New Grower My (Not so) Amazing Micro Grow!

[ducky098]

Hello Ladies and Gents of AFN!

As this is my first grow, I have read around that usually the first grow tends to be either a incomplete/fail grow, or a very small yielding grow.
Whichever direction the plant chooses, it will definitely not be in vain, since I am learning a lot of information and experience with this one plant.

With this said, my plant is currently at day 15 (started 20 March, 2014), and seems like to look normal with the equipment I am providing the plant.

Here is my grow journal:

Seed: Feminised Northern Lights Auto by Vision Seeds

Grow Room: A 5 gallon Space Bucket

Lights: 2x 23 watt CFL Warm White by EcoSmart (18/6 Light Schedule)

Medium: Rubbermaid TakeAlongs 5.2 cups (1.2L) Tupperware

Soil: Fox Farm Ocean Forest

Nutrients: Roots Organics Buddha Grow by Aurora Innovations (N-P-K = 2-.25-1.5)

Water: Distilled Water from Walmart pH at 6.0


Pre-Germination stage - (I have used the Tupperware paper towel method)


Germination Stage - (The seed was placed inside of a toughbox -Small size storage box, this exact one- which was cool, dark, and was undisturbed)


Transplanting to Soil Stage - (The sprouted root was actually about an inch long, but I have forgotten to take a picture of it. I was too excited and planted it into soil right away.)


Plant sprouted out of the Soil! - (Photo taken inside (yellow color) the space bucket and outside on 25 March, 2014)


Plant started to grow bigger! - (Taken on 28 March, 2014)


Plant grew a bit bigger! - (Photo was taken today @ 04 April 2014)



Problem #1: As you can see from the pictures above, the plant is growing pretty well in the current situation it is in. Up to this point, I have only been feeding it distilled water at a pH of 6.0. This plant will stay in this ~42 oz. (5.2 cups, 1.5L) container. My question about this problem is: Should I stay with using distilled water until the leaves starts to tell me something? Or should I start to give my plant some nutes?

Problem #1.5: I am using a 1/4 gallon (32 ounce) spray bottle(I have 3 separate ones currently) which I use to water my plants. I have a spray bottle which is marked "Distilled water with Nutrients", and as I poured the distilled water, I have correctly measured the Buddha Grow (1/4 tsp) and poured it into the spray bottle. As I shook the bottle up, there are a lot of chunks and stuff floating around. Is this normal for organic nutrients?

Problem #2: I am currently using the General Hydroponics pH Control Kit (Waiting for the store that I go to, to have them in stock for the digital pH meter. I buy most of my stuff from them.). After I have mixed the nutrients and water together, the pH comes out a reddish color which on the Test Indicator is at pH of 4.0. I have used about 2 drops of pH UP, and did nothing. Then I have tried 6 drops of pH UP, and still no change! I am trying to get the pH up to 6.0, but should I keep adding until I get to pH of 6.0? Or just water it like that?
I do clean out the kit and measuring equipment with distilled water.

All of this just overwhelmed me, and was unable to quickly find an answer about problem 1.5 and problem 2.

I apologize for the long post and errors, as I am writing this as quickly as possible, without reviewing it before I leave for work.

 

[ducky098]

Update help!

I have tried to add a lot of pH UP, and it is still not changing! Should I dump it out, rinse and remeasure the Buddha Grow and just feed my plant like that, with a very low pH number? Or should I just keep on adding more pH up until I start to see some change so it can get to a pH of 6.0?

 

[omnious]

I can give insight on water. I mix nutes to tap water that is pH 8.5+. This brings pH down to 6-6.5. I'm using drop test too (for now) so I think we're on the same page in that regard, red is also 4 on my indicator.
So, test nutrients with tap water and see if it comes around 6.

 

[ducky098]

Ah ha!

Thanks omnious for the reply. I use distilled water only for all my grows (vegetables as well as cannabis). I don't have the patience to wait 24-48 hours for most of the chlorine to evaporate from the tap water. I was curious to know what the pH for tap water is, and it comes to be that they are at pH of 7.0 over here, and the distilled water is at a pH of 6.0.

All I did was mix the nutrients together with distilled water, and have put a crap ton (around ~40ish) of drops of pH UP to bring it up to a pH of 6.0. I have just checked my plant and she(hopefully) seems to like it. I think she looks healthy.

