AfricanGrower's 1st Hydro Journal - Ebb&Flow - Bubblelicious 2013

[AfricanGrower]

Hopefully I'll be right behind you with that 'Biggest Indoor Plant' title

 

[B A R]

Hydro will be a must soon after as will have the biggest indoor plant ever if I get my way lol.

I don't post on your thread too often AG but I'm always here reading & paying strict attention. Even though I don't see Hydro in my near future, I'm slowly but surely catching on. Usually I have to read your more technical post 2 or 3 times & then go back a few pages to really grasp what your saying. Following you I'm sure will have me more than ready when I do decide to attempt a Hydro grow. The way you attack every issue with detailed explanations is the reason I rate this the best hydro journal for pre-hydro members. Definitely a study guide. REPS for my brother from another mother. My second born plant's Bruncle...

 

[AfricanGrower]

I don't post on your thread too often AG but I'm always here reading & paying strict attention. Even though I don't see Hydro in my near future, I'm slowly but surely catching on. Usually I have to read your more technical post 2 or 3 times & then go back a few pages to really grasp what your saying. Following you I'm sure will have me more than ready when I do decide to attempt a Hydro grow. The way you attack every issue with detailed explanations is the reason I rate this the best hydro journal for pre-hydro members. Definitely a study guide. REPS for my brother from another mother. My second born plant's Bruncle...

Words too kind for praise! Thank you Reg for thinking highly of my journal as my purpose was to help everyone who attempts this style of growing, as well as myself! I'm glad this journal can be used as reference for future grow success! I would definitely keep members like Sl1ng and TheCapn by your side when you do attempt a similar setup as they have been key players in my success here!

 

[Dresney]

My sentiments exactly, Reg.

Although I don't think you guys could ever convince me to go hydro. I love playing in the dirt and poo too much.

I love your constant monitoring, AG. Wish I had your eyes when it comes to spotting potential issues/deficiencies (the word 'deficiencies' is looking really strange to me right now ).

I'm just not sure I'll ever have the patience for hydro. Some days I only peek at my girls for about 10 seconds in the morning and then forget about them until the next morning. Borderline neglect seems to be working for them.

Definitely +reps for keeping your grow in order.

(And omg, hi new friend! )

 

[AfricanGrower]

Yet another friend added to the And once again, many thanks for the kind words Dres

>>>the word 'deficiencies' is looking really strange to me right now

What does this mean? Are you having trouble with your plants, last time I checked in everything was vibing? Or is it the 'blurry' overlap between deficiencies and lockouts?

As for patience...yes, it is required for the first attempt, like my situation. But I already see the future, and with a few more tweaks I will be able to leave my tent unattended for days at a time without ANY hitches, but now I am like you, only physically checking my res once a day...but sometimes I go one or two days without actually seeing my plants. That feeling of noticing a substantial amount of growth never gets old

 

[Dresney]

I just meant that the word itself was looking weird... like I was spelling it wrong. I looked it up twice and was still skeptical.

My plants are still doing well. They like the schedule you approved

 

[B A R]

Some days I only peek at my girls for about 10 seconds in the morning and then forget about them until the next morning.

...but sometimes I go one or two days without actually seeing my plants.

I admire the two of you. I fiddle with my plants every morning for about 1/2 hr b4 heading to work. Then after I get home I check on them damn near every time I walk into my bedroom until lights out. I'll probably lose my mind when I go to 12/12 again. LOL

 

[TheCapn]

Beautiful, AG. You are doing absolutely amazing with these. Don't stress about the discolored leaves. Watch your temps, but with only 3 weeks to go, I would stick to the usual recipe and they will be awesome. Sorry the fan placement didn't work out for you. That 8" fan at home depot is MUCH better than the 6". It is more powerful and more quiet.

They are very leafy like you said. Since vegetative growth is over, it wouldn't hurt to pull a fan leaf or two once a day. I usually aim for the ones that are blatantly shading a lot.

You are having way too much fun with this. Just think, in 3 weeks you will be enjoying some grade A meds, most likely better than the last two batches you've bought!

