My super skunk Hydro grow journal

My plants are looking a bit droopy and im not sure if its over watering, under watering, or something else. My lights are on from 7:30pm until 1:30pm and I water 4 times during that period for 30 mins each time.

See the pics above, the lights had just turned off about 30 secs before, and they were just as droopy when the lights were on.

The setup looks solid enough to me man. Great job. I'm just not familiar with the hydro setup you're working with. I can tell it's a top feed drip system, but I'm not sure how high the water level reaches in the grow pot during feeding. Is it like an ebb and flow system with some sort of float valve? Just trying to make sense of how it works. Also, I highly doubt that 500ppm was too harsh as far as nute burn, but without actually being there, it's pretty hard for me to tell. In my experience, pH has always proven the most important thing to keep any eye on with any hydro system. Best of luck!

Mcgician said:

The setup looks solid enough to me man. Great job. I'm just not familiar with the hydro setup you're working with. I can tell it's a top feed drip system, but I'm not sure how high the water level reaches in the grow pot during feeding. Is it like an ebb and flow system with some sort of float valve? Just trying to make sense of how it works. Also, I highly doubt that 500ppm was too harsh as far as nute burn, but without actually being there, it's pretty hard for me to tell. In my experience, pH has always proven the most important thing to keep any eye on with any hydro system. Best of luck!

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Yeah its a recirculating top feed drip system, the water level doesn't reach anywhere, there are heaps of holes in the bottom of the top pot, so it drains straight out into the bottom pot, which is plumbed back into the main reservoir. The bottom pot constantly has about 3-4 inches of water in it which matches the level of the main res (gravity sorts that out).

Since I dropped the PPM that plants have looked better. The PPM at the moment is about 300PPM.

I think your right though about Ph levels because I have had some problems there too. I use tap water and for the first 4-5 days after I fill my reservoir, the Ph keeps rising (from 5.8 where I set it too, up to 6.8 ). Every day or 2nd day I've been using Ph down to bring it back down to 5.8 or 6.0'ish.

After about 4 days it seems to stabilise.

Next time I do a res change im going to try leaving the water sitting for 3 days before i use it. I just have to find somewhere I can store 80 litres of water, might have to get a 2nd res.

Today is day 18, I just flushed the res and raised the PPM to 600.

Plants are looking healthy and are growing quickly. Not growing much height wise, but adding plenty of leave mass.

Will post some pics later on as the lights are off at the moment.

Today is day 19

I changed the drip system a bit, wasn't happy with the flow.

Put some stakes in the pots too, ready for my massive buds to hang off

Ph is 6.0 and PPM is 700.

Also put 2 new seedlings (bag seed) under lights (in 7UP drink bottles for now), they sprouted about 4 days ago. Im using the 700 PPM solution from the res to water these new seedlings, I think it might be too high but i can't be bothered making up a seperate feed solution for them. So they'll have to make do with it

Do these seem alright for 19 days (since sprouting)? They look a bit short to me.

Here are some updated pictures. All 6 are going well.

Today is day 25 since sprouting.

PPM 750

Ph 5.8

Temp: 25c
Humidity: 55%

Gorgeos setup for a newbie. I read your journal and looked at the pics. You definitely not lacking in the light department. I personally wouldn't grow them in veg for 8 weeks thats too long, especially if your short on space. You've probably noticed now that your in the veg state, that they're growing like crazy, and they'll keep doing that almost all the way through flowering. Like about an inch or two a day. So do the math, if you let them go 8 weeks veg and 8 weeks flower they're going to be monsters! Realistically that isn't really a good thing b/c you're going to end up with ounces of unconcentrated popcorn buds.

At about 6-8 inches i would top them. (When you top them you take the brand new growth coming out of the top of the main stalk, before they start to show too much leaf shape, and pinch it and pull it off of the stalk). This will regenerate into 2 main stalks. As soon as they start to do that flip them to 12/12 and induce flowering. You can also top them again after they grow a few inches giving you several main branches which will grow big beautiful colas. A friend of mine did this and just harvested about 2-4 1/2 ounce - 1 ounce colas per plant, plus all of the smaller buds toward the bottom. He ended up with almost a pound out of his six white rhinos. Not too bad for harvest number 2. Ok i'm tired of typing i'll get back with you later. Good Luck!

Check out this WR cola, I think this one tipped the scale at about an ounce. He topped it once at about 6 inches and induced flowering at about 9.

https://www.rollitup.org/members/alloutindo-albums-white-rhino-picture48920-img-2581.html

ALLOUTIND0 said:

Check out this WR cola, I think this one tipped the scale at about an ounce. He topped it once at about 6 inches and induced flowering at about 9.

https://www.rollitup.org/members/alloutindo-albums-white-rhino-picture48920-img-2581.html

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Thats nice man. Fat cola there, I'd be very happy if I got something like that. Yeah I was going to top them until a few days ago. I was looking at the growth, and I was thinking that if I top them, being a newbie im not going to have anything to compare them too. Like I won't know the difference between a topped and non-topped plant. So I decided that this time Im not gunna top them. I will top on my next grow.

On another unrelated topic, today when the lights came on, my plants didn't "pipe up". They stayed droopy like they are in darkness. The lights have been on for 4 hours now, and they are still drooping like bitches. Usually they sit up within 20 mins of the lights coming on. Something is wrong.

My res water had a bit of a bad smell too it, and there was some brown filmy foamy shit floating on the top of the water....so I think that is why my plants are drooping? The PH was ok (5.9) but it looked like shit. Its only been a week since my last flush.

So, I just did a thorough flush of everything, the res, the bottom pots, I took them all out and gave them a good scrubbing out in the shower with hot water. Then I flushed them all with ph stabilised water, and I've just put everything back together again and back in the tent. Hopefully this will fix it.

