Hello , This is only my second grow in a DWC bucket . Im using General Hydroponics 3 base nutes. (Micro,Grow,Bloom). I am also using a root booster by the same company and regular tap water with the ph adjusted between 5.7-6.2. I am using (1) 1200W LED light and (4) 6500K CFL bulbs that are each equivalent to 300W incandescent. I keep the PH in my range and check it throughout the day. The ppm reading has been 1300 and I'm not sure if thats the correct range it should be at and if maybe I have a little bit of nutrient burn ? Tips are yellowish and on some of the fan leaves that were on before I trimmed them off had brownish dark spots. Currently the only ones showing the burnt tips are the two White Cookie plants from Crop King Seeds. They both just completed week 5 going into mid week 6. Any advice on whether its a nute burn or maybe a calmag deficiency since the brown spotting on the leaves could also indicate that? Ill be posting pictures of the two Plants soon. Unfortunately I dont have pictures of the spotted leaves as I trimmed the plant yesterday to allow more light distribution. Any advice/comments are welcome!
That feed is way too high man. No matter if you're at a .5 conversion or .7, which you have to specify. It looks like you're trying to follow the GH schedule and you shouldn't be. I'm at 4/6th strength of the advanced GH schedule week four flower and my plants are MUCH bigger. Dual Mars Hydro 144 Multi Strain Grow Journal - Dual MarsHydro 144 - Multi Strain DWC 4x4 LED Grow Journal
Yeah, you're correct. For the past Week or so I switched to aggressive feeding directions from the bottle. These plants are on week 5 of veg., not flower. Thats a main reason why your plants are bigger since you're already a month into flower. For " aggressive" feeding what strength did you follow? if you dont mind me asking..
I think you're missing the point. A plant in veg is not going to feed more than a plant in flower. I'm WAY under what you're feeding. If you're at a .5 conversion. I'm feeding 600PPM less. That right there should give you an idea you're way too high. With that much light you don't need to trim. Especially fan leaves and especially not yet.. End of week 2 into flower you can lollipop to get rid of smaller bud sites / areas that won't get good light that won't amount to much. Don't get too crazy with it though. I don't feed aggressively. I feed on the lighter side so I don't burn or shock my plants. There isn't any need to. Check out this chart. You need to watch what your res is doing. That's the best indication of what the plant is going to do. By the time the damage is done, it's too late. Of course they will bounce back if you act accordingly, but the longer your plant suffers. The more your yield will as well. Dual Mars Hydro 144 Multi Strain Grow Journal - Dual MarsHydro 144 - Multi Strain DWC 4x4 LED Grow Journal
For reference. This plant is getting 750 PPM @.5 and she is almost dead steady with just a 5-10PPM drop daily. Dual Mars Hydro 144 Multi Strain Grow Journal - Dual MarsHydro 144 - Multi Strain DWC 4x4 LED Grow Journal
The meter I'm using is an Etekcity tds meter. From what I have found about it its .5 conversion. Is there a chart that tells you a range thats acceptable or is it just one of those things you have to notice from how your plant looks since each strain varies in preference?
Honestly just one of those things your plant will tell you. You can have an idea, but it's just a basis. I now work my way up slowly and find what they want. Def will vary from strain to strain. How much is your plant drinking a day, what are you topping off with? Dual Mars Hydro 144 Multi Strain Grow Journal - Dual MarsHydro 144 - Multi Strain DWC 4x4 LED Grow Journal
To be honest with you, I do not have an exact amount. my best guess would be about a gal a day or close to a gal. Im topping off with just regular 5.5 ph tap water that is at a 303ppm at .5 * My local hydroponic store told me that the city's tap water would be just fine for it thats why i have never really bothered with RO
Wow a gallon daily? What are the temps in your room? Sounds like a lot of transpiration. You haven't shocked the plants into not feeding, so that a great thing. Just dial back the nutes and you'll be good. I top off with a 1/2 strength solution daily. If you top off with just water when you get your levels correct, you can develop deficiencies fairly quickly. Just follow the chart above. My levels are falling, my EC is falling and PH rising. It's a near perfect situation. I see about a .2-.3 PH rise daily.
Temp is at a solid 74 F. I'll follow the feeding schedule from your journal that you found and top of with half of that feeding and check my levels daily and hopefully that'll resolve the little issue. I did a res change and did 1/2 tsp/gal on the GH flora series. I'm reading 560 ppm @ .5 I assume this is in an acceptable range I'll see how they react the next day or so. PH is at a 5.7
That's actually an old schedule I stopped using quite a bit ago. It wasn't working out for me. I use the GH Advanced Schedule now, modified of course to the levels I want to be around. I have a bunch of their supplements so that's why I changed. You'll want to follow their 3/2/1 schedule to get that PPM. 560 might still be a bit high.. it would be better to start lower, see what the res does the next few days and then move up if needed. PH should be good there. Dual Mars Hydro 144 Multi Strain Grow Journal - Dual MarsHydro 144 - Multi Strain DWC 4x4 LED Grow Journal
Checked my levels today. In about half a day the res went down about less than half a gal. Went ahead and marked my water levels to keep better track on my end. both res' ppm went down slightly not drastically. One had a start ppm of 560 and the other started at 530 @ .5. not sure if that little difference makes a difference. I assume on one res I may have put slightly more nutrients but nothing more than a half a ml in difference. I noticed before I did the res change no matter how much i diluted the res, the ppm still read well over 1300 so I rinsed both roots in ph balanced tap water for about 2 hours to try and wash off any salts if there was any nutrient lockage. My ph on one rose by .3. so I'm sitting at a ph of 6 on one and as I was going to check the other white cookie but I was careless and broke the probe on the meter so I have not been able to check the ph on that one. I just ordered a new one on amazon and have one day shipping on it so I should be receiving it sometime tomorrow. I know I have some ph test strips somewhere so ill use that for the meantime if i can't find a store to get a meter at in town. I know its not the most reliable way to test ph but as long as I see I'm in an acceptable range I should be good for tomorrow. I have not seen Any new burnt tips. most of the leaves that had turned a bit yellow have slowly turned back a greener yellow than crisp yellow. I did notice I'm still having what seems to be a calcium magnesium deficiency. The problem of brownish spotting on my leaves has slowly returned. will post pictures soon to see what you think. Besides the calmag deficiency it seems as though me res is falling, ec falling, and ph rising. Which seems to be the situation we want to be in as far as plant taking in nutrients and not locking anything out.( besides the calmag deficiency of course )
Like I said, its newly formed. May or may not be calmag def.? about to go pick up cal mag since apparently my tap water is not enough.
It can take up to a week to stop and will start to look much worse. It never will recover. That's ok though. They will bounce back. Sounds like you're on the road to recovery! I broke my PH pen as well smashing it on the side of a bucket.. I sent it back to Amazon and got a refund! Keep that in mind if you're buying a new one. Dual Mars Hydro 144 Multi Strain Grow Journal - Dual MarsHydro 144 - Multi Strain DWC 4x4 LED Grow Journal
Appreciate all the help my man. Ill post some pictures up in the next couple of days and post the levels to see where they are at. Im also trying to start a little seed to flower project to experience the yield on that. so ill be posting about that. Your journal is amazing. learned a lot from reading it.