Hi all, First time grower and I went right into hydroponics because I was feeling dangerous. Here's my set up: Bestva 600W LED light Vivosun 4x2 grow tent 5 gallon buckets with 6 inch net pot tops ActiveAqua Air pump with 6 inch air stones in each bucket connected by aquarium tubing. GH Flora Series nutrients GH PH down Tap water which has about 220 PPM without nutrients. Growing Medium: Germinated in Rockwood cubes that soaked for an hour at 5.5 PH. Rockwool surrounded by hydroton clay pellets in net pots. Timeline: Soaked the seeds and rockwool cubes on 10/31. Placed the cubes in a humidty dome. Seeds germinated and a sprout was visable 11/3. Taproot poked through 11/7. Placed seedling in DWC medium with no nuts until 11/14. Fed 1/4 strength nutes until 11/21. (300 PPM). Fed 1/2 nutes (450 PPM) until 11/28. Started another 1/2 nutes on 12/1. (500 PPM). Details: Between 45-60% humidty. Temps range between 65-73 depending on if I remember to turn the fan on and the temps inside my house. I put a chiller in the DWC buckets when it's been above 70 for more than two days to fight off growth. PH is between 5.5-6.3 and I have to add PH down the first couple of days between water change outs due to my tap water acting crazy. It usually settles after day 2. My light is about 18 inches away from the plants. Please help me with any tips you might have!
Small for 4 weeks in hydro. Keep PH at 5.9. Raise PPM's to 600, since 220 is shit from the tap. RO is preferred in hydro. Fill the net pots all the way up with pellets. Any light equals root rot. Add some great white or similar for root protection and increased root production, I think it's a must have. Don't let em' get to big, or you will run into problems trying to change the water etc... A RDWC is preferred not a must, but almost is. Adding PH down, if you raise the PPM's the nutes should help stabilize the PH issue. PH is the most important thing there is in Hydro. It shows you troubles before you can see them on the plants so monitor and adjust daily.
Oh set water chiller to 69 degrees. Check out my setup if you want and adjust your setup kinda like mine. I'm about 50 days ahead of you. Link is in the signature
These ladies are small for four weeks, which is why I'm turning to the board for advice. I've been doing a lot of research and am going to switch to RO water, as I think that's the majority of my issue with PH. There's a local grow shop near me that's designed specifically for cannabis that I can grab Great White and RO water at for 30 cents a gallon. Thank you for the advice! I will up the PPMs to 600 tonight when I do my water change. I'll have to pick up calmag too. I may add another light, as my super cheap Bestva light is only pulling a third of the wattage as advertised. I've been looking at the Quantum Panels. I looked at your set up, pretty awesome! Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Thanks. Buds are filling with trichs now, real frosty and starting to fatten up. If you have the extra cash, ebay or amazon has the RO systems for 60 bucks or so and that is all the water I will drink anymore. Can't stand the city water after drinking pure water. I do believe the QB boards would be a help, all that hype about a led panel at 1000 watts is bullshit and it only drawing 135 what a rip. The blurble lights do good in veg and clone if you already have em', and that is what I use em' for since I bought into the hype a few years ago. Nothing can beat the HPS at the finish line, although I have saw quite a few grows on here that are impressive grown with QB's.
That's awesome! Can't wait til mine are frosty. I've been looking into the RO systems. I've heard mixed reviews about the 50-60 buck ones, and don't know if I want to spend 220 for a big system. I updated my light system. I got a sun system LEC 315 with Phillips lights. Changed my water to distilled, upped PPMs to 600 and added calag and great white. PH is steady at 5.8. water temps are 68. I think with the water change and light change these ladies should take off. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Dont buy a system, build it. Go to home depot get black buckets and a 15 gallon rubber tote for the reservoir. Amazon or fleabay for net pot lids and 3/4 at least ID drain lines, matching T's, elbows straight through's, rubber grommets the big fat ones. 3/8 ID for fill lines, elbows T's etc...grommets. Air stones one per bucket and a couple in the res. Commercial air pump 6 or 8 outlet. 200 - 400 GPH water pump for setting in the res and filling each bucket from the top side. Air line black pvc 50 ft. And that's your RDWC, probably forgot a couple little things. Well under 200 bucks.
The ladies have taken off the past couple of days with using distilled water, 600 PPM of nutes, inserting a fan, and adding great white root enhancer into the buckets. I replaced my blurple LED light with an LEC sun system, 315. I think the mixture of all this has added to the growth I have seen in just three days. pH remains steady between 5.6 to 5.9. Each bucket is at a solid 68-69 degrees. Roots look bright white. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app
U can still run the blurple, wont hurt, it will help a bit. Keep the PH more close to 5.9. Does it drop when it's 5.9 and the next day it's 5.6 so something? If so, then you may cut back on the nutes. Get the nutes/water uptake the same and the PH won't change. Hard to do but that is the goal anyways. See what happens is they drink more water than they eat nutes, and this is the probable cause of the PH drop.
It actually raises to 6.1-6.3 every couple of days. I put it back down to around 5.6-5.8 with pH down. PPMs were originally 650, and are now upward to 730. I changed the nutes 5 days ago. The plants are remaining perky and green and roots are white and taking off thanks to the great white. I'm going to use the blurple for clones in a grow box. I am going to start those in a couple weeks. I'm probably going to stay in the veg phase for 3 more weeks before switching to flower due to the slow growth in the beginning. If the plants get too big for the tent I can move them into a spare room that is ventilated and has climate control. Reason for the tent is to contain the smell. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Get rid of those dying leafs. There a waste of the plants energy. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
When do you think I can top these guys? Are they too small still? Trying to get them to grow horizontally instead of vertically. I'll be putting in a SCROG in a couple weeks. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app
This morning I ended up accidentally hitting my humidity/temp reader and it landed on one of my plants, doing some damage. Circled in the pics below are the leaves it knocked off. Does anyone know how this will affect the plant? Still in veg stage. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Update: I topped my three plants about two weeks ago. They took about a week to recover with slow growth. They resumed growing and took off last week. They are growing bushy instead of vertically. I'm using the Lucas formula on one plant, my sativa, and then 1/2 strength of the Flora recommended usage for the other two indica plants. The past two weeks I've kept the plants around 700-800 ppm. I'm switching them to flower on January 4th. I'm finding that my plants like the pH between 5.8-6.2. Using distilled water and rain water, I don't have to adjust it too much. I removed my plants from the tent due to the height of the plants becoming too close to the light fixture and causing some burn. Now they are growing in a basement surrounded by white walls which is kept between 65-72 degrees and 40-50% humidity. These ladies are starting to stink to high heavens. There's an intake and out take fan, but I'll probably have to get a carbon filter. To reduce the smell. I got bigger airstones to circulate the water as well as the small airstone was not cutting it. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Grasscity Forum mobile app