First Grow - 2 x 1000w

I'm not sure what's going on anymore. They are in soil (Fox Farm, Happy Frog & worm castings). I've flushed all the plants once, the lemon skunks twice. The water I was using to flush was straight from the tap, which I'm thinking was the problem all along. I'm well over my budget for this grow so anything over $20 at a time isn't going to happen unfortunately. The bottled water thing is a test to see if there is any difference.

I picked up 10 gallons of R/O water for $.59 a gal so it was cheap. I used 3 gallons to feed the cheese ladies last night. When my kush plants are thirsty, they droop a little. The cheese plants were getting fed every other day and were drooping yesterday which is why I watered. It's the whole watering/feeding thing that I can't seem to get right. When I think they're thirsty, they're not. 5 hours after I watered they were still droopy, so now I'm thinking I'm over watering. I'm going in a circle that always leads back to an issue. Then my frustration kicks in and I start reading. Then I can never find a definitive answer and get confused. That's when I make the wrong decisions I guess. The pots are light as a feather so I water, then somehow they act like I'm over watering. Doesn't make sense...

One thing I've noticed is that my soil is super compacted. When I water the plants I pour in a little at a time so it all gets soaked up. It's been taking longer and longer for them to soak up the water lately. Without a good soil tester I'll most likely continue to beat myself up and run in circles.

I would save the bottled water money to get a decent ph meter.. it will make all the difference in the world.. they have some cheapy digital ones for 20-30 bucks.. sometimes even cheaper.. they might have to be calibrated more often .. but its a nessarcy tool for growing in my opinion.. If your ph is correct when you water .. then you know your not getting lockout from ph.. and you can feed and diagnose the actual deficiencies .. but if you ph is wrong.. you will never know what the problems are.. the plant might look deficient .. but it can just be a lock out by improper ph.

That's exactly what it is man. I'm fighting my soils pH... The bottled water is just a test though. The pH of the r/o water is about 6.7 which is better than 7.2 for right now. If I keep using my tap water I'll be doing more harm than good.

Would this work? Digital pH Tester

It seems like that's the same damn thing I have except digital.

I personally would never use that one.. I dont use the SOIL ph testers... just the water ones.... With a regular ph meter.. you just check the runoff ph.. that way you know what the soil is doing to your water.. If you water with 6.5 PH'd water.. and it comes out 5.0 in the runoff.. then you know you need to water with a 8.0 ph'd water in order to have a soil ph of 6.5 ... this is just a drastic example of how you can adjust the ph by checking runoff. In my personal situation.. I water with 7.2 ph'd water.. and get a runoff of 6.4-6.6 works perfect for me. I cant tell you how many headache's were eliminated with a decent ph meter.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hanna-HI-98103-Digital-pH-Meter-Tester-Checker-HI98103-/350475894375?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5199fdbe67#ht_3019wt_1159

Something like that would be better .. it even comes with solution to calibrate it .... it will be the best 30 bucks you EVER spent ..

http://cgi.ebay.com/0-14-water-Digital-pH-Meter-Tester-Hydroponic-Aquarium-/110668142343?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c455d707#ht_1795wt_1392

Here is one I used at first.. Worked fine.. just had to calibrate it a little more often.. and thats easy .. Ill explain how to do it if ya need help with it

Your soil mixture's water retention could be too high, try adding perlite to your mixture at about 1/4 or 1/3 total mix.
Also you could just be plain overwatering.
Heavily compacted/Clay like soils have almost no oxygen available to the roots, you'll have to get your mixture right next time, and avoid pressure on the soil surface.

If you are planning on flushing for the next week or so with pure water, put all the worms you can find in your dirt to stir up the dirt, break down dead nutrients, and aerate the soil.

Indica..hit the nail on the head with that.. I purposely use an excessive amount of perlite to remedy overwatering/ lack of oxygen.. I would much rather have to water every other day because the pots are drying out too fast.. then have to sit and wait for evaporations because they are waterlogged and the soil wont dry.. Try getting a fan under the canopy to help with the evaporation of the water .. if they are staying wet too long... since repoting is not really an option .

Alright I just ordered the first one you used. I only had 24 bucks in my paypal so it'll have to do!
If I need help calibrating it I'll hit you up. Thanks for the help. It's much appreciated bro.

Another quick question, what do you use to bring the pH to where you need it? I've seen that pH up and down stuff and figure that would be an easy way to adjust it.

Evaporating water is a waste of time.. Much better to get the soil mix correct, and let the plant DRINK as much as she can instead.
Although evaporation could lead to higher humidity I think.

*my entire reply just got erased... going to try again damnit.

These are the 5gal Warrior Pots that I'm using. With these and the soils I'm using, I can't see my roots having an issue receiving oxygen but I am the noob here...

The temps in my room are on the rise this week since there's a major heatwave going on. The last two days it's gotten up to 88F, and that's with my a/c unit and all my fans. I check the pots and they are super light... I think they are drying out so I feed/water them. I'm pretty convinced that my entire issue is balancing my pH. Once I get this tester in the mail and start to balance my pH, I'll go from there.

Humidity is under control with a brand new 70 pint dehumidifier that runs during the lights off cycle. When lights and fans are on it rarely ever gets above 50%.

