[Q*Bert]

Hi everyone,
Great idea and way to keep notes as well as get advice.

Here is a description of what I have

4x8 room that is sealed with a filtered air inlet and A/C that also acts as a vent when needed. The grow area is 4x4, and the other half is shelving for a clone box, and all the supplies and equipment. Running a 1000 HPS wide spectrum bulb and an atmosphere controller. The system is a fill and drain set up with bubblers and a heater in the resivoir. Generally maintain a 82-85 daytime temp with humidity around 50%. Nightime has gotten as low as 70 degrees at its coldest. I have a heater if it gets cooler but doubt I'll need it. Last thing left to do is add an exhaust set up with scent scrubber. Don't need it right now so I'll add it when these ladies start stinking. Have a RO water supply with no softener.

Now for the grow-

1-21-07
I cut 7 Bubba Kush and 42 Mac 10 from a friends mothers. The BK mom was of unknown age and origin, it was passed to him from smeone else who had to close up. The M10 was a seed start from a OG Kush bud that is just flat out better than the OG that threw the seed. It was a one seed in the batch got lucky kinda thing and its a thumper. Definitely better than any of the OG I have had. Geneticists Comments?

1-27-07
Went from straight water to 50% veg solution (20-10-20)

1-31-07
All loooked good so I checked for roots. Found 1 BK and 2 M10 with strong tap roots growing. Transplanted them into large cubes and put under the HPS.
Wilted both M10's within an hour, moved the light up higher and the plants farther away. Went to 18/6 for these 3.

2-1-07
BK is responding, M10 is no longer wilted but not happy

2-2-07
BK is growing, M10 holding stable, went to 100 % veg

2-5-07
Moved 3 BK and 14 M10 under HPS

2-7-07
Moved 6 M10 under HPS, wilted within 30 mins, put back in clone box and got speedy recovery. M10 needs acclimation, marked these 56 BCBR burned clone box recovery to see how the stress effects the final product. Noticing some issues with curling, consulted the infirmary and realized an immediate PH problem.

2-8-07
Bought cheapie PH tester to baseline, was in the high 6, low 7 range, added PH- for a spa (I know bad) but to dropped to what read mid 5.

2-9-07
Please recover, please recover please recover, talking softly to ladies and assuring them I am fixing it all.

2-10-07
Begin to think Ph tester is crap, ladies doing nothing. No real new growth, leaves still curling, seeing sighs of lockout throughout garden. Some are faring better than others, The BK is strong and resilient, the M10 is hurting.

2-11-07
Please recover, please recover please recover, please recover

2-12-07
Got digital Hanna pen for PH, TDS and EC, found PH was at 3.3, also got correct hydro PH+/- and immediately corrected to 5.8. Two hours later, water was at 6.3, added a touch of PH- and we are at 5.5 and holding. Its been a super long day and I wont be able to sleep knowing I want to keep monitoring the PH, but the light is off so off I go.

2-14-07
Victory, after 2 days with a 5.6, growth has resumed, leaves aren't curling and I think that is behind me. Will be checking PH daily from here on out. The BK is the indicator as it responds quickly, the M10's are slower to respond but I cna tell. Looking a touch yellow, am going to do a water change tomorrow and start with all fresh and good.

2-15-07
Changed water and took these pics, you can see that some are hurting but I think it was all PH related. Feel like a dumbass for forgetting a basic, but am in deep appreciation to My Name Stitch for accellerating my learning curve and minimizing the amount of time my ladies had to be stressed.

Well we are all caught up now

Stay tuned.........

Q

[Lofty]

Hey Q*BERT u've got to much time on yr hands lol, only joking man. if i did this i prob wudnt keep making the same mistakes all the time, but then it wudnt b as much fun

good luck

ps after a lot of lager and a hot curry i go to work the morn after and sit in my office and think, please recover! but it never works for me. peace out Q*BERT

[Q*Bert]

Moved the last 10 M10's under the HPS, nice and far away to acclimate, no wilting at all so they will be fine. Started rooting some of my mystery seed collection. They are in paper towels and balanced water.

LOL Lofty, not as much time as I wish, just trying to help out the old memory.

[Lofty]

ph balanced water Hmmmm. i never ph the water for anything until there ready for nutes, i mite try that a c if helps them grow quicker. i'm guna change my 600w hps for 4x200w blue envirolites, coz i want to speed up my veg room growth.

[Q*Bert]

2-17-07
Recovery is slow. Good roots though, starting to look overwatered.

