Hey Docta, we all live and learn! Wanted to comment on your issues and my similar experience. I am on well water with about 120ppm hardness and a ph of about 7.5 and went through several good cycles. Tried switching up to R/O water and what I encountered was very similar. Best I could gather using a high peat mix will lower the ph if not well buffered, by adding a water source with 0 buffer ( R/O ) creates a perfect acid storm. Unbuffered water is extremely reactive to the ph of soil it filters through and when put into an already acid environment it burns the plant and causes lockout. I have gone to a supersoil mix composted for 30 days and went back on our well water. All is golden.

Also wanted to note that insects are everywhere in our environment and surely gnats are living right outside your home waiting for the right conditions and opportunity to propagate. Fungus gnats are common around human dwellings and will find even sterilized soil with the smells of organic breakdown. On transplant apply liquid BT, this will really work and continues to work.

Docta Haze said:

Hey there MirrorZen. I've been away from the forum for awhile, but I'm back with renewed interest. I'm excited to explore organic growing, and I hope to find more tips on thcfarmer. Hopefully my mistakes while growing white widow are avoided as I begin my next project. I would like to mention that me and two close friends each experienced fungus gnats. We grew during different years, and we grew in different indoor environments in each case. One shared characteristic, however, was that each of us had used Fox Farm Happy Forest for our seedlings, this was what was recommended to us by different grow shops. Unfortunately, our soil seemed to harbor fungas gnats. Although FFHF soil is marketed across the world and that these gnats could not be in every bag of their soil, our experience was severe enough to encourage us to try other brands.

You wrote that my environment looked bad, and I wonder what you would recommend as being important for proper environment maintenance. I'm always open to thoughtful suggestions. Thank you again! :)

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@MirrorZen Can help ya out brother. I looked through your log. Kudos for pulling that off. It was either UV burn or heat stress.

I've looked through the better organix line and it looks effective to me. Believe me I'm like Chuck Norris when I go to the bottled nutrient section. I roundhouse kick all that shit.

Blaiz said:

Hey Docta, we all live and learn! Wanted to comment on your issues and my similar experience. I am on well water with about 120ppm hardness and a ph of about 7.5 and went through several good cycles. Tried switching up to R/O water and what I encountered was very similar. Best I could gather using a high peat mix will lower the ph if not well buffered, by adding a water source with 0 buffer ( R/O ) creates a perfect acid storm. Unbuffered water is extremely reactive to the ph of soil it filters through and when put into an already acid environment it burns the plant and causes lockout. I have gone to a supersoil mix composted for 30 days and went back on our well water. All is golden.

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Heyah Blaiz, thanks for sharing your experience. I've come under the impression R/O water might work best for those running hydroponics. If I lived with well, I'd use tap water, but being in city makes me think it'll be best to buy distilled water now. At least distilled water comes with minerals, and I hope it won't be as reactive to the soil as R/O.

I've read many times that with organic based nutrients soil acidity should be less of a concern. I did a microgrow last year and didn't have the instruments to monitor PH or temp/humidity. I did, however, have the resources to grow organically, and I was pleasantly surprised to harvest about 10g of frosty, tasty bud using a bagseed. This was achieved in 2'x3'x2' grow space without mylar and about 110w of cfl bulbs.

My next project will be an extension of this microgrow with much greater investment and hopefully with sensi seeds' shiva skunk. I'll be using a 138w Roleado LED (53w actual power consumption) combined with a 30w LED strip and maybe 60w of cfl bulbs. It will be inside a 100L mylar insulated garbage bin with several ventilation fans.

I hope to start another blog of this project soon. I'm really curious to see if it's possible to pull 2oz off a plant with organic compost tea in this setup. Not sure what to expect from such a low powered LED though.