New Grower First Grow Journal- Northern Light Auto

[growgirl]

Growgirl, I'd keep a very close eye out on those webs. Probably just something blowing in from outside but if it is mites, you want to catch them early. As for that spot, it is likely the first sign of pH issues. Usually starts out with brown spotting as cal/mg are locked out:

You're already on the case with lime so let's get this nipped before it spreads. Drainage is a tough one. When you stick your finger in the bottom of the pot, is the soil wet? Four large holes should be enough for drainage unless your soil has packed up on the bottom and isn't draining.

I have had a plant with that same pimp lean going on, and it turned out fine in the end. I think I did bury the stem since it was already on the ground. Once you get your lime and are topdressing, you can make the call on that. Either way should be fine.

Thanks andy, those graphs are really helpful. So right now it looks like the pH is blocking out a lot..
as for the dolomite lime, I'm picking it up today, will it only start being effective after I water? Or will it start helping right away? I don't want this to get worse, but she's not due for another water until tomorrow. Tomorrow will also be a nute water so I'm planning on mixing the lime and then watering with pH 6.5 nute mix water. Maybe pH 7 for the first one with dolomite lime since it won't be spread out yet.

when I put my finger in the holes at the bottom of the pot it feels wet right after I water but by the time the next water is due it feels mostly dry, not bone dry but dry.

 

[jambon]

Hey growgirl
Grow is looking good... just thot I would add my 2 cents. I usually judge the weight of the pot before I water. If it is light it needs a drink. As far as notes go... it's a bit of an art IMO. I am still figuring that one out as I am just finishing my first grow.
I have the dolomite lime added to my soil mix and so far it seams to stabilize the soil a bit, I added about 100 grams per square foot of soil.
I am sure I won't get a huge crop but it's a fun education....All the best

 

[wheredaweedat]

Hey grow girl
I'd be known around these parts as wheredaweedat, mz. w or wdwa- use whichever you like...though I respond to pretty much anything, haha Woops Stumbled upon your journal, and as a fellow new grower, I figured I'd scroll around and sub... see if I cant offer up some of my infinite pot growing knowledge...obviously kidding on that last part. I will undoubtedly talk your ear off, to the point of them bleeding, so just bare with me

As Im sure you've realized in the past, what, 18 days was it?, that growing for the first time is both exciting and nerve wrecking lol I am only on my 2nd ever grow, but it is my first with autoflowering strains (have 3 going- grow journal in mah sig).

Lemme ask you a question.
How much reading/research did you do prior to germ?

Infinite Pot Growing Knowledge Tip #1 - Right when you think that you're done reading....keep reading lol.

It seems as though you've got a decent set up - with the exception of the relatively high temps (I'll get to that)- so you're already in MUCH better shape than I (and a lot of others) was on my first go at it. I germinated until the tap root was 1.5". Then I layed a 6 ft floor lamp on its side and pretended that one plain old, soft white 65w bulb was enough light........for 6 babies. Then they sat in a pie plate full of straight tap water and full strength nutes for probably the better part of a week. THEN (yes. unfortunately it gets worse lol) two of the babies were transplanted into the same pot, there was a huge ph issue, not to mention there was almost NO drainage so they were starting to suffer from pythium- aka root rot, fungus gnats, heat stress, they were root bound, and fighting over light (which there wasnt enough of), water and nutes. It was, excuse my language, but for lack of better words- a giant fucking shit show lol.

