Just a Couple More Questions

[ArtistZanner]

Alright, so I've got my 5 largest plants potted up in their final pots. I repotted the smaller plants, and they are looking even better than the first batch did when they were that size. I've decided to open up my area a little more because it became clear to me that I would not have enough space for 11 plants in the area I initially planned to use. It's not a big deal though, and hopefully it will give the plants the space they need. Temperature and humidity are doing well since I set up the dehumidifier in there.

So, here's my question. I'm now reading and watching videos about pH. I found out that my tap water is running about 7.8 or thereabouts. I bought some pH up & down to get it right. But here's where I'm unsure. Do I need to make sure the water is always a neutral pH, or only when I am feeding ferts? And does everyone agree that I should flush out with just plain water after every 3rd feeding or so?

Also, I'm going by the recommended distance that the light manufacturer provided for the distance between the top of the plants and the light. I have an idea what light burn looks like, but how will I know if my plants are needing the light closer to them? Is there any rule of thumb, or is it really down to what the light manufacturer recommends? Personally, I think the lights should be closer, but I didn't want to put it too close before asking all you very well informed people what I should do. Thank you again for your fantastic advice, it's really helpful.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Just commenting on your pH questions. The best analogy I can offer about nute lock from pH imbalance is that it's like going to a Golden Corral when your jaw is wired shut. All that food in front of you, but you can't put it in your mouth. I used pH adjusted rockwool to start my clones and initially watered them with tap thinking I was safe because I used pH balanced soil, but you have to keep some consistency in the pH because tap will raise soil pH. I didn't overthink it. I played with a Vivigro electronic tester for about a week and eventually figured out a capful of vinegar per gallon of water brought my tap to the desired level and so all water I give them - with nutes or not - I throw in some vinegar. I don't bother testing every time, just periodically and the tap is pretty consistent.

I've done grows without pH adjusted water and it will usually grow just fine, but probly not at its best potential. Just think of it as a form of potential stress that can be mitigated through a proactive approach. You're not gonna kill your plant with the garden hose, it just won't be all that it can be.

Wishing you the best with your grow and a happy harvest!

 

[ArtistZanner]

Just commenting on your pH questions. The best analogy I can offer about nute lock from pH imbalance is that it's like going to a Golden Corral when your jaw is wired shut. All that food in front of you, but you can't put it in your mouth. I used pH adjusted rockwool to start my clones and initially watered them with tap thinking I was safe because I used pH balanced soil, but you have to keep some consistency in the pH because tap will raise soil pH. I didn't overthink it. I played with a Vivigro electronic tester for about a week and eventually figured out a capful of vinegar per gallon of water brought my tap to the desired level and so all water I give them - with nutes or not - I throw in some vinegar. I don't bother testing every time, just periodically and the tap is pretty consistent.

I've done grows without pH adjusted water and it will usually grow just fine, but probly not at its best potential. Just think of it as a form of potential stress that can be mitigated through a proactive approach. You're not gonna kill your plant with the garden hose, it just won't be all that it can be.

Wishing you the best with your grow and a happy harvest!

Thank you. Yes, I get the gist of why you'd want to get the pH right. Can I just ask you, do you think I should do a flush with unfertilized water every few waterings? Of course, I will make sure that ANY water I use is the right pH. I keep fish, so I have a tester for pH and it's pretty easy to check.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Took this shot of the garden earlier in the week. Notice the praying mantis on the plant to the right rear. That mantid is territorial. It stays on my Durban Poison plant, even with me moving them into the greenhouse nightly. Sometimes it will crawl to the top and drink the dew from the top of the greenhouse and I have to coax it back onto a plant before taking it outside but no matter what, I always find it hanging out on the Durban Poison! At one point during this summer's grow, each plant had its own mantid but only the one has decided to stick around.

Two other plants have territorial crab spiders guarding them. They're not big, but big enough to snack on any spider mites trying to set up camp.

The point of the post, besides showing off the garden, was to talk about beneficial bugs. Do what you can to make them feel welcome, and they will stick around. I use zero pesticides at all, and while I do experience some crop shrinkage, it's very minimal thanks to the beneficial pests.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Thank you. Yes, I get the gist of why you'd want to get the pH right. Can I just ask you, do you think I should do a flush with unfertilized water every few waterings? Of course, I will make sure that ANY water I use is the right pH. I keep fish, so I have a tester for pH and it's pretty easy to check.

