1st Grow, Ebb & Flow system, Hydroton

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
well im obiously a bit slow... i cant work photo bucket properly but any how if you check out the youtube channel i will have most of the pics on the vid. until next friday then i will have an extra bit of hydroton in there all is well tho let me know if you have any questions seeing as how we have approximately the exact same set up.
 

Dapps420

Member
Hey Smokey! That video is great man, you have a sweet setup going on... pretty much the exact same as myself! You said that this is your second grow and you ordered the seeds? These seeds are bagged that I have been collecting over the years so they are all different, and reacting in different ways to the nutes... I did however place an order for 10 White Lightning seeds... the photo just looked so good i wanted to eat it, I just went ahead and placed the order. Your plants look really great for 3 weeks man, im jealous :( hah. Do you have photos of your first grow? I'm curious as to how my plants stack up to other three week old plants, just to see how I'm doing with the grow.

Also, I changed my setup for the last time! ( I hope).... I removed all the hydroton from the tray, so its a bare naked tray, with net pots full with hydroton. This way I can control the moisture a little better. Some were drying out faster than others and it made watering difficult. So I need to let them dry out for a day or so, and then get em back on a once a day cycle... That should be pretty good. Ill post new pics asap.
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
i do not man sorry i had a video of them but my mom deleted all of them last time she was in town. i grew random shwagg seeds the first time and was very dissappointed. i wasnt controlling pH the plants were lanky and starved genetics really can effect how tough they are. lets see last time at three weeks the plants were about six inches tall but pale and sad looking... i switched from GH floranova to Fox Farms Grow Big after a Cal def. i dunno. Just keep brushing up on your stuff and reading on this and other forums. thats all i did. i would also say when you start your nutes after the fist week of growth i would go 1/4 strength cuz i always burn my plants even after i bought the hanna probe. you are definitely off to a GREAT start i would say wait til your yummy seeds get in and ditch the sick ones. thats what i did. no point in wasting efforts and resourses on more than likely males or hermis since they seem to be havin some troubles. i havent had a need for more lighting yet but i will supplement with warm white compact floros later on. but like i said this is the best grow i have done so far and a marked improvement from the first so i have the feeling it will work the same for you. fox farm works great your setup looks solid other than trying to keep your room just a lil cooler it should all work great
cheers
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
hey there brotha... i came up with a few things..

::in response to another post from another thread::

i sorta skimmed to these pics.. so i am sorry if i answer a question you already have had answered or addressed...

it doesnt look like you have a def... more like slight nute burn...

i know the recommended dosage is what you are following.. but that makes for a STRONG solution... it is terrible to follow...

based on what i use for my 55 gallon reservoir i use 48 tsps of micro and 72 tsps of bloom (i'm flowering obviously)... now i use other additives to... so i am sure if i didnt use the additives i could use more... but based on what you use for your 10 gallon res, if i used it in my res i would have to use 96 tsps of gro, 46 tsps of mirco, and 20ish tsps of bloom (i am flowering.. but those would be the equivalents if i was vegging.. or switch the bloom and veg amounts..), plus the additive you are using... basically it would cause a high EC/ppm environment.. which isnt good... try cutting back to about 13 tsps of gro and up the micro to about 8 tsps, drop the bloom all together, stick with what you are doing with the additive, and fill the res all the way up...

now you may want to flush them for a day or so with 1/4 strength solution of what i just said... this will help remove the build up of salts and get things back on track faster...

secondly, your girls seems a little over watered... so that means you should try to cut back 1 flood you do a day.. or that there maybe some standing water in the sites that needs to be drained out better...

thirdly i would recommend keeping the hydroton at or just above the flood line... this will help support the plant as well as give more room for the roots to grow...

fourthly if you dont have an air stone you need to get one... keeping the nute solution with aerated and moving is a good thing....

fifthly plants can absorb co2 with direct air flow.. i have a stanley fan pushing air into my grow directly on my plants.. i have a wall mount fan that blows directly on my plants.. and i have another floor fan in the back of my room that blows directly on the plants.. the problem isnt their ability to absorb co2.. its the amount of co2 in the air that is present to absorb.. warmer air holds less co2... and the temps you are hitting are pretty high not to have either a fresh air intake or co2 supplement... keeping the fan on the plants will make the stems much stronger and keep the plants much cooler... now keeping a fan pointed at your lights will help dissipate the heat around them which isnt a bad thing... as long as the fan is blowing upwards and you have an exhaust fan pulling the warm air out.. but i would try to, if you can, either lower the temps, or figure out a way to increase the co2 level via fresh air or artificial supplement of some sort...

oscilating fans are good.... they move the air around more than a fixed position fan...

keep the fan going at all times.. this helps to keep fresh co2 is available always... co2 is used quickly by the plants and is needed in large amounts.. if the air around the plant becomes stagnant then plant functions slow... keeping air moving around them is a MUST ...

it would also help to drop temps if you can somehow... even if it means moving the reflectors around the perimeter outwards a little bit to allow more air to move around...

i think the reason that the plant with the foil under it stands out straight and the others sag is that the foil reflects the heat back under the foliage and increases the amoung of transpiration the plant does... this increase balances the extra water they are getting...

i think that all.. bongsmilie that was a lotta shit to say.. sorry if i seem critical... just pointing little things out...
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
oh yea if you look through my vids it called oII SMOK3Y IIo update number 2. it shows the first attempt i tried to switch to soil but just threw them out in a drunken rage after i saw these new seeds germinate looking so nice haha
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
im on a 24/0 light schedule and i feed 6-8 times a day for 30 minute intervals so that may or may not be true. as long as the water is good and oxygenated and it does dry at some point throughout the day when using just the small pots they dry really fast so it was ok to feed 8 times a day i will prob cut back to around 5 since i added 25 litres of hydroton to the tray
 

Dapps420

Member
Brilliant Sampson! Thank you for your help.. and Smokey, thank you as well... I think its important to have someone thats in the same stage of the grow as me, we can stack em up and see how we are doing or what we doing right or wrong.

