New growth - early issues

enigmaphoenix

enigmaphoenix

Member
I've read up a bit on potential issues and have not found a good match IMO that would explain this. There should be some yellowing or discoloration if it was Manganese or Potassium deficiency.? Hoping to get another set of eyes on this. New growth is very healthy and vigorous otherwise. This is day 10 in DWC after transplanting a clone from soil (from grow shop). The root ball was tight in the small clone container. I had to get a little rough with the root ball when transplanting to DWC as it was holding on to quite a bit of soil. But not so much so that it was shocked a great deal. The lower fan leaves are a direct result of that, they drooped and started to yellow the following day. 3 days in they perked up and haven't changed much since. I'm running a relatively light solution (well balanced) of Fox Farm Grow Big + Big Bloom with a dash of great white (slightly below recommended amount). The solution smells wonderful, very earthy! Completed my first res change at day 7. ECC @ 420~ ;) PH has been kept stable between 5.6 and 6.2 (creeps up, adjust daily).

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Enigma
 

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polishpollack said:
needs more fert. you might be able to double your fert amount and see what happens.
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Thanks, I'll push a bit if enough people agree. Crowd source this one everyone! :) Anyone else think we should go with more fert? Double per the Pollack (I'm Polish as well, came here in 81) or nudge to 600?
 
go to approximately 840 ppm which is 1.2 EC. give that a few days, maybe a week, and then go to 1000 ppm which is 1.4-1.5 EC. done right dwc is a great, fast way to grow.
 
Much appreciated. I ran my first DWC according to the Fox charts and had some issues. I got a decent harvest but not without some difficult times (let's just say I ran the table on what not to do). Nutrient levels did not contribute to all of my issues, however I was worried and since have read some suggestions to lower, especially if introducing abundant O2 (I'm running a 6" disk in a 5 gal to make sure I have more than adequate O2 levels). I've upped them to 800~ this evening and will keep an eye on things.

Many thanks polishpollack and slyone for the input!
 
do you mean CO2? I hope so.
people run the table when they are guessing at what to do. growing isn't that hard, but there are certain things to know to do it right. come back here with an update after a day or so.
 
I should have made that clearer, O2 to the roots via 6" disk. Not pure O2 mind you, I would rather enjoy a bit more time on this planet to tinker. ;) I checked this morning and PPM dipped to 650, which took me by surprise. I've never seen a dip that fast with a young plant. Measured twice to be sure. Upped PPM again to 800~, adjusted PH. We'll see in a day or two, but I will keep everyone posted. As far as CO2 I am not introducing more than natural levels.
 
I don't know about adding extra O2 to the roots. never heard of anyone doing this so can't comment except this... I've read that water will only hold so much oxygen. something like an additional 8%, which means that adding O2 might not be beneficial... or maybe it is and I just don't know it. usually if you want to advance the growth speed with more O2, aeroponics is the way. however, you really need to watch your ppm level and pH with that method because so much O2 causes the growth potential to be pretty explosive and you can easily ruin your grow if you don't watch it very closely. dwc is, in my opinion, the best hydro method because you get rapid growth without the need to constantly watch the nutes.
I'm not surprised at your ppm drop. it's to be expected because your plant looks hungry and dwc allows for roots to be constantly exposed to nutes and water and higher air content which creates that fast growth without having to watch it all the time. you should see rapid growth. just make sure that your ppm level stays at least 800 unless you're sure you're over ferting, like dark green leaves with yellow/brown leaf tips. but at 800 I don't think that will happen. If anything you're going to need to go 1000 ppm or so. you should learn the levels that work good and if you want to tinker a little that's up to you. but people usually kill plants when they tinker. just fyi.
 
New growth continues, however at a much slower pace than I would expect (dark spots have grown on some leaves and new growth has a tiny spot or two). I decided to go back to the basics and as this is the first time using fox farm I ran the numbers on their nutrients. Grow and Bloom have 0 calcium. As I'm using RO water I need to get some cal in there. While not completely presenting as a cal deficiency it's pretty darn close. I know I need the cal so I dosed with calmag lightly (1 tsp per gal). Only bumped the PPM up 100, I could easily go higher but I'll play it a bit slow over the course of a few days. More pics incoming.

Given this logic does anyone think I'm completely nuts? :)

Thanks,
Enigma
 
you should probably use the GH micro rather than calmag. I think the bloom has mag already. One of them does. the reason why the nutrients are divided into three bottles is because some nutrients will bind together if they sit in the same container for a long period and render each other useless. I'd use the micro if I was you.
 
Micro would also bump N and P (5-0-1). As I was only adding to this res not flushing and remixing I figure calmag was the best solution I had on hand (still have a good amount of GH nutes here as well). Before the next flush this weekend I'll be recalculating the whole regimen. Plan is to stick with FF and supplement whatever else I need. Will post my modified chart.
 
yeah it would bump n and p but the point is that you should use the micro and then adjust how much grow and bloom you use later, like reducing the amount if grow and increasing some of bloom for flowering. this is why some people use the lucas formula which is just micro and bloom as the micro already has n to it. what has the ppm been on average and how does the plant look? these are the only things that really matter.
 
Status update:

It all definitely started with a Cal deficiency! Progressed over the days following nutrient bump to 800's ~. I adjusted with CalMag at that point as I've gone RO.

A couple days after adjustment I was hit by the dreaded brown slime. :( Set me back a bit, but quickly brewed some tea https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-root-slime-cure-aka-how-to-breed-beneficial-microbes.361430/, few days of recovery and the last 4 days have been explosive growth. Back to my happy place. I'll be using tea from the get go from here on out. Even if I start another grow with synthetics tea will be part of my full cycle.

I'll be changing the res again this Sunday and will wash the roots one last time to flush of what's left of the slime after the tea army had it's way. Hoping to give the bennies in the fresh res a massive head start.

Thank you all for the help along the way!

Cheers,
Enigma
 

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