Why are some growing and some not?

[Ricod306]

to Ricod306 ...Just my 2 cents...from someone who started with CFLs (still use 'em to veg) and building/remodeling closets and such to grow in...If I knew then what I know now you've heard the old saying right...Well anyway a good tent (or 2)...a good light...and a good extraction fan will be way cheaper in the long run than materials and time...and you'll have mobility if you choose to move it peace and good luck whatever you choose

Thanks for the suggestion mocha and I regret thinking a 39x39 tents was small. My current grow cabinet will roughly equate the same dimensions and it will only cost me about $40 more than my box but I'm working with a budget and I unfortunately already ordered my reflective material so I am stuck with it :| . But in the future I am definitely thinking of either expanding to a 39x78 tent or building a relatively big insulated green house as my space indoors is limited...

 

[Ricod306]

And thanks for all the warm welcomes! I wish all communities was this friendly

 

[Ricod306]

I'm getting a pH tester but I am not sure which one to go with, a 3 in 1 soil tester or a digital pH pen? And if I choose one of the two how should I use it?

Will the soil meter be straight forward the pH measurement? And @Emilya if I use a moisture measurement what is relatively classified as dry out of 10?

 

[Old Salt]

I'm getting a pH tester but I am not sure which one to go with, a 3 in 1 soil tester or a digital pH pen? And if I choose one of the two how should I use it?

The pH and TDS of what goes into your containers is what matters, not so much the pH of the soil once you get going. I'd go with a pH pen. The pen should have a minimum accuracy of ±0.05 pH. That means your readings will be ±0.06 pH. Using one with a lower accuracy, ±0.1 pH is common, and can lead to problems at the edges of the pH range we use, as the readings will be ±0.2 pH. You'll also need to get calibration and storage solutions for your pen.

One of the low cost pH/moisture/light devices can be used to determine what's happening in the soil. I think basing your feeds on that information can lead to severe problems, as microbes in the soil will change the pH depending on plant requirements.

I'd like to see @Emilya's take on this, as I grow cannabis in coco/perlite. The above is from experience growing other plants in soil.

 

[Ricod306]

The pH and TDS of what goes into your containers is what matters, not so much the pH of the soil once you get going. I'd go with a pH pen. The pen should have a minimum accuracy of ±0.05 pH. That means your readings will be ±0.06 pH. Using one with a lower accuracy, ±0.1 pH is common, can lead to problems at the edges of the pH range we use, as the readings will be ±0.2 pH. You'll also need to get calibration and storage solutions for your pen.

One of the low cost pH/moisture/light devices can be used to determine what's happening in the soil. I think basing your feeds on that information can lead to severe problems, as microbes in the soil will change the pH depending on plant requirements.

I'd like to see @Emilya's take on this, as I grow cannabis in coco/perlite. The above is from experience growing other plants in soil.

That is why I fear buying a pen, the issue will be calibrating the pen and with the soil tester I understand what you are saying as well.

Second if I use a pen, how will I test the pH then?

 

[Old Salt]

That is why I fear buying a pen, the issue will be calibrating the pen and with the soil tester I understand what you are saying as well

Calibration is relatively easy. Some pens have semi-automatic calibration, and some are manual that you need to adjust with a screwdriver. I highly recommend a liquid calibration solution over the packages of dried chemicals. The water you use with the dry has to be accurately measured, and uncontaminated. I use GrowTek pH solutions to avoid any problems.

 

[Ricod306]

Calibration is relatively easy. Some pens have semi-automatic calibration, and some are manual that you need to adjust with a screwdriver. I highly recommend a liquid calibration solution over the packages of dried chemicals. The water you use with the dry has to be accurately measured, and uncontaminated. I use GrowTek pH solutions to avoid any problems.

If I read some reviews the automatic calibrating pens can be "unstable" in their readings, I would rather go with a manual calibrating pen and adjust it accordingly ensuring I get the best and most accurate readings possible.

When I use the pen to test my pH, to I test the water I feed with or do I test my run off?

