A couple of days after the new growth, the previous new growth gets burned tips and chlorosis. The pH pushes down and the EC pushes up, and the water level looks relatively static. That reservoir is fine in terms of water health. Roots are nice and white and the water is crystal clear.
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yah the chart says that is classic nutrient lockout from too high an EC. Soā¦there must be something going on in the reservoir/root zone to make that happen. Do you add the nutrients then test ph, or ph then add nutrients? orā¦ mixing the nutrients together undiluted in the same cup? you know, just a simple operational error? Not rinsing the measuring cup between measuring different nutrients or something.
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Typical process is fill with water, nute up then wait for the pH to stabilize, that takes at least 4 hrs. Then I calculate pH based on where I want it and where it is and how previous applications affected the water, then pH it and monitor.
In terms of the nute process, I have separate syringes for each nutrient/pH down/UC roots product. I do Micro first, wait for it to mix through the pump a few times, usually 2 - 3 minutes, then do Bloom. Each syringe is rinsed after dosing, but no syringes are ever cross-used cause theyāre all very clearly labelled, haha.
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Thing is, EC was 1.3. Thatās +0.8 EC above tap. Neither 0.8 EC OR 1.3 EC should be too hot for this plant - itās about 6 mo old at this point.
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youāre telling me, Iād be running that thing at EC 2.0. Do you have any black buckets around where you could just fill it with water and bubble air in it and adjust and crap no plant add nutrients see what happens with it. Then, put a plant in and see? Itās hard to get a handle on why normal EC levels seem so crazy in your water culture. I meanā¦ have you tried just putting in a half dose? does the ph and EC drop then? like EC 1 or .6-.8
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Iāve tried running it on water only for 24 hrs, still leeched nutes into the water.
I do have some spare buckets that will be painted black soon, I might run that experiment soon.
I also noticed my air pump on that reservoir was barely pumping any air, so I rejigged the pump so that itās pumping more air again. Lets see if that makes it turn around.
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waitā¦waitā¦ the reverse osmosis happens even in pure water??? you tried filtering the water first?
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No, Iām just using tap. Iām shopping RO systems now, haha.
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yah something aināt right with that water. The things you describe as happeningā¦ I have never seen. Usually in plain tap water my plants just start hoovering up the water like mad looking for that little bit of nutrient. After a week or so, they start to fade from nutrient depletion. Conductivity of my tap water is .2 ph is 7, so itās pretty decent.
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Iām wondering if Iām seeing a conflux of issues. Iām going to apply some LITFA to the mothers for now, and just keep on with Project Blackout. Once Iāve eliminated a few more variables I can re-measure behavior and we can puzzle over it then.
I think Iām going to start the new res that Iām staging from first principles - black it out, switch out the pump to maintain a more even water level, and plumb in my new much larger air pump. Then run it with just water and nutes and measure it and see what it does for a week with no plants. Then pH adjust as I normally do and repeat.
Get some data going. I agree my observations donāt seem to match the science, so the observations and the experiment itself must be flawed!
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You can never go wrong with project blackout, itās an important factor in maintaining a healthy reservoir/ root zone. Crap never grows in my buckets, except the plants I want 
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Hello all!
Things are better-ish in the round reservoir this week:
They had a res top up which upped the pH to 6.3 @ 1.2 EC, throughout the week the EC level has remained relatively stable, though the pH has dropped to 6.2, but that seems within normal swings of plants that are eating.
The WW is bushing up like this cut always does, and I really like that. This is one that begs to be topped and trained.
The GSC Iām noticing is just a more delicate branching strain in general. She likes to throw off single lanky shoots instead of the wild branching the WW does.
The runts, I dunno. I think theyāre picking up in the side growth, but I donāt have much hope for them. Their root systems are lagging way behind the other 2.
My mini-moms are loving life in coco and ebb and flow. This has seriously been the easiest batch of seedlings to take care of that Iāve ever had.
The Cheese, LSD and Head Banger x (Dark Spark x Blueberry Hashplant) seedlings are coming close to me being able to take some clones. All the clones are destined for the flower chamber of the cab, the HB x (DS X BBHP) in particular because it needs to be sexed.
Meh:
Iām done with these bitches, once I can move the mini-moms into the veg chamber of the cab (more on that in a bit), Iām flipping them. I want them out.
The Forum Stomper and the 2 seed cups were chopped. The FS is hanging to dry right now:
and the cups yielded about 50 seeds that survived the crush test that are now drying somewhere out of the way:
So now the flower cab is mostly empty, and Iām planning on configuring it for the full perpetual E&F experiment Iāve been slowly putting together over the last few months. I have a home sewing project to build some kind of light proof fabric divider for the cab that will split a veg and flower chamber. About 40% of the cab on the bottom will be for mini-moms and rooting clones, and the top 60% will be for 2 racks of flowering clones.
