Water pH for seedlings

ajr1030

Well-Known Member
Hey guys! So my seeds just went in the soil yesterday. I used a water bottle to spray the area with a little bottled spring water. My ph reader just came in today. For the time being is it necessary to ph my water or will the bottled spring be just fine? Should I use distilled ? As always any advice is greatly appreciated!
 
you have not given us enough info as to whether you need to pH or not. If you are growing in real organic soil and allowing the soil microbes to take care of feeding the plant, you should not need to adjust your pH. If you are planning on feeding the plant from bottled nutrients, the pH that you adjust your fluids to will be very critical, and will need every liquid that touches your soil to be adjusted to somewhere in the 6.2-6.8 range. Right now at this seedling stage you should not be giving any additional nutrients, therefore adjust the pH is not yet necessary as long as your water is within a reasonable range.
 
Using distilled or spring or does any of that matter?
I prefer spring water for my soil needs, because of its mineral content. Many times using filtered distilled or RO water, calcium/magnesium supplements need to be given because it is not coming in via the water supply. If you are not running organic living soil and therefore dealing with active microbe populations, you don't even have to do anything special as far as the water goes... tap water, complete with chlorine will not hurt a thing.
 
you have not given us enough info as to whether you need to pH or not. If you are growing in real organic soil and allowing the soil microbes to take care of feeding the plant, you should not need to adjust your pH. If you are planning on feeding the plant from bottled nutrients, the pH that you adjust your fluids to will be very critical, and will need every liquid that touches your soil to be adjusted to somewhere in the 6.2-6.8 range. Right now at this seedling stage you should not be giving any additional nutrients, therefore adjust the pH is not yet necessary as long as your water is within a reasonable range.

So I’m using miracle gro performance organically soil and I added some extra perlite. For the first week I’m using just water as I’ve been advised so but after that I’ll be using cal mag and fox farms trio. This is the one area that’s becoming frustrating for me.
 
So I’m using miracle gro performance organically soil and I added some extra perlite. For the first week I’m using just water as I’ve been advised so but after that I’ll be using cal mag and fox farms trio. This is the one area that’s becoming frustrating for me.
It sounds like you have a good plan, and I would add the FF trio of solubles to your arsenal too. What is frustrating you about it? I will advise you that in that rich soil, you should not actually need to supply nutrients for quite some time, especially if you are planning to successively uppot into larger containers at least a couple of times, putting fresh new soil in periodically with those transplants. While a healthy and thriving plant can take some veg nutrients and get even bigger, you should not actually "need" nutrients until sometime after the final transplant when you have been either been vegging so long that the soil is starting to get weak or when you are ready to go to flower, and the plant's nutritional needs change significantly away from what the soil can provide.
 
It sounds like you have a good plan, and I would add the FF trio of solubles to your arsenal too. What is frustrating you about it? I will advise you that in that rich soil, you should not actually need to supply nutrients for quite some time, especially if you are planning to successively uppot into larger containers at least a couple of times, putting fresh new soil in periodically with those transplants. While a healthy and thriving plant can take some veg nutrients and get even bigger, you should not actually "need" nutrients until sometime after the final transplant when you have been either been vegging so long that the soil is starting to get weak or when you are ready to go to flower, and the plant's nutritional needs change significantly away from what the soil can provide.

I won’t be transplanting as I’m growing autos. From what i understand the transplant will cause stress that will make it hard for the auto to recover from so they went straight into a 5 gal pot. The frustrating thing for me are the specifics of what what I should do. I’m afraid of killing the plant at this early stage lol
 
Overwatering kills more seedlings than anything...since you're already in a
5 gallon,you should read this watering tutorial by @Emilya ,our resident expert on all things cannabis

 
I won’t be transplanting as I’m growing autos. From what i understand the transplant will cause stress that will make it hard for the auto to recover from so they went straight into a 5 gal pot. The frustrating thing for me are the specifics of what what I should do. I’m afraid of killing the plant at this early stage lol
Transplanting correctly does not cause stress. Having transplanted into such a large container you no longer have control over the watering cycle and you are stuck having to water by instinct. If you water wrong and let water sit in the bottom of your container, your plants will suffer. If you don't water enough, your plants will suffer. Starting small plants in huge containers frustrates me like nothing else in the cannabis world. All I can do is wish you good luck and hopefully you can find someone else who grows like this and follow their advice. The advice that I give regarding watering is not for the method that you have chosen to use.
 
lighting, etc

You can use 1 60watt equivalent LED bulb for the first 2 weeks or so,then
they go under your main grow light - start them far away at first (34"or so)
-if they start stretching,move them a little closer to the light
Stretching is when all the growth is in the stem-you don't want that...you want the growth to be at the top of the plant,and underground where the roots live.

**edit** If you've got your grow light already,you can just put them under it and skip the led bulb thing,just start them fairly far away from the big light till you see how they like it.
 
Transplanting correctly does not cause stress. Having transplanted into such a large container you no longer have control over the watering cycle and you are stuck having to water by instinct. If you water wrong and let water sit in the bottom of your container, your plants will suffer. If you don't water enough, your plants will suffer. Starting small plants in huge containers frustrates me like nothing else in the cannabis world. All I can do is wish you good luck and hopefully you can find someone else who grows like this and follow their advice. The advice that I give regarding watering is not for the method that you have chosen to use.

Well your advice is still greatly appreciated and thank you for your time!
 
I've used the FF trio nutes....went full strength and TOASTED my girls

I'd try maxing at 1/2 strength when u do start using it...where I had my best results at
 
You can use 1 60watt equivalent LED bulb for the first 2 weeks or so,then
they go under your main grow light - start them far away at first (34"or so)
-if they start stretching,move them a little closer to the light
Stretching is when all the growth is in the stem-you don't want that...you want the growth to be at the top of the plant,and underground where the roots live.

**edit** If you've got your grow light already,you can just put them under it and skip the led bulb thing,just start them fairly far away from the big light till you see how they like it.

So this is the set up. They’re under a 600w LED in a 4x4 tent. I’ve got it 36 inches above. On my light I can adjust the brightness of both veg and flower from 0-100%. The instructions recommended at this stage to set it at 40%
Veg and 15% flower on a 10 on 14 hour off cycle. I’m assuming they’re not referring to our plant. Would you recommend differently?
 
Since they're autos,you could leave the lights on 24/7 if you want to...
I let them all sleep for 6 hours a night ,even autos-It seems to me that
they do their best growing in the dark....Doesn't mean it's a fact,that's just what
it seems like to me,so I do it.
 
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