My 2nd 1st Attempt - Bubble Bucket Grow

[hydrofun]

Well losts of great advice thanks!! I bumped up the nutrient mix last night before bed and no signs of death today or damage so I guess I was way to light on the nutrients. I doubled the aquasheild and Great White. I guess its to late to move the small plant. This morning the roots had exploded into the water with side branching which is what I look for when adding great white and silcates to the water. I can't afford new nutrients so I'll have to use up these AN brands before I switch to GH. I had used GH 3 part the original mix before and just wanted to try AN but as long at it works i'll use it up and correct ph. Recently my PH is stable after adjustment. The PH perfect may not work to correct the water but once its stable the PH don't move even when I add more nutrients to the water later in the week. that's THE weird thing the 2 plants are 2 weeks apart and the small inst growing I put no nuts in the water to make sure not to burn it well I put a little great white and rapid root with a touch of aquashield. As you can see from the pictures no burns on the small 1 but it has not produced a new set of leaves in 7 days now. If aquashi9eld and great white work with synthetics does ancient earth work as well? Or can it?

 

[Greenthumb J]

btw.. rapid root.. is actually called Rapid Start.

I kept getting confused until i read back and read you calling it "GH rapid Root" which doesn't exist and is in fact called Rapid Start (i own a 500ml bottle of it)

It is very expensive stuff and i would use it sparingly. It really only needs to be used a couple times in the early root development stage. A couple times each grow will make the small bottles last awhile.

 

[budgrowing]

Ive had problems with buckets especially root rot and non producers. I was thinking of trying the scot unit by nothing but hydro it says it is a hybird of hydroponic aeroponic and bubbling that is worry free and easy for the beginners. Just trying to find out any information before I buy the unit. Has anyone tried this system or heard any feedback? Any information is helpful. Thanks,

 

[Greenthumb J]

Just watched their youtube video and i would suggest staying away from that.

You can build your own that will work better for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Greenthumb J]

Ive had problems with buckets especially root rot and non producers. I was thinking of trying the scot unit by nothing but hydro it says it is a hybird of hydroponic aeroponic and bubbling that is worry free and easy for the beginners. Just trying to find out any information before I buy the unit. Has anyone tried this system or heard any feedback? Any information is helpful. Thanks,

15 plants per container is too many. You will have the roots fighting for oxygen, the plants will get too close together and will fight eachother for the light. You will have to run ONE STRAIN ONLY due to certain strains liking certain levels of nutrients as opposed to other strains which might like less or more

Just watched again.. and its SUPPOSED to be a 16 site system but the water pump sits where a plant should go.... what a stupid design!!

 

[Greenthumb J]

if you want something similar that does all the work for you.. Check out BC Northern Lights dot com... all one word.. all lower case and look up grow kits and under that section you can pick up The Closet 800 which comes with your lights and ballasts and reflective hoods, or you can get "The Hydro 18" which is the same 18 site hydro tub with timer, air pump, water pump and rockwool. everything you need except the lights!

Dont go with some company that just started up last month!! no Youtube followers and one Video? i wouldn't say this is a very reputable company to spend your hard earned dollars on!!

 

[Greenthumb J]

100gal res? jesus.. we all must be made of money to be able to put the correct ratio of nutrients into that system, then have to change it out 7 days later.

This system is all bells and whistles. 15 plants too many. 4 plants would be perfect. if they wanted this to be efficient, i would remove the sprayer nozzles and put in a top feed drip ring that will irrigate your rockwool and can flush it out better than a spray tip that sprays the roots, not the medium

Just my 2 bits since i use an automated system myself

 

[hydrofun]

Ya GH rapid start that's the stuff. I only use .75 ml in each bucket for the first 3 weeks. It is so strong. I have the smallest bottle available and wondering if i'll use it up before it goes bad. Well I topped the 2 new main shots on the tall 1, and tied down the next 2 tallest branches. Still trying to make lateral growth on the taller plant. Hopefully it will just be 1 giant bud. Looks like the LSD is starting to grow some deformed white sprout finally (hopefully everything will work out). I removed 1 large fan leaf from the shorter plant to expose the large amount of growth underneath. I wish this short plant was in its own bucket. If it dosnt die its going to be on fat bush.

 

[hydrofun]

Week 4 week / week#2 Can someone tell me is that spoting on the leaves calmag deficiency and the light leaves + dark blotch is standard NPK deificiency?
fatter than a pencil on this short 1

 

[Greenthumb J]

A calcium deficiency would look like rust spots developing on the edges. Can easily be confused with nutrient burn, but nutrient burn starts at the tips and works its way back.

a Mag deficiency looks similar, but you would see purple stems and the petioles (piece of plant material that attaches the leaf to the stalk or branch) would also be purple on the underside of the leaf.

the close ups of your leaves were too blurry to define the problem. do you have a better quality camera to take photos with?

