New Grower First grow and new to the network...

[davisgirl]

Slick set up for a first grow! Making me want to get the DWC out... Also, welcome fellow noob!

Thanks for the welcome! I’m so glad I’m here and getting all this help. Flowering is on the horizon...I can feel it.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

How is everything going in the tent, DG?

 

[davisgirl]

I am sorry to report ... she’s not gotten any better. NL baby [HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] is showing the same symptoms. Wild pH swings. I’ll upload some pics later today and I have my fingers crossed.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

So sorry to hear that, DG. You should also post the pictures in the infirmary thread, so as many vets look at them as possible. Its DWC, so it is quickly correctable, whatever it turns out to be. Don't delay, though.

 

[Waira]

Things seem to be going well and I get confident, then one little thing happens and I start to panic.

About a week ago I sprayed neem oil as a preventative measure. An hour later I turned the lights back on. A day or so later, I noticed these brown spots on the leaves. I THINK I turned the light on too soon after I sprayed but now it’s bothering me. Can I get an opinion?

howdy DG! I see my mate MoG is on the case = ... he's better at DWC, which I haven't done yet,.. but am learning aspects of because of my duties at the Infirmary! This is a steep learning curve for a new grower to grind through,... DWC can be magic, or a major bitchy PITA with all the details management and labor! you're in the soup now, but in the future, consider trying soil grows, and also look into Autopots, which strike something in between these two,...
So, the neem likely isn't behind this; if it was too conc., it would have fried the new growth rather than the older tougher leaves,... lights-on, it's very rare to get burning by droplet "lensing", or even chem' burning from overly strong solutions that become nasty strong as the water evaporates and the relative conc. increases,.. but it can happen! However, that looks like classic pH drift damage, and looks like P defc.... as mentioned, everything happens faster in hydro, better or worse! To see why the nutrient availability is so twitchy, have a look at this chart -->

.... in DWC, you walk a damn narrow line between relative availabilities,...
when using RO/Di water, Ca-Mg is more important than ever because it lends some pH buffering back into the water/nute solution; It's the CaCO3 that's at work, specifically only the carbonate part that's doing the pH buffering (have a look in the Defc. Pic Depot, 2nd page lower down, which is in the Infirmary forum in the colored section at the top)... the proper Ca-Mg supp' should be in part carbonate based,.... Anyway, listen to MoG, he has you covered!
Optic Foliar is superb stuff! use it with no worries,... read up on the individual products, which Overgrow is a r-t-u blend of.... the true magic in there is the Transport, which allows temporary penetration of whatever is dissolved in it through the cuticle layer,.. it's excellent for treating tough defc., particularly micronutrient types.....
As for the seed company, I have to say I see problems with their breeding often here,... many many cheesy-poof co's are elbowing into the auto game now because it's a hot part of the market, and sadly, some are sending out badly bred stuff,... the other chap here who's on, what, 130 days auto grow = ... that's a FUBAR situation, one could have potentially run two 8 week cycles with reliable genetics in that time,... IMO, if an auto doesn't finish in about 10 weeks, one might as well have run a photo at 12 weeks and paid a lot less in energy $ with no loss of yield, maybe even better,... one of the best things here is how you can research the companies genetics by scanning journals and smoke reports, and see who has the goods, and who has schwag! Mephisto, Sweet, Dinafem, Dutch Passion ( and sister co' SeedStockers), Short Stuff are among the breeders long and well tested here,... our in-house Independent breeder Magic has excellent strains too,....
Another tip: take good care of your pH meter, and TDS/EC,... the latter should be rinsed with RO/DI water before storing,... pH meter needs to be stored in the proper solution made for this, and calibration checked often with 7.0 and 4.0 standards,... it too needs through rinsing after each use and before storing,... they are easily knocked out of calibration!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

DWC is by far the most demanding of your time. When done right it is also very rewarding. I applaud you for jumping in and if you stick with it you will master it. Forgive me if I am pointing you to this again I direct people here so often I loses track not to mention I am sometimes over medicated. This is really everything you need to become proficient in DWC:

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/deep-water-culture-basics-bubbleponics.64478/

After mastering the basics there is so many tweaks possible it could be a lifetime hobby .

 

[davisgirl]

@Waira ! @Mañ'O'Green ! @Pigskinfantasy ! Thank you thank you for again taking your time to help me and my beautiful ladies! They’re beautiful to me!

I am determined to master this and figure out what’s gone wrong. I’ve been thinking hard these past few days and mulling over mistakes I probably made or could have made. I have calmag but didn’t think to add it when I impulsively switched to RO water. There were a few other things that got me to thinking too ... did I shake those nutrient bottles? Really shake them?

But my gaze keeps returning to the cheap pH pen. Wouldn’t that just explain everything neatly. See, I got the $10 one. And haven’t been taking care of it as I’m finding out I should. So, today I recalibrate and see what is what. And the meter storage solution is en route from trusty Amazon. We shall see...

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@davisgirl I had a cheap PH pen when I first restarted Hydro in the long run it cost me hundreds of dollars in losses of time, and seeds. Lesson learned the hard way.

 

[davisgirl]

@davisgirl I had a cheap PH pen when I first restarted Hydro in the long run it cost me hundreds of dollars in losses of time, and seeds. Lesson learned the hard way.

Yes, exactly. What ph pen do you recommend? I’m done wasting time. I’ve heard Bluelab is good, also Apera, but the Amazon reviews are lackluster, so I’m not sure which direction to head at this point.

 

[LucidLucy]

Hi Davisgirl. I am using this cheap one that got good reviews on Amazon. I had 2 recalibrate it in 2 months of use and it was way off by then. You need to get the calibration solutions to make sure it's correct. My cal solutions claim to be usable as storage solutions as well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01N20ZRC5?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title