Second Hydro Grow, please comment

This is my second Hydro Grow. They seem to be growing very well. I took one of the 8 seeds once they all cracked and put it into soil to see what the different amount of growth would be.. WOW,, what a huge difference. I am hoping this one in the soil will be female, so I can have it for my mother.

This strain in Northern Lights.

These plants are 9 days old from the time the seeds Popped the top on the rapid rooters to today.

There is one plant that a couple of leafs that are curling up like it wants to roll itself into a joint right now. What do you guys think is causing this, and is it any big deal?

Lights: 6 cfls, and one t-5 tube light. PH is about 5.8, PPM is about 900.

Toke long and hard my friends:bigsmoke:

Looks cool except for ppm.
Get it down to 300 or so at that early age or your gonna burn em up .
Peace
Crispi :jointsmile:

that is the ppm with the calm mag+ and the Hygrozyme and the Pot of Gold, and Liquad Karma also. is 300 just with the nuts or everything? I am useing Botanicare- Pureblend and Power Plant.

I am useing rockwool for my medium, wouldn't this itself raise my PPM the first week or so? when I started out my PPM was only 600PPM and I have not added any nuts. I did soak it and condition it, but I would think you could not rise out all the small rock dust unless you took hours and hours of rinseing.

I mixed my nuts and everything at about 25-35% strength. Nuts at 25%

the system you have doesn't have clay pebbles right?? like crispi said your PPM is too high. 300PPM is optimal for the age with 400PPM being max. You need to measure the PPM of your water before adding anything and then add nutrients. Don't add any supplements at this point they are too young. You should start with very mild nutrients (300ppm range) and add those other things when the time comes in later veg state and flowering phases. If your PPM are that high before adding any nutrients you are adding way too much. Follow the label's instructions EXACTLY and if ever a question, reduce strength. Its always best to start off with less of everything. You have a little backwards, its nutrients first then supplements not the other way around. Also, your pH should be around 5.2 - 5.5 at this young age. Then bump it up gradually to 5.8 and 6.0 You're off to a good start just need to make some adjustments and maybe read the FAQ a little more.

Never used rockwool as a medium ?
Are you using r/o water ? Stuff right outa the taps usually about 100 ppm by itself too , atleast w/ city water . I'd just top the system off w/ p/h'd water to try to bring the ppm down a lil still .
Peace
Crispi :jointsmile:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by deftdrummer

If your PPM are that high before adding any nutrients you are adding way too much. Follow the label's instructions EXACTLY and if ever a question, reduce strength. Its always best to start off with less of everything. You have a little backwards, its nutrients first then supplements not the other way around.

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Well I did lower what the instructions said for seedlings, so you Assumed I did not.
Second you assumed I do not read about this stuff a lot, I have and still do, videos and all. But there are so many different oppinions. I first read to keep you temp at about 75-90f, now I am thinking it is 75-80f, with 30-40% rh, who the hell do I believe.
And the first sentence makes no sence.
But agree I might have to much stuff in my res this go around.

But one thing you have to remember. I use R/O with a PPM of 10-30, and after adding the nuts, and Liquad Karma I am at about 340 PPM, with everything else I add it went to 600, and in about two days the ppm raised to 900ish with no real water use, some but not much.

I think I will just go get another 2 gallons of R/O to be safe. I keep it at 6 gallons in the Res, but I can go up to 8 easy.

Oh, one more thing, I thought the Hygrozyme and the pot of gold and cal mag do not count into the equation for burning your plants? The Cal Mag can over load your plants with the Iron Cal, Mag and such but not burn. Did I read wrong.


