New RDWC grow featuring Mendel’s Æther by Brother Mendel

[SweetLeafGrow]

Good luck with the POTM!

Thanks bro and thank you for the nomination! A very tight race with some amazing competition.

Thanks to all who supported and encouraged me on this journey, to all who helped me get into the POTM finals, and those who have given or would consider giving me their vote for the win!

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Micro (brown) is heavy N

OK, so not sure how big of a mistake this was, trying to figure out what to do.

I thought about diluting again and just add back some pink. Naw, ratios are all off now is what I am thinking, maybe not.

My other thought was to change out the res and just start over around week 3 ratios on the chart, get things to about 600 ppm. Seems like the safe option at this point, just not sure it's necessary. @Aqua Man what do you think bro? Big enough mistake to do a reset?

 

[Aqua Man]

When in doubt throw it out… ino no real way to know what ya got in there from my perspective. That cupping will not get better but if new growth is showing it then you still have an issue

 

[steamroller]

Do you guys ever do partial resets?
Like remove 50% and add back a new mix in replacement.

I would think 1 gallon worth of fert could be mitigated with a 50% change?
Just asking even after read Amans answer.

 

[Aqua Man]

Do you guys ever do partial resets?
Like remove 50% and add back a new mix in replacement.

I would think 1 gallon worth of fert could be mitigated with a 50% change?
Just asking even after read Amans answer.

Thats how i run my system… old habits die hard.

The full change out is a simplified version thats used in hydro.

thing is a partial change will correct it over a period of time. For maintenance i much prefer a 50% change out.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

I have not done that, only amended and/or diluted.

The problem I see with that is you don't know what your ratios are when you start selectively adding stuff back in. Ratios are the most important aspect of the feeding schedule the way I understand it. ppm's are going to be strain specific but the ratios need to be the same across the board, at least to a point.

It would be nice to do as you suggest SR, but I don't have the tools or knowledge to be able to do that.

Thanks for the answer A-man, solid advice as always and ya, exactly what I thought you would say, just wanted a bit of confirmation.

 

[Aqua Man]

I have not done that, only amended and/or diluted.

The problem I see with that is you don't know what your ratios are when you start selectively adding stuff back in. Ratios are the most important aspect of the feeding schedule the way I understand it. ppm's are going to be strain specific but the ratios need to be the same across the board.

It would be nice to do as you suggest SR, but I don't have the tools or knowledge to be able to do that.

Thanks for the answer A-man, solid advice as always and ya, exactly what I thought you would say, just wanted a bit of confirmation.

But you know they are within range if you change 50% when you add back half the water. The process is called estimative index (or EI) above is how I modified it for myself

the general principle is that if you change 50% of the water weekly your ratios can only stray so far and will stay within good range

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

That cupping will not get better but if new growth is showing it then you still have an issue

I get this, and ya, it has not gotten better and seeing a few new ones, which is why I thought I needed to take some action today.

Question- so will the dark green get better as things improve?

I'm going to go ahead and do a full res change since I have not been doing weekly 50% changes at all. I've only changed out once at the beginning of flower. I am hoping this reset takes care of business.

 

[Aqua Man]

There are many benefits to doing that including the major one… keeping a thriving colony of healthy bacteria without haveing to inoculate each water change

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

There are many benefits to doing that including the major one… keeping a thriving colony of healthy bacteria without haveing to inoculate each water change

This is where I need to get me some bio media in there, just have not done that yet.

 

[Aqua Man]

I get this, and ya, it has not gotten better and seeing a few new ones, which is why I thought I needed to take some action today.

Question- so will the dark green get better as things improve?

I'm going to go ahead and do a full res change since I have not been doing weekly 50% changes at all. I've only changed out once at the beginning of flower. I am hoping this reset takes care of business.

Yeah i cant say for certain its a nute issue… when i have seen that it’s usually a root issue but nutrients can cause root issues so yeah process of elimination

 

[steamroller]

EI even accepts that you 'over dose' to a mild extent since you will be removing and resetting weekly.
You don't try to OD you just push till you see.
The weekly reset is the fall back for safety.
I know Aman knows all this better than me, I may even be a little off, but I think close.
Tom Barr where Aman played with fish is the planted aquarium guru for real.
Has no one incorporated EI into hydro officially?

