FINALLY Got it Rollin!

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Around this time is when i started to notice the snot/mucus crap on the new roots...plants were beginning to look weak as well. Now at this point it could be the slime, could be me underfeeding, over feeding, I wasn't sure. Around this time the wife stepped in to read up on nutes and such, things my mind isn't really wired for...
I also stumbled upon Roseman's DIY Tutorial for Deep Water Culture and figured THIS is how i wanted to grow....
Here is the slime crap...

After cleaning and doing the steps needed to try and rid this yucky stuff I switched over to true Deep Water Culture....
Around day 12 was the switch....

I felt the plants were doing "ok" considering my lack of experience....BUT somewhere in this short time frame I did something to screw up and the plants took a turn for the worse, leaves were yellowing, they twisted, etc....they began to look like this very quickly...

Couple plants didn't make it. No worries, I expected some stumbling blocks along the way.

Well about this time the wifey was able to break the ratios and stuff down so I could understand it better, made a spread sheet for me and what not....
Things are starting to look up now.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Now I can only guess I must have also stressed the plants switching over methods and cutting the bad roots, etc....The slime and some wild Ph problems were really the only serious problems so far. Water temps are a bitch, but it's getting better and the H2O2 helps I am sure.

So after this little bit of a problem with the plants looking wilted I finally started to dial in the nutes a bit better (thanks babe!) and they started to come around...
Here we are at days 23 and 24 from seed and many problems, which you can see the yellowing areas as a result... BUT they are coming back around and getting nice deep color again. Thick stalks. They are squatty so I might do a deliberate stretch.

I notice that a few plants have very narrow and pointy leaves while 3 of the plants have more short stout leaves (indica). Smells very very nice, but the buds I got the seeds from where really good as well.

23-24th day (Feb 13th)....

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

They will be going from here....

...and soon to be goin' in to here.... but my question is when? When would you guys suggest i put them into flower? Strain unknown.

Should I pop them in now?

BTW, here are the numbers for the buckets as well,
Bucket 3
Ph 5.81
PPM 1266

Bucket 2
Ph 5.86
PPM 1436

Bucket 1 (young babies)
Ph 5.88
PPM 499

BTW, I have pulled the pumps and lines on 2 of the buckets since the roots are in the water now, the young babes still have tubes and lots of new roots.

 

[FrostyBuds]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

It's best to wait until the plants branching structure has changed from symmetrical to asymmetrical. Plants hit a maturity kinda at that point and then they are ready to flower.

It really is all your choice. People have gone from seed to very short veg and flower right away. The bigger the plant the more it yields, the more budding sites, the more of everything. Height and space become issues the bigger the plant.

With the pics you have I'd give it one more veg week. Let em get another 2-3 inches and then go to flower. If it is a squat, short kind of a dwarf variety the stretch will be minimal. You can play with light height and dark period to get em to stretch also. You have options and really it comes down to what works for you. Follow some of the bp grow journals and look at the pics of the plants right before they go into flower and then at the end near harvest to get and idea of what the size of these plants can be.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Thx Frosty. My "impatient side" wants to do it now, and as dismal as this first grow might be I would like to maximize it the most....so I will wait.
So I should wait till the plant stops growing in a symmetrical pattern and begins to branch out as such. Got it.
I was thinking that "normally" you would wait till a certain number of branches or certain height. Of course i understand it is preference, i am/was just looking for general rule of thumb.
They are really staring to kick in on the aroma too! Frequently I find myself buried in there. it is sooooooo stressful when they are doing bad but same damn rewarding when you see them thrive.

Now on another note, i started a few more sprouts and this is what one started to look like!!! Yikes!??!??

...all bag seed, no special strains.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Here are some update pics and some nice fresh roots and current state of health....
Feb 13-14th...

Ya' can see where I topped and FIMed on some and also supercropped. Still learning.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

..and the plants themselves...

 

[C5Rftw]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

nice, healthy roots! coming around, soon they will be shooting up

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

just a couple more...

...and why is this particular one soooooo pointy?

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

nice, healthy roots! coming around, soon they will be shooting up

Thx for checkin' in from the cockpit C5R!

 

[Roseman]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Looking good, friend! Very good! How long in VEG are you now? Have they started stinking yet?

 

[PowerpuffGirl]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

It's great seeing how your plants have recovered. You should be proud! And doesn't it feel great when you see those pretty roots?

 

[FrostyBuds]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Good to see the nice roots coming out! Tops are looking good, should be about time that they start hitting some growth spurts. Keep up the good work.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Looking good, friend! Very good! How long in VEG are you now? Have they started stinking yet?

