Two Months planning, one week praying, and a little off color.

[PK1]

OK, sorry. The soil is a CocoCoir and Perlite blend in 5 gal. cloth pots. The humidity is 60-65 24/7 and the temp is 75-77 during lights on with a dark temp of 69 low on a 18/6 cycle. I think I may have to bump the humidity up 10 to be more in line with seedling humidity range. I let it drop to 60 when the 3rd leaf pair formed. This is way more complicated than going to the store and buying a oz.

Coco should be feed few times a day and keep it moist at all times. Your mix looks to have soil in it or is it just me thinking that?
Here is a chart that shows you the best results on the temp and humidity.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

Coco should be feed few times a day and keep it moist at all times. Your mix looks to have soil in it or is it just me thinking that?
Here is a chart that shows you the best results on the temp and humidity.
View attachment 1076160

Thanks again, I was and am still confused on the watering options. It is just a Coco and Perlite mix. (4 qt perlite to 650gr coco)

That charts great, I use it.

 

[sambapati]

The light is a Mars Hydro TS600 led and is at 24 inch's above the plants. Temp is 76 with a humidity of 35 since I started trying to lower the tent temperature with more air flow. I had the tent stable at a temp of 80 and humidity of 60 but read that 75 was a better temp for seedlings.

My house temperature is 70 with a humidity of 26 so without much watering going on with seedlings I believe I will have to have a humidifier in the room until I start watering more. Or perhaps watering away from the seedlings at the outside edges of the cloth buckets to increase humidity.

Lower your light to 18"....I have the same light....it isnt super powerful and can handle up to 2 plants...you might get a stronger light for when the plants go into flower...

 

[Newbelinginaz]

Lower your light to 18"....I have the same light....it isnt super powerful and can handle up to 2 plants...you might get a stronger light for when the plants go into flower...

Thanks for the owner insight. Learning about light science is taking some time for me.

 

[coherent]

IMHO Better to start in smaller pot (I start in solo cups) they seem to do a little better and easier to water (less used) while they are small. I then transfer to 3 gal when they have 3-5 nodes. Your humidity is fine. I struggle to keep mine in 40's-50's and they are still thriving. Use cal-mag and 1/4 nutes per gal and water daily (unless they dry out faster which I doubt with 5 gal pots). Water to about 10-20% runnoff out the bottom. If you use solo cups thats only 3-4oz each watering. With 5 gal pots likely 1/2 gal or more which is why it's a bit easier to start with smaller containers. I've never had issues transplanting with coco to a larger container. Smaller pots equal less water but more often once they get larger... larger pot more water but you may be fine once a day, which helps if you have a busy schedule.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

IMHO Better to start in smaller pot (I start in solo cups) they seem to do a little better and easier to water (less used) while they are small. I then transfer to 3 gal when they have 3-5 nodes. Your humidity is fine. I struggle to keep mine in 40's-50's and they are still thriving. Use cal-mag and 1/4 nutes per gal and water daily (unless they dry out faster which I doubt with 5 gal pots). Water to about 10-20% runnoff out the bottom. If you use solo cups thats only 3-4oz each watering. With 5 gal pots likely 1/2 gal or more which is why it's a bit easier to start with smaller containers. I've never had issues transplanting with coco to a larger container. Smaller pots equal less water but more often once they get larger... larger pot more water but you may be fine once a day, which helps if you have a busy schedule.

Your right. In trying to keep it simple by starting the seedling in their final pot I complicated the watering process. I'm less than 10 days into this and am already starting a list of things to do right the next time.

Interestingly my tent gravitates toward 40-50 humidity and being in Arizona keeping it up may be helped by my large water consumption. Have you tried growing with our Colorado river water? Filtered my TDS is 550ish so I am not using it to grow yet.

 

[coherent]

In Northern AZ tap water TDS is similar to yours with high ph in most areas. I have an RO system which drops TDS to under 10 which makes things much easier since you don't know what the high TDS levels contain. Mostly alkaline I'd imagine which means really high ph needing adjustment. After adding nutes to the ro water I use about 5 drops of ph down (per gal) which results in about 5.9-6.0 ph. The larger pots definitely help with tent humidity. I see a 10 point plus increase when re-potting to the larger grow bags vs solo cups.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

In Northern AZ tap water TDS is similar to yours with high ph in most areas. I have an RO system which drops TDS to under 10 which makes things much easier since you don't know what the high TDS levels contain. Mostly alkaline I'd imagine which means really high ph needing adjustment. After adding nutes to the ro water I use about 5 drops of ph down (per gal) which results in about 5.9-6.0 ph. The larger pots definitely help with tent humidity. I see a 10 point plus increase when re-potting to the larger grow bags vs solo cups.

Thanks

I am missing a RO system. Filling up at a friends seems intrusive and with Amazon Fresh bottled water being cheap I am going to see how bottled water affects the grow cost.

Humidity seems to be the burden us Arizona's must bear. Here in the Valley of the Sun during summer when I cannot regulate the room temp down below 74ish I may need so much airflow thru the tent humidity will suffer much more than during winter. I may end up just growing during the winter or buying a much larger humidifier.

