Agreed!
LoL
As @JL2G alluded to you are looking for a temperature difference between the leaf and air but without knowing rh current and trending it's a bit more info than needed at this point.
Soil probe meters under $200 are worthless, flat out. Hanna makes a few, and some are better than others, but most are a waste of money. The short answer. The same and better results can be had with a pH pen and a ppm pen. Haha. The only thing I caution about the slurry test using tap, is to be sure to include those readings in your findings. So distilled takes the "math" out of it haha. And for ease and general advice sections I just learned to stick with recommending it. Haha. Tap water can vary so much from coast to coast and I try to avoid getting into alkalinity talks with people as it commonly gets confused/ing. Especially in areas where they say the water is alkaline when referring to high pH, which is not the alk I'm speaking. Haha. If anyone is interested in water chemistry and how it affects your grow, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'd love to introduce you cation exchange capacities, alkalinity, etc. The basics are good to know and something you will use often, especially in trouble shooting. But admittedly, probably overkill for some too. And boring for most haha. I'm a rare breed of loser that enjoys that stuff. Couldn't care less about it in school, but when I discovered science as it pertains to cannabis horticulture, well call me Mr wizard!! Hahaha. You know something else that you may really enjoy the results of, if you get the consistent creep in pH, as most do one way or the other. Again depends on the water used it typically goes one way or the other (distilled with its lack of alkalinity typically trends lower and vice versa with "harder" tap waters) calcitic lime is the bomb! Not only is it an amazing buffer in holding a steady soil pH, but it also provides a very solid form of calcium that benefits the grow as well. Down to earth's version is called Garden Lime, and then calcite or calcitic lime from other vendors. It's effects are, in my humble opinion, better than dolomitic limes as those are more strictly just buffers for ease of discussion anyway. Again, personal preference and opinion. A million ways to grow this plant well, sure only my way is the right way, but you know hahaha. No seriously, I'm just trying to help, and if anyone would like me elaborate on any point, please ask. As knowing is half the battle!! Here's to an amazing holiday to and for everyone! Be safe out there, and I'll say it again, this site has the best group of growers of any group I've encountered. Thanks for letting me ramble
Good advice, I hear you giggle along with me when cal mag starts getting thrown around. But honestly I don't fault anyone for it. The companies selectively educate their customers, the industry shys away from education as a whole, and every one that's got access to a forum is my personal favorite term.... MASTER Gardener. So again, I don't really fault anyone. It does "work" kind of, but once you realize the actual issue as you said, you can see why it is so silly. Not to mention that basically every bag soil product is coming with enough mag, especially if it has coco in the blend. But anyway, good advice from another solid cat on this site. My one big piece of last advice to all reading along is make sure your number one concern, above all else, is to keep this fun. If you only have 30 minutes a day to devote to these plants, don't go get a 15 bottle line and try all these different ways of complicating the grow. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and you will continue to do better and better every day. This can be super easy just add water when needed and it become rocket science, you choose your own depth based on the amount of time you have to give, comfortably.
Ah I missed this post, my apologies. Then yeah, get the ppm reading too and I can help explain that a bit as well. Also easy to understand. I would say hold off on any defoliation for a bit, until you get her a little more under control and then yeah, I'd shave her legs a bit myself. Most every plant I run, whether auto or photo, I'm usually always removing the bottom set of branches or even two sets up. At least. The thought is that you have a finite amount of energy coming from the plant, the lower most branches of most every plant produce larf or airy, small flowers that usually amount to not much. Removing them allows that energy to now be put into the flowers of the upper portions. There is a line to be walked here, and I'm just throwing it out there so it's said, not that I anticipate you doing this. But you can't cut everything off and focus the energy to one flower and make it monster haha. Obviously there is a point where you hurt the plant more than help it or your cause. And most growers will each have their own "amount of defoliation" they feel accomplishes that goal best. But generally and generically, the bottom set or two never hurt anything and typically benefits the overall experience. No rush, but let me know your slurry results and I'll help you to understand the numbers. Once you get this down, you now have the best diagnostic tool available and can always find the answers to any issues and also stay ahead of them. You'll get it where you'll already know your slurry numbers before you even do the test haha. Now I did want to mention that some folks do what's called a run off test. I do jot agree with those nor recommend them unless you are running straight coco only etc. The results can be very skewed and incorrect. Now as with anything, if you do enough runoff test you will develop a pattern and from that you may be able to get close, but it's not a good way to check soil conditions. I can elaborate if you'd like, but overall it's not correct and will hurt you more than help you.