PPM: 750
PH: 5.8
Room Temp: 25c

On another unrelated topic....

Do I have too much lighting? Is there such a thing? I noticed some people talking about there plants stretching when you don't have enough lighting. Well, mine seem to be doing the opposite. There not growing much height wise, but they are putting on shitloads of leave mass. So they are these short stocky bushy little fuckers. They are growing height wise, but no where near as much as they are getting bushy. The leaves all look healthy though so I was wondering if maybe I have too many lights?

I've got 6 plants, and 3 x 600W lights. The area is about 3 meters square. Its VERY bright. All the reading I did said the more light the better, so I went nuts. I've got the lights about 4 feet from the plants just because of heat, and even still they won't stretch out, they stay short and bushy. Is there such a thing as too much light?

Here is a pic of the bushiest one. Its 25 days old and about 8-10 inches high. I would have thought it would be a lot taller at 25 days old, and not as bushy?

You called it correct. You will probably see the clay dust for a couple more res changes.
Don't wory about a little bit of light getting into the res wile checking conditions. You just don't want direct light getting through the res all the time.

ALLOUTIND0 said:

I personally wouldn't grow them in veg for 8 weeks thats too long, especially if your short on space. You've probably noticed now that your in the veg state, that they're growing like crazy, and they'll keep doing that almost all the way through flowering. Like about an inch or two a day. So do the math, if you let them go 8 weeks veg and 8 weeks flower they're going to be monsters! Realistically that isn't really a good thing b/c you're going to end up with ounces of unconcentrated popcorn buds.

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Yeah i hear you man, and thats what I was originally going to do, but when I mentioned that to the guy at the hydro shop, he said no....he said grow them in veg right up to the maximum height you want them, and then I will sell you some solution that you put in your res when you switch them to flower, that will stop them growing any more height at all, they will only grow buds. He reckons they wouldn't even grow 1 more inch height wise, all the growth will be in the buds. I can't remember what it was called but he said this same stuff also helps your buds get rock hard and very dense. Does this sound right too you?

Thanks for your help man I appreciate it.

My bad just noticed that was a older question.

pinspot said:

My bad just noticed that was a older question.

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No worries, and yeah your right, the dust from the hydroton lasted for a few more res changes, its all pretty much gone now.

I know next time to wash it better before I use it. Although I did use a high pressure washer on them for a good 30 mins.

It looks like the flush has fixed the droopyness problem. They have all picked up and are standing nice and straight now.

I suspect a small light leak into the res caused this problem. I fixed it when I had the res out flushing it, so we'll see how it goes now.

Nice Grow Koota.. Nice Set-up Glad To Hear You Sorted Your Problem Out .

Here is a pic of each of my 6 plants taken a few minutes ago. Today is day 26 since sprouting. Some are doing better than others. 24 hours ago they all looked crap, drooping over real bad. But I flushed the res because it stank, and they are coming back strong!

The colours in these pics are a bit weird, because its so bright in there (1800W) my camera has a hard time getting the colour right. In real life the leafs are a nice dark shade of green, they aren't yellowy like they look in these pics.

Just thought I would add this because it might help someone else.

I've worked out that all the problems I have been having with plant droopyness are because of the res temp rising too high, which is sending the Ph up.

I worked it out by flushing the res completely, then straight away when I filled it again I put some frozen 2 litre bottles of water in there to keep the temp down. They lasted for about 48 hours and the res stayed a nice clear colour and ph didn't change a bit. Once they melted, and the res temp started rising again, im seeing a oily foamy substance starting to form on top of the water, and the bad smell is starting to come back just slightly. And, the plants are droopy again! I reckon its the Ph shock thats making them droop?

So it looks like im going to have to keep frozen bottles in there all the time. I don't actually have a thermometer that I can stick into water (I have to get one, I know) so I don't know exactly what temp the res is getting too, but im almost certain this has been my problem. Room temp ranges from 15c when lights are off, to between 23-26c when lights are on.

I've just put another two frozen bottles in there, im hoping this will fix it because its not too bad yet....I hope I won't have to do another flush again (I only did it 2 days ago and its a 2 hour job to do it properly!).

Since I've been putting frozen water bottles in my res to keep it cool, my plants aren't droopy anymore. In fact they look the best they've looked since they started. Im happy

I reckon nearly all of my problems have been heat related. Either room temp, or res temp, both of which I've worked on. And cause the res was getting too warm, I figure that was what was driving the Ph up all the time (sometimes from 5.8 to 6.8 in one day) because now that i've cooled it, the ph stays on 5.8.

Room temp now sits on 23c (74F) and my res temp im not sure of, but previously it felt luke warm, now it feels chilly.

Here are a couple of pics taken a few mins ago of the two best looking plants

I've noticed that every day, in the last 2-3 hours of lights on in an 18/6 cycle, my plants get a bit droopy.

All conditions are good so I think this might be normal, they're just preparing for darkness? They seem to be ready to go when the lights come back on though, looking perky and healthy.

Im sure they're not overwatered because my medium retains no moisture.

After all the problems I had with heat over the last few weeks, and all the money I spent on ventilation and exhaust, including 3 cool tube lights....today its gotten very cold in this part of the world, and my room has dropped to 22c which I think is a bit too cold. I've been told from experienced growers that 25c is what you want, plus or minus 1 degree.

So I was in the tent working out how I could easily heat it up a bit....and I was thinking of disconnecting one of the cool tube lights from the ventilation and just leaving it unvented, but then I was looking at the big ass centrigual fan that I bought that sucks air through the tubes, and I realised it can be wired differently for three different speeds, high medium and low. It was on high. So I've just pulled it all out and re-wired it so its now on low. Hopefully the temp will come up!