First Time DWC/Coco/LED Tent Grow - Hawaiian Headband

I read all that stuff when I started growing DWC. I used to just add nutrients at water change. My first 2 crops were like that and I didn't get a very impressive yield. I think maybe 10oz's total my first crop.

I hadn't bought a ppm meter yet. I was just following the GH recipe but only about 50-60% strength. I bought a blue lab ppm meter one day because I finally had some spare change. I opened it up and check my plant after it had been maybe 4 days since I had changed the water. You know what the ppm was? 0

I thought that the meter wasn't working right. I changed the water and measured it again after I followed my recipe then I checked it. It was about 750. My plant had eaten every single bit of the nutrients that it got at water change and kept going deficient before I could change the water again.

It was then that I switched to always topping off with nutrients. That's also when I started growing promix/perlite along side the DWC and feeding the promix that same top off mix.

One thing to consider. I use 0ppm rainwater. GH's recommended ppm levels are when you're starting with ground sourced water that is already on average 250ppm or so possibly higher. When I start at 0 I have to add significant amounts of nutrients just to get to 500ppm. I think that's why lower ppms work better for me. There's actually more nutrients in my lower ppm number because I start from 0 and then add compounds.

I only use 450-550 level for veg. I bump it up to around 700-800 or so in flower.

 

That last plant that I've been posting pictures of ate so much feed a day that the res would be a puddle in the bottom of the bucket and have to be completely topped off every day. The root ball was so big though that it only held about a gallon and a quart. The rest of the bucket was displaced with the root ball.

The plant ate over a gallon a day.

If you're working with plants that huge in a res that small you can't run a strong solution. When it drops to a puddle it will burn the plant as soon as something that the plant left behind in the res reaches a toxic level. If you run it weak the plant can drop the res extremely low and not burn itself.

 

My method is essentially daily top off with a comprehensive mix of ingredients that have NPK along with every micronutrients I can include but to keep it weak so that I won't ever burn the plant. As long as the plant has enough available for the day it will never go deficient.

GH recommends it so strong so that one bucket of feed will last a week with just water top offs. You can't do that running low like me because the plant will eat it all after a few days. That's why you daily top off with nutrients instead of water.

If you follow GH's methods of up to 1300ppm when your plant is a heavy feeder you're walking the dangerous edge of burning it quite easy. If you're some kind of recirculating grower with a really large res that won't vary much then fine but if you use a bucket when the solution drops the plant can leave behind a bunch of nitrogen that it doesn't want for example. When the res is only half as full as when you started that concentration of nitrogen it leaves behind can easily reach toxic levels. I had a bad nitro burn one crop like that.

 

Each stain will have a slightly different tolerance to ppm's and a different feed rate. If yours likes it strong then give it to her.

 

Ph moving around on me is usually an indicator of an unhappy plant. It seems to come with a slower feed rate. She looks pretty good but she's not praying like I would like to see. I would try some foliar feeding with GH florablend. Didn't you have that? It's full of great stuff including kelp. When my plants are praying and happy they hold ph and will pull it back in range.

When you bush it out as much as you did it will push more growth out of the bottom of the plant. If you let it keep rolling like that you'll have something that looks like a plant afro that has little light penetration. If you run it like that half of the harvest will be larf and the plant will be unhealthy in general from lack of air/light circulation to the middle/lower portions.

Supercropping like you've done is best teamed up with aggressive lollipopping from the bottom. When you do this walk your way up the large branches removing all growth. Carefully select the good tops that stay in the top canopy and remove the weak ones that are reaching and clogging the canopy. Get the bottom of the plant to look like this.

 

Do it before flip so the plant can recover some. You'll have to do it again most likely about 2 weeks after flip because it will regrow a bunch more tops.

 

Lollipopping accomplishes several things for the indoor grower. Indoor lights have a narrow optimal range where good buds develop. This is about 18" deep or so. Anything below that is going to be larf. If you remove it all of the growth energy of the plant is instead diverted to the main tops in the best light.

Lollipopping is also used to thin the canopy. With lots of supercropping and a bushy strain it's easy for the plant to develop too many tops and too much branching that can limit air circulation and light penetration. There is an optimal amount of air and light penetration that will give you the best bud development. It takes some practice to figure out how much to remove to get there but getting some of those reachy clogging tops out will most certainly increase the size of the main tops.

Removing all that plant material from the bottom and interior of the plant dramatically increases air circulation in the canopy. It eliminates mold problems and air circulation is a very ignored part of creating good flower development. Tops not only respond to light but also air to cause them to grow large. If you ignore good air circulation in the plant canopy you get underdeveloped buds and have dangers of mold especially late in flower.

 

Something else I forgot to mention about Hydro nutrient manufacturers feed charts.

Those feed charts are made for commercial growing along with home. They're based on average ground source water of 250ppm that has some cal/mag already in it.

Those charts are also designed for the most common type of lighting when growing plants hydroponically. That is greenhouse sunlight or 1000 watt hps lamps.

Anyone who's grown with sunlight, HPS lighting, and then switched to led knows that led grown plants consume about 30% less nutrients on average easy. This depends on what light you're running. If you're running a lower power led it's going to be like 50% less.

LED grown plants also require strangely more calcium/magnesium then HPS. It has to do with the light spectrum but it's hard to grow led without a cal/mag supplement. I just added demeters destiny liquid calcium to my routine and the plants are taking off.

Considering if you're using RO/rainwater water or very clean water that has no ground source minerals and you're growing led you're going to need to use lots of cal/mag to keep plants healthy. Probably almost double what an HPS grower using ground source water would need.

Take those feed charts with a grain of salt. If you're an led grower they will be too strong for it most times. They require correction depending on your particular grow setup and environmental conditions.

 

I don't remove any leaves from my upper or mid canopy. I only strip the bottom growth to a certain level off the stems and selectively remove weak tops from the middle that are limiting light penetration.

 

Epsom salt is a great thing to have in your toolbox. Not only is it for magnesium but it's also for sulfur. Sulfur is extremely ignored when people consider what a plant might need more of. It's needed in all kinds of chemical reactions in the plant for growth. It's consumed in about the same amount as magnesium. Sulfur is needed at a level about 20x higher then iron for a healthy plant.

About 2% of total feed. Iron is required at about a .1% concentration in feed.

Epsom salt is pure magnesium sulfide salt so it supplies the plant with both. Adding a small amount to boost your available sulfur might be worth trying.

 

About all cal/mag supplements include iron. I'm not sure why you're thinking that's the problem. The downward curl and sad look to me is associated with too low of P sometimes. Maybe try increasing your bloom ratio slightly?

Flora micro is high in calcium and iron. It's 5% calcium and .1% iron. Right on target.

 

For color many times its a nitro increase that it wants. Lights being too close can cause a lighter color in new growth even with good nitro levels.