Hail Hydro 2.0: New Beginnings

[chemistry]

Thanks for contributing guys!

chem, I hope the O2G prevented nasty tasting buds, but will now soon

AA, is +Life from Hydro Research? I have a small sample, and I have Dutch Master Zone. What dosage and how often?

I think one of the issues was not cleaning the pumps (the roots did respond once I did that), by running them with H2O2 or chlorine while also running it through the pvc and mist/lpa heads, and also in my F & D set up

Glad you took it as it was meant, and not as a derogatory comment. One thing I learned early in DWC was not to chuck bleach at your water. Your plants will drink the stuff in the water, and has to make them feel a little queasy. I soon found something else in the form of enzymes, funny thing about these enzymes was that they eat root rot like it's jelly and icecream. And no defs or side effects like I had with the bleachs. Cannazyme is my present zyme of choice, but there are others, eats dead roots and turns them into something nice for the plants to eat. ;)

 

[PhatNuggz]

I swap out frozen containers to keep rez temps down, The empty hole in the bubbler is for ice bottles

I rolled one from the RR cola that has only been curing (Boveda 62) for ~ 3 weeks. Pretty good, no detectable bad taste, still too 'wet'

Amazing observation, Friday I noticed the big plant already has pistils. I want to clone her, so was hoping for longer branches before she sexed on me

 

[PhatNuggz]

Yesterday, I harvested the last lpa plant, broke the system down, ran cleaner through the pump/pvc/mist heads, including the hpa mist heads

 

[PhatNuggz]

Mystery solved

The tripleberry started showing sex early because my dumb ass neglected to consider that < 12 hours light would do that. I forgot to move them to a different light and light schedule

Yesterday I increased light to 14.5 hours, but it's probably too late

On the bright side all 5 have pistils

 

[piehole]

no offence but have you ever considered doing a soil grow,or even coco ? coco would be so easy to switch to because it uses the same nutes your trying to use now in water. but soil is so simple you should at least try on plant off to the side or something

 

[PhatNuggz]

No offence taken, but I am growing indoors. When I did use soil (a long time ago) I had bug issues. When done right, hydro grows bigger faster plants (see pic from 2014), AND if a mistake is made it is easy to flush and correct. The 5 plants from this grow- not even 30 days old. Back to side filled with stones. Look back in this thread ~ 6 months

From this last grows battered root plants, I did replant one outside in coco (only because of cool weather). She is tiny, but healthy. Just about to harvest her (see pics). The others I left in the hydro to learn and see whether I could save them

My last couple grows suffered from experimenting with coco inserts and infilling coco instead of stones around the coco starter pellets. This did not allow the roots to dry between feedings, which caused the root rot. Lesson learned

FYI, here's one hydro drip grow from 2014. Not too shabby, huh?

 

[piehole]

Yeah I have gone through this thread from the beginning and seen your grow at riu.its just you've been struggling with the hydro since forever. Too many changes,variables, structured water, nute changes,ect ect. Just try some basic sunshine mix or promix on a plant or 2,feed lightly from day one,ramp up as it gets bigger,probably yield 3x what your doing in these water setups. That's just some friendly advice looking in from the outside. Hell I know some folks just need something to tinker around with 24/7 but the lights cost money to keep on.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Yeah I have gone through this thread from the beginning and seen your grow at riu.its just you've been struggling with the hydro since forever. Too many changes,variables, structured water, nute changes,ect ect. Just try some basic sunshine mix or promix on a plant or 2,feed lightly from day one,ramp up as it gets bigger,probably yield 3x what your doing in these water setups. That's just some friendly advice looking in from the outside. Hell I know some folks just need something to tinker around with 24/7 but the lights cost money to keep on.

If I was a commercially inclined, I wouldn't play, but I enjoy the learning process, so, please no more attempts to redirect me Thanks

 

[PhatNuggz]

I just swapped out the Amare 220w led for his 250. Wow, hard to believe 30w could be that much brighter

 

[PhatNuggz]

I noticed that after replacing the SE 220 with the SE 250 that the primary leafs have been a bit droopy. The extra 3ow seems more like 50-100w as the light comes way out in the room now when the tent flaps are open. Also, the 250 has a neutral-cool white spectrum, whereas the 220 was more warm white.

