Cherry Gar See Ya R1 RDWC w/ AC Infinity Smart Kit EVO6 LED

[No Pain]

Great advice, I wish I had taken it sooner. I do see a little green tint to the rapid rooter, so I’m trying to pour water just around the edges of it and only get it a little moist.

I had to build up a mound of hydroton around the rapid rooter just now because I noticed some roots peaking out of the side. So I’m really really hoping 1-2 more days before I can see them reaching into the water. Hopefully all nice and beautifully white.

Thank you it's all part of the learning game of been there and done that or had that happen. how close is the rapid rooter to the base of your net cup and how close is the water level in the bucket to the bottom of the cup?

 

[ChronicKid007]

Thank you it's all part of the learning game of been there and done that or had that happen. how close is the rapid rooter to the base of your net cup and how close is the water level in the bucket to the bottom of the cup?

Base of the net cup is approx one inch from the water line. The top of the rooter is flush with the top of the net cup.

Probably too high if you ask me. But alas, because the roots are most certainly already making their way through the hydroton, I think it would be foolish to move them.

Next grow I’ll definitely adjust net pot size. Something smaller might make more sense. Either that or let the roots establish more before the initial transplant. Or (lol), get a real top feed system set up. I’m leaning towards the ladder.

 

[No Pain]

Okay ..the base of the rooter or rockwool cube should be about 1/4 " above the water level for a long story short. My cups have a planting and it makes things easier. Here is a link to MINE so you can see what I'm talking about . You may want to make a small hydro system for her until she has enough roots to reach the water level. It would be easy . Take a small net cup and cut the bottom out of it put her through the center of the cup and take some kabob wood skewers or tooth picks to hold her in place . get a small container with a lid make sure its blacked out cut a hole that the net cup will sit in add solution to 1/4" below her base and a bubbler and hand water until her roots hit the solution. After they hit let them get long enough to reach the bottom of your system net pot at the planting depth you have her at right now . when that has happened, simply cut her out of the cup and transfer her to your system and hand water for about two days after that her roots should be in the solution .

 

[ChronicKid007]

Okay ..the base of the rooter or rockwool cube should be about 1/4 " above the water level for a long story short. My cups have a planting and it makes things easier. Here is a link to MINE so you can see what I'm talking about . You may want to make a small hydro system for her until she has enough roots to reach the water level. It would be easy . Take a small net cup and cut the bottom out of it put her through the center of the cup and take some kabob wood skewers or tooth picks to hold her in place . get a small container with a lid make sure its blacked out cut a hole that the net cup will sit in add solution to 1/4" below her base and a bubbler and hand water until her roots hit the solution. After they hit let them get long enough to reach the bottom of your system net pot at the planting depth you have her at right now . when that has happened, simply cut her out of the cup and transfer her to your system and hand water for about two days after that her roots should be in the solution .

I appreciate the feedback and advice. Lucky for me, I see a handful of roots sticking out of the bottom now! Will update more in my Day 10 post.

 

[No Pain]

don't mention it and Awesome to hear that you see roots. You getting ready to be off to the races!

 

[ChronicKid007]

Day 10: We have roots! I counted about 5 beautiful white roots below the base and I see a variety of different directions. None have additional arms branching out, but they look like they're on a mission to take the bucket by storm.

Added an additional 4 ml of PH down to take it back to 6 flat. Considering buying a Blue Lab PH system with auto dosing so PH becomes a plug and play forgettable necessity. Expensive, but it will keep me from taking my pizza grease fingers to check the ph over and over and over and over. It's become a secondary job to me lol.

Added washed, soaked, and PHd hydroton to cover over the gaps so there's no light seepage. I think I got the rooter too wet without enough air circulating on it..
So I'm in low-key survival mode. As long as these roots are actually in the water tomorrow, it's game on. For now, I pointed my fans directly at the base of the plant to helpfully help quell the wet rapid rooter into submission. Best case scenario, we stop whatever may or may not be happening at the base of the plant, and by tomorrow this baby is thriving. Worst case scenario, it doesn't get any better and unfortunately we'll have to re-diagnose tomorrow. Although it looks ill, I am pretty damn certain that the base was just over watered and needs to be dried. Now that the roots are chillin, it's just the maintain game from here.

If things are super beautiful in a month, I'll treat myself to the bluelabs auto doser.

Leaving on a good note tonight.

