Usually I can scour the interweb for clarification and easily discern after an hour of searching who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't, yet there seems to be so many different claims on the subject of the introduction of nutrients that I really have no idea. Here's the sitch: Germinated NL seeds in 1.5" Grodan cubes with RO water. Did the whole song and dance routine with the soaking and heat mat and dome. Pretty much had every seed sprouted and healthy within 2-5 days. No problems. **Now, the general consensus seems to be that seedlings have enough stored energy to sustain for weeks before needing to be fed. My question is, does this same theory apply with respect to RO water? I am on day 10 and have been watering with ZERO PPM RO water. Leaves are now beginning to yellow and there is some drooping. Ph appears to be fine (5.3-6.5, but who knows with RO water's fluctuations on my meter??), tent temp is steady 75, root temp is 80, T5s are right on top of them, and I've got a small oscillating fan giving them a breeze. Humidity was low as hell (15-20%) and I had a feeling that that was screwing up their transpiration ability and stunting the hell out of them, but I've recently placed a big-ass humidifier in the tent and raised the levels to 40-45%. When should I begin feeding? Thoughts?
NOW. 100PPM. low humidity will make plants take up more water RO water is water just like any other source. Its fluctuating Ph is from lack of stabilizing buffers (which will increase/decrease Ph). As you nute, you add stabalizing buffers (ie Ph perfect, Ph down, etc) root temp at 80 is WAY too high. mid 60s is ideal. Back off the lights and get the heat down before you have a problem
Start now very lightly. Hoping that's "room" temps at 80 not "root" temps. Watch your plants, they will tell you what they need. Just start with a low dose
The reason for the debate is there is no one right answer man. All personal preference. At this stage in the game you can't really do much but make the plant comfy as it's too small to do shit yet. You could probably follow everyone's conflicting advice on here and still be ok.
theres really just confusion because people try to make it a time thing when its really about hwo far along the plant is. When the baby leaves start shriveling and the adult leavs start lightening in color, ITS TIIIIIIME!!!!! but this could be 4 days, could be 2 weeks, so TIME is the problem there
I dont know if this will help you out but here's what I just went through... First time at DWC and certainly not my last... Got clones, transplanted into buckets about a week ago. got too excited and added the exact measurement of grow/micro/bloom (advanced) that the bottles had said to do. at this time no ppm meter, and cheap old ph testing liquid solution. Observations.... Roots are growing good, about 1'' a day but the plants themselves have seemed to stop. Tips of leaves yellowish/brownish with a slight curling upward. Ok, did some research, called Advanced Nutrients and I have a nute block, aka too high of a ppm reading for such an early stage of growth. Yesterday, got a Blue Lab PH Pen and a Hanna PPM tester. Tested the water, it was 365 PPM in both buckets with a PH of about 6.3. Today I changed out the water completely and added just a drop or two of my 3-part nute solution, a little ph down (liquid) to get my ph to 5.5 and ppm to about 50. We'll see how this works, my theory is that the plants will continue to grow like crazy and with the addition of this fresh, no-controversy ppm reading I'm hoping a little flush will get them going in the right direction. But next time around I'm not adding any nutes until about the end of week 2, or until I should start to see tips of leaves yellowing/dropping as this is due to nutrient deficiencies.
well done fixing your problem Kush! feeding isnt about time though. You can start with light nutes when the baby leaves start to shrivel and the adult leaves start to lighten in color This could be 6 days or two weeks
Shit after I germinate the seedling goes right into my hydro system with half nute mixture. I run a hydro system with flora series. And I get explosive results its kinda hard to measure such a small amount but works great. Ppm is around 300 and I have no issues with it. Depends on strain also but, it's hydro and the problem can be easily corrected if you get a little nute burn. You just gotta test the strain.
