Nute Burn - Nitro Toxicity - Or Both?

[desiBud420]

Hi guys,

I'm into my 7th week with 2 seeds and I'd like to give some info on my plants regarding a current problem im having, so a quick background on both grows to date to help make this easier to diagnose. I have my own opinion but I defo need more opinions to really see where these 2 ladies are heading in the deficiency direction or toxicity direction, or a light issue, if anything else. Please see below.


-> What strain is it?
2 strains: BLack Indica (BI) and Crown Royale (CR) from CropKing seeds. The BI germed sooner than crown royale by 2 days, and got potted sooner than CR. In about 2-3 weeks the crown royale began to outgrow the black indica, significantly more so up till now. The BI's growth is really slowly, at least in comparison to the CR, but I'm not sure if this particular strain of BI behaves like this or if something else is amiss.

-> Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
I'm not sure exact percentages to be honest. But from my observations both are heavier on the indica side with wider leafs and shorter height than the wild male sativas growing in the jungle in my local area.

->Is it in Veg or Flower stage, and how long?
Veg, Week 7 start

Indoor or outdoor?
-> Indoor

Started with a basic growbox I 'renovated' from a friends grow last year.

Just got this setup complete 3 days ago as the plants had outgrown the pot size i could fit in the growbox.

Soil or Hydro, and whats in your mix?
-> Soil (dry manure, a stringy chinese peat moss looking item (fluffy, like hairlike strands that give me much better drainage since perlite/Vermculite is unavailable in my country of origin, but I found this instead doing the job in place of perl./verm.)

If soil... What size pot?
-> Both were transplanted in week 3 from a yogurt pot (400gm capacity) to 3 gallon pots each. I transplanted so late because this is my first grow, and honestly these took some time to grow because of other factors I had to adjust and improve upon as I went along.

Size of light?
-> Initially I made a growbox with a 85w whitelight, foiled inside all around with a 3-inch PC fan for ventilation. I've just recently upgraded my entire setup since the box couldnt fit both 3 gallon pots, that I had to balance ontop the pots edges and cover with a long sheet of cloth to get better ventilation and darkness for the sleep part of the plants cycle.
NOW in the tent im using two 85W CFL's (one white light, one warm white), one 20W warm white, and one 11W warm white. The 11 and 20W I have sitting around the farthest edges of the plant so that the leafs get the best all round light at the weaker angles, and around the bottom parts of the plants where direct light doesnt reach from the ones hanging ontop in light fixtures (these were installed yesterday, and in no way contribute to the initial leaf issues that began from the growbox, into the tent from 2 weeks ago). I'm using 18/6 since potting/sprout for anyone curious for that information
The lights are positioned pretty much equally in height. The CR is 2-3 inches away from the lights, the BI is 4-6 inches due to lack in grow height as compared to CR.

Is it aircooled?
-> The initial growbox, and current tent setup is in my bedroom. I have a 1.5 tonne a/c and ceiling fan that currently helps set the room temperature for the tents exhaust fan to pull air into the tent. BUT I dont keep them under the tent because it gets too hot too quickly and honestly its the best I could do at the moment, still experimenting with a/c temps+fan speeds to help stabilize tent temps inside.

Temp of Room/cab?
-> Room temp: 25'C-31'C (77-89'F) from morning to evening. Near noon I have to turn on the a/c for an hour so it stays below 28'C(82.5'F)
Tent temp: same range as above, maybe 1-2 degress warmer near lights area. I'm using a temp device that can monitor 2 temps via a long sensor on a cable to move to a certain distance from the main temp sensor, and RH only at the main device. Once the room temp stabilizes, so does the tent area, especially when I have half the tent side lifted for better ceiling fan air circulation.
Im in a tropical region, with 4 seasons throughout the year. We just got done with the peak of summers and have 11 hours of light a day (I used to keep both in the morning sun initially, shade from 11am to 3pm, then back into sun from 3-5pm as the remainder 40 minutes was just dawn, to get the best light wavelengths to grow, but right now theyre bigger and I dont want my people knowing I have a massive grow in my room! Once dawn approached and the sun was almost gone, i move them back inside under CFL's setup.
While in the room, a window opening sucks in air from outside into my room via an exhaust in the adjoined bathroom, its pretty strong and keeps things well ventilated and this helps keep fresh air coming into room that grow tents exhaust fan sucks into the plant area. When they are in their day part of the light cycle I remove 1 side of the tent and let the ceiling fan do the trick of moving the rooms air and stabilising its overall temp.

