Need advice please on current condition

[Dannyboy58]

So my plants are about three weeks old now, two Northern LIghts and 2 Afghan kush all autos. Growing in AeroGarden (for now) and I had what was believed to be a nitrogen toxicity due to high nutrient levels. For the last six days they've only had 5.9 pH and hydroguard adjusted water and they look much better. Dark leaves have actually lightened up a bit and they look healthier for the most part. They've been drinking a LOT more than previously. In the past I seldom had to top up between 7 day drain/fill. First 3 days they drank about a quart and I topped it on friday, today it was down almost a full gallon in the two gal res.

First question, I was away over the weekend and this morning when I went to check pH and top up the water, the pH in the tank was 4.9. Why would it drop so much over a couple of days?

One NL has some orange/rust spots on the leaves now I guess it's about time to add some nutrients back into the mix? Or is that due to the low pH?

The smallest NL(last photo) looks very pale now. Guessing he needs some nutes?

On another note I'm considering moving them out of the aerogarden in the next few days and into a DIY, DWC drip system. Any advice on that?

[Dannyboy58]

[Canuck147]

Plants look great to me - not sure about transplant

[Dannyboy58]

@canuck147  So...does that mean you agree with my assessment of the discoloration or you think it's nothing to be concerned about?

[Canuck147]

I would be concerned - could get worse

[Dannyboy58]

Wow that's super helpful. Thanks for the response.

[PLreef]

@cannuck147 is right. They look pretty good right now but it will get bad from here in my opinion. Your growing pot in an Aerogarden. Those are designed for smaller plants, not cannabis. #2 your growing autos. You will stress them out during transplant. Auto don't take well to transplanting, especially this far along. They probably will get stunted, hurting your yeald among other things.
Autos are on an eternal time clock from the minute you drop the bean.. Any little bumps in the road will negatively effect it. If you have little spots on it now, I'm willing to bet they will get worse with transplant. Apologies if thats not what you wanted to hear but it is what it is at this point.

[Dannyboy58]

PLreef No apology necessary. I agree it is what it is. I realize I was taking a chance on the aerogarden which is why I'm ready to move to a better setup. Seeds are cheap and so is my time at the moment. I'll get what I get and hopefully learn something from it. I appreciate your honest feedback. Gives me a better idea what I'm dealing with.

[Dannyboy58]

Well, we're about to find out how much stress my little autos can handle. The transplant has been done. Roots were a pretty tangled mess of course so that's a concern and sure to stress them a little. Went ahead and gave them a light dose of nutes to about 200ppm including calmag, hydroguard and adjusted pH to 620ish. Fingers crossed at least one survives the trauma and gives me a bud or two.

Maybe I'll top and defol them just to see who's tuff? Maybe not today...

New light should be here later today along with the pump and irrigation distributor so for now they're in a DWC with two big air stones and an pump delivering oxygen and getting their 4 hours of darkness. I'll turn the spare lights on in a couple hours if the new light hasn't arrived but that's the least of my worries.

If anyone has attempted this before and would care to chime in with advice, concerns or criticism feel free. I'm a big boy, I can take it, especially since I'm learning and I realize this was not a best case scenario.

At least now I have a grow build that I believe will be more functional. Onward and hopefully soon UPward to new heights!

Thanks for chiming in yesterday, PLreef. I'm squinting as hard as I can to see and that appears to be a sweet shovelhead as your avatar?


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[SoOrbudgal]

I've never done any DWC/hydro. Just watched others. After some time an they recover from transplant i would just go easy and watch them. If they seem to take off and stretch then approach defoiliation that's all i can say. So far i think they look good

[PLreef]

Set up looks good. Hopefully they continue growing well for ya. Autos can be super challenging but I really enjoy growing them.
86 Heritage. She my baby.

