About to give up on this, had enough! Underfeeding?

Justin Freidman

Justin Freidman

Well-Known Member
I think I'm going to build in a small catch tank for the run off, then I can run a bluelab guardian in that so I can compare what is going in and what is going out - I guess that makes real sense.
 
C

CannaCountry

Well-Known Member
Epsom Salts can be applied via spraying your foliage or it can be added straight to your feed. Via the foliage should give you a little quicker reply from your plants. Just follow the manufacturer's suggestions on the package.
 
Kipn

Kipn

Well-Known Member
Justin Freidman said:
Thanks man, I'm very happy with the setup, just needs to work out my nutes and learn more about deficiencies, etc. The room is kitted out with twin air cons, dehumidifiers, 3 x 1000L drums, C02, RO Filtration system, automatic online watering system, online camera system, etc. Would be a shame to give up on it now.
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i want to build something similar to that soon but im leaning more to flood and drain
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
Justin Freidman said:
Hey Guys,

This such a great forum and I've had a lot of great help, I've built what I thought was a great system but looks like I'm having nutrient issues. I'm running drain to waste and I know 100% that my pH is perfectly dialed in (between 5.8-6.2) I know my room temp, RH / VPD, C02 and lights are all dialed in.

The issue is I grow in a country where getting caught is no joke, my room is an hours drive from my house. I have set up everything to run remotely and if I can get the feeding setup perfectly then I'll be happy. But to be honest at the moment I'm sick of driving there and back to see issues. I know it's a mindset, but to be honest, I have no idea why I'm doing this anymore. It started as a small project and went crazy. To be honest I'm about to burn the hole thing, give it up and maybe grow a cactus or something.

I'm growing in big mama rock wool cubes, drain to waste, one minute of top feed twice a day (lights on and before lights off)

I use RO water and before last week I'd only been taking the EC to 0.4 with cal-mag and saw issues last week, so worked out the exact amount of liquid in my containers and added the recommended 5ml/gallon, which took the EC to 0.5 - so I know I have been under dosing my cal-mag...

Now I'm wondering now if I'm under dosing my nutes? As I've only been adding 0.2 EC of hesi grow nutes. Does this issue look like a deficiency? and should I increase the EC to 0.9? (0.5 calmg + 0.4 nutes) and see how they do?

From my remote camera they looked to be thriving (https://www.rollitup.org/p/14549540/) but when I visited today I was surprised to see this.

It's so depressing when sh*t like this happens. I know it's a learning process, but man, 2 hours driving a day is killing me.

Thanks,
J.
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You shouldn't be doing hydroponics. Period. You should be growing in soil. Soil is far, far, far, far, more forgiving and easier to work with. You will eliminate about 95% of all of your problems by simply getting rid of the hydroponic system, putting some 5+ gallon pots of soil mixed with a bit of lime and perlite and growing that way.

You can, quite literally, go for a couple of days without ever looking at them and they'll be perfectly fine.
 
Justin Freidman

Justin Freidman

Well-Known Member
TacoMac said:
You shouldn't be doing hydroponics. Period. You should be growing in soil. Soil is far, far, far, far, more forgiving and easier to work with. You will eliminate about 95% of all of your problems by simply getting rid of the hydroponic system, putting some 5+ gallon pots of soil mixed with a bit of lime and perlite and growing that way.

You can, quite literally, go for a couple of days without ever looking at them and they'll be perfectly fine.
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Interesting. More reading for me.
 
Justin Freidman

Justin Freidman

Well-Known Member
Kipn said:
i want to build something similar to that soon but im leaning more to flood and drain
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Mine was based on a flood and drain hydroton system originally that worked really well, but I got so sick of the balls, they're a pain in the ass.

I decided I wanted to go with rockwool, so i could just bin the whole lot after the grow and start again.

I was going to flood and drain the rockwool until I got the big mama cubes and read that grodan don't recommend flood and draining them and to top-feed them. So I built the top-feed system with drain to waste.

I think once I build a drain to waste trap and can monitor what is coming out I can dial it in perfectly. In hindsight I should have done this when I built the damn thing.
 
Kipn

Kipn

Well-Known Member
TacoMac said:
You shouldn't be doing hydroponics. Period. You should be growing in soil. Soil is far, far, far, far, more forgiving and easier to work with. You will eliminate about 95% of all of your problems by simply getting rid of the hydroponic system, putting some 5+ gallon pots of soil mixed with a bit of lime and perlite and growing that way.