I need a clone update. Got roots?

<--- AG

 

[AfricanGrower]

Beautiful, AG. You are doing absolutely amazing with these. Don't stress about the discolored leaves. Watch your temps, but with only 3 weeks to go, I would stick to the usual recipe and they will be awesome. Sorry the fan placement didn't work out for you. That 8" fan at home depot is MUCH better than the 6". It is more powerful and more quiet.

They are very leafy like you said. Since vegetative growth is over, it wouldn't hurt to pull a fan leaf or two once a day. I usually aim for the ones that are blatantly shading a lot.

You are having way too much fun with this. Just think, in 3 weeks you will be enjoying some grade A meds, most likely better than the last two batches you've bought!

I need a clone update. Got roots?

<--- AG

Capn, good to see you around these parts. I have been wary of taking off any fan leaves for the past 3 weeks due to an unsettling fast rate of lower foliage dying. I have noticed it before on two maybe three leaves at the most, but now it seems like the dying leaves are defoliating the underside of my trellis at an unreasonably fast pace. Only one or two leaves above the trellis show this type of necrosis and withering, but I'm afraid the more leaves I pull off, the faster this will spread before harvest.

Here are some pics, what do you think?

>>>I need a clone update. Got roots?

And yea about that...I completely scrapped the one out of two clones I had after I found out the bagseed was a hermaphrodite. The other Bubb cloned did not root after 15 days in the bubbler. Lower leaves started to yellow showing good signs of stored nutrients being used. I took off the humidity dome after day 9 and wilting started two afterwards. I still have over 15 clones in stasis that I will try and root next month. I will do 2 groups, a bunch in rockwool cubes and another in the bubbler/aerocloner.

 

[B A R]

i still have over 15 clones in stasis that i will try and root next month. I will do 2 groups, a bunch in rockwool cubes and another in the bubbler/aerocloner.

like

 

[TheCapn]

>>>fast rate of lower foliage dying

I read this on my phone and started freaking out. Then I come see the pictures. That's nothing dude. If you were pulling off 1/2 dozen lower leaves that were turning yellow every day, THEN i would be concerned.

Those leaves are rubbing against something, or something is splashing on them. "It's no big deal, Julian."

>>I still have over 15 clones in stasis that I will try and root next month.

Why are you waiting? No place to Veg right now? Try the rockwool method. Works 100% of the time. I guess there is no rush. These two will set you up nicely for several months!

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>>fast rate of lower foliage dying

I read this on my phone and started freaking out. Then I come see the pictures. That's nothing dude. If you were pulling off 1/2 dozen lower leaves that were turning yellow every day, THEN i would be concerned.

Those leaves are rubbing against something, or something is splashing on them. "It's no big deal, Julian."

>>I still have over 15 clones in stasis that I will try and root next month.

Why are you waiting? No place to Veg right now? Try the rockwool method. Works 100% of the time. I guess there is no rush. These two will set you up nicely for several months!

That's good to know, but I will still be cautious about when I pull leaves.

>>>No place to Veg right now?

Yea that is my only reason as of right now. I would start in my PC, but space restrictions and the ability not to have complete environmental control prevents me from taking that route. I figured anything over a 6oz harvest will set me up for another 3 months at least.

Broke, what are you trying to say??

 

[Skybound]

AG, I noticed before lights went off this morning that my PH finally rose up to 6.7. I assume the extra .75ml of silica finally proved a formidable opponent to the DOWN. I added 2 drops per tenth (0.1) to bring that down to the high 5 range, then lights went off so I didn't get a chance to see if it came back down yet.

