Organic Satori / Skunk / Ice Cream under 400W HPS

[wildgrow]

My tap is 7.8-7.9. Nutes bring it down to low 5s. Silica and calmag bring up to low 6s. Then Ph Up to 7.2. Whammo - darker greens and minor foxtailing. If I leave h2o on the counter it phs in the high 8s.

Ive got 5 gal water bottle Id like to cut the bottom out of, shove a spigot in and bubble. Ill have the leftovers from the build to construct a stand. Something else that might drop another bottle (ph up) for me.

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Almost forgot to ask: How many led watts are you running now?

 

[Gelado`]

Sounds like you definitely want some lime in the mix then! I try to shoot for a water/soil pH of 6.3 or so. In your shoes I'd add dolomitic lime and wouldn't bother with pH down at all.

 

[wildgrow]

I only use ph down with h2o(nly). But I probably don't need to, unless I do what I above.

 

[Gelado`]

I'd lime for the stability in pH and to keep the cal/mag needs covered. For me, I water with plain water all the time, so dropping in two drops of pH down is well worth it so my microflora aren't stressed out! I also use calcium carbonate occasionally to provide Ca, and this also buffers the medium. A lot of organic growers on here feel their medium and microflora will buffer their pH for them. I think it's better to keep the pH of my inputs optimal. It really isn't that much work to pick up my pipette and put a couple of drops in a bottle of water, and from agricultural tests, keeping pH stable appears to give better yields.

As for water going up to 8 when left alone...would this be because of dissolved carbonate/chloride that is being lost as CO2 or chlorine gas? Or both?

 

[Gelado`]

None of the three NYPDs I had soaking germed after soaking for several days (I changed the water daily and added a little hydrogen peroxide each time), so I dropped them into the two gallon pot from the Ice Cream plant I harvested a few days ago. I may just get some sprouts...but I doubt it. I'll try some other beans when I get back. Maybe some KC-33.

 

[wildgrow]

I'd lime for the stability in pH and to keep the cal/mag needs covered. For me, I water with plain water all the time, so dropping in two drops of pH down is well worth it so my microflora aren't stressed out! I also use calcium carbonate occasionally to provide Ca, and this also buffers the medium. A lot of organic growers on here feel their medium and microflora will buffer their pH for them. I think it's better to keep the pH of my inputs optimal. It really isn't that much work to pick up my pipette and put a couple of drops in a bottle of water, and from agricultural tests, keeping pH stable appears to give better yields.

As for water going up to 8 when left alone...would this be because of dissolved carbonate/chloride that is being lost as CO2 or chlorine gas? Or both?

Truthfully, I don't know. Id have to go with chlorine loss. The level is hardly measurable with a pool test kit. Though I know some part of our water system is treated ultravioletly.

 

[Gelado`]

With organics its best to let the chlorine gas off as it kills the good stuff in the soil, but I never do. I don't think our water is that bad...no chloramine at least!

Out of town and I smoked some Ice Cream I had stashed away here for five months. It was pretty dry, but still smelled good and got me REALLY baked.

 

[Gelado`]

I've been blessed this time...out of town and the humidity at home dropped. Hope it holds while I'm on the road. It's HOT, though, but I think my girls have enough water. I hope so anyway!

 

[goodsmokejoe]

The girls look great bro wat brand of led u using

 

[Gelado`]

Thanks! That's just one girl though. I use a Bysen panel...works a treat. The LEDs you see in the pic are just supplemental. The big LED panel isn't visible in the pics. I should've bought a slightly bigger panel; the plants at the edges don't get enough light, but still produce. I'd say quality under LED is better than HPS, but yield is lower unless you cover the entire tent. Yield is also a little lower because plants finish 1-2 weeks earlier, but they bloom more fully IMO. LEDs are more efficient, but don't throw as much light as HID, so you have to cover the entire area in LED panels if you want solid results.

 

[Gelado`]

Had to stay out of town for a little longer than expected; came back to lots of dead leaves on the Afghani (it needed more water, and two of the containers didn't 'water' the plant as hoped) and, even worse, the big central cola was budrot city, as well as one of the smaller colas.

