First time grower with a couple of questions...

First time grower and I'm still unsure of some things even after lots of research. I'm hoping that someone more experienced can tell me if I'm on the right track with things. I tried to do this first grow as simple as possible. I'll list my specs and also attach pics of the two plants.

2x4 grow tent
Two, individual 5 gallon bucket DWC setups
Planted in rockwool and clay pebbles
Using RO water with Lucas Formula (Using a consistent nute mix of GH 8ml Micro and 16ml Bloom)
Started adding Cal/Mag supplement 6 days ago
PPM stays between 1300-1500
Two Mars Hydro 300 LED lights (1 per plant) on 24hrs a day. Approx. 19" above plants.
Temp in tent according to cheap digital thermometer: Stays at around 79-82 degrees
Water temp stays around 73-75 degrees
PH looks good and stable in both according to drops testing (Light Orange which looks like between 5.0-6.0)
200cfm exhaust fan with Phresh filter
Topped both plants 5 days ago for first time



So here's my questions about my grow:

1. These are 22 days from putting the seed with a taproot into rockwool cubes and placing them in the baskets and buckets. They have strong looking stalks and good growth it seems, but they look a little shorter and with more "bushy" growth than most pics I've seen of plants listed as being 3 weeks old. Does the progress look ok for the age?

2. The first few sets of leaves started getting the "rust" spots, which progressively got worse. From what my research could tell me, it looked like calcuim deficiency. Even though the Lucas Formula (0-8-16) says it shouldn't need added Cal/Mag when used with RO water, which I am using, I still bought some CaliMagic, cleaned out the buckets, and started adding it according to instructions along with my nutes about 6 days ago. I know it won't repair the damage already done, which actually got worse, but there seems to be less on the new growth. Do you think it was a calcium deficiency? Did I do the right thing by adding CaliMagic? How long until I should see results?

3. I am also following LBH's Scrog tutorial and topped the plants for the first time after the 4th node. It's been five days now. The BigBudxWhiteWidow plant split into two tops almost immediately and is almost a couple inches tall now. Looks like it's working great. The FruitPunch on the other hand has had no new growth yet. You can see in the pictures that it's just a brown nub there with no growth yet. Did I do something wrong? Should I be worried? Should I just wait, or is there something I should do?

4. The roots look strong, but they are kind of turning brown. I've read the GH nutes can stain roots, but I'm worried it might the first signs of root rot? I don't see any slime or smell anything, but they do look a little brown don't they? Do the roots look like they're producing right for 22 days? Could it be root rot or just stained roots? Should I get Hydroguard or something?

Thank you so much in advance for any help/comments.

Short and bushy is good.
I have high temps and use hydroguard and my roots are good. I can't say that it's because of hydroguard but I can tell you that hydroguard is one of few products recently test by a state agency that actually contained what the label said it had.

I got that shit on my leaves when I started too. Maybe over fertilaization? I thought maybe because they got some spray on them from my aero.??? It did clear up just like yours

Be more to the point one Q:at a time will get you more info

Thank you guys so much. And you're right Robert, I'm just going a little crazy as a first time grower and worrying about all these things! Lol. I guess I'll go ahead and get some Hydroguard and start that. I guess it can't hurt anything. The main thing I'm worrying about right now is how the one plant is still not showing any signs of new growth (FP-3.JPG) after being topped about 6 days ago, while the other plant split immediately and now has some good growth going as you can see (BBxWW-2.JPG). Thanks again.

roots do look like they are getting some rot on them. are they slimy to the touch?

also saw some tip burn too from too strong nutes.

i use Lucas but i work my way up on strength. i'd drop it down to 3/6 or 4/8 and add 4mL/gal of cal/mg

what is your EC?
i'd also get a real pH meter. drops are good for backup but you need to make sure you are in a good range 5.5 to 6.1