@ Reg and Dres,
I sometimes miss the simplicity of a soil grow, but I gotta be completely honest, aside from my reservoir follies, growing Capn Style is not that different than soil and definitely without the added pressure to maintain optimal res temps of 65º. The way I see my setup is that I am prepping to be away for about a week, so I mix up my res and the timer controls the feeds and that's about it. The beauty of "Simple Hydroponics" is that you get the simplicity of soil growing with the rate of hydro (DWC-like) growing. My system could of course be used to feed a soil plant, but because I am focusing on other parts of plant development so I don't get the same issues I had my last hydro grow, I can work this grow to better develop roots and protect them with beneficial bacteria (bennies). So I get a great root zone, what is above ground will follow suit. Of course being BAS or BAM (I am Mike), my situation is more complicated because I'm kind of always within a few days of losing my grow, I had to skimp out on some of the details of Capn's plan which equates to less performance/yield, I definitely notice the simplicity and forgiveness. Simple Hydro is No stress which means I can transplant frequently and not lose days which add to weeks. Also frequent transplants forces roots to stop every now and again to kind of circle back and better populate the medium I provide (which ironically is provided to me by this awesome community, because I am currently a broke ass).

Poor AG only has S1ing and Capn to rely on. I am fortunate enough to have Capn, S1ing and AG that all have experience with this method of grow. When (not "if") you decide to come over to hydro, I strongly suggest starting with Simple Hydro. You will then have Capn, S1ing, AG and skybound, all of whom will then have a grow (or more) of Simple Hydro under their belts and are willing to assist immediately.

 

[B A R]

That I like the fact that you have 15 clones in stasis.

 

[AfricanGrower]

AG, I noticed before lights went off this morning that my PH finally rose up to 6.7. I assume the extra .75ml of silica finally proved a formidable opponent to the DOWN. I added 2 drops per tenth (0.1) to bring that down to the high 5 range, then lights went off so I didn't get a chance to see if it came back down yet.

@ Reg and Dres,
I sometimes miss the simplicity of a soil grow, but I gotta be completely honest, aside from my reservoir follies, growing Capn Style is not that different than soil and definitely without the added pressure to maintain optimal res temps of 65º. The way I see my setup is that I am prepping to be away for about a week, so I mix up my res and the timer controls the feeds and that's about it. The beauty of "Simple Hydroponics" is that you get the simplicity of soil growing with the rate of hydro (DWC-like) growing. My system could of course be used to feed a soil plant, but because I am focusing on other parts of plant development so I don't get the same issues I had my last hydro grow, I can work this grow to better develop roots and protect them with beneficial bacteria (bennies). So I get a great root zone, what is above ground will follow suit. Of course being BAS or BAM (I am Mike), my situation is more complicated because I'm kind of always within a few days of losing my grow, I had to skimp out on some of the details of Capn's plan which equates to less performance/yield, I definitely notice the simplicity and forgiveness. Simple Hydro is No stress which means I can transplant frequently and not lose days which add to weeks. Also frequent transplants forces roots to stop every now and again to kind of circle back and better populate the medium I provide (which ironically is provided to me by this awesome community, because I am currently a broke ass).

Poor AG only has S1ing and Capn to rely on. I am fortunate enough to have Capn, S1ing and AG that all have experience with this method of grow. When (not "if") you decide to come over to hydro, I strongly suggest starting with Simple Hydro. You will then have Capn, S1ing, AG and skybound, all of whom will then have a grow (or more) of Simple Hydro under their belts and are willing to assist immediately.

I love the good vibes coming into this thread right now

>>> I noticed before lights went off this morning that my PH finally rose up to 6.7.

So adjusting the water's pH beforehand didn't help in slowing down the rate of rise?

And you didn't answer my other question dude!

>>>When doing so, I mixed in 1.5ml of PH DOWN into the water first and let that mix for 10-15 minutes, then added all my nutes. Before I explain further, the last 2 res swaps I used no less than 2ml to start after I mixed in my nutes. I also would normally need to add 10-20 drops daily to bring it back down. This time I started with 75% of the normal DOWN dose, and before you consider the amount of water, I first overshot PPM by a lot so I added another 3/4 gallon of water totaling 2.75 gallons, the PH is hopping back and forth between 5.6 and 5.7.

So you are saying adjusting the pH of the water prior to adding nutrients is stabilizing your res and allowing less amounts of pH Down? Well that is something to consider for my next res change. I will adjust before-hand and update you on the results. One question, did you adjust pH of your distilled water down to the 5.8 range or did you adjust to account for the nutrients naturally acidic affect?

