Seedling phase happening up in here...week 1 of Veg, Day 11...Seedlings have their first real leaves and are working on their second nodes. Lights are giving them ~300umol and neither has gotten super stretchy, but enough that they'll have decent node spacing. No nutrients yet, but they do have some root-solution to help them expand their roots. Same as my other grow, Pro-Mix HP+ no amendments or anything. Water is our well water that comes in at 220ppm and is pH'ed to 6.5.
Temp/Humidities are controlled to a nice range during lights-on to be 78-82 and 65% humidity. These have been watered to run-off once (yesterday AM). I really like this pot size...it allows you to let them build decent roots before transplanting and hold a good amount of soil so you're not watering every-day and over-watering.
12/4: Day 13. Another round of watering. Starting next week, I'll be feeding mildly but they should be solid for one more round of water with rooting stimulant. I do know that ProMix HP+ does have a 'charge' but that it's very light and mild, so I'm not comfortable beyond 2 weeks. The Tangerine Dreams in my other concurrent diary worked well with 1.6ml per gallon of water of GH Trio across the board, so we'll hit their next round with that. Today it was just water to run-off and making sure the soil to the outside of the pots was where it should be. Still little guys, with their first nodes and working on their second sets.
@AllieO,
Yes! Of the 4 plants I did last grow the Northern Lights were the easiest and had the best results no matter how I abused them. The one that proved to be difficult was the Blueberry...it was a bitch about everything.
Most well water problems are treatable, but I learned last summer that super soft water is worse for plants than I expected. RO units that produce 150 GPD can be had for $300 Can so I got one of those for the hash making. Works great. Congrats on the grow and good luck with harvest.
@LeastExpectedGrower, cool. Depending on where you live the province or state may have a water well database where you can likely find it on a map or by well ID.
@Northern_Ent, I appreciate your input and expertise. Yeah, I've been using the water from the well with our softening system bypassed. The only time I've used it otherwise was when I tried the ZeroWater filter, as it removes sodium from water anyway. It indeed brought the PPM down to near-zero, but that then also made the water need a shit-ton of pH-Up to bring it to 6.5, while the un-softened water sits at just a bit north of 7pH. I think my method moving forward will be to add just a little Ca/Mg to the water when I'm doing my 'watering' vs. my feeding, which will maybe give a chance for some to be taken up better than just the hardness natively in the water. I know that many wells in the area carry a lot of sulfur, but ours doesn't seem terrible, though I can't lay my hands on a water analysis report at the moment (I know I saw it when I bought the house).
@LeastExpectedGrower, I would think that calcium in water is just Ca2+ and the form doesn’t really matter. Hardness is just 2.5*Ca + 4.1*Mg in mg/L and if you’re running it through a water softener the Ca and Mg would simply be swapped for sodium, and it might not change the TDS much. You’d likely do better with the unsoftened water. There’s a thing called sodium adsorption ratio if you to look that up. My well water has 290 ppm sodium and almost no hardness so the SAR is off the charts bad. I was using calcium carbonate dissolved in vinegar to provide cal mag after I realized how bad the soft water was. Your 220 ppm TDS seems low (certainly potable) but you might also have reduced sulphur or low dissolved oxygen from well water both of which would be bad for plants. I add hydrogen peroxide in small concentration to raise the DO (let the water sit for an hour to decompose to O2). Your water sounds pretty decent and likely just needs a bit of work. Good luck.
@Capo420,
Thank you, I appreciate it! Each run is a new learning experience for me...they get better a little bit each time. Once harvested, I've been working toward a bunch of things in the kitchen along with the regular uses...I've been playing with infused honey (I have bees) with a few recipes, I've been doing alcohol extractions/tinctures, and now I'm about to start doing some of that with sous vide techniques.
Thanks for checking it out!