Spimps 2013 1st Grow - Ghetto Micro

[Scarfinger68]

Well we may have big trouble in little china...
I topped them off last night with more water, and because i am 1/16 idiot, i added a little more tigerbloom to the mix. Mind you this is my mix from monday that was 1/2 strength, PH'd and molasses. I added like 1/4 t of FF TB. This morning the plants looked rough!! And I had some discoloration on the oldest ones leaves, and some drooping.. Also seemed like they hadnt drank much. I had to rush to work and I just got home. The leaves perked up but I was worried about the discolaration so I ph'd some of the leftover water: 4.4!!!!!!!! So now im in a total panic! I think i need an emergancy flush with correctly ph'd water?? Please help guys. I think this is the same problem that sent a little girl to her grave. I have small pots-- 6"x6". I usually make a 1/2 gallon of 'tea' and this is three feedings worth. I cant believe how crazy that PH got, but it makes sense i guess. If my usual tap is 7.5-8 and I PH it down. Normally people let tap sit out to natural PH down. So i adjust mine, then let it sit it continues to go down. I guess the chlorine and what not disapte. Damn Im an idiot. OK, enough sulking, LETS FIX THIS GIRL!!!

I rarely ever PH down my water which is like 7 to 8 PH.

After adding nutes it will go down and sometimes I PH up my mixture.

If I remember right cold water can PH higher and then tend to drop a little as it warms up.

 

[alex801]

Spimp I really wish I could offer sound advice at this time but I can only kinda agree with ur idea as it seems the commkn sense thing to do.
As u say correctly ph 3x the amount of water ud usually feed them
Flush it through
Then mix a normal feeding with 1/2 strength nutes to replace the goodness lost through flushing (correctly phd ofcourse)
Sure itel be fine

Good news about the gnats

 

[Spimp]

Ok. Ive flushed. And i set them out under the beaming sun for an hour. Where i live even that much time is taking a big chance... I brought them back in and back in the box. They look and feel extremely overwatered now. Sigh. I may be able to get them some more sun to dry out some later. At this point Ive pretty much done all i can i guess.

And ive done some experimenting on when to PH (before or after nutes, etc). From what Ive seen, Make your 'tea', then PH. The molasses definately affects PH and the nutes slightly do. My big lesson I learned is if you adjust PH straight from the tap, DONT SAVE YOUR TEA FOR DAYS! Or if you do, re check th PH before you water. Im pretty concerned about the flush being my first one, but im like 4.5 weeks into flower on the oldest so she was probably due a flush anyway. Hope they dry out!

 

[alex801]

I'm sure all will be fine spimp. Even if they take 5-7 days to dry it will be fine.
Man uv got sunlight now? Its nearly midnight here with terential rain

 

[alex801]

Iv been super lucky with ph thus far. I planned on buying a tester at begginin of my grow but everything wejt fine on strate tap water. And fine also on water plus veg nutes. And all has been fine thus far on flower nutes plus molasses

 

[Spimp]

Ya, lets just say where I live, You probably heard about a national weather event in the last few days...
The sicko in me is actually kinda glad I had another problem. I want to feel confident that I can get the good beans thru problems like this.

 

[alex801]

Practice makes perfect spimp nothing better than the feeling of overcoming problems..... apart from going onto smoke them

Oh yes that weather event has ben well broardcast were I am

Seen the most amazing video of a women being interviewed having lost everything. House the lot and dog.
During the interview the dog crawled free from the rubble unscathed. Minnor miracle that it could survive what flattened the house

 

[Scarfinger68]

Practice makes perfect spimp nothing better than the feeling of overcoming problems..... apart from going onto smoke them

Well said Alex801.

Your really doing great Spimp! The only thing I would suggest is... do less.

Less ferts, less teas, etc, etc. PH in and PH out. What happens is that you end up loving your weeds to death.

Your half way home... Just flush. I myself wouldn't PH your flush water. Its going to be 7 or 8 if I remember right and your fighting low PH... so why lower the plain water PH? You want to raise the PH.

Good luck

 

[Scarfinger68]

I just thought of this...

If I flush, I always (well most the time) check the runoff. Flush until the runoff is where you want it. I shoot for 7 ish runoff (I use plain water that is 7 PH to 8 PH) that way I know I have completely cleared all I can clear at this flush. That doesn't necessarily mean that your soil PH won't be low the next time you check it. So, keep checking the PH.

 

[Scarfinger68]

This is from an article... it may apply?

Quite often I hear groans from folks having leaf problems -> “Help, my leaves are cupping and the leaf edges are turning brown!”, or, “My plant's leaf tips are curling down and turning black ....what's wrong?” Unless insect damage has occurred or the plant is suffering from a severe case of calcium deficiency, the plant is trying to tell you that it is water stressed. It's hard to tell *exactly* what the culprit is, and unfortunately the “solution” the grower chooses many times is not the right one. A mis-diagnosis only serves to make matters worse by promoting further decline. I’ll try to cover some of the more common causes that can induce these common symptoms and try to offer a few simple solutions. The ultimate and correct solution is in the hands of the grower.