 

[Skybound]

Yeah, I must've missed the 2nd Q. I preemptively added less than the usual 2ml or more to see if prepping the water might assist the buffers in the down to hold on to the downward pull better. The results looked fantastic to start with, all the way up till about 36 hours in, give or take some hours. Then at some point during the night, only being drained for one minute, by 3 times and a night to rest it climbed up to 6.7. The added silica is likely the culprit and next change I won't test the limits again and just stick with the safe 2ml. Adding the drops once again did next to nothing last night. Just at lights on, I checked and it went up to 7.4 so I then added 1/2ml of DOWN, dropped a tenth or two, added 1.5ml came down to 6.8. Added another 1/2 ml and it plunged down to 5.3. Wanting to flush the medium as your explanation made a lot of sense so I went for it with the 5.3. However, while making adjustments, I turned off the "auto" cycle of programmed feed times as adjusting took near 2 hours. Thankfully the Heisenberg Tea had matured this evening at 48 hours and it's pH was 5.4 so I added a little more than 8 ounces, probably more like 12 ounces to really drench the medium and give my new lady friend a nice smoothy of her favorite poison. When I turned the pump on, I cycled the medium as best I can (only outside ring drips or squirts) then changed the cycle to what I thought was the "auto" position, but mistakenly chose the auto that keeps feeding. Still being a little scatter brained from some bong rips that a friend came over and shared with myself and the other 2 stooges, I did not hear the pump pumping. When I discovered this, it had already been 30-45 minutes of on time. I will add just a bit more Heisenberg Tea as I believe the last bit may have washed out and this tea is near peak population or declining and I want to get some bennies in there breaking down some nutes or whooping any ass down there that needs whooping! I left the res to collect it's bearings and checked the levels.

Input PPM - 575
Input PH --- 5.3
Res PPM --- 650
Res PH ----- 5.9

I added my last quarter gallon of distilled water to bring the PPM to between 550 and 600. Now the funny part is that when I go to update my journal, the only news I will have to share is the meter readings after adding the water and a query about some lower branch leaves that I pulled that were yellow with brown and gray necrotic spots because I got way too carried away answering your question. So if you ever want to inform your subscribers of your progress in your grow, please feel free to spill it on my journal and link back because that's my new plan.

 

[AfricanGrower]

I preemptively added less than the usual 2ml or more to see if prepping the water might assist the buffers in the down to hold on to the downward pull better. The results looked fantastic to start with, all the way up till about 36 hours in, give or take some hours.

Thanks for answering my question And feel free to post here as much as you like bro, you are one of the founding fathers of this thread, being a Capn Style grower and all

14/12/13

FLOWER DAY 45

Good Morning 420, good morning to all

Things have been somewhat edgy in the grow tent this week. As you all know I was on the brink of a Magnesium deficiency last week. I had clumsily mistaken this for a Potassium deficiency due to low RH, but actually it was the beginnings of a miniature battle between plant and grower. I eliminated a K deficiency after conducting a little more research. Here is an excerpt I wrote in Sky's journal about my thoughts on this:

I realized that I was not facing any kind of K deficiency throughout my last few weeks. And even though my humidity was fairly low (19%), being so late in flowering, low humidity actually benefits cannabis in resin production (*GreenHouse Seeds). After doing some research in fear of my potential humidity related K problem, I come to find that a lot of the cases take place during vegetative growth where Potassium is given in minimal concentrations, so I'm guessing having the little K locked due to humidity will show this effect. But since in flowering there is an abundant supply of K (usually) it is more likely to get locked by a salt buildup. I think 30-40% RH in flowering is PERFECT.

So on to my Mg problem. At first my leaves all started to get a dark green hue towards the veins, and a lighter green along the edges. Both classic signs of a Mg deficiency.

