New Grower Royal Queen Seed's Sweet Skunk. PLEASE give input, thoughts and suggestions. I need the help!

[Daipot]

Day 4 update

One of the seedlings didn't make it so Im down to 15 plants.

Whitefly (I'm 90% sure these are the pests I have) is an issue I regularly suffer with. I have always been able to controll it with neem oil.

Yesterday (day 3), I noticed that the the tiny plants were smothered in the pests so I turned the lights off and gave them a good neem spray. When I woke up this morning and checked on them, they were still crawling around but in much lower numbers. I will give them another spray again today.

CFL/LED for vegging is on my radar. I think CFL will be my route as I know LEDs can be quite a science and need a fair amount of research. Can I assume most CFL bulbs are made about equal?

Pictures to follow

CFL kits come as standard man. They go up in increments of 50w until they get too 300w which is the maximum. They're available as dual spectrum, blue spectrum and red spectrum. If your using them solely for vegging I'd get some 300w blue spectrum ones, as they're the correct spectrum for veg growth

 

[SweetSkunk]

Day 4 pictures.

You can see the whitefly buggers on the leafs.
I watered less yesterday (day 5) , about 200ml as the soil was fairly moist underneath.

Everything is going well at the minute, biggest issue is whitefly and temps. Are my thermometers located in a correct fashion? Or should I move them from directly under the light? I have them hanging at the second height as the plants.

 

[SweetSkunk]

Day 7 update

The babies are coming along nicely. My temps are getting far to high. I do have a thermostat in there, same one as I use for my snake. Worked well last run but clearly it's not working properly now. Need to know if my thermometers are in the right place.

White fly is killing me too. I have always suffered with it but the numbers usually seem to drop significantly with neem oil.
My babies are properly crawling and I can see 3-5 on most plants.
I have sprayed them again today and have sprayed them twice before tonight. Maybe it's a silly theory, I'm not sure if it's due to the new leaves having no coating of neem? But they seem to be on all the leaves so I'm unsure. Can I/ should I give them a neem spray everyday at the minute? I have heard that neem can be damaging if used to much.

Any other suggestions would be great.

Pictures to follow

 

[SweetSkunk]

Day 10. Still suffering with whitefly but seems to be a little less severe.

I gave my first feed last night. I tested the soil and feed pH, which was 5.5 and 6.6 respectively. What calculation do I need to adjust the pH of my feed?

I have now got another thermostat in the tent so it should keep the temps at better levels.

Cheers
SS

 

[SweetSkunk]

Can anyone chime in with info relating above?

Day 11 update:

Need a new syringe that won't lose its numbers (anyone?) when dipped into cal mag. I added approx 5ml to 15L.

Temps have been too hot in there l, getting passed 30C but have a new working thermostat.

 

[LedGuy74]

I don't know much about white flies but maybe you can use something like spinosad... OR a natural rememdy like water soap and pepper or garlic or alcohol just look it up and see what works best. got any pics of the bugs? Also as for temps it's okay to occasionally hit those temps but definitely don't want it to be a common occurrence it's not so much a big deal in veg but in flower it can make a huge difference as they prefer cooler temps in flower. What do you mean about changing pH? You can just add pH up it pH down or you can use stuff from the grocery store that's acidic or alkaline. As for the soil itself I always like to mix garden lime into my soil and let it all sit in a garbage can mixed up... Garden like can take a little while to help the soil but I does a good job at keeping the soil a netrual pH if added in right amounts... Bonemeals also good to add to soil same with worm castings and WC teas if you are organic.

 

[SweetSkunk]

I don't know much about white flies but maybe you can use something like spinosad... OR a natural rememdy like water soap and pepper or garlic or alcohol just look it up and see what works best. got any pics of the bugs? Also as for temps it's okay to occasionally hit those temps but definitely don't want it to be a common occurrence it's not so much a big deal in veg but in flower it can make a huge difference as they prefer cooler temps in flower. What do you mean about changing pH? You can just add pH up it pH down or you can use stuff from the grocery store that's acidic or alkaline. As for the soil itself I always like to mix garden lime into my soil and let it all sit in a garbage can mixed up... Garden like can take a little while to help the soil but I does a good job at keeping the soil a netrual pH if added in right amounts... Bonemeals also good to add to soil same with worm castings and WC teas if you are organic.

Cheers mate. I'm using neem oil with a soap solution (all natural). It is helping but not to the extent it usually does.

In terms of pH, I know the soil pH, I know me feed pH. The pH of my feed wants to be around 6.2(?). I don't know what calculation is need between the soil and feed pH.

For example my soil is sitting at 5.5 and feed 6.3. do I add these together and divide by two?
((5.5 + 6.2) / 2) =5.9

In that example I would increase pH to 6.2. however I don't know if this is the correct calculation.

Cheers for your input,
SS

 

[LedGuy74]

I don't calculate all of that... Haven't ph'd any of my soil ever nor do I really even pH my nutes anymore... I know to add so and so of my protekt and so and so of my bloom nutes. If the plants look fine I don't worry. but also I would recommend starting to add dolomite lime to your soil mix preferably 1-3 months before you plant in it it keeps the pH just and stable it's a good buffer.

 

[SweetSkunk]

I'll see how the plants come along with out. I'm going to post in the nutrient and feed schedule to see if anyone else might have some info. I really want to get the pH right as I had some defficiency/lock out/pH issues on my last run. I have just changed to reverse osmosis for that reason and I'm hoping to sort the issue

It was suggested it could be the abundance of Calcium Carbonate in my water (it's crazy high) or a pH issue.

Cheers again,
Ss

 

[SweetSkunk]

Day 13 update:

I have some issues with the plants. Similar to this problem I had with the last run I think. Does anyone know what this is?

This grow has been a bit "so so" as I've run into a few problems, which have taken a few days to sort, such as heat (waiting on a thermostat to arrive) and my syringes numbers have been wiped off with cal mag so I'm guestimating the nutes and suppliments measurements till my glass syringes turn up.

I would really like to know about pH still, which my question is above.

The plants are dropping a bit too. Does this show signs of over watering?

Really am in desperate need for the pH query to be sorted (as I think this may be the issue I'm facing with the spots on the leafs)

It may also be a cal-mag issue. Ive only fed a very small amount of cal mag due to the syringe issue.

Many thanks to anyone who can chime in.

Sweetskunk