First Grow

Week 6 is underway! Since the middle of last week, some of the leaves on every plant are showing deficiencies. Some mild interveinal chlorosis, some purple stems, some chlorosis along leaf edges, and some rust spots. Since it's happening on every plant I think it might have been my water. Last water was a bit high at 7.0 because everywhere I read said that living soil could buffer water that's not very far out of ideal range. It seemed either overwatering, underwatering, micronutrients, or ph was at fault... the plants spent the last few days drying out, I lowered humidity by increasing airflow so the vpd could get closer to 1.5. Here on day 1, it's the first day there was a bit of drooping in the morning, so these girls are thirsty. It's tea time! The base tea was very strong, 1000 ppm 5.5ph with a nice foam on top. Starting with 1 gal pure tea, I added 18ml micro and 1 tsp great white. I diluted it with 1 gal calmag water that had already been ph to 6.0, and then needed to add 1 gal plain tap water around 7.2 ph. The final 3gal mix was 6.3ph and just under 800ppm. I watered in about 1.5 gal over all 4 plants - that's about .375gal or 1.4L. I did not get any run off aside from a few drops here and there that went through the sides of the fabric pots, partly because I watered it all in slowly over a few hours with my sprayer. Praying that the tea should have everything possibly needed to stop the yellowing and get back into perfect health. I suspect there could have also been an issue with nutrients running out. I had just topdressed last week so the nutrients were/are still breaking down. There's a chance some of these issues were just from cutting it too close to feed time. Another factor is that I've only used grow and bloom nutrients, but no micro. I thought that might be fine to skip, but maybe that hurt. Either way, I grabbed a bottle of CES micro since my hydro shop did not have the roots organics uprising foundation I was looking for. I also added a dash of great white, in hopes of boosting microbial life and powering up the mycorrhizal network so that all those nutrients will get taken up. This was the most involved feeding yet, hopefully I didn't screw anything up by combining the fixes into a single potion. Up to day 5 now, and the plants seemed to like the tea. I haven't seen any additional chlorosis, although maybe slightly burnt tips on a few leaves. Today was the first day they started a bit droopy, ready for another drink. Just plain water with calmag this time, ph 6.3, 6ml/gal calmag. I left my sprayer by the heater so water was 70°. Watered in about a gallon between all 4 plants. Later in the day everyone had perked back up. The tent is filling up nicely and should be getting ready to flip in a couple weeks. Tax money coming anytime and I'll be upgrading to a real light for flowering. Eventually these lights will be for a dedicated veg/mom tent, but they're too weak to get 4 plants to a good harvest. Next week is time for another and likely the final topdress of veg nutrients. The tent is smelling a bit like weed, especially at peak temp and humidity. This was the first week I could smell the tent as soon as I got to the basement, mostly just a fresh green smell with a hint of dank. End of week update: Found a good deal on an SE3000 300w light, it should be here next week sometime. Excited to see how they react to the upgrade, plus I'll be able to spread the plants out better. Accidentally snapped a leaf on CMOG when training, so maybe a bit more aggressive than planned...