So lets here from some people? Who thinks I should not use these things, and who thinks I should, because I am following a nut and suppliment sechdule I read about. But then again, how do I know this guy knew what he was talking about. Also I did rather well my last harvest. So maybe I am screwing up now. Last time i just used the Pure Blend and power Flower for vegg time

1 lets start from a known:thumbsup:
Get some full service , full service 40 watt cool white bulbs:D
2 The starting ppm of you water
Now add , starting at 400 over the water you have:thumbsup:
3 What does the plant say:Tomcat::thumbsup:
You want about 1/16-1/8 leaf tip burn, to maximize groth
4 Ph should be around 6.0 to 5.4 for maximize plant up take
I have used 1300 ppm for years with a 600 (yea tape watre) (There tons of micro chem' , from iron, copper, etc in normal tape water
It takes about 3 days for a plant to tell you what it needs. Watch you plants, and they will tell you.
AND THE RULE OF THUMB IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG FLUSH THE HELL OUT OF THEM
One more note the larger the res, the more stabel it is , and alway go slow when adding chem, ferts.
And once your plants get to 1/3 - 1/2 the max height convert to Warm White bulbs.
Put them CPL to good use in the trash, or closet where the boogie man hides.
Note I use Cool white 38 watts till they get to 30-36 in hight in 1/2 gallon pots. :D

Who the hell veggies until 36" tall in a Hydro system inside. I am sure some people do, but not most. Second, TONS of people use CFL's for vegging time. CFL= Condensed floresent Lights. Third, would be nice if people read the whole thread before telling me what I need. Especially since two people so far Have told me I need what I already have.

I think I will just grow the way I did my last hydro grow. 1.5 oz of hard sticky buds, per plant is not bad.

I CAN NOT BELIEVE, that my lights are not good enough for vegging. (6)43 actual watt COOL WHITE!!!!!!!CFLS and one t-5 4' COOL WHITE tube floresences. I have a 400 watt light I can drop in there, but why? No need for that in vegging. Right now I am building a room, which will have inlet and outlet 20" fans and an Air Conditioner Unit, oscilatting fan, and mylar walls. 3'X3' growing tray, with a 20gallon res. I am having trouble with the heat, or I would use the 400 watt multi light. This is why I just bought a 5,050 BTU AC unit. I will just use my 400 watter as my 400 HPS light like I did last grow.

There are two threads right now, of people who have plants like the one guy that is 21 days into vegging, and mine are as big and nice as his. Some of you guys are helpful, but others are like feeding sharks.

Also, I talked to the guys at the hydro store, and they all said YES, Rock Wool will make your PPM jump the first week. But, I wanted to be on the safe side, I was going to go another 4 days before a res change. But I changed it out today. I dropped back to just Pure Blend and Power Plant, and a Little Hygrozyme. ppm=325, also bought a new digital ph meter, got old that looking at a color chart and trying to guess what PH you have. PH=5.3, it will raise maybe .1-.2 by tomorrow. My ph has really leveled out nicely now.

Here are a couple of pictures, You guys tell me what is wrong with these lights for vegging. And if My plants are doing so horrible, Maybe I should just kill the little shits and start over.

And the 1/8 nut burn on the tips.. why would you want to run that fine line? Step over it and POOF!!!

Thanks most everyone for you help, But as I said before, you read and read and read, and who do you believe? Well one person I do not believe is you (Oldsanclem), you might be the God of all Bud growers, But to many things you wrote and over looked make me not trust your abilities.

Oh, also, I got these seeds 12 days ago, they have been in my hydro system for 9 days now. 1 day to crack, 2 days to pop out from the rapid rooters, with roots, and 9 days in hydro.

These plants went the first 7 days with straight r/o water. My nuts jumped from 340-360 to 900ish in two days on their own. See some people did not read all the thread. And do not even ask if I soak and conditioned, go back and READ>>>>>>

One thing no one tried to answer was the real question I asked, Why are those two leafs rolling up like a joint. Well one person got it correct, but never addressed the question.

I do really thanks those who read the thread and helped. I am sure my plants are safer now.

Oppps 10 days in hydro.

CFL are ok for vegetation and if you are happy then it's fine. But if you ask for comments from people to grow more yield in the same system and the same amount of time then give mH a try.

One thing though right now you don't have heat as an issue do you? That's a good thing to not have to fight heat or the expense of fighting heat. MH will produce heat for sure, so the trade off is more money spent to just use a MH bulb.

You are doing fine, but for your efforts I bet we can help you get 2 oz or more per plant for the same amount of time spent.

To properly use MH you should have an air cooled hood with the proper blower to push outside air through your room. Or you can set it up with a "Y" and use a good exhaust to do both jobs. Still you are spending more money and need more room. A 400w would be nice (not required) and not too much heat but you would still need to have an air cooled hood.

