I’m on my first grow using autopots and quantum boards and my plants seem to be displaying a deficiency and I was wondering if anyone here might be able to steer me in the right direction.
My set up is a 2x4x5 tent, 260xl qb, 3.9 gal autopots growing in 50/50 coco/perlite. Ive been using the general hydroponics 3 part nutrient set and running an 18/6 light schedule. The stays between 75-80 during the day and doesn’t dip below 60-65 at night. The nutrient mix in the reservoir is at ~600ppm with a pH of 5.8. I’ve been mixing the three parts of the nutrient regimen at about equal parts but have leaned a little heavy towards the “grow” bottle as I am in veg. I should mention that the seeds sprouted as of 2/4/18 and have been in the pots since their tails were about an inch long. I didn’t turn the reservoir on until the plants were established and their leaves stuck out beyond the edges of the pots.
Attached are some pictures. Last time I started seeing this type of chlorosis it was due to a pH lockout in soil. I’ve been able to keep the pH of this grow fairly steady around 5.8 so I’m hoping its just a deficiency that someone will be able to spot.
I should also mention that when i’m mixing my nutrient solution i start with distilled water, then add calmag (approx. 5ml per gallon), then my general hydroponics mix, and then adjust ph if need be. I saw on a chart somewhere that a ppm of ~600 should be appropriate for this level of veg, so i’m not sure what i’m doing wrong!
I had a thread a while back asking some questions about autopots and qb’s so i’ll try to tag some of the folks from that thread.
Your tops don’t look bad. If you ran into issues with ph those leaves won’t fix themselves, so watch your new growth as sign of coming back from that.
I don’t have a lot of experience with the gh stuff, but i don’t think their grow bottle is going to be very beneficial in excess amounts. In fact a lot of the gh user’s don’t apply that bottle at all.
Pictures 3, 4, 5 looks like it’s the beginning of calcium and magnesium deficiency.
I’m in coco as well but not auto pots and I just had a bad experience with mainly magnesium def. but I think they are recovering slowly. I use the GH as well as it seems to do ok for me.
Like @dbrn32 said, I have also heard of some folks that don’t use the GH grow. But, I paid for it so I’m using it…lol
Mag is usually absorbed at a higher level around 5.8 -6.0 for coco.
You might want to let it fluctuate a little, say from 5.5 to 6.0 You need it low to get the cal and high to get the mag. You might also try a teaspoon of Epson salt/gal about once a week. Epson salt is for the mag problem.
Those are some healthy looking plants. YLike @blackthumbbetty said you could probably go up between 800-900ppm. They look great! Nice job and nice setup!
@TwoLidTony Flush with water in between feedings! It doesn’t matter the setup or medium. Whether you use autopots or a deep water culture it’ll always be the same schedule. Feed, water, feed…The water will flush out any excess salts not used by the plants. Most synthetic nutrients are nothing but salt and water so it’s important to do this!
You’re fine, Tony. Don’t flush. Not necessary, as of yet.
However, if you need to flush in the autopot, just run plain, pH’d water through the reservoir for about aweek. I believe it’s a week. It might be less time.
Change your res, boost the ppms up a bit. Not much!
Soil2Coco said to let your res fluctuate to get better nutrient absorption,
he mixed to 5.8 pH and would let it creep up to 6.2 pH,
this covers their P (5.8-6.0) and their Cal/Mag (6.0-6.2).!!
Although I did a very poor job of updating this journal, I’d like to at least post a conclusion for anyone who is interested in growing in a similar setup.
In genereal: I’m very impressed with the 260xl QB I used in this grow. I wound up with a dry harvest weight of just shy of 10 oz. That may not be impressive to some, but i’m very pleased with the results.
One thing I noticed that was odd to me was that at the end of the harvest the bottom few inches of media was almost black. Although I never noticed any ill effects on the plants, i’m wondering if this was the beginning of root rot due to the bottom of the pots being almost constantly submerged. This is probably my fault as I opted not to use air domes and ran a 50/50 blend of coco and perlite throughout the entire pot, as opposed to a few inches of clay pebbles.
Aside from that, I would certainly recommend the autopots. It was very nice to be able to leave for the weekend and not be constantly worried about whether or not my plants were getting properly watered. I will, however, be ordering some air domes and another timer to run an air pump off of.
I almost used an empty litter box for a pot once. and may still use it before it’s over with.
