Beginner Hydro grower, help needed

[SmknWhiteWidow]

So its been a week since the last update and the plants are definitely looking better. They have been in the waterfarm for exactly 2 weeks now. We still feel that the growth is slow but we hope for it to pick up once they get more roots. The roots stile haven't came through the buckets..is that ok??? were figuring its just a matter of time. The pump is still runnning 24/7 and nutes are around 250-300 ppm. We still havent been able to test the PH other than the cheap pool method. Last I checked it was 5.5 (our meter is on its way ..Do you think its ok to up the nutes a little or should we keep them where they are at..We also coverd the drip rings because they were spitting all over the undergrowth of the plants and causing the leafs to die. I think that was one of the major reasons for the slow growth. I hope these plants start to take off

As you can see the soil plants are doing great. Also was wondering if its ok to lower the light a little. Any input is appreciated

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

I also wanted to add the the new growth is 100% green which is good to see. I think we started too strong with the nutes and it burned them a little bit. Thanks for stopping in

 

[BuddyLuv]

Yeah it looks like your pH is still off a little. Once you get that correct (5.6-5.9) you should see a huge improvement.

 

[Growdude]

Plants are looking better and I bet will take off soon.

Dont worry about roots coming out the bottom, that wont happen for quite a while. This is a drip system not DWC so you dont need the water level all the way up 6-8" is fine.

Your slow growth at this stage is why I suggested just using a 1" rockwool cube and to offset the plants slightly under the drip ring.
With a smaller rockwool cube more roots would be emerging and offsetting it allows the roots to find the water faster and take into the hydroton. Once it takes its going to take off and out grow your soil plants im sure.

Check the PH of the water/nutes in the bottom bucket, adjust your feed solution accordigly 5.5 -5.8 is best. Once you get a feel for what is needed to obtain the proper PH you can just test and adjust the main controller rez.

 

[KeepsTen]

Hey, looking good SWW. Looks like youre a week or so ahead of me, and also doing hydro. Ill definetly be checking in. May we harvest many many ozs of bud.

 

[KeepsTen]

Oh yeah, and about the lights. I think the rule of thumb is, put your hand over the tallest plant, and drop the light. If your hand burns, so will your plants. So, feel free to lower them as much as your cooling allows.

Ive got a 600w mh bulb less than a foot away from mine with proper cooling, and they are still seedlings. Since ive dropped it, theyve really enjoyed it, and stopped any vertical growth at all.

 

[GeezerBudd]

SWW,
I'm watching this thread. I think once you get the meter going it will really help.
One mistake I made-not having one and trying to use color charts-buncha crap.
I threw my last survivor into some soil for now, but I will start up the waterfarms again.

Keep it green.

Gb

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

Havent been around in a while..I added a 400 watt MH so now I am at 1400 watts..will be flowering at the end of this week. They hydro have really taken off and the soil are looking awesome. I am going to clean out the whole system this weekend and make the tubes longer so the buckets are more spaced out and have more room to grow. Here are some pictures from a few days ago before I added the 400 MH. Enjoy

 

[hydrochloride]

Another important factor is temp and air. Your room should exchange it full volume within 5 minutes. I imagine that the temp with 1000 watts would be really high. If you are having trouble blocking light out wit your air openings, you can go to the craft store and buy foam board to make a baffel box to block out the light. Adding dark airconditioner filters also helps at each opening. Good luck!

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

I usually keep the door to the grow room cracked open to keep temps down..Im assuming it would be better for the plants if I kept the door shut and got the temps to stay down but its still pretty cold outside where I live and we still run the heat. Once it warms up Ill have the A/C on in the house and this makes the basement 10x cooler so hopefully Ill be ok (might need to get a portable a/c, but ill deal with that later)..I plan on flowering with the 1000 HPS with the agromax bulb putting out 150,000 lumens. I also am going to be adding another fan. I picked up an Ecoplus wall-mount oscilating fan so I hope that will help with temps too..Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Thanks again everyone

 

[GeezerBudd]

Lookin' good! :watchplant: :


Gb

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

Well I cleaned out the system last night and bought new tubing so the plants are more spread out. Currently running the waterfarm at 950 ppm and 5.7 pH. The plants are now under 1,400 watts of HPS and the flowering cycle began this morning and i'll be running the light cycle at night. I cut down to 6 buckets for the waterfarm and 4 soil plants in the main grow room. I have a single waterfarm bucket running one of the smaller plants under our T5 light which we will veg until we have some more growth and will use it as a mother plant to take clones from for either future indoor grows or for our outdoor grow. There's more i wanted to say but can't think right now.... i'll post pics of everything when the lights turn back on tonight. thanks for everyone's help so far.

 

[BuddyLuv]

good to see you got it figured out now. Once you get the hang of hydro you will never mess with dirt again.

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

So its now 1 week into flowering and being that its 420, thought id give an update with some pictures. anyways, got 3 white berries and 3 arjans haze in the waterfarm. Then we have 1 white berry and 1 arjans haze 1 pure gold and 1 pure power in the soil. lookin good so far, hopefully we start to see some buds developing soon. thanks for stoppin in. enjoy.

 

[BuddyLuv]

from the look of those bushes you can say you are no longer new to hydro.

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

Thanks. Ya once we got the pH adjusted correctly and the roots came through the buckets they just took off. The soil had almost a 3 week head start and now the hydro has completely caught up. Nice to finally have it under control. Thanks to everyone who helped get our feet wet. Ill update with pictures in a few days

 

[hydrochloride]

I have a suggestion for keeping your heat down. You can take a piece of furniture of some type and place it up against the wall of your grow room onthe outside. Make a hole from you grow room to your "secret" baffle ,Then gut the piece of furniture and turn it into a baffle that will let air in and keep light out. I have an old chest on the outside of mine that lets plenty of air in and you would never guess what it wa by looking at it. I have an inline fan on the inside wall to help pull air through the baffle also. If you can make some way to peek into the baffle from the outside, it makes for a good wat to check to see if your lights are on or not.

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

thought i'd update with a few pics. about half way through flower on the white berry and the arjans will be 5 or 6 weeks after that. both in week 5 of flowering

 

[stonedrone]

Those are some good lookin' ladies you got there SSW. Nice work.