HYDRO Full Auto - Second Grow

[NickyChicks]

Thanks alltatup! I'm really pleased with how they're doing. I was going to tape that branch but i feared really snapping it off if it attempted to wrap it with tape. Scotch tape served me great during my first grow a couple of times I must say.

SoOrbudgal google PC case micro grow. I'm not saying it's going to work lol. I was bored, quarantined and scrolling the forum, someone made a post about a PC grow and they were using cfls and long shallow planter that fit in the case. The plant looked like it got kinda torched at one point but they did successfully grow a flowering plant. My thought was to get a large enough case (mine is ~20" tall, 17" long, 8" wide) , build an LED strip fixture that would be slim and use minimal space, also be able to adjust it's height and it's fully dimmable, I plopped it on top of a DWC bucket to allow for the base of the plant to be flush with the base of the case. I really don't know how it's going to work out but my goal is to produce 1oz. I figure I need a goal, even if it's a stretch 🙃.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes I remember the post LOL ahhh a " shits & giggles grow " yes I kinda did that with my folgers coffee growing autos. Maybe hopefully you'll get that oz. That's what i'm shooting for with autos and hopefully more. Well i'll be tuned it when you start this mini grow :big-smile:

 

[NickyChicks]

Day 36 for everyone except New York Diesel, it's Day 17. She was going to be a backup because I had little faith in a couple of the girls early on but now here I am with 7 plants in the tent. The Strawberry Cheesecake is looking great, she and both Blue Cookies are showing pistils, one of the Blue Cookies is about a week ahead of the other. The rest of the girls are just doing their thing, I expect to see pistils from the rest of them in the next couple weeks.

 

[RagWeedDWC]

I hate killing one for room, sucks, I try to squeeze them in somewhere. Kind of like unexpected company. However, the plants look awesome.

 

[NickyChicks]

RagWeedDWC if you look back you can see a few weeks ago my strawberry cheesecake and 1 of the blue cookies were having some issues, that I've since resolved, and I was certain that I had stunted them or they just straight up weren't going to make it. I'm not mad that I'm wrong and I'll be happy to have more bud in the end but having 7 plants in the tent wasn't part of the plan lol. I'm ok with squeezing them in there tight. My first grow was 9 plants and that was a tight squeeze for sure!

 

[NickyChicks]

Let there be light!! My new DIY LED strip fixtures are up and running, much later than I planned but hey that's life sometimes. Either way, I'm happy and I sure hope my girls are happy about the new lights. I put them at 30" so I guess I'll see how they do and gradually lower them until I see signs of stress.

​​​​​

 

[JohnEmad]

Looks great for full coverage. Nice to see how things respond.

 

[NickyChicks]

Thanks JohnEmad! Definitely better coverage than my MH/HPS that's for sure. Hope I save a little on my utility bill too

 

[alltatup]

They look pretty darn happy to me!!!

 

[RagWeedDWC]

I like them, and your plants seem to also

 

[NickyChicks]

Yesterday was Day 43 for the girls, Day 24 for the NY Diesel. With the exception of the NYD, every plant is now showing pistils! The Blue Cookies are drinkers, the one further along in bloom, about 2gals in a week. The NYD was topped and tied down for a quadline earlier this week. Other than that, just the normal weekly water change and I gave out a few haircuts the 4 who are just transitioning into bloom.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Looking good to a non DWC person

 

[RagWeedDWC]

I think they look awesome, nice and healthy.

 

[JohnEmad]

looks great. all around.

 

[NickyChicks]

Day 50 for the girls and Day 31 for NY Diesel. Another water change and some defol. Starting to get some baby buds on the SC and BC, the SC is smelling nice already. I don't think I mentioned but I added my UVB t8 bulbs to the tent, they turn on for 2 hrs a day. I will increase their on time by 15mins weekly.

Three of the plants had their pH drop down to right about 5.0 when I know it should be right about 6.0. The blue cookies that's flowering, Glueberry OG, and blue dream. The Northern lights had its pH jump to almost 7.0. The NL and BD both showed signs of pH fluctuations in their leaves.
How can I better understand what is causing the pH to fluctuate? The plants that had the drop in pH are drinking water, the BC about 2gal/wk, the GO and BD about .75gal/wk. The NL drank less than half gal.

 

[NickyChicks]

Day 57 (38 for NYD), despite having issues trying to understand why my pH is dropping the girls are all looking good. The Blue Cookies and the Strawberry cheesecake are starting to fill in nicely. I have a feeling the tent is going to start getting a little tight over the next few weeks.

I bought another pH meter and calibrated them both last night. They read pretty damn close to one another, not bad for inexpensive meters. The new pH meter is a pH/TDS combo pen, the TDS isn't as precise as the one I've been using but that's ok.

 

[alltatup]

They look excellent. Why worry about shifting pH? Just adjust it all the way up if it drops daily. When I re-do the reservoir, pH is always low the 2nd and 3rd day, so I raise it to 6.4 or 6.5. Then it stabilizes for the rest of the week, or drops slower. I guess I assumed that it's just the nature of the beast...

 

[NickyChicks]

Thanks Tat! That's actually exactly what I did this time, i just checked pH on all of the plants and right now they're between 6.2-6.4. I'll check again when I get home from work tonight and see where they're at. The reason I worry is because 2 weeks ago 2 of the plants had markings showing up on their leaves. It was clearly from the fluctuations and I never had issues with massive drops in pH. Hopefully, starting closer to 6.5 will help, I'm writing down all of the pH readings I take this week so I can keep track.

 

[RagWeedDWC]

I'm with alltatup I Chased Ph for at least one grow, found out it was more of a CalMag issue.

 

[alltatup]

NickyChicks I just wanna say this again to try and make sure there are no misunderstandings between us. It's also important to take into consideration the differences in our water sources.

I don't think it was pH fluctuation per se that caused the leaf markings, but rather the pH being out of range for too long or too often. You know how I was saying that when I change my reservoir, after I've added nutes my pH is at 5.4, so I was taking it up to 6.2-6.3, and I'd come in and check the next morning and it would be around 5.3. So I always catch this quickly and raise the pH up to 6.4-6.5. This has never caused any problems during flowering.

On this last grow I started taking the pH in the newly mixed batch of nutes all the way to 6.5, and the next morning it would be around 5.8 or 5.9, so still within a good range. It would be all the way down the next morning, so I'd take it back up to 6.4. Then the fluctuation would slow down for the rest of the week. It's like I'll worry if there's not any fluctuation; I don't think it's good for pH to sit there all week at 6.2. I like to see it fluctuate.

Perhaps you do need to check twice daily for a while, and see if that helps. The goddess Cannabis can be demanding, but in the end she is always so generous with us.