Woodsman's Northern Light #5 Grow

[BreakPoint]

of course once you have a successful grow...you can work towards changing things...$

 

[Woodsman]

of course once you have a successful grow...you can work towards changing things...$

I don't know anyone that indulges! lol

 

[Hypo Hippy]

Wood....once again, not to beat this in the ground. I don't think I would do anything right now. Like Dro said, your plants look really good. If they were suffering you would know it....they would show you. You could get into a friggin circle of ass-pain trying to raise/lower the pH and catch yourself coming and going. (Know what I mean?) I'm just saying......

 

[Woodsman]

Wood....once again, not to beat this in the ground. I don't think I would do anything right now. Like Dro said, your plants look really good. If they were suffering you would know it....they would show you. You could get into a friggin circle of ass-pain trying to raise/lower the pH and catch yourself coming and going. (Know what I mean?) I'm just saying......

No problem Hypo, I'm chilled off and having a smoke and not worrying about it! Thanks for the help

 

[Hypo Hippy]

Dude...you guys have helped me so much I am just trying to return the favor. I hope our babes turn out to be half as good as yours....if so will be a success. Be good...

 

[BreakPoint]

Wood...definitely do NOT use water that goes through a softener. If you don't live near a big city then rain/snow should be pretty clean, but if near a large industrial base the precip tends to leach all the bad stuff out of the atmosphere. Can you run the water from a hose bib outside and let it sit? When I lived in Kansas I had a water softener for the whole house, but not for the hose bibs outside (didn't want to soften water to water the yard with you know). Just a thought

oh I missed this and said the same thing about the softener...

 

[Jbleez]

Thanks bud, I enjoy it very much, it is a terrific therapy.

How would I know if the water is alright to use? (no meter). I now that those with city water can just leave it out for a day or two and there fine. But mine goes through a salt softener first, I would think that the snow or rain is better. I understand if the plant looks fine then it probably is. That's how I always grew... Only I worry that my stuff could be 'sub par' and that is not good!

Hey buddy I have a question for u on my page but neways I wanted to say I never ph my water I just let it sit (I've been too lazy) but the grow has been just fine I think that our plant will tell us if anything is wrong

 

[Woodsman]

Hey buddy I have a question for u on my page but neways I wanted to say I never ph my water I just let it sit (I've been too lazy) but the grow has been just fine I think that our plant will tell us if anything is wrong

Ya like you guys have been saying, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it!'

 

[Woodsman]

Update - Flower day 8

This morning confirmed two males. Plants #2 and #3. #2 also had a few female genetalia on top, but no mistaking the many balls that were forming below. They are both history!

Still no sign on the other plants #1, #4 and #5. I'll get around to renaming them soon, maybe something less boring than a number.LOL First 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', so I'm only presuming! Fingers are crossed.

I understand that it is not advisable to re-pot in flower. Well I got no choice! Plants #4 and 5 were in tiny one gallon pots. The reason was simple. No room. Now that I have the two males gone, I've got all kinds of room. So after making a total mess in the kitchen sink and floor (It's winter outside) I've got the plants re-potted to more respectable size containers. I used the pot from #2 and found another buried under the snow on the back porch. they are both around (not sure) 3 gallon pots.

All three of these as of now 'nonsexual' plants are now sunbathing in the tent.. They just love all the extra room they have. Come on baby, bring some girls to Papa!

 

[MountainHigh]

Ya like you guys have been saying, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it!'

Please take this as it is meant, advice to someone I like and don't want to see anything bad happen. Get a ph test kit, you will hate yourself if you ruin your grow when you could of fixed it for 6-10 bucks (test drops). I understand tight finances so I get the problem. If you try to be reactionary (reading your plant), you will never know if your response to correcting the problem was enough or too much and every problem will stunt your harvest that much more.

