Live Stoner Chat 1st grow, need help!

[Mr Green Fingers]

Hey Guys,
So this is my first grow as sick of buying C grade weed for top dollar so thought I would try to become self sufficient, my setup is as follows:

Gorilla Grow Tent 4 x 2 x 8 feet
Systemair RVK 4 inch inline fan with 4 inch Rhino carbon filter
900W Viparspectra LED reflector series
2 x Exodus Oxypots
Hiblow HP40 pump - so 20lpm per bucket which has 2 4 inch airstones in each but wish I had now bought the bigger pump as these buckets probably could take 60lpm each but they still have a nice root spa with 20!
TDS & PH meter
Canna Aqua nutrients

So for my first grow I decided on Dutch Passion Colorado Cookies as have heard it's a great smoke but maybe not the best yielder but I am really interested in quality over quantity!

As this is my first grow I am just trying to keep things as simple as possible so will be growing my 2 babies El Natural.

So I have now reached day 16 since the seed popped out of the rockwool cube, I fed just plain PH'd water for the first week, 2nd week I gave a light feeding of Aqua Vega A&B and Rhizotonic, 3rd week and I am now feeding Aqua Vega A&B, Rhizotonic, Cannazym & Canna boost, my PH I keep at between 5.8 - 6 and my current PPM is 300 (after deduction of tap water PPM).

So far I have had no issues (I don't think) until I noticed this morning that some of the leaves are starting to yellow slightly on the veins, I am wondering if maybe I have a calmag issue coming, I didn't bother to buy any calmag as I am using tap water which has been left out for 48 hrs which has a starting PPM of 216 but I have no idea what's in it!

Please could someone take a look at the pictures (sorry only phone camera so not the best) and help me diagnose the issue, thanks everyone

 

[MedGrower]

Hey there!

Nice setup. I am liking that DWC system you got and really liking the simplicity of it, nice size to the reservoir and that unit is just something what I'd like to have too. I have grown DP's Colorado Cookies once and it was kind of surprising how it turned out. Didn't really care for the flavor when vaped but if you made a joint out of it, man that was nice. That was just that onetime experience I had with it but seemed like an alright strain for sure. I've also grown with Canna Aqua -line before. Rhizotonic is really really good stuff and I would strongly recommend using it 4ml per litre from the very first week and just pH the water back because it raises the pH quite much. That stuff does wonders for the root development especially on those early weeks. It seems to work best when your EC / PPM is low.

So far you seem almost golden. I know this issue you are about to have as I remember that one popping up many times too when I grew with Canna or with Advanced Nutrients later on. This happened to me personally always when I had my pH below 6.0. If you continue with say pH 5.8 in similar fashion, I bet my bottom dollar you are going to start to see some brown spots, necrosis on some of those larger leaves. In fact I can already see the necrosis setting in (pic 4). Just set the pH up around 6.2 or 6.3 and she will be happier. This is because Ca and Mg are best absorbed between 6.0 to 6.5.

These problems are often pronounced when your PPM is high like it is in your case with your overall PPM's with that hard water. Combine that with a young plant that has not fully developed its rootsystem and she is struggling to bring in the needed elements. I hope this helps.

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

Hey there!

Nice setup. I am liking that DWC system you got and really liking the simplicity of it, nice size to the reservoir and that unit is just something what I'd like to have too. I have grown DP's Colorado Cookies once and it was kind of surprising how it turned out. Didn't really care for the flavor when vaped but if you made a joint out of it, man that was nice. That was just that onetime experience I had with it but seemed like an alright strain for sure. I've also grown with Canna Aqua -line before. Rhizotonic is really really good stuff and I would strongly recommend using it 4ml per litre from the very first week and just pH the water back because it raises the pH quite much. That stuff does wonders for the root development especially on those early weeks. It seems to work best when your EC / PPM is low.

So far you seem almost golden. I know this issue you are about to have as I remember that one popping up many times too when I grew with Canna or with Advanced Nutrients later on. This happened to me personally always when I had my pH below 6.0. If you continue with say pH 5.8 in similar fashion, I bet my bottom dollar you are going to start to see some brown spots, necrosis on some of those larger leaves. In fact I can already see the necrosis setting in (pic 4). Just set the pH up around 6.2 or 6.3 and she will be happier. This is because Ca and Mg are best absorbed between 6.0 to 6.5.

These problems are often pronounced when your PPM is high like it is in your case with your overall PPM's with that hard water. Combine that with a young plant that has not fully developed its rootsystem and she is struggling to bring in the needed elements. I hope this helps.

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

Hey Med Grower,

Thanks for the info, so would you suggest just to up my PH to between 6 & 6.5 then and not bother buying any calmag and also what is Necrosis (sorry am a noob but will try to google it).
Also here is my feed schedule for the rest of the grow but I will adjust depending on how the plant reacts:

Start of week 4: Aqua Vega A&B 2ml per litre, Rhizotonic 2ml per litre (but might up it to 4ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre.
Start of week 5: Aqua Vega A&B 2.5ml per litre, Rhizotonic 1.5ml per litre (but might up it to 3ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre.
Start of week 6: Aqua Flores A&B 3ml per litre, Rhizotonic 1ml per litre (but might up it to 2ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre.
Start of week 7: Aqua Flores A&B 3ml per litre, Rhizotonic 0.5ml per litre (but might up it to 1ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre, canna PK 1.5 ml per litre.
Start of week 8: Aqua Flores A&B 3ml per litre, Rhizotonic 0.5ml per litre (but might up it to 1ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre.
Start of week 9: Aqua Flores A&B 2.5ml per litre, Rhizotonic 0.5ml per litre (but might up it to 1ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre.
Start of week 10: Aqua Flores A&B 1.5ml per litre, Rhizotonic 0.5ml per litre (but might up it to 1ml per litre after your advise!), Cannazym 1.5ml per litre, canna boost 2.5ml per litre.
Start of week 11: Canna flush 4ml per litre and then topping up with PH'd water to finish the flush.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated, cheers!

