Soil CFL Grow - Purple(?)

Hey everyone,

This is my second grow, first one on these boards and hopefully first one that yields a smokable product. The last grow i just raised the plants outside on the balcony and i think they didnt get enough sun. I gave them plenty of nutes because i thought that was the limiting factor - apparently not. So i'm testing the theory and got some grow lights.

Some points:
Start Date - Jan 11, 2011 they popped from the soil
3 Plants - some type of purple indica(i think), seeds from a friend
Lights - 2 65W CFL's - ~4300 lumens each
Soil - questionable compost-rich potting soil(all i can get here - ugh, dont ask)
Nutes - none so far(got some for later)

The plants are about a week old now and looking pretty great. The CFL's are about 2 inches from the tops of the plants, they are growing fast, internodal space is super tight so i think they have enough light.. So, these boards are an amazing resource as i've found by obsessively reading them. I was wondering if i could get some assistance from the pros:

1. Low Light
I know I have low light so am trying to decide how to deal with that, either SCROG, LST, or topping(as per Uncle Ben's topping for 4 colas method). I dunno about SCROG cause its more advanced and i'm a no0B, plus the internodal space is so tight(at least so far). LST would be simple enough, but topping is easiest so if topping once for 4 colas would be enough i might do that.

2. Leaf Curl
The leaves are curling just a bit at the edges, curling UP, not down like nute burn. you can see a bit in the pics if they let me post them. The edges are curled up just a bit, more at the base of the leaf than the tip. Any ideas? Mg deficiency? light too close? humidity too low? those seem the likely suspects but i moved the lights a little farther away and no change.

3. Water
The water here is questionable at best.. we drink bottled water, but i looked at the label and its mineralized with:
135 mg/L bicarbonates (HCO3)
54 mg/L calcium (Ca)
80 mg/L Chloride (Cl)
14 mg/L Magnesium (Mg)
65 mg/L Sodium (Na)
35 mg/L Sulfate (SO4)
280mg/L total dissolved solids (280ppm)

It's the Sodium and Chloride that i'm worried about. It's either use this water or the tap water that i know nothing about... Is 65 ppm of sodium devastating?

Well sorry about the long-winded questions, i'm very curious and excited for the grow. Thanks in advance for ur help!

At 2 weeks old, the plants are looking pretty good. Definitely indica dominant, at 1 week there were 2 nodes of true leaves, at 2 weeks, there's 4 nodes of true leaves, so growing pretty well. I think they are a little pot-bound actually, which is surprising considering the pots I started them in are decent size(probably 1.5-2 cups). Lots of roots poking out the bottom, and today they are looking just a liiiittle wilty. I raised the lights a bit in case its heat stress. Will repot them next watering, on Thursday.

there's a nice hint of skunk smell in the grow room, pretty exciting!

Usually here I saw people keep silent and watch first to see what you can do yourself.
So, I'll keep it short.
Light: Enough for now.
Plants will start stretching in a week or two from now. Even if you double your lights. That's the considering point about LST or SCROG.

Leaves: Its probably about heat. Point a fan to the plants and bulbs, keep them cool, raise the humidity if its too low.

Water: I have no idea. I'm using tap water and I'm ok with it like many others do.

Good luck with your grow. Subscribed here :thumbsup:

I'd think if the little seedlings can handle the bottled water then the plants should be good on it. Watch for salt buildup on top of the soil. As far as limiting factors, every factor is the limiting factor. Everything is important. Good light, Ph, water, nutrients and proper heat ranges.

good luck

Thanks for the replies!

i still can't post attachments, ONLY IN THIS SECTION. its really pissing me off. can post in other sections but not in Grow Log. Admin help please??

the plants are growing well and i think i'll repot today as i'm seeing lots of roots poking through the bottom. i mean, lots. also, the lower leaves are yellowing a bit. I think this is nute lockout from too high pH. On jan 21 i tested the soil runoff and it was 8.5! no pH down available here so i bought some organic apple cider vinegar, watered with pH 5.0 water on the 21 and 24, and soil runoff the 24 looked more like 7.5 (pH drop kit).

