Hippie 66 First Indoor Attempt

[ConstantGreen]

Yep, it has been impressive and they look great. I'm just giving you pre-emptive info that I wish I knew on my first grow. Instead of watering with "the slightest" amount of nutrients, for $20 you can know exactly how much you're feeding and how much the plant is using and figure out the optimal amount to feed with. The soil mix has been doing all the work for you but now that you're using bottled nutrients it falls on you to feed them properly.

 

[Hippie66]

Yep, it has been impressive and they look great. I'm just giving you pre-emptive info that I wish I knew on my first grow. Instead of watering with "the slightest" amount of nutrients, for $20 you can know exactly how much you're feeding and how much the plant is using and figure out the optimal amount to feed with. The soil mix has been doing all the work for you but now that you're using bottled nutrients it falls on you to feed them properly.

So, are you saying that the level of solids In my water would directly affect the amount of nutrients I would need to add? If any.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Yep, the level of dissolved solids. For example here the wells are all limestone so the water is high in calcium. If you feed the base nutrients + whatever unknown amount of calcium, you may eventually get a toxic buildup of calcium and the high ppm will affect transpiration. Another example: If you want to give your plants 800 PPM of botanicare grow, but your water's base PPM is 300, you'd be watering them at 1100 PPM. You do want to adjust once you know your water's base PPM, so instead you would only feed with 500 PPM of botanicare for the total of 800 PPM. 800 PPM is just an example. The optimal amount to feed with will change every week and you can measure your runoff PPM to determine if the soil is depleting all of the nutrients as often as you give them. If the PPM in your runoff starts to climb, back off nutrients.

 

[Hippie66]

Ok folks I have an issue. Today while rotating and defoliating, I noticed some creepy little lice like bugs on my girls. Spider mites I assume? Bastards gotta go. Any advice appreciated. Will try to photo one. (Or ten)

 

[Hippie66]

Too fast, too small

 

[Hippie66]

So, this morning big momma mixed up a batch of homebrew spray for me and I sprayed them down before lights out. I first defoliated them heavily and torched the trimmings and a bunch of the little bastards in the process. On the advice of the guru Lembatoast, I will buy some azamax and hit them again in a couple of days with that. All the info I could find says use a two to three pronged approach as the little bastards can become immune to the products quickly. Looked like young mites, to me a lot of them, however no webs. Just some curled leaves that had an "oily" looking Sheen to them and the creepy crawlers themselves​. Very little spotting. Hopefully I caught them early enough. Will update in a few days.

 

[Hippie66]

 

[Hippie66]

Did another defoliation yesterday and removed any leaves that showed signs of mites. They are pesky little bastards. Hit them with the azamax today and gave them a light feeding.

 

[Hippie66]

Just gonna have to stay on them and keep treating them with the home brew one week and the azamax the next. Still hoping to go to 12/12 by May first.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

How old are gets hippie....Look about like mine ...I'm almost at 5weeks..Looking at 12/12 in 10 days ish myself

 

[Hippie66]

How old are gets hippie....Look about like mine ...I'm almost at 5weeks..Looking at 12/12 in 10 days ish myself

Tuesday will be eight weeks above ground. They are a bit stunted. Took a lot off of them in an effort to fight the spider mites and open the canopy for the undergrowth.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

They look great.......Great job killing the critters

 

[Hippie66]

They look great.......Great job killing the critters

It's an ongoing battle. Defoliated, spray, defoliated, spray. Just trying to stay on top of them. They are a scourge. I wish them on noone.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Could the insects be springtails? Tiny white crawling things? I've had them in every bag of happy frog I've bought. They're attracted to organic soil and some species can be beneficial. I've never noticed them do any harm.

I've been lucky to never have spider mites and I think you can differentiate between them because spider mites like to hide under the leaves and are very tiny, I think you need a scope to see them until their web structures become obvious. I find springtails crawling around in the soil, on the rims of the pots, and on tops of my leaves.

 

[Hippie66]

Could the insects be springtails? Tiny white crawling things? I've had them in every bag of happy frog I've bought. They're attracted to organic soil and some species can be beneficial. I've never noticed them do any harm.

I've been lucky to never have spider mites and I think you can differentiate between them because spider mites like to hide under the leaves and are very tiny, I think you need a scope to see them until their web structures become obvious. I find springtails crawling around in the soil, on the rims of the pots, and on tops of my leaves.

Well, now that you mention it, it could be. I don't see them hopping around however. I started noticing shiny curled leaves and on further inspection noticed the critters crawling on top of and under the leaves. Kind of scurrying about. They are very small and quick but they can be caught between a finger and leaf with a pinch. At this point I would still say mites as I have found minor damage on some of the leaves. I will keep it in mind and do further research. Thank you V.

 

[Hippie66]

General Question folks. What should the pH of my runoff water be at approximately?

 

[Hippie66]

I am currently pulling 6.4-6.6.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Sounds perfect. I think 5.8 is the sweet spot for hydro and 6.2 for soil. But anything between 5-7 is fine really.

 

[Hippie66]

 

[Hippie66]

11 days til 12/12.