 

[MedGrower]

Yeah I'd recommend to have the pH to be at 6.2. Be very sure your pH pen is giving you an accurate reading, douplecheck the pH with liquid drop tester if you can just to make sure your pen is giving accurate reading.

Having the pH for optimal range for absorption of Ca at this point is important and may fix the problem already since your tapwater is rather hard. But if you see it persisting, then you should introduce some CalMag to your feed. Just a little will do; perhaps 100 ppm impact will be enough but only if the corrected pH won't help.

In hydroponics I don't think there is any solid feed schedule you can or should follow. Only feed schedule I follow is what the EC meter tells me any given time, honestly. Around after 4th week the plant is usually mature enough to make an impact to the reservoir and I simply check if the EC has fallen, risen or stayed at the same. If it falls, I increase the nutrients for the next top up or reservoir change. If it raises up I add plain water to the reservoir and adjust the future feeds keeping that in mind. This is because you want to maintain proper osmosis that the plant uses to bring in water and the turgidity that results from the osmotic pressure. You want to keep the strength of the solution in rather isotonic or bit hypotonic state. I hope this helps bro

Here is some reading on the matter that hopefully will clarify this a bit:

https://www.khanacademy.org/science...ic-isotonic-and-hypertonic-solutions-tonicity

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

Yeah I'd recommend to have the pH to be at 6.2. Be very sure your pH pen is giving you an accurate reading, douplecheck the pH with liquid drop tester if you can just to make sure your pen is giving accurate reading.

Having the pH for optimal range for absorption of Ca at this point is important and may fix the problem already since your tapwater is rather hard. But if you see it persisting, then you should introduce some CalMag to your feed. Just a little will do; perhaps 100 ppm impact will be enough but only if the corrected pH won't help.

In hydroponics I don't think there is any solid feed schedule you can or should follow. Only feed schedule I follow is what the EC meter tells me any given time, honestly. Around after 4th week the plant is usually mature enough to make an impact to the reservoir and I simply check if the EC has fallen, risen or stayed at the same. If it falls, I increase the nutrients for the next top up or reservoir change. If it raises up I add plain water to the reservoir and adjust the future feeds keeping that in mind. This is because you want to maintain proper osmosis that the plant uses to bring in water and the turgidity that results from the osmotic pressure. You want to keep the strength of the solution in rather isotonic or bit hypotonic state. I hope this helps bro

Here is some reading on the matter that hopefully will clarify this a bit:

https://www.khanacademy.org/science...ic-isotonic-and-hypertonic-solutions-tonicity

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

Thanks Med, I have poured in 1 litre of tap water into each rez which has now bought my PH up to just under 6.2 so I will see how I get on, on the subject of PH & EC meters I really wish I would have just bought the Bluelab ones but didn't have enough money at the time so all I have currently is a cheap ebay set but It did come with the calibration solution so I will check!

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

Yeah I'd recommend to have the pH to be at 6.2. Be very sure your pH pen is giving you an accurate reading, douplecheck the pH with liquid drop tester if you can just to make sure your pen is giving accurate reading.

Having the pH for optimal range for absorption of Ca at this point is important and may fix the problem already since your tapwater is rather hard. But if you see it persisting, then you should introduce some CalMag to your feed. Just a little will do; perhaps 100 ppm impact will be enough but only if the corrected pH won't help.

In hydroponics I don't think there is any solid feed schedule you can or should follow. Only feed schedule I follow is what the EC meter tells me any given time, honestly. Around after 4th week the plant is usually mature enough to make an impact to the reservoir and I simply check if the EC has fallen, risen or stayed at the same. If it falls, I increase the nutrients for the next top up or reservoir change. If it raises up I add plain water to the reservoir and adjust the future feeds keeping that in mind. This is because you want to maintain proper osmosis that the plant uses to bring in water and the turgidity that results from the osmotic pressure. You want to keep the strength of the solution in rather isotonic or bit hypotonic state. I hope this helps bro

Here is some reading on the matter that hopefully will clarify this a bit:

https://www.khanacademy.org/science...ic-isotonic-and-hypertonic-solutions-tonicity

 

[Mr Green Fingers]

Hey Medi,
Just read your current grow which looks awesome but how the hell do you get the stems so thick, does the liquid silicon do this??

 

[MedGrower]

Hey Medi,
Just read your current grow which looks awesome but how the hell do you get the stems so thick, does the liquid silicon do this??

Honestly, I think it is mostly due to good genetics that a strain has. Not all my grows have super thick stems even though I do them pretty much the same. This current one is certainly not the thickest! Thickest stem I've had is with Auto Ultimate. They are crazy strong. Silicone will help build thicker and stronger cell walls and will help in building thicker and more robust stems for sure. Did you know that Canna Aqua already has silicon added into it? So actually you have that already covered, lucky you