Okay, time for the big switch, advice needed.

Okay, first, let's get to the juicy setup details:

- lights 24/0 cycle since the day I got the plants
- soil is organic mixture with just perlite added and humus in the mixture
- pH exactly balanced @ 6.5
- CFL grow approx 8 lights @ 15w each placed approximately 4 inches from the plants (initially only 2 inches but was moved to a further distance).

Now, the background info quickly:

I got the plants, 100% female clones from a shop. They were being taken care of for a bit, and then given to me when they were roughly 1.5 weeks old. When I got them, they were 1.5 and 2 inches tall respectively.

Throughout the grow, I did not have proper materials, as this is a 1st time grow so I was a total nubie and was figuring stuff out on an issue-by-issue basis. Costs didn't help much either.

Once, about 2 weeks ago now, I got spider mites. I went out and bought some "SAFER'S INSECTICIDAL SOAP" (picture attached) and quickly sprayed my plants with the soap. It totally got rid of the spider mites, however there was a lot of damage to some leaves because of them however the leaves remain on the plant. Since then, I sprayed the plants a few times with a mist of ph balanced water with Epsom Salts mixed into the water to help wash off some of the leftover insectisidal soap, if there is any.

Unfortunately, in my panic I put the plants back under the lights immediately after spraying, and a few leaves got damaged in the process by heat stress (or what I hope is heat stress).

I have only fed the plants with nutes in the water a total of 3 times @ 1/4 strength during the entire time I have had them, and all other times I have been just using water. Once with Epsom Salts mixed in, the rest just plain.

The plants are in Veg stage.

Now, to my questions..:

1. The insecticidal soap that I sprayed... Will it be toxic whenI smoke the plants? I got the best stuff that I could find by googling around on the internet, and it doesn't seem to have any toxic chemicals added to it. There is no toxicology information on the bottle (as you can see in the picture) except for something that says "Treat symptomatically". No poison label, etc. THe plants since spraying have continued to grow, so the spray didn't killthe plants. My question is.. Will my spraying the plants with this stuff (approx 1.5 weeks ago now) cause some sort of a reaction, or kill (toxic) someone who smokes the bud?

2. My plan, was to set the plants into flowering on October 20th, which is just a day or so away. This would mean the plants had EXACTLY 4 weeks of vegging. I am not looking to have an absolutely huge grow for my first time, I will have plenty of grows in the future to do that. THis is a test run to get the kinks out. However, based off the above information what do you suggest I should do? Should I feed the plants a few more times before setting them into flower? Or should I set them into flower now? If I feed them should I up the dose to 1/2 strength rather than 1/4?

3. If I do not set them into flower, should I feed them at least once more with a half strength dose of nutes, followed by 1 more watering withjust plain water to flush out the excess nutes, THEN Set them into flowering?

I know you can veg for as long as you want and flower whenever you want. I'm just looking for based off the above information (and being that I am not looking for a huge yeild, mayne 1 or 2, 3 if lucky oz's) what would be the best option.

Also, the plants are now 11 and 10 inches tall respectively.

Here are the pictures. You'll notice the leaf burn in some from the lights as well as the fact that the lower leaves look less healthy than the newer top leaves.

I know I Posted a lot of questions and I appreciate the help and patience

One more question to add as well...

My friend is getting me a 1000watt HPS light with the ballast for free.. Is this light for Vegging or for Flowering? I would prefer not having to go out and buy any more lights so I could use the CFL's for vegging and the HPS for flowering.. But I don't know which one they are used for.


Thanks

okay heres my advice (from my limited experience so take it as u will)

i would be very cautious about any pesticide i put on anything i eat lol obviously u are so thats good. the bottle probably has a number on the back (when i get bored taking a shit and no mags i get bored and read the labels on the backs of shit rofl everything has a phone number on it) call it, it cant hurt right?

the leaves on the bottom are browning too fast to be normal so if in fact your ph is 6.5 that cant be the problem, too much heat near the bottom? i dont think so reading your light setup, i can only think under watering or watering with water that has impurities like undistilled water. my plant is doing something similar and i too am about to do the epsum salt thing on my next water hopefully to clear it all up. the tops are looking more healthy right? thats the most important thing.

i guess if i had to give advice ... feed again water, give it pleeenty of time to drain out any pesticide absorbed in the plant and maybe try a little bit more h20.. yall pros can correct me if im wrong.

