I'm running into some issues.

First of all, this is my first run in a new location. I've always grown in a closet under 400w HPS. I had a dialed system using an expanded COCO block, smart pots and CANNA Coco AB + CANNA lineup (Rhizo, Zyme, PK13/14, Boost). I would grow 2 foot tall plants in 1.75gal square pots with a layer of hydroton on the bottom for drainage. I hand watered several times a day with an EC < 1.0, usually around .6-.8. My plants were perfect. I could pack 6 plants into a 2ft x 3.5ft x 4ft top half of a closet. I had just under 3 feet of vertical grow space, but I used a cool tube + 440 cuft/min fan to pull air, so my little 400w HPS didnt get very warm. Temps stayed pegged at 85 with lights on. I would get anywhere from 65-80 grams per plant dried of Cataract Kush, GDP's OG Kush, and Sour Kosher. Not bad for a 400w light in such tight quarters. I felt like my plants were perfect. I think I remember my nutrients always being a perfect 6.0 PH after everything was added. I really like that you can use Rhizo for PH up and Boost for PH down (although boost isn't as effective as a PH adjuster).

Fast forward to today, it's 1.5 years since I shut my last run down and I'm 4 months into a new 12ft x 16ft 6k flower room, with 2 400w hps, 400w MH, and a 1k for veg + 6 bulb T5 panel used for small plants & clones. I started off using my exact same recipe as before, but for the first time I ran into salt toxicity in my fresh coco. I didn't run a lot of water through it, just enough to hydrate it. I had never had issues before, but maybe I had flushed enough low EC water through my plants for it not to be an issue. After many heated debates with local growers, I was convinced to give Promix HP a try, and I must say that I really enjoy this medium. I've noticed whiter, thicker root growth in a pot with 50/50 split of promix HP and my expanded COCO (promix on top, coco on bottom). I chalked it up to better porosity, because these last few bales of coco have been like coffee grounds. I have ran into various issues starting this grow and having financially straining situations pop up all the time hasn't made it easier. I can't hand water my plants multiple times a day, so I'm growing 3 foot tall bushes in 5 or 7 gal pots. I plan to go back to smaller pots with a pump on an automatic timer + dripline, but I don't have the finances right now, plus I have a veg room full of large plants.

The first 4 plants that I put into flower are on week 4 and look great with no signs of slowing down. I have a small infestation of fungus gnats (hope they dont turn out to be root aphids, but it's too late to do anything about it now), but they don't seem to be bothering the girls. they are all about 4ft-4.5ft tall and in 2.5 gal grow bags with the coffee ground consistency coco. They aren't as perfect as the plants in my past, but this is also my first run in this location (co vs tx) and on this scale, so I'm cutting myself some slack there. Anyways, I'm running through CANNA Coco A+B extremely fast, even at 5ml/gal, so I tried to make the switch to GH Flora Nova Bloom at .8 EC + Calmag + at .2 EC. I let the Flora Nova Bloom and Calmag stir in the 10gal res overnight to let the PH climb to 5.8, then I'll add however much rhizo it takes to level my PH at 6.0. All of my numbers are the same, but my plants seem to be showing signs of slow growth. My Tahoe OG in veg is showing signs of leaf curl, which may have been from light/heat stress, but I did back my 1k hps off about 1ft.

The major variable I added was two weeks ago I did a pretty strong Azamax root drench. My GG#4 REALLY hated it, my Tahoe clone almost died and most of my other plants were not their perky selves as per usual. They perked back up in a few days to a week (depending on the strain), but I still saw several bugs flying around the tops of my pots, so I'm assuming they are root aphids at this point. I go out and buy Bayer Complete Insect Killer with the Imid. I apply (with .8 EC nutrients) at a rate of 1/2 oz per gal as per instructions on the bottle. My plants are all looking shitty again, lightening coloration in the leaves, edges curling up on the Tahoe, and slow overall growth. I can't figure out if it's the insecticides or the GH Flora Nova nutrients causing a lockout.

My runoff differs plant-to plant, but it's usually right at .8EC with 6.4ph but has jumped up to 2.0 EC and a somewhat lower PH. Am I overfeeding? Should I flush my plants? There has to be a lockout caused by the high-salt GH flora nova nutrients, a flawed feeding with a wild PH number, or the insecticide. I never once experienced salt-build up with the Canna COCO line at 1.0 EC and 6.0 PH when I grew in the past, however I've never had plants this large, either.

I'm an extremely high-anxiety type of person, and as introverted as can be; so I'm thinking myself into anxiety attacks about this. Any insight or a "dude, it's just the root drench", or "just go back to the Coco nutes, GH flora nova is some viscous gross shit that with lead to salt toxicity in your medium".... would be greatly appreciarted. I just have so many new variables thrown at me that I can't pinpoint where my problem is. My instinct is to throw more calmag + into my res, but I feel like that a n00b panic-type reaction. I feed every-time I water, because I've learned in coco that you can't run just RO water through your medium without expecting some problems to pop up. Is Promix not the same way? Should I be running fresh water every so often? I thought my EC was low enough for that not to occur, but it's as if my plants are completely rejecting the GH nutes.

I think I want to switch over to the CANNA Terra Vega + Flores program with Promix HP. I never had issues with CANNA and their Terra line is basically the same KISS style I was aiming for with the GH Flora Nova Bloom. I'm finishing my 4 beautiful ladies that are in the middle of flower on my original Canna COCO program, and like I said before; they look nearly perfect. They just have the fungus gnats or terrible root aphids living in their pots. Should I try to stick it out with the Flora Nova to see if it's just the plants not responding well to the Imid drench? I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO

Now that there is a Platefull...Lets see what we can do here?

