First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

[knighthawktfc]

Checked in on the babies around 9pm a hour or so after lights on.
I think they need to sit bit more before watering, will do in the morning, finger trick still telling me they have plenty, I think otherwise but
I'll roll with it for another 12hr. Rotated pots 45d.

Raised the lights up again another inch\inch 1/2 to 28 from pots; 27 from ww top, 1" farther then recommended for veg.

Thermal gun on the plant tops themselves only read 74-76 ( meter in same general area 77 - expected but good to know it's close)
Given the RH has been stable in 50's and once again 12hr later my water bowl is dry.. kind of odd, or at least different from in earlier in the week where it seemed to barely being used - sign to me pots are indeed drying out, beyond the obvious top cover of soil. no?


Toys: ordered 60-100x scope (paranoia about broad mites on ww, plus I was going to get one anyway so better now than later), should be here Tuesday night, which is good timing because between water on monday, def less if any breezes for days, and the light having been moved up a few inches I should know if canoeing is still going on it's probably not any of those things.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 15 - Morning and afternoon.

Start of week 3

Overview:
Well to start things were stable last hr again environment wise 73-81f\41-62%rh. Came in the tent this morning and both plants looked ok, but frankly I didn't notice any significant changes from 12hr before, ww I think added .10\.15 inch of height. Miss Cane looked happier than, Mrs.Widow though as usual. Rotated pots, refilled humidifier and setup the closet shelf thingy under them both to aid in drainage. I weighed them both. 13 or so lbs so I figured I'd water them, it's been 6 days. More on that 4 hour adventure later. Decided this morning though those sticky traps have to go, they're more getting in the way atm both me and casting shade than far as I know doing anything, I'll throw them in the corners of the tent for fk of it though.


Top Shots (and sides today):




Miss Cane:

Sides: idk seem roughly the same as yesterday



Closeups: That wrinkle isn't exactly new.. but it looks more pronounced today.
The little one on the right side close-up2.. is cause the leaves were like touching.


Mrs.Widow:



Sides: She doesn't look any better today canoe\taco wise. She grew some and is clearly
above pot height now. Not sure I really want to raise the light up anymore than I have.
Got a hard time believing light stress is causing this at 27-28"



Close ups: So it's very light but now I can sort of see


Soil: So it's been 6 days since they last had a drink. Dry at 1" damp at 2". Both weighed roughly 13lbs this morning.
So I watered.... and watered... and watered.

All Water was from a gallon jug of store bought distilled water, ppm 0, ph'd to 6.7, took two tiny droplets of ph up, and 1 tiny droplet of ph down to get to that figure. PPM of water after that was 2ppm. NO Nutes at all this round. When I say tiny I mean tiny.
During ph'ing and testing all tools etc where washed\rinsed with distilled water before and after any step.

cc water in:
---
500ml 9:50am
300ml 10:20
200ml 10:50
200ml 11:25
250ml 11:45

200ml: 1:05pm - wanted to time exactly how long it took to travel.

Total In: 1650

ww water in:
----
500ml - 10:00am
300ml - 10:25
200ml - 11:05
200ml - 11:30
250ml - 11:45

Started getting run off on both with in a minute of one another starting just after noon.

200ml: 1:10pm - wanted to time exactly how long it took to travel.

Total In: 1650

exit water:
cc
-----
175ml initially; ph 5.3
65ml wave2 ; ph 5.5
~150ml - 'tail end' (1:30pm-1:45+) ; PPM 270; ph 5.6
Total out: ~390ml

ww
-----
150ml initially ; ph 5.4
100ml wave2; ph 5.6
~150ml - 'tail end' (1:30pm-1:45+) PPM 253; ph 5.6
Total out: ~400ml

**Pots were still dipping here and there when lights went out and I closed up the tent.

Pots each weighed 18lbs around 12:55pm after being soaked and far as I could tell having drained at that point most of what they
were going to drain, cc's pot is marginally lighter 1/4lb than ww but that's probably just a extra stone or two in the bottom of one vs other.

Couple of notes:
-My pots even when already wet are taking 30+ minutes to drain. That seems way long to me for already watered pots,
and I don't know what I can really do about that at this point.

-I put about in total roughly the same amount in this time as last time, I've not gone back to look yet but i think I got out roughly the same.
-PH of run off is horribly low, same as last time, same pattern too of head end being bit more acidic than tail end. I feel like I'm about to run into a nute lockout problem in the next week. I'm terrified and wonder if that's part of WW's issues.
- I can't explain why WW has slightly higher ph than CC... same pots, same rocks, same perlite, same ffof & happy fog, I guess in theory the ratio of those in each might be slightly off in one vs the other...I'd say it was random but last time WW was slightly higher too.

-The lights cut off on me just as I was getting ready to close up the tent, which I did, water was still sort of dripping out of the
plants. Not flowing, not drip drip dripping, but just a dip here or there. There should be about 40-50ml left to come out while they sleep, at least that what I suspect - course most of it will probably evap by time lights come on so I'll never know.

-I left the shelf thingy under them for now, I upped the main light another 2" to accommodate the change, side lights were not touched I didn't have time.


