First time growing

[Farmall]

Jsimo, looking ]back 3 months.... I started my germinated seeds in rooters and had my 1000w (really 300W) LED hanging about 40-42" above. They started to stretch for the light, got weak in the stems and at about 5" tall, they started to fall over. Propped them up with tooth picks and small sticks until the started to support themselves and place them into the net pots and started the reservoir. I have no proof but I and thinking it was a start like this with a few other chemistry issues that caused them to have very large inter nodal spacing and while they have recovered, it’s not the grow I would have expected from what was supposed to be a superior grow compared to my soil grow.

my soil grow looked like one of those HOW TO photos on huge plants, giant thick colas and remarkable yields . I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, this is my experience and my belief. I may get a ton more experience to prove otherwise but I’ve read and studied long and hard to still believe this is the outcome. Other than soil versus hydro...everything else was the same

for what it’s worth, my next hydro start will be with cfl’s first

[Jsimo]

Good info, thank you! I started with a 4' fluorescent but they stretched, so i moved it closer and since it was one fixture it was kinda in the middle of them all, and they all bent towards it and stretched to it. That's when i decided to put the leds in. They don't seem to be stretching anymore, I'd say the tallest one is about 3.5 inches but they do still have super tiny stems. However the new leaves are now growing pretty good so I'm hoping i caught before the stretching got too bad. Already decided that the next grow I'll be building a square fixture with 4 double bulb sockets spaced the same as the net pots to get some cfls directly over each plant for the seedling stage. I've just never grown pretty much anything before so I'm definitely getting some learning in. Just trying to figure out where to put these LEDs right now since this is such a crucial stage to get right it seems.

And when would you remove the cfls and go to the bigger lights?

[Farmall]

My plan is for about 2 weeks. I need to pay close attention to the seedlings and make sure the get a good start. After that, They should be ready to start regular veg mode

[Jsimo]

I feel like things are going pretty good, getting some decent root growth starting! It's been 8 days since i put the plants in the tent. Would feel better if the stems would start thickening a bit, they do seem to wiggle around a lot with the one 6 inch fan blowing on low in their general direction. But the leaves are starting to form Pretty nicely it seems. Been a bit less of a worry wort lately and trying to just leave the tent alone.

[Farmall]

I am sure within the next week you’ll start developing thicker sturdier stems. If the fan is too intense, just aim it up or down a touch more

[Jsimo]

Been kinda battling my biggest plant looking pretty droopy. First thing i tried was lowering nutes back down by adding fresh water and raised the lights a bit but none of that seemed to work much. I've read it possibly being an overwatering or underwatering thing but the cube is wet on that one, and didn't know if it could be overwatering in dwc, but with the net pot always wet i decided to lower the water level to the point that i was going to run it on a day to day basis. (Had it a bit higher for seedling stage) and adjust my top feed to every 2 hours hoping to get a bit more air to the roots. But i am running a 125gph air pump with 2 6 inch stones so I'd think there's plenty of air. I brought the nutes back up to the 300ppm range like before i diluted it. The new leaves are still growing fine and the roots are taking off so I'm hoping it's not a huge deal but i guess we'll see. Color is mostly good but had what looked like a bit of a brown spot on that one as well.

[Joker]

Looks like a touch of nutrient burn. Like Farmall said always use hydro guard. Keep the nutrient on the low side while the plants are young. Gradually up it after about 2 or 3 weeks. The burnt leaves wont heal, u just have to watch the new growth.

[Joker]

Nice set up! I personally dont use rapid rooters for hydro. I use rock wool cubes. Every time I used rapid rooters I ended up with a gnat problem in the tent. I can only imagine that the eggs were already in the rooters since I haven't had any problems with rock wool.

[Farmall]

Are you using the hydroguard in the nutrient water or equivalent? My top feed as we discussed is every hours it runs 15 min. I don’t believe you can overwater inhydro but you do need a bit of space under the net pot for air. Your airstones are surely adequate.
i used a 165 GPh water pump to feed my buckets from the reservoir.

Are you happy with the Ph? Does it shift much in 24 hours? And what is your lighting like today?