You should be feeding them along most of the grow. As far as I know there is no need to stop feeding them any chems other then the last week or so of flowering. At that stage you want to feed them just plain water for a couple of reasons. 1 being to get rid of the chem taste and smell during the smoke. The other (I could be wrong, but read it someplace) the plant will start to pull it's food from it's stalks and leaves, giving a stronger high being the plant has pulled all the thc it can from the rest of it's body. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong on that. The HPS is for flowering. Being you are getting it for free, then go an use it. As long as you just water the plants the last week or so, you should not have to worry about your spray.

HPS = flowering and budding. has the correct spectrums for that phase.... if u can get a MH (metal halide) or some nice CFLs (green box look on back 2700k spectrum for budding ) that would do the trick. think MH gets costly though. that one hps u are getting is enough light to flower what you have plus more though.

juggernaut said:

You should be feeding them along most of the grow. As far as I know there is no need to stop feeding them any chems other then the last week or so of flowering. At that stage you want to feed them just plain water for a couple of reasons. 1 being to get rid of the chem taste and smell during the smoke. The other (I could be wrong, but read it someplace) the plant will start to pull it's food from it's stalks and leaves, giving a stronger high being the plant has pulled all the thc it can from the rest of it's body. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong on that. The HPS is for flowering. Being you are getting it for free, then go an use it. As long as you just water the plants the last week or so, you should not have to worry about your spray.

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i agree with the keep feeding... but i would give it more time to flush than a week, i think most people are looking at a month of straight water in the flush?

Yeah I know the 1000watt is way overkill for 2 plants only. But there is no way I would toss up a free light like that.. They run for like 400 bucks here. Comes with the ballast and chains and everything and I've got the perfect place for it.

So the insecticide soap spray I posted looks Ok? No worries of any toxic shit happenin?

Basically you're also saying that I should feed them @ 1/2 strength from now on but not until another couple feedings of fresh water have passed through, correct?

i would be very cautious about any pesticide i put on anything i eat lol obviously u are so thats good. the bottle probably has a number on the back (when i get bored taking a shit and no mags i get bored and read the labels on the backs of shit rofl everything has a phone number on it) call it, it cant hurt right?

the leaves on the bottom are browning too fast to be normal so if in fact your ph is 6.5 that cant be the problem, too much heat near the bottom? i dont think so reading your light setup, i can only think under watering or watering with water that has impurities like undistilled water. my plant is doing something similar and i too am about to do the epsum salt thing on my next water hopefully to clear it all up. the tops are looking more healthy right? thats the most important thing.

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I was thinking about calling the number but what would I ask them. I guess I could just say I am a medical patient. Or maybe I'm a tobacco farmer and we sprayed our crop with this stuff? I dunno.

I am fairly certain that the bottom leaves are yellowing the way they are because of the issues I had from the get-go of the grow. I didn't start off with enough light or the proper nutrients and soil, and the three or four leaves (which are now the bottom leaves on the plant you speak of) started to yellow. They remained yellow since then and got a bit worse of course, but then the SPider mites kicked in and really fucked them up.

onehitterquitter said:

i agree with the keep feeding... but i would give it more time to flush than a week, i think most people are looking at a month of straight water in the flush?

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Not sure about 1 month. That seems a little long to me. Two weeks maybe. I think over two weeks is too long. You look over your buds and be able to tell when they will be ready for harvest. When you are at a 1 to 2 week time frame, start just the water. My current soil grow was flowering for almost 2 months and i could not figure out why, everytime I looked over the buds they had NEW white hairs growing. I stopped with the chems and just gave PURE water. This has stopped the new white hair growth and they have all started to turn brown/red. It's just about 1 more week and they will be ready for harvest.

I would recommend getting "See More Buds Grow 8oz of bud for less then $100". In this book he does a CFL grow from two clones and 1 seed. Uses only standard tap water with the ph adjusted. No chems at all. Well so he says. Anyway it's a good read as it's a complete day by day. Also so he says lol. Still a good read.

Anyone else for those last couple questions I posted?

yeah when i go to the plant store i tell them im growing tomatoes, maybe use that one lol