Indoor Organic-experimental-tobacco&more-lowWatt-0maintenance(?)-12/12-breeding-outdoor-etc.

[Peacefulgarden]

Pretty sure I I figured out my main problem. Can and can't believe it at the same time.

My tap water here will keep rising for ~3 days after coming out of the tap. Could be longer, just pH'ed the res again, waiting to see if it goes up again. Going to just make 20 gallons or so at a time in advance so I don't have that problem anymore. I didn't think to think that was a thing. When I was using it a few years ago @ 200 ppm it would take a day or so to 'settle' on pH. Now I was making my water good, but 2 days later it's back at 7.0pH...

Fortunately or not, nothing needs water for a couple days and I can get some water at correct pH and not changing.

Pretty sure every problem I ever had growing was pH of the water. I was doing some more reading and it seems after not to long, the pH of the water will have great effect on the soil pH, even outdoors, large scale farming has this 'problem'.

I thought I was watering at 5.7, but they were most likely getting 6.5 and higher... I tested water in res for wick feed ropes, a week or so ago, cuz, it was nearly 7.0.

Gonna get everything back to 5.7, after water pH settled. Once growing again, I want to test 5.5 and 5.3 also. Hopefully I can just take some clones later for that testing.

Also came across a way to check optimum ph, will post a link to it later when I find it again. Involves using stems and capillary action.

Note to self: whenever having problem, most likely just flush with proper pH water until runoff is acceptable range.Starting to think that's all plants care about, good pH. I've never had problems when it's good and never seen anyone with problems when it's good

 

[Peacefulgarden]

been waiting for it to rain so I could turn over all the dirt in the vegetable garden. It rained but I got some compost x manure that has been aged for quite a bit. Mixed it with soil I had that is way to low for anything 50/50 and it’s a really nice mix that is 5.8- 6.2 pH . Still had a bunch more to low pH so I am mixing it into the veggie patches tomorrow, should help the soil there pH and texture wise at least. 4 or 5 months at most and it will have good sun.

Got this pen from amazon. Seems really nice at getting readings. Of course the blue lab works good when next to it, kinda surprised me. The new (red), one is all glass tip and the whole way up, super sensitive/quick readings. After ~10 readings ~0.2 pH off calibration, the one time I paid attention. Same as my other pens, 5 readings or less for ~perfect calibration. Also screw adjustment for calibration, which I think is great, never had issues with this and issues with electronic calibration.

$50Bucks on amazon. I have no idea how long it last but it seems like as long as you don’t break the tip you should be good. I like it better than the blue lab by a mile if it keeps working like this.

Beside is same company I think, the ec/ppm pen though. Also really nice, seems like they “analytical instruments “, makes good stuff and not sure that’s even who it’s made by, from China so no one actually knows.

Amazon.com

got only 2 seeds I think only off the under dawg Kush lol. The spot I pollinated with golden canary, almost lost the seeds so I decided to plant them.

just mixed some water to 5.7pH with apple cider vinegar, 3 cap fulls to go from 7.7 to 5.7 for 4 gallons. Gonna recheck it in a few hours or tomorrow or both (10). 10 hours later pH is 6.0

 

[DCLXVI]

For my outdoor garden I was having a similar issue with the tap water here. I ended up taking a 5 gallon bucket and a small aquarium/pond pump and just cycling it for about 24 hours. I clamp the hose around the top of the bucket so there is just a gentle 3/4 inch water fall. Seemed to really help even it out. Check and see if your water company uses chloramine in addition to regular chlorine. If so you may want to add just a pinch of plain vitamin C powder to the bucket. It will neutralize the chloramines as they don't break down and evap out like plain chlorine additives.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

For my outdoor garden I was having a similar issue with the tap water here. I ended up taking a 5 gallon bucket and a small aquarium/pond pump and just cycling it for about 24 hours. I clamp the hose around the top of the bucket so there is just a gentle 3/4 inch water fall. Seemed to really help even it out. Check and see if your water company uses chloramine in addition to regular chlorine. If so you may want to add just a pinch of plain vitamin C powder to the bucket. It will neutralize the chloramines as they don't break down and evap out like plain chlorine additives.

For sure, good ideas. I used to have a tiny pump in my res also, plus adding nutes to the water, one or both may have been helping before to keep it stable. I can't find my pump yet, may have tossed it and keep forgetting to look for it...