RH of Room/cab?
-> it ranges from 45-60% depending on the time of day, and weather outside that the bathroom exhaust pulls into the room.

PH of media or res?
-> water pH is around 6-7. I have pH strips only with no access to a pH meter or PPM meter as yet.

Any Pests ?
-> none. i made sure nothing of that sort enters my room. There were 3-6 tiny red ants from moving the plants outside the room into the sun, and moving them back in near evening. But those have long gone since I stopped doing the sun/room movement. I do it occasionally now not everyday like the first 4-5 weeks.

How often are you watering?
-> 3 gal pots take some time to dry as its much cooler in the room/tent than outside in the day. Strangely my room is warmer in winters, and cooler in summers if I get the a/c+ceiling fan setting just right over a span of 1-2 hours. I fully watered them about a week ago. I check soil water levels by weight of the pots. Topsoil drys sooner cause of USB fan and tent uxhaust, and moreso now because I added 3 more lights (one 85W all CFL's and warm white. The only white light CFL I have now hangs adjacent to the 85W warm white (see pics).
When the topsoil drys (about 2-3 days tops) and I check about 2-3 knuckles down, then I water after checking the weight. But often Ive found the middle/bottom half still feels damp so I tend to wait it out 2-4 days extra.

Type and strength of ferts used?
-> Only used 1/4 strength NPK 20-20-20 once (into the 5th week since BI plant was showing redness on the main stems, a tinge of darker leafs on the middle/top of plant, but not the entire plant. It seems to have stabilized now. Nothing less than NPK 20-20-20 is available here. The 1/4 strength nute took care of BI's problem about 70% of the way better. Before that I've only been watering them and holding back on anything until any deficiencies came about and checked up on it on 420mag and browsing various sites/posts for similar problems and solutions others implemented.

Ok, so overall up till now, I've treated both plants as similarly as possible and neither has come up with a different outcome than the other (apart the phosporous def I had with the BI, I assume the straing required more Phosp than the CR, otherwise the soil composition, water feeds, pH's, EVERYTHING has been a mirror image).

BI with phosporous def:

As of now, both plant symptoms are the same alongside each other at the same pace of developing over the past 2 weeks. They became more notable as the plants began to grow and touch the sides of the box foil in week 4-5, and has remained since then not peaking, not progressing/developing any further than what you've seen so far. The images below are its initial stages where the plants were transplanted but still had the growbox balanced ontop the 3 gallon pots edges. That was a real pain my ass whenever I had to rotate/switch plants having to unplug everything and remove shit before I changed positions and put it back together again.

Currently I'm not sure from my observations at other peoples grow problems and tonnes of posts/blgs/pics, whether both plants have a nutrient burn from soil mix I made, or if its mild light burn or if theyre both having a Nitrogen Toxicity phase in its initial/early stages, or if all 3 are happening at once. Again, the only difference at the moment in plant growth behaviour is the BI had a phosporous def about 3-4 weeks ago, and I took care of that with 1/4 strength of chemical nutes NPK 20-20-20, in 3 gallon bucket of water. I only gave them water at pH 6-7 ( i dont have a ph meter, only ph strips so not very accurate but im in the range for water ph, and run off ph as well.)

So whats going on here? Is this a Nutrient burn? My soil mix was heavier on the fluffy peat moss looking material for better drainage, the manure was dry cow compost, OH and I sprinkled a hint of dolomite lime in the soil in the very start since the tap water pH I used here was at 6-7. I may have substituted dolomite instead of lemonLime as the pH strips were hard to read and leaning more towards the upper 7 range than lower 6 range from color chart observation.

