Hail Hydro 2.0: New Beginnings

[Sotte]

with over 42K visitors to my Hail Hydro thread, which covered a lot of ground for those interested in hydro, I felt it was time to start this new thread to explore some new ideas and to follow up on some recent ideas, all in the name of potentially better, more consistent grows. As with anything new, some failure can be expected, and I've had my share

While I have had very good success germinating seeds (drop in pure water + a drop or 2 of sea minerals), getting them to the seedling stage has been challenging with new concepts. The newest being water beads, which are probably better suited for clones, but could well serve as the ideal method to bring seedlings along; the biggest problems being over/under watering and how to support the long man stem in the early stages

Not being a fan of Rapid Rooter Started Cubes (the seed holes are too wide making it hard for root hairs to anchor= death)

My best success came when using coco + coco net pot cups, but I don't need a whole bag of coco, and it tends to harbor gnat eggs, so I went back to Rapid Rooters, and lost 4/6 seeds.

My go to hydro store had no alternatives, but another in the area had perhaps the perfect seed starter Planters Pride Pellets, which consist of compressed coco inside 20 individual bags, which expands to ~ a 3" x 1.5" cylinder when soaked in warm water. The seed is than inserted and easily covered with coco; 2/4 new seeds are in them now. Note I surrounded them with water beads (another experiment)

The next problem is weak main stems and how to support them. I have tried many things (see coco clone plug): enter water beads. I tried WBs for germinating, which might be excellent now that I have the PPPs, but they are excellent for supporting weak young main stems. The key being to use a tall enough jar to surround them and keep them straight (see picture)

My other issue has been how to keep nutes cool without an expensive chiller (and to keep mosquitoes at bay), plus eliminate air stones. Since I only grow 1- 2 plants per tent, the rezes need to be individual as the plants may be in various stages and so cannot be fed from a single source. In the middle of last grow I started using an igloo cooler, ad switched from air stones to flooming. Flooming required a second pump, but it must be on a timer or it will quickly overheat the nutes, which fried my primary leafs last grow.

Almost anything can be used on the flooming pump to circulate/aerate the nutes, but I had a couple Hydro Halo drip rings which works well. A deep cycle timer is needed as a 15 minute timer would overheat the nutes. I run it 3/20

I do need to move the 2 older seedlings into my DIY bubbler, but will stick with 4 air stones as that is where I have had best results

OK here's a few photos

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T

 

[PhatNuggz]

Odditiy

One of what I thought was one of my male plants that I literally tossed outside weeks ago. It was rooted in a coco pellet.

As I would wash down the patio, the ~ 3" pellet would get water from my 100ppm tap water. When I noticed it was not dieing, I made sure to wet it, just to see how long it would live. Damn but it has stayed alive! This morning I noticed a bud on top, so I put it in soil.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Pics taken just a few minutes ago

Just took this dried bud out of the curing jar. Looks ready, no?

The outdoors male is indica. Should be good genetics for future bigger/taller ladies

And a pic of what I thought was a male that was left outside for dead. The plant that wouldn't die. LOL

Plus pics of the budding ladies. FYI: I did some defol yesterday on the indica

 

[PhatNuggz]

You might have noticed some primary leafs giving up their stored goodness, so I added more CaMg yesterday to the sat. Might do the same for the indica today

Also, I noticed that the leafs did not fully recover from being too close to the PRO3, but no big deal.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Yesterday, I pollinated one bud on the indica

Last night during lights out, I noticed that the older leafs on the Sat were clawing, in addition to losing their chlorophyll. Yesterday, I added CaMg, so not likely that, but, who knows?

I am guessing the NPK Raw Bloom nutes might not have sufficient N for cannabis

I do have NPK Raw Nitrogen, so this morning I added a heaping 1/4 tsp to each rez

 

[PhatNuggz]

Sat is looking much better today. I pulled out my Ed Rosenthal Growers Handbook to see what the condition might be. Each leaf color picture of metal deficiencies look close to my leafs. Could it be that NPK Bloom is a little deficient in them as well?

Plants are at that stage of budding where they dump shit through their roots, back into the rez. EC was up to almost 2.0 in each rez (up from 1.5 in 24 hours), so I dumped a gallon from each rez and replenished with RO water back to ~1.5EC, then pHed to 5.8; in 24 hours pH riss o ~ 6.1

The Indica is looking real nice, just wish she was 10" taller, but the male that I pollinated her with is: note the white baggie over the pollinated bud

 

[PhatNuggz]

I seem to be a repeat offender of miscalculating EC. I did this last grow, too

We know 500/600 = one EC

When I increase EC for bloom I stupidly go to 1500 on my pens EC readout, which is 3EC, when I should be < 1.2EC!

