Geodawg22
Active Member
I started about a year go trying HPA (first time growing any plant) and made a lot of mistakes but luckily there are so many helpful people on the forum. @dstroy @Atomizer and stinkbud passed on incredible experience and knowledge onto me. If it were not for them, I would still be scratching my head. I also want to give back to this community like they have. I used an accumulator + bladder tank + tefen misters on a timer, I also return the waste water back to reservoir.
I really didn't know what to expect at the beginning, it's my first time growing and and this looked fun. You can see that I let these veg for way too long and I didn't do much pruning/defoliating. This is 3-4 weeks into flower.
End of flower
When I went to clean out the roots from the tote. I can see that they actually grew towards the misters and blocked them. At this point, it's not even HPA, it's just dripping water onto the roots. Dstroy told me that's because I let them veg for too long and I do agree with him. But fundamentally the problem is that they grow nice at the beginning when roots are small, but as the roots become bigger and thicker, only the very surface can get the misting and rest will be too dry and thirsty, hence the brown color.
Same setup but in a 5 gallon bucket. I let it veg for too long and this is the result.
Somethings that I learned from mistakes.
1. They grow fast, give .6 EC of nutes on day 5 of seed, or else they will have leaf issues.
2. Roots do not have insulator like soil/coco and needs to be kept cool, I wouldn't let the root temps go beyond 74F
3. Light leaks will cause algae growth, I use reflectix to keep out the light + the radiant heat to help with #2
4. keep the ph between 5.7-6.1, aim for 5.8
5. follow VPD chart.
I learned from my mistakes in the first grow and applied the fixes to the 2nd grow. I will post that soon.
I really didn't know what to expect at the beginning, it's my first time growing and and this looked fun. You can see that I let these veg for way too long and I didn't do much pruning/defoliating. This is 3-4 weeks into flower.
End of flower
When I went to clean out the roots from the tote. I can see that they actually grew towards the misters and blocked them. At this point, it's not even HPA, it's just dripping water onto the roots. Dstroy told me that's because I let them veg for too long and I do agree with him. But fundamentally the problem is that they grow nice at the beginning when roots are small, but as the roots become bigger and thicker, only the very surface can get the misting and rest will be too dry and thirsty, hence the brown color.
Same setup but in a 5 gallon bucket. I let it veg for too long and this is the result.
Somethings that I learned from mistakes.
1. They grow fast, give .6 EC of nutes on day 5 of seed, or else they will have leaf issues.
2. Roots do not have insulator like soil/coco and needs to be kept cool, I wouldn't let the root temps go beyond 74F
3. Light leaks will cause algae growth, I use reflectix to keep out the light + the radiant heat to help with #2
4. keep the ph between 5.7-6.1, aim for 5.8
5. follow VPD chart.
I learned from my mistakes in the first grow and applied the fixes to the 2nd grow. I will post that soon.