Let's Find a Mother! Hiking Through a Field of Mary Jane

[LaughingFish]

If it were me I would clean out the res. put fresh ph'd water in put in a 1/3 dose of the normal nutes run that for a day or two. add a cleaning nute for a run or two. Then ditch that , refresh water and go with normal nutes.
Learning from my own mistakes, I never test something on such a large scale that you weren't sure of. The tea might need fine tuning. I would try the tea in a smaller system that you are not depent on, so if it becomes a loss oh well you still have you main going.
It also maybe the system. I stopped using that system because:1 the plants got root bound way to quick which in return stunted the plants potential.(that was with only flower in that system) :2 cleaning, the clay,the feed lines etc.
Is your water tank real stank.... beyond the tea smell, such as a hard iron or rotten egg smell ? those are good signs of root rot?
Do you have air pumps in the res? the water can go stagnent quick from sitting. I use to keep 4 2"stones going in the res along with a extra pump that went above the water line and had spray tips(like cloning machines) spray in the res to keep the water moving.
Hope this might help, good luck.

 

[Bassman59]

As far as root nutes that I like, I suggest BushDoctor from Fox Farms. It has like 7 forms of Glomous in it, which is the thing Cory of BPN told me really enhances the roots with lots of "ribs" which we all like. I use it with every feeding through the 1st week of Bloom @ 5ml/gal. Just like AN VooDoo Juice schedule. Does every bit as good and costs tons less.

 

[Hiker]

If it were me I would clean out the res. put fresh ph'd water in put in a 1/3 dose of the normal nutes run that for a day or two. add a cleaning nute for a run or two. Then ditch that , refresh water and go with normal nutes.
Learning from my own mistakes, I never test something on such a large scale that you weren't sure of. The tea might need fine tuning. I would try the tea in a smaller system that you are not depent on, so if it becomes a loss oh well you still have you main going.
It also maybe the system. I stopped using that system because:1 the plants got root bound way to quick which in return stunted the plants potential.(that was with only flower in that system) :2 cleaning, the clay,the feed lines etc.
Is your water tank real stank.... beyond the tea smell, such as a hard iron or rotten egg smell ? those are good signs of root rot?
Do you have air pumps in the res? the water can go stagnent quick from sitting. I use to keep 4 2"stones going in the res along with a extra pump that went above the water line and had spray tips(like cloning machines) spray in the res to keep the water moving.
Hope this might help, good luck.

Thanks Fishy!

My res doesn't "stink" anymore. It smells like earth.

I have 2 air pumps when tea isn't brewing, but I'm getting more/bigger ones when I go to hydro store.

Ya I'm heading to the hydro shop tonight it looks like, so I gotta run. Gonna ditch the tea experiment and go back to sterile!

 

[Hiker]

Made the dreaded yo-yo trip "into town" last night.

I picked up some DM Zone, Hygrozyme (holy fuck that shit is expensive!), GH FloraBlend (one of the items in their nute calc I was missing), Superthrive, more air stones, and the materials to put 21 of these clones into 1g pots (vermiculite, perlite, and coco coir)

I dumped the res and flushed the whole system with RO water. I didn't drag everything upstairs to the sink to scrub them though. I had just done that a few days ago, so the stuff was pretty clean. I did pull out each plant and examine the roots though.

They are not as bad as I thought. Initially I had done a random sampling. After examining ALL the plants, my 'random' sample included most of the worst plants. Even the bad ones, don't look terrible. The plants look great above ground, so I take that to mean there are still enough roots to sustain them.

I put ~25g of RO into the res, and added 1c H2O2 and 1/4 c (I think, maybe 1/2?) DM Zone. Wow was there a lot of foam! I cycled it through the system twice, then added another 20g of RO, another 1c H2O2 and another dose (1/4c I htink) of Zone. Last I added 5g RO with all the nutes mixed in. I added about half strength of what I gave them last time. I was originally only going to make a 25g reservoir, but the system retains 10+g in the buckets, so after cycling through the system, my ph lead was above the water during feeding. I prefer to keep the reservoir more full than that. So I added more water (and H2O2 and Zone) but didn't up the nutes. I'll add more nutes during the addbacks. It's at ~600ppm right now, and I know I can go to at least 1300 without any burn. I was at 1400+ last res and there was no burn.

I tried taking more root pictures, but they did not come out well. I simply cannot take them without assistance. I should have some help tonight as I want to take pictures of all the plants' roots to document the affects of my treatment measures.

I'm already feeling better about the ladies. I think they feel better too. The res smells and looks great now. I'm definitely sensing a happy energy from the plants, so I'm confident they will recover quickly. I had a talk with them last night, and they understand they only have 4-5 days before I flip back to 12/12. I also didn't put them back in GLR. I just extended the turn off time 4 hours. This gives me the advantage of being able to check on them in AM before they go to bed. This is especially helpful while I'm trying to treat the root problem.

