Hi,

Been reading for a while to figure out how to do this, but thought it was time to start my own thread for all the help I can get. I've done soooo many things wrong so far and hoping I can save anyone else from some of these foolish mistakes.

Got my Caddy 4 yrs ago, but couldn't use it. Got my seeds 2 yrs ago and they've been hanging in the fridge for that long. Great seeds though, cuz all 9 sprouted using the wet paper towel technique. Made the mistake of leaving them for a week and a half cuz thought they should have longer roots before I put them in the Caddy....wrong. Found out after that it's best to sprout them in the rock wool, so that was mistake #1.

After sprouting my seeds for 1 1/2 weeks, I moved them to the rock wool in the cloning chamber under the 150 watt flourescent grow. Then I read the seeds could be sprouted in the rock wool right in the veg chamber under the MH bulb. So, after three days of cloning environment, moved them into the veg chamber.

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

Put one seed in dirt just to compare. Never grew. The eight left started getting leaves but were yellow with what I felt was nitrogen lack. Now the nutes I got with my Caddy were also four yrs old (Company said shelf life was 5 yrs) and wasn't going to be able to get new nutes (location), so someone told me to put a couple drops of urine in for nitrogen until I got new nutes. WRONG....DO NOT DO THIS. Sort of forgot until later when I put pics in and Mr Intricate (Thank you!) thought the plants looked like they were chlorine burned. Won't do that again!!

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

But mine was sure off.....

Seeds for 14 days from 5-14 to 5-28
then moved to clone tank for 3 days,
then moved 5-31 to grow chamber until now
Urine burn at beginning

Not sure if I should have put the seeds directly into the veg chamber right at the beginning and gone with 1/4 nutes for seedlings?? Think that would have been best??

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

Got my pH meter and got my pH down with vinegar. Only problem was every 4 hrs or so it was up from 6.0 range to 7.5 range. I kept adding vinegar but went through a gallon in over a week and seems like I was tied to the Caddy since it needed constant monitoring. Didn't think that was fun AT ALL!!

Finally read in rollitup that vinegar couldn't maintain the pH for any length of time. Yes, I was learning this..... Finally broke down and bought some REAL pH Down which alleviated the constantly rising pH problem. Now my pH hardly vacillates at all and I'm loving it!!!

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

My MH Bulb keeps turning off. There is a little heat guage that turns off only my light when the temp gets above 95F. Called the Caddy people and they said it may be my ballast or the bulb and since the bulb was the easiest thing to check first, they're sending me a new bulb.

Plants don't seem to be growing any taller, and after 3 weeks the tallest is only 3.8 cm and the shortest is 2.0 cm. Going to try to use centimeters because it's smaller measurements and it's time to learn the metric system, yeah sure, LOL.

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

Okay, here's where I get creative, oh no. Larger plants have yellowing leaves with green veins like lack of nitrogen, but smaller plants are dark green around the edges with bright yellow in middle of leaves and stalk of plant like maybe too much nutes for baby plants?? I'm assuming it's nitrogen deficiency??

Heard you could add a couple of drops of urine to bump up the nitrogen. WRONG. Tried that on 6-6-7, 1 wk after moving plants to Caddy. Think it burned my plants rather than what MrIntricate (Thanks for helping!!) said looked like possible chlorine burns.

Also added nutes up to 1/2 of vegetation recommendations.

Some of the newly balanced water with urine and the new nutes dribbled down and saturated the rock wool of one plant. Within a few minutes that plant was laying down.

The new MH bulb arrived and is still turning off for about 15-20 min and then back on. Starting to leave the doors open as I guess the temp is too hot inside and that's what's turning the bulb off??

Could there be any more problems??? My whole life seems to be wrapped up in balancing pH, trying to figure out what's going on with yellowing leaves.

Attached Images

	IMGP1232.jpg (77.3 KB, 31 views)
	IMGP1233.jpg (67.4 KB, 25 views)
	IMGP1234.jpg (76.5 KB, 33 views)
	IMGP1235.jpg (79.9 KB, 21 views)
	IMGP1236.jpg (80.3 KB, 33 views)

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

In this case, it does too. 6-9-7 and still my little girls are very small.

#1 is laying down in shock. Think it's a gonner? Couple of hrs later, #1 standing up but first biggest leaves dried up. Took them off, Sun leaves dried but didn’t touch them yet. Two little leaves in center growing and not as yellow as yesterday. YAHOO!!

#2 4.1 cm Is bigger than #1 now as no shock suffered but still has 2 yellow big leaves

#3 4.1 cm also, wow, but leaves not as large as #1 & 2

#4 4.0 cm

#5 2.9 cm

Grow cubes look like they have a gelatinous substance on them from water. Some kind of algae?

TDS finally arrives, but it's broken and won't go into calibration mode. Have to send it back.

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

6-17-7

#1 looks dead on top from where stem dried out 3cm up. Was biggest & best and then shocked a couple of times, then dried out and almost dead.

#2 Has cyonosis// in first 2 big leaves after 2nd layer of leaves-1 side wilted and hanging down but not as yellow as first 2 leaves (over feeding??.) Dried and curling on ends.

#3 Looking okay. Yellowing in center gone but 1st layer leaves very tip yellowing??

#4 Looking perfect. Tallest, fullest, best and shock from dropping into tank gone. Maybe should leach all in tank before redoing water for 1st time Mon.

#5 Smallest but full. Yellow in center still but Caddy creator said that’s normal??

Okay, my outside gardens are awesome. What's up with me and inside??? Is this a throwback to my hippie daze when I killed so many wandering jews, both the green and the purple?

Down to 4........

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

6-18-7
Phew, maybe I'm too tidy. Took me 2 hrs to figure out how to change everything over. Balanced the cover with the net pots on top of two containers to keep it off the ground and the roots safe. Now the urine is gone and the nutes are measured to 1/2 of veg recommendation.

Tallest plant is 4.5 cm and smallest is 3 cm. Still really small for starting sprouting 5-14-07 and moving into the Caddy 2.5 wks ago 6-1-7.

Nice not to have to rebalance pH every 4 hrs now that I have pH Down. Wish I would have gotten it sooner.

Also found out temps over 90F can stunt growth. Can I do anything else wrong??? Hope not.

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................

6-22-7

Finally added more nutes. Since raising light and opening doors with floor fan on so temp stays in 75-85 range instead of higher at 95-97 spikes (heat stunts growth, well I guess it shows!) they look much happier. For yellowing I’ve started adding nutes back since doesn’t seem like that’s what burned them.

#2 4.5cm (once 2nd biggest until fried) Sun & 1st row leaves fried gone, next row 1/2 gone but new leaves growing in center, yahoo!!

#3 4.5cm but smaller leaves than #2. Sun leaves gone. 2 tight rows and new row forming

#4 5 cm Bottom row 1 of 2 still yellow, next row 2 getting greener, top 3 rows nice dk green and new row growing. Looking perky (finally got some food)

#5 3cm shortest but full. Sun leaves gone, but 3 rows and new 4th with very short internodes. Still bright yellow in center of plant and all leaves green at ends, opposite yellowing of #4

__________________
Lovin Lake Tahoe
....................