aloha. Been lurking a long bit it seems... I'm taking my second stab at a DWC grow and feel like I am failing again. my setup: 3x3x7 tent. 400w MH for now, I have HPS ready. two 5 Gal buckets with rez outside tent. no light leaks. two airstones in each bucket, and one in the rez. I have two airpumps; an "ecoplus commercial 1" and an ecoair 4. I have a big 4" fan and carbon filter that comes on with the lights. a small fan that's always on in the tent. a small oil-filled heater in the tent that the fan blows through. a small rez heater set to 72. 3" netpots with well-cleaned hydroton. Nutes: - Maxibloom powdered using Lucas - EWC tea made with; a big handful worm castings; 1/2 a small scoop of ZHO, 1/2 a small scoop myco soluble, 1TBSP horticultural mollases. brewed for 48 hrs in R/O. - R/O - PH up and PH down - That's it, I don't use anything else. oh, and I top-feed about 1-1/2 quarts of EWC tea every other night. I brew about every 10-12 days. 18/6 light schedule. My rez temps are always at 71º or 72º. Tent temps are low 70s in the mornings and mid 70s in the evenings when I check. Air temps are rarely below 70 nor above 80. Humidity stays between 25% and 35%. So, right now I'm four weeks in with two herojuana clones obtained from a reputable source. I have about 3-4 roots in the water for one plant and 2 roots in the water on the other. There are several more roots poking out of my netpots but none are really heading down to the water. They all look nice and white though. The plant with more roots has one 4"-5" long root with several smaller roots coming from it. This root hit the water on 2/22. The other plant with 2 roots in is barely starting to produce those smaller side shooters. It had one root in water on 2/27. water level is less than an inch away from pots. I haven't really seen ANY growth up top until the past few days. When I got these clones, they said that they fed them at 600ppm, which seemed high to me. So I found a happy medium where the PH stayed in range and got 540ppm and a PH of 6.0. After about 11-12 days I started diluting my mix with R/O to combat drops in PH. Take 1 gallon out to the bushes and dump a gallon of R/O back in, wait a day. repeat(used a small amount of PH up as well). I did that three times and now I'm still at 5.7-5.9 with 410ppm. Seems like I should be MUCH further along at this point... here's a couple from when I dropped them in the tent four weeks ago. and here's how they looked this morning. disappointing, no? thanks in advance for any insight so I feel like less of a jerk.
hi, yes i agree should be further the only obvious thing i see is your humidity is very low. generally clones and veg like it higher (60-70) in flower you want it lower (50) to stop bud rot . ( i grew at 60-70 in flower had 2 oscillating fans and did not get any bud rot - good airflow will prevent budrot at higher humidity) I've never had humidity as low as that so don't know if it causes major issues. i know plants will close their stomata in very dry air conditions which stops water escaping. But as a result photosynthesis stops as they use the stomata to take in CO2 . Closed stomata = no growth yeah i'd defo raise your humidity and see what happens P.S Its good your getting a big long root into the water. That's when my plants started growing like crazy in DWC bubbler.
thanks for the reply I added a small bucket of clean water that's just sitting in my tent, and the humidity has gone up into the mid 40s, may need to add a humidifier it seems... I do have some new growth and several nice looking new roots! I switched brands of worm castings, and not only does my tea look darker and smell more 'earthy', I'm almost certain that this is a big part of my puzzle. My failure to fully read the label on the first bag led me to miss the part about it not being 100% worm castings... live and learn. far from out of the woods, but everyone is at least looking better each day!
Im no expert but 6.0 ph seems alittle high. Ive found that in my dwcs and aeros that i never noticed any nute lock all the way up to right about 6.8 but the growth wasnt there. 5.1-5.5 is where i saw my growth take off and roots develop. With clones you never take someones word for how they where fed. Just imagine you grew this from seed and use your schedule clones are usually strong and the switch isnt going to hurt them to bad. I like to think of my clone as a 2 week old plant use appropriate feeding schedule. Good luck
you can also hang wet towels in your grow room to increase humidity. I guess how big your space is will depend how well they work. mid 40s is not too bad you should see growth at that level (perfect for flower). Ideally a little higher for veg. I would hang off buying a humidifier unless they don't grow any more.
Another thing is the tent should have fresh air coming in at all times, not just when the lights are on.
Good news, I'm starting to see real solid growth from yesterday! PH has been at 5.8 for the past three days. Water level has finally dropped a bit too, indicating some thirsty girls! I'll hang some towels in there tonight (good idea). I have a light-sealed passive air intake, sufficient or no? I could always add a tiny fan I guess... I'm feeling better about my skill set this week - funny how a little bit of success can do that thanks again for all the replies!
this is a common myth. The plants doent use CO2 at night, just a very small ammount of Oxygen which theyve already created before the lights went out
your 4 inch filter can be on when the lights are on. Your lack of growth in the begining was from high Ph. stick with 5.5-5.8 or go as low as 5.1 and let it swing back up to 6.2. This allows for maximum usage of all elements throughout the pH range keep you passive air INTAKE and make sure the other fan is EXHAUSTING used air lower your res temp to 68F max any higher, youll be risking root rot later plus the warmer res holds less oxygen for nightime root health/growth you should almost never have to use pH UP as a healthy plant will naturally raise pH
Id have to agree with this. I have never used ph buffers. I always start with 5.0 ph water my water is microfiltered carbon filtered ro and ultraviolet and it has about 5ppms and 5.0ph perfect water ive never seen it above 5.8. When i used just ro water i saw higher ph levels but nothing over 6.2.