Day 20 - Morning\Afternoon - First Real Feeding Day
Overview:
So temps were all in range again (maybe I should only mention from here on out if they are not), 72-82; RH 45-68% last 24hr.
Neither seems to add height since yesterday, though out leaves near the edge of pot seems to get bigger\grow a little... totally rubbing the edges now. height thing could be I lower the light yesterday, could be I topped them and their still pissed off at me a little, which I can understand, the place where I cut though the little top side growth tips themselves though did add a little girth so they were not completely stunted.
I watered today, they both weighted at or under 14lbs, More on that later. I added a 90d (45 left, 45 right) rotating fan to the set up who's 'low' setting is fairly gentle, I show pics of that tomorrow (added it just 1min before lights out so no time for pics). I put the other fan I'd been talking about the 'lower' one back to 'low' from it's high setting. That said while I did find some leaves that were touching again today (boo!), I only found one minor one that had transpiration water spots so I think the slightly added air movement did help a little.
I bought a new AC for the room, have not hooked it up yet, waiting for a cool morning to do it, I figure that's the best time while there is also some light out outside to see, hopefully that day will be tomorrow.
Top Shots:
Miss Cane:
Sides: Totally growing into the pot now, I might have to some how train them to grow up..
idk... maybe raise the side lights even higher? then again they're borderline pointless at that
point imho.
Closeups: Not really anything to say here lol, other than where I cut her continued to grow a little.
Mrs. Widow:
Sides: Lower leaves were very droopy today, they were sitting ON the soil for the most part.
I figured she probably was telling me it was water time, also she was smellier than yesterday
if that makes any sense.
Closeups: Progress to my eye on those two growth tips where I snipped yesterday, other than that not much to say
I did find the very tip\point of one of the fan leaves like missing, like the last 2mm of it?
I don't know what the hell that was, I assume either today or yesterday in all the movement I must of caused it.
Like I said she's a little on the crispy side in terms of leaves so I have to be real careful.
Watering:
So I check the soil today with mr.pinky as usual, first knuckle dust\dry, second knuckle...eh..barely damp in some areas (edges), but I would say still damp under all shaded areas near the stem. I lifted each pot, CC immediately stuck me as light, WW eh lighter than yesterday but hard to tell. I kind of would hate to water them on different days when they both take the same nutes, so I yanked them gently out of the tent and put them on the scale. CC 13-14, WW 14. I then whipped out the shitty meters... dry at 3" dry at 5" and wetter but still high end of 'dry' as far down as I could go on CC, WW was about the same though all the way down I would say it was high-dry very very low 'moist'. Decided fuck it, time to water, it's probably 12-18hr early on WW but so be it.
First I cut up little mini plastic cups to fit under the pot screen to catch the run-off (if i could) more directly without touching saucer.
All brand new cups I picked up yesterday think I got a set of like 50 for 99cents at walmart.. figured they'd be handy as hell for all this crap.
Nutes: Today I started with Veg Nutes on the Technaflora recipe for success, other than Cal-mag, I used 1/3rd dose for this first time (boost\grow\trivealive\sugardaddy), on the cal-mag I went 75-80% - (2ml for the gallon instead of 2.5ml).
PPM was about 400-420 (lol) after the ph'ing up from 5.4 to 6.6-6.7. Order: Boost first, little shake and swirl to the distilled bottle, then Grow, then a minor shake\swirl, then the T-Alive, little swirl, then the Sugardaddy, swirl, then the calmag, then swirl. Then I actually let it sit for about 2-3 minutes before testing\adjusting ph. I used my new syringes for all this, it was fun, and easier than measuring things with 1.25ml+ spoons I have (less chance of spillage\waste, and more exact), paranoid I flushed the syringe with a little distilled between each measuring, not wanting to taint one solution with a drop of another.
PPM IN: ~420, Full veg recipe per sheet says should be roughly ~1000ppm. So really I guess I went more like 40% that 33%... whatever probably the extra cal-mag bumping it from ~350 to 400....
I took a different approach this time around with actual watering.. less babying though still took too long:
First five\10min: (95% around edge\2" inward; using small water pitcher)
500ml to CC
500ml to WW
500ml to CC
500ml to WW
Waited about 5min
200ml to CC - more on the 2-3" in from edge area
200ml to WW - more on the 2-3" in from the edge area
(Running total: 1200ml)
Waited about 15 min for that 1200 to sink in.
...nothing...out he bottom.
200ml to CC - 85% right on edges
200ml to WW - 85% right on edges
(running total: 1400ml each - about what I think they needed)
Waited about 5-10 minutes. (nothing...gotta be shitting me right?)
