I’ve acquired a clone from a shop, which came with little information. It’s maybe Raspberry Kush. It’s happy & healthy (near as I can tell), but it doesn’t seem to be growing much (above ground) over the past week.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
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NA (non applicable)
-What strain, Seed bank, or bag seed (photo or auto) Raspberry Kush, Feminized (not auto)
-Age of plant/what week of flower Unknown, perhaps 3w?
-Method: Hydroponics, DWC
-Vessels: 8" netpots
-PH = 6.22, TDS = 883 (Vivosun pH & TDS meters)
-General Hydroponics, Flora 3-part
-Hydroguard
-**Indoor, basement, large area but dark **
-LED light, KingPlus 1200W, Veg mode
-Actual wattage draw of lights Unknown
-Current Light Schedule 16/8
-Temps; Constant ~69 (range 68.7-69.5)
-Humidity; Constant 53% (range 52-54%)
-Ventilation system; not yet
-AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier, no
-Co2; Yes, No no
If growing Hydro some additional questions:
-DWC
-Distance of liquid below net pot (DWC) Mmm bottom half of 8"pot in liquid
-Temperature of reservoir 75.2 (+/- 0.5)
-TDS of nutrient solution 883
-Amount of air to solution One bubbler
Welcome to ILGM! Cute lil clone there. Excellent strain choice. Raspberry Kush Ive heard has some phenos with some 9-10 outta 10 star smoke! Yields may leave a bit to be wanted, but ima quality iver quantity kinda guy lol.
Couple things. @MidwestGuy was right, they put down roots in the beginning and the top half doesnt really kick into overdrive til she’s ready.
Ur pH at 6.2 is a tad high. But nothing to throw ur water away over.
Speaking of water, water temps also play a pretty important role in hydro pot farming. Watch those temps as well. 75 is creeping out of the zone
Is there any space between ur root net and the water? Correct me if Im wrong @peachfuzz@Myfriendis410
But dont u need a few inches of roots exposed to air at all times?
yea 6.2 is a smidge high. My tap water is 7.6, so I’ve been working on getting it closer to 6 with Ph Down.
there’s a small amount of root poking through the netpot deeper into the nutrients, and about half of the depth of the netpot is in the water. My understanding was that was correct now (to give the roots a chance to grow into the water), and that later I’d lower the water level some.
75F is at the upper-end of the ok range, for sure. If it gets any higher, I add a cup or two of ice, and that brings it back to between 70-75.
Glad this is a good choice of plant (but the next set are going to be White Widow (got in on the “buy N get N free” deal).
Assuming she’s just putting down roots that I can’t see, anyone want to take a guess at how long I should expect that to take? (That is, time until she starts visibly growing?)
I acquired the clone 8 days ago, got it in the DWC system 7 days ago, got the first dose of nutrients in 6 days ago. I’ve slowly moved the light closer to the plant over the week, it’s now at about 30" above the top of the plant.
I worry I may have over-dosed on the nutrients, PPM is 915…
This will drown the plant. You need to 1 1/2 to 2" below net pot once tap root reaches nutrient solution.
IMO 75F is way too high for okay. Much less dissolved O at that temp compared to 68F and well within the range for disease to take over (Pythium).
Do you have a standing rez or is this true DWC?
What brand? The seller’s information will have the actual draw on it and likely is printed on the light. It would be good to know your light levels going forward.
It’s more the base of the stem staying too wet which undermines it enough for disease to take hold. Roots like to be wet but not necessarily all of them submerged. If you have sufficient air bubbling up it will wet the bottom of the net pot with oxygenated water droplets.
You can try, but the thing with bucket hydro (dwc) is the lack of nutrient volume. Later on your plants will be drinking a gallon or more, a day which means topping off daily (PITA). That’s where a lot of hydro growers go to RDWC and add both a reservoir and a chiller.
You can also buy a big yellow-topped tote and use that instead of a bucket: 29 gallon ones are used quite a lot and their cheap.
This light will almost flower off one plant FYI. It will be fine for veg but not quite enough to give you dense flower.
You are also going to want to run cal mag in hydro as the GH doesn’t supply it in it’s base nutes. Your TDS is about where I’d want it with that nutrient line.
One thing that can slow a plant is PH being off. You will see this as well later in it’s life cycle and again the only way to combat is to have more nutrient solution in play. Also; it’s a good idea to run a calibration on your PH meter as they can drift. Store the meter in storage solution to keep the glass bulb from drying out and cracking.
Everything that he has said is dead on…
Water temps at 65 to 71 degrees and ppm at 250 to 350 and ph at 5.8 to 6.5 and your net basket is way to wet…
Only submerge it to one inch until you see roots , than drop water level down to 2 inches below net basket…
Well, ice works for me so far. I may try the frozen-water-in-a-2L-bottle method.
Also, I’m not sure why you thought I was using a bucket. It’s a large tote, and yes, I’m fully prepared to add an auto-top-up system from a secondary reservoir. I was planning to start a 6-plant build (in a RDWC system with 6 large square buckets and an external reservoir.
This plant is a trial/test, and I’m glad I did it because the seeds got all the way to my post office and out for delivery, then was returned to sender. I’m sure ILGM will make me whole, but there’ll be a delay starting the larger grow. Anyone want to guess how long I’ll have before the seeds arrive? It kind of affects what I do now.
ANYHOW, pH is now down to between 5.7 and 5.9. The plant is growing, showing some new growth. Water change this weekend, so I’ll get the water level right.
If you continue with this I promise you will be looking at buying a chiller. I’ve seen a bunch of hydro growers here over the years and if they continue they inevitably bite the bullet and pay for one. If you are a working person (not retired or home all the time) you will be fighting keeping temps down. The chiller is nice because it’s set and forget.
Plant update: It’s growing foliage now, seemingly picking up speed. I can see some new root growth at the bottom of the netpot.
USPS update: “Undeliverable as addressed, return to sender”, but (of course) there’s nothing wrong with my address or the way the package was addressed. Shrug, waiting for ILGM to make some sense of it (and/or re-ship).
Well, I am at home all day. But re chillers, my grow room is in the basement which has an ambient 68-70F and 50-53% RH 365 days a year. I imagine that for any non-commercial size grow, even a 1/10hp chiller will work? You agree? I need only the slightest help chilling (if I add 2c ice, the temp is <70 for a day in the 15gal system I have running, 1/10hp would probably be good for 50gal?)
You might be able to simply put a standing rez outside the grow space to soak up your ambient basement conditions. If it rests at say 72F I’d call it good.
1/10th horse would work but IIRC correctly the 1/4 horse is like $10 more. That’s the one I have. Like you my basement sits at a comfortable 65 to 67F so I don’t really need one now.
