Catching Up on my Grow 2 - Lots going on!!

[buz]

4 300w GalaxyHydro LEDs.

Top Fed DWC - 4 tubs (2 plants each) and a main water supply tub. Strains: White Widow x2; Sour Crack x2; Caramel x2; Skylar White x2.

1 40 gal Supply Rez with 20 gals in it, then 4 10 gal grow tubs each with 5 gals of water. (40 gallons of water total). New air pump supply has 6 ports, I use 4, one for each tote and then split to each plant - each plant has it's own stone.

pH has been maintained around 6.1 and my ppm has been ~200

This grow started roughly 6 weeks ago and it struggled right out of the gate. The three things I have struggled with are Over Watering, Very Low Humidity and on top of it all I had a severe algae problem. WHEW!!!!!

• The over watering was a surprise. My watering rate was based on the same as for my first grow, for some reason those rates drowned my plants, but I did salvage them.
• The Low Humidity (~35%) came with a cold snap we had and it lasted for a couple weeks. I never made a huge difference in the %, but I know my efforts at least helped. Mainly created various forms of evaporation to add humidity.
• I chased the algae through three 'guesses', just eliminating any possible light sources to the water supply. Turned out that with lights to the side of the rez (neighboring light) it shined through the sides of my rez's. The tin foil fixed it perfect, but it took weeks to chase down. Should have just come here in the first place.

Currently still have minor symptoms of issues being treated. The best I can tell is it looks like I'm facing too high nutrient levels now.(?) Unfortunately I had surgery on my left elbow yesterday and think I need 2 or 3 days before I can give the plants a flush. The plants had soaked up 5 gallons out of the main rez so I was able to add 5 gallons of fresh water to at least dilute the system - first glance looks like the plants are responding.

Question: My Tote #1 with Skylar 1 and 2 is a problem. The two plants happen to be my tallest and my shortest, somehow sharing the same light. I'm either way close to the larger plant (less than 10") or raising it appropriately makes it like 24" (or more) above the short one. Not sure how to balance this???

Question: Read about Top Fed DWC and think I understood that after the roots are well entrenched in the water that then the Top Feed can be turned off. Is this correct?

Question: Read about Auto's and it says 'No Training' except for some minimal LST. What about defoliation? Seems even Auto's could benefit from defoliation where needed. ???

That's my report.

 

[Green75]

It all looks great...
I major defo my autos and major lst...and topping...go for it

 

[buz]

At this point I'm still up for defo'ing and some lst - thanks for your 2¢.

 

[Monkey Allen]

In response to your three questions:
1) LST the larger plant by tying down some of its stems to make it roughly the same height as the smaller plant, and then keep your light at the manufacturer's recommended height.

2) Yes, you can turn off your pump and just let the roots do the work. You never actually have to top feed your plants. I used to do that when I first started growing. Then I tried germinating and growing without it, and have not looked back. Pumps heat up water and tubes clog; plus, its extra money you don't need to spend.

3) You can definitely LST and defoliate autos. Some people even top their autos, but others say autos can't recover in time if you top them. You can always experiment 🤓

About your algae: cover or paint those white bin
tops. There's probably light transmitting through the plastic. I used white buckets for my very first grow and had lots of algae. I switched to bins that are made of thick black plastic and now there's never any algae.

Good luck and happy growing.

 

[Tika]

Great report Buz! Love your environment too!

 

[buz]

Thanks for the reply Monkey Allen. My algae problem was finally solved with the tin foil wrapping the sides of the rez's. The white tops 'are' painted 'white'. I agree that finding black rez's is definitely the answer.

I'm glad to hear that some training is reasonable even for auto's.

 

[buz]

Thanks for the reply Monkey Allen. My algae problem was finally solved with the tin foil wrapping the sides of the rez's. The white tops 'are' painted 'white'. I agree that finding black rez's is definitely the answer.

I'm glad to hear that some training is reasonable even for auto's.

 

[rockman]

No Title

Agree with Green on the auto topping , defoliation, and LST...which I tried all 3 on my last grow...check out the final result. 😊

 

[Monkey Allen]

Awesome! What week do you top your autos?

 

[Monkey Allen]

Hope everything goes well.

 

[rockman]

Bubba#2 (shown) was topped at 4th node on day 20. This allowed 8 growing points to develop. My current grow Swiss Cheese was topped earlier at 2nd node on day 15, and has 4 strong branches now spreading out. I'll be posting a day 21 pic later today. 🌿

 

[Green75]

Hey rock...did you ever weigh the haul....I'm curious...

 

[rockman]

@Green 75....I filled 3 quart jars full, so I'm thinking about 3 ounces. Great to keep me supplied for awhile, and she should be higher quality than Bubba 1 due to the organic soil used (I'm trying very soon).😊

 

[OzBud]

cool growing area!