Cheers,
Dank Jedi

 

[Pitmaster]

Nice Set Up. I Love Ac Infinity Products just bought their Humidifier and UIS Controller 69 Pro. I have their 6 " exhaust blower and charcoal filter and 1- 6" Ocillating Fan and a Stationary clip on also. Next purchase will be their light for a 4X4 Tent.

 

[ChronicKid007]

Nice Set Up. I Love Ac Infinity Products just bought their Humidifier and UIS Controller 69 Pro. I have their 6 " exhaust blower and charcoal filter and 1- 6" Ocillating Fan and a Stationary clip on also. Next purchase will be their light for a 4X4 Tent.

So far I'm really enjoying everything, but especially the smart controller. It was a little difficult to figure out at first, but now it's second nature.

I have a feeling everything is going to explode in growth now that it's dialed in.

 

[ChronicKid007]

Day 11: There is a fairly noticeable difference in the size of the leaves, but it doesn't seem particularly healthy. My gut is saying PH. Almost every time I've ever checked the PH it was running high, so I decided to invest in an automatic PH doser and reader. I think the variability of the PH is just too much.

The roots are looking good. All five strands that protruded yesterday are now in the water. Still no root hairs, but it looks almost like there are little buds on the roots waiting to produce them. Hopefully, if I can keep the PH right until Wednesday when the auto-doser arrives, we'll be much more established than we currently are.

I think the plant is growing 'just fine' in terms of leaf activity, but need to keep things 100% to ensure nothing dramatic happens so early that stunts it somehow. At least I can do one thing right in keeping it dark 100% during its sleep period lol. But with tomorrow comes a new day.

I'm open to other diagnoses suggestions if anyone has any.

Cheers,
Dank Jedi

 

[Pitmaster]

So far I'm really enjoying everything, but especially the smart controller. It was a little difficult to figure out at first, but now it's second nature.

I have a feeling everything is going to explode in growth now that it's dialed in.

Ya it's quite comlicated going to YouTube info to set it up. But it covers all the bases and having control by the Phone App is Deluxe Feature.

 

[No Pain]

Day 11: There is a fairly noticeable difference in the size of the leaves, but it doesn't seem particularly healthy. My gut is saying PH. Almost every time I've ever checked the PH it was running high, so I decided to invest in an automatic PH doser and reader. I think the variability of the PH is just too much.

The roots are looking good. All five strands that protruded yesterday are now in the water. Still no root hairs, but it looks almost like there are little buds on the roots waiting to produce them. Hopefully, if I can keep the PH right until Wednesday when the auto-doser arrives, we'll be much more established than we currently are.

I think the plant is growing 'just fine' in terms of leaf activity, but need to keep things 100% to ensure nothing dramatic happens so early that stunts it somehow. At least I can do one thing right in keeping it dark 100% during its sleep period lol. But with tomorrow comes a new day.

I'm open to other diagnoses suggestions if anyone has any.

Cheers,
Dank Jedi

What is your nutrient strength and what ph are you runniing ? With a seedling in your system and using the gh feed schedule for a seedling your ph shouldn't be fluctuating it should be stable. here is the feed schedule that I use.

 

[ChronicKid007]

What is your nutrient strength and what ph are you runniing ? With a seedling in your system and using the gh feed schedule for a seedling your ph shouldn't be fluctuating it should be stable. here is the feed schedule that I use.

That feed is actually slightly higher in PPM than what I've been running. I've been sitting between 200-220 for the whole time. I'm positive the PH is fluctuating a lot. I put in 10ml earlier of PH down and it went from 6.6 to 5.8. I just checked in a few minutes ago and it's up to 6.2 again.

I really just need the auto PH doser to be here so I can identify if it actually needs a higher ppm. Maybe it's not getting enough. I just figured it was locked out because of the PH, because the roots are still growing.

 

[ChronicKid007]

Day 12: PH barriers again today. The dosing machine arrives tomorrow night though, so I will put it up then. I'm hoping this plant isn't a dud because it's been nearly two weeks now and the water isn't dialed in. Shit, even my new water filtration system at home and the PPM is zero but the PH is still coming out around 9.5. So I don't understand what the deal is there either. *sigh* It's ok though. I've seen poor seedlings that bounce back to be bangers. So there's still faith.

I am 100% convinced a PH imbalance is leading to a variety of lockouts, hence the discoloration on the leaves. But somehow, someway, this fighter's roots just keep on going. I decided against a pic today. Going to try to give them some blackout conditions to generate some feelers.

