Slow growth, persistent leaf curl

[Raphael]

Hello, here is my specs...

What STRAIN are you growing? Blueberry x Haze
What was the establishing technique? Clone
What is the age of your plants? 10 days veg + 1-2 weeks to establish clone
What PHASE are the plants in? Vegetative
What Technique are you using? Bio-Bucket
What substrate/medium are you using? Lava-rock
What is the Nutrient temperature? 68F
What Nutrient's are you using? Lucas Formula GH 0-8-16
What is the TDS/EC/PPM you are using? ~1200ppm @ .7 conv
What is the pH of the "Tank"? 5.4
Are you sure your calibration is correct on your equiptment? Calibrated with 4 & 7 solutions prior to grow
When was your last watering? Constant recirc, ~10 times an hour nutes are replaced by volume
What do you do for DO? 45 liter/hour air pump w/ 6" airstones in each 5 gallon bucket, as well as a 8-10" drop from waterfall
When was your last feeding change? 2 days ago I added 5gal 0 8 16 GH
What size bulb are you using? 600w x2
What is the distance to the canopy? 14"
What is your RH Factor? The shitty plastic combo analog says 15-30%. Feels dry.
What is the canopy temperature? Ambient room temp, 77-82F
What is the Day/Night Temp? ~82/77F
What is the current Air Flow? 435cfm vortex
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? A small tower osc. fan, gently
Is your water HARD or SOFT? RO @10ppm
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned off of or pinched? Never
Have any pest chemicals been used? Never
Are plant's infected with pest's? Never

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

I use Lucas formula, I like to start low and work my way up, full strength is to much IMO....I know I know its goes against everything the Lucas formula is about, but drop that to 300ppm @ .5 (.6 EC) and PH it to 5.8 and see if it doesn't take off, I would bet a limb

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I use Lucas formula, I like to start low and work my way up, full strength is to much IMO....I know I know its goes against everything the Lucas formula is about, but drop that to 300ppm @ .5 (.6 EC) and PH it to 5.8 and see if it doesn't take off, I would bet a limb

Every time I do that they eat themselves to keep from starving.

I'd lower the tds to around 1000 (@ .5), no lower and possibly raise the lights a bit. What was the lavarock washed with? If it wasn't RO, that may be part of the problem. I'm also not as familiar with the bio-buckets as I'd like.... is 10 times per hour enough?

 

[hazy]

I think your pH is too low. Sucking up too much nutes from being too low, and locking out stuff like iron. Let it go up to maybe 6. 5.5 to 6.0 is the range.
And guys, bio buckets recirc constant. Right?

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

Picture 1 is Day 3 veg, 300ppm @ .5 conversion
Picture 2 is Day 17 300ppm
Picture 3 is Day 23 450ppm
Picture 4 is Day 31 600ppm Day 6 12/12
Picture 5 is Day 38 700ppm Day 13 12/12

Normally I raise the nutes around 14 days, but I was still adding fresh clones so I had to hold back. this rate of growth under normal conditions would have actually been much faster.

Do what you want, but 1000ppmm-1200ppm is going to fry that little thing. I would be at 300 and experiencing growth before you do

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

Picture 5

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Do what you want, but 1000ppmm-1200ppm is going to fry that little thing.

One of these days I'm going to have to stop by other people's gardens and figure out why this happens. I go from seed to full strength nutes in less than 2 weeks and my clones go from no nutes to full strength in less than 5. My results aren't typical though and I've been not burning stuff this way forever. Really confusing to me.

 

[Raphael]

Every time I do that they eat themselves to keep from starving.

I'd lower the tds to around 1000 (@ .5), no lower and possibly raise the lights a bit. What was the lavarock washed with? If it wasn't RO, that may be part of the problem. I'm also not as familiar with the bio-buckets as I'd like.... is 10 times per hour enough?