[Jsimo]

I did put a dose of hydroguard in the beginning, would it hurt to add more? I originally slowed down on the top feed because the rooter was always really wet and i was worried that the water level allowing the bubbler to wet the pebbles plus the top feed would be too much. I'll probably go to every hour tomorrow morning after i see how the rooters look for dampness. Ph has been fairly steady recently, around 6.2. the water is steady at 66 degrees and the tent stays around 75 degrees f. The lighting right now is around 31 inches from the tops. I'm just not sure at which point they can be brought closer

[Farmall]

As I read in too many areas, pH in hydro is best around 5.8. While the concentration of nutrients can begin to build when you add mixed nutes to the current stock, it will pay to change out the nutrients so that you don’t get it too high and you will replace the nutrient solution with a fresh mix about every 8-10 days. Add some hydroguard to the fresh mix you are adding to the reservoir BUT REMEMBER, the EC will climb on increased concentrations so a fresh mix is well worth it. Be sure under this change that temps and ph is consistent with what’s in the reservoir.

I was carrying 40 gallons of mix up the warehouse steps every weekend to accommodate this and it SUCKED.. BUT worth it

[Jsimo]

Ok i brought the ph down to around 5.9. i didn't want to have to do a reservoir change so early due to disturbing the plants, I'm thinking i will next weekend. I'm gonna run this and see how it reacts. I probably shouldn't be going too crazy changing things when the other three plants look great. This one is still growing it's new leaves fine so maybe it's just the way it is

[Farmall]

Agreed and watch that the changes you make are over time...TOO radical an difference can cause problems as well. Damn, HOW DO I KNOW THIS ??

[Jsimo]

Well it seems that the first leaves on this one are gradually getting worse. Can't really pinpoint what's going on. But it is still growing. Could it be a nutrient deficiency since it's happening on the lower leaves? I've only got it up to about 300 ppm (plain water is 175). But the seed leaves haven't even died off yet. I wouldn't think the nutrients are too high since my smaller plants aren't having issues. My ph has seemed to keep drifting upwards over the past day or so. I adjusted it yesterday to 5.9, it was about 6.2 again last night so i adjusted it again and it did the same thing overnight. Don't want to stress too much over one plant but i don't want the others to follow suit.

[Jsimo]

Having a hard time catching the brown spots on the camera. Could low humidity cause Browning and curling? I put a humidifier in last night but it still only got me to about 40 so i may turn it up

[Toker1]

Don’t chase PH like that. Adjust to 5.5 and let it go up to 6.5. The process should take 2-3 days. Do not PH adjust on the daily, if you have to...that’s an indication that something else is wrong.

[Jsimo]

Alright, I'm getting another batch of water ready for a complete res change probably tonight or tomorrow morning to bring everything back to normal. I mixed it with nutrient levels according to week 2 on this chart I found here and will go from there. (2.5ml/gal of each bottle) I brought the rh up to 60 inside the tent now, the rh of the house is around 30 so that's basically what it's been in there thus far.

[Jsimo]

Complete res change completed. Ph'd to 5.6, added a half tsp per gallon of each of the gh trio nutes per the chart on this site. Keeping the humidifier going as well. So far only those first true leaves have had issues on the one plant. And that plant is starting it's third set. The others are all still working on their second set. Checked the roots and they seem to have exploded since the last time i checked.

[Jsimo]

Well it didn't go as planned. Humidity went too high last night, was 81 when i woke up. Floor was wet. I should have had it on the timer with the lights but i was struggling to get the humidity up at all with the lights on. 3 plants had bent over, i toothpicked them back up. One had turned it's leaves already to compensate so hopefully it'll turn back. These stems are so weak but don't look diseased or anything. The plant I've had the problems with is showing the same signs on the second set of leaves now. So i might just forget about that one since the rest don't have it. Kinda sad since it was the fastest growing one. Ph had raised to 6.5 overnight, but hopefully that's something to do with the fresh res change. Got everything normalized again and letting the tent dry a bit and go from there.

[Toker1]

I use AN’s rhino skin. I prefer the PH buffers in this formula. But no, it doesn’t matter. Although I hear Dutch master brand is harder to adjust ph, but I have no personal experience with that brand.

