new to growing mmj grow op.need help.

[shagfrag]

ok srry for gap heres a pic update.

alright guys heres an update for you i dropped the 18 gallon tub.I now have 4 plants 2 in each 5 gallon tote, one 12 inch airstone in each tote. i'm still using liquid karma and i have nice thrichome production already, day 2 of week 3 of vege. and they are lookin yummy lol my vanilla kush plant has some wilted top leaves not like super wilted but just the tips of them are. and the roots look nice and white after i did a flush i'm just trippin on the liquid karma kinda stains the roots till you wash them off. :bongsmi: man i'm stoked to see these babys grow bigger and smell even danker lol.

pls comment ask questions whatever.

I WANT MORE KNOWLEDGE PLEASE I BEG YOU GIVE ME KNOWLEDGE (><)

 

[motherlode]

roots and the girls in general are looking better - some aquashield will help you keep your roots funk free

 

[shagfrag]

Thanks lode man ii like the feeling of waking up in the morning excited to see how much my babies have grown. day 3 of week 3 and they smell wonderful at the week 3 flush i put a 1/4 solution of the bloom in each container they responded very well to it the have nice little thrchome production smells great every morning now lol.ill post more pics at 1:05pm CA time thats when the lights come on in the city.hahahah j/k

 

[Highdrophilia27]

Nice grow. Looks like is coming a long quite well. You seem to have some knowledge already! lol when will you flower?

 

[shagfrag]

i will start flowering in about another month.

 

[shagfrag]

Start of week 4 veg.

alright today starts week 4 of veg. i put my lighter in there for aspect ratio lol. did a complete flush let the babies sit in same containers but with no water so they could have some time to dry a little. put in 75% strength CNS17 grow and 50% liquid karma roots look good no root rot nada lol also did 25% strength CNS17 bloom. AT 4 weeks should my plants be taller and fatter or am i just tripping.:worried i have the light 24in away from the top of the plants. any advice is very welcome.

 

[motherlode]

yes at 4 weeks they could/should be bigger - you had issues - you corrected and now they are looking sweet - remember that plants "stretch" to double or even triple in size during the first 2-3 weeks of flower

how big is your light and how high is it from the tops of the plants?

 

[shagfrag]

i have a 400watt MH light 22-24 in away from the plants my grow nutes is 3-2-4 and i'm thinkin this far into this grow cycle they should be at least 2 to 3 feet tall or does that more occur in the flowering stage?should i switch them over now?

 

[shagfrag]

Just did some shopping

Just got me some more goodies from the hydro store got the aquashield, silica blast,clearx, and some bushdoctors foxfarm kangaroots. so either today or tmrw ill be changing the water and doing a nice day long flush on my babies and then adding the new nutrients yay so excited to see them grow some more lol.

 

[smokestack23]

Those roots don't look good in that last pic either yo. Your roots should be WHITE. Not white-ISH but snow white. They shouldn't look like rope or string they should look like string and thread and fine hairs and there should be huge balls of em.

You sure are using a ton of additives and stuff. Take it slow bro. Keep your water temps low, keep light out, keep it oxygenated and either run benes OR go sterile. I opt for sterile. One product and that's it. Well...I actually alternate between Zone and SM-90 but the Zone alone is all it takes.

If you're going the bene way there are several products out there. I like Great White (actually there are cheaper similar products) and I like to make a tea out of it to make it go further. I only have it on stand-by in case of brown algae. Havent had to use it yet (but brewed-up a batch of tea for a false alarm) and that's a whole nuther topic for another day.

If you research I think that, like me, you'll learn that MOST people don't see BIG significant increases from the use of boosters, sweeteners, enhancers, blasters, loaders, blah blah blah.
When you finally get to the bottom of it...from what I've been able to find out on forums is that the consensus seems to be that MOAB and Hammerhead together and as directed are the only additives that make a noticeable/worthwhile difference (putting on my headgear and fireproof suit..YMMV..I'm not saying this is true for EVERYONE) and even IT isn't HUGE.

My point is that, I realize that you love your plants and the hobby and that you want to be the best "parent" you can be but...these things really prefer simplicity and being left to do what nature drives them to do.

There are a few good philosophies to keep in mind when growing. Some of them are KISS (keep it simple stupid). Less is definitely more most of the time. Your plants will only perform as well as the weakest link in your setup allows them to.

So, for instance, throwing all the additives in the world at a plant isn't gonna help if it can't get the stuff into it's roots...or if it has infected roots...or not enough light..or wrong RH or temps or...you get my point.
or
You can have all the light in the world, the best nutes, CO2, chillers, additives...but if the pH is off EVERYTHING else is moot.

I have learned a bit about the base nutes you're using. You should be getting awesome results just from them. Once you do, THEN you can start adding stuff to try to improve upon the max you can get from the base nutes. You are getting nowhere near the performance you should be getting with even just half strength base nutes.

If you're using tap water you might be ok without cal and mg supplements. Start without them and don't use em unless your plants ask for them.

Slow down a bit and listen to your plants. They will talk to you.

Keep it up and keep learning. You're going to find that you're going to learn a TON real fast here in a very short time.

PEACE!

 

[shagfrag]

hold up first off what are benes and sterile.also idk why they look tainted brown i think its from the liquid karma its really clamps to the roots have to rinse them off it.my water temps. are always at 68-72.and all light is kept out of the water. also how do i tell what the plant needs is there a forum or thread that lists all the deficienses and how to correct them.i'm new to this i have the knowledge but have never grown on my own had a partner teaching me stuff but he just bounced outta nowhere so i have some knowledge just need to fill in the gaps.

