# First Grow, Hydro 8 Pack Farm



## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

4.5 x 4.5 x 7.5 room
400 watt MH/HPS Light
150 watt HPS light
GH 8 Pack Farm
Hydrotron
Flora Series Nutes
Bag Seed


Today my pH hit 6.8 and ppm hit 950.
temps in room are 75 and 80 under lights
lights are about 14 inch away
humd is 40%
My nutes are about 3/4 str.

This looks like burn to me. 
What is best thing to do?


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## swiftgt (Mar 29, 2009)

how old are they?
in veg or flower
4.5 x 4.5 x 7.5 is that metres, feet?
might be the first signs of burn alright,
thay should be fine if you drop the nute level to half for a few days then slowly bring it back up.


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

Sorry,
     It is in feet. They are about 3 to 4 weeks old.

Biggest drawback to this farm is changing the nutes. I need to add shutoff valves. No idea why they did not when they made them. 

being my first grow i am just relaxing and going slow. Watching to see what happens.
Great info here


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## swiftgt (Mar 29, 2009)

no probs!
so you have 7.5 feet og height to work with?
if so you wont need to top or train them for a long time yet,
do you have any better pics of the grow room and the plants?


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

My camra is bad but here is what i got right now

I just need to hang the mylar up. It will be a few more days till I do. a few other odds and ends as I find the funds.

any ideas or coments welcome.


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## Lemmongrass (Mar 29, 2009)

trim your tubes up so they are squared and that would be spot on man!


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

If you mean square the pot under the light, they are most of the time. I move them every so often when i am checking things. If not do you mean my drip tubes?

Right now i run on 30 off 30 on air pump. seems to stay wet.


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

As far as my burn, can i jus add a few cups o water to each pot? My water is 5.8 ph and like 14 ppm base. I would hate to remove 25 gal of water. My thinking is this will lower ppm and pH for now and it will slowly go back up as it is refreshed from the reserve. the reserve if fine on pH and ppm.


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## Growdude (Mar 29, 2009)

950 is too much for your size plants, I was maxing out at 1200 ppm for full size plants.

Just add fresh water to each and the rez.

I also suggest removing all but one per bucket, its going to get overgrown.


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

I plan to remove one from each bucket, just waiting to pick


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

so around 550 ppm for a few more weeks?


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## Pothead420 (Mar 29, 2009)

this is from another grower but this will help you greatly to push them waterfarms to the limit :hubba: hope it helps

Here is the nutrient regimen I use and how I control PH with little or no ph up or down...

So OK - feeding schedule week by week. This is the GH weekly feeding program, slightly tweaked. I will only call out the volume of each part per gallon of water in the following manner: grow, micro, bloom, ppm range. Example - 5-2.5-2.5-400/800 would mean 5 ml grow, 2.5 ml micro, 2.5 ml bloom and a ppm of 400-880. Remember it's per gallon. You Euro's can easily convert to liters. 4 liters is just a little bit over 1 gallon. It should also be noted that I use the hardwater micro due to my tapwater. I suggest using the hardwater micro in place of the regular micro if your tap water is over 200 ppm total or you have over 70 ppm Ca. RO water users should use the regular micro.

*Veg *
week 1  5-2.5-2.5-400/600
week 2  10-5-3- 600/800
week 3  12-6-3 800/1000 (continue week 3 formula if additional veg time is required.)

*Bloom*
week 1  6-6-10- 800/1200
week 2  3-7-12 - 1000/1400
week 3  3-8-14 - 1000/1400
week 4  3-8-16 - 1000/1400
week 5  (discussed in detail below*)
week 6  0-7-20 - 1000/1400
week 7  0-6-20 (see bleow**)

* During week 5 if not using a booster like Superbud, Bushmaster Kabloom etc. run 2.5-7-18. I use MOAB (Mother of All Blooms) or BushMaster at 50% of recommended strength, and use 1.25-3.5-9 for the fert base. 

**If running an 8 week strain you should only run the ferts during week 7 for a maximum of 3-4 days. This gives you 10 days for flushing. 

The ppms work out almost exactly. I tend to lean toward the lower side of the range, unless I have a really heavy feeder that I know can handle it. 

At every ressy change out I add in 5 drops per gallon of 35% food grade H2O2. During flush use ph adjusted water at 5.5-6.0
I will add epsom salt at week 1 of bloom if the plants are heavy feeders AND I see signs of an Mg def. Otherwise I won't use it. The only time I have ever had Mg def is during transition. The GH 3 part is a little low on Mg, but the PBP and Canna nutes are way lower. 

