HashGirl's First Indoor Grow: Dark Devil Autos In Hempy, 2020

[politoed]

Thank you, politoed.

I usually try to get between 5.5 and 6 but I'm finding it's harder to adjust the pH just a little with the new pH meter. When it reads 6.3 and I only want it to drop down less than half a point, adding one drop can drop it all the way down to 2 something so that's why I settled in at 6.3.

I will do my best to get it between 5.5 and 6 going forward.

which ph meter are you using? bluelab makes a really good one for like $160 (i know its crazy) but it does both soil and solutions, so you can use it to measure everything. its super accurate.

how often do you calibrate yours? should be done before initial use, after being dropped, stored for a long time, etc. the cheaper ones definitely need to be calibrated and replaced more often. i do mine like once a month just to be safe. a pack of ph4/ph7 solutions is pretty cheap and well worth it. i know it might seem excessive, but i just hate having any variables to blame if something goes wrong. it makes diagnosing the issue and deductive reasoning much harder and way more time consuming.

what are you using to change the ph? i use GH ph down. around week 3 (my tap water comes in around 7.5-8 after sitting out 24 hours), the nutes usually bring me down to about 6.8 and 1.25ml of ph down does the trick. i just go in small doses because if you find youre overshooting and then needing ph up, its raising the PPM of your solution for no reason. hope this helps! it was annoying for the first few weeks but once i got a routine down it becomes second nature

 

[HashGirl]

That's 420% correct!

Keep in mind that in recirculating hydro you change the reservoir once per week and, over time, the PH tends to drift up. So, with recirculating hydro I'd PH at 5.5 and monitor every day. If/When PH got to 6, I'd PH back down to 5.5.

Since Hempy is drain-to-waste and not recirculating, you won't have as much time for the PH to drift up before the next feeding, so I'd aim right for 5.8.

Great! Thank you, Mr. Krip. As always, your advice is much appreciated.

 

[HashGirl]

which ph meter are you using? bluelab makes a really good one for like $160 (i know its crazy) but it does both soil and solutions, so you can use it to measure everything. its super accurate.

how often do you calibrate yours? should be done before initial use, after being dropped, stored for a long time, etc. the cheaper ones definitely need to be calibrated and replaced more often. i do mine like once a month just to be safe. a pack of ph4/ph7 solutions is pretty cheap and well worth it. i know it might seem excessive, but i just hate having any variables to blame if something goes wrong. it makes diagnosing the issue and deductive reasoning much harder and way more time consuming.

what are you using to change the ph? i use GH ph down. around week 3 (my tap water comes in around 7.5-8 after sitting out 24 hours), the nutes usually bring me down to about 6.8 and 1.25ml of ph down does the trick. i just go in small doses because if you find youre overshooting and then needing ph up, its raising the PPM of your solution for no reason. hope this helps! it was annoying for the first few weeks but once i got a routine down it becomes second nature

We just bought a new pH meter last week. It's a Nutri Plus but my husband has just informed me that it's no longer working and the store we usually get them from is closed today since it's Sunday. He's not overly thrilled about putting out money for a good pH meter as we have hard water and it really mucks up anything that comes in contact with it.

We're using GH ph down and up along with GH's calibration solutions.

 

[Mr. Krip]

We just bought a new pH meter last week. It's a Nutri Plus but my husband has just informed me that it's no longer working and the store we usually get them from is closed today since it's Sunday. He's not overly thrilled about putting out money for a good pH meter as we have hard water and it really mucks up anything that comes in contact with it.

We're using GH ph down and up along with GH's calibration solutions.

You can get the PH Test drops. They're inexpensive, not quite as accurate (accurate enough, though!) and much more reliable with no calibration needed.

NOTE: Managing PH is critical with any form of hydro. Less so, with soil which is a natural PH buffer.

 

[FelipeBlu]

I was told 5.5 to 6.5 was the range.

PH of media or res?

5.5

We mixed up the full gallon and then poured a little bit of the mixture to test the PH. Initially, it registered at 6.7 (?) but after some back and forth with PH up and PH down, we got it to 5.5 PH.

I grew in perlite hempys for a number of years. Hempy is treated like Hydro (NOT soil) so you have the wrong PH chart there. You should be aiming for around 5.5-5.8 and use Hydro nutes since there are no microbes to break down the soil nutes.

No nutrients needed at first, pH around 5.5-6.0 (I aim for 5.8), water/fertigate until you get a strong stream out of the hole (at least 10% runoff).

And, there you have it. pH was 5.5.

The only thing I do is check and adjust the pH before using the premixed solution, since my cannabis plants like it around 5.5 to 6.2

I gotta tell you though, this whole pH thing is a pain in the butt. It takes longer to get the pH right than it does to water the darn things in the first place. The final pH number was 5.5.

pH adjustments are much easier in larger volumes. Try adding a little at a time (10 drops from syringe) until you get to about 5.5, then let it sit for a while. It will likely creep up a bit.

I actually use 5.5 to 5.6 because it will drift up to 6.3 to 6.5 in a day, which gives a good range for all elements.

