Below are pics of my Girls. Four NL x BB Auto's growing in bubble buckets. I have them under 600w HPS and 148w CFL (6500k). Of the four, two have grown pretty much as expected so far and two have struggled a bit. One of them still has me rather concerned. It iw way behind in development and the leaves have a slight curl under. Current conditions: Air Temp: 74F Nute Temp: 63F RH: 30% (Adding a humidifier tonight) PH: 6.1 PPM: 570 (Lucas Formula) Can you all take a look and let me know what you think of thier apparent health? I am really concerned about the runt and also want to make sure I am not overlooking anything on the others. Thanks James
I'd lower the ph to about 5.8 and lower the nutes a little...I give seedlings ph'd water till about that size, then switch to 1;2 per gallon. What are those rocks? Might want to switch those out too...you might get an odd rock that screws with your ph or something
Get rid of those rocks!!!!! Use expanded clay if you want to use that sort of medium and water ( 15 minutes every hour for flood and drain ) or once a day if you use a tray under the pot. Looks like a big case of magnesium deficiency, get a box of Epsom salts and a bottle of white vinegar, make up 2 litres of water with one small heaped teaspoon of Epsom salt ( straight magnesium ), mix together then add 1 ml of vinegar at a time until you hit 5.8 excactly. Then spray seedling 2 times a day, just as lights come on and just as they go off. This strain grows like crazy with this method. I have NOT. Been able to over do it with this method.2 weeks into 12/12 they still get 2 litres sprayed on them everyday and everything LOVES it!!!! Even my Chilli plants get a spray every now and then.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have been working in dropping the ph slowly. Don't want to overdo. I am adding 5ml of ph down to my res at a time then watching. Had it down to 5.9. In 24 hours it creaps back up a bit. Perhaps if I shoot for 5.6 when adjusting I can keep the average at 5.8.
From Big Poppa Puff's How-To: http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-growing/35309-bubble-bucket-hydro-method-101-a.html "OK, so after you clean and fix you net pot and your rockwool, put the rockwool inthe net pot and fill up the surrounding empty space with clean gravel. They make a special hydro gravel that you can use, but whay spend money when you can go out and find a clean gravel for free. Don't use limestone or sandstone gravel, a good clean quartz river rock is fine." I have a sample of the river rock I am using in a bucket of water off to the side and periodically check PH. After the initial PH adjustment to 5.8 in my test bucket, PH has remained relatively stable. Conditions this morning: Air Temp: 74F Nute Temp: 62F RH: 35% (humidifier is not working as quickly as expected) PH: 6.0 PPM: 560 (Lucas Formula) I will be topping of the res water today and that should bring the PPM down a bit more. Also going to PH again shooting for 5.8 or a bit lower. Need to pick up a spray bottle and start misting as well. Thanks
I have never used bubble buckets, but wouldn't you need roots out the bottom before using a bubble bucket? How do the roots get water? I would top water until roots hang out of the pot. IF I was growing Jack Herer and IF I had 2 plants growing in the SAME medium with the SAME nutes and the Same.....well everything, planted at the same time, came from the same seed company.... lets just say that one might have been tiny for the 3 weeks that I veged them ( in my dreams where I MIGHT be growing) and one was HUGE but when I turned them to 12/12, within 2 weeks the tiny one caught up!!! I did pay it special attention by spraying every day with epsom salts and I flushed every single plant until ph was the same in all the RO water. Shit, I've rambled. Give it time and special attention and she will catch up. I think thats what I wanted to say.
Thanks Buds, I have been giving her special attention. I started in rockwool and as soon as the roots started showing well out of the bottom I moved them to the bubble buckets. The mist created by the bubbles has kept the bottom of the pot damp. The roots are starting to hang down out of the pot just a bit now.
Sweet, I am tempted to set up a babble bucket and grow the same strain next to my coco/perlite mix and see which one grows better. ( in my imagination, right )
Well it looks like the "clean gravel" advice may have been a bad idea. I have been watching the PH in the test bucket I made and it has been OK. I decided to move the bucket I found a cloudy layer of silt in the lower portion of the bucket. This may explain why my TDS has been creeping up even though I have not been adding nutes. I moved two of the girls and opened up the bucket and found the same kind of cloudy silt in the bucket. I also found spots of grey algea. I spent my afternoon draining the system, cleaning with 15% H2O2, rinsing and refilling with PH'd water. I also removed the river rock and replaced it with thoroughly washed lava rock. Wish I could find Hydroton around here.... I have also been able to hold 40%+ RH by running the humidifier on its highest setting and refilling 2-3 times a day. Current conditions: Temp: 76F RH: 43% PH: 5.7 TDS: 120 (I haven't added nutes yet) I am going to watch the TDS for a while and make sure it is stable before I add nutes. As I understand it, I want 473ppm nute solution based on using RO water. For tap water I want to add the TDS of the plain tap water (120ppm) to the desired ppm (473ppm) for a total reading of 593ppm. So as soon as I see that the TDS reading is stable with the plain water I will start adding nutes again until I see 593ppm. Thanks to those that caused me to question the rocks I was using as media. Good call.
I hope you sort the girls out. I am on day 40 all up, day 19 of flower and you should see all the baby buds. This is a very nice plant to grow, can't wait to taste!!!!