First grow, Deep Chunk open pollination

[greencalyx]

I got some aquarium test strips at the store today. Seems my tap water is a bit on the basic side. Around 7.8 according to the strips.

Thanks for pointing that out. I honestly thought I wouldn't have to worry about pH until I started using nutes.

I'll retest my tap water with the meter once it arrives, and I'll test the runoff when I next water tomorrow or Wednesday.

 

[laszlokovacs]

Thanks for pointing that out. I honestly thought I wouldn't have to worry about pH until I started using nutes.

Wait you've never at any point in the grow fed them?

 

[greencalyx]

Correct. I figured the soil is nutritious enough. It's more or less made for cannabis, and should be good for about a month (from transplant), at least. Idk though

I did give some magnesium sprays to a few plants though

 

[Dequilo]

Cal - Mag might help it help me

 

[greencalyx]

Got everyone watered today. And Got a few runoff pH readings.

I tested what I thought was my healthiest looking, no discolored leaves plant. pH 6.00

And one with discolored lower leaves. pH 6.15

And one of the mag deficient looking ones. pH 6.50

I'm guessing all the discoloration is due to watering issues, because pH seems fine.

My tap water tested with the meter is pH 8.00. And about 550ppm TDS. Should be OK to use a 50:50 mix of tap:distilled for watering, right?

 

[revegeta666]

Got everyone watered today. And Got a few runoff pH readings.

I tested what I thought was my healthiest looking, no discolored leaves plant. pH 6.00

And one with discolored lower leaves. pH 6.15

And one of the mag deficient looking ones. pH 6.50

I'm guessing all the discoloration is due to watering issues, because pH seems fine.

My tap water tested with the meter is pH 8.00. And about 550ppm TDS. Should be OK to use a 50:50 mix of tap:distilled for watering, right?

Good news on the soil pH. I would use an acid to bring the water pH to around 6.5 though. Yes mixing the water is fine.

 

[laszlokovacs]

I would feed them a bit if I were you. Not sure what benefit you would gain from using distilled water, especially if youre buying it. 550ppm sounds a bit high, you say you have 8 pH- you probably have hard water i'm guessing. Try to find out if you do because if you have hard water you dont really need to supplement calcium/magnesium.

Adding nutrients to your water will typically bring the pH down as well. If you can get a water test from wherever you get your water from (city,town,etc..) check the analysis and make sure everythings ok and not too crazy with chems. I would aim to feed your plants water that is drinking water quality.

 

[Redrum92]

Like others are saying: start with distilled or RO, add cal-mag, and raise the lights. Too much light will fuck up cal/mag

50/50 tap would be too much tap for me, but I have terrible water.

 

[greencalyx]

I would feed them a bit if I were you. Not sure what benefit you would gain from using distilled water, especially if youre buying it. 550ppm sounds a bit high, you say you have 8 pH- you probably have hard water i'm guessing. Try to find out if you do because if you have hard water you dont really need to supplement calcium/magnesium.

Adding nutrients to your water will typically bring the pH down as well. If you can get a water test from wherever you get your water from (city,town,etc..) check the analysis and make sure everythings ok and not too crazy with chems. I would aim to feed your plants water that is drinking water quality.

I have just been watering with distilled recently, just until I was able to test my tap to make sure that wasn't the source of my problems. Then I used it to get the runoff pH.

All I can find about my my tap water from the city is that it has ~250ppm of total minerals and 140 of that is calcium. But when I tested at home the TDS was actually much higher.

I was considering the 5050 mix because I was concerned about the high TDS.

I also need distilled water for my cool mist. I have a home distiller, so I can make my own distilled water for about 30cents per gallon (30 cents worth of electricity)

Will definitely adjust the pH for watering going forward

 

[laszlokovacs]

Cool yeah good thinking! Sometimes distilled water doesn't have enough minerals and will pull them from the plants if you water with pure distilled but obviously you have plenty from tap so no worries there. I get pretty good tap water with a filter @ 72 ppm so I just use it as is and add nutes as needed.

