COB LED DIY Build Journal

PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
It's been a week since I transplanted into the Autopots. They are on week 5 from seed. I'm top watering for a couple weeks until their roots get established and then I will switch over to the reservoir. The plants have been topped and I'm letting the laterals branches develop now before I do some more pruning. Temps have generally been around 77 - 79F and 40% RH.
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PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
So, a couple things I've been working through. I'm using Jacks Hydro + Jacks Calcium Nitrate + Epsom with a 50/50 Canna Coco & perlite mix. At the beginning of week 3 I went from feeding the seedlings at 0.8 EC up to 1.7 EC, because the seedlings looked a bit yellow. The 1.7 EC mix was 3g Jacks Hydro, 2g Cal-Nit, 1g epsom. My tap water is around 7.5 ph and pretty much 0 EC. When I added the 3,2,1 mix it dropped the ph to around low 5 to mid 5. I'm not using a meter, but use GH ph drops, so I have to eyeball ph based on color.

Shortly after increasing the EC to 1.7 the plants got really green quick, but also started showing lots of weird spots and discoloration on the older leaves and leaves seemed a bit droopy. I think what may have happened is the plants didn't like all the increased food and started locking out some nutrients and maybe some burn too.

I backed the recipe off to 1.2 EC. This lightened the plants up a bit, but they look a little happier and I think the leaf discoloration and spots are subsiding. I thought I could maybe get away with jumping up to the higher 1.7 EC, but that may look to be a bad idea in this case. I've also read a few people saying the Barney's Blue Cheese not liking high levels of nutrients.

The recipe I am using now is 2.1g Jacks Hydro, 1.4g Cal-Nit, 0.7g Epsom and ph 5.5 - 5.8 & 1.2 EC. I'm using straight unfiltered tap water. Fingers crossed, but I'm hoping the plants will find their happy place now.

Here are some photos of the issues I was seeing in week 3 & 4 while watering at 1.7 EC.
 

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PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
Here's something I tried and found a bit strange and thought I might post it as a fair warning to others. I have used a chlorine/ chloramine filter for my outdoor garden and it seemed to work pretty well. It attaches to the hose and thought it would be good for any beneficial bacteria in peat. So, I wanted to get one for the indoor garden, because I want to use Recharge for bennies. Well, I bought this filter and tested the ph of the water coming out of it. I was surprised to find the filter raised my tap water ph from 7.5 to over 8.5! Um, that's not going to work for me. The photo shows the ph of the water coming out of the filter on the right and the sample on the left is the ph of the filter water after I added the Jacks 321. So, the filter raises the ph way up and then the nutrients is only getting the ph down to 7. Then, I'd have to ph down again to get it to the right range, and that's just to remove chloramine?! Yeah, I don't think it's worth it. I'd rather have a bit of chloramine then have to deal with that type of ph swing. Has anybody else dealt with this and used on of these filters?
 

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The Dawg

The Dawg

Well-Known Member
PDX Joe said:
Here's something I tried and found a bit strange and thought I might post it as a fair warning to others. I have used a chlorine/ chloramine filter for my outdoor garden and it seemed to work pretty well. It attaches to the hose and thought it would be good for any beneficial bacteria in peat. So, I wanted to get one for the indoor garden, because I want to use Recharge for bennies. Well, I bought this filter and tested the ph of the water coming out of it. I was surprised to find the filter raised my tap water ph from 7.5 to over 8.5! Um, that's not going to work for me. The photo shows the ph of the water coming out of the filter on the right and the sample on the left is the ph of the filter water after I added the Jacks 321. So, the filter raises the ph way up and then the nutrients is only getting the ph down to 7. Then, I'd have to ph down again to get it to the right range, and that's just to remove chloramine?! Yeah, I don't think it's worth it. I'd rather have a bit of chloramine then have to deal with that type of ph swing. Has anybody else dealt with this and used on of these filters?
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Yes I Have Dealt With Chloramine Issues In My Res And It Isn't Fun Which Is Why I Have A 5 Stage R/O System With Deionizer. I Want My Water Dead No Ppms That Way I Know What's Going On. What's Your Run Off pH?
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
The Dawg said:
Yes I Have Dealt With Chloramine Issues In My Res And It Isn't Fun Which Is Why I Have A 5 Stage R/O System With Deionizer. I Want My Water Dead No Ppms That Way I Know What's Going On. What's Your Run Off pH?
Click to expand...
My runoff with straight unfiltered tap water plus my nutrients is somewhere in the mid 5 ph range. I've tested it twice at different times and it's right in the 5 range. So, when I saw the filter was creating such high ph, I figured it best to not use that water until I figure out what is up with that. I didn't want to introduce another variable. Ironically I tested the ph of the water from my fridge carbon water filter and that doesn't change the ph of the tap water. The water stays at 7.5. Hmm.
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
The Dawg said:
Brother Chloramine Adds About 200 Ppm (0.4 EC) Well in My Municipality It Does
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Yeah, I've been a bit surprised with the low EC of my tap water. But, talking to other growers up here in Portland they say their tap water is right around 20 - 50 ppm typically. So, pretty low ppm and very soft water.

