Ay man I fucked up and need some constructive criticism

[rkymtnman]

Coming up on a week in the dwc system and she hasn't folded over and died so all is good I suppose. But am I overfeeding or do new leaves come in a brighter green as such.....

they usually start lighter green then get darker.

looking good so far.

use your EC/ppm meter to tell you how they are feeding:

if at 200ppm, what is it the next day?
if it's at 190ppm, thats good. they are eating and your ppm is pretty close.
it at 220ppm, it's too strong, they are drinking more than eating
if at 100ppm, way too weak. make it stronger.

make sense?

 

[AaronRodgers]

they usually start lighter green then get darker.

looking good so far.

use your EC/ppm meter to tell you how they are feeding:

if at 200ppm, what is it the next day?
if it's at 190ppm, thats good. they are eating and your ppm is pretty close.
it at 220ppm, it's too strong, they are drinking more than eating
if at 100ppm, way too weak. make it stronger.

make sense?

I get what you mean. But a couple things about that:
1. I have one of those bluelab ppm sticks so they don't really tell me an exact ppm number.
2. None of my roots have touched the water yet so I'm not sure if the ppm would be affected yet? Any nutes my plant's getting are from me top feeding moreso than anything. Although I will say the water is splashing a lot in the reservoir so maybe it is hitting the roots.


And oh yeah, that was always something I wondered about DWC and that is how don't the roots 'drown' for lack of better words when they've grown long enough to reach the water in the reservoir?

 

[rkymtnman]

1. I have one of those bluelab ppm sticks so they don't really tell me an exact ppm number.

get one of these then:https://www.amazon.com/HM-Electrica...F8&qid=1520605371&sr=8-3&keywords=HM+EC+meter

only 20 bucks. and EC is better than PPM anyway.

2. None of my roots have touched the water yet so I'm not sure if the ppm would be affected yet? Any nutes my plant's getting are from me top feeding moreso than anything. Although I will say the water is splashing a lot in the reservoir so maybe it is hitting the roots.

if it's growing, it's eating.

And oh yeah, that was always something I wondered about DWC and that is how don't the roots 'drown' for lack of better words when they've grown long enough to reach the water in the reservoir?

airstone provides O2

 

[AaronRodgers]

get one of these then:https://www.amazon.com/HM-Electrica...F8&qid=1520605371&sr=8-3&keywords=HM+EC+meter

only 20 bucks. and EC is better than PPM anyway.

if it's growing, it's eating.

airstone provides O2

I change out the reservoir every four days and today is a scheduled a change and I'm definition going to have to lower the ppm to 200 cause as ucan see the top leaves are a bright green and the first ones are starting too change color at the tips.
Probably going to top feed with a gallon of distilled water I just picked up for a couple days. Thoughts?

 

[AaronRodgers]

get one of these then:https://www.amazon.com/HM-Electrica...F8&qid=1520605371&sr=8-3&keywords=HM+EC+meter

only 20 bucks. and EC is better than PPM anyway.

if it's growing, it's eating.

airstone provides O2

It's been exactly 3 weeks today since I've put her in the DWC system. Tell me if u notice anything that I can improve on....ppm is only at 200 and I've been top feeding with distilled water for the past week and a half so I'm not sure why they leaf tips are yellow.
Also have the bulb set to 750 at the moment, 1000 was too much cause I noticed the leaves starting to curl down.

But any constructive advice is welcomed

 

[rkymtnman]

looking good!! well done sir.

thoughts:
1. i usually dont' worry too much about the lower leaves. your new growth looks great, healthy and green

2. fill up the rest of the net pot with more hydroton. be gentle wehn you put it in so you don't damage the stem

3. next time use smaller net pots. those big ones are overkill. i like the heavy duty 5 inch ones. you might need to buy lids for a 5gal bucket and cut out a hole.

4. set your water level about an inch or so below the netpot. you want to have the bubbles bursting so they keep the roots wet but it will force them to grow longer to reach the water.

keep doing what you're doing.

 

[AaronRodgers]

looking good!! well done sir.

thoughts:
1. i usually dont' worry too much about the lower leaves. your new growth looks great, healthy and green

2. fill up the rest of the net pot with more hydroton. be gentle wehn you put it in so you don't damage the stem

3. next time use smaller net pots. those big ones are overkill. i like the heavy duty 5 inch ones. you might need to buy lids for a 5gal bucket and cut out a hole.

4. set your water level about an inch or so below the netpot. you want to have the bubbles bursting so they keep the roots wet but it will force them to grow longer to reach the water.

keep doing what you're doing.

