DWC 400w HPS: Northern Lights – White Widow

Very quick update…

Weekly Operation Statistics Average:
(WOSA from here on out)

Air Temp Day: 72f / 22c
Air Temp Night: 63f / 17c

Humidity Day: 50%
Humidity Night: 45%

Water Temp Day: 76f / 24c
Water Temp Night: 72f / 22c

Water Amount: 3 gallons / bucket
Water Type: Distilled
Water PH: 5.3 (adjusted)
Water PPM: 240 +/- ppm
Water Nutes: FloraMicro / FloraGro / FloraBloom / RapidStart / Floralicious Plus



The three plants are doing very well. Roots have shown out the bottom of the net pots for all of them. I doubled up their nutrients and added the additives as well to feed them properly as they get bigger.

@MadScientist, I would have to say the 15 year old bubblegum seeds are a loss considering there has been zero activity with them. Oh well, worth the try.

However I have ran into an issue that would be great to get some advice on….

My ph level will not maintain between my sweet spot 5.2 – 5.8. I’ll correct the ph of the water, then the next day once I check it, it will read between 6.0 - 6.4, so I’ll reset the ph back to 5.2 and it will happen again the next day.

Anybody have an opinion on what’s going on? I have one thought but want to see if anybody matches my conclusion.

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Did you rinse the hydroton thoroughly before use? Cos, that would be my only guess for that!

Unless you are using baking soda/lime juice to control pH, which will only work for a few hours/minutes and then degrade and go back or what’s worst alter it a lot… I have no idea!

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All the clay hydroton pellets was washed, cleaned, dried, then soaked with plain distilled water, then dried completely again. As for ph control I use General hydroponics line of PH up and PH down, I use the crystal form of the ph down specifically designed for hydroponic use.

I’m not convinced it’s the hydroton clay considering the medium is never submerged in the nutrient water to alter ph levels so quickly and consistently.

I also want to add; this is happening in all 3 buckets that are separate.

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If it’s happening in all three separate buckets, then it’s somthing you’re pouring in the water that’s making it happen, eliminate variables, use a different bucket to mix everything the same way you do all the time, and then measure pH, after that eliminate something, and then something else and so forth… You might hit the jackpot!

Your plants are eating. Ph will rise. It is ok, and good for the ph to swing. The clay pebbles will not affect the ph. You will want to raise your ph to around 5.5-5.8. You should be using equal parts of the gh flora series. Probably like 1.25ml per galon.

Thanks for great diary, @Roux!

@Baudelaire is right about the lamps. CFL sucks for flowering as you can check in my old topic.

Good choice with bubblers and GH line. It works great in combination and keeping 1/3 dosage is recommended (I see you are measuring PPM :thumbsup: and that is even better way) .

I’d say that slight changes in pH can be attributed to clay pebbles. I do have experience only with liquid pH adjusters though so I’m not sure about pH stability with powder version… Anyway there are fluctuations all the time that depends on residual salts, type of nutrients and type of pH adjuster. You just want those to keep in reasonable range.

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Agreed with @LemonadeJoe, don’t sweat it as long as your pH is swinging within a range of 5.5-6.5, even 6.8, you’ll be fine. You’ve probably got some calcium in your water source that’s buffering the nute solution towards 6+. Don’t fight it. You can grow all day long at 6.2. You’ll do more harm dumping too much pH Down into your system trying to fight it. And you probably won’t fix it until you remove the buffering agents from your water (RO) which is likely not worth the trouble + expense. -b420

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Please explain how hydroton can effect the ph.

I think that the Ph is changing because of the tap water (revrse osomosis holds Ph levels much better) and secondly. The oxygen it self changes Ph. I saw many videos and read about it. Oxygen rises water Ph so there is nothing to do about that. Reverse osmosis would definetly be better :slight_smile:

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There is a nutrient line by Advanced called PH perfect which is designed to avoid PH fluctuation … not sure if it’s designed for RO or both but supposedly works well but i don’t think fluctuation matters much either long as it’s not too far out of range

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Wow thank you guys for all the input, what a great community…As I suspected the PH swing was coming from the buckets themselves, due to the fact they were previously used for pickles and the pickling vinegar leached into the bucket. Now I know what your saying…“But Roux, That will lower the PH level!” and yes your right, vinegar will lower PH levels, by itself.

However …mixing pickling vinegar with the nutrient chemicals creates a reaction that cause the PH levels of the mixture to rise, not drastically but enough to stick out. This reaction also happens when you drink vinegar; after our body processes the vinegar, it actually raises the PH of our urine.

