H1gherD1mensionz 2nd Microgrow: Gelato Auto

Wondering if it's pH related since you're having to guesstimate the pH now. If it's off it could be locking things out.
I don’t use soil so I'm going to ask. How important ph is in soil? I have read soil growers don't check ph as the soil buffers it to what ever it actually is.opinions?
The light color on half the plant indicates to me that she isn't eating properly.
Possible root zone issues imo. Could be a lock out. What do you think?
Flush pot with ph,d water then feed again?
Bill
 
Depends if it's a true organic living soil or not really. If its not then pH seems to be pretty important. The soil will buffer to a certain extent but the best thing is to pH solution to 6.3 and then the soil will buffer that upwards so the plant gets the most access to all the nutrients as it drifts up in the 6.3-6.8 range. That's what I've been taught and following it seems to work. Logically makes sense too.

If it's a full living soil then apparently you don't need to pH the water. My GSC grow is full organic and I've continued to adjust the water pH down a bit as my tap water is pretty alkaline. That's the recommendation from the folks where I got the dry amendments.
 
Depends if it's a true organic living soil or not really. If its not then pH seems to be pretty important. The soil will buffer to a certain extent but the best thing is to pH solution to 6.3 and then the soil will buffer that upwards so the plant gets the most access to all the nutrients as it drifts up in the 6.3-6.8 range. That's what I've been taught and following it seems to work. Logically makes sense too.

If it's a full living soil then apparently you don't need to pH the water. My GSC grow is full organic and I've continued to adjust the water pH down a bit as my tap water is pretty alkaline. That's the recommendation from the folks where I got the dry amendments.
Thank you @VetSmoke85 soil isn't my forte.
What about his plant .
What do you think? Flush?
 
She showed no signs of thirst even after watering 2 days late
How do you know it was 2 days late? Do you water on a timed schedule?

You shouldn't need bloom nutes until she's properly started flowering. Best guess is either a pH issue or not allowing the pot to fully dry before watering again so the roots aren't happy.
 
Thank you @VetSmoke85 soil isn't my forte.
What about his plant .
What do you think? Flush?
Yeah I'd probably go with that. Flush with pH'd water then give a pH'd feed and allow the pot to fully dry before doing anything again. Like bone dry light as a feather.
 
How do you know it was 2 days late? Do you water on a timed schedule?
I wait until pot is lightest which usually takes 3 days. I watered 2 days after. I'll just have to buy another pH pen and treat it perfectly, what I didn't know is you're supposed to keep it in a pH 4 or 7 solution :eye-roll:
 
Day 29

Aside from a the issue, the rest of the plant looks nice.

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I wait until pot is lightest which usually takes 3 days. I watered 2 days after. I'll just have to buy another pH pen and treat it perfectly, what I didn't know is you're supposed to keep it in a pH 4 or 7 solution :eye-roll:
Yeah you're supposed to. I haven't. I bought a cheap pen and check the calibration every month or so. Which reminds me, it's overdue a check. Lol.
 
Yeah you're supposed to. I haven't. I bought a cheap pen and check the calibration every month or so. Which reminds me, it's overdue a check. Lol.
Do you keep containers with each solution or just make them fresh?

Also it seems the plant has already drank all that water. The pot is super light and I only watered 2 days ago.
 
Do you keep containers with each solution or just make them fresh?
I make up 5ltr containers and usually use them up over the course of a week. I check the pH each time though and adjust as necessary. Tends to rise back up after a few days. I believe it's due to being hard water.
 
Day 31

I decided to introduce some bloom nutes now just in case the plant was indeed hungry for it. I also plucked off a fan leaf which was covering new tops, along with one of those rusty deformed leaves.

Feed: 500ml water, 0.9ml acti-vera, 0.5ml grow, 0.2ml bloom, 0.2ml topmax, 1ml apple cidar vinegar. pH (unknown), ppm 450.

IMG_20210501_104500240.jpg


Day 32

She was looking a bit off prior to the feed but the next day she perks right up with vigor! The leaves also started to taco which was weird. To play it safe I lowered the light intensity a bit.

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Dodgy leaf & top view:

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Day 33

It has been a rough few days of trying to control the tent environment. Most it has been low humidity issues with some random temperature spikes. At this point I really hate calcium because it is causing so many issues such as clogging up carbon filter, fans, humidifier... The joys of hard water. A new pH pen should come this week too, hopefully before next feed.

As for LST I've found it enough to simply leaf tuck and gently push the stems into place. I'll continue to open the canopy up as the smaller tops that can't be seen in the pic shoot up.

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IMG_20210503_075811753_HDR.jpg
 
Day 31

I decided to introduce some bloom nutes now just in case the plant was indeed hungry for it. I also plucked off a fan leaf which was covering new tops, along with one of those rusty deformed leaves.