Thanks Rose. They have been in veg now for about 3 1/2, not quite 4. And yeh, they are starting to get a nice smell....even for me, which I smoke so much that I am oblivious to the smell of herb usually (or the fact that it permeates from me when i am out and about sometimes...ok, most of the time!)
I did make an odor control bucket and posted it up in your page with the others created.... damn thing works like a charm. As a matter of fact it is pulling in smoke right now from my blunt as I type.
Any advice you might have i am open to it, my brain can only hold so much of what I read. lol

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

It's great seeing how your plants have recovered. You should be proud! And doesn't it feel great when you see those pretty roots?

PPG, you have no idea how happy I am!!! I was about to go "soil", but no one likes a quitter, so i am sticking with it. I will be purchasing a chiller for the flower cab since my bathroom gets extremely hot in the summer.
It does feel nice to see pretty roots now and not all that slime.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Good to see the nice roots coming out! Tops are looking good, should be about time that they start hitting some growth spurts. Keep up the good work.

As always, Thank you frosty for checkin' in. I will say that in the beginning when they first were looking nice I had topped/fimmed the hell out of them, just NOW they seem to be catching up from their damn near death experience....a bit behind but pulling up slowly.

Is it possible to rum 1300-1400 ppm at this stage and they like it? I ask because it would seem high at this stage but they seem to be liking it and no nute burn signs at all this week.

 

[FrostyBuds]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Is it possible to run 1300-1400 ppm at this stage and they like it? I ask because it would seem high at this stage but they seem to be liking it and no nute burn signs at all this week.

If they look ok go with it. Just keep an eye on the ph and ppm's just so you have a reference point to go back to. When I have checked lately I have hit some high ppm's. I have easily pushed 1200-1600 (less 80 ppm water) on some plants, so it comes down to trial and error. If your just going along for the journey, and are in no hurry to finish other then when it's time, go for it. There is always the chance of ppm's getting to high and then you'll have to baby the plant until it recovers, but that's only an issue when your on a production schedule. Keep an on the leaves. Just keep in mind the plant will tell you if it likes the nutes by really growing and eating, ie ppm's constantly dropping, if it's the same or rising the plants are just using water or it's evaporating, and they're not eating the food, so no need to waste it.

At some point you'll find a sweet spot where the plants eat what you give em, and show it by growing crazy, but you don't want to overfeed them where they become lazy and unproductive. A handful of nute burnt leaves will not hurt anything, but too many and the plants harvest will diminish. It's a balancing act as we want to maximize a high quality harvest, but also do it at a reasonable cost.

 

[paulwall]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Nice recovery man, are you using store baught water now or still the RO?

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

If they look ok go with it. Just keep an eye on the ph and ppm's just so you have a reference point to go back to. When I have checked lately I have hit some high ppm's. I have easily pushed 1200-1600 (less 80 ppm water) on some plants, so it comes down to trial and error. If your just going along for the journey, and are in no hurry to finish other then when it's time, go for it. There is always the chance of ppm's getting to high and then you'll have to baby the plant until it recovers, but that's only an issue when your on a production schedule. Keep an on the leaves. Just keep in mind the plant will tell you if it likes the nutes by really growing and eating, ie ppm's constantly dropping, if it's the same or rising the plants are just using water or it's evaporating, and they're not eating the food, so no need to waste it.

At some point you'll find a sweet spot where the plants eat what you give em, and show it by growing crazy, but you don't want to overfeed them where they become lazy and unproductive. A handful of nute burnt leaves will not hurt anything, but too many and the plants harvest will diminish. It's a balancing act as we want to maximize a high quality harvest, but also do it at a reasonable cost.

Your input is invaluable frosty. Thank you for following and lending your expertise. I have to say that monitoring the PPMs over the last couple days they seem to be drinking only!! I will back off the nutes.... actually today is a res change for all of them, so i will cut back and see what happens.

 

[Sanwan]

Re: FINALLY got it rollin'!

Nice recovery man, are you using store baught water now or still the RO?

PW, I was using water from my faucet at first.... till it was pointed out my high PPMs are locking out some nutes..... also had some slime issues (maybe the water, maybe not, didn't want to take the chance any longer)

Switched over to Publix drinking water which seemed to work well...
BUT now I am buying the water at this refill station at the same Publix I bought bottle water from. $1.75 to fill a 5 gallon jug. UV filtered, carbon, ionized and RO'ed and many other things on the label. Had a 0 ppm and good Ph so that's what I am using for now until I can purchase a dedicated RO filter. So I load up several jugs and just fill up down the street.