NL Auto In Dirt With CFL

[DreamsOfGreen]

Good evening friends! Not much to update, this tiny little girl is apparently just doing her thing. I placed her entire smart pot inside a three gallon bucket I drilled holes in the bottom of to give her a bit more room. Used the same mild seedling mix, coco, and perlite as before. Haven't fed her anything or watered since the "transplant" (if you can even call it that). She's taking them all on the chin like a champ; I started her in poor conditions, I've kept her in poor conditions, I've used miracle gro, I topped her, and I up-potted an auto. Basically she should be giving up by now but bless her little heart she wants to grow up and be a J someday.

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

Hey all, wanted to update since I haven't in a bit. She's putting out pistils all over the place now, and has grown about 4" in the last week. Nodes are alternate instead of opposite now. Finally got around to testing my ph, and it doesn't look great. I'm pretty confident any issues she's exhibiting are from that. Soil ph was high, like 8.5 so I didn't even bother adjusting ph on her water which was about 5.0 after I added half strength nutes. I used the mix recommended for the "transition week" containing both boom and veg ferts since she's still stretching. Pics to come later, ones I took are indistinguishable due to not taking them outside of the red/purple glow of led

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

Here are the natural(ish) light pictures as promised. As you can see there's still some yellowing on the leaves, and in the side pic you can see some clawing. Next watering I'll do a flush to try and beat that a bit. Any recommendations?

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

Hey hope everyone had a green 420. If there's anyone who can offer some help I'd appreciate it. The girl is 40 days old and very obviously having some trouble. I mentioned earlier a pH problem, but in the intervening time between my last post and this I discovered the very high (8.0) pH problem to be persistent, and accompanied by an odor of ammonia. Even after adding nutes without adjusting for pH, hoping the acidic mix would balance the pH, it spiked back up. I now believe the pH issue was a symptom of poor soil drainage and a less than ideal container which was becoming compacted. It could have been microbes generating ammonia in a slightly hypoxic environment which would have been adding a continuous supply of base to the soil accounting for my high pH. To try to mitigate this just last night I used a long thin rod to poke holes deep into the soil hoping to provide better aeration, poured a diluted hydrogen peroxide (hopefully to decompose to water and O2 and better oxygenate the soil) then poked more holes in the soil. This morning the ammonia odor was completely gone, but she still looks like this. Hopefully another couple days of good aeration will help me balance the pH and unlock the nutrients she is so obviously missing. When I do feed (only once since she quit stretching) it has been half strength GH coco bloom plus calmag. Any help would be huge, I feel like I'm either losing her or killing her potential yield. Thanks everyone, and hope you all have dreams of green!

 

[Frenchy672]

are you using tap water? why not try distilled for a flush[es]? is the runoff the 8 or is that the actual soil pH? I'm sure you'll get it figured out. hope you enjoyed your holiday!

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

are you using tap water? why not try distilled for a flush[es]? is the runoff the 8 or is that the actual soil pH? I'm sure you'll get it figured out. hope you enjoyed your holiday!

Thanks for the input. I actually have been using RO water, and tried flushes at the first instance of symptoms. I think that only further compacted the soil exacerbating the issue. The soil itself sits at 8, and runoff is close when using just water, and when using nutes the runoff is about 7.2-7.5

 

[Rifleman]

What was the outcome of the mold on the outside of the container? Could the mold, ammonia smell, be connected to decomposition in the root zone? IDK, just throwing it out there. I've killed every soil plant I've ever tried to grow.

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

What was the outcome of the mold on the outside of the container? Could the mold, ammonia smell, be connected to decomposition in the root zone? IDK, just throwing it out there. I've killed every soil plant I've ever tried to grow.

Haha well I'm well on my way to joining you in that record RM. Turns out the "mold" was root hairs, about a day after that post tips of little white roots poked out of the smart pot every place that fuzz was growing. That being said I do think the ammonia smell is root zone decomp, I just don't know if anyone has a work around for when your soil starts cooking with the damn plant in it!

 

[OlderGrower]

Hello DreamsofGreen,
A mutual friend PM'd me and asked me to stop in and take a look at your ladies to see if I could offer any assistance which may be beneficial to you. I read your whole journal, thank goodness it is not very long, and I am replying to different posts you posted so we can get an idea where you got sidetracked.

Hey Frenchy thanks for paying your respects to the other girls. The MG is the "feeds for three months" kind, but I flushed it out hard core prior to even starting. Hopefully that cooled it off a bit.

