First time growing. Indoor grow advice appreciated. '97 S.A.G.E. Seeds picked from dispensary purchase

I am trying my first grow from seed. '97 S.A.G.E. Seeds picked from dispensary purchase.

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2-22 Seeds sprouted today 8 out of 8 in coffee filter wet with Medione solution mixed to 1 week specifications. I planted in small pots with dried egg shells and 100% Hershey’s Cacao powder. (This was an attempt to add calcium and magnesium to the soil by natural means) I placed them under a .25 watt 2 foot T5 in a closet. Put in heater set to 75F just in case. Using Medione nutrients and happy frog potting soil

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2-24 getting first dirt pops

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2-26 sprouts coming along nicely. Been on 24/0 light from the seedling light. Watering with 1 week mix of medione as per label. Adjusting the ph to between 6.5 and 7 with baking soda and vinegar before feeding. I have not used any straight water yet other than to condition soil on first day to get it to soak up water. It looks like they are getting a little tall but did not adjust height of light. Gonna see what happens.

Very nice! It’s the best feeling seeing your 1st crop! I can’t wait to see how well you do! Best of luck.

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03-03 They are looking good but I have decided to change out the light for an Agrobrite 4’ 6 bulb t-5. And to repot in 1 gallon smart pot. It is probably early for the repot but they are light stretching and I want to bury them a little deeper. They aren’t wanting to stand on their own.

Thanks me to

I’d love to help “but” it’s my 1st grow too. I think I’m ok with many other tropical plants, flowers, veggies and herbs (basil, oregano, etc.).
I know there’s so much help here from people that really know their stuff about this awesome plant. You came to the right place!
p.s. I only have 1 led and nothing else, I’m not familiar with this stuff like the others are here. I’m very impressed with the ILGM plants growing so far, now to wait it out for the final product…

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Maybe try to help support it by taking a toothpick or somethin similar and gently using a twist tie or a plant tie to gently stabilize it with the toothpick. If that makes sense

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I have used baking soda in an emergency one time and will never do it again. It does not go into complete solution and ends up causing problems with pH. It apparently stayed in the soil and I had to flush a lot to get it out. It took the better part of two weeks before the effects were gone. I never used vinegar at all for plants.

Strongly recommend that you get pH Up and pH Down solutions. Amazon has them for a good price.

Might be easier to lower the lights instead of transplanting this early. T5 lights can be pretty close to the plant (around 6 ") without causing heat problems. Another thing that will help with the plants is to have a small fan pointed above the plants that barely makes the plant shiver. That little movement will also help strengthen the stalk.

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03-07 Just a pic

I continued with the watering procedure I had been using and started using a fan to help toughen up the stems along with a series of gentle squeezes up the length of the stems and some slight flexing of the leaves after they developed the first set of true leaves and I thought the stems were tough enough Started watering with just the balanced water every third time I watered (I was applying nutrient solution in small amounts about three times a day)

3-10 I saw what was appearing to me to be the very beginning of a magnesium deficiency but perhaps not

I consulted with a sales person at the local hydroponics store who said they looked healthy but advised me to stop using the baking soda and vinegar. She said something about the baking soda binding to nutrients and not allowing them to be used by the plant. I started researching on my own and found the following two articles.
Effect on plant growth of sodium salts in the soil
The pertinent information I derived from this article is that when they performed the experiment with sodium bicarbonate it not only decreased the plant growth at very low percentages but it was also VERY hard if not impossible to extract any meaningful percentage of the added sodium bicarbonate from the soil afterwards. Meaning it was in there to stay and it killed plants.

Estimation of available phosphorus in soils by extraction with sodium bicarbonate (Click blue botton at lower right to view the article)
The pertinent information I gleaned from this article was that sodium bicarbonate will bind to phosphorus in the soil (the p in npk) (and I must assume in my nutrient solution) thereby making it unavailable to my plants.

3-12 I began to find more signs of some sort of deficiency in my plants and decided to break down and buy PH up and down.

At this point I looked at the back of the ph up/down kit that I bought and found an additional reason for the problems I felt like I was seeing.


Not only was I salt poisoning my soil with the baking soda but according to this chart I was not only binding the phosphorus to the small amounts of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate or NaHCO3) but indeed due to the fact that I had chosen to balance my water between 7 and 7.5 after the first few days (mostly out of laziness) I locked out any remaining available phosphorus, the iron, and the manganese in my nutrient solution and my soil (there would be the cause of any magnesium deficiency I thought I was seeing).

I have since started balancing my water and nutrient solution at between 5.75 and 6.0 and switched to watering a pint of nutrient solution a day and misting with ph balanced water.

