Lil help finding out what's wrong with my baby, please?

[Radium]

The pH was too high was was locking out certain nutrients from your plants.... now but just feeding them plain water they are going to lack even more nutrients than they need... I would get some half strength nutes in there asap also what kinds of nutes are you using and how are you mixing it? Also what are you using to adjust pH and how are you doing it? Also yes they do have a "gizmo" its called a TDS meter or PPM meter they have them on ebay u should be able to find one for cheap. Looks like you got ripped off already buying that poor excuse for a hydroponic system. YOu could have built one yourself by going to walmart for half the price and it would probably work better too. Also please stop calling it hydro juice its pissing me off lol... call it nutrients,nutes, nutrient solution or just refer to it as your res.

Radium Reviewed by Radium on 09-13-2006. Lil help finding out what's wrong with my baby, please? Hey all. Iâ??m new to growing much of anything, much less weed, so I could use a little help if y'all don't mind. I tried soil and the fraggin' things would not grow for me. 3 months and the little buggers never got more than a couple inches tall, and then mysteriously died. LOL From everything I'd read hydroponics was suposed to be a lot easier. *shrug* It is too, because they're actually growing this time. I'm just suddenly having this little problem and as soon as I find out what it is I'll Rating: 5

[Tommygirl]

The pH was too high was was locking out certain nutrients from your plants.... now but just feeding them plain water they are going to lack even more nutrients than they need... I would get some half strength nutes in there asap also what kinds of nutes are you using and how are you mixing it?

To be honest, I don't know what's in the nutes. They're simple called Grow, Bloom and Micro. It's all in little premeasured packets for the quantity of water you're suposed to put into the res. I figured it would do well enough until I could decide what, if anything, would be better. It automatically balances the water to 6.5, and I thought this would be fine since the site I'd done the most hudro reading on said that was the area you should shoot for.

Also what are you using to adjust pH and how are you doing it?

I have this stuff called "ph up" and "ph down". I simply follow the directions for their use. So far, I've only used the down.

Also yes they do have a "gizmo" its called a TDS meter or PPM meter they have them on ebay u should be able to find one for cheap.

That's good. I rather thought I'd read about something like that somewhere along the way. I'll have to see if I can afford one. Thanks you.

Looks like you got ripped off already buying that poor excuse for a hydroponic system. YOu could have built one yourself by going to walmart for half the price and it would probably work better too.

Actually, the setup works rather well so far. I've just had a minor problem that any beginer could have. And, truth be told, I am not at all sure I could have built my own. I'm not very mechanically inclined. I thought about it and after researching what all I would need, including tools, and how long it would take, I decided that I would be better off with something made professionally. I'm sure it looks like a piece of crap to someone who's got loads of experience, but for someone who's never managed to grow anything at all under any circumstances, it's pretty nice because it lets me do what I couldn't do otherwise. Once I've gained more experience and understanding about how and why hydorponics works the way it does I might give building my own set up a go. Not right now though.

No doubt you shall castigate me for not knowing everything through reading before making a first attempt at growing, but I know myself well, and I know that I do not learn well from reading. I need to be doing a thing in order to truely understand the process. Certainly I need the liturature, but simply reading it will not let me absorbe it. I must be able to put it into practice right after reading, or even while I'm reading for it to make complete sense and to totally sink in.

So, I have my little setup, and I'm learning the tricks of the trade on it.

Also please stop calling it hydro juice its pissing me off lol... call it nutrients,nutes, nutrient solution or just refer to it as your res.

I've seen it refered to in that maner many places. It seemed to be what some people, at least, call it, so I followed suit. I can't imagine why that should be pissing you off. Does the term "juice" hove some sort of
connotation that I'm unaware of?

[killakalimist]

When I took the top off I found a strange thing. The juice had a mild froth. I know that it shouldn't because the last time I opened it up to change out the juice for fresh there was no sign of anything like that. I don't know what the froth means, unless the juice was fermenting or something like that. Maybe one of you old hands would be able to tell me. I suspect that whatever was causing the froth is a very bad thing for the plants, and was probably aided in growth by light that was getting into the resivoir through the unused growing pots. Whatever it is has surely throughrouly saturated the rockwool cubes my babies are growing in, so I also rinsed the rockwool, rocks, and roots as best as I could. I'm hoping that the rockwool and rocks will completely flushed of the contaminant by the tubes that bring the water up to the plants. I also now have the unused pots covered so that as little light as possible can get in.

I'm no expert, nor am i an experienced grower but i'm thinking that your "froth" is algae due to the unused pots exposing the water. From what i've learned so far, you need to keep your water between 68-72 (although i have read a few posts that say 65-75 but I'll stick with the one that has less room for error) and let absolutely no light into the res.

As far as the algae on the rockwool, I have no clue on how completely get rid of it. But, as i understand rockwool is very suseptable to algae, so you want it covered from light aswell.

