AK-47 in E&F - rockwool/clay medium (First Grow Log)

@icbh707 - I've been using airstones the whole time but the ones I'm using kinda suck I think to be honest but I did buy a pump for a 50 gallon aquarium and connected two airstones to it and run it 24/7.

I see you saying your using alot of CalMag...do you use RO water or just tap, and if your using tap, what is your ppm on your tap? Mine is 300ppm at 0.5 or 500, however you wanna say it. I want to use RO water, and I will be in the fall, I just don't have the money to afford one right now and I don't plan on growing throughout the whole summer, this will be my last attempt before the fall. I think its a good decision because I'm already having heat problems and its only going to get worse.

The sediment issue, I wish I would have had the forsight to have taken a picture at the time, but it was looking really dirty in the reservoir after only two weeks which really has me worried. I haven't used any hydrogen peroxide yet after draining the reservoir and cleaning it yesterday which I think could have been a contributing factor but at the same time I kinda wanna use it to kill any bacteria that may grow in there.

80 degree's F. My humidity is ~40% 24/7.

When you asked about the picture with the toothpic, I guess I don't know what "PM" is. The white stuff? If that is what your talking about I've always just assumed it was a calcium type buildup from the nutes but now I'm not so sure. I'm afraid it may even be a mold because I saw some hairy-looking white spot on a peice of hydroton yesterday. If you know anything about that please fill me in. Those hydroton peices on top are not directly touched by water so I was kind of curious why that buildup was occuring on them. Also in the past I get a kind of algae/fishy almost smell from my reservoir at the end of two weeks when I clean it....which is why I kind of feel the need to use the H202.

Lastly, I'll see about getting you a picture of the top of the tent but...bottom intake fan near the base of the tent, exhaust fan at the top of the tent, 8 ballast T5 lighting, and a large box fan mounted to the top of the tent in a corner and pointed slighty down that runs 24/7. I also have the exhaust and intake fans running 24/7. Non of my fans are directly pointed at any of the plants.

Hi Bert,

I would be shocked if you are getting a deficency with ionic this early on. are you handwatering or flooding it still? The fishy smell suggests to that the rockwool isn't drying out enough between waterings. That is the exact reason that I stopped with a rockwool/hydroton combo, the friggin smell. I stick by my thoughts about calmag, especially with tap over 300ppm, it is already hard. If you are still flooding it, I would hand water for awhile honestly and let the rw dry out a bit. You seem to be changing the resevoir alot for such small plants,possibly knocking everything off balance,each time if you hand water you will have more control of your feeding for a couple of weeks and you wont be wasting all that nute solution. I am guessing that it is an enviornmental problem rather than nute deficincey as ionic has everything that a mj plant requires and imo plants that size wouldn't absorb one specific nute from so much solution in such little time. If you saw explosive growth then this happened (and the ppms were dropping and the ph was rising), MAYBE, but as it looks now they havent produced enough up top to warrant even 1 resevoir change. Careful if you up the ppms much with plants that size otherwise you will burn them. Get us a close up of the pale leaves. I think that changing variables every day isnt doing much good either. Get a nice clean oxygenated 1/2-3/4 strength solution of ionic grow, ph 5.8-6 hand water for a week or 2 when the rw dries out a bit and you can be pretty sure that the nutrients are not the problem. I think you are giving them too much love. If you are still flooding them, you aren't following my advice anyway which completely defeats the purpose of trying to help you in the first place. At this point you need to get some roots down.
I have just got back from a weekend away working and will re read you thread about your enviornment tommorrow as I can hardly keep my eyes open.
P.S careful with the air con, if the condenser unit isn't outside the room it will suck all of your humidity out of the air, possibly more probs.


TTFN
Subzero.

@subzero - I'm going to follow your advice sub, I totally forgot about it to be honest. Is there any watering rotation you suggest?

To give some more info (I'll post pics later today) now the first and second sets of leaves are turning a grayish/whitish and shriviling up and dying which is now moving to the third set of leaves on almost every plant. The leaves start to slouch and then the tips get soft and start to turn grayish/whitish and it moves up the leaf until its totally shriviled up. I've had this issue before with prior plants as well. This isn't new. This death is not related to the white coloring I was getting on some of the leaves and I believe that to be a nute lockout of some kind, I mean the leaves were viritually white, and I've not had that happen before, but I thought it may be a combo of to little nutes, temperature, and maybe I'm not keeping it at the right PH (started at 5.6 steady and now between 5.8-6.0 from sub's recommendation).

