3 White Widow & 1 BC Big Bud, Hydro Drip

[snowbound]

Had to toss in 20 liters last night to top up reservoir. Crazy what they are taking in daily now. I went with a 1.5 EC mixture, used Scrogdawg's formula for early flowering. Used that Armor Si for the first time. That really works against ph doesn't it. had to use more ph down than ever before.

I put the 20 liters in at ph of 5.6, when it mixed with the rest ph settled out at 5.9

 

[Scrogdawg]

It says a Canadian version of Z7 called Z9.

Z9 - Canadian Formula

I have to top up nutrient tank. Would you use straight ph'ed water or water with nutrient mix? I am leaning to mixed because the ph and EC are constant. Sorry for all the questions , just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.

I emailed FLying Skull about a year ago and asked why Z7 wasn't available in Canada. They're reply was that it hadn't been approved yet for sale in Canada by the government regulators. I replied back and asked "point blank" if Z9 was a direct replacement for Z7. There response was simply, "use Z9 until Z7 was available".
I'm sure Z9 would be beneficial and I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I didn't have access to Z7.

If my EC is stable, I always mix my top up nutrients to the same strength as the reservoir. In doing so I only have to do res changes when the system shows changes such as an increase/decrease in ph or EC. Usually I only do res changes to go from early to mid to late nute recipes in both veg and flower. So basically, I do 6 res changes a grow including the start up reservoir.

 

[Scrogdawg]

A note about Amor Si.
In my recipe, note that the Armor Si is not at the top of the list...but it should be. Always put the Armor Si in the water first and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. That should help with the big ph swings, or so says the General Hydroponics website as well as other users.

Secondly (and I learned this from experience), if you ever decide to scrog don't use Armor Si until you've finished tucking and folding the branches, ie; half way through early flower. It makes the branches very strong and hard to bend. They will tend to just snap off. I've lost more than one main cola till I figured that out.....ever seen a grown man cry. lol.

 

[snowbound]

I had read up on the silica and did put it in first and let sit for a few mins. Still after adding nutes I had to use a fair bit of ph down to bring the ph level down to where I wanted it.

For the price of the Z9 I will probably order some and then compare labels to see if they are identical.

 

[snowbound]

Some pics from today after a little trim on one of the girls.

 

[Stevef111]

Very good progress so far can’t wait to see the finished product.

 

[snowbound]

Another 30 liters added today. 20 l went in at 5.6 ph and 1.5 EC. The final 10 l went in straight at 5.6 ph. Overall ph is at 5.9 and EC is fluctuating back and forth from 1.5 - 1.6

 

[snowbound]

Day 14 Flowering

Ph is at 6.0, up one tick and EC is steady at 1.6. Reservoir is down some water but not enough to top up yet I think.

Plants are at 28.5" tall. They are stretching but nothing too crazy. Should only be another week or so of stretch and that will be done. All indications are that height will not be a factor in the tent this time around.

 

[snowbound]

Day 15 Flowering

Added 20 liters of nutrients @ 5.7 ph and 1.6 EC. The digital balllasts have "super lumens" setting which is I think basically 10% more wattage so i figured they can't have enough light.

Things are starting to change on top now.

 

[snowbound]

Day 17 flowering

Did a full nutrient clean out today. EC had gone up to 1.7, ph was up to 6 - 6.1. Plants were drinking too much water and not enough nutrients I think.

A new 80 liters @ ph 5.8, and EC @ 1.5, water temp @ 65'

Plants have hit 31" tall now, still well within limits of my grow tent, so all good there. Getting easy to see the transformation now. Still relatively very little smell.

 

[Scrogdawg]

EC had gone up to 1.7, ph was up to 6 - 6.1. Plants were drinking too much water and not enough nutrients I think.

They'll slow down on the feeding now that the growth stage is over. Keep an eye on the EC, to make sure it doesn't happen again. 1.5 is still pretty high for flowering. If it continues to build again you may want to drop to 1.2 EC.

 

[snowbound]

Thanks for the tip. I figured this would be the last stage of the growth spurt so i gave them a full shot.

On the next tank I will drop EC for sure. I would prefer to just change out the whole reservoir rather than try to dilute out a high EC reading.

