Oh No - It's A Green Hole! - Reverse Thrusters! - Dammit - Too Late!

[Kriaze]

Talking of UncleC I've not seen him for awhile, I'll bet he's lay down smoking his medicine in that ganja grove of his, probably with some form of long firearm trying to capture those pesky wabbits, I mean gnomes. Might have to go look around and check that he's ok, coming in here with all that information, making new measurements then leaving us high and dry grrrr. Have a great day there mate, scrog or no scrog that is the question. They're looking great and bountiful whichever way All the best

 

[electro gypsy]

haha! the avatar!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yes I know Kriaze, Uncle C he went poof. Hopefully he is well and reappears soon, I miss having him around..

 

[chenzi]

haha! the avatar!

Nice !!

 

[B A R]

 

[nivek]

Bar,, great little comment in yer siggy about the fire extinguisher,, we all need reminding,, cheers,,,

Btw, I happen to have one in my labooratoory,, but not in my house,, i need get me priorities straight,, or,,, Maybe i already do,,ha

Cheers,, reps too for dat

 

[Mello136]

 

[jojo677]

Now it's pretty much nothing but solid bud, laying on the screen.

That doesn't sounds so bad! I like using the Screen to keep everything where I want it, but I have to admit I too would like to grow in more natural shapes. It's just tough with sativas since they tend to have weaker stems, which like to flop whatever which way they want. I don't have a lot of grows under my belt, but this is what I've observed. I think you have the best of both worlds. You get the support from the screen, but get longer, more natural looking colas as the colas grow.

Nice update by the way. I find it interesting that the Silicon added first has a higher PPM. No wonder they mention that it should be the first thing added. I guess if it can't go into solution, it's not available for the plants' use?

Nice avatar too- Squirrelcracker!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks JoJo -that higher ppm means nothing. It was just what I ended up with as a starting point. I just mixed everything together and adjusted until I got close to 5.8. That one didn't hit 5.8 but I was tired of tweaking it.
Results on those tests are confusing so far. For example, the test labelled B was at ph 6.7 the next day and the day after that was 6.9. Makes me question my ph probe even though I calibrated it again and it was perfect.
I ordered a new ph probe for my Bluelab, and some KCl storage solution (finally). I did finally find some Bluelab storage solution in canada but it's $87, before tax and shipping, for 100ml (not much less than a new probe!).
250 ml of Hanna KCl was $17, and Bluelab answered my email to say it would be ok to use another brand - so, an easy choice.
I'll keep testing till I trust my results...

 

[jojo677]

Oh wow, sounds like you spent a little cash on pH related items lately! That's the main thing that intrigues me about soil grows- little/no pH monitoring. Maybe one day.. There's always pH perfect nutes too, I suppose. I may have to do some of my own experiments with my GH nutes. I've noticed that when adding my General Organics CaMg+, it pretty much buffers the solution to 5.8-6.0, depending on what other nutrient ratios I'm using. Surely there's some easily accessible nutrient to use as a buffer, which will also hold pH for a few days?

Ever since I've been storing my meter in my DIY KCl solution, it has been holding very steady. It seemed to take a few weeks to settle, but I hardly have to adjust it anymore when I calibrate. Do share the PPM of your storage solution when you get it, if you don't mind.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Will do. My probe seems to be responding a bit slow lately which makes sense since I've had it for a year and never once stored it in anything other than rainwater (!). It still seems to settle on the right ph though, when I calibrate it with ph 4 and ph 7. I've never once had it be off by more than 0.1
I'm pretty sure what happened to my wilty purple plants is that I gave them nutes adjusted to 6 or even 6.2 (I was getting a bit lax about where I landed in that range) and the following ph creep screwed things up. I'm just trying to get a handle on what the creep actually does after mixing.
Yeah I pretty much spent the grocery money this month on ph stuff, but ph problems have bitten me so many times I hate to mess around.

Glad to see you got some Mama Thai. this is going to be fun.

 

[Tead]

I end up with the typical PH spotting when I have a stoner PH moment. Not so much drooping or wilting.
I could probably live without a ph pen at this point. My mix is so set that I add my PH down before I test PH. Tho I test after, I'm usually spot on.
In hempy pots or any other hydro, ph is quite important and needs to be on target at all times. One bad feeding of improperly ph'd water is gonna give me spots.... sux. I'm always gardening stoned, so various small issues arise on occasion. My lazy philosophy really helps me here... hard to screw up such easy things when stoned.

