Somebody please help a little old lady

Okay, hi folks. This is my first post here. I never thought I'd be trying to grow pot at 54 years old. I hadn't even smoked any for over 30 years and didn't know anybody who did (or admitted to). But then a friend brought me like three different bags, maybe an ounce worth, and then he moved away. I'd like some more but have no clue where to get it, but I still had some seeds, so if I don't grow some I won't have any. So there you have it, how I went from being a fine upstanding law-abiding citizen to a dangerous stone-cold criminal. So far, no black sedans with men in sunglasses drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes parked across the street. I've been watching for them.

So, I took six seeds from the best stuff, I'd had them sitting in a drawer for a few months. Two sprouted in paper towels, and I planted them in soil, half Miracle-gro and the other half organic stuff with earthworm castings and bacteria expensive stuff. I started them sometime shortly after tax day, so maybe 7-8 weeks ago. Those are what I have now. I've lurked around here and I'm almost positive both are females. One is big and bushy and a nice dark green (that's good, I hope). I've pruned it periodically to keep it short and branching. I do other gardening. The only issue with that one is some of the larger fan leaves look like an animal has come in and munched on them. I wonder if those are leaves that have come in contact with my tin foil I've used for a couple reflecting walls? It's very few and seems to have stopped. Otherwise she seems to be growing like crazy. BTW, I got my mylar today, tonight I set up a "grow cabinet" in a closet, and "portable mylar panels" for hospital patients. I have foliar fed her once recently with 1/4 strength 5-10-5 and did a regular feed of same not too long ago. Next water I plan to do MgSO4. Maybe I did that once already. Not sure. I'm hesitant to do much, she looks so good, I don't want to mess it up. Should I leave her alone instead? Oh, she is under a 135W bloom UFO 24/7 now. I've been upgrading my lights along the way. I started with incandescent grow lights..... then CFL's, then the splurge UFO

The second one has been my problem child from the beginning. She sprouted fine but then the seed didn't want to fall off the cotyledon leaves. I was patient and figured eventually they just HAD to come off. Instead I had a plant about six inches tall and falling over with the seed on. I finally gave it assistance and staked it, and it started to grow more normally. She was about 3 weeks old at this point, a little behind her peers, with only cotyledon leaves. She grew normally for a while. I was putting them both out on my deck which gets about 5 hrs sun on sunny days. I repotted her a couple weeks later to a 5 gal pot. I noticed I had some kind of bug problem, mostly just in the small plant, so she got put in a different room. What kind of bugs? Good question. There were probably at least four. Not spider mites though. I think white flies and fungus gnats, but don't bet my life on it. I think as of yesterday I got rid of the last of them. You don't want to know how, but the plant is none the worse, or maybe it is, but shouldn't be. Even before that, the first problem I noticed with her was she looked mottled. Like a plant would look under mottled sun or a disco light, blotchy spots of lighter green on darker green. I had no clue what the deal was but had recently repotted her then. I got a pH and nute test and it said the pH was 4 and N was high. So I said, "holy shit" and played with rinsing the soil until I got the pH up to six, with MgSO4 and Milk of Magnesia (Magnesium hydroxide -- more alkaline, wouldn't add any other nutes to compete or interact, but does the OH bind something else out besides the spare H+?). I used to know chemistry, probably enough to be dangerous. In any case, mottling disappeared. Meanwhile, she got a heavy pruning. I figured if she was diseased with something I should get rid of all the bad stuff and just leave what little looked normal to minimize stress. In regular gardening I've found that helpful. I think I screwed up and lost even more time. I've thought about chucking her but I'm afraid I'll kill the other one yet (just because I like to garden, doesn't mean I'm any good at it, and don't kill more than my share), then I'll have none.

Then, almost immediately, noticed problems with leaves having small spots. They are dark with some having little yellow or light green halos. They appear right on the veins, peripheral and midline and there are more on the lower, older leaves, none on new growth, which looks normal. The veins to the final fan leaves are reddish-purple, darker some days than others I swear. Tonight they look more green. Yesterday their color worried me. No dark green veins. Lower leaves are starting to yellow overall, worse today than yesterday. I did the same 1/4 strength foliar of 10-15-10 yesterday, except this one I rinsed off with distilled water a couple hours later. I've looked at several sites with pictures of problems and none fit exactly and I get confused. Damn, I thought this plant grew as a weed. It sure is persnickety. Last checked pH at last watering about 3-4 days ago (probably will water tomorrow or next day) and pH was around 6. I'm using soil you put in distilled water and tablets you dissolve to check pH. I don't like it. Does anyone recommend more convenient way to test that is inexpensive? Oh, its currently got a 125W Feliz CFL @ 2700K and three CFL's totalling about 50W in higher daylight spectrums, 5000-6500, they are household bulbs. I just got the Feliz a couple days ago. Before that it only had the 50W, 24/7, poor thing, and out on sunny days.

I should be grateful if anybody has even read all this and have no right to ask, but does anybody have any feedback on what the problem might be with my special needs child? Or notice anything else that I'm doing wrong? I won't get offended, I promise, if I'm told I've really screwed up. I'm used to being told that I screw up lives.

I have some pictures. I used my cell, so they aren't fabulous, but not that bad either. I can't believe that it got pictures that are this good. More importantly, I can't believe I'm sending them out over the Internet. Somebody on another thread said something about the government not having any way of monitoring such things. That is incorrect, and its not conspiracy theory. You need to read up on the new NSA facilities, particularly in Utah, though they are expanding I believe it was Atlanta and Miami. They are dedicated to monitoring internet activity and have mind-goggling capacity. I'm sure they have clever algorithms that search for certain keywords or usage patterns, they get the software from Israeli intelligence, much of work is subcontracted out to Israeli vendors (now how smart is that, given Israel's history of spying on us......... we also use chips bought from China, the other country that spies on us.). The Patriot Act has broader implications than most realize. Any citizen can be placed under surveillance, including phones and internet, and the government never need admit who has been targeted, much less justify rationale. I'm not saying this place is monitored, I don't know any such thing and surely hope "they" are doing more important things with our taxpayer funds......... only that theoretically, the potential is there, and one doesn't need to be conspiracy theorist to not be able to make 100% assurances traffic is not being eavesdropped on this forum.

So, the first four are pictures of my first plant, the bigger and healthier plant. I'm showing a chomped leaf, one of her purple stems, how dark green she is (is that okay?), and hopefully what ya'll will tell me is proof that she is a girl. I post pictures of plant TWO in a post below.

Originally Posted by charface

Yeah what kind of nutes, common for it to look like a deficiency when in reality you have salt build up.
If its salt buildup flood the pot with three times the amount the container will hold. Room temp if possible, at lease tepid.
Wait for more replies though before ya do everything we recommend or you will compound the problem. Read the replies and go with the general consensus of the group. Good luck

This is good advice. It wouldn't hurt to flush before doing what I said above. But here is the problem. MG has time release. So flushing dosnt work that well but can help get build up out.