Some more good news... I carried several of the plants over to the nursery area. Under the fluorescent lights, I can finally see how bad the yellowing is/was. There is none. It is totally the bright areas of the light from the reflectors. The new growth areas are slightly lighter green then the more mature areas, but that's normal from what I recall.

I also had to replace a bulb already. Yesterday I wondered why my temps looked so low (remote thermometer). Upon investigation, I realized one of the lights was out. I swapped bulbs and ballasts and it was the bulb. It would make a small sound when first plugged in, but wouldn't fire up. The hydro store replaced it no problem, but it was just one more thing to go wrong LOL

 

[jon705]

cant believe I missed this journal Hiker, sorry bro.Im all caught up now + reps for the great journal

 

[Hiker]

cant believe I missed this journal Hiker, sorry bro.Im all caught up now + reps for the great journal

Glad you finally found your way here
Thanks for the reps

 

[Hozona]

found this on another thread, idk if its more help or harm? lol now im like oh ok, its sulphur, no magnesium, no its... etc lol

I printed this and have a copy in my grow room where I mix nutes for referrence...Along with Corey's charts for BPN for hydo and soil, and a little reminder on what is happening to PH and PPMs ...

 

[Hiker]

I printed this and have a copy in my grow room where I mix nutes for referrence...Along with Corey's charts for BPN for hydo and soil, and a little reminder on what is happening to PH and PPMs ...

hmmmm I might print the absorption chart too. I have an idea of the range, but it would be nice to know which elements are being absorbed at which ph.

Typically, I wait until the ph in the res hits 6.1 or 6.2. Then I will adjust it down aiming for 5.5. If I hit 5.6, I just stop there. My res has been real stable though at 5.9-6.0. I've only had to adjust ph every 3-4 days at the most. And when I do have to make an adjustment, it takes very little ph down.

Since installing the RO system, I've noticed it's really hard to adjust the ph of the water now. It makes sense. The water is so clean, there is nothing affecting ph, so when I add 1 tsp of ph down, it has a big affect. I've tried using my tap water as my ph up, but sometimes it takes more water than I want to add. I hate adding the ph down, but I've done it. I mostly have the trouble when I'm trying to ph plain water. If I add even a little bit of the GH nutes, they bring the ph right to 5.9.

Here is what is really odd. My RO water starts at 7.0 ph, neutral. If I am trying to ph a 5g bucket of water, it takes very little ph down to make a change. Even when I try to add just 1-2mL, it can push it way down into the 3.5-4.5 range! Now the weird part is this... If I put in 5 mL of ph down, it will take 20 mL of ph Up to raise the ph back up. I get why there is a big swing in the first place, but I don't understand why it's so hard to bring it the other direction. Maybe next time I'll try adding 1mL up first and see what happens lol

Thanks for visiting Hoz.

 

[Bassman59]

Based on my observations and what I've found to work the best for me. I'm using an rdwc type system that cycles very fast. In the morning at lights on or when I get home, usually within 3 hrs of lights on or up to 5, I only ph test the water. I don't test ppm yet. Usually the system when well into flower is down 2.5-3 gals. If ph is below about 5.5 I add about 15ml of ph up as I am adding back straight ro water into the system. I dont shock it all at once. I add about 7.5 ml into a 3/4 gal pour into the res. Then I do two more pours. Basically I do this so I dont have to chance spilling a 5 gal bottle of ro water or hurt my back balancing it. Then I add another 7.5 ml with another pour.

My pump cycles at 396gph. So in the few minutes between the added ph up the entire system has cycled 2-5 times and mixed well.

Adding ph up to a system with nutrients (or dn for that matter) seems more effective and controlled than adding to straight ro water, then adding back nutrients. The nutrients, BPN included, seem to take an important part in balancing and/or buffering the ph.

As far as the feeding, after I've adjusted the ph and added back water to my fill point, allowed it to mix well, it's not until then that I take a PPM reading. This accurately tells me how much the plants are eating per 24 hrs.

 

[Hiker]

I agree Bassman

I don't try to ph water I'm mixing into nutes. It's only when I want "phed water" for things like soaking rapid rooters. Because of exactly what you've noticed, I don't think I will ph plain RO water anymore. Why would I?

The only reason growers concern themselves about ph is to not lockup nutes. We know that certain nutrients are absorbed at certain ph levels. If we're not trying to feed a plant, plain RO should suffice. For example, when I flushed my system Tuesday night, I didn't bother to ph the RO this time. I just poured it into the buckets. It was all getting flushed out, so RO shouldn't leave anything bad behind that could affect ph anyway. I did try to adjust the first bucket of RO I was going to use to flush and gave up.

My new philosophy is: If you're using plain water, then you aren't feeding, so you don't need to worry about ph.