 

[lexort420]

Hey weasel long time no see lol ph problems are a pain im always running into them lol hope you get it sorted out soon take it easy

 

[glimmergrass]

Just popping in to say hi, WC!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Hi Glimmer . Nice to see you come by for a visit!
Lexort, ph problems are the story of my growing life- mostly somehow related to grower error/ignorance.
In this case though I'm not having problems (much) at the moment. Just doing a bit of detective work. It relates back to your plants actually, and me being puzzled over why they are/were so droopy and purple stemmed. Then mine suddenly decided to copy yours a few weeks ago. They're mostly recovered now.
That conversation we had on your journal and especially the comments from Tead got me thinking I should do some testing and see what sort of ph changes go on with my nutes after they are mixed.
Being a sort of newbie in some important areas, I think I've been adjusting my ph a bit wrong. I generally aim for 5.8, but haven't worried much if it was at 6. The problem is that the ph of the nutrient solution creeps upwards in the containers after they are mixed, adjusted and fed to the plants. Even if I ph at 5.8, the creep upwards is going to quickly screw things up for the plants and they'll be missing out on a couple key nutrients.

I 'sort of' knew this, or at least had heard of it from hydro growers, and should have known it, but didn't really think things through till last week, after that conversation and after staring at the chart more. 5.8 may be the closest thing there is to a perfect spot for ph, but it's still borderline. Check out the chart and you'll see what I mean.

I think Tead is right on the money and I (we) should be ph'ing at 5.5 or thereabouts, to take advantage of the ph creep and encompass a nice little range in which the plants can eat drink and be merry.

 

[Tead]

I think it can depend on how often you feed as well. If I'm feeding every other day, and I start at 5.5, I may not drift high enough to hit the Mag range at all. Perhaps if one were feeding more often, one should start at 5.6 or 5.7.
You get the idea.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

All caught up to date, the chat about squirrels had me in stitches.

Your "bud bed", could this not lead to a lack of airflow and a higher chance of mold? Looks awesome tho. You need to remember to get a pic looking at all the little mountain tops all frosty

 

[Weaselcracker]

You're the best Mr. A.
I worry a little, but time will tell. My last PC harvest had three screenfuls laying flat and they were mold free. One of them in particular was in a deep dark corner it's whole life, laying there in a jumbled heap of buds just crying out for mold to attack.
On the other hand, that PC monstrosity I had dangling by pipe cleaners, just wouldn't stop molding, even though it had awesome airflow and two fans on it and lower RH than I've had in the past.
I harvested the hacked up remains of that PC last night. It seems to have produced more than my other PC plants. I haven't counted up the harvest as a lot of it was just mold control amputations over the last few weeks.This was the plant I fed on the Botanicare feeding schedule as an experiment. The nute level is too high for my liking, but I have to admit that the buds grew bigger than all my other PCs. The mold just wouldn't quit though.
Here's a picture of my PC bud bed. It's hard to see what's going on in the pic. The budding limbs are about 12" long

As the plant matures it sort of naturally defoliates a little and hopefully there will be a little more airflow because of that as well.

 

[Mello136]

I can jump in there like Uncle Scrooge in his vault! Geez. Great work weaz, all I can say honestly. Good luck with the mold bud.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

You're the best Mr. A.
I worry a little, but time will tell. My last PC harvest had three screenfuls laying flat and they were mold free. One of them in particular was in a deep dark corner it's whole life, laying there in a jumbled heap of buds just crying out for mold to attack.
On the other hand, that PC monstrosity I had dangling by pipe cleaners, just wouldn't stop molding, even though it had awesome airflow and two fans on it and lower RH than I've had in the past.
I harvested the hacked up remains of that PC last night. It seems to have produced more than my other PC plants. I haven't counted up the harvest as a lot of it was just mold control amputations over the last few weeks.This was the plant I fed on the Botanicare feeding schedule as an experiment. The nute level is too high for my liking, but I have to admit that the buds grew bigger than all my other PCs. The mold just wouldn't quit though.
Here's a picture of my PC bud bed. It's hard to see what's going on in the pic. The budding limbs are about 12" long

As the plant matures it sort of naturally defoliates a little and hopefully there will be a little more airflow because of that as well.

Thankyou Weaselcracker, means a lot, you know I hold you in high regard. Funny things these pineapple strains, I have a pineapple express auto at day 40 showing now signs of flower yet. Feel your pain with the mold, I worry for future problems, I kinda underestimated the difference between a 1 gallon plastic pot and a 3 gallon fabric one. And now I have 2 ever growing autos (and a small one in shallow 1gal)in my tiny box, RH reading of 70% and visibly wet leaves where they touch.
How long has your bed girl got left? She will look stunning with all the little budlets pointing upwards all frosty.