How to take care of my baby seedlings?

[RobMarley420]

Thanks for that link Scrogman, that was very informative.

I saw this in the link....

Changing the pH by more than .5 units per day is known to stress plants. Thus, you want the pH of your Bio-Systems reservoir to remain constant and stable over the long haul. ]

...And that made me relize that my plants first started to droop and turn yellow after I switched from tap water to distilled water. Maybe the drooping and yellowing was from the PH change going from tap to distilled.

So if I decide to switch back to tap water would it be good idea to start out with a 50/50 mix of tap and distilled to gradually increase the PH???


And about the quality of my tap water..... It is hard water and it does have a noticeable smell and taste of chlorine. I'm not sure what the PH is because I don't own a PH meter. I was going to go without buying one because I've heard you need to spend around $100 to get a decent one. But now I'm thinking that a quality PH meter might be a good investment....

I don't know if this says anything about its "hardness", but when I use my tap water in humidifiers it leaves TONS of hard water deposits on everything. It covers everything in a thin white dusty film. Is that the cal/mag being left behind after the water evaporates???

This is what my intake filter looked like after 5 days when I was running 2 humidifers in the room.

 

[pinecone]

That is a sign of hard alkaline (high pH) water. If you are going to depend on salt-based nutrients then you will likely need a meter and some pH down (or vinegar or citric acid). If you are going "organic" then you don't need to worry about pH (it regulated by the plant and microbes in the root zone), but you do need to be concerned about chlorine-chloramine.

Pine

 

[RobMarley420]

You could use chlorinated water to grow some really nice plants in that cut FFOF with a salt-based fertilizer line. This said, you probably will run into problems if you are relying on plant-insoluble (i.e. organic) fertilizers which require bacteria and protozoa to be transformed (mineralized) into plant-soluble forms.

Solutions
- Bubble your tap and use organic fertilizers
- Use RO with organic fertilizers

I was planning on using nothing but FFOF soil and FF Big Bloom nutrients, which from what I understand is 100% organic. Is that correct?

So if I use chlorinated water with that soil/nute combo I might run into problems?

How do I "bubble" my tap water? I'm guessing I have to buy something made for fish aquariums or something?

 

[Aivoödeema]

Why did you have heating blanket there? They are plants, not eggs.

Heat creates humidity, too much humidity is bad and the plants rot dead after they get out of the ground.

It worked out okay for you but thought to show up month late to tell you that.

 

[RobMarley420]

It worked out okay for you but thought to show up month late to tell you that.

lol. Thanks.

I needed the heating blanket to keep the temps up. It was my home-made seedling heating mat. Without the blanket the temps were in the 55-65F range.

 

[pinecone]

I was planning on using nothing but FFOF soil and FF Big Bloom nutrients, which from what I understand is 100% organic. Is that correct?

I'm not sure it it is "organic" or not. Some of the Fox Farms stuff isn't (maybe Tiger Bloom isn't). Do a little research on the product.

So if I use chlorinated water with that soil/nute combo I might run into problems?

In organics you are depending on symbiotic relationships between plants, bacteria, and protozoa to breakdown organic matter and make it available in the form of plant soluble nutrients to your plants. If you kill the bacteria and protozoa with chlorine or chloramine you can't have these symbiotic relationships.

If you want more information on the types of things that happen in an organic grow read the sections entitled "Organic Growing from a Microbial Perspective" in the following link.

http://www.microbeorganics.com/#Organic_Growing_Microbial_Perspective

With salt-based (non-organic) fertilizers you don't need these symbiotic relationships because the fertilizers are in a form that can readily be absorbed by the plants provided the pH is the the correct range; thus the importance of pH metering and adjusting with synthetic fertilizers.

How do I "bubble" my tap water? I'm guessing I have to buy something made for fish aquariums or something?

With an aquarium pump and an air stone. Scrogerman is correct in that you cannot bubble out chloramine.

Pine

 

[RobMarley420]

Would a "Britta" water filter help with chloramine at all?

Are there any ways to get chloramine out of tap water?

How do I find out if my tap water contains chloramine? Call the city water treatment plant?

And once again, thanks for all the help!
I thought growing weed was going to be extremely easy but it's turned out to be a lot more complicated that I thought. I'm probably just overthinking some things tho. KISS...

 

[pinecone]

Are there any ways to get chloramine out of tap water?

I don't think so. I don't even think RO units remove chloromine, but I could be wrong.

How do I find out if my tap water contains chloramine? Call the city water treatment plant?

Call your water utility. Most municipalities provide annual water reports. You might be able to get such a report off a website.

I thought growing weed was going to be extremely easy but it's turned out to be a lot more complicated that I thought. I'm probably just overthinking some things tho. KISS...

Part of the issue is that there are many ways to grow out plant. If you consider the scope of things that you have to be concerned about across all these ways to grow, it can be pretty confusing and overwhelming. This is why I am trying to get you to focus on what type of grower you want to be.

If you want to be an "organic" grower then what you need to be concerned about foremost is making sure that you provide a suitable habitat the microbial organisms in your soil as without them organics doesn't work. At a basic level this means not using chlorinated water. On a deeper level it might mean that you mulch, recycle your medium, and use compost teas to re-inoculate your medium with micro-organisms. While you need to be concerned with providing a suitable habitat for microbial life in organics you do not need to be concerned about pH, ppms, or EC.