I wish I could be offering no stress advice here on your ph problem bro, but I am the paranoid type. I would go crazy if I couldn't at least ballpark my PH after what I did to my plants in my first grow from a perpetually bad low ph....never again. My soil was horrid, but the problem didn't manifest until stretch when the plant was demanding things the ph lockout wouldn't let it have like NITROGEN so it devoured itself. If you lock out a macro nute your plant will stop growing and eat itself or die. Those are fundamental and the plant uses alot of them daily. Being able to test PH let me save Tess from a painful death, she is fine now and the mg def spots seem to be trying to self repair instead of going cancerous. I lost one fan, but hell how fast it came on and how hard...I am lucky I didn't lose the whole plant. Had this been my first grow I would of "waited and seen" like I did then and I would of opened the curtain to a nearly dead plant...

I am not sure but my nutes start out at a ph of 5 after I mix them, I am thinking my mg def on Tess might of been from me forgetting to ph my nutes just one time....as the problem has disappeared and her runoff is stable, so hot spot is less likely than the problem coming from a stoned grower.

I do not wish you any problems bro, but I think full nuting soil without knowing the ph is like flipping a coin and seeing if your plants die or not. That comes from experience in killing plants...

my friend.

 

[OldMedUser]

Update - Flower day 8

This morning confirmed two males. Plants #2 and #3. #2 also had a few female genetalia on top, but no mistaking the many balls that were forming below. They are both history!

Still no sign on the other plants #1, #4 and #5. I'll get around to renaming them soon, maybe something less boring than a number.LOL First 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', so I'm only presuming! Fingers are crossed.

I understand that it is not advisable to re-pot in flower. Well I got no choice! Plants #4 and 5 were in tiny one gallon pots. The reason was simple. No room. Now that I have the two males gone, I've got all kinds of room. So after making a total mess in the kitchen sink and floor (It's winter outside) I've got the plants re-potted to more respectable size containers. I used the pot from #2 and found another buried under the snow on the back porch. they are both around (not sure) 3 gallon pots.

All three of these as of now 'nonsexual' plants are now sunbathing in the tent.. They just love all the extra room they have. Come on baby, bring some girls to Papa!

It don't hurt to re-pot in flower. It's way better than letting them sit there all root-bound. A day or two of recovery and they'll be smilin' at ya!

I just re-potted my little veg Kali girl yesterday and she's sunning at the beach today looking totally beautiful!

Good thing too. I'm gonna whack a side branch off today and throw it in the flowering room to get some evidence of sexual orientation for her.

I'm almost certain she's a she but she hasn't shown any hairs yet. Her brother is in there and getting heavier hung with balls every day.

The ones that don't show sex early are usually girls Woodsman so you'll likely be rewarded!

+Rep for great show!

 

[Woodsman]

Thanks MH, I really appreciate your understanding. Like you my last grow was 'nothing to write home about'! An like we both say, not again! I can't really just go out an buy some stuff to smoke if this doesn't pan out. I've got to make the best of it!

Explain to me how you alter the pH... I understand you mix your nutes, then you test a sample of them with the drops. OK, so the pH is very low. what do you do to raise the pH level and how do you know how much? Then do you test the run off?

I know I must sound like an imbecile! lol!!

 

[Woodsman]

It don't hurt to re-pot in flower. It's way better than letting them sit there all root-bound. A day or two of recovery and they'll be smilin' at ya!

I just re-potted my little veg Kali girl yesterday and she's sunning at the beach today looking totally beautiful!

Good thing too. I'm gonna whack a side branch off today and throw it in the flowering room to get some evidence of sexual orientation for her.

I'm almost certain she's a she but she hasn't shown any hairs yet. Her brother is in there and getting heavier hung with balls every day.

The ones that don't show sex early are usually girls Woodsman so you'll likely be rewarded!

+Rep for great show!

Thank you Lab for coming by. You are always welcome when ever you find the time! Thanks for the Reps also!

LOL yep, they sure were on there way to being root bound. I just didn't have room in there for larger pots before. Now the three remaining 'ladies' (hoping) have just enough room to stretch out a bit and do there thing! The hermi that I just dumped this morning had just shown it's female side today for the first time. I'm hoping the other three will also show soon.