Thanks again. The roots are not slimy, but I'm going to flush and then add Hydroguard to my new solution. Maybe it's just that my temps stay too high in the root area? I also have CaliMagic Cal/Mag that I've started adding. I have a TDS-3 meter that reads at about 1300ppm, and Lucas just said to add nutes in order to keep things in the 1300-1400ppm range. Although I did just realize that mine has a .5 conversion and he is basing his off of a .7 conversion. That means that even in his system, I should be reading around 1000ppm on my meter, so I'm too high in nutes regardless. I definitely started seeing nute burn on the plants this morning. I'm thinking of continuing on with the Lucas, but at lower values that would get closer to that 1000ppm? The guys at my local hydro store seem to think that it would be much better for yield, quality, etc. if I used all three parts of the General Hydroponics nutes according to GH's instructions. Plus, they say I should flush once a week. I know that people have lots of different methods, but I'm just trying to find something that's easy for a beginner to deal with. That's why the Lucas formula sounded so good. I'm pondering that at the moment. I'll also look into getting a Ph meter to replace the drops. I'm going to clean everything out again later today and start the nute mixture over, with the Cal/Mag supplement and Hydroguard. They also think I cut off too much on the plant that's not showing new growth where I topped it, and that I should go down lower and top it again, leaving more this time? Do you think that's a good idea? It's been 6 days now with no new growth while the other plant has split and has a lot of new growth.

TheSkeleton said:

Thanks again. The roots are not slimy, but I'm going to flush and then add Hydroguard to my new solution. Maybe it's just that my temps stay too high in the root area? I also have CaliMagic Cal/Mag that I've started adding. I have a TDS-3 meter that reads at about 1300ppm, and Lucas just said to add nutes in order to keep things in the 1300-1400ppm range. Although I did just realize that mine has a .5 conversion and he is basing his off of a .7 conversion. That means that even in his system, I should be reading around 1000ppm on my meter, so I'm too high in nutes regardless. I definitely started seeing nute burn on the plants this morning. I'm thinking of continuing on with the Lucas, but at lower values that would get closer to that 1000ppm? The guys at my local hydro store seem to think that it would be much better for yield, quality, etc. if I used all three parts of the General Hydroponics nutes according to GH's instructions. Plus, they say I should flush once a week. I know that people have lots of different methods, but I'm just trying to find something that's easy for a beginner to deal with. That's why the Lucas formula sounded so good. I'm pondering that at the moment. I'll also look into getting a Ph meter to replace the drops. I'm going to clean everything out again later today and start the nute mixture over, with the Cal/Mag supplement and Hydroguard. They also think I cut off too much on the plant that's not showing new growth where I topped it, and that I should go down lower and top it again, leaving more this time? Do you think that's a good idea? It's been 6 days now with no new growth while the other plant has split and has a lot of new growth.

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add silica
VG

I will definitely look more into adding a silica supplement. Sounds like something that would benefit me in my situation. Would that be in addition to the others I'm using? (CaliMagic and Hydroguard). As I said, I'm new to this so please forgive me if I ask something that sounds stupid. Anyone have any thoughts about the "topping" issue? It just really seems like it doesn't want to sprout new growth where I topped it. I'm really wanting to top it lower and hope for better results. Thoughts?

TheSkeleton said:

I will definitely look more into adding a silica supplement. Sounds like something that would benefit me in my situation. Would that be in addition to the others I'm using? (CaliMagic and Hydroguard). As I said, I'm new to this so please forgive me if I ask something that sounds stupid. Anyone have any thoughts about the "topping" issue? It just really seems like it doesn't want to sprout new growth where I topped it. I'm really wanting to top it lower and hope for better results. Thoughts?

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Plants are too stumpy for big bud x WW, Top them @ 1 foot tall, they also look overfed

Thank you again for all the great information. They are definitely overfed due to my errors. I am going to remedy that today as well.

i rarely go above 1.2EC for my whole grow. in ppm, that's 600.

the important thing to realize with Lucas is the 1:2 ratio of micro to bloom. i start my seedliings off with 2/4 then go up to 3/6 , then 4/8 and they usually stay around 4/8 or 5/10. don't feel like you need to give them 8/16 from day 1. that's one fault with the formula that i have found over the years, it's too strong for small plants.

Pretty sure Lucas formula has you start off lower than 8/16....

Thanks again to everyone for their help. Some places have the Lucas Formula as 5/10 for Veg and then 8/16 for Flower, but Lucas has stated that he never said the strength should change at any point during the grow, but that he suggested 5/10 from start to finish for those with weaker lights. That probably applied to me since I'm using smaller LEDs. So, using 8/16 was most likely a mistake from the get-go. He said that the important thing was that your PPM stayed between 1300-1500 throughout the grow, and that using this formula with RO water would do that, plus have a stable Ph and no need for Cal/Mag supplements. It hasn't seemed like it's been working that way for me, but I also have quite a few issues/mistakes with temps and nute strength. I'm going to flush and start over later and go to about half of what I'd been using in nutes, plus add the CaliMagic and Hydroguard. Need to look into a silica supplement as well. verticalgrow mentioned topping at 1ft, but I am doing a scrog grow. Don't know if that makes a difference. I'm also still wondering if I should top the one plant again lower, since it isn't showing any signs of new growth?

bgmike8 said:

Pretty sure Lucas formula has you start off lower than 8/16....

