What to look for when feeding

[Sloppy Seconds]

I have a question, I've been doing the 1/2 strength feeding for two weeks now and my plants are looking pretty good, but some of the tips are starting to point down and I'm wondering if I need to add more food.
Here's the info:
White Widow
About three weeks old and about 20 inches tall
DWC in three gallon pots with 5 inch net-pot using lava rocks and 2 inch rockwool cubes
two airstones in each bucket.
PBP Grow and Liquid Karma 1/2 strength
100 watt Ceramic Metal Halide bulb with T8 tubes on the sides.
PH 6.0
ppm 1000
EC 2.0

Like I said they are growing good but I dont know what to look for if they are needing more food.
Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[Weedninja]

Leaves pointing downward is something that I would associate with too strong of a nute mix, which is sorta funny considering the whole 1/2 strength thing. Pics would be really nice.

 

[Sloppy Seconds]

Thanks Weedninja, I'm unable to post pictures at this time...like I said the plants are growing pretty good (20 inches in three weeks) but over the last few days some of the tips have turned down and have a slight yellow tint to them...its about 10 of them that are doing it.
I was thinking because my nute strength is so low maybe they are underfed, the bottle says 1 teaspoon per gallon for both the PBP and the LK, I did 1 teaspoon of each for my three gallon bucket (the bucket only has about two gallons in it with the net-pot hanging so low) so this is about 1/2 strength. Any thoughts?

 

[Weedninja]

Can you check this thread and see if anything looks like your problem: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688

Or this site: http://www.ganjaguerrilla.net/

 

[Sloppy Seconds]

Well Weedninja, you might be right...looks like nute burn to me too.
I checked out both sites and that kinda what it looks like, although not that severe!
Thank goodness mine dont look like those plants!
I'll keep an eye on them, I just changed my water/nutes last night for the first time and stuck with the same 1/2 nutes.
They really are growing well, every day more shoots are coming out and looking green.
Maybe I'll add a little water to "thin" out the nutes a bit.
Thanks for your help! Good luck.

 

[Blue Dot]

PBP Grow and Liquid Karma 1/2 strength

ppm 1000
EC 2.0

That ppm is on a .5 scale. On a .7 (hanna) scale it would be 1400.

Since your using PBP and LK, both of which have both organic and chem ntues the 1400 ppm would be be absolute minimum ppm because your meter cant read the organic stuff so there are more nutes in your mix altogether than 1400 ppm which is definately on the high end.

But pale tips drooping could just mean super fast growth. Sometimes chlorophyll production in the tips can't keep up with new cell division on fast growing plants.

Also, lack of a significant day/night differential in temps can cause pale yellowing as well as iron def (which would mean a too high pH).

 

[Hydro-Soil]

PBP Bloom 15ml/Gal of RO water.
Cal/Mag 5ml/gal of RO water.

That's Lucas formula for your nutes and, until I ran a few runs in your personal setup, I'd put those extra additives on the shelf for now.
Once you get a baseline on what the nutes are doing, the effect of the additives will be apparent for you.

If you follow that feeding mix, you'll have super happy plants and a happy harvest like many other people have. It was worked up by pros so you don't have to worry about hurting your ladies.

 

[Sloppy Seconds]

Thanks Blue dot and Hydrosoil,
I think you might be right about the fast growth, they are branching out big time.
My meter can test all the way down to "0" ppm as I do with my RO water.
I add some well water to my RO to to help "buffer" the levels.
My meter can read both EC and CF and give both PPM's depending on the scale.
Its kind of like the Blue lab Truncheon type and seems to work well, however it is self calibrating so I need to leave it in the water for about 2 minutes.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[Blue Dot]

My meter can test all the way down to "0" ppm as I do with my RO water.

I think you misunderstood, it's about testing all the way up to.

PPM meters can only meausre EC, this is the electrical conductivity that salts impart to otherwise distilled water (RO has 0 EC because it contains no salts).

Organics are not salts. They impart no EC to water therefore they cannot be read by the meter, but they are there, just wating to be liberated into usable PPM's by the enzymes that bacteria and fungi produce.

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

I'd definitely like to hear more on this...

 

[Yes4Prop215]

I think you misunderstood, it's about testing all the way up to.

PPM meters can only meausre EC, this is the electrical conductivity that salts impart to otherwise distilled water (RO has 0 EC because it contains no salts).

Organics are not salts. They impart no EC to water therefore they cannot be read by the meter, but they are there, just wating to be liberated into usable PPM's by the enzymes that bacteria and fungi produce.

crazy, what meters are you talking about? i have a HM meter, so your saying when i read 1000 on my PPM, its really higher? im using GH h3ads formula by the way, in coco.

do i gotta worry about all this EC crap if i do soil?

 

[HeadyPete]

Some peeps like to measure the strength of their nutes with a meter (and this does not work well with organic ferts, as some mentioned), some peeps like to observe their plants to measure the strength of ferts...

As WeedNinja said you have a little nute burn happening or more likely has already happened. The dose you fed that slightly burnt will be perfect in a week or two when they are larger with more roots and they can handle the higher dose.

If the down claw curling and tip burn doesn't get worse, stay where you are as the girls "grow into" the 1/2 strength dose.

Other factors like light (the more you have, the more you feed) and temps (the warmer it is, the less you feed - plants use less ferts at higher temps) affect your feeding shedule, so the 1/2 strength rule of thumb is a starting point. It's up to you to figure out the correct dose for the correct phase of growth.

Manufacturers instructions are garbage and they pad up the numbers because of various reasons. Their tricked out multi 1K hydro gardens will eat more than your 400w closet grow. They also know the more you use, the more they sell. Until you fry your garden and get scared off that manufacturer - stupid.....

HydroSoil - that dose would burn my moms and clones under flouros..... 12ml/gal is the highest I have gone, but in fairness I just switched to PBP and haven't fully vegged some bigger plants yet under the T5s.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

HydroSoil - that dose would burn my moms and clones under flouros..... 12ml/gal is the highest I have gone, but in fairness I just switched to PBP and haven't fully vegged some bigger plants yet under the T5s.

That's the full strength for under intense lighting and with some form of hydro.

To be fair, Lucas does recommend a reduced level at 0-5-10 of the GH 3-part for lower intensity lighting. Might want to do the math and cut the PBP formula to the same ratio.

My personal experience shows that the PL-L 55w lamps are certainly capable of getting my ladies to eat that heavily. I didn't have a single problem the whole way through (that wasn't my own fault. LOL) Except for my goofs it was picture perfect.

The FNB rocked and so did the lights. Just awesome