I’ll be gone for a day. I let the torch use the last of the butane that wasn’t enough to heat my banger to fill the room with as much extra co2 as I could provide as little as it is. I’ll let the plants adjust to the soil conditions changing a little with the mulch gone and when I come back I’ll update with the results if I managed to change anything or help at all. Even when the torch is low it never burns yellow or orange of any shade. Always a pure blue flame as low or weak as it is near the end, so I made sure my torch doesn’t ever incompletely combust my butane at all.
1 Like
I raised the pH of my water to 6.8 at least according to my pen. It’s not time yet, but I got 2 inches down and it’s almost pale for 1.75 inches. Maybe at one point today after they start drinking the soil will be ready to water again. Lights just came on.
I’m letting the water warm up either way before I water. That’ll take time and I’ll let them air out more while I wait for pH to stabilize. It’s barely climbing, but it’s at 6.82 rn. Another reason I’m waiting. If I have to pH down I’ll be able to do it before I water with it. After stirring I saw it go down and climb back up to 6.83. yep I’m waiting.
If I’m lucky it’ll stabilize at 6.86😅
1 Like
I can’t be this lucky 
It occasionally bumps down to 6.84, but raises to 6.86 and stays there
I used it to calibrate the pen while it’s there anyways
The number is jumping from 6.85-6.86 then sticks on 6.86
2 Likes
I watered with 4oz water and waited a few minutes to water with the next 4oz and now I wait for the next watering and LITFA.
I got the water at a reasonable pH and now that they have water again I’ll see how they like the new watering schedule
I did the lift test after watering and it feels about the Same weight as before I watered. No runoff.
Here’s the most recent pics.
The soil looks a little moist rn, but 8oz shouldn’t be too much seeing as no runoff occurred
Oh yeah🤦🏻♂️ one of the mulch bits grew a root🤔 no idea what’s going on there
3 Likes
I realized the soil was very low for some of the seedlings, so I added more topsoil after making sure all mulch was removed.
Now it’s LITFA time. The weight is feeling about right now. And the soil is keep them stable in place. One of the cilantro plants wanted to fall over after tilling. I almost pulled it as it was barely in the soil apparently. Now the half pint of soil or so will keep the plants from stressing on exposed roots.
5 Likes
After giving them a bit to show issues from what I did I’m not seeing any. Is it just my imagination or do the plants look healthier than before I added the sifted soil on top?
4 Likes
I rotated the pot to let the soil dry more evenly. I noticed the spot the UV light hits dries faster. Makes sense.
I noticed a patch of mycorrhizae growing by the garlic
1 Like
To add some extra calcium and silica to the soil and as a extra measure against pests just in case I mixed in DE into the topsoil while I’m waiting for the next watering anyways. If it helps add any calcium and silica that’s awesome, but if that’s just hogwash it still helps with pests and while I’ve had none this grow I still want to keep preventative care in my regimen.
I’ll be ordering some pumice when I get the chance to grab some. After I work some more soil I’ll be throwing some small plants in there to use up some of the wasted light. Why not try a micro grow? Plus a staggered harvest would work best for me. Keeps me busy.
5 Likes
I worked the soil outside for the last few hours to get a fine topsoil perfect for seedlings and I added them to a small pot. I’ll water it today and see how it behaves when watered before I start any seeds in it.
I’ll be getting pumice soon and if I grab Perlite too it’ll be mixed in much lower percentage than a usual mix. Maybe 50/50 with the pumice.
I’m tired. I’ll find something else to do now.
I added some water to the small pot here and the soil is very clay filled, so I’ll need to amend it and when I can I’ll start my next grow in nursery bags before 7 gallon fabric pots.
6 Likes
I thought I’d post a pic. I’m increasing humidity in any way I can boiling water in there to increase it from 30% to 50%+ ATM it’s sitting at 40% and I raised the lights up a bit as the light seemed to be too close for the stage and despite low watering I was seeing a lighter color. After a day of it I see some growth at a faster pace. The 2nd set are finally starting to grow more and once the soil dries a bit more I’ll add some water.
I cleaned my fan I have on front. It got a bit dusty and now the fan has airflow around the plants where when I came in today I couldn’t feel any flowing air around the plants
As you can see it’s a bit light green, but the pot is still a bit heavy after the topsoil I added went in.
I’ll poke around the bottom soil to see how it’s doing moisture wise and I’ll judge from there.
I’m grabbing a humidifier in a bit to not go through the process I went through today when I could just add a humidifier to make life easier.
