Bubblegum Deep Water Culture LED/CFL Grow!

[dirwin85]

I am about 2 weeks into my post seed above ground grow. They are growing a bit slow because my air conditioner went out last week and temps were mid to upper 80's but i have gotten that fixed and am maintaining consistent temps between 76-82. My PH is a bit high around 7.5 but i am having problems keeping it down to 6.5 where it should be, and i am getting some algie on the walls of the tub.

here is my setup


Lighting
1 90watt LED UFO
1 55watt LED panel
6 20 watt cfls

Deep Water Culture
1 Stealth Hydro 6 plant Deep Water Culture starter kit
extra air stone

Ventilation
4" vortex fan with carbon filter
small osculating fan
lower passive through-air circulation vent

Measurements
Digital PH Pen
Digitatal PPM/TDS Pen

Nutes
Standard SH packs

Seeds
Bubblegum (fem)

 

[H6251686]

I am in,
I am about to finish up a bubble BubbleGummer.
I got 2 more I am going to do here pretty soon.

Can I give you some suggestions. Now they are just some suggestions I am just here
to try and help.

I think ya should take the wrap off of the rock wool and from my understanding, you should not be able to see the rock wool. hydroballs should be covering it, might want to put it down in the pot a little lower.

"My PH is a bit high around 7.5 but i am having problems keeping it down to 6.5 where it should be"

You want P.H. down around 5.8, Work it down slowly. Try not to do it no more than
a point per 12 hours. You have 7.5. try and get it to 6.5, check it i 12 hours. hopefully it will still be lower than 7.5. what ever it is work back down another point till you are able to reach 5.8. If it keeps rising on you. Hit 5.4 and let it work in that area. it will rise probably and will start noticing to stable.
Also Have you started Nutes yet?

Ya might want to get the air pump off the floor too. If power is lost, water can come back through it. Can turn out to be a mess.

"and i am getting some algie on the walls of the tub"
THIS IS NOT GOOD.
What is the temp of you res. that should be around 65 for best. no higher than 72.
If you are seeing Allergy, Heat and Light cause that.


Like I said, Just some suggestions. Here is a pic of one I am going to harvest her real soon.

I'll be watching.

 

[dirwin85]

thank you very much, i will go through those and get back to you asap

 

[dirwin85]

Rockwoll - i would like to put it lower but i am worried about touching the roots or damaging them with moving it, is that a problem? i could easyaly remove the paper if doing that but i do not want to damage them.

air temp: 82
water temp: 85.1
PPM: 660
PH: 5.53 (i dont feel that is right i put some ph down in it about 2 hours ago and its slowly coming back up)


Should i just start new water? and how do i keep my water temp below the air temp?

 

[Green007]

to 420 bro!

Yes take the paper off the rockwool cube. The water feeder line from your pump should be butted into the side of the rockwool about 2/3 of the way down.

Don't worry about moving the rockwool down, instead make some covers to put over the top of your net pots. This will keep light from getting into your res and help prevent algae. Cut the bottom of some styrofoam bowls and put a hole in the middle with a slit going from the edge to the hole to get them on and off.

Read this - Temps and Humidity in Deep Water Culture

And if you haven't yet, read this - Roseman's Deep Water Culture Tutorial
It will answer and address most of your issues.

Algae in the res is bad and contributing to your PH fluxtuations. You want your PH around 5.5 to start and then let it climb to 6.2 as water and nutes are used up. This will allow uptake of all the nutes. See the Hydro side of the chart. Also you need to clean the res, pump, airstones,ect and get it out of there.

You've got 2 good sets of leaves, so you should be using about 1/4 dose of nutes right now.

Read this - Feeding in Deep Water Culture

Lastly, go the the Deep Water Culture Home page and introduce yourself and post a link to your grow journal. Tons of great people there that grow in the same way you are to help you. Posting a link to your journal there will get more of them to come here and help you out. You probalby won't be able to read the thread from start to finish, it moves fast and has over 14000 posts. Just jump in at the end.

Deep Water Culture Home Thread

You are off to a great start!

 

[scaredeecat]

green knows and gave you sound advice i will rep you went i can green

 

[Green007]

Heat in the res. Here are some suggestions.

Like H6251686 said, raise the air pump off the floor so if you have a power outage it doesn't drain the tank. Also make sure your lights are not shinning right on the air pump heating it up and blowing hot air into the res. Move it out off the grow if you have to.

