Hydro first try fail

Treehorn

New Member
wow... nice room and layout! Youre right about being neat with wires... the feeder tub hitting the stalk cant be good... the other plant you pulled up was sure weak on the bottom so root rot for sure... not sure about the level of the media you were using or the nutes. Was it crazy hot there? ive heard abot H2O2 for that but im a total beginner also... using the titan system here. Sorry about your failed first run... the babies look good tho and best of luck with them. Your smell eater is awesome... what kind is that and how big is it? What kind of fan drives it ?
 

Chase910

New Member
Hi Treehorn! Thanks! I tried my best to make a clean room. The orange spot on the floor is the residue from where my roof started to leak after I built my room. The fan is a Can Fan Max 14" and is speed controllable ans is awesome quiet. The Carbon filter is also from the same company but I can't remember the model. I did try H202 for a couple days early on but switched to using beneficial bacteria to help the plants out. I'll check out the Titan system you have. Thank you for the reply! Cheers
 

reddiamond

Well-Known Member
Awesome room, shame about that 1st run but on the plus side things can only get better :)
That room is ready to go again but you MUST clean that system out thoroughly with a good strong bleach solution through everything for 24hrs and then double rinse it afterwards.
NEVER run water directly on rockwool, as you have found out it will rot your stems :(

I'm looking forward to your next run and will definately subscribe if you decide to run a journal on here which would be a good idea as you can post pics as soon as you see any problems and get some great advice from the friendly guys/girls on this forum :leaf:
 

DeeTee

Well-Known Member
Nice grow room setup you built, too bad for the loss, you fail to mention at what ph you're running as well as what ppm's, you're right abt having the flow hit directly at the plant, not a good idea, the GH flora series you're using to me is an excelant choice, but the dosage they suggest is way too high, once mixed I measured and it read over 1800 ppm's, to me that would burn your plants, you should be around 800 or slightly more, I've been using it for yrs with no problems, not sure abt reservoir temps, I've never payed attention to it, never used cal mag and never had the need, I grow in rockwool cubes as well as hydroton, never could understand why people seem to think it's needed, just my opinion, never used any additives, as far as I'm concern as long as you feed your plants you don't need them, to me they're a waste of money, I'm wondering if the flow of nutes was sufficient to fill the pots allowing for all the hydroton to get moist, didn't mean to make this a long answer but couldn't resist...best of luck next time.
 

DeeTee

Well-Known Member
Just thought I post a few pics of my grow, it's a WW 7 weeks 12/12, I just feed GH flora series, that's all, had two but one was a male, it's a small grow but sufficient for me, using 2' 4 bulb T5.

100_0746.jpg100_0748.jpg100_0750.jpg100_0751.jpg
 

ElfoodStampo

Well-Known Member
You don't need to worry aboot any material stuff any more. You need to pick up a book on Hydroponics and plant biology. You seem like an intelligent guy :weed:

You can figure this out. From what you mentioned in your video and what I saw in the plants I think you over fed, Purple leaves, discoloration, flimsy stems, its toxic salt build up. My water temp is at 73 deg Fahrenheit all the time. I don't think that's too hot.
You pretty much hit everything you need to change. I would recommend you bleach the whole system, clean, clean, clean so you start off fresh.
Definitely look at how much your feeding them. Your using LOTS of products. My bet is you over fertilized.
the room looks awesome man. You did an awesome job putting it together. Try cutting your nutes by at least 1/3 probably 1/2.
I guess its easy to say stuff with no proof it works, so this is what I have churned out recently.
Good Luck!IMAG0005 (2).jpgIMAG0052.jpgIMAG0053.jpg
 

Chase910

New Member
Hi Reddiamond! Yes things will get better for sure.. Funny thing is that the Hydro store guy I bought my stuff from said to put drip tube right at the base. Last Dime I ever spend there!!! You'd think that when you spend over 10 G's at a store they would give you good tips. Always hard lessons to learn when growing I guess. I did a daily log with that grow and will look into doing a log here as well. Thanks for the kind words.
 

Chase910

New Member
Hey DeeTee, Thanks for posting the pics! You're not kidding at all when you say that the suggested dosage is waaaay too much. Burned the crap out of them the first week so that was stress #1 of my grow. The next mistake was adding too much PH down the next week and having to do an emergency dump and flush. I usually had the PH at 5.8 to 6.o and PPM's around 500 . After the initial nute burn I read on here that just use 30-40% of the recommended dose and they were right on. For two weeks the plants took right off until things started down hill :-( I didn't use any Cal Mag supplement until one day I noticed the fine print on GH's feed chart talking about using 5ml's per gallon for the first two weeks if you use RO water which I do. Gal at hydro store gave me CalMag + which really screwed with things as well. Had wild PH swings for the two weeks I used it as well as a bad foam in reservoir. Called GH tech help and learned that "we don't recommend CalMag+ for recirculating Hydro systems " Ge guys thanks for not putting that warning on the label!! Realizing that it is an organic product later all made sence. High temp and bacteria are a bad mix. The flow of nutrients was very good. One part of the system I nailed or over did depending on opinion. Thank you very much for your reply and advice.. Much appreciated. I am a pretty clean cut guy and everybody locally thinks I'm a cop and nobody at the stores really talks to me lol
 

