First Ever Grow - Stealth PC Easy Ryder Bubbleponics

There are a lot of threads that describe "white mold".. but I cant seem to find a definite solution. maybe you'll have better luck searching

Whats troubling is that its on the rockwool itself so it will be difficult to clean off. Maybe try cutting off the top layer of the rockwool? And how wet is the rockwool?

endofwed said:

There are a lot of threads that describe "white mold".. but I cant seem to find a definite solution. maybe you'll have better luck searching

Whats troubling is that its on the rockwool itself so it will be difficult to clean off. Maybe try cutting off the top layer of the rockwool? And how wet is the rockwool?

Click to expand...

Yeah... I have had limited success finding a concrete explanation as well. Some say mineral deposits / salts, some say mold, etc. I think the safest thing for me to do is take off the top layer of rockwool and cover it so it gets less light. This should take care of the problem either way. The rockwool is really not that wet... just a little damp if you sort of press into it. I haven't watered the rockwool at all since the plant germinated... it's wicking moisture from the hydroton I suppose.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by and giving me a couple suggestions. I appreciate the help .

Here are my numbers for tonight:

pH: 6.0
PPM: 980

I still haven't flushed the reservoir. I had a friend come over somewhat unexpectedly and now I'm real tired. I'll do it in the morning, no prob. And ... *drum roll* I'll be using flowering nutes! She is pre-flowering! Pistils showing:


Just fourteen days from seed. I'm a happy camper.

The next picture may be the last directly over-head picture. She is starting to grow into the screen a little bit so I want to disturb her as little as possible between training sessions. I'll need to cut out that hole in the top of my reservoir tomorrow too.


Good stuff! See you soon.

Hi guys,

Not a whole lot to say today. I completed a nute flush this morning and also cut a top access hole in my reservoir. While I was adjusting the pH a little while ago I accidentally over-did it with pH-down, so I ended up putting about 2mL of excess pH solutions into my res. This resulted in the following numbers:

pH: 5.2
PPM: 940

This pH will rise to mid/high 5's over the next 12-18 hours. With any luck I won't have to add much more pH down during this cycle.

I'm officially done removing the plant from the case until harvest. Here's a picture:


Happy growing! See you tomorrow.

Numbers:

pH: 6.1
PPM: 920

Standard day. Nothing too exciting. The plant was starting to press up into the screen rather than grow through it, so I started bending her sideways just a bit. She's right on the verge of flowering, so I expect to see a fair bit of stretch in the next week or so.

Are you going to FIM or top it? Very, very nice grow btw.. Read the whole thread and waiting for more! Kudos!

kevindowling said:

Are you going to FIM or top it? Very, very nice grow btw.. Read the whole thread and waiting for more! Kudos!

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Hi Kevin! Thanks for the compliments . I'm glad it's interesting!

I don't plan on FIMming or topping. My impression is that any high-stress training doesn't really work on autoflower strains. With normal strains you would be able to wait in veg until the wounds created by these techniques healed and produced the desired effect before starting to flower. Most autos, however, start flowering in 2-4 weeks, so I think any benefit would be lost due to short grow-back times. Basically, I'm afraid that all I'd really be doing is chopping off part of my plant. *bye bye*

Here are my numbers for tonight:

pH: 6.05
PPM: 940

Again, virtually unchanged. I'll probably top off my reservoir tomorrow with RO water, and then do a flush on Wednesday or Thursday to start running flowering nutes.

Tomorrow I'm going to be mounting the 30W light socket near the front of the case. As soon as my 125W 2700k gets here I'll swap it in. Hopefully that happens within the next couple days. Another side note, the smell of the plant is starting to fill up my whole room, so I ordered some odor neutralizing gel as well. I'll update when it arrives. Another option is to look in to getting a couple Fresh2Ti bulbs which supposedly work very well.

Here is a picture. I can already see the benefits of beginning to train her. A few newly exposed leaf nodes are pushing their way up through the screen like "Pick me! Pick me!"


See ya'll later!

loving this, your Case is seriously TopNotch!!! trying to learn as much as poss about pc grows so im sub'd and tuning in!!

reefermdns said:

loving this, your Case is seriously TopNotch!!! trying to learn as much as poss about pc grows so im sub'd and tuning in!!

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Thanks a bunch, reefermdns! Let me know if you have any questions along the way.

Not much to say tonight. I ended up not mounting the light fixture tonight, and I probably won't be able to until Thursday. That's okay though, as my 125W 2700k still hasn't arrived.

Numbers:

pH: 6.05
PPM: 1000

I peered in to my reservoir this evening to see that it was probably about half empty. Wow, she is drinking quickly! I'm bringing some RO water up to room temperature now. I'll top off the reservoir in the morning and flush on Thursday.

