Yeah, it's good you're trying to keep the reservoir temp in check, but take it from a 25yr+ hydro grower, bacteria is a constant problem to us... Even from contamination that's our own fault, because who is guilty of sticking your hands into your nutrient to mix it without washing your hands, and under your nails first, because in all reality that's a form of contamination.... There is a few ways to go about dealing with that issue and I prefer to use beneficial bacteria (mycorrhizae) because there are some which kill the bacteria that causes rot, then there are some which live on the roots but are beneficial to the root, and some which help break down the nitrates into a more usable form, etc. etc... Google the word "nitrification", that's the job of some of the beneficials.. In hydro (my personal experience) your best bet is to use Voodoo Juice, even though Orca is cheaper, it's 3x less of the different species of mycorrhizae.. So Voodoo Juice ends up to be cheaper in the long run... But that's going to make for a healthy root system, aid in nutrient absorption, aids in defending the bacteria which causes rot, and all that will stabilize the pH... My dwc system's pH does not change at all... Well right after a nutrient change I will have to bump it down the next day, but then it's locked on 5.6 up until the time I dump it again for another change... Or you can also just kill all bacteria running something like Clear Rez from EZ-Cloner which its active ingredient is chlorine, and of course kills all bacteria good or bad, also used in city water treatment plants to treat our drinking water... Or most common among the noobs is the use a poison, h2o2 which is a disinfectant by oxidation, and in my opinion, harmful to the roots.. But the pH fight will keep going until you do something about it... Then it does NO GOOD for the plant's kolas if the pH drops to under 5.6 in flowering and usually by time you hit flowering, it's dropping below that in a matter of hours......... Was your last grow the same way, seemed great until you got into flowering like 30-45 days, then seemed to go downhill fast, and the kolas never really got big at all, just kind of stopped growing...
Hey, thanks for all your advice. I really do appreciate it. I do occasionally get my fingers in the res water when switching out ice bottles but I do try to keep it clean. Ill look into the voodoo juice. Right now I'm using cannazym, is that a comparable product? I know it has like 12 different types of beneficial bacteria and when I take water samples I can use my loupe and see the little guys swimming around. I don't plan on using h2o2 at any point because I agree that it may be harmful to the plants. I have some clearex by botanicare that I was planning to flush with before switching to flowering nutes. Would that help as well? My last grow was quite a bit different. I was a noob and made a lot of big mistakes. No beneficials, let res get warm, not enough aeration. I had to flower early because I was moving out so the plant never hit was too big. My root rot issues started about a week after the 12/12 switch. A brown slime was forming on some of the roots. I rinsed it off in the showr and clipped out the real bad pieces. Then I started chilling the res and got more air in there. It turned around and started doing better from there until the harvest. Wasn't anything huge but like I said I had to flower early and I had several issues. I hope I can keep this one on track!
I thought the screen was used to create more tops? So you'd want them to still be in veg when they hit the screen. I've got a screen but I only use it to separate the tops I have cause it was too late to do it properly.
Yeah, you really need to start using beneficials from the start for them to really stick and you should run RO water, because again, the water treatment plants use chlorine, even through it's low levels, makes it hard to get the bennies to colonize... If you start mid grow, sometimes if you double up the dose you can get them to colonize, and make for a harsh environment for the other bacteria(s)... Because good and the bad bacteria thrive in different environments, so really it plays out which colonies becomes stronger thrives, and then makes it harder for the other to colonize.... Thus why we lower the temps into the mid 60s, because beneficials can thrive in them temps, where other bacteria, it makes for a harsh environment, and that gives an upper hand to the bennificals to colonize, thus taking over within the root system... If that makes sense Cannazym is an enzyme, totally different because it breaks down dead matter (dead roots in this case), so in all reality, you're kind of feeding the bacteria, and because you've not added any beneficial, I would have to assume it's all bad bacteria you're feeding.... lol But yeah, sounds like you need someone to help you understand the different nutrient elements and why the cannabis plant needs them.... Really that's the first thing you need to understand when working in hydroponics because a LOT of things naturally happen in soil (and soilless) which simply does not naturally happen in hydroponics, and so you need to understand which nutrient elements, how much, and then most importantly, WHY.... If someone EVER tells you to use something or suggests you use something, ALWAYS ask "WHY"!! Now if the answer is "because it kicks ass" and they cannot explain HOW and WHY it's beneficial to the plant, I'd personally question their capabilities to suggest anything to me.... lol Sorry if this was posted already, but what nutrients are you using, and what's your current running EC??