[Dannyboy58]

SoOrbudgal Yea I think look pretty healthy other than a leaf or two that was affected by low pH for a few days. I had to pull apart roots more than I wanted to but I think I avoided hurting any tap root. I didn't try to put them in baskets with stones because the root systems are pretty big already. I just cut holes for the small baskets and plugs they were in. I'm a bit annoyed my light didn't arrive today as expected but it's suppose to show tomorrow so i've only got two small LED bulbs on them for the night.

My pump and distributor arrived so I set that up and got it going.

@PLeef thanks, it's coming together.

[Dannyboy58]

Hey, SoOrbudgal I noticed you have a ViparSpectra p2500. I just installed my p2000. The User Guide says for veg stage I should hang it 22-26" from the canopy at 60%. I got it to 22" in my tent with standard setup. To get it any higher I'll need to mess with the hang cables that came with it. Maybe double them over each other and reattach them to shorten it way up. Do you follow the manufacturers recommendations on height and brightness or have you developed your own height and brightness approach?

[SoOrbudgal]

That's what i did Dannyboy58 i doubled the hangers they sent folded them in half. Gave me also extra 4" for the canopy of plants. I tell ya this light is powerful i've had it at 100% turned it down to 75% and my photos are still 20" away. I unfortunitly only got 1/2 grow using it so far not a full seed to harvest. But yes do what your doing it's great to be able to dial down. I don't use pullies i use risers to boost the pots some are 6" i have lots of head space.

[Dannyboy58]

Well, it's at 24" now with no modifications to the hanging system. haha The plants look so healthy I decided to throw caution to the wind and do a little defol. Then I realized my oldest two were far enough above the 5th node that I could safely top them so I did... The oldest afghan is bushy AF even after taking off the biggest fan leaves. I really want to start training her and one other that lost a first node on one side (due to some fat fingered oaf) but i have to figure out how with the small basket and smooth surface. I'll pick up some soft wire tomorrow and figure it out. I figure I'll tip them over on the side that has no lower node so they grow more horizontally in that direction with colas shooting up from there. Does that make sense?

SoOrbudgal yea i'm happy with the light so far. Much brighter than what I had and seems to be good quality.

PLreef I keep reading the same about autos but they seem pretty resilient so far. Not even a wilted leaf after the transplant and root separation. Hopefully they'll shrug off todays assault. The afghan in particular seems pretty hardy and is double the size of the others horizontally into week 3. They're short but they've been through a lot so I have no expectations for huge yield. Now that I've topped two I may j ust leave the othe two to their own devices for comparison and just do some light training.

Photos are all after topping and defol. fourth one is the trimmings. Starting to smell mildly cannabis like in the tent.

[SoOrbudgal]

Looks good and stalk sure looks healthy, reaching for the light saying hello is a good thing. Happy looking plants.

[Dannyboy58]

I think the kids are doing pretty well. I've been defoliating the NLs pretty hard and training one of them. They're small and may have been stunted by the transplant but they seem pretty healthy and starting to flower? They're barely 7 weeks since sprout.

The Afghans are hardy AF and grow like bushes. Defol attempts so far seem to just generate a growth or 3 leaves for every one I cut off. They aren't showing any effort the flower yet. The biggest one is almost 8 weeks from seed now and the other is about a week behind but almost caught up in size.

[PLreef]

Nice job Danny! Girls are looking good.

[Dannyboy58]

The older of the two NLs is now two weeks into flower and pretty heavy with blooms. Hope to see them chunk up in the next few weeks! The Afghans oldest of which is now just past 7 weeks from seed, are still vegging like crazy and trying to take over the tent. Maybe a bloom on one in that first pic? The others are the older NL.

The NLs smell fantastic, very citrusy and honeysuckle like and leaves are getting very sticky.

Wondering if I'll need to make a light schedule change to get the afghans to bloom...

[Canuck147]

Plants look okay - my criticism is you took off too many leaves too soon - prefowers were happening when you defoliated and the leaves don't seem to be growing back. Plant could have used those sugar factories to pour energy into the flowering stage. Should have waited until the flowers started before defoliating. But time will tell. Just my opinion.

