Need Your Grow Questions Answered? Come On In!

[Grow Thread]

ok guys, monthly update time.

 

first let me say thank you. seriously. thanks to all who have helped get this thread to where it is now. it hasn't been just me. i became a member of this wonderful group of wackos on april 20th this year. 4-20...... just over a month ago. in that time we have built a pretty serious thread here. once again, thank you. over 4,000 views in a little over a month is amazing...... even for some of the HUGE forums. we have something here...... let's keep it going.

 

as newbies (no disrespect) join our clan, many of you and myself included are pointing "wanna-be growers" in this direction. i think that is awesome, and we should all be proud of what we have built here in such a short time.

 

with this in mind, the grow help thread is getting kind of long. i am beginning to feel bad telling a noob to start at page 1 and read it all.

 

there are a lot of posts from both you and i in the first 20 pages of this thread that are just kind of "hi bubblegrower, thanks for helping" ...... or pointless posts of mine just saying "thank you" in return.

 

as an effort i am going to weed out the "coffee talk" if that is ok with everyone. anything and everything plant/grow/med related will stay, i will only be deleting posts that have zero educational value.

 

i have spoken with jipo, who along with thcfarmer and rockinlespaul are kinda like my sidekicks here and he is ok with it. if there is anyone who totally objects to me deleting any of their posts i ask that you make it known now. i have no problems with leaving your "thanks b.g." posts there if you want me too........ but if i put myself in the mind of a newbie reading this thread for the very first time and trying to sponge as much info as possible, i would rather skip the "what kind of coffee you drinking this morning" kind of posts.

 

once again everybody........... i thank you so much.

[Nemosity]

Hey bubble, that plant looks tremendous and heavy. How do you keep it from popping through the hole in the lid and doing a splash down into your reservoir? Do you have to put a small frame inside the tub to keep it up? Or is that just a really heavy duty tub with a super strong lid? I think I could make the same set-up for smaller plants, just using smaller buckets, tubs you know. Also, I have some ozone pumps that are about the size of a small aquarium pump, would that be good for this on the air stone? or should I use just a plain air pump? Thanks! Again! lol

[Grow Thread]

Hey bubble, that plant looks tremendous and heavy. How do you keep it from popping through the hole in the lid and doing a splash down into your reservoir? Do you have to put a small frame inside the tub to keep it up? Or is that just a really heavy duty tub with a super strong lid? I think I could make the same set-up for smaller plants, just using smaller buckets, tubs you know. Also, I have some ozone pumps that are about the size of a small aquarium pump, would that be good for this on the air stone? or should I use just a plain air pump? Thanks! Again! lol

 

hey bud!!

 

no, there is nothing special here. the net pots have a "lip" around the edge that holds it in place pretty well. nothing special about the tote either. $3.50 at wal-mart. i do tie them up/down/sideways/whatever it takes though when i am going big. there will be anchor points all over the place in my new grow room.

i have never used an ozone pump, but it might warrant a few minutes of my time for some research

 

that plant only vegged for about 16 days. yes it's a big strain.... but still..... that height after a week in the clone chamber and then 16 days in veg?? wowzers, you gotta admit...... it's the poster-plant for bubbles

[Done Here]

Bubble.... I used the directions for the 12 bucket setup and I went and bought a 13/16 bit and it seemed to be to big so I went down to a 3/4 which was still to big, I went to a 5/8 which was pretty snug but when I filled it with water it leaked not much but still leaked 1/2 is to small so I was wondering if you had any suggestions or use the 5/8 and some kind of sealer????

[Grow Thread]

Bubble.... I used the directions for the 12 bucket setup and I went and bought a 13/16 bit and it seemed to be to big so I went down to a 3/4 which was still to big, I went to a 5/8 which was pretty snug but when I filled it with water it leaked not much but still leaked 1/2 is to small so I was wondering if you had any suggestions or use the 5/8 and some kind of sealer????

 

what grommets are you using? i use the ones that i linked to in the original parts list and have never had a problem.