Infinite Pot Growing Knowledge Tip #2 - Heat SUCKS. Actually....allow me to rephrase that lol TOO MUCH heat sucks. Thus far on grow two *knock on wood* Ive been lucky and havent had any issues with heat going above 80. First grow was started 9/2013 and it was a CONSISTENT 78F. Then there was a random, unseasonably warm day and the closet im growing in hit 92...as for how long/how many hrs I dont know, but by the time I'd found them, the damage was already done. pray to god that this never happens to you, as it was a very sad day lol
Is your intake fan and your exhaust fan opposite each other on the box? Whether its top and bottom or diagonal on the same side, I dont know, but I know the intake goes at the bottom and the exhaust goes at the top...you know...cause hot air rises lol :thumbs: if they are opposite already, you could try bigger/more powerful PC fans?
I recall you saying that the grow box was in a small closet...is it an option to keep the closet door open with the window open?
Also something that was brought to my attention (and kind of a no brainer once you get the idea in your head)- another way to help regulate the temps? Have the plants 'nighttime' during YOUR daytime. That way when the lights are ON for the babe, the sun, for the most part, should've gone down therefore cooling the outside temps and making it less hot where you're growing...though now that Im thinking about it, may not work since you are, for all intents and purposes, growing in a small area/closet...inside an even smaller area/cabinet...lol idk I'm stoned- here have some :Sharing One:

As far as watering, Im sure you would be enlightened (and highly entertained) to a post in my journal about how to know when to water. I had just read WAY too much in too short a time span and came to the conclusion that growing weed needs to be more factual than opinion: Do I stick my finger through the bottom of the soil or the top? Do I mist the top of the soil? Do I let her dry out? Do I not? Do I lift the pot and water when its light(er)? But what if from the top it feels damp an inch down but when i lift it it feels significantly lighter than it did 12 hours ago? Should I water? Should I not? I NEED TO KNOOOOOWWWW! lol and I dont want 1500 different opinions, be forced to choose and then cross my fingers and hope that I haven't over/under watered lol So on a piece of advice I was given in the aforementioned post I've started using both methods. I'll stick my finger down into the first few inches of soil. If its all dry, lift her just to double check, and then give a full watering. If the first few inches are damp but the pot feels lighter, only do a partial watering. And so far they don't seem to be minding it.

Its time for me to start cookin' dinner, so you lucked out on the novel of a comment I shall be checking in on ya:thumbs:

 

[growgirl]

Thanks for your response wdwa! I don't mind reading novels (;
i did a lot of reading before I actually started. But I skipped over a few things that I probably should not have, like not using tin foil in a grow box or where the exhaust and intake fans should go.

Recently the temps in the box have been doing fine. Right now it's at 73 degrees (that's where it usually is, and it hasn't gone above 81 in a while, and when it does it goes back down to around 77 pretty quick.

Yesterday I was supposed to water(third day without water) but something came up and I couldn't. So I am going to water today, this time with 1/2 tsp grow big and 1/2 tsp big bloom. I was going to follow the schedule posted earlier in this thread (which would have called for tiger bloom as well for this water) but then I read that it's a bad idea to start tiger bloom until flowering starts.

Anyways,
today her leaves seem to be curling upwards a bit. I don't think it's ehat stress since the box is around 73 degrees (and on the royal queens website it says that northern lights does well in high temps anyway). Could she just be thirsty? To me it looks like heat stress but I really don't think that's the case.

 

[wheredaweedat]

I was also going to say heat stress and then I did a little google magic and came up finding a few pictures of a plant exhibiting that same leaf edge curl and after a whole lot of 'heat stress' answers, one reply said this :

"Textbook potassium deficiency actually.

Potassium is a very important element for the mobility of a variety of elements, energy, and water. When it comes to transpiration (sweating) of the leaves to help them stay cool this is the most important nutritional element."

​

here's the link for the entire thread so you can check out the pics and the rest of the reply https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/leaves-edges-curling-up-pics.35119/

sooo..given that your grow temps were less than opportune for a bit (even though the NL can tolerate high temps), I'm kind of leaning toward this potassium def. thing. It makes sense as the box was too hot, so your baby was 'sweating' a lot in turn using up most if not all of the available potassium and it wasn't being replaced.

