Plugger's Hydro #01

[420BudzFreak]

@plugger if it was me, I would veg for a few more days and see how they act. The newer growth looks good, so that’s a plus for sure.

 

[plugger]

I did order a TDS/ppm meter I have let that go. But when this started I was very surprised to see a res PH in the low 7's and the appearance of the browning and the speed of things at first. That first 8-16 hours was like what the heck

 

[plugger]

The other thing I just thought about is, I have done res changes where I let the water sit covered, treat it with nutes sit covered, calimag & hydrogurad at a leisurely pace covering the buckets here in my office as I go through the 3 nutes and 2 supplements, let things sit, then do the PH adjust. I have actually let covered buckets sit over night checked PH adjusted then do the res change a while later.
This last res change was wam, bam, recheck, res change. I think the slower pace might be the way to go.

 

[plugger]

I am considering starting to remove some of the damaged larger fan leaves. And where I would cut them.

• 1/2 inch or so under the junction for that set of fan leaves
• farther down the stem 1/2 inch or so from healthier new growth nodes.
• Or this is a bad idea and I should just let the damaged fan leaves be

 

[420BudzFreak]

I feel like you need to smoke a joint and relax my friend. If it was my plants, the dead leaves would be cut off. Close to the trunk. I would also have a fan in there. You really need some air movement. its a MUST.

 

[plugger]

OK I did some trimming, one thing that was a surprise is
blue b1 larger of the 3 was pretty lose in the pot, once the sick 4 large fan leaf sets were gone. I really will need some support method maybe perfect use for the ScrOG net Duh
blue b2 and blue b3 look great with the larger sick fan leaf sets gone

I did not realize that in dwc there really is not much supporting the plants except that mine were all leaning on each other.

Now with the trimming I can really see the where and how of the topping effects and how to approach LST and ScrOG and where it can make a difference. There was a "bunch" of growth trying to get out from under those large fan leaf sets they were kinda acting like a helmet holding everything in under things.

 

[420BudzFreak]

Getting your plants to support themselves and the stalk to thicken up is directly related to air movement as well health obviously. Having a fan in there blowing the plants and keeping things fresh is a MUST. Like, top 3 priority for any good grower. Other then that they look great! They’re getting bigger and bigger!! Good work.

 

[plugger]

Yes I put the fan in after you said to replace it. I have heavy/light support wires and plant ties. I am putting the ScrOG frame together tonight and will get something support wise setup
Have to say again, that I was kinda bewildered about how I would start LST and ScrOG. But once I cut those large fan leaves out and saw all the new growth I saw a lot of opportunities and it started to make a little more sense.
The next checks on them will be interesting after the clipping, hoping they will go wow light grow, grow,grow.

Time will tell

 

[plugger]

Well first causality blue b1(day 34 from showing first tiny set) had a small(tiny support system) and I am not sure about any pre flowers? or anything, but may have been a female but really who knows.
I screwed up on developing a good support/root to stem system on this one. And I made the error long ago.
The other 2 look much better and seen fine atm

 

[plugger]

I was thinking about maybe trying some clones from blue b1 but I am really not prepped. So I decided just to try the warm water rinse then 2 cool rinses and hang it in a box just to take a first look at a harvest drying and curing no danger test run just to see what all happens step wise

 

[plugger]

Also going to interesting to pull the pot and take it apart and look at the roots etc.

 

[plugger]

03/02 @ 1130 OK, blue b2 and blue b3 seem to be recovering from my previous issues.
One point of interest I discovered while checking things out. My carbon filter was complete saturated/clogged and I was getting little to no air coming out of the tent. Since smell is not an issue atm I disconnected it. With it disconnected all is good. I am thinking this happened over time, I did see my air flow decreasing but turned the fan up a bit so no problem.
I wonder if/and think this is related to the 3 instances I had with extremely high humidity 90+% when the lights went out, before I moved the humidifier on to the lights out timer.
I am going to stay in veg for a while longer, finally get my ScrOG net in since I can really see what the possibilities are for using it to spread the tops out.
And hope this is the last WTF moment of this grow, but being a first and a learning experience only time will tell.

