I also took a look at the hydrobuddy program that ihatefoxnews posted about a few posts back. It has some really nice features and if you have a lot of choices for nutes or are using basic salts it can be really useful. It also solves for weights if you give it a target nutrient profile so you don't have to guess and adjust like you do with the cannastats spreadsheet. It's a good program that does all the math for you if you and it's free!
r0m30s first grow, HP Aero cabinet
- Thread starter r0m30
- Start date
ihatefoxnews
New Member
Yes sir; i love it; love it; love it.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Yep, I saw how powerful it was and linked it in my thread months ago- still never learned how to use it lol.... It seems like the most powerful nute calculator in existence thus far...
ihatefoxnews
New Member
hey r0m30, those roots looked a little dry at the top edge, and over wet in other areas (droplet) I'm just wondering what times you run; is it more then 5 min between mist? Perhaps a shorter mist cycle; and closer to a 3 min delay?
Yep, as I mentioned in the text I was having some timing issues. When those pictures were taken I was running .025s/8m but not getting anyway near the water usage I was supposed to, I was using about a gallon a day. I'm still not sure what caused it but it seems to be under control now. I think with that short of a cycle the solenoid wasn't firing properly sometimes and would stick partially open. That doesn't explain why I would have problems at .075s and not at .05s, but it's back to working now. I will be shortening the dry cycle to get back to white roots and push enough water through to get some runoff.
I think this will be a simple way to grow once it gets dialed in, just add water to the res a few times a week, but getting there is a challenge.
Mike Young
Well-Known Member
Hey r0m, what ppm did you start at? I was thinking about starting around 200 or so.
I started at 250 and worked up from there, I'm currently at 725.
How are you mums doing? Mine died when I repotted her
Mike Young
Well-Known Member
the widow has been on 12/12 for about a month now, and is doing ok. Those two cuttings i have now were actually the tops of the big bud. That plant was a headache from the start, so i shit canned it. 250 huh? That's actually better for me. I have a batch mixed at about 167 now, so I'll just go with that. Can't wait to get home!
Fifth week of flower. The pants are still showing deficiencies after changing the nutrients to match the Canna Aqua Flores formula. For some reason the roots look darker in this picture than they do IRL, but they are darker than they have been. I think Ill need to reduce the pause time.
Thanks, I guess this isn't terrible for a first grow. Still have a lot to learn.your buds don't look deficient amigo!
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
For what it's worth, I think Atomizer told me to start of an ec that was equivelant to 140ppm on the .7 scale...
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
I believe the roots naturally darken as the plant ages.. I could be wrong, but I think young plants can have bright white roots that tend to tinge a little as they age. And I agree r0m, this grow is nothing to be ashamed of. I bet if you start the next batch with all you know now, you might be surprised with how good it goes after bypassing these first time trials.
That's interesting, I hope that's all it is.
Not ashamed, disappointed. Reality has a way of smacking your ego. I'd really like to get the nutes down, I have replicated the Canna withing a few PPM and am still getting signs of deficiencies. I'm hoping that if I start with the formula at the beginning next time I'll have better luck.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Well, it could be a matter of too little too late- but it makes me want to wonder about other variables. I guess the thing you need is a next good run, you need a benchmark to set your future tests against. I tend to trust Atomizer in that if he says a certain regimen works well, then if I replicate it I'd expect good results, and if not then I'd go through with a fine tooth comb and figure out if it were lighting, mist timings, overwatering, not enough fresh air, etc... Not to beat a dead horse, but I think you already mentioned you check your tester's readings against the calibration solution, so your ph/tds must be right. One thing I've learned, is that if you don't have a good root structure before going into flower, you're not gonna get a very good outcome, because it would seem the plant focuses all it's attention on the flowers and won't make much new root growth anymore. After I killed my roots just going into flower, the plant has stayed alive, but it's like petfloras in that all the roots are staying inside the tiny rockwool/soil puck now. I ended up with a 5 inch plant and a bud the size of a cottonball- lol... It's not really worth the nutes I spend on it. However, I kept it's sister in a 3"x3" pot filled with soil-and feed it with the res water, and that one is doing quite nice. I think the temps are cool enough now that I can start a full chamber of new seedlings. Prolly gonna do that in the next week or so. I'll take a couple cuttings and make them into mothers out of this batch. I still have to provision for mother lighting, because it's become painfully obvious that these plants here will go to flower immediately after rooting with these daylight hours.
