Broken Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 This is my first real hydro attempt... That being said, I appreciate all the help i can get. Plant's aren't in horrible shape. Everything seems to be growing quickly but they don't seem to be green enough, and the leaves are a bit droopy and some have a curve to them. I notice a bit of nute burn on the tips, but at the same time they don't seem dark enough so it's hard for me to figure out. Type of system: Hempy with 100% chunky perlite. Strain: gardenlover's C99 Feeding cycle: Once a day. Temps: 74-79 Ventilation: Plenty of air exchange. lighting: 430 watt hps with blue spectrum added distance: around 8 inches from the bulb age: clones about 2 weeks old nutes: lucas formula, started at 5-10 with 4 ml of cal-mag. As the plants matured and I moved them closer to the light I upped to recommended 8-16 with no cal-mag added. PH: I've been keeping the PH at around 5.8-6.0 Water: Using RO water. I don't have a ppm/ec tester so I can't give specific details. Humidity: I don't have a gauge but I imagine the humidity is at acceptable levels, doesn't seem to humid at all. I'm having a tough time with it just because I'm new to hydro and I think I'm doing everything right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooldini Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I am a new grower but they look ok to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 thanks, I think they look low on MG, but my problem is that they are already getting a bit of tip burn. Just looking for a few other suggestions, problems rarely fix themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stopgo Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Your lights are too close back them off about 5-10 inches you should see a difference in the next couple of days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stopgo Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 What are your water temps? Are the roots white or brown? Your reservoir temp might be too high as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I'm not really sure what the water temps are. There's really no way for me to tell, and not really much I can do about it anyway in a Hempy bucket. The roots aren't down in the water yet still only in the perlite... Perlite as you can see from the pics is white as can be so I imagine the roots are too. I keep the medium covered to prevent light getting to the roots, the covering is a bit insulated, the buckets are black. It's as good as I see anyone use for a Hempy bucket. I have moved my light up a bit thanks for the suggestion. forgot to add that the plants are under 24/7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glaucoma1 Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I do Hempy Identical to you I only water those size plants every 4 days on average. Full size flowering plants in 3 gal pots every 2-3 days.You want to let the resivior get completely empty and then water. Let the pot get light . I am pretty sure your over watering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Interesting, I'll give that a try. Hempy said to water/feed every day until the roots hit the water. I'll give it a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glaucoma1 Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Problem with that is you cant tell when the roots hit the bottom. If you let them get a lil dry the roots will eplode to seek out the water in your resivior quicker. I water just enough to wet the rapid rooter ( maybee a cup ) every 2-3 days till they start drinking real good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stopgo Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I probably should have read better before answering, it looked like it was some type of DWC setup....lol! my bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Problem with that is you cant tell when the roots hit the bottom. If you let them get a lil dry the roots will eplode to seek out the water in your resivior quicker. I water just enough to wet the rapid rooter ( maybee a cup ) every 2-3 days till they start drinking real good. Good point. I'll let them dry up a bit and then water them a bit more sparingly next time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymousgrower? Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 they are clones and your hammering them with light a little soon I would say. Try backing off as mentioned and I think a 18/6 light schedule would save you some money and give your babies some nap time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grow Thread Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 yeah its been hit on already, but you are trying to do too much i think right now......... without a TDS/EC meter you need to take things easy...... especially with the lucas. the lucas will send your ppm's through the roof if you are feeding them 5-10 or 8-16 day after day......... even in DWC we cannot do this.... there is an addback formula we can use, but we are dealing with gallons and gallons of water..... you should be feeding them one day, and then going with just r.o. water next time it is needed.... then feed, then water ect. also, i fear you may be a bit confused about humidity.... you said "i think im ok, it doesnt seem too humid in there" thats exactly what you DONT want. spend the $6 and hit meijer for the cheapie thermometer/hygrometer so you can see whats really going on. you NEED as much humidity as you can give them right now. my 2-3week old clones are in a rainforest with about 80-85% humidity. they need it for transpiration at this stage of life. a $25 humidifier may be needed to help you out. the lucas method is nice because it keeps your ph perfect all the time (or most of the time) but it IS possible to have salts build up, or have your ppm's build to lethal levels. every couple of weeks, i would flood the heck out of it with clean r.o. water just to be 100% positive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Appreciate all your responses. I've forgotten the most simple, yet hardest to implement tool... Patience. I'll take a look at cheapo weather stations to measure humidity and a humidifier, I'm sure it's under 80% right now. I have been pulling the plants to the side and giving them a light mist of RO water, I figure this time of year it is a bit dry. I'll post again in a week or so to let you all know how it's going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kindbuds Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 they also have the humidity temp digis at home depot for 7-8 bucks,worth while investment,I havnt grown this way but I know in buckets the gap cut for the stalk would invite algae growth and I think when they say you will know it when the roots hit the botton is because the perlite holds alot of water and like others have said lay off on the water and let the plants expand their root structure to seek it out and when they hit the pool at bottom look out! Dry roots are no good but with perlite id water no more then every 3rd day until they hit the bottom unless your room is especially hot but even then there is not alot of room for evaporation with the tops as they are.