First Time Grower

Of course I'd have problems because I had little knowledge at the start.

Anyways this is what I got

soil : mg organic with mg perlice
pots / containers : 1gal buckets
nutes : fox fire line

Now I didn't start feeding it 'till 3 weeks in. Not realising that PROBABLY the MG soil is still hot. I wouldn't know because I currently don't have a ph meter (do have one on the way).

I have 4 trees and the first two that sprouted look actually the worst. Before you hate on MG - I already know.. It was what I had available at the time. I just kept these going to try.
I've learned a lot since I started. In a way I kind of want to just yank these and start over. But I don't like the feeling of giving up. So I'm going to keep trying.

Now originally these started in a CFL computer set up.. After the next two sprouted -> I decided that the computer space was not going to be enough space so I made some room and bought more cfl and made a nice set up.

They looked real nice for a long time but for the past Three weeks two of them have been looking REAL sorry. I'm afraid the last two are having some problems coming their way.

After having issues and such I was thinking it was a venting problem and lighting. So I invested in a 4x4x6.5 tent , 600w hps/mh light and a ducting fan (fan didn't come in yet ) So I'm currently running three fans to move air around inside and one big one pushing hot & air out.

I switched last week from 18/6 to 12/12. Almost a full week starting tomorrow.

So here are things I know what could be the problem :

Small pots (duh I know I should transplant)

Shitty Soil

Feeding nutes w/o knowing PH levels

Watering w/ no PH levels (tap water) <-- btw just started doing :: filling up a res. of water with a bubbler and letting it sit , so don't correct me on that part! unless you tell me to buy a R/O..

This is the better one of the four- but showing some problems.

This is the second best - Showing more problems than the one above.

Third "best" - Showing more problems than above.


Last but not least. The deathstar.. Or can it be helped?!

uh some heat stress maybe some calcium def. id wather with ph'd water with cal mag and no ferts for a bit possibly.

maybe move the fan up.
maybe don't over water.
maybe no nutes.
maybe.

when you get around to transplanting use some better soil, or at least get a small bag of better soil and mix it with mg.
if me I would get some coco to mix with.

Thanks for your reply guys.

I'm holding off on nutes 'till I solve this problem.

PH pen will be here tomorrow or Friday. So I wont know about what's going on with my ph levels just yet.

Coco to this mix? Can Coco be found at a local store such as Home Depot? Silly question?

Thanks. Found a local store to purchase everything from. Woohoo

Am thinking issue may be nutes on top of the MG mix as well, would go water only until they recover.... at most, a very light cal / mag and would also recommend that you hold your hand on top of where the canopy is. If the temp is too hot for you, it's too hot for the ladies.

Temp is fine from what discussed on my other thread.

I'll look into cal-mag.

c4ulater said:

Temp is fine from what discussed on my other thread.

I'll look into cal-mag.

Click to expand...

Had a brain lapse, should have remembered that lol

Figong said:

Had a brain lapse, should have remembered that lol

Click to expand...

Cal-Mag is something I'll have to buy? Any kind of product name? Or any kind of things around the house that can help??

As long as it's cal and mag together, you should be ok - tis trace, and not much variation exists. Only things I'd recommend you'd use around the house would be if you had both raw, and could do a custom mix. If not, tis easier to keep them paired with pre-mix, and less of a headache.

Any brand of cal - mag companies? I'm guessing I'll have to hit up my local store tomorrow. I transferred my best one into a big bucket.. Unknown of size, but I pored a .5cubic feet bag of FFOF in it and it hardly went up half way! Anyways, the good plant at least has more root space to work with!

c4ulater said:

Any brand of cal - mag companies? I'm guessing I'll have to hit up my local store tomorrow. I transferred my best one into a big bucket.. Unknown of size, but I pored a .5cubic feet bag of FFOF in it and it hardly went up half way! Anyways, the good plant at least has more root space to work with!

Click to expand...

Cal-Mag from the Botanicare line has Cal/Mag and a hint of iron which is always a good option - is what I'd recommend, but any cal/mag that you can find in a hydro shop or nursery should work just fine.

Botanicare makes cal-mag.

general organics(general hydroponics)makes a organic cal-mag.

you can make your own organic cal mag
6 eggshells powdered in a coffe bean grinder, 1/2 teaspoon of epsom salt, one gallon of chlorine free water. Give each plant 16 ounces each, after watering or feeding

Figong said:

Cal-Mag from the Botanicare line has Cal/Mag and a hint of iron which is always a good option - is what I'd recommend, but any cal/mag that you can find in a hydro shop or nursery should work just fine.

Click to expand...

Thank you as always. Will make a run to the store tomorrow.

Question. I have left over CFL lights and a decent sized computer case already set up.

I plan on trying out what another soil grower did and do 1wk 18/6 then switch to 12/12.

Will these CFL lights be enough?

5000K
1600 Lumens
23w

three of these lights

I have 2 more though.

c4ulater said:

Thank you as always. Will make a run to the store tomorrow.

Question. I have left over CFL lights and a decent sized computer case already set up.

I plan on trying out what another soil grower did and do 1wk 18/6 then switch to 12/12.

Will these CFL lights be enough?

5000K
1600 Lumens
23w

three of these lights

I have 2 more though.

Click to expand...

They'd be good for veg, will need to adjust the kelvin on them a bit to get more reds and blues - you'll see what I mean when you peek at this chart:

Figong said:

They'd be good for veg, will need to adjust the kelvin on them a bit to get more reds and blues - you'll see what I mean when you peek at this chart:

Click to expand...

What should I add or change? I thought 5k is good for veg?

Oh I see - Go higher and some lower. Gotcha.

Generally speaking you can get away with 5000k for veg-bloom,but you can do better

most people use 6500-5500k for veg, 2700-3000k for bloom

the best combo is a full spectrum 3X 6500-5500k and one 2700-3000k for veg.
and. 3X2700-3000k and one 5500-6500k for bloom.

i have also heard of people using 2700-3000k, 5500-6500k,and 5000k in different combos with good success.