Yeah, that is my understanding too. You want to basically create a SOG on the top of screen using 1 or a few large plants. I thought that since my plant is already very bushy it'd get too crowded. I'm gonna let her go another week at least before flowering. Thanks jakester, Looks like I misunderstood the cannazym. I knew it was enzymes and knew the difference but I was thinking it also contained beneficial bacteria. I'm considering picking up some Orca or a similar product. The voodoo juice sounds like the best but it's a bit out of my budget right now. I think I have a fairly good understanding of what nutrients do and how they work. I've taken a number of courses on botany and plants. My lack of knowledge comes with the additives. All the products seem to make claims that may or may not be the truth. I try to do a lot of research on any product before I pick it up and use it. It's hard to know whats necessary and whats not as I see some people say they grow just fine with the base nutes and some say u need all the extras. So far I've been using the Canna Aqua line with this grow. I'm mixing the base nutrients + additives with tap water because thats what the canna instructions say to do (and I have pretty good tap water in my area, about 120 ppm or less than .2 ec) then I set the pH. I also add about half a teaspoon of calimagic per gallon to ensure I don't have cal or mag deficiencies. My tap water with just the cal/mag added is about .3-.4 ec. My last batch of nutrient solution (which I suspect was too potent) was at about 1.35 ec. I've slowly been adding more water to lower the concentration and its at about 1.0 which seems to be working well. Is RO absolutely required for the bennies? The last water analysis for my area gave a ppm range of .18-1.27 for Chlorine in our tap water. That seems very low to me also I've been using tap this whole time and I'm a bit nervous on switching it up right in the middle of the grow. Not to mention using tap water would be much easier for me as its paid for by my landlord and I do not have an RO system so I'd have to constantly be buying it at the store.
Yeah, with the tap water being only 120ppm, you should be fine using it.... I use tap sometimes, mine is around 150ppm, and I can get the bennificals to colonize with the tap... Orca is a great product but I'd double up, so if you have a 10gal res, I'd use 10mL of Orca, as opposed to the 5mL that's suggested... When I use Orca, I use 50mL for 45gal of nutrient and get great results.... I found it has a LOT better sucess if you use 1mL per gallon of nutrients.... Canna is a fine nutrient line, you should have a bumper crop....
I decided to pick up some orca today and I added it to the res at a concentration at 1ml per gallon so it sounds like I did it just right ! After checking the pH a couple times (over a few hours) after adding the Orca it was hanging right around 5.7-5.8 so hopefully it stays right there. Is there any way to tell that the orca is doing its job and they are colonizing well? I've liked the canna line a lot up to this point. So far it has grown the plant very nicely. I used botanicare pure grow and bloom in my first grow and I did not like it as much (i was also a total noob tho).
No there is really no way to tell, outside of the pH will stabilize and then the plants will look really lush... But ti does not happen overnight, it may take a couple to a few weeks....
Yea, based on what iv read it does take a bit for them to fully colonize. I just wasn't sure if there was some kind of evidence on how theyre doing...guess not! Looking forward to more stable pH and even lusher growth! Thanks for all your advice.
