First Grow: Few questions about health

[013]

Putting rocks in the bottom doesn’t accomplish what you think - it actually raises or perches the water table up to a higher level…

To determine the ph value of your soil - a slurry test with distilled water is needed…. testing runoff ph or ppm‘s will not tell you anything beneficial. Here’s what happens often…. a new grower runs into a plant problem and reads about checking runoff. So they check runoff and immediately begin tinkering with their feed water ph trying to get a different number in runoff… it’s called chasing ph and it’s a fast way to hit the wall. You will never feed or water your way to changing soil ph.

Same for silly soil probe ph testers…. very inaccurate indeed (yup I bought one too) but now keep mine by the grill for roasting hotdogs & marshmallows

 

[SmokingWings]

Same for silly soil probe ph testers…. very inaccurate indeed (yup I bought one too) but now keep mine by the grill for roasting hotdogs & marshmallows

I stopped off at one of my favorite grow & hydroponic shops to buy something or maybe just to wander around. Was at the area where they had the single probe and 3 probe test things. I picked one of each up and asked the guy behind the counter if these were any good.

He says "No, they are worthless. But, we have to have them for those people who will not buy the quality testers." or words to that effect. The store kept the quality pH testers behind the counter so people do not steal them.

 

[ppm Charlie]

I stopped off at one of my favorite grow & hydroponic shops to buy something or maybe just to wander around. Was at the area where they had the single probe and 3 probe test things. I picked one of each up and asked the guy behind the counter if these were any good.

He says "No, they are worthless. But, we have to have them for those people who will not buy the quality testers." or words to that effect. The store kept the quality pH testers behind the counter so people do not steal them.

I agree with @013 the distilled-water/soil test is best. fill jar with soil=2/3 pint or qt jar, fill with distilled water until water covers soil, do not stir, just let sit, wait 10mins, test slurry with pH paper or pH tester. Clean pH meter tip with distilled water before storing it away. It is a quick and easy method.

The pen-type pH meters are fine to use. Just have to calibrate them once in a while to ensure accuracy. I calibrate my pen-type pH meter about once per month using liquid pH standard. They never seem far out of kilter in that time.

 

[PlanetJ]

He says "No, they are worthless. But, we have to have them for those people who will not buy the quality testers." or words to that effect. The store kept the quality pH testers behind the counter so people do not steal them.

I would tell any customer the same, trying to coax them to the expensive probes that I make more margin on.
Meanwhile all the cheap ass probes I have have ATC, but my Milwaukee base model doesnt.

When calibrating, I always check first, and usually I took out the calibration stuff for my own feeling better about it, as it wasnt required yet. Thats every few weeks. My Milwaukee probe element just lasts way longer.

 

[ppm Charlie]

I would tell any customer the same, trying to coax them to the expensive probes that I make more margin on.
Meanwhile all the cheap ass probes I have have ATC, but my Milwaukee base model doesnt.

When calibrating, I always check first, and usually I took out the calibration stuff for my own feeling better about it, as it wasnt required yet. Thats every few weeks. My Milwaukee probe element just lasts way longer.

I have 2 pH probes - a cheap pen-type one and a more expensive one (I hardly ever use). I calibrate the cheap pen-type one once per month and if it fails (I dropped one once), I use the more expensive one until I buy a $20 replacement pen-type one again.

I think the important thing is calibration and repeatability. You have to calibrate and have repeatable results or there is no guarantee of pH success. Cheap pen-type pH meters work great, just calibrate them once in a while and replace them when they crap-out.

 

[SmokingWings]

I would tell any customer the same, trying to coax them to the expensive probes that I make more margin on.

They have never tried to sell me anything I did not ask about at that store. As it is, after asking about the cheap probes they did not say 'come and look at these expensive but quality probes". That the good ones were behind the counter is just something I noticed.

 

[rapidash]

A little update: flowers are starting to fatten up a little, I’ve been following the feeding schedule @Bill284 suggested and it’s going well. Haven’t gotten this far in a grow before and even if it isn’t the best bud, I’m happy to almost be at the end of the journey. My current dilemma is humidity— it’s a bit high in the night time (70-85%) but I have constant air flow and I see no signs of mold/mildew at this current point so I should be good until I can get some inline fans to filter more air throughout my tent. As it currently stands I can’t control it too much as for some reason it’s 77 degrees and 90%+ humidity outside at the end of December. Hopefully once the weather changes and the outside humidity drops (it’s been raining a lot but will be colder and no rain in the next few days) I’ll be in a better place without having to do too much tweaking to my setup. As always, thank you all for the constant tips and insight and have a great New Year!

