1st Grow. Dry run for Hydro setup

[asaph]

Hmm... If you are correct about the units you are measuring (meaning, you are in fact measuring TDS / PPM and not EC which is measured like this in μS) - then it's very surprising that your plants are not seriously burned, after getting 2000ish ppm, which is like... 3000 μS or 3.0EC. I grew most of the veg stage with ~1.0EC/~600-700PPM with very good results. But then again, your plants really don't seem burned at all. They are a bit small, I must break, and it seems that your oxygen levels are still to low in the res. What is the res temperature? water saturation levels will reduce drastically at temps higher than 25 celsius. I do recommend using hydrogen peroxide (H2o2) to try and relief this situation, and/or adding yet another air pump. You are using air stones connected to the pipes of the pumps, yes?

You have a nice amount of plants for a res this size and perhaps you should try and build another one to relieve some of the war on oxygen, but this last comment is no more than a hunch.

Try promoting root growth with a rooting accelerator added to your solution.

At any rate, it seems that perhaps DWC isn't the best solution for you. I'm not saying you should quit it, but if you can't fix those problems perhaps you should consider moving them to a hydroponic medium such as coco coir, which will give you hydroponic benefits but be much more helpful with root oxygenation and high temps. It's still a different method, but it might be worth the trouble.

No reason to panic, they are looking healthy and good. Try to improve conditions, wait another week and see where you stand in terms of growth, especially the roots.

(Note: I've never really done DWC so all my advice is to be taken with consideration thereof. Also, they really don't look that bad)

Also, I think that with DWC, you should not be looking at 'feeding' times, but rather at keeping a more or less steady level of nutrients which you choose according to growth stage (notice that because of past/present problems your plants are behind the normal growth chart/feeding schedule and should be maintained as plants in veg week 2-3), with ppm level staying between that and an acceptable level of maintenance (say, you want maintain 800ppm so you up to that level whenever it drops to say... 600). What do you feed them?

 

[goodpunk6]

Hmm... If you are correct about the units you are measuring (meaning, you are in fact measuring TDS / PPM and not EC which is measured like this in μS) - then it's very surprising that your plants are not seriously burned, after getting 2000ish ppm, which is like... 3000 μS or 3.0EC. I grew most of the veg stage with ~1.0EC/~600-700PPM with very good results. But then again, your plants really don't seem burned at all. They are a bit small, I must break, and it seems that your oxygen levels are still to low in the res. What is the res temperature? water saturation levels will reduce drastically at temps higher than 25 celsius. I do recommend using hydrogen peroxide (H2o2) to try and relief this situation, and/or adding yet another air pump. You are using air stones connected to the pipes of the pumps, yes?

You have a nice amount of plants for a res this size and perhaps you should try and build another one to relieve some of the war on oxygen, but this last comment is no more than a hunch.

Try promoting root growth with a rooting accelerator added to your solution.

At any rate, it seems that perhaps DWC isn't the best solution for you. I'm not saying you should quit it, but if you can't fix those problems perhaps you should consider moving them to a hydroponic medium such as coco coir, which will give you hydroponic benefits but be much more helpful with root oxygenation and high temps. It's still a different method, but it might be worth the trouble.

No reason to panic, they are looking healthy and good. Try to improve conditions, wait another week and see where you stand in terms of growth, especially the roots.

(Note: I've never really done DWC so all my advice is to be taken with consideration thereof. Also, they really don't look that bad)

I'm using my TDS meter which only measures PPM. I am totally amazed they are not burned!! However, as I type this, I've noticed that some of the lower foliage that is yellowing has some brown tips that are cracking to my touch. I guess I burned them.

The reservoir is almost always 68-69. I have never taken the water temperature with the lights off. I am using two 15 gallon pumps and 2 6' air stones to feed the 10 gallon tote. The 5 gallon bucket for the mother is being fed by a 20 gallon air pump and a 6' air stone. What I've noticed about the mother plant is that she always seems to get a little droopy at the end of the day. That picture just happened to be at that time. Is it really being caused by low oxygen? All I've got is 3% H2O2. Would that work? Yes, all air stones are properly connected to their own air pump.

I will be moving these little bad boys to a 6 site recirculating dwc bucket system. The tote will probably be used to flower sexing clones in the future. I'm convinced that once my PPM/PH issues are resolved that I can move on with dwc. I just read tons of posts to realize that I need to look for the water level and PPM level to work with each other. If the water goes down and the PPMs stay the same then thats the sweet spot. If the water goes down and the PPMs rise then their not eating the nutriets. If the PPMs go down and the water doesn't then you're force feeding your plants. Cool, huh?

I'll take a look at some rooting accelerators online.

 

[goodpunk6]

Also, I think that with DWC, you should not be looking at 'feeding' times, but rather at keeping a more or less steady level of nutrients which you choose according to growth stage (notice that because of past/present problems your plants are behind the normal growth chart/feeding schedule and should be maintained as plants in veg week 2-3), with ppm level staying between that and an acceptable level of maintenance (say, you want maintain 800ppm so you up to that level whenever it drops to say... 600). What do you feed them?

Awesome advice! My tallest plant is 7in and Nirvana's website says that this plant usually only gets to be about 1 1/2ft so I think I'm going to start getting them ready for flowering. My babies get General Hydroponics Flora Series. That's it.

