# First Grow in Promix, finally got journal up!



## jsmits420 (Sep 24, 2013)

Hey all! :ciao:
I finally got my journal up and running.  Had some things come up and couldn't get around to starting it. Just a quick run down:
Germed 10 Northern Lights seeds in a glass of water and in 48 hrs all popped with a 1/2" tail and went straight into Promix HP that was pre-mixed with 1 cup of DL (fine) per 5 gallons of PM and 1/2 cup of EWC per gallon of PM. I have a rubbermaid container full, already mixed, for my 1 gallon smart pots and my 3 gallon smart pots individually in their own batch so it's cut and dry and all I have to do is pick the containers when it's time to transplant. KISS. That's my motto this go around.
So, after the 1/2" tail they went right into the promix in solo cups. I planned to have them in there for 2-3 weeks if I could make it to 3 and I'm already having roots coming out of the bottom. Just a few, not enough to transplant in my eyes. They're still too young and establishing roots. I've been watering every few days as needed with distilled bottled water with a ph of 7 and I've been misting 2-3 times a day to keep the tops of the soil moist and from drying out and killing the seedlings. Things have been going smooth, up until tonight when I checked them.  I've noticed spots on the leaves (some of them) and I'm unsure if it's ph spots or if they're getting hungry. Now on the bag of Promix it says start feeding after 7 days, but I've heard otherwise from people on here saying the plants have enough food to last at least 2 weeks. Well, I'll let the pics do the talking.

Edit: Pic 1 Shows the leaf tips, Pic 2 shows the spots. The rest are just pics in general. All from today. And like I said, everything has been smooth sailing from here. I just noticed the spots today. I wonder if I put them back under the lights too quick after a mist or something? Surely it can't be deficiency and obviously not any sort of burn..... I'm confused and need help lol. Or someone to just tell me to keep doing what I'm doing and stop overwatering and leave them alone since they're kinda droopy! Haha


----------



## Grower13 (Sep 24, 2013)

your most likely over watering........ I'd stop the misting......  you want the soil to dry out on top....... keeps mold down....... make sure you get them in some moving air........ I feed my new plants in promix at about 2 1/2 weeks old........ feed them lightly at least half of normal. your spots could caused by your misting....... what kind of lights are you veging them under?


----------



## 4u2sm0ke (Sep 24, 2013)

the PH  is a bit high like me...other than that they look nice and healthy...I just dropped some NL  last night...will be watching this one..:aok:

:48:


----------



## Melvan (Sep 24, 2013)

I agree with the misting back off on that. You may be causing transpiration issues which could in turn be causing ph issues. You said watering at 7.0, drop that a couple points.

 Seedlings will ask for feed the same way as your full sized plants. By being a light yellow at their tips first. I also would suggest a pot up at 21 days.

 I start feeding seedlings that are in promix BX only about 7 days. Then I use one teaspoon of flora blend from general hydroponics or I use vitamax plus plus from grotek. Again I use no additives so whatever additives you have put in the pro mix may make a change in that for you.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 24, 2013)

Yea I thought I looked like ph was outta whack.  I tested my soil and it was at 7 so I planned on watering tomorrow at 6.2. Yes or no on that level? I'm under the assumption promix likes 6.2-6.3,.correct me if I'm wrong! And sorry, plants are in my 4x2 veg tent with exhaust fan at top pulling air out exhaust to outside, 12 in vortex blowing on light to cool it, which is a 4ft 4 bulb ho t5 and another cool mist humidifier that keeps me at 55-70 rh with an oscillating fan makin them ladies shake! I figure the lime in this batch is starting to wear off and ph is creeping up like it does. So me being lazy worked for the first week or so now I need to ph correct until I x plant into 1 gal to sex. I'll stop misting, just my first time in promix and heard 'mist the top of soil to keep from drying out' well boys and girls I sure did! Haha. I'll stop misting, drop the ph next water, and keep on keepin on! Glad everyone pulled up a chair hopin to see some ladies so I can watch them explode under my new lumatek 1k dimmable! 

