Sulfur deficiency

[ScrubGrower]

Hi all, it is my first grow and I am a bit overwhelmed.

New growth on all of my plants has been coming in lime green after I switched to optimum nutrients
I am growing in 6x6x6 rockwool with a bunch of rockwool chunks under it and on the sides.

I am in my 4th week of veg and overwatered a bit but I think I am safe to water once a day now.

based on my noob research it looks like sulfur deficiency. I used to ph at 6.09 but the last watering I did not change my ppm from 1000 and instead lowered the ph to 5.8 and it looks like the plants have regained some of that dark green color how long would it take for me to see these changes? should I wait longer or should I add more sugar shack by optimum?

first pic: my most affected plant taken yesterday before ph change
second pic: same plant a day later, in the morning 20 mins after lights on.

3rd pic: my best plant 30 mins after lights on

 

[Alafornia]

I don't have any answers but someone will be along soon to help. I wonder about a mag deficiency, but please ignore that and wait on someone who knows what they are doing.

 

[Barney86]

I'm be back in an hour or so. Just tagging in so I don't forget. I'll sort you out mate.
Cut nutes to 200ppm and ph 5.8 is the short version. Punt the rest up shortly.

 

[Barney86]

Yeah, so 200-300ppm will do you no worries. Rockwool is awesome for growing in but I'm not sure what you're up to. A 6 inch cube with chunks of Rockwool underneath it in a pot?
If so, that's a bad way to use Rockwool lol.
Imo, the best way is to stick it on top of an NFT reservoir. Only £30 ready to go all parts included. Can easy get a pound per res under 500-600w of cheap shit lights. 1-6 plants depending on how much of a hurry you're in. Just use 4x2 cubes though.
Just plug it in, stick the cubes on top. Fill the res and they grow themselves. Gott check it every few days. Empty it once a week. But that's about it really.
Keeps up with any expensive grow system without breaking a sweat

 

[Barney86]

The problem you'll get from just having them in the Rockwool is that the feed will build up in the Rockwool and increase in strength. As the plant absorbs the water, the rest of it gets stronger. That also fucks with the ph.
This happens in all media but you'll notice it more because of that main cube.
The answer is to feed it multiple times per day to run off or on a constant slow drip. The problem we have here though is that you might get problems because of the density/size of the cube
Rockwool is awesome for starter cubes.
Awesome for nft, dwc and ebb and flow systems but that's because they all have tonnes of space for the roots to grow and use a small cube. Yours won't grow like that which can cause all sorts of dramas.
Hmm... still not much of a solution lol.
Have the roots filled out the pot?
Can you get some close up of the top of the pots or that?
Just doesn't sound like a great idea to be growing like that mate. It's not how Rockwool likes to be treated.

 

[ScrubGrower]

Hey I realize this was a stupid method to grow. but it was my first time. live and learn.

I couldn't wait long enough for an answer here, called the local hydro store owner - he told me to up the ppm to 1200 and feed. So I have..... I phed at 5.82 and my runoff was 5.9

sorry for not waiting for your answer.

but yes the roots have already popped out of the net pots.

should the rockwool be dry before I feed? will the lime green leaves regain the old colour. how long would it take?

 

[ScrubGrower]

how many more mistakes like these can these plants tolerate?

 

[Barney86]

When you go back to the hydro store please tell the guy from me that he's an idiot
No2 cause of new growers problems is definitely the hydro store guy.
The no1 cause is nutrient manufacturers recommended feed schedules.
This lot are in 4x2" Rockwools, sitting on a shelf and being fed 300ppm on a constant but very slow drip from one end of the shelf. 100-150 litres a day or so. 4-6 litres per hour.
There's 2 res under there. The top one has the auto that's in bloom up the back and another tiny one to the left that you can barely see. That res is 500ppm ph 6.2.
The rest of them are all on 300ppm ph 5.7. There's 4 in 1 res in the middle and 1 in 3gal coco pot at iether side.

There's not a hope in hell your plants will be improved by feeding them 4 times more than that lot lol. The canopy is 7ft x7ft and they're over 2ft tall.

 

[Barney86]

I'm struggling to find a solution mate tbh. You're most likely gonna get a lot of problems throughout the grow and the obvious choices don't really count because of the size of the cube.
It's too big imo to pot. It'll hold too much water and give you nothing but drama.
It's also too big to put into dwc and probably too big to do it my way.
I honestly don't know mate.
Don't do anything drastic though. Just chill out for a couple days, lower the feed and ph it to 5.7ish and they'll be fine for now.
Have faith in 420 mate. We'll get it figured out. Sometimes tales a few sets of eyes to spot something obvious.
Occupational hazard of being stoned most of the time

 

[ScrubGrower]

B

When you go back to the hydro store please tell the guy from me that he's an idiot
No2 cause of new growers problems is definitely the hydro store guy.
The no1 cause is nutrient manufacturers recommended feed schedules.
This lot are in 4x2" Rockwools, sitting on a shelf and being fed 300ppm on a constant but very slow drip from one end of the shelf. 100-150 litres a day or so. 4-6 litres per hour.
There's 2 res under there. The top one has the auto that's in bloom up the back and another tiny one to the left that you can barely see. That res is 500ppm ph 6.2.
The rest of them are all on 300ppm ph 5.7. There's 4 in 1 res in the middle and 1 in 3gal coco pot at iether side.

There's not a hope in hell your plants will be improved by feeding them 4 times more than that lot lol. The canopy is 7ft x7ft and they're over 2ft tall.

really nice looking plants and I agree that I fucked up choosing an expensive method which I'll correct for my next grow.

