Spots after first week in hydro (n00b warning)

1) PICTURE OF PLANT *** VERY IMPORTANT *** - attached
2) Growing indoor or outdoors - outdoors
3) Watering schedule - 2 weeks
4) Growing Medium - hydro
5) What stage of growth - early / 1 1/2 month or so old from seed.

Generally they always look happy, I think it may be because i left it 2 weeks and 2 days before changing the out the nute water?
There is good air circulation as it is outside but 1 other plant from the same system is showing the same signs - rusty spots on older leaves.


Advice welcome!
Thanks.

Ph and ppms of water / nutes?
What kind of water? Ec /ppms

pH does fluctuate as it's an outside system. I try to keep it between 5.5 and 6.5.

water used is a consistent 6.8 out of the tap.

Nutes were canna a and b until today when I switched to formulex.

As for ppms I don't have that kind of equipment.

I had the same thing happen early and it was cal mag deficiency. I’d recommend getting cal mag and mixing with your watering. I am not sure where you are but it’s been hot outside so two weeks watering may be little.

You're doing good.
Grab a meter online. Cheap/expensive doesn't matter. Very useful.
Look up ec/ppm meters
A pinch of Epsom salt per gal does wonders too

ok, i added the salts, changed from cana coco to formulex and got some bacteria in there along with mollases, extra nitrogen and lastly magcal.

i havent felt a need to change the water out until today but it must have been atleast three weeks since the last change over.. i dont yet understand why people change water every 1-2 weeks max?

hivealive said:

ok, i added the salts, changed from cana coco to formulex and got some bacteria in there along with mollases, extra nitrogen and lastly magcal.

i havent felt a need to change the water out until today but it must have been atleast three weeks since the last change over.. i dont yet understand why people change water every 1-2 weeks max?

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They're looking good. For me personally 3 weeks is a very long time to not change the water out. I typically do it once a week. Normally pH will creep out of range towards the end of the week and the plants tend to consume 25-30% anyway, so it always felt right to do it then. It also prevents over-accumulation of nutrients and it's good to play it safe when it comes to bacteria and fungi overgrowth. I typically have fungal growth in the main tank that I nuke with peroxide.

What type of hydro system are you using btw? Wondering what the function of the white pipes are.

Here's a better view if you want to see the pipes working.. i took the system design from straightup636, a member here on the forum, i went a little further by machining plastic components that fit inside the white pipes - my experiment to get the most air i could sucked into the system using the pressure / flow from my water pump.

i am completely new to hydro and also the first time this system has been used - so far so good...

hivealive said:

Here's a better view if you want to see the pipes working.. i took the system design from straightup636, a member here on the forum, i went a little further by machining plastic components that fit inside the white pipes - my experiment to get the most air i could sucked into the system using the pressure / flow from my water pump.

i am completely new to hydro and also the first time this system has been used - so far so good...

http://imgur.com/a/4gV80FI

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Nice, that definitely helps. So it's a re-circling system that's using a water pump? Is it sucking in from the black pipe then output via the white? Oxygenating from the waterfall effect? How often are you topping this up?

That's right, water supplied through the white pipes and then re-delivered via the black pipes.

As the white pipes enter each bucket, I have a Venturi system at an elbow joint which draws air in through a regular aquatic air pump tube - 6mm od, 4mm id I recall.

I believe that's what they call a Venturi system? It made all the difference testing different sized holes when stepping down / increasing water pressure for the Venturi effect.

When topping up, I add about 2-3 litres a day from the remainder of nute water left in my Flexi tank. It's probably not necessary but when I'm checking pH I might aswell when I am there.

Overall, they look good.
Perhaps a slight Ca/Mg deficiency but nothing major.
Do you have any issues with pythium in the rez?
I'd assume the water is pretty warm.

GBAUTO said:

Overall, they look good.
Perhaps a slight Ca/Mg deficiency but nothing major.
Do you have any issues with pythium in the rez?
I'd assume the water is pretty warm.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, visually i cannot see anything wrong with this at the moment, but they could be my untrained eye...
what would suggest a magcal deficiency?

last time i checked the water it was 23 degrees!

I was basing that on the pic of the leaf in the 1st post.
The second set doesn't show any issues.

The only potential problem area could be root issues from water temps, but bennies should keep that in check.
I'd definitely monitor their condition through the grow.

so things went a bit south since last update,

We had a week of really strong winds that split two out of three plants right down the middle.
Then the other herbs i had in bucket 4 started causing issues with ph and probably other root related problems. i ditched those and flushed the system with tap water and then replensihed the system with the same nutes as posted previously but with a slightly higher concentration.

after alot of pruning fan leaves and some of the smaller bud sights that werent getting any light they all look alot better - so i expect things to look a bit healthier in the next few days to what you currently see in the new photos.

i wanted to ask peoples opinions on whether i need to change anything regarding nutes to suit flowering stage?

as mentioned before i am using:

formulex
mag cal
nitrogen
good bacterias
mollases
epson salts
ph down to 5.6 which i now check on a daily basis.


thanks all for the help with my first hydro grow its been a fun project so far!