I believe my problem is over feeding. Based on all the terrific information here. I’m way over fertilizing my plants. After combing through all the great responses and checking the forum out after spending hours, I believe I have way over done it with 10-10-10 and Fox Farm liquids.
I used 10-10-10 at the start then used Fox Farm liquid every day. I finally found the recommended chart and then understood I was way over the recommended usage. Not the amount used but the frequency, everyday. Next grow I’ll control the process as suggested by the OEM which I didn’t originally have. I do now thanks to this forum.
The gentlemen at the start of my original thread was right. As I started to read and investigate this wonderful forum it started to become apparent nutrient burn. You believe you are doing the right thing when in fact you are killing them.
My next grow goes in the tents mid to late January. Now that I understand how critical it is to follow instructions that I didn’t have but do now.
Thank you to everyone.
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Good luck on the next one and make sure to start a grow journal. We will help whenever you need a question answered! You got this 
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Yes sir my record keeping is impeccable. I track everything with forms I have developed. That’s why I couldn’t understand where my process was failing. After reviewing my records and knowing my water and feeding schedule I see the problem clearly now! Thank you for the support and the ILGM team for answering all my emails and questions before I even knew about this wonderful forum. Have a great new year all!!!
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Sometimes doing to much hurts you as well. I’m all about keeping track but usually the only numbers you should be recording would be runoff numbers of your ph/ppm in and out.
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Dont over complicate it too much. After all, it is just a weed! And if you enjoy feeding them and doing all the things, you should look into growing in coco. With soil you usually just water only for the first couple months depending on how loaded the soil is. Coco is much more user friendly and also allows you to feed the plants from start to finish.
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I was just seeing the other thread where you tagged me. When you start your next grow as @imSICKkid said start a journal and tag us to it. That way everyone can follow along and help out.
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I don’t understand run off? or how to check it? or even where to check it?
I use a digital soil ph meter and keep it around 6.5 and the next time I’m using Fox Farm Frog soil. Can you reuse this soil for each grow? Its very expensive.
I don’t see much of a difference using Virgiro potting soil on my plants. I know someone who who uses Fox Farm and he is now of the same opinion. Fox farm is 3x’s the cost, than my current soil. I just hurt mine plants by over feeding.
I do however currently use new soil from one grow to the next.
I purchased Fox Farm soil should be here next week 10- 2 cubic ft bags. I’m going to do a controlled study and see if it truly is any better and follow the fertilizing schedule.
Again thank you for the support!
Runoff is the water that comes out the bottom of the pots after you feed them. It’s good to catch the water and test the PH and the ppm of the runoff to see how your root zone is doing.
Thank you sir. I have a “journal” that I made up to control the process. Without going into much detail here suffice to say my profession is very process driven. I have detailed note on everything I’m doing to this point. I just failed on the feeding/fertilizing aspect of this project.
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Your using a hand held ph meter or you referring to the probe that sticks into your soil? To measure the ppms you would need a ppm meter, which is cheap on amazon for around 15 to 20 bucks.
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Have both. As well as a water ph meter and TDS meter. My incoming water is 7.0-7.4 and goes through a water softener. I use a ph down solution I got off amazon to control water ph.
My process is as follows:
Check ph meter with calibration solution. Calibrate if needed.
1- 5gal bucket start to fill bucket monitoring ph. Add Fox Farm fertilizer to OEM recommendations on jug, all while monitoring ph and TDS. PH 6.3-6.5 TDS 300-500 as recommended in a youtube video, before I knew about this terrific forum.
Put seeds in water overnight.
Seeds split overnight and then are put into new Virgro potting, use 3" pet pots. bury aprox 1/2" under fresh dirt. Then put under a dome with heat mat. Mat set to 78 F. Light are set 18-6 and on timers.
Germination is usually 2 days for some 4-5 for others. (break the soil surface). 90% plus yield. out of 20 seeds, I typically get 17 to start. Out of that 17 I may lose1 or 2, reason not known. Watered daily via a spray bottle.