Anyway, thanks for following the Log. I have weekly pics i'll upload whenever i'm allowed to...

Hahahahaha i can post pics wweeeeoooo!! lol i'm impatient. and bored today. ok..

Pic 1: Plants at 1 week old. (1/18)
Pic 2/3: Plants at 2 weeks old (tubes are from homemade CO2 generator) (1/25)
Pic 4: Supercool excel table, complete with links to Sheet with photos :D

See the necrotic spots on the lower leaf in the 2 week shot? well now that whole leaf has turned yellow! uh oh! tryyyyiinnggg to lower the pH of the soil but its F'n tough!! soooo we'll see.

Very good looking plants.
Excellent table work, i like it very much :thumbsup:

Weekly photo update. Plants are 3 weeks old today. I topped them all on Sunday, Jan 30.

Pic 1: Mutant plant, one of the petioles came fused to the first true leaf and after all the nodes were messed up. Anywho, got 5 stems coming up after the cut instead of 4 so its alll good.

Pic 2: Biggest and strongest plant(you can see N deficiency cause she's so hungry and soil pH is too high!). Of course when i took the cutting i snipped one of the new stems!! nooo00bb..

Pic 3: Third plant, 2 big stems 2 small ones, will have to try to get light to the small ones.

Pic 4: The clones in their cloning container. Hope they're successful so i can sex them and not waste time with male mothers!

A little late with the pics this week. I'm 1 month into vegging, i think i'll go at least 2 more weeks before flower.

I'm still battling nutrient lockout due to high pH (i THINK!). pH of runoff water was 7.5+ last time i checked. I foliar fed a few times as i'm seeing yellow slowly creep up the plants from the bottom. New leaves are also very light in color and aren't darkening up much.. The temps were up around 90 with the lights on so i just got a fan.

The plants are showing purple stems - not sure if thats related to their phenotype, or some sort of deficiency. Growing really fast though! Just the yellowing i'm worried about really..

Comments/suggestions welcome :D

Pic 1: The biggest plant in terms of growth and such. has obvious purple stems but not really visible in pic.

Pic 2: The sorta runty plant - its really yellow - you can see in the pic, the new growth is kinda yellow too.

Pic 3: The mutant plant - looking just fine with 5 colas.

Ph too high! get it down to 6.4 or so.
Nice notations on spreadsheet! Much better than my scribbling on lined paper. I think I'll adopt that idea when I got a moment. :thumbsup:

I'm kind of curious as to why the PH is still so high as it looks like you've repotted recently into those red pots. When my buffers run out of the soil I repot as the plants are ready for it anyway and the fresh soil sorts out the earlier ph issues. My soil is buffered to a ph range of 5.5 - 6.5 and I get 5 weeks or so out of it before it starts to deplete.
I'm wondering what soil your using as to what range of ph it is buffered to?
Love your spead sheet too, very efficient :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rattlingdags

I'm kind of curious as to why the PH is still so high as it looks like you've repotted recently into those red pots. When my buffers run out of the soil I repot as the plants are ready for it anyway and the fresh soil sorts out the earlier ph issues. My soil is buffered to a ph range of 5.5 - 6.5 and I get 5 weeks or so out of it before it starts to deplete.
I'm wondering what soil your using as to what range of ph it is buffered to?
Love your spead sheet too, very efficient :)

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I'm pretty limited as to what soil is available here.. There are no garden stores that i know of within 3 hours of me.. there are some crappy hardware stores, thats where i got the soil - I tried flushing the soil with pH 3-4 water and got the pH down a little, but it was taking so much flushing to do it i got frustrated and said "good 'nuff". well, will take more care next time. Also, the hunt for a garden store goes on. It's almost a good thing, i'd go nuts in a garden store right now and end up broke lol..

hmm... no lime available? How about some peat moss too? Look for manure humus. If you can find that you will be good to go. You can also make your own in a few months time if you have access to some cows or perhaps horses.

Heh, thanks for the tips.. closest thing to garden stuff is a crappy hardware store, so i'm not sure where to get humus or peat moss. Where would you get lime? I guess i could order something online, but it takes so long to get here it wouldnt be worth it for this grow.. anyway i'll figure it out somehow before the next time i repot.. roots coming out the bottom of these pots since a week, so will probly have to repot them just before flower..