Things I am going to do:
1. Bust out the drill and wide existing "extra" holes to 1/4"; There are the 8 huge built in ones, plus I think 20 more I previously added (8 extra along bottom edge, 8 on the sides up about inch, and 4 around the center of the bottom. I may even add 2-3 more directly on the bottom, though frankly more than that plus making the existing extras wider and I may start to screw with integrity of the pot. I don't think this going to do much good for drainage, but fk it, might help with air though.
2. Realize I may need to start treating\watering each of these babies differently down the road.
3. Panic over soil runoff ph.
4. Tell myself not to panic yet over soil runoff ph and don't actually do anything.
5. goto step 3 till tomorrow then start putting out calls for help.



10pm:
Just realized I never posted the above this afternoon... left the screen without hitting post.
Anyway I passed out napping and didn't check on babies till 10pm'ish.
They look same as this morning before watering, temps were good RH was actually on lower end sort of oddly, realized I'd left the outer room door to the house more open than usual, probably explains it.

As for the water: There was about 75ml in CC tray, and about 125ml in WW tray. PPMS on both were in the 320\330 range.
Very very strangely the CC's PH on these last droplets was 6.28, WW's was unchanged aroun 5.5\5.6. I don't know what to
make of that, and I don't know how much evaporated while I napped. I did both color and digital tests, I have to say the colors
looked mostly the same for the two, so maybe that 6.28 is just off idk. Going to calibrate my pen again tomorrow, might even
get another one (not cause it'll change anything but because it'll mean less rinsing in the future - one for each pot).

I will say my tent when I opened it tonight definitely had that sweet smell of mj, this morning I noticed it too but it was only
when my nose was near them or I was moving them around and stuff. Tonight I opened the tent and it was immediately apparent.
So along with what I think is bad news today at least I know the carbon filters are working.


Curious this afternoon I had some left over of my soil mix I kept in the garage the last couple weeks (in case I needed to top-coat a little), it was just a little left over maybe 2 cups worth i stored in a small open bucket. I put 1/4th of a cup of it in measuring cup, I put a 1/4 of a cup of distilled water and mixed it up with a chop stick and left it. Just now I tested it: 6.65\ and about the same via color drops by my eye (cloudy flat yellow) which is exactly where it should be, the ppms on that mixture were high as hell but I figured they would be and not necessarily relevant but - 600-620ppm .

I'm so confused.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 16 - Morning - The saga of Miss Widow continues.


Overview:
Last 24hr temps\RH in range 72-81, spot checking leaf tops with laser never showed one above 76f, the pots themselves sit at a constant 78-80f down at the middle\bottom with the lights on,is that bad? I expected them to be like the coldest since they sit right near fresh air, but then again they are black and bake under the lights. As for growth I would say CC put on some meat in her fan leaves, but other than that I didn't notice anything. Miss Widow added some more height .25-.30, she's closing in on 4". I don't know if that is normal or she is stretching to reach the light that I keep moving up worried about heat burn. Wouldn't CC be doing similar if lights were too high? BTW I don't actually think the lights are too high (probably opposite at this point), but wtf do I know.

Soon I will need to not have that temp gauge where it usually is, as it might start getting in the way, whats a better place for it?
I could just go with the remote sensor thing, but it's 24hr min\max for some stupid reason doesn't include the RH min maxes.
I'm thinking get some more light hanger type ropes and just dangle it.


Top shots:



Miss Cane:


Sides: bushier but no added height really today that I could notice, maybe a just a tad as top
shoots are clearly the pot height.
BTW I'm removing the 'cane' for her, it's not doing jack shit far as I can tell and it probably
should be something tied to the pot rim anyway. The top of her though looks like the start
of node #4 if my counting it right.


Closeups: While sill that massively dark geen and I wouldn't say her leaves point slightly
upward like a I'm told a truly healthy plant would, she looks a lot better than WW.
Not sure why the leaves are going so close together though, maybe I should stop rotating
the pots, or do it less often.


Mrs. Widow:



Sides:
This girl does not look happy to me. And if I'm gonna top her looks
like I should do it by the end of this week. Which I think is not smart
if she is not healthy.




Closeups:
Far as I can tell canoe\taco wise she does not look worse than yesterday, arguably her
new-growth top area looks more green today than yesterday, but maybe just my eyes.
Overall no different than yesterday except for I'm noticing something else today see below.

Some shots of problem under normal lighting:


Normal lighting:
That first shot I think is the most telling because it has less 'flash' effect from the camera. The leaves between veins are slightly discolored, I can't really tell if that's "bleaching" or yellowing. Bleaching could be light related... come on the light is 28" above, it can't really want it even higher? The yellowing could be mag deficiency or something else....which given my run-off ph... makes me think maybe I got even worse or multiple problems. I sort of kind of noticed this yesterday while weighing the pots, but between everything else I was doing and going from normal light to led to led with glasses frankly I couldn't trust my eyes. Today it's more noticeable.