The lava rock was washed with tap water, which is 800ppm and 8ph. After that it was let dry then stuck in the system, which had tap water running through it, then a light bleach solution. After the bleach solution was drained out, 45 gallons of RO were added. Added in 0-5-10 ml/g GH and then a week and a half later added 5 gals of water with 0-8-16 GH.

It looks like she is severely rootbound, and a look at the rockwool cube with roots coming out of all 6 sides confirms this. So the lava rocks were not washed properly. Also the clone was placed to far away from the water and the only water it was getting was from the airstone in the 5gal popping bubbles. The roots sticking out of the rockwool are suuuper fuzzzy this confirms bubble action nutrient delivery.

I am going to pour pure RO through the rocks of this girl and get them rinsed so she can start the race.

Thanks

 

[Weedhound]

sounds like you got there by yourself. Are they getting ernough nitrogen btw?

 

[Raphael]

sounds like you got there by yourself. Are they getting ernough nitrogen btw?

It's possible that they weren't as I wasn't running the full lucas formula before today. It was a mix between 0-5-10 and 0-8-16 ml/gal General Hydroponics grow micro bloom but now it's at 0-8-16 at 1330 ppm at 0.7 conversion.

I'm still debating whether or not to veg this run another two weeks or so, at this point it's looking like it just so I can get a feel for the speed of a month veg in this system. Oh ya and for the phat bounty. Plus I need cuttings of this blue dream.

cheers

 

[ubet28]

to me it looks like RH is high looking at post 9 second pic. Along with salt build up and lockout.

 

[Weedhound]

Can you get the lava rocks out and soak them with a dechlorinator and then rinse them well with ph correct water? Or are the roots all tangled in with the rocks?

 

[Raphael]

to me it looks like RH is high looking at post 9 second pic. Along with salt build up and lockout.

RH as in relative humidity? The humidity has been between 15-30% up until I broke the meter a couple days ago. The fan is always on and it is pulling air from the hall / stairs so I'm not too sure it's high hr as the outside rh is 35 at most. Which plants are you talking about the salt buildup and lockout? The small one? Whether it's the big ones or small one you're talking about, my lava rock was washed with tap water and then left to sit outside for a couple days to dry, then put into the system and my roommate put bleach in the system to clean it out. We let it run for a couple hours with lava rocks in it then drained it and a couple days later filled w/ RO and off to the races.

I'm going to not use bleach next time as well as rinse the lava rock w/ RO, seeing how my tap is 800ppm and 8 ph out of the tap. Thanks for the response

Can you get the lava rocks out and soak them with a dechlorinator and then rinse them well with ph correct water? Or are the roots all tangled in with the rocks?

The lava rocks have roots with fuzzy hairs holding on to them and I already had a hard time taking the rocks from underneath the smallest plant. I am adding back in RO by pouring through the rocks from the top to try and rinse into the bucket.

Next time I am totally washing the lava rocks more. I should've anyways because they are the ones you get for the barbeque with lots of dust, kinda like hydroton dusty.

I was doing some tying down to the screen yesterday and I inadvertently completely topped the biggest plant. Plus, earlier I had taken a couple cuts! Thankfully she looks vigourous as ever, woot!

It looks like I am going to veg this run for another two weeks, so I'm excited to see what is going to happen.

Cheers

 

[ubet28]

Well that is fine 35 it should be 40 to 60. The reason i said that is if you look at the pic the leaf fringes are pointing up and that is a sign of toxic salt build up heat stress or lack of water. The leaf is trying to dissipate as much water as possible. I would flush system and start on low dose of nutes say 600 PPM. But i am not familiar with Lucas so might want to wait for someone that is. I will try and call someone in the morning and see what they say if none stops in to help.

Honestly i wouldn't run the lucas formula. I am sure some will disagree with me. I would stick with a simple 2 part nute and a couple of boosters.

this pic

 

[BurmeseDragon]

Looks fine other than your runt not going to make it home for dinner! Seems that well there are problems like that, explain to the little girl sometimes it makes us not unhappy! Nice recovery