infexion1134
Active Member
on the 6 way distributor do i open the valves all the way or not, because i have a steady stream of water and not tiny trickling
thanks
thanks
The BubbleHead Gang
- Thread starter Roseman
- Start date
MostlyCrazy
New Member
Tighten the valves until you have a trickle.
MostlyCrazy
New Member
Yeah, I was actualy apprehensive about a summer grow with a HID light but it's been cool here so no problems. Gonna have a 400 and a 250 next time but I installed a 265 cfm squirell cage to handle the heat. Well that and I wanted a new toy to play with. Winter weather will give me a buffer in case I screw something up.
I have been in my grow room about as much time as when I was growing trying to figure the gnats ass on every aspect of my "expansion". It does have an added benefit of keeping me sane but sanity is overrated anyway!
I have been in my grow room about as much time as when I was growing trying to figure the gnats ass on every aspect of my "expansion". It does have an added benefit of keeping me sane but sanity is overrated anyway!
purpdaddy
Well-Known Member
You got that one right!LOL
Mongobud
Well-Known Member
Dys, I appreciate all your help bro, I'm glad there's so many cool people that don't mind helping out.
I flushed, 8 steped it, and res changed to base nute 550 PPM, PH 5.6. 1/4 strength cal-mag
I've got some roots coming up through the top of the rockwool, is that no bueno or what? Leaves are leveling out a little though, not drooping as much.
I've been misting a little more and some softer texture came back, which is good, they were feeling rough.
I flushed, 8 steped it, and res changed to base nute 550 PPM, PH 5.6. 1/4 strength cal-mag
I've got some roots coming up through the top of the rockwool, is that no bueno or what? Leaves are leveling out a little though, not drooping as much.
I've been misting a little more and some softer texture came back, which is good, they were feeling rough.
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
I have (or had) one tank with 6 beautiful sprouts, two inches tall, 4 to 6 full leaves each, and 2 to 4 roots hitting the top of the water from each sprout. That was yesterday morning at 7:30 A.M.
At 7:30 pm I went in to find one of the feeder tubes disconnected, the rockwool cube DRY, and the sprout had burnt to a crisp, being 4 inches from the 200 watt CFL bulb and a 85 watt bulb. The leaves just froze in time, dry as anything can possibly be dry, and dried to a crisp.
ALL IN 12 HOURS!
I was glad I still had some germinating seed to replace it with.
How in the world does anyone grow sprouts in a plain DWC is beyond me!.
At 7:30 pm I went in to find one of the feeder tubes disconnected, the rockwool cube DRY, and the sprout had burnt to a crisp, being 4 inches from the 200 watt CFL bulb and a 85 watt bulb. The leaves just froze in time, dry as anything can possibly be dry, and dried to a crisp.
ALL IN 12 HOURS!
I was glad I still had some germinating seed to replace it with.
How in the world does anyone grow sprouts in a plain DWC is beyond me!.
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
I've done a lot of research into ph the last couple of weeks and these are my conclusions (don't take it as gospel, though; do your own research).
First off, the ph rise you speak of is PROBABLY normal. It means your plants are growing and your roots are active and taking up nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Nitrogen, in its base form, is acidic; the more that is used by the plant the less acidic the solution becomes (ph rises).
Most everybody who has grown DWC has experienced the rapid growth that takes place starting around week three of vegging...the plant is taking in nitrogen rapidly during this stage and you will probably experience an associated rise in ph. This is normal so long as the ph stays below 6.5 (I would even say 6.8 ) and you probably don't need to worry about it. Using ph down is probably fruitless and may even be detrimental (rapid ph swings can cause root shock).
IN MY OPINION, and what works for me, is if you want to lower ph, especially during veg, then ADD MORE NUTES, particularily nitrogen (or the Grow nute). I add 1/4 strength Grow to my top-off water to help replace the depleted nitrogen (while keeping an eye on the overall ppm).
And if you journal your ph levels, you may notice that the ph stabilizes or even drops late in the veg cycle; the plant is telling you that it is ready for flowering and is no longer using as much nitrogen. This is technically when you should change to bloom nutes.
People who switch to flower nutes too early (or at the same time they flip to 12/12) when the plant is still growing will often see the lower leaves yellow. This happens because the plant pulls nitrogen from the older leaves if the roots can no longer find a sufficient supply. I usually continue my grow nute regimen 1-2 weeks after flipping.
So you can go by ph monitoring, or alternating nodes, or reading Tarot cards to determine when the plant is ready to flower. Whatever works.
You say your plants look like shit: discolored leaves? Stunted growth? Drooping? Any updated pictures?
Amen, Amen!
EXCELLENT POST!
GREAT INFO, VERY TRUE, VERY TRUE!