 

[tops]

Here is my pic from today. They are growing really well I think, especially considering I near killed them in the first 7 days. I switched over to two 1000W HPS for flowering today as well.

That's one grow to be proud of can I ask what are you feeding them.

 

[Growingasmile]

First time growing hydro. Many years ago I grew plenty in and out but all in soil. With full legalization here in Canada I figured I would give hydro a chance.

Using the drip method with clay pellets. This right off the bat turned out to be the most challenging thing to get right. I presoaked the pellets in 5.3 PH water. But this was after I had rinsed them with tap water. And my tap water is at about 7.5 PH. This was my first mistake, and it nearly killed me before I got out of the gate. I could not control the PH at all, just kept getting too high too fast. I figured the rinse in tap water was my problem. I pulled the plants from the buckets ( they were nearly dead at this point so I did not think I had much to lose ) and thoroughly soaked the pellets again at 5.3 PH. Put plants back in the buckets and off we went. PH was under control and things made a dramatic change for the better.

I am using a 6.5 x 6.5 x 6.5' grow tent. I have a 20" carbon filter hooked up and this also vents my 2 1000 W HID lights. For veg I used 1 MH and 1 HPS 1000W air cooled lights. Room temp is typically from 75 to 80'. RH is low. I cannot get above 30%, this is even with a humidifier running 24/7. The inline exhaust fan just takes it all away. Even used two wet towels at the same time, no go. With lights off and main exhaust fan off np to get RH up at 70%, but as soon as lights come on with the fan that is brought down to the mid 20's in no time.

The plants are in 20l pails with 10" mesh pots. I started out with 5 buckets, 4 for plants and one for reservoir. This I quickly realized was too small and subject to a lot of fluctuation in PH and EC. So I got a 95 l tub and now use 80 l of nutrient solution. I keep the bigger one outside the room to better manage temps and pump into the plants and back to the reservoir from the 5th bucket inside tent.

I started the plants off at one feeding cycle of 15 mins on and 45 mins off. This quickly got to 15 on and 15 off for lights on cycle. I use GH triple nutrient mix along with Calmag. Seedlings started off at .6 EC and during veg I got them up to 1.7 EC just before flipping cycle.

Here are the plants on Dec 12th.

White widow is by far my most favorite strain to grow, its short stubby structure with is fat fan leafs are so awesome.. it's like no other strain

 

[Brett Blaze]

Day 14 Flowering

Ph is at 6.0, up one tick and EC is steady at 1.6. Reservoir is down some water but not enough to top up yet I think.

Plants are at 28.5" tall. They are stretching but nothing too crazy. Should only be another week or so of stretch and that will be done. All indications are that height will not be a factor in the tent this time around.

Mine continued to grow for 4 weeks of flowering with 60% of the stretch in the first two weeks. They went from 12" to 28" in two weeks. Total height now at 6.5 weeks is 38".

 

[Growingasmile]

Had to toss in 20 liters last night to top up reservoir. Crazy what they are taking in daily now. I went with a 1.5 EC mixture, used Scrogdawg's formula for early flowering. Used that Armor Si for the first time. That really works against ph doesn't it. had to use more ph down than ever before.

I put the 20 liters in at ph of 5.6, when it mixed with the rest ph settled out at 5.9

Man that grow looks like a clinic it's so dang clean

 

[snowbound]

That's one grow to be proud of can I ask what are you feeding them.

I am using General Hydroponics triple mix, along with CalMag, and Armor Si. Scrogdawg was kind enough to post up his mixture rates. We have the same size reservoir so the rest was easy.

 

[snowbound]

Mine continued to grow for 4 weeks of flowering with 60% of the stretch in the first two weeks. They went from 12" to 28" in two weeks. Total height now at 6.5 weeks is 38".

I don't think mine will get to 38", I am keeping the lights close to them to try and some what limit the stretch.

 

[snowbound]

Man that grow looks like a clinic it's so dang clean

With enough room to get inside and all around the plants it's easy to keep it clean. Keep it clean, no unwanted pests.

 

[Scrogdawg]

Do you want my mid flower nutrient recipe to use as a reference point?