-smitty


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 24, 2013)

And Melvan- I just added DL for ph and a little worm castings for slow release N. I think I've just been misting too much. My first thought was I got too high and threw them under the lights to quick after a mist, on top of the pH going in being too high. You said a couple points, but if if they want what full size plants want don't I need to stay around 6.2-6.3 for soilless? Thanks!

-smitty


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 24, 2013)

4u2sm0ke said:
			
		

> the PH  is a bit high like me...other than that they look nice and healthy...I just dropped some NL  last night...will be watching this one..:aok:
> 
> :48:



I'm about to pop some other ones too since (I should) have room after sexing. Thinking about wonder woman???? I need a couple mothers and want to try out perpetual style. I've got dedicated space for veg and flower, and made my bubble cloner this weekend (24 sites) with a 20-60 gallon pump in a 3 gallon container! Should be plentyyyyy lol


----------



## The Hemp Goddess (Sep 24, 2013)

Your babies look nice and green and happy.  

There is no way that the lime could be "wearing off"--you really added a large percentage of lime.  My question is how you are checking the pH of your soil?  If you are using one of those inexpensive probes that you stick into the soil, throw it away.  I believe that you want your pH around 6.3-6.8.  However correct pH is important for nutrient uptake and you are not feeding them yet, so at this point, I don't think the 7.0 pH is affecting anything.  I vote for the misting as causing the spots.  Your plants do not need it.  And they need to go through wet and dry periods.  As the soil dries out, it pulls O2 into the root area.

It looks like you have 9 going?  How large is your flowering space?  How long do you plan on vegging them?  I am not sure that more than 9 will fit in a 2 x 4 space to veg.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 24, 2013)

THG- I currently have 9 in the 4x2 and that's what I plan on keeping in there this go. What I was saying about dropping some more beans was because I want to try to come up with dedicated mother/clone locations. But I won't start more beans until I have this setup ready and tested. I have a hugeeee closet, and a free tent shell that I got in the mail for some reason.... ? (32x32x60) so I wanted to cut it up, since I don't have the poles, and build some mother/clone rooms in the closet. I have plenty of space like I said. I could even do shelf grows since the 2 footers I have are 1 ft wide, but I doubt that's big enough for a mother plant. Maybe for the clones....idk.  I'm open to ideas and suggestions on this!! Thanks in advance!  

-smitty

EDIT: Sorry THG, forgot to answer your question. I have a 4x4 flowering tent. And I was going to veg to a foot or more, or roughly 6 weeks. Yes or no? I'm really just trying to learn as much. I have a plan, but I'm more than willing to listen to suggestions to get one GREAT grow under my belt so I have a good feel of things, learn as much as I can, and can have many many more wonderful grows in the future with what I learn. I hear plants can triple in size once flipped, so I was wanting to go a foot or 14-15 inches.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 25, 2013)

Ok a little update, I went and stayed with my girl so I wouldn't mess with them and let them dry out some so they could do the wet/dry cycle. Since I was overwatering and having other issues as well, with misting etc. Basically just in there 24/7 :watchplant:    So I got home and they dried out and let me know, they were all droopy and you can see that in some of the pics but in the other I lifted the leaves up to the edge of the cup so they weren't sitting in soil. I also ph'd the water down a couple points to about 6.7-6.8 and tested runoff and it was the exact same. Seems as though with this mix and how well it drains/dries I'm going to water about every 48 hours or every 3rd day. I've got temps steady at 78-80, lights on 24/7 so no nighttime temp, and humidity at 60-70%. I know rh is supposed to be super high for seedlings but when should I take the humidifier out to avoid issues as far as mold goes? Hope you all enjoy! And I threw in an extra pic of my big ol baby and he's about to have a birthday! The big 1 :baby:   And my awesome coffee mug, that I got as a gift that I'm waiting to use until I have some of my own to fill it with :icon_smile:


----------



## Grower13 (Sep 25, 2013)

It will take a few days for them to use most of the water in those cups at the size your plants are now........ you should be able to tell when they are drying out by the weight of the cups....... mold has a hard time in moving air...... nice dog btw.