Yep, but like I say, if you hit it hard, and heavy for a couple weeks, you may get them to stick around.... It's usually best if you start them as soon as veg starts, run it all the way through veg, and follow up a few times in flowering... The way I do it, all through veg they're used with every watering, then week 2, 4, and 6 of flowering... Do that and you'll get kolas like this..... View attachment 1265798
I can't wait! I'm really excited to see how this girl flowers. The people at the dispensary said the finished plants looked and smelled incredible. I think I can pull it off! Here are some pics from before the lights turned off today:
Oh yeah, you should be able to get beneficials to stick in them roots... Just keep pushing the 1mL per gal and you should see the Ph slowly start to stabilize within a couple weeks... From the looks of the top of that screen, you better think about flowering them soon or you're going to run out of room....
I'm not sure if its the lower ppm or the orca that i added or both but the res has been much more stable in the last 36 hours than the previous 2 weeks. It's been 5.7-5.8 and has not moved. I added a gallon of water with nutrients today. The pH rose to 6.0 and ppm was at 670. Ill check pH again after the lights come back on. I'm still unsure of when I should flower her. I was planning on sometime before the end of September. When would you say, based on the plant growth, would be a good time to switch to 12/12?
Yeah, I'd say it's the Orca because in my DWC systems I run a 1.5ec (1050ppm) and that is my base setting, so does not matter strain.. Whenever I add back or change the nutrient I chase the pH for a day or two, then it becomes stable again... So the rise in pH is normal after a topoff.... Personally I'd start flowering them because that screen is full and by time they stretch it's going to be over full... An over full screen is just as bad as one which is not full when it comes to yield...
If it really is the Orca all I gotta say is, I wish I had this stuff a month ago. 2 questions (well probably more later ) Are you using a truncheon ppm meter? I'm using an HM one and they say to use the hanna conversion ratio for EC so my 650 ppm would be 1.3 EC.If so, it sounds like we are running very similar nutrient levels. Is the 1.5 EC level what you have them at as you are making the switch to 12/12? 3rd question (I knew I had more): Should I leave my MH bulb in for the first week after the switch or change it out to the HPS now? Thanks, gotta admit it seemed pretty easy to train this one. Once I topped her she really wanted to bush out, i guess that's the strong indica genetics. Now all I've been doing is clipping off the leaves that are growing toward the center and blocking out nodes. After a couple weeks into 12/12 i'll try my hand at lollypopping
Yeah I use a Bluelab and usually on ec, but the ppm I posted was for the 700 scale.. So how I do it, first 2 weeks they get a .7 to .8ec (500-600ppm), after 2 weeks I go right to 1.5ec (1050ppm), and then like 6 weeks ino flowering, I'm running a 1.6-1.8ec (1100-1250ppm) and that depends on the strain, because some strains I just rock the 1.5ec all the way through.... I know Hanna has their own special conversion factor, so that's why I use EC..
Okay, so I'll probably keep the pH where its at for a week, watch how she reacts and plan on getting it past 1.5 after 5 weeks or so into flowering. What do you think about switching out my MH bulb for the MH? Do it now or wait til a week or 2 into flower?
The bulb switch depends on strain... Like I'm doing Chemdog (Sativa) and Sensi Star (Indica), the Chem got switched right out, the Sensi Star I waited until the stretch was over.. Simply because the HPS bulbs put out more lumen which I would think limits stretch, where the MH is less lumen and promotes growth.. So the Indica I want more stretch, so I left the MH in, and the Sativa I want less so I switch to HPS as soon as I switch to 12/12....
pH stabilized between 5.7 and 5.8 so I decided to make the switch. I turned lights off at 9 this morning (they are usually off at 4pm) and I'm planning to flip them back on at 10 pm. I may let them go later than 10 because I'm still deciding what light schedule works best for me. I'm thinking I want the lights on throughout the night to keep temps from getting too cold going into the fall season. I also want the lights on when there is some daylight so I can do res fills/changes when it's not too late. Very excited for flowering! Can't wait to see and smell the buds!