Zkittlez autoflower - First Grow

For sake of brevity, gonna start referring to my plants using the following references: Z51 = 5 gallon (bushy girl) Z52 = 5 gallon (leggy girl) ZB1= bonsai in small rectangular pot ZB2 = bonsai in bigger round pot **************************************************** 12/13 - Day 28 / Day 1 Flower First signs that my plants are entering flowering with small pistils sprouting near the top node. Watered today with the intent of soaking the pots so I could test the runoff for pH and TDS. Recorded the following readings: 5 gallons: - pH: 5.7 - TDS: 2090ppm (Z51) - TDS 1610ppm (Z52) ZB1 - pH: 6.2 - TDS: 253ppm ZB2 - pH: 6.2 - TDS: 318ppm Despite having a pH outside of my ideal range of 6 - 7, my 5 gallons looks happy and healthy. No sign of stress or nutrient issues. I'm going to take the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" approach and not planning any adjustments. May pH up on the next feeding with some baking soda to see if I can get it back in range. Meanwhile, my bonsais look like they are suffering a nutrient deficiency of some sort. To my untrained eye, it looks like lack of calcium/magnesium. **************************************************** 12/14 - Day 29 / Day 2 Flower After reading a bunch of pretty abysmal reviews about my Phlizon light, I ended up ordering the SF1000 from spider farmer. Of course, I couldn't stop there and ended up getting the S4 fan from AC Infinity in the hopes of solving my ventilation woes. Both of them came in today and I got them all set up. I am so glad I got the AC Infinity fan - I dialed in my temp and humidity ranges and was able to close all but my intake vent and my environment is now perfectly in range all day. Too early to tell whether the new LED light will make a difference but it is significantly brighter than my Phlizon so I have a feeling my girls are gonna love it. **************************************************** 12/15 - Day 30 / Day 3 Flower My bonsais are in rough shape - yellow/browning leaves in the lower canopy and seemingly stunted growth on the one in a square pot. Gave my bonsais some distilled water mixed with 4ml Cal-Mag and a .25tsp of baking soda (per gallon). pH of water registered at 7.7. Recorded the following readings in the runoff: ZB1 - pH: 6.9 - TDS: 520ppm ZB2 - pH: 6.8 - TDS: 458ppm Hopefully these girls turn around over the next few days. **************************************************** 12/17 - Day 32 / Day 4 Flower My 5 gallon girls have needed way less water than I originally anticipated. Last time I watered them was on 12/13 which was about 4 days ago. Granted, I soaked the pots on that day in order to generate some runoff for pH and TDS measurements but really surprised they haven't been more thirsty. Even today when I dug my index finger into the soil down to the second knuckle, I still felt a slight bit of moisture on my finger tip. Even though my plants probably didn't "need" water, I'm trying to get at least one feeding in per week with plain watering in between...so today is feeding day. Based on the measurements I took on 12/13, I know that the pH of my soil was running at the lower end of the acceptable range of acidity at 5.7 so want to boost that pH up a bit to get into a more ideal range. For the feeding, I mixed the following nutes: - 1 gallon of distilled water - .5 tsp of CalMag - 2tsp of FF Big Bloom - .5 tsp of Grow Big (1/4 strength) - .5 tsp of Tiger Bloom (1/4 strength) The pH of the solution registered at 6.8 with a TDS of 493ppm. I fed each of my 5 gallons about a half gallon of this solution which didn't produce any runoff for testing. For my bonsais, I am still contending with some sort of deficiency. I ended up flushing both bonsais and then fed them about 4oz of the solution above (anticipating there may be a calcium or magnesium issue at play). Both bonsais looked a little better than they did a few days earlier, following another flush and defoliation of discolored fan leaves. Based on feedback from my grow questions, I am going to let the soil dry out in the event that lack of oxygen is playing a role. I've also agitated the top layer of soil to as it was pretty caked down with water. Bonsais look slightly better on the whole. Darker green colors are starting to return to the leaves that were yellowing previously and noticing some new growth on the tops. That said, lower leaves are starting to show more discoloration and mottling. **************************************************** 12/18 - Day 33 / Day 5 Flower Stretch phase is in full effect. my 5 gallon girls are growing a couple inches a day. Bonsais look like they are continuing to improve. Had to raise my light a couple inches...starting to worry that my tent height may be too low 😳