 

[Aqua Man]

EI even accepts that you 'over dose' to a mild extent since you will be removing and resetting weekly.
You don't try to OD you just push till you see.
The weekly reset is the fall back for safety.
I know Aman knows all this better than me, I may even be a little off, but I think close.
Tom Barr where Aman played with fish is the planted aquarium guru for real.
Has no one incorporated EI into hydro officially?

Yeah i spent a few years on his site… the barr report. He is the one who developed the EI method. Had many of great convos about water with him and he taught me a lot… everyone for that matter.

not sure if its still up. But i was on there, a local site and the planted tank.

I have and i think if I remember right I convinced @Moe.Red to but not sure if he still does and can’t say for sure he did

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Yeah i cant say for certain its a nute issue… when i have seen that it’s usually a root issue but nutrients can cause root issues so yeah process of elimination

I really don't see any issues with the roots at all, they are massive with a similar color to what I have become used to. Temps in the res never get above 68F, no smell, slime or any other anomalies. I am all but positive it's a N issue, mainly because I was so perplexed with the early light green growth that I thought she was deficient, ran the ppms up to 1200, then back down to 1000 when I realized it was too much. It was about that time I started to see this and let things ride down to that 600 range where she seems fairly happy, just appears to be too much N in the mix still.

 

[Aqua Man]

I really don't see any issues with the roots at all, they are massive with a similar color to what I have become used to. Temps in the res never get above 68F, no smell, slime or any other anomalies. I am all but positive it's a N issue, mainly because I was so perplexed with the early light green growth that I thought she was deficient, ran the ppms up to 1200, then back down to 1000 when I realized it was too much. It was about that time I started to see this and let things ride down to that 600 range where she seems fairly happy, just appears to be too much N in the mix still.

Ratios play havoc with uptake

 

[steamroller]

I would want to lower the N still like you were attempting before mistake.

 

[smokedareefer]

There are many benefits to doing that including the major one… keeping a thriving colony of healthy bacteria without haveing to inoculate each water change

Thats exactly why i don't change more than needed. I think with test strips @SweetLeafGrow you could balance things and make it work

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Thats exactly why i don't change more than needed. I think with test strips @SweetLeafGrow you could balance things and make it work

I hear you bro. I am getting to the point in all this where I can go out and look at some of the more advanced techniques, however, I still feel very much like a beginner in many ways. Imma gonna build on that and thank you and all the great folks who have helped me get where I am now.

I do feel like I have made good progress but I have so much further to go!

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

OK, got the res changed out.

Still dealing with my contaminated RO tank from all the construction. I need to drain it and refill it and see if the problem goes away now that I'm all finished with the remodel, sitting at about 115 ppm out of the barrel. I also forgot to pump clean water through the chiller to get all that nutrient water out, ended up with a base ppm of about 150 before adding anything.

With all that in mind, I went ahead and built the res finally resting @ ~800 ppm. That gets me to about 650 of actual nutes, gonna watch close. I had been running at 600 ppm but starting to see a very small bit of possible PK deficiency on a few of the fans so I thought I would raise that slightly and see how she does. Hoping to have the ratios squared away at this point but really flying by the seat of my pants here, just learning and if I make mistakes, it's a learning experience and I will get better.

Got a couple of photos of the roots while I had everything drained. I thought they looked great.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

So I am realizing this gal was a bit more off than I thought. I changed out the res and reset everything on Tuesday and yesterday she was already super happy with the change, today, even more so. I looked back at the photos from Tuesday and it's night and day difference to me in the improvement in just two days! Maybe I am just imagining it but to me, it's huge.

Seeing a steady drop in the pH as expected, buffering with the last but of Silica Boost that I have, and then mixing up a batch of Agsil 16 that I hope will last much longer than this overly diluted stuff that is mostly water. I expect the buffer to stabilize in the next couple of days.

Other than that, super excited about this strain the further I get into the grow. So far, she looks to be the frostiest plant I have ever grown and getting some nice coloration already.

I also had some pollen from a Grandaddy Purple male I had found earlier in the year and pollinated one of the branches just for the heck of it. Might be fun trying to see what that cross could produce at some point.