New Grower "GodAmJT's Perpetual Greenery"

[Chester]

I don't know anything about DWC or CFLs ... although I know nothing about DWC generally plants grow faster w/ DWC so I'm thinking you slipped up somewhere along the way ... any chance you could have your friend that grows locally look at it ... it's probably something basic about your technique that he could spot right away ... Heat can stunt them but it would have to be extremely dry to slow them down ... Plants like a lot of light I'd throw all you have at them ... Have your visited the Hydro Forum here ... might find some help there ...

 

[GodAmJT]

Would it be okay to try and LST it a little, or is that out of the question, since it's already stunted??


So far, the plant is only in rockwool so it hasn't seen any DWC yet, but I was planning on doing a top-feed system which was going to be finally built by the end of the week. I had ordered an air-pot to transplant this thing into but it almost doesn't look like it's going to even need the air-pot if it doesn't get much bigger than this.. I think I should've probably waited to put the rapid-rooter in the rockwool when the rapid-rooter had more roots coming out of it.. Lesson learned.. That, and I think if I could get the humidity up and more stable, along with some better lighting, I'll be good to go.. Like I said, the plant itself looks healthy to me, with the exception of it's diminutive stature.. Maybe the LED project is going to be my next priority..


Thanks for the advice, I truly appreciate it!!

 

[GodAmJT]

I think I may have found my problem! I was scheming as to what might be the problem, and the one thing I haven't done with this thing is check the pH/ppm of the run-off as I water-to-waste with the rockwool for now until I get the top-feed done. The run-off ppm was right, but the pH was 7.5!!! Not sure what it's going to take to fix this, but I've been using a nute solution with a pH of 5.9 consistently throughout so I'm guessing this thing is NOT happy!! Should I be considering doing a mini-flush for the next couple days??

 

[GodAmJT]

And one more question, since I feel like I'm forgetting a million things... Should I be switching to more of a "bloom" feed at this point or should I just keep feeding them the same mix?? I'm guessing once I start seeing bud sites, then I can start transitioning...

 

[AndyBotwin]

And one more question, since I feel like I'm forgetting a million things... Should I be switching to more of a "bloom" feed at this point or should I just keep feeding them the same mix?? I'm guessing once I start seeing bud sites, then I can start transitioning...

I'm a soil guy so I won't venture a guess as to why your pH is so out of whack in the rockwool. But as for flower nutes, I'd recommend holding off until vertical growth has stopped. Once the clusters of pistils start to look more like a bud and the plant is putting in all its energy into those rather than getting taller, you're ready to make the move. Do it earlier and you run the risk of an N deficiency in flower which will prematurely kill off your fan leaves. I do one or two transitional feedings with both veg and bloom nutes, but some people switch over in one shot. Just a personal preference on that one.

 

[GodAmJT]

Yess!!! Exactly what I was looking for in terms of growth!!! I'm almost thinking a mini-flush of just pH'ed water over the next couple days may be the only way to get the pH down in the rockwool. I could go with a diluted nute mix but this has got to be the reason why this thing is only about 3" tall going into week 4..


Thanks for the info!!!

 

[Chester]

While being too small for normal LST you could lift the center leaves to help it bunch up a little ... not sure if you'd see much result but I generally start using this technique at about 10 days ... I use a fuzzy pipe cleaner for about 8 hours at a time ...
:dance2:



Result ... :dunno:

 

[GodAmJT]

I saw your grow where you used this and considered it for this one since it's not really growing tall, but there is a bunch of growth toward the stalk and if I could get some light in there, this thing would open up like a bush!!! I did a mini-flush and ran some pH'ed distilled water through the rockwool until I got a pH of 6.4 and a ppm of 130-ish for the run-off.. I then used my 308ppm solution to water it and the run-off was now down to a pH of 6.1 and a ppm of 275 w/ 0.5 EC conversion.. I've repositioned my lights so that the 2 6500K's are hitting the sides/middle and the 2700K/3000K are covering the other areas and the top. Hopefully this little flush didn't just mess things up and hopefully I can have good results with tomorrow's watering. I may go out and get another socket and splitter to run a couple more CFLs for even more light. I have reflective material that I'd like to line the interior of the enclosure but just haven't had time to put it up because of finals.. Even spending the hour or so to take care of the plant today was tough to do because of school.. My last final is Thursday and then after that, I begin the building of the res, top-feed and set-up for when this thing is nearing completion. I'm germing my last auto seed tonight to prep for the next grow and will probably let that one go a bit longer in the humidome to get some serious roots going on before moving to the rockwool.. Lots of lessons learned here, and I'm glad I thought to check that today.. I still have hope that I can salvage this plant but it's going to take some work!!


Thanks for the advice and thanks for following along guys!!

 

[GodAmJT]

So I think I've got it down for good, or at least for now.. I've ran through a few gallons of distilled water and almost a gallon of nute mix trying to flush this thing down to an acceptable pH.. Right now, with a 5.5 nute solution of a 326ppm, the run-off is at a stable pH of 6.0 which I'm happy with for right now.. Yesterday it was at a 6.1 and drifted to a 6.4 overnight. I did a little modifying of the enclosure today to celebrate finishing this semester.. This gold laminate was free and it works pretty well as it's not a paper-based laminate.. 3000K bulb burned out (it was an old one) so I threw another 2700K in.. Growth is still occuring on this thing and I think it may be nearing time to re-plant to it's final destination: a 3-gal equivalent air-pot that should be here any day now.. Once I do that, the top-drip system will be in full-effect!! I'm going to be making the reservoir and drainage tomorrow along with the drip-ring.. I'm hoping to keep this whole thing relatively modular/compact so all of the hoses will be as short as possible and all of the connections will be zip-tied to ensure their sealing.. I'll have more pictures by the end of this weekend.. Peace...




JT

 

[Chester]

She's grown a lot in the past 2 weeks ... :tiphat: