You're at the lower side of the PH. If it works for you cool. I prefer to stay right in the middle of everything lol. The torn leave? No big deal. It happens. You can cut them off to their first node and they'll jump right back up.
Great choice with the soil imo. A lot of water growers warn about this and that, but remember... the weed originated in... dirt, not water. It's built for it. Here's a couple examples for you to check out:
Pic 1 is a white widow clone. She and her next door buddy cut from the momma, in a small cup of water instantly, then to rooting hormone, then to the dirt. Root structure is obviously formed and she's blasting off. This one will be kept intact. The bottom small nodes will be grown out for... more clones. The larger nodes will be LST to branch straight out so the side shoots grow straight up in into tight nugs instead of branch huggers. I'm a fan of fat massive single colas, so this one's growth shoot stays on.
Pic 2 is a white widow clone that is topped. Same deal. First node only will be left intact. LST to make them grow straight out from the plant. Then this one's growth shoots off of the two branches will be cut away to double each. What usually ends up happening is a momma like that can stay really small but product 16 clones per month. That's easily doubled by once again cutting the tips off of each growth shoot. The smaller growth shoots will be allowed to go until they can be easily cloned.
Pic 3 is the top of the white widow clone in Pic 2. It's well started (1 week) in the dirt and doing the deal.
Sometimes you have to work REALLY hard to kill these suckers :)