You have a fish tank but not a swimming pool. With swimming pools, the worst thing we do to them is dump a crap load of chlorine in once a week which spikes the chemistry in a bad way, VS. a gradual constant balance like you might get from a salt chlorinator or an incremental chemical feeder.

Think of your soil as a swimming pool. The only need to flush is because you're overfeeding them. Nutrient uptake should be steady, gradual and consistent with its needs in the growing cycle. You are better with smaller amounts of nutrients with each and every watering until you are ready for final flush.

I think where a lot of us get in trouble is trying to address a deficiency and in doing so, throwing everything out of balance and ultimately making it worse.

 

[TheGoldenRoad]

Thank you. Yes, I get the gist of why you'd want to get the pH right. Can I just ask you, do you think I should do a flush with unfertilized water every few waterings? Of course, I will make sure that ANY water I use is the right pH. I keep fish, so I have a tester for pH and it's pretty easy to check.

I'm a soil grower and I don't pH anything usually unless I use ArmorSi which is very alkaline. I know that my water at the tap is 6.8 so when I apply ArmorSi I adjust the water to 6.5-7.0-ish. I hope that helps.

 

[Ninjadogma]

I'm a soil grower and I don't pH anything usually unless I use ArmorSi which is very alkaline. I know that my water at the tap is 6.8 so when I apply ArmorSi I adjust the water to 6.5-7.0-ish. I hope that helps.

Yeah but the grower is getting 7.8 out of the tap and that high, probably would see obvious signs of nute lock without countermeasure. Mine is 7.6 from tap and I adjust, but if it was 7.2 I probably wouldn't bother since I only bring it down to 6.8.

Another consideration growers don't think about is the chlorine and chloramines in tap water. An easy fix is to fill your watering cans at night and feed in the morning, which allows the chlorine to dissipate overnight. It's just one more miniscule thing that by itself probably doesn't have a profound effect on your plant, but when combined with the other half dozen miniscule things, like pH or micronutrients, does.

 

[ArtistZanner]

You have a fish tank but not a swimming pool. With swimming pools, the worst thing we do to them is dump a crap load of chlorine in once a week which spikes the chemistry in a bad way, VS. a gradual constant balance like you might get from a salt chlorinator or an incremental chemical feeder.

Think of your soil as a swimming pool. The only need to flush is because you're overfeeding them. Nutrient uptake should be steady, gradual and consistent with its needs in the growing cycle. You are better with smaller amounts of nutrients with each and every watering until you are ready for final flush.

I think where a lot of us get in trouble is trying to address a deficiency and in doing so, throwing everything out of balance and ultimately making it worse.

Thank you, that sounds like sound advice to me. I'm still trying to take it all in. It's like getting so much information and trying to dig through what's important, and applies to me, than what isn't as important, or doesn't apply to me. Thank you again. Always appreciate helpful advice.

 

[ArtistZanner]

View attachment 2288958
Took this shot of the garden earlier in the week. Notice the praying mantis on the plant to the right rear. That mantid is territorial. It stays on my Durban Poison plant, even with me moving them into the greenhouse nightly. Sometimes it will crawl to the top and drink the dew from the top of the greenhouse and I have to coax it back onto a plant before taking it outside but no matter what, I always find it hanging out on the Durban Poison! At one point during this summer's grow, each plant had its own mantid but only the one has decided to stick around.

Two other plants have territorial crab spiders guarding them. They're not big, but big enough to snack on any spider mites trying to set up camp.

The point of the post, besides showing off the garden, was to talk about beneficial bugs. Do what you can to make them feel welcome, and they will stick around. I use zero pesticides at all, and while I do experience some crop shrinkage, it's very minimal thanks to the beneficial pests.

I LOVE your garden. Not sure where you are, but I'm in the UK and while we do have some decent weather here and there, I think growing outside would be more of a challenge than growing indoors. But I love your photo!

 

[Newty]

What soil are you growing in?

Good soil will have buffers to keep ph in range.
Water alone usually won't change the ph of your soil. Certain elements are needed in order to change soil ph, most ph up and down doesn't have the correct elements.
You need a soil specific tester or a slurry test to know what the ph is.