 

[No Pain]

That feed is actually slightly higher in PPM than what I've been running. I've been sitting between 200-220 for the whole time. I'm positive the PH is fluctuating a lot. I put in 10ml earlier of PH down and it went from 6.6 to 5.8. I just checked in a few minutes ago and it's up to 6.2 again.

I really just need the auto PH doser to be here so I can identify if it actually needs a higher ppm. Maybe it's not getting enough. I just figured it was locked out because of the PH, because the roots are still growing.

hmm with that much solution and it being a seedling. That kind of drift says there is an issue. Its either with your ph meter or the down you are doing or your solution is unstable. The chart I posted has 3 levels light med and aggressive.

so when you mix you measure the micro add it to the water , rinse the glass in the water, mix then measure the grow add, mix and rinse and repeat .If you are using silica and calmag add the silica first then the cal mag and then the rest as described. After its all mixed well then adjust your ph. to know how much up or down you need to add for it to balance out right all you need to do is mix a gallon and ph it and let it sit and check it a couple hours later add more if needed and keep track of how many ml you are adding and then after you find that its stable you know exactly how much to add per your system volume. I said all that because you never stated how you where mixing and I would rather cover all the bases than not enough. Hope it helps !

 

[No Pain]

oh one last thing before I would invest in a doser I would recommend getting a blue lab guardian.

 

[Delps8]

For a plant of that size, you should top feed it with diluted nutrient solution. Seeing that the roots are just breaking out of the net pot, I would raise the water level so that it's just below the net pot. Plants react to gravity so they know where to grow and there's no reason keep them away from the surface of the res - you're not going to train the plant to get its roots into the nutrient feed. Just raise the water level so it can take up the chemicals it needs to process the food it's generating.

My res is a SuperPonics res which comes with a top feed mechanism. It works very well by running the top feed pump twice a day for 10 minutes. That's the manufacturer spec and that frequency and duration ensures that the hydration is soaked. After using top feed for a few grows, I removed the plumbing and went to manual top feed (I only grow a few plants, at most, so the extra pump + tubing was a PITA).

Instead of running the top feed system, I just pour a few hundred ML of nutrient solution over the hyrdoton a few times a day. That's for a 4" net pot, though. Since you've got a much larger mass of hydroton, you'll need to use a lot more nute water. Volume is πR2h so when you go from a 4" net pot to a 6" (?) is a signficant change.

Re. the doser - it's handy but it also means that you don't know if pH is changing unless you monitor the run time of the pump. The new model of the doser is WiFi capable so the app should show that info. If you've got an older model, as I do, you'll have to check it by scrolling through the menu system. It's a bit of a PITA, but it's the only way to understand what's happening in the res and understanding what's happening is very important.

I'm very much a technologist (I've worked a VP Technology during my career) but understanding why things are happening is as important as knowing what is happening. So yeh, the doser is nice but I believe in crawl, walk, run.

Re. EC = 200 and PPM = 300
EC is measured in units and tenths of units and maxes out at, perhaps, 3. PPM is calculated from EC. This link provides good info. I measure in PPM and report in PPM but, seeing that PPM/TDS are often confused and confusing, I use the annotation "350/500" to indicate that it's the 500 scale. To be unambiguous, I'd use EC. Minor point.

Re. your light - AC Infinity products are, overall, very good products and I'm a big fan of theirs, with the exception of their lights. Their lights have a hot spot in the center so it can be tricky to get a good light cast on your plant. That's down the road, a bit, though. At the moment, I see a seedling that's leggy and that's a sign that they're not getting enough light.

I would strongly recommend that you get either a PAR meter (I use an Apogee) or Uni-T lux meter. In most cases, the lux meter will suffice because, in practical terms, it is as useful as a PAR meter. I've attached a document I wrote that will help you convert from lux to µmol. For your light, I'd go with a conversion factor of 0.015.

About the AC Infinity light - it's a "value product" in that it's inexpensive but not a very powerful light. Check my grow journals for light levels but, for my most recent grow, my 9 day old plants were at 360µmol running 24/0 for a DLI of 31mols.

Re. the leggy seedling — strongly recommend that you add silicon to your nutrient mix. I used Botanicaire's Silica Blast but have switched to making my own. It should be the first ingredient when you mix nutrients. The reason to use it is that it strengthens the walls of the plant stems and is very effective in warding off mold. Check for postings by "@farside05" for instructions on how to make your own, if you're so inclined.

Your set up is a lot like mine and you might find it handy to spend some time going through my grow journals. They're "data rich" and written to help other avoid the f*ckups that I've run into over the years. My most recent grow turned out to be a bust but, if you check out the journals from early 2023 and older, there's good info there.

