Day 65 since soaking the seeds, and just finished the third week of flowing. The plants look a lot better this week. Preparing the mixture outside the basin and getting the pH to 5.8 (had to add a small amount of pH Up) helped keep me in range all week. The pH seems to rise a bit for the first few days (high as 6.6), and then fall back down (4.7) by end of week. PPM at the beginning of the week was 725 and fell to 458 as i've been topping off with plain water. The basin gets a new batch tomorrow, was going to target 900 ppm.
A few pistols are amber and I am starting into the fourth week of flowering. The plants are finally looking about as healthy as the ever have, but should I start thinking about flushing? I assume I only have a couple weeks to go before my mini harvest with these autos.
The plants colors look healthy and about 8 flowering sites appearing on NL and 3 on WW. However, the leaves, particularly on the NL look to curl under. I've been having little trouble keeping the pH in the 5.5 - 6.5 range, seems to drop to the mid 4s daily, but fix quickly.
@bmvape In order to diagnose your plants you need the right information! Plants have 2 types of nutrients called mobile and immobile nutrients. Immobile nutrients CANT be moved around the plant and due to this the symptoms show directly on the newer growth where the deficiency is active. The other type of nutrient is Mobile. Mobile nutrients can be pulled from the lower leaves to be given to the newer growth up top as a survival method so they show symptoms on the bottom side of the plant first. Your plant is experiencing a SEVERE case of Chlorosis(Yellowing) and Necrosis(death) in the leaves. Its obvious that your plant is dying some Nutrient deficiencies, but what might not be so obvious is why. You mentioned replacing the water in your basin - doing this lowers the Nutrients in the water and replaces it with more water! This is not good! Never swap out water without replacing the nutrients! To better help your plants recover you will want to replace what the plant drinks then PH the Basin to 5.8 EVERY SINGLE DAY. Then Once a week swap out ALL the Basin with more water+nutrients. This is the ONLY way for your plant to recover and if you do this she will recover.
Regarding flushing, specifically in hydroponics - should you do 48 hours of darkness during last two days of flushing, and should you deprive plants of water before harvest? (if so, just drain basin?)
In principle, the 48 hours of darkness are meant to signal to the plant that it reaches the end of its cycle .............. Regarding the rinsing, I recommend that you Flush 4 days and then give 48 hours of darkness ........... ..)
@CRiSPrGrow, Sorry lost track of this one. No you are right - IF you remove all traces of the Activated Charcoal you will be fine.
" add two table spoons of active carbon and let it sit, should take care of all the rest of the yuckies..."
I read this message as 'just add 2 table spoons and don't take it out'. However if you are saying to filter the Charcoal out before using in the reservoir then yes you are correct it will soften the water. 😎
@bmvape,"I've read some growers having success only using maxibloom from start to finish with success." 👉 You are right and it is well known from the GHE growers that you can use Maxibloom Only if you use the Lucas formula feeding chart ( google it )🙌 You can also take a look at growers profils to see who already did an Hydro grow before and who did not (never). I assume that @HighTV know what he's talking about because I can see an Hydro diary on his profile. My last hydro was in a GHE rainforest using the Lucas formula ( years ago ) and the only negative thing that happens was a slight over feeding in the early flowering and nothing else.
Hi. lets talk about Ph in hydro. Its like you said in a Range between 5.5-6.5 and important word is Range.....let the ph flow from 5.5-to 6.5. he dont have to be on one point. the opposite is the solution, to get the whole nutes he got to flow in that range.LOok forward the roots get no light... and go on like that
https://www.growweedeasy.com/ph
@Mrs_Larimar, I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to keep your PH in that range. With hydroponics you want to be in between 5.5-5.7 NO HIGHER NO LOWER as this will effect the uptake of the nutrients and slow the growth of your babies. Also @Stick is dead on, you need to raise the temp of your nutrient/water by 3-4 as 20°C is perfect for hydro media. Good luck with finishing the job :)
I would try to get both lights in there if you can, more light = more growth. If you have a fan, aim it on the vents of the light just to keep it going for now. Nice looking roots btw. On my hydro grows I use hydroguard, which helps fight pythium, however you have good basin temps so you might not need it. Just keep it in mind if your roots start yellowing.
