Ok, so it's my first grow and I have managed to make just about every mistake in the book. This little auto, 2vast 2fast, is somehow still alive in spite of me... although she's not looking too pretty.
So, here is where I am. She is being grown in a dwc 6 gallon bucket under a 300 watt blurple. (I have a new light on order, but it's not arrived yet.) Light is about 18" from my plant. She's 6 weeks old and quite stunted. Nevertheless, she's starting to preflower.
Temperature range is between 77 and 80 and humidity is generally between 55 and 60. I have 4 air stones pushing out tons of oxygen.
Now here's where things went wrong. For the first 3 to 4 weeks, I used very hard water in combination with a basic formula for General Hydroponics that I found from the website growweedeasy. I had read that hard water helps pH to stabilize better and therefore is preferred to RO water. I was testing ph and was experiencing wild swings between 4.5- 8! The hard water naturally had very high pH and pH Down would oftentimes bring it way too low over the course of days. I had no idea about EC and PPM.
So I came to this forum, got some advice to begin using RO water (which I have at my disposal) and to pick up an EC meter along with some Cal Mag and a fungicide.
I thought I was on target! I mixed up a batch of General hydroponics trio nutrients with my RO, added in Cal Mag (first) and a wee bit of Southern AG Fungicide and I expected all my problems go away. However I way over shot my EC levels (1150). Pretty much I went with suggestions for what was probably photo period plants and also plants that had not been stunted but we're healthy at the age my plant was. Rather than seeing the EC levels go down I watched them rise every day!
So again I returned to the forum and was told to drop my EC levels. I had read that dropping EC levels rapidly could cause the cells to burst and so I worked over the course of four or five days to replace and replenish my reservoir with water, bringing my EC levels down to about 500 to 600.
But nevertheless the levels aren't dropping, water levels are pretty stagnant and the leaves are suffering. The only thing I'm really able to manage is the pH at this point which seems pretty steady between 5.8 and 6.2.
The roots look healthy. They're not exceptionally large, but they are very pretty and white and the water looks great as well. My temperature is right about 69 degrees and I'm using a fungicide as a preventative.
So last night I changed my reservoir once again and my final EC was 518, ph 5.2. This morning my ph had drifted up to 6 and my EC was 565! So, I added 2 quarts of RO water and am going to retest later today. It's so frustrating!
my plant looks awful. Any advice you have is really appreciated! Thanks so much.
So, here is where I am. She is being grown in a dwc 6 gallon bucket under a 300 watt blurple. (I have a new light on order, but it's not arrived yet.) Light is about 18" from my plant. She's 6 weeks old and quite stunted. Nevertheless, she's starting to preflower.
Temperature range is between 77 and 80 and humidity is generally between 55 and 60. I have 4 air stones pushing out tons of oxygen.
Now here's where things went wrong. For the first 3 to 4 weeks, I used very hard water in combination with a basic formula for General Hydroponics that I found from the website growweedeasy. I had read that hard water helps pH to stabilize better and therefore is preferred to RO water. I was testing ph and was experiencing wild swings between 4.5- 8! The hard water naturally had very high pH and pH Down would oftentimes bring it way too low over the course of days. I had no idea about EC and PPM.
So I came to this forum, got some advice to begin using RO water (which I have at my disposal) and to pick up an EC meter along with some Cal Mag and a fungicide.
I thought I was on target! I mixed up a batch of General hydroponics trio nutrients with my RO, added in Cal Mag (first) and a wee bit of Southern AG Fungicide and I expected all my problems go away. However I way over shot my EC levels (1150). Pretty much I went with suggestions for what was probably photo period plants and also plants that had not been stunted but we're healthy at the age my plant was. Rather than seeing the EC levels go down I watched them rise every day!
So again I returned to the forum and was told to drop my EC levels. I had read that dropping EC levels rapidly could cause the cells to burst and so I worked over the course of four or five days to replace and replenish my reservoir with water, bringing my EC levels down to about 500 to 600.
But nevertheless the levels aren't dropping, water levels are pretty stagnant and the leaves are suffering. The only thing I'm really able to manage is the pH at this point which seems pretty steady between 5.8 and 6.2.
The roots look healthy. They're not exceptionally large, but they are very pretty and white and the water looks great as well. My temperature is right about 69 degrees and I'm using a fungicide as a preventative.
So last night I changed my reservoir once again and my final EC was 518, ph 5.2. This morning my ph had drifted up to 6 and my EC was 565! So, I added 2 quarts of RO water and am going to retest later today. It's so frustrating!
my plant looks awful. Any advice you have is really appreciated! Thanks so much.
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