First White Widow Grow Attempt in the Caddy

happygrow · Jul 8, 2007

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.

happygrow · Jul 8, 2007

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! :clap:

) thought the plants looked like they were chlorine burned. Won't do that again!!

happygrow · Jul 8, 2007

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??

happygrow · Jul 8, 2007

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!!!

happygrow · Jul 8, 2007

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.

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

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.

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

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 didnt 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.

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

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 thats 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........ :oops:

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

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.

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

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 Ive started adding nutes back since doesnt seem like thats 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

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

6-28 Th

11:30p pH 5.89/TDS 609 (higher so evaporation?)

#2 getting more leaves in center, tinsy, very yellow on bottom

#3 Tall but not many leaves at all and yellowish, tall

#4 getting more leaves but burns (read water beads prism & fry?)

#5 Short, 3rd most leaves, yellowish

Seems all except 4 are very yellow, even 4 on bottom. TDS is 603 though?? Will add 1 more tsp to see if it makes the yellow go away??

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

6-29-7

Bought GH Flora 3 part nutes. Cleaned out tank and used glu gun to add 2 10" air stones to oxygenate and discourage algae. Agro store guy says 5.5 to 6.5 pH is good, 6.0 recommended but his did best at 5.50 so will lower pH

Added nutes only to seedling recommendation and added more after a couple of hours when I made sure they weren't in shock from new brand of nutes. (And possibly nutes that work since old nutes 4 yrs old)

6-30-7

Added nutes to mild growth stage.

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

7-2-7
pH 5.75/TDS broken again

Plants really improving. Took off most real yellow/white leaves so all green now.

#2 5 cm Now 2nd fullest & 3rd tallest. Yellow on bottom level, but has added 3 more dark green levels

#3 4.5 cm 2nd tallest but least leaves. Yellow bottom, next has yellow tips and new green growth in center

#4 7.5 cm (Not counting 2 new leaves going straight up) Tallest and fullest. Roots to water level (no others showing roots) Has yellow bottom level and next up has a few burn spots, probably prisming from sprayed water droplets. THEN 3 more rows, 2 big leaves and new growth on top ALL dark green. Finally!!

#5 3.5 cm Shortest with most bottom yellow levels (2) and then 2 new layers of green on top

Will see what happens now as going into vegetative growth state with last of nutes added today

Adding nutes for vegetatave state (Gro 3tsp gal/Micro 2tsp/gal/Flower 1tsp gal so Flower stays same)

Now has 1 tsp per gal (9 gal x 1tsp = 3T of ea)

For Vegetative Growth Stage
Added 2T Gro (2T is 2tsp more per gal) for 3tsp gal
1T Micro (1T is 1tsp more per gal) for 2tsp gal
0 Flower is 1tsp gal

No more nutes

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

7-3-7

Plants look good, especially #4, WOW!! Yesterdays new leaves are almost out and whole!! What a nice birthday present!!

happygrow · Jul 9, 2007

Okay, I've caught up with this journal. A good exercise in why procrastination is not such a good thing. Seems like it's taken forever to type all this out.

7-8-7

Oh, how quickly everything changes. Noticed dark brown coloring near bottom of all 4 stalks. There is a white bumpy covering which I at first thought was just the stalks getting thicker, but after reading on rollitup, thinking its one of the funguses?? There is a thin covering on the stems too that has split (almost like a snake shedding it's skin) and you can see the nice green stem underneath. What's f***ing with my babies???

Have doors open 24/7 and oscillating fan on all day (cool enough at night that I dont need it on) and humidity is usually around 24-30ish, so not sure if this is what it is or not. Looks like any of them might just topple over at any time since the stems are very thin where the dark circle is.

Just noticed this yesterday I think. Will have to check with the hydro store tomorrow. Read somewhere you can use baking soda to combat a fungus, but not sure if that's what this is or how to go about using the baking soda???