Yea, I'm thinking the to little to late may be a part of it too. One thing I thought about was that I'm not readjusting the PH after I add the bleach and when I measured it, sure enough the PH was below the target. I wonder if I can adjust the PH of my bleach solution without having one or more other things go bad? I'm a little leery of adding things to bleach because I know bad things can happen.Well, it could be a matter of too little too late- but it makes me want to wonder about other variables. I guess the thing you need is a next good run, you need a benchmark to set your future tests against. I tend to trust Atomizer in that if he says a certain regimen works well, then if I replicate it I'd expect good results, and if not then I'd go through with a fine tooth comb and figure out if it were lighting, mist timings, overwatering, not enough fresh air, etc... Not to beat a dead horse, but I think you already mentioned you check your tester's readings against the calibration solution, so your ph/tds must be right. One thing I've learned, is that if you don't have a good root structure before going into flower, you're not gonna get a very good outcome, because it would seem the plant focuses all it's attention on the flowers and won't make much new root growth anymore. After I killed my roots just going into flower, the plant has stayed alive, but it's like petfloras in that all the roots are staying inside the tiny rockwool/soil puck now. I ended up with a 5 inch plant and a bud the size of a cottonball- lol... It's not really worth the nutes I spend on it. However, I kept it's sister in a 3"x3" pot filled with soil-and feed it with the res water, and that one is doing quite nice. I think the temps are cool enough now that I can start a full chamber of new seedlings. Prolly gonna do that in the next week or so. I'll take a couple cuttings and make them into mothers out of this batch. I still have to provision for mother lighting, because it's become painfully obvious that these plants here will go to flower immediately after rooting with these daylight hours.
It should be getting nice in your neck of the woods, hope that helps with your next batch. I'm hoping to find out IRL around Feb but it's still up in the air...
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Yeah, bleach is very alkaline man... All I do is adjust the ph AFTER everything, including the bleach is in the mix... Works a charm. With the canna, I usually only have to add 1-2 drops of ph down to 8 gallons of r.o. water after silica, canna, and bleach are in the mix... I could probably skip the ph adjustment altogether to be honest, my pre adjusted ph is usually 5.84 or so. I use 6 drops of bleach per gallon, I always smell a hint of chlorine- even on the last day of the reservoir's final draining into the accumulator, and read that's what I should aim for. Apparently plants can handle many times more chlorine without any ill effect whatsoever. I do prefer to use the minimum necessary of course.
BTW- I now have it down to about 5 minutes total nute maintenance once per week in my hpa! My soil potted plant require more care with watering every 2-3 days - lol...
Its been 9 weeks and I decided to go ahead and cut her down. Here are the screen, bud and root shots just before I cut her down.
Here is a main cola shot, it's pretty dry, I burned then a few weeks ago trying to stop the deficiencies.
Here are some root shots after I finished the chop, there are a few thicker tap roots as well as the fluffy roots. The root barrier failed to stop the roots from punching thru and finding the water below.
Here is a picture of the harvest. The wet weight was about four and a half ounces each of bud and trim. That should be about one and a quarter ounces of each after drying.
Im going to be building a new chamber this week then Ill try again .
Here is a main cola shot, it's pretty dry, I burned then a few weeks ago trying to stop the deficiencies.
Here are some root shots after I finished the chop, there are a few thicker tap roots as well as the fluffy roots. The root barrier failed to stop the roots from punching thru and finding the water below.
Here is a picture of the harvest. The wet weight was about four and a half ounces each of bud and trim. That should be about one and a quarter ounces of each after drying.
Im going to be building a new chamber this week then Ill try again .