The only problem is I need at least one more low profile, low heat light for the rooting clones in the veg chamber, and maybe one for the second rack of flowering clones. I have some DIY SIL builds I want to try and document, so those might pop up in time.
Luckily I have at least a few weeks before I need to worry about a second rack for flowering clones, because my White Widows are at least that many weeks out from finishing:
The flowering clones/auto seedling that made it into the flowering cab are doing well, the Gorilla Glue in particular:
The auto never responded to the increased nutes by getting darker, but the GG did so I guess itās at a good point.
Lastly, I planted 7 seeds for the new 16oz manifold contest, and well, itās not going so well:
None of the seedlings have popped above ground, all of them had tails going in and I only put them in knuckle deep.
I think Iām done starting seeds for a bit. If these donāt make it Iāll just ride with what I have until Iām ready to introduce new genetics for a specific purpose. Until then itās just trying to tune what I already have and work out a smooth running system before I start screwing around again.
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It seems like you are making progress with stabilizing the water culture. I didnāt see the new growth get all crisped up this time. How is the new growth looking? It looks fairly bright green to me. EC slowly going down or remaining stable as the water level drops? ph slowly rising as nutrients are consumed? The mother plants look kind of depleted or something, whats the EC on those girls?
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The big 6 month old moms are running at 6.0 pH and 1.3 EC right now. Not sure on the pH/EC trend as I just popped the probes back in. From my notes it looks like I topped the res up last week but didnāt nute it, which would account for the over 5.5 pH and lower EC.
Iām cautiously optimistic that theyāve been eating, but Iāll keep the probes in all week and track it.
This is what the round res did all last week:
Iād rather the pH go up, but meh, at least the EC is stable.
Iāll keep the probes in the mother res for the week to track it. If ECs are relatively stable or going down, Iāll up the feed.
Color-wise, itās looking good. Thereās a lot of new green growth all up and down the main stems and itās not shriveling up and dying, so Iām taking that as a good sign.
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Looks like the old moms are drinking more than theyāre eating, but the pH has stabilized, so Iāll take it.
Forum Stomper looks like itās yielded just shy of a 1/2 oz of some of the stickiest bud Iāve ever experienced.
Preliminary still partially wet taste test gives it a mellow smoke with a terpene profile that Iām starting to associate with Mephisto strains specifically, itās hard to describe for someone as stoned as I am, haha.
Itās strong, enough that my high tolerance ass is stoned from a single bowl. My current black market takes me about 2 bowls to get me where I am right now.
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Update! Less than a week since the last one!
Things seem to be going very well.
The round RDWC system looks like itās starting to turn around. Iām seeing new lateral growth on all plants, and the runty ones are starting to get more mass.
My ebb and flow plants are very happy and growing furiously:
Even the square RDWC system is getting in on the good times. Still see lots of damage, but none of it looks new and thereās a whole bunch of new green growth on both plants:
The flowering White Widows are doing their final bulk. Iāve cut the feed down on them to start tapering into a flush next week.
My 16oz manifold cups are growingā¦ something? Not cannabis yet. This is my ācover cropā, as in what I say I grow with all this gear if the police come a knockinā.
Finally, the Devil Cookies is really taking off, and the other clones are flowering away:
Ok, so next steps:
That coir mat in the flowering E&F is gross. I want to repot those ladies to coco in a 16oz cup and nuke that res and tray with h2o2 from orbit, but Iām leery about repotting a flowering plant. What does everyone reading along think?
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Just be careful not to damage the main bulk of the roots and it should be ok. Iām really enthused about the turn around. It almost seems bizarre that it was just shitty light hitting the nutrient solution. As I always say though, nutrient + light = death.
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I also switched up the way I was oxygenating them. I pulled all the individual lines from the reservoirs and bundled them into the main reservoir with the pump. Figured the pumping of highly oxygenated water couldnāt be worse than what it was before.
I think it was a combo of hot temps + low oxygen + light.
I fixed 2 of those, so they can probably manage with the other one out of whack for now.
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just the act of pumping the water also adds oxygen. Itās all about surface exchange, even when you are pumping bubbles in there itās also turning over the surface. Some oxygen will dissolve from the bubbles but you can get it saturated just stirring things up. Temperature is the key to oxygen saturation. 18-20C for water is best, you definitely donāt want 30C.
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