My (rather unhappy) adventures in molasses

So this morning I dumped everything and mixed up a whole new batch. Some of the old stuff coming out seemed to have a slight "algae" type smell by which I was NOT amused. Ph was up around 6.5-7. The roots are only now beginning to come thru the bottom of the farms and there are a few that look brownish and nasty.....others seem fine....:( Checked ph this evening and again way up....started at 5.9 and some were above 7 in about 12 hours. The ones closest to the res seemed to have the least change to them and adjusted down with much less ph down than others.....some took 8mls or so of ph down to adjust....but at least they stayed there finally which was something I couldn't get them to do last night.....think I'll dump everything again in the a.m. and start fresh......oh did add a small amount of H202 to each w/f because of the smell......worries me. :blueknife:

So last night I had adjusted my buckets back down to 5.9 which took huge amounts of ph down (8mls or so on one bucket) but when I checked them an hour later the ph was already back up to 6.2 so I dumped everything for the second time that day and put fresh stuff in. The leaves were also beginning to curl downward but I'm not sure if that was due to the ph changes or just the constant water changes. ANYWAY....this morning they were all at about 6.5 BUT adjusted much more easily with much less ph down and for the most part are uncurled. I will check ph again a few times and change if necessary....no bad smell noticed this morning. .....:weedpoke:

Well your amount is correct but one more question?

Do you run a small pump on its side to keep your nutrients moving at all times this not only ad's oxygen but it keeps them mixed up completely as well and when you use RAW ingredients that is a must?

Personally Sweet is over rated in my opinion. Carb load is a better choice with molasses if you want to have the flavor and add real weight and not just water that will evaporate when you dry your final bud.

Ahhhhh....Bingo...they are the waterfarms so do drip continously but I couldn't say if that qualifies as "recirculate" but I would guess not.....frankly I'm afraid to deviate from my regular nutes at this point.....certainly was not a smart move on my part to change things in midstream....live and learn....(they live...I learn....):)

I do not know much about hydro...I like to keep it simple with soil....but with soil I love using mollases..I have never experianced a problem all i have done is boil a cup of water on the stove add to an empty gallon jug add i tablespoon of mollases fill up with h2o and feed between my regular watering with nutrients.

Isn't that funny because I struggled with soil for quite a while and never did well with it.....in hydro I love looking at all my little numbers and calling it "gardening". I am going to recommend to a friend of mine who grows outside to try the molasses in her grow......I just went about it in the wrong way by not studying it correctly before I jumped in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

.....in hydro I love looking at all my little numbers and calling it "gardening".
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ROFL you are the first person who has actually admitted to that aspect of hydro!!! hee hee
you rock

Lol Stinky. Hydro actually reminds more of stuff like lab tests etc and seems easier to me than soil....working with soil is so much more subtle. Yes you watch your plants of course but if something seems weird you can run a bunch of "labwork" and usually discover the problem.....soil just leaves me scratching my head (not a pretty sight to be sure):D

Forgot to update.....plants seem about 90% back to normal....have been changing solutions in the buckets twice a day as it was taking a fair amount of ph down every few hours which was still better than before......today everyone seems pretty happy and the ph rose at a much slower level---was able to adjust with a very small amount of ph down only three times (down from every 3 hours). I noticed that the three plants that seemed the worse off spent yesterday and today really sucking up water and leaving the nutes behind which actually started to lead to it's own problem. Luckily I noticed and diluted the solution and they perked right up. :) All that nursing care with patients who can't talk made me think I was at work, lol.

well I am glad they are doing better Weedhound :)