 

[Delps8]

hmm with that much solution and it being a seedling. That kind of drift says there is an issue. Its either with your ph meter or the down you are doing or your solution is unstable. The chart I posted has 3 levels light med and aggressive.

so when you mix you measure the micro add it to the water , rinse the glass in the water, mix then measure the grow add, mix and rinse and repeat .If you are using silica and calmag add the silica first then the cal mag and then the rest as described. After its all mixed well then adjust your ph. to know how much up or down you need to add for it to balance out right all you need to do is mix a gallon and ph it and let it sit and check it a couple hours later add more if needed and keep track of how many ml you are adding and then after you find that its stable you know exactly how much to add per your system volume. I said all that because you never stated how you where mixing and I would rather cover all the bases than not enough. Hope it helps !

Good advice. The order in which they're mixed is really important. The six part mixture doesn't simplify things, unfortunately.

The plant looks to have a serious nutrient imbalance. Does that line of nutes require "Cal Mag" or is it just a question of lack of light and/or not enough nutrients?

 

[ChronicKid007]

For a plant of that size, you should top feed it with diluted nutrient solution. Seeing that the roots are just breaking out of the net pot, I would raise the water level so that it's just below the net pot. Plants react to gravity so they know where to grow and there's no reason keep them away from the surface of the res - you're not going to train the plant to get its roots into the nutrient feed. Just raise the water level so it can take up the chemicals it needs to process the food it's generating.

My res is a SuperPonics res which comes with a top feed mechanism. It works very well by running the top feed pump twice a day for 10 minutes. That's the manufacturer spec and that frequency and duration ensures that the hydration is soaked. After using top feed for a few grows, I removed the plumbing and went to manual top feed (I only grow a few plants, at most, so the extra pump + tubing was a PITA).

Instead of running the top feed system, I just pour a few hundred ML of nutrient solution over the hyrdoton a few times a day. That's for a 4" net pot, though. Since you've got a much larger mass of hydroton, you'll need to use a lot more nute water. Volume is πR2h so when you go from a 4" net pot to a 6" (?) is a signficant change.

Re. the doser - it's handy but it also means that you don't know if pH is changing unless you monitor the run time of the pump. The new model of the doser is WiFi capable so the app should show that info. If you've got an older model, as I do, you'll have to check it by scrolling through the menu system. It's a bit of a PITA, but it's the only way to understand what's happening in the res and understanding what's happening is very important.

I'm very much a technologist (I've worked a VP Technology during my career) but understanding why things are happening is as important as knowing what is happening. So yeh, the doser is nice but I believe in crawl, walk, run.

Re. EC = 200 and PPM = 300
EC is measured in units and tenths of units and maxes out at, perhaps, 3. PPM is calculated from EC. This link provides good info. I measure in PPM and report in PPM but, seeing that PPM/TDS are often confused and confusing, I use the annotation "350/500" to indicate that it's the 500 scale. To be unambiguous, I'd use EC. Minor point.

Re. your light - AC Infinity products are, overall, very good products and I'm a big fan of theirs, with the exception of their lights. Their lights have a hot spot in the center so it can be tricky to get a good light cast on your plant. That's down the road, a bit, though. At the moment, I see a seedling that's leggy and that's a sign that they're not getting enough light.

I would strongly recommend that you get either a PAR meter (I use an Apogee) or Uni-T lux meter. In most cases, the lux meter will suffice because, in practical terms, it is as useful as a PAR meter. I've attached a document I wrote that will help you convert from lux to µmol. For your light, I'd go with a conversion factor of 0.015.

About the AC Infinity light - it's a "value product" in that it's inexpensive but not a very powerful light. Check my grow journals for light levels but, for my most recent grow, my 9 day old plants were at 360µmol running 24/0 for a DLI of 31mols.

Re. the leggy seedling — strongly recommend that you add silicon to your nutrient mix. I used Botanicaire's Silica Blast but have switched to making my own. It should be the first ingredient when you mix nutrients. The reason to use it is that it strengthens the walls of the plant stems and is very effective in warding off mold. Check for postings by "@farside05" for instructions on how to make your own, if you're so inclined.

Your set up is a lot like mine and you might find it handy to spend some time going through my grow journals. They're "data rich" and written to help other avoid the f*ckups that I've run into over the years. My most recent grow turned out to be a bust but, if you check out the journals from early 2023 and older, there's good info there.

