First Grow Journal - PC Grow Box

JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 14 (evening) - I see a root!!! Outstanding news, there's a very tiny root sticking out of the bottom of the net basket, which means it traveled down the length of the rockwool to find water/nutes, about 2 1/2"!

Forgive my excitement, but I thought I had killed her for sure on more then one occassion. I'm going to fight my urge to give it nutes (at Wolf's suggestion) and just give it clean water for the next week. I'll keep all posted
 
Wolfman Zen

Wolfman Zen

Well-Known Member
Congrats man that is good news... and yes just keep an eye on her, she will tell you when she needs roots, but it's not now..

The thing to look for is some slight yellowing in the lower leaves.. not burn just an overall light green/yellowing

If she starts showing that before the week is over, then nute her lightly. If not, just nute her at 1/4 strength.
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JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 17 - My little plant is 8 days old now and she seems to be doing well. She recently started her 3rd set of leaves.

There is some yellowing on the very tips of her largest, oldest leaves. Any thoughts?

What I'm most excited about is that I now see several roots poking out of the bottom of her net pot. I lowered the level of her water/nutes so it's just under the pot and this seems to be working splendidely. The roots are growing in order to find what they need.

This leads me to my final question (of the night, anyway): Is it ok to to expose the roots to light? My set up is so small that I really have no other choice but to take the entire top off the res in order to check and change water/nutes.
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 28- It's been 10 days since I wrote in my journal and a lot has happened. First, I was ready to throw away 3 seeds, two had sat in the damp papertowel for over a week and the third was there for over two weeks. I decided instead to stick them in the moist rockwool and place them in the hydro system. Three days later I had 3 new sprouts!

So the questions are: 1) what could I possible done wrong using the papertowel method? and 2) putting the seed directly into the rockwool seems fullproff, why would anyone use any other method?

This was a little over a week ago so I now have one young plant, named Olive, and two seedlings,

I had to go out of town unexpectedly for 5 days (Aug 20-25) and leave the girls alone unattended for that time. The seperation anxiety was brutal! I figured my best bet was to slightly overfill the res with ph water only. Also, since the ph tends to rise I mixed it a little lower then normal.
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 28 (continued) - When I returned I was happy to see that not only did the girls survive they seemed to thrived. The older plant, Olive, looked short and bushy and had good, strong roots. The two youger seedling, still working on the names, also had roots and started their second set of leaves.

I immediately scrubbed and changed the res. At this time my older plant was 16 days old and the seedlings about a week. Being more concerned about the older plant, don't ask me why, I assumed she must be hungrey for some nutes. I fed all three plants with Flora Nova Grow 7-4-10 @ 450 ppm.
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 28 (continued) - The next day the older leaves had some brown on them, not only on the tips but over the whole leaf. I found as many pics as I could but am still not 100% convinced it's nute burn, though it seems to be the most logical explanation. I did nothing and waited another day.

Much worse the next day, almost all of the oldest leaves have a lot of browning and a few of the tips are curled up. I pulled the top off the system with the plants in it and placed over a clean tupperware tub, this is how I always change the res. I phed some clean water and poured it over each plant to flush out the nutes. I scrubbed the res out again and and filled it with clean water only.

That was yesterday, today I don't think it got any worse, but no better either. I must note that the top growth looks quite healthy. I decided to experiment and do some pruning on my 3 week-old plant. I sterilized some scissors and clipped off all the affected leaves. I'm curious to see what will happen to the plant
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 28 (continued) - So is it nute burn? I will admit it seems to be the most plausible answer, but here's a fews things that may go against the nute burn theory:

1) I read somewhere something that made a lot of sense. If your nute ppm goes up after a few days it means the concentration is too high, that the plant is just drinking the water and leaving the nutes behind, hence raising the concentration.

And if your nute ppm goes down it means the concentration is too low, that the plant
is trying to get more nutes then are available, hence lowering the concentration.

My nute ppm went down which according to the theory above means the plants were actually under nuted.

2) The older plant seems to be affected much worse then the younger ones. If it was an over nute issue wouldn't the younger, more tender plants be hurt worse?

3) There is newer, healthy looking growth on the tops of all the plants, but the older plants new growth looks very pale to me, yellowish. I believe it was Wolfman who told me this is a sign the plants are hungrey for nutes.
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Aug 28 (continued) - So the current situation is:

I flushed the plants and the system yesterday and filled res with plain, phed water only. Today I pruned off all of the affected leaves on my older plant which made her much thinner.

Here's another challange - these plants are going into 12/12 in the next 2 days whether they're ready or not. I'm moving out of state in the beginning of November which will give the plants 2 months of 12/12 flowering.

Also, I'm going to be away for 8 days beginning when the plants go into 12/12.

I could use any advice about anything at this point! Thanks everyone in advance!!
 
Wolfman Zen

Wolfman Zen

Well-Known Member
Your doing good JayDoe...

The browning sounds like nute burn to me....

Be careful on how you read your ppm meter... of course they absorbed the nutes... that is why they got burnt... and the larger plant got more effected cuz it absorbed the most.

Plants sometimes take time to react... for now just keep them in water for a few days... then slowly... very lightly re introduce nutes.

Switching them to 12/12 is fine and a good idea cuz of the size of your grow... good luck man.. and keep us updated.
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JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Thanks Wolf, next week I'll have my camera so I'll be able to show some pics

Also, I follow your thread every day, can't wait to see your buds!!
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Hey Wolf,

I'm away for 9 days leaving them unattended. I last left them alone for 5 days and they thrived, I hope they're ok after 9 days.

When I get back home I plan to have my camera, and if I can figure out how to post pics on here I'll share. I think I got it, though.
 
JayDoe71

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
I came back tonight after 9 days of being away and things are not good. The res was bone dry and the plants are very droopy. I flushed the medium with clean water and filled the res with 300 ppm bloom formula solution. The plants started their 12/12 9 days ago the day I went away
 
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