Hey everyone, here's the pics from Week 5.

It's been a hectic week for the plants. You may have seen my pics in the "Plant Problems" area as i was facing a nute lockout issue. I overcompensated and foliar fed too much nutes + crazy compost tea concoction and burned the shit outta the plants, LOL!! what a guy..

I have shit ingredients here, i'm a no0b, and i love tweaking and experimenting, so its like a perfect storm on these poor plants :)..

I'm pretty sure I was correct - soil pH was too high - i tested the local-made compost i had been using by soaking a bunch in distilled water - pH 8.0+!! I finally found some soil labelled pH 6.3, coco coir with pH around 6.0 based on my testing, and some coco fiber with pH around 7.0 based on testing.

I used the coco coir and fiber as aeration/water retention components and repotted the plants with the fresh soil. 48 hours later and they are looking better already! Greening up, new leaves are much bigger and better, etc.. here's the pics.

Pic 1: Plant 1 - burned the worst
Pic 2: Plant 2 - the most yellow, weakest droopiest of the 3
Pic 3: Plant 3 - pretty chill, my fave, not much nute burn, not too yellow, just chillin w/o much worries :cool:
Pic 4: The grow shower lol. Labelled all the plants not in the grow log. Ironically they are all doing much better than the mothers haha!! Cause i'm not loving them to DEATH
Pic 5: Native bagseed, looks like pure Sativa, very different genetics than the mothers..

Enjoy!

Slogging my way ineptly through this grow.. I was away 2 weeks and my buddy had to take care of the plants - they look good though, some new growth and much greener than before.

New soil is working well but i see some interveinal chlorosis of middle leaves on several plants. Maybe a Mg deficiency?

I'm making a new compost tea for the next watering. Going to add calcium phosphate in preparation for bloom phase. I think 1-2 weeks and i'll switch the lights over.

Pic 1: the tallest of the three, stretching towards the light.
Pic 2: the mutant, quite bushy plant is developing well.
Pic 3: the native bagseed sativa, gone wild crazy with new growth. Topped her, but she's goin crazy out the sides, trying to keep her from stealing too much light from the privileged kids lol.
Pic 4: some used compost tea containers i had chucked outside. The first batch used poor ingredients, and i didnt use Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms(BIM). The second I used better ingredients, including BIM, and wow what a difference in life. I wanted a fungal dominated tea and looks like i got it. Meanwhile the first looks like the surface of Mars or something except for the stray pigeon feather.

Put the plants into bloom today! i have too many plants for my light/space, so i'm waiting until i can spot sex and praying for a few males (i know right, super ironic)..

the mutant, 5 stemmed favourite of mine already got pistils out so i know she's a keeper :thumbsup: .. i also spotted pistils on one other of the good plants. So thats already 4 plants, the max i could hope to bloom i think..

I have 3 65W CFL's at 2700K, and gonna add 2 65W 6500K CFL's lower in the canopy. so thats 325W total. I think thats enough for 4 plants, even though they're CFL's - not looking for a massive crop just learning this time.

Pics
Pic 1: My favourite - she's got 5 stems but 2 of them are less developed. not enough light/pot space/hormones, something, anyway she's still a champ in my book!
Pic 2: pistils on the same plant. Weooo momma!
Pic 3: more flattering top view of the plants - wow they look much better from above! you can see the three clones in this pic and a smaller stem from my fav plant.
Pic 4: the whole setup. Local bagseed sativa in front (topped and LST'd to hell), then the 3 mothers, then the 3 clones not really visible in the very back

Attachment 273379 Attachment 273381 Attachment 273382 Attachment 273380

Thats a nice problem to have - too many plants lol. Hopefully then you'll get a boy there in the mix. Looking good :thumbsup:

Hey all,

Second week of bloom, and I repotted today. Its a lil late but the pots were way too small for the plants and they are really starting to take off!