I've TOPPED the CR 2 weeks ago, didnt remove any fan leafs. I topped it again 2 days ago but at 4 points, and not just the 2 main stems like most others tend to do. Just curious to get more cola points. CR seems to be doing nicely =)
I FIMmed the really slow growing BI, and saw a notable increase in leaf growth, but not much in height. a liiiittle bit better, but not significantly as the CR has reacted to TOPping. CR and BI have the following issues:

Here are pics of whats going wrong. Nute burn, Light burn, Nitrogen toxicity, or all 3???

 

[Faic]

You've got a bit of nute burn from some pictures (tips)and of course some nute lockout/toxcitiy but I'm not a good photo interpreter for nute diagnosis yet. But bottom line I see is, in soil you'll get nute lockout above and below 6.5 for various nutrients. If you don't have access to other nutes, then you really need a ph pen to test accurately for your mixes, and follow the plants closely from there. It's a vicious cycle, lockout-toxcitity-overwater-repeat. PH strips and garden color testers just aren't accurate enough if your green thumb isn't epic. Once you get your pen, I'd start by feeding at ph of 6.3 alternated with 6.5 as long as your run off isn't tested much higher than 6.5. And you'll need to ph balance your nutes, somehow, so you'll need something to provide ph up or down as needed. Sorry but I'm uncertain of what natural things can be used for that, I use PH up/down solutions.

If you're unable to get a ph pen, then I'd mix nutes that are clearly ph 5-6, feed, then feed with a roughly 6-7 and alternate and see if things settle down.

 

[desiBud420]

You've got a bit of nute burn from some pictures (tips)and of course some nute lockout/toxcitiy but I'm not a good photo interpreter for nute diagnosis yet. But bottom line I see is, in soil you'll get nute lockout above and below 6.5 for various nutrients. If you don't have access to other nutes, then you really need a ph pen to test accurately for your mixes, and follow the plants closely from there. It's a vicious cycle, lockout-toxcitity-overwater-repeat. PH strips and garden color testers just aren't accurate enough if your green thumb isn't epic. Once you get your pen, I'd start by feeding at ph of 6.3 alternated with 6.5 as long as your run off isn't tested much higher than 6.5. And you'll need to ph balance your nutes, somehow, so you'll need something to provide ph up or down as needed. Sorry but I'm uncertain of what natural things can be used for that, I use PH up/down solutions.

If you're unable to get a ph pen, then I'd mix nutes that are clearly ph 5-6, feed, then feed with a roughly 6-7 and alternate and see if things settle down.

Hi Faic!

Thanks for your input. I did a lot of thinking and calculations in my head to get this right and hoped for the best since noone responded to my post as yet, I think it was the sheer length of it that had people uninterested. im sitting like a hawk and am watching them closely the next few days. After the flushing routine I did about 7 hours ago, I came home to find them flourishing and reaching for the skies!

Heres how..


OK.. FIrst off I've been collecting some rain water these last few weeks. It's pH was slightly lower than the tap water we have here (no chlorine, not used for drinking unless people have an RO system installed or some kind of filter system), and I wanted to use that in conjunction with lemon/lime to lower my pH towards the higher 5, or lower 6 since my runoff was definitely on the lower 7(higher 6 side), still my plants werent happy the last 3 weeks from this and I thought it was best to give it this treatment rather than wait it out any longer letting things get more severe. Black Indica has been avery slow/stunted plant. The FIM is coming along really nicely. I'll TOP black indica in couple of days once this Ph soil issue/nitrogen toxicity/nute lockout has been resolved in coming days). FYI: I put dolomite lime in my soil from the start to help balance the environment so that probably had a role to play up till now. I think it wasnt getting to the pH 6 range for optimal bacteria and soil environment. Ive been watering regular tap water since the beginning with 1 instance of 1/4 strength nutes where the black indica had some problems early on.

