Hotsause First 600w HydroGro Visit
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Roseman in the house
The whole reason i went Bubbles 
I went and got some of that Home Defense you recommended in your guide and sprayed walls ceiling floors everywhere before i put up my mylar. Im gonna read that asap but i don't think i have any spider mites i haven't seen any eaten leafs a few gnats but that was in the basement area not my grow roomFEEDING IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A PPM METER.
You will daily add one gallon of pH water TO REPLACE THE ONE GALLON MISSING. (Or 1/2 gallon daily earlier in the grow, clsoe to the 3rd or 4th week) If the water in the tank tests a pH of 7.0 (too high for example) and you know you want it lower, make one gallon of 5.0 water, and it will make the tank about 6.0 or in that neighborhood. ALSO, in that one gallon of water added daily, add 1/6 packet or dose of new nutes. One gallon or 1/6 of the tank was drank or absorbed, so you need to replace 1 gallon of water and 1/6 of the nutes.
Or in other words, if they drank 1/6 of the tank's water, they ate 1/6 of the nutes, so you need to replace that 1/6 that was consumed.
IF the grow area is VERY HOT, add back a little less than 1/6 nutes, the plant is just drinking and needing lots of water.
If the grow room is cool, or NOT VERY HOT, use the full 1/6 dose.
You will daily add one gallon of pH water TO REPLACE THE ONE GALLON MISSING. (Or 1/2 gallon daily earlier in the grow, clsoe to the 3rd or 4th week) If the water in the tank tests a pH of 7.0 (too high for example) and you know you want it lower, make one gallon of 5.0 water, and it will make the tank about 6.0 or in that neighborhood. ALSO, in that one gallon of water added daily, add 1/6 packet or dose of new nutes. One gallon or 1/6 of the tank was drank or absorbed, so you need to replace 1 gallon of water and 1/6 of the nutes.
Or in other words, if they drank 1/6 of the tank's water, they ate 1/6 of the nutes, so you need to replace that 1/6 that was consumed.
IF the grow area is VERY HOT, add back a little less than 1/6 nutes, the plant is just drinking and needing lots of water.
If the grow room is cool, or NOT VERY HOT, use the full 1/6 dose.
You are messing up, by not replacing the drank water and eaten nutes.
Please read what I am, giving you.
Weekly Drain and Replinish
Topping Off the Tank's Reservoir
I really do own 14 books on Hydroponic Indoor Growing. And I have studied them too. Some of the books were written simply, and some are difficult for me to comprehend and even more difficult for me to explain. They all vary a little on the perfect pH level, and they all vary on LIGHTING, some books were written way before CFLs were sold, or when CFLs were new on the scene. But they all agree on Topping Off the tank and Draining and Replenishing the water and nutrients.
To address this, I am going to post it twice to be sure I explain it. You will need to read both explanations.
After the nutes are added to the tank and the pH is balanced, the plants start eating, consuming the food. Logically, the larger the tank, the more water there is, and the more nutes you need. Logically, the larger the plants, the more they will eat from the tank. Logically, the more plants that are in the tank, the more they will eat. And logically, the more they eat, the more nutes that you need in the tank. The amount of nutes provided is in relationship to the amount of water, NOT the amount of plants. It is the Ratio or Proportion in the water that is important. The amount of nutes added to the tank are measured by we commonly call a PPM Meter, PPM meaning parts per million.
The Instructions on the nutrients contain the proper amount of nutes to add to the water, usually determined by "per gallon", and not by "per plant" or "size of plants". In the beginning, we start with 1/4 dose of nutrients, because a full dose is meant for full grown plants. If we use a ppm meter, we seek a ppm of 150 to 250 ppms above the ppm of the water, on average for small young sprouts, it varies from nutrient to nutrient. As the plants grow, we then slowly and gradually increase the nutrients fed to them, and consequently we increase the ppm. By the time the plants are over a foot tall, we will be in the neighborhood of a ppm of 600, then 800 on up to 1200 ppm. Some growers risk even higher ppms, watching the leaves tips for yellowing, to know when to back off with feedings. And as we add more food, the plants grow and eat more, indicated by them also drinking more water. As a rule of thumb, we figure if they drank half of the water, they then must of ate half the food. That is close to being right, but not precisely. If the grow room was exceptionly HOT, they can drink more water without eating more food. And consequently, some days, they eat more, some days they eat less, regardless of the amount of the water missing.
As they eat, they do not eat all of the delivered nutes at the same rate, or same proportion, and that changes the pH and the ppm. It also changes what they call the RNC, or RELATIONSHIP OF NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION. That CHANGE is not easy to calculate or measure, like the ppm or pH is easy to measure.
When the nutrients are first introduced or added, the RNC is perfect, or properly proportioned. In other words, there are specific amounts or precise amounts of each needed nutrient. The exact amount of needed Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash, also commonly called Potassium are present and available for food for the plants.
BUT, as the plants eat, they do not eat all of the nutrients in a perfect proportion or at a perfect rate or equal rate. Some days, they want what grows longer roots, some days, they want what makes more leaves. The plants actually nibble at some nutrients in the mix each day, and gobble down some others. Some of the nutrients are not hardly eaten at all, some are absorbed very quickly. This creates an IMBALANCE of the mix. If you add more water and nutes daily to replace the eaten nutes, (CALLED TOPPING OFF) the IMBALANCE INCREASES. If you only add plain water daily, again, Top It Off, you still get the imbalance. AND the nutes not eaten, or the nutes that are increased daily cause a build up of nutes, and that creates a BAD imbalance of the RNC.
When this happens, the water becomes TOXIC and unusable even tho the ppm meter says there is a proper amount of nutrients. The plants say I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE BUFFET and like a spoiled child unhappy at the dinner table, they suddenly refuse to eat anything. This is called NUTRITIONAL LOCKOUT. This happens even tho the ppm meter says there are plenty of parts per million of nutes in the water. The ppm meter does not indicate if the nutrients are balanced or at a toxic level. It just indicates there is plenty of food on the table.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST WEEKLY DUMP IT ALL AND START ALL OVER.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST DRAIN AND REPLENISH WEEKLY, regardless of whether we TOP OFF with plain water, or TOP OFF with water and a fractional dose of nutes.
Changing the water weekly maintains the proper RNC.
Please read what I am, giving you.
Weekly Drain and Replinish
Topping Off the Tank's Reservoir
I really do own 14 books on Hydroponic Indoor Growing. And I have studied them too. Some of the books were written simply, and some are difficult for me to comprehend and even more difficult for me to explain. They all vary a little on the perfect pH level, and they all vary on LIGHTING, some books were written way before CFLs were sold, or when CFLs were new on the scene. But they all agree on Topping Off the tank and Draining and Replenishing the water and nutrients.
To address this, I am going to post it twice to be sure I explain it. You will need to read both explanations.
After the nutes are added to the tank and the pH is balanced, the plants start eating, consuming the food. Logically, the larger the tank, the more water there is, and the more nutes you need. Logically, the larger the plants, the more they will eat from the tank. Logically, the more plants that are in the tank, the more they will eat. And logically, the more they eat, the more nutes that you need in the tank. The amount of nutes provided is in relationship to the amount of water, NOT the amount of plants. It is the Ratio or Proportion in the water that is important. The amount of nutes added to the tank are measured by we commonly call a PPM Meter, PPM meaning parts per million.
The Instructions on the nutrients contain the proper amount of nutes to add to the water, usually determined by "per gallon", and not by "per plant" or "size of plants". In the beginning, we start with 1/4 dose of nutrients, because a full dose is meant for full grown plants. If we use a ppm meter, we seek a ppm of 150 to 250 ppms above the ppm of the water, on average for small young sprouts, it varies from nutrient to nutrient. As the plants grow, we then slowly and gradually increase the nutrients fed to them, and consequently we increase the ppm. By the time the plants are over a foot tall, we will be in the neighborhood of a ppm of 600, then 800 on up to 1200 ppm. Some growers risk even higher ppms, watching the leaves tips for yellowing, to know when to back off with feedings. And as we add more food, the plants grow and eat more, indicated by them also drinking more water. As a rule of thumb, we figure if they drank half of the water, they then must of ate half the food. That is close to being right, but not precisely. If the grow room was exceptionly HOT, they can drink more water without eating more food. And consequently, some days, they eat more, some days they eat less, regardless of the amount of the water missing.
As they eat, they do not eat all of the delivered nutes at the same rate, or same proportion, and that changes the pH and the ppm. It also changes what they call the RNC, or RELATIONSHIP OF NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION. That CHANGE is not easy to calculate or measure, like the ppm or pH is easy to measure.
When the nutrients are first introduced or added, the RNC is perfect, or properly proportioned. In other words, there are specific amounts or precise amounts of each needed nutrient. The exact amount of needed Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash, also commonly called Potassium are present and available for food for the plants.
BUT, as the plants eat, they do not eat all of the nutrients in a perfect proportion or at a perfect rate or equal rate. Some days, they want what grows longer roots, some days, they want what makes more leaves. The plants actually nibble at some nutrients in the mix each day, and gobble down some others. Some of the nutrients are not hardly eaten at all, some are absorbed very quickly. This creates an IMBALANCE of the mix. If you add more water and nutes daily to replace the eaten nutes, (CALLED TOPPING OFF) the IMBALANCE INCREASES. If you only add plain water daily, again, Top It Off, you still get the imbalance. AND the nutes not eaten, or the nutes that are increased daily cause a build up of nutes, and that creates a BAD imbalance of the RNC.
When this happens, the water becomes TOXIC and unusable even tho the ppm meter says there is a proper amount of nutrients. The plants say I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE BUFFET and like a spoiled child unhappy at the dinner table, they suddenly refuse to eat anything. This is called NUTRITIONAL LOCKOUT. This happens even tho the ppm meter says there are plenty of parts per million of nutes in the water. The ppm meter does not indicate if the nutrients are balanced or at a toxic level. It just indicates there is plenty of food on the table.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST WEEKLY DUMP IT ALL AND START ALL OVER.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST DRAIN AND REPLENISH WEEKLY, regardless of whether we TOP OFF with plain water, or TOP OFF with water and a fractional dose of nutes.
Changing the water weekly maintains the proper RNC.
Daily Maintenance of the reservoir is mostly keeping the pH at the proper level, and keeping the same level of water in the tank as it is used or evaporates. It is also keeping the nutrient mix or nutrient solution at a proper level, a level that is NOT toxic or too strong.
In the day to day course of maintaining the tank two problems occur. Remember how we discussed ppm, parts per million? Then we discussed RNC, RELATIONSHIP OF NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION. Well, we also need to discuss TDS, Total Disolved Salts. (Some books say Total Disolved Solids, for some reason unknown to me) As the water evaporates or is consumed, the concentration of TDS becomes stronger, to the point of being Toxic. The TDS increase as the amount of water decreases. This creates the need to replenish the water, to replace the water, to "top off". As we replace that missing water, we create an IMBALANCE. Hydroponic grown plants eat what they need, as they need it, and they leave some nutes to build up and accumalate into a posionious or toxic level.
This creates the need to DAILY TOP IT OFF. (to put a cut on it) I have already discussed starting Feedings and Draining and Replenishing in thE tUTORIAL thread twice. It is simple enough, daily replace what you estimate is gone, consumed, eaten, and absorbed.
But weekly, you need to clear the buffet table and start all over with fresh foods. This gives the plant not only a well balanced buffet table to eat from, but also supplies it with FRESH Food that has not been altered by the plants being picky and choosey.
And, there is the Growth Spurt you will get during the Drain, as the roots get a 5 to 15 mintues air bath. It also gives you the opportunity to look for crimped air hoses, scrub the air stones clean and look for debris and trash in the tank that messes with the pH balance.
Also, as the water ages, undesirable harmful microbes appear and grow in the water. You also take the chance of insect larvae and algae appearing, and weekly draining the tank helps prevent those problems too.
In the day to day course of maintaining the tank two problems occur. Remember how we discussed ppm, parts per million? Then we discussed RNC, RELATIONSHIP OF NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION. Well, we also need to discuss TDS, Total Disolved Salts. (Some books say Total Disolved Solids, for some reason unknown to me) As the water evaporates or is consumed, the concentration of TDS becomes stronger, to the point of being Toxic. The TDS increase as the amount of water decreases. This creates the need to replenish the water, to replace the water, to "top off". As we replace that missing water, we create an IMBALANCE. Hydroponic grown plants eat what they need, as they need it, and they leave some nutes to build up and accumalate into a posionious or toxic level.
This creates the need to DAILY TOP IT OFF. (to put a cut on it) I have already discussed starting Feedings and Draining and Replenishing in thE tUTORIAL thread twice. It is simple enough, daily replace what you estimate is gone, consumed, eaten, and absorbed.
But weekly, you need to clear the buffet table and start all over with fresh foods. This gives the plant not only a well balanced buffet table to eat from, but also supplies it with FRESH Food that has not been altered by the plants being picky and choosey.
And, there is the Growth Spurt you will get during the Drain, as the roots get a 5 to 15 mintues air bath. It also gives you the opportunity to look for crimped air hoses, scrub the air stones clean and look for debris and trash in the tank that messes with the pH balance.
Also, as the water ages, undesirable harmful microbes appear and grow in the water. You also take the chance of insect larvae and algae appearing, and weekly draining the tank helps prevent those problems too.
Daily, EVERYDAY you're supposed to replace the water AND nutrients missing. You don't allow the roots to dry out. You keep the water line one to two inches below the bottom of the grow cups, making a small air pocket between the water line and the bottom of the cups.
The pH of 6.3 was OK. Different nutes are eaten at different pH levels, and you need to let it go from 5.5 to 6.5 so it gets some of all of the nutes.
They will do fine once they get their feet set. I did soil to hydro in the past and the trick is to get all the soil off. Doesn't look like that happened here but it a minor adjustment. Your PH may be all over the place for a while while it works itself out. If you add any water, do it from through the net pots and do a little rinse Remember, plants are tough.
- Thread starter
- #48
Thanks for all that info roseman. I topped my res water off with some fresh water with some nutes. My PPM is a little low at 444 but ill be draining and replenishing with Flowering nutes tomorrow.
I rinse as much soil as possible my Purple GB was pretty much clear of all soil The B.F.F. had a soil clump in her roots which i think caused her stunted growth for a while. I drained and replenished and all soil was gone and they have taken off since.
Now tomorrow is a short work day (FINALLY) So tonight when my light goes off i will plug in my Flowering timer On at 7Am Off at 7pm.
I rinse as much soil as possible my Purple GB was pretty much clear of all soil The B.F.F. had a soil clump in her roots which i think caused her stunted growth for a while. I drained and replenished and all soil was gone and they have taken off since.
Now tomorrow is a short work day (FINALLY
) So tonight when my light goes off i will plug in my Flowering timer On at 7Am Off at 7pm.Glad to hear it's all off and doing well. If you do that in the future sometimes you have to let the root ball sit in a bowl of water overnite. Then it just falls off and you have a clean root. You can't do much at speed when they are small. That comes later.
- Thread starter
- #50
*Change of Plans* Now that i think about it even if i cover my other window in my basement i dont think it will be 100% Light proof so im going to buy a grow tent from HTG. My only problem is in 7 more days these girls will be monsters lol and thats when id expect it to come
LotzOfTrycs
New Member
Save your money and build a tent. I spent $150 to build my flower tent and veg tent and took about an hour to build both tents. The only complaint I have is I didn't build mine to the right sizes, I wish I could fit both my T5 lights in my veg tent. PM me if you want some info.
