Newbie hydroponics grow, need help getting started/selecting equipment!

[Military]

haha cat got into your shit O man crazy cats for sure, Little fuckers (haah mind my french)

Well everything seems to look good now man You really are getting like REALLY REALLY into this for sure with all the ppm tests and ph settings for sure,,, shit Just go with the flow dude, listen to your babies They can tell you better then any meter can.

Its like going to the doctors feeling like crapola, then he saids your 100% fine, how the hell he suppose to know if your still feeling not 100% fine hehe


I wanta see those babies getting HUGE!!! With all the equipment you got man these plants better be flawless

EDIT>>> Hey about your PH... Hum.. if you happen to have one of those or able to get one of those 5gal water bottles that go upside down in like offices or whatever that would be great to just keep FULL all the time and just let sit..

Letting it sit will distill the water slowly, same as if you would boil the water, so then all the florid and "healthy" human drinking water chemicals will just go away and youll have just "empty" water with a decent PH thats most likely around.. 5.5.. This is what I do and works great for me, but also my nutes have the best hydro ph buffer then any other hydro nutes that slams any ph water to the correct ph But I like to use 5.5ph water regardless

 

[SoEx]

haha cat got into your shit O man crazy cats for sure, Little fuckers (haah mind my french)

Well everything seems to look good now man You really are getting like REALLY REALLY into this for sure with all the ppm tests and ph settings for sure,,, shit Just go with the flow dude, listen to your babies They can tell you better then any meter can.

Its like going to the doctors feeling like crapola, then he saids your 100% fine, how the hell he suppose to know if your still feeling not 100% fine hehe


I wanta see those babies getting HUGE!!! With all the equipment you got man these plants better be flawless

EDIT>>> Hey about your PH... Hum.. if you happen to have one of those or able to get one of those 5gal water bottles that go upside down in like offices or whatever that would be great to just keep FULL all the time and just let sit..

Letting it sit will distill the water slowly, same as if you would boil the water, so then all the florid and "healthy" human drinking water chemicals will just go away and youll have just "empty" water with a decent PH thats most likely around.. 5.5.. This is what I do and works great for me, but also my nutes have the best hydro ph buffer then any other hydro nutes that slams any ph water to the correct ph But I like to use 5.5ph water regardless

Thanks

They are starting to grow a bit more. I added a new, small fan to the room but I think it might be pushing the master kush one a bit too much. It just has a lot of surface area and catches the fan head on, so after a night of blowing it looks like I started LST on it or something, heh. But still looks healthy and happy.

The Lemon Stinky one is growing too, but it's chillin' down more away from the light, looks like a few days of growth behind the master kush almost.

Going to check out the ph and such later, hopefully. I actually have four fans now. One blower blowing air into the room, one at the bottom of the chamber blowing air up into the chamber, one in the chamber blowing air over the plants (I turned this one off until I find a better spot for it), and one in the hood exhausting the air out of the chamber.

I might need to add one in-line duct fan to get the exhaust air pressure negative so I don't run into smell issues as I head toward flower, hopefully.

 

[SoEx]

Day 20 update

Master Kush:



Lemon Stinky:



ppm sitting near the same, ph went down to 6.0 then back up to 6.2ish, so I started trying to get it back down slowly again.

So I'm going to hopefully build something like this:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=78729

For a veg chamber. That way I can veg separately, then hopefully transplant to the DWC once I can determine sex of everything and remove the males for flowering.

I think it'd be possible to transplant from E&F into a DWC net pot, still trying to find more information in that regard.

Hey so this is another thing: these two plants will hopefully have a ~2-3 week head start on the other seedlings. I know that topping/things that add more growth tips usually stunt growth a tiny bit, right? So if I did some kind of pruning technique or training that might allow the other plants to catch up in size to these two? I *Will* hopefully put in a SCROG once I can determine plant sex and start flowering. I just would love to do something else that might potentially be yield-increasing with these plants, though.

 

[eLiguL]

Depending on your style of grow, that pvc multi-site E&F setup might not be for you. Its more suited for a minimal veg sog style grow. People who have used this setup all agree vegging for any substantial time is a big NONO with this setup.

Edit: Just read over what you type

If your just using it to veg it might work out nicely for you.

Its good to see my posts are actually helping others out here

 

[SoEx]

Oh snap.

Plants seem to be MOSTLY happy, but this just showed up on the master kush plant:





Could it be caused by the ph? My ph went from 6.18 down to 5.97, then back up to 6.21, then down a bit, then back up to 6.27, then I added a bit more. It seems like I wasn't keeping up with the ph increase fast enough I guess and it fluctuated a bit.

OTHERWISE, the plants are coming along nicely. When I go close up the master kush smells pretty pot-like, I might have to start using my carbon filter now.

 

[SoEx]

EEK!

I found out what it was. It WAS the ph, I believe. Yesterday it jumped up to 6.27, so I added maybe 2ml hcl, twice what I added before to get from 6.2 to 5.97.

Anyhow, I checked the ph today. Freakin' 4.59! I raised it back up to 5.37 for the moment and I'll let the plants increase it up again a bit more, hopefully. I just don't want to shock them anymore.

