These lil' plants are definitely having a struggle compared to the Tangerine Dreams. The Northern Lights ended up being too wet last week after I transplanted I watered them in, and really should have given them a few days before doing that. I'm trying to get them on the same schedule as the other plants and they're just not wanting to do that. I did trim off the bottom leaves that yellowed due to the over-water. I try not to snip anything that doesn't need it, but they were cooked. I fed back on day 27 with a hefty 480ppm feed. It that doesn't burn them, I suspect I'll see the week-5 stretch and the leaves darken back down to where they should be.
12/21: Day 30. You can see that both plants have 'greened up' from their feeding a few days ago. They liked the nitrogen and aren't drooping or any of that after giving them some time to dry and stabilize. Here, mid-week 4 they're noticeably starting to stretch. They've started gaining about an inch a day. They won't be dry enough to water until tomorrow at the earliest.
12/23: Day 32. And we're back on track with these two. The feeding back on day 27 gave them the nutrients they needed (with no sign of burn), and holding off a few extra days to water has helped the plants return to their color without any droop. Watered today to significant run-off (20-30%). Each 5g pot took 2 gallons and I ended up with about 1/4 of a gallon of runoff each. The plants are in the early pre-flower/transition stage, and are starting to stretch a bit. No training yet, but within the next week as the branches/colas start appearing I'll start movin' them around.
@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!