New Grower Vapor's 2nd Grow and the Tale of the Auto White Cheese (and a few photo strains)

[hereb4]

do you have any household ammonia about? Ammonia has a ph of 12....always. a cheap calibration fluid. It can also be used in a (10 parts water/ 1 part ammonia ) spray...applied to the underside of the leaf,for N deficiency.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Thanks for the suggestion hereb4! I'll loot the cleaning supplies under the sink and see what I come up with. The instructions for calibration suggest using a control for both high pH and low pH; I don't suppose there's a household chemical that has a fairly constant low pH; eh? If not; I just found a 4.0 and 7.0 pH combo test kit for $10 on Amazon.com. Could have it here by Monday or Tuesday at the latest if need be. Would it best (for the long run) to get actual scientifically calibrated pH solutions for calibration?

 

[hereb4]

$10 for a kit sounds reasonable...or bottled distiled water should ph at dead 7.0...at least this gallon does,as did the remnants of the last gallon.

 

[Man In The Jar]

Lemon and or lime juice works well for a PH down substitute.



MITJ

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I'll order up the kit to play it safe; but I'll try calibrating with water and ammonia respectively. Would also give me something to test against once the kit arrives (should be Wednesday.) Thanks for the help!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Just ordered a 4.0/7.0 pH calibration solution kit for my pH meter; a new 400 CFM 6" inline fan for the carbon scrubber (did some reading on this, 400 CFM seems to be the standard CFM rating for 6" fittings, the next jump up would be 700 CFM at an 8" fitting. When I went shopping, I found this to be pretty consistent as well. I thought about getting the 8" inline fan and getting a 8" to 6" reducer, but it appears carbon scrubber are rated for X CFM depending on the inside diameter; so it's actually possible to pull so many CFM through the scrubber that it's actually not as effective in cleaning the air (pulling in air too fast.) Also picked up another grow tent; this one a bit smaller than my current one. It's 36" by 20" by 63". I'm going to most likely start out my new auto's in this tent under the 400W while my photo's do their thing in the other tent under 1000W. Everything will be here by Wednesday.

I also started looking at soil mixtures. Since I am a little limited in my soil selections locally; I'm going to see if there's any ways to enrich and make my crap ass miracle grow soil somehow better. I already mix in a ridiculous amount of perlite; but maybe a big blend of worm castings, vermiculite, and other natural composts and compounds could be mixed in to improve on it. Any thoughts on improving something like that?

Will try to get a few pics of the girls today; I'm worried that my Auto White Cheese isn't looking too good. It's the dark period for my plants right now so in a few hours when the lights kick on we'll get photo happy. Thanks for the read

 

[Muddy]

Rather than trying to doctor up the MG soil you would be better off mixing your own. A basic soil less mix similar to Pro Mix or Sunshine can be made from Sphagnum peat moss, perlite, dolomite lime and mycorrhizal fungi, all things you should be able to find in the big box stores, with the exception of the myco, which can be ordered on line. To that you could also add worm castings, bat guano or composted manure. Much better than trying to deal with the slow release nutes in all the MG products. Check the Organics forum, you'll find some good soil recipes there.

 

[hereb4]

man..what a shopping list!! wow, you gonna be real busy when you fill up with plants...one thought though...I really hope you can find a suitable soil mix...Miracle Grow is just too hot for most autos,and the taste of the ferts in your finished buds is detectable. even the MG perlite is enriched with more MG ferts so,adding perlite made by MG may be compounding problems. maybe the big stores in your area will have better choices by the time you need to pop more seed.
enjoy!!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Alright alright alright already! lol, miracle grow is OUT. The next grow is going to be ALL auto's and I'm pretty damn well invested into this at this point, so if I may throw myself at the mercy of grower wisdom, let's do this the right way. There is one floral shop that I haven't tried in town (I hear the prices are outrageous,) but if that goes belly up on me; what are your guys thoughts on ordering soil online and having it shipped? I've had no problems having countless things shipped here (hell I get packages of all sorts nearly daily, so nothing out of the norm for my post guy,) and I always order from places that are discrete with their shipping (when it comes to this kind of stuff), but I'm curious how they would send soil in the mail... would they send the bag as is? In a box? I can get it shipped for free via one of my accounts, so that's not a factor. Just not sure how my mailman would react to unloading a 100 pound box filled with bags of organic soil.

 

[Muddy]

LOL, those UPS and FedEx guys and gals are used to lifting heavy packages. They might curse you under their breath but it is part of their job description so they can't really complain. I don't order grow medium on line simply because of the shipping charges. The shipping on a bale of Pro Mix is more than the cost of the Pro Mix itself. But if you can get free shipping, I don't see how you can lose. Premier Horticulture, the manufacturer of Pro Mix, has an on line retailer locator. You might be able to find someone in your area who is carrying it. Just hit the modify button and enter your info. http://growingyourpassion.com/en/retailer-locator/.