If I'm mixing nutes, I always check ph after. Now that I'm using RO though, I never have to adjust it!

 

[jon705]

I printed this and have a copy in my grow room where I mix nutes for referrence...Along with Corey's charts for BPN for hydo and soil, and a little reminder on what is happening to PH and PPMs ...

thats a good idea Hoz, I'd like to get it poster size lol..so I could just hold a leaf up to it I might just do that thanks bro

 

[Hozona]

thats a good idea Hoz, I'd like to get it poster size lol..so I could just hold a leaf up to it I might just do that thanks bro

I have a printer, HP9800 inkjet , that prints 13" X 19" which was really helpful when I was teaching...I could do step by step posters ...Really good quality photoprints...

 

[jon705]

right on Hoz! if I had one of those and the cam im picking up soon I would have wallpaper pics of my nugs in my rooms lol

 

[Hozona]

 

[Hiker]

Wow I'm glad you guys referenced that post! I looked at is when VS posted it, but I missed that link to the chart! Awesome thread!

I would like to print the image as well (I did download it), but I don't have access to a nice color printer like my old job,
Maybe that's something to put no my list.

 

[Hiker]

No big update today. Last night I added the Hygrozyme to the res. I think I was supposed to do it the night before, but my days are running together a bit. Not enough sleep this week.

My understanding is you add it a couple days after res change if you're using cleaners like H2O2 or DM Zone. If anyone thinks I'm mistaken, please correct me!

I added 1.5 cups of the stuff. At $136/gallon (sticker price, but my hydro shop gives me a discount), that works out to $12.75 for that dose! This shit is f$$$ing expensive!!!!

Next time I make a new res, I'm gonna add up how much each res is costing me. Then again, maybe I don't wanna know.

I didn't pull any buckets and look at the roots last night. I'll be sure to do that tonight, but the ladies sure seem happy. They are the densest bushes I've ever seen. I'm eager for the stretch to start so they can spread out a little. I may have overdone the training/defol a bit. I may have to prune branches later on. These things are so bushy, I'm worried I won't get enough air moving around the branches and risk bud rot.

I also finished putting up the rest of the panda plastic. I was holding off until I had my intake situation finalized, but it might be done for this grow. I cut some flaps in the plastic, over the intake. This will help block light. The fan doesn't run very often during their night cycle, so most of that time, the flaps will be sitting 'closed'. There really isn't too much light down there, but I'd like it as dark as possible for them. My buddy is supposed to come over this evening, so I'll have him seal me up inside so I can check how well it's working. You really can't close up the walls from the inside, so it requires a helper. I also have a piece of wood shading the intake from the outside. This is to help block light from the nursery, although I've also covered up the nursery lights with some towels to both heat the clones and block the light. I think the ladies are pretty dark in there, but I'll confirm tonight.

I feel kind of silly about my root scare. I panicked a little. I don't think I over-reacted though. I'm very happy that I'm back to using a sterile res. There is still a small amount of foam in the res, but I think a lot of that is due to increased aeration from additional/upgraded airstones. It's not the thick foam like I saw when I first cleaned out the reservoir. The res smells nice and clean (and slightly sweet) now. It has the orange/brownish tint from the nutes, but looks very clear. I think I like the DM Zone and H2O2 regiment. I always get nervous moving into flowering. In veg, even if you fuck up, you can just wait for the plants to recover after you correct your mistake. They are not so forgiving in flowering.

Does anyone have tips or advice about how to share a video? Does an iPhone add geo data to videos, like it does to pictures? Do I have to put the video on Youtube? I'm still wary about the videos. I'm fine with the pictures since I know how to strip the meta data from them, but I don't know how to do it with video files. I'm still not sure I want my voice 'out there', but there are a lot of things about the garden I'd like to share, but a still photograph just doesn't demonstrate what I'm trying to show.

Well my short update turned out longer than I thought.
Thanks to everyone following along. Things are going to get exciting now!

 

[jon705]

they only way I know how is through youtube bro, ask Sensei hes does it a different way

 

[Hiker]

they only way I know how is through youtube bro, ask Sensei hes does it a different way

Thanks Jon. I was hoping you would reply. So you don't do anything to remove any meta data before submitting to Youtube? May I ask what the legal status of your grow is? Mine was legal until I took clones last week. Now that status is sort of a grey area.
What video editing software, if any, do you use?

Cannasensei has been following the thread so hopefully he will comment about posting videos as well.

 

[jon705]

I actually have a friend in another province upload them for me bro that pretty much tells you the status of my grow I know nothing about meta data and I dont use any software yet im not the greatest on computers but im slowly learning, I figured out how to put a line around a plant for potm

 

[Hiker]

That's an idea. I could have someone else upload them for me too. I can also do it anonymously myself I guess, but it's slow. I suppose I'll just have to go research meta data in video files.