First Hydro Grow

[PKHydro]

OK here we go...

First Hydro grow, 11 girls in a drip feed bucket setup. Right now they are under 2 1000w MH, and sitting in lava rock. My ph is 5.6-6.0, PPM's at 450-550, My temps are 76-80, and humidity around 60%. Currently they are on GH flora 3 part feeding program, 3-2-1 Grow-Micro-Bloom.




Everything was looking good for the first few days...now I'm getting twisted leaves and burnt curling tips...


Im thinking Nute burn but my PPM's are already lower than they should be.....any suggestions????

 

[hammer21]

What ever kind of hydroponics you use the first thing to purchase is a monitor being a bluelab guardian or neptunes apex. A water level gage on your reservoir. It is very critical to monitor your system PPM, PH, Temperature, reservoir water level these 4 things will make or break your grow. Being able to monitor everything at a glance is key. When your PPMs go up and your water level goes down your nutrients are to strong (lockout) When your PPMs go down with your water level increase your nutrients. Perfect is PPMs will be stable and not change when water level drops. If you purchase the apex great controller sky is the limit on what you can do from your cell phone. Also consider a dissolved oxygen (DO) meter or oxygen reduction probe (ORP) for the apex. Using one of these will tell you what the oxygen levels are in your nutrient solution. Good luck .......

 

[PetFlora]

You must own a shit ton of electricity stock

Seriously, what you are doing for veg is totally insane

Vegging is done in a small space

The HydroHalo Drip rings are 6" diamter

Once plants get big enough transfer to your buckets OR move the buckets close so only one lamp is working, still 900w too much

Here's how I roll. 6 babies under < 2ft square using ONLY < 80 LED watts

It won't be long before I move them to 4 liter APs

 

[burgertime2010]

I am getting this same nute burn/lockout situation and on my first hydro table. The plants that are in coco are fine.

 

[PKHydro]

I know veg is "normally" done in small spaces. But my bud room was complete so I just started them in there while my veg room is being built. Now these girls will sit under these lights for the next 5 weeks until I switch them over and turn on the 12 1000w HPS. Incase you can't tell I'm growing trees, my license allows me to grow 98 plants, I decided on 11 BIG ones. A fellow medical user showed me this system. He runs 8 plants 10 lights and yields around 1.25lbs per plant. Unfortunately he's unavailable to help me out for a while due to medical issues. So I thought I would come here looking for a few more experienced thumbs.

 

[PetFlora]

If you do not ant to transfer from smaller to larger (though I don't know why), tubing is cheap. Simply make short runs for veg so you can use ONE light, still not 1000K, then long runs when they are big enough. Your tubing runs are ridiculously far apart. ~ 3ft center max

 

[PKHydro]

Not 100% sure what your talking about. Transfer from smaller to larger what? They are sitting in 3gal buckets filled with lava rock. That 3gal bucket sits inside a 5 gal bucket. I have two feeder lines running to every plant, all coming off of a 1056gph submersible pump. This pump is controlled by the same time my lights run off of. My lights kick on...so does the feed pump. Nutrient solution trickles through lava rock and then back to the res via gravity (hence the 2x4 stands).

What tubing runs should be 3ft on center...drain or feed??? If they are all getting the same amount of water and it is all recirculating as it should be (ie. no water pooling in the buckets or lines) then what does it matter how far apart they are?

Not trying to argue, I just don't understand what you mean.

PK

 

[Forest Gump]

Pet is trying to say just use one light for all your plants.

 

[PKHydro]

Lol...well than why didn't he just say so....


Just to save coin on my hydro bill or because its too many lumens for such young plants?

 

[ringlead3r]

If its light green u need to feed them more

 

[thenotsoesoteric]

The amount of lights has nothing to do with OP's issue. OP is fine with things the way they are.

Is your ppm meter calibrated? Is the lava rock flushed well and inert? Is your lights 3-4 feet above the plants, since your using 1000 watters they might be to much light if the lights are to close to your plants.
Check ph as soon as lights come on and then a few hours later, make sure it is not fluctuating on you. Also is your water temps below 80 degrees, should be like 66-70ish.

Also if your using R/O water then 450-550 is kind of high for small clone working on a root ball. Try dropping ppm's to 250-350 and see if that helps. I flower at about 800-1000 ppm and those are full grown plants.

^Do not give more ppms.

 

[PetFlora]

Both

Since you already have your babies rooted in lava rock (I use it too , but also river rock) you are locked in this grow, but for future grows start in a ~4" net pot. Once it is big enough to move to its' own bucket, simply drop the whole netpot into the 3g system- ZERO trauma. This allows you to veg under small wattage. Got it? Good!

For this grow replace the long feed lines you are using now with short runs, so you can put them all under one light. That said 1000w is 900w too much to veg under. You are totally WASTING electricity with ZERO benefit.

Do your homework on photon intensity. No matter what point source light(hps, led, plasma...) the intensity begins to fall off sharply ~16" from center. 1000w hps probably 3ft, more than enough to veg your babies under

Since most growers are not familiar with lava rock., here's my last grow roots There is a pic in my thread showing them wrapped around lava rock

Lol...well than why didn't he just say so....


Just to save coin on my hydro bill or because its too many lumens for such young plants?

