# anyone else only watering 1x a day in e&b



## blunt (Dec 10, 2007)

ive killed everything but one and this poor plant has been subjected to everything possible but im learning. its a bagseed plant and ive nute burned it,and chronically over watered it for weeks. its now only getting N and its 4 weeks old and maybe 3 inches. by trial and error ive found that it thrives on one watering cycle 15 minutes a day. anything more and it shows signs of over watering. ive just read so much about people watering 3 or 4 times a day i always assumed it couldnt be over watering. anyone else have a plant that reacts like this? im in a basic ebb and flow with hydroton. PH is kept at 5.5 to 6.0 and temps are mid 70's/ its on 20/4 lights cycle and its just starting to take off since i backed the water way off. thanks


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## KADE (Dec 10, 2007)

It is impossible to overwater a plant in hydro.... IF the water is well aerated. If the water sits stale between cycles I could see a problem....  you have an air pump and air stones in your res? if not... $5 at walmart.

LECA (hydroton) does hold a lot of water/nutes... but not to any extent of overwatering a plant. Burning the plant early in life could of slowed its development quite substantially... I would expect it to grow more rapidly as the root structure gets built up more.


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## blunt (Dec 11, 2007)

thanks kade, from everything i read i thought an airstone wasnt needed in an ebb and flow if the return line churned up the water well. but if it indeed is impossible to overwater in hydro i need to get an airstone because its very apparent the plant reacts well to 1 water cycle versus 2 or 3.  ive really learned a lot by abusing this poor plant. when my good seeds arrive i should be experienced enough to pull off a decent grow. thanks you for the help


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## KADE (Dec 11, 2007)

blunt said:
			
		

> thanks kade, from everything i read i thought an airstone wasnt needed in an ebb and flow if the return line churned up the water well. but if it indeed is impossible to overwater in hydro i need to get an airstone because its very apparent the plant reacts well to 1 water cycle versus 2 or 3. ive really learned a lot by abusing this poor plant. when my good seeds arrive i should be experienced enough to pull off a decent grow. thanks you for the help


 
An airstone isn't needed in an active ebb and flow system... if you are constanty churning the water with flood cycles on n off then it doesn't matter... 
I do mostly aero/drip/nft... that kinda stuff... 24 hour constant cycles... ALL of those are constantly churning the water.. and i've not had a problem. But walmart made me buy a pump neways.


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## Vegs (Dec 11, 2007)

I use an Ebb and Flow setup and water 3 times a day at 15 minutes each time. I don't use an air stone or anything in my rez and my girls are lovin it!

What kind of light are you using? Hows your ventilation?


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## blunt (Dec 12, 2007)

Vegs said:
			
		

> I use an Ebb and Flow setup and water 3 times a day at 15 minutes each time. I don't use an air stone or anything in my rez and my girls are lovin it!
> 
> What kind of light are you using? Hows your ventilation?



im with CFL's right now but i bought a MH 250w for veg from GH supply. should be here today. i have a 1000w HPS for flower if i can keep anything alive long enough to make it to that point. i actually figured out i went the entire oposite and it was drying out so i think i have it down. seems to be a little potassium deficient now but i just changed out nutes and added some so we will see. i put a heater in the res also as i think that was too cold.


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## KADE (Dec 12, 2007)

The water can't really get too cold usually.....  the room temp typically keeps it up... it should be cool.. but not cold... i'd look up the actual perfect temp.. (think it is round 70-75) but i'm lazy rite now.


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## blunt (Dec 14, 2007)

KADE said:
			
		

> The water can't really get too cold usually.....  the room temp typically keeps it up... it should be cool.. but not cold... i'd look up the actual perfect temp.. (think it is round 70-75) but i'm lazy rite now.



I AGREE. IVE READ 70-75. MY ROOM TEMPS ARE IN THAT RANGE BUT IM GROWING IN A GARAGE IN THE DEAD OF WINTER. THE RES SITS ON THE CONCRETE AND TENDS TO GET COLDER THAN THE ROOM. I HAVE A HEATER SET TO 72 IN IT NOW


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## CasualGrower (Dec 14, 2007)

Easy to fix ..... First get a lil piece of plywood under that resevoir and then go the nearest petstore and get you a small aquarium heater.... that will keep your water at a constant warm and cozy 70-75... but yea.... growth can be stunted by constant cold water.... I was running into that problem myself and did that fix and they started taking off.


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## sweetnug (Dec 14, 2007)

60-65 degrees is where the most biological activity takes place,  60-65 degree water holds much more O2 than 70 degree water and 75 is way too hot.  Keep it 65 and no worries.  At least thats what jorge says.  You should water 3-5 times a day anywhere from 15-30 minutes, depends on the medium.  I use hydroton and water 4 times for 20 minutes.  Works great.