 

[hydrofun]

Unfortunately no I don't have a good camera, but I got a calmag deficiency for sure but that is already corrected as I had added GH calimagic 2 days ago. I was hoping that big brown black blob could be identified. The tall 1 is light so the mix was upped by 3ml each on 3part AN . My PH is completely stable for 3 days on both buckets even after adding more nuts and calmag. #1 5.8 #2 5.7 got me water temps down to 74F buy adding ice water bottles 2x a day thank god the summer is over and water temps should ease off, by budding time my water should be at 68f without cooling.

 

[hydrofun]

Finally a mutated twisted leaf growing from the LSD plant first leaf in a 8 days!

 

[hydrofun]

week4 2 days/ week2 2days. Well I can't figure out bucket 1 PH is perfectly fine at 5.7 not moving I've added calmag up to the max dose but the leaves keep spotting and rusting. Does calmag take a week to go away? Do leaves keep getting worse or do leaves that were already there keep getting the problem and only new leaves will be OK? Lots of questions, anyone have answers? I have almost half the recommended dose of AN 3 part most every forum says don't go over half but I'm thinking as lightly green colored this tall plant must need close to 3/4 max dose next round. bucket#2 is perfect PH at 5.8 not moving at all. looks like both buckets ate up about 1/2 gallon of water so far this week. roots looking like centipedes now with so many secondary branches. bucket#1 still had a super short bushy plant only toped 1x at the 4th nose I removed all the first node branches as it was way to deep (as someone here mentioned ) main stock is almost 2x as think as a pencil and its only 1 inch over the bucket top (my bad to deep). The LSD has what looks like at least 2 tops maybe 3 growing out mutated as it never produced a new set of leaves since week 1. At least its thick in the stock and not dying and I wont need to top it ever as it may have 3 tops and will now hopefully start catching up in height so I can bud at that point maybe 2 half weeks If I'm lucky. Heres some pics can any1 tell me why the LSD did this and what disease this is I think its still calmag on the big plant.

 

[smokey1507]

Just an idea.. Instead of feeding by ml's measure what ppm the nutes and water are mixed.. It's ok to go near full strength with advance nutes if your plant can handle the ppm, but it's recommended to start off slow then work up..

I just flipped to flower after veg for 9 weeks from seed and my ppm is 640 i know that 30ml of each part a&b sensi comes to 590ppm and 50 ppm is tap water.. That's half recommended dose on my bottles. Also advance nutes with the ph perfect can only be used and dumped they don't work well when just topped up.

Srry can't help you out on the deficency side as I haven't had and problems yet

 

[hydrofun]

Thanks for the ideas. Ya the ppm in bucket#1 is high like 1100 with the water (my water is hard 300PPM) I had the PPM low for 2 weeks and that's what I think is killing it. I have never been at or above half strength on the AN nuts. I think Ill go to 3/4 strength and see if I get an leaf burn. So far I am only seeing nut def and calmag def. I got rust and spots and light color on the tall 1. Although I did try and add nuts to it and once again you explained that wont work and that's why I am still seeing a problem. So I'll change the water and up the dosage, if it starts to burn I'll just dump a gallon and add water (will that work?) Can I just drain a gallon of overnutruient water and replace with a gallon of clean water Phd? Bucket#2 is working out finally. LSD had 2 tops for sure it just mutated from seed to 2 and what looks like maybe a 3rd top developing (hard to tell) this plant is a mess but it is a survivor. Nuts in bucket #2 are low like PPM600 with the water (water is 300). The other plant in bucket 2 is just green short fat bushy 6 equal height tops but only 3inches tall at best.

 

[smokey1507]

I know some places in America you can buy bottles of distilled water from the shop for very cheap! ( wish I could get that where I live) IMO you need to get the water ppm down with those nutes else I think you will be running into deficency's left right and center.. I wish more people would say there 2 cents ere!! I don't claim to know it all I'm a newbie myself to dwc but that's what I've learnt so far.. If I'm wrong I do accept criticism!! Lol

 

[hydrofun]

I wish I could get better water but I cant afford it I've grown with tap water pretty much never had a problem although I never had such high ppm water b4. I'm thinking the strain in bucket #1 just wants ass loads of nuts and calmag. I just changed the water in bucket#1 and soaked my roots in fresh PH5.9 water for an hour before making up a new batch of nuts. I made 3 gallons of water and added in this order 5mls per liter of calmag, .5mls per liter on ArmorSi, 2mls total of plant success Orca, 32mls each of AN 3part. I skipped the AN ancient earth this time until I can find out if it works with the rest of my synthetic nuts. Plus ancient earth makes your roots black and red so its hard to tell if you go root rot. After soaking bucket#1 my in fresh water my roots went form redishblack to white so at least the color just washed right off no damage. I'll post a few pics of my LSD which is making 3 tops for sure its still all mutated and small (damn you barneys farms... OK I blame chuck Norris). I did alittle more LST on the tall one trying to keep the branched down. I foresee a serious height imbalance if this makes it to bud.

 

[Greenthumb J]

Just an idea.. Instead of feeding by ml's measure what ppm the nutes and water are mixed.. It's ok to go near full strength with advance nutes if your plant can handle the ppm, but it's recommended to start off slow then work up..

