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OK. So I've been worried a little about pH as you've seen in my postings. I got the water side figured out, I think. Somewhere between a 50/50 of tap and distilled (or rain) gives me ~ 6.5 pH. I finally got my 3-in-1 soil test meter from Ebay after 3 weeks. It wasn't worth the wait. Even...

I'm only managing to keep the temps at 80F and below (the lights give off a bunch of heat). I purchased some Pura Vida grow and bloom today, but I'm not in a rush to use it yet. BMJ is looking good, LMJ is a bit slower, but hopefully she'll catch up.

Now that I'm down to 2 plants and there's a bit more leaf development, I'm kicking it up a bit. I've now got 2 6500K 42W CFLs on each plant (2600 lumens each). There's 1 2700K 42W CFL to fill out the spectrum (it's not directly on the plants). I changed the PC fan that was sucking air out...

Summary of what's changed: I've dropped the lights down to 2-3" above the tops today. I've mixed a cocktail of water: distilled, rain, and tap - with a combined pH of 6.6 in an effort to get the pH up. Just watered the girls with this. I've put Gary Coleman down. He was stunted, deformed and...

You're right. I'm like a new father, worried about everything. I didn't have a chance to clean out my gutters, so that's why I don't feel comfortable using that water. I will gradually switch to tap water, and kick back and watch 'em grow!

Good plan. Since this is my first grow, I'm not sure if my plants are reaching potential or if I'm holding them back because of pH. They look healthy though. I think I may go with a 50/50 of distilled and tap, just to add a bit more pH. I had the same concerns with my gutter water...

Looking very nice! I am under the same impression about good ol' rain water (MJ should grow without human intervention in nature, right :lol:). We had a bit of rain this week, and I collected a couple of litres. However, I'm also concerned about this whole pH issue (6.2-6.8 range is...

Thanks for the support! I will move the lights a little lower (I agree with your assessment on Cervantes - not much on CFLs). I haven't tested the pH of my grow medium. I used Sunshine #4, with some dolomite, perlite, and worm castings. I believe I read that this mix should be slightly...

I was always under the assumption that distilled water (what I was using) was neutral pH (7) and perfect for pH in soilless as the peat moss decomposes to slightly acidic. This would keep me in the 6-7 range. Reading on the web, distilled water is almost always acidic (can get as low as 5.0)...

I was about to return an aquarium pH test kit to the store because I have a combo moisture/pH soil meter on order. I decide to keep the kit (drops) and test my available water: distilled, rain, tap. To my surprise, the distilled came in close to 6 (I have slight trouble with color...

The one I'm using (with the drops) did not have a calibration solution. From all I've read tap water should be >7, distilled should be 7. I have a cheapo meter on order (combo moisture/pH) to hopefully confirm or deny my readings. It looks like it doesn't have any calibration solution either...

I bought this aquarium pH test kit (drops) that I was going to return because I ordered a meter on Ebay. I decided to keep it and measure the water pH. rain water = 6.0-6.1 tap water=7.0 I'm using steam distilled water, but it measures 6.0-6.1 ??? (it says with ozone on the bottle). I thought...

Day 9: I lowered the lights per suggestions (about 4" above the tops). I also added a fan to circulate air and work the stems a bits. There is another fan that I've been using to suck the air out of the box (using one of the inlet holes for when I put the big mama fan on during flowering)...

I gave up on two of my plants (bad genetics, I think). Here are the final three. Hopefully, at least one turns out to be a lady!

I did buy a cool white Philips bulb (42W) that I was going to put on to provide a full spectrum once out of seedling stage. I don't know what the ct is though. I will need more for flowering though. The bulbs are awfully expensive here, ~ $14 each. I wanted to get the 42 watters which have...

Thanks for the suggestion. I read in Cervantes book that as seedling, the intensity shouldn't be high. I think he said 12" away from the plants. Is this right? As soon as they're out of the seedling stage, I was going to move the lights to 2".

Please feel free to comment on my grow journal... I'm going to need the help :razz:

Five days after planting all seeds in the soilless mix. Two of the seedlings look very healthy, one is a little stunted, and two will probably be written off. The 6500K CFL's (x3) are about 12" above the tops of the seedlings. I've got the small PC fan sucking air out for temperature...

The final two seeds (out of 5) on the 3rd day after starting germination. Soaking the seeds in a glass of room temperature distilled water for ~ 12 hours, and then in distilled water soaked paper towels within a ziplock baggie.

Don't I need the fan to pull through the scrubber? My PC fan doesn't have enough oomph. The CFLs are 42W.