BTW a point to note for those who are having similar trouble, and dont have pH meters and just pH strips or Litmus strips . If you want to check your runoff the way I did, it really helped that a friend suggested, which never really occurred to me nor have I seen anyone use this method on any forum/post/website or word of mouth. I did this because they werent water in over 12 days, and the bottom soil was stilla tiny bit damp. I didnt want to water the whole plant not knowing what pH balances I needed to adjust after flushing so taking a soil sample was the better way to go than flushing and collecting)
The bottom of the pots had large holes, so I plucked some soil out and put it in a cup and mixed it with tap water and let it rest for a few minutes. Then I tested it's pH since in normal watering I use tap water that would give me a close enough idea what pH the soil and water mixed would give me after checking.

I did this for both the crown royale and black indica. Small sample, mix with tap water in a cup, test pH after few minutes. Better than lifting pots and clammering to savour the run-off with no dishes at the bottom or not letting them overflow when flushing all over the bathroom and carpet in my room =P

btw, before flushing, I prepped my rain water (2 gallons) and lime (4 tiny ones, theyre not as big as the ones you find in the US/Canada, my region has tiny, but sharp lemons), about 3-4 tablespoons from that. Now some folks might be like WOAH thats too much for 2 gallons, and yes i had my doubts as well. Some people I read were using 1 tablespoon per gallon so I think with my rain water + tap water mix (50/50) I should have gotten a decent balance, if not tipped to either way slightly.

When pH strips is all you have access to even they are a blessing in disguise otherwise Id have no clue what the pH of my soil, water, rain water, run-off's would be at! I knew my pH was on the higher side of the decimal point (7.x) and from putting dolomite lime in the soil when potting, but I knew from the really dark green leaves (hint of red/purple tint, veeeryy slightly, but could have been my CFL's giving that off) that my ladies were having a Nitrogen toxicity, and wasnt too sure about the Nutrient lock out. FLUSH, FLUSH, FLUSH!!! After a proper flush using 7 gallons of tap water per plant (broke them down into 2 flushes of 3.5 gallons each).

Before flushing and testing their pH's I did the soil sample tests and the lemons and shit like that until I thought I could begin so I know what pH's I might be dealing with with watering with rain water and lemon + tap water, right after the flush.

Having done the soil sample tests and their color results, I felt comfortable enough to move on, but just barely, with flushing and feeding right after with my rain water combo.

I tested their run off pH in 2 phases for each plant to see the drop/rise in pH if any. The first flush was right after the 3.5 gallon tap water load began to drizzle down the pot holes and collected some in a dish tray I had handy for them. I expect the intial run-off would be the most accurate in showing where any salt build up/pH problems/pH imbalance would be notable the most doing a pH strip test. Tested the dish with pH strips, and waited for it to dry until I flushed it a second time, and tested it with another pH strip.
I repeated this with the black indica. Having seen the strip colors more on the 6.0+/7.0- side, I watered them individually, and collected their intial run-off until 20% came out, then stopped feeding them their new brew of lemon+rain water+tap water. (The rain water was already aslightly bit more towards the lower pH side than tap water on its own. THe lemons gave a decent booster.

With regards to checking what extent one should 'flush' their plants without really doing some over-watering damage (maybe its just happens for regular watering and not a just-one-time-flush??) I was still paranoid, and went with it. I saw a post somewhere here I think it was Ms.Fox who said that the water should be closer to clear when flushing. That post was in 2007, but it still helped a lot. Cheers and Thank you Ms.Fox!! While flushing each plant fully I made sure the yellowish/urine color of the flush was closer to clear by the end of each flush, and did not exceed 7 gallons per plant. They began to wilt which got me worried, so I had a mix of Lemon/Lime + tap water + Rainwater ready to water until I saw 20% run off from that.

Having flushed and watered with 50 rainwater/50 tap water and lemon squeeze (removed the pulp as much as I could), you can see the Black indica results showed it moved from a slightly bluish (alkaline) tinge to a more greener/yellow tinge (less alkaline). THat was a good sign to move forward with. Since I did this step-by-step these are all the results ordered from Top-down. I think I have a more favourable environment for the roots and soil pH to open up any nute lockout from pH imbalance. I hope I got it riht, the plants seems to think so (pics below).
The crown royale's pH was not so much in the blueish tinge area and was growing fine, but she also had really dark leaves, so Im not sure if this was a pH imbalance doing a nutrient lockout on me, but then shouldnt the leaves have gone in the deficiency direction if she wasnt getting any nutrients? Im still abit confused on that topic. But anyways, Crown's pH: not so much in the alkaline area, but I gave her a dose of the same feed, which was watered down so I knew I was playing it safer than just using Lemon+rain water in 2 gallons. Beter safe than sorry. She might not have needed it and maybe only a good flush, but I did it anyway. Crown royale might come up with future problems unless my dolomite lime kicks in and balances things out otherwise I know baking soda and some other things will come in handy.