2-18-07
Took 2 M10 and 2 BK mothers and turned the light to 12/12. Burned within 1/2 hour of going in clone box, turns out I tooklarger cuttings than normal due to intended mother useage and this put them too close to the lights. Pruned the burned portions of the leaves and raised the lights. Dried out cubes more to see if overwatering is issue.

2-19-07
Damn, let them dry a touch too much, gonna water by hand to get them back in line, clones look good all things considered, have 6 rooted seeds in clone box now.

2-20-07
Air pruned a good portion of the ladies by too much drying, root growth seems to have resumed today, gotta figure out the watering needs and get the timer back on. No flood at night, just a keeping the bottom of the tray wet at night.

2-22-07
Starting to show signs of flowering, damage from over/under watering is minimal but appearant. Have kept ph between 5.4 to 5.6, water temp is kept around 68-73, room temp has gotten as high as 98 and as low as 53. Installed glass on hood and put heater in room to keep temps more consistant. Yesterdays max/min was 86/63 just need to get watering handled. May go to two pumps and timers to have different day and night watering capabilities.

[Q*Bert]

Couple new pics from today-

First is a current overall pic



Next is the BK momma that I took the 2 new Momma Clones from



This is the M10 Momma I took the 2 new Momma clones from



This is the size I am shooting for in future hatvests, this will be a monster when done if all goes well.



These are the pruned momma clones at day 4, recovery time will affect root time, we'll see how much. Two on right are BK, the other 3 are M10



These are the last 10, weakest, lagginist of the bunch, put into flower with only 2 days of veg. Also note the new seedlings, giving them 12 of the 1000 hps and 12 of flouro to make sure they acclimate to the 1000 from the get go. These have been under like this for 2 days now and will need new homes soom. Rapidly running out of space in the room. Knew that would happen LOL.

[Q*Bert]

Trimmed the ladies back, they are looking much better, stressed leaves look bad but all new growth looks good. Min temp last night was 59, Ladies near vent looked the worst, gonna kick the heater up to the 65-70 range. Humidity was high as a result and exhaust ran all night bringing temps down further. Added 2 gallons of 5.5 plain water to top off res, ppms were 880s, back around 800 (810 target) after the water was added. Took 33 clones from trimmings and found that the first few were wilting, attributed it to cold water, warmed cubes and the rest looked much better.

[Q*Bert]

Babies looking great, starting to see signs of flowering. Heater solved nightime temp issues, only goes as low as 68 at night now. Added a fan and saw huge results. Entire garden picked up. Temps were never above 88, but the stagnant air wasn't liked. Now the exhaust runs less and humidity and temps are down. Starting to see signs of flowering, been playing with the watering and am back to once an hour for 8 minutes. Going to watch and see if nighttime waterings need to be cut back.

Mistakes so far-
PH-
Caused most of issues so far, have seen all kind of nute lockout signs. Its funny how different signs of lockout show up

Differering ages of plants-
Have a 3 week age gap in the tray. Makes watering and nutes difficult.

Watering-
Went after watering when PH issues showed up. Was on a good schedule and ended up drying the roots and adding to the PH issues. Important to stay on a schedule. Keep roots moist, dry roots are BAD

Environment-
Fluctuations bad, keep it tropical.

More to come, thanks for tuning in

Q

[Q*Bert]

Couple new pics, garden recovering well, new growth looks good, kept watering every 1 hour for 8 mins, seeing new root growth, made sure heater is plugged in, as I forgot to plug it back in after the water change yesterday. Still running 5.5 ph on full strength veg. Garden still not 100% but back on the right track.

[Q*Bert]

Should have titled this thread differently, something like OUCH.

Well, the ladies are no longer hurting and are responding nicely.

2-27
Had a visit from a couple good friends who are far more experienced than me. One said, Dont worry, I've seen worse recover and still yeild OK. That statement registered and made me change my course. I upped the PH to 5.8, an started flushing with plain water. Also set up a prep resivoir to monitor water and chem before putting it in the garden res. Amazing how the PH will creep for a day ortwo before settling. Stopped using the RO water, just letting the chems evaporate beforwe balancing and using.

3-4
Have been flushing with plain water since 2-27, ladies are slowly recovering, I am watching my 10 laggers as they didn't get PH burned/lockouted like the rest of the batch. They started to lighten so I went to a 35% 50/50 mix veg/bloom solution. The recovering plants are growing through everything and I have been pruning agressively. Still working out ventilation issues but am just about there. Thanks Micro Growers for some killer ideas on how to vent a closed box. Beginning to think that 90% of all issues were caused by the initial PH burn and resulting lockouts. The other 10% was not being able to roll with atmospheric conditions that were not just right. Garden looked bad for a few days but now smells and looks good. Pics to come.