New Grower Raoul-Duke's First Grow, Northern Lights Auto, LEDs, Late Start

[Grow_God_Q]

have yet to go through all of what I missed. but read like the last 3 pages or so.... looking good bro!!! heres one fat well deserved for a damn good first grow!!

 

[Raoul Duke]

have yet to go through all of what I missed. but read like the last 3 pages or so.... looking good bro!!! heres one fat well deserved for a damn good first grow!!

Thanks for lookin' in and for the . And no worries, it can be tough to keep track of forums sometimes and after like 20 pages you gotta just skim.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Quick update before the feeding later today.

Noticed PH in soil rising two days ago, was around 6.5 for both plants. I checked the front plant again yesterday and she was at about 6.8 ph. I suspect they will be at 7.0 when I check in later today.

I contacted Botanicare earlier in the week about what they recommended for feeding with their line. They gave me lots of useful information and I ended up creating a feed sheet based on all the information I had gathered, and am pretty confident with the numbers.

However, after contacting Pro-Mix regarding my rising PH, this feed chart may not work for me with this medium. Which is fine, the chart just needs to be tweaked a little, but it's clear that this line of Botanicare products is probably not the best for my particular medium, but like I said, with a few tweakings, it should be fine.

So the information I got from Pro-Mix was very useful and I think I know what I need to do to get the results I'm looking for. I'll upload the info they sent me at the bottom in case any one is interested in some science. Here's basically the important parts i took from the info:

Pro-Mix uses calcitic and dolomitic limestone to "regulate" the ph in soil. Calcitic limestone is a quicker acting limestone that depletes quickly and dolomitic limestone is slower acting and longer lasting. These are also sources of Calcium, which will be important later. Pro-Mix is peat based, which is naturally very acidic, hence the limestone, which counters the acidity of the peat and "regulates" the PH to around 6. I should also note that Pro-Mix also has a very low dose of fertilizers already in the soil to get you through the first week. If your interested in the amounts you can check out the file attached to this post. There was a whole lot more information and it's worth a read if you're interested in soilless mediums.

Pro-Mix also sent me this piece of information which was especially useful:

pH in the Pro-Mix is normally stabile at pH6. Many possibilities why pH goes up :

1) Even though the water pH is set at pH 5.6, the pH can go up if the fertilizers you are using release calcium carbonate,

2) If the plants are not transpiring enough, the Ca will remain in the soil and gradually the pH will go up.

http://www.pthorticulture.com/en/training-center/how-much-acid-is-needed-to-reduce-water-alkalinity/

Going back to my conversation with Botanicare I noticed how often they mentioned how well they're products worked in coco (though I only mentioned soilless) which can sometimes require more calcium. Their CalMag is a 2-0-0 product and they recommend heavy feedings of this, which I assume is to make up for the lacking Nitrogen in the base nutes. Now remember, there is already two types of limestone in the Pro-Mix, so it is certainly possible all the Calcium I'm putting into my medium is causing my soil PH to rise. Having said this, AND PLEASE CORRECT ME IF ANY OF MY LOGIC SO FAR SEEMS INCORRECT, I think the Botanicare products would work perfectly in a coco medium, which I eventually plan to try. But for now I'll tweak my recipe a little more to incorprate less, and possibly none of the Cal-Mag.

Anyone still reading? Hahaha! Sorry, I know that was a lot. It's good for me to get his info somewhere that I can look back and read it over though, and this information may help others trying Pro-Mix for the first time or anyone interested in just learning more in general.

Feedback on this would be awesome.

 

[Z_Burp]

Quick update before the feeding later today.

Noticed PH in soil rising two days ago, was around 6.5 for both plants. I checked the front plant again yesterday and she was at about 6.8 ph. I suspect they will be at 7.0 when I check in later today.

I contacted Botanicare earlier in the week about what they recommended for feeding with their line. They gave me lots of useful information and I ended up creating a feed sheet based on all the information I had gathered, and am pretty confident with the numbers.

However, after contacting Pro-Mix regarding my rising PH, this feed chart may not work for me with this medium. Which is fine, the chart just needs to be tweaked a little, but it's clear that this line of Botanicare products is probably not the best for my particular medium, but like I said, with a few tweakings, it should be fine.

So the information I got from Pro-Mix was very useful and I think I know what I need to do to get the results I'm looking for. I'll upload the info they sent me at the bottom in case any one is interested in some science. Here's basically the important parts i took from the info:

Pro-Mix uses calcitic and dolomitic limestone to "regulate" the ph in soil. Calcitic limestone is a quicker acting limestone that depletes quickly and dolomitic limestone is slower acting and longer lasting. These are also sources of Calcium, which will be important later. Pro-Mix is peat based, which is naturally very acidic, hence the limestone, which counters the acidity of the peat and "regulates" the PH to around 6. I should also note that Pro-Mix also has a very low dose of fertilizers already in the soil to get you through the first week. If your interested in the amounts you can check out the file attached to this post. There was a whole lot more information and it's worth a read if you're interested in soilless mediums.

