First Time Grower Mistakes, White Widow Auto, Indoor, Soil, 400W HPS+400WMH

@bob31

I flushed Curley, about 2 gallons. And watered the other three. All four had a runoff of about 2000 ppm. Ph was about 6 to 6.1 in all of them.

I am a little suspect of my runoff testing practices. Basically I water the plants and the collect about a half liter in a solo cup and test as it runs through the fabric pot. Is that appropriate, or should I be collecting all runoff in a bucket and then test. I was surprised a the drop in Curley’s ppm after just two gallons.

I collect the last of the runoff only. If you collect early or all of your runoff it doesn’t give the true numbers @Sixpackdad

What was the pH in and TDS in?

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@bob31 the water going into them was tap water adjusted with ph down. About5.8ph +/- 0.05 and about 190 ppm. My tap water is well water and fluctuates between 180 and 200 ppm

@Sixpackdad

The ph in and out looks good, If you are going in with 190-200 TDS PPM and 2000 PPM out that means 1800 PPM is still in the growing medium.

What is the TDS for the week on the FF Trio feeding schedule? What week are you going by? Sorry I read a lot of topics/ journals and I lose track a little, LOL

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@bob31

On the flower power schedule, I am in week 5 of the bloom period, with a recommended EC of 2.0 using the bloom solution, which is about 1000ppm. Next week would be the start of the bloom plus boost.

@Sixpackdad with the current runoff TDS of 2000 then no nutes this week. Next watering, water to runoff and collect the last of the runoff and see where it is.

Have you mixed up the bloom and tested to see what the TDS of that mix is?

Are you using the gallon or liter schedule?

@bob31

I had been using liters prior. I would add a 1/4 teaspoon to a liter of tap water, and then ph down. The tds using bloom would end up around 2400ec, or 1200ppm

ok, that sounds about right, but since the TDS of the runoff is still higher than that, I’d go with plain water again and check the runoff. Keep me posted! @Sixpackdad

@bob31
Here’s the weekend update:
All four plants were watered today with one gallon of 5.8ph, 185ppm tap water. I am at Day 72 from sprout, Day 44 from first flowering. This puts me just into Week 7 of the flower power fertilizer schedule (I think I miscalculated last week when I said I was in week 5). Week 7 is a 2.0EC bloom plus and 0.2EC boost week,

After adding the gallon to the 5-gallon fabric pot, I waited 1-1.5 minutes until the runoff was just trickling out. I then collected runoff in a solo cup, with the goal that the runoff could barely fill only about an inch of water in the solo cup. If it filled too quickly, I emptied the solo cup and started over until an inch barely trickled in. I think this provided more consistent results that what I did the last time I reported in, as one plant actually increased in ppm.

Here are last Monday’s and today’s measurements for ppm and pH per plant
Curley 2000/6.01, 1970/6.27
Yellow 2000/6.2, 2150/6.37
Thin 2030/6.1, 1650/6.37
Best 2000/6.09, 1690/6.39

The plants look no worse from a yellowing/dying leaf standpoint. Buds look okay and the trichomes are still clear or cloudy. Some of the buds are foxtailing (curley and thin, particularly).

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Did you record the TDS in? @Sixpackdad

Take a look at this posting @Sixpackdad

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For the foxtailing issue, I am trying to keep the tops no less than 14" from the hood base, but they have suffered a lot of heat/light stress prior.

@bob31

The tap water was 185

Did you add nutrients this week?

@Sixpackdad

No, I have not added any nutrients. The last time they had nutes was 11/26
@bob31

@bob31

I am going to wait for the soil to dry out a bit and then run another gallon through each plant before considering adding any more nutes. New pics are below

If I was at a healthy operation at week 7 bloom on the below chart, would a good run off be 1300ppm for this week in the flower power fertilizer schedule? This is based on 1000ppm of the bloom, 100ppm of the boost, and 200ppm of what is in my well water to begin with.

image

Here are some pics- the tops of the plants are about 16" from the base of the lamp, about 4" lower than they had been. I am hoping this curtails the foxtailing and light bleaching

Curley - see the foxtail growth on the sides of the buds

Thin guy - significant foxtails off the top and sides of the buds

Yellow guy - still yellow, no significant foxtailing so far

Best guy - looks good except what I think is some minor light bleaching

The room

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Yes, that seems about right. @Sixpackdad

I can’t tell if it the lights or the way the camera took the pics, but there are some really dark looking areas of your buds sort of like bud rot. I hope it is just the Pics. It almost looks like bands of darkness thru the pic?

the 3rd pic down in particular

Next watering check the ph and TDS in and out so we can see how much is in the soil this time around.

@bob31
That’s the HPS lights affecting the ipad camera. It causes bands of darkness in the pics depending on how far and the zoom. Heres one that’s just the MH and with flash

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yeah thats a lot better. FWIW I would shoot them like that all of the time. The light just messes up the pics.

@bob31 Here’s the weekly update:

I am now day 78 sprout, day 50 flower. This puts me in week 8 of the flower power schedule, but no nutes have been added since 11/26. The plants look okay - no further leaf deterioration and the fox-tailing and light-bleaching seem to have slowed or stopped. No bud rot has been detected. There are no amber-ing trichrome yet.

I watered each plant today with about 1 gallon of 5.8pH, 185 ppm well water. I last watered six days ago. The levels from last week and today are listed, respectively:

Yellow guy: 2150/6.37, 1460/6.42
Thin guy: 1650/6.37, 1640/6.35
Curley guy: 1970/6.27, 1410/6.38
Best guy: 1690/6.39, 1270/6.46

I appreciate your guidance on this. The end is near!

How low do I want the run-off ppm to get before I add more nutrients? For example, if week 8 of the flower power schedule calls for 1000ppm of bloom and 100ppm of boost, and Best Guy is at ~1085ppm (1270ppm run off minus 185ppm of ingoing), should I add nutrients? If so, what approach would I take to add them?

image

How do the trichomes look? Are you starting to get some milky? What percent clear/ milky. Generally the WWA goes 8-9 weeks of flowering according to the ILGM seedshop site.

I’m thinking maybe one more round of nutrients and then the flush. The pre-harvest flush can be over the course of a week or all in one day, depending on what you want to do. @Sixpackdad

The gals are looking pretty good IMO!

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