Meaning the plants could be adjusting to the spectrum shift and 30%++ light increase.

Anyway, since all 5 have a top bud developing I decided to give them fresh nutes, up from ~ 400ppm to ~800ppm. It's only been an hour, but 2 are definitely perking up

Interesting takeaway (from forgetting to increase the daylight hours from when the 4 plants that finished under the SE 220 at the same time I was vegging): instead of increasing nutrient ppm from veg to flower try just lowering the daylight hours enough to encourage bloom. This could help determine which are females, then go right back to normal daylight schedule

hth

 

[PhatNuggz]

Still droopy. Now have light at 28" above canopy

 

[PhatNuggz]

Just heard from Amare. He suggested I turn off the monos which cuts 100w off. We'll see

 

[PhatNuggz]

Update: Plants perked up after turning off the monos

 

[PhatNuggz]

Since the plants are fattening up instead of stretching, I cut 2 hours off daylight schedule

 

[PhatNuggz]

As you might imagine I’ve been pulling my hair out!

The last thing on my mind was the nutes, so I changed many things thinking beyond the nutes, but now during my 3rd grow I have proof

Over my last 3 grows (including the current one) I have been using these which are ~ 2-3 years old

all 3 grows have suffered dramatically , but got some new roots AFTER I changed to 2 Part EH Bloom + EH additives as per the feeding chart

I just emailed EH

The beautiful healthy roots was when using NPK RAW veg dry formula + RO water (you might need to click on link after 4th photo)

 

[PhatNuggz]

New Plan
Now that the problem has been solved, I am going to move these girls outdoors and transplant in coco

I just dropped 4 more TRIPLEBERRY seeds in RO water with a few grains of Megacrop + a few grains of NPK Raw Kelp

 

[cemchris]

Just keep at it. Write everything down. Notes on Notes. Only change one variable at a time. Took me a full year to really dial in mixing my own salts and wool to the point where I'm at. Lots of rooms and plants. Just don't get discouraged. I PH once and fill rez's once a week now. All of my other time is playing with the plants. It can be as labor intensive as you want to make it. I also have followed most of this thread.

Just a heads up RAW, for the price, is crazy expensive. Better off ordering the same chems from custom hydro nutes or a local AG supplier. Tweaking the nute recipe with add backs and what works and doesnt is what really takes time. Def move to powder. Shelf life and ease of use. As you can see with the RAW.

The only other suggestion I can make is really start breaking down ppm wise what you are feeding them and start tweaking that one at a time. That is where you will directly see the difference when moving a macro by 50-100 ppm and the effect it has on the plants. Jacks is really the only thing, what i consider, to be in the right range without having to stack bottle on bottle or go full 7 diff chems to get what you want. On a small scale not really worth it unless you like tweaking.

Keep it up man. It's a journey but so satisfying in the end.

 

[PhatNuggz]

chem, all good advice

As to nute price, I only grow ~ 4 mature plants at one time, so nute price is not a big deal for me

I planned on trying my sample of Megacrop, but it mixes brown and I want to see what's happening to the roots

I have 2 pounds of Hydro Research on hand. I have used it successfully in the past. If it mixes clear-ish I will use it for veg, then switch to either EH Bloom 2 part, or NPK Raw Bloom formula as I have plenty of both :fire:

 

[PhatNuggz]

Making fresh veg for 2 babies (2 did not make it) and bloom nutes for the 2 remaining in the bubbler, though they just aren't fattening up as I expected.

I am using Hydroponic Research for the babies and EH Bloom for the 2 left in bubbler; also have 3 more in coco outdoors. All tiny

 

[PhatNuggz]

even though pH and EC were well within recommended tolerances, fresh nutes definitely perked up the plants