 

[Bill284]

A little update: flowers are starting to fatten up a little, I’ve been following the feeding schedule @Bill284 suggested and it’s going well. Haven’t gotten this far in a grow before and even if it isn’t the best bud, I’m happy to almost be at the end of the journey. My current dilemma is humidity— it’s a bit high in the night time (70-85%) but I have constant air flow and I see no signs of mold/mildew at this current point so I should be good until I can get some inline fans to filter more air throughout my tent. As it currently stands I can’t control it too much as for some reason it’s 77 degrees and 90%+ humidity outside at the end of December. Hopefully once the weather changes and the outside humidity drops (it’s been raining a lot but will be colder and no rain in the next few days) I’ll be in a better place without having to do too much tweaking to my setup. As always, thank you all for the constant tips and insight and have a great New Year!

Hey @rapidash hope you are well my friend.
Happy new year.
I'm glad the garden is going well.
I'm a bit concerned about the rh at this stage though.
Short of buying a dehumidifier I don't have a fix for you.
Are you able to get one?
Feken expensive I know.
Keep the air moving til it drops.
Take care

Stay safe
Bill

 

[rapidash]

Hey @rapidash hope you are well my friend.
Happy new year.
I'm glad the garden is going well.
I'm a bit concerned about the rh at this stage though.
Short of buying a dehumidifier I don't have a fix for you.
Are you able to get one?
Feken expensive I know.
Keep the air moving til it drops.
Take care

Stay safe
Bill

I was looking for one and after doing a bit of vetting, portable won’t really do the job and getting one designed for being outside of a tent is like you said, fecken expensive. I’ll keep the air moving and during the day I have my tent door open so I can position one of the fans to push as much air out as possible, hopefully that will suffice until the weather changes

 

[ppm Charlie]

I was looking for one and after doing a bit of vetting, portable won’t really do the job and getting one designed for being outside of a tent is like you said, fecken expensive. I’ll keep the air moving and during the day I have my tent door open so I can position one of the fans to push as much air out as possible, hopefully that will suffice until the weather changes

Little by little we build our equipment, our grow and our talent - Happy New Year. ppm Charlie

 

[rapidash]

Weather changed, humidity 40-50% during the day and 50-60% at night so much better. it’s quite exciting seeing trichomes starting to form. hope you all had a great New Years!

 

[ppm Charlie]

Weather changed, humidity 40-50% during the day and 50-60% at night so much better. it’s quite exciting seeing trichomes starting to form. hope you all had a great New Years!

Very nice!

 

[rapidash]

I am quite proud of this, have never seen purple trichomes before:

 

[013]

Looks amaze-balls that’s fo sho! Keep up the good work…

 

[rapidash]

Well ladies and gentleman, the time finally came to harvest the beautiful plant you all helped me cultivate. Almost all trichomes were beautifully milky with just a tad bit of amber and a lot of purple. I appreciate all of the input, tips and tricks you all blessed me with. Now comes the fun part of curing her into her best form. My first grow completed. Much love to you all!

Stay safe and toasty,

Rapidash

 

[Bill284]

Well ladies and gentleman, the time finally came to harvest the beautiful plant you all helped me cultivate. Almost all trichomes were beautifully milky with just a tad bit of amber and a lot of purple. I appreciate all of the input, tips and tricks you all blessed me with. Now comes the fun part of curing her into her best form. My first grow completed. Much love to you all!

Stay safe and toasty,

Rapidash

Unless you have a problem I would not harvest her.
She needs another week or two easy.
Wait until there aren't any white pistols left.
When they have all crinkled in then she is finished flowering and building for you.
Then check trics.
BTW she is beautiful.

Stay safe
Bill

 

[rapidash]

I harvested her based off of trichomes, all were/are cloudy with about 20% amber (was looking for less of a couch lock effect)

 

[bluter]

I have 2 pH probes - a cheap pen-type one and a more expensive one (I hardly ever use). I calibrate the cheap pen-type one once per month and if it fails (I dropped one once), I use the more expensive one until I buy a $20 replacement pen-type one again.

I think the important thing is calibration and repeatability. You have to calibrate and have repeatable results or there is no guarantee of pH success. Cheap pen-type pH meters work great, just calibrate them once in a while and replace them when they crap-out.

when the cheap probes are out they are dangerous to a grow. i had a milwuakee go out. it would return a value 3 points under consistently. it would calibrate in and go 3 points out 20 seconds after. near killed my grow.

never got a crap one again. i spent a bit more and got professional grade aperas with replaceable probes. my girls are too important to chance again.