First Grow Critical Kush

[grapenut]

Hello everyone this is my first grow journal here.

Things seem to have started off well but I have encountered a problem.

Strain: Critical Kush (Barneys Farm)

Grow Method: DWC

Nutrients: AN Sensi Grow and Bloom

Lighting: PlatinumLed P300

Location: Grow Tent with Inline Exhaust fan and carbon scrubber

So I started out by germinating my seed using the towel method then placing it in vermiculite until she generated a root system and cotyledon appeared. After that I rinsed off the vermiculite placed her in a neoprene collar and into my simple DWC system (Rubbermaid tote with air stone). After a few days I noticed she was growing but leaves had a slight yellow color so i added 8mL of part A and B sensi Grow to around the 2-2.5 gallons of water in the tote (around 1/5 strength, at a recommended 16mL per gallon).

She was doing amazing, incredibly green and vigorous growth. At around the 4th node I decided to do a reservoir change and up the nutrient strength to 24 mL (around 3/5 strength). This is when bad things begin happening, within a few hours the lowest fan leaf set had curled up and became crispy to the touch. I became worried and immediately thought of nutrient burn so I diluted my reservoir by half (replaced half of its water with fresh tap water. I also checked the pH using pH strips which indicated pH in the high 6 range, so I added a little lime juice to drop it back down to around 5.5-5.8. The next day I noticed that the complete set of lowest fan leaves were totally dried out and crumbling, so I removed them with a sterile blade.

The next largest fan leaves seemed to begin drying out, so I rinsed off the roots and did a complete flush for 2 days under which time I noticed no significant change in the plants appearance.

As of two days ago I added nutrients back again at the original 1/5 strength and today (3 days later) the current lowest set of fan leaves have turned almost completely yellow and the newest growths are beginning to show browning on the tips. So at the moment I did another flush and she’s currently sitting in just plain tap water. What I have noticed is that she is rapidly growing new branch roots from the upper portion of the tap root and that the roots that are submerged are brown and seem very soft like wet string. The pH is around 6 at the moment and im not sure about what else to do. She is on a 24 hour light on cycle.

 

[Robert Celt]

Hello Grapenut

Being an organic soil guy, I am not going to be much help in your situation but browning roots is generally a sign of root rot. Do a search on here for DWC and Root Rot and you might find some answers to your problems. As well, repost this in the FAQ forum and someone will likely pop in before long with some advice for you.

 

[grapenut]

Hello Grapenut

Being an organic soil guy, I am not going to be much help in your situation but browning roots is generally a sign of root rot. Do a search on here for DWC and Root Rot and you might find some answers to your problems.

aah root rot, I supposed that is possible. I was under the impression that the roots color was due to the nutes, but the roots do have a sorta slimy look to them. Hopefully someone can confirm or deny this for me, I do have a bottle of dutchmaster gold zone which is supposed to guard against any bacteria which would lead to root rot, however I worried about using it too soon assuming it might damage the young plant.

I think ill add 2 mL of gold zone right now to my res and see how things go.

As well, repost this in the FAQ forum and someone will likely pop in before long with some advice for you.

Its okay If i re post this exact thread in another forum?

 

[Robert Celt]

By all means, repost to the FAQ forum, more likely to get more help there

 

[grapenut]

Update:

After 24 hours of being flushed and running an aggressive strength of gold zone there are minimal changes to the top of the plant but quit a significant change in root zone. The new roots more than doubled in size since I last checked.

At this point im wondering a few things:
1) When should i start her back on nutes (and what strength)
2) What should I do with the brown slimy roots if anything at all (will they fall off?)
3) I slightly adjusted her stalk in the neoprene collar so that she is now closer to the water, will this cause any significant amount of stress?

 

[grapenut]

I have been reading more into DWC and aeration of water and have come across Venturi injectors. I then found two of my submersible pumps and discovered that they both contain Venturi adapters for them.

Pumps:
Ecoplus Eco 633
Ecoplus Eco 185

I have decided to take advantage of this and design an easier to use DWC system. It will consist of two 3 gallon Rubbermaid totes linked together using pvc bulkheads (The line from grow area to reservoir will use 1 inch pvc and the injector port from pump to grow area will use half inch pvc. This is to prevent overflow and allow draining to occur quicker than filling.)

The injection port between the two totes will consist of two valves one which will lead to outside the system to allow easy draining and one that connects into the grow area. The purpose of using two is simply for a price convenience since a 3 way valve costs $15+ and a normal valve only costs $1-$2. To use, the drain valve will be opened and connected to a tube that will drain to a collection container and the second valve will be closed to prevent the pump from emptying water back into the system.

In this system he pump will both keep the water in constant motion and the venturi will constantly dump oxygen rich water into the grow area.

Now the question is should I use my eco 633 pump or my 185, I estimated that at optimal fill level each tote holds approximately 7 L of water or 14 total or around 3.7 gallons. I suspect that due to the small volume the eco 185 would do fine and be less noisy however do to the increased rate of the 633 the venturi would operate and a higher draw and deliver more oxygen.

What do you all think, any feedback would be great, I've included a drawing of the system

.

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[grapenut]

Totally slipped my mind to update, allot has occurred since I last posted, all my problems have been fixed and i have just entered my girl into flowering Wednesday night. Did a reservoir change with full strength bloom nutes and cal mag, also put timer on light for 12/12.

Here are a bunch of pictures ive taken over the passed few weeks up until now.

 

[grapenut]

So ive spread her out slightly more with the use of soft wire ties and that should complete my training of her. I am wondering though if it was wise to put her into flowering when I did maybe I should have waited a week or so more. Any feedback?

She has 16 tops currently with all auxiliary shoots (growth tips) removed except the top most ones giving a total of 32 auxiliary shoots with a new stem an newly forming auxiliary shoots forming out of each.

Im somewhat ignorant on the exact process of how buds are formed on the plant, for instance if I let the 16 tops grow taller how significant would the increase in yield be. I assume that allowing them to grow taller would increase the number of nodes and thus increase the number of bud sites. For my purpose I am only interested in creating several very large bud sites (which is why i main lined).

However whenever I look at pictures of main lined plants it seems even though there are only a certain number of tops there are several inter nodal sites.

So far she only has had 2 days of dark cycle on her 12/12 so far, would it be okay if I brought her back into a vegetative schedules for another week or two to let her grow a bit taller?

Example 1
Example 2

 

[grapenut]

Here is an image of what each of the individual tops look like the first node (solid green diamonds) you see I removed the growth tips, the next 4 nodes the growth tips remained and began to grow into new side branching. The top node represents the top of the plant with new growth tips and fan leaves forming. The green stars represent the fan leaves, the lime green circles represent the location where buds can grow.

Now for my question, the first two bud locations I have a question mark, this is because I am unsure if buds will form there since I removed the growth tips. My second question is the main one, If i remove the growth tips I have marked with the red line will buds still grow on the nodes the growth tips were removed from?

 

[grapenut]

I added a 13W UVB bulb. A very nice even flat canopy has developed however im still having a slight leaving browning problem pooping up ever so slightly only present on maybe 5 percent of the older fan leaves.

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.