My Very First Grow Journal: BC Big Bud Grown Indoors In Soil

[HappyPots89]

Hey everyone. Bear with me as this is my first ever grow and first ever grow journal(obviously). I am growing BC big bud autoflowers in 5 gallon pots in just a standard soil/perilite mix. Nothing fancy.

Strain: BC big bud
Sativa or Indica: hybrid
Grow setup: 3’x3’x6’ tent with a cheaper 1000watt(actual wattage unknown) light from Amazon, 12” oscillating fan on floor and 6” clip fan blowing between light and canopy.
Humidity: between 50-70%
Temps: inside tent is running between 21-24 Celsius
Germination: germinated seeds for two days starting September 25th
Planted on September 27th and they first popped out of soil September 29th
Have just used ph corrected water(6.2 ish) so far no nutrients yet.

Planning on trying LST on them when they’re ready but lack the experience on how to do it as I’ve never grown before. Very eager to learn the do’s and dont’s and hope to learn from any mistakes I make and appreciate any advice along the way!

Picture is from where they are at today. 10 days out of soil 14 days from start of germination.

 

[Emilya Green]

Good luck and good on you for starting a grow journal! Have you read my watering article yet so we can try to avoid any overwatering issues and get you working on those roots right away?

 

[HappyPots89]

Good luck and good on you for starting a grow journal! Have you read my watering article yet so we can try to avoid any overwatering issues and get you working on those roots right away?

No I haven’t. Where can I find that at?!

 

[HappyPots89]

No I haven’t. Where can I find that at?!

 

[Emilya Green]

oops... i generally let my entire signature show in my first posting to a new thread. Find the link below for how to properly water. 86,000+ reads so far... and I am proud to say that it has helped a lot of people all over the world.

 

[HappyPots89]

oops... i generally let my entire signature show in my first posting to a new thread. Find the link below for how to properly water. 86,000+ reads so far... and I am proud to say that it has helped a lot of people all over the world.

Thank you!

 

[Billotto]

They look happy, Happy. Emilya's post is required reading for us rookies. to

 

[HappyPots89]

They look happy, Happy. Emilya's post is required reading for us rookies. to

I just read through it and am going to be using that method from now on. I have been scrolling through journals and comparing with other people’s and I feel like my plants are not quite as large at this age as other people’s have been but that’s probably due to my lack of experience and they seem happy so far so hopefully the growth takes off quick from here on out.

 

[HappyPots89]

Ordered another one of the 1000 watt led lights just to have more light for the area. The light definitely isn’t nearly as powerful as it says it is. Hopefully two of them speeds up the growth a bit.

 

[HappyPots89]

Growth seems to be very stunted. Extremely slow progression. Here’s a close up of each of the ladies. Do they look healthy to you guys or does something look wrong with them? Any help is greatly appreciated! 12 days after popping out of soil today.

 

[Billotto]

They look fine to me...not even 2 weeks old. Once you add your new light they should get goin'. I planted outside in June in a bad growing season and mine were slow like that at first but eventually they get there. How warm is it in your tent? The seedlings like to stay nice and warm.

 

[Emilya Green]

Keep watering properly and things will start exponentially speeding up as more and more leaves gather more and more energy. Looking fine in there to me!

 

[HappyPots89]

Great to hear lol. First grow and I’m nervous but trying to keep my cool. The temp fluctuates between 21-25 Celsius between day and night. Humidity hovers around 50-70.

 

[HappyPots89]

Gave the ladies some water this evening using my new learned watering technique. Thanks again Emilya!

 

[HappyPots89]

Got the new light installed this morning. Going to have to do some reconfiguring later this afternoon to get everything straightened out but hopefully they enjoy the extra bit of lighting for now!

 

[HappyPots89]

So my runoff ph was 4.8. Not good I don’t think. 3/6 plants look rough but the other 3 seem to be flourishing. Weird. They’ve all gotten the same treatment same feeding/watering schedule. Weird that half of them are so u healthy. I top dressed each plant with 5tbsp of dolomite lime and watered with 6.2 ph water. Any advice on the 3 sick looking plants, anyone?

 

[Emilya Green]

So my runoff ph was 4.8. Not good I don’t think. 3/6 plants look rough but the other 3 seem to be flourishing. Weird. They’ve all gotten the same treatment same feeding/watering schedule. Weird that half of them are so u healthy. I top dressed each plant with 5tbsp of dolomite lime and watered with 6.2 ph water. Any advice on the 3 sick looking plants, anyone?

I don't think that you have mentioned yet which soil you are in, but it must be some right terrible stuff for you to have decided that you needed to amend it with so much extra dolomite lime. You have now drastically changed the characteristics of your container, and it can still be worked with, but you need to know what you have done.
First off, runoff pH readings in soil are absolutely meaningless, and if someone advised you to adjust your soil based on that erroneous reading that you got, they need a swift kick in the shins. Your soil was probably perfectly fine, and the only problem, and one that you have been seeing evidence that you have solved, was that you were overwatering the plants and had damaged the lower roots. There was no need to adjust a perfectly good soil.