Shouldn't be doing this high. Im too thorough and think too much into things. My apologies for that. That's whats probably scared off everyone from replying to this massive post. Sometimes short and sweet just doesnt cut it. But here are the test results right after flushing and putting them back in the tent... (final results after these pics )

Crown Royale

Black Indica

And finally the way I found them 7 hours later:
Crown Royale and Black Indica right after, fo

Not only are the leaves back to normal, these guys are pretty resilient. My issue may not have been as severe as some others Ive seen online, but this was my first experience and seeing them grow and recover gives you a good idea of what really goes on when you are doing this yourself and not just reading and viewing pics/vids. Each result is different so each outcome is unique to itself most of the time.

The leaves are MUCH greener all over, the dark green-ness has subsided (for now), the leaves are pointing up and making a 'reaching out' motion. I account that motion 50/50 to moving the lights from 2 inches from the tallest plant to 16 inches, and the other 50 from having a more suitable pH better suited in the pH 6 range (below 6.x most likely, but marginal I think. Wont know until that damned pH meter comes down in about 2 months time, by then i should be well into flowering/harvest time.). I think they were defo getting light/heat burn from those yellow curling tips as well as some tips have 'chilled out' a bit.

Im really glad I took time with this and really appreciate the people who have gone through hell and back with all their questions and informative posts. I did the best I could with my DIY setup and limited resources.

I'd like to confirm with anyone who has indepth knowledge of the pH kit (pH UP/DOWN) by General Hydroponics, and ask what is the basic chemical component in the UP solution, and DOWN solution. I read somewhere that pH UP has Phosphorous and Potassium in it, and DOWN has only Nitrogen in it. I needed to move my pH Down, but also knew that I had a Nitrogen toxicity coming about so I'm not sure how if I had used pH down, how it would have maybe cleared the pH of my soil, but may have added to the Nitrogen toxicity problem even more?

If anyone has an explanation I would be grateful. Until then I'll check some more info on pH UP/DOWN.


Cheers!

 

[Faic]

Heya Desi,

Couple words of kind advice. Don't take it the wrong way, and from your last post , you may already have some idea of what I'm going to say....

Your posts are verbose and unorganized and quite hard to follow. It's much easier to read if you try and approach it like submitting a report versus stream of conciousness. Keep your photos per post to only a few, and keep text and photos separate. And when providing the base grow situation details, just keep it to the whats, not the whys.

People should be able to easily scan your details and many can, at a glance, get a very good understanding of what's going on.

Your write up on How you make your measurments with the strips, I hope someone using those strips finds it helpful, and that by itself you should format a bit and make a separate post I think. Good info can be lost in bad formatting.

Now, how your checking your ph is the common method of checking soil ph by mixing it with water. But you'd want to wait longer than just a few minutes (like a hour maybe) to allow the ph to equalize before you try to measure it.

The other common method to checking soil ph, is to test run off ph. Measure ph going in,ph coming out, and a educated guess as to what should be done from there. This is the method I adopted because it's much simpler, faster, and soil is forgiving for the most part to ph problems, and takes minutes with a pen.

Your plants, unless they are literally stepping out the door, will bounce back dramatically with a flush. Don't let that lead to over confidence. I'm not trying to be a downer, just realistic.

You've dodged a bullet. When you feed again with those nutes you could see the same pattern all over again. And flushing may help the plants recover, but it doesn't help them grow. You only want to flush when You want to (maintenance flushing to remove nutrient salts buildup), never when you must to avoid further plant damage.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do at all. But I've been exactly where you are right now. Proper nutrients for cannabis, and a ph testing pen should basically make this particular problem just go away and not return. Then you can move on to more important things you'll need to know and do as your grow progresses.

