Hello! How are we all doing? Well I hope. So it's the 30th today and the time stamp on the pic in my phone of the germinating seeds is of the 1st. so we are a month in! Where did that go! I'm willing my plants to hurry up but was reminded the other day that when you look back, it's often the journey that was most important and memorable and not the destination. So lets revel in the present shall we?!
I re-potted the replacement C99 yesterday and somehow managed to mix up the new labels on the C99's! I feckin knew something wasn't adding up. It's a bit shameful to be honest, especially given I wasn't stoned!! Ah well. I have blurred out the labels and added text to make things clear.
Here are the 3 girls:
The C99 replacement was a bit droopy after the re-pot. I took a quick shot today in the tent to give a real sense of how they doing...The replacement lifted a lot.
Here are a bunch of photos and close ups. There are a few issues.
1. Freakshow looks like rocket!
2. Freakshow and the C99 replacement have a lot of 'skin' problems! Moreso Freakshow. She has it bad.
3. The Norther Lights has what appears to be a slightly different 'skin' problem!
Have a look:
And here is the NL. I always liked the look of indica's with their big fat velvety looking leaves. There is a great smell off her. It teases and excites me so!!
I topped her on the 22nd so she should be branching off in 2.
Here is a close up of the 'skin' problem the NL faces.It seems to be confined to the lower leaves. Maybe it's not abnormal but i'm going to assume it is. Oh and sorry for the double negative, they get me too but they sometimes suit the sentence better. I could have said "maybe it's normal" but that could infer I'm leaning in that direction which I'm not. RAMBLING!!!...Moving swiftly on!!
So what could be going on here. Personally I think it could be the tomato feed I have occasionally given them. But I am not sure. I gave a partial dose now and then so I'm gonna hold off on that, let the plants dry out a bit and then flush. No harm doing a flush. If anyone has any opinions or suggestions feel free to let me have it! Don't be shy now!
Troy, I don't have anything to measure the ppm. And my pH meter is litmus paper!! I'll just flush the shit out of it and hope for the best!!
Interesting idea about the fertilizer getting on the leaves. It's very possible. Not the concentrated fertilizer but the affected leaves are around the base. I could have gotten the diluted stuff on em. I might test that on another leaf at a later stage when I'm happy the plant is okay. I'll just see what happens for now. It could be normal for all I know!!
I must look into it so. I don't know anything about TDS pens or what the significance of ppms/pH is! It does seem to get a lot of attention by people here though. It's on my to do list. Thanks for the advice Troy.
As it's the lowest fan leaves I'm hoping this little Northern Light of mine is just shedding unwanted leaves. I flushed her and freakshow today so we shall see. Hopefully the NL is grand and freakshow is just a mutant or somehow deformed!!
I tested the water run off while doing a flush today using litmus paper. It might be old fashioned but centuries worth of scientific discoveries, that are still valid today, were developed using litmus paper and other simple tools. It gave me a 7 going in and a 7 going out. If it were pH would it only affect the lowest fan leaves? I'll have to keep an eye on it, in case it spreads. Fingers and toes crossed!!
Yes, if you have big pH swings, it will show up on the lower leaves. Not sure of the nutes in your soil mix but the additional feedings may have caused some burn. May also have some hot spots in the soil. But yeah, nearly always best to make small adjustments and let your plant's reaction guide the way.
7.0 would be on the high side if you are growing in soil. Ideally you want to keep your PH at 6.3 - 6.8. I'm not sure if litmus paper will give you a detail enough fine tune it. If you are at 7.0 you are locking out some nutrients that can affect your grow.
The TDS meter isn't very elaborate and tells you the amount of dissolved solids in your nutrient mix. It is really helpful to know the correct amount of nutrients to add to your water and understand what dissolved solids you already have in your water.
Hmmm. Very interesting. Presumably there are certain amounts of dissolved solids one should aim for then? So given the age/size or whatever of the plant, a low figure would mean I would need to up the nites? Is that any way right?
You're dead right about the litmus. You can tell a 6 from a 7 but it would be hard to get more precise than that.
I have to say I like the sound of theses 2 meters and getting more info and control on the grow. I love tinkering with them! My only concern is that I end up going down another rabbit hole of expenditure. Between tents, lights, nutes, jars, and even bongs and lately a vape, I can't see the start of the rabbit hole I'm already in! These will mean pH adjusters and more nutes I presume. And possibly a divorce if there is anything else delivered to to the house!! ....I think I just convinced myself to get them!! I can never show her this journal now!!
Okay, bought the pH and tds meter. They will take a week or so. Bought them, came home from night shift and since I'm going away for a few days I took the plants out for inspection. I had already pruned parts of the fan leaves blocking light on the northern lights but I decided to take off all but 1 of them completely starting with the 2 lowest and worst affected. I flipped them and what do I find. 3 greenfly. FFS. . Oddly though, after a thorough search of all plants, they were the only ones I could find. Very odd as any time I've had them on other plants they tended to go for younger leaves. They are a nightmare so I will have to be extremely vigilant. Great time to go away!
While I was at it I topped the NL for the 2nd time so that should mean 4 main colas. Topped the healthy looking C99 as well for the 1st time. So they are now pretty level which is what I wanted. Now that the Nl is trimmed, the replacement C99 is filling the most room! I'm gonna let freakshow do her own thing!!
On a sidenote, the humidity had creeped up a bit so I've opened up an airway.
Hey guys. I'm buying pH down. I read that the pH will go back up itself and I will keep readjusting down. Is there any need to buy pH up? I don't plan on changing the medium for future grows.
All advice welcome as always.
I personally rarely use PH Up as my tap water is about 7.2 prior to adding any nutrients. Hate to say it but the times I have used it is because I screwed up and dropped the PH too low... LOL
I use Advanced Nutrients Perfect PH products so rarely have to make adjustments. I do check regularly just to make sure things are where I want them.
Whilst on a pub crawl in cork city, I stopped in a great little gem of a shop, deep route gardening. Apparently it used to be what was called a head shop. Head shops sold legal highs and drug paraphernalia before the laws were changed and they all stopped trading. Got better ferts and pH down. Happy days. Just have to wait for the tester now.
Totally off topic but got a nice little fly trap too!!