[Dannyboy58]

Canuck147 I appreciate any advice or criticism but I'm not sure I understand what defol you're referring to? Are you referring to what you see in these photos? Because i did remove leaves just prior to these photos. Most of the ones I removed were 3 lobe leaves that were shading buds beneath.

The only leaves I ever clipped prior to the first flower were fan leaves that I thought were blocking light to bloom sites. I did this a few times during the veg stage and training. Are you referring to those leaves?

Is there reference material you could point me to that would help? I've wondered all along if I was being too liberal with the shears but I was trying to follow what I was seeing in the other training threads.

I have the afghans right behind the NLs so I'd like to treat them the best way possible to get the highest production.

[Canuck147]

Referring to the post on June 6 - and to the pic above.
Not sure of any reference material - I've never looked for any in the defoliate category. I just go by what I've done in the past.
I feel that I've got a pretty good read on autoflowers - so I adjust to their needs.

[Dannyboy58]

Canuck147. Gotcha so the picture on the 6th I had just taken leaves off too, mostly fans I think but also a few 3 lobes I'd seen that may have been sugar leaves... So so you defol early in flowering? Or you just think I just took too much? Like I said I'm just going by gut and my gut is in over it's head ATM. Also I just kinda like fiddling with them I guess...

I just found a defoliation tutorial by Nebula and another by Keef Treez, both regarding defol during flowering to increase yield, neither focuses on autos but I assume once flowering begins all things are about equal between photos/autos?

I'll read those more than once and see what other threads I can find on the subject. When the Afghans begin to flower maybe I'll start a thread on the topic and ask for advice prior to sharpening my shears...

I plan on sticking with autos for the foreseeable future so feel free to share your experiences.

[Canuck147]

Best experience I can tell you is what I'm calling '8 leaf removal' - this is done early on - as the nodes and branches are developing.

It's also the best way to tell if your particular plant us finicky to training or not.

Plant should be growing well by the time they're working on their third or fourth node. Those big fan leaves on top are the first pairs to go - only snip 2 at a time. - the ones blocking potential growth. Watch how they react.
Not long after - probably just a few days - snip off the next pair doing the most blocking from above.

All in all onecuts off 4 pairs of leaves allowing the growth below to develop into branches and if done early on and properly one will have 8 branches plus the main cola - lot of the time those 8 branches grow almost as high as the main .

Thats what I'm doing next - LST is not really my cup of tea - I'll do LST only if I have to.

[Dannyboy58]

Canuck147 but that's during veg right? What about topping? That one pictured above was not topped and no LST. I have a NL a week behind it that was topped after the 5th node and has had LST. It has had fairly liberal removal of large fan leaves up until flowering and not a lot since then. That's it in the first pic. The second pic is my two afghans. I think they're about to flower at 7 weeks from seed for the one in back, 6 the one in front. The one in the back was also topped above the 5th node, neither LST'd but have had big fans removed a few times. Otherwise they'd be even more dense. Way too much plant in the one container so lesson learned there. Anyway as these progress into flower I'd appreciate any advice on when and how to defol. Seems the afghans will certainly need it. I took a few big fan leaves off the front one today.

[RonnieB]

When you checked your ph was it at a different time than usual? Ph will fluctuate a bit during the day. Or did you check it at your usual time. When checking ph in reservoirs its wise to check it at the same time every time.

[Dannyboy58]

Interesting that you say that....I was just wondering that yesterday. I've had a few super low pH readings recently and even changed out the water early a couple of days ago. When the pH was very low and tds had dropped a lot. Based on the feeding chart, drinking water, low TDS, low pH, I felt it needed a change and increase in TDS. Then yesterday when I checked it pH had risen to 6.9.

So that begs the question, when do you respond to a radical pH change?