Return of the Herbage - Strawberry Cough/600Watt HPS/Scr0g/etc.

Well, hell. This RO-PH'in business is starting to seem familiar now lol. I'd forgotten.

Thanks for the info, Jim.

I have no idea how to really test my RO drinking water then...

But as far as my hydro water goes, maybe I can put a little Cal-Mag in it, let it sit awhile, and then PH it?

I don't want to burn the young'uns.

My only point about the MH my friend is using is that he's saying it's making a hell of a (positive) difference from using the HPS for flowering. It's all good on his end apparently. I just haven't had a chance to get over there lately.

Anyhow, thanks for the feedback fellers.

I'll update when something's goin on.

 

Yeah, I went over there today and they look awesome compared to last round at this stage. I'm attachin pics of his and mine.

roll it up, light it up, smoke it up, inhale, exhale

(i love Cypress Hill )

I thought it was important to get the PH set once they had roots in the water. One of mine already has a root in. The other has a root halfway down to it.

I was only going to put a small amount of Cal-Mag in. I just wanted to put enough in to get a decent PH reading. However, since the PPM is about 110 I'm hoping that's enough to get accurate readings already so I don't think I'll need to put anything in it.

As I would like to do the Lucas this grow so I don't have to drain the res, I'd rather not bump the water temp up any. I've already had my encounter with root rot and I don't ever ever ever ever ever want to do it again lol. I appreciate the advice but I'm going to do my best to keep my water temps below 75F the whole grow.




Well, I went to my homie's house tonight, and everything's lookin good.

No idea about the PH as my meter has apparently shit the bed. I've got a cheapy meter comin in the next couple of days and I plan on giving Hanna a call tomorrow.

His PPM is about 350 or so (tap water).

Pics:

Aurora B #1:



Aurora B #2:



Himayalan Gold:



Nice roots:



Altogether now:



Only thing I'm worried about is the first Aurora B's lower leaves seem a bit crispy. I'm not referring to the first leaves as they're brown on all the plants (including mine) except for the Himayalan. This is because they had to live in my humidity dome a little longer than I originally intended.

We need to get an accurate PH meter over there, stat!

Here's the pics of mine. Both Strawberry Cough and both still babies. They seem to be doing a lot better now that I rearranged the placement of the cubes. The first one has a root halfway to the water. The second already has one in the water. The green leaves on top just came in in the last day or two.





I have no idea how accurate my meter is at this point. It's reading the PPM pretty steady at 115 or so. However, I tested the PH two different times about an hour apart. The first time it read 5.2. The second time it read 5.8. I guess I'm alright. And the damn thing says the water temp is 74F which makes no sense to me. The ambient temp in the room is below 75... Even the temperature sensor next to the plants and under the light is reading 77F right now. W...t...f.

Can't wait for the new PH meter.

Well, thanks for lookin and all dat goodness.

 

Fuckin wacky lol. So all the people that use RO water for their grows have to use nutes in order to make sure to achieve the correct PH range for their growing needs? Daaaamn lol.

Well hell. I thought even with the Lucas formula you waited for a decent root system before adding nutes. It just doesn't make sense to me to throw 1100PPM at my seedlings. You sure?

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try to test my tap water a few times over the course of the next hour and see if it gives me different readings or tries to fluctuate any.

Again, I appreciate the info Hype +reppage.

 

So is there a minimum PPM that water needs in order to get an accurate PH reading? Just curious because while my meter seems to do fine with the ph calibration fluids, it still has issues when taking readings of my reservoir water samples... I dont' get it.

Yeah, I thought my plants were alright. I just wanted to get the water PH'd. In hydro the PH range is so important that I want to keep it where it needs to be.

Thanks for the advice and for stoppin in, mang.

Can I assume I can replace "distilled" with "reverse osmosis" in what you're saying here?

Both my meter and the cheap PH meter I got for my friend say to rinse with water in between readings. I do rinse them with a little tap water in between, as it doesn't every specify as to the type. I store them both with the recommended Hanna storage solution, and immerse mine in the recommended cleaning solution once a month etc. It still seems to fluctuate a bit when reading my water samples as I said earlier, but works just fine in the calibration fluids. (My PPM is about 260 atm btw)

That's kind of what I would like to do. I would like to tailor my PPM to the strain, but since I'm unfamiliar with the strain and still a bit of a n00b I'm thinking later on when they have decent root systems I'll use the Lucas with a little Cal-Mag similar to how you are.

I don't like to add much nutes for the first 2-3 weeks unless they get real big real fast. I like to wait until they have a lot of roots in the water and some size to them before I add nutes. I think it's because I learned that it's better to under-do things than over-do them...and easier to fix.

I also don't see having anything above 300-500PPM right now. I think they'd catch fire at 1100PPM lol.

Thanks for stoppin in, and all the advice man.

Sup screw! Sounds like a plan mang. I'm going to be putting that damn cabinet together in the next couple weeks man. You going to be around to help me out? I'm going to need it lol.

Thanks for stoppin in bruva.

Yup. I agree.

I actually put 5ml of Micro and 10ml of Bloom in and the PPM is up to 260. I think I might add a little Cal-Mag (maybe 5ml total) in a bit.

My res is about 15 gallons, btw.

Thanks for lookin, Jim. Take'r easy.


So, they seem to be doing great. They both have a couple little roots in the water and are takin off.