This i could be wrong about but I think a little H202 (hydrogen peroxide, the weak stuff i think its used for cooking, not the stuff for cleaning scrapes and burns) will help clean up res.

http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=79230

you might find that link useful, for h202
blaze on

[Tommygirl]

I'm no expert, nor am i an experienced grower but i'm thinking that your "froth" is algae due to the unused pots exposing the water. From what i've learned so far, you need to keep your water between 68-72 (although i have read a few posts that say 65-75 but I'll stick with the one that has less room for error) and let absolutely no light into the res.

As far as the algae on the rockwool, I have no clue on how completely get rid of it. But, as i understand rockwool is very suseptable to algae, so you want it covered from light aswell.

This i could be wrong about but I think a little H202 (hydrogen peroxide, the weak stuff i think its used for cooking, not the stuff for cleaning scrapes and burns) will help clean up res.

http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=79230

you might find that link useful, for h202
blaze on

Thank you for the link, kill. I'll read it tomorrow. 'Fraid my bed is calling me right now.

I rather suspected that the froth was some sort of algea, but didn't want to say it and have someone call me a retard or something. Hmmm...cover the rock wool cubes as well...didn't think to do that. I'll do it as soon as I get home in the morning. I was leary of pilling the little rocks on the top of them at first cuz the babies were so delicate. I didn't want to chance them getting crushed should one decide that gravity was fun to play with.I'll definitely get it sealed up to light first thing in the morning though.

I read on some other thread on here that the res temp shouldn't get above 68, or something like that. I need to find that thread and reread it.

Thanks for confirming my suspicion about the froth.

[Radium]

First off 6.5 is way too high. 5.8 is the target pH range for hydroponics regardless of what you have read on this site its 5.8!!! Now you have no idea what nutrients you are using either.... thats not very good and could cause you more probs.. the kit you bought on ebay is simply a rubbermaid from walmart that costs $5 with holes cut in the top(free you can do it yourself with exacto knife) drill one small hole on the side and pop airline in with an airstone attached plug it into an airpump and your done.... not sure what you mean you're not mechanically inclined? You could have used the money you wasted on that to buy yourself some real nutrients. I would recommend General Hydroponics Nutrients for you as they are the easiest to use and give excellent results, also the most popular hydroponics out there. Don't use the ph down and up together in the same res either. How often are you adjusting ph? Also do you have your timer on your pump or is that timer for your light? If you want to get better at this and learn I suggest you listen to me a lot of these people helping you are first time growers themselves leading you in the wrong direction.... this site isnt the greatest for cannabis growing help btw too.

[mellogold]

First off 6.5 is way too high. 5.8 is the target pH range for hydroponics regardless of what you have read on this site its 5.8!!! Now you have no idea what nutrients you are using either.... thats not very good and could cause you more probs.. the kit you bought on ebay is simply a rubbermaid from walmart that costs $5 with holes cut in the top(free you can do it yourself with exacto knife) drill one small hole on the side and pop airline in with an airstone attached plug it into an airpump and your done.... not sure what you mean you're not mechanically inclined? You could have used the money you wasted on that to buy yourself some real nutrients. I would recommend General Hydroponics Nutrients for you as they are the easiest to use and give excellent results, also the most popular hydroponics out there. Don't use the ph down and up together in the same res either. How often are you adjusting ph? Also do you have your timer on your pump or is that timer for your light? If you want to get better at this and learn I suggest you listen to me a lot of these people helping you are first time growers themselves leading you in the wrong direction.... this site isnt the greatest for cannabis growing help btw too.

lol....riiighht to a point, concerning advise and the advise given.

but, iv seen some first timers on this board alone do extreamly well, with no issues

anyhow, the nutes you have dont have a lable on the bottle at all??

if i were you id buy the gh or advance nutrient 3 part..(its the same shit)

[Radium]

First off 6.5 is way too high. 5.8 is the target pH range for hydroponics regardless of what you have read on this site its 5.8!!! Now you have no idea what nutrients you are using either.... thats not very good and could cause you more probs.. the kit you bought on ebay is simply a rubbermaid from walmart that costs $5 with holes cut in the top(free you can do it yourself with exacto knife) drill one small hole on the side and pop airline in with an airstone attached plug it into an airpump and your done.... not sure what you mean you're not mechanically inclined?

You could have used the money you wasted on that to buy yourself some real nutrients. I would recommend General Hydroponics Nutrients for you as they are the easiest to use and give excellent results, also the most popular hydroponics nutes out there they sell them as FloraGrow FloraBloom and FloraMicro all you need to buy is the flora micro and flora bloom you dont need the grow and you can use what is called the "Lucas Formula" its a very popular feeding scheduale growers use. The Lucas formula is this

G-M-B(Grow-Micro-Bloom)
Veg(ml/g) 0-5-10
Flower(ml/g) 0-8-6

So for each gallon if you are vegging you add 5mls of micro and 10mls of bloom.. So if you had an 8 gal res and were vegging u would add 40ml(5ml x 8gallons) Micro and 80ml(10ml x 8gallons) Bloom. Very simple to use and very very very very effective.

Don't use the ph down and up together in the same res either. How often are you adjusting ph? Also do you have your timer on your pump or is that timer for your light? If you want to get better at this and learn I suggest you listen to me a lot of these people helping you are first time growers themselves leading you in the wrong direction.... this site isnt the greatest for cannabis growing help btw too.