yeah agree to @BeefWellingtons. Buuut that lil ufo that hangs on your pictures is not 150 watt its around 25 watt not more( Lightcompanies lie most time about the real wattage) i bought the same one and its great for seedlings up to week 4. So its good you added another Light
Thanks for the new comments and suggestions. It really has been a chore keeping this pH in line. Originally I had trouble keeping the pH low enough. Then I discovered the pH down, that helped. I bought several gallons on spring water to use for the grow. In retrospect, i should have bought distilled. The pH of the spring water was about 7.4, so I used pH down to get it to 6.5 before using in my reservoir solution. After that, the pH would fall way down after a day or two, sometimes as low as 3.9. I would have to pump out about a third of the water and pour in non-treated water to get the pH back up.
I changed the whole basin with fresh water once a week, and give fresh nutrients. But I stopped pretreating the bottled water. It is easier to add a couple drops of pH down then to have to replace water in the basin.
The addition of the second light has increased the temperature of the cabinet and the solution a couple degrees (at least during the 18 hours).
@bmvape, "In retrospect, i should have bought distilled. The pH of the spring water was about 7.4, so I used pH down to get it to 6.5 before using in my reservoir solution."
Does this mean you are adding the nutrient After PHing the water? You want to Ph the water as the LAST thing you do before touching it to the plants! Spring water at 7.4 + nutrients THEN Ph the water 5.8
You did an awesome job with the strain I have grown it about four or five times and I've never got a pheno that was that compact with that much bud Mass oh, I have yielded almost 1/2 pound from one but it was a three and a half foot plant check out my grow of the wwaf on my last Diary awesome job tho man nice to see somebody else found this plant Awesome Genetics
@rypat1992, thanks for the kind words, and stay tuned if you want to see the harvest update. I’m about a week into the cure and want to try it out before my final update. The buds seem a bit more airy than I would like, but I did under feed them for most of their lives.
I am doing the same grow, but with all of the knowledge that I obtained from this one. The girls just sprouted last night! I will be starting the new diary this weekend. Hope to get yields more like yours!
@CRiSPrGrow, thanks for joining me and the help along the way! Had some ups and downs, but this has been a great experience. Just hope I don’t screw up the harvest!
While your roots look really healthy, your plant is in severe distress. It looks like you have some good nutrients there. I'm guessing that the reason you have issues is due to lockout caused by incorrect ph levels. Your ph seems to be all over the place. Typically in my hydro grows I only had to use ph down. I would order a new ph pen, use the solution to calibrate and do it to both pens. I'm betting your ph pen is off, mine did the same thing. So either recalibrate your ph pen, or get the drops to test ph out. Test once a day and even out ph to a happy 5.8. That gives it a little wiggle room for 5.5-6.0. In all my research,
Anything lower than ph 5.5 is too low, anything higher than ph 6.0 is too high, that's why we shoot for a happy 5.8. Good luck!
@Bmvape This isn't looking so hot. Check out my response above to solve the PH / nutrient issue in your DWC reservoir. I highly advise against taking replacing half the water in your basin unless you replace the nutrients. You have a sever deficiency and taking nutrient water from the basin only hurts you unless you replace the nutrients!
@HighTV, thanks for the help! Looks like we're getting the ship righted. After a few days of stable pH and increased nutes, leaves looking better and flowers continuing to grow. No more half changes with the basin for me. if things go bad I will get a full new batch made and pH'd before touching the plants. Living and learning!
For an Auto, your pot size is too small. Those roots won't get strong enough o absorb much. Ive seen this mistake firsthand with my small grow in a cup. The watering schedule and temps are too much stress for the plant on top of a bunch of deficiency issues is see. Your leaves should be green. Your fan stems are purple, definitely show Ca Ma deficiency. Run atleast 300w veg.
Cheers!!!!!