There are still signs of a magnesium deficiency but it seems to be getting better. My plants are bushing out pretty good and the stalks are getting harder and thicker.
The T5 lights are @300+W and 18 inches above the plants. The seedling light has been removed.

03-14

03-15

Moral of the story
Don’t cheap out over $20 and NEVER use baking soda
Hope this helps someone. If anyone thinks I have missed something or I am wrong or has information that would be helpful to me please let me know. I would really appreciate it. (Please remember this is my first grow)
Thanks Doug_xx2
:seedling:

P.S. Sorry I couldn’t finish yesterday but the site made me wait 24H because I am new

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So things are going ok but I am starting to see some problems. I can’t figure out if it is insects or something else. I have been feeding nutrients up until 3 days ago at the same 3rd week level without increasing as the bottle says I am supposed to do according to their schedule (MediOne) 3 days ago I did the heaviest watering I have done through the entire process thus far. Up until that point the only watering I have been doing other than a foliar misting (I switched to distilled water 2 weeks ago because I didn’t like the hard water deposits that were being left on the leaves) was a pint jar of nutrient solution of the 4-3-3 MediOne mixed at the 2 week levels listed on the back of the bottle. I never had run off due to the small amount of water being given every other day (switched to every other day the same time I went to the distilled water). So 3 days ago I watered until I started getting runoff from the smart pots. I collected the run off and did a ph test but since I didn’t have a ppm meter I have no idea of the contents. It was at 6.0 ph. Seems a little low but I am not sure as this is my first grow. Here are some pics and I will try to explain what I think as they appear.

3-25 New growth looks good to me.

3-26 They all look pretty happy to me
(By the way there is one that looks very different to me. They all should be the same strain but that one looks weird. Can you spot it? LOL)

Here is a picture of the damage I am talking about. It is weird because while it looks like bug damage to me I don’t see any dang bugs!

Another spot! Notice how the surface of the leaf goes first leaving the vein…

Here is another spot

Otherwise I think the plants looks good (The clear whitish stuff spotting the leaves is from me adding a teaspoon of Epsom salt to a gallon of distilled water to mist with to add some magnesium. (Pictures of why are coming)

Here is another picture of what I believe will become another hole in a leaf

The under growth looks fine to me (except for the purpleing) ???

More spots

More reddish purple color to the stems (seems to be just the fan leaves doing it)

The growth at the top of the plant looks fine

Here you can see the newer growth starting to speckle with the redish color that darkens to purple

Here is a pic of the whole thing though and to me they look very healthy (All of the plants but one look like this and all of the are this healthy for the most part) There are a couple of leaves on a couple of plants that have a little hook to the end of the leaf but otherwise I think they looks pretty good.

Then we have this puppy here. Different leaf shape. Different growth density. I think it even has a slightly different color (might be my brain playing tricks on the color.). This is a hybrid strain so I am thinking perhaps this seed had reverted back to the sativa genetics like I have read can happen. I am not sure but it looks healthy so we will see what it does.

I have heard that there are several strains that genetically will have some purpling so I am not sure if it is a huge problem but I figured a couple mists with the Epsom salts wouldn’t hurt anything to see if it was a magnesium deficiency and it would go away.

I have only seen one insect on my plants and I picked it off with some tweezers and killed it after taking pics. It doesn’t look like a leaf eater though it looks like a stem sucker. I am not sure what it is called. Do any of you know what it is called? I am sorry for the focus issue with these pics but I was in a hurry, The lighting makes it hard to see the phone screen and it was an extreme closeup. I have not seen any eggs or further insects.

So does anyone know what the mystery spots and holes are? I really am not sure. Has anyone grown 97 S.A.G.E. before? Does the color on the leaf stems look normal? Is 5 PH lower than what my run off should be reading? I have a ppm meter coming. It is a cheap one so next time I will be able to check that on my run off as well. As a side note someone told me not to PH balance my nutrient water but I have been afraid to put it in after mixing without doing so because it reads a PH of 4.0 or below and I was thinking it could screw up my plants. Is that the problem? I am open to all suggestions please leave a comment.
Thanks in advance Doug_xx2

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@Doug_xx2 its sounds like you are well on your way but I’m going to make a few suggestions.

I think if you stop watering on a schedule and start watering when your plants need it then you will be preventing a lot of future problems, like root rot.

There are several ways to know when to water. Either by weight lifting your pots or put your finger in the soil to the second knuckle. When dry water. I usually water a day after they are dry.