Probably fungus gnats eating the roots. They can do a nasty job on plants. Do they look like little mosquitoes that crawl under the medium and when you water it they crawl out? That's fungus gnats. Only way to wipe em out that I know of is parasitic nematodes. I would put a bunch of pure water through the pots to flush out any nute buildup too.

Is the Flora Nova a brown syrupy stuff, one part fertilizer? I think I had that before. Terrible stuff. I put the bottles in my fridge for a few years cuz I didn't use it and then I went to pour it down the drain and it was a thick sludge on the bottom. Couldn't even pour it out. Might have been from being the fridge, idk, but it was even thick when I first got it and kept it at room temp. I really wouldn't use that shit if that's what it is. Two parts are the only way, nice and liquid. Also I wouldn't use any extra stuff, just the nutes. The extra stuff is just gimmicks to make money. Wouldn't even use extra cal-mag, unless the nutes are particularly low on them.

A picture is like a 1000. words, most old members here would make 300 posts of the above 'wall of text'..? lol

Flush and do nothing for 5 days ...(imo) flush by pouring 3 times the volume of the pot,
of ph neutral air temp water, allow to drain in a shady spot or overnite

BobCajun said:

Probably fungus gnats eating the roots. They can do a nasty job on plants. Do they look like little mosquitoes that crawl under the medium and when you water it they crawl out? That's fungus gnats. Only way to wipe em out that I know of is parasitic nematodes. I would put a bunch of pure water through the pots to flush out any nute buildup too.

Is the Flora Nova a brown syrupy stuff, one part fertilizer? I think I had that before. Terrible stuff. I put the bottles in my fridge for a few years cuz I didn't use it and then I went to pour it down the drain and it was a thick sludge on the bottom. Couldn't even pour it out. Might have been from being the fridge, idk, but it was even thick when I first got it and kept it at room temp. I really wouldn't use that shit if that's what it is. Two parts are the only way, nice and liquid. Also I wouldn't use any extra stuff, just the nutes. The extra stuff is just gimmicks to make money. Wouldn't even use extra cal-mag, unless the nutes are particularly low on them.

Click to expand...

Surely the Azamax/Bayer w/ Imid regimen will kill off the bastards. I have only been seeing them on the 4 plants that are 4 weeks into flower. I don't want to put anything on them in fear of contaminating my buds, so we'll see how well they do. The girls in flower are probably growing new roots so quickly that the gnats aren't effecting them yet. I'm afraid I'll see stunted growth when my roots stop (should be any day now).

The Flora Nova is a brown syrupy mix, exactly as you described. I shake it vigorously for 5-10 mins (no joke, I'm sweating after shaking this damn bottle). I have a small 15 gal res with a pump for circulation/aeration. I bring my RO water up to .2 EC with some CalMag+ before adding my Flora Nova. I use roughly 1 Table spoon per 5 gallons for a total EC of .8-1.0 and let it stir overnight. 10 minutes after mixing my nutrients my PH will be as low as 5.1, but after stirring overnight it will stabilize around 6-6.1.

I have about 5 years of growing experience with 2 solid years of having a dialed-in system. I ran into fungus gnats in the past and beat them with regular Azamax treatments, but in order to get the Azamax in heavy enough concentration to kill the gnats, I would end up stunting the plants for a few days to a week. It worked then, but I can't afford to stunt my plants 3-5 times in order to eradicate these guys. That's why I stepped up to the Bayer complete with Imid, because I thought I could use a weaker concentration that wasn't quite as toxic to the plants. It seems to have wiped out all of the bugs on the treated plants, but there is a mild downturn in overall heath of those plants. My reasoning tells me that it's the pesticide, but I switched my nutrients over to the GH brown syrup Flora Nova at the exact same time, so I'm not sure.


I would take pictures, but all I have is my Iphone and the last time I posted a picture of a plant, somebody on here private messaged me with the address to my grow, so that just scares the crap out of me.


I guess my TL;DR question is: Has anyone used Bayer complete insect control as a root drench, and did you notice a slight wilt/slowed growth/general downturn of the health of your plants as the pesticide became systemic?

Bayer synthetic nicotine is highly toxic and does pervade the whole plant. You won't have any bugs but I wouldn't smoke it. It might be OK for Ice Water hash. I am not sure whether the pesticide is in the resin.

Best to start over and just use safe proven preventatives.

Sorry,
Mo

Its ur ph.

You can get parasitic nematodes at some greenhouse stores. They won't harm anything but the gnats. Gotta make sure it's the right strain of nematode though, there's a few different strains for different bugs. Neam oil is also used for gnats but doesn't seem to work as well as the nematodes and smells like crap. Get some yellow sticky traps to catch the adult flies though, that'll help control them to some degree. Nothing that's sprayed on the plants themselves will help. The problem is all in the soil.

Regarding your address being identified from your cellphone pic, iPhones encode the GPS coordinates of where photos are taken and anyone can then extract that information from a posted pic. See this. Maybe there's a way to turn it off or remove it from the pics, idk. I don't use iPhones.

Your pH sounds fine, if it's 6-6.1. You usually want 6-6.25 so you're in the zone. I don't know why so many people use the Flora Nova sludge though. Two parts are so much easier and cleaner. I wouldn't get any more once that's gone. I hated it myself. Like you say, it's damn near impossible to shake it up enough and it's just messy as hell. Nothing special about it anyway so why not get 2 part and make your life easy.