So I'll stick with my original recommendation. If you can get proper cannabis nutes, do it. If you can get a ph testing pen, do it. It will make your life much simpler,because your first grow is never simple or straight forward.

If you can't get better nutes or testing pen, then keep being A-retentive in your documentation and methodology for sure. But keep a close watch on your grow and when you need more questions answered, keep em short and to the point. If I can't kill my plants you shouldn't be able to either. Just try to stay calm when it hits the fan.

Oh, if your soil is staying wet longer than 4 days, I would look for better drainage from the pots, or try and loosen the soil a bit more. If you can't do vermiculite, sand would work. Soil, peat and that moss, can get waterlogged and give you root rot. And you don't want to go there. Since you're prime for rot, look at hydroguard or some other beneficial bacteria additive, and a silica suppliment like silica blast. Silica blast will help your plants gain structure and fight disease and pests.

As far as what's in the GH ph up/down, I don't know besides one is blue and one is orange :: But you can search the product and they will tell you what's in them. But they are chemical names. Off the top of my head, things like vinegar and epsom salts are things around the house people use for things in the garden, but I don't know what things.

 

[desiBud420]

Heya Desi,

Couple words of kind advice. Don't take it the wrong way, and from your last post , you may already have some idea of what I'm going to say....

Your posts are verbose and unorganized and quite hard to follow. It's much easier to read if you try and approach it like submitting a report versus stream of conciousness. Keep your photos per post to only a few, and keep text and photos separate. And when providing the base grow situation details, just keep it to the whats, not the whys.

People should be able to easily scan your details and many can, at a glance, get a very good understanding of what's going on.

Hi Faic, No offence taken whatsoever. I admit my style of writing is more conscious-based than report, but only when shits hitting the fan. Otherwise im quite structured and these ladies have my brain on overdrive lately. I do suffer from writing long posts on ocassion, but this was by far the worst. I get lost in my own train of thought, especially if Ive been doing a lot of things and want them to be in the order I did them. Im still struggling with that and adjusting as I move along, but thanks for pointing it out still. I know this post was terrible in structure, but i did freak out and whatever came to mind, i wrote and posted pics in that manner. It made sense to me, but I think probably not the right sense to others, hence no response. So a big THANKS to you mate for stepping in and setting the record straight!

Your write up on How you make your measurments with the strips, I hope someone using those strips finds it helpful, and that by itself you should format a bit and make a separate post I think. Good info can be lost in bad formatting.

Agreed. I'll try and re-edit this entire post when I can sometime next week. Juggling wife, projects, and plants as well as family, nephews and a whole lot more.. its a riot down here! I barely find time, but the morning and late evenings are best when I come home before lights shut off for the 18/6 cycle.

Now, how your checking your ph is the common method of checking soil ph by mixing it with water. But you'd want to wait longer than just a few minutes (like a hour maybe) to allow the ph to equalize before you try to measure it.

I was a real brute with it. mixed and shook it violently and set it for few minutes. An hour it next time. I need to find more time for myself and the plants..

The other common method to checking soil ph, is to test run off ph. Measure ph going in,ph coming out, and a educated guess as to what should be done from there. This is the method I adopted because it's much simpler, faster, and soil is forgiving for the most part to ph problems, and takes minutes with a pen.

Until the pH tester comes by Ill be doing the soil/hour method. I eagerly look forward to that moment. Im stuck with strips before that =(

Your plants, unless they are literally stepping out the door, will bounce back dramatically with a flush. Don't let that lead to over confidence. I'm not trying to be a downer, just realistic.

Roger that. I dont plan on flushing again until a week before flowering if things go well. Dodging bullets is hard enough! =D

You've dodged a bullet. When you feed again with those nutes you could see the same pattern all over again. And flushing may help the plants recover, but it doesn't help them grow. You only want to flush when You want to (maintenance flushing to remove nutrient salts buildup), never when you must to avoid further plant damage.

