This is my first grow. I appreciate any help you can give me. I have read a lot online and finally started growing. It is just bag seed. This is what i have so far. 6 plants in and ebb and flow. Flood 5 times a day 20 mins. (15minutes increments + drain time) Temp 80F lights on, 65 lights off. Water temp 70F 400 MH 18/6 PH 6.0 PPM Meter is in the mail. botanicare line of nutes. using clearex, hydrogen peroxide, and air stone in the reservoir. Soil 3 plants Fox farms soil. mostly Fox Farms 1/4 perilite, 1/4 vermicule (how ever you spell) watered when needed. (ever 2-3 days) 3 gal pot. (they will stay in here) PH 6.0 Finally got some pics to post. New camera is also in the mail so we can all see my babies better. Any comments is very much appreciated, good or bad. I am new and willing to let other learn by my mistakes. Speaking of mistakes. I was watering at first 2 times a day. Didn't see much growth and thought i was over watering so i took it to 1 time a day. Still nothing. Now i finally got some kinks out of my system and water 5 times a day i can start too see some pregress finally. Check back later for some more pics.
Try to resize some more pics later. I am don't have a good pic editor so posting pics can be a real pain and some just post with no problem. Please feel free to comment good or bad. All opinions are welcome here.
soil and hydro for your first attempt, wow ballsy 5 times a day seems excessive but maybe the high powered light makes it work. If your leaves start drooping cutback on your watering ( hydro) Looks like you did your homework nice job~ gluck buddy
Hydrogen Peroxide is supposed to be used when cloning, to help keep bacteria and other nuisances away.
Hydrogen peroxide i have also heard adds an extra oxygen atom to teh water. It is made up of H2O2. Like water buy with an extra oxgen atom. It breaks down in water adding more oxygen to the water and there for to the roots when watered. I beleive this is correct. I will try to find a link supporting this info. Or if anyone else knows about this.
This is of my grow room and products i am using. The botanicare nutes came with the system. I got lucky and have a hydrostore 10 mins from my house that carries Fox Farm and lots of other nutes. Check out my set-up tell me what you think.
Ahh, I found some pics. Nice set up! The botanicare stuff I got with my set up is different. They sent me Tri-Flex, but I didn't use it. I have heard their PureBlend is good stuff though.
Pureblend seems to be working good. Ever since I increased the waterings and i added 1/8 strength of the nutes they are growing quick. I figure better safe then sorry with the nutes. My oldest one is getting a set of 4 leaves. I want to put some pics up but i will wait a couple more days. The change is huge for me but probably not big enough for you all to care about. Thanks for checking my journal out.
I couldn't wait a week to post pics so here are a few more. Lots of new growth in the leaves and they are staying short. I won my bid off EBAY for a new 8MP camera this morning so hopefully the next pics are a lot better. Check them out and tell me what you think.
I was watching the tray fill and flood and i noticed cloudy water. I immedietly cleaned it all out and scrubed it from top to bottom. it was good for 3 days and now it is cloudy again. What can i do to help this. I am using botanicare veg and micro nutes. Hydrogen peroxide in the reservoir with also clearex. If it is bacteria what is the best way to clean out my reservoir to stop it from coming back. Any info would be appreciated.
My pH is also going up to go along with the cloudy water. Anyone offer any advice on this? I could be a bacteria problem i am having with my reservoir. Can anyone give me any advice on how to take care of this problem, or how to prevent it in the future? TY. I am going to change the reservoir tomorrow morning again if my plants make it that long. Is there anything i can do to take care of this problem?
I think i found my problem. With my system the sent me a sleeve o' "crap" to use. Since i was impatient and didn't wait for my rockwool and hydroton i started with the sleeve o' "crap." After a bit of reading i found that this stuff can cause the bacteria growth in the reservoir. My plans now are to wash everything that is in my system and run bleach/clean water throught it all to try and clean the pump and air stones out. Then run plan water through it over and over hoping i get all the bleach out. if it comes back i will just have to repeat. good thing i have 20 gallons of distilled water on hand. wish me luck.
I cleaned the reservoir and tray out very well this morning at 6am. I scrubed it all with a towel and bleach water. Let it soak. Scrubbed. Ran all that bleach water out and then took it to my other bath. Ran clean water through it for about 2 hours. (fell asleep on coach) I was also running my air stones and pump during this whole process. The water was draining out of the system into the bath and being replensished with fresh water the whole time. Then my girlfirend woke me up and let me go back to sleep while she finished scrubbing it and washing it out. All this might be a waste of my time because it is probably bacteria which is in my net pots and plants so it will remain there. ( i hope not) I also kicked the PH down real low because i read it can also kill bacteria making it unstable for it to grow in. 5.0 PH I will try to keep it low for a few days then kick it back up and just see what happens. If this doesn't work i will probably just try to ride it out and see what i get. it is my first grow so i won't be too devestated if i get bad results. This has been a learning experience for sure. On the bright side it the hydro doesn't make it, i still got 3 in fox farm soil. New camera should be here monday so i will get you new pics then.
I also raised the light 2 inches, keeping the temp at 78f. humidity 50%. I increased watering to every 3.5 hours for 15 minutes. i don't water at all at night. Is it better to go ahead and fill my tray with hydroton before the roots start coming out of the bottom of the pots? Should i water one time at night? It is a 6 hour dark period. Any one help me with these questions would be appreciated.
Low ph will cause lockout, be careful... i would just keep the ph as close to 6 as you can. How do your plants look in the morning? are they drooping? If not dont water at night if they are drooping do a fast flood at night. did your plants show any stress ot was the cloudy water the only sign of trouble? gluckbuddy
yea i know low ph causes lock out with some nutes but i would rather stress them a bit if it will get rid of the bacteria. The plants are looking great with lots of new growth everyday. It is cloudy and it is leaving a small brown ring around the reservoir and the tray after a couple days. I havn't let it go to long with the bad water but i have the feeling i have no choice in the matter. The next couple days will tell if i got rid of the bacteria. If i didn't i will just try to live with it until my next grow. i can't do a fast flood with the timer i have. It only goes in 15 minute increments. I check them every morning when i get home from work and they seem to be okay. All the drooping goes away after the lights are on for a little bit and they get the first drink the morning. Should i fill my holding tray with hydroton (clay pebbles?) or is there something better i can use for this? thanks for checking it out and responding.
I get the brown ring also.. the rockwool breaks down over time and seeps back down.. I havent had any isssues, I just empty clean and refill the res every two weeks. I would use the hydroton, actually that is what I use...lol Are you adding peroxide?