There is not some mag issues with the one plant front left maybe?

Its hard to tell from the picture but I see what may be a sign of needing some CalMag.

How are you checking your Ph?

I have calmag+. it is only two leafs that did this. they were the first two leafs to come out of that plant. No other leafs have curled like that. And the two that did never got any worse. I think it is just the way they are. I had a Dwarf Plant the last time. When it popped out of the medium it looked all deformed, but it was one of my best producing plants by the end. It was cool. The stock split into two plants, so it had two colas. It looked like a Banzi Plant.

On the 400watt MH light, I already have one, but my house is at 80++ degrees right now. I would love to use it for my vegging, But I know that even with a Ventilated Hood my temps in my room will be 90+. This is why I am building a new room which will have a 5,050 BTU AC unit in it, so I can then put my 400 watt HPS light in there, while flowering. I want to try and keep my temps down to about 75-80 degrees in there.

I am checking my PH with a digital PH pen. My PH is at 5.3 right now.

On my first part of this thread I did not ask how to get a higher Yield. I am already certain I will get a bigger Yield.

I was useing those PH drops, with the color chart. And My PH increased each day pretty fast. From what I have read and heard, I am thinking this is the only real problem I had. My PH is pretty stable now.

I did not add nuts for the first 7 days at all. On the 7th day I added nutes to 330ish PPM then added calmag+, Pot of Gold, Hygrozyme, Liquad Karma, all these items I added at 25% of what they suggested for seedlings. This schedule I read on one guys thread. after all this items were added my PPM was about 650. But within two days it was up at almost 900, with very little water use. I did a res. change and this time only added my nuts. In 4 days I will do another res change and go back to adding everything again. This will be at the 14 day point.

Ok, here is a picture of my Light and AC unit. Once I hit flowering my room will be under 80f, and I will have my 400watt hps light above and (6) 43 watt cfls, and a t-5 48" light on the side. Full mylar walls.
My next grow will have a room set up for vegging also, In that grow I will use a 400watt MH light and the cfls also. You have to remember, it is 110f outside right now, and hits 120 easy in the middle of summer. So heat is a bitch, even with cfls.

Sorry if I got defensive, But when I started this I figured it would be maybe $100, I am pushing $1,000 right now. I think my set up is pretty nice for the second grow. You guys do not see my other set up, my room, my fans, my semi automatic res change out system i built or anything. WHICH I AM SO HAPPY I BUILT. Now my plant tray does not sit on my Res. I can change my Res in my flower room in nothing flat. 5 minutes of time to change, 5 minutes of time to clean. That includes emptying my Res also. Next I am going to set it up where I have R/O water running to my grow rooms. Carrying, and buying that water is the worst part of changing my Res. Even though it is at most stores out front in a machine for .25 cents a gallon. It is not the money, it is the work. Fill the Jugs, put them in you truck, drive home, carry the SOB's up stairs, then try and pour them into tank with out spilling them.

This new set up is so easy. throw a valve, throw a switch, wait a minute, shut off switch, add nuts, check ppm, check PH. throw another valve, walla Res. is changed

Ok, here is a picture of my Light and AC unit. Once I hit flowering my room will be under 80f, and I will have my 400watt hps light above and (6) 43 watt cfls, and a t-5 48" light on the side. Full mylar walls.
My next grow will have a room set up for vegging also, In that grow I will use a 400watt MH light and the cfls also. You have to remember, it is 110f outside right now, and hits 120 easy in the middle of summer. So heat is a bitch, even with cfls.

Sorry if I got defensive, But when I started this I figured it would be maybe $100, I am pushing $1,000 right now. I think my set up is pretty nice for the second grow. You guys do not see my other set up, my room, my fans, my semi automatic res change out system i built or anything. WHICH I AM SO HAPPY I BUILT. Now my plant tray does not sit on my Res. I can change my Res in my flower room in nothing flat. 5 minutes of time to change, 5 minutes of time to clean. That includes emptying my Res also. Next I am going to set it up where I have R/O water running to my grow rooms. Carrying, and buying that water is the worst part of changing my Res. Even though it is at most stores out front in a machine for .25 cents a gallon. It is not the money, it is the work. Fill the Jugs, put them in you truck, drive home, carry the SOB's up stairs, then try and pour them into tank with out spilling them.