 

[MountainHigh]

Thanks MH, I really appreciate your understanding. Like you my last grow was 'nothing to right home about'! An like we both say, not again! I can't really just go out an buy some stuff to smoke if this doesn't pan out. I've got to make the best of it!

Explain to me how you alter the pH... I understand you mix your nutes, then you test a sample of them with the drops. OK, so the pH is very low. what do you do to raise the pH level and how do you know how much? Then do you test the run off?

I know I must sound like an imbecile! lol!!

And you don't sound like an imbecile, just a concerned parent...I get it.

I use my homegrown cal-mag. For 3 bucks my wife got me 100x the amount of Hydrated Lime I will ever use...this is horticultural hydrated lime if that matters. I mix a teaspoon of it and an 1/8 teaspoon of Epsom salts in about 12 ounces of water (found out it eats the plastic in pop bottles lol).

Then I put about 3.5ml to 5 ml of that mix to raise my ph 1 point. So I usually get cocky and throw 5-6 ml at my mix to get it to 6.5. I bought a large bottle of GH ph down...no clue why, but it was cheap and will last me forever. It uses about 1 ml for 1 point. Nasty acid. But I hear you can use lemon juice for ph down just fine and baking soda for ph up. I have no idea the measured amount but if you want me to I will go make a mix and see how much 1 teaspoon of baking soda raises the ph on average, but no matter what without a test kit you will be guessing your starting point.

Wish I knew of some homemade ph test...I will go baking soda a gallon of water and see how much it raises it so at least you will have that info bro.

 

[Woodsman]

Terrific info and thank you so much for explaining this to me. It sounds much simpler than I thought. One silly question.. when you say one point, do you mean like from 5.5 to 6.5 or like 6.4 to 6.5.

So my soil reading will not be necessary any more? Just need to test the run off? And of course my nute mix?

Thanks for doing the test for me baking soda I can get and we have 'real lemon' juice.

Won't let me rep you but I'll get ya, that' for sure!

 

[MountainHigh]

Terrific info and thank you so much for explaining this to me. It sounds much simpler than I thought. One silly question.. when you say one point, do you mean like from 5.5 to 6.5 or like 6.4 to 6.5.

So my soil reading will not be necessary any more? Just need to test the run off? And of course my nute mix?

Thanks for doing the test for me baking soda I can get and we have 'real lemon' juice.

Won't let me rep you but I'll get ya, that' for sure!

Ok back from the test, I used 1 ml of GH ph down and it took my 7.0 tap to ~ 6.0, then I added 1 level teaspoon of baking soda and it raised it from 6.0 to just over 7.0. So a rough estimate would 1 -1.5 ph from a teaspoon of baking soda. Maybe someone with an accurate meter will run the same test for ya...but this gives you a good ballpark.

brother. I wish I had dolomite lime around here, as a soil additive it helps neutralize the acid of the nutes. People say it balances PH but I don't understand the chemistry that would let it lower ph though and I hear people say all the time it will stabilize your ph.

 

[OldMedUser]

Hey Woody! If you can find the funds to get a pH pen, DO IT!

It's like the most important item for a successful grow IMO. If your pH isn't known and controllable it's no end of grief.

A TDS pen is next and then good quality pH buffered nutes are #3!

Everything else is negotiable. Those aren't if you want good results.

There is no way I could have got the results I did never changing nutes without those three items in my armory. I may have got better results if I just followed the "change nutes every week and follow the manufacturers expensive directions mantra", but I hate being told what to do when I know I can do as good or better following my own path.

All these years of going with what I think has built in reflexes that I'm not even aware of when it comes to getting decent plants. Hanging out here has helped me realize how much good stuff is tucked away in my dusty old brain-pan and how to put it down so others can benefit not only from my successes, but my failures too. There's been plenty of screw-ups on the way but they're mostly behind me now thank heaven!

Every job is easier and more satisfying with the right tools to get the job done. Growing pot is no different.

I use concentrated sulfuric acid, 97%, to pH down and my Pro-Silicate to go up if I have to. You can use vinegar or lemon juice to ph down. Both are weak organic acids and need more to have an effect than what I use. Baking soda contains usable calcium and will work ok to raise pH. Regular garden centers sell pH up and down solutions that are plant safe and relatively cheap.

