Waterfarm issues!! First hydro grow.

GoLdD

Well-Known Member
Did you pH your hydroton and run the system for a week before starting your plant? Are you waiting at least 30 minutes after mixing and pHing nutes to get a stable pH/EC reading on your solution before adding it? are you doing a complete res change once a week or every time you add back a whole resevior? are you using an airstone in your res? are you flushing your system with pH'ed no nute water for a few days every few weeks? 1300 ppm in veg is way too much I'm in the first week of 12/12 and my ppm is 850 and my plant drinks a half gallon a day. My guess is calcium lockout as well as pH burn and some nute burn thrown in for good measure, I'm guessing that there are a few things in my list that you don't do and that's what's causing it. Also, when I'm taking any one of my several daily pH and PPM readings, I let a 1/2 gallon or so pour out from my blue reading tube and add it back before taking a sample to test. I have found I get a more accurate reading of pH and PPM this way.
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
^ I agree with the the drain half gallon then add back to get a more accurate reading..


And I agree the ppm reading is high but not for the nute I said to use (flora nova bloom). Before you disregard my advice look into it...
its called the Lucas formula it has many diff versions like maxi bloom and floranova. Google ask Lucas and there is a tread about his recipe for success and it's about 44 pages long and it's one of the best hands on thread online to this day.
Plain and simple is it just works even if u don't understand it.

Im not a expert grower never said I was. But from my experience in soil coco hydro all with different nutes this is Gina be my best harvest. I've usually ran 4 plants in flower and I'm getting a better yield with just 1 hydro plant follwing the 1300 ppms rule of flora nova. Not at seedling stage of course. Also I don't do res
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
Changes at all. The nova is ph bufferd but the longer u go the worse the buffers are.. But I keep it in check no sweat!
 

GoLdD

Well-Known Member
I'm no expert either, but I do consistently get a gram per watt every 100 days or so, for whatever that's worth. I've never used the Lucas formula either, although I have read about it. I use the, let the plant to tell me what my ppms should be method. Water goes down PPMs go up, too much nutrients. Water goes down PPMs go down too little nutrients. Water goes down PPMs stay the same, as goldilocks would say "just right". I am also a big proponent of the SCOTTYBALLS method https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/344359-pineapple-express-g13-labs-seed.html can't argue with his success.

However, where I do feel that I have a little expertise is in the use of a waterfarm, I think there are very few ways to fuck up that I haven't already been through. And, in my opinion fluctuating pH and PPMs coupled with lockout and nute/pH burn, is an over load of nutrient salt build up in the res, and a lot of times on your hydroton as well. If this was my grow, I'd empty and flush the res at least a few times a day for a day or two with ph'ed water, and then run pH'ed water with no nutes until the PPMs got back down to a few hundred, and then start to work the plant back up on nutes, starting at about half strength. But at no time would I give it anymore than it is eating.

I would recommend you put an air stone in your res, this gives much better water circulation than the drip pump alone, which will help combat your salt build up. One of the easily fixed flaws in the waterfarm, in my opinion, is that it has very poor water circulation as it is currently set up, the water layers and allows for things like salt build up and bad pH and PPM readings. An air stone helps with this as well as providing more oxygen to the root zone.

Don't get me wrong, I think the waterfarm is the best way to grow the sticky icky, it's just that it's not as forgiving as soil, it can go south quickly and you must be the constant monitor, not like soil where you can walk away for 3 days and not worry about it. Good Luck!

This is a great thread showing you how to mod your waterfarm to get the most out of it https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/119479-waterfarm-mods-tips.html. Personally, I have drilled out the bottom, added an air stone and drilled a 1 inch hole to run a 3/4 inch pvc pipe to replace the brown pipe that holds your drip tube (easier to take out and clean).
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
/riu.jpgphoto.jpghis is agent orange by tga 1300 all the way threw f n bloom. 5.2 6.0 ph that with good air flow and good temp/ lighting shit should come out solid from my exp. im sure a air stone wont hurt but ive never used em. I don't use the water farm pac with a "controller" or whatever I use indavidule units
 

GoLdD

Well-Known Member
Nice looking plant, nugs look a little small for so close to harvest but that's probably the strain. I'm not knocking your method or your experience Chigga, I'm offering my opinion and experience to the OP. But since the OP hasn't responded in 3 days I'm going to assume his plant didn't make it and this is now a moot point.
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
I wouldn't kno tbh since I havnt seen roots in 2 months plus. Lol but it's not like I have to hot water only prob I had was checking ppms and ph daily I'd forget a day or two here and there from long work days. Plus in this 115 degree weather is no joke
 

Malevolence

New Member
I agree you most likely have bullshit going on with your roots. The water temp really need to be below 70* wrap that shit up with bubble wrap and drop 1L bottles of ice in there every day if you have to... otherwise just switch to a different grow method.... also has to be lightproof. You can run higher temps safely up to low 70s if you brew beneficial microbes in a tea.

1300ppm is way too hot, unless you are talking about x0.7 conversion meters and even then that's pretty hot. Dump your water out and clean your bucket with your h2o2 or bleach water, then mix up a new batch of 5.8ph nutes at more like 450-600ppm.

70* water
100% light proof
bennies
bubbles
600ppm
5.8ph

You can use Aquashield or Great White for bennies by themselves, or you can brew a much better and cheaper tea very easily. If you use aquashield, add about 20ml every 3-4 days until you feel like you have things dialed in. Here is how to make Heisenberg tea:

R/O water - 2 gallons
Mycogrow Soluble (fungi.com) or Great White (expensive version of mycogrow) - add a pinch (1 tsp?)
Ancient Forest Humus (earth worm castings... General Hydroponics) - 2 handfuls in pantyhose like a tea bag.
Black Strapped Molasses (Botanicare) - recipe says 2 TBSP but that scares me, so I just add a dash... whatever the fuck that amounts to. It is only there for food for the bennies.

Let it bubble at room temp for 48 hours, then add 1 - 2 cups of tea to your waterfarm. Store the rest in the fridge (do not freeze) for 10 days more or less... or until it starts to smell like feets and ass.

If you want to get fancy you can add lava rocks or koi pond mats to your bucket to be used as housing for the bennies if you don't have a big healthy rootball for them to live in... but I find this is not necessary for fighting root rot.

Good luck, and if you do nothing else... get those temps down with ice bottles and keep the ppm low. You probably have a combination of nute burn and deficiencies due to ph & nute lockout. PPM and PH rise is often associated with root rot, and having high temps pretty much guarantees it so make sure you check that out. Some people have good luck with it, but H2O2 is infamous for not working worth a fuck in DWC.

If some of this doesn't make sense that's because I use plain 5 gallon buckets and don't really know what a waterfarm looks like on the inside.
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
Yep at .7. I should have specified
i got ahead of my self.


OP and anywho who wants to read a very knowledgeable thread follow the link! Best one I've found.
 
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