[Done Here]

I didn't see an exact grommet to get, it just said 26 gromets and 26 couplers...... maybe I missed something its not a big deal I just don't want to come home to a flooded grow room because one of the grommets blew out =)

[Done Here]

WOW I am an idiot.... I didn't see you made it so easy that I could've click on the part, your way to good! I went to Lowe's and got all the parts =(

[Grow Thread]

I didn't see an exact grommet to get, it just said 26 gromets and 26 couplers...... maybe I missed something its not a big deal I just don't want to come home to a flooded grow room because one of the grommets blew out =)

 

if you click on each individual part in the parts list it directs you to a link to buy it. i think the words are kinda blue color?? anyways, the grommets in the parts list are specifically made for hydroponic installations.

[Nemosity]

 

that plant only vegged for about 16 days. yes it's a big strain.... but still..... that height after a week in the clone chamber and then 16 days in veg?? wowzers, you gotta admit...... it's the poster-plant for bubbles

 

 

Yes, indeed. What strain is it? I'd like to find some. lol Seriously though, let me know about the ozone thing if you find anything. Seems that O3 would be beneficial only if it breaks down going into the water in to lot's more oxygen. I'm sure the roots would love that environment! Just wondering if it would break down into something harmful. Need a chemist here, or someone more knowledgeable in that arena than me. lol O3 running through h20, shouldn't be anything bad, should it? lol Man, my head is not very clear at the moment, but my back sure don't hurt.

 

 

----Nemo

[Grow Thread]

Yes, indeed. What strain is it? I'd like to find some. lol Seriously though, let me know about the ozone thing if you find anything. Seems that O3 would be beneficial only if it breaks down going into the water in to lot's more oxygen. I'm sure the roots would love that environment! Just wondering if it would break down into something harmful. Need a chemist here, or someone more knowledgeable in that arena than me. lol O3 running through h20, shouldn't be anything bad, should it? lol Man, my head is not very clear at the moment, but my back sure don't hurt.

 

 

----Nemo

 

i havent given up..... i am having a bad morning so bear with me..... please enjoy these personal selections while i drag my head off the floor. i do not drink..... but a couple "celebratory" glasses of wine last night did me way wrong.

 

 

[boroboro]

symptoms: Drooping leaves / yellow leaves / spots / red stems / lots of branching

 

Hey guys, I'm not too vain to ask a question or two here. I recently stepped up from the little 400W CMH setup I've had for the past few years to something a little bigger, to better supply my patients:

• 2 x 1000 air-cooled HPS
• 5 x 8 x 7 foot panda plastic tent
• Started seeds about a month ago, White Widow, Sour Diesel, Big Green (seeds from NOSB I picked up in Ontario)
• Coco in #3 Smart Pots (mixture of Botanicare bales , GH bricks, Sunleaves coarse coco, all well-rinsed and pre-treated with cal-mag and nutes)
• hand watered once daily
• Using "Grateful H3ad's" variation on the Lucas formula: GH hardwater micro 6ml / gallon, bloom 9 ml / gallon, cal-mag 6ml/gallon (cal-mag only for the first two weeks). Starting with 100ppm well water it ends up around 800ppm. Always feeding, never plain water. The same nute regime I've used for several crops in coco.
• Temps got up to 90F in the tent last week, so I added a window Air Conditioner that's brought it down to 75-80 deg F, 25%-40% humidity.

Plants are 3+ weeks into veg

 

A few photos from my gallery here:

 

Group shot (which plant is which is identified in the gallery, using that cool new mouseover note feature):

 

 

Sour Diesel (this is the only plant with a real downward 'claw' in the leaves):

 

 

Big Green (a Canadian indica hybrid):

 

 

They're pretty close to happy plants, but I would like to figure out why they don't look perfect. Issues I suspect are:

• High temps. It got up to 90 one day in the tent. I bought an air conditioner the next day and temps have been below 80 for two days before these photos were taken.
• PH. Maybe these GH test drops aren't accurate enough.... Going to buy a PH meter tonight and try to make sure I'm in between 5.5 and 6.0. I suspect it might be in the 6.0-6.2 range.
• Heat. Don't really know what heat stress symptoms would look like, as I've never had that problem before.
• Nutrients. Too much? Too little? Not sure. It's a pretty light feeding schedule, but it's worked for me in the past. Does much more light and faster growth require more nutrients? Sounds like a dumb question (of course!), just looking for feedback here. The first photo sure looks like the plants are hungry, but I'm trying to avoid over-feeding also.

