Request for assistance

[PitViper]

I never knocked your creds bro..I just happen to disagree...

 

[Hogdady]

Apprentice? I didn't start growing yesterday, in fact I've been growing solid for 8 years. I think my credentials are pretty good.

Then perhaps you can answer his question?

when you have a suspension of water and nutrients are not the bubbles carrying nutrients? hmmm???

 

[Hogdady]

I just realized that I don't have the credentials to belong in this conversation....my apologies to all

 

[PitViper]

I know you didn't, the guy above did.


So let me ask you this, how would you advice the person to flush his system?

well the easiest and cheapest way would be to drain the resovoir....then run water from the TOP down. I dont think he needs DripClean or Clearex or anything....run 5 gallons of plain water thru it. Test the PPM of the water before and after...Ill bet you a buffalo nickel that the PPM would rise 400-600 ppm when done. the nutrients are taken UP....in the bubbles...thats how the roots and media get in there. do you think that only pure water is bubbled up?
Why have nutrients at all. Now to really twist your panties....if you have good air you can SUBMERGE the whole pot....I had a mother in there for almost 10 mnths totally submerged in a bucket...the pics are in the pic fest.
the roots are going to be submerged anyway as they grow into the resovoir

 

[PitViper]

The thread starter hasn't mentioned his pH yet. I'm betting that's where the problem is.

I've never seen a case where bubbles have been able to cause salt built up to cause plants to lock-out when their roots are in the water in dwc.

I have

 

[PitViper]

I just realized that I don't have the credentials to belong in this conversation....my apologies to all

LMAO...you go Hog

 

[PitViper]

After 8 years of continual growing Im sure you have seen how certain nutes are locked at certain PH numbers. Thats why its always good to start at 5.5 and let it rise to 6.2....allows the full range of nutrients to be absorbed. If you hold at 1 steady number and chase it you will have problems.

 

[PitViper]

Yeah man, I love the pH drift.

But here's the problem I have with flushing advice I often see. In soil people flush by pouring water through their pots, once, maybe twice and it's flushed.

Somehow when people talk about flushing in hydro they talk about leaving a weak nutrient solution in the tank for days, which is not flushing.

If I thought medium had built up salts in dwc than I would pour luke-warm water from the top down, through the medium and fill the rez up for 10 minutes or so and dump it. It's flushed. Time to fill her back up with nutes for that stage of growth.

well to me flushing is actually runnin water thru it

 

[BigManRestles]

Guys, I didn't mean to start any wars here! I agree with PitViper with nearly everything he's posted here. I started the flush as soon as I saw the problem with a 25% solution because the salts will move to the lower concentration. That's just basic chemistry, and a low concentration will act more as a solvent so to speak, to break down and wash away any salt build up. As far as the hydrocon getting a salt build-up, it is essentially porous, so it will take some time for the salts to get washed out. One of the things that really boggled my mind is how an ebb & flow system right next to the DWC unit with the same plants, using the same nutes, and having a lot more hydrocon with no exposed roots seems to show no problems.
With the Ph issue, I think I was trying to micromanage the level a bit too much, and ended up staying at the high end too much instead of the middle ground. As I said early in the post, I've been growing in soil for a long time, and my early attempts (over 12 years ago) at hydro failed because of taking ph levels too casually. One thing I will say is that in the Aeroponics veg unit I just built and put into use, I switched from Fox Farms nutes to Botanicare, the ph has stayed more stable, while the ppm has dropped. Not realy sure if that's where I need to be, I've seen some conflicting opinions on that. I will follow the advice to adjust down to 5.5 and see where it goes from there.

 

[PitViper]

If you were going to get salt built up I'd say it would happen in the ebb&Flow and that's why I doubt that's your problem. If your plants aren't eating right because of the pH then giving them less food won't make them eat any better is all I'm saying.

The reason it isnt likely to happen in an Ebb n Flow is that the resovoir size.
55 gallons is going to be inherently more stable than 10-20 gallons. Unless you plug 30 plus pots in which defeats the purpose of having a larger resovoir

 

[PitViper]

You're saying you think nutrient lock-out because of built up salts is more likely in DWC than E&F?

Not at all....Im saying that smaller resovoirs do not maintain stability with PH and PPM. When instability occurs nutrient lock out can rear its head.
most DWC systems do not have a large resovoir. thats what Im saying...its not the system per say but the resovoir size.

 

[BigManRestles]

Thanks once again to everyone who helped me out! I'm about a couple of weeks to harvest, gonna start keeping an eye on the trich's at the end of next week. After the flush in the DWC system, there didn't appear to be any spots on the newer leaves, and growth and development has kept pace with the ebb & flow system, and plants in soil too. Once everthing is dried and cured, I'm gonna try to see if there is any difference. Might be a little tough to do a side by side comparison, since just a few hits is enough to get me going, but we all have our bears to cross, lol.

 

[BigManRestles]

I harvested the plants in the the DWC, and must say that the problems seem to have much longer term effects than I initially thought. One plant at the back of the unit started to shrivel up for no reason I could discern. It was one of the healthier plants in the unit, and when it first started to dry up, and the roots looked the same as all the others. 2 other plants seemed to have retarded development, and ended up having minimal decent bud. The plants were too closely spaced, so branches from other plants obscured my view and made it look as thought they were doing better than I thought. The ebb & flow system plants turned out pretty nice, thought my spider mite problem really exploded right towards the end of the flowering cycle and wreaked havoc in all 3 systems I had in there. Didn't want to go with anything that would leave any residue, so I tried a few suggestions I found in other forums. I ended up with a mediocre harverst overall, and really need to address the mite issue VERY aggressively now. I used some of the SNS-217 rosemary spray on my clones, and though they seem to be recovering now, it burned the shit out of them, and I'm not sure if I want to continue using it. I'm going to pull the plants out that I have in there from the next generation and do a complete cleanup/disinfect of the room, and try to make sure the little bastards don't get to the point they did. Again.
Thanks to all who helped me with my problems here, especially PitViper. This has been a very good learning experience for me, it really helped to point out what is really important to monitor and focus on through the entire process. I'm just completing construction of my 1st StinkBuddies flowering system, and will have it in place once the room is cleaned. Even though I've been growing for over 15 years, in retrospect, it was seat of the pants flying for the most part, lol. I've really learned how little I actually knew from these forums, and look forward to learning much much more in the future.