total newbie needs help

[blondie68]

Hi all,
I need some help. I am a new caregiver and a green thumb is not my strong point.
I have a self contained unit that I got from sunlight sheds. It is hydro and has a 400watt M.H. suggested to me for limited grow space with maximum yield. (it's in my living room) there are 3 seedlings, 1 looks pretty healthy and the other 2 have little yellow spots on the leaves, looks like they are unhappy. also after a week they are only approx 2" tall.
Hydro resovoir
Water is very warm, is this normal?
PH 6.6
PPM 250-300 added 1/2boost & 1/2grow two days ago, too soon?
approx 85 degrees f in the box
also doing a 24/7 on light, too much?
Any help would be greatly appreciated (like i said i am a total newbie at this:confused: )

[HighSeekerz]

Too hot. Too much nutes. Too much Light. (I do 24/7, but only after the plants get larger. Those don't even qualify as plants yet... Also, the two leaves that come out 1st have enough nutes for the plant to grow for 1 month. I am not suggesting that, however, nutes at this early stage will burn up the roots. They are TOO DELICATE.

#1 problem with Newbies: Too Much of EVERYTHING!

(I did it all too! Don't take offense!)

Flush them with room temp clean water. GENTLY! Water lower than 80 degrees for sure... Then go to 18/6 so the cab can cool everyday. Temp should stay under 80 degrees I believe... Anyways... Good Luck. I will keep an eye and see how it goes!

Post more pics showing all you have going on so we can SEE!

[blondie68]

Thank you,
I will do that and take some more pics so that you can see the whole system

[caliorbust]

your plants can handle those nutes dont worry, i start my plants off with a 500-600ppm after a week of water, however your ph is way to high, bring it down to 5.8, and your resivior shouldnt be warm it should be cool, get a monitor for your res temps they should be 72F, also your room temps should be about 5-8 degrees cooler, good luck


also my question for highseekerz: being that this is a hydroponic grow under HID lamps, and in this particular grow most would veg 4-6 weeks max, why would you advise someone that the sun leaves hold enough nutes for one month? yes its true they hold enough nutes to get the sprout started but being that this is a newb that information could be misinterpreted, im not picking at you by any means i just dont wanna see someone go down the wrong path when they could have gotten maximum results with proper nutrition, being that those plants are on there second set of leaves i would recommend raising nutes, i think its the temps and ph holding this grower back

[caliorbust]

one more thing on your lights, 24/7 is good under flouros but not good under HID, there is much controversy to 24/7-18/6 which is better, but in one of the latest issues of maximum yeild theres an article on what your plants do at night, alot of the clorophyll produced during the day is used at night, as well as cell development and repair, if you get a chance to pick it up its a wealth of information, i personally run my sprouts for a week under 24/7 flouros then switch to MH at 18/6

[blondie68]

hello,
I have taken the seedings and rinsed them and adjusted the ph as suggested they look happier.
I have some more questions if thats ok.

I just got a timer today so im not sure how the temp is gonna work out it seems to run high and im not sure how to solve that problem(im attaching pic of unit i hope it is helpful can also look it up at sunlightsheds.com its a coolcab) will see if the timer helps.

with a 400w M.H. no floros available should i just go with the 18/6?
the pics are of 10 day olds when should i give them nutes and how much?
please include ph and ppm info with nutes if possible i have a meter to measure those.

not sure how to cool the res. down it seems to be going thru about a gallon a day that i can replace should that be as cold a water that i can get out of the tap to help cool?
thank you for all of the help:dance:
Blondie

[blondie68]

here are the close ups i got
any help is greatly appreciated(i wont take offense i am newb)
thanks again,
blondie

[caliorbust]

i would like to help but i have a few questions for ya, what type of fan is cooling your mh? and how strong are those fans in the side wall of your grow box, from the looks it seems you have adequit air exchange, what are the temps out side your box? is the box in an enclosed room or a room that gets plenty aeration? air exchange may not be your problem you may just be sucking that hot air back into the box

as for your nutes i think it would be safe to say you can start them at 300-400 ppms and gradually work your way up, i go up to 1500 by the 3rd week of veg and hit as high as 1800-1900 in flower, i think as soon as you get your temps in check you will have less evaporation cause those plants being that small are not using a gallon a day, also do you know your humidity?

[Weedhound]

Man you don't have a problem with nute burn going to 1800-1900? The highest I ever to is about 1300 and that's at the end of flowering. My plants would drop over and die at that nute strength. What strain are you growing Cali?

[caliorbust]

ive never had nute burn as long as ive been monitoring my ph and ppm, i think propper ph is key to not burning them, my grow room is very stable as well, i run my nutes as pure blend pro flower-1500ppm, liquid karma-100ppm, silica blast-100ppm, cal mag-100ppm, comes out to 1800ppm, but i am in my 3rd week of flower, its under a 1000watt hps, ebb and flow system, ph 5.6, 75F, 50% relative humidity, 72F res temps, 1000ppm co2, i'm growing blueberry and hindu kush, have you tried to raise your ppm's and gotten bad results? what kind of nutes are you using?