To me it looks like a bit of light burn. The lower leaves that are shaded seem fine in the pic. The temps you listed in your tent is just fine. I believe you said your water was 6.5...which is also fine. Your medium looks like dirt/promix type of stuff which should already be acidic in it's own right. I can't speak to your nutes as I never used them but they are usually acidic also. I am not sure why you would use cal mag at this stage or what that does to ph.
I'm running two photos (Ogre Kush x Banana OG F3), and one Candyfloss auto in a small tent on the side. The Candyfloss is about 2x as tall, so it made sense to me to put them in separate tents. Keep in mind, my tents are only 2x2 and 3x3, so I don't have a lot of space to play around. A couple days ago I pre-mixed 6 gallons of nute water so I'll run through that, then probably cut back on the cal-mag based on what I'm seeing here. Thoughts on needing the Hydroguard?
What sort of PPFD numbers do you think I should aim for, in veg or in flower? The auto is well into flower at this point.
At this point I don't have enough info to give you a concise response. I don't know what your pest/pathogen pressure is like, I'd say it's not hurting but is also an input that costs money.
Now it gets fun.
People running co2 generally match ppm of co2 with ppfd, with that in mind background outdoor co2 is 400-450ppm. So long as your plants aren't starving for co2 you can start low and go high. The plants are able to acclimatize within a given environment. I can run 900ppfd in flower but tend not to. Without checking veg is maybe 4-600?
Yeah, I am guilty of only answering the questions or posts that I was tagged on. I did notice there seemed to be a lot going on. I don't want to confuse anyone, nor do I need my voice heard above any others either, so I've just hung back and wait for tags. I have personally been on every site the wonderful interweb has to offer, and this site is by far far far, the best collection of people, with the biggest hearts and a wealth of knowledge. So I know they all helping, with good advice. It seemed like I missed something or you have other issues possibly. So I'm just chilling until my name is called on hahaha. I will say though, soil slurry tests are one the best tools we soil/blend growers have as a diagnostic of the root zone and how it's being affected by the inputs etc. So most, if not all input related issues are easily easily diagnosed and corrected. I do wish it was promoted more than it is. I rarely talk to anyone, who's grow experience is say under 3-4 years that have. Sad, it's so easy and does so much. But hey, that's why I'm here haha. Anyway, I'll be here any time someone needs the help and most certainly if/when hillbilly gets back to me. I just want to add to any confusion. ❤️💛💚
Finally got around to doing the slurry test tonight. Like I said, I have a bottom-rung ph pen. I mixed and stirred for a couple minutes, then dunked the pen. At first it spiked high, then settled down to around 6.3-6.4, even when I stirred a bit with the tester. That was just testing with tap water, I was fresh out of distilled for now.
Nice, you can do those slurry tests once a week and monitor conditions. Eventually you'll know the numbers without having to even do one. But at weekly to even twice a month you can be ahead of the next spike. Remember too, most cultivars will naturally have some pH swings at the beginning weeks of flower. Due to the plants shift in nutrients she's up taking. A lot of folks will compensate for that, but either way you can watch it trend different directions and be ahead of the game always. I don't know the genetics you're running off hand, but I wish you the best with em. If you ever have any questions or issues, always feel free to hit me up my friend. Best to you!