Think of runoff as coffee out of a percolator. The more water you run through that coffee, the weaker the coffee becomes. Runoff is the same way... you will get a drastically different reading if you take it at the start of runoff vs 10%, 20% or whatever... at which point is the runoff representing the base pH of the soil? The answer is that it does not... not ever. That low reading that you got is not just the nute water that you put in at 6.2 pH but it also includes all of the broken down peat and other organics that flowed out of the soil, along with leftover nutes and salts from all of the nutes breaking free of their bonds so as to be available to the plant. The only time runoff actually means anything is in a COCO grow, where there is no debris or organics and soil particles tagging along. In soil, this just causes good people to freak out and do impulsive things, like adding massive amounts of dolomite lime to their containers.
So now you have effectively changed the base pH of your soil. Most soils are buffered at the high end to around 6.8 pH, yours is probably now closer to 8.0. When you water at 6.3 pH you are going to experience a very rapid upward drift and it is going to be hard to stay in the 6.2-6.8 soil pH range, but you will be able to be in there for a little while anyway. This rapid upward drift is going to give you trouble picking up elements that are only mobile at the low end of the range, and if you start seeing some heavy metal deficiencies as you get further into bloom, I am going to suggest that you try coming in at an exceedingly low pH for soil, of 5.8... to see if that helps you pick up that lower range. Don't do this until you start seeing problems and for now keep watering at 6.2.... but at least you will know what you are seeing if and when it develops, and I really think it will.

 

[HappyPots89]

I don't think that you have mentioned yet which soil you are in, but it must be some right terrible stuff for you to have decided that you needed to amend it with so much extra dolomite lime. You have now drastically changed the characteristics of your container, and it can still be worked with, but you need to know what you have done.
First off, runoff pH readings in soil are absolutely meaningless, and if someone advised you to adjust your soil based on that erroneous reading that you got, they need a swift kick in the shins. Your soil was probably perfectly fine, and the only problem, and one that you have been seeing evidence that you have solved, was that you were overwatering the plants and had damaged the lower roots. There was no need to adjust a perfectly good soil.

Think of runoff as coffee out of a percolator. The more water you run through that coffee, the weaker the coffee becomes. Runoff is the same way... you will get a drastically different reading if you take it at the start of runoff vs 10%, 20% or whatever... at which point is the runoff representing the base pH of the soil? The answer is that it does not... not ever. That low reading that you got is not just the nute water that you put in at 6.2 pH but it also includes all of the broken down peat and other organics that flowed out of the soil, along with leftover nutes and salts from all of the nutes breaking free of their bonds so as to be available to the plant. The only time runoff actually means anything is in a COCO grow, where there is no debris or organics and soil particles tagging along. In soil, this just causes good people to freak out and do impulsive things, like adding massive amounts of dolomite lime to their containers.
So now you have effectively changed the base pH of your soil. Most soils are buffered at the high end to around 6.8 pH, yours is probably now closer to 8.0. When you water at 6.3 pH you are going to experience a very rapid upward drift and it is going to be hard to stay in the 6.2-6.8 soil pH range, but you will be able to be in there for a little while anyway. This rapid upward drift is going to give you trouble picking up elements that are only mobile at the low end of the range, and if you start seeing some heavy metal deficiencies as you get further into bloom, I am going to suggest that you try coming in at an exceedingly low pH for soil, of 5.8... to see if that helps you pick up that lower range. Don't do this until you start seeing problems and for now keep watering at 6.2.... but at least you will know what you are seeing if and when it develops, and I really think it will.

Damn. Here I thought I was being smart researching and fixing an issue with what I have found online. Just another mistake that I will most certainly learn from and move forward from here. Thank you again for all of your helpful insights. You’re truly a saint

 

[Emilya Green]

There is an adage in the carpentry world, measure twice, cut once. In our world, maybe asking for other opinions before jumping could have helped avoid this. You are certainly not the first to do this because there are multiple websites that advocate that soil gardeners should measure their runoff pH, and they are spreading a lot of bad information. I wonder sometimes if this all comes from the industry side of things... hydro shops wanting soil gardeners to fail so they want to move to hydro, as well as commercial grow shops secretly wanting the home hobby gardener to find this too difficult of a thing to do, so they have to buy from the dispensaries.
So don't freak out yet... this still may be workable. 5 tablespoons of anything is a lot in a 3g container though, especially something as powerful as dolomite... I am a little worried for your grow at this point.

 

[HappyPots89]

There is an adage in the carpentry world, measure twice, cut once. In our world, maybe asking for other opinions before jumping could have helped avoid this. You are certainly not the first to do this because there are multiple websites that advocate that soil gardeners should measure their runoff pH, and they are spreading a lot of bad information. I wonder sometimes if this all comes from the industry side of things... hydro shops wanting soil gardeners to fail so they want to move to hydro, as well as commercial grow shops secretly wanting the home hobby gardener to find this too difficult of a thing to do, so they have to buy from the dispensaries.
So don't freak out yet... this still may be workable. 5 tablespoons of anything is a lot in a 3g container though, especially something as powerful as dolomite... I am a little worried for your grow at this point.

I am actually a carpenter by trade and I can honestly say I’ve measured once and cut twice more times than I care to admit hahaha. I hope the grow still turns out. I am using promix organic soil. I read that you can mix 2tbs/gal of soil. I am running in 5 gal pots so I assumed 5tbsp was an alright amount. I guess time will tell. Thank you again for your expertise!