Dubbz0r said:

Another quick question, what do you use to bring the pH to where you need it? I've seen that pH up and down stuff and figure that would be an easy way to adjust it.

Click to expand...

I use the Ph up and down.. believe its General Hydroponics brand.. ur nutes might change ur ph too.. so make sure to test the water after you mix them in ... There are house hold items that can change the ph for you .. lemon juice , Vinegar, ect.. but I just like the ph up and down because I pretty much know how much im gonna need and its consistent. I pretty confident that most of these mysterious problem will clear up once you get the ph dailed in .. I remember when I first started.. I had a ph testing kit.. it was the drops like you use for a swimming pool.. and it worked OK.. but then once I started to feed.. it was FUCKED.. i mean most of the nutes have colors to them.. so that fucks up the coloring of the drop kit. But once I got a little ph meter.. I really never had a problem.. made life WAY easier

That's awesome to know. I should have got a digital one from the jump but I got talked into buying that two pronged piece of shit at the last minute. . Anyways, it'll be here in a few days. Before then I'll grab the up and down stuff. Thanks again.

I just checked on my room, temp (80F), rH (58%), c02 (off, but still reading 1230ppm)... and I decided to take a peek at my ladies. My cheese plants are so perky right now and the lights don't come on for another 4 hours. Looks like they did need water and the r/o water was a good idea, so far. Tonight my kush ladies are getting 100% strength nutes with the r/o water. I don't have the ph meter yet, but it's gonna have to do for now.

be careful feeding too heavy without a ph meter.. I know when I feed full strength .. my tap water.. which comes in at 8.5-8.8 can drop all the way into the 5's .. the nutes change the ph that much..

So lets say your RO water your feeding with tonight is at 6.5 then you add the nutes and ur ph drops VERY LOW you wont be able to tell without a meter.

Do you have any way to get the humidity down.. ur in flower now right? try to stay in the 40s in flower if possible..

C.Indica said:

Evaporating water is a waste of time.. Much better to get the soil mix correct, and let the plant DRINK as much as she can instead.
Although evaporation could lead to higher humidity I think.

Click to expand...

If the pots are saturated the humidity would already be high at the plant level so thats kinda a mute point .. I agree that it is not the best thing to do.. I was saying a fan might help the pots dry out since changing a soil mix is nearly impossible during flower without harming or stressing the plants.. early flower is when the plants do most of their growing.. so too risk stressing them at that stage would ruin your yield.. Its all irrelevant now though since he has already responded that the pots are drying out easily.. seems he just needs to remedy the compaction of the soil.. your worm idea is good since repotting wouldnt be a good idea at this stage for the reasons mentioned above

alotaball said:

be careful feeding too heavy without a ph meter.. I know when I feed full strength .. my tap water.. which comes in at 8.5-8.8 can drop all the way into the 5's .. the nutes change the ph that much..

So lets say your RO water your feeding with tonight is at 6.5 then you add the nutes and ur ph drops VERY LOW you wont be able to tell without a meter.

Do you have any way to get the humidity down.. ur in flower now right? try to stay in the 40s in flower if possible..

Click to expand...

I'll use the meter I've been using to test the water before I feed. The thing is, even when I started out, everything was a solid 7. The water was 7.0, after adding nutes it was 7.0 and even the run off was 7.0 and sometimes just below 7 (6.8-6.9). Then when the probe enters the soil it reads the same thing, never going over 7.0. I'll check the soil at the bottom of the pot and the water before I do anything, but the kush ladies do need to be fed tonight. Not sure I can wait til that meter gets here.

I can get the humidity to whatever % I want really, My Dehumidifier is a beast. With the lights on it stays in the high 40's low 50's. I read that anything between 40-55% was ideal for mj. I just checked it while the lights are off and it's at 48%. That's about where it is most times. Sometimes it will pop into the 50's but it doesn't stay there long. The dehumidifier kicks on all my itself and within an hour it's back in the high 40's. Should I aim more towards the low 40's ya think?

Well you will be ok where your at humidity wise.. But once your buds get dense and sticky .. I would keep it at 45% or under.. just so you dont get bud rot .. or powdery mildew.. Plus when its low humidity seems the plants get a little frostier.. might just be an illusion to me lol.

I agree if you need to feed her.. feed her lol.. but maybe hold off on full strength till ya get the meter.. I only say this because if you burn em .. and have to flush .. you will have burn't plants with ph probs too.. and that can be a headache. What nutes are you using? .. how far into flower are ya?

I'm in the middle of week 3 and I'm using Humboldt Micro, Grow, Bloom, Verde and Equilibrium. Then I have Sea Green as an additive. Kool Bloom powder for my bloom booster. Oh and I have a few jars of unsulphured molasses and a box of epsom salt.

Here's one of my cheese ladies upstairs in some regular light (19 days flower):




Sorry they're not better quality. All I have is this 5.0 mp camera from an old phone. Once they start getting bigger and frosty I'll borrow a better camera to get some pics. I'm gonna go get one of my kush ladies and bring her up for some pics under normal light too. Be back lata

Here is my Master Kush upstairs under normal ligh (19 days flower)t: