Need suggestions for an upcoming issue

[StonerJ]

I'm looking for some suggestions for an upcoming problem I'll be facing in about 4 weeks.

I currently have a girl in a 5 gal bucket (DWC) that is just over a week into 12/12. I have found that I really need to check & adjust pH & add water every day. I've been changing the solution every 7 days since flipping to 12/12 so she's already had one change and will get another a few days from now. I plan to continue changing to fresh solution every 7 days until harvest. It has been pretty consistent all along that I really need to adjust pH and top off with 1/2 gal of water daily. This girl is pretty big at this point and is really taking a lot of water & nutes.

My problem is this. In about 4 weeks from now, my wife & I will be leaving for a 4 day trip and will be gone for a full 4 days. I have nobody to come daily and take care of maintaining this bucket for me. I'm very concerned that at that point, 5 weeks into flowering, that within a day or so, the pH will be well out of range and creating a nutrient lockout as well as having water levels drop in the bucket by at least 2 gallons. I'm trying to determine how I can ensure steady pH and relatively steady water levels.

The water levels are the easy part because I can install a float valve in the bucket with an additional 5 gal bucket above & next to it to keep the water level constant. The problem is of course that I have no way to check and adjust the pH level to keep it within range.

I have thought about changing to a larger reservoir (like an 18 gal rubbermaid storage container) so that the pH will be more stable during my 4 day absence. The problem with that is that the plant is so big now, the root mass is huge & it's only in a 3" net pot. I can't even lift it from the hole in the lid without damaging the roots. I could cut the lid of the bucket to open it up & remove the plant without damaging roots, but then (since it's already in a 3" net pot), how do I fit it into the top of the new reservoir while in the 3" net pot given the size of the root mass? A bigger hole in the top of the new reservoir would do it but I need to fit a 3" net pot containing the plant into whatever hole I cut. That root mass just won't fit into a 3" hole.

Anyway, any suggestions are certainly welcome here. I really hate to come back from a 4 day trip and find this gorgeous girl, that I've put so much time & effort into wilted, shriveled, and permanently damaged so deep into the flowering phase.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions offered to deal with this upcoming dilemma.



Here is a pic of this girl so you can see how large she is:

 

[Vampire]

subbed but i can't help.

 

[SurfBuddy]

How about just having the 5 gal bucket hold acidic solution (normally what you add to bring ph back down). Nothing drastic, right? just ph 5 or so?

if you really wanted to move it to a bigger tub, just cut a big hole in the tub, smaller than the 5 gal lid, and take the whole lid off and set the lady in the tub.
my $0.02

 

[StonerJ]

Thanks for the suggestion. After I submitted the post I felt a bit stupid because I suddenly realized that's exactly what I could do. I'll know more when I get a little closer and see what the this girl's eating & drinking habits are at that time. She seems to go for days nice & stable, predictable, consumes the same amount of water & nutes, then she goes haywire and is all over the place for a few days.

I have a bigger reservoir ready with a larger hole cut into the top to do just what you suggested. I have two airstones in it and another pump for the chiller so I'm ready to go once I decide to do that.

 

[Vampire]

Mine don't show how they like the nutes til about 2-3 days later either. Are you gonna move the lights up before you go away?

 

[StonerJ]

Mine don't show how they like the nutes til about 2-3 days later either. Are you gonna move the lights up before you go away?

Depends upon what she's doing those last 2-3 days before leaving. She isn't so much getting taller as she is fuller, not that she's not growing upwards at all. The branches are filling up with bud sites and they're popping out from between the fan leaves. If the flower development continues as it has and she pushes up more, then yes, I'll definitely move the light up.

At last count, I've got about 35 flowers that have popped up and almost all have been starting to sprout nice white hairs. I'll just need to watch her and see how tall she gets vs how thick with buds she gets. I'm now 15 days in since flipping the light to 12/12.

 

[Vampire]

Luvin this journal.

 

[StonerJ]

Thanks Vampire,

Here is a pic from last evening. I put her into a 24 hr flush before changing to fresh nutes at a lower concentration. I'm just concerned that I'm running the nutes a little too hot so I'm cutting them back.

The flower topping the main stalk. You can see the leaf curl that's the reason for cutting back on nutes:

Lots of flowers popping up all over the plant:

 

[Vampire]

I totally agree with cutting down on the nutes cause these babies look very healthy and more problems are caused by over-ferting then ever are from under ferting. I read the leaves, if they look as yours do good green, sitting perky, good amount of fingers on the blades (as you have) then just plain water is all they want. The second picture (unless its the camera) shows an abundance of hi N by the very green of the leaves, also the reddish stems are either a lack of P or the strain genetic. If they were mine, I'd wait til the green tones down some and if those stems are still the same reddish, I'd use a hi P fert starting with just 1/2 dose of recommended by product amount. Very nice grow to see though. Those claw leaves indicate something, but I forgot off-hand what it is, you may wanna look it up or just wait and see if they perk up.
Rastafari.

 

[StonerJ]

I just completed the 24 hr flush and she looks gorgeous. Never skipped a beat. Those purple stems seem to be genetic as she's had them right from germination. The leaves had even picked up a bit and she just looked more vibrant overall. I replaced the clean water flush bucket with clean water, fresh nutes at 600 ppm, and lowered the light a bit. I took some more pics but this one just blows me away. You can really see how flowers are just "popping up" all over the place.

As far as the bark green, yes, she's really green but also the pics without the flash show the green as somewhat darker. Here's one of the entire plant and you can see how low the light is:

 

[Vampire]

Yeah I can see how awesome they are from your pics. I agree, it could be genetics so all's well. They do look good my only concern is those claw leaves; could it be they need more lights then? I'm not sure why but the leaves would be perky and even slightly pointing up if they were happy. Idk why they're looking sad; could be they want water maybe? Hmmm maybe not to be to concerned though cause you've got an impressionable amount of fingers on your blades so somethings keeping em healthy.

 

[StonerJ]

I'm thinking that I've got a lockout at this point. After a 24 hr clean water flush, I put her back on reduced nutes last evening right after the light came on. Dumped the flush water and gave her fresh water & nutes at only 600 ppm. 12 hrs later though (this morning) just before light out, I did my first daily check and pH had dropped 0.5 and nutes barely budged but went upward a small bit (only 12 ppm so certainly not much).

I'll check her again at light on this evening and if pH is still dropping and nutes are steady or going up, I'll put her in clean water flush again. I drew another 5 gal bucket of RO water this afternoon so I'll be ready to move her over to it if necessary. If I do end up in another flush, I'll give her more than 24 hrs, I'll wait until I start to see a change in her condition before starting up nutes again.

She still looks pretty good and I'm convinced that the "clawing" of the leaves is that she's overfed so if she hasn't budged, I'll see what another flush does. I can't imagine she needs more light. She's only about a foot below a 400W CMH and there is a fan blowing across the canopy so temps are only mid to high 70's on the tops.

 

[StonerJ]

Well, she's back in a flush. This time she'll be in as long as it takes to really clean her out. When I checked her this evening, the pH had dropped a full point & nutes hadn't budged. I took the lid off the bucket and really examined everything for slime, growth, smell, anything. Found nothing. Roots looked good, no slime or deposits on them at all. The tubing from the submersible pump feeding the chiller seemed a bit slimy but it wasn't much of anything and wiped right off. The pump wasn't slippery/slimy at all. Overall, everything in the bucket seemed fine.

So before the first flush 2 days ago, every day the pH dropped a full point and EC/TDS rose so..... that told me she was being overfed. Now, after the 24 hr first flush, the pH is still dropping a full point in 24 hrs but EC/TDS isn't budging. Arghhhh!

So back into pH adjusted (6.0) RO water and let's see how long it takes to clean her up. I'll keep her in the flush until she starts to show signs of needing some nutes. She's still very green and still growing (flowers continuing to develop every day) but the leaves around the buds have a pronounced "claw" so let's see what she tells me.... day by day now.