I realized after doing a little training that I probably should have taken a pre-training picture as well as post-training so you could see how much growth there was since just yesterday. At least 3 or 4 branches were growing through the screen more than a centimeter. Impressive to say the least. Anyway, training today consisted of bringing some of those back under the screen and rearranging a few things to minimize clutter.


G'night, all.

Hi all,

Numbers:

pH: 6.6
PPM: 700

The pH is a little high, but that is because I topped off the reservoir with plain RO water this morning. I expect the pH to stay relatively stable until I can flush it tomorrow night, so I'm not worried.

The odor neutralizing gel I ordered came in the mail today:


It has a fairly strong smell, but it's not bad. Fairly neutral, and quite "fresh" as the label suggests. After roughly 5 or 10 minutes of putting it on top of my PC case, all I could smell when I walked in the door was the new air freshener. I may still get a Fresh2Ti bulb. I think both solutions working in combination would be optimal.

A little more training today, mostly to expose some of the smaller developing nodes to more light. I also included a nice stem picture. Look at all those branches!


Good night, RIU.

Medium-scale disaster!!! I broke a branch while I was training tonight . I was trying to scooch it back towards the center of the screen a bit too much... Ergh. As soon as I heard *crack* and looked down to see what I had done I got a sinking feeling. It was one of the first set of branches and it broke before the first flowering node (there were probably already 6 or 8 developing above the break), so it would be quite the loss (12-18% yield?). With haste, I scrambled and put together the best solution I could: a makeshift splint made out of match sticks and duct tape.


Live and learn... All I can do now is hope that it heals up. Wish me luck, RIU.

Numbers:

pH: 6.45
PPM: 700

I still haven't gotten a chance to swap out my nutes. I'll do it as soon as I get home from class tomorrow afternoon, as well as refuel my CO2 generator. Both of those things should help the branch heal as well.

I'm pooped. Saying goodnight with a picture.

Branch repair looks good!

I was wondering, do you have time to answer a few more questions? haha

-were you using ro water since the beginning of the grow
-do you know if seedlings that have just sprouted prefer veg or flowering lights?

endofwed said:

Branch repair looks good!

I was wondering, do you have time to answer a few more questions? haha

-were you using ro water since the beginning of the grow
-do you know if seedlings that have just sprouted prefer veg or flowering lights?

Click to expand...

Thanks, endofwed! Unfortunately it was very wilted when I checked it this morning and hasn't gotten any better since, but I'm holding out hope for a few more days. I pulled the limp branch up through the screen so she would be better supported as well. I don't plan on touching that branch again until I can either tell the branch is done'fur, or shows great improvement.

I'd love to answer some more questions! Yes, I've been using RO water the entire grow. I started off with 1/4 strength seedling nutes, moved up to 1/4 strength veg nutes a few days later, then transitioned to 1/2 strength. I then ran 3 days on 1/2 strength transitional nutes, and today I switched to 1/2 strength bloom. I think my next flush cycle I'll switch to full strength and perhaps experiment with PPM control in a couple weeks. I realize that was probably more information that you asked for, but it was good to go through it in my head anyway .

I don't know the scientific answer to your second question, but I can make arguments for both I suppose. What I personally have done is use a 125W 6500k (veg) and 30W 2700k (flowering) the whole way so far. As soon as my new light gets here I'll to 155W total of 2700k. I can see how it could be possible that a strain could prefer flowering lights as a seedling. It is my understanding that the warmer flowering lights mimic the warmer colors of late summer and early autumn, much like the switch to 12/12 initiates flowering because it mimics the shorter days of August and September. For this reason, I can imagine seedlings of regular (non AF) strains would prefer this warmer light, as the light it emulates may be similar in the spring when seeds would be sprouting. I don't think this logic can be as easily applied to autoflowering strains, as they can run multiple cycles per outdoor grow season, and for that reason I don't think they care very much either way. Then again, I could be completely wrong. The above is just reason-based speculation.

I'll take the usual pictures and post the usual info later tonight, I just wanted to stop by and give ya'll a quick update on the ... "repair" process. See ya soon.

Hey folks,

Numbers:

pH: 5.5
PPM: 770

Looking good. The pH had risen from 5.5 when I flushed it earlier today to 6.5 before I adjusted it down a few minutes ago (roughly 12 hours later), but in my experience after my first pH adjustment things begin to remain relatively stable for the next few days.

Here's a picture of the broken branch about 24 hours after it happened:


As you can see, it doesn't look great. Nothing is shriveling up yet though, and it's staying relatively green. That's a good sign, right? We'll see... I came up with an idea earlier today which may or may not work -- I figured that if the reason the branch wasn't healing was because the nutrient, mineral and water pathways were too physically damaged, a solution would be to feed the branch directly at the break. Luckily, the cardboard matchsticks I used absorb water pretty well, I'm able to saturate them with about .5mL at a time of nutrient solution. I'm hoping this will stimulate enough growth for the branch to bridge the gap and heal.

