First timer-hydroponics grow in cabinet

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Good day everyone. This is my first post here. I recently rediscovered cannabis in Oct 2022. I tried my first outdoor grow using my amazing compost and had no freaking clue what I was doing. She ended up getting bud rot and I burned her ceremoniously in my fire pit. I was upwind.

I processed her before I knew what bud rot was. Yes, I was a huge noob. I didn’t smoke it though. I rolled myself a bone and when I put it up to my lips, I smelled something funky. Looked it up and sure enough, bud rot.

She was an auto, Afghan Kush. Named her Naqibullah after an Afghan who tried to kill us in, well, Afghanistan. Fortunately, Naqibullah was caught and his plan failed. He will rot forever, if he isn’t already gone. Anyway, my Naqibullah was beautiful and she will be missed. I didn’t know to protect her buds from moisture and she was battered and bruised in 40-50 mph gusts and she survived it all. Only to be let down by my ignorance. Never again.

I have never grown anything in my life before Naqibullah. I passively grew a CBD plant for fun and she thrived even though I neglected her. Her name was Motown Philly. I still have her. I don’t like the way she tastes.

Anyway, due to circumstances and the absolute shit weed around me, I decided to accelerate my timeline by buying an indoor hydroponics setup. I read hydro is more difficult, but so far, I’m finding it relatively straightforward. Aside from the astronomical volume of contradicting information out there, this is mostly intuitive and that isn’t to diminish the extremely talented growers out there. It’s also a science.
I germinated these on 3 Nov. One strain is Humboldt CSD and the other is super Lemon haze by GHMB. Both feminized photos. The CSD popped on 11 Nov and the SLH popped on 13 Nov.
I’m using the superflower cabinet. Kind X330 LED, 16 pot reservoir/approx 17 gallons. I’m only growing two based on the obviously limited grow space.

I’m using the Lotus brand of nutrients because it came with the cabinet.

Hanna TDS/PH/EC pen.

My girls are under 25% strength lighting for now. I’ll increase it soon.

Meet La Grita. She is the CSD (I think. Was floating in outer space when I marked these, LMAO). Her leaves curling downward, so I raised the light canopy to 24”, up from 14” or so

Meet Valéria:

Their current stats:
Using Lotus “Grow” pro series nutes
VPD .92 (used online calculator)
EC 1511
PH 5.7
PPM 755
Need other info?

Not sure what else to add here. I’ll try not to be so long-winded in my subsequent posts.

Thanks, everyone.

 

[ArtfulCodger]

Welcome to the Farm!

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Turns out my month old LED light took a dive and will not adjust the light’s intensity. The GSI support team is amazing, I told them the issue in the morning and they helped me troubleshoot and are sending me a new one.

Hopefully it gets here soon so I don’t kill my plants.

Ever since the lights broke, my humidity has been shooting to 80% at the plant level. My leaves are now 68* and I’m trying to lower humidity/raise temp now.

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Good morning! Vegging for 11 days.
1.4EC
5.9 ph
700 ppm
RH 60%
Inside cabinet temp 75F
VPD this morning was 1.25. Need to adjust RH by 5%.

After lights out, I disco’d the driver and let it sit out for a while and it began working normally again. I’m still replacing it.
This morning the leaf temp is at 73F which is almost 2 degrees warmer which I think is due to the higher intensity full-spectrum lighting (50%).
I’ve been trying to dial in my average RH. It varies sits around 60-65% on average.
La Grita

The DM hygrometer RH is dead-on-balls accurate. The temp is not though.

Valéria

 

[Bdubs]

Where is the water level at in the resivoir?

 

[Bdubs]

Where is the water level at in the resivoir?

Reservoir. Do you have roots dangling out of the net pots, are the roots in the water yet?

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Reservoir. Do you have roots dangling out of the net pots, are the roots in the water yet?

Hello, there. Yes the roots are about 4-6” long. The smaller one, Valéria’s roots are about 2-3”.

The water level is about 1/2-1” away from the bottom of the net cups.

This picture was taken on 19 Nov, La Grita.

 

[Bdubs]

You should 100% cover those rockwool pods asap. They are going to have algae. Other than that it looks great.