Thoughts?

[Grow Thread]

yeah get that ph meter and lemme know what it says. what kind of meter you getting? and i see you are watering daily. i fear this may be too much.... not only for moisture but for nutes as well. you treated your mix before you began so they really probably didnt much for the first 2-3 weeks besides water and light.

[Jipo]

As BG Said check PH, it looks like several issues may be happening there and I'm hoping its due to PH lockout or excess salt build ups. If this is the case you will have high PH readings, and I would flush immediately for a good 5-7 days. One thing about cocoa is it contains a lot of salt, pre-treating it is extremely important to flush out those salts as well, my friend uses a Coco mix and he had similar issues with not treating it right before planting into it. Finding chunks of salt deposits wasn't very uncommon in the mix he was buying.

[boroboro]

Thanks guys,

 

I'll report back on runoff PH and PPM tomorrow.

 

On daily watering in coco: the school of thought I was following was to water daily just till runoff to avoid the coco drying out too much. The idea there is that evaporation of water from wet coco results in increased and excessive nutrient salt build-up as the water disappears. That matches up with the low nutrient concentrations I've been using also.

 

But on the other hand I just noticed the claw and the beginning of leaf tip burn this morning, which points to excessive nutes as you guys suggest. I suppose runoff measurements are really needed then -- I'll be back!

[Grow Thread]

I would flush immediately for a good 5-7 days.

 

my initial thought as well...... and while we are on the subject, i have discovered some vaulted spreadsheets from the infamous "Lucas". i will be studying for a few days and posting some findings. wow this guy surely fit the term "CannabiNerd".

60 pages of this:

 

---------""Imagine a 1k light with a 50 gallon res, starting at 1300ppm. The nute is FloraNovaBloom in RO water @ 8ml per gallon, plus about 1-2ml of pH UP per gallon.. depending on the type of pH UP you use... I think Earth Juice Natural pH UP works fine, so does GH brand pH UP

 

Each day for 6 days the res is topped up with plain RO water. After adding the water, a TDS reading is taken. If its more than 1100, dont bother adding nutes unless you like the task. (how fast the TDS drops depends on how big the plants are, just focus on the TDS number, not the number of days in this example)

 

On day 7 a TDS reading shows 1000 ppm, so a guesstimate is made that 2ml/ the 50 gallons res size (thats a little less than 33%) , might bring the TDS back to 1300.

 

So the gardener puts 100ml of Flora Nova Bloom into the res, waits a few minutes for stirring, and does a TDS reading.

 

If it comes out to more than 1300, then the operator uses less than 100mls the next time TDS drops to 1000

 

soon a pattern will emerge, and nutes dosing becomes predictable, both for pH and TDS""----------------

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i'm always learning too

[Grow Thread]

Thanks guys,

 

I'll report back on runoff PH and PPM tomorrow.

 

On daily watering in coco: the school of thought I was following was to water daily just till runoff to avoid the coco drying out too much. The idea there is that evaporation of water from wet coco results in increased and excessive nutrient salt build-up as the water disappears. That matches up with the low nutrient concentrations I've been using also.

 

But on the other hand I just noticed the claw and the beginning of leaf tip burn this morning, which points to excessive nutes as you guys suggest. I suppose runoff measurements are really needed then -- I'll be back!

 

roots need air. and they arent getting that air until the soil/mix has reached a certain level of "dryness".

[Grow Thread]

Yes, indeed. What strain is it? I'd like to find some. lol Seriously though, let me know about the ozone thing if you find anything. Seems that O3 would be beneficial only if it breaks down going into the water in to lot's more oxygen. I'm sure the roots would love that environment! Just wondering if it would break down into something harmful. Need a chemist here, or someone more knowledgeable in that arena than me. lol O3 running through h20, shouldn't be anything bad, should it? lol Man, my head is not very clear at the moment, but my back sure don't hurt.

 

 

----Nemo

 

it can promote problems with the nutrients mixing together.

[bobandtorey]

roots need air. and they arent getting that air until the soil/mix has reached a certain level of "dryness".