-Bubs on the case so im sure they will end up in the right spot-good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I hear ya. I'm layin off the water for a few days. Honestly if you read the hempy threads at first he said a vermaculite/perlite mix was best because it held water better than just perlite. Most say to water ever other day for plants that have roots in the rez, and to water every day if they dont. Most of the people who grow this way don't cover the perlite at all, and where the slits are in the pic I actually do cover, it's just not shown here. Some people do a rotation of r/o water about every third feeding while others just feed full nutes the whole time... I've grown in soil before and these plants do look over watered like people are saying, but they are also a bit yellow. We will see if they perk back up in a week or so, if not it might have more to do with the nute mix then the watering, time will tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petyr Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) It looks to me like you have an overferting issue that has lead to lockout. The burnt tips and "the claw" indicate too much nitrogen, and the yellowing of the leaves between the veins indicates a magnesium deficiency. Too much N can lockout magnesium, so this is probably what happened. I would water with plain water for a couple days then start off with 1/4 strength nutes and slowly work up watching for any sign of burn. I'd also back the light off a few inches until they recover. Maybe raise it to 12" and let them grow back into within 8. Edited January 23, 2011 by Petyr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 going with just r.o. water next time it is needed.... then feed, then water ect. also, i fear you may be a bit confused about humidity.... you said "i think im ok, it doesnt seem too humid in there" thats exactly what you DONT want. spend the $6 and hit meijer for the cheapie thermometer/hygrometer so you can see whats really going on. you NEED as much humidity as you can give them right now. my 2-3week old clones are in a rainforest with about 80-85% humidity. they need it for transpiration at this stage of life. a $25 humidifier may be needed to help you out. I don't know if my original post was clear. These clones are two weeks after roots were poking out the sides and bottom of the rockwool. I had them in a humidity dome for the cloning process. I'm going to grab a gauge today from meijer when I'm out and take a look at the humidifier. I've never had a under humidity problem, probably not the worst problem to have. I have a lot of air exchange so it could be causing the environment to be to dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted January 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Ok so I've done quite a bit to work out the problems with the plants and they are already looking better. I'm still confused to what the original problem was. I went out and got a cheap ppm meeter and made sure it was calibrated correctly, It reads true at 1000 with the calibration solution. I tested my Water and it comes to about 005 ppm the nute solution I was using is at about 550 ppm... Shouldn't be to strong of a solution as far as I've been reading. So I've dumped my drum and mixed a fresh solution and have it bubbling now. I've flushed my plants with RO 005 ppm water and dumped the water out of the bottom of the buckets by tilting them, I let them dry out for around 24 hours and added about a cup of 1/4 nutes with a bit of cal/mag plus around the root ball. Before doing this I actually carefully pulled one of the plants to check the roots and replanted it. (Roots are white and healthy as can be) They haven't really shown any signs of transplant shock, so no harm done. I am now using an old humidifier I had in storage, it's the kind that makes a warm mist, but the temps at canopy level are still below 85 and should be ok. The humidity in the room is still low the meeter is reading 20% and I can't really get it to go higher. The only way i see to do this would be to turn off the exhaust fan or buy a speed controller, which I don't really want to spend money on at this time. I've changed the light schedule from 24 on to 18 on 6 off. Last night before lights out I foliar fed them with .4ml of flora micro .2 ml calmag plus. This morning before lights on I foliar fed them with age old kelp. I would say that the foliar feeding has worked well the plants are already much more green. I also think that giving the plants a nap has helped most of the new leaves perked up in the morning looking for more light. I don't really plan on doing anything tonight, just to let them dry up a bit, tomorrow i plan on feeding them again. Any suggestions on PPM level at this stage? and also can I use cal/mag at this stage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glaucoma1 Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 K.I.S.S. Keep It Super Simple I think your doing to much. Your adding so many variables you wont know what worked. I hope they are doing better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledge Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Listen to Glaucomma1 and KISS. Hempy method and the Lucas method were made to make things as simple as possible. Give the girls at least 10 days to reach the res. and then they will take off. I have some @ 2.5' tall in a stander waste basket size bucket and they are in mid bloom and they drink appox a quart plus a day. Feed, then water and so on things should just be fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 yeah they were doing better. leaves were all reaching up for the lights and was getting some good growth. Now I'm having some other sort of issue, I think that i have a fungus or something it reminds me a lot of the blight I get on my tomato plants. I'm trying to figure that out now... Almost want to scrap this plant and start fresh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted February 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Wanted to post up a pic of progress. Thanks to all the help around here, and some patience the plant is looking remarkably healthy. Not perfect, but good enough to be proud of. Chopped it way back and let the new growth come in healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budpuffer Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 hello broken.i've been growing in nothing but hempy buckets for over a year now,i use perl/vert,3-1 ratio,never in just perlite..i water every 3-4 days...only with seedlings,or new cuttings do i water every day and then only by the cup..you can try a little super thrive, 6drops/per gal can't hurt...but if i had to take a guess i'd say you were nurt.heavy and i'd dilute alittle,check ph,that made a huge improvment with mine 5.8-6.1..i hopes this helps..it takes a bit to get clones established but they're not looking that bad so you've got a jump on it..good luck..zzb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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