Where is your RH at btw? I would LOVE only needing to water every 3 days lol The RH in my closet stays at a constant 26 until I water then it MIGHT hit 32%, but otherwise its so low its disgusting haha I have 2 of my girls in 2gal smart pots (felt type fabric pots that allow air to the root system giving bigger/more vigorous plants...amongst a plethora of other things) and I end up having to water them every other day. The past few days, Pete (my auto acid plant in a smart pot) just started to really start blooming, so she has been needing a bit of water everyday.

ANYHOW- lol - back to the issue at hand. And that is your curling leaves.
Now Im sure that there are a billion different kinds out there- so you dont have to get the same one Ive got- but I recommend a soil NPK test kit.
Like I said, I had a BUNCH of issues with my last grow, and I found having the test kit to actually TELL me what my plant has (or doesnt have) enough of, more reliable than 300 responses of, 'oh, well it looks like it could be this' or doing 8000 google image searches on your symptoms and you STILL dont have an answer. I have this one - http://www.amazon.com/Luster-Leaf-1...qid=1395945864&sr=8-2&keywords=rapitest...its kind of a pain in the arse...but it gets the job done and gets you to a definitive answer...IF its actually one of those. But I figure its at least better to 100% rule them out and cross the next bridge if/when we get to it.

 

[growgirl]

I'll look into getting an NPK meter as well, my RH is usually in the 20s. Right now the high was 25 and the low was 22. I just watered again, 1/2 tsp Big Bloom and 1/2 tsp Grow Big. I adjusted the pH to 7.0 for the mixture. I added 18 tsp of dolomite lime to the soil too (teaspoons are much smaller than tablespoons, and the recommendation is 1 tablespoon per gallon of soil). I'm growing in a 5 gallon pot.

First of all, why does it take so much before it starts coming out of the bucket? I watered over 3/4 of a gallon before it started coming out of the bottom! when it did come out of the bottom though, a decent amount came out.

I tested the runoff, and it was still at 5.0. Really bad.

 

[briman]

give the lime a chance to do its thing. Your RH is too low. 60% RH for seedlings and 40% through the end of the grow is optimal!! If you need to get the RH up, wet a towel and toss it in a small bucket or on the floor of your grow space after you have wrung it out a bit. That should get the RH where it should be. aaaaaaaaaaand repeat!!

 

[growgirl]

I've heard mixed things about the wet towel method for raising humidity, but hey, may as we'll try it out for myself right? ;p

ill set that up as soon as I get home tomorrow.

Also I think it might be too early to see if it's female or male, but here's the preflower. (I bought fem but you never know). Any thoughts?

 

[pop22]

I've heard mixed things about the wet towel method for raising humidity, but hey, may as we'll try it out for myself right? ;p

ill set that up as soon as I get home tomorrow.

Also I think it might be too early to see if it's female or male, but here's the preflower. (I bought fem but you never know). Any thoughts?

View attachment 336785

change the water and towel every day so it doesn't form mold

 

[dazedandconfuzed]

I'll probably put a stick in there and use a loose bread tie to keep her up. It's not to the point where she's literally falling over, but she is quite tilted. I put a piece of tin foil over the fan so it points downwards a bit, and hits her more. Also, I'm not sure what to do about this over/under watering situation. I water her when she's dry (about every 3 days. I just watered yesterday (Sunday) and the last water before that was Thursday. Now her leaves are droopy. They haven't been this bad before either. I'm 99% sure I'm not watering too often, but I think it might be the drainage in the pot. I bought a 5 gallon pot from the hydroponics shop that already had four big drainage holes in it on the edges of the bottom. I thought this would be enough, maybe it's still retaining too much water because theres not enough drainage at the actual bottom of the pot? Any ideas how to make extra drainage holes with the plant still in it? This is the type of pot she's in:
View attachment 335888

Hi I had same problems, couldn't understand why it looked over/under watered, whatever I did. All down to PH, my PH was too low and it was slowly killing my plants. I got PH on track and all is well.