----------



## sunakard2000 (Sep 25, 2013)

your plants look about the right size... i personaly never have issues with my seedling and never use a humidifyer, my RH stays in the 35-45% range in my veg area and they do just fine, so id say remove that humidifyer before you start having some real issues. and keep it simple dont over complicate things


----------



## The Hemp Goddess (Sep 25, 2013)

jsmits420 said:
			
		

> THG- I currently have 9 in the 4x2 and that's what I plan on keeping in there this go. What I was saying about dropping some more beans was because I want to try to come up with dedicated mother/clone locations. But I won't start more beans until I have this setup ready and tested. I have a hugeeee closet, and a free tent shell that I got in the mail for some reason.... ? (32x32x60) so I wanted to cut it up, since I don't have the poles, and build some mother/clone rooms in the closet. I have plenty of space like I said. I could even do shelf grows since the 2 footers I have are 1 ft wide, but I doubt that's big enough for a mother plant. Maybe for the clones....idk.  I'm open to ideas and suggestions on this!! Thanks in advance!
> 
> -smitty
> 
> EDIT: Sorry THG, forgot to answer your question. I have a 4x4 flowering tent. And I was going to veg to a foot or more, or roughly 6 weeks. Yes or no? I'm really just trying to learn as much. I have a plan, but I'm more than willing to listen to suggestions to get one GREAT grow under my belt so I have a good feel of things, learn as much as I can, and can have many many more wonderful grows in the future with what I learn. I hear plants can triple in size once flipped, so I was wanting to go a foot or 14-15 inches.


 
I wouldn't cut the tent up, I would make a frame out of PVC.  PVC is quite inexpensive and really easy to work with.  Use either sch 40 or 80 for strength.  I have a 32 x 32 x 60 tent that I like.  It tucks right into the corner of my bedroom.  I have it up and going right now--have 9 plants vegging in 3 gal containers under 300W.

I usually wait until plants are 18" or so to flip, but 14-15" will be find until you figure out how much they stretch once flipped


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 25, 2013)

THG- in my new place I have this awesome space with an exhaust port for the dryer, it's lxwxh 96"x33"x 9 or 10 ft tall but it has a shelf at 5 ft so it's perfect. I was just saying cut up the tent so I can have a dedicated veg/clone and mother area and not have to buy mylar or paint the walls white. They're cheap-o tents like 60 bucks off ebay and they sent me another cover since I had to exchange one since the zipper broke, of course.. and a couple weeks later I got another tent and it was the one I'm speaking of. This was months and months ago and no charge to my account  And if I do this, then I only have to have one tent out instead of two freeing up space. I have a drawing of it I made last night I plan to implement this weekend. I'll attach in a sec I'm stuffing my face! And yea my rh stays around 50 but it was suggested to increase it to 60-80 for seedlings. Already took it out during this post lol. And thanks, he's a full blooded Weimaraner. Biggest baby ever and doesn't realize he's so big and not a lap dog anymore!

EDIT: What I like about this idea of the picture below, is the veg room will be right beside it and the mother/clone room will have 2 separate lights allowing me to lower/higher them to specific needs. I'd like to get it to eventually have 3 plants every month or so. That's why it says 3 plant perpetual cycle at the top of the page. And I'm the next Picasso, watch out. And there's a 3.5' door that I'll just leave open and set up a box fan blowing fresh air in. And what I like about this, is I can customize how I want the intakes. The tent I have now has it on the back, but for this setup I'd want them on the front, sucking in that cool fresh air then going out the exhaust. I was playing around with it last night with the tape measure and I'll have plenty of room to move around and get to each plant still. And there will be eye hooks for the 2 footers as well like the drawing depicts for the 4 foot t5. I just didn't draw it because it was like 1 am and I just put the pic up. But as always, open to suggestions. Just think this space is so ideal I want to utilize it. I like tents, but I can make my own with the 8x4 whiteboard sheets from HD for 12 bucks and have it cut there for what I need, get home and line it with the tent pieces. Boom.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 26, 2013)