Now- how to control your PH...
There are a couple factors that cause your PH to drift. The most common is running the nute solution too strong or too weak. If it's too strong, your PH drops. If it's too weak the PH rises. You have to find the balance point. If you find that the formula above is say, a little strong, and say you have a 20 gallon ressy, mix the nutes for 18 gallons. If it's a little weak, mix it for 22 gallons. You follow?
The other common mistake is mixing your nutrient solution and trying to adjust the PH right away. You have to allow time for the ph buffers in the nutrient solution to do their job. Mix the nutes up, and bubble or circulate for 12 hours before even looking at your PH. You will find the PH to be almost right on target.
I use little or no ph adjusters. (Except during flush). I use tap water, with a starting PPM of 300-400 and a starting PH of 7.4-9.0 (Thats crazy you say! The water is too hard, you will never get stable PH and you will have too much Ca, causing a lockout of Mg!) Bollocks I say.
Every week, on Friday I drain the ressy and fill with plain water. I let that run overnight giving the plants a little flush. This also allows the chlorine and ammonia to evap. On Saturday morning, I mix the nutes into the ressy. I DO NOT adjust ph at this time. Let that run as is overnight. On Sunday morning, I check ph and adjust if needed. Usually don't have to. 
Doing things this way has saved me from constant PH drifts, and using about 150 ml of ph down every ressy change, and a little here and there throughout the week to keep it in the desired range. Now, the most I ever have to use is about 30 ml.if any at all. (I have a 35 gallon ressy btw) My Ph stays at a constant 5.5-5.8.


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## Locked (Mar 29, 2009)

Nice info Pothead...


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## Lemmongrass (Mar 29, 2009)

Oh, it looked astho they were nto able to be pushed together cause the drainage hoses were too long by bad.


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## JBear (Mar 29, 2009)

Yes the tubs can be pushed square with out kinking the line. just move them now and then.


Ok I got the ppm down to 700 and a pH of 6. Took some water to do. Hope this stops it.

They are not getting any more burn and it seems lighter now.
can it heal any of this or are the leaves just doomed?


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## swiftgt (Mar 29, 2009)

well the area where the burn is on the leaf will never heal,but the leaf will still try to grow,dont worry about it they will recover fine once there happy.


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## JBear (Mar 30, 2009)

So I am thinking I would like to flower in two weeks. If I want to top, how much time will this set me back? Should I top now if I want to flower soon?


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## docfishwrinkle (Mar 30, 2009)

imo i wouldnt top til i get taller plant. if im guessing correctly youll have approx 6' of workable height when in full flower. id bush em out to bout 2' lollipop em & then flip.


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## Lemmongrass (Mar 30, 2009)

a fimming takes about 1 week to begin new growth, a week for the new growth to be primordial, then able another week to really but on any vigorous new growth. you can do it in a 2 weeks but you would be cutting it short.

In my current grow i topped/fimmed each plant differently. there are two that are about 3ft tall but with only 5" of stem at N6 before they erupt into branches. there ones are easier to manage than the ones i topped at N11. that being said, the bud quality and bud stem growth is sparser and smaller/airier than the plants which were topped farther up. The N11 set of plants looks almost magazine quality where as only select buds from the N6 style plants do.


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## docfishwrinkle (Mar 30, 2009)

yo lotek all these "N" words u talking about nodes?


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## Locked (Mar 30, 2009)

docfishwrinkle said:
			
		

> yo lotek all these "N" words u talking about nodes?



That wld be my guess....


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## JBear (Apr 2, 2009)

I feel good for m first grow. I am learning and having a great time. Too bad I can't grow in my back yard, this beats tomatos anyday.



:hubba:


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## swiftgt (Apr 2, 2009)

looking good man!


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## scatking (Apr 2, 2009)

JBear - I had much the same result early one with the Flora regimen.  It started when I began introducing the additives beyond the 3 part basic system.  Outside of diamond nectar, i found my WW couldn't tolerate whatever the additives brought to the mix.  Without additives i ended up at 950 ppm, which gave great results.


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## JBear (Apr 4, 2009)

All seems well. But I decided to get me a guard dog for my grow. I added a picture of him.


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## JBear (Apr 9, 2009)

Happy with what I am seeing


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## Budking (Apr 10, 2009)

Hey plants are lookin good. i got a tip that might help. get a 4-way joint and put where the hose goes in the lower res. two go to the buckets, one in the res, and one to a butterfly valve and a inline pump. Also stick a butterfly valve in the feed from the upper res. use the pump to drain the system and the valve to turn off feed to the pump.... just that is convenient.    The trick is to run the upper res at half or 3/4 capacity, now ive got room to pump water from the entire lower system into the upper res, then draining back into the lower.
Doing this a few times allows me to completly circulate the hole system and adjust ph and ppm all at once.   ill post pics hope this helps.  its workin very well for me .


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## docfishwrinkle (Apr 10, 2009)

j bear lookin goooooood. when u planing on flower? cause ur gunna have a jungle in a 5x5 room....lol its a good thing


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## JBear (Apr 11, 2009)

I went to flower Wednesday. 

I went away from the big one tub idea, i broke them into individual buckets. I want to add shut offs and a recirculater before i go back to a res system.


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## docfishwrinkle (Apr 11, 2009)

good 2 know. growing is the worst addiction ever...lol


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## Vespasian (Apr 12, 2009)

Pothead420 said:
			
		

> this is from another grower but this will help you greatly to push them waterfarms to the limit :hubba: hope it helps
> 
> Here is the nutrient regimen I use and how I control PH with little or no ph up or down...
> 
> ...


Possibly the most useful post Ive come across. Thank you. :goodposting:


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## JBear (Apr 13, 2009)

upgraded to a dual 400 watt light.


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## docfishwrinkle (Apr 14, 2009)

nice! theyll b lovin that ;-}


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