I just flipped to flower after veg for 9 weeks from seed and my ppm is 640 i know that 30ml of each part a&b sensi comes to 590ppm and 50 ppm is tap water.. That's half recommended dose on my bottles. Also advance nutes with the ph perfect can only be used and dumped they don't work well when just topped up.

Srry can't help you out on the deficency side as I haven't had and problems yet

You dont feed by ml's. What you should do to be efficient as well as cost effective for your nutrients is to develop a feeding schedule for certain phases of the plants life.

For instance, i use Gen Hydro's 3 part Flora Series along with GH Florablend, GH ArmorSi (silica) Botanicare Cal/Mag + and Botanicare's Aquashield.

I start with a base: 16L of water for my DWC buckets, and 36L of water for my grow box. Thats 4 gallons or 9 gallons.
To that base i add (everytime):
4ml/gal Florablend
4ml/gal Cal/Mag +
1.5ml/gal ArmorSi
10ml/gal Aquashield

Then for each stage of the plants life i have amounts for the Grow, Micro and Bloom ratios
I add in parts. Each "part" is 5ml. This is Parts per Gallon. e.g. 2 parts = 10ml. 2 parts will equal 10ml times the amount of gallons you are mixing for.

VEG:
2 parts Grow
2 parts Micro
1 Part Bloom

I then will add plain, PH balanced water to adjust my PPM to 400-600 depending on how long the plant has been in veg for. I will max out at 700PPM for veg (thats a little high for me, but strain dependent)
For Seedlings and rooted clones i will dilute it further to about 250-400PPM

TRANSITION: (1 week before and 2 weeks into flower)
2 parts Grow
3 parts Micro
3 parts Bloom

Adjust PPM to 500-800

FROM 3rd WEEK UNTIL FLUSH:
2 parts Grow
3 parts Micro
5 parts Bloom

Adjust PPM to 700-1100 depending on what your plant can handle (i wouldn't suggest going over 1000).

This is just what works for me so far. I am continuing to tweak the amounts in my "parts" so that i dont have to add water to my mix and dilute my nutrient strength to the PPM i trying to achieve. I'm getting closer. For my Transition recipe, i had to add an extra gallon and a half, but thats cause i was soaking rockwool too, so i went a bit higher on the PPM cause i knew i was adding more water, then the left over nutrient mix is going into my grow box.

Thanks for the ideas. Ya the ppm in bucket#1 is high like 1100 with the water (my water is hard 300PPM) I had the PPM low for 2 weeks and that's what I think is killing it. I have never been at or above half strength on the AN nuts. I think Ill go to 3/4 strength and see if I get an leaf burn. So far I am only seeing nut def and calmag def. I got rust and spots and light color on the tall 1. Although I did try and add nuts to it and once again you explained that wont work and that's why I am still seeing a problem. So I'll change the water and up the dosage, if it starts to burn I'll just dump a gallon and add water (will that work?) Can I just drain a gallon of overnutruient water and replace with a gallon of clean water Phd? Bucket#2 is working out finally. LSD had 2 tops for sure it just mutated from seed to 2 and what looks like maybe a 3rd top developing (hard to tell) this plant is a mess but it is a survivor. Nuts in bucket #2 are low like PPM600 with the water (water is 300). The other plant in bucket 2 is just green short fat bushy 6 equal height tops but only 3inches tall at best.

Those dark spots you showed in your pictures aren't "rust" spots like i am talking about. The rust spots associated with a calcium deficiency starts at the edges (not the tip)and will scatter on the top of the leaf, not patchy, light green-brown coloured that i saw in your photos that look associated with root issues. those spots could also signify a Phosphorous deficiency, which is also accompanied by reddish or purpling of the stems and petioles of the cannabis plant as well as necrotic spotting like that.

LED grown plants DO require more Calcium and Magnesium than plants grown under HID lighting, but dont overcompensate because you think it needs it.

I know some places in America you can buy bottles of distilled water from the shop for very cheap! ( wish I could get that where I live) IMO you need to get the water ppm down with those nutes else I think you will be running into deficency's left right and center.. I wish more people would say there 2 cents ere!! I don't claim to know it all I'm a newbie myself to dwc but that's what I've learnt so far.. If I'm wrong I do accept criticism!! Lol

The other option is to buy a RO system, but then the need to supplement with Ca/Mag is greater. But this way, you aren't having a couple hundred dollars worth of nutes sitting on your shelf cause they take your PPMs to the moon and harm the plants!

OR If you are using hard water, i would stop using the Advance Nutrients line of nutes you are currently using and switch over to the General hydroponics 3 Part Flora series, but use the FloraMicro Hardwater formula for water PPM's over 200 instead of the regular FloraMicro

General Hydroponics FloraMicro Hardwater

that is a link to the product page.

This will balance out your high starting PPM and maintain a steady balance in your system. Also, the 3 part Flora series can be used in conjunction with almost all synthetic fertilizers and supplements.

Theres my 2 bits! I like to think i have DWC figured out pretty well.

 

[Greenthumb J]

5ml per litre of Cal/mag is too much. The max suggested dose is 5ml per GALLON, not litre.

 

[Greenthumb J]

Hard water already contains calcium, so supplementing that much is overkill.