Pro-Mix also sent me this piece of information which was especially useful:



Going back to my conversation with Botanicare I noticed how often they mentioned how well they're products worked in coco (though I only mentioned soilless) which can sometimes require more calcium. Their CalMag is a 2-0-0 product and they recommend heavy feedings of this, which I assume is to make up for the lacking Nitrogen in the base nutes. Now remember, there is already two types of limestone in the Pro-Mix, so it is certainly possible all the Calcium I'm putting into my medium is causing my soil PH to rise. Having said this, AND PLEASE CORRECT ME IF ANY OF MY LOGIC SO FAR SEEMS INCORRECT, I think the Botanicare products would work perfectly in a coco medium, which I eventually plan to try. But for now I'll tweak my recipe a little more to incorprate less, and possibly none of the Cal-Mag.

Anyone still reading? Hahaha! Sorry, I know that was a lot. It's good for me to get his info somewhere that I can look back and read it over though, and this information may help others trying Pro-Mix for the first time or anyone interested in just learning more in general.

Feedback on this would be awesome.

Good write up! Thanks for gathering the info and presenting it.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Good day everyone.

Today is day 90 for Lucy and day 80 for Barbara. I meant to do an update yesterday but I was just too tired. So let's get caught up.

So yesterday they were both fed just over a gallon each. After all the info I gathered I decided to try no Cal-Mag this feed and adjusted the hydroplex and liquid karma accordingly to get the same ppms as with the cal-mag. So each plant got 8ml Bloom ferts, 5ml hydroplex, and 3 ml liquid karma per gallon.

Also, as I expected the soil was at 7ph. I decided to try PHing to 5.4 to see if there would be a change from the last time I fed them and after a few minutes my soil meter showed 6.2, so really no change. I wonder what would happen if I didn't PH at all? Any way, I checked soil again an hour later and it was at about 6.5 and again an hour after that and it was still 6.5. Also checked this morning before their lights went out and it was still 6.5 so at least it seems stable for now. I assume any changes I've made would take a little more time, so I'll update again with the soil PH later today after they wake up.

Still getting lots of dying leaves (hopefully you can make em out in the pictures) and not totally convinced they're directly related to the plants natural life cycle. Of course the rising PH is definitely my number one suspect. Let me know what you think.

Sorry about the quality of the images, I'm still playing with lighting and such (I obviously have very bad lighting). @Slater any tips for a DYI studio light? Or maybe there's a better bulb I can use for the light in the ceiling?

Have a good weekend everybody!
Cheers

 

[Raoul Duke]

Rest of pics

 

[Slater]

Good day everyone.

Today is day 90 for Lucy and day 80 for Barbara. I meant to do an update yesterday but I was just too tired. So let's get caught up.

So yesterday they were both fed just over a gallon each. After all the info I gathered I decided to try no Cal-Mag this feed and adjusted the hydroplex and liquid karma accordingly to get the same ppms as with the cal-mag. So each plant got 8ml Bloom ferts, 5ml hydroplex, and 3 ml liquid karma per gallon.

Also, as I expected the soil was at 7ph. I decided to try PHing to 5.4 to see if there would be a change from the last time I fed them and after a few minutes my soil meter showed 6.2, so really no change. I wonder what would happen if I didn't PH at all? Any way, I checked soil again an hour later and it was at about 6.5 and again an hour after that and it was still 6.5. Also checked this morning before their lights went out and it was still 6.5 so at least it seems stable for now. I assume any changes I've made would take a little more time, so I'll update again with the soil PH later today after they wake up.

Still getting lots of dying leaves (hopefully you can make em out in the pictures) and not totally convinced they're directly related to the plants natural life cycle. Of course the rising PH is definitely my number one suspect. Let me know what you think.

Sorry about the quality of the images, I'm still playing with lighting and such (I obviously have very bad lighting). @Slater any tips for a DYI studio light? Or maybe there's a better bulb I can use for the light in the ceiling?

Have a good weekend everybody!
Cheers

Ah... the DYI studio light for dyslexics, that I do know something about Find a stand lamp that's flexible and use 5000k bulbs (85w is a good start), it will give you more of a white light instead a warm yellow light like most house hold bulbs that are at 3500k.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Ah... the DYI studio light for dyslexics, that I do know something about Find a stand lamp that's flexible and use 5000k bulbs (85w is a good start), it will give you more of a white light instead a warm yellow light like most house hold bulbs that are at 3500k.

haha thank you kindly. I shall add that to my list

 

[Slater]

forgot to say that you could then use it for vegging and seedlings when not using the bulbs for photography.

 

[WalterW]

I smell a good Kickstarter campaign. Simple small lenses for smartphones that let you shoot under a LED lights.

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