But knowing your pH accurately is paramount to being in charge of your grow. If you get a pH pen get some pH 7 calibration sol'n and some storage sol'n too. Dilute calibration sol'n is good to keep the pen in during grow periods too if money is short. Between grows I just cap my pen and let it dry out. When I want to use it again I let it sit in dilute 7 sol'n overnight before calibration and use. I've had my pH pen for 5 years and it's always dead on and my TDS pen has never been out more that 30 ppm or so in over 10 years. Well worth the investment for both!

 

[Woodsman]

Ok back from the test, I used 1 ml of GH ph down and it took my 7.0 tap to ~ 6.0, then I added 1 level teaspoon of baking soda and it raised it from 6.0 to just over 7.0. So a rough estimate would 1 -1.5 ph from a teaspoon of baking soda. Maybe someone with an accurate meter will run the same test for ya...but this gives you a good ballpark.

brother. I wish I had dolomite lime around here, as a soil additive it helps neutralize the acid of the nutes. People say it balances PH but I don't understand the chemistry that would let it lower ph though and I hear people say all the time it will stabilize your ph.

Wow, you are a gem my man! thank you for doing the test.. baking soda I can get and I guess i need the drops. Again I was wondering if once I have the drops, do I need to do a soil test or it's just the run off that i check?

 

[Woodsman]

Hey Woody! If you can find the funds to get a pH pen, DO IT!

It's like the most important item for a successful grow IMO. If your pH isn't known and controllable it's no end of grief.

A TDS pen is next and then good quality pH buffered nutes are #3!

Everything else is negotiable. Those aren't if you want good results.

There is no way I could have got the results I did never changing nutes without those three items in my armory. I may have got better results if I just followed the "change nutes every week and follow the manufacturers expensive directions mantra", but I hate being told what to do when I know I can do as good or better following my own path.

All these years of going with what I think has built in reflexes that I'm not even aware of when it comes to getting decent plants. Hanging out here has helped me realize how much good stuff is tucked away in my dusty old brain-pan and how to put it down so others can benefit not only from my successes, but my failures too. There's been plenty of screw-ups on the way but they're mostly behind me now thank heaven!

Every job is easier and more satisfying with the right tools to get the job done. Growing pot is no different.

I use concentrated sulfuric acid, 97%, to pH down and my Pro-Silicate to go up if I have to. You can use vinegar or lemon juice to ph down. Both are weak organic acids and need more to have an effect than what I use. Baking soda contains usable calcium and will work ok to raise pH. Regular garden centers sell pH up and down solutions that are plant safe and relatively cheap.

But knowing your pH accurately is paramount to being in charge of your grow. If you get a pH pen get some pH 7 calibration sol'n and some storage sol'n too. Dilute calibration sol'n is good to keep the pen in during grow periods too if money is short. Between grows I just cap my pen and let it dry out. When I want to use it again I let it sit in dilute 7 sol'n overnight before calibration and use. I've had my pH pen for 5 years and it's always dead on and my TDS pen has never been out more that 30 ppm or so in over 10 years. Well worth the investment for both!

Holy cow! thanks for all you expert advise Lab. I will try to do what I can about getting ahold of some of these items (I'm not working right now so it is very difficult (to the extreme) right at this moment. I think the pH pens are not that cheap, but I know that I should have one.. MountainHigh has suggested a test kit with the drops as a less expensive option. At least for now. House and bills come first for us right now! Thank you so much.

 

[Woodsman]

Update (part 2) Flower day 8


Just did a more thorough check of the three plants (thorough as in not as stoned - able to focus more).

I found one tiny pistol on the top of plant #1 (my big girl)! Nothing showing on the others yet. Even though I found a couple of tiny hairs on #1, I will be on the lookout for any ball sacks that may sneak up..like my now deceased #3. It seems that any males would have manifested themselves by now. Hopefully!
Bad news is I broke off by accident a nice fat fan leaf from my 'odd ball' #5. She will survive!