Define hard core, one mans hard core is another mans typical watering. A standard flush is a 3 to 1 ratio, so if your plant was in a 1 gallon pot then you would need to flush 3 gallons of water through it to just get a basic flush. When I flush I find that in order to get a good flush I need to flush at at least a 5 to 1 ratio if not higher. So if I have my plant in a 5 gallon smart pot it will take a minimum of 25 gallons of water to get a decent flush. When I flush I start out by reading the PPM of the water I am pouring through, then get a reading of the water as it comes out of the pot.I will only PH the 1st 5 gallons and the last 5 gallons since there is little chance the 15 gallons in-between will be staying in the pot, but it does not hurt to PH all of the water used for flushing.

12 days from seed. Topped off the pot with some low fert organic seedling mix to prevent that moisture wicking from the rockwool (thanks STIHL).I'm beginning to wonder why I tried my first attempt in hydro. This soil is the bees knees. I'm mostly just staring lol. No res or anything to maintain just so, no additional pumps or tubes or air stones...I like it

When you introduce soil to your plant go ahead and fill the cup up and cover up the rock wool. Rock wool is an inert medium and has nothing in it that is beneficial to the plant but the soil does. By filling up the cup to about 1 inch below the lip of the cup you are giving your lady a place to establish her roots. Strong roots = strong plant. At this stage of your plants development it will spend most of its energy developing a root system so that it can get the moisture and nutrients it needs to start developing the part of the plant above the soil.

Looking good! Not sure how much advice I could offer that isn't just regurgitated from seeing it on other more experienced growers here lol.
Here's the girl this morning. Gave a foliar of mild kelp yesterday, turned the lights out for a couple hours while it dried. Is this mold near the bottom of my smart pot? I haven't really watered yet, just half cup-fulls like twice in two weeks. I'm wondering if it's from the pre flush I did to cool off the MG. I did drop in some myco after that pre flush, could this fuzz be a healthy colony of beneficial? Hope so....

Couple of questions at this point, I am guessing these are 1 gallon smart pots, but I could be mistaken and they could be 2 gallon smart pots but if I was going to place a bet, I would say 1 gallon. From a solo cup the 1 gallon pot is the best choice, but it should be transplanted just as the plant is on the verge of becoming root bound. I have heard from others on this site that you should allow the plant to become root bound then score the roots when you transplant but I have always had great success doing it before they become root bound soon being old and stubborn I will continue to do it my way
The white fuzzy looking stuff at the bottom of the pot could be where the root hairs have grown through the fabric of the pots and died because they were in direct light..or it could be signs of Powdery Mildew. I would be looking very closely at this with a pocket micro-scope. If it is PM it will look like a fine white spider web under the microscope. It spreads quick and is a bitch to contain, but it can be dealt with. The discoloration in the fabric is from nutrient build up. I am not sure HOW you water, but the way I do it and the way many other growers do it is when we water we water till the soil is completely saturated and comes out the bottom of the pot. After a few minutes and the excess water has had a chance to drain from the pot, then we soak up the excess either through the use of a shop vac, towel, or even a turkey baster. Nutrient build up, aka salts are pushed down by gravity and carried with that water. Some of it stays in the fabric of the pot. When your pots get this around the bottom of your pot around 1 to 3 inches up all around your pot, it is time to flush your plants on the next watering. Or it could be an early sign of PM aka Powdery Mildew.

Twenty days from seed today. I went ahead and lopped off her top growth down to the third node. From what I understand, with the autos you want to do it sooner than later if you don't want to goof up the plant while flowering. Still haven't cracked open the box with the LED yet, but that should be soon!

20 days from seed, at this point you should have added "Zero" nutrients to this gal, remember less is more.

Good evening friends! Not much to update, this tiny little girl is apparently just doing her thing. I placed her entire smart pot inside a three gallon bucket I drilled holes in the bottom of to give her a bit more room. Used the same mild seedling mix, coco, and perlite as before. Haven't fed her anything or watered since the "transplant" (if you can even call it that). She's taking them all on the chin like a champ; I started her in poor conditions, I've kept her in poor conditions, I've used miracle gro, I topped her, and I up-potted an auto. Basically she should be giving up by now but bless her little heart she wants to grow up and be a J someday.

