Shaking Off the Cobwebs Grow Diary

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day 33

18/6 light, 75% intensity.
76 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (69% at the moment)
0.96 VPD
5 ml Micro/5 ml Grow/ 2 ml Bloom / 1 ml Silica / 0 ml CalMag, ph to 6.0 (tap water), 650 ppm tds

The CBD plant is getting pretty bushy, so going to have to top it soon.
The CBG plant is growing significantly slower. I was hoping to let the CBG plant catch up before switching to 12/12, but it looks like unless I massively hack at the CBD plant, the CBG plant may never fully catch up.

I’ll repot them to their final, 3 gallon homes soon, keep it in veg maybe another week, then flip to 12/12. At least, that’s the current plan.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Repotted the plants into 3 gallon fabric pots yesterday. First pic is a root porn shot from yesterday. Probably waited a little too long.

Today the bigger gal’s older leaves were very twisted and mis-shapen. Seems she’s pretty upset about the new home.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

So it’s looking like the girls are showing some deficiency signs. I’m thinking Calcium deficiency.

@Grownsince95 what do you think?

Ph is ~6.4, 650 ppm.

 

[Grownsince95]

So it’s looking like the girls are showing some deficiency signs. I’m thinking Calcium deficiency.

@Grownsince95 what do you think?

Ph is ~6.4, 650 ppm.

What did you repot into? When I see those brown racing stripes I look for big pH swings happening.

Tell me how and in what order you mix your nutrients.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

What did you repot into? When I see those brown racing stripes I look for big pH swings happening.

Tell me how and in what order you mix your nutrients.

3 gal fabric pots.

I add silica first, then micro, then grow, then bloom. Then check ph, adjust to 6.0.

 

[Grownsince95]

If your tap water is 300 ppm to start and your end product is 650 that doesn't add up with the levels you say you're feeding. I assume you listed ml per gallon. I will make the exact same recipe you listed and tell you what I get.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

If your tap water is 300 ppm to start and your end product is 650 that doesn't add up with the levels you say you're feeding. I assume you listed ml per gallon. I will make the exact same recipe you listed and tell you what I get.

Tap water is a little less now. Closer to 150 ppm. Water company did some adjustments.

 

[Grownsince95]

I got 890 and I started with tap water 40 ppm less than yours

Edit: ok so at 150 ppm from the tap minus 100 from mine and you get 790. Close enough I guess lol.

Maybe the RO plus calmag is a better choice I've never heard of a municipality that made adjustments to the water like that I wouldn't trust it

 

[Grownsince95]

And now that we know what's going in is good it's time to compare it to the run off. What's coming out the bottom should tell the other half of the story.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

FWIW I initially thought ph too. Checked the rez, and it jumped from 6.0 to 6.5 over the past few days.

Maybe the RO plus calmag is a better choice I've never heard of a municipality that made adjustments to the water like that I wouldn't trust it

It’s not a municipality.

When we bought the home, the disclosure said “well water.” I was thrilled.
Post closing we found out it’s a “shared well” that is maintained by a private company, and we get a bill every month. But it’s septic. Worst of both worlds.

Water was reading ~300ppm. Then we started getting a bunch of air bubbles coming through the line. The company said they were doing maintenance. A couple trucks showed up. Then we got a notice not to drink the water for a few days as they had to shock the lines. Just smelled of chlorine. A few days after that the water was reading closer to 150ppm.

I don’t know if there was stuff in the lines before, or if they punched a new well, or if they started treating it when they weren’t before. I don’t know.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

So I made a single gallon, the same way I always do.

Before mixing, it was reading 132ppm, and 7.81 ph.

Add silica first (1ml)

add micro next (5ml)

add grow (5ml)

add bloom (2ml)

Reads 721 ppm and 7.47ph.

Ph adjust to 6.0

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

And now that we know what's going in is good it's time to compare it to the run off. What's coming out the bottom should tell the other half of the story.

It recirculates. Irrigates on top, drain goes back to the rez. I dump the rez once a week.

Right now it’s reading 627ppm and 6.47ph.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

But, regardless, I think I should hit it with some calmag right now, right? 1ml per gallon and see how they respond? or 2ml?

Or just dump the rez, go with RO water and mix a new batch, including calmag?

 

[Grownsince95]

How many gallons do you put in the reservoir?

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

How many gallons do you put in the reservoir?

6 gallons

 

[Grownsince95]

Idk seems small to be constantly recycling and feeding consistently but I've always done drain to waste so this is above my knowledge level now. Hopefully someone with more experience will jump in that's gone through it.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

According to Claude AI, an appropriate amount to add would be 5-10ml per gallon. I went with 2ml per gallon, and well see where it goes.

I also hit them with a light calmag foliar misting (1ml per gallon).

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

@Grownsince95 with drain to waste, what type of ppm reduction and ph change should you be seeing?

I set the drain hose to go into a separate bucket, just to see what it’s running off at. The runoff was reading about 650ppm (rez was about 780ppm), and ~6.5ph (6.0 in the rez).

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day 38

They appear to be responding pretty well to the addition of CalMag. I might bump it up to about 3ml per gallon soon.

20/4 light, 75% intensity.
77 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 65% (60% at the moment)
1.23 VPD
1 ml Silica / 5 ml Micro / 5 ml Grow / 2 ml Bloom / 2 ml CalMag, ph to 6.0 (tap water), 890 ppm tds

The little gal is still pretty small. At this point I don’t expect her to catch up much.
I’m going to give them a few more days to recover from the repot and the nutrient issues, then put them both into flower.

It’s getting a little crowded in there, and I decided not to boot the other two pepper plants. They started putting off some peppers, and would prefer to see them through. Might be too much for the 2x4 tent, so right before flowering I might switch to a 4x4 tent. We’ll see.

 

[Grownsince95]

pH will always go up if everything is healthy and eating, if it goes down there's usually root rot or a stinky rez. If the ppm comes out less than what you put in you can feed a little more. You want it either the same or no more than 150-200 more than what you put in. The extra cal mag should put you right there. It's an EC hog. Pound for pound will raise ppm more than anything else you put in.