[Tommygirl]

lol....riiighht to a point, concerning advise and the advise given.

but, iv seen some first timers on this board alone do extreamly well, with no issues

anyhow, the nutes you have dont have a lable on the bottle at all??

if i were you id buy the gh or advance nutrient 3 part..(its the same shit)

It's not a liquid. It's a powder, and they're set up in premeasured bags, and there isn't an ingrediant label, just a name label. I believe them to be very general. Possibly generic even...lol As I said above, I figured they would hold me until I could winnow through all the seemingly thousands of varieties of nutes and all the possible combos to find something simple and not outlandishly expensive, but that still works well.

I don't doubt that there are some who do extremely well from the get go. Some people have natural inclinations. I don't...lol

[Tommygirl]

First off 6.5 is way too high. 5.8 is the target pH range for hydroponics regardless of what you have read on this site its 5.8!!! Now you have no idea what nutrients you are using either.... thats not very good and could cause you more probs.. the kit you bought on ebay is simply a rubbermaid from walmart that costs $5 with holes cut in the top(free you can do it yourself with exacto knife) drill one small hole on the side and pop airline in with an airstone attached plug it into an airpump and your done.... not sure what you mean you're not mechanically inclined?

Actually, the ph info was accuired from a different site. It was here that i learned that it was wrong, and I also learned that the ph affects more than just the sex of the plants.

When I say that I'm not mechanically inclined, I mean that every time I've ever tried to build something I screwed it up. Admitedly, after having come to understand how my setup works I can see that it would be simple to build on my own, retrospective vision is frequently 20/20. But at the time I had no confidence that I would get it right because I didn't grasp the mechanics purely from reading. Now that I've seen all the parts, understand what they do and how they go together, I could probably make one on my own. Provided I didn't have trouble finding all the parts.

You could have used the money you wasted on that to buy yourself some real nutrients. I would recommend General Hydroponics Nutrients for you as they are the easiest to use and give excellent results, also the most popular hydroponics nutes out there they sell them as FloraGrow FloraBloom and FloraMicro all you need to buy is the flora micro and flora bloom you dont need the grow and you can use what is called the "Lucas Formula" its a very popular feeding scheduale growers use.

Thanks for the recomendation, Radium. I've spent the past two days researching this very thing and had yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. I was expecting to spend another day searching throug seemingly endless possibilities.

I am wondering why the FloraGro isn't needed though.

The Lucas formula is this

G-M-B(Grow-Micro-Bloom)
Veg(ml/g) 0-5-10
Flower(ml/g) 0-8-6

So for each gallon if you are vegging you add 5mls of micro and 10mls of bloom.. So if you had an 8 gal res and were vegging u would add 40ml(5ml x 8gallons) Micro and 80ml(10ml x 8gallons) Bloom. Very simple to use and very very very very effective.

That certainly does seem simple. Thank you for the formula. I shall think of you when i use it.:thumbsup:

Don't use the ph down and up together in the same res either. How often are you adjusting ph? .

So, you seem to be saying that if the ph get's misadjusted so that it's tool low then you have to dump and start over rather than just adding a little ph up? Why is that?

I wasn't adjusting it at all before because I was given to understand that it was perfect where it was. Now that I know better, I adjust it at the outset of a fresh res, be it water or, as I set up today, half strength nutes. From here on I'll check it daily to make sure it's staying in the right area. I expect that I'll be adjusting it as needed. *shrug* how ever often that turns out to be.

Also do you have your timer on your pump or is that timer for your light? If you want to get better at this and learn I suggest you listen to me a lot of these people helping you are first time growers themselves leading you in the wrong direction.... this site isnt the greatest for cannabis growing help btw too.

The timer is being used for the lights. According to the new process, or technique, or whatever you want to call it, that I'm using the pump is suposed to run all the time, and it's working quite well. Until I began having this algea problem dues to over warm res solution I could practically see them growing before my eyes. Seriously, I could check them in the morning when i got in from work, and then again just before I left to go back to work and I'd see a difference.

Personally, I think that I'm doing smashingly well considering I didn't have the slightest interest in hydroponics two months ago.:dance: And the most that I knew about it at that time was that the plants would be growing in nutrient laden water. I've done far better with hydro that soil. I couldn't get more than a seedling using soil. I suspect that i have a black thumb.

[Tommygirl]

What do you guys think of these specs? Is this a good one?
Nutrient Truncheon - EC/PPM/CF Meter

Range: 4 - 52 CF 280 - 3640 ppm (EC x 700); 0.4 - 5.2EC 200-3000ppm(ECx500)
Resolution: 0.1 EC(1 CF); 70ppm 700; 50ppm 500
Accuracy: ±4% of reading
Temperature Compensation: Automatic
Operating Temperature: 0 - 50?(32 - 122?F)
Calibration: Factory Calibrated
Power Source: 3Ã?1.5V Alkaline Batteries (not included)
Auto Sense: Auto On and Auto Off

I'm being honest when I say that this info doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me. I've yet to see someone say exactly what the readings that this thing takes ought to be, and yet I'm told I need one. I mean, how many ppm? What should the EC and CF readings be?