I didnt really want to give it any nutes in the beginning like the blue one Ive posted. I had it on hand in case any deficiencies came about and for later feeding stages in veg. I think its still too strong NPK and cant find anything in this entire country. Bummer. I'll be far more careful in the future with flushes.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do at all. But I've been exactly where you are right now. Proper nutrients for cannabis, and a ph testing pen should basically make this particular problem just go away and not return. Then you can move on to more important things you'll need to know and do as your grow progresses.

In fact im taking this in like a sponge! Your advice is great and I really appreciate it. I know I screwed up on the post and other things, and having someone already been in this terrain makes it all worthwhile to be 'all ears' and implement next time.

So I'll stick with my original recommendation. If you can get proper cannabis nutes, do it. If you can get a ph testing pen, do it. It will make your life much simpler,because your first grow is never simple or straight forward.

If you can't get better nutes or testing pen, then keep being A-retentive in your documentation and methodology for sure. But keep a close watch on your grow and when you need more questions answered, keep em short and to the point. If I can't kill my plants you shouldn't be able to either. Just try to stay calm when it hits the fan.

I've got every activity noted down, from RH/temp/soil temps/lights adjustments, any changes I notice or implement myself all goes into my little journal. That's been a life-saver in the initial stages of my grow. pH Pen is gonna take another month. i have someone coming from the US getting me a bunch of stuff, but they wont be able to carry things like pH UP/DOWN Kit, and I really wanted FoxFarms tigerbloom(3 bottles, 8 ounces each) for cannabis. But I learnt that in the wrong hands this could be used to make xplosives, and foxfarms doesnt deliver outside the US, nor does Amazon to my location. Putting it in your luggage was an initial option, but I checked some airlines as well, and they were pretty strict about not having such things in your luggage. Different air pressures and other factors were going to make the liquids unstable and possibly 'react' in a way that could be dangerous for passengers, so i dropped that idea altogether. Im stuck with this particular brand unless I can make a really nice soil concoction for future grows.

You're right, I thought this would be a bit more manageable but honestly it has been a real DIY/hack-it-out project. I've lost my mind trying to find things here at grow stores (these stores dont have anything that one might need to grow cannabis, except pots, vegetables, basic ertiziler, phosporous and few other chemicals, and maybe a hacksaw.. disappointing. even after inquiring all over town and travelling into another city just to find what I thought this one shop would have (they didnt have a tel number, yea thats what im dealing with here) and even then no luck.) The only thing that's original/legit in my grow tent now are the seeds and maybe the CFL's and a few items I ordered from a chinese online store that delivers to my location where US/Canada/UK dont, even though those items arent very good quality either Im really just making do until someone kind/resourceful enough pops by to get me what I need. Everything else ive literally put together with my bare hands from cheap hardware stores, and electrical shops, wiring, plugs, extensions.. I even had to adjust a 2-pin extension to fit into a UPS that had PC power male/female inlets. THat was a nightmare until I found what I needed. So like a hamster ive been collecting and getting my stuff as the grow proceeds due to lack of item availability and then finding a solution to counter the items unavailability to work in the same function as best as possible. Not very good quality stuff here im afraid, and finding the right tool/chemical/item is really a nightmare on its own, but ive hacked out every way around and making do. I am probably the first person to execute this here since everyone else is on the Hash train. Theres pretty awesome shit here for hash lovers, but frankly im done with that. You never really know what youre getting even in top-grade hash. At least I know with my strains where im going with its fx/yield/and more. Hash.. Not me. I cant stand it anymore after 15 years of smoking it. It has its place, but not in my system. With the ladies, when it comes to Trichrome checking, im waiting for them milky trykies to have more control over the high that my plants will offer! =D

Oh, if your soil is staying wet longer than 4 days, I would look for better drainage from the pots, or try and loosen the soil a bit more. If you can't do vermiculite, sand would work. Soil, peat and that moss, can get waterlogged and give you root rot. And you don't want to go there. Since you're prime for rot, look at hydroguard or some other beneficial bacteria additive, and a silica suppliment like silica blast. Silica blast will help your plants gain structure and fight disease and pests.

