Hi there. This is my first grow and first forum post so please forgive me if I get something wrong. Corrections and any assistance is most welcome of course.
Background - I am growing due to a need for quality buds to make RSO for my wife who has stage 4 cancer which we have been told is no longer treatable. I am therefore 100% committed to making this work.
Setup - I have a 1.2m x 1.2m x 1.9m (4x4x7ft) grow tent with 2 x VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED Grow Lights. The growing method I am using is what I believe is called top fed DWC (bubbleponics).
Grow - I soaked the seeds in phâd water for 6 hours and then put them into rapid rooters (the rapid rooters were already in the net pots and the top fed water had been running through for a couple of days to regularise the PH levels). I planted 5 seeds thinking one may fail but all 5 seeds germinated and sprouted their first leaves all healthy. Second set of leaves (proper ones) came and all was well at first then they started going yellow.
I have kept the PH between 5.7 and 6.4 mainly about the 6.0-6.2 range. I have been looking at my notes and doing some research and come up with four possible causes which could coincide with the yellowing.
1 - Up until now I had used no nutes.
2 - The grow room temp dropped to 19degc for about 36 hours
3 - LED lights were at 26 inches from plants
4 - too much water.
5 - Water temp is around the 20-22 deg c
I have therefore:
1 - I have added a small amount of nutes (I believe less is more as it were in the early stages)
2 - Corrected the problem and the temp is now stable at 22-26 deg c
3 - I have moved the LED lights up to 36" from plants
4 - I have moved the top feed pipes so that they are not on the rapid rooters so much
5 - I am still working on this. open to ideas.
Can any one give me any other pointers? any help would be terrific.
I am sure I have missed some valuable info you need in order to answer me and if this is the case please just ask and I will provide it.
I have a couple of pics to share however canât currently find how to add them to this post at the moment.
Some pictures definitely will help us to see how sheâs doing. In natural light will help better!
I donât know anything about that grow system.
Itâs soilless medium and you need to keep the pH in the range of 5.5-5.8!
Hit the upload button in the right corner if you are using a smartphone!
I have got quite confused regarding the PH as a number of sites say 5.5 - 6.5. However I have seen in my further research, as you point out, the PH should be 5.5-5.8! off to correct that one right now. I will try to get a daylight pic as you suggest as well. Mine didnât come out well with the grow lights.
5.5-6.2 optimum 5.8
what qualifies as little nutrients? during seedling stage in a rapid rooter pod which has a very basic starting hormones and nutrients in it? Ignore me if I sound cranky 4:40am and headache
Welcome to ILGM
I will help you as much as I can, Iem going to put you in the best of hands @latewood and @Aquaponic_Dumme
Not to take anything that @M4ur has offered
Mean while @M4ur has given you the correct info. Thank you once again my friend
@hedge, in the meantime why donât you fill out this support ticket and be as complete as possible. Ph meter, calibration, nutrients, etc.
COPY/PASTE: This âSupport Ticketâ into your forum post.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
If you do not know, or do not use something; Just say so = NA
Strain; Type, Bag seed, or NA
Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco?
System type?
PH of runoff or solution in reservoir?
What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS
Indoor or Outdoor
Light system, size?
Temps; Day, Night
Humidity; Day, Night
Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size
AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,
Co2; Yes, No
Add anything else you feel would help us give you a most informed answer. Feel free to elaborate, but short, to the point questions and facts will help us help you smile
Plants this young should have nutrients in storage still, with that being said you might want to look at your pictures and compare them with this article. I think they should have more than enough Mg in storage at this age and especially since you fed them already, so something else is probably causing lockout, but your plants already have these symptoms
Yes I was not expecting a reply for a while as of course it is holiday time. Thank you for doing so. I have corrected the ph it was 5.9 this morning and it is now 5.65. Here are two further pics which show the situation better.
Hi Donaldj - o wow 4:40 thanks so much for the reply, really appreciated and no no cranky detected. My research found (as ever) split opinions about nutes or not at first. I went the no nutes at first. At day 7 when the yellowing first started (I am now 10 days into my grow) I decided to apply some nutes but I wanted to be cautious. I have ready to use âIguana Juice organic growâ as heard good things about it. it shows a dosage of 1ml per litre for seeds (for older plants its 4ml) I went with half the seed dose at 0.5ml per litre.