This new set up is so easy. throw a valve, throw a switch, wait a minute, shut off switch, add nuts, check ppm, check PH. throw another valve, walla Res. is changed

It's coming toghether. That's good. It's all about tuning it in. Keep us posted.Good luck. Once you get past that startup cost it's great.

Happy growing!

My PH is at 5.4 right now. I will be doing a Res Change in 3 days, at that point my plants will be 14 days old. Should I boost my PH up to like 5.6 then, and boost my PPM to about 600 I am thinking. then slowly raise it each res change until I hit about 1,000 PPM? Or until my plants start singing the BLUES.

Here are a few pictures of my plants at 11 days from planting. the last picture is of my system for raising and lowering my lights. It works out very well, and is very cheap.

My temp in my House is 80 degrees right now, and my vegggy room is at about 82. My Res is at about 82f also. I am hoping to get my Res Temp down to like 75 degrees in my flowering room. Even if i have to vent some of my air from the AC unit I bought straight into my Res water like a Bubble Machine.

Not that great of pictures. I did not want to move my 48" light.

Happy Smoken to all you..:smokebong:

OH>> P.S. My next time around I will also have a Air Conditioned room just for Vegging. So Next time I will drop in my 400 watt MH light. I could not do it this time around. I needed the 400 watts in my flowering room more. and I can only have time to build one room right now. Going to work eats up a lot of my time. WORK SUCKS at eating up my time. I need a job that I show up and Noon, leave at 1PM, and get an hour paid lunch.

looks good cant wait to see how these turn out..

Look at the first pictures from 3 days ago, in first post. and then look at these. I think they grew rather well in those 3 days.

Maybe i should just remove the door from that room, and replace it with a plywood door, with my AC unit fitted in it, so I can drop in my 400watt MH light. That would be the best. Heck with it. I will leave it as I have it. I have work to do on my flowering room.

See the difference from the 7 Hydro Plants, and that one plant in soil?

looking good man. Temps sounds a little high but they are doing good.
Drop in the 400 and you will see much more.
Keep us posted.

Yah more heat....lol

Just bought all the supplies for building my new Flowering room. My Plant tray is 3'X3'. with a 40 gallon Resevoir. Mylar walls. 5,050 BTU ac unit, inlet fan, outlet fan, and and oscilateing fan. 400watt HPS light, with (6) 43 watt CFL lights and one T-5 light for the side lighting.

Some of the people in here say your plant will tell you what it needs.

Well, if you notice in my pictures. I have covers for my rock wool blocks, to keep the light off of them. I just took a peak under them. They have roots growing out the top of the rockwool. they look nice and healthy. Real white and fresh looking. Anyone understand what my plant is trying to tell me?:weedpoke:

Just did a Nut Change out today. My plants are starting to drink more water now. Not like when flowering, But I can see the increase. These plants are now 14 days old. This Northern Lights really seem to like to grow short and fat.

I just started building my flowering room today. I hope to have it built by sometime tomorrow.

Here are a few new pictures.

The one plant there in the soil is the same strain and just as old as the hydro plants. What a difference.

I just finished building my Flowering room. It is 4'X10'. I used the white and black 6 mil Poly, I bought at the Hydro store. The white side reflects 90% of the light, and the black side lets zero light through.I have my AC unit already installed, It works great. Tomorrow I am connecting my Water filteration unit so I will no longer have to buy and carry water. I will have R/O water with the turn of a valve. I also installed one of those light hangers. The ones where you can easily raise and lower you lights with no effort at all. Now I will not have to battle with the high temperatures anymore.

Here are a few pictures of my new room.