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
IF YOU DO NOT USE A PPM METER,
the tank holds 6 gallons of water and 6 plants.
If you check the tank daily, around the same time each day, you will see 1/2 gallon of water gone. That is 1/12 of the tank's water and 1/12 of the nutes. Add back 1/2 gallon of water with 1/12 dose of nutes, to keep it balanced.
If one gallon of water is gone, ad back one gallon of water with 1/6 dose of nutes.
You replace what was eaten, is how I do it.
purpdaddy
Well-Known Member
Damn sorry to hear that big unc man growing a sprout in plain DWC you gtta manually feed until the roots are long enough.Still the same NL/WW?
I still have sum NL/WW beans,bout 5 of em.
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
I just did a little experiment to demonstrate what I'm talking about regarding adjusting ph with your nutes.
I just pulled a gallon of water from my tap and you can see it measures 7.42, a little alkaline.
I'm using GH Grow-Micro-Bloom and I'm going to mix up a batch at the recommended veg level: 15ml Grow - 10ml Micro - 5ml Bloom and monitor ph.
After adding 10ml of micro the ph reads 7.21; not much of a change:
After adding 5ml of bloom there's a pretty significant drop to 6.38 (keep this in mind for later):
I added the grow 5ml at a time, and the ph dropped to 6.17, then to 6.05, and finally to 5.97. Bear in mind that ph is not a relative scale, and the further away you are from 7.0 the less ph will change using the same amount:
And around 6.0 is where I try to start my nutes at. Notice that when I added the bloom nutes the ph dropped pretty significantly...if my ph is rising or high in flowering then I'll add some bloom in my top-off water.
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
In my opinion the base nutrients should supply enough calcium and magnesium in normal circumstances, especially if you're using tap, without the need for supplement.
Let me enlarge that part.
I agree 100%. Too many new growers make too many extra problems making nute soups. If you use good nutes, you got all you need unless you use RO water with no minerals in it. THEN you might need a supplement.
purpdaddy
Well-Known Member
Dystopia,is that a 1 gallon container?If not,the ph will do that in that amount of water with that strength..Thats FULL STRENGTH for vegg.But yea GH does make the water fluctuate like that.This Canna line i just put the ph at what i want it at, add the nutes and thats it..The ph hardly doesnt fluctuate at all..even after 10 days.The ppm in the well waer is 500(truncheon)
My last grow i used GH line and i used RO water.the ph was 7.0..by ther time i would mix up it would real low like 5.6-8 with no ph up or down.
My last grow i used GH line and i used RO water.the ph was 7.0..by ther time i would mix up it would real low like 5.6-8 with no ph up or down.
purpdaddy
Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by MostlyCrazy
Yeah, sanity is overrated anyway!
You got that one right!LOL
We are all crazy and insane.
Some of us are just better at hiding it than others
Thats the damn truth!
Dystopia
Active Member
Yeah, it's a 1 gallon container. Of course, ph is a lot more complicated then I'm making out...different nutrients by themselves can be acidic or basic...and then there's buffers and the type of water you're starting with...and every manufacturer's formula's are a bit different...I learned a few grows back to STOP WORRYING SO MUCH ABOUT PH!
Trying to maintain an "ideal" ph probably does more harm then good IMO. So long as the ph stays within a range of 5.5-6.5 I'm happy...let it drift...if it falls out of that range then I try to figure out why and correct the cause instead of just fixing the symptom with ph up or down.
It's all about balancing out your soup...I used to have a reef tank and I quickly learned how important having a balanced system is...if you think growing MJ is hard, try growing coral!
I hope to start mixing my own nutes so I'm currently trying to figure this stuff out...but for a new grower, as the saying goes, MJ is just a freaking weed, no need to baby it or mix up exotic soups or maintain an ideal ph. Just let it do it's thing!
Dystopia
Active Member
Roots are going to grow wherever there's water and nutes to find. I'm not experienced with Bubbleponics, I definitely see the advantage in the early stages before the roots hit the res water but I'm not so sure about keeping the rockwool wet after that. Maybe you should put your water pump on a timer? Hopefully, someone else will chime in...
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
Their Instruction Manual says to put the pump on a timer, 3 minutes every hour, after the roots hit the deep water.
MostlyCrazy
New Member
Don't like the idea of the pump on a timer. Roots go where they want to go. I cover the net pots wqhen I first put them into the system and never see where the roots go.
Dystopia
Active Member
Sounds like the same thing happened to your sprout that happened to mine last week!
Yeah, hand watering the sprouts in a plain DWC is a pain, and don't dare miss a watering! My replacement sprout is doing great using Bubbleponics!
Roseman
Elite Rolling Society
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