The water bureau report says water here is usually 7.4 - 8.1 ph and 2.72 ppm of chloramine.
 
The Dawg

The Dawg

Well-Known Member
Sorry For The Late Reply. I Was Looking For My Thread That Had My Findings With Chloramine. Basically What Was Happening Was I Had A Ammonium Nitrate Imbalance That Was Causing My pH To Crash. I Would Do A 24 Hour Flush Replace With Fresh Nutes And Within 3 Hours My pH Would Bottom Out Around 2.5 :hump:
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
The Dawg said:
Sorry For The Late Reply. I Was Looking For My Thread That Had My Findings With Chloramine. Basically What Was Happening Was I Had A Ammonium Nitrate Imbalance That Was Causing My pH To Crash. I Would Do A 24 Hour Flush Replace With Fresh Nutes And Within 3 Hours My pH Would Bottom Out Around 2.5 :hump:
Click to expand...
Yikes! Fortunately, the Jack's nutrients I'm using is nitrate based nitrogen and not ammonium based nitrogen.
 
The Dawg

The Dawg

Well-Known Member
PDX Joe said:
Yikes! Fortunately, the Jack's nutrients I'm using is nitrate based nitrogen and not ammonium based nitrogen.
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I Hear Ya I Was Running Dutch Masters Nutes. After A Few More Fiasco's And No Response From DM I Switched To Flora Nova Only. I Soon Grew Tired Of Paying For Water So I Switch To Yes Jacks Hydroponic. You See Back In The Day My Grandma Used A Product Called Peters Which Is The Same Product Go Figure. Now I Have A Question For Ya Why The 3-2-1 Formula. The Only Time I Add Mag To My Reservoir Is When I'm Running A Strain That Has White Widow In It :hump:
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
The Dawg said:
I Hear Ya I Was Running Dutch Masters Nutes. After A Few More Fiasco's And No Response From DM I Switched To Flora Nova Only. I Soon Grew Tired Of Paying For Water So I Switch To Yes Jacks Hydroponic. You See Back In The Day My Grandma Used A Product Called Peters Which Is The Same Product Go Figure. Now I Have A Question For Ya Why The 3-2-1 Formula. The Only Time I Add Mag To My Reservoir Is When I'm Running A Strain That Has White Widow In It :hump:
Click to expand...
Well, I'm sort of playing around with my recipe a little bit, specifically with the ppm. But, I'm using the 3-2-1 ratio (AKA 1.0 jacks hydro to 0.67 cal-nit) as a starting point because some other growers have had some success with it. I've seen some growers cut out the epsom completely, and others only use it in flower. I'm thinking about cutting it out right now to see what happens. My mix so far has been at 1.2 EC with Mag. But, I'm seeing a few spots on the leaves that look like calcium deficiency and the leaves are a bit light green too. So, I think I might cut the Mag out and still stick with 1.2 EC but with just the jacks and cal-nit. That will put me at 0.71 EC jacks and 0.48 EC cal-nit. Hopefully that will darken the leaves and stop the random brown leaf spots.
 
PDX Joe

PDX Joe

Well-Known Member
Here they are at the end of week 6. They've been feeding from the reservoir now for a week. I'm seeing some improvement I believe. I think I was underfeeding a bit before getting them on the Autopot system and hopefully I am past the deficiencies I was seeing. I cut out the epsom and I'm at 1.2 EC and 5.5 - 5.9 ph with some humic too. I gave them a top applied treat of Recharge last weekend to maybe establish some beneficial bacteria. Temps have been a little low because of the cold weather. I think I'm going to put a speed control on the fan to warm it up a bit. I think I'm sucking too much air through the closet. I was hoping to avoid a fan speed controller... oh well.
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