My res that was/is unstable for 3 + days now was using 50/50 vit c and citric acid mix. Have a new bucket sitting outside using ~3 capfulls of apple cider vinegar to ~4 gallons of water and it has only gone up 0.3pH in the first 12 hours, gonna recheck tonight. And I kinda feel like something not right with the citric acid x vit c water, so, gonna try that combo again and vit c on its own, 1 more time to make sure it wasn't user error or just the combo not working well together but I doubt that.

And yeah, I'm pretty sure my tap water is just survivable.

For the outside I have been adding sulfur for a while now, and we just had some rains recently so I need to check to see if helping at all.

Edit:

I always get flack for bringing up run of pH or ec, here is a writing and video that demonstrates basically how I view runoff.

Runoff pH: Explaining the Bro Science | Curious Cultivations

Runoff pH is used to check the health of plants, but much misinformation exists about its proper use. Let's dive in to how to make the best of this tool.

curiouscultivations.com

It all makes sense and it’s quick and easy to do during a normal watering. People have been using it a long time, even the dude that grow weed for nasa talks about testing run off briefly

no one was even talking about soil pH pens back when I was growing before, now your not allowed to do anything without one.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

No real news. Did what I hope is the final transplant of my life not to long ago so now everything is right at 5.7-6.0. Got rid of a few plants (non cannabis), which is okay and good for space anyways, started some new ones. I feel like some are already starting to green up a bit but I don’t want to jinx them. Nothing photogenic at the moment. Lights on low 18/6, trying to reveg the northern lights and keep the mango from going into flower till it starts growing a little

Have a feeling I have to restart the apple trees and pomegranate bushes, probably to high pH for them, might go digging for them tomorrow.

Here is my Santa Fe pepper, never got any taller after being in 12/12 for a few days.

pH on it was getting high a while back and it showed it so I made ~4 ~3/4” holes and spread a bit of Epsom salts around and in the holes, really seemed to enjoy that. For pretty low light it grows pretty well, just started needing water 3-4 days now but I have all the covers off of everything so I can get more 5.7pH waterings in and get back on track.

And here is my Hopi Sacred Tobacco plant. Also doing really well and also got some Epsom plugs and top dress to lower the pH and also responded very well. Just started getting a flower on top, I think. I doubt mine looks on point since it’s pH has been high forever but still not to bad for my ~first tobacco plant. Have to wait for leaves to get golden color on plant, then pick and let dry and cure (I think, gonna test if the cure part is necessary for sure). When I’ve seen it they have to remoisten to use/roll. I’m just gonna use it to roll some blunts when it works for that.

Feel like I might be close to done fucking everything up so gonna give everything a nice cleaning with water and vinegar. Also start covering pots that are close to good pH after getting a watering to help it stay there.

currently taking everything outside when they can get sun to help them dry faster, for more watering, to help pH get back to good and staying there. So far nothing has gotten water since transplanting.

talking about pH for cannabis- 5.5-6.0

that’s kinda what I am suspecting as well. Gonna see if my soil keeps to rise, if so I will probably make my water at 5.5pH for a while, even 5.3 since it like to rise also. Keep that up till everything comes down to 5.7 and then make my water 5.7

makes me wonder if I can make a soil low enough that I could water it with my 7.7 tap for the whole grow, seems not really doable in a 1 gallon pot.

was doing some testing, seems like ~15ml of vinegar beings down the pH on a gallon of my soil ~1.0 pH. Probably only 5-10ml for coco.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Just started a ~seed germination experiment. Wanted to keep track of date and anything else. This is just to test germination at different pH’s.

There are other variables as well, like what I used to pH down is more in the lower pH seeds, I don’t think it should matter to much. All the water I’m using has been sitting long enough to stabilize. I noticed the paper towel raised the pH of the water about half a point on the 4.0 and the 5.0, don’t think it did much to the 6.0 but I will check again in a few days when they germinate or not.

There are 2 seeds in each bag, maybe 3 if one seed looked questionable and

all seeds got in their paper towels within 10-15 minutes of one another and will be in a humidity dome at 70-75 F.

seeds used

Edit: Added 7.0 and 7.7 (straight tap),pH just now (5 hours after others), I was curious.

Try and remember to show them all side Thursday or Friday

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Hi

another day another adventure.

got some stuff at Home Depot today to play with. Some wood mulch, dubbed ‘pathway cover’ ($5), a bag of ‘unbranded top soil’ ($2.50 per cubic foot), and a bag of gypsum ($9 for 40 pounds).

here are some seedlings that got transplanted from ‘the grow master’, I think they just started to grow again, some of them anyways. Bad transplanting on my part I think, took to much soil off the roots.

the front row of pots I will be using for another ~ experiment. Not much of one but I got 1 pot is pathway covering (wood mulch/chips), one pot is Home Depot top soil with gypsum (pH was 7.0 for the top soil, added around 1/8-1/4 cup gypsum, haven’t rechecked the pH on it). The last pot is backyard soil with pathway cover, I added the pathway cover to make the soil lighterand help pH.

wood chips/mulch, to help pH, soil texture, weight, etc.