Ay I appreciate that man, and I hate that I can't post on here more(cut my Internet to save a lil money) so I try and use the opportunities I have access to WiFi to post the pics i've taken so u have to excuse me for the delays. I definitely see your reply backs and add all the advice u give into the routine I have going, I just can't always get round to replying but your takes are without a doubt noted and appreciated. Salute to u my man.

But things have been going great, my roots have finally touched the resevoir and i've gotten the ppm up to 450 and the ballast up to 1000w. I love how little maintenance is required when the roots finally hit the water, so much so that I took a little 3 day vacation for Easter and everything was all good when I got back haha.

One quick thing, I've noticed is that my first set of leaves have now turned completely yellow and are dying, is it safe to cut them off at this point?
When will it be safe to start cutting lower leaves and possibly using them as clones?

My goal is to always have one 'from seed' plant and 5 clones in the garden at all times.
I've added a few pictures of my progress thus far....

 

[rkymtnman]

no problem! things looking great.

add some more hydroton. you want to cover up those last few holes in your netpot to prevent light leaks and root issues .

i leave the yellowing leaves on. they'll fall off on their own.

i don't take clones personally but i would do it close to when you get ready to flip to 12/12. def not anytime soon, let her get much bigger. if it were me, i would take some cuttings, let the plant recover for at least a few days and then flip to 12/12.

maybe some others taht do take clones could chime in if they are reading this too for better advice.

other than that, keep doing what you are doing. keep upping your ppm's slowly would be my advice, don't burn them.

 

[Logan Burke]

First DWC grow, and it failed miserably before it even got started. My hypothesis is that I had no buffer between the seeds sprouting and placing them in my 5 gallon DWC buckets(8in baskets) as the primary reason but continue reading....

Did the wet paper towel method and after the seeds cracked open and once the little white sprout thingy reached a decent length I cut a couple rockwool cubes in half (after adjusting the PH to 6-6.5) and sandwiched the sprouted seed in between the two halves.

Immediately put the cubes in the 8in mesh baskets with the buckets containing full strength nutrient solution a friend of mines cooked up for me.

Placed under a 1000 w hps bulb(adjusted to 600w with dimmable ballast) about 4 1/2 feet away.

Fast forward a day, the plants folded over and died of course and one adjustment I know I need to make is building some sort of mini bucket system to put the rockwool cubes and put em under CFL I guess.

Where else did I fuck up, I'm learning on the go here...

Full strength solution?....I don't even add nutes to seedlings until they, at the very least, get one or two pairs of lil leaves...

 

[AaronRodgers]

Full strength solution?....I don't even add nutes to seedlings until they, at the very least, get one or two pairs of lil leaves...

Lol oh trust I learned...bout two months in and I have the solution at bout 3/4th strength

 

[AaronRodgers]

no problem! things looking great.

add some more hydroton. you want to cover up those last few holes in your netpot to prevent light leaks and root issues .

i leave the yellowing leaves on. they'll fall off on their own.

i don't take clones personally but i would do it close to when you get ready to flip to 12/12. def not anytime soon, let her get much bigger. if it were me, i would take some cuttings, let the plant recover for at least a few days and then flip to 12/12.

maybe some others taht do take clones could chime in if they are reading this too for better advice.

other than that, keep doing what you are doing. keep upping your ppm's slowly would be my advice, don't burn them.

Have FINALLY broken down and got me some WiFi so I'll be able to reply a little bit more expeditiously, again I apologize for that fam. Hope every goin ok with u tho man.

Things been goin great over here man, plant has been developing great, I think.
I'm thinking about cutting these lower leaves(attached some pics) let me know wat u think.
I just feel like they're taking up space and eating up nutes that could be better used on the upper canopy.

 

[rkymtnman]

I'm thinking about cutting these lower leaves(attached some pics) let me know wat u think.
I just feel like they're taking up space and eating up nutes that could be better used on the upper canopy.

i am in the don't cut off any leaves camp.
photsynthesis requires leaves, more leaves, more photosynthesis, more growth, more roots, more buds, etc.

 

[AaronRodgers]

i am in the don't cut off any leaves camp.
photsynthesis requires leaves, more leaves, more photosynthesis, more growth, more roots, more buds, etc.

You got it. So at no point do you lollipop? Let the leaves fall and remove them correct

 

[rkymtnman]

nope, not for me. i just make sure i have very good airflow and let mother nature do the rest.

when are you thinking of going 12/12? remember they might double or triple in size during the first 2 weeks

 

[AaronRodgers]

nope, not for me. i just make sure i have very good airflow and let mother nature do the rest.

when are you thinking of going 12/12? remember they might double or triple in size during the first 2 weeks

With this plant I intend on making it my mother plant. I'm still figuring out if now is a good time to start plucking a few clones or if I should let it get a little bit bigger.
Sort of just winging it cause as mentioned before this is my first grow.