I removed the main cola, harvested what I could from the smaller bud, and then watered the plant. It should be done in a week or two; I've lost at least an ounce of yield. Going to have to pick up a rubber hose so I can run the dehumidifier while I'm out of town, and let it drain into the sink.

Everything else is doing great, although there were some dead leaves on the Satori, which looked like the start of the rot. Now that I have the dehumidifer going again, I'm hoping the rot stops, but I'll check very carefully from now until the end.

 

[Gelado`]

Looks like my jars have botrytis too; while I can't see any, I can smell it and sniffing the buds in the jars gives me a headache. I'm going to have to put everything back in paper bags. The humidity here is just way too high. I'll cut out any mold/brown bits from all of the bud and then rejar it after it's satisfactorily dry.

I also lost my Durga Mata clone, but the mom is in mid-flowering and can be cloned or revegged, so no major worry there.

 

[Gelado`]

Put all my bud back in paper bags...I sure have a lot of Ice Cream! I previously harvested bud that has a touch of botrytis (some of the leaf/seed pods had turned brown, but otherwise looked and smelled fine), dried it and jarred it. Looks like I need to cut out anything that is brown.

The Ice Cream I've had jarred since last year is absolutely incredible now. Amazing taste, aroma and potency. Like fuel and grapefruit today. Like a good NYC Diesel. Very potent.

Everything in the tent is doing fine and controlling the humidity has stopped the rot.

 

[Gelado`]

After drying everything out thoroughly, whatever was causing issues has stopped in its tracks. There was no visible sign of any mold though!

The Afghani's lower buds are swelling and filling out nicely. I'm still waiting for the seed pods to really swell. I tried some of the bud yesterday and it's a nice, calming body high. Very nice. It still has that sweet orange aroma.

I'm flying out (yes, again) next week, so I will probably harvest the rest of the Afghani before I go, and possibly the Satori too. The Durga Mata is filling out nicely and smells incredibly good; better than when I ran it previously. Very heavy and fuel-like.

I just need a hose that is the right diameter for the dehumidifier to drip right into the drain and I shouldn't have any botrytis issues; right now I need to empty my dehumidifier twice a day to keep the humidity down!

 

[Kalbhairav]

Sounds good Gelado,

Be sure to give us a little photo update at some point..

 

[Gelado`]

Will do!

Got a bit of a novel problem...I have so much bud and have been smoking so much that I'm bored with it! I think I'm going to take a little break from smoking and growing after I pull the girls I have going.

 

[paper thorn]

You have a lot of great strains in those seeds. Some of those, maybe a lot of those will have to kept forever you know, you need more space.

 

[wildgrow]

Sorry to hear about the rot problem, but since you have so much anyway... Not a bad problem to have by the way.

Growing out something new each round helps to keep things from getting boring.

 

[Gelado`]

Ha, yeah, I have enough to keep me pretty darn chilled out for a couple of years!

I still need to pick up a fridge to store my seed collection...I may grow on a larger scale down the line.

I have been growing new strains (and they're definitely going to be a nice change), but I guess I don't want to be tied down and having to worry about my girls' welfare constantly. I'll probably start up again in the winter (when I can run the HPS). It's far too humid now.

The Afghani from HGF is far sweeter than I ever imagined; who would have thought it would smell like sweet oranges? Some of the best-smelling pot ever IMO!

 

[Gelado`]

Harvested the rest of the Afghani today...it had thickened up considerably and put out a lot of pistils, but I decided today was the day.

This is by far the densest strain I've ever grown. LOTS of leaf; and unfortunately, lots of mold and botrytis too. I saw black mold along with the rot in the fattest buds. I had to throw out around 30% of what was left on the plant, and trimming was a nightmare because of the density of the buds and the sheer amount of leaf mass.

I won't ever try to grow a pure indica in the spring/summer again...what was I thinking? Winters here are mild and dry, so I'm going to get my growing done then instead of in the hottest, most humid part of the year. Even with the dehumidifier going, this stuff was so dense there were literally wet pockets in the colas. I harvested around 150g wet after throwing out the bad bits, so it's not a total washout, but the yield could have been substantially higher. Hopefully the Durga Mata fares better.

Interestingly the Ice Cream seems to be a good, tough strain as far as mold resistance goes in comparison to everything else I've grown recently!