Second Grow - Cab - 400W Lowryer and Northern Lights

Well, this is my second grow attempt. Room mates and housing has had me buying all my smoke since the first grow. I have bought bank seed for this one after all that I learned from the bag seed raised before. I wanted something that would finish fast and something stronger that can finish on its own sweet time, so I got a lowryder mix pack by the Joint Doctor and Northern Lights on sale by kc brains. The first batch of seedlings failed except for two plants, which are obviously the larger in the pictures, one NL and one Ryder. They are currently basking under the 175 MH I used for my last grow, though using the reflector that came with my new light, a 400watt! I figured they don't need the 400 yet, so I will wait a little while longer then switch over. After replanting and adjusting water Ph, my wilting issue with the oldest Ryder is clearing up and it is perking right back up and... showing white hairs! *pops the champagne cork*

Anywho, the oldest plants were seeded directly into their soil medium 26 days ago, so they are probably 21 days above the ground at this point. I am using pro-mix with perlite, vermiculite and worm casings added. Run off PH is 7.5 and so I am watering with well water Ph adjusted to 6.3 now after my trouble shooting thread. All the NL seedlings are purple-reddish on their stems and the undersides of their leaves, but I think that is a Ph related issue, and maybe the 73 temp at night with the lights off? Anyway, on to the part of the post I always skip to anyway, pictures. :smokin:

After their re-plantings in a higher quality soil of promix and worm casings, they have been gaining their color back adn losing their red under leafs. The first lowryder boy showed his sex, and he was given the chopping block. Very odd to see the sex so early, I guess I didn't believe it would do as advertised. :) I swapped out the 175Watt for the 400 with an AgroMax Metal Halide bulb.. I thought the 175 was bright? Ha! The 400 is bright and hot. Home made cool tube coming soon... temps are right around 78 in the air, the temperature probe in the soil reads 85, though the plants have a fan blowing directly on them. So as it stands, I have one female lowryder, one un-sexed lowryder and six un-sexed Original Northern Lights.
Pic one: Lowryder BOY ; Pic two: the larger plant in the back left corner is the oldest Northern Lights. The big plant next to it is the female Lowryder. Pictures three and four are the big NL and the last pic is the female ryder.

So, the lesson learned is, dont use hyponex soils! Soil run off Ph was high and my plants exhibited slow growth and from what I could tell, deficiencies of all sorts, even with Ph adjusted water. Just steer clear.

Woohoo, another plant is showing hairs already! Oddly, its one of the Northern Lights, unless I mislabeled it, though it does look like the other Northern Lights babies and looks different then the Ryders in my opinion. Odd that this youngin' would show preflowers before its older Northern Lights sister in the back ! Off for a long weekend, sure there will be lots of growth to report when I get back. Its nice to see your babies rebound after you track down an issue an rectify it. Thanks to all the information on this board of course.

Well, the plants did just fine over the holiday. They have really perked up in their growing speed and regained that dark green color I am more familiar with from my last girl. I have not given them any nutrients since the replant since I know the pro-mix I used has some starting ferts and the worm casings I mixed in. Just super thrived well water that is coming out at 6.3 apparently with out any Ph up or down. Finally got the buffer solution to calibrate my Milwaukee Ph meter and discovered it had been off quite a bit. I was giving them water with a Ph below 6 because of this, most likely locking them out of absorbing any of the few if any nutrients in the poor quality soil that also had a high Ph.

I believe the smallest plant with Pistils (4th Pic below) is actually a Lowryder 1 or 2 that I mislabeled. One of the Northern Lights is showing hairs now although the oldest NL still has not shown sex. So I have three with Pistils and four unknown. One male LowRyder Killed thusly far.

Still on the 18/6 Lighting schedule under 400 Watt Metal Halide. Air Temperatures with the cab open sit at 73F-74F with the light on, the temperature probe pressed into the surface of the soil reads 82F-83F. Is that high temp under the light okay?

First two are pics of the frosting Low Ryder, last two pics are of two different Northern Light Seedlings, one showing hairs!

A few days into 12/12 now, weeded out one male so far, all the rest are showing hairs, no nanners that I have seen. Weeded down to three Northern lights, two Lowryder 1's and one lowryder 2. The lowryder #1's got stunted during their short veg period I guess and are very small as they bud. A few more weeks left on those. Made a cool tube of sorts from a cheap glass candle tube, and it really brought the temps down. Usually sitting at 76-77 degrees now. Plants are approximately 12" from the HPS bulb. They are getting watered with super thrive and Super Bloom 12-55-6 with Chelated iron included in it. Ph of water going in is 6.4 and the run off is 6.1.

nice grow s far, sorry that we have the same name haha i will be watching this one