Grow tent 600w hps hydro under construction

laserbrn said:

Are these not being grown in hydro? I read through and follow a lot of threads and it's possible I have this one mixed up. I thought this was growin' in Rockwool w/ Hydroton using Ebb & Flow?

I could reread it, but that's just crazy, it's huge.

When I start from seeds I feed them PLAIN water for ~ 2 weeks. By then they are on about their 3rd or 4th set of leaves.

Veg feeding Schedule looks like this....

Week 1: 0 ppm
Week 2: 0 ppm
Week 3: 200ppm - Start the 3rd week with 50ppm. Increase by 50ppm each day until 200ppm is reached.
Week 4: 200ppm
Week 5: 300ppm
Week 6: Increase by 100ppm each day until you reach ~600ppm.

Week 7: Flowerin' time. Whole different schedule.

Some people like to pump the nutrients faster, but if you look through all of my past grow journals you will see WHY I do it this way.

Now, this is a basic guideline for what I would call "safe growing" and a good start for a first timer. This is a minimal feeding schedule and will should give you healthy plants, but not all strains are created equal. And that's where things get interesting.

Using this basic guideline I can work on determining my plants needs without risking burning them and slowing my progress.

I am looking for these indicators in veg:

1) PPM is rising as the water level drops - Too strong. Need to add water and lower the PPM. The plants are taking up more water than nutrients.

2) PPM is falling as the water level drops - Too Weak. Plants are taking up more nutrients than water. Need to add more nutrients to keep the plants happy.

3) PPM stays steady as the water level drops - We are in the right zone.

That again is another basic guideline, I then have to look at the plants....

1) Lower leaves are starting to yellow and overall the plant looks a bit "pale"
-Pleant is underfed and she would really like some more nutrients. Don't need to be drastic, she's just a hungrier breed.

2) Plant is REALLY dark green and starting to get "The Claw". The leaf tips are beginning to curl under. - She's overfed and has too much Nitrogen. Back off the nutes for a little bit. Overfed plants aren't happy.

You'll get the hang of it over time, but it's best to start out with less.

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anon1122 said:

See what I mean about the sites?

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smokingrubber said:

It's hard to see in the pics. Unless you see ballz I wouldn't sweat it much. She'll drop her panties and show you her flower pretty soon. I would send you some patience if I had ANY to spare.

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anon1122 said:

Changed the res. I have now started week 3 of the FF feeding schedule. 2tsp per gallon growbig, 1tbsp per gallon big bloom, 1/4tsp per gallon beastie bloomz. I had to add extra nutes to get the ppm right, about 2 gallons worth. Hopefully my new qt of big bloom will be here by monday, im running LOW. I have enough to take care of roughly 2 top offs before its gone.

If anyone reading this is going to be using the complete fox farm line like I am, make sure you get extra big bloom. I have a 7.5 gallon res and the quarts just aren't enough. When I crop out its time to get the gallon sizes... lol.

We'll see how they develop the next couple of days. ph 5.8-6.0 and ppm is in the 1200 range.

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Bob Smith said:

Please tell me I'm reading that incorrectly and you didn't put 2 gallons of nutes into your reservoir (unless you have a 300 gallon reservoir, in which case that'd be okay).

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laserbrn said:

I think he means for example he has a 15 gallon reservoir, he had to add nutes based on a 17 gallon reservoir to get the PPM where he felt it was appropriate.

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anon1122 said:

That's exactly what I meant, thanks laserbrn! Yeah, the ladies are doing great. I got a green colored cfl so if I need to open the tent at night, I can just use that. Works really well too, got it at lowes for ~5

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laserbrn said:

Best not to open the tent, but if you MUST (c'mon when do you really HAVE to?) the green bulbs are better.

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anon1122 said:

I think they're gonna start getting fed every hour. the root tips that are hanging out the bottom are starting to get dry between the 2 hr waterings. 15 min on 45 off.

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laserbrn said:

That's odd, my plants went to looking overwatered and I cut my watering back to 4x /day for 15 minutes each.

I think the 4x4 rockwool cubes are just sucking up a bit more moisture.

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