Get some more air circulation going. You should have a sm oscillating fan going in there.

You can tie some frozen bags of peas to the outside of the res to help cool it. You can cool some res water in the fridge and then take the same amount out of the res and put the cold in.

Some people put frozen water bottles right in the res to cool it down. This is a debatable subject as many growers such as myself believe frozen bottles touching your root mass is bad. However at this point your roots are not in the water yet, hence the water pump with feeder lines.

Hope this helps a little.



Agent Green

 

[Green007]

Thanks Scardeecat! You are wise too, your grow proves it!

 

[dirwin85]

Thank you, i cleaned my tank and tubes. i put in fresh distilled water ph 5.8 and i put in new nutes its 380 ppm, and water temp is 72 (air temp 78.8).

When i cleaned out the hoses it pushed one of them a lot higher so i removed some hydroton to lower it down. I really hope there was no major root damage (i was slow and methodical).

 

[Green007]

The roots should be fine, don't worry.

The water temp however, you really need to find a method to keep those temps down that works for you. 65° - 70° is a good safe range. 72° and over and you will be inviting root rot as those roots get bigger. If you figure it out now, you'll be fine. Is the water 72° when you put it in the res? If so, then start with colder water to begin with.

From the PH chart you can see 5.8 is the mean, but PH rises as nutes and water are used. Notice not all nutes are available to the plants at different levels. That's why most hydro growers PH down to 5.5 to start. As the PH climbs over the course of the week all nutes are able to be absorbed by the plants.

You're doing good, just keep at it.

 

[dirwin85]

thanks, you explained stuff well. My grow is in a closet so it will be difficult to move my air pump out but still doable, that will keep my water colder when i do it right? How long do you think by looking at my plants and setup till i get the "Deep Water Culture growth spurt"?

 

[Green007]

Moving the air pump out was just an option, not a necessity. Having the lights shine directly on the air pump heats it up so the air is hot going into the res. Feel the air pump now, is it hot? Generally just moving it up and shading it somehow is more than sufficient. The real problem with your res temps are not just the air pump though, you need to have hot air moved out of the grow room and cool air moved in. You need cool water added to the res. You need cooler water to start with too. And looking at your first post again, maybe raising your lights up a bit my help too. I've never used LEDs before so not sure about that. Just moving the air pump will only help a little. You need to try some other things too.

Get over to the Deep Water Culture home thread and introduce yourself and ask some questions there. You will get a lot more opinions and advise. There are many people there that know a lot more than I do too, so that will help.

The big growth spurt usually hits hard when the roots get into the res water - then it really goes! But the feeder tubes in right now are making a big difference in growth too.

Keep at it, you are on the road to glory my friend!

 

[MostlyCrazy]

You are getting a lot of help here and the only thing I would add is that one of the "zymes" (cannazyme, hygrozyme, sensizyme) will protect your roots in case of high temps in your res. Not saying you shouldn't do what you can to lower it into the 60's but if a root does die the zymes eat it and turn it back into nutes the remaining roots can use. It's a good tool to have at hand. Works good on outside and container plants too.

How many air stones are you using? If I read correctly I think the answer is two and that should be plenty but more is better in this case.

 

[dirwin85]

yea im using 2 air stones and i just added a frozen waterbottle to lower the temp. where can i grab that zymes stuff.

 

[MostlyCrazy]

This is from one of our sponsors.

718975 - Hygrozyme

On the cooling, I taped frozen peas to the outside of my tank. Better to cool it outside than inside. Roots don't like to touch frozen things.

 

[BootUmAll]

The growth spurt, as mentioned, will coincide with the roots getting well established in the rez. And then in their own good time. Patience.

 

[BootUmAll]

If you Bubble it They will grow!

 

[scaredeecat]

Thanks Scardeecat! You are wise too, your grow proves it!

all shucks

 

[scaredeecat]

your getting the best advice, i grow in a tight space also 4'x2'x7'. the only thing i can add is, i got my temps in range res and air was to invest in a portable ac unit, and i also ran a cool mist humidifier during veg.

 

[H6251686]

Hey dirwin85,
I umm went and got some more help. lol Green put an sos out on ya. these guys got great advice. You listen to them and you will have a good grow. Your gonna want to keep your journal updated. That way we can see whats going on and can help you out better.
Giving info as per the ph, ppm and temps makes it easier to diagnosis problems or for see problems you might have in the future.