Getting a few rust spots on leaves... it'll be two weeks on the 28th should I go ahead and give a light feeding with cal/mag ph-d to 6.3-6.4? Or what will my ideal ph be with my mix? Promix with ewc and DL? I was planning on x planting as well but they don't seem happy today (watered yesterday, perked up initially but now I have a couple new rust spots on one plant) I threw in 3 solo cups of HF just to help with roots so I'm not sure if the plants are thrown off because there is 'some' food in there and they're just getting locked out because I'm giving water at a ph level of soilless but I guess these solo cups would be 'soil' since I added a couple things.  I'm ready to just repot into 1 gal smartpots because that mix is just Promix with 1/2c ewc per gallon and 1 cup DL per 5 gallons. Just confused on what to do right now. Will snap pics after I get back from running errands because I know a picture will explain everything. Weird thing is most of them are fine there's just 2 that have had the issue from the start so it's the lowest set of leaves, all.new growth looks good. Maybe a little pale but it's about time to move up and feed. Just curious about these new spots as it came about after I watered with ph'd water at about 6.8 and runoff was 6.8. Stumped. Help!

EDIT: The HF was only added to the solo cups. I mixed up 10 solo cups of Promix and threw in 3 solo cups of HF in a tub and mixed then filled cups and dropped beans in, thinking the mychorrize(sp) would help root development. .should have just left it alone :/ now I'm on the edge of soil and soilless... doh!


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 27, 2013)

Please help.... literally it was on one plant on the oldest leaves then I came back this afternoon to check on them and now it's on 4 plants. I'm at a total loss idk if it's lockout/pests/mold or what???? :hairpull:   The same stuff happened to my last plants in Happy Frog and I ended up just getting rid of them because there was too much S*** going on with them. I really don't want this to go downhill. I just think the HF from my local hydro shop is bad or something. But someone please help shed some light on this. At this rate it looks like by tomorrow every plant will be infected. I hit them with some 'Safer' Garden Fungicide OMRI listed last night assuming it was mold or rust spots. Hopefully it's just something with the ph and some sort of lockout. HELPPPPPPPPPPP:holysheep:


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 27, 2013)

And can a mod link this post to the sick plants thread?? I don't have time to put it there. If not I'll do it later. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!! I really can't lost these I need my medicine like no other.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 27, 2013)

Damnit just saw some fungus gnats!!!!! Killed like 3 of them!!!! Ahhh what to do??


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 27, 2013)

Picked up some neem oil.... any suggestions? Killed all the adults I could find. Also have 8 or 9 fly traps. I'm serious lol. But I don't know to let the soil dry out then do a soil drench with the neem oil or should I gk ahead and do it since they're obviously moving fast?? I really need some answers.  And when using the neem oil I have the triple action kind that needs to be diluted so do I need to ph that water? Or give straight up neutral distilled water...?


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 28, 2013)

Will update in a few days, transplanted and fed first 1/4 strength feeding last night. Overall, they've reacted well and were very rootbound in the solo cups. At least from what I've seen, the more airy the medium, the faster they become rootbound. And theoretically, if soiless is close to hydro, why wouldn't it be as fast as hydro? Just my thinking.... Have a good weekend all! Will update after they adjust to the transplant.


----------



## The Hemp Goddess (Sep 29, 2013)

You don't do soil drenches with the neem oil--it is not a systemic.  Neem oil (which I really hate) is meant to be sprayed onto the plant.  At least, I have never seen a neem oil product that is introduced into the soil and I personally would not use it that way.

While soilless may be close to hydro, it is not hydro.  I would expect growth more like a soil plant than a hydro plant.  

Something that I noticed on your veg/cloning/mother space plans--32 x 32 is 7.11 sq ft, not 5.33.  So your lumens per sq ft is closer to 2250 than 3000.

I think that I would rethink keeping the closet door open all the time for ventilation.  You are most likely going to find that that is a PITA and you waste any light that comes through the door and disburses elsewhere. 

Be careful of feeding too much at first.  They were a bit small to need transplanting.  What size pot did you transplant them into?