 

you sure got that one right way to much water at the worst if you have to flush i would let them dry out i use the KISS system

 

[Grow Thread]

quick note. i have cleaned up the thread a little and revised the table of contents on page 1. i will continue to monitor and delete "coffee talk" posts. im not saying stop the chatter................ as a matter of fact keep it coming im just going to try to keep it cleaned up as we move forward.

 

also, i have made some revisions (well actually lucas made them) to the lucas formula for hydroponic nutrients. it is back on page 8 now.

 

thanks everyone. we are doing great B)

[Grow Thread]

 

[Grow Thread]

roots done right

 

[Grow Thread]

for those using the lucas formula.....

 

these are some of the mad ramblings from Lucas himself:

 

 

> is it ok to simply raise the tds of an 0-5-10 rezup to the target tds of 0-8-16 when flowering is initiated, rather than dumping the rez of 0-5-10

 

yes, if you are vegging in 0-5-10, you can certainly just add more nutes and keep going, by raising the TDS.

 

imvho, there is no need to dump the veg res

 

Im glad you asked about that, because Ive been meaning to talk a bit about vegetative nutes.

btw, before I blaze ahead, I dont recommend 0-5-10 as a veg formula actually, I only recommend it as a low light formula..

 

now lets talk about vegging

 

if newly rooted clones are transplanted into containers that are going to veg under fluoros, that is a sort of weak light situation, and using weak nutes makes sense, ~1000 ppm

 

but after the first week or two of fluoros, if the plants move to strong light, HPS light, or MH light, but with big lamps, you know, not fluoros, what is referred to as HID lighting.. then I want them to see full strength nutes.. 0-8-16.. ~13-1400ppm

 

now to the question of vegetative formulas

I find the use of FloraNovaGrow definitely kicks the vegging plants into greener, but also stretchier gear. In fact, vegging with FNGrow, the stalks turn into big hollow things that look like celery.. whereas when vegging with FNBloom, as I have always advocated in the past, vegging with bloom nutes, produces much more solid stems

 

sidenote, Clarke claims there is some belief that drug cultivars have hollow stems. I dont know if this is true, but I do know that higher doses of Nitrogen than the bloom recipe I know so well, produces hollow stems in plants that did not have them before..

 

anyway, back to the veg nute thang

 

I think vegging in FloraNovaGrow instead of FNBloom has some positive effects on kick starting the plants, so I devised an experiment..

 

a bubbler reservoir was mixed with FNGrow, and plants were vegged in it for a week, then, instead of dumping, when the light was flipped, all nute additions were FloraNovaBloom from then on.

 

so in this case the grow nutes stayed in the res, after veg ended, but only bloom nutes were added to the res when addbacks were made

 

this totally unreplicated experiment produced one of the highest yields that gardener has reported.. 1.75lbs per 1k... nothing outrageous, but, the cola size was huge!.. twice as fat as usually seen when veg is done with a low Nitrogen, bloom style nute

 

what Im driving at is the idea of feeding the stretch that Mr. Highway mentioned in the past.. the idea of nitrogen loading the initial days of 12/12.. I think he was on to something..

 

point of the story, even in this scenario, a res with Grow nutes during veg, not just weak bloom nutes, was not dumped, the Bloom nutes were simply added to the res as the bloom cycle went along consuming TDS..

 

so to your original, and insightful question, can one simply keep adding bloom nutes to a vegetative res, once the light is flipped, without dumping the veg res,,, my opinion is YES!

 

IrieItes

LucasI

[Grow Thread]

was just hacking out the basics of a 72 plant perpetual grow. assuming of course a nice and easy 12 week complete cycle.

 

 

 

 

 

sine we are not easily afforded room for mother plants, i would take clones from the week 4 plants just before they go into the flower room.

[Grow Thread]

about $175-200/month in lighting cost. the cfl's for the clone chamber dont cost anything. the 1000w MH in the veg room would be on 18 hours/day and of course 4000 watts on 12 hours/day in the flower room.

[Grow Thread]

 

 

i am working on another DIY on a 2 plant bubble set-up. this time i will have pics check back in a couple hours.