I'm struggling to find a solution mate tbh. You're most likely gonna get a lot of problems throughout the grow and the obvious choices don't really count because of the size of the cube.
It's too big imo to pot. It'll hold too much water and give you nothing but drama.
It's also too big to put into dwc and probably too big to do it my way.
I honestly don't know mate.
Don't do anything drastic though. Just chill out for a couple days, lower the feed and ph it to 5.7ish and they'll be fine for now.
Have faith in 420 mate. We'll get it figured out. Sometimes tales a few sets of eyes to spot something obvious.
Occupational hazard of being stoned most of the time

thanks for your help.

Here's a timelapse of my last 3 days - you can see the color change yet this center plant keeps growing 2 inches a day....
if it keeps going at this rate I won't be able to house it....

 

[Weaselcracker]

Hey I haven’t properly read through this thread yet but - rockwool makes a great grow medium. Do a search for ‘Cap’n style’. Not many people doing it that way anymore but Skybound is still kicking it.
Yes you’d normally be feeding multiple times per day by flowering.
Usually when I’ve had tops turning bright yellow it’s been because my ph was too high. The yellowing reversed when I corrected that problem

 

[ScrubGrower]

double post

 

[ScrubGrower]

I think they are getting better, the middle plant has it the worst so I'll move the lights away from her a bit hopefully reduce demand on nutes and let the others catch up

 

[Barney86]

Just been back up an got some new pics so you can see better what 300ppm can do mate. Only got 400w mh above that lot too btw. Been in there since 1st of last month.
You can see in the root shot my rockwools sitting on the shelf with the level of water that's going in.
My initial guesstimate on volume was wrong though it's more like 400 litres per day they get fed.
Comes from a 20L res underneath with a cheap ass £8 recirc pump in it and a £7 4w air pump powering both reservoirs to help keep them fresh

 

[ScrubGrower]

are those sativa? I like the small resevoir. I have to use 55 gal which is like $30 canadian pesos per week in nutrients.

what happens if the power goes out?

 

[Barney86]

I think they are getting better, the middle plant has it the worst so I'll move the lights away from her a bit hopefully reduce demand on nutes and let the others catch up

Fuck yeah mate they're lookin much better. How did you do the time lapse by the way? I'd love to give that a shot if there's an easy, cheap way to do it

 

[ScrubGrower]

Fuck yeah mate they're lookin much better. How did you do the time lapse by the way? I'd love to give that a shot if there's an easy, cheap way to do it

I use a rock64 but you can use a pi 3b+(US$30) and 5mp camera with night vision for US$20 (I cheaped out on that fml) I just run a python script to take pictures every 5 min then combine them to a mpeg with ffmpeg. you can setup a web server and see your plants live

It has therm, humidity, pressure sensor that I can read from and also use the unit to control a 5v relay for the lights, exhaust based on temp and soon the watering when I finish building a platform for the 55gal res today. I bought expensive soil moisture level sensors but I don't think I'll be needing them. The rockwool was still wet when I fed and the plants seem to be doing great. I am oxygenating the water and using HP.

ELEGOO 8 Channel DC 5V Relay Module with Optocoupler for Arduino UNO R3 MEGA 1280 DSP ARM PIC AVR STM32 Raspberry Pi : Amazon.ca: Electronics

ELEGOO 8 Channel DC 5V Relay Module with Optocoupler for Arduino UNO R3 MEGA 1280 DSP ARM PIC AVR STM32 Raspberry Pi : Amazon.ca: Electronics

www.amazon.ca

 

[Barney86]

are those sativa? I like the small resevoir. I have to use 55 gal which is like $30 canadian pesos per week in nutrients.

what happens if the power goes out?

20Litre gt205 nft reservoirs I use mate. If the power goes out it's not too much drama.
For the first few weeks the roots are only in the air so youd have to hand feed a few litres every 12 hours to stop them drying out.
If they're 4 weeks+ there should be enough roots in the res underneath to keep them happy. Don't need an air stone in nft cos the roots are in nothing but air. If the power runs out to the recirc pump they'll survive themselves no worries for as long as the roots are in water.
I do use a small one but its only cos the roots won't grow past it and block the recirc pump.

It's ak420 photo strain not sure what the genetics are but its a 9 weeker apparently and it's ment to be fuckin mental in every sense of the word

 

[Barney86]

You don't need a 55 gal res mate lol.
By all means set it up, you'll need it eventually but for now you'd be better off with something much smaller. They'll only be drinking a few litres per week. Maybe a couple gallon in a few weeks time. What gonna happen to the other 53 gallons per week?
Also a smaller res is more sensitive which is good when you're starting out cos it allows you to see more clearly what happens to the ppm and ph levels so you'll learn to control them better, faster
Id be starting off with no more than 20L to feed that lot if it's an option. They won't drink that much on a recirc and honestly you'll benefit so much from seeing the ph and ppm shifts straight away.
It's the main thing that makes people use bigger res but if you can't see the fluctuations you wont know they're happening and will dismiss it as a possible cause for any issues.
Then you'll start looking at all sorts of magical cures because you won't be able to see that the 2000ppm in the res is too much because the plants can't drink enough to effect it. That all make sense mate?
Had a few doobs and realise I'm rambling lol.

 

[ScrubGrower]

well... these buckets are 5 gal, and they sit in the net pots so I have to fill up 9x plant buckets (5gal each) and a control bucket.

otherwise i would have to put something into that empty space at the bottom of the buckets but I believe the roots should fill it up