As for the light and using the manufacturers recommended settings and distance, most of these recommendations are way to much.

What light brand/model are you using, what dimmer setting, and how high over the plant tops?

 

[ArtistZanner]

What soil are you growing in?

Good soil will have buffers to keep ph in range.
Water alone usually won't change the ph of your soil. Certain elements are needed in order to change soil ph, most ph up and down doesn't have the correct elements.
You need a soil specific tester or a slurry test to know what the ph is.

As for the light and using the manufacturers recommended settings and distance, most of these recommendations are way to much.

What light brand/model are you using, what dimmer setting, and how high over the plant tops?

When you say the recommendations are "way too much", do you mean as in they tell you to put the light too far away, or not close enough? I have been doing as the little booklet says in regards to how far the light should be from the plant and the dimmer setting. For my smaller plants (I planted at 2 different times due to 2 seeds not germinating and 1 rogue plant getting root rot). I have the light about 20" above those, but I'm guessing I need to bring the light down a bit, or raise the plants up. Would you agree? The dimmer is set about 60%.

However, with my larger plants, the light is about 24" above the tops, and my dimmer is set around 75%. But that light is stronger than the other light. Should I make any changes?
Now, as I'm incredibly new to all of this, I initially bought a smaller light (the one over the smaller plants). Because I couldn't not grow all my plants, since I paid for those seeds, I have 11 plants in total. But I realised recently that I needed another light, so I have one coming tomorrow or Tuesday by a company called Phlizon, it's a bit better and I paid a little more for it. The problem is, my husband is a real penny-pincher and he would flip out if he knew how much I'd already spent on this little hobby I decided to get into. I can't really buy the kind of lights I'm sure most growers on here are using. But what's the worst that can happen? I get small yield? But it's also possible that things work out and I get a decent yield. It will only be myself sampling my grow in the end. I'm not interested in making money and my husband isn't into it. So, I'm just trying to do the best I can with what I can get. But I also appreciate the help that different people have offered, as I take all suggestions very seriously.

Oh, and the soil is a decent compost that I added Perlite and Vermiculite to. I do other gardening and have had no problems with it, so as I already had 150 liters of it, I decided to just go with that. I can't afford meters to check soil pH, so I'll just hope that it's okay. I see all this stuff on YouTube videos, and stuff that I read here and there, and I feel a bit depressed with my meagre supplies. These guys have all this stuff, additives for the soil, loads of nutrients, CO2 running, and I can't afford all that stuff. I'm just a woman with a building in the backyard that used to be an office, and decided to grow when I found a weed seedling that came from some bird seed (that's the plant that got root rot). I bought some seeds because what's the sense in growing just one plant? I wasn't sure about that plant and what it would be like in the end (male or female, or crap genetics), so when it got root rot, I wasn't bothered. Sorry for the long ramble, I tend to do that sometimes. :)

 

[Newty]

These are how I run my LED lights. I have 5 different brands and run them all about the same.

Seedling stage - 50" at 30%-40%, if I move closer then I turn dimmer down as well.

Veg stage - 24"-30" 30%-40%

Flower stage - start at same as veg, increase dimmer 10% first week 10%-20% each week after until middle of flower. Middle of flower I'm around 80%-100% at 18"-30" for around 3 weeks, just depends what the plant can handle.
I start lowering intensity after the 3rd week at a rate of 10% a week and will finish at 40%.

During seedling and veg stage, if you see your plant start stretching (long, wide node spacing) then it's an indication they are not getting enough light. Moving the light closer or turning up intensity will stop the stretching.

During any stage if you see the tips or edges of your leaves yellowing/browning, leaves curling, or leaves praying then it could be a sign of to much light and raising the light or lowering intensity should help.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Thank you, that sounds like sound advice to me. I'm still trying to take it all in. It's like getting so much information and trying to dig through what's important, and applies to me, than what isn't as important, or doesn't apply to me. Thank you again. Always appreciate helpful advice.

It's really easy to over think it. Remember, these things grow like weeds on their own in their natural environment. A buddy of mine just throws seeds in the ground and waters them until harvest and when I asked him if he supplements with bud candy or some other carb he just laughed. He may not win the Cannabis Cup but his weed is just fine.