So much science and balancing act. So much to learn.

 

[Notamastergrower]

Thanks

I am missing a RO system. Filling up at a friends seems intrusive and with Amazon Fresh bottled water being cheap I am going to see how bottled water affects the grow cost.

Humidity seems to be the burden us Arizona's must bear. Here in the Valley of the Sun during summer when I cannot regulate the room temp down below 74ish I may need so much airflow thru the tent humidity will suffer much more than during winter. I may end up just growing during the winter or buying a much larger humidifier.

So much science and balancing act. So much to learn.

Buy some 5 gallon jugs w/ tops at Walmart then fill up at glacier or water mill for a dollar somethin

 

[coherent]

RO filter systems are pretty inexpensive. The Apex systems get great reviews and are less than $200 on amazon. There are budget systems for even less and even those will make a huge difference in water quality. Easy and fast to install even in a rental or apartment. You can always remove it when you leave. Hauling and filling jugs is a real hassle. With 5 gal pots and 1/2 to 1 gal once a day or more per plant can get to be a real pain and really old quickly. GH Flora series nutes do make a hard water version. I've never used it, but if you don't have a good filter system might be worth doing a little research into and checking out?

 

[Newbelinginaz]

RO filter systems are pretty inexpensive. The Apex systems get great reviews and are less than $200 on amazon. There are budget systems for even less and even those will make a huge difference in water quality. Easy and fast to install even in a rental or apartment. You can always remove it when you leave. Hauling and filling jugs is a real hassle. With 5 gal pots and 1/2 to 1 gal once a day or more per plant can get to be a real pain and really old quickly. GH Flora series nutes do make a hard water version. I've never used it, but if you don't have a good filter system might be worth doing a little research into and checking out?

This website is so helpful. I have learned so much from reading here, and the kindness of people responding with their time has really helped overcome my Newbie learning curve.

The GH Flora for hard water is very interesting. Although someday I may be able to grow the prefect bud which so many folks seem to strive for here now I am just trying to lower my over the counter $2600 a year cost. Perhaps a larger but more simplistic soil grow in the fall will be worth trying with a RO or tap water.

It seems that with the internet full of knowledge I may overcome my first grow angst.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

Well don't I suck at this. 17 days and I haven't killed them yet. Underwatered, overwatered, over nutrients, two much light, to little light, I seem to have done it all. Luckly I have one more seed to do it right next time.

 

[growsince79]

Well don't I suck at this. 17 days and I haven't killed them yet. Underwatered, overwatered, over nutrients, two much light, to little light, I seem to have done it all. Luckly I have one more seed to do it right next time.

You need to use a scale to weigh the cups and water properly.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

You need to use a scale to weigh the cups and water properly.

Thanks, and good tip. I forgot about that.

 

[Whiskydrunk420]

As my name suggests I am a first time grower in Arizona. The pictures show my five day old over watered and heat stressed Auto Sour Diesels. Thank you all for your posted information. It helped me out a lot. I am lowering the temperature from 80 to 75 and not watering for a day to see if I can correct the color.

My California bud said just throw them on the ground and water them, you'll be fine. LOL.... its not as simple as it looks. But at least I wont go to jail for fucking it up.

Looks ok but I'd stay away from over watering. Let her tell you when to feed . Yeah I'm to az in a few months growing will be a little different out there I think.

 

[PK1]

lol, dnt worry we've all done that at our beginning stages. try getting used to picking the cup and get a feel on how heavy or light it is. You can scale them too, but really you gonna spend more time like that?

also reduce the light intensity if you are following the high distance. at 22" you should have 25% light intensity. if the light doesnt have that option than bring your light higher.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

lol, dnt worry we've all done that at our beginning stages. try getting used to picking the cup and get a feel on how heavy or light it is. You can scale them too, but really you gonna spend more time like that?

also reduce the light intensity if you are following the high distance. at 22" you should have 25% light intensity. if the light doesnt have that option than bring your light higher.

Sorry, a question. 25% light intensity of what? I am just using a TS 600 MarsHydro light and find the LUM reading 40000 a few inches from light, and 8700 22 inches from the light. So that's close to 25ish with my shaky hands.

 

[PK1]

so put it up to 25" and see how intensive the light is than. sry i thought your light had a knob which you could turn down the intensity of the light.
at your seedling stage you want your temp and humidity pretty high and a T5 or led full spectrum buld for like 10$

your current full spectrum led is a bit to much for them. I can see how bright the inside of the tent is

 

[Newbelinginaz]

so put it up to 25" and see how intensive the light is than. sry i thought your light had a knob which you could turn down the intensity of the light.
at your seedling stage you want your temp and humidity pretty high and a T5 or led full spectrum buld for like 10$

your current full spectrum led is a bit to much for them. I can see how bright the inside of the tent is

Thanks, that confirms what I have read. I should have read a bit more before I jump into this grow.

 

[SouthernAZclones]

Fellow growers down here in Cochise. We are running clones too. Let's chat it up.