Then there was this:

Oh crap is that a spot??
Maybe drop of water I didn't clean off yesterday, or signs of other major problems to come?
My first thoughts are I'm seeing overall signs of nute deficiency, probably Cal\Mag or both, or frankly I think maybe other stuff too if my run off ph is anywhere near reality. I think I have a major flush coming my way soon.


So that's the recap folks.
What bothers me is that CC and WW are in the same soil and treated the same, yet WW has all these issues.
Now CC had a 'lite' version of the canoeing and tips turning in, but when I finished playing around with airflow it has seemed to go away. The WW has not, at all, and frankly should have been more affected from those changes in the first place.
I know different strains sometimes different reactions, but have hard time believing if soil is so fked up why different results. My concern there is since WW is days ahead in growth (but only in some ways), that problem will come for CC soon too.

Lower PH causing all sort of nute deficiencies especially cal-mag?
Heat stress with fairly stable temps and lights 2" above recommended height..on one plant, but not on the other?
Run off in the mid 5's... but soil itself (at least starting version of it) at 6.5?
Are rocks at the bottom of both pots causing issues? Would they alter run-off ph that much? Since both pots were built out 99% same even if I have water retention issues I would think both should be having similar problems, minus some tiny variance for literally how rocks,perlite,etc settled.

Broad mites? Sort of show similar symptoms with the waxy appearance and canoeing\taco'ing while not 'drooping' from the stem but the leaf. Hilarious thing of all the problems it could end up being the easier one to fix. My scope comes tonight so I can rule those out.

Over-watering? I mean maybe.. but come on.. once before seed, effectively once after that on day 9? and once on day 15, I got a hard time believing that, I actually could believe 'under watering' more.

-Soil
Bottom ~1" of pot:
--perlite layer (thin layer of perlite on top of rocks, enough to cover them but not much more)
---small bit of 1/2" long rocks (handful meant to keep some some of larger ones from moving around too much)
----1.25-1.5" long rocks (meant to keep dirt falling out 1" round holes built into pots)


Going to post in the help forums later today after I figure out how to word the post and figure out which pics and info to include to provide enough info without writing a novel. I prefer not to have to beg for help but I'm stumped and instead of shooting in the dark more time to get some outside opinions.

 

[Juny360]

Knighthawk, I think the bend on the main stem might be normal. Both of my candy canes have a slight bend almost like leaning. O let it be since the leaves were still supported and didn't seem to stress it.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 17 - Morning - Brittle battle.

Overview: Temp and RH all in range over night (71-81f; 45-65RH). CC and WW both added some height and little girth. CC now at 3.5" and has more cleared the pot height and WW is at a solid 4" if not hair more. CC has some leaves again trying to sort of grow out the side into other leaves. I'm wondering if side lights doing more harm than good, or maybe I need to raise them such they are more angled down ward? I'm sort of going to stop rotating my plants for a few days. I've now positioned them such the sides they have been growing toward sort of.. are inward now and the more spacious area of the pot gets more side light exposure... in theory, was done after today's photos were taken.

WW looks no better today, in fact her leaves seem brittle today. CC's are like that too but not as bad.
They may have already been that way... today was first real time I ever touched them on purpose.



Top Shots:



Miss Cane:


Sides: She def gained some height from yesterday


Close ups: Maybe side lighting is working too damn good? All this near ground level growth.



Mrs. Widow:


Sides: Beotch be like... yo stop making me case the light! She added like solid 1/2 inch in
last 24hr upward. If she's really getting light burned would she really do that?


Close ups: Not sure it's in there pics but that little burn\brown spot I noticed didn't get any bigger
today, nor did I find any more. In fact it looks some how smaller today vs yesterday. I hope
that was just from a water droplet or something but I doubt it.



---
My scope arrived:
I don't know how you're supposed to scope leaves on a live plant in pots that are only 4" in height. I mean I tried but my hands are way to shaky to do a good job at this. That said it was cool looking at the leaves for the few seconds at time I could be for I twitched or moved ever so slightly. <60x was easier to attempt than 60x-100x.. but still next to impossible. I cracked\tore one part of ww's leaves in the process of trying. From what little I can tell.. no I don't have mites... but given I could only spot check a few spots on a few leaves idk if that really means anything or not. All I could see were droplets of whatever both clear and random milky one and at 60x+ hairs. I could also see the tiny white spec here and there that I wondered about was indeed only flakes of diatomaceous earth. I tried checking out that 'burn spot' on the WW sorry my fking hands ain't steady enough and leaf not flat enough for me to even see around it or spot it with the scope.

It'll work fine I'm sure if I could pluck a leaf and rest it on desk other than that it's going to be a complete pain in the ass. Bottom line it was a half ass attempted this morning (I'll make a better one tonight maybe when I've not had 3 cups of coffee)..but from what little sample I took nothing was moving or looked anything like a bug.
---

Topping time?
I get the feeling it's about time to start topping\not topping and LST'ing these babies.. I kind of don't want to do either though if they are not well... but I know the clock is ticking on that especially the WW. There is already lots of shade happening I wish I could stop, especially on the CC... but she's so short wtf I supposed to do lol.
I mean some of her leaves are millimeters off the ground.