The onjly discoloration is on that one spot on the master kush plant, the other leaves on both plants look flawless.

Eek, hope everything will be alright. I will make sure to be a bit more careful with monitoring ph after adding nutrients for the first time, definitely.

 

[SoEx]

Okay, phew.

Hopefully disaster averted.

I checked the ph and it's at 5.90, a good place in comparison to what was going on earlier. The plants show no signs of stressing except for that one part on the master kush plant. Otherwise, they're growing like MAD now

I'll take a pic and post it up later, hopefully

Edit: and I got some new beans! Thanks dc105, I can't wait to start on this delicious grapefruit extravaganza

 

[FreezerBoy]

Do you have an EC/TDS meter?

Apologies to someone for stealing their info without due credit (Bad FreezerBoy, bad.)

Basic cheat sheet:
EC goes up,PH goes down = plants require less nutes.
EC goes down,PH goes up = Plants require more nutes
EC stable,PH goes up = Equilibrium = Good thang.

Sometimes I miss my old 7 gallon flood and drain. Run it dry, fill it up, run it dry, fill it up. No balancing, no testing. Of course I had nowhere near the explosive growth.

 

[SoEx]

Do you have an EC/TDS meter?

Apologies to someone for stealing their info without due credit (Bad FreezerBoy, bad.)

Basic cheat sheet:
EC goes up,PH goes down = plants require less nutes.
EC goes down,PH goes up = Plants require more nutes
EC stable,PH goes up = Equilibrium = Good thang.

Sometimes I miss my old 7 gallon flood and drain. Run it dry, fill it up, run it dry, fill it up. No balancing, no testing. Of course I had nowhere near the explosive growth.

Yeah. EC was 231ish last I checked (yesterday I think?) up from 217 when everything was originally mixed. I've really got to get some pics, and get my carbon filter set up. It hasn't started to stink like weed outside, but inside the chamber it smells plant matter-y and up close it definitely smells a bit dank .

I've got an air ionizer type thing in the room, and that seems to be working. I also have an Ion generator/fan combo that I pciked up a while ago -- should I think about putting this thing in the room? I read something about the excess ozone might be detrimental to the smell of the finished bud, or am I just imagining this?

 

[SoEx]

Quick crappy pics.

Day 22 from sowing:

Master Kush:



Lemon Stinky:



Ph read 5.97, added a miniscule amount of hcl. Hoping to keep things around 5.9.

Edit: ppm 237

 

[Don Cotyle]

I had an electrical fire in the wall last Saturday night, called the fire dept and thru the main breaker off. I only lost 6' x 8' of interior wall. I've been cleaning and reworking the wall.So I've been down for a week,just have to paint, fun fun! My grow was undetected and didn't suffer any ill effects!


Hot Damn, that boot in yer cats ass musta worked!!! Looks like things are comeing along nicely and your getting great help and info!!!

 

[SoEx]

I had an electrical fire in the wall last Saturday night, called the fire dept and thru the main breaker off. I only lost 6' x 8' of interior wall. I've been cleaning and reworking the wall.So I've been down for a week,just have to paint, fun fun! My grow was undetected and didn't suffer any ill effects!


Hot Damn, that boot in yer cats ass musta worked!!! Looks like things are comeing along nicely and your getting great help and info!!!

Holy crap! I hope you're all right and that the fire doesn't set things back too far/cost too much . That sucks!

I just put 7 more seedlings in rockwool (thanks again dc).

I think the small ones were Dirty Harry/Twisted Fruit and the large ones were Dirty Harry/Grapefruit.

Pics:

Dh/gf:



dh/tf:



Hm. Looking at the pic does it look like the bigger seed in the dirty harry/twisted fruit pic might actually be dirty harry/grapefruit? I dunno, heh, I'm not great at trying to identify things.

Anyway, so these are sitting in rockwool on a warm place and hopefully I'll get my veg room setup in time for them.

I was looking at my day 16 pics and I really realize how much the plants have exploded in terms of growth.

Master Kush day 16:


vs day 22:


Never would've imagined that much growth from 6 days

 

[Don Cotyle]

Things are just about back to normal, and no injuries! I didn't get to finish dinner! Power was only out for 2-3 hours.

Glad to hear your adding to your grow...MMMMM grapefruit! That's what I like about hydro, almost explosive growth in veg, really cuts your veg times down!!!

 

[FreezerBoy]

I had an electrical fire in the wall last Saturday night ...

Holy weinie roast, Batdude! Glad you're OK! Every time I think I got it bad ...

 

[SoEx]

PPM is down to 230 this time 'round. PH was at 5.97, so I, again, added a TINY bit to bring it back near 5.9. Seemed to be okay last time 'round

Anywho, I need to try to lower temps here again. Leaves seem like they're transpiring a bit too much again, temps went up to 85 with the door closed for a bit. I have to ask: Is my humidity (or lack thereof) going to hurt me in this grow? Humidity is <20% and outdoor humidity is usually low 'round here this time of year. I'm working on getting the temps in check.

