Question from beginner

[scomstock55]

hello everyone,
this is my first grow. I have a rainforest 66 hydro/aero set up. My plants have begun to grow roots into the nutrient solution. Can I expect faster growth now? Thanks for anyone taking the time to answer.

 

[dropcroptop]

It's going to take at least 3 months before you'll be close to finished. At your stage you should focus on the environment for your babies. Check node distances to see if your light is low enough.etc. etc. In theory the roots intake most your nutrients so a bigger root mass will speed every process up. Keep posting your questions on this site and you will not be led astray.

 

[scomstock55]

thanks man. I am currently checking Ph, temp, water temp, room temp humidity on a bi-weekly basis. im sitting at 5.5 or so, 75+ for room temp, almost the same for water, humidity is low i think....it stays at around 40%. Im using two 300 watt LED array lights. They are about 8 inches from the top of the plants. I gladly accept all advice, suggestions etc. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

[dropcroptop]

How many plants and how old. You have a picture?

 

[scomstock55]

How many plants and how old. You have a picture?

I have three right now. Two blends and one that is 90% indica. I will try to get a couple pics posted soon.
I went to check on them this morning and found three droopy very unhappy girls. I let the water in the rf66 get too low so they were without nutrients or water for a day or so. I replenished so they should be okay. They hadnt started to change color, so I think they will survive. im going to mix up a whole new batch of solution (17 gallons) today and change it out when it comes to room temp.

 

[scomstock55]

hello man
how are you? fine I hope. well, I went and checked on my plants today and found three unhappy looking girls. They are droopy and the lower leaves are yellowing. The upper leaves are still green but are starting to curl at the ends. I have uploaded a couple pics of each in the member galleries. I hope you can help me save them. The ph is 6.4. water temp is 69, air temp is around 75 and humidity is around 40%. I really appreciate any help you can provide .

 

[dropcroptop]

hello man
how are you? fine I hope. well, I went and checked on my plants today and found three unhappy looking girls. They are droopy and the lower leaves are yellowing. The upper leaves are still green but are starting to curl at the ends. I have uploaded a couple pics of each in the member galleries. I hope you can help me save them. The ph is 6.4. water temp is 69, air temp is around 75 and humidity is around 40%. I really appreciate any help you can provide .

I'm sorry i must have overlooked that your running a hydroponic setup? What is your medium? How often are you feeding? Any pictures of the plant so I can get an idea if your ppm is too high for actual plant material. The charts on the back of nutrient bottles give recommendations for time periods. Not necessarily plant mass,so pictures of your actual plants will help us see if your plant is ready for 900 ppm worth of nutrients. If your plant is "small for its age" then you need to dial back the nutrients accordingly. Are you staggering your nutrient feedings with pure PH water at all? That will help cleanse any salt buildups. But from the one picture you sent it looks like either non ph'd water or too much nutrients. It could be a deficiency from lack of cal-mag or something but I would first dial back your nutrients and see if that helps. It will take a week or so before new growth shows your giving the correct amount. So be patient. You got this!

 

[dropcroptop]

17 gallons is a big tank for 3 plants in veg, how far is your light from the tops of the plant? And how is your node spacing thus far

 

[scomstock55]

I'm sorry i must have overlooked that your running a hydroponic setup? What is your medium? How often are you feeding? Any pictures of the plant so I can get an idea if your ppm is too high for actual plant material. The charts on the back of nutrient bottles give recommendations for time periods. Not necessarily plant mass,so pictures of your actual plants will help us see if your plant is ready for 900 ppm worth of nutrients. If your plant is "small for its age" then you need to dial back the nutrients accordingly. Are you staggering your nutrient feedings with pure PH water at all? That will help cleanse any salt buildups. But from the one picture you sent it looks like either non ph'd water or too much nutrients. It could be a deficiency from lack of cal-mag or something but I would first dial back your nutrients and see if that helps. It will take a week or so before new growth shows your giving the correct amount. So be patient. You got this!

no apology needed man. its all good. yes, I'm running a rainforest 66. the plants are feed continuously by a mist created by a device that uses centrifugal force to lift and spread the water in a fine mist. I have uploaded pictures to the members gallery.

I'm with you on the too much nutrient comment. I'm going down right now to take most of the nutrient water out and replace it with plain old tap water that will have been adjusted to Ph of around 6. I did a test last night and the ppm was very high. around 1900. some say that that is okay, but I have also seen that this is way too high for such little plants. so, a flush is in order and the plants can do without too much nutrient until they recover. I might add just a little, like 1/10th of what they suggest for seedlings.

Thanks for answering and helping out. I appreciate it.

 

[scomstock55]

no apology needed man. its all good. yes, I'm running a rainforest 66. the plants are feed continuously by a mist created by a device that uses centrifugal force to lift and spread the water in a fine mist. I have uploaded pictures to the members gallery.

I'm with you on the too much nutrient comment. I'm going down right now to take most of the nutrient water out and replace it with plain old tap water that will have been adjusted to Ph of around 6. I did a test last night and the ppm was very high. around 1900. some say that that is okay, but I have also seen that this is way too high for such little plants. so, a flush is in order and the plants can do without too much nutrient until they recover. I might add just a little, like 1/10th of what they suggest for seedlings.

Thanks for answering and helping out. I appreciate it.

so, just got done diluting the solution. it is now only ~600 ppm. It was 1900. I will take some pics in a few days if they look like they are getting better. If not, or if they get worse, I'm gonna dump the whole thing, and go with just plain water(ph adjusted to 5.5 or so) for a week or two to hopefully flush their systems of the nutrient overload.

 

[dropcroptop]

You don't need to flush for a full week lol. I'm sure a day or two will be plenty especially in hydroponics since your medium doesn't hold the nutrients for long. But I run soil so I could be wrong. Two weeks without any nutrients might be just as bad as too much nutrients. Hydro is a little finicky.

 

[scomstock55]

hey man,
how are you....fine I hope. Good news...its been a couple weeks and the plants are now thriving. It turns out that the problem was two-fold. I believe the first problem was that the nutrient solution was too strong for the little plants. That is a common beginners mistake. However, the second problem was probably the most damaging and I havent found anyone else in any forum that has addressed this problem. When using the rain forest you also use clay balls as a medium. The plants sit in the pots that come with the system. The pots are cut into a gridlike pattern so as to let the mist hit the clay balls and let the roots soak up the mist like that. What happened with me is that I didnt fill the pot all the way to the top with clay pellets. This left a few spots of the grid open so the mist was coming right through. This mist was hitting the lower plant continuously. Wow...talk about overfeeding and overwatering...lol....these poor girls were doomed. Now, about two weeks later or whatever time has passed, the plants are looking great. They are growing like crazy. I will post some more pics today or tomorrow. Thanks for helping me and encouraging me. When I checked all the numbers and didnt see improvement, I was getting discouraged. Thankfully, the problem came to me while I slept...lol...and of course the solution was easy....add more clay pellets.