1st Time Outdoors

[SunGrown]

I have noticed some sediment build up at the bottom of the pots and could be from hard water. Going to pick up a ph kit and will do a flush once I make sure my tap water is good. I think the well water I have been using is very hard....dooh. I might have mites and nute lock out both. Jumping on things early I hope will help, not as good as doing correct it the first place though.

I wouldn't think (but I do not know) that your well is to blame. Most people I know grow with well water and most NEVER even think to check ph and their grows are fine. My one buddys well water is brown as shit and his plants (mostly diesels) are growing very well!

But I am not saying don't check it by any means! Let us know!

 

[Freshies]

My well water is off the chart hard with like 750 ppm of minerals and a ph of 8 or so. This is what I have been using up until last week when I switched to my soft water from the tap. It is soft it says on the test but still comes up with high alkalinity and a ph of 7.5-7.8. These strips are hard to read. The soil ph seems to be around 7.5 as well.

I'm going to keep up with mite treatment and fix this problem too.

So, should I flush with my tap (soft water but still high ph) water from my hose or will this cause more problems? Do I need to be treating my water or just treating the soil to bring the ph down? I can see mineral deposits built up on the smart pots.

I really appreciate all your help, this forum is priceless.

 

[SunGrown]

My well water is off the chart hard with like 750 ppm of minerals and a ph of 8 or so. This is what I have been using up until last week when I switched to my soft water from the tap. It is soft it says on the test but still comes up with high alkalinity and a ph of 7.5-7.8. These strips are hard to read. The soil ph seems to be around 7.5 as well.

I'm going to keep up with mite treatment and fix this problem too.

So, should I flush with my tap (soft water but still high ph) water from my hose or will this cause more problems? Do I need to be treating my water or just treating the soil to bring the ph down? I can see mineral deposits built up on the smart pots.

I really appreciate all your help, this forum is priceless.

Man, I will recommend @Seamaiden to help you with this one, or maybe someone else here can. But she will have some advice for you for sure.

 

[Freshies]

They are kinda looking worse this evening, the curling and shiveling up is more obvious at the upper bud sights. The one in the ground seema much leaa effected than the potted plants. I did a flush with my tap water and will feed them when the soil dries back up as well as use something to adjuat the ph...just haven't decided what to use yet. Going to spray them here pretty soon with the Montery.

 

[SunGrown]

hmm, they look nicely green, I do not think they NEED food. Have you tried epsom salts yet?

 

[Freshies]

I have not. I will need to go pick some up. I figured after the flush they might get hungry in a day or two.

 

[Freshies]

Last night I sprayed with Epsom salt and cold water in lieu of the Montery insect spray which I'll use tonight.. I here the cold water works good to piss off the mites. I mixed 1.5 tbsp epsom salt in a cup of warm water and mixed with 3 gallons cold water. I went to bed a little upset because my new growth was looking all shitty. Woke up this morning with no new problems and two of the plants are starting to look a little better :-) Could be the flush, epsom salts, or the azamax spray two days ago and the cold water sprays in between. I think it was a combo of all :-) Still waiting for the mighty wash in the mail. I also ordered some evil Avid just in case...thought it would be good to have on the shelf for emergency situations in the future. I plan on giving them a little epsom salt in their next watering to get some in the soil. I believe it can help free up some roots from lockout that I was most likely experiencing.

Still not at all where I want to be but I think/hope I'm on the right track.

 

[DismalDude]

Sprayed with epsom salts?Just remember that mix is for root watering.

 

[Freshies]

After epsom salts was mentioned I did some reading up on it and came to the conclusion that an epsom foliar spray was fine. I didn't want to water anymore after the flush.

 

[Freshies]

Things are looking better everyday :) I sprayed with mighty wash last night and with cold water this evening. Noticing quiet a few dead or browning pistils. I know CGKen said that was a sign of russet mites and that has me a little worried. I have read on some other threads that azamax and neem oil can kill pistils as well and hoping that is the case. Either way I'm barley into flowering and if the new pistils look white and happy, I'll be happy.

The neighborhood weatherman thinks it's going to be a cold fall and he's predicting snow in September. He probably doesn't know shit but I'm taking precautions anyways and started construction on my little 6'x10'x6' greenhouse. Making it out of wood framing and corrugated plastic. Hope I don't blow my cover. Trying the best I can to make it look not like a greenhouse.

 

[SunGrown]

Thanks for the update! And I pray you don't have bugs as well

But you are right, spraying almost anything can make pistils wither so that may be all that is

 

[straincreation]

IMHO you dint have bugs man atleast not anything that is the norm. You have pretty much confirmed you dont have russets. In the last pics you posted you have oversprayed your ladies. Your well water is off the charts if you are using a general soil. FF, HF, ROOTS, etc. Your soil is not gonna fix its own ph. Thiugh you are out side you are still in pots my man.

Ive seen grasshoppers do this damage. Even as you stated birds come threw, ive had branches taken out from birds. Anyways. Could have been mutiple things but it seems to have moved on and if not keep an eye out come out in the wee hours in the morn thats how I found some of these bastards munching shit.