When you up pot you are adding more soil, which means you are adding MORE nutrients by the mer fact that you added more soil for the plant to use. MG soil is a hot soil which is why it is not really a good soil for young plants, but once they get hearty it is fine to use on them, but remember, that soil is HOT to begin with, The standard with soil is 3 to 5 weeks with no feeding nutrients because the soil already has the nutrients in the soil, then around week 4 you can start supplemental feeding them by using 1/4 strength nutrients for a week or two then bumping it up to 1/2 strength for at least a week before giving them full strength nutrients.. Keep in mind, every time you up pot your plant you are adding fresh soil which has nutrients in it already so that pushes the time out before you start feeding them anything besides PH'd H2O, ph'd from 6.2 to 6.6.

Hey all, wanted to update since I haven't in a bit. She's putting out pistils all over the place now, and has grown about 4" in the last week. Nodes are alternate instead of opposite now. Finally got around to testing my ph, and it doesn't look great. I'm pretty confident any issues she's exhibiting are from that. Soil ph was high, like 8.5 so I didn't even bother adjusting ph on her water which was about 5.0 after I added half strength nutes. I used the mix recommended for the "transition week" containing both boom and veg ferts since she's still stretching. Pics to come later, ones I took are indistinguishable due to not taking them outside of the red/purple glow of led

ALWAYS PH.....

I am by no means an expert on soil grows and will be the 1st to say there is much to learn, but I primarily grow in soil and just started growing in DWC this last grow. A few things I have learned is "Less is More" and do not make it anymore complicated then it needs to be. I see you mentioning your soil PH, in all honesty, I have never once ever tested my soil PH, I test the PH of my water and I test my PH of my water after I add nutrients before I pour it into the soil, other then that, it is like who made the most 3 point shots in 1999, interesting tidbit of information but does not really help me much. Make sure you always PH down to 6.2 to 6.6 preferably 6.5 if you can get it and your done.

Hey hope everyone had a green 420. If there's anyone who can offer some help I'd appreciate it. The girl is 40 days old and very obviously having some trouble. I mentioned earlier a pH problem, but in the intervening time between my last post and this I discovered the very high (8.0) pH problem to be persistent, and accompanied by an odor of ammonia. Even after adding nutes without adjusting for pH, hoping the acidic mix would balance the pH, it spiked back up. I now believe the pH issue was a symptom of poor soil drainage and a less than ideal container which was becoming compacted. It could have been microbes generating ammonia in a slightly hypoxic environment which would have been adding a continuous supply of base to the soil accounting for my high pH. To try to mitigate this just last night I used a long thin rod to poke holes deep into the soil hoping to provide better aeration, poured a diluted hydrogen peroxide (hopefully to decompose to water and O2 and better oxygenate the soil) then poked more holes in the soil. This morning the ammonia odor was completely gone, but she still looks like this. Hopefully another couple days of good aeration will help me balance the pH and unlock the nutrients she is so obviously missing. When I do feed (only once since she quit stretching) it has been half strength GH coco bloom plus calmag. Any help would be huge, I feel like I'm either losing her or killing her potential yield. Thanks everyone, and hope you all have dreams of green!

Powdery Mildew can give of an Ammonia odor, I would suggest you get your ladies under some white light and go over them with a very fine tooth comb and look for any white spots, sometimes it will look almost like water spots on the leaves. It is a systemic problem meaning once you get it, your going to deal with it until you either harvest the plant or destroy it. There are products available which will keep it under control but like Herpes, once you get it, it aint going away, all you can do is try to manage it. If you do Have PM and do nothing, well save yourself the wait, just kill the plant now so she doesn't have to suffer the long death. If you use a spray like Safergrow Mildew Cure or one of the many others you can keep it under control and finish out the grow and still get smokeable weed.

Thanks for the input. I actually have been using RO water, and tried flushes at the first instance of symptoms. I think that only further compacted the soil exacerbating the issue. The soil itself sits at 8, and runoff is close when using just water, and when using nutes the runoff is about 7.2-7.5

In short you are loving your plants to death my friend. Your growing in POTTING soil, some geek in a lab has already done all the work on getting the PH of the soil just right, now if you were growing in dirt from your yard that would be different, but potting soil is potting soil because someone already got it all worked out for you. The nutrients are there, just PH your water and your golden until the soil starts becoming worn out, 3 to 5 weeks. You up potted at least once so you should still be good with just water.
The discoloration of your leaves is from nutrient burn and possibly PH lockout. I would let your plant dry out, and as soon as she starts to show signs of wilting, I would flush her with 5 to 1 with NO Nutrients added. Then I would be seriously looking into if you have PM or not. Insect damage like Spider Mites and Leaf Miners is easy to spot because it damages the outside of the plant, PM not only will damage the outside of your plant but like a cancer it will kill your plant from within if not treated. Check every leave for any sign of white water spots or what looks almost like someone dusted the leaves with powdered sugar or talcum powder, and I do mean check every leave, once you can see it, it has been on your plant for 7 to 10 days already. Also if it is PM and you use a product like Safergrow Mildew Cure. only spray the plants right when the lights go off or you will burn the holy crap out of every leave you spray and you will need to spray EVERY leave, trust me on that one I know from experience

