Tommboy1973’s Outdoor Desert Autoflower 2021

[Mustang92]

very nice! how cold does it get at night?

 

[Tommboy1973]

Last couple days it’s been in the low 40’s. My passive sun heated water bottles and frost cloth has kept it just above 50. Last week we had a 29 degree night and I had to turn the Christmas lights back on. Was hoping the sudden all night light wouldn’t mess them up.

 

[Tommboy1973]

Last couple days it’s been in the low 40’s. My passive sun heated water bottles and frost cloth has kept it just above 50. Last week we had a 29 degree night and I had to turn the Christmas lights back on. Was hoping the sudden all night light wouldn’t mess them up.

The days are 70’s to almost 80’s right now

 

[Mustang92]

Last couple days it’s been in the low 40’s. My passive sun heated water bottles and frost cloth has kept it just above 50. Last week we had a 29 degree night and I had to turn the Christmas lights back on. Was hoping the sudden all night light wouldn’t mess them up.

thats frosty, good idea heating with black water jugs(free even better), you must have some greenhouse experience.
whats humidity like ? keep your eyes on that cat, looks like it wants some of your weed to chew on

 

[Tommboy1973]

My 1st grow so only tips I have is to avoid my mistakes. 1st was over watering

Thanks! I’ll keep and eye on that!

 

[Tommboy1973]

Well I’m off work today so time to try to catchup on the journal. Here we jump forward to Feb 10th. I had just started the week 1 bloom part of the fertilizer program since flowers are starting to appear.
Week 1 of 12/12 : 6ml Grow + 6mil Micro+10ml Bloom per gallon given 2/9/21

 

[InTheShed]

thanks to Shed! If fact. I should add his tutorial to my sig if that’s ok

Of course! The more folks that read it the fewer poorly-trained plants.

 

[Tommboy1973]

Feb 13th. Not a lot of changes in the last couple days but I was off today so I brought her out of her cage to get some full sun all day. The 1/4 inch hardware cloth and the wood frame does provide a slight bit of shading.

 

[Tommboy1973]

Feb 17th. I hadn’t worried or checked PH up until now but I decided to buy a PH meter and it came today, so of course I ran around checking everything, lol. I guess the alkaline filter on our RO is working, look at that PH of 9!! Definitely won’t be using that for any plants, lol. To check the PH of my potted soil I dug down a couple inches and scooped up some of the Sunshine Mix out of the pot, and mixed 1 part with 2 parts distilled water (I checked the PH of that first and it was a solid 7). Not sure how reliable that method is, I had read conflicting posts on how to make a soil slurry. Anyone have any input on that?
I had just fertilized yesterday with Week 2 of 12/12: 3ml Grow + 7ml Micro + 12ml Bloom per gallon on 2/16/21, so I wasn’t able to check PH of my nute solution, will do that next week.

 

[InTheShed]

Did you calibrate the meter first? I have that same one and calibrate to 4 and 7 before I use it after sitting around for a while.

Anyone have any input on that?

The basic instructions for a slurry test are:
Take soil from about halfway down (I go down the outside of the pot so as not to tear up old roots) and add an equivalent amount of distilled water as grams of soil (10 grams of soil, add 10ml water). If that doesn't make a slurry, use 20ml (or enough to make a stirrable slurry).

Stir it up, wait 15 minutes, stir again. Do that for at least an hour, longer is better, and then put your calibrated pH stick in the water. That's the pH of your medium.

I try to use pretty dry soil so the water already there doesn't mess with the results.

Any peat mixes (Sunshine #4, ProMix) should come back in the mid to high 5s. Soil should come back in the 6.4-6.8 range.

I think 6.2 for Sunshine is the high end of normal.

 

[Tommboy1973]

Feb 14th-Valentines Day! Brought my girl out into the full sun again. Moved location too as my son’s friends were coming over to have a bonfire later and I really didn’t want the plant out in full view of a bunch of teenagers, lol. It is now tucked behind my chicken coop. I also decided to practice checking out the tricomes with my new jewelers 30x/60x loupe. Got a few cool shots that took me forever. It was definitely a learning curve holding the loupe over my phone camera and holding still!! It was fun tho . I just love that first close up I took of the main cola as well. She is just gorgeous!!! What a great Valentines gift to see.

 

[Tommboy1973]

Did you calibrate the meter first? I have that same one and calibrate to 4 and 7 before I use it after sitting around for a while.

The basic instructions for a slurry test are:
Take soil from about halfway down (I go down the outside of the pot so as not to tear up old roots) and add an equivalent amount of distilled water as grams of soil (10 grams of soil, add 10ml water). If that doesn't make a slurry, use 20ml (or enough to make a stirrable slurry).

Stir it up, wait 15 minutes, stir again. Do that for at least an hour, longer is better, and then put your calibrated pH stick in the water. That's the pH of your medium.

I try to use pretty dry soil so the water already there doesn't mess with the results.

Any peat mixes (Sunshine #4, ProMix) should come back in the mid to high 5s. Soil should come back in the 6.4-6.8 range.

I think 6.2 for Sunshine is the high end of normal.

Thank you Shed! Yes I calibrated it in both solutions first.
ok I didn’t weight the soil, just did a packed volume equivalent. So I may have had a larger ratio of distilled water than ideal? I will try again in a few days when the soil dries out as I just fertilized again about an hour ago.

 

[InTheShed]

As long as you got a slurry I'm sure it was fine. And you can check with Sunshine, but for ProMix peat, 6.2 is the top range of normal. Beyond that and they recommend lowering it by changing the type of nitrogen in the fertilizer (not by changing the pH of the nutes).

 

[Stunger]

Feb 14th-Valentines Day! Brought my girl out into the full sun again.

Looking good Tommboy!

 

[Tommboy1973]

Ok folks! For the 2 1/2 people who are following my journal we are caught up today!! She looks like she’s really starting to stretch?
You can see my box set up in these pics, and my other 3 pots that will be my next journal, they are just starting to poke their heads above the soil line today!!
Today was time to fertilize again so I gave:
Week 3 of 12/12: 3ml Grow + 8ml Micro + 14ml Bloom +2 ml cal mag per gallon. 2/24/21
I added the cal mag just because I’ve read you should for low PPM water. I don’t have a PPM meter but since I’m using rainwater I was guessing it would be low. Not sure if that’s going to help or hurt but I guess I’m on this journey to learn. It’s been going beautifully so far so maybe I shouldn’t have messed with it, I guess I’ll know in a few days. I also was able to check PH of my nute solution. Does anyone know if this looks right for a soilless mix? I’ve read posts until my brain is spinning and some people say you should use PH for hydro with soilless and others say use the soil PH?

 

[InTheShed]

Or you can skip pH adjusting your nutes because Sunshine mix is buffered! Read this post for what they say.

And if you're interested in pH and soil/soilless generally, read the first post in this thread.

 

[Tommboy1973]

Or you can skip pH adjusting your nutes because Sunshine mix is buffered! Read this post for what they say.

And if you're interested in pH and soil/soilless generally, read the first post in this thread.

I haven’t PH adjusted, that is what it just turned out to be, so good to know it is not necessary to adjust. I’ve been going for the KISS method since I started this grow, lol. I briefly read both of those links, lots of good info and will continue reading after this reply. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Stunger]

I wish I had chickens, my plants would love me for it!

 

[Tommboy1973]

Oh and I forgot to add I have not given any supplemental light in the last few weeks. We are currently at a little over 11 hours of daylight a day, up from around 10 like a month ago.

 

[Tommboy1973]

I wish I had chickens, my plants would love me for it!

My chickens love the few leaves I have trimmed off! They gobble them right up!!