Noob needs a little help. Ok, so I have a DR90 Grow tent housing 3 plants in DWC (Ebb and flow system with a constant on pump) (Strains: Two white widow, One AK47) and 2 in soil (BB Cheese and Afgan Kush).< not sure if it's just the strain that grows slow. Lighting is 6 T5 2 foot bulbs. Temp is 79, Humidity is 45. PPM is at 704, PH 6.0. I use Dynagrow Grow, Bat Guano, Cal Mag, SuperThrive for nutes. I change my out the water and the nutes every saturday without fail. My ladies have been veg'in for 45 days and they are small and i'm not seeing any new growth on any of them for about a week including the ones in soil. Roots are white on 2 of the 3 in hydro. One isn't lookin so good. Thinkin' I might chop her and just clone it. But I can't figure out why they aren't growing anymore. Small I mean maybe 6 inches tall topped once. Leaves are healthy with no signs of bugs or disease. Stalks are green and strong. I recently moved 3 other plants into another grow tent to flower with a 400 watt HPS and they have turned into small bushes within about 3 days. I also placed a single auto seedling in the flower tent and that is 4 times the size of the seedlings in the veg tent at the same age. Should I make the switch to MH? could the T5s be the issue? Any thoughts are appreciated.
45 days in veg? WOW. Your nutes are low. I run 1300 if they have roots and 1500 if they have some decent foliage. You might hold off on the guano until they start growing/recover. What are you using for water? R/O, distilled, tap, well? Also, you kind of got a good indication of what's up when you switch to an HPS and they take off. CFL's don't compare.......
Thanks for the reply. Water is Distilled. I'll bump up the nutes and see if that helps. Guano I'll discontinue for awhile and see if that helps. Also the plant that was doing badly I chopped this morning. I noticed a thick layer of slime on the roots of only that plant which wasn't there yesterday when I changed out the water. Any ideas on what the heck this is incase I run into it again? It freaked me out. Other roots in tub are fine.
The slime isn't good and probably the beginning of root rot. I would take the temp of the res. Get a pool thermometer (they are like $6.00) so you know what is going on. I think you got your answer on going from CFL to MH for veg. 45 days is way to long. I take clones and they don't veg for more then two weeks (if that) under a MH.
Thanks Jolly. I'll make the switch to mh. My tent is only 56 sq ft. 3x3x6. Would 250 watt be ok for this or do you reco a 400 for this size tent? I have a 400 hps in the flower tent but controlling the heat is a battle. Temp of water is 74. I chopped the plant with the slime and cloning the top to try to keep the strain. I'd hate to lose it.
Sacrifice is a bitch. I veg under a 400w (well I used to, now it is CFL and LED). At the most it was for two weeks (clones). Temperature control is the biggest headache both air and soup, although soup temp can be controlled by a chiller. I run my soup temp at 62 deg F. At 74 deg you are asking for root rot.
Ordered 400 mh lamp and ballist. 2 400 cfm fans. Should have them in a week. I'll post any changes. Thank you again!!!
To get around the higher temps in your rez, use frozen water bottles (or frozen 2 liters) filled with your distilled water and rotate them as much as you can. This will drop things by a few degrees. You can also add hydrogen peroxide (H202) to your water to increase your oxygen. The higher temps lead to lower oxygen levels. This in turn inhibits the nutrient uptake from your roots which will cause plants to stunt in growth, or be sick. So....maybe I missed this, but are you still in veg or have you flipped to 12/12? 45 days in veg is a lot, especially in hydro considering the amount of growth that still takes place in flower. The Sativa dom strains you're growing are going to get big in flower. I switched my Sativa's over into flower a couple of weeks ago, and they grew 10 inches from last week....now at 26-28" in my week 3 of flower. I only vegged for 3 weeks.... If you're in flower, or going into flower....you'll want an HPS bulb/ballast, not MH. MH is for veg. Chillers are expensive, they are great to have as they get the optimal res temps down to where you want them (60-65 is optimal), and it's just hard to replicate that without a chiller. I just use frozen water bottles, rotating frequently (my job allows a lot of home time) and my res temps stay in the high 60's. 74 is going to give you some issues....I would be more concerned with your plants not uptaking as much as they could right now, based on your comparison in their growth to your soil plants. The 400w will do fine for you, a 600w would have been better for that many plants and that grow space. Welcome, I will be following
Hey Potroast, I have 2 tents. One for veg and one for flower so I can keep things going. I use an HPS 400 watt in the flower tent. The problem is that the veg tent didn't produce plants I felt were large enough to flower yet. I have been flowering 3 of them for the past 8 days. but the others in the veg tent are literally like no more then 6 inches tall after 47 days and I've only been able to top once. Which is partly why I'm asking questions. I purchased a 400 Watt MH for veg and should have it in a week. But I am currently using (6) 2 foot t5 bulbs and honestly I'm not happy with the results. Especially since as soon as I moved the plants into flower they doubled in size within 2 days. I'm thinking the problem was the lamps and as you said water temp. I just germinated an Jack Herer - Apple Jack Seed so I'm hoping once the new lamp is in it will be ready to take off. I am new to this so I'm learning as much as I can... and making mistakes too. Which I always see as a learning experience. I'm going to take the advice and chill the water and see if that helps as well. I don't mind spending money on this hobby at this point since I haven't puffed since february and I'm losing my mind. Recently moved to a new state and well... I haven't been able to find a "Friend" in the biz. So I figured If I can't find it... Grow it... Problem solved. Thank you all for the warm welcome and the help. Believe you me... I really appreciate it.
So i swapped out the T5s. Huge difference!!! I cannot believe that the T5s were the cause. I see everyone else has a good experience with them. Also I dropped them temp of the reservoir to 65 and raised the Nutes PPM to 1100. Probably helped. Thank you all for the advise. Looks like it's gonna be a good harvest.
Pretty amazing when you use the "right" lighting. If you are in bloom you could probably bump your ppm's to around 1500.
Thanks Jolly... I'll do that tonight. I really gotta get a green light so I can get in there during the day. Next harvest, I'm going to just run both rooms at the same time. I figured it would be better to keep the electric constant by running the veg during the day and the flower at night. but what a freakin' pain in the A**! Not that this is the right post for this but i figured I'd ask. When should I do I final flush? I know its two weeks before harvest... but how do I know when 2 weeks before harvest really is when the seeds said 8 to 14 weeks flower time? thats six weeks worth of "maybe" in there. Does the plant give me an indication?
I flush with 50% nutes and no bloom booster for the last week. A good indication of the plant nearing the end is the hairs will turn red and start falling off. The best time to harvest is when the trichs turn cloudy/amber, but you need a hand held magnifier to see this and it won't happen to the entire plant at the same time. Also, once you do a few grows of that strain you will be able to time it better. I recommend you get "The Bible" by Jorge C. as it is one of the best sources of info for indoor growing.
Thanks. Ordered the bible this morning. I just hit day 20 with the ak47 in flower and it looks great. The bb cheese got eaten by a catapillar down to one leaf in an hour. I was forced to cut the little bugger. Hopefully it makes a comeback. Got some insect repellant to solve that problem if it happens again. It sucks cause my grow is inside. :/ Thanks for the tips. I'm gonna use them soon. Hopefully I'll be harvesting in the next month.
Death to caterpillars! I have them devouring my petunias and I ain't happy. Give that book a good read, then read it again. I got tired of referring info to new growers who just want to fucking argue, so I don't anymore. If they don't have the time or inclination to read, oh well. I am on schedule to harvest this week.