Pics:

No.1 (front right)




No. 2 (back left)



I literally just stopped fucking with them and didn't even open the grow box for 2 days. Opened it today and was glad to see the new green growth, the roots in the water, and my girls lookin good in general.

Stats:

Temp under the light: between 81 and 85F
Water temp: 74F (damn it)
PPM: 260
PH (approximate lol): 5.2
Ambient temp in box: 80F
RH: 22%

I'm hoping it either gets hot quick or stays cold around here. My method of keeping my temperatures down has to do with the temperature outside, so when it's kind of in-between like it was today it's hard to regulate it.





As far as the other grow goes my homie said the 3 are doing great except for the one that I said had "crispy" leaves on the bottom. He hasn't had a PH meter but this cheap one I bought is for him to take to the crib so he should be getting that where it needs to be in the near future.

I was just assuming crispy leaves was a sign of a high PH...

That sound right? lol

Anyhow, thanks for lookin everyone.

Peace.

 

Sure did, Hype.

I'm going to slap it together this weekend, Screw.


Well, believe it or not I've got some problems...

I had to go out of town for a few days, and I came home to brown spotting on the leaves, those same leaves turning crispy, and browning roots.

Not sure what the problem isi.

PH: 5.65 (as far as I can tell, I have a cheapo meter on the way just in case)
PPM: 450
Ambient temp: 83F
RH: 22
Water temp: 75F


Water looks clear. No smells. Rockwool is pretty wet but not falling apart.

Possible suspects:

-Looks like the lids on the netpots let some light through and the cups are so small that the hydroton can't block it all... I'm going to figure out something to keep the light out

-Water temperature. Despite keeping the ambient temperature at around 75 in the room and 83 under the lights, the water temperature has been hovering around 74-75F for the duration of the grow. I have no idea what to do about this at this time.

-The water pump has been pumping water to the cubes nonstop. Perhaps oversaturation of the cubes? I mean, the roots can't get too much water can they? (as long as there is enough oxygen in it)


Not sure what else could be causing the problem. I will consult the sick plants threads in a bit, but I wanted to go ahead and post this in the hope that someone would have some ideas.


I'm not sure what's wrong, but when roots start turning brown I start to worry.

I'm considering putting the UV sterilizer back in there.

I'm also considering just throwing these out and starting over.

PICS:

First plant:



Close up of really bad leaf (it's starting to happen to the newer leaves as well):



Close up of 2nd plant's leaves:



Roots of 1st:



Roots of 2nd:



Close-up of roots:



Plants now with lids off:





Trying to take pics of light coming through cup:





Looking at the roots, you can see that the main roots have turned brown but the newer younger roots are unaffected.

Anyhow, any help/advice/suggestions are appreciated.

All I know to do is to get the light out of the cups and find my timer so I can put the water pump on a 15 minutes on, 1 hr 45 min off, cycle.

 

I agree with the underfeeding. I haven't added the water back since they've been eating, and I'm sure the PPM will drop accordingly here in a minute when I do.

Seriously considering it. The pump is really only to speed up the time it takes to get the roots in the water. I had never really considered what possible heat the pump could be putting out in the res. However, if I was to completely take it out then I would have to start hand watering or the cubes would dry out and the roots that haven't made it to the water would more than likely end up crusty and dead...I think.

So I'm going to rip my place apart until I find my timer and put that pump on a 15 minute on, 1 hr 45 minute off cycle. I chose this cycle because that's what I put my friend's on (other grow in this thread) and he's having no problems at all...other than a slight crispiness to his bottom leaves.

What the hell causes leaf crispiness?!?!

Anyhow, having it on only that much would probably still lower the res temps while not causing me to have to hand water or anything of the sort.

What ya think?


And thanks for the advice and for stoppin in, mang. +repz

 

Sup Zab-man!

Yeah, I checked the cubes and they just look a bit overly moist. In previous grows, I've had that thin white layer of...whatever (mold?) cover the top of my cubes before but that's not happening here. I honestly think too much water is going to the cubes for it to have anything like that on it.

What I don't understand is why, whenever I have a problem, it never looks like ANY pics I see in the "sick plants" threads that have all of the example pics and what not. I know the roots look like they're starting up with some root rot, but the leaves? No idea.

My friend's plants have a bit of the crispy, spotty leaves going on but nothing like this. I attributed his issues to PH problems, because his PH got up to almost 8 before I was able to get him a working meter. I've just been waiting to see if his gets better since he's kept the PH in check. I'm not sure how his and my leaf problems could be related, as his roots are fine, he's got different strains, a different light, a different spot, etc etc. The only thing his and mine have in common are the rockwool and the hydroton...

No fuckin clue, honestly (other than what I've already mentioned).

Of course, I know that light in the reservoir and high temperatures = root rot, so I have to get that shit in check pronto.

I found my timer, so I'm going to put my water pump on the previously mentioned cycle. I think I'm going to cut up an old briefcase/bag thing I have, put aluminum tape on them, and use them as new lid covers to keep the light out.

I'm going to put some SM90 in the reservoir for the roots. I'm going to figure out the hose problem with my UV sterilizer and keep it on standby...

I'm going to try to keep the PPM around 300 for awhile as well.

As to the water temperature, I'm just going to freeze out the room theyr'e in. I have no other options...

What ya guys think? Anyone think that the roots are bad enough at this age to where I should just scrap them and start over? (I mean, they're not that big and I have more seeds...)

Thanks again, peoples.