So I've been overfeeding, likely causing leaf burn and nutrient lockout

Most likely not a N or metals issue at all, though I think more N is required, but that won't cause what my leafs are doing

It does seem indica is better able to handle higher EC

 

[PhatNuggz]

I saved the pollen I collected the other day. This morning it dawned on me to pollinate the outside female with one bud, since she's not good for much else.

When I opened the container, the pollen was congealed, like it had gotten wet

Fearing the worst, I also pollinated a different indoor indica bud

Fingers crossed
__________________

 

[PhatNuggz]

Photo Update

This male Indica is the tallest I have grown, rivaling some of my sats.

Looks like excellent breeder for the indica female

 

[PhatNuggz]

Since dialing everything in and daily monitoring, it's almost boring lol

seeds cracked in mid November, with first pistils last week of December, so they seem to be on track

 

[PhatNuggz]

FYI: from mid-bloom on the plants dump a lot of crap through the main stem into the roots and rez. Yesterday morning I brought both rezes to ~ 700 (~ 1.2 EC), this morning both were over 800. You might think that's just from water use, but no. Levels the same

pH has been stable between 5.8- 6.0

 

[ZXC]

Hi PhatNuggz!
I was just wondering the volume of the rezes. 100 ppm increase overnight, salient, and they are in bloom too...could be attributed to exudation, what PAR are they receiving?
Speaking of breeding, have you considered making female pollen from a branch of your favorite lady?

 

[PhatNuggz]

welcome, I see you made it. As you can tell, I post warts and all, including pilot error. I make the mistakes, so you don't have to lol

Rezes are ~ 3gallons

The BML SPYDR 600 over the indica is ~ 360 actual watts; ~ 85% CW/NW/WW + 5% 450 and 10% 630

The light over the sat is a Amare Technologies PRO 3 @ 300+ watts actual, but the amount of ligh hitting each canopy is ~ 250w

I bred the indica with a fine looking indica/sat hybrid (see post 169)

 

[PhatNuggz]

A couple days ago I added a heaping 1/4 tsp of NPK Raw Aminos and Enymes. to each rez (NPK says 1//8- 1/4 tsp/ gallon) I should have been doing this weekly. Both are very beneficial

 

[ZXC]

I bred the indica with a fine looking indica/sat hybrid (see post 169)

Nice! Was it a genetic male, or a female forced into producing pollen? Either way, I hope it yields some awesome seeds for you!

I can see the three gallon rez spiking; a small addition of dissolved solids will swing the ppm drastically. The LEDs don't increase transpiration and evaporation to point of overnight nutrient concentration as you have experienced, so I can see that exudation is most likely the culprit.

Is the NPK that you are adding a brand name, or nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium with amino acids and proteins? This question is just to satiate my own curiosity.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Photo Update

For some reason pH in the indica rez dropped from ~ 5.9 to 5.3 in 24 hours. The sat pH was in range

The couple of top leafs are hold overs from my pH issues about a month ago, before mushroombrew stepped in to save my ass. Interestingly, they did green up quite a bit

 

[PhatNuggz]

Nice! Was it a genetic male, or a female forced into producing pollen? Either way, I hope it yields some awesome seeds for you!

I can see the three gallon rez spiking; a small addition of dissolved solids will swing the ppm drastically. The LEDs don't increase transpiration and evaporation to point of overnight nutrient concentration as you have experienced, so I can see that exudation is most likely the culprit.

Is the NPK that you are adding a brand name, or nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium with amino acids and proteins? This question is just to satiate my own curiosity.

genetic male

NPK RAW is a brand of dry nutrients. They have lots of YT videos

 

[G gnome]

Photo Update

For some reason pH in the indica rez dropped from ~ 5.9 to 5.3 in 24 hours. The sat pH was in range

The couple of top leafs are hold overs from my pH issues about a month ago, before mushroombrew stepped in to save my ass. Interestingly, they did green up quite a bit

The reason u had a ph swing is due to temperature fluctuations in ur rez

 

[PhatNuggz]

I don't have water level markings inside the rez (other than the 1/2" hole for the F & D tube) and eyeballing the level is a crap-shoot. The increase in EC combined with somewhat of a drop in water level is a clue.

I turn the flooming pumps on, then pour water with EC pen in the rez until I get ~ 1.2 then adjust pH

My sense is that maturing buds need a lot more water along with some nutes, effectively increasing EC

This batch of nutes has been feeding the plants since January 3rds. I'm going to make a fresh batch for the final 3-4 weeks. Im thinking lowering to 1 EC. Thoughts

 

[PhatNuggz]

The reason u had a ph swing is due to temperature fluctuations in ur rez

Thanks for chiming in. Will we ever see upgrades like "go to first unread" at th top of each page?

Interesting, but temps have been maintained in low 60s during the day as I change blue ice packs every couple hours; over night it can 'warm' up to ~70