new grow, early problems

Hello,
I have a couple week old seedlings that were started in an aerogarden and once the roots hit the water were transplanted into my recirculating drip system where the aerogarden pod was placed in hydroton.
I have a 4 cob ~280W light dimmed to about 2/3 power and raised 24 inch from plants. This is in a 2x4 tent with a 4 inch carbon filter exhaust.

I have terrible tap water which is usually 7.8 pH and starts at around 350ppm. The seedlings did fine in the aerogarden with that tap water without any ph adjustment or nutrients.

When I transplanted I put about 400ppm of nutes and ph down so the res was about 5.8 and 800 ppm. My plants started to look droopy and wrinkly and somewhat claw like.

I have since dumped that res and have been running my well water which is about 7.4pH and 180 ppm.
I had to put around 3-4 capfulls of pH Down to get the res to 5.8 which brought my ppm from 170 to about 300. No nutrients were added for the first 3 days. Today I added about 50ppm of GH maxi grow to the res. it equated to about 1 teaspoon in the 10 gallons of water. I'm currently at 360 ppm with a 6.2 pH which has been stable.

The plants have definitely recovered from the worst of the symptoms using plain pHed water but i want to make sure it's safe to be giving them nutes at this time. I suspected nitrogen toxicity due to the heavy nutes after transplanting so I want to nurse them back to good health.

pic 2 looks like a bit of Mg deficiency to me

i would seriously think about buying a RO filter with tap that bad.

and even with your well, mixing RO/well would be worth it. get you down to 90 ppm which would be easier to manage.

I plan on using RO for the next res change in a few days. will be adding cal mag and maxi series nutes. how much cal mag is needed?

Bignastydro said:

I plan on using RO for the next res change in a few days. will be adding cal mag and maxi series nutes. how much cal mag is needed?

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if you are using GH calimagic (you should) i would use half dose 2mL / Gal (i think? double check) . both of the maxis have a pretty good amt of cal and mg. i'm usually only adding mg, no cal. via Epsom salts. obviously, if you see an issue, go up to normal dose of cal/mg

Cleared up most of my worries about droop or toxicity by using RO the past 2 days. used the botanicare line of calmag plus about 130ppm in the res then another 300 ppm of maxigro. watering 5 minutes on and 1 hour off and plants are perky and lush.

Looking very lush tonight

Plants are really thriving. been steady at about 1.0 EC and 6.2 pH.

Went ahead and topped off the res and put a screen in today. Still running about 1.0 EC and dropped down to 5.7 pH at the top off. 1.0 tsp of CaMg per gallon about 1 tsp of MaxiGrow per gallon.

4 days into 12/12 and lush canopy is filling in

10 days from flip. canopy is very thick and lush and sipping about 2 gallons of water a day. still running about 1.0 EC topping off the res with 1tsp of CaMg and 1tsp Maxigrow per gallon. PH is adjusted with about .5 tsp per 5 gallon to balance in the 6.0 range.

Gonna stop training for a couple days and let the stretch bring the tops above the canopy. The canopy is very lush. I have about 10" more of light height before I'm maxed out. I will add another 5 gallon res top off to last me a few more days and then do a res change to start a bloom mix at about 2.5 weeks into 12/12

2 weeks into 12/12 today. I've had some good growth and the tops have started to reach above the lush canopy. Some leaves have been tucked and a few tops trained but I've mostly allowed them to do their thing. My RH% has not gone below 50% which is too high to make it through flower. I will be sourcing a dehunidifier soon.

I'm planning to do a res clean and start bloom nutes in the next few days now that all the plants are showing their first pistils. The plants are still drinking about a gallon per day and the res has been stable at 6.0-6.2 pH and 1.0EC.

I topped off the res with another 5 gallons H2O and started some bloom nutes (1.1 EC). The growth has been impressive and I've had to keep training some of the tallest tops. I'm hoping the stretch has just about stopped and I'm starting to see a lot more pistols emerging.

The dehumidifier still needs to be purchased but everything else in very happy with.

Did a full res change. Full maxibloom dose at 1.2 EC. Still lush.

Dehumidifier is doing work and climate is locked in. Low 80s and less than 50% RH. Res temp is 77 at its hottest but it's clean and fresh.

The canopy is so lush I've been trying to keep the tops trained and I think the stretch is mostly done. the light cannot be raised anymore so tops that are showing stress are being trained as necessary.

My res is hovering between 6.1-6.3 and 1.0-1.2 EC.

VPD.

Just about 1 month from flip with at least a month to go. De humidifier has been working nicely. Tent is staying pretty steady at around 50%RH and 77 at canopy.
I've really overgrown the tent which seems to happen every time but the stretch is over and the plants closest to the light don't seem stressed. I'm about as dialed in as I can be considering my equipment and the small grow space I'm working in.

Res level changes pretty quickly so I'm having to constantly monitor and top off. I plan on doing a full res cleaning and fill soon.

Here are some progress pics.

Harvest time