First DWC - Advice Welcome

[MrFlintstone]

First off I'm using a phone so excuse any minor mess ups.


I've tried to upload photos but it wouldn't upload, could be because I'm using a phone,
I'll just start off with all of my info and maybe someone around can help me with uploading.

Well here's the scoop, a little over a year ago I bought an oz of hawaiian purple, which is hawaiian sativa X purple kush. Got down to the last bud and discover a viable seed, needless to say I planted it, then it took a turn for the worse, so I took clones which I ended up flowering 12 clones, probably not the best grow but something none the less. These were done in soil which is nothing but problems for me dealing with ph being off all the time, we'll I kept a couple clones as mothers( in soil) which now look horrible but still alive. I took some cuttings from them before they started looking bad, kinda disowned them after the cutting but whatever, have new clones to work with now so yeah, we'll the first to root I put in a 5 gallon bucket, first attempt at dwc, I'm two weeks in veg.

I have a 250w 8U flouro 6500k, two 65w spiral cfl 2700k as side lighting,
400w hps in cool tube, 6" inline and scrubber, all inside a closet, 2'x6'x8',
Since this is my first try at dwc I only started with one plant to experiment I guess.

Nutrients: GH 3 part also have cal mag+ and superthrive
Using RO water but questionable as when to use the cal mag
Also still skeptical on how to use nutes properly
So far using only 5ml of each part, not quite sure if this is too little, or too much
Ppm is at about 170 in 3 1/2 gallon nute solution
Now as far as PH, I have GH up/down and test drops which I find to be not all that great, any help with that would be nice, I also have two ph pens (cheap yellow Hong Kong pens) which are not calibrated and I have no calibration fluid so yeah.
I know once I'm able to upload pictures I'll get better answers but my roots within the inside of the root ball are turning a rust color, I'm wondering if it's the beginning stages of root rot or is it the gh micro dying the roots?
The color of the water is slightly tinted from the micro but the color in the roots is darker, most of the roots are white, towards the top of the roots is off white slight tan/cream colored, inside the middle of the ball is rusty looking as of today.
I'll try tonight to upload again using my gf's Mac once I get off of work.
If I left out anything lemme know!

 

[MrFlintstone]

Also my bucket is completely light proofed using reflective tape and temp of water is 72, water is clean looking and the smell is nothing abnormal, it's hard to say what the ph is using drops but I keep it in the yellow being around 6.0 at best guess

 

[KingJohnC]

subscribed. you want pH 5.8 for hydroponic and soiless (peat moss and coco coir) and pH 6.5 for soil. here is everything you should need to know to post full size photographs in your journal.

Photo Gallery Guide: How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

here is a nutrient availability chart

 

[MrFlintstone]

Thanks king john, yeah I understand the ph range it's just using drops it's kinda hard to aim for 5.8
Also with the pictures, when I uploaded them it just gets stuck processing them, like I said it could be the phone, so I'll have to try on the computer once I get a chance.
I just checked on her and everything seems fine, I could just be over worrying about the roots, hope it's just dyed from the micro, I let the root zone/ root ball form, it's a 5" net pot clay pebs with the clone placed directly in the pebbles.
I left an 1"-1 1/2" between the lid and net pot, is this ok or will it encourage root rot?
I'm using two dual outlet wally world air pumps, one connected to a 6" disc and other connected to a 3" fine bubble stone.
Also being sativa dominant she gets stretchy and might topple over so I'm thinking about fixing a tomato cage to the lid to tie her down to, keep her canopy even and from falling over, the first clones I flowered were 8" put in and after stretch were close to 18" and that's with the hps right over them, having to raise it everyday.
Has anyone ran this strain?

 

[MrFlintstone]

Ok so yeah I'm an idiot!

Figured out the problem, the rust color on the roots is the hydro ball dust, I feel so stupid hah!
I rinsed and rinsed repeatidly and of course my first Rez change there was a little dust in the bottom, so I thought about it and now since I have a rootball forming it's catching the little dust that's left over, this shouldn't harm anything right? Most should fall off the roots from the bubbles splashing on them.

Any suggestions?

 

[KingJohnC]

you need to supplement calcium and magnesium every time you use water, discontinue calcium and magnesium 3 weeks prior to harvest. a small air gap between the nutrient solution and the hydroton is normal. the red clay dust should not harm anything, just messy.

 

[MrFlintstone]

Thanks King, I was able to upload a photo but still trying to figure out to post it here, I've been on a roll with the stupidity lately, go me!

 

[MrFlintstone]

Ok I've tried clicking my photos below and the camera button and both pull up my picture but when I click the picture to insert it, it just brings me to the home page.

 

[KingJohnC]

do you have any images in your gallery? if so paste a link to the gallery here and ill have a look at your plants. make sure you are logged in on the second window that pops up.

 

[MrFlintstone]

I was just able to upload one pic so far, I couldn't get the root pic up, but she's looking happy so I'm grateful.

 

[MrFlintstone]

This is a pic from today.

 

[MrFlintstone]

During Rez change, added 15ml grow, 10ml micro, 5ml bloom, 5ml cal mag
To 3 1/2gallons PPM is at 450, last week ppm was at 150, do ya think she'll be fine?

Also ran her for a couple hours with only water and a little h2o2 and doing so helped clean the roots up a bit

Here's the pic of the roots as of now.

 

[MrFlintstone]

I guess uping the nutes did some good, she hit a nice growth spurt over night

...starting to feel like I'm talking to myself, comments anyone?

 

[GreatLife4All]

Using the 3 2 1 formula with the GH 3 part you don't need to supplement with Ca as the base provides plenty.

Using 3 2 1, or 1 2 3 - you end up with about 120 ppm of calcium. Recommendations go anywhere from 60ppm up to 200ppm for calcium.

You also end up with 30 to 60 units of Mg - which is close to what is recommended.

Unless you are in coco - this ratio seems to work just fine and won't produce calcium or magnesium deficiencies.

I also noted that you indicated confusion on what to do with nutrients. This is typical.

You have started out using the MJ recommendation for what is on the side of the GH bottle. The GH bottle uses a 1 2 3 ratio but uses a factor of 1.2 as a multiplier. For MJ, you don't need this much juice. So the formula was modified to a simple 1 2 3 with a multiplier of 1 - this lowers the strength to something that MJ plants can handle easily.

The way this works is that you should start out with 1/4 strength nutes for a week; go to 1/2 strength for a week; and then continue feeding full strength at a ratio of 3G - 2M - 1B until they are ready for flowering. During the two week transition - most people will switch to 2G - 2M - 2B in order to reduce the nitrogen and increase the phosphorus. Once transition is over, switch to 1G - 2M - 3B for the remainder.

Without any additives or additions, this will produce some very nice weed for you. And it is very cheap to use.

I personally use 3 2 1 for veg but then switch to the lucas formula (0G - 2M - 4B) because I have nitrogen in the additives that I am using. A little more complicated, but it produces better than the 1 2 3 formula - IMO.

 

[MrFlintstone]

Thanks alot Gman for the help, I really appreciate your input, that being said, the cal mag that I did add, will this be ok or should I do a Rez change?

 

[MrFlintstone]

Can a mod or someone please close this?

 

[MrFlintstone]

We'll since no one has closed this should I post a picture?
A little update maybe? Anyone care to see?

 

[KingJohnC]

go ahead and post your photograph.

 

[MrFlintstone]

Alrighty, she will be flipped tonight, I have so many side branches going through the screen, I'm running out of room.

 

[MrFlintstone]

I tried posting the actual picture instead of the link and... I think I failed lol can't seem to figure it out on the phone grrrrrr