Very First Grow

@CannaMom2, the bulb is way more economical

@NegotiatedBubble, Thanks! I have one of those in my amazon cart. I decided to try the heat emitter bulb first and setting it up the way I describe in my journal is working fantastic! I will need the oil radiator for sure this winter though.

@CannaMom2, Check out an (electrically powered) oil filled radiator heater. The oil stays hot in between switching on and off, so it is a more consistent heat. For sprouting seed in cold ambient conditions, I place a container in a water bath and then use a aquarium heater to warm the water bath.

@NegotiatedBubble, thank you for the explanation. My tap water has a very high pH which is why I use R/O in my grow. Flushing those two plants was a nightmare as everything says to use proper pH'd water and I cannot produce that much R/O quickly with my setup. Took me all day and I was worried I should have done even more flushing. I do not want to ever deal with that again if I can help it. I know it is recommended to flush at the end of a grow but that I can plan for. Do you remove all damaged leaves when you have an issue like this?

@CannaMom2, correct. Leachate/extraction are the same terms as run-off. I think "leachate" occurs more in science literature. I typically feed and produce 10-20% run off from the feeding solution. Then, I let 2 hours pass. After 2 hours, I perform the Pour-Through method to measure and test the leachate from the PourThrough. I log the numbers in a spreadsheet so I can look at an ongoing graph. Testing that initial 10-20% feeding run-off is also an acceptable way to monitor things. Just subtract the feeding EC from the run-off EC and note the difference. Pour-Through is more work, but is supposed to be more consistent that the latter method and the recommendations are far less vague. I have been overfeeding throughout most of my grows, so this next one I am feeding a lower EC nutrient solution each watering and using Pour-Though to track EC build up. The nutrients accumulate in the soil and the plants then feed from that store. Cannabis plants will quickly bounce back from overfeeding. Luckily they can tolerate a lot of fertilizer abuse. This is the annoying reason why nutrient manufacturers have crazy high feeding recommendations. It sells more nutes.

@NegotiatedBubble, Thanks again! You always have such good information when I post problems. I read all 3 articles and was hoping you could clarify for me. Science was never my best subject, LOL! Husband however is a scientist so I can also ask him but he can't grow anything. My grow tent is a mystery to him. When they say pour through extraction and leachate. Do they mean what we refer to as run-off? Since my issues, I am watering to runoff and then collecting that water to sample with my pH and ppm/tds/ec meter. I am worried my ladies won't bounce back. That might just devastate me as they have been doing so well and looking so pretty.

@CannaMom2, yes - I would feed them some more nutes. Usually nitrogen is the first to be flushed away and that is the quickest to replenish after a flush. I do remove damaged leaves with the exception of yellow leaves. Yellow leaves (nitrogen) will become green again. For other nutrients, the leaves will never recover and need to be removed for monitoring purposes.

@NegotiatedBubble, I did not feed after flush as the sites I found said not to until they dried again. I felt that was a bad idea but since I have no experience I did it as I read. The ladies definitley suffered more those 3 days with no food. I did feed half strength nutes a few days ago and I think I may be able to water them today so should I do another half strength of the nutes or just regular water?

@CannaMom2, best way I find is just crack on with what feels right then you can get a bit of a baseline for what works with the strains you have then tinker about from there! And keep an eye on your leaves, they will tell you everything about how the plant is responding to what your doing with her 👍, and always remember it's a weed!! It's gonna try and grow wherever it can we just need to bring the best out of them! 🙂

@NCbud, Thank you, I have been researching like crazy. I don't think I had to learn this much to raise either of my teens! LOL I definitely need to use more soil next time. First time ever using a fabric pot and I underestimated the settling after first water and just wet/dry environment.

@NegotiatedBubble, yes. I have the controller 69 pro. The RH auto adjusts using the settings I input into my controller. I set my humidifier port up with the vpd trigger of high 1.1kPa and turned the low off since I wanted them to stay between .9kPa and 1.2kPa. I then set my buffer vpd at .2kPa and it has been so easy! It did take me a few tries to figure out how to set it up on the controller. Ac infinity controller 69 pro is awesome but not super intuitive at times. I did not try using the humidifiers onboard settings since I have the controller 69 pro and I knew it had the vpd triggers. I know the humidifer itself came with its own humidity sensor probe and it has onboard settings for humidity and schedule timing but as I said I like the controller 69 pro as it keeps everything right on my phone and so easy to adjust if I didn't dial something in just right. If i need more than 4 ports I am so going to get a second controller. They are awesome!