Sampson, I am going to completely swap out my nutes, It is aparant that nutrient burn is the culprit. According to your caculations at least, my nutes are way to concentrated. I dont have a PPM/EC meter, they are just wayyyy too expensive :(...

I do have two 12 inch bubble stones rockin in my res, and my solution seems pretty healthy in terms of algea... its crystal clear. But in any case I'm going to fix my solution concentrations and get back to you! Thanks for your help fellas!

Oh did I mention I ordered a pack of White Lightnight :) :) :)... No I can see first hang what sort of roll genetics play in growing :)

Thanks again!
 

Dapps420

Member
I could never water 6 times a day.... they are only getting it once a day now and that seems like too much even!

Ill be posting pics soon... just wicked lazy.
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
haha i just said eff that veg shirt. i flushed yesterday and today with pH'ed water and after todays 16/8 they will be on 12/12 with GH FloraNova bloom. i just picked up some GH Flora micro for them too. all seems well. im hoping to get a male Snow White for breeding. if i do i gotta send these to ya. we'll see the yeild but they are advertised as medium/high yeilding. lets hope they keep performing. one that i topped has 5 main heads now!!! YAY let me know how cuttin back on the nutes does ya.
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
Brilliant Sampson! Thank you for your help.. I dont have a PPM/EC meter, they are just wayyyy too expensive :(...
Thanks again!
umm check this out look for Hanna Primo or Primo 2 probes you can get the one i hae for $14. they only last about a year on your set up with occasional calibration. its really worth it thats what i bought and i dont regret it one bit.

here it is for $19.95+ ship
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=HI-PRIMO&Category_Code=Hanna&Store_Code=PA
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
you got it! im surprised more ppl havent mentioned these. if your going large scale it prob wouldn't cut it but for ppl like us we use it maybe 2 3 times a week and as far as i can tell it has the same stats or better than some of the more expensive 3-in-1's.
 

Dapps420

Member
hey Smokey, your babies are lookin good man! I wish mine looked that good :(, Maybe soon... I have fixed all of my problems so far so lets see how they do in the coming weeks.... Im interested to see yours as well.

Ive got good news myself, I have managed to fix my temp/humid issue after a whole days surfing the web and doing research. I connected a vent duct to my central air in the ceiling, ran it into my closet, over the light fixtures and blowing back in... it dropped the temp by 10 degrees! YESS!! from 87 to 77 :). Also I hung two sopping wet towels to drip into a bucket, this immediately spiked my humidity from 21 to 47% :) sweeet. My solutions is much better than it was before... much more mild, I have a total of 10 gal in there, the water bottle method is working wonderfully (as long as I remember to swap out the bottles before the watering) and over the past couple nights I have been adding an hour to the light, so now they are 24/0.... I may let them veg for a few more weeks, then switch to 12/12... After all, I dont want them to get to big. Also I have some new white lightning seeds coming :) with 5 free NYC diesel. so I may trash the sick ones and start these guys up :)...

If I do that, I may have to veg longer than I thought on my bag seeds... oh well I suppose its all worth the wait. Ill post pics soon to update everyone, I think I am passed the beginner phase :) thanks to everyone help here. I will still be seeking advice on anything anyone wants to throw at me! Thanks :)
 

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
hell yea man that was a good idea with the central air stuff i thought about it but said hell no to insulation and 110 degrees of hell in that attic. Glad to hear you got some free NYC diesels i hear good things about them. an hey extra veg time just means slightly better flavor. or so i've heard im way to impatient for all that junk. but thats awesome throw some pics up after you get them all nursed back to health
keep tokin
 

Dapps420

Member
Ok folks, sorry about the delay, I appreciate everyones help here! They are doing quite well I suppose... they seem a little deformed, but they had a lot of stress growing up sooo I'm not too surprised.

Im facing an important decision and I was hoping that I could get everyones advice. The guys are all bag seed, and I recently received a pack of 15 White Lightning, and 5 NYCD... I can't plant these yet becuase my lights are set to 24/0 for now, and I may be switching to 12/12 soon if I go to flower, in which case my Dankies will only be a couple weeks old when I am forced to switch to 12/12.... Its pretty much the reason why I want to start flowering cuz I am anxious to get my new seeds planted :)! So What are your thoughts? Should I trash them? Should I be more patiant... and just wait another 2 or 3 weeks to go to flowering?

Also take a look at my new pictures... I have a magnesium deficiancy cuz I did not add any bloom to my veg soloution. Once I saw the Mn burn, I added 6 tsps of bloom formula to my solution. They are a little droopy, I notcied that most of the stems are a dark purple... And the yelllow leaves have stopped since week 2... so that is not an issue, but I'm just wondering if they seem healthy?

I made another change as well, I added the hydroton back into my tray... it seems to add more humidity to the room.

The humidity is between 24 and 40 and My temps are between 79-82 these days, cuz I added the AC system.... Im thinking that the cold air blown directly onto the plants is what is causing them to droop... eh?

ALSO I got a PPM meater... I think I calibrated it right. Its a Hanna. My ppm is 399... I think that is rather mild... But I would rather be mild than harsh.... ya know?

In any case I will post the pics check em out!
 

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