Hydro water change out question

[BrokrnEyes]

I'm planning on changing out the nutrient water tomorrow of my grow to simply combat the rising ppm level that apparently I've been causing via adding ph down and I have a few quick questions.

Quick info:
Aerogarden ultra
White widow auto flower (18 days old)

1. Should I do a quick flush just to clean up any lingering salts when I drain the reservoir or can I add the new solution after the change out immediately?
2. Should I add plant revolution great white into the new solution? I have it in the old solution but will the new solution require the additive as well or will the bacteria have already colonized all the routes since the initial adding?

This is the first time they've ever done a nutrient solution change out for cannabis so is there any special precautions that I need to take regarding the roots? IE add the New solution immediately or do I have a couple of minutes?

 

[Papageno]

You can wait a long time not just minutes. The roots like the air.

Sounds to me like you haven't decided if you want to grow a sterile or a living res solution yet. You should learn about those and make a decision and go full into it. If you don't you could kill your grow. Maybe not...but you will for sure have issues if you don't do one or the other.

There is a lot of info about that over in the hydro forums. But the forums themselves are dead. If you want reasonable response time come back here to post questions.

 

[Rifleman]

I don't bother flushing the growing media during res changes. I move my plants to empty buckets, clean theirs, add water and nutrients, then replace the plants. Total time out of the water can range from 15 to 40 minutes depending on if I get distracted...er, high.

 

[BrokrnEyes]

You can wait a long time not just minutes. The roots like the air.

Sounds to me like you haven't decided if you want to grow a sterile or a living res solution yet. You should learn about those and make a decision and go full into it. If you don't you could kill your grow. Maybe not...but you will for sure have issues if you don't do one or the other.

There is a lot of info about that over in the hydro forums. But the forums themselves are dead. If you want reasonable response time come back here to post questions.

Sorry but I don't suppose you could give me a basic rundown on those two approaches could you? I tried navigating the search and I got confused as all hell (screen readers and that's for layout aren't the greatest).

 

[Papageno]

@ Rifleman...You are supposed to get high First!


So it really depends on the style you are doing. Not many people use those aero gardens for cannabis. they are just way too small. for clones they may be decent but the issue is you want a plant to be 4 weeks old before flowering min. in 4 weeks of growing a decent grower will have plants outgrow that thing. Se when they go into bloom the plant will at least double in size, maybe triple. So after 4 weeks if you are not stunting or stressing the plant you must be at less than half way through the extension height. That is hard to do if doing a good job.

Now if you are running clones you can start blooming them right away and then you can get somewhere with those. But all in all not a great return on effort weight wise. for the same effort you can get a lot more yield doing other methods. so not many people use those things.


I know I haven't used one so it is hard to explain. We have to assume how it works. I bet there are videos on youtube for this.

I assume you can lift the lid out and place the lid with all the plants over a bucket and let the roots hang while you clean out the res. That is a common way just most people are using real 5 gallon buckets and have a few spares laying around they use for the exchange.

Sorry if that isn't very helpfull.


As far as the 2 approaches it breaks down like this. In hydro you have a nutrient rich solution that is a great place for bacteria and algae to grow. The wrong kind of bacteria can kill your plants and algae eats up all the nutes and messes up the pH.

So there are 2 ways to deal with this. If you don't do one or the other it is very easy and common to have the grow eventually crash about a month into the grow.

And to be clear this is a religious debate. Many people will argue they are correct on this and never give the other side a chance. I personally feel both are correct it just depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Both have their place...I prefer one and would only do it that way myself. I like most people am biased heavily one way but I am not about to argue it.


1) Go sterile... You can add a water chiller to most hydro systems that will keep the water cool which is inhospitable to bacteria. That is not a cure all. You also need to add some basic chems. Many people add in a chemical that is the main point in filtering water to begin with and that always cracks me up.

2) The second method is to go with a "living res". That means adding in symbiotic bacteria that works with the plants and prevent bad stuff from growing. Just like the bacteria in your gut that makes food accessible to you these bacteria help the plants out signifigantly and prevent bad bacteria and algae from taking hold.

But what you don't want to do is set up a chiller and add chems to kill bacteria and then add in beneficial bacteria. Which we see on here all the time. That is because just about all nutrient manufacturers sell these microbes and recommend them. People who don't understand what they are buying and following a recipe may be using a recipe not meant for their setup.

 

[BrokrnEyes]

OK thanks for the description, from what you said I am by default doing the living reservoir solution as the plant revolution great white is, according to the packaging, a bunch of different strains of bacteria that are beneficial to plant life.. So then what I will do later today is mix up the new solution and include the great white in it for the change out.

As for my use of the aero garden, I am certainly no stranger to the communities consensus that they're not a good system so I am definitely in the my Nordie but I firmly believe that a little creative thinking outside of the box permits the aero garden to be useful. I have been recording my notes and will be publishing them in a grow journal after the harvest is complete (my partner in this got a little jumpy when I said I wanted to do a grow journal and actively publish it so we compromised on the timing of it all).

I will say this though, I am aware that the aero garden's grow light, at least for this model (30 W LED) probably isn't the strongest for growing this sort of plant and I equally doubt their newest model, the aero garden bounty which sports a 45 W grow light probably would not be that much better. What I've done however is I've used the grow light that came with the aero garden as a sort of starter light until the first for leaves appeared and then I switched it over to what I am simply calling the "grow Suns", A pair of 300 W LED grow lights.

I guess you can kind of say I am following the example of a guy on YouTube name straighttalk. He likes to do comparison grows with different methods and what not and he did a miniseries where he featured the same model of aero garden that I have and was able to pull 2–3 ounces off of a single plant using just the grow hood, and air stone, 10 additional watts of white LED and had it all in a cabinet. He says that he lives off grid so is rather interesting to see how he was able to grow on such a limited electrical amount, seeing as I live on the grid I'm not bound by such constraints so I am rather interested to see what my final result will be as he did not use anything other then the aero garden in the above-mentioned equipment.

 

[Papageno]

yeah I have seen them work. They just are more difficult I think and possibly not for newbs due to that. Also with low intensity lighting it is hard to get the best potency.

Go for it. It is a great way to learn I think. but best for clones not seeds I think. Best if you are running seed is to get the clones going in there to get a mature healthy potent flower. you don't want to induce flowering before the 4th week of veg and that is the issue with those. you may be out of space to handle stretch and bloom after 4 weeks of a fast growing strain. But a clone that is already 4 weeks old you can start blooming immediately...as soon as you can take more clones off it for the next gen you can bloom again and then you may get something good.

Most people when referring to "Great White" are referring to a product by Plant revolution that is both bacteria and fungi. The fungi has a very different purpose. They combine them into one package because both are great for root health.

 

[BrokrnEyes]

Yeah that's the main reason why I got the great whites was for the fungi to increase the uptake of nutrients into the plant, I just completed the nutrient change out and the root system is actually quite impressive and healthy looking.