I swapped out the buckets, flushed the equipment, and added fresh water and nutrients. PH stabilized and I am a happy boy :smiley:

As always I use distilled water, same as I have from the start :grin: and here some pics

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Hey all, another update. Today’s schedule had a reservoir change and a equipment cleaning:

WOSA:

Air Temp Day: 75f / 24c
Air Temp Night: 65f / 18c

Humidity Day: 50%
Humidity Night: 45%

Water Temp Day: 74f / 23c
Water Temp Night: 72f / 22c

Water Amount: 3 gallons / bucket
Water Type: Distilled
Water PH: 5.8 (adjusted)
Water PPM: 500 +/- ppm
Water Nutes: FloraMicro / FloraGro / FloraBloom / RapidStart / Floralicious Plus

Each bucket and all equipment went through a proper cleaning. Upon further inspection of the equipment, everything is working as it should. However I did notice the air stones had a nutrient film on them causing a slight loss in air production. This was resolved after the cleaning.


The two Northern Lights plants seem to be doing rather well and are growing at the rate I expected. But the White Widow seems to have been stunted from last week and now is playing catchup with its rivals in the tent.

Here are the 2 Northern Light plants and their roots



Here is the stunted White Widow that’s making its recovery


Low Stress Training (LST) will be starting very soon. These little growth shoots will get the proper exposure they need and we will start training each individual plant to get the most cuttings from these mothers.

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Low Stress Training (LST) Has begun!

This is probably my favorite part of any grow is the training. Starting out I used the paperclip method many, many years ago. However, now that technology has advanced, I use string :grin: paired with eye hooks.

I’m partial to nylon string as its very strong, durable, and provides a little bit of give if stretched. But honestly any string can be used.

I first tie one part of the string onto the top part of the main growth shoot. I use a loose slipknot that way I can adjust it as the stem thickens. FYI leave the string on the longer side that way it can be reused when the plant grows bigger.


Then I anchor an eye hook parallel to the way I’d like the growth shoot pulled. Tighten the string through the eye hook and the top growth shoot moves down to expose the lower growth shoots. Then tie off the string to the eye hook, I use a one loop knot because day to day it will have to be readjusted as the plant grows.


Now our plants look a bit weird, however we have uncovered all those potential growth site and with continuous training we can control the height and width of our plants. As the need for more training we will add the eye hooks as we go.

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Plants are 3 weeks old from seed, just a brief update for you all:

I was shocked :astonished: at how much I had to train with one of the NLs. Also size is very hard to photograph, so I put a regular bic lighter just to give you an idea of how short these plants are.


I left the other NL alone to get a little bit more length before tying them down.

My little stunted WW will start its training today.

As I knew running a 500ppm mix of straight nutrients and distilled water, there was a very high chance of over fertilizing these young plants. Well yes, here is proof of that on both NLs (WW shows no signs). It’s not bad enough to worry about and I just added a bit of more distilled water to pull it back a bit. But yes, I am trying to push these plants to the limits. I’m sure the organic growers (especially the no-till people) are shaking their heads right now. :pensive:

It will be ok, problem corrected and these girls will bounce right back :relaxed:

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Training and Nutrient Update:

Well after seeing the symptoms of over fertilization continue after diluting the nutrient water, plus the WW was showed no signs of this. I came to the conclusion it’s a calcium deficiency. Which makes sense, because since I’m using distilled water this will occur. Needless to say we added the nutrient supplement

And the training continues:

I’ll post a the weekly update tomorrow :grin:

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i thought you were already adding calmag with each feeding ??

I was not, unfortunately I didn’t realize I had to add it with distilled water.

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Hope they be alright :slight_smile: I also had a problem with Calcium deficiency with RO water. My friend studies biology and Said to me that The plants cant get the Calcium from the leaf (like other elements and turns yellow) because Calcium is the only element in the plants that CANT be transfered. So if There aint any Calcium in medium or water, plants Just start to Have Brown spots on healthy leaf :slight_smile: think about that and always add some! :slight_smile: Keep growing.

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Time to update!

WOSA:

Air Temp Day: 77f / 25c
Air Temp Night: 65f / 18c

Humidity Day: 60%
Humidity Night: 50%

Water Temp Day: 74f / 23c
Water Temp Night: 72f / 22c

Water Amount: 3 gallons / bucket
Water Type: Distilled
Water PH: 5.4 (adjusted)
Water PPM: 700 +/- ppm
Water Nutes: FloraMicro / FloraGro / FloraBloom / RapidStart / Floralicious Plus / CALiMAGic

After adding the Ca/Mg, it has solved the problem, no more new brown spots on the leaves.

Smell was starting to seep into the house. So we have got the ozone generator up and running. It is working great to take care of the smell.
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Pre-flowers showed today, here is a look at that:
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All three plants are being continuous trained and responding well to the bondage
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NL#1

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NL#2

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WW#1

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I just wanted to put this one in here as one of my most used tools in the grow room. I can move leaves and growth shoots outta the way, and use the point to loosen or tighten the nylon string.
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Happy Growing All!!!

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