Prepare for Liftoff - Apollo 11 Grow

[THCPezDispenser]

yea they look pretty small on top for 8 days

Well 5 of the days I am counting were paper towel and breaking the surface, so don't know if that normally counts They have been 3 days above ground in this picture. The leaves seem to be fatting up now that I have them closer to the lights, I will provide a picture update when things either swing visibly better or worse...

 

[Wiseguy_Chef]

that makes more sence. i don't consider it alive till it breaks the dirt.

 

[DomsChron]

Same. But normally in 24 hours I have a 1mm taproot and I plant it, and then 24 hours after, it's usually a seedling! Maybe too much or too little water? Did you plant it in hot soil like fox farms?

Watering a newborn can singe off the microscopic root fibers and cause it to stunt and regrow.


Not sayin this happened, just sayin be careful.

 

[Thorn]

oh in that case they looking fine then apart from the stretching and well when you transplant them you can bury some of that stem Look forward to seeing updates

 

[THCPezDispenser]

My last grow I used my tap water, just letting it sit overnight to evap the chlorine and it was fine. So this time I decide to get all fancy and use spring water from a bottle, and that is what I have been using since I started. I have an electronic pH meter on the way, but I remembered that I had a bottle of test solution somewhere, so I dug it out. Well the solution is only rated to a pH of 8, and I got that color full on. Who knows how high it actually is, sheesh.

I pH corrected the water and gave the seedlings a good drink since they were dry anyway, waiting to see if it makes a difference (growth is slow but moving along). LOL, might need a mulligan on these two, two messups already and I don't even have a second set of leaves yet, we'll see in the next couple of days.

 

[Iron Lotus]

I do similar to what you did with tap water, I used a couple gallon milk jugs cleaned out. I fill those up and put them in the same room as teh plants over night so they get to the same temps, and have some time to self purify.

 

[DomsChron]

Make sure that you don't have any lights on in there!

 

[THCPezDispenser]

So here is an update for Day 10 (I've adjusted days to breaking ground ). In my opinion these are small for 10 days, but if you compare the first photos they are slowly growing. I think my pH issue has caused the problems with growth rate. Even though it is corrected now, they seem slow to respond. The third photo shows some problems on #1 as well, that set of leaves seems to be on it's way out, possibly due to the pH fluctuation?

At least my new veg space is ready, so that is some good news anyway Still some cleanup to do (and I bought some mylar today so that needs to go in), but it is fully functional :clap:They have only been in the new space a couple of days and they seem a little better in there and growth has picked up a bit with all the new lumens (they were under a flouresent before and was much less light than they have now).

Opinions? I don't want to go messing with hermies because of pH fluctuation, you think I have caught it early enough that it will not bother them? I am expecting to see them start earnestly into the vegatative stage in the next week, or else I may pluck and start over with two new seeds.

I'm a little mad at myself for the pH thing, I am trying to get a mother up and running ASAP and this shouldn't of happened Oh well...

 

[THCPezDispenser]

Oh and humidity is about 55%, temp holding steady at 82 deg. Not sure if I mentioned it before, but soil is generic, no nutes, with some perlite added. I have corrected the pH of the water to around 6.0-6.5, hard to tell with the coloured solution stuff. Electronic meter should be here any day at all now.

 

[THCPezDispenser]

:bump:

 

[Thorn]

not too sure bout that burn thing but they defo still stretching. that pic with the lights - is that the lights your using now? If so you may need to move them closer still to them. my 2 2week old babies are like an inch under the lights. if you don't get enough light close to them (if your still using cfls) then they will continue to put all their energy into stretching toward that light and not into doing some actual growing. if the ph is still a problem then as they are so young it may do them well to repot them with some soil that you know is good and not got any nutes in it and take away any 'old' soil from the roots as you can - being careful not to harm the roots and see how they go. you should see some nice growth starting soon I should think. Oh also if you repot them you can tuck that stretched stem in the dirt a little

Good luck

 

[THCPezDispenser]

not too sure bout that burn thing but they defo still stretching. that pic with the lights - is that the lights your using now? If so you may need to move them closer still to them. my 2 2week old babies are like an inch under the lights. if you don't get enough light close to them (if your still using cfls) then they will continue to put all their energy into stretching toward that light and not into doing some actual growing. if the ph is still a problem then as they are so young it may do them well to repot them with some soil that you know is good and not got any nutes in it and take away any 'old' soil from the roots as you can - being careful not to harm the roots and see how they go. you should see some nice growth starting soon I should think. Oh also if you repot them you can tuck that stretched stem in the dirt a little

