greenjeans
Hydroponic Heretic
Hopefully I can get a response on this..
Okay. I am going to throw up all of my setup info first.
Strain is Northern Lights Auto Fem from Crop King
Two plants in a single 3.5g DWC
40,000(ish) Lumens of CFL lighting
2x3x4ft tall Home-made cabinet.
Here is a pic of my setup and plants at day 16 (yesterday)
I am using Humboldt Nutrients' three part line.
I am growing with my tap water, which, according to the city's water report is 150-200ppm from the tap. Ph is around 8. It gets adjusted to around 6 (I am just using the GH kit with the drops, so it's not accurate to the decimal point), and then gets re-adjusted about 4 hours later after it creeps back up, and has been remaining stable around 6 after that second adjustment. I usually add a few more drops of the ph down once I get the yellow color in the tester to try to hit closer to that 5.8 mark.
My main question is about Nutrient strength...
So I started out at 1/4 strength. I moved to 1/2 strength yesterday, and the plants really seem to love it. Within just a few hours they darkened up and looked like they were loving it.
What I am unsure about is this.. I have been using the interactive feeding chart on the Humboldt site, which has ratios for the three part line, and graduates from week-to-week. In other words, the ratios of grow/bloom/micro evolve on a weekly basis. I have been adjusting to a percentage point based on that chart. For instance, if week one said 4ml of grow, I used 1, but if week 2 showed 8ml, I used 2. I have just gone up to 1/2 strength, again based on the weekly evolution listed on the chart.
Am I doing that correctly? Should I be adjusting the percentage based on the chart that works on a sliding scale? I am unsure if the chart itself is already set to some sort of percentage point system, and perhaps I should be going by it as written, rather than diluting based on percentages.. Anyone have any advice about that?
Secondly, After the plants sprouted, the first set of true leaves got some brown spots and went brown all the way around the edge of the leaves. Both plants. All of the new growth looks fine, it was just that first set. Could anyone take a guess as to why that happened?
Thirdly, The plants seem like they should be taller at 16 days. I see other people's grows and their plants seem to be further along than mine by this time. The roots of one plant just took off into the water a few days ago, and the other is just hitting the res. Is that normal, or should they have reached the water sooner? any tips on how to get the roots to the water more quickly?
I know this is a lot of questions, but this is my first grow, and I want to learn from any mistakes I may have made, or will make during this grow to improve next time. I have done a TON of research, but I feel like someone may have some insight based on my particular grow that could help me more than reading a bunch of threads of people parroting the status quo.
Thanks for any and all input you guys can provide me.
I hope someone can take the time to chat with me about this.. I haven't been getting much interaction here, and I took quite a bit of time typing this out. lol
You can look at the entire grow here:
https://www.autoflower.org/f5/grow-1-crop-king-northern-lights-autofem-dwc-cfl-40776.html
Okay. I am going to throw up all of my setup info first.
Strain is Northern Lights Auto Fem from Crop King
Two plants in a single 3.5g DWC
40,000(ish) Lumens of CFL lighting
2x3x4ft tall Home-made cabinet.
Here is a pic of my setup and plants at day 16 (yesterday)
I am using Humboldt Nutrients' three part line.
I am growing with my tap water, which, according to the city's water report is 150-200ppm from the tap. Ph is around 8. It gets adjusted to around 6 (I am just using the GH kit with the drops, so it's not accurate to the decimal point), and then gets re-adjusted about 4 hours later after it creeps back up, and has been remaining stable around 6 after that second adjustment. I usually add a few more drops of the ph down once I get the yellow color in the tester to try to hit closer to that 5.8 mark.
My main question is about Nutrient strength...
So I started out at 1/4 strength. I moved to 1/2 strength yesterday, and the plants really seem to love it. Within just a few hours they darkened up and looked like they were loving it.
What I am unsure about is this.. I have been using the interactive feeding chart on the Humboldt site, which has ratios for the three part line, and graduates from week-to-week. In other words, the ratios of grow/bloom/micro evolve on a weekly basis. I have been adjusting to a percentage point based on that chart. For instance, if week one said 4ml of grow, I used 1, but if week 2 showed 8ml, I used 2. I have just gone up to 1/2 strength, again based on the weekly evolution listed on the chart.
Am I doing that correctly? Should I be adjusting the percentage based on the chart that works on a sliding scale? I am unsure if the chart itself is already set to some sort of percentage point system, and perhaps I should be going by it as written, rather than diluting based on percentages.. Anyone have any advice about that?
Secondly, After the plants sprouted, the first set of true leaves got some brown spots and went brown all the way around the edge of the leaves. Both plants. All of the new growth looks fine, it was just that first set. Could anyone take a guess as to why that happened?
Thirdly, The plants seem like they should be taller at 16 days. I see other people's grows and their plants seem to be further along than mine by this time. The roots of one plant just took off into the water a few days ago, and the other is just hitting the res. Is that normal, or should they have reached the water sooner? any tips on how to get the roots to the water more quickly?
I know this is a lot of questions, but this is my first grow, and I want to learn from any mistakes I may have made, or will make during this grow to improve next time. I have done a TON of research, but I feel like someone may have some insight based on my particular grow that could help me more than reading a bunch of threads of people parroting the status quo.
Thanks for any and all input you guys can provide me.
I hope someone can take the time to chat with me about this.. I haven't been getting much interaction here, and I took quite a bit of time typing this out. lol
You can look at the entire grow here:
https://www.autoflower.org/f5/grow-1-crop-king-northern-lights-autofem-dwc-cfl-40776.html