My soil does stay quite wet. The last full watering stayed at least a week and im sure thats adding to my plant problems. Should I replant them into a 5-gallon pot 2 weeks down the line from now using more sand and that fluffy stuff in my post? I keep thinking its called peat moss, but I need to conform that. I transplanted both plants earlier into 3 gallons about 2 weeks ago. The old farts in the garden stores dont even know what perlite/vermiculite is. One chap did, but they dont ever have it in stock and since noone really buys it here they dont keep it stocked that often. Ive begged him for it and am still waiting into my third month with no sign of that. shitty.

As far as what's in the GH ph up/down, I don't know besides one is blue and one is orange :: But you can search the product and they will tell you what's in them. But they are chemical names. Off the top of my head, things like vinegar and epsom salts are things around the house people use for things in the garden, but I don't know what things.

Apparently the ingredients are a trade secret from an earlier search I did. So I cant find GH's chemical composition anywhere. Crap I completely forgot about Epsom salts! Thanks for reminding me. Ive just crammed so much into my head so quickly 4 weeks before I started growing, and continuously along the way that its become a real challenge along with my daily life.

Faic, thanks a heap for all your advice and help. I really appreciate this and I will surely keep this post printed and next to my pots when I can, and defo re-edit the above post as well soon. Until then I dodged a bullet and maybe not the second one that my wife is about to trigger since im still up, its 5:15am and we were meant to travel to another city early and fresh. I guess I'm not driving this time round.. hehehe. take care!

Peace.

 

[MagicJim]

Get a cheap pH pen. To adjust use Distilled White Vinagar DOWN and Baking Soda UP.

 

[desiBud420]

Get a cheap pH pen. To adjust use Distilled White Vinagar DOWN and Baking Soda UP.

Thanks MJ! Just checking out your First grow too.. peace!

 

[Faic]

Hah yeah it can be a nightmare. Good thing to know is,that before FFF and GH there was only miracle grow, and before that, fish chunks with the seeds. It's a weed so if you're careful and pay attention to the responses, the ferts you have should get you good bud.

I would say that stringy stuff is like sphagnum moss or sphagnum peat as it's sold here. I know it's used as a grow medium for orchids, but I woudn't really look to it to keep the soil loose. It will compact just like peat will. Yeah when you repot (I wouldn't do it lless than a week apart, no sense stressing your plant even more.) add sand to the mix, that will help tons. Without knowing any better, I'd go 30% sand, this will keep things aerated. This will also increase your watering times.

A set of 3 8 ounce bottles of nutes may,or probably would not last through a entire grow. If you manage to find a way to get something like this, get 32oz bottles minimum. As long as you store them out of light and heat they'll last.

 

[Faic]

... It made sense to me, but I think probably not the right sense to others, hence no response. ...
snip

With the ladies, when it comes to Trichrome checking, im waiting for them milky trykies to have more control over the high that my plants will offer! =D

Peace.

No, I'm sure everyone seeing your post said to themselves "yep been there,but I'm so stoned I'm gonna move on than read". When your girls take a vacation, your world is neither round or flat, it's a crumpled up piece of paper with flames at the edges. No worries~ ^^v

But the thing about trich color for the quality of the high. Here I believe you are mistaken. Let me explain why.

This is hardly scientific
meh, here check this post I made.

Basically as I understand it, you can ruin weed (subjective) by letting it go too amber (most thc has degraded to CBN) and the high will basically give you a headache. But trying to modulate the quality of high with trich color.
I equate that to hitting yourself in the head with a brick, enough times to feel the way you want, hopefully.
You may end up sitting there drooling wishing you hadn't just spent the last 3 hours thinking about why you're just sitting and drooling and why don't I take something for this headache. The quality of a high is genetic I believe. (capt obvious) And it can't be made better by amber, only different and sometimes worse.

And you'll need a 60x loupe or better to really see color. 80-100% cloudy is my target for day weed. Night time, I want some amber to help fall asleep.

Try to keep calm and when it's all over, your accomplishment will be all the greater!