Re: Quest for 1g/w: 1k hps liquid cooled on a 6' mover in a 4x8 tent.
the mix i am been using now, is crazy, i have never seen plants react as fast as they do when i feed. the next day its always noticeable on growth. i was thinking it was all in my mind, but its not. one of the additive are making them real happy or all of them. using Maxi Bloom, H2O2 and silica. they just go nutes for this mix. it was noticeably until i starting mixing my nutes in a certain order. allot of us are feeding are plants wrong, the base nutes dont always go 1st, every nutes and additive has and order to be in. ive been studying this the last few days. theirs info on this in my thread.
I used to think the same way, I'd see a noticable growth spurt and think, "I must have the nutrients dialed-in." And that might well be true. But I've been thinking about it and it seems that if you do something and get a spurt, it might just mean that the plants were hungry when you fed them. I now think it might be better for the plants (and possibly for the yield, IDK) if one has the feeding schedule/ratios/strengths such that there is no spurt - no "Oh thank goodness he finally FED us, now we can grow some," but instead plants that are adequately fed the entire time and thus growing steadily the
entire time.
But
saying it is one thing, lol.
my pH starts out neutral and i dose it down. AN recommends a pH of 5.6, I get it to 5.6 and leave it. It will slowly rise and I will need to dose it again back down. I let it get to 6.1 before i touch it. this usually repeats itself for 4-5 days and then stabilizes. It was taking nosedives 2 weeks ago but since I started the H2O2 (last week) that stopped.
I don't think I'm heavy on the nutes, my water starts out about .3x EC, so 200-220 ppm (a bit hard i know, I have an RO, but I need a new filter, or it would take a week to fill my reservoir) I've been adding about 1/4 strength of the suggested dose amount for my size res, But I am using my EC meter to get to the target EC. I was running at 1.45-1.5 EC (1050ppm), but I upped it last res change to about 1.75 (1225ppm). They look like they are happy, but it's still to soon for me to say for sure, I just changed the res on Sunday.
doubt its a pH problem, I have an automatic doser that keeps it very tightly between 5.6 and 6.1 and lets it drift between the two. I also have a second pH meter in the Res, so I have doubly redundant numbers to go off of. my EC meter reads test solution right on every time, so unless my solution is off for some reason I think I'm reading good.
I don't have any rust spots, the outer parts of my fans were "burning" and curling. take a look at the pic in my last set, you'll see.
It is only happening to the Biggest fans at the tops of the Best plants. . . I'm starting to think i might have been starving them, but if it is that, then i don't understand how people like 420fied can run an entire grow under 450 ppm and not have my problems. Also, the EC seems to be in the right zone, and I know how to measure.
I always love a good chart bro, feel free. None of these seems to fit my exact symptoms, but maybe a combination of a few? I'll take some pics tonight.
Hey? If a person runs a low-EC nutrient-profile then they must have each component dialed-in. If a person runs higher, there is some room for "slop," so to speak. Someone else's 450ppm might have just enough of each component while a 725ppm solution might have plenty of some components and NOT enough of others. Remember that an EC/TDS meter only gives you one overall reading and doesn't tell you what you've got of each part.
And the different components (nutrient-salts) would give slightly different readings when their actual PPMs were the same because of how the meters measure (the EC of different substances is... different). Mix several things together and it gets fuzzy. Use a manufacturer's nutrient calculator and you have a better chance of knowing exactly what (and what strengths of) are in the mix..
But then let a bunch of hungry plants feast on it for a bit and you can't exactly use the EC meter to tell WHAT got consumed from the solution.
And organics that aren't made up of salts aren't going to read (or at least not nearly what their PPMs alone would make a person expect compared to salts.
Just takes time with each strain and nutrient combination to get to know what each change (to whatever) means.
As far as I understand problems in top fans are immobiles...like calcium and alot of the micronutes are immobile. They have to come from the root system, so either your root system is getting choked (partial lockout) or you don't have enough of what your plants want or at least that was what I get from my reading.
Pretty much what I heard. If the problem appears in the new growth then it's a deficiency (or lockout) in one or more of the un-transportable components because when the old-growth was, err, new, there were (presumably) no deficiencies - so those leaves were fine, and still are because the plant cannot transport the components out of there to aid the newer growth. If the problem appears in the old growth then it's a deficiency/lockout in one or more of the transportable components - the plant moved things out of the old-growth leaves to even out the plant which didn't leave enough to keep the old-growth happy.
And if it happens all over, the plants are just hungry in general.
Those, along with a good set of meters and the "pH rises, PPMs drop - feeding; PPMs climb, water-level drops - using water but not feeding; pH tanks - go scrape the algae off your roots" things can go a long way.
Speaking of meters, didn't you have some electrical gremlin at one point some time back that caused you to have screwy meter-readings? It couldn't have come back... could it?
If adding more micro supplement and Calcium doesn't fix it, then your hard water may be your problem...maybe you have high levels of magnesium in your tap water, which is forcing a partial lockout on the calcium. I also read somewhere, high levels of Potassium causes slow transport of calcium...but I think that was plants in general, not for marijuana specifically.
Not sure what AN has for Cal-Mag, but that would be my first try is just adding some of that to see if it is just a deficiency.
Maybe next time you fill you could try store bought water or get your R.O. working to rule out your tap water.
I more or less just stopped worrying about my little Church plant it's leaves got so sick, figured it would do what it did and you know what...it's doing great, some nice bud growing anyway but she looks like crap...after I got the problem fixed that is. Crazy thing is because she was so sick she has only gotten nutes 3 times in her entire life...and has decent bud. She is small though, I really think the plant size is key to problem.
I kinda get to play with this when I bloom my hempy Cheese so wish me luck.
I am really just wishing you the best brother, I know you will get this fixed brother....you have 1g/w to go for!
*Hey on a side note...was reading where your ph is going up...in hydro doesn't that mean she is drinking more water than nutes? Only reason's I could think of for that is heavy transpiration from being too hot or not eating for whatever reason...(maybe I just think too much).
Maybe some hydro masters could drop in for you Wheel, I fear I just ramble...
Hope some of my rambling helps though...
Peace
