Light intensity and topping sanity check?

[futurebanjo]

Hey all,

Couple of questions.. Im gonna need to top and do a teeeny bit of defoliation as some of the of the orignal fan leaves, that are now shaded, are looking a bit past thier best. Do they look mature enough to cope with the stress?

Also, Ive had to knock my 300w LED back down from 40% intensity to the minimum 20% intensity, so they are only getting like 60w of LED... does that sound right? The light is 77cm (30 inches) from the 'ground' clay balls.

I put it up to 40% for a few days but they started wilting. Put it back to 20% and they perked right back up within a day. This is ggreat for my electricity bill, but I cant help thinking I should maybe raise the light to increace the light power, but that sounds counter-intuitive and not so efficent.

Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks

 

[UpstateRecGrower]

How much area is the 300w covering? 60 watts aint that much at all.. What is the growing method? aeroponics? or some sort of flood and drain? Were they wilting from drying out faster with the increased light? Theres only really 2 reasons to ever raise a dimmable light, to increase the footprint or heat. Raising a light that isn't creating too much heat only to increase the wattage so that the plants get the same about of light as when it was closer is indeed counter-intuitive as you said..

 

[Mr. Mohaskey]

They look to be young, so i wouldn't try to get too much light intensity on them. Keep it lower intensity until you are ready for flower, then gradually bump up every few days once you flip

 

[futurebanjo]

Thanks for the replies... it's DWC, so they can't really wilt from dehydration I don't think. The fact they perked up real quick when I dropped the intensity back down to 20% I think is telling, but I'm new to DWC, and LED, I used to do compost with HPS.

The plants are 42 days old from seeds popping.

Covering a 1mx1m area, the light is the 300w version of this: https://www.growell.co.uk/grow-lights/led-grow-lights/maxibright-daylight-led-grow-light-200w-300w.html

 

[Billy the Mountain]

A 300w light at 30" shouldn't be causing any light stress, particularly if it's dimmed to <50%

 

[futurebanjo]

A 300w light at 30" shouldn't be causing any light stress, particularly if it's dimmed to <50%

Thanks, thats whats confusing me a bit.. the plants are ~10 inches tall, so 20" from the light. I guess they are just too small for more intensity yet.

 

[rkymtnman]

is most of your root mass above the water level?

 

[futurebanjo]

is most of your root mass above the water level?

yes, I had to trim them and do a rez change as I got slime, theres some pics in my grow diary in the link below.

 

[rkymtnman]

i'd raise your water level up then as long as you have plenty of bubbles

 

[rkymtnman]

yes, I had to trim them and do a rez change as I got slime, theres some pics in my grow diary in the link below.

i just zoomed in on those few root clusters that seem to be in the water. they look light brown and slimy to me.

have you gotten rid of the slime/rot since that pic?

 

[futurebanjo]

i just zoomed in on those few root clusters that seem to be in the water. they look light brown and slimy to me.

have you gotten rid of the slime/rot since that pic?

As far as I know, yes, I had to make a make-shift frame to hold the net buckets, and did a res change, It's a lot more cleaner now but i'm worried about exactly what your'e saying.

the rez is dosed up on peroxide at the moment, but I fear I'm treating the symptom rather than the cause... I guess time will tell, but once the roots get really big... it's no going to be easy

 

[futurebanjo]

but some of the roots still have a bit of a caramel color to them, and that worries me.

The roots seem to be growing and thicking up fast though?

 

[rkymtnman]

but some of the roots still have a bit of a caramel color to them, and that worries me.

The roots seem to be growing and thicking up fast though?

that one pic is the weirdest i've seen. it looks like the upper root mass is nice and healthy from aeroponics and just those few dangling roots look brown and slimy from dwc.

are you max dosing the peroxide?

 

[futurebanjo]

it's an oxy-pot , so kinda a hybrid aero/dwc

 

[futurebanjo]

I've replaced the clear airlines with black ones, replaced the airstones as they were litteraly brown.

 

[Nope_49595933949]

I've replaced the clear airlines with black ones, replaced the airstones as they were litteraly brown.

I'd ditch the air stones.

 

[rkymtnman]

it's an oxy-pot , so kinda a hybrid aero/dwc

i guess my description of your roots was not too bad then. lol. those upper roots look awesome.

there are other alternatives to peroxide if that can't get them nice and white and healthy

 

[futurebanjo]

Thanks all. I really appreciate the advice...

I'm sure I can get them through veg, but I'm pretty much winging it at the moment, so flower will be crazyy if I can finish.

 

[futurebanjo]

I'd ditch the air stones.

I've replaced the blue golf ball air stones with new ones, (they wern't blue any more, they were brown with bacteria/nasty stuff)

and replaced the see-thru air lines with automotive black slicon hoses. I'm guesssing that's where I went wrong, I've also fitted some cheap one-way valves on the air lines so hopefully there will be no backdraft from the air pump.

 

[UpstateRecGrower]

Do they still make sm90? I heard they didn’t make it anymore, but if you could find that or an equivalent and some enzyme product you’d be good to go..