Ive been having constant problems since about 2 months back when my power went out and my plants suffered heat stress. Ever since then they have been suffering from nutrient lockout and or deficiency. I have even flushed with 2x the amount of water per container so 6 gal per 3 gal container but when i resume feeding my runoff ph goes to 6.5-7.2 and ppms 1100-1600. When im feeding 800-900 and 5.6-6.0 ph. As soon as i thought things were getting better now it looks like zinc and potassium deficiency as the leaves are crisping and curling up on the ends and turning light green with brown spots. I even got ladybugs and was spraying CJDB(captain jacks dead bug for days before) but somehow still see fungus gnats flying around. Another issue is that when i make my water (ill make 5-10 gallons at a time) but ill only use like 4 gal per day and have a wave maker in the buckets but somehow this white film builds up (regardless of how clean i am. Washing buckets, tools, and measuring cups daily) and turns into mold if not stirred every day 2-3x which doesnt make any sense to me either. Is using the water with the white film but not mold causing issues or is it my recipe or nutrients past expieration date causing issues?(i dont think any are but also havent checked)Could it be my RO water reservoir? I noticed the other day the ph in the reservoir was around 10. When i purchased it they said it was a food safe silica barrel and i washed it very thoroughly and have been using it for almost 6 months now. Im starting to think one of my nutrients is bad but there is no visible mold growing in any. Would changing nutrients help in this situation? Ive been meaning to switch to jacks 321 but i wanna stay with pure coco coir as my substrate so what would be best the hydro or part A and B with epsom salt. Ive been picking my brain the past 2 weeks thinking of any possible issue that it could be and have had no luck even with my previous post. Any help would be greatly appreciated so i can get my ladies back on track before i run out of room before i can even flip to flower. Will upload pictures throughout the day as my fiance sends me them but just curious if anyone has the slightest clue what could be happening and how to fix my issues. Thanks for reading
The bucket water from literally yesterday morning. This is with a lid on but a spot cut to tuck the wire for the wave maker
I am using house and garden coco a&b, tribus, fish sh!t, drip clean, mr.fulvic, liquid kelp, cal-mag, epsom salt, multi-zen, silica, blackstrap molasses, and amending medium with great white and insect frass as well as 1x per week recharge mixed in with watering. Ppms around 800-900 and been phing arpund 5.6-5.8 lately to combat higher medium ph (6.5-7.2)
No doubt something is off.
What is the ppm of your untouched RO water?
It you let the water stand for a day does anything happen to it?
I don’t have a RO system, I buy it bulk when necessary or use condensate from a dehumidifier. Possibly the filter is used up. Its lifespan will depend on the quality of water run through it.
Re ph of RO water. Because RO has virtually no solids in it, what ever pH reading you get is unreliable. So first check its ppm, if over 100 should be able to get pH. Then replace the filter.
I don’t want to step on how you are doing your nutrients but you have a lot going on here…something is not right with your base water if it turns white like in your picture…maybe get some fresh distilled water from the store and start over or just sit back and see if what you have already done helps her recover
My reservoir is 55 gallons and i try to keep it full as ibalso use it for water changes for my 36 gallon fish tank. The water in there is constantly refilled so im sure its sat for days but ill get check on the ppms of it. I change the filters soon than reccommend everytime and there is a new filter on there as of now. Ill get ph and ppms of plain RO water from bucket and straight from the RO not in the bucket to see if there is any difference
all things I would do…nothing more to add except hope for their recovery
Any chance there is backflow from the fish tank? Just throwing it at the wall…
Nope. Fishtank is upstairs and has a seperate filtration system. The 55 gal drum is downstairs and only gets RO water from the filter directly to the 55 gal drum. The nutes do seem like alot. I was thinking about backing off on the tribus, fish sh!t, recharge, and medium amendments as i usually prefer to use them during rooting and cloning without anything else for very light feedings. That’s also why i want opinions on switching over to jacks 321 to get rid of the extra nutes that i dont or shouldnt use with it
I only need to mix 4 - 5 gallons at a time. I do notice when I add Tribus to the solution (after Jacks is mixed) the water does look milkier after it is added. I just put 5 gallons of solution with Tribus in the autopot reservoir. I’ll check and see what it looks like tomorrow.
I used FishSh-t last grow and did not have any issues. It was time to give Tribus a shot. I only add it once a week for both the autopot and the top fed plants.
Any thoughts on what to feed my ladies after flush or the nutrient switchover to jacks 321? I did plan on doing another flush when i get home 2x as much water as container size on all plants. Should i stick to the basics for now and just do coco a&b, cal-mag, drip clean, silica, multi zen, epsom salt, and molasses between 800-900 ppms and 5.5-6.0ph? That would be using like 5-6 less nutes than before( mr.fulvic, liquid kelp, recharge, great white, and insect frass)
When i get RO numbers back ill update with pics. Gonna test the 55 gal reservoir and some ran straight from the filter to a clean measuring cup for comparison
I use about 4 gallons per day so it was easier for me to make 5 gal a day and basically have 6 gallons ready. But this water gets used up every 1.5-2 days and never sits any longer than that. Also ive never watered with moldy water either just to be clear because only bad things can come from that in my mind
Looks like it is growing a pellicle, likely LactoBacillus. If that mix has any sugars/molasses in it, it will do that easily within 1-2 days. If that is just water, there is some residue in that drum.
What kind of smell does it have, yogurty sour?
Set a bowl of just that water out, uncovered and see what she does in a day or so.
I anticipated this kind of thing when First planning to use straight coco on this #5grow. So, I decided to go with CocoLoco and Jacks 321. Turned out a good choice. I use hard well water (320 ppm) and mix with some rain water at times. The well water has loads of iron,calcium,lime etc. With Jacks you need to dissolve part A before adding Cal.Nit. And then epsom salts. Seems unecessarily complicated to me to add all the organic stuff. I just add Espoma organic Cactus Bloom and good Molasses. pH to 6.3-6.6 and so far it’s amazing. I don’t think deficiencies are as prevalent as people think. It usually boils down to pH, over or under watering, or light.
So heres the results from my Ro water res and direct from line. Ppms on both were 0. This was taken after both pens were calibrated
@Pet_de_Chien that pic of the bucket with film is of my nutrient water. I do use tribus and molasses together which like you said might be causing the issue. My RO water does not do that by itself sitting out or even with tribus mixed in as i use tribus and plain RO for my fruits and veggies and its been sitting out for at least a week no signs of anything funky like that. Looks like plain ole water
You got your answer right there, molasses is activating and feeding the three strains of Bacillus in Tribus. Shows the culture is growing…Re-Strategize your nute mix for storage and feeding the microbes separately, in a RTU mix. I’d go ahead and mix the pellicle in, and water it in to the medium, but change the strategy going forward.