 

[PKHydro]

My PPM and PH pens are brand new and calibrated, my rock was meticulously washed and re-washed. My lights are about 2.5' to 3' would be the closest 1 plant would be and maybe 5'-6' away for the furthest plant (these ones showing the same symptoms as the ones 2.5' away) I am on well water with a starting point of only 80ppms, so no need for RO. I have cut my nute solution by about 1/3 strength, and will keep an eye on them...

I have a hard time believing that 80w will produce the same sized plants as 2000w in a 5 week veg.

this picture is buddy's show, 5weeks old and 1 day into flower. Veg'd under 2 1000w HPS


edit: Don't know why the picture turned sideways....don't hurt your necks

 

[thenotsoesoteric]

I have a hard time believing that 80w will produce the same sized plants as 2000w in a 5 week veg.

That is because 80w will not veg anywhere near as fast/well as 2000w.

All your stats are cool but I would try pulling the lights up another foot for a week or so to let roots build, trust me you will still have plenty of light with them a little higher. Then also drop your ppm's to 250-350 for first week or so again to let the root system get bigger. Slowly work your way up in ppms every week along with lower the light a little each week till your back at where they are now.

Your plants will be fine with ppms at 300ish(little high or low) until their roots really develop(week or so), same with the light being 4 feet away from the plants, plants will still be getting 3000+ lumens per square foot.

Once the roots develop raise the ppms and lower them lights. You will have trees in 5 weex under 2000 watts. Good luck.

Edit: Duh I guess I miss read about the lights, disregard the light comments then, cheers.

 

[PKHydro]

Beauty man, thanks for the clear straight forward advice. I will raise the lights, and drop the ppms some more, then just sit and be patient.

Why don't I see more people growing trees? I never really understood the reasoning behind growing a bunch of little plants rather than just I few big ones. Anyway to each their own I suppose, this is the only way I have ever seen it done.

 

[PetFlora]

Young plants have neither the root system nor leaf structure to utilize 1000w, just as they cannot utilize >2-300ppm. Greater ppm at this stage will cause leaf burn

 

[ringlead3r]

what you grow in trees ppl with small but more plants can grow in 1/8 the time while u spend 14-16 weeks from clone till harvest ppl are pulling 8 harvests around 10-16 ounces a harvest why would you want to grow trees? waste of electric space time and alot of money..

as far as your plant problem most likely the advice given to you is going to be incorrect so you'll have to figure that out yourself.

Plants can only use so many lumens depending on how old the plant is and what stage of development it is at. id say 1000 watt light could veg 30 plants and is way overkill for vegging I've vegged with a 600 watt light and a 250 what light in a 3x3 area and noticed no difference in growth.. bigger is not always better. As far as flowering goes thats another story..

as far as i'm concerned I've had plants curl and burn due to low nutes and ph being around 6.0 so just try different ph lvls and watch your ppm to see if it is rising from day to day or falling day to day i partically do ebb and flow and at day 14 from seed my ppm's would be around 700 and that's with indica/sativa mix the more indica it is the more ppm's it can take i feed my plants 200ppm from the first day it gets true leaves so dont drop it down to 200

3rd week from seed id try 700ppm 5.7-5.8ph, but go with your gut
4th week 1000ppm and same ph thro whole veg

normally 1000ppm is good for most strains but current strain is around 1500ppm
id around 1000ppm until you really understand your res and your plants

also could add this is with maxi gro from GH and I have no other experience with other nute brands seeing how this works so well
if you ppm is 80 from tap you might want to add a little cal/mag unless your nute base already has it in there

 

[thenotsoesoteric]

You've had plants curl because to little nutes, ehh. Sounds doubtful. Typically plants slowly yellow from lack of nutes. The curl under is typically from over fertilization, heat, and over watering.

Bigger is not better, just like more is not better. 1500 ppms, hope you're running co2 other wise your just wasting money on nutes. Just because a plant can handle that high of ppms without burnt tip/leaves does not mean it is beneficial or helping the plant to yield better. Plants will only use so much at a time.

 

[PKHydro]

what you grow in trees ppl with small but more plants can grow in 1/8 the time while u spend 14-16 weeks from clone till harvest ppl are pulling 8 harvests around 10-16 ounces a harvest why would you want to grow trees? waste of electric space time and alot of money...

Ya makes sense I suppose, you would still need space for multiple rooms if you wanted to be coming down every 2 weeks so you could hit that 8 crops in 16 weeks though. I have a veg room and bud room, week 3 of bud I'll start my babies in the veg. I'm harvesting every 8 weeks (give or take a few days for cleaning etc..)

 

[ringlead3r]

You've had plants curl because to little nutes, ehh. Sounds doubtful. Typically plants slowly yellow from lack of nutes. The curl under is typically from over fertilization, heat, and over watering.

Bigger is not better, just like more is not better. 1500 ppms, hope you're running co2 other wise your just wasting money on nutes. Just because a plant can handle that high of ppms without burnt tip/leaves does not mean it is beneficial or helping the plant to yield better. Plants will only use so much at a time.

Leave curling can be caused from loads of things and some plants eat more than others. I do no co2 and if I feed my plants at 1200 or less ppm my plants will drink more nutes than water causing ppms to drop lower every day. I personally like to mix my tanks 1 time every two weeks and fill up with water and h2o2 every 3 to 4 days and ocassionly ph down been doin it for some time now.

Believe what u want but ull never know until u try so gl I just was trying to give my input not saying its the same for every op