[monty5309]

I have ran some at 1400 ppm & they just can't get enough with their leaves just barely turning down then have had some that just bend and sag until you have to back off a couple of hundred ppm. After talking with some subject matter experts… I try to keep my pH @ 5.2 - 5.5 during rooting the 1st wk. I use APS (& rooting solution) and the pH is down around 5.0 for either cloning or seedling keeping the ppm count below 300 ppm. You’ll see a lot of new growth after a few days. Then stop the rooting or they will bush up like all hell. Just bring up the nutes a little each week. 300…400...500… Typically I run my vege nutes early at 800 ppm but always hit them with auxiliary supplements that drive the nute count up to 1000–1200 ppm until I flush and start over. And with evaporation and the plants uptake, 2 farms can take close to 2 gals/days. The ppm count goes up as water evaporates or is used. Top off with straight water after adj Ψ (if you have a reservoir then make your adj accordingly. Probably won’t have to…it will read about 700-800 after dumping 300 ppm pH adj, Calcium adj, Anything else adj tap water. When they are feeding, it doesn’t take much to drive the count up and pH up. I generally add Calcium to the water here since it is so soft. Takes about a tblspn per 6 gal to get the ppm count up to 300 ppm. Helps with the Nitrogen uptake. Typically I run my nutes in early bloom at 1000 ppm but always hit them with auxiliary supplements that drive the nute count up to 1200–1400 ppm until I flush and start over. Same kinda thing. Hit them with some bud blaster the 1st week and then again the 2nd to the last week supplementing with Booster all along the bloom cycle with the normal bloom nutes after they have settled in and are drinking hard. What are anyone’s opinion about the size and quality of bud running nutes at 1000 ppm vs. 1200-1400 ppm. Unless you’re growing the same strain how do you know what’s best. I have had better luck – taste-wise and potency-wise running at 1000 ppm. Cheaper too. For light…. 2 ea Sun 125 w Growlight (Vege bulb 2700) for clones, 1 ea 400 MH w /2 ea Sun 125 w Grow for vege and 1000 HPS for bloom…
Ψ - The Adj (prepping water for nutes) – B1 ThriveALive, SM-90, Prosilex, Calcium, pH Correction, Super Oxy H2O2, etc.
I am in total agreement with caliorbust about pH count being so important...
Monty

[blondie68]

Hiya, Happy Friday!
wanted to answer caliorbust questions. colling for mh 250 cfm inline fan there is a 55cfm side mounted fan the two fans in pic are 6" duct fans that is the only info i can find printed on those fans. average temp outside the bos is approx 70f. box is not enclosedit is in my small low ceiling(top of box is approx 11" from ceiling) living room. I have moved box from original location as a found a heater vent under the carpet to an area where there are no heating vents back of box to wall with windows approx foot and half away from wall. Having a major temp problem the top shelf of box is at 85f bottom of box by res going to 98f water in res at 88.7f. i am keeping door cracked to keep the temps down to about 82 to 85 while light on door open. humidity at 30. light off door closed temp is 79.1 water temp 81.2 humidity 36. i have light on 18/6.
I think i'm going to have to move it somewhere where is has more space.
my ppm is currently at 220 in res ph is 5.8
i have B.C. boost and grow any suggestions on the best mix for the best results?
look forward to any and all info
blondie

[crazywill]

Nice setup are you going to switch to HPS when you flower your girls?:thumbsup:
I would try and up the humidity alittle.You can put ice cubes in a zip-lock bag and place them in the res, to drop the temp in the res if you need to drop down the res temp. Keep us posted on what works and dosent work.:smokin:

[blondie68]

thank you, i am planning on switching to hps when flowering. never thought about putting ice cubes in great thought i will try it. i'm not sure how to raise the humidity except to try and find a humidifier that will fit in the unit. i live in a semi arid climate, humidity sits at around 30 most of the time.
i will take more pics later.
thanks for all the input
blondie

[blondie68]

hello,
well had a moment, lol, and posted new pics but not under this thread the other thread is new pics more ?'s
have decided to go ahead and flower the girls as they are 4weeks and if they get 3x the size there isn't going to be room.
i have switched to a 400w hps, timer on 12/12 changed out the res and refilled with 2/1 boost/bloom at 500ppm? ph at 5.9
temp in room is 79 temp of res high 60's
please let me know if there is something i need to change i dont want to stress these babies out.
thanks in advance
blondie

[blondie68]

ok i've had the girls on a 12/12 cycle since 11/17/06
they have exploded.
but today i noticed that one of them had a really yellow leaf
wondering if it is the res temps?
i'm having a problem with my res temp it is in the 80's
i was using a frozen gallon jug of water to keep the temp of the res down but am afraid to put the gallon in now cause i don't want to hurt the root systems.
Help, how do i fix this?:confused:
thanks in advance
blondie

[Perp]

Better than ices cubes, get an empty 2lt pop bottle and fill 3/4 will water and freeze. Have two or three of these ready to be switched out as needed.

Roots need to be kept cool, and high res temps are one of the main reasons hydro setups fail.

And lower your PH.

Also, you do not ever have to run your lights 24 hours. Respiration stops after about 18 hours so you are just wasting energy. Your plants do not grow faster. There is much research on this all over the net. That is why 18/6 is recommended for best growth and energy efficiency.