LED Grow Light Forum

Happy holidays to all!
got the lights in today and very
excited to get this journal going.

I started an 2x2 indoor ebb and flow table this year, on the 31st of October.
Had the 100 watt solarflare and after a month, the plants, mostly the basil and lettuce
responded well. The spinach never took off.

Fast forward to December, I decided that changing the reservoir in the tent, even though
it was only 10 gallons, was a real pain. Furthermore, the humidity was to high. Despite having
a fan and dehumidifier going. So, I brought the system outdoors. Which left me with an empty
grow tent.

So, to fill that void(and to make this intro even longer), I germinated an Acapulco gold(ac), Critical mass 33(cm33) and a white widow(auto)!
Now, my plan was to veg them with the led and hit the flowering with 400 watt hps.

I might've been expecting a lil' too much from the solarflare. I could just use the hid to veg/flower. But honestly, I just love the
futuristic look of the led in the grow tent too much.

The folks over at clw have agreed to give me a shot at the solarstorm and I certainly appreciate that chance!

The fact that it's USA made just seals the deal.

I sprouted the ac broke ground on the 6th while cm33 arose on the 9th and will get 'em under
the ss400 tonight. I'm growing in 3 gallon smart pots with happy frog/light warrior mix.
Using ro water from a dispenser but i'm not against using our tap water, after letting it sit for a while.
Haven't decided on nutes yet, as I was hoping to use organic nutes.
I've taken some pictures but they are way to huge - will post them as soon as I get them sized correctly.

Anyhow, I look forward to keeping the journal.

willsker

Welcome to the forums!


Merry Christmas,

SME

Thank you.

Haven't had a chance to figure picture editing yet but will make that a priority.
In any case,this is my first medical herb grow so I don't have any prior knowledge
And its already starting to show. I've got the plants in soil and watered with to.
Added .5 ml of cal/mag. I'm not sure if I was supposed to lower pH
I guess iI figured since it was soil, I didn't need to.

After a couple days of watering, the tips of the lower leaves have started to turn yellow
Wilting. I know its hard for anyone to help without actually seeing
The plant and I will post pictures soon.

Though its been only a few days, I just don't know what's happening with the plants.
I do suspect that the soil was possibly too hot. Another thing that I've been wondering is that the plants have heat stress.
I totally didn't think the tent would get all that hot since the solar flare caused no change in temp. So, I didn't run the exhaust fan the first
Night. as you can imagine, it got fairly hot(86).

I germinated the seeds in root plugs. I waited too long so I had to transplanted them into the only pots I had, 3 gallons. Another thing I did wrong was that I didn't plant them deep enough. After a couple of days I leaned it forward and covered not with soil-not sure if that was good. Its worked for tomato plants before. Anyhow, I would hate to think that my ignorance me to kill these plants. More importantly, it would not be a fair report on the ss400.

Plants in soil still need an adjusted pH. 6.5-6.8 is where you want to aim for.

I doubt that's heat stress, it's probably a lockout due to pH or a feeding issue. I know happy frog is very acidic but I don't know about the other. What are you feeding these and how much?

Thanks for your reply.
I only added cal/mag - about half strength.
Don't know how soon to start feeding. I have some GH organic ferts so I
Might go with that.

If it is due to high pH is that something iI can undo?

Will

The pH is probably too low but either way, you can adjust it. You might have to remove them fromtheir posts and repot them after you amend the soil though.

How can I raise or lower the pH of my soil mix?

Once you get the pH adjusted you might give them a light feeding. You can probably skip the calmag if you use dolomite lime.

want to make an update. Added a couple of tablespoons of dolomite lime to the 3 gallon pots.
Those have had a very rough time. First, they weren't getting enough light. And then, I believe the soil was way too hot
for them. the leaves yellowed and then got crispy. The one in the 4 inch pot is growing so much healthier than the other
two. That one broke ground on the 19th of December. I have been using RO water which has a ph close to nine. Instead of ph down,
I used some EM 1 to lower it - not sure if this is a good thing or not.

The color in this picture is way off, had to take it while the lights were.



I'm hopeful all three will make it but they just seem to be growing so
slowly.

any advice and criticism is greatly appreciated.

will

I'm not sure how much lime you'll need but test the leachate coming out of the pots and you'll have a better idea where you are. Water with a pH of 9 is very HIGH and I doubt it's RO, it sounds like alkaline water. That can't be used instead of pH down, it's more like pH UP. The EM1 is acidic so that could lower it a bit but you don't use much so it won't have a big impact.

I'd start mixing a batch of new soil, add the dolomite lime, water well with 10% nutrient concentration (no plants) that was adjusted to 6.5 and test the water coming out. If it comes out lower than 6.5 add more lime and repeat. Once you have the soil properly pH'd then transplant the plants into the new soil.

YMMV...

Hey Willsker,

Just read your post and thought I would chime in. I had a similar issue with my "soiless" mixture...using Fox Farms Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. I followed SME's advice on the dolemite lime...it took a little to figure out how much to use, but it seems to have worked well for me so far. It's a lot easier than adding Cal-Mag and PH up every feeding!

As far as your slow growing plants...I ran into that last time around as well. It may be the size of the pot you are using. I have found that keeping them in a smaller pot for a longer period led to significant vegetation growth....conversely, I found that young plants in large pots spent a lot of their energy growing roots.

Just a thought...as SME says, there is no "right way" to do this.

Best of luck..

ICB