I haven't seen the res temp go above 71 F and the roots are all smooth, white looking from what I can see.

Anyway, a hint of what's hopefully to come of my veg chamber:





2x 105W CFLs (5500k), and hopefully going to set up E&F in the closet. As I said, going to do E&F so I can hopefully have smaller roots so I can easily transplant them to the flower chamber when necessary.

 

[SoEx]

Okay, need a bit of help.

Problems: Old growth on both plants took a pretty big beating. I think it was related to the MASSIVE ph drop I experienced 5 days ago, could that be right? I started noticing it a few days ago but today it's pretty noticeable. Also, two days ago temperatures outside went up by ~50 degrees pretty much overnight. I was asleep throughout the night and when I woke up the temperatures in the room were ridiculously high. Some of the old growth started wilting a bit and curling up at the sides.
Images:

Spots, only these leaves and the tips of the next set up.



Very first real leaf, very pale. It's dark down here (thick growth up top), could that just be because no light is getting down here?


Curly/wiltiness/crunchy leaves:


PPM: 234
Ph: 6.06

Ph has been very constant past three days, in the 5.9-6.05ish range. As I said, they experienced some 4.59 ph for a bit when things went wacky that one day, but it's all stable now (for the moment )

The plants are still growing, so I guess that's a good sign? Roots are all marvelously white and growing, thankfully.

Anyway, I just want to know if my guesses at what's wrong are right, or if I'm overlooking something. It's not nutrient burn, is it? They seem happy other than the discoloration on the older growth.

In GOOD news:

All 4 Dirty Harry/Twisted Fruit seeds are making it to the surface. One has its neck already above the surface of the rockwool, the other three are visible just under it.

2 Of the dirty harry/grapefruit are almost near the surface, last one still needs to make an appearance. Got to do my veg room up soon here, hopefully.

So, what do you guys think I should do about these issues? Will they go away on their own if I maintain a good environment, keep the ph in check, and be careful? Temperature in there is back down to the 76 degree range with the light ON, so that will hopefully not be a worry right now.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Hi SoEx, Looks like hi temps in the first pic and old nute burn, possible the yellowing could be Magnesium deficency BUT plants are a little young for that! You gotta keep them temps under control. For mag deficency you can use CalMag or just a 1/4 teaspoon of epsom salts per gallon will help! Have you thought about venting the extra heat from your lamp-thru your carbon scrubber and into the attic? Yea it's a bitch, but the heat has gotta go somewhere! That squirl cage fanwill help but it'll fill your closet and room with smell when your plants start to mature and get all stanky!!!

If you can keep temps in the 70-80 range you'll be OK!

 

[SoEx]

Hi SoEx, Looks like hi temps in the first pic and old nute burn, possible the yellowing could be Magnesium deficency BUT plants are a little young for that! You gotta keep them temps under control. For mag deficency you can use CalMag or just a 1/4 teaspoon of epsom salts per gallon will help! Have you thought about venting the extra heat from your lamp-thru your carbon scrubber and into the attic? Yea it's a bitch, but the heat has gotta go somewhere! That squirl cage fanwill help but it'll fill your closet and room with smell when your plants start to mature and get all stanky!!!

If you can keep temps in the 70-80 range you'll be OK!

Yeah, I hopefully can keep it under 80. I was just asleep and I couldn't open the window and the temps outside rose, and when I woke up the temp inside was way too warm as a result. So I opened the window and now it's all good.

I'm also using tap, which I imagine has some mag already usually, does it not? I have no attic. HOWEVER: I'm thinking about using some of that clear plastic tubing they use to route air conditioning (as it gets warmer here) and hook it up to the AC and route it all the way straight to the closet. This'd look suspicious, but I'm not going for UBER-stealth, and there's a good enough reason why the growspace is locked.

Will the smell really be a problem if I can just get more exhaust out? I don't know how many CFM the cage blower puts out, but it's a low profile (1") blower that I wired up, and it does push out a lot of air. I was hoping to just cut a hole in the dryer ducting I have now and attach one of those 4" "exhaust boosters" inline to get some more air moving out, hopefully enough so smell doesn't eminate. But then again I'm going to put some activated carbon and some of those premade activated carbon filters (found some locally for pretty much the same price as just pure activated carbon) on this exhaust. AS WELL as that I'm going to have the other carbon filter I built sitting at the top of the box sucking in air from the chamber and letting it out back in the room.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Under 80 should be fine! Can the smell really be a problem? Trust me, if you don't control it in the later stages of flowering your room++ will smell like Willie Nelsons Bus!!!

Keep up the good work, this Orange Diesel bud's for you

Can the smell be a problem

 

[SoEx]

Weee!

So I started work on the veg closet. I'm almost done. I just need to finish gluing a few pieces to the ebb/flow system tomorrow, hopefully.

Pics:










Those are 7 of them there, I actually found another rockwool cube and I'm germing another one, hopefully. That's one 5500K 105W CFL, but once I get the system set in place I'm going to add the other 105W CFL with a Y adapter in there. Also I have to put some white poly around the rest of the door.

Phew