You can, quite literally, go for a couple of days without ever looking at them and they'll be perfectly fine.
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you are probably right im surprised your the 1st to suggest that. personally i find it harder to grow in soil then hydro but hydro is for people that have no lives and have time to baby sit their plants. unless you do a full automated system
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
Kipn said:
hydro is for people that have no lives and have time to baby sit their plants. unless you do a full automated system
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Exactly.

The reason most people have problems in soil is that they try to treat them like a hydroponic grow and feed them every fucking day and burn the shit out of them. You don't do that in soil. You feed them not at all in veg, then about once every two weeks in flower. Towards the end, you MIGHT feed them ever few days, but that's it.

I grow white widow exclusively and net 4 to 6 ounces per plant every time. I crop them once and let 'em go. I usually check once every couple of days on them and that's it. Towards the end I get more picky, but that's because they get so big you have to water and feed more often.
 
Kipn

Kipn

Well-Known Member
Justin Freidman said:
Mine was based on a flood and drain hydroton system originally that worked really well, but I got so sick of the balls, they're a pain in the ass. I wanted to do flood and drain with the cubes, but when I oread th
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are you auto dosing ph up and down
if yes maybe your system isnt allowing enough ph swing and is keeping the plant from the full availability to your nutrients
im a small grower and every morning i top off my res adjust my ph to 5.9 then by the next morning after the plants have drunks half a gallon the ph will be up to 6.3 ruffly then do the same for a week before dumping res and starting over. allowing your ph to swing is important im sure you already know all that
hmm you're run to waste that means to you're using one set ph just guessing
 
Kipn

Kipn

Well-Known Member
TacoMac said:
Exactly.

The reason most people have problems in soil is that they try to treat them like a hydroponic grow and feed them every fucking day and burn the shit out of them. You don't do that in soil. You feed them not at all in veg, then about once every two weeks in flower. Towards the end, you MIGHT feed them ever few days, but that's it.

I grow white widow exclusively and net 4 to 6 ounces per plant every time. I crop them once and let 'em go. I usually check once every couple of days on them and that's it. Towards the end I get more picky, but that's because they get so big you have to water and feed more often.
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haha yep learnt that the hard way soil burnt me and i wont be back to that any time soon apart from outdoors
 
Justin Freidman

Justin Freidman

Well-Known Member
Kipn said:
are you auto dosing ph up and down
if yes maybe your system isnt allowing enough ph swing and is keeping the plant from the full availability to your nutrients
im a small grower and every morning i top off my res adjust my ph to 5.9 then by the next morning after the plants have drunks half a gallon the ph will be up to 6.3 ruffly then do the same for a week before dumping res and starting over. allowing your ph to swing is important im sure you already know all that
hmm you're run to waste that means to you're using one set ph just guessing
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Yes, I'm using bluelab equipment with pH locked around 5.8, I normally increase it to 6 or 6.2 for flowering. Has worked perfect before in hydroton in a re-circulating system. :) I just need to dial this rockwool grow in right.
 
Kipn

Kipn

Well-Known Member
Justin Freidman said:
Yes, I'm using bluelab equipment with pH locked around 5.8, I normally increase it to 6 or 6.2 for flowering. Has worked perfect before in hydroton in a re-circulating system. :) I just need to dial this rockwool grow in right.
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well if all else fails maybe fall back on the re-circulating system next grow
i would go doing anything overly drastic for this one. i went though 4 grows and 3 different types of growing before i started producing ok plants. if you can improve every time you grow then you're doing something right even if you kill a few plants in the process haha
 
Justin Freidman

Justin Freidman

Well-Known Member
Kipn said:
well if all else fails maybe fall back on the re-circulating system next grow
i would go doing anything overly drastic for this one. i went though 4 grows and 3 different types of growing before i started producing ok plants. if you can improve every time you grow then you're doing something right even if you kill a few plants in the process haha
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I'll get this right. I'm going to buy a proper rockwool moisture probe so I can get the dry off correct and also constantly monitor run off so get the feeding right. I should have spent more time researching it. I thought I could just drip nutrient on to it and it would be easy. lol. :)
 
Mullalulla

Mullalulla

Well-Known Member
Honestly my newest run of plants look'd exactly like yours. Same color, same newer leaf growth, ect ... I fixed it (Im in soil) by phing to 6.5 and adding cal/mag at half strength every feeding. Fixed up in about a week.
 
TacoMac

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
Mullalulla said:
Honestly my newest run of plants look'd exactly like yours. Same color, same newer leaf growth, ect ... I fixed it (Im in soil) by phing to 6.5 and adding cal/mag at half strength every feeding. Fixed up in about a week.
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If you're growing in soil using a 5 gallon pot, mix in 40% perlite and about two cups of garden lime. You'll never need cal mag again.

And if you water with RO water, your PH will always be 6.5.
 
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