PH fluctuations? Noobie mistakes

[Yar nitsua]

I have my first grow going I'm using sub cools super soil recipe in a 4x4 tent under leds. 4 plants total two of them are Cali Connection genetics the other two are TGA. I have done some tinkering with the ph so it has fluctuated at one time. Soon after I noticed foliage on two seemed to be a bit mangled here and there and yellowing tips I'm worried they might have stunted. The plants are 2 months old as of 3/7/16 I changed the light cycle to 12/12 my main concern is will they still go in to bloom mode?

 

[Papageno]

Well Welcome to the wonderful world of indoor gardening.

Now how did you go about using Subcools compost? You should know that you never want to adjust pH in a compost grow and that you never need to because it takes care of that for you.

Also Subcools compost is very strong and was designed for large outdoor grows. It can be used indoors ( I use it indoors) but the recommended pot size is still 10 gallons with only the bottom 1/3 being the compost. The top 2/3rds is still a standard blend. The reason for this is it is way too hot to just plant into. Now you can use a 7 or 5 gallon pot just fine but you have to drop the compost down to like 1/4.

Also how long did you cook the soil before using it? Was it warm during the cooking when you turned it over?

Subcools (and most compost recipes in general) compost takes a minimum of 2 months to cook in the right conditions and many people cook it closer to 6 months.

So just confirm
1) You cooked it long enough
2) It was actually cooking all that time
3) You did not plant directly into it


Going to 12 / 12 will initiate bloom but you never want to do that on stressed out plants. While in veg they are very robust and can handle just about anything. More importantly whatever is screwed up can be fixed while in veg. Once bloom starts a cascade of events happen that can not be stopped really and you are along for the ride. You always want to wait for the plant to be healthy to bloom. that may mean chopping some off and that would lead to higher yield anyway.

Anyway pictures would help a great deal.

I assume you are only adding water with some silica and a molasses product or maybe just water?

 

[Yar nitsua]

Hey thanks for the fast reply I totally knew nothing about the ph until just recently I should have researched more upon that it's great knowing now. I did let it cook from 11/01/2015 to 01/07/16 although here in Northern California it was a cooler outside during these months so I do bring it inside to cook it was really warm inside where I had it. Also I did not plant the seedling directly in the super soil I started them in solo cups in roots organic and now they have been in 7 gallon smart pots with the 1/3 mix at the bottom for the past two weeks

 

[Papageno]

Well what you are describing is slight overdosing but it is hard to say. I bet you have nothing to worry about.

Just hang on tight for the ride and they should finish fine.

Use some molasses product to keep the microbes alive and all should work out well. It could be that the microbes have died down and you are getting unbalanced uptake so you may want to brew up a good microbial tea to kick things off again. For that you can look in my journal on page 8. Post any questions about that right there in my journal if you like. It is for newbs not me.

(My journal is linked in my sig)

 

[Lazarus13]

I can vouch for VIs tea. Its good stuff and works on a lot of levels.