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nope. i burned the shit out of my first plant in dwc with 8/16. then i figured out to work up slowly as the plant gets bigger.

TheSkeleton said:

Thanks again to everyone for their help. Some places have the Lucas Formula as 5/10 for Veg and then 8/16 for Flower, but Lucas has stated that he never said the strength should change at any point during the grow, but that he suggested 5/10 from start to finish for those with weaker lights. That probably applied to me since I'm using smaller LEDs. So, using 8/16 was most likely a mistake from the get-go. He said that the important thing was that your PPM stayed between 1300-1500 throughout the grow, and that using this formula with RO water would do that, plus have a stable Ph and no need for Cal/Mag supplements. It hasn't seemed like it's been working that way for me, but I also have quite a few issues/mistakes with temps and nute strength. I'm going to flush and start over later and go to about half of what I'd been using in nutes, plus add the CaliMagic and Hydroguard. Need to look into a silica supplement as well. verticalgrow mentioned topping at 1ft, but I am doing a scrog grow. Don't know if that makes a difference. I'm also still wondering if I should top the one plant again lower, since it isn't showing any signs of new growth?

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you'll need to learn how to read your ppm of your buckets to determine what the plant needs. each plant will be different.

example:
start with 3/6 with ppm of 300. if the next day the ppm is 250 then you know it could be a bit stronger. move up to 4/8
start with 3/6 with ppm of 300. if the next day the ppm is 350 then it was too strong and they are drinking more water than nutes. go down to 2/4

make sense?

the only time i don't need cal/mg is when i'm at 5/10. anything lower, and i use 4mL/gal.

rkymtnman said:

you'll need to learn how to read your ppm of your buckets to determine what the plant needs. each plant will be different.

example:
start with 3/6 with ppm of 300. if the next day the ppm is 250 then you know it could be a bit stronger. move up to 4/8
start with 3/6 with ppm of 300. if the next day the ppm is 350 then it was too strong and they are drinking more water than nutes. go down to 2/4

make sense?

the only time i don't need cal/mg is when i'm at 5/10. anything lower, and i use 4mL/gal.

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Thanks. I will definitely try this. Lots of good info from you guys that I believe will solve my nutrient issues. Any thoughts on the topping issue? I'm really wanting to move below the one I think I screwed up, cut the node and leave a little more of it, and hope to see new growth quicker. It's been six days.

I use r.o. water and when I had those spots on the leaves I thought I should get some cal mag . It cleared up before the cal mag got here. I started using it a bit then I stopped. I don't think it does shit . I think the cal and mag is in the nutes already. So I have a quart of calmag I'll probably never use.

TheSkeleton said:

Thanks. I will definitely try this. Lots of good info from you guys that I believe will solve my nutrient issues. Any thoughts on the topping issue? I'm really wanting to move below the one I think I screwed up, cut the node and leave a little more of it, and hope to see new growth quicker. It's been six days.

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here's my suggestion: dont' cut anything else off her. let her grow naturally and concentrate on pH, EC, temp, humidity, etc.

i only cut mine once. when they are done.

bgmike8 said:

I use r.o. water and when I had those spots on the leaves I thought I should get some cal mag . It cleared up before the cal mag got here. I started using it a bit then I stopped. I don't think it does shit . I think the cal and mag is in the nutes already. So I have a quart of calmag I'll probably never use.

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the cal/mg is in the nutes but if you don't use 8/16 (or 5/10)you aren't getting the proper amount of Cal and Mg. thats why i supplement until i get up to 5/10 when it seems like it has enough. but if i'm using 2/4, i always get Cal deficiencies

I have a similar setup, 6 gallon DWC bucket with a 300 watt Mars. I have three plants, and one of them is super picky. Once the pH goes over 5.8 it gets the brown spots on lower leaves which progresses and they get crispy. Might want to invest in a pH pen to get a accurate number on the pH vs the liquid test. Maybe you have a picky plant as well.