Thinking of raising all side lighting by 6".. and maybe even main light again 2" maybe force some height???
Could be dumb move though I only have 5-5.2ft usable light space,

I asked for some help about Mrs. Widow in the problems forum, maybe some kind soul will see what's wrong.
I probably fked up by righting a book in my asking for help... whatever I can't help it.


Advise about it being topping time (if I'm going to do it?) or almost would be welcome.

 

[Juny360]

Looking real good. Your CC are bushier then mine. It must be those side lights.
I may add some to mine lol

 

[knighthawktfc]

Looking real good. Your CC are bushier then mine. It must be those side lights. 樂
I may add some to mine lol

I gotta be honest... I don't know if they're doing more harm than good at the moment... but I do think they are contributing a little to the bushiness because that really started in last couple days with those side lights being added. I'd be loving it ... if the plant was 1" or 1.5" taller and that growth wasn't so damn close to the ground that it's nearly touching. That said it could also just be from the constant rotating I've been doing, but I'm slowing way down on that from here on out, I get the feeling it confuses them a little about where the light is.

 

[Juny360]

I gotta be honest... I don't know if they're doing more harm than good at the moment... but I do think they are contributing a little to the bushiness because that really started in last couple days with those side lights being added. I'd be loving it ... if the plant was 1" or 1.5" taller and that growth wasn't so damn close to the ground that it's nearly touching. That said it could also just be from the constant rotating I've been doing, but I'm slowing way down on that from here on out, I get the feeling it confuses them a little about where the light is.

Yeah mine aren't that tall neither. They are probably between 3-4". I think eventually they may hit their growth spurt and just take off on height.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Looking real good. Your CC are bushier then mine. It must be those side lights. 樂
I may add some to mine lol

BTW... do you not think Mrs. Widow looks sick?

 

[Juny360]

BTW... do you not think Mrs. Widow looks sick?

Ms. Widow looks good. She is taking off. I don't see anything wrong with her. She seems to be happy. I've been looking at her but paying more attention to your CC since I'm working on that also. The colors on the leaf..is that just the picture? Also what kind of light are you using again?

 

[knighthawktfc]

Ms. Widow looks good. She is taking off. I don't see anything wrong with her. She seems to be happy. I've been looking at her but paying more attention to your CC since I'm working on that also. The colors on the leaf..is that just the picture? Also what kind of light are you using again?

All LED lights:
This is what she looks like under normal light (flash used in pic though)

 

[Juny360]

All LED lights:
This is what she looks like under normal light (flash used in pic though)

She is looking realllll good. What kind of LED are you using? I've been debating on ordering the 300w LED either today or tommorow or if I should keep it with 8 CFL lights.

Ms. Widow..i can't wait till she starts flowering. Your plants seem to really like the LEDs.

 

[knighthawktfc]

She is looking realllll good. What kind of LED are you using? I've been debating on ordering the 300w LED either today or tommorow or if I should keep it with 8 CFL lights.

Ms. Widow..i can't wait till she starts flowering. Your plants seem to really like the LEDs.

She looks really sick to me... but hey what do I know, I'm relieved to hear maybe I'm being too paranoid. lol
At the moment I'm using a K3-600 (320 from wall) from Kind as the primary (came with my packaged tent combo setup), in the center of the two plants, and the 4 side\angle lights are mixed, 2x of the Vintage Grow 24w vg24w (12 from wall) and 2x of the Kyson 24w (16 from wall), one on each corner'ish pointing toward the undergrowth. That said I just tweaked sides a little to point more toward the tops.. least till they get 2" taller, cause I kind of don't like that the candy cane is like growing so much at literally ground level.

 

[Pennywise]

Looks nice and healthy to me .

 

[knighthawktfc]

Looks nice and healthy to me .

Thank you so much for mentioning that, I feel even better now that a very experienced hand says she looks ok as well.
I guess I'm just way too paranoid about my babies the first time around, guess I been chasing a non existent problem.

One question though, should she really feel kind of brittle? (the leaves, they're not 'crispy' or anything but they don't feel like the CC's)

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 18 - Morning - Shedding begins.

Overview - Environment range was little warmer 73-82 last hr; rh45-65. That's mainly because during the 90d day outside and during the babies sleep schedule I decided to clean my rooms AC evaporator and coils with some foam on cleaner, more on that later. Miss Cane and Mrs.Widow both added 1/2" in height, one is now 4" and the other about 4.5". Now that a couple folks have said Mrs.Widow looks pretty healthy I'm gonna try and be less paranoid, and may even drop the lights back down to 26" from 28" - or not move them as they grow up, flipping coin on that one, but that's for tomorrow, I'm doing my best to slow down with changes.

I did not rotate yesterday, I shifted them a little this morning (maybe 20d). I also found one of Miss Cane's leaves growing up into\under another leaf and it was wet with transpiration, I helped it into the air. In that vain
I will start using the second fan again now. For now I set it up well above the plants but just below the lights in the back right corner sort of blowing into the right front corner to let bounce the air around. Tried out my moving tower fan.. it's just not going to fit now that I have that grill\self at the bottom of the tent. I can force it but it'll be two close to plants in my view, and both fans I'm talking about are pretty strong on 'low'. Will see how today goes, sort of worried fans might lower rh a little.