Now, I've spent alot of time trying to figure out why I'm continually having problems and I think I may have somewhat answered at least a portion of it. The biggest difference I can think of between my grow, all your guys grows, and the place where I recieved my information is my blasted 40 gallon reservoir. First off, its not easy to manage 40 gallons of water EVERY week so I let it sit for two weeks and my grow store recommended that, possibily even longer. However, as has been said before alot of buildup occurs, the water gets stinky, and the ppm's just continue to shoot up. Also, a side affect to this large of a reservoir is that I cannot tell how much water these plants are taking in. Its so damn big I can't notice if the water level has changed unless I'm missing at least 3 gallons. 3 gallons in a 20 gallon reservoir however is very easily noticed and corrected, including that a 20 gallon is much easier to manage. To expound even further, my first grow was some swag beans that just took off initially but as they got larger, they started showing signs of nute burn which only got worse very rapidly. At the time I had no idea about ppm's and everyone told me I didn't need to add water because I'm using a 40 gallon reservoir. So, I would fill this 40 gallon with about 35 gallons (with 4tsp/gal. grow) every two weeks, add 1/2 strength nutes at the end of the first week, and then change the water on the second week without adding any more water at all. So here is the root of the problem at least with those particular first beans I tried growing. Now, with these plants in there that you've all seen, I know that isn't the problem, I've been adding a gallon at least of water every day and I damn near changed it all out after the end of the first week. I'm wondering if maybe I didn't clean my hydroton good enouph (which I really don't think I did, I soaked it in 1/2 strength h202 overnight and then rinsed it off from the faucet). Or maybe the water is getting kind of putrid but honestly I changed the water so damn much these last two weeks and they are still small that I can't think this is the issue. Lastly, where I got these beans, I just found out over the weekend that they could possibly be over 8 years old. Which may explain why they are being so tempermental as well.

I hope this extra information will enable you guys to come up with some more idea's because I'm out of them. As I said, with this particular grow right now I think that although the 40gal. reservoir has been the issue in the past, I don't think that it currently is the overall issue here, I'm thinking it may be the hydroton or the fact that the beans are so old or a combination of both. Also, I think I may be under-nuting them because for the last two weeks they have been at roughly 1/4tsp./gal. and the Ionic Grow bottle recommends 4tsp./gal. I'm starting to think these aren't going to make it either. As I said though, I'm going to try to swap the reservoirs this weekend (the only reason I'm not doing it right now is because I just drained the 40gal. cleaned it, and put fresh water/nutes/etc. in there so it should be good for a week).

Here are the photo's you requested.
[attachment=o216343] [attachment=o216344] [attachment=o216345] [attachment=o216346] [attachment=o216347]

More photo's...
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Sorry that some of them are out of focus, my camera kinda sucks like that where the image looks clear in the display and turns out all unfocused.

bert, why do you ask for help then ignore it? wtf? Anyway, I am patient and will give it one last shot. FOCUS! You are definately over watering those plants flooding them several times a day. The root system is small, I know this because not much is happening up top, simple.
3ml per liter is 1/2 strength ionic dose which is 12ml per gallon @ 4L=1 gallon (check this as imperial and us gallons are different). 3ml is about 1 tsp, I just went and measured it. so.... from the above formula providing that 4l= 1 gallon I would give them 4 tsp per gallon 1/2 dose. I looked at a bottle of Ionic grow this very afternoon with you in mind. Our instructions say 7 ml per liter which is 2 and a bit teaspoons per liter, which works out at 9ish tsp per gallon full strength. Do you think something got lost in translation? Can you get a liter measure and a ml syringe to do your mixing? Maybe they printed the labels wrong, it has happened before although not with gt that i am aware. You want 4tsp gallon ½ strength, 9 tsp gallon full strength. Is this how you interpret the instructions on the bottle? If not I would email growth technology and find out what gives BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE. Something aint right here, it looks like they either changed the strength for the n/American market or they fucked up their math. If it is the latter, this would likely be why you are having problems and why nobody else uses it over there!

Want to try an experiment?
I would try hand watering your worst plant around the rockwool when the rockwool dries out a bit, once a day? with 4 tsp per gallon I /G = (1/2 strength according to uk instructions), ph 5.7- 6ish and see if it bursts into life after a week. I am betting it will.

I have a few more thoughts but would like to get to the bottom of this first. Let me know how you get on.

Subzero. :thumbsup:

here you are bert this is on their site

Hydroponics
Mineral Nutrition Liquid Silicon Liquid Oxygen Growth Enhancement

Mineral nutrition is essential for plants in hydroponic system. It is easy to grow great crops with well-managed mineral nutrients.

Seedlings and Clones

EC: 1.5 mS
pH: 5.8â??6.2
Change tank every 10â??14 days


Make up IONIC Grow in the nutrient tank.
Use Hard Water formulations if necessary.

Add Liquid Oxygen to the tank â?? it can be added daily at 5 ml per 20 litres or every 2 days at 5 ml per 10 litres.
Young plants can be foliar fed with Nitrozyme. Mix in clean water at 5 ml per litre. Mist the whole plant in low light.
Repeat weekly until last 4 weeks.
GreenFuse Root can be given to seedlings, clones and young plants. Mix in water at 1 ml per litre warm water into Rockwool or other media. Can also be misted over foliage.

Young Plants

EC: 1.8 mS
pH: 5.8â??6.2


Maintain nutrient at around 1.8 mS with pH around 6.
Add Liquid Silicon at 1ml per litre. Check and correct pH back to 6. Repeat weekly.
Liquid Oxygen daily if possible.
GreenFuse Grow can be added to the tank with every tank change. Follow instructions carefully.
Maintain throughout the life of the crop.

