1st grow in 25 years - CKS autoflowers!

Hard to believe that it's week 3 already! Excellent progress as can be seen in the photos. SATURDAY: I mixed up a 2 gallon batch of nutrients and gave them a fairly thorough douching.....the alkalinity of my tap water has suddenly started climbing for the past few days..odd...takes almost double the PH down to adjust it now.. I reset the timer today and played with it for a while. It seems I had somehow put it into a random "vacation mode"..problem solved. I bought a 40w Sansi daylight grow bulb and a 15w Sansi blurple bulb from Amazon that I've got in reflectors just above the two new CC's (hopefully 3 by morning) They are getting juicy light from them as well as peripheral blues/whites and big blurple... Gotta try to catch them up... I plan to order a pair of Cree COB CXB3590's this coming week. I'm hoping that will help to put some good par values into the darkest two corners. I'll just have to rotate the girls until I can afford another couple CXB3590s. I'm still not certain that I won't just go ahead and spend a little more and start procuring LED strip panels instead of the COBs. The principle reason being the reduced temperatures, but also because of the much more even distribution of light. Whether I go with the COBs or strip panels, it will be good to be able to adjust the lamp distances independently since I'm likely to have such an uneven canopy for awhile. Thoughts? SUNDAY: I observed some brown spotting on the older fan leaves on WW#1, EM#1 and the Mystery Seedling. Obvious signs of major PH fluctuation. I feel sure I must've forgotten to adjust the most recent plain water day..doh! And what's worse is that it's coming out of the tap at frickin' 8.2 right now!!! It's.usually 7.0 or 7.2 at the highest. I let them dry out today and tomorrow will douche them thoroughly with properly PH'd water, then let them dry out for a day before resuming nutes. I'm considering saving up for a RO system. Does anybody have any recommendations on one that can produce enough to keep 8-10 thirsty girls satisfied at a time..plus a few trays of ice cubes a week? I dedicated the new 40w daylight sansi bulb with a 10" reflector to CC#1 at about 18" and the new 15w blurple sansi in a 10" reflector at about 12" to CC#2...they are also getting good peripheral lighting. Still no sign of the 3rd CC..losing hope. I'll probably just roll with 8 in the tent + the mystery seedling until it's relegated to the great outdoors. From what I read, FIMing usually causes quite a bit of spread, so the extra space will probably be handy anyway. MONDAY: Still no CC #3.....2 will do. I douched the girls with tap water that had absolutely been adjusted to 6.0. I also mixed in a couple tsp of CaliMagic, but nothing else. Sprayed everybody down with spring water a few times. I think they still love me. I pulled the trigger and ordered a couple of CXB3590's off of ebay. Should be here in plenty of time for flowering. I ordered another COB daylight grow bulb today. It uses a 100w epistar bridgelux chip(running at 50%) so it's only about 40% of the lumens of a CXB3590, but it's 3500k temp and just $52, so I'll probably get another few to have as backups in case anything craps out mid-flower and to fill in any spots I have in the garden with poor PPFD. I ordered some photographic filters so that I can tape them over my cell phone camera lens and erase the blurple hue in my photos without killing the lights. I do, however, like the ambience of my moonlite garden photos...but alas, vegging is but another couple weeks..then we'll have a 660nm Martian nighttime ;-) I also ordered a second Exhale 365 bag for my tent. I'm hoping to increase the daytime PPMs a bit despite my killer ventilation, and maybe even push 1400 during their no-ventilation 3 hour blue/white light "nighttime". The WooZoo M15U compact oscillating fan came in today...love it. Small footprint and powerful! I really MUST stop spending money on these bitches until they start putting out! TUESDAY: Mixed up and PH'd a 2 gallon batch of 1/3 strength nutes and douched everybody since I won't be around til late tomorrow. Did a little rearranging and raised the lights about an inch. The CC toddlers are looking happy and healthy. Mystery seedling has mostly recovered from his/her transplant. A friend gave me 3 Pineapple Express beans today, but he wasn't sure if it was auto or photo. I'll drop them in water tomorrow, sprout them, and if all goes well I'll grow them to a foot or so in 2 qt pots, space permitting, then transplant them to 10g pots and move them outdoors. EM #1, EM#2, and WW#1 have incredible lower branching..not even gonna bother with FIMing them..their lowers are seriously competing with the main colas. True believer in pumping the blues during veg. Thought about FIMing EM#3, but the bitch has already started flowering...she's so damn short...she could stretch by 400% and still be under 2 feet...?!? (wtf?) So, I'll either FIM WW#2 or EM#4 or maybe both of them...tomorrow's the big day.. WEDNESDAY: Growing autoflowers is so damn cool...EM#1, EM#2, EM#3, and WW#1...all flowering at exactly 1 month from seed! EM#3 actually started flowering yesterday and put on over an inch in upward growth overnight. Well, I popped my cherry today and FIM'd EM#4...pretty sure I did it right...we'll see. Gonna leave it at that this time around, and if it goes well I'll be less timid next crop. I let the girls dry out today, but did foliar feedings a few times. I gave the Candy Cane girls some 1/3 strength grow big too..fingers crossed that I didn't jump the gun, but I'm anxious to get them big enough to justify occupying some prime garden real estate. The new 100w epistar bridgelux COB LED and Exhale CO2 bag came in today and I added them to the mix. Build quality is somewhat lacking on the bulb, but I'm very impressed with the light it produces. Just in time really because the extra par and 3500k spectrum light on the newly flowering girls should really tickle their fancy and buy me some time while I wait on DHL to deliver the new Cree CXB3590's. I'm gonna order another one tonight so it will be here by the weekend...for $52, they are a steal. I guess I'll switch out a couple of the supplemental 440nm blues for 660nm reds over the flowering girls....boy, time really flies with autoflower varieties... THURSDAY: The slight wilt I observed on EM#2 yesterday turned out to be a case of wind-burn..evidently the new fan is a little too intense for the proximity I had it in..damnit...today all new growth is badly twisted! I fixed the fan and moved her into a less breezy space, but I'm worried because all her new growth is so phuktup. I split up 3 gallons of 6.0 ph'd water between the girls and did some spring water misting today. EM#4 is shocked today after her haircut..hopefully she perks up tomorrow. The two CC babies continue to spread their wings, but they've got a long way to go. FRIDAY: I took some new photos today while the blurple light was off. Spring water misting only today except for the CC's..they got watered. EM#1 is starting to stretch a little and is budding up nicely..gave her one of the 54w 660nm bulbs today. WW#1 - ditto EM#2 snapped out of her windburn shock and is back to 95% perfection today! EM#3 is full-on flowering now but hasn't begun to stretch. EM#4 is looking a little less shocked from her haircut. WW#2, has overtaken EM#4 in height and looking good. Both CC babies are still growing nicely. Mystery Seedling still hasn't fully recovered from the transplant, but is doing better. The 3 Pineapple Express seeds sunk yesterday and have been in a wet paper towel for 12 hours..still no germination. If they pop, I'll start a separate diary for them.