Progress?

[Illusion]

I've noticed that the very tippy tip tips of the roots are kind of shriveling and turning brown, besides that they look nice and happy.

I would love to know how old these are. I know they are well over a month old. Have I stumbled upon the world's slowest growing strains?

Overall, for those of you who remember the pictures from my last post- How is my progress?

PH Drifts from 5.5 - 6.1

I haven't added any more nutrients in the past week. I had it around 250, and It's raised to 320! Ph and PPM rises slowly every day.

Wouldn't you think by their age and size they could take more nutrients? Is it possible that the couple of inches in the bottom of the flood tray (which is aerated) could be evaporating water, and leaving nutrients which is why the ppm goes up, and its not that the plant is using more water than nutrients?

Also, the first set of leaves at the very tips are browning, I don't believe its nutrient burn, but may be heat stress from early stages.

Tell me what you guys think! :jointsmile:

[Illusion]

Here are pictures of the roots, also the last picture is of Mr Droopy who is supposed to be dead.

[klondike_bar]

nice photoshop work :p

they look very small for nutes, but im not sure about nutrients during hydro, never tried.

in soil however, nutes dont start till they are several times that size

[Illusion]

If I recall correctly a *guideline* for hydro is:

first 2 weeks, no nutrients
third week (or first set of true leaves) - 1/4 strength
fourth week - half strength
fifth week - full strength


These are five weeks old already, ppm around 300 (it raises) which is only 100ppm higher than the highest rated tap water i've seen. (Im using reverse osmosis water with ppm of 25)



Here are two shots from 14 days ago

[Weedhound]

What are you feeding them? 300ppm of what exactly?

What's going on in your room (besides how the plants look) makes you think the problem is heat? What's your lighting etc?


Unfortunately.......your last post escapes me......can you remind me of what was going on?

Ps....How often are you calibrating or checking your ph meter?

[Illusion]

300ppm of mostly maxigrow and cal-mag with a titch of liquid karma and superthrive. Next reservoir change I will only use 150ppm of maxigrow, and 150ppm of cal-mag. ill try to keep it more simple


I use the general hydroponic liquid test stuff. Compare to color chart. I don't like digital stuff, i am too existential.




250w HPS light about 16" away. constant 75F daytime temp, RH 30%.

Need to check the nighttime temps... maybe too cold at night = slow growth?

I mentioned heat because it was in a hot closet after germination for about a week 90F+, but since has been in 75F temps

stunted cuz of stress early in grow.. seems like they are snapping out of it. besides mr droopy.

[Weedhound]

Liquid testing....good....more accurate than the machines imo. You might try crawling up the numbers (VERY slowly) and see if that helps. Watch your ph carefully....if you overdue the nutes usually the first sign you will see your ph rising. ;)

[Weedhound]

You know.....I swear that looks like a ph issue to me in one way or another. I don't suppose you have a way to doublecheck your ph against your liquid test? For some reason (and im not sure why) your plants just seem to look like an abnormal ph problem....and not a small one either.

[Illusion]

Sure!

I have two identical liquid test bottles, two vials.

When I fill both vials, and use one test liquid bottle for one vial, and the other test liquid bottle for the last vial, both vials filled with the same water source- they both show up exactly the color and hue.

I know that's not exactly the best test since they are both made by the same company. But I'm positive that its doing what it was intended to do. General hydroponics so I trust it.

Were you looking at Mr Droopy and thinking pH problems? My other plants seem fine, just extremely slow growth (which could be contributed to pH problems?)

I'm going to take a picture of the babies (except mr droopy) under flourescent lighting with the HPS off, so you can see what the coloration is like, and then upload them to this post.

thank you for your help!

[Weedhound]

Yes the slow growth is what makes me wonder about the ph.....good for you to check and double check everything. :thumbsup:

i'll keep thinking and watching and see if I can come up with anything. :)

[herbie the love bud]

Looks and sounds to me like you have nutrient lock in the plants. Get some FlouroKleen and use the directed amounts to flush everything for a few days. The start over with about 400 ppm of nutes and cal-mag combined.

Get some air flow from a fan on those babies and in about a week or so they are going to take off!

[GDS StonerBoy]

This sounds like the exact ph problems i was having. I vote that its a ph issue! If it isnt taking care of your plants may soon suffer the same fate as my 10PPP's,9 papaya's and 9 C99's! Yes I lost 28 seedlings to a ph problem and letting an inexperienced person watch over them.

[Illusion]

Is it from pH fluctuations? too high pH, or too low?

I don't live near any hydroponic shops and really don't have money for florakleen..

Is there anything I could do besides using florakleen?

[herbie the love bud]

if you really can't afford flouro than just use distilled water with no additives/nutes.
When filling the rez, pour some over the hydroton to help flush what is still in your rooters.

The next few days your ph will go up slightly as the plants leach it all out. Then start to add your nutes slowly

[Illusion]

Been saving up water for the reservoir change. 10 more gallons to go

In the meantime, I have shut off the water pump, and have been manually watering them with pH corrected water with no nutrients (in hopes in would reverse any potential nutrient lockout)



Here are some some shots.

These are taken 8 days after the pictures in the beginning of the post, 22 days after the seedling shot i posted later.



Are they growing guys, what do you think?
Let me know!!

[herbie the love bud]

yeah, they're growing. Now go back to really light nutes. Total ppm 600 or so. After a week go to 850 and so on. You'll be fine.

[Opie Yutts]

It looks like they're growing to me. You might try the same thing with your light as you do your nutes. Move it a little closer very gradually, until you see signs of heat stress, then move it back a notch and keep it that far away. I think I have my 600W that far away, but I'm using a cool tube and a small fan blowing up at the light.

The best way to tell is by measuring leaf temp with a laser thermometer, and keep it under 80. But there goes another $30-60.