Early Flowering

EC: 2.0 mS
pH: 5.8â??6.2
Change tank every 7â??10 days


Make up IONIC Grow in the nutrient tank. It is a good idea to use the Grow formulation for the first week of flowering period. Then switch to Bloom.
Use Hard Water formulations if necessary.
Add Liquid Silicon at 1ml per litre. Check and correct pH back to 6. Repeat weekly.
Liquid Oxygen daily if possible.
GreenFuse Bloom can be added to the tank with every tank change. Add at 1â??2 ml per litre and mix thoroughly.
Maintain throughout the life of the crop.

Flowering

EC: 2.0 mS
pH: 5.8â??6.2
Change tank every 7 days


Make up IONIC BLOOM in the nutrient tank.
Add IONIC BOOST at 1 ml per litre of tank volume. Repeat twice weekly
Keep EC around 2.0 mS and pH at 6 or slightly under.
Add Liquid Silicon at 1ml per litre. Check and correct pH back to 6. Repeat weekly.
Liquid Oxygen daily if possible.
GreenFuse Bloom can be added to the tank with every tank change. Add at 1â??2 ml per litre and mix thoroughly.



Tank Changes â?? the sequence
1. Empty old tank â?? rinse thoroughly and fill with fresh water.
2. Use pump if possible to stir and agitate the water.
3. Add the appropriate IONIC nutrient solution â?? usually at around 7 ml per litre. Mix thoroughly.
4. Check EC â?? add more nutrient if necessary â?? mixing well until EC is at desired level (usually 1.5â??2 mS).
5. If using BOOST â?? add now at 1â??2 ml per litre in the tank. Mix well.
6. If using Liquid Silicon â?? add now at 1ml per litre of tank volume.
7. Check and correct the pH (ideal range 5.8â??6.2). Use pH DOWN to lower pH. If pH needs raising then Liquid Silicon is the best option.
8. Add Liquid Oxygen at the recommended rate and make a final check of pH before allowing nutrient to circulate to plants.
9. If GreenFuse (or any other organic additive) is being used, it should be added now. It may be a good idea to reduce the application of Liquid Oxygen to 50% of the recommended rate if using GreenFuse.

The IONIC Schedule is also available for download in pdf format - click here.

Subzero :stoned:

@subzero - Very sorry, I wasn't trying to ignore you I honestly forgot you said to cut the watering down (have alot of stuff going on in my life right now so its been pretty crazy the last couple weeks). On another note, here is snap shot of my bottle stating "5ml per liter or 4 tsp per gallon" This is where I got the 4 tsp per gallon. It also says a target EC of 1.8 for most applications...per the chart at the bottom of the page HERE that would mean my target PPM for the nutrient solution would be 900ppm. As of right now, I've been keeping my overall ppm between 400-600 which means I'm only adding between 100-300ppm of the nutrient solution? So if I want to go 1/2 strength nute solution like your saying, I would go 450ppm nutes and with 300ppm water would put me at 750ppm?

[attachment=o216366] [attachment=o216367]

Wow, I just deleted everything I typed with one f'ing button....sigh. Anyways, what I was trying to say in a summary...my light times right now is 5pm-11am. My watering schedule is 4 times a day for 10 minutes at time (gives it just enouph time for the water to touch the bottom of the rockwool cubes for about 4 minutes). In my past 3 attempts I was watering 4 times a day for 30 minutes at a time and the water was totally submerging the rockwool cubes. Now I'm following subzero advice, and I cut the pump off before the lights kicked on yesterday (4/20/09) and watered them once at about 2am by hand pouring ~12oz. of water on the hydroton around the rockwool cubes per plant. When I checked in on the plants this morning at 8am (4/21/09) they seemed more droopy than where they were at yesterday. I will give an update when the lights kick on at 5pm later today.

Hi,
No worries, the rockwool must be moist, not soaking wet, 600-650 ppm (at x500 scale) is where I would run it. If they are drooping, water your worst one and wait 1/2 an hour then look again, if it has perked up they need more water. if not it is probably a heat issue. I understand that you are running the lights on at night and cant keep checking them but you wont get roots down properly if you overwater. 8 year old seeds aint great but usually it would be a germination problem and obviously that isnt the case otherwise we wouldn't be here now. Buttttt. If you want to do this seriously get some good seeds off the internet, not from a mate. Indicas are better for beginners than sativas. diseases can spread through seed stock as well so who knows what you are growing really.

The tent, please find time to read my thread on pvc tents on page 1 of sick plants. Don't be stubborn and discount this as a problem as i have been growing for years without a major problem until this issue bit me on the ass, and it bit me big time. I lost all confidence in growing and almost gave up. now I'm back a little more wise and things are looking bigger and better than ever.

I believed you about what the bottle said but i would still email gt and find out why the labels vary between the uk and canada.

Talk soon,
Subzero.