Newbie - First journal 2010, white rhino - CFL - "Rubbermaid" microgrow

Whats up? Hope your plant is doing better!

How do you test your ph? Pen, test strips, or liquid? To me it looks a little PH stressed. It could be a deficiency like you mentioned. PH can cause deficiency by causing "lockout" of certain nutrients. Always PH correct your nutrient/water AFTER its all mixed up.

Milwaukee pH 600 Digital pH Meter/Tester pH600 0-14 New - eBay (item 370369354952 end time May-22-10 11:25:19 PDT)
Cheap PH pen...

Also how far away are your lights?

Also...to answer your question.. The clone is the exact age and copy of the mother. If she was 2 months old then so is your clone.

Remember... the first grow is always a learning experience.

she seems to be doing better. Its eased my mind a bit and I've relaxed somewhat on the eviromental aspects now I've got them dialed in.

Actually that is exactly the pen/testing liquid I had gotten from an ebay member. I typically do two tests per sample just to make sure. I don't have a second meter or strips.

I typically test water prior, use my fertilizer first (measured for strenght), test ph and then use +/- ph to balance.. I'll usually wash it off and test again for accuracy. My last watering was 6.0ph

The lights may not be "exact" but its typically 3" away or maybee 4". It tends to make things a bit to warm if I don't using hand method and a bit over 83-84F on foliage using thermometer.

Definitely a learning experience. But fun, and its got my mind wandering into what I did wrong, new setup, genetics.

The day before, I watered with simple h2o. Ph'd 6.0 and gotten about 20% runoff. She is drooping a little but probably just thirsty. There was some yellowing and leaf curling (to bottom) but today she's less yellow and I'm hopeful. She's very close to 8" tall now. The temperature has been a steady 75F (average) during day and 72F (average) during night. The humidity has been around 50-55%
day/night. The lights have been dropped again to keep it at around 2-3" (although its hard to get a definite measurement). Because her roots are getting a bit too much for the pot I'm planning a transplant pretty soon. No big muckoffs so far, except the previous flushing.

Lights are a bit tricky in this size box and while I'm speaking about things I'm gonna suggest anybody do these type of grows to find a good airflow and lower/highten the plant by blocks/cds/legos or whatever else you have and keep the lights about same distance.

The book I have says before flowering it should be around 10" tall. But I'm wondering first if thats set in tone OR possibly a good time for me to do it because of limited space? Some estimates are 1.5-2x size but with 30" give or take I have to be careful.

I was also wondering if I could try to "influence" the limbs to spread out a bit? I was thinking of paperclips or very small wire to lower the limbs out of the way, let them grow and adjust to the position and stop. Can this achive what I'm looking for? (there's only really 3-4 branches) I assume if something breaks you could mend it and it'll still grow anyways.... Uh, right?

I'm sorry to be posting again, I sound like a hypocondriac and feeling kinda blue myself because If there is something wrong I'm definitely messing up my grow and my girl.

To make a long story short If I should post in sick forum I will.. you know, again..
I have some curling under of leaves. I just gave it pure h2o at 6.0ph 4 days ago. Nothing else really have changed. Except one day it dropped below 70F for a half hour or more and above 82F for roughly same time. All this was after the fact however. I also beleive these are not leaves effected by light issue I discussed. Some are lower on the plant and some are "newish" growth that didn't show it at the time.

In addition there is blue-/purple-ish discoloration from the ends and tips of leaves spreading inward (a little). I'm convinced its deficient. According to online sites it could be phosphate or potasium. Either way I need to know to post in sick section... you know again :(

since I have her (for the second time) in the hosptial (sick plant section) I don't have too much to say here.
She is still growing height wise but too much new growth. The preflowering is spreading up her trunk from bottom.
I'm waiting to see how she goes this week to either transplant, or do further affirmary action. She's getting 1/4
fert and just letting her show signs of problems or health from here.

I beleive I'm going to change water source and use epsom salts or molasses (blackstrap) to get cal/mag.
I will check in a week if she needs transplant to a larger pot.

For those counting:

2 months, 1 day since cutting
27 days since I flushed for first time
44 days since I transplanted.

Nights are steady on temperature and humidity. It warns me when it gets lower via buzzer. I also have monitor
in my room since the difference is typically a degree lower. I reconstructed the box, and finding if I have a usb
flex fan on my plant the rest can be done by 120MM fan quite easily. So I ended up unplugging one.

Oh, and I noticed some spiders in the box tonight (looks like common household spiders. I couldn't see one up close
because.... Well I have archiphobia and I had to just squish them. However they were large enough, they didn't look
like spider-mites.

Some have asked for pics... And yes its been a while. Just fyi for newcommers to the thread she's currently in the "infirmiry/sick plant" section of forum. She has a few days before soil is dry enough to continue the watering cycle. I will give her some h2o then and let her soak up the access nutrients. Its distilled water with added molasses while I'm waiting for CalMg+.

Pictured here are:

the growbox (rubbermaid bin); The intakes are at the bottom (90 degree pvc tube), 120mm fan for exhaust, Analogue timer, power cords, etc... Ona block has been just enough for smell so far.

Indoors: She is two months old now.. The black wrapped cord is for the thermometer and the box just inside the camera view is for the termometer/hydrogemeter + camera. The box is just leftover plastic and I can view the temp/r/o without opening the growroom.
Camera is steamed to my pc, and snapshot every 15mins.

If there are any other questions let me know. Its nothing special, and I'm clearly not a handyman lol but it works well and airflow/temp is pretty consistant.
Thanks to those following the thread. I appreciate the help, and I hope someone found it useful if they are starting.

Something I never wanted to say. I let the poor girl have a proper burial.
She just never full recovered from whatever condition she had.

The last few days she had more blue-ish discoloration and some other
leaves were looking bad. I thought instead of keep doing it wrong I'd start
again and try to get it right, and solve problems faster.
I would have also been out of the house for about a week now. Without
some intervention the a/c, humidity would not have been in proper levels.


I will probably start seedling(s) when I get home, I have a few kush, lemon haze, white rhino and ak48. I'm looking around for info on which one I should start out with. Seeing if there are any more tolerant to pests or easier for newcommers. I need much more time to consider soil, water, feeding, and seeds right now. I'm even considering to wait for some other seeds, or hps/fan... But that is only if I win the lotto lol


Obviously I need some better luck and more reading before another box/grow. In meantime I'm going to trim the fat in the growbox design if possible.. Further posts to follow. I have some questions about fert/soil mixes and water. I hope the readers here will look for those threads.