New Auto grower advice help needed

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Strains: Auto OG, Auto White LSD, and a reg Amnesia Haze.
Hydro - 5 gallon buckets 3 total. DWC no reservoir.
PH of solution in reservoir? 6.24 to 6.59
What is strength of nutrient mix? using Orga Grow Holland trio plus hydroguard.
PPM = White LSD - 307 Amnesia Haze - 316 OG - 340
Amnesia Haze is a couple days shy of 4 wks. OG are 3 wks. White LSD is 2 wks.
Indoor: Yes in 36x20x62 tent
Light system, size? 600W LED Lightimetunnel 3500K Full Spectrum Grow Lamp
I added a second 600W same light for better coverage in 36" wide tent.
Temps? 75F in room 80.6F in tent - drops at night to about 76-78F.
Humidity? 55- 60ish
Ventilation system? two vent fans - one sucking air out top through charcoal filter. Second vent fan pumping fresh air in. Plus a clip on side fan

Second pulling in fresh air.
AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier? only a humidifier as needed
Co2? NA

I’m trying to figure out how to understand and feed based on ppm. Also how are they looking? I did a complete bucket change on all of them half a week ago, scrubbed inside scum off. I was a bit late in adding hydroguard… Any useful input much appreciated!

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Water temp and your ph is a bit hi needs to be 5.8-6.1. I dont personally grow hydro and not to sure whos still active over here but i believe @dbrn32 is and hes more knowledgeable than i.

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Yup, ph looks high for dwc.

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Welcome to ILGM! That’s almost exactly what I came to say. @Bogleg or @Myfriendis410 might be around. Correcting the pH will help, but it looks like they’re complaining about the heat, too.

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Thanks for you input!

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Adjusted pH to 5.8

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Your temps are high and with the high temp and the organics feed you are breeding some anaerobic bacteria (slime/scum in the buckets).You may see some spotting on the leaves. To fight this you will need to keep the Nutes well aerated and clean buckets and swap out nutes more frequently. Additionally you may consider adding 50mls of 3% peroxide every 3-5 days to knock down the bioload. Otherwise plants look healthy.

Feeding by PPM you measure and target 1100-1200PPM.

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I feed them weekly per nutes label. I’ve added some peroxide as I read about that. How often should I empty and redo water and nutes? I have been checking ppm and pH daily now. Glad to hear they look good! Thanks bro!

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Feel it out by the amount of slime. If you keep the bugs controlled you can get by every 7 days which is normal even at good temps. I don’t do organics at all because there is less chance for bacterial growth on well defined growth media like GH Flora. Yes you can call them chemicals, but almost all of them are derived from natural sources. I don’t get all caught up in the “organic” moniker.

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Well said.

I would also add that plants look hungry and at 6.5 you are locking out some of your nutes. I found 5.9 PH perfect for my RDWC but the target is 5.3 to 5.8.

Gotta get the temps down too IMO. I used some aluminized sheet styrofoam from H.D. and cut out pieces I could fit over the top of my totes in the grow space. It dropped temps about 5F.

Reservoir changes should be weekly; be sparing with the peroxide. I use it in a pump sprayer and wet down the inside of the bucket/roots at the rez change. Then a dose of Hydroguard with the new reservoir. 68F is supposed to be ideal. Mycorrhizai are good as well.

Take daily PPM’s until you get a feel for it and I’m assuming you are having to top off during the week. Veg should be 600 to 800 ppm approx and mid flower peak around 1,200 ppm.

You can’t have too much airflow into your solution too. I ran a 975 g/hour into 3 totes and I could have easily doubled it.

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I’m not sure the Orga grow Holland stuff is organic - bought it as they’re made for cannabis. I haven’t needed to use half strength etc. So I won’t be throwing away nutes of I redo buckets weekly. I appreciate all your input.

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I don’t see any airstones. Will not work without and that why you got slime

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I’m using one 4"x2" Stone in each bucket should I add a second to each bucket? 44GPH Pump one for each bucket. I’m guessing an upgraded pump is in order… Perhaps next grow? How can I tell how much GPH a given air stone can take?

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That’s the size I use. Blue stone throws a finer bubble. If you have a “rolling boil” look to your liquid you are fine.

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I didn’t use hydroguard from beginning. That’s why I did bucket change just checked with fingers in water bucket is slim free now still. Water in buckets is 73F. Got pH down to 5.4 and ppm’s in low 600’s. To be clear this is not RDWC. Roots are pretty profuse and “spiney” and very light. No not root rot - caught that early… Fed and watered checked ph and ppms are 650-720 range.

I’m now running a pump for each bucket plus two additional pumps that have dual outputs to run a second set of three air stones which I upgraded to 2"x4" big difference… thought it looked to be boiling previously.

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Update. Coming up on 7th week still vegging like crazy. Noticed new flowering ie pistols popping up all over. Looking a little crowded in my 36x20x64? I already eliminated the pulley and directly clipped the 600 watt LED on the right - I’m hoping she’ll stop growing vertical.lol I have not topped or FIMMed them. I’ve implemented LST to keep it less spread out. And I’ve also defoliated, after reading up on it looking to improve yeild and maintain good airflow. The bucket on the right side I combined 2 auto OG - not making that mistake again; ended up LST and intertwined the branches. The short gal in the middle is a single Amnesia Haze reg. And on left a white LSD she went in the bucket on 5/11 the amnesia on 4/28, OG pair 5/1 & 5/4. Just some background.
Now I understand people say you shouldn’t trim autos - so my question is if I didn’t trim I’d surely have less flower sites due to lack of light exposure - so should I keep up the way I have: these were mostly, except for supporting adjacent leaves; defoliated just Friday. Oh and perhaps I should SOG only one or two buckets next time. Or at any rate cut down to two at a time??
Advice welcome :grin:

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Found it set to watching

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Mabye a scrog next time, it will keep things more level for sure and increase yield, seen lots of people do a one plant scrog

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@Mrcrabs Yeah ya think I got carried away? Lol one bucket has two same strain. I put in my screen tonight finally. After talking it out after first couple weeks before the explosion of vegging started coming in… Doh. Couple krinks but after a weekly feeding and daily watering we’ll see they look like tomorrow screen is tilted as plant on left is several inches shorter.

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