 

[Lt. Dan]

To Find EC With A TDS Meter:
IIRC, TDS meters are calibrated with one of two conversions (NaCl or 442).
1.0EC = 500ppm(NaCl) or 700ppm(442)

My TDS meter is a NaCl calibated meter.
So, if I had a TDS reading of 687ppm.............. I take 687 and divide it by 500 to give me the EC value
687/500=1.374EC

Cheers,

 

[asaph]

I'm using my TDS meter which only measures PPM. I am totally amazed they are not burned!! However, as I type this, I've noticed that some of the lower foliage that is yellowing has some brown tips that are cracking to my touch. I guess I burned them.

The reservoir is almost always 68-69. I have never taken the water temperature with the lights off. I am using two 15 gallon pumps and 2 6' air stones to feed the 10 gallon tote. The 5 gallon bucket for the mother is being fed by a 20 gallon air pump and a 6' air stone. What I've noticed about the mother plant is that she always seems to get a little droopy at the end of the day. That picture just happened to be at that time. Is it really being caused by low oxygen? All I've got is 3% H2O2. Would that work? Yes, all air stones are properly connected to their own air pump.

I will be moving these little bad boys to a 6 site recirculating dwc bucket system. The tote will probably be used to flower sexing clones in the future. I'm convinced that once my PPM/PH issues are resolved that I can move on with dwc. I just read tons of posts to realize that I need to look for the water level and PPM level to work with each other. If the water goes down and the PPMs stay the same then thats the sweet spot. If the water goes down and the PPMs rise then their not eating the nutriets. If the PPMs go down and the water doesn't then you're force feeding your plants. Cool, huh?

I'll take a look at some rooting accelerators online.

sounds like you know what you are doing then. I'm not sure about the levels, but basically it does sound true. Also if you say the droopiness is at the end of the day then I have that too sometimes. The others do look very good. I think you can stick to the EC/ppm values recommended and even lower than that and still get great results. If you burned your plants a bit don't worry about it, you know what to do, just empty and refill the res or just a part of it (to replace with clean water) if you're bummed about replacing it all.

btw I also use mostly just basic nutrients (HESI coco). I really need to keep it simple I add magnesium (epsom salt) when needed and lately I've been adding supervit too, but no more than that. Soon I will also start using pk 13/14 to boost flowering. I think the h2o2 can't hurt you when you use DWC cuz I think there's no beneficial bacteria there so you can try that. Your roots do look white and healthy. 3% is good, and more oxygen is always a blessing.

cheers and happy growing

 

[goodpunk6]

sounds like you know what you are doing then. I'm not sure about the levels, but basically it does sound true. Also if you say the droopiness is at the end of the day then I have that too sometimes. The others do look very good. I think you can stick to the EC/ppm values recommended and even lower than that and still get great results. If you burned your plants a bit don't worry about it, you know what to do, just empty and refill the res or just a part of it (to replace with clean water) if you're bummed about replacing it all.

btw I also use mostly just basic nutrients (HESI coco). I really need to keep it simple I add magnesium (epsom salt) when needed and lately I've been adding supervit too, but no more than that. Soon I will also start using pk 13/14 to boost flowering. I think the h2o2 can't hurt you when you use DWC cuz I think there's no beneficial bacteria there so you can try that. Your roots do look white and healthy. 3% is good, and more oxygen is always a blessing.

cheers and happy growing

Thanks asaph!

 

[asaph]

how goes it

 

[goodpunk6]

Here we go!

So since my last update I have gotten two Lighthouse Blackstar LEDs 180w a piece. One is a veg light for the moms and the other is a flower light for the clones. I got them in an attempt to keep the temps down in my veg closet. Well, it sorta worked. I figured out that the closet doesn't actually exhaust to anywhere. So despite the fan, the heat just continues to build. So, since I already have a 4x2 tent that I was using prior to the 4x4 tent, I'm going to use that thing as my veg tent. Clones, mothers, and veg plants will will be growing in there. 4x4 will be strictly my flowering area. I'm currently trying to sex a clone in my flowering area. Hopefully that pink lemonade is a female!!!

In the pics you'll see that I'm down to only 3 plants. The other 3 were clearly males. So they got the boot. In the pic, the back left plant is female. The back right hasn't begun to show sex because I accidentally topped it a week into flowering. I'm assuming because of that it'll be a week behind the rest. The plant that is front left is the one I took pics of. I can't tell what sex its going to be or if it is showing sex at all. Check it

 

[asaph]

looking good and healthy

your hps seems a bit far from the flowering girls though. high temps?

 

[goodpunk6]

How far should it be?

 

[asaph]

refer to this:

http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/showthread.php?362-Light-Distance-Chart-s

but take into account you area and the optimal distance for all of it

 

[goodpunk6]

Day 32 of flower

So it turns out that I only had 2 female short Ryder. :'( one is looking good but the one that got topped is really stretching. I realized that the light's position wasn't completely centered. I had placed a screen on the hydro buckets to scrog them. I made the mistake of doing this on day one of flowering. I should have found a way to do this in veg.

Two weeks ago I germinated some white rhino bagseed. They grew some nice roots in my cloner so I went ahead and put them in veg today. Which brings me to my next question. Is it OK to have my nutrient solution bubble? I noticed that later on.