 

[Ninjadogma]

I LOVE your garden. Not sure where you are, but I'm in the UK and while we do have some decent weather here and there, I think growing outside would be more of a challenge than growing indoors. But I love your photo!

Thank you! I'm in Southern California. Can you grow in pots? If you are growing indoors you can turn the light off every once in a while and take them out for a drink of sunshine if the weather is good. Jut make sure to do it within the hours of your normal light cycle. The Equinox came right after I had started rooting some new clones and they started budding before they even rooted. Took 6 weeks for them to root and now I'm attempting to re-veg them. Since we are now at <12 hours of light and shrinking, I'm using a grow shed for the extra 6 hours of light they need.

 

[ArtistZanner]

It's really easy to over think it. Remember, these things grow like weeds on their own in their natural environment. A buddy of mine just throws seeds in the ground and waters them until harvest and when I asked him if he supplements with bud candy or some other carb he just laughed. He may not win the Cannabis Cup but his weed is just fine.

I totally agree with over thinking things, and a sort of information overload. Do this, don't do this, etc., etc. I don't expect my first grow to be amazing because I barely know what I'm doing. But I love growing plants in general and it's kind of fun seeing how this will turn out.

 

[ArtistZanner]

Thank you! I'm in Southern California. Can you grow in pots? If you are growing indoors you can turn the light off every once in a while and take them out for a drink of sunshine if the weather is good. Jut make sure to do it within the hours of your normal light cycle. The Equinox came right after I had started rooting some new clones and they started budding before they even rooted. Took 6 weeks for them to root and now I'm attempting to re-veg them. Since we are now at <12 hours of light and shrinking, I'm using a grow shed for the extra 6 hours of light they need.

I'm not exactly growing in plastic pots, I opted for fabric pots. As for taking them outside, that might be more hassle than it's worth. Here in England, it's getting dark around 7pm (my lights come on at 7.30pm), and during winter we will see darkness around 3.30pm. Also, I have dogs and I found out very quickly that one of my dogs took a liking to my plants and tried to bite the leaves. So now I have some boards up so they can't get to it.

 

[Ninjadogma]

I'm not exactly growing in plastic pots, I opted for fabric pots. As for taking them outside, that might be more hassle than it's worth. Here in England, it's getting dark around 7pm (my lights come on at 7.30pm), and during winter we will see darkness around 3.30pm. Also, I have dogs and I found out very quickly that one of my dogs took a liking to my plants and tried to bite the leaves. So now I have some boards up so they can't get to it.

Haha yea my dogs also picked up the habit of chewing on leaves and I think they got it watching me defoliate and toss the leaves on the ground and that's when they started chomping on them.

Since resuming growing I started my first two clones in plastic pots just because it's what I had on hand from previous grows but I switched to 5 gallon grow bags for clones I took from them. The injustice I did them is no wicker basket or anything to keep the sun off that black bag and cooking the roots, but on hot days I like that you can mist the outside of the bag and keep them happy through evaporative cooling.

So for taking them outside, I'm not saying you switch to an outside grow because conditions are unfavorable. But you can save electricity and give them a good dose of light taking them out for a couple hours. As for dogs chewing the leaves, that's why I keep them on a table where the dogs can't reach them.

 

[Ninjadogma]

What soil are you growing in?

Good soil will have buffers to keep ph in range.
Water alone usually won't change the ph of your soil. Certain elements are needed in order to change soil ph, most ph up and down doesn't have the correct elements.
You need a soil specific tester or a slurry test to know what the ph is.

As for the light and using the manufacturers recommended settings and distance, most of these recommendations are way to much.

What light brand/model are you using, what dimmer setting, and how high over the plant tops?

Not sure if this was directed to me but I'm using EB Stone's Recipe 420 for all my girls. I dropped the first two into the regular Recipe 420 and then took clones from them and tried EB Stone's Recipe 420 Bhang. I noticed better results from the Bhang so for the time being I'm sticking with it. Our local do-it-yourself center stocks it so it's easy to get. It's supposed pH balanced and loaded with beneficial microbes. For water retention I would put it on par with Miracle Grow in the sense that it is more forgiving with over/under watering than other potting soils.