EDIT: Also, the magnesium deficiency that the mom had is now fixed. No more purple stems and the leaves are nice and green and flat.
Maybe the longer rooting time was partially due to this deficiency. Although science says it shouldn’t matter, the first clones took 13 days to show roots, and some are still not showing. Normally I would see some in around 10, sometimes even 7.
This is 8 days from transplant into hydroton with no top watering after the first day
Adjusted pH yesterday back down to 5.8 (got as high as 6.3, forgot to check for a day, but the plants didn’t seem to mind), rez temps steady at 68. EC at 0.9 (450ppm), and air temps at 23-24C. Dumped a bit of h2o2 in there too – I think i’ll run the same nutes for a while longer. Plants are too small to make a dent in EC, and it is cold enough and clean enough. I see no sediment either.
These are gonna be some stretchy bitches. Topped, under solid 600W MH, temps in check, and reaching up and up and up. I swear this one stretched 3/4 of an inch overnight…
Res change + Megacrop time
13 days is about enough; i have noticed pH drifting faster and faster, so probably time to refresh.Let her go to 6.2 for a day just in case some micros are better absorbed in that range.
Drained, did not flush, added the standard 60L water straight from the tap (6.8, 20ppm)
Switching to megacrop. Did 1g/L or about 4g/gal. 60g in my case. Smells lovely – like taking a walk on a beach at low tide in the sun. I don’t know why people complain
Interesting thing was, it mixed to pH 6.3, which would take me about 1mL of pH down to compensate. I thought i’d start with 0.5 ml and totally overshot to 5.4. Brought her into spec @5.8 with KOH. took a while. Next time, lighter on phosphoric.
I could not stay away from 1/2 dose of calmag. Megacrop is supposed to have plenty, but i’m so allergic to magnesium deficiencies that, considering my water is barely registering, could not help myself.
So the total is 670ppm (EC 1.34), 150 or so of which is calmag. 520 of MC.
They are definitely growing fast. Here’s a comparison shot - same size clones. One in coco, well cared of, the other in DWC. Both topped and trimmed.
Dealt with some issues, solved – algae. Now running 3.7-ish ppm of calcium hypochlorite pool shock. Thanks @anon32470837 for calculating that for me
I have also light-proofed the white PVC bulkhead fittings that were, seemingly, the epicentre of algae growth.
Reached in with my hand to feel for slime on all the usual spots – nothing, so that makes me pretty happy.
However, root development has slowed a bit. And they are still brown and limpy-looking. Plants above ground seem to be doing OK, growing, branching, etc.
When i did refill, I did not go with megacrop, but instead used my regular Green Planet mix, as per before, but with about 1.6EC including calmag. Next time i’m gonna mix a little lower. Back to square one, I hope. Will see how this goes, maybe next time try beneficials…
They are looking a lot better. Something as simple as a opaque fitting can cause such a headache for us. If I buy anything for my hydro now I always buy black. 1st ever run in my buckets I used clear airline. It didn’t effect the plants or solution but the tubing ended up a shitty brown colour.
Quick update - another rez change today due to a discovery of more root slime, and a slight pH creep.
This time, I only put in EC1.0 of nutrients, half of which was calmag
Dosed the water with 3ppm (available) pool shock
Cleaned the roots of all the slimy and decomposing little hairs and such, with a paper towel. Cut off the knots of roots that had all sorts of unpleasant things inside them. Slime prevented the oxygen from getting in, and the root tips started to decompose. No fun.
But, even with trimmed roots, the plants seem OK
Water - 68F
Pics below, will see how she goes. I started fattening up their sisters too, and got some fabric 2gal pots. If this gives me any more trouble, all 9 are going in coco on a flood table and getting flipped as soon as acclimatized. I’ll show’em who’s boss…
Reporting on the progress/recovery. About a week since last update, 6 weeks from cut.
Rez same as a week ago, will change tomorrow
EC: 1.1
Temp: 68-70
pH:5.8-5.9
These are going pretty slowly. I don’t know if it’s the strain, or my lack of DWC kung-fu, but damn these things look like molasses compared to the autos. The autos are freaking huge and started flowering already. At this rate i’ll need 6 more weeks just to fill the tent enough to scrog & flip. But i’m doing it, as long as they are alive dammit.
Tent with the four plants, and their siblings that were cut into coco in solo cups
Still have 5x of these in coco solo cups. I wish someone would take them off my hands… I really only keep them because i’m a sucker. They get fed from the DWC rez, and are looking better than the ones in the actual DWC… LOL what gives?
Ok, so the bubbles did not work out and the system was reset to coco DTW yesterday. A couple hours worth of work, and all plants are on track. 3 weeks late, but on track finally.
Someone smart once said that “experience is what we get when we dont get what we want”
Also talked to my local hydro store owner and he said that a special, very resilient, brown algae plagues our region which is why almost nobody grows in DWC.
The experience of fighting with this algae is here:
Defoliated the bottoms a little bit, topped off the pots, planted the last one, got them rearranged so that the strongest plants are in the corners to give the smaller ones a chance to catch up. They are looking way better.
Flushed them again with same regiment as last time, just to make sure coco is nice and set/saturated. Gonna leave them for a couple days now, 3 gal pots may be a bit too big… oh well, extra 20 bucks in medium…
Grown a bit
Trained branches down
Getting ready for scrog and flip, delayed by my disorganized self…
Diet: Mostly megacrop, with some added calmag and vitamins B, to a total of about EC1.2-1.3
EDIT:
I was asking for advise on when to flip, and how to deal with, a haze here
The advise was to flip ASAP. I failed at that LOL. Gonna get to it soon though, i swear…
Grew like all hell again.
Fed with MC/calmag/BudFactorX to the tune of EC1.6. I did not mix enough nutes. Barely any runoff; i’ll fix that next time. I think i need to get a bigger barrell… 20L not enough. I have a 40L in storage, will dig that out
Both LOL. I do color correct my hps, but these are still on MH. I keep them on MH through the first week or so of flower, keep them on veg nutes too. Until the stretch is almost over. Then I’m gonna hit them with 1K HPS.
Their rate of growth and size of the tent is telling me I need to up to 1K.
Dusted off the old ballasts. Only one works now, but i only need one, so in she goes.
I wish I had a 1k MH lamp to run for the next week, but I don’t, and too cheap to buy one, so HPS it is. My camera doesn’t like the HPS light from this one though… Color corrected but super underexposed. Might need to use an ND filter.
So, the mom I took these cuts off is no longer available. These are less than a week into 12/12, so while defoliating the bottoms for easier access, i took some cuts.
Rockwool soaked in 5.8pH water with EC0.3 of FloraNova bloom, misted with same solution upon placement into the dome. Might take a little longer, but i want to save this pheno in case it is awesome.
Fed today. Same as last time, but now with Bud Igniter. We’ll see how that goes. EC 1.6-ish, pH 5.8
Dual Fuel
Bud Factor X
CalMag
Bud Igniter
That’s all for now folks!
EDIT: @cannabissequoia, the Dramm is phenomenal, with its nozzle. Cant get over it. Got a rig set up with a rez, a pump and my curved stick. Makes it much easier to get around the stem to get a good watering all around the pot.