Anyone know what I've got? Or what to do about it? Afraid I'll lose these plants.

happygrow · Jul 10, 2007

Okay, I know why I'm doing this, but I'm not sure what LST stands for. Anybody know?

Last night I tied my HUGE 6.5" plant down to the 90 degrees so the hormone will distribute to all the other branches (well, they're not really branches, LOL) would reach for the sky. Looked a little limp leaved when I went to bed, but this morning all the smaller leave clusters are getting some light and looking chipper. Now if I can just figure out what to do about the brown on the stalks???

Read a bunch, but can't remember if you wait for age (know you get more and better end product) or height (well, 6.5" isn's exactly tall, is it?) to determine when to start the flower stage. My criteria at this point since everything has taken so darn long with so many probs (yes, my 2nd TDS is faulty too, so can't get TDS on nutes for a couple of weeks) is flowering and curing before BURNING MAN 2007 at the end of Aug. Can't leave them in vegie state for the 10 or so days I'll be gone and no one will be here to add water, nutes, check lights, etc while I'm gone. Gonna have to prompt those little buggers to do their thing earlier than I was expecting....but when???

happygrow · Jul 10, 2007

Well, looks like we have the grunge. Thanks Potroast for your help. Waiting for your clarification to make sure I understood your instructions before I go ahead and do it the way I interpreted, which may not be the right way.

Yesterday the plants looked like they'd fall over at the brown pythium area, where it's lots thinner than the rest of the stalk. Today they seem perky though. Guess I need to add some 3% peroxide and also flush because of the white crusty stuff that may be nutrient salt build up because my nutes are so high, even though I followed the GH instructions for FloraGro/Micro/Bloom in Vegetative Growth Stage. (They're 5.5 wks old so they should be old enough to be in agressive veg state shouldn't they? Unless maybe they're wake and baking for their veg state, LOL.) Yesterday I added 1tsp/gal of Floriliscious Grow to the probably already too high nutes because the guy at my hydro shop said it would help clean up the roots and wouldn't interfere with the FloraGro 3 part I'm using. Roots are still nice and white so far, even if the stalks have an area with brown fungus. Glad my babies aren't leaving me though!!

happygrow · Jul 14, 2007

Haven't been able to flush or change nutes yet and plants seem to be doing okay as the brown area is growing away from the moist rock wool. Hydro store told me to flush with clearex for the salt accumulation on my stalks (possibly causing the weakness that allows the always present pythium to wreak havoc) and then to add the recommended amount of Super Oxy H2O2 as an additive to my regular tank nutes, Supergro/micro/flower & Floriliscious Gro. Won't get to it immediately, so wondering if anyone has any recommendations. Potroast??

happygrow · Jul 14, 2007

Plants are looking great. Can't wait to doctor them, but in the meantime, they're flourishing nicely. Have LST'd them all, even the tinsy one, since I'm using the aggressive growth nute formula and leaves are popping out all over and loving the light. My #4 best plant is growing amazingly quickly!! Smile for the camera!

The pics:

#1 is my #4 bigest plant 7-10 since LSD
#2 is #4 now, wow (for me)
#3 is all of my 4 white widows 7-10
#4 is my other 3 plants today (besides #4 in pic #1) bent over, not tied

Today I moved the plants around so they had more growth space. I'll define the numbers later.

happygrow · Jul 17, 2007

At last, able to flush my tank. Ran Clearex for 2 hrs because my salt build up was on my stalks and heard that could lead to pythium, which we have. Couldn't believe how fast all the new yellow leaves turned green, almost before my eyes.

Then ran low Super Oxy H2O2 for 20 min before adding the plants. Ran a bit longer then added nutes. Since I have to wait 7 wks to flower/cure, only added 2/3 GH nutes for Mild Growth rather than Aggressive Growth as before. Will add the other 1/3 tomorrow if they look okay.

Have some nute burns, probably cuz of the high heat lately and water evaporated quicker than I realized and didn't get tank diluted like I should have. Bad me, poor plants.

First White Widow Grow Attempt in the Caddy

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