I think I may top them both tonight after they wake up for a hour or two.

Mrs.Widow' main stem started Shedding.

Top Shot:



Miss Cane:


Sides: just cleared 4" I almost want to get rid of some leaves... can't believe I'm saying that.


Closeups: I might have to do some ponytail sessions maybe let the little guys underneath come out.


Mrs Widow:


Sides: I think that top shoot or it's inner shoot is about to get cut. :--)


Closeups: You know I'd like to start training these but I don't know what I can really train atm.
Also you can see Mrs.Widow' stem shedding. I'm aware that's normal, and that next the 2
original leaves will die\fall off in coming days.



A\C -
So I put watt\amp meter on my window ac unit again (I'd done this a month ago but forgot exact number), Expecting to see it using the 6.1 amps it's rated for around there, I was curious to catch it just
as compressor kicked on because I want to see what it spiked too (not bothered to look month ago). What I ended up finding was nuts.
Oh sure it's rated at 6.1 amps. Sure enough that's about where it starts as the compressor comes on, but..
It steadily climes like 0.01-0.02 amps a second there after until the compressor turns off at around 12!
WTF? I mean I've heard of AC's pulling more amps than there ratings for various reasons but double?

That's just straight scary, so I decided to clean the evaporator and condenser coils, something I think did once many many years ago but certainly have not done in the last 5 years, yeah I know that's bad. Anyway I did that while the babies were sleeping and the house AC could keep the room from baking while the lights were off.
omg the amount of crap on my evap coils, did 3 treatments and it could still use more, strangely my condenser coils were nearly spotless. Anyway I expected this to help, at least a little. It didn't, not very much anyway.
It does seems to climb at a slightly slower rate but still gets up to 11, so either I'm just overworking it or something else is wrong, either way I can't have it doing that. I'd pull it out of the window and entirely clean
it down with more cleaner and a hose but that process requires at least 12 hours if not 24 for it to sit and dry.
I don't have that kind of time, not till grow is over.

Bottom line - Time for new AC unit, the sooner the better. That was sort of part of the plan anyway, but I've been trying to push it off not only for the expense but a new one will probably be better at pulling moisture out of the air - something I don't want during veg phase. Then again I need cooler temps for flower, always a trade off. Anyway I'm eyeing what will probably be a POS LG 8k unit, rated for 6.3 amps (I suppose the new ones are more efficient...we'll see, probably not made to last though like older stuff), current one is Goldstar 6500k. Funny enough though... guess who Goldstar is today...LG.

Random: So after I pick up the AC cleaner at thd yesterday I'm at w-mart next door, figured 2 birds one trip.. decide to pick up some more distilled and a shitty air pump and a shitty bubbler from pet isle as well as 'ZeroWater' filter pitcher thing, and I just get in line to check out and what happens.... rushed evacuation of the building...bomb threat ... such a waste of my time, 3 more minutes and I would have been checked out.

 

[Pennywise]

Not sure what they feel like but they look happy as hell

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 19 - (Morning) - Topping of the Morning


Overview: Environment was stable last 24; 73-81 45-69RH. Grew quite a bit over night both added at least .5 of an inch, Mrs. Widow a bit more than that - wow. Funny enough they did the same last week around this same time.. about 2 days before watering. Today I topped both of them. Yup I wasn't planning to but originally, but screw it, just about every other plan went out the window so why not another. Frankly I think I should have topped both of these like 2-3 days ago, taking off 4th legit node, which I think I got on the CC but on the widow I definitely took off #5. So much material I took off feel so bad for my babies, I hope they don't hold it against me too bad. WW would have been pushing to nearly 6" today and CC 5.25"..before the chop anyway.

In other news I lowered the main 600w led down from 28" to 26", I left the sides alone so they are now sort of even\1" below the main. Two reasons, one I took inch off both of them, and two well.. all that troubleshooting the WW was probably mostly chasing ghosts - though I think that day 0-day 10 wind\env adjustment was legit needed. I don't think I'm gonna try closer, I need CC to come up an inch or two her leaves are going into the side of the pot, as are some of the WW. I guess that's sort of a semi-good problem to have.


Top Shot:



Miss Cane (before topping):


Sides: I really hate that she's got huge fan leaves growing into the sides of the pot.
I figured when they added height some of it would be from the base of the stem up.
Apparently not so much lol.



Closeups: She was about 5.25" before topping, having added like 1.5 inches in last 2 days.


Mrs Widow (before topping):


Sides: Pushing 6" before the chop! I think she definitely besides normal growth was reaching
a little for light.. yet another reason I lowered it a tad. That and penetration. I noticed
her bottom two sets of real leaves are doing what candy canes are doing now, sort of growing
into the ground... does not strike me as good thing, seem a little droopy too but maybe just
paranoia.



Closeups: That poor top...lol Sorry Miss widow I got to help expose all that sh1t going on
underneath. Even still I probably didn't take off 'enough'.