I poked at the bottom of the pot and the soil was only as moist as soil from the bag at most, but felt closer to a cake that’s perfectly cooked with just a small crumb coming back on the toothpick closer to a grain of sand. If I squeezed it it won’t release any water from pressure. I guess it is watering day today unless I should wait another day. I’ll leave that up to a vote as the Bottom soil is dark and has moisture when touched, but no transfer and it won’t stick to skin or leave any residue on my fingers.
@ReikoX @cannabissequoia @Esrgood4u any thoughts? I assume I don’t want it so dry the soil becomes dirt correct?
5 Likes
It’ll be in 6 hours when I water if the vote is yes. Lights go off in 1.5 hours. I believe it was @ReikoX who told me about watering at night being bad
3 Likes
I have the total opposite problem that you have @OniTenshu. I struggle to get my humidity down bellow 60%.
For what it’s worth cannabis will grow well in a very arid environments. Obviously the drier it is the more often you will need to water. If the plants are not showing any negative reaction (they look fine to me in your picture) id not worry myself to much about it but I use far far to much LITFA than I should so I’m maybe not the best person to help with this although I will suggest you dont let the soil dry out too much that it turns to dust. @ReikoX will be able to give you much better advice than I’m able to.
2 Likes
I did some research and it seems to say I should water. I’m going to check my last grow log to see if my soil bags had any weight listing in it to give me a approximate weight too. The 1 gallon pot I’m using currently weighs about 5lbs to both myself and my GF. I just weighed it and it weighed 2297g or 5.064lbs😅 I guess we have a special skill or just enough practice LoL. I’m using a standard 8"-20cm pot. Don’t ask me why they mix systems on pots LoL. That’s what’s on the bottom embossed in the plastic. I wasted too much time trying to learn how to calculate a truncated cone volume. I never learned how to calculate pi in equations. My school focused on behavior correction above education, so if I hadn’t read the books when bored I’d be stuck at a 10th grade level. Rather than advanced math my teacher brought in his old computer programming book from college and I read it so many times that even though I’ve long forgotten it I learn programming again at a fast pace without glossing over anything.
Whoops ranting. Did a dab to celebrate us both guessing perfect and confirming with a scale. Once I find what my soil should weigh when I learn what’s in it or cave and fill a gallon jug with saturated soil to see what it weighs when saturated to the point I’d want after watering at this stage. My scale can weigh up to 10kg, so I’d think I have enough capacity for this task.
2 Likes
Yes weighing the pots dry and one saturated is good idea then just find a happy medium between the two. I grow in dwc, coco and compost depending on what my goal is. The most forgiving ive found is compost/soil. Because the humidity is so high here in the UK I can leave them for upwards of 5 days at a time in soil without feeding. Soil is ideal for me in the summer months when it’s much warmer.
2 Likes
I filled a gallon jug of the soil that formed a permafrost with the soil beneath and it weighed 2222g or 4.899lbs. now I’m just confused. Should I wait longer or does permafrost do something to the water in the soil?
1 Like
i’m too high to help tonight. 
how far away from the plants are your lights? bulbs, right? i’m guessing the light needs to be closer to them.
2 Likes
I’m confused, too. Is this a trick question? 
Oh, are you saying you dug into the permafrost layer outdoor to use for soil indoors?
3 Likes
They’re LEDs and the only bulb is the UV light. They’re 2 feet from the lights. I had the lights at 1 foot away. So far I’m seeing healthy growth actually. They looked a little darker green. The 3rd set of leaves just started to poke out and they’re a deeper green than the rest are, so I see good signs. The usual longer on one side thing is going on LoL
3 Likes
It would appear that your soil is just not put together correctly, and generally, it appears that the soil remains too moist for too much of the time. The most recent soil pics still appear to lack anything that will keep it very aerated. This is crucial for root development. I like organic rice hulls. Bought in bulk they are very reasonably priced. Perlite or Vermiculite (not a fan of either actually) will also work.
I purchase a store bought soil base such as ProMix or Sunshine #4 or a similar sort of product. I add equal amounts of that soil and rice hulls, add a small amount (roughly 10% of total mix) of Lobster based Compost, dry nutrients that include bird guanos, blood meal, alfalpha meal and kelp meal and slow release food such as Espoma Plant Tone, which is mostly chicken guano. Water and wait.
Your idea of watering with a compost tea is likely going to help. If you have watered a couple of times with the epsom, you can back off for a bit on that. Try some food, see if they start to take it up. At this point, I would use pH corrected water with trace amounts of emusified fish fertilizer and if you can get some, something with fulvic acid to help re-build the microscopic life. Might try a teaspoon of molassus in your water every now and again to feed the microbes.
More pics in general helps a bunch 
7 Likes