200-225ml to CC - via squeeze controllable bottle 80% edge'ish area.20% middle.
200-225ml to CC - via squeeze controllable bottle 80% edge'ish area.20% middle.
(1600ml ish each)
Waited about 5-10 minutes maybe little more.
Some drops started, so waited another 5min playing around with pots and cups and crap trying to position stuff to catch drops.
This went on for like 20 minutes... till I had some stuff to test.
CC: ppm out 240 ph 5.7
WW: ppm out 225 ph 5.6
Eventually got about 150-200ml out of each.
Because the grate they sit on bend inward a little (making most of the run off come out one side of the pot), I turned both pots about 180 degrees. I then watered them again each with about 200ml and to be honest I was favoring the side away from where I thought it would drain.
CC: 200ml
WW 200ml
Waited about 5min and tried to get updated samples from this point as "tail end"
(~ about 1825ml each ; used up the gallon , keep in mind some got wasted during ph'ing process before hand that's where most of the missing ~100ml went (~3750ml in a gallon))
The cut-cups were sort of working, seemed to do best under the newer and wider holes I put in under the center'ish area of pots. actually I don't think I noticed anything come out the 'edge' holes I've drilled ever.. unless I pick up the pots and swish them around
to the side..etc. That said testing the cut-cup run off and the suctioned from saucer run off .. the ph difference was maybe 0.1. not major and makes me think, maybe not interfering as much as I might have hoped.
Tail end run off prior to lights going out (was still slowly draining):
CC: ppm ~230 (229-240) PH: 5.8-6.0 adjusted (5.69-5.81 on meter) btw also tested with droplets light orange for rough sanity check
WW: ppm ~230 (225-238) PH: 5.7-5.9 adjusted (5.61-5.72 on meter) btw also tested with droplets light orange for rough sanity check
Overall still scary ph for the run off, but slightly better than last watering.
Overall out by lights out was roughly ~300ml a piece of 1800, ~15%...with more to come while they sleep no doubt.. probably another 100-150ml is my guess, so 20-25%. I'm hoping tonight what's left to come out comes out closer to 6.0 than anything thus far, if I get some 5.85-5.9x meter readings I'll stop worrying about it - till I have too as adjusted that would be about 6\6.1.
Other\related to watering: I re-calibrated my pen again today before all this... turns out it was 'perfectly' calibrated even better prior to using the 7\4 solutions vs the 6.86\4.01 dissolving stuff originally used... Fuck my life I should have just left it alone when it read the 7.04 as 7.1, as my pen cal's to 6.86. I went ahead and cal'd it with the 7.04, so will read 6.85 basically meaning I gotta kind of + 0.1 or 0.2) to any reading I get. lol See what I get for not trusting I did everything right the first time ( I did).
AC:
I picked up an LG 8000btu unit yesterday. FU home depot online for telling me there were 7 at a near by store... There were none, had to then go 10miles away, and FU home depot employee who was completely unhelpful in double checking for me or explaining why the site was so damn wrong (they don't even carry the LG's there... each store carries different set in a region, some LG some GE some Fridgidare,etc). BTW interesting that the 8015e model and 8016er are in the same pile, difference is one takes r410 gas and 6.5 amps the other 6.2amps and r32 gas, I grabbed the 8016er as that's the one I looked up online which hilariously they state takes 6.3amps (lg's site too). Real encouraging huh. Anyway I got it unpacked, and now I await a cool morning between 6am and 9am so that I can swap it out without too much different in the temps. Hopefully it goes well, maybe tomorrow.
Random:
I picked up an air bubble stuff yesterday...no bomb threats this time! I forgot to use it today...lol FML. My procedure will be though to bubble the water prior to nuting it or ph'ing it. That way the bubble stone only gets distilled 7.0( or there about) water inside it... I don't want remnants of stuff contaminating other stuff. I feel like this may be all overkill anyway. I did after the first 500ml to each plant remember the o2 and just shuck the hell out of the jug.. probably did nothing.
Also my diet officially ended yesterday on schedule, lost 2-3 more lbs that I even wanted too, now <155. So I can add a couple hundred calories to my daily intake now, basically I'll still be 'tracking' for another 2 weeks but mainly because I need to make sure I take in more - lol, body is so used to ~1500 I need to let it know ~1800-1900 is now ok! I started at about 170 2 months ago, no working out (unlike last time around when I went from 180 to 155), just smart and anal eating choices (most bang for buck calories wise) and anal about tracking everything in. To those out there trying to lose weight... it's the hardest part for me but... dumping the soda for no-cal favored water is 1/3-1/2 the battle. Basically I'll eat about just the same as now, only I can add back a cocktail\beer or two finally!
Another way to long chapter completed.