The homedepot ‘unbranded top soil’. 7.0 pH

and the gypsum 40 pound, 9 dollars. To help pH and it also does some other stuff and is high in nickel which I hear can be helpful but is usually lacking. Haven’t looked into it a whole lot but I should look into it more. I was gonna get more Epsom salts for pH down to the soil but I think I like this better and I think it’s cheaper also. plus it works better at pH’ing down, iirc, they were fairly close, in very short term testing.

Turned over some dirt in the back, also did a quick pH test on the vegetable beds and the pH on them seems to be dropping quite a bit from the elemental sulfur, nearly at 6.0 pH now, was at 7.0pH in the summer. From what I’ve read pH will change a bit with the season though.

Stuff works really nice when it’s wet. I have some more to do but was playing around with other stuff today.

gonna check on the germination experiment now.

harvested my bloody skunk x royal purple cross. Could be way better, could be way worse. Doubt any of the seeds will be good if there are any. Probably get a gram off of her, yay!

 

[Peacefulgarden]

~29 hours later, Here is the first check on the seedling pH experiment. I forgot I needed to check so soon with paper towel method, looking for results in short time compared to planting in soil and waiting for the seed to pop.

6.0 and 5.5

4.5 (is unlabeled) and 4.0

5.0 (is unlabeled), and 6.5

Gonna update this post in 5 hours with 7.0 and 7.7

And I still need to check the pH of the paper towels, since it seemed like it was effecting the pH of the water enough that it needs to be checked.

Edit, 5 hours later- should have checked the paper towels sooner, they are all in the 7.0 and above range. Gonna re-do test with shot glasses or I may have some rock wool, not sure how easy That is to adjust ph on. Regardless, need to redo test. Fail.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Try number 2, 2a.m. Seedling pH experiment. Used rain water with pH 6.2. Apple cider vinegar for down, baking soda for up. 2 good looking seeds per cup. In the humidity dome, 70-75F. About 1/4 -3/8” water per cup. Pretty sure my heating mat nearly gets warm, and on metal so I think cups will be evenly heated Was gonna try and find something to set them on to be sure even temps but lost interest, might regain if I see something good and easy

I just set down some 1/4” inch plastic tube then a piece of cardboard on top, then the cups on top of the cardboard, so the are 3/8” off the tray. Seems good to me.

note: I did not play with, stir, poke or anything else, just dropped them into the cups. Also I don’t use gloves or clean seeds, sterilize seeds or anything of that sort, ever. Pick the seed up, with bare hand and put it where it goes, never had a problem.

All seeds are floating at start of experiment. Need to remember to check pH on all cups when observing seed progress.

my first Santa Fe pepper. I need to remember to look at the soil the plant is still losing green slowly. Just tap water residue by the way, I was cleaning the plant.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Little update on everything

seed experiment 36 hours after starting - I didn’t mess around in there but so far everything looks ~the same. Gonna let them go as long as the can and see how it goes.

some seedlings. Plants are starting to grow right again. I found a bottle of floralicious plus in the back yard, might use it on a non organic grow

My two golden canary x underdawg Kush seeds and the organic coco finally starting to grow now that pH is decent and over week after transplant

apparently Bruce Bugbee (the guy that grows weed for nasa, university of Nebraska I think),was on Reddit a while back doing a ‘q and a’. Here is all that I was interested in.

“5.8-60 pH all mediums, any (‘complete’), fertilizer close to 2-1-2. Test run off. “

~Saying the above got me banned from the help section here, lul. And the above is ~how I used to grow, just not really close to 2-1-2, I was using dynagro ‘foliage pro’ or ‘grow’, which isn’t quite 2-1-2.

Here is the link to the Reddit q and a, pretty sure this is only thing worth while though. He said something about organic growing ~not being good and yeah, he’s another tool.


My res water keeps rising, tested tap and it was 8.0pH... gonna fill up a bucked of 50/50 tap/rain water and pH it now, should be at least a week ahead of time

also the new gypsum doesn’t seem quite as strong as the last pelletized bag I got, but that’s fine and I could be wrong, new one is powder so hard to tell mass