are compromising to the grow ie, people will see the lights come on etc..) this is all assuming you are having the same problems many have with "inaccurate timers" i did see however you said something about wiring it from the ballast to the timer or whatever? not sure what thats about. but its pretty simple just plug ballast/light into timer, plug timer into wall. if you have some jerry rig/hardwire set up then that could be your problem! this is the exact timer i use. http://www.ballpythonblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/timers.jpg at lowes its just called a heavy duty timer its like 8 bucks (maybe 2/3 dollars more than a regular timer) and it held 1500 watts easy as pie. as you can see it just has 12 numbers and dots in the middle of each for :30 say i put it directly on that dot, sometimes it would come on at 12:50 instead of 12:30, but it did that every day so it wasnt a problem (just the intial timing was off.) after reading your wiring through the ballast thing again that might be your problem. can you not just plug your ballast into a timer and the timer into the wall? perhaps some pics of your set up will help us.

yes usually 24hrs veg is the most common few like to do 18/6 i personally do 24/0 then 12/12 ive tried both. lighting is serious in veg and flower, obviously more in flower because fuck! your almost there you dont wanna mess up now! however yours are fine, youd really have to fuck with the light cycles to do some damage on most plants (although some plants have hermie traits) worrying about your plants being affected by that light would be the last thing in my mind if they were mine.

the last paragraph brings me to this next one. your plants looks good, but very small for 22 days. espcecially under an hps like that. if i were you and your grow permitted it, id leave the lights on 24 hours and see if it helps any. after 22 days of growing 18/6 thats 132 hours of darkness! almost a whole nother week of light!

overall id switch to 24/0 get your setup/timer fixed and dont worry about your photo period mishap! and if you really wanna get picky it LOOKS (obviously not for sure) that ol' green might have been getting more water than the rest/worse drainage? looks like early signs of overwatering. also keep an eye on your temps, those leaves tell me its warm in there!

your doing good man

 

doindia has laid out most of what im gonna say so ill cut it short. I also do 24/0 in veg for same reasons.

Doindia Reefer have you had any issues with timers?
Used to use an analog timer (still do in flowering sometimes, but im not dependent on it working lol), that gave me a bit of trouble so i switched to a digital timer, havent had any problems since

what kind of timers do you use?
digital, he he, i can show u a pic if wanted.

do you use any devices to take the stress of the electricity off the timer?
Yep i use a small timer contractor

I read you can get devices relatively cheaply that will absorb the wattage and not overload the timer
I believe your talking about a a timer contractor

is there a particular type of timer that I should use such as a plug in timer instead of wiring a timer through the ballast?
Never tried to wire a timer through a ballast to be honest, so cant advise you on that, safety wise though, i try to stay away from anything to do with the wiring of the ballast. Plug in timers are cheap and effective, and recyclable in all your grows. Well worth to money

This was due to power outtages, builders calling, landlords calling, all things completely out of my control, i'd stick with as constant a light cycle as you possibly can. And yep you can veg for 24 hours consistantly

What are the implications of our lighting system not being consistent?
Never done it in veg so cant tell you first hand, also its hard to tell until later what damage it did do. However it can stress the plants leading to, stunted growth, small buds, hermied plants, alot of things you dont really want

Can it do damage? are the chances remote or high?
Answered above i believe, and chances are high of stressing them

Are the implications the same in veg as in flowering? Or is it more serious during flowering if the lighting cycle is not 100% consistent.
Generally considered more serious throughout the flowering cycle, but it can be hard to tell if it has any detremental effects during veg as u cant really tell until flowering and then its easy to aportion the blame elsewhere, generally its just not recommended at any time, but especially not in flower he he

 

u got ph up/down specific to the growth stage ? Never seen them, i just have 1 ph up/down, well i have 2 bottles obviously, but i mean its just the 1 ph down used throughout the grow, and 1 ph up. What brand did u get that has growth stage specific bottles ?

As for the watering, sure start it off at nute in the morn, water that night, water next day, if it reacts well, do 2 a day. You'll have to find whats right for your plants yourself, all strain specific, and grower specific, when u come down to the little details like this.

Which plant are u referring to as "he" ? and what u mean by the double dosage last week ?
Transplanting also generally causes a little stress, true if u cause minimal stress the plants will love the extra root space and will explode, but if u cause any extra stress it will set the plant back further, only transplant when a plant is recovering, if your confident of the transplant, or the plant is getting rootbound, otherwise i'd wait till its strong again.

Also if your watering twice a day, make sure not to overwater the soil, i water by the weight of the pot, so cant give ya much advice on multiple waterings.

 

lol, well you already knew i was gonna say it but ill say it anyway. if your watering twice a day, your either overwatering (i dont think you are, by the looks of MOST of your plants) or your roots dont have a very strong base. (which is my guess judging by the size of the plants) with that said ive never and couldnt imagine watering with nutrients everyday. fresh water for 12 hours and nutes for the 2nd watering everyday if thats what your talking about doing. all the years of my growing being tells me its not the right thing to do. you do seem to be doing it carefully so only time will tell, and they may love it. i feel like its a risky decision. ive never nuted more than 3 times a week. in veg and in flower probably 3/4 times a month

also grim gave you a good post but my .02 about the timer is buy a heavy duty one spend 10 bucks on it and dont worry about stressing it out.


(i should make it clear that watering twice daily is not a problem i do it a lot during seedling/early veg i was referring to starting nutes while on that schedule!)

also i HIGHLY doubt that little plant is root bound in that pot, unless the pics make the pot look bigger than it really is, the roots usually grow straight down i always see them at the drain holes in a couple a days, a 4 inch tall plant can have 8-10 inch roots, ive grown bigger plants in a solo cup without being anywhere near root bound

your call!

 

i'm still confused as to why there is a ph down for grow and bloom, also i looked on the biobizz website, and they dont have it under their products ??? Its just an acidic solution to bring down the pH of the feed.

I would also doubt their rootbound, their pretty big pots already. What were u thinking of putting em into ?

Do u water them till u get a little run off ?, i dont see how u could water them till that and have to feed em again the same day ?

 

lol well the ph of your water will be above 7 more than likely,it is anywhere i know some1 who has had to check it anyways. But when u add nutes, that'll change the ph, at the moment i dont have to change a thing except when watering with plain water, my nutes and water together in the concentration i have it level out the 6.4, which is around where i want it.

I havent used the pH up as much as the pH down, but ive still used it quite a bit, pH down is much stronger, so if u need less than a drop it can be hard, so sometimes i have to caliberate the solution back up (your area might have harder water though so it wouldnt fluctaute as much). Though i try to add as little as possible to the mix.

I find there's usually a runt in the group, 1 plant thats just that little bit behind always.

 

im not saying transplanting is a bad idea and it would be nice to put them through the same regimen, but a lot of times when there is not root ball or bound roots when you transplant them and you jsut have the few shooting straight to the bottom of the pot those few will break or stick to the bottom of the pot, its not that big of a deal, just sayin it would be no more harm in leaving it in the bucket if you sheer reasoning is root bound, if you however want uniformity go for it!

 

lookin good man