Well here is an update picture earlier in the afternoon.

 

[kyliekay]

Looks good so far for a small grow. Your doing well

 

[ducky098]

Hey thanks kyliekay!

The interesting part, is that I am only using 46 watts cfl. However, I think I may have stunted it, because last month, the temperature was around 83°F (28°C), and a few times it dropped to 57°F (14°C) at night. The end of march till present day, the temperatures stays constant around 74-78°F (23-26°C), and 68 degrees F (20°C) at night.

I hope the stress did not turn her into a hermy, nor into a male. There is still no gender showing as of yet.

 

[Torched]

If those temperatures were not sustained for a long time they shouldn't cause problems.
Unless there is a problem with your tap water I would use that. You can boil water or get a water conditioner that will take care of the chlorine a lot quicker. The less up and down you need the better, as they can damage organic micro organisms. What are you using for PH up? GH? Those little kits are natorious for giving false / misleading PH readings. You might consider getting a PH pen on-line rather than wait for one to show up at your local store.

 

[The Squid]

Hey bud. Thanks for starting a journal. Not getting of too bad. Couple things I wanted to throw out there though;

Ph for soil grows should be closer to 6.5 for best results.
You need to also be testing the Ph of your runoff. You said you're using a spray bottle in which case you wouldn't be watering enough to have any runoff. But at that size, your entire pot needs to be watered through until about 10% runoff. By comparing your initial Ph with your runoff's Ph, you can get a good idea of where your soil is sitting.

Another thing I noticed, is your container you're growing in clear? If so, I'd slap some black tape on the outside. You don't want light getting to your roots.

Not sure what kind of Ph up and down you have, but I recommend using Earth Crystals. It's for organic growing and won't kill beneficial bacteria that are in your soil like chemical Ph products can do. It's a granule and easy to use, fairly cheap too.

Hope this helps.

 

[ducky098]

Hey Torched, The Squid!

I apologise for the delay of reply. I would like to thank you both for your invaluable information!

So far I have been using distilled water to water my plant, and it looks like she is liking it very much. So I will stick to my (one of many) motto, "Don't fix anything, that isn't broken." Since I am seeing no harm, nor any kind of visual "pain" from her, I will stick with distilled water.

I am currently using the General Hydroponics pH Kit for measuring my pH levels. I haven't had the chance to go to my local hydro store, so I think I will buy a pH meter online. From reading up on the manufacturer's website of FoxFarm(Soil) and Roots Organic(Liquid Nutrients), I will follow your direction by measuring my pH to 6.5 from now on.

I sprayed the seed when it was in the germination and seedling stage, but now that the plant is much bigger, I use the spray bottle for measurement (32 oz, 946.35 ml) and then I just pour it into the small container. The container is clear, but it is completely covered up by one of those mushroom packages you buy at a grocery store(that one looks like foam, but the one I use is plastic and washed), which is used as my water runoff tray.

For the time being, I will be using the General Hydroponics pH Kit until I order the digital meter and other pH liquids.

I am unable to find the Earth Crystals pH, but I have found Hydro Organics Earth Juice pH up. I hope that is the liquid you are talking about.

 

[ducky098]

(Enter greeting here)! lol

Well I know it is a bit late, and I am due for a quick update. So here it is!

Before I begin, I must add that I have fed my plant with nutrients at a pH level of 6.0 (before I knew that I was suppose to have it at 6.5, both times...), on 05April2014.

09April2014 - She looks pretty, and looking very healthy. (Only was able to provide one image, the rest were too blurry to see anything)


11April2014 - I have fed her at 6.0 in the morning (again, I didn't know about the 6.5 pH-ing until it after). Here are the images I have taken.



I have read that Northern Lights are suppose to have a pretty low odor, as well as the plant being able to take a little bit of punishment. I think that being new to the cannabis scene, the earthy smell just basically gave me a one-two punch up my nose and in my face, which put me in complete shock how strong the smell is when I am next to the plant.

I have a similar setup (carbon filter and PC fan part only) as to The Ferret's carbon filter method from his DIY PC Case (Thank you very much for the idea!). The carbon filters are a month old, and they seem like they do not work. That, or I am not doing something correctly. So instead, I have placed a bounce dryer sheet on top of the carbon filter, and it completely masks the earthy odor.

I apologise for the long post. It seems I enjoy writing long posts, or that I write a lot to make up for the missed updates.