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## blunt (Dec 16, 2007)

ok ill bump it down to 65F .. im not sure whats going on but it reacts like its getting too much water. i started it in a peat pellet and left it in there. last night i was so frustrated i took it out of the peat pellet thinking it may be staying too wet in there. the roots that were coming out of the peat pellet were all brown and nasty anyway. i thought i killed it for sure but it appears to be in the same condition now as before i took it out of the pellet. at this point i dont care. im just trying to figure out why it wont grow and be healthy.



			
				sweetnug said:
			
		

> 60-65 degrees is where the most biological activity takes place,  60-65 degree water holds much more O2 than 70 degree water and 75 is way too hot.  Keep it 65 and no worries.  At least thats what jorge says.  You should water 3-5 times a day anywhere from 15-30 minutes, depends on the medium.  I use hydroton and water 4 times for 20 minutes.  Works great.


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## sweetnug (Dec 16, 2007)

Sounds like maybe root rot if you  had super high temps.  The roots will get stained by the nutes.  As long as there isnt light on the res and the roots aren't slimy then they are good.  Remember marijuana should always show rapid growth throughout its entire life.


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## blunt (Dec 17, 2007)

thank you. while its blantanly obvious im a rookie at this  ive always thought the roots should be white if healthy. mine are very underdeveloped and brown. i really cannot figure out what im doing wrong. my PH is good, my temps are good, i have good lighting and am not burning the plant. watering  as suggested. it has to be nute burn. the few times the plant came around is when i backed off a watering cycle or 2. this lead me to believe i was drowning them but im wondering if in fact it wasnt recovering from a massive dose of nutes. at this point i think im going to start over. i still havent received my mail order seeds and thats been over a month so i think im screwed there but ill try some more bagseed if nothing else. thanks for helping the rookie out. im frustrated and have too much loot into equiptment to quit now



			
				sweetnug said:
			
		

> Sounds like maybe root rot if you  had super high temps.  The roots will get stained by the nutes.  As long as there isnt light on the res and the roots aren't slimy then they are good.  Remember marijuana should always show rapid growth throughout its entire life.


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## Puffin Afatty (Dec 17, 2007)

I run 20 min every other hour during light cycle and Snow White loves it...I use GH nutes, flora series Lucas formula... I keep the res at 75*, ph at 5.6 and the ppm at 900...never have a problem from seedlings thru harvest...


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## KADE (Dec 19, 2007)

New growth should be very white.... many many many chemical and organic nutes in hydro will stain roots yellow or brownish....


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## sweetnug (Dec 19, 2007)

It also depends on the brand you use.  Some stain much less than others.  Mine stain at 700 PPM.


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## blunt (Dec 20, 2007)

i dont think i was meant to grow weed. it seems like nothing will go right. this plant looks like **** ..  ive killed 5 others...the other night we lost power twice for an hour each time. my mail order seeds havent shown up and its been 5 weeks. this morning my brand new 250w MH died. but i will not quit . it may take me longer to get it but i will get it. i have all the right stuff. i just need to figure out what im doing wrong.  thanks for all the help and encouragment
high tech garden is sending me a replacement bulb. my seed supplier is working with me to get them replaced (very commendable) so things might just come together for me


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## abc123 (Dec 20, 2007)

I have the SoloGro Ebb & Flo with Hydroton and I water for 15 minutes at a time about 20 times per day.  I have a WalMart air pump running air into the resevoir 24X7.  I'm 4 weeks into flower and all is well.


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## Vegs (Dec 21, 2007)

> I water for 15 minutes at a time about 20 times per day.


 
Was that a typo? Do you really water 20 times a day!?!


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## abc123 (Dec 21, 2007)

That is not a typo.  I water about 20 times a day.  I have a 24 hr timer with 15 minute switches for on or off and I just randomly switch them up or down, making a point to have more off's then on's.  Some hours there is 45 min of watering.  My first plant showed signs of over watering, and I added the air pump and have not had problems since.

I figure the drip method is constantly watering so why can't i feed as often with ebb & flo.


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## KADE (Dec 21, 2007)

abc123 said:
			
		

> I figure the drip method is constantly watering so why can't i feed as often with ebb & flo.


 
exactly!! my pumps have no timer... always pumping... as long as water is aerated the plants love it.


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## blunt (Dec 23, 2007)

i have slimey roots. i finally got sick of this crap and just pulled it out of the hydroton to discover slimey roots. so i have an algae problem i guess. my logic is its mimicking an overwatering situation by smothering the roots and keeping oxygen from getting to them. im going to read up on TBG post on getting rid of slimey roots and try that. im currently adding H2O2 and no light is getting to my res as far as i know.


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## kasgrow (Dec 23, 2007)

I feed my flood table 4 times a day for an hour each. One hour on, two hours off. My plants love it. I am using bc products by technaflora. They have worked the best for me so far. They are ph balanced at 6.2 so once you get your ph adjusted the nutes help to maintain it. It makes things easier for me. 
I keep my res at 68 degrees for flower and 72 for seeds. When your flood table drains it causes a suction pulling air around your roots. That gives your roots what they want both in nute uptake and oxygen uptake for fast growth.


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