1. Over-fertilizing - the most common cause of leaf cupping aka leaf margin rolling, leaf margin burn, and leaf tip curl/burn is the overzealous use of too much plant food in relationship to factors such as plant vigor and rate of growth. The first unit of a plant to show moisture stress is the leaf at its margins and/or tips, reflected by margin rolling (cupping) or burning. A hard, crispy feel to the leaf frequently occurs as well, as opposed to a soft and cool feel of a happy leaf. When you have a high concentration of salts in solution (in the root medium) compared to the salinity levels found in the plant’s tissue, water is actually drawn out of the plant across the root gradient in order to fix the ppm imbalance. IOW, this is a natural, osmotic response that serves to equalize salinity levels on both sides of the root’s epidermal gradient. Back off on the amount and/or frequency of plant food. Too much plant food can also burn the roots, especially the sensitive root tips, which then creates another set of problems. Note - as soil dries, the concentration of the remaining salts rises further exacerbating the problem.

Good Luck

 

[Spimp]

Little update. Looking better this morning. Still look over watered but i assume thats what happens when u flush. I have a few leaves that are curling and cupping but after the flush Im just gonna have to sit and wait.
I do agree that less is usually more. Thats why Ive been somewhat experimenting with different stuff with the bag seed. I want all the kinks pretty much worked out before I through the good beans in the pot. So I admit Ive been really active with these girls. Good or bad it is experience and more experience makes for better smoke down the road.

For example, my first defol I was scared to death that i would harm the plants. after about 10 leaves I almost got snip happy. Very confident the plants could handle it. Every mistake I make brings knowledge and confidence. Im 90% ure the PH was the issue. PH seems to almost instantly effect leaves where from what I read other issues (nute defic) are more slow moving. In 12 hours my leaves went from dark green to discolored. This is also because I let them get real thirsty so the water was absorbed rapidly.
On a positive note, more trics this morning. It looks like the fans have taken most of the abuse and given they are the power factory of the plant this makes sense. Also the pots feel a little lighter than last night so I assume they absorbed some of the good stuff so I think we will come out of this. Thanks for all the advise and help, i got 4 more weeks or so and Im happy I got yu guys along for the ride!

 

[CA215]

My first defol I got way too "snip happy" totally understandable LOL. Glad to hear everything is getting back on track over here Spimp, your girls will prove to be some great smoke for you and your lungs Keep up the great work

 

[alex801]

Four weeks will fly by
Are u planning on starting your new seeds before this grow finishes?

Also iv + repd u after looking bak and noticeing your getto temp control device. Loving the frozen bottle. Great thinking
Did it keep temp down for long?

 

[Spimp]

Ty sir. And yes, its actually quie effective. After 7 hours there is still a chunk of ice in it. BBBUUUUUTTTTT it also could be part of the gnat problem I had. Actually the semi damp towel that i use to catch the condinsation. But since the sticky traps i havnt seen one. Maybe the PH killed em!
And as for the next batch, heres my thought:
I need more lights. No matter what i do I need more lights. I could easily have 8 cfl's in my box and Im leaning toward putting them in. Im just a total NOOB about electricity. I had a run in about 8 years ago that left me gunshy... But since my next batch is Auto, I cant control plant size with fim'ing. Everything ive read says the dont have time to recover. But I can LST the crap outta them. I highly doubt I can fit two in my current box without topping or fim'ing. So Ill need to 'stagger' them for a mini perpetual harvest type grow. With these two being photo's, I cant just throw the autos' into a 12-12, I would be wasting yield. So I will need to make a veg box and run them 18-6 untilI can get them in the big box. Once the intial 'changeover' happens, I will sprout evey 4 weeks. So everytime I pull, I will replace with seedling. In theory anyway.
Or I could get really motivated get an idea and start next week! But first and foremost, I NEED MORE LIGHTS. And to de-ghetto-fy my box a bit. my exhaust is literally a 5" cheapo fan duct taped to a hole, and propped up with a book. Effective tho

Im open to any and all suggestions.

 

[Spimp]

MG has ferts in it so it will be more likely for the PH to drop. I would check the run-off water on your next plain water watering. I would bet ya it is in the 4.0 range.

I would suggest seeing how long you can go without watering is those pots. If they start wilting a little, add some water and they will snap right back. That way you will know how long you can go between waterings more accurately and how heavy a dry pot feels.

 

[HostileRican]

im into my first grow and using cfls, def keeping an eye out. they look nice.

 

[Spimp]

Picture time:

 

[Spimp]

As you can see, My girls had a rough week. That last leaf looked like that literally in 12hours after the low PH feed. I flushed the same day and last night they were already dry. I held out til this morning to water. Just PH nuetral water plus very light Tiger bloom. Besides a few rough leaves, the others are mildly discolored but have not worsened. And all but a handfull of leaves feel alot better. not crispy, not limp, so it looks like they are ok. The younger plant really kicked out some leaves after the defol. And Im gonna be extra cautious this week in watering to let them fully recover. Not gonna touch them until they make me!
A friend gave me a 7x,8x combo loop that you can use both lenses, Its better than my 6x, but I still need a scope. To my eye, the trics look cloudy on the oldest but once agian I need a scope to be sure. The older plant is filling in nicely. I really like the way the 'undergrowth' looks. Im hoping this feeding will get them back to swelling up. Thanks!

 

[Flower Child]

PH! AAGGHHHHH!!!! Hi Spimp and sorry- just had to get that out of my system! Thanks for the ph advise on my journal. Your buds look good. Harvest must be just around the corner for you! As far a magnifiers go I got a 20xby40x loupe on amazon for like 4 bucks. I use it to check for spider mites and it even has a light- works really well. Happy growing and thanks for the help!

 

[Spimp]

Ya, @#$%#ing PH. I vastly underestimated its effects. In hindsight, small pot, lots of roots, I should have known better.