 

[smokestack23]

There are threads and stickies that show different deficiencies and toxicities.

Sorry...benes means beneficial bacteria and fungi. Meaning, you can either innoculate your system (reservoir) with beneficial critters that eat up all the bad critters. They'll also help to break down organic matter and make it available to your plants (simplified explanation).

Sterile means your system/res is dead. No organisms living in it good OR bad.

There is debate and there are different camps and beliefs on this but I'll give you my biased opinion.

To ME...hydroponics and organics don't mix. For me it's one or the other. People will say that organics gives a cleaner better tasting product. Well...even in organic systems, the organic matter still has to be broken down into chemical elements before the plant can use it. It winds-up using the same elements whether derived from organic or synthetic nutes (non-organic doesn't necessarily mean synthetic but..). In my plants, all the nutes are flushed out before harvest anyway.
I've also seen MANY blind tests with weed and produce. I've never seen one where even tie-dye wearing, peace and loving, granola chewing, organic vegans could consistently tell the difference.

OK..so that's one reason I don't use organics. The other reason is because I treat hydro kinda like a clinical grow. I try to keep all organisms and pathogens out of my grows. If I want to let nature grow my plants I do it outside in dirt. THEN I let nature (or God) do it's thing. Enzymes eat up organic matter and turn it into nutes. Beneficial organisms battle and balance with the bad organisms. Natural checks and balances take care of each other.

Indoors is another story. I'll NEVER be able to supply everything that nature does. I can't create that perfect balance. So, I play God.

Kinda like rocket science. You have this rocket loaded with satellites ready to go into space. You don't put a propellor on the rocket. You don't bring a bunch of heavy water, you make it from the exhaust of the engines. You don't bring cheeseburgers or toilets.. You don't bring tanks of "air".
Space travel and land travel are just different and while you sit in a chair in both, most other "features or systems" don't mix.

The moral is...you have to decide but for me..sterile is the way to go. Much easier, cheaper, faster, better.....that's just me though.

PEACE!

 

[shagfrag]

wow smokestack23 that was way easy to understand.now if i was to choose the sterile way how would i do that? what are the dos and don't that you know so far on sterile and can you link a thread so i can see this. thx

 

[smokestack23]

Well...again..sterile vs beneficials is a ford chevy thing. It can ruffle a lot of feathers. I've been doing RDWC for a bunch of runs now and have had ZERO root problems. Could just be luck but I've got a lot of supplies standing by in case anything goes wrong.

One of the most important things with RDWC or DWC is keeping water temps below 70..or at 70 but hopefully NEVER higher than 72.
RDWC and DWC can be AWESOME systems that produce AMAZING results but a lot of people have problems. It has a nickname DWC=Death Without Cause. It is highly recommended that you run a chiller to keep water temps low if you have no other way of keeping it cool. I keep my reses in other r (cooler) rooms. Make them have a big footprint on the concrete floors they sit on. I insulate all my feed and drain lines...I just do everything I can. Whether it helps or not...I've been very "lucky" so far.

So..to run a dead or sterile res...There are several ways. Some people like to use H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), some use bleach..I use Dutch Master Zone and SM-90. If I was to use one it would be the Zone.
These products keep everything dead and sterile. Zone is safe and cheap and will even let you get away with running your res at higher temps.

Keeping light out, oxygen in, temps low and a "sterilizer" will keep root pathogens away like pythium, root rot, blue and other algae...but...brown algae can still get ya so that's why I keep the Great White around.

If running a sterile res do NOT add products like molasses, hygrozyme (or any enzymes..enzymes are touted as beneficial in DWC type systems because they break down dead root matter and make it available as nutrients for the plant), sugars...ANYTHING alive or that can "rot". Treat your plants, room and res as if it's a lab or in a hospital.

When running live reses you want a lot of "life" in them. All those good bugs keep the bad ones away and help break stuff down. Then you should (imho) run completely organic so that everything is compatible and harmonious. If you're gonna be that guy, you should probably be growing in soil using guano and worm poop and other poops and bone and blood meal and enzymes and flowers and butterflies...

PEACE

 

[shagfrag]

so smokestack23 how do i go about using the hydrogen peroxide or the bleach sterile method thats probably best for me lol at the moment.

 

[coloradochem]

i use a very similar diy tub system, i think i can say from those pics that nothing is to far gone here, but get you some kinda root zone stuff and give it a lil time, i use great white but its prob not the best first one i tried,. your roots look like mine did b4 i added a cple air stones and gw to the mix. might wanna try something similar.. happy growin....

 

[shagfrag]

i have fox farm bush doctors kangaroots thats all i could afford.

 

[fabizpwn]

This plant is less then 4 weeks old

http://i53.invalid.com/20adksj.jpg

It does look like you have/had a root problem, it also looks like its coming along better now though. As long as you see them growing and not just struggling just keep doing what youre doing and im sure you will be find. Looks good.

 

[EL APACHE]

I don't know if I'm doing it correctly, I use GH flora series. With sm-90, calmag, koolbloom and budcandy. But before every Rez change I use h2o2 with fresh PH'ed water to flush out all the bad shit in my Rez and roots. It has worked for me so far. But keep in mind that this my first grow ever, I don't have nothing to compare with, so takemy comment like a grain of salt. Lol. But I do remember that for two weeks of veg I was adding the h2o2 with all my nutes at the biggining of evXery rez change. Not relizing I was killing everything I had added to my fresh Rez. Lol. But everyone started a rookie at one time or the other........ Everything Is in ebb$flow........

 

[shagfrag]

yeah this is my first time growing by myself.so learning different things everyday thx to everybody on here and thcfarmer.