[Jsimo]

K I'll look into it when i get to work and have something in within two days

[Jsimo]

I ordered some armor si just to stick with the brands I'm already using. I checked our city water report to see if maybe i needed calmag but it looks like the hardness level is at 159ppm for calcium/magnesium so that doesn't seem like i'd need to add any more to it.

[Jsimo]

Things back to normal mostly. Got my humidifier set on the light timer to avoid that mistake again. Although i can't get much above 40% rh without heat getting to around 82°. Trying to balance sealing in the humidity and exhausting heat. Just put water in a couple cups on the floor to help the humidifier to see of that helps. All of the bent over plants seen to stand up fine now, but keeping the toothpicks in there. My ph raised about .6 in 24 hours so that's better than the last time by a long shot. Wondering if my water needs to sit to off gas something before a res change. I read something about dissolved c02 in tap water needing to off gas before ph being stable, don't know how true it is. Only took 1 quick picture, didn't want to let too much humidity out.

[Toker1]

My buddy used some 4’x8’ insulation sheets to section off a portion of his basement. Built a make shift room out of them. Might work for your situation.
I have also seen these... but I have never used them before.

https://www.everblocksystems.com

[Jsimo]

Lol as awesome as giant legos would be, the space just wouldn't work great for sectioning off right now. But with what i did today i was able to keep temps below 79 and rh at 41 so that might be my happy medium. They are definitely much better now after the work i did on them this week. The one plant still has the ugly leaves but it's only the bottom and a very small few dots on the second set. Maybe it was just something with the seed. Or i corrected whatever the problem was.

[Toker1]

79 and 41 is good. You are on the boarderline. A swamp cooler might be what you need to overcome the obstacle... especially when the summer time comes.
Hoping the new growth comes in clean and fast.

[Jsimo]

Today is about 2 weeks since the seeds broke ground, i think i have things setup pretty good right now, maybe not perfect on the rh but they seem to be picking up speed on growing, and roots are doing pretty good it seems. Ph has finally stabilized. Didn't raise a noticeable amount overnight last night. I think my next res change (probably next weekend) I'm going to let the water sit for a few days and see if that helps. It'll help get there temps closer to normal too. Have some armor si arriving today. I'll probably mix a small dose in for now and wait for the next res change to do the recommended amount.

[Farmall]

Just remember unless you are completely changing the nutrients, there will always be a terminal amount of mix left in the water. Aside from what the plant metabolizes, you still won’t know the residual amounts so when topping off, keep that in mind or you may accidentally over shoot the recommended mix

[Jsimo]

Yeah i plan on just using fresh water to top off between res changes. I have it set up so i can change the res without lifting the lid on the tote and the first one was pretty painless so i think I'll be doing a res change every week just to keep things fresh.

[Farmall]

That's it !

[Jsimo]

Things going smoothly, got a humidifier for the basement, rh in tent is about 50 and I'm able to exchange the air more and keep the temps around 77. I upped the nutes slightly. Gh says 2 tsp/gal, the chart in this site said 1/2 tsp. I bumped it up to 3/4 and it's been about 24 hours and everything looks good. According to the scrog tutorial i should be pinching my tops here soon. (5th set to come in). The 4th set is coming in currently.

[Jsimo]

Training day! Was pretty worried about this day. Thought about it last night but i was seeing some cupping leaves. Forgot to fill the humidifier. Ran that and everything looked good this morning so i pinched the new growth tops. The smallest plant was kinda difficult, might have ended up being a fim. But the tutorial said 1/4 to 1/2 inches on the fifth mode to pinch, and the largest was 1/2 almost exactly, the smallest was a bit bigger than 1/4. Hopefully i didn't message it all up lol. I'm sure that's what everyone's thinking the first time...

[Jsimo]

Full res change tonight, raisedrnutes slightly, experimenting with them a bit. Getting some clawing on one but I'm not sure if maybe that's a response to the pinching, the fan, or nutes. Going to keep an eye on it in case i have to lower the nutes back down. The plants seen to be recovering already, The blue dreams have definitely taken over there height advantage tho!