Topping:
So I busted out the brand new thin fiskers out of their package wiped on paper towel with some rubbing alcohol and just went for it. WW first, then clean\wiped and then CC. Mrs. Widow to my eye\count had at least 4 nodes below where I cut, I mean I could have gone one lower (between 3-4 and four) but there was so much meat to the stem and I'd be taking off so much above it... IDK it scared me frankly so I went one higher between 4-5. If I fucked up so be it. CC I think is basically the same, problem with her is the bottom two nodes are like so on top of one another that frankly I wanted to just count that as 'one' even though I didn't. grr I knew I should have done this Monday or Tuesday morning.

Whatever... some photos of the after and what I took off (I forgot to take a closeup 'before' on the WW though you can sort of see from daily photos above)

WW -After:


WW - The material:


CC - Before:

CC - The material:

CC - After:



Soil report:
-via knuckle method - First knuckle dry. Second... little moist\damp, dirt sort of sticks.
About the same in both pots, if you forced me to pick one that was more dry strangely enough I would say ww.

-via meter readings - 1-3" on both either dry-dry (like not registering) or middle of dry (depends a little where\how you place it). 4-6"... very low end of moist on WW and CC. Gently pushing further all the way down... low end of moist on WW, bit more moist on CC. I hate pushing father down that 3-4" btw.. feel like I'm gonna damage roots, in fact the older may babies get the less I'm gonna use the meters.

-via weight: I didn't measure today, I don't like moving them around if I don't have too, I might tomorrow, but CC feels much lighter than 2 days ago, as does WW, though marginally heavier... but I know she is marginally a heavier pot for whatever reason.

Conclusion - Definitely no water today. The 5-6 day plan would call for maybe water tomorrow\tomorrow night, but if not doing sunday (day 6 from last \ day 21 total) regardless and I will do with VEG nutes.
About those nutes, I will probably do 1/2 of what TFlora-"recipe for success" calls for because itself is a little lower than what's on the bottles, so by my math it'll be like 1/3rd ish of what's on the bottles. That said I'm debating maybe giving full 'recipe' dose of magi-cal part of the mix, in fact I'm pretty sure I will. While you can go overboard with that my understanding is it on the more unlikely side, especially since I'm using distilled\ro water again, so I think maybe it's worth a full scheduled dose - which on the magi-cal doesn't actual change between veg\flower\or pre-harvest.

Other:
- I noticed again this morning a transpiring leaf caught under another one on Miss Cane.
This is not good me thinks, I drapped a little of the water off (I think's water right?).
I don't know what I can really do about it right now, cause I can really bend anything out of the way atm. To try to mitigate it I've now changed the 'lower' fan I have to run at high and I tweaked it ever so slightly to point more down ward. Yesterday had it on low and pointing about even across at the wall with every so slight dip, I've just increased the dip about 3/4", and turn on high. Looking through the window of the tent now I can see a fairly constant twitch on Mrs. Widow and occasional one on Miss Cane. If I see the same issue tomorrow I may just totally reassess and move it such that it's blowing over them again much like I originally had it on day 0-3. They should be strong enough now to handle it ... I hope.

- I busted out the scope to check out the tops, the scope works fine... if you have the leaf off the plant lol. Anyway that was cool looking at all the clear hairs and stuff and the still clear\forming I guess tri's or maybe those are just micro water droplets. idk..but it was cool, thankfully I didn't see anything moving, not that I would on the tops anyway. My advise though for anyone that has the extra 10 or 20 bucks... Skip the 10-15$ ones, get a 25-35$ usb one.

I'm considering this one - Plugable Technologies - USB 2.0 Digital Microscope with Flexible Arm Observation Stand for Windows, Mac, Linux (2MP, 250x Magnification)
It's like 35$ on amz. It seems easier to use, and I could hook it up to my Surface pro and easier mangage looking at the leave on the plant by viewing on my screen and using one hand to sort of screw around holding and controlling it without my eye bumping into anything causing more movement. That said ... for late flower and just looking at trichs 10$ will do. For bug scanning without taking leaves off plant... you need something better in my opinion - plus I can easily take snap shots and in theory that one will do 250x, so maybe I can get 50 or 100x without having to get as close.




To do:
-Go waste some money at THD on new AC unit today and pray I don't get the lemon of the batch and it's no louder than my current one - we'll see if the claims of 54dba are actually true. Probably will not install till tomorrow though.
-Pick up some distilled and airstone and pump on my way back at wallymart.
-Pray to the 420 gods for my babies to make a quick recovery from having their heads chopped off.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 20 - Morning\Afternoon - First Real Feeding Day


Overview:
So temps were all in range again (maybe I should only mention from here on out if they are not), 72-82; RH 45-68% last 24hr.
Neither seems to add height since yesterday, though out leaves near the edge of pot seems to get bigger\grow a little... totally rubbing the edges now. height thing could be I lower the light yesterday, could be I topped them and their still pissed off at me a little, which I can understand, the place where I cut though the little top side growth tips themselves though did add a little girth so they were not completely stunted.