Feed: 500ml water, 0.9ml acti-vera, 0.5ml grow, 0.2ml bloom, 0.2ml topmax, 1ml apple cidar vinegar. pH (unknown), ppm 450.

IMG_20210501_104500240.jpg


Day 32

She was looking a bit off prior to the feed but the next day she perks right up with vigor! The leaves also started to taco which was weird. To play it safe I lowered the light intensity a bit.

IMG_20210502_192038119.jpg


Dodgy leaf & top view:

IMG_20210502_192109965.jpg
IMG_20210502_1923478541.jpg


Day 33

It has been a rough few days of trying to control the tent environment. Most it has been low humidity issues with some random temperature spikes. At this point I really hate calcium because it is causing so many issues such as clogging up carbon filter, fans, humidifier... The joys of hard water. A new pH pen should come this week too, hopefully before next feed.

As for LST I've found it enough to simply leaf tuck and gently push the stems into place. I'll continue to open the canopy up as the smaller tops that can't be seen in the pic shoot up.

IMG_20210503_075751210.jpg


IMG_20210503_075811753_HDR.jpg
Damned hard water
 
Day 36

Feeding day and she was looking a bit upset. I found it hard to find the best time to water her these few days. Some things arrived in the post also, the pH pen and the new addition of a microbial inoculant product called TNC Mycorr which has various species of bacteria and fungus. I don't have distilled water to calibrate so I won't be pHing this feed but the microbes apparently buffer pH so let's trust nature. I scraped away some soil near the roots to help it get watered in.

Feed: 600ml water, 0.9ml acti-vera, 0.2ml grow, 0.4ml bloom, 0.2ml topmax, 1ml apple cidar vinegar, 1 tsb microbes

I also took off a few lower fan leaves which had started going yellow due to being mostly in shade.

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Day 38

It seems the microbes and adding bloom nutes have done well for our Gelato girl. She has suddenly shown vigor and is putting on height at 15cm tall. Is this the flower stretch coming into play? My first grow was a stunter so I've yet to witness it. We are also approaching week 6 so this tells me she is going into flower now as I'm also seeing pistils shoot out everywhere. I had a look at other Gelato auto grows and it seems the plant often offers a long veg up to 5-6 weeks.

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Training has been going well as all the tops are forming an even canopy with none trying to race past the others, must have divided those auxins properly. The main cola is the top on the right corner.

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So far there are 8 main tops now. Can I expect more?

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Pistils

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Day 39

The main cola was getting feisty so I pulled her in line with the other tops and discovered 3 more tops, bringing us to 11. She must have heard me ask if there will be more. Also pulled off a big lower fan leaf going yellow in the shade. I've been lazy with getting some distilled water so the pH for this feed will also be unknown.

Feed: 700ml water, 0.9ml acti-vera, 0.2ml grow, 0.4ml bloom, 0.2ml topmax, 1.1ml apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp microbes, pH unknown, ppm unknown.

Day 40

Now that we are hitting flower it seems the plant is asking for less nitrogen (I'm barely using any to begin with?!) as a couple leaf tips are doing angles. Other than that I've just been managing the light intensity with the dimmer to make sure the temps stay under 27C as the weather warms up. I had to bring it down to 25% from 38% as it spiked to 27C in the tent when the pot was dry and humidity lower.

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Its a cheapo pen and definitely isn't calibrated. I've just eBayed 10ltrs of distilled water :eye-roll:... Should be here within the week, although I do feel it was the lack of bloom nutes because there are no weird leaves anymore.
 
I got a cheapy one and checked calibration when it arrived. Was less than .1 out to start with. Would still give you a ballpark figure and a little peace of mind I'm sure. She's certainly looking better now anyway.
 
Day 53

Hello guys its been a struggle to access this website through Tor so I've not been able to update the journal. It has been rough for the plant with obvious soil pH issues and my distilled water being delayed which prolonged the problems. Things seem to be correcting up now however.

If anyone knows why all of a sudden I can't access through Tor let me know. It takes like 5 mins or repeated refreshes to just load any page, otherwise it won't access at all.

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For the most part of this week her leaves were curling downwards, looking as if she was being under/overwatered, even when letting her stay dry an extra day. There was a case of overfeeding the activera where I increased the dose to keep her with the pH stress which resulted in some tip burn. My feeds however have been light around 400 ppm and she is definitely hungry as some lower leaves are yellowing. My bloom nutrient bottle had mold growing inside to my shock and I've ordered a fresh one and will be increasing the ppm next feed. Its unfortunate the pH pen had to go right on flower as I think this stunted the flower stretch.
 
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