My first Hydro grow! tips and comments are appreciatied

This is for the most part my first indoor grow, kinda low budget but itll do, i hope. Plants are a day away from being 3 weeks old, im using 1 t5 and 1 t8 cfl to veg with a gh rainforest 36 hydro system. i also use the gh 3 part nut system using distilled water with a ppm of roughly 340-370, and a ph around 6 room temp stays in between 68-78 degrees through out the whole day 1 plant has some tan and brown spots on it but the light doesn't seem to close. is this a problem i need to deal with quick?

p.s. how th hell do u post pics

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Krimit,

I am a soil grower so I am basically no help but I can point you in the right direction.

There is a great section with pictures on plant problems in the FAQ Section, you may want to go there to start, then try to solicite the help of Weedhound, She is the Hydro Gurru on this sight.

I've done a lot of looking around here and as far as a i can see my lights are plenty far enough, 5-6 in. away, and my ph is closer to 6.2 right now, ppm of 360, the pump to water the plants turns on and off every hour. am i watering to much maybe?

more pics


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one of the smaller plants have also started to get the brown spots.

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next day and the plants are looking a lil more worse. anyone got any comments? maybe a mg deficiency?

Looks like a potassium problem. Did you pre-treat the hydroton before use to stabilize the pH at 6.0?

I did not, what exactly do i need to pre-treat, and how? do i need to swap the water out of the reservoir to fix the potassium problem?

update- third plant looking droopy

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ppm is near 450 now :mad: im gonna change the reservoir asap, im gonna try to get the ppm under 200, any tips would be great!

looking at those pics i noticed how yellow those tops leaves are compared to the lower set, is that also something i need to be paying attention too, or is that normal?

Hi Krimet!
Your plants def have some issues. First possible problem is over watering. How often do you ran water through your system?
Theres also some signs of ph-fluctuation and maybe mg shortage. They seem little stunted. How much nutes are you giving them?

I had water running through it for an hour every hour. ive cut that down to an hour every 2 hours, the root system is already in the reservoir, should i not have it running 24/7 now just for the oxygen?
i use the gh flora series, following the feeding schedule they gave me, which was for week 2, 5 ml gro 2.5 micro 2.5 of bloom, per gallon of water. i only use 2.5 gallons of distilled water.

I don't see any evidence of a magnesium problem.
Hydroton has a tendency to drift up in pH value over time, and you have to pre-soak it until you are certain that it is stable.
Check the pH of your reservoir. I'll bet it is out of range.
Also, are you running CalMag plus? In distilled water, you MUST use it. Those spots could also be signs of a calcium deficiency. Read Latewood's instructions about GH 3 part and CalMag.

thanks for the feedback stinky, i havent been using anything but the gh 3 part nutes, until now that is.

Okay cool.
So you know what your next job is, right? Here's the project for this week:
1) Test the res water and set the pH at 6.0. Check it twice a day, adjusting if you have to, until it appears stable. Then just check daily.
2) Start on CalMag Plus.

Sounds to me like Stinkster pinned it...... get some Cal Mag and check and keep ph maintened at 5.5-6.2.

GO STINSKTER!! :thumbsup:

I want to know what kind of lamp you are using ... that looks like an ultra-violet bulb :wtf:

ive got a t5 in a reflector, and i bought 2 t8 "grow lights" from menards hardware store, for 12$ each. the t8's put out that violet color.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Krimet

ive got a t5 in a reflector, and i bought 2 t8 "grow lights" from menards hardware store, for 12$ each.

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ok, I figured that ... commercial so-called 'growlights' are often more of an ultraviolet bulb, really not recommended, their wavelength spectrums are all over the place ... suggest you replace with cheaper, better lamps ... example: GE 'Cool White' supplies your 'blue' vegging spectrum, while the GE 'Kitchen and Bath' are the warmer 'red' spectrum, for flowering .. you can buy them at WalMart, etc. quite cheaply .. they will fit in your present fixture ... with the fluorescent tubes, you need to keep your plant canopy within an inch or two of the lamp, (at most) ... fluoros just don't 'penetrate', their lumens drop off drastically, as you get further from the bulb ... I grew successfully for many years with only fluoro tubes, they WILL work :thumbsup:

thanks for that input reaper, plan on changing the bulbs asap.
just got back from lowes, couldnt find a cal/mag +, got a lime deposit to raise my ph level was getting low, it has 38% calcium in it.

update - 2nd plant is pointing up now wtf? so many fucking things going wrong. :mad:

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fyi.....can't substitute stuff like that in hydro. Instead of lime you need to get a good ph up/down for hydro apps. In a BIG pinch you can use distilled white vinegar to lower ph but I personally have never heard of using lime in hydro apps. You need to find a good nute program and follow it .......no improvisations. In my humble opinion that's the biggest problem I see......everyone likes to add/change/substitute etc..... The newbies (and not so noobies) that follow direction are the ones who will get the best grow. ;)

Good luck with your plants. :)

thanks weedhound, instead of using lime, ive mixed distilled and tap water along with doing the 3 part nute, hope this take care of the spots on the plants. cant make it to the hydro store that is 5 hours away today, or in the next week for that matter,which is the only place i know to have cal/mag plus. ph is now at a stable 6.0

Now you're cooking! If you can use your tap water and the ph stays stable then you don't need CalMAg at all......CalMag replaces calcium, magnesium, iron etc that is taken out of your water when it is distilled or put through an RO system. Plants NEED these minerals and ingredients for good health.....and they are usually in abundance in tap water.