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 29, 2013)

I put them in 1 gallon smart pots. And the neem oil was 4 bucks, ah well. I was shopping at my local garden store for some stuff for winter and remember hearing it had some use.  Live and ya learn!  And the tent is 32x32, what I'll most likely do is just leave my 4x2 tent up with tj3 4ft 4 bulb ho t5 for veg and if I keep mothers like I plan I'll build something for them or figure something out. I just need to get these babies back and healthy.  They're already bouncing back and growing fast after the transplant. Idk maybe I just had some bomb seeds? Lol. And the closet is actually 8 ft long, 30.5in deep, and the section I would've had for mothers would've been 31in long. But I think a lot is going the change here soon, been talkin with Pup and I might be makin the switch because this area has a low low supplyfor dirt so it sits for a long time, as I've been informed by a reputable source/grower/rep. And no he wasn't selling me stuff..just talking about the lack of good stores around.  He's become a friend now as I'm getting free nutes from his company and we went and slung some discs around yesterday at one of our disc golf courses.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 29, 2013)

And was my math that wrong? 32in=2.66ft and 2.66x2=5.33333? If so I was really high haha. But thanks for the heads up. I'll keep everyone posted. Wheels are 'a turnin!


----------



## Hushpuppy (Sep 29, 2013)

So here is one idea for you. Lets see if it attaches ok.


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 30, 2013)

:yeahthat:  Will be in touch with you tomorrow! Been brainstorming and have some ideas to bounce off you. It has to do with the table/30gal setup. Drawing it now will PM you.:hubba: :woohoo: :icon_smile: :watchplant:


----------



## jsmits420 (Sep 30, 2013)

Hey everybody, just a little update on the struggle. Mods-rename haha. Found some fungus gnats as you all know, for the ones following this ongoing grow journal? Lol. But seriously, alright I'll quit being high and TRY and get serious.  So I've had the fan cranked up sucking them out and trapping them in the passive intake screens that I check daily, and kill the 1-2 adults I find. SO, I've been letting the soil dry out to try and prevent egg laying, picked up some more Azamax viles and mixed up a gallon batch and gave each a pint soil drench per the instructions for fungus gnats. (If you read the instructions it says dilute 0.5% in 1 gallon and give 1 pint of mix per 1 gallon of soil) So these pics were right after a soil drench/feeding @ 1/4 strength again of Pure Blend Pro Grow, Cal/Mag, and Liquid Karma-- the Botanicare line. They were very dried out so that's why they're kinda droopy (I think) but we'll be a'findin out in the next few days and see what else is wrong  But I hope you enjoy watching the struggle, this is where the real learning takes place!!!  Hey, gotta have some bad grows so the good ones feel earned right??? Sure would hate to bust in here and grow stellar plants once or twice then not know what a common deficiency is. The learning curve is REAL LIFE. For all of you that are non believer's look at me. I've read numerous books, studied for QUUUITE some time, and I'm having troubles I never would've guessed. Gotta get wet or dirty to see what Murphy throws a ya    Enjoy! And as always, open to help.  -Smitty


----------



## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 1, 2013)

jsmits420 said:
			
		

> And was my math that wrong? 32in=2.66ft and 2.66x2=5.33333? If so I was really high haha. But thanks for the heads up. I'll keep everyone posted. Wheels are 'a turnin!


 
Yes, you did make  math mistake.  This is the way I generally figure sq ft.  

33" x 32"=1024.  Divide that by 144 (the number of sq inches in a sq ft) and you come up with 7.11.

Where you made the mistake was multiplying 2.66 x 2 rather than multiplying with 2.66.  Area of a rectangle or square is found by multiplying the length of 2 adjacent sides.

I do not have a grow store anywhere near me either.  I get great soil from Home Depot.  However, I do far better at hydro than I do organics.  If you go hydro, keep it simply, especially at first.  As you have experienced, growing does have a large learning curve.  I would go with a simply DWC and hydrotron.  It is inexpensive to set up and they work very well.

Don't feed the plants stuff it doesn't need just because you  have it.  I wouldn't be giving them cal-mag right now--the chances that they are deficient in that is slim at their age.  What does the liquid karma do?


----------



## jsmits420 (Oct 1, 2013)

Ah yes, that was my mistake. Good catch! And I'll attach pics from just 12 hours after feeding/soil drench. They were a bit thirsty from the last pictures ya think? The kids perked up a lil bit  I see some hope!:icon_smile:


----------