I like 5.8 to 6.0.

And the consensus is pH should be 5.5 to 6.0 - I couldn’t find anywhere someone told you to initially set the pH above 6. It may drift above 6 between fertigations (if you bothered to measure your reservoir), but pH should always start between 5.5 and 6.0!

 

[HashGirl]

And the consensus is pH should be 5.5 to 6.0 - I couldn’t find anywhere someone told you to initially set the pH above 6. It may drift above 6 between fertigations (if you bothered to measure your reservoir), but pH should always start between 5.5 and 6.0!

Smart ass!

Do you have any opinion on the droopy leaves photo I posted this morning of DDA1?

The leaves encircling the top flower on DDA1 are curled under. Is this normal or something that I need to correct?

 

[Mr. Krip]

I would think, if you get your PH in-check, the "clawing" issue would go away. It can also indicate Nitrogen toxicity but you've been under-feeding, IMHO, so I don't believe it would be that.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Actually, I think you're still feeding veg nutes, correct? If so, please get them on their bloom nutes ASAP!

 

[FelipeBlu]

Yes, I have an opinion. To me, it looks like DDA1 is one sensitive prima donna. She is showing classic signs of nitrogen toxicity, despite being given the same dose as DDA2. I don’t have any experience with the Flora trio, but you could try backing off on the Grow by 1ml, and increasing the Bloom by 1ml.

As Krip said, make sure that your pH pen is calibrated, and that you’re between 5.5 and 5.8 initially.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I usually try to get between 5.5 and 6 but I'm finding it's harder to adjust the pH just a little with the new pH meter. When it reads 6.3 and I only want it to drop down less than half a point, adding one drop can drop it all the way down to 2 something so that's why I settled in at 6.3.

Again, if one drop of pH adjuster causes that much of a change, your meter is a POS and should not be used. (Or else your drops are the size of bowling balls, I suppose.) The pH scale is a logarithmic one, meaning that a whole-number increase of the acidity of a thing equates to it becoming ten times as acidic as it was before. Or else you're using it within a few feet of a strong source of EMI/RFI noise. Or its calibration point (and "slope," assuming it's capable of a two-point calibration) is so badly off that... Actually, I don't even know if those last two possibilities are even really possible, in practical terms, in regards to causing this kind of issue. So my guess is "POS meter."


EDIT: I just read on, and saw this:

We just bought a new pH meter last week. It's a Nutri Plus but my husband has just informed me that it's no longer working

...so I guess you finally figured it out and I didn't need to post the above (apologies for not "catching up" in a thread before starting my replies to individual posts in it).

I've always had good luck with the Milwaukee Instruments pH 56 handheld pH meter. A little pricey, sure. But... You may have gotten the impression that I'm not exactly rolling in piles of cash, lol, and I still consider things like decent test equipment and lighting to be valuable/important enough to save up (and do without the occasional meal) for. That ought to tell you something . I just checked, and this model is still being produced. Here's a link to it:

Milwaukee PH56 PRO Waterproof 2-in-1 pH/Temp Tester with Replaceable Probe

Milwaukee is your best source for pH, TDS, ORP testers, meters, monitors and controllers. Upgrade to Milwaukee for affordable, high performance digital measurement.

milwaukeeinstruments.com

NOTE: Link is for information/reference purposes only!

He's not overly thrilled about putting out money for a good pH meter as we have hard water and it really mucks up anything that comes in contact with it.

I do, too. Have to run a pot full of white vinegar through the drip coffeemaker at least once a month (and you should see the crap that comes out and ends up on the filters that I throw in just to... see what comes out).

But it shouldn't be a factor, here. After all, you'll be storing the probe in storage solution or pH 4.## calibration solution, not tap water (and certainly not distilled water!). And one assumes you'll rinse it - or at least give it a quick dip - in distilled or otherwise low PPM water after each use and give it a light shake before putting it away, right?

I found a little trick to use when 1 drop is too much for ph up/down. Use the dropper and add some Ph up/down solution then empty it back into the bottle then use the residue in the dropper for increasing or decreasing the PH less than 1 drop would do. Hope that makes sense.

Or mix up a solution of 50% pH adjuster and 50% distilled water to make a product that is only 50% as strong as what you started with (25% pH adjuster and 75% distilled water for one that is only 25% as strong, etc.)

 

[TorturedSoul]

I would think, if you get your PH in-check, the "clawing" issue would go away. It can also indicate Nitrogen toxicity but you've been under-feeding, IMHO, so I don't believe it would be that.

At the very least... well... A mechanic cannot repair an engine with a set of broken tools, lol. Faced with the choices of depending on a faulty pH meter and just guessing, I'd forego the meter and guess. After all, that at least allows common sense to come into play. If the pH of the nutrient solution is badly out of kilter, there's no way NOT to have some kind of nutrient issue, and often you'll end up with more than one. Especially if you try to correct a different problem than the one you actually have.