Chase910

New Member
Thanks Elfood Stampo! I picked up "The Bible" and literally watch every youtube video I can. I found the bible a little weak on the Hydro section. I did have very dark purple stems and veins in the leaves! I agree, over fed and killed. Everybody told me not to worry because you can't kill a weed. I did! Thanks for the reply. Cheers
 

ElfoodStampo

Well-Known Member
Thanks Elfood Stampo! I picked up "The Bible" and literally watch every youtube video I can. I found the bible a little weak on the Hydro section. I did have very dark purple stems and veins in the leaves! I agree, over fed and killed. Everybody told me not to worry because you can't kill a weed. I did! Thanks for the reply. Cheers
Can't wait to see round 2. Don't give up!
 

Mr John

Active Member
You gonna try hydro again or soil? I love your room and the attention to detail put into it, you're gonna be getting some great bud when you get the growing part down for sure. Cheers!
 

JohnnySocko

Active Member
one thing that's HORRIBLY understated in almost every hydro journal/training is O2 in the rootzone....that means a sweet spot of temp & aeration in the water zone ...my last grow 1/2 way failed bcuz I did not follow my own rule.... Bro I can't emphasize this enuff, and I'm not sure exactly how to address this from your setup, but I'm no longer big on airstones et.... if there is some way to incorporate a powerhead/pump to aereate, well you might find that more reliable
 

reddiamond

Well-Known Member
I agree, over fed and killed. Everybody told me not to worry because you can't kill a weed. I did! Thanks for the reply. Cheers
ALL nute suppliers want you to buy more of their product so they want you to use loads of it but its not needed. I used 1/2 strength all the way on my 1st grow and got 8oz from 1 plant in coco. In a recirculating hydro system like yours then 1/3 strength would see you through to harvest as all the nutes are immediately available as soon as the plant needs them. Check out nute strengths used by guys running undercurrent systems and you'll see.

You're room is awesome and will produce some killer product mate, i can't wait to see it.

Weed can be killed and all too often it is with too much kindness, its a simple plant and given simple food will produce good medicine, once you master that then you can start pushing her to produce great medicine :)
 

DeeTee

Well-Known Member
Too bad it was a hard learned lesson, maybe you should of started with just a few plants to learn the process, for me hydro is the way to go, don't get discuraged, I'd suggest you buy a decent TDS meter to know the strength of your nutes, that and flowing the nutes directly on the plant base were the main cause of your loss, and don't overdo it with all those sugested additives, I've never used them and find no need for them, as said it's just to get you to spend money, other than that you have a great setup with great possibilities, keep trying but start small so as not to lose so much, I don't want to offend others here, but to me soil is too much problems, that's just my opinion from all the threads I've read, seems to me that the majority of all problems tends to be from soil growers, don't shoot me, it's just my opinion, don't mean to offend soil growers.
 

wwwillie

Member
Better luck next grow!!
Looks like something I dream about, boy what a setup! I would really like to go with hydro, but on a much smaller scale, besides my wife would not approve of me doing anything on that scale.
 

kinddiesel

Well-Known Member
you chilling the water ? or running ac ? looks like all the roots rotted and even though they get water they dye.
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Go big or go home lol

I just posted this to your video...

Talk about jumping in with both feet. You got guts, I'll give you that.

You are closer to success than you think

I am not fan of the undercurrent type systems, or are the tubes between just to return to rez?

Check out Hydro Halo Drip Rings, they spray in ~ 6" diameter around the main stem

Put HH or equivalent on a timer ~ 9 seconds on and 9 minutes off. Time is adjusted up as plants get bigger. This is going to be tricky as the volume you need to get to the farthest pots means longer time for buckets closest to the rez.

Go to my thread to get ideas for your next effort. FYI, go small, max 6 buckets


HH Spraying on Plant.jpg
 

1itsme

Well-Known Member
Hi all! Just thought I'd share my failed attempt video with you. It has been a humbling experience to put so much work into something to just fail in the end. All Suggestions are welcome. My next try will be in Pro Mix and Pearlite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAABOZVBZsg
Promix/pearlite will be much easier to manage. I got rr my first 2 hydro attempts. promix/coco/soil is way better for most growers, especialy when your learning. Hydro can be faster but it's very unforgiving. gl
 
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