New Grower Need an experienced grower advise please.

[Cannabiskollektivet]

Hello AFN,

Gonna put down the specs of my grow below, and then explain the issue.

Growing medium: Biobizz All Mix mixed with perelite and clay pebbles
Grow light: GN Telos 10 Pro 285W LED
Nutrients: Dare-To-Grow and Cal-Mag
Pot size: 15L Autopots (Autowatering disabled)
Feeding schedual: 3L of ph:ed water to 6,5-7,0 each. Nutrients go in at 50% and Cal-Mag at 100% of recommended dosage.
EC/PPM: 1.8-2.2 / 1200-1500
Runoff: Around 25-30% on estimate, runoff PPM is anywhere between 2000-2500, runoff PH is at 5.5
Strains: Fastbuds Blue Dream'matic / Dutch Passion Colorado Cookies
Ventilation: Inline fan + carbon filter + 1 oscilating fan
Temp/RH: During daytime around 23-25c, nighttime around 20-21c. Humidity is around 40-50% at all times
Light cycle: 18/6

The coloration of the leaves are slightly more lightgreen then normal I belive, and a big concern that I have is the runoff PPM/PH. Am I going for a nutrient lockout here and what course of action should I take? I'm attaching a picture from yesterday wich was day 43. Do I need to flush? Lower the nutes? Up the nutes?

Thanks for stopping by and helping a noob like myself.

 

[Builder0101]

You know you have a shitton of nutes in the soil. Right. There is no deficiency in the media. Leaves one option. Hard to correct but you need to get that runoff ppm down I would say.

 

[automan2]

Man, sorry you're having issues...might be result of 'pushing the rope'....

 

[Big Sul]

Man, sorry you're having issues...might be result of 'pushing the rope'....

Outstanding analogy.

 

[Olderfart]

I think your nutes are too high, maybe because the All Mix has lots in it already. Dunno about that soil, I haven't used it. In any case, at 2000ppm runoff, I am surprised that they look as good as they do. Are you sure your meter is set to ppm and not EC?

In either case, I think you may be headed for lockout if you are not there already.

I have been there with autopots more than once - buildup of nutes in the soil/medium seems to be a risk with this setup. Even more experienced growers sometimes run into this issue with autopots.

My solution, which seems to have worked in more cases than not is to flush with phed nute solution, not plain water until runoff ph and ppm/EC is where I want the plants to be. Others just use plain phed water, but I use nutes so as to reduce osmotic shock. Different strokes. In any case, once I get the runoff in spec, I do a final fertigation with extras like microbes, fulvic/humic etc. No point in wasting the extras. You will use a lot of liquid, the last flush I did used most of a laundry tub of mix to move runoff from >2000EC to ~1200 which is where I wanted it. PH was not an issue in my mess. Whatever, bottom line is get that runoff to where you want the plants to be.

Good luck with it, I hope you get things under control.

 

[Arthur]

Agree with the above diagnosis.
Runoff tests are for coco, not for soil.
Slurry test the medium for pH and ppm to verify the mediums pH has not drifted, then pH'd water for a while.
I'd probably go this route before flushing, in coco it's a normal thing to do, in soil, it's an absolute last resort.... in coco a flush removes what you put in, and you start from 0 again. In soil, you have no way of controlling or knowing what's being flushed and, in some instances (time release nutes) you'll make the issue worse.

 

[Cannabiskollektivet]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm gonna cut down on the nutes and just feed with regular ph:ed water and some cal-mag for the time being and see if the runoff comes down a little bit.

 

[Cannabiskollektivet]

I think your nutes are too high, maybe because the All Mix has lots in it already. Dunno about that soil, I haven't used it. In any case, at 2000ppm runoff, I am surprised that they look as good as they do. Are you sure your meter is set to ppm and not EC?

In either case, I think you may be headed for lockout if you are not there already.

I have been there with autopots more than once - buildup of nutes in the soil/medium seems to be a risk with this setup. Even more experienced growers sometimes run into this issue with autopots.

My solution, which seems to have worked in more cases than not is to flush with phed nute solution, not plain water until runoff ph and ppm/EC is where I want the plants to be. Others just use plain phed water, but I use nutes so as to reduce osmotic shock. Different strokes. In any case, once I get the runoff in spec, I do a final fertigation with extras like microbes, fulvic/humic etc. No point in wasting the extras. You will use a lot of liquid, the last flush I did used most of a laundry tub of mix to move runoff from >2000EC to ~1200 which is where I wanted it. PH was not an issue in my mess. Whatever, bottom line is get that runoff to where you want the plants to be.

Good luck with it, I hope you get things under control.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not using the autopots actully, im watering by hand. What is phed nute solution? anything to save my babies as this is my first time growing. xD

 

[Olderfart]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not using the autopots actully, im watering by hand. What is phed nute solution? anything to save my babies as this is my first time growing. xD

Sorry about the autopot confusion, not sure where that came from. As I mentioned, I do not know anything about the soil you are using but seems from @Arthur's information that it was already fairly hot, so that is likely where your very high ppms in the runoff are coming from.

As he suggests, doing a slurry test might give you more information about soil conditions, but given your runoff, I suspect that you are going to find the nutes very high.

Also as he suggests, given the rich soil mix, flushing is a real crap shoot, so just watering with water at the right pH for a while is likely your least risky option for now. You could still do a flush later as a last resort if things go downhill.

If you get desperate enough to flush, given the fact that you are dealing with a heavily amended soil, flushing with plain water at your selected pH might be safest. If you get to that point, the object would be to remove all the nutes in there and start from scratch, but that might be difficult if any of the stuff in there is delayed release.
Good luck with it, keep us posted on how you make out.

 

[Cannabiskollektivet]

Sorry about the autopot confusion, not sure where that came from. As I mentioned, I do not know anything about the soil you are using but seems from @Arthur's information that it was already fairly hot, so that is likely where your very high ppms in the runoff are coming from.

As he suggests, doing a slurry test might give you more information about soil conditions, but given your runoff, I suspect that you are going to find the nutes very high.

Also as he suggests, given the rich soil mix, flushing is a real crap shoot, so just watering with water at the right pH for a while is likely your least risky option for now. You could still do a flush later as a last resort if things go downhill.

If you get desperate enough to flush, given the fact that you are dealing with a heavily amended soil, flushing with plain water at your selected pH might be safest. If you get to that point, the object would be to remove all the nutes in there and start from scratch, but that might be difficult if any of the stuff in there is delayed release.
Good luck with it, keep us posted on how you make out.

Hehe no worries mate, probably because I'm growing in autopots, but decided to stay with handwatering. Yeah I think thats the best way to go, for now I'm only gonna use PH water to 6.5 and see how it turns out.

I'm not sure if you are familiar but I'm using Fearless garderners brand of nutrients, and they have an product called "Flush-out" wich they recommend that you use at first sight of nutrient lockout. The instructions says to water until runoff with the solution, then flush with regular water until the blue indicator dissapears (whatever that means?) and the objective with the solution is to get rid of built up salts etc. So you suggest I use that as an absolute last resort?

Again thanks for all the help, and sorry for double-asking some questions i'm just trying to be very cautious right now so I dont mess up my first grow too hard...

Yes will do, i'll keep you posted! Cheers mate! :smoking: