New Grower Let's Grow!! ER & DP Blue W/ LED and CFL 1st Grow

[robwars]

Thank you JM.
What should the soil ph be?
I have a soil ph meter and it's reading around 7.

 

[Muddy]

Sorry, I haven't had much time the last 2-3 days to spend here or would have got on this sooner. I agree with JM, looks like a pH issue. Straight Pro Mix usually pHs at around 6.8 - 7, a little high. I usually add a little blood meal to mine to lower the pH a bit and provide a little more N. Pro Mix only has some starter nutes in it and I've seen N deficiencies start at around 2 weeks. I usually start feeding mine 1/4 strength nutes at around 2 weeks and the usually respond to it very well.

 

[robwars]

Thank you Muddy.
Today is 12 days from seed.
Would still like to know an appropriate ph for soil.
Should I flush with a low ph water to bring it down?
I'm only having issues with one of my girls but she is still growing like a weed...
They're due for a watering today so I might flush her/them and start nutes in a few days.
Sound good?

 

[Muddy]

Growing in Pro Mix is considered soil less or semi hydro. A good pH for Pro Mix is around 6.2 - 6.3. Flushing won't help to lower the pH. That's more to leach out excess nutrients or salts from the grow medium. I would suggests mixing in some blood meal at about 1 tablespoon per gallon of pot size into the top layer of the soil and then give them some lower pH water. Blood meal is a little slow acting, so you won't notice an immediate change. But you really need to check the pH as JM described first so you know for sure what you're dealing with.

 

[robwars]

Thanks again Muddy
I'll go get some today
Really appreciate the advice

 

[Muddy]

Anytime. I get pretty busy here sometimes so if I miss something important again, just shoot me a PM and I'll come check your thread.

 

[robwars]

Well I got some blood meal and added 3 tbl spoons to the top layer of my soil for each plant (3 gallon pots).
I watered about a liter of 4.5ph'd water in each pot because they were still pretty damp from their last watering.
Hopefully this will do the trick. I plan on feeding them their first nutes in a few days.
As far as the soil ph, my meter read right at 7 so hopefully the blood meal will kick in in the next few days.
I took some pics while I had them out.

DP BB#1 Day 12 from seed


DP BB#2 12 Days from seed. This one has the most yellowing.


ER 12 Days from seed


I'd like to thank JM and Muddy once more for their help.

 

[robwars]

Well I'm not sure what's going on here.
After adding the blood meal and a dose of 4.5ph water my soil ph has risen to about 7.5 from 7.
Even more confusing is that one out of three plants is thriving in these conditions, my other two seem to be struggling.
Common sense tells me that every seed is different and some are hardier then others.
I ordered some 1.5 gallon airpots today just in case I have a few deaths in my family so I can start over again with a few more.
If my one promising plant continues to thrive the 1.5 gallon pots will allow me to replace my two 3 gallon pots with four 1.5 gallon pots giving me a better chance.
Success in numbers maybe...
It's still early and I'm planning on feeding first nutes tomorrow to all three. Maybe my two struggling plants will bounce back.
Wish me luck.

 

[robwars]

Well I fed nutes at a 1/4 strength ( Grow Big). It almost immediately killed my one struggling girl, which is fine she was lost well before that I believe.
I'm down to one DP BB and one ER. The DP BB seems to be hardy enough to take my abuse and looks decent with just a touch of yellowing I don't expect her to live though the way things have been going. The ER (no pic, sorry) has about half less growth then the BB but she's still alive but once again I don't expect her to make it either.
I'm fine with it... This will give me a chance to start over and hopefully correct some of the mistakes I have made.

First of all here are my meters . Are these things junk? They sure seem to be. I have calibrated my ph meter and it seems to work but at this point I am questioning everything.
PH seems to be my biggest issue along with what I think may have been over watering and adjusting the environment in my tent.
I think my tent is fine now the humidity is 41% for a low and 82% for a high and the temps are low of 67 and a high of 77.
This brings me to my water- I think my tap water is sh#t. I fill a 10 gallon tank with an air stone for my water reservoir and let it bubble away until I need it. Then I transfer the water I'll be using to a five gallon bucket and adjust the ph and add molasses and so forth. The ph of my water for feeding is adjusted to 5.8 with organic lemon juice.

My soil (pro mix hb) is reading a ph of about 7.2 out of the bag with my trusty probe. From what Muddy is telling me my soil ph needs to be 6.2 to 6.5..... Besides adding blood meal which seems to be slow acting what can I do to my soil before I plant to adjust the ph? Should I try a new mix????

This brings me to my next thought. I bought my girlfriend a "Emily's Garden" hydro system (wick system) for her birthday about three weeks ago so she can grow herbs year round for us to cook with. And of course I thought this would be a good way to learn about hydroponics. Take a look at these baby's . We started everything from seed in this system except for the Rosemary which was a cutting I took from my Moms plant. Everything in here is 3 weeks old except for the top left (second pic-mescalin mix) and it's only a week old. Looking great.
So I'm thinking about getting another one of these systems for my autos. This system will fit perfectly in my tent. No soil to mess up, no over watering, just need to check the water ph everyday... Seems like a winner to me.

I'm not going to give up...

I'd love to hear your all's thoughts on my situation. I do not want to give up on soil(less) just yet.

Peace

 

[realcarlos]

Hey Robwars sorry to hear about your troubles. Apparently people were having issues with the milwakwee ph600
May be wise to invest in a better one