 

[Emilya Green]

I have to jump in at this point. In soil, runoff readings are meaningless.... dont even waste your time worrying about it. Just make sure that the pH of every fluid that hits that soil is properly adjusted to 6.3 pH and you will be fine. There is no need to test soil pH in a modern commercial potting soil. Just get a good liquid pH tester. Those cheap 3 way meters have 2 useful functions only, and one of them is NOT pH. Sticking a probe in the soil is not how you test soil pH. The only useful functions on that meter are a relative light intensity meter, and the moisture meter that can show you where the moist/wet line is. Being able to "see" where the water table level is sitting is actually quite useful.
Also this talk of ppm is confusing to a soil grower. PPM in soil is also meaningless... imagine how many millions and millions of particles are in a handful of soil. If you are using hydro based nutes, the measurements of how many nutes to give are often given in PPM... but a soil grower doesn't care and most of them don't have PPM meters. A soil grower wants to know how many tsp/gal to add to the mix or across the pond, ml/L... and then you don't have to worry about ppm readings at all.
Also, worries about chlorine plague many new growers. If you are growing with bottled nutes that are non organic (no OMRI labels), IN SOIL, chlorine will not hurt your grow in the least... and as a matter of fact it helps keep down mold problems in the container. The only time you need to worry about chlorine is if you are growing hydroponically and need to start off with pure water at zero PPM, or if you are doing organic gardening complete with living microbes. Other than that, tap water is just fine and doesn't hurt a thing. Plants actually need a tiny bit of chlorine.
Lastly, learn to water properly, letting the container dry out all the way to the bottom between waterings. When you do water, saturate the soil completely to runoff, and then wait for the container to dry out before watering again.

 

[Emilya Green]

I'm getting a pH tester but I am not sure which one to go with, a 3 in 1 soil tester or a digital pH pen? And if I choose one of the two how should I use it?

Will the soil meter be straight forward the pH measurement? And @Emilya if I use a moisture measurement what is relatively classified as dry out of 10?

more on this... the moisture meter has 2 readings that mean anything at all. Moist (which is pretty much anywhere in the container) and pegged out to the right, WET. When you see the meter peg to the right, you know you just hit the water table. Think of it as a lake inside of the container that drops in level as the plants use up the water. Using the moisture meter you can easily see when the water table falls to the last inch of the container... and that is when you should water.
The soil pH meter is a joke. It is worthless. This is not how you measure soil pH. The base pH of the soil is measured with a vacuum sealed slurry test with distilled water, and this meter can not do that. Just measure the pH of the liquids going in. The column of water that you suspend in that container of soil when you saturate it, determines the pH of that container. If you water with the correct pH, your nutes and the plant sees correct pH... it can be no different.

 

[Ricod306]

Lastly, learn to water properly, letting the container dry out all the way to the bottom between waterings. When you do water, saturate the soil completely to runoff, and then wait for the container to dry out before watering again.

I've read your post on watering properly and has helped me a lot so far. For now I'm leaving my babies to dry like you said but not extremely fast, let it happen naturally. I can see the soil starting to dry out but it is drying inwards, towards the stems of my plants.

more on this... the moisture meter has 2 readings that mean anything at all. Moist (which is pretty much anywhere in the container) and pegged out to the right, WET. When you see the meter peg to the right, you know you just hit the water table. Think of it as a lake inside of the container that drops in level as the plants use up the water. Using the moisture meter you can easily see when the water table falls to the last inch of the container... and that is when you should water.
The soil pH meter is a joke. It is worthless. This is not how you measure soil pH. The base pH of the soil is measured with a vacuum sealed slurry test with distilled water, and this meter can not do that. Just measure the pH of the liquids going in. The column of water that you suspend in that container of soil when you saturate it, determines the pH of that container. If you water with the correct pH, your nutes and the plant sees correct pH... it can be no different.

I think use of a 3 in 1 is clear now (pretty useless except for the moist meter), I would rather get a simple moist meter then to simply the lift method of determining when my plants need watering again.

@Emilya, this morning when I entered my grow room there was this rather pungent smell coming from my plants, more pungent than usual and also not bad smelling as well. Can this be the smell they give off when they need watering, some of the soil is starting to dry out (especialy the little ones) this is why I am asking and I did water them almost 4 days ago.

 

[Emilya Green]

@Emilya, this morning when I entered my grow room there was this rather pungent smell coming from my plants, more pungent than usual and also not bad smelling as well. Can this be the smell they give off when they need watering, some of the soil is starting to dry out (especialy the little ones) this is why I am asking and I did water them almost 4 days ago.

yes, good observation. As transpiration increases so does the stink. Use your lift method to see for sure, but I think you just learned a new way to communicate with your plants!

 

[Ricod306]

yes, good observation. As transpiration increases so does the stink. Use your lift method to see for sure, but I think you just learned a new way to communicate with your plants!

The pots did seem a little lighter than usual but I wasn't sure because it still had a little weight to it. But as my first time I'm sure I still need to learn the feel for these kind of things unless I get a moister tester.

 

[Ricod306]

@Emilya regarding watering them, isn't a quart too much for my seedlings at first? Or is the amount irrelevant only the wet and dry cycles and the saturation of the soil?

 

[Emilya Green]

the amount is simply a human contrivance and is data that is not important in the process. The important thing is the process itself... saturating the soil and monitoring the wet/dry cycle that results.

 

[Ricod306]

the amount is simply a human contrivance and is data that is not important in the process. The important thing is the process itself... saturating the soil and monitoring the wet/dry cycle that results.

Awesome thanks for the replies!

 

[thinkbetter12]

I would guess that it takes 6 hours labor to clean mine and I do it once a year, or so. Not everyone has a situation like mine though, where I have a brother who will do hard labor for free pot. At $300+ to replace, I like the idea of recycling and not having to figure out what to do with the old shell.

Hey Emilya!! - Do you have a recipe for cleaning and recycling carbon/carbon filter? I've read to use a little dish detergent, soak, dry, heat to reactivate. Any tips?

 

[Emilya Green]

Hey Emilya!! - Do you have a recipe for cleaning and recycling carbon/carbon filter? I've read to use a little dish detergent, soak, dry, heat to reactivate. Any tips?

Do not use soap.

1. take the carbon out and put it in a bucket.
2. add fresh water from the garden hose and stand back and it starts to off gas and generate heat.
3. Add more water.
4. Stir.
5. Add more water until the reaction stops.
6. Take the now clean carbon to your oven or bbq grill and heat it up to 500 degrees for 10 minutes or so, until the edges just start to ash over. This step reactivates (reopens the pores) of the clean carbon
7. carefully shake and jiggle the cool carbon back into the filter housing, making sure there are no voids. Add back 5% of the original carbon from some store bought carbon because this cleaning process will lose just about that much.
8. Enjoy another year with your filter.

 

[arobinson6]

Hi guys

I'm a new grower and don't know much about growing so here is what I currently achieved, regarding all I know is research from google and if anything is wrong or misinterpreted please correct me.

I am growing Jack Herer of which I have 4 plants. Two are growing vigorously, but my other two seems to have halted in growth except shooting new leaves. And one of these two of which aren't growing much, is shooting leaves really slow. I came to the conclusion that the one not growing much had nutrient burn as my research stated it is still a seedling and is not in need of much nutrients until at least 5-fingered leaves start shooting out. So I transplanted the smallest one into new soil and gave it a good run through of water ensuring almost all run through stopped dripping out the bottom as I hoped this would help prevent drowning my plant. As for the rest of my plants I flushed them all and let them drip all the run through out before I put them back on their trays. After about 6 hours the shade in some leaves evenly started darkening and the growth of the 2 biggest ones and the cute little one with 3 fingered leaves started increasing again but the smallest one still isn't doing much and I am writing this about 2 days after. Now there is some twisting in my leaves and I am not sure what to do.

I must add the one which had nut burn had almost like a knot on the root system with roughly 5 - 7 short small roots expanding outwards almost as if the root got damaged and they where burned back by the abundance of nutrients. This transplant was also this plant's second as all my plants stretched due to bad lighting (one 40w grow lamp).

I have attached some photos of how they all look. I'm temporarily growing them under 2x 70w halogen 1400lumen lights with a warm tint. They are growing in potting soil meant for seedlings. There is a fan in the room which I have adjusted to create cooling and air circulation around the plants. I have ordered 2x 60w red and blue spectrum LED's as well as some reflective material and I am considering on building a grow box with an extractor vent as well a temp controller. I also attached the design so any suggestions are welcome.

They look great, patience

 

[Ricod306]

Here is some of my latest regarding the shear recovery after proper watering!!! Thanks @Old Salt & @Emilya

They are still reaching for light because my proper lights still haven't arrived, so I also had to support them because of the stretching and the fan is too strong for them at the moment. But after supporting them and proper watering they have been really growing vigorously, even more than before.

I have concluded the little one has undergone root damage after its last transplant and thus causing it to grow so slow. But given time and some little trimming of dead leaves the recovery has also been going well.

 

[Emilya Green]

look at them reaching up! This is a clear indication that the roots are now healthy and growing.