Newbie 1st LED Hydro grow with pictures

Ok you know the deal if you read from the first post so I'll tell you what the deal is as of today. I am at day 14 and I changed all the water in my res. What a pain in the ass though. Unhooking the lines and cleaning up after spilling the water around was a real hassle. And the res is really heavy with all the water inside so trying to be easy not to damage the expensive cabinet that I know I overpaid for was a real chore. Took about an hour and I got everything back working with new water. I let the water run for about 20 mins before I added the plants. I noticed that some of the drippers were not running that great so I screwed the tops off and pulled them from the main line and they were pretty dirty. Probably from the nutes and the slow drip I have them on. I cleaned them and blew the lines and all was ok. One problem though was that one of the drippers is not able to shut no matter how tight I turn so I have that 1 dripping to the side on the rocks. It seems to be getting pleanty of water anyway with the fogger and drippers all is moist.
After getting everything all sparkly clean I added about half the recommended for my tank size Grow Big and Big Bloom to a gallon of water and mixed it up good and then poured it in. I waited about an hour and checked my levels and I was at perfect PH and my ppm's were at about 600. So I added some of that Bushmaster they supplied to the res and then mixed up some spray grow (also supplied) and sprayed the plants too. I turned the fans of for about 30 mins to make sure I didnt have spray just laying on the leaves and then I turned it all off again. But today for the first time I had a good whiff of that sweet smell when I opened the cab after about 2 hours. Nice!!! Im thinking/hoping it is the White Widow showing off to her neighbors?

Anyway I havent used the Moon Dust at all in this attempt. I think it may have locked my roots up in my first grow so until I get better at working with it I will just store it. And I had the Fox Farms products from my outdoor grow last year and it turned out really nice for a first grow. REALLY NICE!

Anyway here are the pics for 14 days let me know what you all think? The first 2 pics are the WW and Northern Lights from seedbanks. The rest are from my outdoor grow last year which turned out well so I saved the seeds.

fishizil said:

After getting everything all sparkly clean I added about half the recommended for my tank size Grow Big and Big Bloom to a gallon of water and mixed it up good and then poured it in. I waited about an hour and checked my levels and I was at perfect PH and my ppm's were at about 600. So I added some of that Bushmaster they supplied to the res and then mixed up some spray grow (also supplied) and sprayed the plants too.

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I think they may be a lil small still to be gettin that much nutes. I mean is it 14 days from when the seed popped or from when it sprouted?

Youre right I was thinking the same thing. But with me being a newbie at this I was hoping for the best. Man that aint even the worst. I had a total blockage in my pump today and had to clean the whole thing out again. I dont get it? I am trying maybe too hard? I think I am going to leave my cab alone for a few days and just see what happens. I am opening it more than 5-6 times a day to make sure nothing is going wrong. I have seen others do it well with this same unit but I also know there are others like me are having big issues. As I said earlier in the post please give me any help you can. I really am at a loss. I can only help others with my errors now. Maybe others can help me through their successes.
Incedentally...I planted them as seeds if that makes any difference.

fishizil said:

Incedentally...I planted them as seeds if that makes any difference.

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If you just put the seed in the ground like 16 day ago, i would run my nutes at 1/4 to 1/3 strength until you start to see like 2 nodes or until the plant looks like it is doin well and then slowly up the nutes from there. Just keep a eye on them and make sure the dont look like they are suffering.

I experienced the same thing your goin thru right now, if you have the time or have not already read thru my journal i did the same thing, i mean i was in soil, but its still the same principal, dont give up tho!

Also, the best Piece of advise i read on here was, To just look at the plant and you can tell what looks healthy and what not. Dont try and correct a problem before you have one. It will just end up stressin the girls!

Best of luck Dogg!! Hope everything works for ya

Yeah if it sounds like I am giving up I got to admit I am close. I just cant believe I spent over 2k on this system and I am failing at the grow again. I did well outside last year, really well. But now with the hydor system I am just goin nuts. I read through many of your posts. I will go through your stuff again though. If I dont bring these girls back I will give it one more shot then maybe put it up for sale on ebay

fishizil said:

then maybe put it up for sale on ebay

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Dont sell it just yet lol, The cab is great. but if i had it, and this is just my opinion, i would run down to wally work grab 2 10gal Steralite Totes for like $3.50 a piece. Cut 2, 4" or 6" holes in the top so the net pots you already have with the sprouts in them. throw the airstones and air pump you already got in your totes and start a dwc. Scrap the fogger and the dripper, just for now, and take it back to the basics.

In my dwc, i have never once checked the ph, i change the solution 1 a week, its only 6 gal. (not heavy or cumbersome) I dont even have a meter to tell me what the ppm are lol, and i just checked the temp. in my res for the first time last night. And i only use a 3 part Gen Hydro Flora series nutes. I even put my plants in the netpots after bein germed and sprouted in soil.

Best of All, no pumps bein clogged, no drippers not wokin, or any other complicated things to break, just a $10 air pump, A $4 tote, and like $5 airstone.

Way Way Way simple!

Hope all is well!
Later. . .

Yeah I'm not at all as knowledgeable as you O. I am not ready to scrap the cab just yet. But if I did what you suggested, I would still have wasted a bunch of money. If I scrapped the equipment it it I would be probably just as pissed because I could have done it way cheaper in the beginning. I don't know about the cab being great either. I mean I bought it because I wanted to just plug it in and get growing. Well it has turned out to be really difficult for me. But I am learning a lot thanks to you and the others talkin me through this and thanks!
I siphoned about 7 gallons out last night and got my ppm down to about 500. I lowered the lights to about 2 inches from the tips. I'll check it tonight and let you know what's what tomorrow.
Thanks again.

fishizil said:

I am not ready to scrap the cab just yet. But if I did what you suggested, I would still have wasted a bunch of money. If I scrapped the equipment it it I would be probably just as pissed because I could have done it way cheaper in the beginning.

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I hear that dog, i dont think i would wanna scrap something that i dropped 2 stacks on either. Its good see you stick with it tho. What does the root system on the plants look like??

You are over fertilizing them BIG TIME!!!!! They will not grow, they will DIE!!!
12 gallons of water = 2 tsp of veg fert, 12 drops of superthrive. PH balance to 5.6.
Make sure the res is well aerated and get a HPS light after ditching the LED.

Superthrive is a drop a gallon.
also, you can use tap water if you let it sit in a large basin for an hour or so before putting plants in it.

Hey... You know I have no roots coming down through the bottom at all? Weird because even when I burned the plants last time I had plenty of roots coming through. But now nothing?

fishizil said:

Hey... You know I have no roots coming down through the bottom at all? Weird because even when I burned the plants last time I had plenty of roots coming through. But now nothing?

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Maybe the roots got fried from stayin so saturated with the drips of h2o and nutes, when they are so young. Idk if it could happen but it sounds reasonable to me. You have 14 in your res. right? Dig one up, and see what the roots look like. That way you know your not fighting a loosing battle. . .ya feel me?

Anyways, keep me posted!!

Hey o. They are coming back! I drained the res and just added distilled water. I left it alone for 2 days and they are growing again. I'll post pictures in a few days.

fishizil said:

Hey o. They are coming back! I drained the res and just added distilled water. I left it alone for 2 days and they are growing again. I'll post pictures in a few days.

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Hells Yea! Congrats dog!!
Now its time to grow some sexy ladies!!

I just hit 2 weeks into 12/12 on sunday, and my ladies are lookin nice! especially my hydro. im goin strait hydro on my next grow. its ridiculously fast!!. i think one of mine is stunted, cause i topped it to close to flower, but the other is a bush that is about 18" tall!

sorry to ramble. . lol
Anyways, Congrats and good luck!!

and the pictures?

Originally Posted by fishizil View Post
Hey o. They are coming back! I drained the res and just added distilled water. I left it alone for 2 days and they are growing again. I'll post pictures in a few days.

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Damn, hell yea. Bring them babies back. They will respond to love and attention!

TheMaxx said:

and the pictures?

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He said a few days, not the next day!!

Hey all... Ok to all who stayed with me through this thank you very much. Take a look at the pics. I am at 3 weeks now and I have had positive growth over the last 5 days since I drained the res. I think I probably cant save about 5 of them but all the others are growing again. I am at 18/6 light cycle now. I havent added any more nutes and my ppm is at about 650 now. My ph is about 5-6. The lights were too low for a day so i raised them to about 6 inches off the tips. Oh and I also have roots now. One thing though there are some small roots coming out of the sides of the plugs. Should I be concerned?

Please let me know if I should be doing something else as I do not want to lose them again

fishizil said:

Hey all... Ok to all who stayed with me through this thank you very much. Take a look at the pics. I am at 3 weeks now and I have had positive growth over the last 5 days since I drained the res. I think I probably cant save about 5 of them but all the others are growing again. I am at 18/6 light cycle now. I havent added any more nutes and my ppm is at about 650 now. My ph is about 5-6. The lights were too low for a day so i raised them to about 6 inches off the tips. Oh and I also have roots now. One thing though there are some small roots coming out of the sides of the plugs. Should I be concerned?

Please let me know if I should be doing something else as I do not want to lose them again

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I wouldnt be concerned about any root growing of my plants. Thats where they get their nutes, so the more roots the better, whereever they are.

I LSTed one of my soil plant and one of the side branches was pressed to the soil for about a week, when i saw it had prolly 10 or 12 new roots growin out of the branch into the ground. The growth on the top side of the branch is crazy too

Later. . .

Hey all. Ive been leaving my girls alone lately, not opening my cabinet too much and I am seeing some really nice growth! My fogger isn't fogging and I haven't added nutes for almost 2 weeks. I know I'm not out of the woods yet but thanks to my RIU friends I think I am on my way. I will post pics tomorrow when I open the cab again. One thing though, my lights are at 18/6 now at 28 days. Any ideas on when to change again and to what?

fishizil said:

Hey all. Ive been leaving my girls alone lately, not opening my cabinet too much and I am seeing some really nice growth! My fogger isn't fogging and I haven't added nutes for almost 2 weeks. I know I'm not out of the woods yet but thanks to my RIU friends I think I am on my way. I will post pics tomorrow when I open the cab again. One thing though, my lights are at 18/6 now at 28 days. Any ideas on when to change again and to what?

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I would leave them at 18/6 until you are ready to flower. . .i've read that continuous light changes can stress the plants!, Not sayin that i know for sure just what i read. . but i kept mine at 18/6 until i flowered and it worked for me!

Later. .