When using tap water....check ppms BEFORE you add nutes, add your correct number of nutes in ADDITION to that number, then check and adjust ph last....always ph last.

The largest issue people have with certain types of tap water (and why it is often not used in hydro) is that certain types of water will not stay at a stable ph.....so when you remove EVERYTHING from the water you can control ph any way you want. But the catch is that certain things the plant NEEDS will have to be put BACK in with supplements like CalMag.

IF your tap water will stay stable (at close to whatever ph you put it at to start with) then you are good to go and don't need CalMag at all......just your nutes.

PS.....I'd probably try just tap water and nutes instead of adding any distilled.....tap water and nutes is a more healthy mix for your plants. ;)

edit: you can raise ph with baking soda.......but like vinegar neither is a good thing to use on a normal basis.

The whole point of going distlled was to lower the ppms for my seedlings, my tap is at 320 ppm, just over the recommended amount.
i also got a little dial from lowes that tells me how many lumens im getting, it says around 500 next to my plants with the t5 n t8, is that good enough for veg?

weedhound, whats your opinion on me keeping these plants in this bucket till harvest? even if i might suffer on plant size, is it big enough?

With a ppm of 320 a fifty-fifty mix of water might work for you......definitely worth trying.

Can't help you with the lighting I'm afraid....reaper can tell you about that way better than I can.

There's a thread around here somewhere about keeping those things in small containers......let me look around......

Ok....couldn't find what I was looking for BUT imo....that's not enough room. Are all your plants female?

I have no clue, i want the most yield in the shortest time possible being that its my first grow, so i dont think i will take the time to find out if they're female or not before hand.after reading around i think something like LSTing would help with yield, even tho i still have no clue what LSTing eactly is.

Well you have several issues getting in your way........your lighting really is not enough to flower with decently. With the size of your system, your resevoir and your lighting you'll probably end up with a few grams per plant if all goes well. :wtf: That's not a lot of ganja for several months work, time and money is it? Growing on a budget.....especially in hydro.......usually doesn't work too well. :( The only REAL way to grow low budget is outside in soil. Just my :twocents:


If you grew from seeds you'll still have to get rid of the males after you've sexed them and by that time the roots will be all tangled together which will make removing the males from the system a lot tougher without harming the remaining females. Sometimes you can just cut the males off and leave the roots.....but I've seen issues from that as well.

By the time you are well into flowering with that system you'll be having rootbound issues due to the size and ALSO (due to the res size) you'll be having to check levels, adjust ph constantly and continually add water to keep the plants nute level sufficient and balance for the plants.

Wish I could find that old thread.......it was a perfect example of a crash and burn from someone trying to do too much with too little. I'll keep looking......

i do plan on getting a 400 watts hps light from htgsupply, i wont be using any ventilation system. even if i did decide to move the plants into another medium, could i do it with the plant in a 3" cup of hydroton.

There you go......400w hps.....good for you. :thumbsup: One down. Are they in 3inch net pots?

Yes they are net pots. after looking i was thinking about just simply getting the next biggest version of my hydro system, which would be the gh rainforest 66 model. any cheaper or even better ideas out there?

pics

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few white spots now on the smallest, droopy plant.

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Ok......your plants need some calcium and magnesium and iron and all those cool things that are missing from distilled water. That's why you seeing all sorts of different deficencies there and they are all mixed together. The fluctuating ph (being adjusted with home products instead of proper hydro products no less....ahem.....:D) doesn't help either and can slow down growth significantly as well as prevent nutrient uptake by being out of correct range.

You won't really see improvement to those leaves so watch for normal looking NEW growth. If the new growth isn't really healthy then consider using all tap water and no distilled at all.

You can build a DWC system once your plants have some roots to hang below into the medium. A DWC is basically a large rubbermaid type res with a bunch of airstones/air diffusers added to allow enough oxygen to the roots to keep them healthy. Do a google search......very easy to diy.

Thanks alot for all the feedback weedhound. you've been very helpful.

Once i get my dwc setup, and a 400w hps , i should be able to get a decent yield from these plants, right? As long as i have taken care of the nute problems.

All other factors good......you should. ;)

you have any airstones you would recommend for my dwc? preferably one from wal-mart, petsmart, etc.

Go check out the last few pages of pages of my C crowd grow log and it has a pic of what I use. It's for hydro apps but I like them better for bigger tubs.

Also the Redwood Log (page one) shows a basic DWC setup in a large container.

Thanks again weedhound, is the pump what makes the big difference in those? and if so do u know where i could get one besides a hydro store.

Yeah the pump really does make the difference but let me warn you they are LOUD. I'm sure you could find something fairly close in a pet store......tell them you havea REALLY BIG fishtank to aerate.....;)