First Grow - Wife finally caved...

You’ve been advised wisely by @Philindicus Auto correct will getchya every time whether you type or speak the word pistils! The silent T doesn’t help I found. Prompts me to design a cap slogan: Make America Stoned More Pistils. Less Pistols Red pistils are often a false sign of readiness, caused by heat or low humidity (you want low RH during flower) or maybe genetic to the strain. You will want a digital microscope to get a good look at your trichomes. Over time you will learn to associate the type of high you most enjoy with overall trichome color/cloudiness. Even after many years of growing I recently misjudged maturity with my naked eye - she looked ready! But a quick look under the mic proved she is several weeks away. You only recently discovered you need to monitor pH. You will be very happy with the performance of your microscope because it helps you harvest at the correct time. Enjoy!

First grow, second wife😂 well done man, good for your and your wife. Good luck with your N°1 grow

Hey there! I use a carbon filter and it doesn't smell. Might I suggest a couple things (and I will post a picture of my exhaust setup on my "CLONE" diary in a few minutes if you want to go look at it): 1. Are you using your fan to suck air out or push it in? If you have a setup where you are using a fan to force clean air INTO the tent, and then your exhaust port is just a tube to the filter, you're going to be forcing air out any microscoping holes etc in the tent! This is called positive pressure. There's nothing wrong with positive pressure, except it forces the environment inside the tent, to go outside the tent. I use negative pressure. On my intake port, is just a darkener (angled baffle thing to allow air in but keep light out). Then my fan is EXTERNAL to the tent. I use a length of RUBBER-COATED (light proof, smell proof) ducting to run from my exhaust port to the intake for the fan, then the same rubber-coated ducting to run from the exhaust of the fan into the charcoal filter. This way, rather than forcing air out all the little holes in the fabric of the tent and what not, you're sucking air IN to these holes and out the fan! WARNING: Negative pressure will cause your tent sides to suck in. This is actually what you want -- HOWEVER, too much is bad. I'd recommend getting a rheostat for your fan if you use negative pressure, so you can set it to whatever you want. For example, my fan/filter combo moves 150CFM, but for a 2x2x5 tent I only need 30CFM. I use a rheostat to put the fan on the absolute lowest the rheostat will allow it to go, which provides about 45CFM. I get great negative air pressure. 2. If you are using negative pressure, are you using rubber-coated ducting and are your clamps tight enough? Any holes in your rubber-coated ducting? Does your filter meet or exceed the CFM at which your fan is currently running (this can cause any weak points in your ducting or filter to open up into holes, even if they are virtually microscopic it's not good)?

Good looking grow. If you truly think you have a hermed plant, just pull the balls off as often as you can and you should be fine; that is if there isn't an excessive amount of them! The small black flies are more than likely Fungus Gnats and almost impossible to avoid when using soil as your medium. That being said, get some sticky yellow fly trap sheets to hang in your tent, and at least once a week apply some of that neem oil to your top soil only. Make sure you let your soil dry out as much as possible before watering again!