Wow I think you are on a roll,Plants look great.The pix of the AC You will have problems with it down on the floor.I live in a hot state too and we did that samething and the exhaust into the room will bring alot of condensation and it drains out of the ac on to the floor.Thats a window unit and it needs to be up higher,cool air fall down.It would be better to exhaust it outside if you can.You said the temps are 90 to 120,the exhaust will up it alot and wet too.Thats something I learn the hard way.Cause alot of mold problems in the house.But thats a good setup to control the grow area.I liked that bath tub setup too no worry of a flood.Keep us posted. Peace

It gets to 90-120f outside. Inside my place it is 80f. And humidity is only 30% inside my home. So there should be little if any condensation dripping from unit. But just to be on the safe side, I have it over a metal pan.
I ran it for 4 hours last night, and not one drip of water. And yes cool air is heavier so it is down low, but having the unit down low will make it cool my room better. Cool air in, Cold air out..... Hot air in, cool air out. AC units do not work very well when they have 120 degree air entering them. In that 4 hours of running it, I was able to get the room down to about 66f. So once I start my HPS light up, I am hoping I can keep the room to 75-80f. My last grow I saw temps in my room all the way to 94f. And this was not even during the hot part of the year.

If humidity raises above 40% I will buy a dehumidifier. But I really doubt this will happen, because A/C units dry out the air, they do not put humidity in the air like a swamp cooler does.

I am thinking about moving my plants in there sooner then flowering stage now. Maybe next weekend when I have to do another Res. Change out.

Crazy, I am thinking where you live is a lot more humid there here. Like right now outside humidity is only 3%. (Yes, 3%). I live in the Desert.

Oh, another thing to remember, the rest of my home is also Air Conditioned, which means that larger unit will be removing moisture also. But I will deal with what happens when it happens. The unit can not be routed outside. It is what it is.

DOH!!!! I screwed up on my design. I bought one of those 20" square fans for my outlet fan. At least I did not cut an opening yet for it. I just noticed that it will let in light to my room. As it is, my room is so dark, you can not see your hand right in front of your face. I need to get a blower fan with some flexable ducting.:S5:

I am going to see what happens, just running the AC unit. It has an inlet and an outlet also.

My New grow room is almost operational. All I need is to hook up all my six ways, wait for my R/O system to make 30 gallons of R/O water, and put my plants in here. Think it should be tomorrow night.

Few picture of my plants new home.

P.S.
DAM THESE R/O filters are slow at making water. I guess I am going to go buy that float valve also. I am timing it now on how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon container. I am thinking it will be about an hour. I have a 55 gallon plastic barrel for my water storage though, all I need is the float vavle to turn it on and off.

This R/O filter is cool though. Now I do not have to go buy R/O water and carry it into my house. All I have to do it throw a valve and WALLA 30 PPM water. :cool:

Ok, my room has been up and running now for 2 1/2 hours, as a dry run. My 400hps light has been on, and so has the a/c unit set at 8/10. The room is 76f, Humidity is 24%. Just as I was worried about. The a/c unit has lowered the humidity from the grow room, and is putting this moister into the rest of my house. How low can the humidity get before it is bad for a plant? Humidity in my home is usually 30-35%. Today outside we hit a very balmy 18% humidity. Yesterday was 3%.


I also am think about how much of a waste all this water is, going down the drain from my R/O system, even though I do not pay for water where I live, I do live in a desert, and you should not be wasting water down the drain. Any suggestions on what I could use this water for. I do not have a yard, but I do have veggies growing outside. Only a small 4'x8' area. Could I let this water sit for a few days and use it to water my outside, soil plants? I need my home grown tomatoes, watermelon, and canilopes. The store water ones have no taste.

Would love some advise on low humidity, I know I can raise it with a humidifier, but I would really like to stay away from one.

I could barely keep my RH down to 30%. Yours should do well. Don't use the waste water from R/O it is full of what you don't want on anything.

Your room is looking smart. Good job. Can't wait to see the grow.

Thanks LN,
I am off to to lowes to pick up a quick connect fitting for my float valve that will fit in my 55 gallon barrel for my r/o supply.

People, I am sorry for getting a little defensive. I went over board. But I have been reading these threads and such for about 8 months. It kind of upset me when I am told I need to read more, and that this and that is wrong, when I have already talked about how I am trying to fix this. For this I am very sorry, After thinking about it, I know have figured out that many people do not read the whole thread they just read the last page or even maybe the last few post. I do need help with this. There are so many things that I have no idea about. Like this 26% humidity, while my system was running dry,, no water, nuts, or anything, just lights and A/C unit. Today my system was turned off, and Hum. in the room was 28%. so once I get my 55 gallon supply tank full, and also the 40 gallon res. I am sure this will help to raise my humidity.