Kept in controlled dome for 2 weeks.
Dome is opened and heat mat turned off.
Stay in grow room at ambient air temp 78 F and 60% RH for 3 weeks.
Transplanted to tent with the mentioned parameters list in the original post.
Your thoughts
Nothing wrong with focusing on the process, but sometimes, especially growing this plant it can cause you to overthink what’s happening. You were talking about your soil and cost, do you have a hydro store in your area. Usually they will have FF soil reasonably priced. Also as pointed out, you need a digital ph pen and TDS meter. When growing in soil you have to be sure to monitor ph runoff. If your ph is low or high the rest is moot. You can get nutrient lockout if ph is is off. As also pointed out if you switch to Coco it’s a inert media, what you put in, is exactly what is in the media. Not as much need to monitor runoff. There’s advantages to using soil and advantages to using Coco. Coco generally speaking will need to be watered daily, soil can go a few days without watering. But soil isn’t inert, it will retain nutrients and ph levels that need to be monitored. Another thing with soil is its best to start out with one that is buffered and amended for cannabis. Hopefully this helps you on how you want to move forward. Regardless of how you move forward you will be able to get the help and advice needed on this forum.
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CoCo where do you purchase it? I’d like to do my own study on the different types of grow medium. I want to dial this down to what I can grow to full budding in 10 weeks or less. Any recommendations on seeds or strains?
Thank you sir for the detailed information. outstanding information for a new cannabis grower. My 100 plus tomatoes 60 peppers and 50 cucumbers are not near this complicated are produce 100’s of lbs of good food. again after reading this forum i believe i know where I’m failing and will correct this on the next grow cycle.
Great information here! thank you again. Have a good New Year!
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You can buy coco bricks that will need to be rehydrated from Amazon. Coco overall is a superior way to grow, but also requires different care than soil. I currently grow with 50/50 mixture of Foxfarms Ocean Forest and Coco Loco. Coco Loco isn’t pure coco. I’ve had excellent results with this mixture. This mixture allows me to go 6 to 8 weeks without adding nutrients, with the exception of cal-mag. If you are prepared to water daily you should consider coco, if you prefer to grow in soil then you definitely should find a source for a soil specifically amended for cannabis. If you go with coco @imSICKkid and @AfgVet will be excellent with helping you get dialed in.
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The flower cycle alone on most plants are around 8 to 9 weeks so your expectations are slightly off. The veg phase can be as long as you want it. In coco I let them grow under 18 hours of light for approximately a month and then flip them to flower. So I would say normally its gonna be around 14 weeks give or take one.
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Perfect. Looked it up on amazon 2 cubic ft bag is 37.00 I have 40 3 gallon bags.
I just purchased 10 bags of Fox Farm Frog. I was going to mix it with my current soil. in the bottom 25-30% of the bag what I currently use and the top portion with the Fox Farm. Good idea? Just trying to stretch out the Fox farm, however I don’t want to create another problem or do anything dumb.
Right now i don’t see much difference in FF or my current soil based on a friends grow. Need more of a controlled study before I can make a statement with certainty.
Mr. or Ms Kid. what would you suggest for a 4x4 tent and a 4x8 tent in terms of how many 3 gallon bags would be be optimal? I see tents on here that have up to 10-12 in a 4x4. In your opinion, what’s good spacing for the plants? Thank you so much for the help.
I tried to look up Virgiro soil, only thing I could find is Virgoro soil. Most of the listings was for Home Depot. I’m not going to say with authority that it’s probably not the best idea to use, but it is not likely the best to use for cannabis. Not being able to really find much info on it,I would avoid it. Honestly I could be wrong. You’ll see people say that you shouldn’t use miracle grow soil and then find someone who has grown successfully in it. There’s a couple of folks on forum that have grown successfully in it. With that being said if you mix it with FF HF you may be good to go. I’ve went with gut feeling before and did well most of the time. I’ve also found out that going with that can be a mistake. LOL 
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