Yeah I know, long winded and not the answer you were hoping for but I can honestly say I have screwed up many a time and my gals were on the brink of death but I have yet to loose a plant and not get her to harvest

Let me know how you approach your problem, I am interested in how you proceed. Your success is 420s success and your failure is 420s failure. Hoping to see your success.

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

OG, I can't thank you enough for the thorough examination you've given here. I'm sure you're right about loving the plant to death. Good news is I've got another seedling coming up behind her. I've been out of town since Friday so we'll see how things look when I get back, but for the next plant I'm going to try a soilless mix. Maybe that will satisfy my need to do shit all the time lol

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

So I haven't updated in a bit but there isn't much to fill in. Basically I put the plant outside after I accepted that I screwed her up beyond recovery. Then she magically started getting better and I continued not touching her. Somehow she made it to today, harvest day. I wanted to thank the 420mag community for helping me recover an unrecoverable plant. So she's pretty stunted, but that's no surprise with all the ways I've goofed her up. 44g wet on the stems, and two good handfuls of trim with varying degrees of frostiness. Looks like I may see that goal of a single J after all! If I survive the dry and cure that is. The branches are sitting in 49% rh and 72°f. I'll let you all know when it's dry enough to put into my jar for a cure. Thanks again 420 mag, stay tuned for a smoke report!

 

[Stinky Snid]

A little bit of homegrown is better than none... Congrats on the first of many harvests, this is only the beginning.

KiG cheers

 

[DreamsOfGreen]

Hey all I'm going to leave my smoke report here so everything is in one place. First off, she's been curing in a mason jar at 60% rh for about 10 days, but I just couldn't help myself and had to sample the goods. Prior to this the only sample I had was the scissor hash that I mixed with some other greenery I didn't grow myself so I couldn't make an accurate judgement on that front.
First the smell: she had an incredibly sweet almost fruity aroma I noticed when trimming. The smell has been getting more earthy and "weedish" every time I open the jar for air exchange, but the sweet smell has been dominant throughout.
I rolled one standard sized joint in a raw paper and split about 3/4 of it with the Mrs. We hate to be wasteful so this is typical for us, we usually save the last 1/4 of each joint for use in a recycled one after 4-5 freshies (a quick note on this, does anyone else do this and notice the effects are more pronounced than fresh green...if a tad on the not so tasty side?). In any case since it is comparable to what we usually consume, I feel like I can make a fair assessment. The smoke was very smooth, to the point I was worried it might not be potent, and it burned as well as anything I've ever tried. The real difference was the flavor. I've had fruity smelling bud before, but I never understood the more delicate "taste" people talk about, I thought that was only distinguishable by true connoisseurs. This little plant really surprised me then when immediately I noticed the sweet, nearly fruity flavor lingering after each of my exhales. Not what I was expecting from northern lights (even though it was my first taste of it) but pleasant none the less! The effect was stoney and immediate in the body. I smoked right before dinner and while I wasn't struck with irresistible munchies, I definitely had some stimulated appetite and was grateful for the ready meal. When I sat down the indica character was prevalent with a full body relaxation that melted me to my seat accompanied with a pleasant "head in the clouds" stone. I normally don't favor this kind of effect so I got up to try and shake some life into my limbs. To my surprise once I started a chore I had planned, scrubbing my front walk with a stiff bristled brush to remove the sun-dried worms from recent rain, I was immediately lost in a pleasantly intense focus on the task at hand. Chores finished, I sat on the couch and was once again overwhelmed by indica relaxation. I fell asleep maybe thirty minutes later still melted into the couch.
Overall I'm very happy with the results. I don't normally prefer strong night time medicine, but it's good to know I can still get some things done if I can muster the willpower to peel my ass off the couch. It was certainly stronger than I was expecting with the colossal screw ups I made, as strong as anything I've ever tried, and ten times as satisfying knowing I grew it myself. If this is the tip of the iceberg knowing I made so many mistakes I am overjoyed to keep working on my gardening skills and see just how deep the rabbit hole goes!

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.