Thanks everyone for your help. And I am very sorry for being snippy with a few people.

Ok, I got my new system up and running. My plants are now 19 days old.

I just placed them in my hydro system at 900 PPM nuts, and 5.8 PH.

I am thinking that I could start flowering now, with the size of these plants, but i will go at least 7-10 more days of vegging, what do you all think? The Cfls will only be set up this way until I start flowering, then they will be placed on the sides. I also think I will take 2 cuttings from like each of the plants.

This was a lot more work then I thought it was going to be. Even adding the water and nuts was work. At least I have the R/O water right there. I had to add my water 5 gallons at a time, because I would not be unable to tell how many gallons I had used, once I used (5) 5 gallon bottles worth of r/o water, I marked my 55 gallon barrel telling me when I pump out that much water, (25) gallons.

here are a few photos. :)

P.S. Also if you look at the last photo and zoom in, you can look at my note book for 6-27 and see what nuts and how much I put in res.

My room has been up and running now for about 4 hours. My AC unit is set at 7/10 power, My temp is 76, and my humidity is 35%. I think it is looking good. Also I have my 400 watter running in the there also. But I think the system will need to run for at least 24 hours before I will know for sure. I think it helps with the humidity to have 70-80 gallons of water in there also. I guess time will tell.

Oh, check out this photo, most of my rock wool blocks have roots coming out the bottom. I am wondering if I should get one bag of those orangish little round clay pellets, and put maybe 2-3 inches of those in my grow tray. And if so, how much more work are they? I have never used them either.

I kind of like it this way, because I can move the plants around the tray. I ment to go bigger, I just did not know I went big enough to get like 12-16 plants in there. 12 would be nice, 16 I think might get tight. My grow tray is 3'X3'

Ok, here is what is going on now.

As I said i started up my system yesterday, I have my AC unit running. But I did not put in an exhaust fan. I bought a 20" box fan for that, and it would let light into my flowering room. When i woke up this morning, my room was at 76f, but my Humidity was 55%. So today after work I went to Lowes to buy a squirrel Fan. I went up to one of the ladies who works there, and said, where are the squirrel fans, she replied you will have to go to a Pet Store for that. I said, you are kidding, right? She said No, we do not carry Pets or Pet supplies... WOW!!!
So anyway, I bought a 300 cfm squirrel fan, and some 6" flexable ducting, and walla, problem seems to be fixed. Room Temp is 78%, Humidity is 35% right now. But time will tell.

I still do not think keeping my CFLs within 2" is a smart move, today was the second day I went in to check my plants and they grew 2"+ and were touching the light. So I am putting them 4" away.

Well take care everyone, wish I could light one up with you all.

If you notice in the pictures I put on link #29, look close, the chain that I used to connect to the cord to the 400 watt light, is so long that my plants will get so tall someday, that I will not be able to lift the light high enough. Fixing this is going to be hard. I have little to no room to get up there, plus I need to hold the light up while I disconnect it. These are the problems that will happen. The little things can bite you bad. I have a lot of work to do on my light set up. :beatdeadhorse:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chabnoc

Here are a few pictures of my plants at 11 days from planting. the last picture is of my system for raising and lowering my lights. It works out very well, and is very cheap.

My temp in my House is 80 degrees right now, and my vegggy room is at about 82. My Res is at about 82f also. I am hoping to get my Res Temp down to like 75 degrees in my flowering room. Even if i have to vent some of my air from the AC unit I bought straight into my Res water like a Bubble Machine.

Not that great of pictures. I did not want to move my 48" light.

Happy Smoken to all you..:smokebong:

OH>> P.S. My next time around I will also have a Air Conditioned room just for Vegging. So Next time I will drop in my 400 watt MH light. I could not do it this time around. I needed the 400 watts in my flowering room more. and I can only have time to build one room right now. Going to work eats up a lot of my time. WORK SUCKS at eating up my time. I need a job that I show up and Noon, leave at 1PM, and get an hour paid lunch.

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be a stay at home weed dealer. great benefits and longevity.