If you want to be a salt-based grower then you don't need to be worried about chlorine, but do need to consider things like the quality of your tap water, pH, the ppm or EC of your nutrient solution, and flushing.

Once you decide what kind of grower you want to be you can simplify significantly. I grow organically and my grows are extremely simple. I water little bit daily (with RO water incidentally because my water is softened), top dress occasionally (couple times per cycle), and occasionally use compost-nutrient teas (again a couple times per cycle). Other than hydrolized fish which goes into the teas I don't use any bottled fertilizers. I also recycle my medium by simply cutting the a bit of the stump out and replanting. You can also do salt-based grows simply. For an example, check out the KISS thread in the "nutrients" forum.

Pine

 

[RobMarley420]

Definitly want to be an alll organic grower.

And I was able to find my city's water tests online! Apparently they use chlorine, not chloromine. 0.4-0.5 PPM chlorine

Fluoride is added to the water at the pumping stations to a concentration of 1.1
parts per million for dental health. Chlorine is also added at a concentration
around 0.4 – 0.5 parts permillion to protect againstmicrobial contamination from
sources such as a water main break.

 

[elgwedoloco]

Wow this thread is soooooo useful. Thanks Rob for starting this. It has helped me through my seedling emmensly.

 

[pinecone]

Definitly want to be an alll organic grower.

Then start reading and posting in the "Organic Soil" forum. The IC Mag Organic Soil forum is the best source of information on organic container gardening that I have found on the web, and this includes mainstream gardening sites.

And it also appears my tap water has high nitrate levels. Is this something I should be concerned about for my plants?

The nitrates will supply nitrogen to your plants. It isn't a problem.

Pine

 

[FreezerBoy]

Definitly want to be an alll organic grower.

Does growing in the back yard using nothing but dirt as food count as organic? If so, I've grown 18 foot trees with water from the hose (aka tap water).

We drink it, cook with it, feed it to our pets, brush our teeth with it, bathe ourselves and our kids in it...

Growing is as simple, or complicated, as we care to make it. Organic and sterilized are two different things. Closer to antonyms than synonyms.

 

[pinecone]

Does growing in the back yard using nothing but dirt as food count as organic? If so, I've grown 18 foot trees with water from the hose (aka tap water).

Sure it does. Growing big plants in your backyard garden, a natural habitat of soil microbes, with tap water is quite a different thing than growing plants in small containers in an indoor garden with tap water. In fact the very act of spraying water though a sprinkler head helps evaporate the chlorine.

Pine

 

[FreezerBoy]

I just don't want poor ol' Rob to have a heart attack. I think he's overworking, overthinking. Overloving plants may be the #1 killer.

Yeah, we spend time, money, affection on them. They're our little pricesses but, they're also one of the most vigorous, stubborn, bad ass plants on earth. They'll grow anywhere... if we just get out of their way.

"slow down, you move too fast
got to make the morning last, just....
kickin' down the cobblestone
lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy."

 

[RobMarley420]

Does growing in the back yard using nothing but dirt as food count as organic? If so, I've grown 18 foot trees with water from the hose (aka tap water).

Yeah, that's about as organic as it gets. All natural.

I have also grown an outdoor plant in nothing but natural soil and hose water and it turned out fine. 12 ounces of good herb from 1 plant.

But I will be bubbling my tap water to evaporate the cholorine. Water without chlorine is more natural that water with chlorine. Maybe I should start collecting rain water.... Thats as natural and organic as it gets. lol

 

[FreezerBoy]

Maybe I should start collecting rain water.... Thats as natural and organic as it gets. lol

Depends on where you live. Rain water can be full of all kinds of nasty stuff. Believe it or not, there are places (Colorado?) where collecting rain water is illegal; The rain that has yet to fall is considered part of the river, lake or water basin, rights to which are already assigned.

 

[RobMarley420]

So this are how my plants are doing after 30 days under the HPS 24/24.

How do I know when to start feeding them nutrients??? They've gotten nothing but plain water so far.

How much longer should I veg them for?

 

[FreezerBoy]

My dirt grows were outside, I never fed them anything so I can't really comment except to say look for signs of unhappiness.

How long to veg depends on your lamp and space. If you're using the 600 mentioned earlier, I'd bank on at least 2 feet of stretch, maybe more. Remember that even a 600 only penetrates so far. Me? I'd flip now and see what happens. Personally, I hate running out of space and having to throw out growth.

 

[hpslamp]

I would start feeding them now.. and start flowering soon

 

[RobMarley420]

Yellowing Leaves

Yellowing Leaves

The leaves on one of my plants are starting to turn yellow.

2 days ago they started to get yellow tips so I fed them some nutrients. (Fox Farm Big Bloom, 4Tblspoons per gallon. In Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.)

Since I've watered them the yellowing has gotten worse.

They have been under a 600watt HPS 24/24 for 33 days now. This is the first time they've been fed nutrients. All the other plants are fine. The strain that is yellowing is "Super Sour OG". That plant is also bigger and bushier than the rest.

Is this from not enough nutrients? Or too much nutrients?

Or something else?