Tent 62.6 @ 50%, res 65.2%, lights 18/6 schedule(30mins before lights on ATM), swapped out 2 gallons last night of veg nutes 1/2 tsp each leaning to the weaker side of the GH trio plus CaliMag and Hydroguard, roots, res look and smell good. Also, starting to check and look @ ppm readings. Oh res PH last night 5.6, replacement stuff was @ 5.8

 

[420BudzFreak]

Looking good buddy!! Good job.

 

[plugger]

03/02 @ 2000 OK, had a power issue and the lights did not come on at noon. So I have been in lights out for the last 14 hours.
So my thoughts are the flower cycle is not a one time switch it takes a few days of less light cycle so the lights come back on now and stay on for the next10 hours. Then I am right back on my old 18/6 light cycle with lights going out at 6am tomorrow.
So am I wrong, my plan was to keep them in veg for at least a few more days if I can

 

[plugger]

03/03 @ 1148 OK peeked in the tent just before lights on, the plants looked good so I did my first series of light LST.
Tent 65.3 F @ 39%, res 63.4 F, PH 5.7, PPM 1165.
My PPM is high(I think?) I just started checking yesterday now that I have a meter. I have come to the conclusion that it is my tap water. With the city water and my water softener I am thinking of switching to RO water to get my base count down? You know I have not actually checked I assumed. OK my base is 425.
Also, need to figure out what Hydro PPM looks like in the various stages.

And yes the lights did come on @ noon lol

Anyway picture, blue b2, blue b3, tent

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

02/13 @ 2139 latest leaves look healthy, still have curling in nodes 1 & 2 older leaves I think. Growth seems slow but continues. Raised the light 1 1/2" - 2". Have cool mist humidifier in the tent now and humidity is in the high 30's low 40's.
Nute wise i am switching to week 2 veg nutes (1/2tsp each of the trio per gallon) from (1/4tsp each of the trio per gallon) 1 gallon at a time. res is about 5.5 gallons and have done 4 daily 1 gallon swaps.

PH is 5.6-5.8 used strips

One thing is the seedlings seem short, compact sure not reaching for the light?

ph strips are not accurate enough for hydro growing , you need a ph and ppm meter of some kind for sure

 

[plugger]

Yep I picked up a PH meter and strips( I have used them over the years). I like to use the strips for quick dips in to the res and as a quick estimate when i use the meter with pulled samples. At first I tried to stick the meter in the res now I use 4oz cups to dip samples and check on the bench.
Yes when using strips your guessing closer to one of the whole #'s

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

well here goes my 2 cents , purple stems are too high of ph this case , super heavy green leaves indicate that the plant has taken in all the nutes it can handle any thing more causes wilting,
tip burn and different colored leaves , -75 -79 degrees in tent , humidity doesn't play as big a role in hydro as it does in soil , the water in the rez is constantly evaporating off plus the humidity is heavy beneath the lid for the roots that are not actually in the water , , rez temp needs to be 68-72 , the water needs to be heavily oxygenated , allow the rez to drop in water level till about 1/2 of the water is gone , this allows the roots to breath again and then fill rez , always be adding calmag to the rez , it is hard to over feed calmag as they love it , it is the npk that will get you into trouble , I would not send the plants to flower till they look great in veg , the leaves should be pointed straight out and this means they are willing to grab as much light as they can .it is a lot easier for the plants to take in the nutes in hydro than it is in soil so keep them low , less is more in hydro and you can add nutes to hydro daily if you see a problem developing and the plants will turn around in 24hr if there is a problem and if you know what it is .your led light can be as close as 20 inches from the top of your plant , weed loves light , they hate heavy prolonged heat .

 

[plugger]

Thanks for the great information, Yes I have made various mistakes so far and have many things to learn.
This my first hydro is a straight up learning experience. I look back in the journal and just shake my head at myself lol
And that was just the last few days.

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

Lol ya I made a lot of really stupid common sense mistakes my self when I first tried hydro , , I have moved a way from dwc systems and now only do the straight coco /perlite my self as dwc needs exact numbers and constant maintance and a lot of time dedicated to it . ,coco water it once a day and forget about it , I am a lazy grower lol !.Fill my rez to 250 ppm of nutes and another 100 ppm worth of calmag , ph the water to 5.8 and water-done !