Slow growth and shiny new growth

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NrthTaylor

NrthTaylor

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Hey all
3 gal fabrics with promix bx w/ perlite added. Botanicare pbp grow at 50% recommended feed. I use em1 microbes, recharge and slf-100 on occasion as well. The main issue happened after trying pro-silicate for the first time. Clones are at about 4 weeks of veg currently.

Q
I have some cookies kush clones going and have been having slow growth and the new growth is coming in shiny. I thought it was nitrogen toxicity but I flushed (3 gal fabrics) each pot with 5 gallons of 6.2 pH water and its been close to 2 weeks and haven't noticed any improvement. I didn't have a ppm meter at the time so wasn't able to take readings during/after flush.

I dont want to keep flushing but I don't want to be wasting huge amounts of veg time. They've only been getting plain water for 2 weeks since the flush as well. Any help is much appreciated
 
tobh

tobh

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can you grab some clear pictures of the affected leafs? whole plant too would be helpful. Videos are just rough on these old eyes.

also, how are you mixing your nutrients? there's a process that has to be followed, especially with something like a silica additive (and depending which one). you might be having stuff crashing out or the input pH not being what you think it is.
 
NrthTaylor

NrthTaylor

62
18
can you grab some clear pictures of the affected leafs? whole plant too would be helpful. Videos are just rough on these old eyes.

also, how are you mixing your nutrients? there's a process that has to be followed, especially with something like a silica additive (and depending which one). you might be having stuff crashing out or the input pH not being what you think it is.
I definitely think adding the silica was my issue. I only used it once and it was used by itself and ph'd to 6.1.

When mixing nutrients I add my base (pbp grow), mix for about 1-2min, pH the water to 6.2 and then add in my microbes. Hopefully these pictures come out better than the video.
 
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tobh

tobh

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so the plants look healthy, so you're not doing anything wrong. that waxy look is normal, albeit could be caused by slightly too high N. I don't think that's your case though, there would be other signs of N toxicity.

when mixing silica, this is the process:

- Add silica per directions for volume of water
- Let mix at least 15 minutes, preferably more
- pH to 6.5
- let mix at least 5 minutes
- add remaining nutrients
- let mix at least 5 minutes
- pH to target
- let mix 5 minutes
- pH to target

The reason for this is most silicas are super basic. Without going into technical chemistry, you have to allow the silica to mix with the water and theoretically touch every h2o ion in the solution. This will buffer the pH and eventually it will stabilize. Then, you pH down again to 6.5 so that the solution is neutral enough for the other components. After adding in the other nutrients, you let things mix together thoroughly for the same reason. And lastly, you don't apply the solution right away. You want thorough, vigorous mixing to go as pH will swing even in a short amount of time.This swing will translate to your media, which will then slow growth as you're experiencing.

The problem with this process is it is time consuming. A lot of people just want to mix, water, and be done. Silica, and really all multipart nutrients, don't facilitate that. Plan ahead and act accordingly.

Sorry for the novel here, I'm a bit long winded. Hopefully that made sense.
 
NrthTaylor

NrthTaylor

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18
I really appreciate the info. Do you think I should just keep using plain water then like normal until I pass the problem or should I do another flush ?
 
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