I did a little bit of training tonight. She's looking really good. Tons of new flowering nodes developing every day.


G'night!

your splint for the branch was good it kept it together all i would add was something to keep light out like a piece of black bag and keep it moist in there. kinda like grafting.

undercover rasta said:

your splint for the branch was good it kept it together all i would add was something to keep light out like a piece of black bag and keep it moist in there. kinda like grafting.

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Okay, thanks rasta. I'll see what I can do. I'm not sure there's much hope for this guy anymore though .

Updates for tonight:

I managed to break another branch tonight. *sigh*. I think before my next grow I'll figure out a way to raise the screen another inch or so. It is pretty tight working in a 4" space. Here are two pictures, before and after rigging up a little sling.


I'm not sure what I can do in the future to avoid damaging the plant further... perhaps I should train every other night instead of every night? I feel like I was being very careful tonight, and look what happened. Urgh.

Numbers:

pH: 5.9
PPM: 790

Good numbers. Didn't have to adjust at all.

The other branch is looking pretty close to dead. It is even more limp than yesterday, and a few of the leaves have started to crisp up. I see no sign that there is any nutrient or water flow above the break. I'll keep it in there for a couple more days, but like I said earlier... I don't have much hope for it. Hopefully I'll have better luck with the new injury.

I'm pretty bummed about the past couple days. The plant is doing really well, but I keep screwing up. I just need to step back, take a breather and relax. This sure is one heck of a learning experience!

G'night folks.

Hey mate, set up looks real good. A couple of things I think may help...your screen has very small holes for your plant to grow through, i'd be cutting the screen so every hole is 4 x bigger than it is now. Know what I'm saying? Might help with stem breakage as well.

Secondly try not to adust your ph by more than half a point in any 4-6 hrs, i,e 5.5 to 6.
Nice work though, and the break will be fine, even if the that part doesnt grow back the rest of the plant will be sweet as.

Haydoon said:

Hey mate, set up looks real good. A couple of things I think may help...your screen has very small holes for your plant to grow through, i'd be cutting the screen so every hole is 4 x bigger than it is now. Know what I'm saying? Might help with stem breakage as well.

Secondly try not to adust your ph by more than half a point in any 4-6 hrs, i,e 5.5 to 6.
Nice work though, and the break will be fine, even if the that part doesnt grow back the rest of the plant will be sweet as.

Click to expand...

Hey Haydoon, thanks for your thoughts. I noticed that the holes in my screen were a bit small too as soon as I started training. I'll definitely figure something out before my next grow, but for this one I think I'm going to leave it as-is. The holes in my current screen are 1" squares. Using a screen with 1.5" or 2" holes as you suggest may ease the stress on the plant a bit.

I'll definitely take note of how rapidly I change the pH of my reservoir as well. Thanks for the heads up!

I checked on the plant this morning and noticed a third spot that looks like it is a little damaged that I must have missed last night. I think I really just need to sit back and let the plant do its thing for a little bit. A common problem I've read about among new growers is that we try to do too much. I think I started falling into this trap. With my setup, it's a delicate balance. It is fairly needy because of the small reservoir size and rapid rate of growth, but I can definitely cut back.

More updates later... Thanks for reading.

Numbers:

pH: 5.75
PPM: 800

Didn't have to adjust anything tonight. Looking good. I will need to top off my reservoir with RO water tomorrow, however.

The first broken branch is officially a goner. It was pretty obvious when I opened up my case tonight that there was no coming back. I carefully undid the splint to see that indeed even the base was all shriveled up. It appeared that the break had a fairly good connection in the splint so I'm not sure why exactly it didn't work. In any case, I removed the last little connection it had with the plant and tossed it, along with a couple other random dried up leaves. Hopefully the branch itself heals well and starts growing again soon.

The breaks from last night are doing fairly well. The breaks themselves are both still half severed, but the branches and leaves appear to be getting water and nutrients. There is minimal wilting, and the branches themselves still seem robust. Hopefully I'll see some extra growth from these two!

Here are a couple pictures. G'night!

Hey man, I really think you should make those holes in your mesh larger. I really think your going to have lots more trouble if you don't.
Just my thought's...
Get some side cutter's and cut the excess mesh. Has to be done

Just re-read your reply to my last post...when I said 'i'd be cutting the screen so every hole is 4 x bigger than it is now' I meant if you have a 1" x 1" ( 1 inch squared) hole make it 2" x 2" (4 inch squared). Cut every second bar both length and width. You could do it in place without disturbing your plants.

Know what I'm sayin