almost two weeks ago, weather had been rainy and wet. I installed an outdoor umbrella that covered most of my plants and I think it helped with rain and dew, but still found more rot than I’m comfortable with. I’m guessing they had 3 weeks or so left to ripen up. With a forecast of weeks of rain in central VA, I decided to carry them into the garage. I have an 8’ tall Acapulco gold and a short and fat Afghan Kush, both photos.
Inside, I’m giving them light from two T5 HO 2’ fixtures that I used to use for spring seedlings, and I added a few home depot special 9000 lumen LED ‘lightbulbs’ – there seems to be good intensity now, but no clue what the spectrum is. I am just going for ‘good enough to finish’ here…
I was worried about bringing bugs inside, and have been lightly spraying with peroxide / water mix, and that seems to have done a fantastic job - no bugs seen, no sign of spider mites or webs, just one annoying housefly in there…
now, I’m noticing a lot more yellow and crunchy leaves randomly all over the plant - and some unusual spots. I’m hoping someone can help ID – is this a problem to do something about, or just keep holding out to let them finish… here are some pics – I appreciate any wisdom you can share.
Collect some runoff numbers so we can see what’s going on in your root zone 
Lucky to not run into a tremendous bug issue. I will never again bring an outdoor plant in under any circumstance 
Unfortunately I don’t have a meter to measure ppm, and trying to water gently in there, to avoid a big mess on the floor. they are growing in fox farms ocean forest and I’ve been giving them weekly doses of jacks bloom fertilizer since flowering started along with cal-mg-iron weekly. I do have a ph meter, and checked my tap water a few times earlier in the year. it’s generally between 6.5-7. I’ll go stare at the stuff in my garage and see if I can find something to catch runoff nonetheless…
I was also very surprised about the bugs – keeping my fingers crossed on that front!
Just shoot me if I do, ever again, please.
Seriously bud 
same
well, for what it’s worth, I made a bit of a mess and was able to get some kind of ph readings…
water out of my tap is 7.3. I tested some runoff by scooping some of the runoff off the surface of the dropcloth with a shotglass and stuck my ph meter in there – pH of runoff was about 5.1…
I’m about zero percent confident with this being scooped off of a somewhat old dropcloth, also suprised that it’s this low. any suggestions?
Flush with 6.5 PH water, low nutes (PPMs), and get 20% run-off for sample measure the run-off.
I’m guessing this might be a tricky process – what would you suggest adding to water to lower ph slightly? I just tried a shot of vinegar in my 2gal bucket and wow, it shot right down to 3.something… also how do you manage collecting that kind of runoff when indoors? I imagine I need to suspend the pot over a giant bucket? the plants are in 10 gal fabric pots…
apologies for the silly questions, I usually grow outdoors where runoff just falls into the gravel below…
Drip pans or tote employed for run-off containment.
FFPH down or maybe vinegar.
I water at 6.2-6.4PH
battery water transfer pump
I hey @n0ob I take it your spraying plant with 1part H2O2(3%) and 2part distilled water. Then put a fan on them and keep dry?
They need Red spectrum to flower strong. Your florescent has some UV but not much red. Not sure about your HD lighting. You can check to see what spectrum they produce.
Id get 2 of these 2packs on sale for $18 per 2 pack. . you can spread the lights around you plants and keep them around 12-14” from leaf.
I’d also add this for emergency situations.
thanks for all the ideas and suggestions. I’ll search my local gardening places to see if I can find a giant saucer or rolling stand, maybe I can find some today… I’d imagine a rolling stand inside a saucer would be ideal, and would work outdoors also to allow checking the runoff…
@LateNightGardner I mixed about a 1 part tap water and 2 parts 3% H2O2, using the tried and true ‘eyeball’ method, and used that to heavily spray anywhere I found / removed rot, and I lightly sprayed the entire plants both above and below. I do not have a fan blowing directly on them (was concerned about further spreading rot spores at first), but there are several fans gently circulating air in the garage, along with two (now one dehumidifier) it’s definitely dry feeling air now, and there seems to be no new rot. thanks for the idea of the red spectrum lights - I’ll see if I can pickup a 2-pack.
I’m guessing that a lot of what I’m seeing is stress related from the move from sun to less than ideal LEDs, as well as maybe some reaction to the peroxide and rot itself – I’ll definitely test my water going into the plants and add tiny amounts of vinegar to bring the pH into range. it’s going to be a day or three to let the girls soak up what I just gave them…
well, I broke down and ordered a new meter that does pH, EC, TDS so I’ll be able to measure runoff in a few days. I also thought about capturing runoff, and didnt like the idea of having to pick up a large pot or use a pump to empty the saucer, so I purchased some cheap wire shelving from amazon, and plan to cut it apart and make two shelves just high enough to put a collection saucer underneath, so I can just slide it out to empty / sample. we’ll know in a few days whether or not this works… I found a couple more old rotten spots and cut them out / sprayed with a bit of water/peroxide. The tall plant is continuing to present crunchy leaves and the short plant mostly giving me yellow leaves, but I did cut out some straggly stuff under the canopy, and removed / trimmed / drying one branch that was previously broken because it decided to wilt completely… I’ll post an update when I get the meters and collection stuff set up.
well, another day, and I’ve found a bunch more mold hiding out under otherwise nice looking buds – chopped a couple branches completely off, and removed a few more ends. I really dont like bud rot, what a terrible thing. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll have any plants left by the time the meter and stands arrive lol…
I’m also thinking hard about just going all in and getting a grow tent setup and do this stuff indoors… man, I love seeing the giant plants, but then they just beat you down with bugs, rot, etc… maybe I’ll do an early season outdoor auto? Someone twist my arm!
hah, I was just thinking about how to make sure the soil does not come along with unwanted visitors – thinking I’ll make a few rings of diatomaceous earth - one around the stem, and the other around the outside of the pot – I’ve seen some pretty big and creepy things crawl out of a bag of soil in the past. My local greenhouse supply place carries fox farms ocean forest and I’ve been using that to grow some pretty big and healthy plants (until half way thru flowering of course)
I just learned that I was not using enough perlite.
Still learning the FFOF PH game.
However, I got a new soil to try, the “KIS” shown above.
Indoor for my winter grow starting 11/11/24.
I only use outdoor as bonus grow. I don’t put much effort in. Grow dots in happy frog, water fed from the hose. It ALWAYS molds here, so IF I get anything… Bonus.
Indoor is fun. Jack’s and Coco make it very simple.
well, all of the doodads arrived today… plugged in one of the red LED panels and I’m impressed, thats a lot of red for 9 bucks. the completely funny part is that the box those LED panels came in have “Full spectrum” written in big letters… I was worried for a minute that I got the wrong one, but nope, all red… there’s even a switch for veg / bloom, which simply turns a few rows of those red leds on and off, lol – great deal for what it is!..
I’ll get everything set up, calibrated tonight and will test my very first runoff to see what’s up…
Just keep both switched on. You’ll want it putting out every photon it’s capable of.