So, only 1 male, it was the local bagseed sativa. Chopped it but i still have 6 girls and limited light. I repotted 4 and shipping the other two out to a buddy's balcony. It'll be interesting to see the difference in yield between my controlled environment+nutes versus his balcony+water. Maybe none? Maybe his will actually be better, without all my meddling :D

Anyway here's pics!

Pic 1: Plant 1, mutant plant, she's got 3 main cola's now and one little one coming up in the lower left..
Pic 2: Plant 2, she's got 3 real nice cola's as well.. curse me for accidentally snipping the fourth when i topped her!
Pic 3: Close-up of one of the tops, looking good 10 days into bloom! (right? my first time growing something decent sooooo...)
Pic 4: The garden now. There are 2 plants in little pots still i'm taking out later tonight.

Woohooo, i see crystals!! love it! its amazing to have good plants and to see them, well, alive even! haha! They were stretching before but i think that might be slowing down now, but the hairs and trichs are comin out strong.

So, i'm halfway through the third week of flower, this is my first good grow, so i think things are going well - Do the plants look like they're on pace? I guess i'll look through the grow logs and compare. I think this is a strain of purple, not sure though.

One plant is showing interveinal chlorosis on many of it's fan leaves, starting with older and working up the plant. Maybe Mg deficiency? The buds look fine but i'm just worried it's got a deficiency that will harm yield. I mean obv it does haha! Any thoughts?

Pics
Pic 1: the beautiful buds of my fav little baby girl. aahhh so nice.
Pic 2: Closer up shot of the plant with the sad leaves, you can see the little trichs glinting in the flash.
Pic 3: Sad leaf :(. This is what i was talking about, i'd like to fix this if i can, without wreaking havoc on them heh.
Pic 4: The grow room. I know it looks super ghetto. That's cause it is. :wtf:

One plant is getting serious interveinal chlorosis. Just fed them yesterday after a week, so maybe that will help. The front two plants have some necrosis, the back two plants are allll good, 3 main stems each, love it.

Any feedback? Anyone?? I'm concerned since the front 2 have some issues, the buds aren't on pace. Vertical growth has just about stopped. They're definitely getting dusty, the flowers are growing sorta slowly, or that's normal..? Not sure how growth proceeds during flower..

Pics
Pic 1 - My favourite plant, she's lookin goood.
Pic 2 - One of the stems from the other plant, probably the fattest flowers
Pic 3 - One stem from the first plant, lookin pretty dusty now.
Pic 4 - Nice flower from the littler girl
Pic 5 - Grow room. You can see the front 2 plants have chlorosis/necrosis

I'm can't help with advice... on my first grow myself. But, there is a link in my sig that covers almost anything that can go wrong... with pics. The solution for virtually any prob you may run into.

What Nutes are you using? Whats your Waters PPM? whats the soil PH now? Also. Go grab you some Neem Oil. Neem helps restore moisture to leaves and adds a Mold barrier. In such a tight space Mold might come into play later on.

wow, quite a ride since my last post. I harvested most plants in week 8-9, sorry i didnt post for a while but thats why hahaha.. pretty good stuff, not bad for a first effort :jointsmile:. One plant kept going and I'm just now starting to see amber trichs on it..

i'll post some pics of the others later, but here's the plant thats still growing. I'm not sure if i've left it too long... it keeps coming out with fresh hairs, and the trichs are still milky(although i've noticed some amber starting this week..)

Any thoughts? i keep checking the trichs to look for amber but i dont see much.. however all the leaves have gone yellow and dropped, even the leaves around the buds are turning yellow, so i feel like its the end no?? I think i'll harvest her soon..

Pics: the whole plant, then closeup of each cola..

Nice comeback Savage!

Im just comin back around to the boards. Read thru ur log, man there were so many posts I wanted to reply to lol. But no need, you found your way :thumbsup:

You can always stagger your harvest: Take a cola this week, cola next week, ..etc.
Label, dry, cure, sample:jointsmile:
Leave all fan leaves next time.

Congrats on the grow

Thanks man! ya its been a super turbulent ride hahahaha.. Well i learned a ton so it was a success. i will probably harvest the most mature looking cola tomorrow, i think its ready :cool:

good job