I watered today, they both weighted at or under 14lbs, More on that later. I added a 90d (45 left, 45 right) rotating fan to the set up who's 'low' setting is fairly gentle, I show pics of that tomorrow (added it just 1min before lights out so no time for pics). I put the other fan I'd been talking about the 'lower' one back to 'low' from it's high setting. That said while I did find some leaves that were touching again today (boo!), I only found one minor one that had transpiration water spots so I think the slightly added air movement did help a little.

I bought a new AC for the room, have not hooked it up yet, waiting for a cool morning to do it, I figure that's the best time while there is also some light out outside to see, hopefully that day will be tomorrow.


Top Shots:



Miss Cane:


Sides: Totally growing into the pot now, I might have to some how train them to grow up..
idk... maybe raise the side lights even higher? then again they're borderline pointless at that
point imho.


Closeups: Not really anything to say here lol, other than where I cut her continued to grow a little.


Mrs. Widow:


Sides: Lower leaves were very droopy today, they were sitting ON the soil for the most part.
I figured she probably was telling me it was water time, also she was smellier than yesterday
if that makes any sense.


Closeups: Progress to my eye on those two growth tips where I snipped yesterday, other than that not much to say
I did find the very tip\point of one of the fan leaves like missing, like the last 2mm of it?
I don't know what the hell that was, I assume either today or yesterday in all the movement I must of caused it.
Like I said she's a little on the crispy side in terms of leaves so I have to be real careful.



Watering:

So I check the soil today with mr.pinky as usual, first knuckle dust\dry, second knuckle...eh..barely damp in some areas (edges), but I would say still damp under all shaded areas near the stem. I lifted each pot, CC immediately stuck me as light, WW eh lighter than yesterday but hard to tell. I kind of would hate to water them on different days when they both take the same nutes, so I yanked them gently out of the tent and put them on the scale. CC 13-14, WW 14. I then whipped out the shitty meters... dry at 3" dry at 5" and wetter but still high end of 'dry' as far down as I could go on CC, WW was about the same though all the way down I would say it was high-dry very very low 'moist'. Decided fuck it, time to water, it's probably 12-18hr early on WW but so be it.

First I cut up little mini plastic cups to fit under the pot screen to catch the run-off (if i could) more directly without touching saucer.
All brand new cups I picked up yesterday think I got a set of like 50 for 99cents at walmart.. figured they'd be handy as hell for all this crap.

Nutes: Today I started with Veg Nutes on the Technaflora recipe for success, other than Cal-mag, I used 1/3rd dose for this first time (boost\grow\trivealive\sugardaddy), on the cal-mag I went 75-80% - (2ml for the gallon instead of 2.5ml).
PPM was about 400-420 (lol) after the ph'ing up from 5.4 to 6.6-6.7. Order: Boost first, little shake and swirl to the distilled bottle, then Grow, then a minor shake\swirl, then the T-Alive, little swirl, then the Sugardaddy, swirl, then the calmag, then swirl. Then I actually let it sit for about 2-3 minutes before testing\adjusting ph. I used my new syringes for all this, it was fun, and easier than measuring things with 1.25ml+ spoons I have (less chance of spillage\waste, and more exact), paranoid I flushed the syringe with a little distilled between each measuring, not wanting to taint one solution with a drop of another.

PPM IN: ~420, Full veg recipe per sheet says should be roughly ~1000ppm. So really I guess I went more like 40% that 33%... whatever probably the extra cal-mag bumping it from ~350 to 400....

I took a different approach this time around with actual watering.. less babying though still took too long:

First five\10min: (95% around edge\2" inward; using small water pitcher)
500ml to CC
500ml to WW
500ml to CC
500ml to WW
Waited about 5min
200ml to CC - more on the 2-3" in from edge area
200ml to WW - more on the 2-3" in from the edge area
(Running total: 1200ml)
Waited about 15 min for that 1200 to sink in.
...nothing...out he bottom.
200ml to CC - 85% right on edges
200ml to WW - 85% right on edges
(running total: 1400ml each - about what I think they needed)
Waited about 5-10 minutes. (nothing...gotta be shitting me right?)
200-225ml to CC - via squeeze controllable bottle 80% edge'ish area.20% middle.
200-225ml to CC - via squeeze controllable bottle 80% edge'ish area.20% middle.
(1600ml ish each)
Waited about 5-10 minutes maybe little more.
Some drops started, so waited another 5min playing around with pots and cups and crap trying to position stuff to catch drops.

This went on for like 20 minutes... till I had some stuff to test.
CC: ppm out 240 ph 5.7
WW: ppm out 225 ph 5.6
Eventually got about 150-200ml out of each.

Because the grate they sit on bend inward a little (making most of the run off come out one side of the pot), I turned both pots about 180 degrees. I then watered them again each with about 200ml and to be honest I was favoring the side away from where I thought it would drain.
CC: 200ml
WW 200ml
Waited about 5min and tried to get updated samples from this point as "tail end"
(~ about 1825ml each ; used up the gallon , keep in mind some got wasted during ph'ing process before hand that's where most of the missing ~100ml went (~3750ml in a gallon))

The cut-cups were sort of working, seemed to do best under the newer and wider holes I put in under the center'ish area of pots. actually I don't think I noticed anything come out the 'edge' holes I've drilled ever.. unless I pick up the pots and swish them around
to the side..etc. That said testing the cut-cup run off and the suctioned from saucer run off .. the ph difference was maybe 0.1. not major and makes me think, maybe not interfering as much as I might have hoped.

