Muddy
Proud deplorable!
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2011
- Messages
- 8,673
- Reputation
- 10
- Reaction score
- 1,552
- Points
- 0
- Currently Smoking
- OG Kush, Deep Cheese, Key Lime
I was making this post the night before last and a storm came through. Lighting hit the cable line and shot a surge that took out my cable modem and my router. I was sitting here typing and saw a white fire ball shoot about 6" out of my router. I picked up a new router yesterday and Comcast came and replaced the cable modem today. At least I had the presence of mind to save what I had typed in MS Word before I lost it.
Okay, the Cultured Systems nutrients. These were gifted to me to test from the Undercurrent section moderator over at THC Farmer. They have a dedicated rdwc forum there and early in it's inception, had Current Culture reps active on the site. It was the best place I could find to get good information on rdwc from people who know how to run them. There is a ton of good information there including several large commercial grows done by people who really know their stuff. So that's where I went to learn and get help. I still go there and have gotten to know a few people. The forum mod offered me the full line of CS nutes, no string. I was expecting to get small sample bottles and was pleasantly shocked when I opened the box to fix quarts and gallons. These systems are very easy on nutes so I've probably got enough for 3-4 grows. Close to $300 worth of nutes. This run of Blue Dream was the first using them so I do need to get back over to THCF and give them some feedback on them. It's the least I can do to replay them for their generosity.
I've only done the one run so far with them but already I can see an improvement over the H&G. The only issue I ran into was around week 5 of flowering. I had already seen the on my first system fill that the published feed schedule was too strong. I was fighting the pH going down while the ppm were rising, they were overfed. I drained some solution and replaced it with RO and while not ideal, that way okay. First time with new nutes. So I change the system, use less nutes and it's going good for 10 days or so, then same thing. So again, draining solution and adding RO. While all this is going on, the plants are at what should be their peak feeding time. I started seeing signs of what I thought was a P deficiency. As I'm trying to get the system balanced back out, they are getting worse. So I called Cultured Systems to get their ideas on what was going on. They verified that I had nutrient lockout and suggested what I had already done, removing solution and replacing with RO. While tossing a few other ideas around I mentioned the silica. The guy wasn't sure so put me on hold to check. He came back and said I shouldn't be running silica with their products and that was likely the cause of my issues. Silica is critical to sell growth and strength, so I was skeptical. I asked if their products supplied the necessary silica and he said no, they don't use silica. When I asked where the plant was going to get it's silica, he couldn't answer me. But I did what he suggested, dumped the whole system, and refilled without silica. I also went with a nute dose well below their feeding chart. The plants finished out pretty well and the pH was more stable, but I can't say if it was the lower dose or not adding silica. Next run I'll start without silica and see how the plants, and the pH/ppm do. If not for the lockout, especially at peak growth, I suspect I would have easily gotten 3 lbs. from this grow.
Okay, the Cultured Systems nutrients. These were gifted to me to test from the Undercurrent section moderator over at THC Farmer. They have a dedicated rdwc forum there and early in it's inception, had Current Culture reps active on the site. It was the best place I could find to get good information on rdwc from people who know how to run them. There is a ton of good information there including several large commercial grows done by people who really know their stuff. So that's where I went to learn and get help. I still go there and have gotten to know a few people. The forum mod offered me the full line of CS nutes, no string. I was expecting to get small sample bottles and was pleasantly shocked when I opened the box to fix quarts and gallons. These systems are very easy on nutes so I've probably got enough for 3-4 grows. Close to $300 worth of nutes. This run of Blue Dream was the first using them so I do need to get back over to THCF and give them some feedback on them. It's the least I can do to replay them for their generosity.
I've only done the one run so far with them but already I can see an improvement over the H&G. The only issue I ran into was around week 5 of flowering. I had already seen the on my first system fill that the published feed schedule was too strong. I was fighting the pH going down while the ppm were rising, they were overfed. I drained some solution and replaced it with RO and while not ideal, that way okay. First time with new nutes. So I change the system, use less nutes and it's going good for 10 days or so, then same thing. So again, draining solution and adding RO. While all this is going on, the plants are at what should be their peak feeding time. I started seeing signs of what I thought was a P deficiency. As I'm trying to get the system balanced back out, they are getting worse. So I called Cultured Systems to get their ideas on what was going on. They verified that I had nutrient lockout and suggested what I had already done, removing solution and replacing with RO. While tossing a few other ideas around I mentioned the silica. The guy wasn't sure so put me on hold to check. He came back and said I shouldn't be running silica with their products and that was likely the cause of my issues. Silica is critical to sell growth and strength, so I was skeptical. I asked if their products supplied the necessary silica and he said no, they don't use silica. When I asked where the plant was going to get it's silica, he couldn't answer me. But I did what he suggested, dumped the whole system, and refilled without silica. I also went with a nute dose well below their feeding chart. The plants finished out pretty well and the pH was more stable, but I can't say if it was the lower dose or not adding silica. Next run I'll start without silica and see how the plants, and the pH/ppm do. If not for the lockout, especially at peak growth, I suspect I would have easily gotten 3 lbs. from this grow.
