Surfbuddy's 1st DWC BigBud, Northern Lights, BubbleGum Grow Journal 2012

[SurfBuddy]

Today was the first day after the first night of GLR, lights go on at 6pm, out at 6am, and come on again for an hour at 11:30. I may end up rotating it an hour later, so if I sleep in I still can tend to something.. although an hour is enough to check pH, but not enough to deal with potential problems or flush the res (as I found out today).

water change this afternoon and pH was at 5.8 This evening it was at 7. I fear something is wrong. I added some pH down, a frozen jug to get the temps of the res down, and some Hygrozyme at about 6ml per gallon although, ppm's had come down about 30, and there was a gallon of water missing...
That seems excessive to me, as it was only about 10 hours later. Maybe they're just thirsty? Or maybe something else.

OK for the record, as of now,
ppm 256 (actually in the last 1/2 hour, it dropped to 242)
ph 5.5
res temp 68 and dropping
RH 58%
air temp at plant level 82

fingers crossed for good luck

 

[CronicHempHog]

i dont know about the thirst issue but try making sure the ph is stabilized first
fill up a container matching the size of your res
add whatever nutes and stuff check ph add ph down if needs be throw in an airstone and let it sit for 24hrs
recheck ph before you throw it in res make sure it holds
if it hold at least u can cross off the fact that you ph'ed it correctly and go down the list of what it could be.....
process of elimination.....
hope that helps......... im still learning myself..........

 

[SurfBuddy]

What I don't get is why the plants look fine (except for NL2 that dried up)...
I'll check tomorrow.
come to think of it, maybe I need to do a clean/flush
ugh

 

[SurfBuddy]

Reservoir smelled better-good, down about 3/4 gallon, ph 7.1 ppm up to 288?
I added plain water to bring concentration down
plants look happy, roots are white
Two got transplanted out to the 2L DWC-H grow, BB2 and BG1
BB3 is happy, photo here:

 

[CronicHempHog]

if your ph is already @7.1 and you add plain water wont it raise your ph more?

 

[SurfBuddy]

I meant plain pH adjusted water w/o nutes to lower the ppm and pH at the same time

 

[Albatross]

Humidity is always going to be somewhat of a factor IMO its the hardest thing to accurately control constantly, unless you wanna pay big bucks which no one prefers. Id suggest getting your exhaust down, but be careful my RH dropped from 50ish to 20ish initially. Do the math and get the right fan for your space too much or too little will give you humidity problems. humidity is important for boundary layers on the plant ( Invisible "curtain" over the leaf layers to prevent dessication from wind etc.)

I have 1 plant in a 5 gl bucket and it drinks about 1/4g a day. so thats normal what you need to monitor at that point is the ppm, plants may be drinking a lot and not taking up nutrients or the other way around. It may be eating the nutrients and not the water. Make sure when you top off your giving back about 1/2 of what you were feeding it per gallon.

Your pH issue may be a few things you were using tap im not sure now ( i don't recall reading differently) But those nutrients will chelate and bond with other elements causing different pH (remeber water is polar attracting both - and + bonds, as opposed to soil which it typically a - profile. This increases especially if the res temps jump which was a previous issue for me and you mentioned it earlier.

And chronic is absolutely correct pH is the master variable in any plant like equation, if that's not your most important priority running hydro your wasting your time.I personally let mine climb from about 5.2 to about 6.2 to let different nutes absorb, but this normally takes about 36-48hrs for MY system. I know pH is a priority for you but its important so keep on it!

good luck grow on and ill be with ya

 

[SurfBuddy]

Alb- Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I should be getting a "real" exhaust fan today.. will put it in during the next light cycle this evening and monitor RH more closely.

Hmmm, I was hoping that the tap water was good enough... trying to keep my ongoing expenses down.

Chronic, did you try using the tap water? Is that why you're using R/O? Tap no good?

 

[CronicHempHog]

i dont use r/o i use tap
tap water is all good here comes from deepwater wells

 

[SurfBuddy]

ChronicHH - so many journals, sorry got mixed up.

got my exhaust fans... just waiting for the lights to come on...

 

[CronicHempHog]

lol
i only have 2 so you must be reffering to all the journals to read
lol

 

[SurfBuddy]

OK, new exhaust fan is in, temps are down even with the lights closer

I think I found out why my pH was going up... my main res was not pumping up to the upper res, and the water in the upper res was too high. So everytime I've been lifting the lid and looking in and seeing drips, but the drips were because the cups were sitting in the water. The water pump below was sitting on top of the airstone, which was putting out so much air that the pump was dry pumping air to the cups. I moved the pump over and removed one of the risers from the bulkhead and we're back in action.

BG4 also had its tube out of the cup, so fixed that. All you DWC'ers don't forget to check all the cups.

Added a frozen water bottle, 6 oz of h202, some pH down and will check tomorrow.

 

[SurfBuddy]

Update: I am almost certain my drip was on too much flow. The leaves were drooping or sagging down, but looking green. I've disabled the drip lines and removed them. If the lack of drip really starts to dry out the rockwool, I'll top feed from the res. Also moved two more bubblers up to the main res, 3 total. Now the pump just flows into the res from the bottom res.

Since removing the drip, all of the plants have perked up and grown. Now BB3 has the most leaves and the first node growth. However, BB3 also has some strangeness going on in the leaves, please see these photos:

What is going on in the blue circled area? It reminds me of the damage that spider mites do? But there is nothing on the bottom of the leaf. It almost looks like there is separation between the "skin" and the middle of the leaf. Maybe it looks like phosphorous def from the poster?

In the red circle, it looks like the leaf is yellower and turning to one side. What's that? I didn't see it in the def chart poster.. maybe high pH?

Again, this plant is farther along than any other.

All of the plants are in the RDWC and this is the only one with these leaf symptoms.

Any Ideas? Suggestions? Anyone? Twelve12?

I also would like to note that since starting to add daily h202 and the first Hygrozyme the res has not had a weird smell anymore.

 

[Bassman59]

I think I mentioned earlier they looked over watered.

You really only need a slight drip this early. It sounds like you fixed the issue so I wouldnt worry about it now. I think they'll be fine.

Just keep your ph in range, let em grow a bit more, then go really light nutes for a week or two, then start real feed program.

 

[SurfBuddy]

Thanks bassman - sorry if i missed the tip on over-watering earlier... I appreciate the input/help

 

[SurfBuddy]

Damn, temps are up to 90 today. maybe my exhaust is set up incorrectly? Is there a tut on this?

 

[Twelve12]

Twisting leaf usually cause by pH imbalance, high temp, light too close, early sign of nutrient deficiency; calcium and magnesium. Too much dripping action can cause salt build up in the rockwool, and the build up can change the pH over time. The rockwool holds water very well drip once a day should do it for this growth stage. Test the reservoir pH and adjust it accordingly. Lower your temp with exhaust fan install on the top of your tent sucking out the heat.

 

[SurfBuddy]

Twelve12- thanks. I've rearranged the exhaust fan so that it sits on top of the tent, instead of hanging inside the tent in what i think is the elbow that would attach to a reflector/hood. I pushed the whole elbow up out of the tent and shoved the fan up out from the inside where it's nestled so that it can't fall. Hopefully that helps.

i removed the drip entirely and will top feed rockwool when dry. Hopefully the next set of leaves does not show the same traits.

It could also have been high temp/light too close. I've also moved the lights up to 7" from 4" as these t8's seem to get hotter than others. On the box it said it would replace a 400w metal halide... but everything I've read says that t8's can be 2-4" away. maybe they should be even higher?

 

[Twelve12]

Do you have new pics of the new arrangement?

Give it a few days and see how things goes to know the changes have effect. Sounds like things will be running smoothly.

 

[SurfBuddy]

Twelve12-
here are some photos of the new config. I've also pulled out a tower fan that was inside and put it out so that it blows cool air in. It seemed like the tent was not drawing cold air in through the passive vents at the bottom?

Fan from the outside. This whole elbow used to be inside the tent, so the fan was hanging down about 6-12" (high and low point) and was blocking the light from being raised any higher. I like it this way better.

Fan in duct from inside. See it jammed up there? I'm thinking I might run the power outside, but for the time being it's not going anywhere.

new config from a couple steps back, so the lights are higher, and you can see where the fan was.