I have two double windows in the room, so I first put blinds on them.
Then I covered those blinds with a blanket. If someone like a stranger or meter reader looks in the window, he will see the blanket. Then to seal out LIGHT LEAKS, I covered the window with dark plastic.
In about two weeks, we hope to get up a Deep Water Culture Contest. Information will be posted on the Deep Water Culture Home Thread here:
Deep Water Culture miss a lot of great discussions and debates about Deep Water Culture on that thread. This week, we saw on that thread that StealthHydro was offering an additional 15% Discount if you used the word MEMORIAL as a coupon. With the Deep Water Culture 10% Discount, that was a great savings. Please visit the HOME thread often to stay alert as to what the Deep Water Culture are up to. MostlyCrazy was nominated for May Member of the Month and I think voting starts today or tomorrow.
Deep Water Culture - DWC
Another method of supplying a ratio of Oxygen and nutrients to plants in a reservoir while submerging the root mass in water 24 hours a day
www.420magazine.com
Deep Water Culture miss a lot of great discussions and debates about Deep Water Culture on that thread. This week, we saw on that thread that StealthHydro was offering an additional 15% Discount if you used the word MEMORIAL as a coupon. With the Deep Water Culture 10% Discount, that was a great savings. Please visit the HOME thread often to stay alert as to what the Deep Water Culture are up to. MostlyCrazy was nominated for May Member of the Month and I think voting starts today or tomorrow.
- Thread starter
- #54
K thanks roseman Ill be giving light proofing my basement windows a try tomorrow I replenished some PHed water into my Res my girls seem happy. Pictures tomorrow i moved my Blueberry Dwarf upstairs under my T5 and put in my flowering Timer. I dont like this Durban poison at all and i want to get rid of her i might just put her outside and see how she does. My Blueberry is still small but im sure under that T5 she will grow nice till shes ready to flower
Sounds like a man with a plan!
Hey, visit us over here at and join in some Deep Water Culture comradery when you get a chance.
Its a fun thread and the Deep Water Culture meet there often.
And the polls are open, for voting for May Member of the Month here:
420 Magazine's Member of the Month Contest: May 2010 I'm voting for MostlyCrazy, Chief Deep Water Culture.
Its a fun thread and the Deep Water Culture meet there often.
And the polls are open, for voting for May Member of the Month here:
420 Magazine's Member of the Month Contest: May 2010 I'm voting for MostlyCrazy, Chief Deep Water Culture.
It's been my experience that the blueberry strain and crosses are a little slow out of the blocks but can catch up in a hurry. Don't think they play well with others either. They seem to like a lighter nute load and will spot up if pushed.
- Thread starter
- #58
Im sure my Blueberry will get pretty big under this T5. I made a attempt to light proof my basement but till i make a trip to Wally world its not 100% lightproof but in a few hours it will be. For GH 3 part nutes Do you add all 3 for the Transition phase? It says 2 Tbs of each but i though Grow and Bloom weren't supposed to be mixed. I added some fresh water to my rez and added some ice to my rez Here some pics
On My Purple GB one of her leaves is very damaged and i have no idea what it is
Blueberry Dwarf under the T5
and my PATHETIC ATTEMPT TRUST ME ILL BE FIXING IT TONIGHT this is more to show you my basement layout
This window is pretty far from my grow room but it still needs to be light proofed
On My Purple GB one of her leaves is very damaged and i have no idea what it is
Blueberry Dwarf under the T5
and my PATHETIC ATTEMPT TRUST ME ILL BE FIXING IT TONIGHT this is more to show you my basement layout
This window is pretty far from my grow room but it still needs to be light proofed
You're thinking about the SH nutes and not mixing grow and bloom. With the GH transition is 2-2-2 and that means 2tsp/10ml of Grow, Micro and Bloom - Per Gallon.
SanibelGreen
New Member
I would throw a full curtain over that window then garbage bag or plywood behind it, jus my 2 cents.
SG
SG
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