 

[Bdubs]

Light encourages algae growth so you have to keep it blackout from light to the rockwool.

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Light encourages algae growth so you have to keep it blackout from light to the rockwool.

Thanks for the tip!
Just checked them since I was in there.
La Grita’s leaves are lifting.
1.4EC
6.06 ph
720 ppm

Lights are on at 50% full spectrum about 12” above canopy.
Leaf temp was 75F and ambient is 81F
RH 70%
VPD .86

More clay balls added! @Bdubs

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

A few questions this morning from yours truly:
1. Why are my leaves drooping again?
La Grita:

Valéria:

Trying to dial in this setup. Both ladies leaves are pointing downward today. They looked like they were recovering yesterday but overnight they began drooping again.

My thoughts: I think the water condition is fine but it could be my RH at night, after lights out isn’t being maintained properly. The RH is staying the same as during lights-on period.
I need to address that.

Stats this AM:
1.4 EC and 5.8 PH and 69*F.
Leave temp was 76*F
RH 73%
VPD .76 this morning.
I am following this light chart.
1a. Is it too soon for 50% full spectrum? According to this chart I should be at 75% but that seems too much to me.

2. Vegetative state: I began counting day one of veg when the seeds popped (11&13 Nov respectively). Is this a good practice?

3. Is the slight yellowing on the newer leaves an indication of a different issue?

Happy Friday and thanks all!

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Raised the lights to about 24” and our leaves are getting more perky. I love and respect this plant.

As for number of days in veg, I answered my own question. I will count them from when they popped out for a point of reference. Otherwise, I’ll fill out the canopy as best as possible before the switch.

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Alright. My wife and I were busy today moving our grow cabinet into the basement. Originally my 2x4 cabinet was snugly nestled in a 4x5 “walk in” closet. It was as difficult for me to maneuver and I’ll give a detailed review of my grow cabinet soon. I’ve been using it for just over a month now but only been growing for a few weeks.

Now, I have been reading and learning a lot and going on instinct and common sense. I read that you don’t need to clean DWC reservoirs, however since I was living it anyway, I drained it and OMFG was it dirty. And slimy. And brown. I didn’t take a pic. But check out these roots!
Valéria:

La Grita

It’s almost 0200. I’m out.

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Veg 12
Ec 1.4
Ph 5.8
Rh 55%
Ambient Temp 68* F
VPD 1.17
I need to get a day/night mode temp and humidity controller. Manually changing it not working for me.

My plants looking down again this AM. Could be because I stressed them during the location change. I added nutrients to the reservoir water.

Will monitor closely.

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

Bad news, during the transfer to another location and changing out the reservoir, I noticed algae.

I flushed everything out, but I know I didn’t get it all. I went from having white roots yesterday, to very dirty, brown roots full of algae.

It is probably because I had the rockwool cubes exposed for so long before I covered them with more clay pebbles.

Going to research methods of treatment and hopefully reversal. Note, I did not have any ph swings. Just the standard PH rise overnight.

 

[Justlovetogrow]

Bad news, during the transfer to another location and changing out the reservoir, I noticed algae.

I flushed everything out, but I know I didn’t get it all. I went from having white roots yesterday, to very dirty, brown roots full of algae.

It is probably because I had the rockwool cubes exposed for so long before I covered them with more clay pebbles.

Going to research methods of treatment and hopefully reversal. Note, I did not have any ph swings. Just the standard PH rise overnight.View attachment 2079014
View attachment 2079015

It’s root rot man ya rez temps getting to hot or not enough o2?

 

[PeregrineRefuge8281]

It’s root rot man ya rez temps getting to hot or not enough o2?

69* constant. I have four air stones and it is pushing plenty.

I am not sure how it got so fucked overnight.

 

[Bdubs]

Air needs to be turned down. Water level needs dropped more.

 

[Bdubs]

You don’t want the air so high that it splashes water on the lid. A few tiny splashes is ok but if your lid or net pot is dripping wet, air is too high. OR your water level is too high. Once roots hit water, drop the level to 2-3” from the net pot

 

[Bdubs]

You can turn that little bit of root rot around. Use hydro guard and your good.