what's wrong with me?

12/12 from seed
coco / smart pots
flood / drain 3x a day (backed it down to 2x a day, yesterday because i felt the pots were still to wet.
100 ppm starting water
820 ppm after fertilizing (1100-1200 ppm at end of the week. Evaporation problem?)
ph starts at 5.7 and adjusted back down to 5.7 when it reaches 6.1 (everyother day or so)

I add CALiMAGic, Vitamino, silicate, MaxiGro, and KoolBloom (MaxiGro because I'm in my 4th week and KoolBloom because I'm on 12/12. Each at 1/2 half strength)

Leaves look wrinkled and pale.

ease back on the nutes and lower your ppms

So it looks like burn and not a deficiency? What kind of burn? I've been using everything at 1/2 strength except the cal-mag and silicate.

Your in Coco.
You flood and drain (ebb&flow).
You use good stuff.
Your pH is ok (I would set to 5.9 and reset every day).
You have rising ppms and want to know why?

Salt build up?
How often do you flush the Coco? (you need to do that with Coco).
How do you keep the res full?
Add back 100% strength mix?
How often do you dump and refill the res?

In all forms of hydro, You will get a rise in the ppms. While some is from the plant, (It uses nutrients and puts back waste. The waste in NON COCO hydro IS the rise in ppm.) the other culprit in coco is the salt build up that happens over time and it gets washed back into the mix.

A simple way to top off the res is to use the 33% rule of add back.
Fill the res with 100% solution and when you need to top off the res add back with a 33% solution!
Make 1 gallon of 100% solution and add 2 gallons of pHed water to that - Bingo! 33% solution.
Keep topping off the res with the 33% solution until you will have refilled it to the TOTAL amount of volume the res holds. Don't top it off this time. Dump it out and refill with fresh new 100% solution and start the process over again for topping off.
This is also a good place to flush the coco pots with 2 times the volume of the pot with pHed water.

Understand?

(it looks like it's starting to lock out)

I empty and refill the res weekly. Every Wednesday, in fact I'm getting ready to do the res in a couple hours, once the sun does down so people done see me watering my lawn from a house inside my house. LoL.

I like your idea of filing with 1/3 mixture. That's a great idea. Right now I use a larger res then the table needs so even after a week of feedings and evaporation, there's still enough to flood the tray. I'll also start ph'ing on a daily basis. I figured a little variation in the ph was good.

Variation in pH IS good!
As long as it does not go "out of bounds" for any longer then a day or 2 maybe. The point being is that different nutrients are best used (available) at different pH values! 5.8 to 6.2 is my swing range....it moves 1 to 1.5 points in a day sometimes. Lower pH is worse then high for unintentional extended times.

Hmm, weekly.....letting it go till the next dump and fill. Yeah, topping off the res to full as it lowers with a 33% solution will help you out lots. Remember to flush the pots at the dump time.

Hmm 1/2 strength nutrient.....up the Maxi to 100%,,, you need the extra N till week 4 of flower. at that time drop the Maxi to 1/2 and increase the Kool to 3/4. At week 6 increase the kool to 100%.......You should like that,,,,they will.

I think this simple formula will make you very happy at harvest.

Sounds like a plan. Appreciate the help.

So what do you think might be causing the lock out?

Also, my water temps are in the 69 to 73 range.

salt build up = lockout
It increased as the week went on and the concentration of the nutrient went up as the res went lower.

Ok. Just got done flushing the system. I pulled a gallon off the top of 100%
I put the MaxiGro to full strength. Left everything else at half strength except for CALiMAGic. Ph'ed till the pen kept going between 5.8 and 5.9.
I'm a little worried about the PPM's. I think it's way to high. It's at 1620 now.

You hydro guys and coco guys make me laugh..... Reusing same water for a week? Phing water all the time? All nutes and minerals uptake at different ph and keeping at 5.9 will limit and stop some major micros. The real range is 5.2-7.4. The best range is 5.4 to 6.8. Should fluctuate.

5.2? 5.4? & 7.4 or 6.8?

NOT! to low is worse then to high, but I wouldn't want that to go for longer then > 24hrs

In hydro the golden range is 5.8 to 6.2 !

6.7 in soil,,,,,but, soil self pH's as long as you have the right soil and the ingoing is pH'ed to 6.5.
Most of us soil growers don't even bother attempting to pH the soil !

I've gotten some really good growth in the last 3 days since i flushed and upped my PPM's and kept a closer eye on my ph (droping it to 5.8 each morning) and flooding my table only twice a day to allow the pots to dry a bit more.

But i am still having issues. See the pictures. What should i be doing differently?

I run 600ppm max. Another poster told you to lower your nute strength. I agree. I would consider repotting in fresh media and feed less.

That's the cool thing about this run. I get to play around and see what happens. You guys are great too because I can keep messing up and you all put me straight.

I don't think I'm gong to change the coco but i do have a couple bottles of stuff that are made for flushing so I'll flush well and and go down to really low nutes.

I was reading in the perpetual grow articles (a pound every 3 weeks, and similar articles) that there are guys running 3000 ppm and most are running close to 2000 ppm so i figured i give it a shot with the higher PPM's. Didn't work so I'll try with the lower PPM's.

I got the girls flushed today. Lowered the PPM's but only got them down to about 900. I am out of grow nutes and won't get to the store until Monday so i emptied the res about half way and refilled with water. I'll do another flush, drain and refill on Monday.
Anyway, on a side note, the plant in the picture above was taken yesterday. It was 9.5 inches. Today the same plant is 16 inches tall. It almost doubled size overnight at the higher PPM's and it doesn't look stretched at all. I've got to raise the light again.

6.5 inches huh

SnaFuu said:

6.5 inches huh

Click to expand...

Crazy, right? Got another 2.5 inches on it today. I actually don't want it to grow this quickly. I'm trying a SOG grow this isn't helping me keep everything uniform.

ur growing cannabis nothing uniform about it

Just an update. I ran GH FloraKleen clearing solution through my system for about 2 hours. according to the directions that should clear all salt build up. Drained the res again and set the PPM's to 620 I was aiming for 600 but slightly over shot it. My buddy who I got some clones from says he runs between 700 and 800 now with the strain he's growing commercially.

I really don't get the whole hydro or coco thing.
I grow in soil and just have pretty much zero headaches and issues unless I get too crazy with my soil mix and make it too hot, happened once! I like things simple and straight forward but to each their own and I know some of you guys love to play mad scientist and that's cool too, but I just put em in soul and let Mother Nature do what she does best.