Tail end run off prior to lights going out (was still slowly draining):
CC: ppm ~230 (229-240) PH: 5.8-6.0 adjusted (5.69-5.81 on meter) btw also tested with droplets light orange for rough sanity check
WW: ppm ~230 (225-238) PH: 5.7-5.9 adjusted (5.61-5.72 on meter) btw also tested with droplets light orange for rough sanity check
Overall still scary ph for the run off, but slightly better than last watering.

Overall out by lights out was roughly ~300ml a piece of 1800, ~15%...with more to come while they sleep no doubt.. probably another 100-150ml is my guess, so 20-25%. I'm hoping tonight what's left to come out comes out closer to 6.0 than anything thus far, if I get some 5.85-5.9x meter readings I'll stop worrying about it - till I have too as adjusted that would be about 6\6.1.

Other\related to watering: I re-calibrated my pen again today before all this... turns out it was 'perfectly' calibrated even better prior to using the 7\4 solutions vs the 6.86\4.01 dissolving stuff originally used... Fuck my life I should have just left it alone when it read the 7.04 as 7.1, as my pen cal's to 6.86. I went ahead and cal'd it with the 7.04, so will read 6.85 basically meaning I gotta kind of + 0.1 or 0.2) to any reading I get. lol See what I get for not trusting I did everything right the first time ( I did).


AC:
I picked up an LG 8000btu unit yesterday. FU home depot online for telling me there were 7 at a near by store... There were none, had to then go 10miles away, and FU home depot employee who was completely unhelpful in double checking for me or explaining why the site was so damn wrong (they don't even carry the LG's there... each store carries different set in a region, some LG some GE some Fridgidare,etc). BTW interesting that the 8015e model and 8016er are in the same pile, difference is one takes r410 gas and 6.5 amps the other 6.2amps and r32 gas, I grabbed the 8016er as that's the one I looked up online which hilariously they state takes 6.3amps (lg's site too). Real encouraging huh. Anyway I got it unpacked, and now I await a cool morning between 6am and 9am so that I can swap it out without too much different in the temps. Hopefully it goes well, maybe tomorrow.

Random:
I picked up an air bubble stuff yesterday...no bomb threats this time! I forgot to use it today...lol FML. My procedure will be though to bubble the water prior to nuting it or ph'ing it. That way the bubble stone only gets distilled 7.0( or there about) water inside it... I don't want remnants of stuff contaminating other stuff. I feel like this may be all overkill anyway. I did after the first 500ml to each plant remember the o2 and just shuck the hell out of the jug.. probably did nothing.

Also my diet officially ended yesterday on schedule, lost 2-3 more lbs that I even wanted too, now <155. So I can add a couple hundred calories to my daily intake now, basically I'll still be 'tracking' for another 2 weeks but mainly because I need to make sure I take in more - lol, body is so used to ~1500 I need to let it know ~1800-1900 is now ok! I started at about 170 2 months ago, no working out (unlike last time around when I went from 180 to 155), just smart and anal eating choices (most bang for buck calories wise) and anal about tracking everything in. To those out there trying to lose weight... it's the hardest part for me but... dumping the soda for no-cal favored water is 1/3-1/2 the battle. Basically I'll eat about just the same as now, only I can add back a cocktail\beer or two finally!

Another way to long chapter completed.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 20 - Late Evening.

Checked up the ladies a couple hours after lights on. More drainage than I expected, once again telling me my pots take forever to drain.
Got 150ml more off the Miss Cane and just about 300ml off Mrs. Widow. My conclusion WW wasn't as thirsty as I thought probably could have waited another full day on her, that or she's a less thirsty strain. Anyway that's about 25% and 30% run off, bit more than I had intended, but not the end of the world.

But there was good new, actually great news if it's accurate. Using samples of this extra tail end run off (mainly from the saucers cause I didn't get that lucky with cups in the final round during lights-out), I got the following ph's:

CC: 6.28 -6.37 adjusted for the pen that's 6.3-6.5 ppm 330 (idk if it matters for ppm but sample cup for cc 1/2 size of ww)
WW: 6.18-6.29 adjusted for the pen that's 6.3-6.4 ppm 225 (odd that it was so much less, then again consistent at least with before)

I'm so relieved about finally getting some runoff in the 6 range, I ran to you-tube and played some kool and the gang celebration.

I still hate that it takes a solid hour or more for these pots to drain, but I've done about all I can do about that for this round, next time less rocks at bottom, and more perlite in the mixture itself.

Babies were looking much better tonight compared to morning, they were perky and calling for me to start some training, which I'll probably start a little bit of in the morning. One change I made I turned off the 'lower fan', the new one I added I could see before I opened the tent was already provide more than enough breeze in my opinion, combined seemed they might have been getting too much for their current state. Still have that 3rd one above the lights blowing slightly upward.

Oh pics of the new fan on the left and mr. "lower" fan on the right side.

left:


right: