A little help please.

[scottscott]

Hydro Growers:
1. Are you growing from seed or clones?
Clones
2. How old are your plants?
~4 weeks
3. How tall are your plants?
~1.5'
4. What type of hydro system are you using?
ebb and flow
5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using?
General Hydro Flora Series
6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution?
5.5-6.5
7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water?
Filtered through "Small Boy"
8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution?
n/a
9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution?
Ambient
10. Does your PPM/EC show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check?
n/a
11. Does your pH show a rise or fall when you do your daily check?
Rise
12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything?
Neem oil solution about once a week
13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights").
1000w on 12 plants. HPS for three weeks @18 hours, just switched to MH and dropped to 12 hours
14. How close are your lights to the plants?
12-18"
15. What size is your grow space in square feet?
~150
16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space?
n/a (Michigan basement, A/C in house, fans and carbon filter)
17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space?
No
18. How much experience do you have growing?
First grow

 

[nebulius]

13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights").
1000w on 12 plants. HPS for three weeks @18 hours, just switched to MH and dropped to 12 hours

Confused about your lighting schedule. Is this correct or do you have it backwards? MH is for vegg. and HPS is for flower.

How come you put N/A for ppm? do you not have a way to measure dissolved solids?

Also you PH range is quite wide. i would try and keep it a little tighter if possible, between 5.5-6.2. ideally 5.8

 

[scottscott]

Wow I feel like an idiot, haha. Yes, that is correct, I was using HPS for vegg. Dyslexia at its best. Would that have any adverse effects?

I do not have a TDS meter yet. It was out of the budget.

 

[nebulius]

I've used HPS all the way through from veg to flower and so do a lot of folks. HPS has a orangish redish color to it and MH has a bluer, whiter color to it.
You can use a HPS for both cycles or MH in veg and HPS in flower. You don't want to use MH in flower as it will cause plants to stretch and buds will be wispy and leafy. Some peoples use MH the last two weeks in flower to harden buds (i've never tried and not sure if it works or not) Best is to use MH (bluish spectrum) in veg. and HPS (reddish spectrum) in flower.

If you want a successful grow, you're gonna have to buy a TDS pen. You can get cheap ones on amazon for under $20. link

So I think there is a couple of issues here, but it's hard to say without knowing your PPM's.
Without knowing PPM's I would say you have a Phosphorus deficiency. (N-P-K) phosphorus is the second letter in N-P-K on your fert. bottle.
a P def. could be caused by PH issues.

Also you may have temp RH issues. What are your temps in the basement and RH? you will also need to get a thermometer and hygrometer to measure these. plants like it between 70-85 deg. with RH at 60-70 in veg. and 40-60 in flower.
low RH will make plants leaves curl and twist.

 

[scottscott]

Okay thank you. I'm ordering a TDS meter and picking up a thermometer/hygrometer. I will update as soon as I get those measurements.

 

[Yellowjacket]

You can get a cheap TDS meter (blue on blue) at Wallgreens. It is used for checking water purity. $15 or so.

YJ

 

[nebulius]

also don't know if you have one or not but a small oscillating fan to move air around is necessary. it replicates the wind and helps strengthen plants (like exercise), move dead air spots, helps keep bugs away, get's fresh air to plants.
plants leaves should shutter a bit, just want a light breeze on them, anything too strong can cause stress.
good luck, wasn't too many runs ago I was in your shoes. ;)

 

[scottscott]

I do have two wall mount fans, they may be on too high.

Okay here we go,

Nutes are 70 degrees F
RH is 60
Room temp is 70 degrees F
PPM is more than 999 (my meter maxes out) I'm guessing that's bad.

 

[dankworth]

I do have two wall mount fans, they may be on too high.

Okay here we go,

Nutes are 70 degrees F
RH is 60
Room temp is 70 degrees F
PPM is more than 999 (my meter maxes out) I'm guessing that's bad.

They would like it better at about 75 degree room temp.

 

[scottscott]

The room actually jumps to 75F when the light is on, which is good I guess. I did a bit of research and diluted my nutrients to 850ppm, which is said to be good for early blooming? I'll give them a week or so and report if there are any more developing issues. Thanks a lot guys!

 

[jonfd]

overnutes and light is too damn close, first you have to be there to top off atleast every other day if not your water goes down and your nute strength goes up high, really high which causes the taco leaves and second get that 1k atleast 30" it'll overwok your plants even tho its not burning them, hope this helps

 

[scottscott]

overnutes and light is too damn close, first you have to be there to top off atleast every other day if not your water goes down and your nute strength goes up high, really high which causes the taco leaves and second get that 1k atleast 30" it'll overwok your plants even tho its not burning them, hope this helps

So 850 is still too high? It was around 1500 before, and that was just following the instructions on the bottle! haha

I moved the light up last night, thanks.

 

[scottscott]

It seems like all of the girls have nearly doubled in size in the past 11 days, and look way better! All thanks to you guys. The only thing I still need is a dehumidifier since the RH is around 70, just waiting for the right one to pop up on Craigslist.

 

[nebulius]

You said your temp was 70 when lights off and 75 when on. If you turned on a heater when the temp is at 70 and allow to heat up until 75-78 your humidity will drop.
Check Humidity when light is on and when off. You might be able to get away with just a heater when temps drop to control RH.

good luck

 

[jonfd]

So 850 is still too high? It was around 1500 before, and that was just following the instructions on the bottle! haha

I moved the light up last night, thanks.

Kickass, 850 is nice... I like to run around 1200 that way I dont have to stand over my res with a water hose all the time. but topping off constantly till res change will help you tremendously

 

[jonfd]

13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights").
1000w on 12 plants. HPS for three weeks @18 hours, just switched to MH and dropped to 12 hours<<---hope this is backwards? Scott

also Scott I keep my MH in till I see atleast nickel size flowers beginning then i switch to my HPS for the remaining flower hope this helps

 

[nebulius]

13.
1000w on 12 plants. HPS for three weeks @18 hours, just switched to MH and dropped to 12 hours<<---hope this is backwards? Scott

also Scott I keep my MH in till I see atleast nickel size flowers beginning then i switch to my HPS for the remaining flower hope this helps

Hi Jon.
Flowering may occur sooner if you switch to HPS as soon as you switch to 12/12. In nature when the spectrum of sunlight changes it causes a hormonal reaction in the plants signaling the changing of seasons.

I know some folks use MH the last few weeks to help with bud density, but haven't heard of this technique.

Is this something you made up, or read somewhere? Have you tried this before?