Buy a TDS meter as without one there is no way to know how much nutrients your plant needs. Runoff pH should be 6.5 to 6.7 so you are in fact locking nutrients out of your soil with a low pH runoff.

I’d get a good magnifier and have a very close look at those plants again. Something is eating it, looks to me.

Overall they look pretty good. A few minor tweaks and you’ll be 100%

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yeah I was doing the schedule thing but last night had been three days since I did the heavy watering to get run off and I did it like you are suggesting and it was just wet at the second knuckle. I do tend to pick a couple random pots up once or twice a day and if they are excessively light I will give a small drink to keep em even with the others. I have been very careful about over watering hence the one pint of water to a 1 gallon smart pot with zero runoff till I made runoff on purpose but I will try to keep an even closer eye on the water situation from now on. I ordered one of these Digital Water Quality Tester,Professional TDS,EC and Temperature Meter (I know it is a cheap one but it is all I can afford right now)
and one of these Indoor Humidity Monitor the day before I made the post.
They should be here today (love prime shipping).
Additionally I ordered this 60"x60"x84" 100% Reflective Mylar Hydroponics Indoor Grow Tent and it should be here tomorrow.
They are getting too big for the closet I think. The MediOne nutrient I am using calls for it to be adjusted to a PH of 5.8 to 6.3 which is about where I have been putting it. At a 6 it seems like I would only be locking out Iron and Manganese if the back of the ph up and down label is to be believed (but you know how anything that is mass marketed is) I do think the 6.0 is lower for run off than I am looking to have things though. Perhaps a watering or two with water that isn’t ph adjusted would help (comes in around a 7) to offset the acid buildup in the soil and then go back to the alternating nut solution and watering with a little higher ph from now on. I notice that the MediOne does not have a weekly PPM feed chart (just tells how many mils that you should use on each week). Do you know who has a good one. I’m using the MediOne and things like egg shells and cacao because I am trying to keep my grow as Chemical free as possible (Just a personal preference thing). I think I might try to pick up a ph meter as well because I am getting sick of the solution and vial bs LOL. That is gonna have to wait a minute though as I blew too much on the tent this weekend (mama is irritated :stuck_out_tongue:). Do you have any idea what kind of bug that one in the last two pics is? I am in Colorado though so I understand if you don’t. I moved here from NY a year and a half ago and I have no idea what half the bugs here are. I was thinking I would go to the local health food store and buy an ounce of neem oil and mix it with my misting water for a couple of spritzes. It works great for both bugs and fungus as I understand it. I will have to find somewhere that says what concentration to use though. I was also thinking about adding a tablespoon of palm based vegetable glycerin to my next water. It isn’t the stuff you buy at Walmart it is Kosher food grade (I use it to make my own EJuice). I had heard glycerin helps to strengthen cell walls and the residual simple plant sugars should be beneficial as well. I am also thinking I will go with a second one of these Agrobrite Designer T5, FLP46, 324W 4 Foot, 6-Tube Fixture in the next couple weeks. I have not decided if I am going to finish with a 1000w NMH/HPS light, LED or just add a small T5 fixture after that to get up to 1000w. I have been leaning towards the HPS/NMH or LED though as I can take the t5 fixture I got now to veg the next batch. However, cost and heat are things I need to think about to so I am not sure yet. Thanks for the help and any other comments or advice are appreciated.

P.S. A magnifier is on the list soon as well :slight_smile:

I’m not sure about the bug, but @garrigan62 or @Majiktoker will know. (post 12 2 pictures from bottom)

As far as the pH I know what that bottle says but from my experience 5.8 is the pH to use for soiless mediums or hydroponics and such and is way too low to use in soil. Are you using soil?

If you are you need a much higher pH. Keep this in mind as you go forward if you a=start to see issues that you will need to boost the pH of your water to bring your soil pH runoff to 6.5 or thereabouts.

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Ill check It out buddy :+1:

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I cant get your pictures to pull up, however by reading your post it sounds like a lady bug or rollie pollie (potato bug) what color was it and how big was it

Ill keep trying to get the pictures to come up

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Got your pictures to work, it looks like a wood tic, kill it and search for more you dont won’t those in your grow room let alone in your house

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I am using Happy Frog soil from fox farms. Kool I will adjust the PH accordingly. Thanks for the heads up :slight_smile:

Thank you! I have never seen one of those before having moved here from upstate NY a year and a half ago. I have heard of bugs that like to bore into plant stems and suck out the sap so I thought it was something like that with the tube coming out of the mouth area.
Good looking out! Guess I have to treat the house for ticks LOL SMH if it ain’t one thing it’s another.
OH will neem oil kill em?

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