2 thoughts Drooping is usually a sign of too much or too little watering or root damage. Let the cubes dry out a little before you re water...young seedlings won't need water every day. Did you flush the cubes after you soaked them? This is an often missed step but can cause huge PH issues. Soaking dissolves any limestone in the cubes which if not flushed out, will increase the PH within the medium dramatically...which can cause all sorts of problems. Grodan suggests flushing with properly PH'd water with a small amount of nutes added (150 PPM max) This would then give the seedlings all food they would need in their early growth
Thank you Ace! It's amazing how fast and dilligent this DWC technique is for the cannabis. I mean shit man they had locked up due to the high ppm (300) so I changed the water and went to work, came back 8 hours later and I had already seen 3-4 new sets of leaves BRAND NEW about the size of a quarter. So anyway, I added some more nutes the next day, bringing my ppm to aprox. 117-120. They seem to love this as I'm seeing new growth almost by the hour (no joke). Ace, or anyone, as this being my first time at D.W.C. I'm still not 100% on how to induce flowering. I got the 12/12 thing down but in terms of feeding I'm still a little vague. So right now they are about 4-5'' and are super compact just like I want (with the light being just a few inches above the tops), I'd like to start flowering in about 3 weeks, so basically I should slowly, once a week (same day each week) increase the nutrient solution (PPM) as I go so that when flowering hits they won't be all fucked up from a 1000ppm solution????? GRRRRRRRRRRRr
depending on how pure your water source is, 1000PPM could be WAAAAY too much. During veg do this. Let the plants tell you what they want. Start out low like you are, then let the water evaporate like it normally does and monitor the TDS(your PPMs). It may work out that your PPMs rise nice and slowly. This is fine...for now. Youll be able to monitor your MAIN nutrient (nitrogen) easily from the darkness of the leaves. You see these leaves all the time and this wont chnage overnight. DARK leaves mean too much Nitrogen while LIGHT leaves mean too little. Or you can do res changes as often as you like while LIGHTLY increasing nutes but 1000PPM, you really wont reach by week 3. maybe 600, MAYBE. just go by the darkness of the leaves. If the pointy tips (during veg) ever start to yellow or brown, your using too much switching to 12/12 is how you start flowering. About a week later youll see buds or balls depending on sex. THIS is usually when I PERSONALLY start my flowering nutes at about 400PPM depending on plant size of course No thanks needed, just throw rep hahahahhahhahhahahaha jk
Ok, so I'm going to take the feeding chart that I got from the specialist via the advanced nutrients tech support line and use it as a guideline and that's it, nothing more. When I called the tech line they said to let the plants "work it out" and then said they would email me a feeding schedule ... well my ppm was aprox. 360 during week1 with perfectly cloned blueberry plants and the plants basically came to a halt.... not that they intended on giving me bad information or false hope, just that the variables are not the same.... I'm certain the conditions in the Advanced Nutrients testing labs are not the same as they are in my house None the less I will use their data as a reference, while paying more attention to the plants themselves whilst talking with my trusted digital buddies via the grass city
your intelligence is really working out for you there. Theyr ARE smart and they DO mean well. Theyre products ARE great but it IS up to you to figures out your variables. Keep it up
Ok, a little update for you Ace... Just got me self some Advanced Nutrients b-52... added 1.5 teaspoon per bucket, boosting my ppm to aprox. 170 +/- a degree or two. So that's an addition of about 50-60 ppm per bucket. So only time will tell how good this b-52 stuff really is! stay tuned
Yes I'm def. going to go with some flowering enhancements as well. Still have much research to do so that I can find the best fit for me. Something like 4-5 flowering enhancements from advanced alone so let the reading begin!
Ok .... another topic, since this thread is so hot with activity ill post it here.. got two buckets, two plants in one and one plant in the other bucket. we'll call the bucket with 2 plants bucket A, the other bucket B. bucket B is about 3.5-4'' taller, seems bucket A doesnt want to stretch. here's the funky part and no pun intended but the roots in bucket A are starting to darken on me, and when I added the b-52 earlier today my hand touched the tubing connected to the airstone and discovered it was a bit slimey. I mean fuck man, i've been reading alot about this root rot dilemma and I'm no biologist but it seems wayyyy too early in the plants / buckets life to start a root rot condition. I'm thinking maybe the discoloration might be due to the b-52 as that shit is very dark in color, however I noticed a "little" bit of browning on the roots days ago after the roots started to make their way down past the bottom of the pots. Now you would think the the plants with the longer roots would be taller? B.cuz bucket A has substantially longer roots then bucket B but way shorter in plant height.
what temps are your nutes? do the roots smell? or are THEY slimy? are the buckets well oxygenated? root browings normal with B52 (I use it too) Difference in plant height is genetic. More sativa dominant plants will get taller, Indica dominant shorter
Ace the slime i encountered on the submerged tubing is apparent in both buckets as well the browning.... i think it's either light getting thru my rocks creating algae or not enough oxygen so i added some material to block the light and getting another pump w/ new, bigger airstones as soon as i can....check my new post in hydro forum for pics