Get a good quality pH meter and take excellent care of it. Then, instead of causing problems for you, it will be a tool that can save your plants. This hydroponics stuff is easy, once you learn how it works. But you do have to learn it, and if the things that you have to depend on in order to learn, see how everything works (and works together), identify / correct / understand / prevent issues, et cetera are not working correctly, well... that kind of thing can cause headaches, stress, wasted/lost time, poor performing plants, low yield.... might even be enough to cause a person to think, "This is too hard, I cannot learn to do this," when that's absolutely not the case at all.

DDA does seem to be a bit of a "picky eater," though. I wonder if one or more of its ancestors came from a region of the world where the nutrition value (whatever you call it) of the soil is rather poor.

 

[HashGirl]

Actually, I think you're still feeding veg nutes, correct? If so, please get them on their bloom nutes ASAP!

Yes, I'm currently feeding them nutes for Late Growth. I believe I should be feeding them as per the Week 6 guidelines, well 1/4 strength of course. Do you concur?

 

[Amy Gardner]

Hey HG - that PH dance sounds tricky and impossible with a broken pen.

Not for now, and i think you will get some Nice DDA buds to try out of this, but if you are interested to try something different next time, many members here use ProMixHP as their subsatrate and grow as if it is soil. It is a “buffered medium” like any well-prepred soil, meaning it is pH stabilised, and doesn’t require you to PH your nutes water at all. It’s also very lightweight so the pots won’t be too much heavier (plus they wont be wet all the time).

Plus, growing in soil, there are stages in the grow where you’re just waiting for them to dry out and you dont ahve to do anything for days!

In the ProMix medium (or FauxMix® if you’re DIY inclined) you can use any nutrient line you like (incl. home made organic nutes) so you could continue to use what you have. Just thoughts for the future - i find I am always planning the next grow by about this stage

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yes, I'm currently feeding them nutes for Late Growth. I believe I should be feeding them as per the Week 6 guidelines, well 1/4 strength of course. Do you concur?

The plants are either in transition or full flowering mode, depending on how you look at it.

 

[HashGirl]

The plants are either in transition or full flowering mode, depending on how you look at it.

If it's an 80 to 90 day plant and it's currently at day 41 then I hold firm with my Week 6 guess. (Although, if it's a guess, it's probably not a firm answer. )

 

[HashGirl]

Hey HG - that PH dance sounds tricky and impossible with a broken pen.

Not for now, and i think you will get some Nice DDA buds to try out of this, but if you are interested to try something different next time, many members here use ProMixHP as their subsatrate and grow as if it is soil. It is a “buffered medium” like any well-prepred soil, meaning it is pH stabilised, and doesn’t require you to PH your nutes water at all. It’s also very lightweight so the pots won’t be too much heavier (plus they wont be wet all the time).

Plus, growing in soil, there are stages in the grow where you’re just waiting for them to dry out and you dont ahve to do anything for days!

In the ProMix medium (or FauxMix® if you’re DIY inclined) you can use any nutrient line you like (incl. home made organic nutes) so you could continue to use what you have. Just thoughts for the future - i find I am always planning the next grow by about this stage

Thanks, Amy. My intention had been to grow in ProMix but SweetSue talked me out of it and insisted that hempy was the best way to grow and since she was supposed to be my mentor, I let her convince me. Thank God for the Hempy Headquarters crew!

Felonious wanted me to learn how to grow in dirt so that I could help him identify issues that he has when growing in dirt.

He has plans to try coco coir soon so that might be the next medium I try so that he and I can learn together.

And, of course, I still have lots of perlite left so I'll probably do hempy a few more times as well.

Also, we won't be using organic nutes, at least not while they're so stinky. I am highly sensitive to scents and I just can't work with anything that is that stinky.

 

[Amy Gardner]

I get the smell thing! Was just saying that to illustrate how versatile it is as a medium.

I tried a Coco grow - doing a grow that absolutely has to have something done every day or every second day is just not suitable for me. Coco was to demanding in that way. If I do it again i’d be using a drop system or something for sure. It really seems to me that the forgiving and low-maintenance soil/soilless medium would suit you very well - Sue can be very persuasive!

 

[Amy Gardner]

BTW - fauxmix requires a ton of perlite to make, Just sayin’! If you went DIY on that front you would make good use of your perlite for sure. Plus you live in the home of great quality SPM!

 

[FelipeBlu]

Hi HG,

Using the Flora Trio, Late Growth (week 3 and extended veg) provides (full dose):

110 ppm N
23 P
112 K
81 Ca
27 Mg

Early Bloom (weeks 5 and 6) provides (full dose):
71 N
34 P
76 K
65 Ca
31 Mg

Mid-Bloom:
71 N
40 P
86 K

Late Bloom:
65 N
52 P
71 K

At the end of week 1 of flowering (regardless of day, for an Auto), you should probably be using the full Early Bloom dose on their schedule.

 

[Mr. Krip]

I agree with Felipe but I also like to take "baby steps", especially in hydro, and since you've been giving them 1/4 dose early veg, I'd give them 1/2 dose of early bloom and, assuming they take that fine, up it from there. You definitely want to start pushing the nutes, though.