I see myself delving deep into those journals. Thank you Delps8! I think they're also leggy because of how I sprouted them in the germinator. I had the lights way too tall over them, and they shot straight up instead of straight down. You'll see, over the next few days with this PH doser on track, there's going to be major fixes. I plugged it in and set it up about an hour ago and the plant honestly responded in real time. It was really cool to watch.

But again, I look forward to reading those journals and checking out the top feed scenario. I think there's a better way to do it, and I haven't seen it yet.

 

[ChronicKid007]

Day 13: I think all of the gnarly looks on the leaves are a direct result of nutrient lockout because of poor PH management. But now that the auto-doser is setup, we should be good to go moving forward. The second set of leaves are already looking more aligned with the tone of green they should, and have also expanded much further than expected during a recovery phase. I predict that the next full set of fan leaves to come will be the first full normal ones. At this point though, I'm going to celebrate that they're all praying to the Sun God and look very, very happy. Plus I cleaned up the grow room so it's much tidier. Got myself a foldout camp chair to tinker if I need to.

Roots are looking ROOTY for the first time.... they have feelers! White as could be, and nice and thick already. Hopefully pretty soon they star coming from all angles. I like to call that a jellyfish root, because when you lift the lid, it looks like a jellyfish head and the pump cables and roots are tentacles. But you can bet your bottom dollar we're dialed in best we can be at this point. As soon as the next set of leaves appear, I will raise the light and probably seriously consider which style of grow I want to do.

I had been back and forth between #quadlining or just topping over and over as I see fit and basically maneuver and train everything in a way that makes the most sense for space. Open to suggestions. I think quadlining would probably be the quickest, and most efficient way to do it, although I would probably add a few additional tops or fims. Let me know your thoughts!

But yes, again, the first leaves are bogus. Thankfully they'll lose their purpose in no time. I'm going to project 5 days to top and another few days to stripping the bottom.

This puppy about to SHOOT UP.

Oh also, I got a little CO2 bag. Actually, I got two of them. They're on opposite sides of the tent currently. I've heard people say you should hang them, and others say to put the on the ground. My thought is that sure while it's hanging in theory it falls onto the leaves, but with the filtration system location near the bag seems like a waste. So I'm going to keep mine on the floor until it widens out a bit. Then I'll probably put both of them next to the inlet fan so the inlet fan is just blowing its air straight at the leaves from the underside. Which means in theory I could begin to up the heat up the tent so that the CO2 has some impact. I have no control to measure against, so it's just for fun that we're adding them.

Holler back,

Dank Jedi

 

[ChronicKid007]

Day 14: I'm disappointed with where the plant is at two weeks old, but as they say, "Patience is a virtue." *Especially with growing* But alas, I can report a healthy update!

The PH stayed CONSISTENT throughout the day. When I got home, it was at 6.1 Did a quick read on the PPM, and it was all the way down to 135. So that tells me in total, the plant ate 1275 parts per million of nutrients so far! WOOOO! And now that the PH is fixed, I can tell she is more hungry than thirsty. So we ran a mini test today in order to decipher whether or not it's feasible to just extract water from the reservoir and dump it, in order to input fresh water with fresh nutrients. Waste of nutrients? Probably. Waste of water? Most definitely. But I felt I might be able to balance the PPMs and initial PH estimates using simple math with the end goal of saving time.

Ideology Behind the Decision:
If I add a double dose of the recommended "heavy dose" for nutes (according to ---->

https://www.420magazine.com/communi...s_feedcharts_usd_05_weeklycustom-pdf.3579723/
That means the PPM of the two gallons I'm going to insert will be roughly high enough to add enough content for the whole reservoir on just two gallons.

In reservoir 13 gallons = 2145 total PPM

Fresh 2 gallons = 1600 total ppm

So drumroll please for the math…

15 gallons = 3745/15 = 249 PPM.

So they're getting just a few extra bites (114 PPM) per gallon. But the plate isn't too big that they'll over eat or eat out of order. I full on expect the same day by day expansions I've been noticing. She's due to get healthy and make RDWC notorious once again. You heard it here first folks, this is a full blown attempt at a one plant one pound grow. SO we'll see before the veg kicks in. If I can keep nursing her back to 100% health before the end of the next grow week. I'm willing to bet at one month it'll be exactly perfectly strapped down flat for a #quadline that may have an additional top or two. The two sets of bottom leaves will be completely gone in a week if these next two batches come in beautifully.

Peace, and chicken grease my brothers and sisters. But mostly, cheers.
-Dank Jedi