Good luck

I think the stretch has stopped, I had them under flourescents and too far away when I started them but moved them up. That picture is the new veg room, 21200 lumens for 3 sqft. But I will move them up a bit closer to the lights, they seem at bit hot though (42W bulbs) so I will do the hand test to see how much more I can get them up. 1 inch burned up the first true leaves on my last plant, so I am a bit paranoid

The pH of the water I am using is ok now, but still not sure about the soil itself. Maybe you're right, I should just repot them at the very least to know I am starting fresh and get those stems buried...

How can I measure the pH of the soil with liquid testing solution, measure the runoff?

 

[THCPezDispenser]

Great new avatar by the way

 

[Thorn]

hehe thanks bro..

Er right just did a little calculating for you and for a 3 square foot area your gonna have 9 cubed feet in total which brings you to 2356 lumens per foot which is a little low...then i just thought maybe i did it wrong. is your space 3x3 feet? or is it 1.5x1.5 feet to make it 3feet? i'm confusing myself now lol!

Anyway let me know on that one. Do you have an oscillating fan? I work in a 15inch cubed space for my grow - its tiny, but i have 2 30watt cfls and without the fan on the box gets up to 100+ degrees which is just too much really. In that space I don't have room for an oscilating fan so just have a clip on one that just about hand inside the box. This keeps the temps at around a steady 80 deg during their 'day time'. You do need to make sure air from outside the grow space can get in though.

In my tiny space i have to keep the lights as close to the plants as possible and with the fan running this ables me to keep them 1 inch above the plants even when they are just seedlings

ph i'm not to sure, but yea i think that'd work. I hope this helps

 

[4u2sm0ke]

hey THC...Thorn gave great info..I only wanted to say that if you can get those closer to light itwill help...as for your soil..stay with it..if it doesnt have added nutes..then ..IMO..you are in great shape..I mix my own with organic potting soil..perlite..and Lime..works 4me..and when you transplant burry those suckers to the first set of leaves..not sure about the spring water..have you tested it? some bottle water has salts added to them and would be cations my self..I use Distilled water from food store..its neutral PH..soil ph I dont bother with..I just check my run off if i think theres a problem..Hope this helps and KEEP M GREEN

 

[Thorn]

thanks 4u, you added all the bits i forgot but yea i agree with that on the water - i use rain water now and never tap water or bottled. when i didn't have access to rain water though i used tap water that I boiled like 2 or 3 times and then left in a clear container to cool down to room temp before giving to my ladies

 

[THCPezDispenser]

Thanks guys. So I think my whole pH situation is not clear, so let me try again. I did find that the pH of the water I was using was too high. I have since corrected it and the pH of the water I use is now low 6-ish (I am using a solution tester, hard to nail the exact reading). So I think the water is fine now, I was more concerned as to the damage I may have did when I was giving it water at like pH 8 (which happened for nearly 10 days...)

So last night I took Thorn's advice and repotted them. Hopefully they will pull through. I used a new kind of soil, it is called CIL seedling starter mix, and I couldn't find on the bag that they did or did not have nutes added, however the instructions on the bag state to start fertilizing when the second set of leaves appear, leading me to believe that there are no nutes in the soil itself, so that should be good. The root development was excellent, so that was a good sign, just hope I haven't shocked them too much...

I did move them a bit closer again to the CFL's, so I will give them a couple of days to see if they make it past the transplant shock, hopefully I will see a growth spurt early next week

 

[Thorn]

good to hear thc and very good news on those roots - if they weren't strong plants they would have had very limited root growth so thats a good sign. have some green mojo

 

[4u2sm0ke]

hey THC..good luck with that new soil..did you add some perlite to the mix? and please throw up some pics so us new ones can learn what you see..thanks..and yes GREEN MOJO your way

 

[THCPezDispenser]

No, I never added some there was some in there. Oh and forgot to address the lights thing with Thorn. It is 1.5' x 1.5', for a total of 3 sq.ft. The 5000 lumens is per sqft, not cubic ft