I need help with my hydro garden. Answers geared to soil or other mediums (sand, diatomaceous earth etc) don't really apply. I need help specifically for Hydroponic. I need help with my hydro garden. I'm on a 3 week rotation. Cuts in turbo kloner to 4x4x4 rockwool cubes on a flood and drain table for veg and then into 1 of 3 ebb and flow bucket sets covered in hydroton for a total of 9 weeks in flower. I began having some trouble with what I though were fungus gnats and used mosquito dunks in my rez (55 gal in size but running 40 galleons) and it seemed to help but not fix things. After harvesting that round of plants I noticed 2 things both bad. First yield was down...ALOT and the taste was not up to standard. I then stop using the dunks because of that and while it may be a coincidence in this case flavor did came back, but not yield. I decided that the yield being low was due to some lock out or deficiencies and what I was dealing with was a magnesium deficiency. I run several different strains and used the Botanicare full line of nutrient. I have recently switch to the Advance Nutriments PH Perfect Grow Bloom Micro line and there was no difference in the plant troubles. For me veg would go fine and the plants look great and healthy. I'm still running the Botanicare in veg, CNS 17 Grow plus Cal-Mag, Karma, Sweet, and HyrdoGuard. The trouble starts early in bloom generally between weeks 2 and 3 and it was almost like light shock. I flower under 1000 watt HPS and MH mixed and veg under HO florescent. Plants are very healthy throughout veg. After the move I start seeing yellowing of leaves where the leaf is papery, tan and then dead. Many other leaves start becoming more translucent and turn a light green. Then most of the larger fan leaves start to go yellow with the veins staying green before they turn completely banana yellow and fall off or hang tan dry and crispy until they are removed. As I said I thought the problem was a magnesium deficiency and did all I could to address it. I always use RO water because I'm on a well and the water is not good at all. Somewhere in the 400- 600 ppm out of the well zero out of the RO. I added Epsom salts and misted with it as well, backed off on nutrient, changed ratios, changed nutrients, tried drip clean and more but nothing solved my deficiency.
I now have discovered what I think has been the problem all along.....root aphids, NOT fungus Gnats. I had an out break of "fungus gnats" and used the dunks and pest strips and a couple bug bombs and was left with few if any flying bugs and still to this day rarely see anything on my yellow traps. But I still have the same issues AND I keep finding what I though was fungus gnat larva in my rez. I figured the gnats were laying eggs in my medium and they were getting washed back to the rez where they hatched. They float around in packs and wiggle and jump around like lice or something Finally I saw what I think can only be a aphid and took a very close look at what I found sweeping up the floor and notice that the wings were much longer than gnats and the concluded I have aphids. Some winged and some not. So at this point I went through and got a sample of every pest I could find and did a video and pictures to post and ask for help to fix it. I think I may have gnats as well as the aphids but the "larva" I'm not sure of. Are they gnat larva, aphid larva, or as someone told me they are actually springtail and they are not bad but are in fact feeding on the bad guys.
I posted a video to you-tube (
) it is about 7 1/2 minutes long made of short clips strung together with several views of the pests I have at different stages of development. And I have a bunch of close up stills as well. I need to banish these bastards from my garden and to do so I need to know what they all are and how to kill them.
It is very important that what ever I do doesn't destroy the flavor profile of the plants and that I can use it in flower as I'm in perpetual harvest and have plants at all different phases of life from cuttings to flowers 6 weeks in.
Any ideas for a solutions to rid my garden of all these pests and maintain the quality of the plants. As I said when I used the dunks I had flavor issues. Has anyone used dunks and noticed bad flavor? Help me find my way past these pests and phantom lockouts back to a healthy garden.
Thanks to all!
I now have discovered what I think has been the problem all along.....root aphids, NOT fungus Gnats. I had an out break of "fungus gnats" and used the dunks and pest strips and a couple bug bombs and was left with few if any flying bugs and still to this day rarely see anything on my yellow traps. But I still have the same issues AND I keep finding what I though was fungus gnat larva in my rez. I figured the gnats were laying eggs in my medium and they were getting washed back to the rez where they hatched. They float around in packs and wiggle and jump around like lice or something Finally I saw what I think can only be a aphid and took a very close look at what I found sweeping up the floor and notice that the wings were much longer than gnats and the concluded I have aphids. Some winged and some not. So at this point I went through and got a sample of every pest I could find and did a video and pictures to post and ask for help to fix it. I think I may have gnats as well as the aphids but the "larva" I'm not sure of. Are they gnat larva, aphid larva, or as someone told me they are actually springtail and they are not bad but are in fact feeding on the bad guys.
I posted a video to you-tube (
It is very important that what ever I do doesn't destroy the flavor profile of the plants and that I can use it in flower as I'm in perpetual harvest and have plants at all different phases of life from cuttings to flowers 6 weeks in.
Any ideas for a solutions to rid my garden of all these pests and maintain the quality of the plants. As I said when I used the dunks I had flavor issues. Has anyone used dunks and noticed bad flavor? Help me find my way past these pests and phantom lockouts back to a healthy garden.
Thanks to all!
