New to Hydro! I need some advice.

Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member
I have grown in soil and find it to be easy. I have switched to hydro and I find it hard and a pain in the ass. I want to stick with hydro I'm just having a hard time. I was using test strips to get my PH correct. Well come to find out they are not very accurate and I have been growing my plants in Hydroton at a PH of 7.4 for two months. My plants have had many problems as in over fertilizing and having nute deficiency all at the same time. I just got my TDS and PH meter 2 days agoand I corrected the PH asap. I'm using carbon filtered tap water. Most of my plants leafs are distorted and my White Rhinos new leaves are pure yellow. The yellow leafs seem to be getting a hint of lime green them. I have my smaller plants set at 5.8 PH with 750 ppm and my larger plants at 5.8 PH and 1000 ppm. They are in hydroton and I'm running a 600 watt lumatek ballist dimmed down to 400 watts. I switched to half strength tetraflora on my smaller plants and GH on my larger plants. I using two different ferts because I need to flush the smaller plants reservoir out.

Is 750 ppm and 1000 ppm ok?
 
Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member


Here's the worst of my HellsAngel OG.



My yellow tops White Rhino. You can't tell from the picture because of the lights but the tops are very very yellow.
 
lordjin

lordjin

Well-Known Member
Nightmarecreature said:


Here's the worst of my HellsAngel OG.



My yellow tops White Rhino. You can't tell from the picture because of the lights but the tops are very very yellow.
Click to expand...
With ph 7.4 for two months, I'm surprised that they're even still here at all. Just goes to show you how tough these plants are. They are severely, and I mean severely shocked. The last thing they need right now is tons and tons of nutrient salts. Flush it out and reintroduce nute at no more than 300ppm at correct PH. Once you see signs of recovery through healthy new growth, then think about increasing feed.

You have some nursing to do. Just correcting the ph after so much damage and pumping with food isn't the way to go here.

Just get your numbers in range, and keep an eye on them. It's not that hard.

Peace.
 
afrawfraw

afrawfraw

Well-Known Member
Nightmarecreature said:
What does it mean when I set my PH at 5.8 and then the next day it goes up to 6.0? Does it mean my plants are taking in nutes?
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If your nutrients aren't buffered, this is normal. Your roots are sweating waste. This raises the PH. If they are buffered, try washing the res and stones with fresh water and Dawn.
 
HomeLessBeans

HomeLessBeans

New Member
Your gurls don't look as bad as it sounded. 750 -1000 ppm of the nutes your are running should hav u in the ball park. Diff strains uptake differently. Does your filter remove minerals? I use well water strait so I never had any cal/mag issues. But most of my people Runnin RO hav.

PH should fluctuate IME. Your TDS is where you will see your plants taking nutes.
I would turn up my light.
Goodluck
 
lordjin

lordjin

Well-Known Member
HomeLessBeans said:
Your gurls don't look as bad as it sounded. 750 -1000 ppm of the nutes your are running should hav u in the ball park. Diff strains uptake differently. Does your filter remove minerals? I use well water strait so I never had any cal/mag issues. But most of my people Runnin RO hav.

PH should fluctuate IME. Your TDS is where you will see your plants taking nutes.
I would turn up my light.
Goodluck
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These were stunted with a ph over 7 for two months. I don't think they're in a condition to convert all that food to growth right now.
 
Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member
Good info thanks. The only dish soap I use is dawn, it has a wetting agent in it most other soaps dont use. I did end up losing about 3 plants. They would just wilt over and the leaves would get all crunchy. I bought two PH meters and I bought the calibration fluid just to check. I'll never use PH paper again. I spent so much money on my setup. I ran out of money and could not afford a TDS and PH meter. I should have bought a PH meter first. I was going crazy. My plants would show nute deficiency, then I was give more nutes and it would not help because my PH was so high I had nute lockout. Frustrating.

I have a big plant and it wilted, lost all it leaves. I usually throw them away but it's a strain that I only have one of and I'd like to keep it. Should I throw it away or can it still come back?
 
Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member
HomeLessBeans said:
Your gurls don't look as bad as it sounded. 750 -1000 ppm of the nutes your are running should hav u in the ball park. Diff strains uptake differently. Does your filter remove minerals? I use well water strait so I never had any cal/mag issues. But most of my people Runnin RO hav.

PH should fluctuate IME. Your TDS is where you will see your plants taking nutes.
I would turn up my light.
Goodluck
Click to expand...
No trust me they were worse. I added a fungicide and I checked the PH and it was about neutral. I went on vacation and when I came back 3 days later the PH was at 2. All my plants had brown leaves and were burnt to a crisp. I don't know how they lived, it was like trying to live in a pool of lemon juice.

This is what happened to my plants.

First 2 weeks they were attack by gnats.
Week 4 that they were attacked by root aphids.
Week 6 PH dropped to 2 for 2-3 days.
The whole time being in a PH at 7 in hydroton.
Cannabis is one tough plant. I have tomatos in soil and I know they couldnt handle that abuse.
 
HomeLessBeans

HomeLessBeans

New Member
Nightmarecreature said:
No trust me they were worse. I added a fungicide and I checked the PH and it was about neutral. I went on vacation and when I came back 3 days later the PH was at 2. All my plants had brown leaves and were burnt to a crisp. I don't know how they lived, it was like trying to live in a pool of lemon juice.

This is what happened to my plants.

First 2 weeks they were attack by gnats.
Week 4 that they were attacked by root aphids.
Week 6 PH dropped to 2 for 2-3 days.
The whole time being in a PH at 7 in hydroton.
Cannabis is one tough plant. I have tomatos in soil and I know they couldnt handle that abuse.
Click to expand...
DAMN MAN 2???? holy shit. keep an eye on those freakin gnats. They have been an unwelcome guest here for too damn long.

goodluck
 
Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member
It's alot of work but you can kill the gnats in 2 days. Drain and refill your reservoir with fresh water. Add Mosquito Dunks from Lowes or home depot. Then take each plant in its pot and put some dawn dish soap in. Rinse each one out real well in the tub or shower. Spray the plants with Neem Oil in a spray bottle and manually kill the rest of the gnats. Gnats carry fungus, put a fungicide in your reservoir . Do all that and it will kill them for good.
 
HomeLessBeans

HomeLessBeans

New Member
mine hav parties on the dunks,wilst sipping neem oil cocktails,and screwing my nemetodes. gnats create a bacteria that the larva feed on along with the tiny roots,so I hav been playing with bleach.
 
^Slanty

^Slanty

Active Member
Had a major issue with Gnats this round myself. Doing a bastardized NFT setup. Getting rid of the tray completely at the end of this bud round and going undercurrent. Should be much easier to rid myself of them after that.

HINT: Don't ever think you have got them under control. I made the mistake.

OP needs to run some 500 ppm or less solution for several days as Jin suggested to get them back to producing some roots down below now that the PH has been corrected. This will in turn show some signs of nice new growth!

Whomever stated "they will take what they need" is correct, if they have the root structure to do so. I am guessing this is NOT the case atm. They are beyond stunted in several ways!:wall:
 
Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member
The fungicide I use also has a pesticide in it. The gnats die! I dont have time to screw around with organics. I start out using organics and when they fail I go nuclear on the gnats!
Add 0.6 ml per gallon and you wont have gnats anymore!
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/insects-pests/products/natria-insect-disease-mite-control 7 bucks!

Then flush after a few days.

My plants do have long roots. The gnats and root aphids really did chew them up pretty good though.
 
HomeLessBeans

HomeLessBeans

New Member
I've never used the bayer. I'll put some on the shelf for next time they get skippy. I usually have them under control. But I agree with you, when it really matters nuke them fuckers. PM same thing.

How are your little gurls Lookin now?
 
Nightmarecreature

Nightmarecreature

Active Member
Way better. I flushed the system and added nutrients. The leafs are starting to straighten out and the yellowing leaves are starting to get some green. It was all due to the PH. I also noticed that they have grown in the past days since correcting the PH. I can't believe it made that much difference.
 
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