Auto Seeds eprotege Pink Runtz Auto, Girlscout Cookies Auto Grow

It's been a while. Between not feeling good enough to post to feeling to good to find to post, it's been a busy week.

Watered all three plants.

Girl Scout Cookies got a gallon of clear water. Pink Runtz and CBD Haze each got a gallon with tsp each of Bembe and Boomerang.

They're all 3 doing pretty well.

Growing should be therapy, not cause for needing it! hahaha. Glad to see you and I hope you're having a decent one. Plants look nice and big, CBD haze jamming right into flower isn't it?
 
Growing should be therapy, not cause for needing it! hahaha. Glad to see you and I hope you're having a decent one. Plants look nice and big, CBD haze jamming right into flower isn't it?
CBD Haze started flowering at 4 weeks. I think I stressed it with the light burns.

On the watering front, I ordered something to help simplify watering and have a few other ideas I'm considering.
 
Day 37
Noted a few days ago the plants were looking perhaps a bit bleached. Turns out, they were. I finally traced it back to nute lock, but I had been careful about that. Then it hit me like a facepalm: my pH meter must be out of calibration. I tested it in a buffered solution of 7.0 pH and it read 7.9. UGH!
It's not a catastrophe... yet.

Watered with water with FF Big Bloom (a nice and gentle nutrient) pH-adjusted to 6.9-7.0 with a carefully calibrated pH meter.
Girl scout cookies. About to flower.
pic-2023-08-02_gsc.jpg


Pink Runtz, flowering:
pic-2023-08-02_pr.jpg


CBD Haze in flower:
pic-2023-08-02_cbd.jpg
 
Day 40
Watered each plant with a gallon of clear pH-adjusted water. They're still not turning the corner.

I was very careful with the pH meter. It's very finicky. So far, the best results have come from measuring the pH in one, then storing even if for a few minutes in the cap with the storage solution and powering it off. It MUST be calibrated often, like every 10 or so uses. I'm very likely at this point to just purchase the cheap-ass one from Amazon I had before. It might not have been quite as "accurate", but it was consistent.

Here's the latest pics of the plants. It's obvious they're still fading.

Addendum: I figured out why they're continuing to fade: too much light. Not too bright, but too many hours. The clue was how Girl Scout Cookies still hasn't started flowering. I deduced that it needs a bit of night just like a lot of autoflowers out there. I had to get a ladder to check the timer and some dumb ass (me) set it to override the timer and just leave the lights on 24 hours a day. OMG! I can't believer how stupid I feel right now. I debated in not telling anyone out of embarrassment, but then decided that this was information others might find useful.

Girl Scout Cookies
pic-2023-08-05_gsc.jpg


pic-2023-08-05_pr.jpg


pic-2023-08-05_cbd.jpg
 
Day 47
The plants are finally starting to look better. The dropping of leaves has stopped and some green is coming back.

Girl Scout Cookies got a gallon of water with FF Big Bloom pH-adjusted to 6.5 (I think. I still don't trust this pH meter). It still hasn't started flowering, but I can see the pre-flower still trying to come out.

Pink Runtz got Big Bloom, Bembe, Tiger Bloom and Flower Fuel. It's pH was 6.1 with all those nutrients. It's flowering, but slowly.

CBD Haze has stopped curling its leaves in protest. It got the same treatment as Pink Runtz today. It's pH was measured at 6.0, but I don't trust that meter. I'm ordering a new one today.

Girl Scout Cookies
pic-2023-08-12_gsc.jpg


Pink runtz
pic-2023-08-12_pr.jpg


CBD Haze
pic-2023-08-12_cbd.jpg
 
Which pH pen do you have? And do you have calibration and storage fluids? I'm on my second Milwaukee Instruments pH pen. They are cheap and need a bit of regular maintenance but for $25 it works great. I spend more on cal and storage fluid initially but they all last a long time.

I recommend this guy:



My first one lasted 2.5 years, one battery change, and was still good but taking too long to read.

You can get them from Amazon for a few $ less but I ordered direct and it came with more in depth instructions.

No matter which one you get some "hidden" tips I've had excellent luck using:

1) Put fresh storage solution in the cap and let it soak overnight to fully hydrate or rehydrate the glass bulb before use.

2) Calibrate with both 7.0 and 4.0 solution

3) Recalibrate once a week when new, once every 2 weeks after that, and then about once a month ( I usually drop to only using the 7.0 cal fluid after the first 4-5 weeks if it looks to be holding steady)

Most of them have some break in time and doing the frequent recal is essential until they stabilize. Especially on the "cheap" end of things. I have considered the high $$ meters but eh, I'll do maintenance for now.


It is wild how much difference a little swing in pH can make.
 
Which pH pen do you have? And do you have calibration and storage fluids? I'm on my second Milwaukee Instruments pH pen. They are cheap and need a bit of regular maintenance but for $25 it works great. I spend more on cal and storage fluid initially but they all last a long time.

I recommend this guy:



My first one lasted 2.5 years, one battery change, and was still good but taking too long to read.

You can get them from Amazon for a few $ less but I ordered direct and it came with more in depth instructions.

No matter which one you get some "hidden" tips I've had excellent luck using:

1) Put fresh storage solution in the cap and let it soak overnight to fully hydrate or rehydrate the glass bulb before use.

2) Calibrate with both 7.0 and 4.0 solution

3) Recalibrate once a week when new, once every 2 weeks after that, and then about once a month ( I usually drop to only using the 7.0 cal fluid after the first 4-5 weeks if it looks to be holding steady)

Most of them have some break in time and doing the frequent recal is essential until they stabilize. Especially on the "cheap" end of things. I have considered the high $$ meters but eh, I'll do maintenance for now.


It is wild how much difference a little swing in pH can make.
I'm using this one purchased from a local hydro store:

This morning, I was mixing up some nutrients for my wife's tropicals. I put the nutrients in the water. Then I took the meter out, rinsed the electrode off per instructions, then put it in a buffered 7.0 solution (purchased from Amazon as a solution because I don't have RO water to mix my own) and calibrated it. I then put it in the nutrients, measured the pH, then rinsed the electrode, put it back in the 7.0 solution and it read 7.2. I can't see how this was so highly recommended and so inconsistent.

My old one (the cheapy yellow one) might have been less accurate, but it was consistent and I could go a week or 2 between calibrations and it was never far off.
 
I watered on Sunday the 20th.
Each got a gallon with nutrients.
GSC got Big Bloom
Pink Runtz and CBD Haze got Big Bloom, Bembe and Flower Fuel

I checked the plants today and the reservoirs were empty, but the soil was moist

The most concerning thing right now is how GSC isn't flowering. In fact, besides just a bit of stretch, it hasn't done squat in weeks. The tops are just frozen in place. The real issue I have with this scenario is that I have to set the light for the tallest plant and that one isn't producing. I tried to lift the other plants on to supports, but can't.

This is the family photo from a week and a half ago
pic-2023-08-15_all.jpg


Here's today:
pic-2023-08-23_all.jpg


GSC from the top:
pic-2023-08-15_gsc.jpg


Pink Runtz:
pic-2023-08-15_pr.jpg


CBD Haze:
pic-2023-08-15_cbd.jpg
 
I'm about to give up on Girl Scout Cookies. It's not starting flower. It's just putting out more and more nodes. I can see in the meristem at least 2 more nodes coming out. Is this not going to autoflower? The only reason this is really annoying me is that I have 2 plants producing, but this one is preventing me from letting them get close enough to the light. If I had another tent, I'd separate them, but I don't. I don't know what to do. Do I super crop and stand by, sacrifice it for the others or what?
 
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