After noticing this last week, I decided to add 6ml/gal of CaliMagic to try and prevent it from escalating. A couple of days later I was still getting signs of further progression of this deficiency. With signs of similar to 'spotting tips' of a K (Potassium) deficiency, I instinctively tried to supplement with a bloom booster high in K (remember this was in last week's update, where I thought I had a K def due to low RH), however I had not included other important factors.

For example, the fact that only the top foliage seemed to be affected with this spots, could be seen as a K def, BUT more importantly, can be seen as a immobile nutrient deficiency as well. Since immobile nutrients mainly consist of MICRO nutrients, Magnesium would be the next best option. Another factor that led me to this conclusion of a Mg def were the spotting that was beginning to occur between the veins of some lower leaves. Almost where the greenest part of the veins had affected the leaves is where the spots consistent with a Mg def started to form.

Now fast forward to today after I have lowered and raised the level of CaliMagic throughout this week; I have been adding to the more frequent res changes, and I still feel that I have not overcome this problem yet. But, I'm almost positive that I have reached a level of temporary equilibrium with the Mg levels after I raised the dose from 2.5.ml/gal (thinking that it was a lockout) to back up to 5ml/gal where color seemed to have slightly returned, and where the spotting seemed to have digressed to only a couple of leaves, but still prominent. Here is what a few lower leaves look like today. A lot of the foliage is very dry to the touch, so I am unsure whether or not I am in recovery mode or not.

These are the worst couple of leaves on the entire plant.

So this brings me to my thoughts of how I am going to approach my next step forward.

1. I am definitely not at the point in flower where I can allow the whole plant to become deficient...it is STILL to early for her to start dying.

2. If things still progressively get worse with CaliMagic doses increased to 6ml/gal, I conclude that I may be experiencing a Mg lockout due to excessive amounts of Calcium. I have done some research on my county's water content, and 80% of my 170 PPM tapwater consists of Calcium and the other remaining percentage is Magnesium, and other trace elements, including chlorine. The Ca in my tapwater, combined with the percentage of Ca in the CaliMagic, could be a cause and a contender in a salt buildup. If you look back at some of the pictures of the spotting, you can notice some inter-veinal scarring, and white streaks, which in my experience with this Bubb plant, is an early indicator of a Calcium deficiency. Not to mention after checking PPM readings between yesterday and today, the PPM actually rose by 50 PPM, I it's insignificant, but it may be an indicator of a salt build up.

3. I will be emptying my res today and keeping to the original feeding schedule and will be giving a flush (with the high Ca tapwater...counter-intuitive, I know)

4. My next attempt to try and correct this problem will be in the form of a foliar spray of Epsom salt (.5ml/gal or 200 PPM). Does anyone know about using CaMa as a foliar feed??

 

[AfricanGrower]

14/12/13

UPDATE PART 2

Almost forgot to get update with pictures of the plant as a whole, and all the other little things I have going on in the tent, oh and the weekly trichome's update!

Both Bagseed and the Bubb have lifted their skirts (foliage below the trellis) fairly high, with most of foliage on the Bubb falling off and dying, and most of the Bagseed's foliage accidentally getting pulled off

A couple changes to overall schedule include: I changed watering frequency to 2x a day for 15minutes last week. I am now using 7.5 gallons in my res instead of 12.5 gallons, to try and reduce nutrient consumption. Added a humidifier to come on during lights on to raise RH to 35-40%. Plan on putting a dehumidifier in during the last two weeks to bring RH down to 5-10%.

Here you can see the bagseed is really densely packed with swollen calyxes and resin production is phenomenal!

The ratio of leaf to bud on the Bubb is evening out more each week. I want to see big white 'fuzz' sticks by the time harvest rolls by

Here are some comparison shots with a regular size pop can and a lighter.

Some of the largest colas.

Large colas compared to a lighter.

Smallest sized cola.

The Weekly Trichomes

TheBubb

[video=youtube_share;BP2Q_zdjMQs]

[/video]

The Bagseed

[video=youtube_share;ds03X5_DvoU]

[/video]

I have decided to take a little sample off of the Bagseed...time for a little Suavay Sampling

 

[VictorVonDoom]

Top growing

 

[b.real]

looking good. enjoy that sample.