I haven't grown any deep chunk and I do think some of the polyhybrids can be much more hungry than old school lines. I'm also growing in 4in pots so I need to feed/water more than you. But for what its worth I dropped my seeds in water feb 4th so just over a month old. They're all about a foot tall and i've already fed them a couple of times. I was pulling out a couple to take clones of just now... if you ask me your discolorations on plants looks hungry for some N and/or a decently balanced veg fertilizer. I can definitely be a bit aggressive with feeding which is something I am working on (you can see slight nute burn on end of the first set of true leaves) but overall my plants are pretty happy.

 

[greencalyx]

Looks nice and healthy!

I may consider feeding them really lightly to start since the pH level seems fine. There should be some in the soil still I would think, but definitely looks like an N deficiency. Maybe they just weren't getting the nutrients because of how dry I was keeping them. I really dropped the ball there. It's a learning experience. Now I know how much is too much water, and how dry is too dry.

It's like a quote by hunter s Thompson that I like. Something like: the only people who truly know where the edge is are the ones who have gone over it.

The plants seem to be growing really fast now I am keeping soil moisture in check. I'll keep a close eye on them for now

I think I am going to try to get a clone from each plant soon. Maybe this weekend. And try to sex the plants at the same time. I took a look at a couple plants near the tent door, but these plants are so damn bushy its hard to tell what's what down there (plus inexperience). I'll examine them much more closely when I get clones.

 

[Redrum92]

Still have lights at 300?

 

[Brother Nature]

Cool thread, this is what this place is all about, learning and development. For your first grow, this isn't bad at all. Definitely take some clones and work on your technique and environment, it's good to learn how to dial a plant in before moving on to another strain. I'd focus on the basics first, get the rh and temp to a decent range while still keeping constant airflow in the tent, that's important. Feed your plants too, that is very important, even some of the best soil mixes will only really provide a baseline of nutes for about 2 weeks, then it's up to you. I'd also not worry too much about RO, distilled, etc... water or adding co2 at this point, keep it as simple as possible then build from what works and what doesn't. Too many variables makes it hard to troubleshoot issues.

Regarding the cal mag issue you're having, most nutrients are mixed to work with tap water with an ec around what you have described so they don't need added cal mag, RO and distilled don't have this so tend to need calcium and magnesium supplemented. This coupled with LED lights seeming to increase cannabis' cal-mag uptake is likely where the issue is stemming from. I have had a very similar issue in the past while using distilled rain water. But on that note, do take everyones advice with a grain of salt, not everything will apply to your situation, but this is a great place to learn with some of the best and most helpful growers out there.

 

[greencalyx]

Still have lights at 300?

At 250 now

 

[greencalyx]

Here's how the plants look today. I used a really light feeding of FF grow big (6-4-4) on Sunday. only used a couple ml per gallon. Should I use more next time? Does this look like general npk deficiency, or something else?

 

[Limeygreen]

They are hungry for sure, up the feed.

 

[laszlokovacs]

Yeah you got a whole bunch of hungry plants. Dont be afraid to feed them. Never used fox farms so cant tell you. You have a ppm meter thing right? I'd say give em at least 800-1000ppm of nutes (on top of whatever starting ppm your plain water is at). See how they respond after a couple feedings and adjust feed from there. Once they start growing for real youre gonna have a forest on your hands

 

[greencalyx]

Yep, i have a meter, and that sounds good to me. I was basically using 1/4 the recommended on the bottle.

From what I can see, most have some pretty good branching going on, so I hope to get a good clone from each from a branch, in a week or so, and then flower as soon as I feel good about the clones, I guess.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

they look well, good luck for the show.

 

[Brother Nature]

Yep, i have a meter, and that sounds good to me. I was basically using 1/4 the recommended on the bottle.

From what I can see, most have some pretty good branching going on, so I hope to get a good clone from each from a branch, in a week or so, and then flower as soon as I feel good about the clones, I guess.

Maybe give them 3/4 then . Looks like they've had a good start but want more. You got some fat leaved girls there, looking nice.