I am learning so much and know I have so much more to learn so please suggest away.
Iâm not familiar with iguana juice but be careful with putting organics into your hydro system. It can clog lines and slow circulation, but once again Iâm not familiar with it, it might be ok
I will fill out the ticket info as soon as I can. I am being torn away for holiday stuff just now but will be back asap. Thank you all for the replies so far.
do you own a ppm meter? because they appear to have a calcium deficiency? also what is the RH of the space they are in? Iguanna juice is a microbial nutrient so doesnât have much in the way of actual base nutrients to it more over it is designed to be used in conjunction with other nutrients to enhance theyâre preformance
if you have a ppm meter a ppm reading of water source and nutrient solution would further options on my suggestions
Also may seem like a silly question but how high is nutrient solution level? your rooter pods look pretty wet which could be another cause for discoloration
Not to jump over anyone but, this seedling should not be given any nutrients at all.
I am leaving for a funeral service, so I will check in later. Generally seedling have enough nutrition stored ion the cotyledons to last until they establish a root zone. The first picture you posted looked normal to me. In the last 2 images it appears that they are suffering. Not sure what happened in between.
Good people in this thread. Will check back later. Peace, lw
Strain; Blue Dream, seed
Hydroponic,
top fed DWC
solution in reservoir
PH currently 5.65
TDS: 411
strength of nutrient mix? 0.5ml per 1l
Indoor grow: 1.2m x 1.2m x 1.9m (4x4x7ft) grow tent
Light system, 2 x VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED Grow Lights.
Temps;
Day, in the last 10 days I have had a range of 19 to 26 deg C however apart from a power cut it has been 22-26 deg C
Night, range of 18 to 22 deg C.
Humidity;
Day, RH 50 to 70%
Night, unsure
Ventilation system; Yes, Rhino 100mm Fan (280m3/h) and Carbon Filter
AC, no
Humidifier, no
De-humidifier, no
Co2; No
@Donaldj I have a saying âthe only silly question is one you already know the answer toâ!
The water level is approx 50mm (2") below the bottom of the pots. I have been a little concerned about how wet the pods are, currently they feel wet to the touch. They are like this because of the 6mm dripper pipes touching the side of the pods. I have been thinking of moving the pipes to be not touching the pods and so they would be much drier. what do you think?
@latewood I started with that view but wavered when looking for a reason for the yellow leaves. The first pics were under the lights with no flash so didnât show the issue really the last 2 were with flash so show a much more accurate pic of the issue.
@TDubWilly I chose the iguana juice as it is supposed to be designed to work with hydroponics. I am trying to do my grow as organically as I can but may have to give up on that. @Donaldj mentioned it didnât have all the base nutrients .
have you had your water tested or asked city for report? at nearly 300ppm I would be quite curious whatâs already in it and looking to filter it first.
It makes it hard to provide plants with correct nutrients with an already high start point of unknown ppm. If rain water is a option I would look into using that because the start ppm of your water is about the same as I start nutrients ppm at.
there was a reason I asked the question sometimes it gives a person a eureka moment and your right I did know the answer just not the cause. Top feed units emitters should be kept further away from highly absorbent starter pods reason pods are so small so they are easily surrounded by hydroton/lecca which will wick just the right amount of moisture to them. It very well could be big cause of yellowing
There are plenty of organic nutrient lines Botanicare has Liquid Karma which I love for starting my plants kelp based General hydro has General Organic line the thing with organic grows is they tend to use far more products overall in hydro even Fox Farms big 3 is organic Most AN products are hybrid organic and chemical (salts) but honestly they are all organic in my opinion sourced from the earth. Should be biologic not organic for definition since they use microbes and sugars to produce same salts
if you are using a smartphone!
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there was a reason I asked the question sometimes it gives a person a eureka moment and your right I did know the answer just not the cause. Top feed units emitters should be kept further away from highly absorbent starter pods reason pods are so small so they are easily surrounded by hydroton/lecca which will wick just the right amount of moisture to them. It very well could be big cause of yellowing