So back the ph suggest to use thise epsons in a feed. Stop spraying those girls bro. There stomatas are cligged up and thdy cant breath. That us what this wilt you are getting is from. Your using MW so give a good spray down with plain r.o.. or atleast phed water. And let them be. try and get your soil phed. Imo a flush shouldnt be necessary but I suppose it would hurt. Just replenish the soil soon after. Be careful not to over do it with the epsoms. Again the main thing im sying here is correct me if im wrong, but I presume from your xp your not cooking and making soil, with all due respect of course.
You will get there.:)
So this being said your mix probably does not have the microlife to obtain a ph balance under any circumstances.

So I say fix a few things and you will be ok. These ladies looked real happy when I got here and by the end of the thread they were sad and suffocated. So I know you see eggs. You always will OD. IMO its about having the eco system to defend naturally for you. And spraying those pestesides every where in your garden isnt gonna help. Its your first grow and I know you wanna prove to your wife its worth it..wives...ya but also yourself. But chill on the pestecides all that is no good especially when starting to flower. I mean you might as well just top it at the node and see if the problem follows threw to the next tops. I mean gorilla if a deer comes by and muches a top or two the will indeed flower just fine from the next set of nodes.
Ihope some of this sparks something in your head I dont know just my thought. Have good one and
Happy farmin;)

Sorry about any typos im on my tablet

 

[Freshies]

SC, I think you are correct about the bugs not being out of control and the majority of the sad look was probably due the well water being at a ph of 8 in a soil that doesn't balance itself out as well as a homemade super soil. I'm using Roots 707. You are also probably correct about the plants not liking the bug sprays.

I have seen eggs, I'm positive of that. I did not think this was normal, I was under the impression that this is bad and required urgent treatment. Some of the leaf damage could have been from othet insects like hoppers but thw spotting on some resemble the mite discrption I've seen. At the very least I'm going to continue to spray with cold water in the late evening.

I went and picked up a better ph reader, the GH dropper one. Way easier to read than the strips. My tap water with the nutes looks be right around 6.5 ph, perfect and looks to be just under 7 with no nutes. Thinking I may add a little ph down for watering. The well water read at 8+, never using that water again.

 

[straincreation]

IMO The well water is ok to use you just need a rez and ph it to the correct level. If you have 40 bucks go on amazon and get a ph pen and ppm reader. Check those ppms. If low enough you should be good. If you need a link I can get you one but there pretty easy to find.
Then again if you have access to better water thats always better than having to buffer your super alkaline water. I think

Anyways I did not see any mite damage in any of those pics. I seen the munch on that top and that was about it.
Your plants look nice and lush green my friend those ladies look ...looked happy like I said. You have ti let mother nature do her thing a bit but take care of your girls. If that makes sense :banhappy:

You basically have to get a feel for it I guess and introduce what she needs at the right time you being a new grower I can understand why you kind of panicked in a sense, And rightly so. with caregiverken,SG, and many others having russets and other things f'n shit up. Ive seen some nasty scary ass threads here this season . And it makes my stomach hurt dude. Espesially those growing for there livelyhood:(. so IMO your in the right place man.
With alot of people fighten the good fight some one is bound to win.:)

So you say you have spider mite damage huh. Can we see some pics of the damage. Im gonna look at them again. Cause I seen none. Do you have any veggie gardens? If so Do they have any probs? Or the brush you have them near. Inspect your enviroment. Dont forget that your gonna have beneficials That can be misgiagnosed so id look um up. Always remember that a prevenative strike is good.

That being said lets not create spartan mites that can master chief there way threw your garden.lol sorry if the refernce is not under stood. Im stoned;):)

So IMO ya just chill with all that sprays for a bit.
Happy farmin;)

 

[Freshies]

The ppm from the well is extremely high, at around 750+. I found the old paper work from when we bought our home and verified with a test strip.

I definitely don't want spartan mites!! So here are some pics of a few leaves were I have seen damage. Granted most of these are on the inner leaves and it's not really obvious unless you really look for it. Took me few minutes to find some worth taking pics of. To spray or not to spray? I'm guessing I'm at least 2 months out from harvest.

 

[Freshies]

 

[Dunge]

As straincreation said, "with caregiverken,SG, and many others having russets and other things f'n shit up. Ive seen some nasty scary ass threads here this season"
Time to take a breath.
Nothing in your pics shows me anything I wouldn't expect in an outdoor grow.
I have those holes too.
I often go to sleep thinking about my garden.
That has been harder to do this summer with the smell of bug trouble is all over this forum.
Stay alert, but try to relax.
Catching trouble early is best.
Early is a relative term.

 

[caregiverken]

View attachment 432076

I think,those holes are probably from grasshoppers

 

[Freshies]

Okay, I may have freaked out a little but I'm still not rulling spider mites out. I am however going to stop spraying until I see a live mite, which I hope I don't.

The greenhouse is just about finished :-) Pretty fun project and not all that expensive. It's definitely a primitive type house, not planning on running any electricity to it at this point. It's not at all airtight or bug resistant....I'm totally fine with that. It will do a good job protecting from hail, hard rains and the 90mph wind gusts we can get in the fall. Ive got some good security in place as well...also following all the laws as far as I know.

Plants are looking happier too :-)

 

[caregiverken]