Grow Mediums PickleRicks first DWC - LED

[MedGrower]

Hey PickleRick! I think MedGrower have some great advice! You may also want to try adding a little Epsom salt to your nutrients mix and dial in that PH closer to 5.8. This may help prevent further rust spots ...

Thanks! Rust spots here are related to Ca -defiency. Ca is best absorbed at pH 6.0 to 6.5. Epson salt is pure magnesium sulfate (MgSO4). Adding magnesium is not going to help in this case. Thing is that Mg is actually acting as an antagonizer for Ca. This is why there are CalMag -products that has correct ratios of Ca, Mg and Fe because they affect each others absorption and being unbalanced can lead to lockouts. You need all elements but they need to be in balance according to each other.

 

[PickleRick]

Did a water change yesterday for the super critical auto. In five days she drank about 5L, 480ppm down to 92ppm. She is now standing 80cm tall!
Switched her to bloom nutrients and added big bud, sensizym and carboload - all at half strength.
Landed at 580ppm. Her roots are looking great.

Auto-Bomb on the other hand. Her roots arn't as nice. There is no smell, doesn't feel slimy. I'm thinking that her roots might have tangled up too much?
What ever the cause, she is still looking good up top. That sm-90 might be hard at work here..
.

Happy Thursday everyone! :smoking:

 

[MedGrower]

Did a water change yesterday for the super critical auto. In five days she drank about 5L, 480ppm down to 92ppm. She is now standing 80cm tall!
Switched her to bloom nutrients and added big bud, sensizym and carboload - all at half strength.
Landed at 580ppm. Her roots are looking great.

View attachment 801038

Auto-Bomb on the other hand. Her roots arn't as nice. There is no smell, doesn't feel slimy. I'm thinking that her roots might have tangled up too much?
What ever the cause, she is still looking good up top. That sm-90 might be hard at work here..
.
View attachment 801040

Happy Thursday everyone! :smoking:

Looking good! Don't worry about those roots of AutoBomb. She is just fine. I rarely ever have my roots that bright and white either. Good job!

 

[PickleRick]

Looking good! Don't worry about those roots of AutoBomb. She is just fine. I rarely ever have my roots that bright and white either. Good job!

I will try not to, it's very hard not to worry.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Pickle: what does the top look like? Remember to follow the plant with bloom nutes not push the plant.

 

[Archiweedies]

Hey Rick just stumbled on your grow. Let me say this up front, I am by no means an expert and I commend you on your perseverance.
I have grown a plant for 60 days in DWC. That sound weird but let me explain. I bought auto seeds and started three. Only had space for one in my res so I transplanted ( with stunting lol [emoji23]) two of the outside and the grew and I still got a zip each dried. The third turned out to be an photoperiod plant and by the time I realized it( my first autos by the way) it was too big for my space. I tried to save it but its fate was sealed. It didn't take well to having its roots literally stuffed into a 3 gallon smart pot.

Before her demise she was glorious!

The reason for all these words is I wanted you to know that my plant was grown using AN 3part MGB nutes, cal mag, Hydroguard, and a product called z7 (an enzyme) the z7 and hydroguard were my line of defense against heat. I live in SoCal and at the time, my grow space was in an unfinished garage. I was at the mercy of nature. Inland we see temps well into the hundreds for a couple weeks here and there and my roots were fantastic. I later added a modification to my reservoir. It's called an ice probe and it is basically a fancy heat exchanger. In my insulated res, it brought temps down at least 8-10 degrees below ambient. If you have heat issues, consider it.

I sorely want to try my hand again at hydro, but it will have to wait until I move some plants out of the tent. When I do, you better believe my reservoir will have AN ph perfect in it and z7 and hydroguard.

Speaking of ph perfect, I saw you talk about adjusting the ph a couple times. According to a customer service representative at AN, that's a no no. Trust me, I freak out when I watered my current plants with their nutes and my ph didn't adjust down to sub 6.0 ph. But they take it just fine. The rep explained to me that ph perfect works by widening the zone at which the roots can uptake nutrients. I'll keep using their stuff until I find something easier.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MedGrower]

Aside from marketing, there is no "pH perfect", sadly. Best you can hope for is "pH stable". I've used AN for couple of years and have observed fluctuating pH and what damage it will do if left unchecked. You may need to buffer your solutions depending on your conditions, most of the time it's all ok but I'd still recommend measuring pH and adjusting as you go, preferably daily in hydro. Simply put, pH perfect is scientific impossibility. Like with most good nutrient manufacturers the nutrients are well chelated that means widening the zone roots can uptake nutrients. You shouldn't confuse chelation with pH being perfect, though.

I don't mean to sound a like douchebag mr. know it all but I hate to see people being fooled too

 

[KonopCh]

Aside from marketing, there is no "pH perfect", sadly. Best you can hope for is "pH stable". I've used AN for couple of years and have observed fluctuating pH and what damage it will do if left unchecked. You may need to buffer your solutions depending on your conditions, most of the time it's all ok but I'd still recommend measuring pH and adjusting as you go, preferably daily in hydro. Simply put, pH perfect is scientific impossibility. Like with most good nutrient manufacturers the nutrients are well chelated that means widening the zone roots can uptake nutrients. You shouldn't confuse chelation with pH being perfect, though.

I don't mean to sound a like douchebag mr. know it all but I hate to see people being fooled too

Do you use AN nutes in hydro? Do you adjust pH daily? Since "pH perfect" nutes are available around from 4 to 9 on pH scale, I think it's not necesarily to adjust pH?

 

[MedGrower]

Do you use AN nutes in hydro? Do you adjust pH daily? Since "pH perfect" nutes are available around from 4 to 9 on pH scale, I think it's not necesarily to adjust pH?

Yeah I did use AN nutes in hydro for couple of years. I check pH daily regardless and correct only when I see there to be a need to correct the pH. These days I let it float around 6.2 all the time and it serves me well. I've seen crazy pH fluctuations with AN Sensi -line too even though most of the time it stays stable. I'd never count on it though.

Well I'd invite you to grow at pH 4 and give us a good growdiary about that but I would see serious trouble ahead. Thing mostly for me is that I start to see Ca -issues after the pH goes below 6 usually.

 

[KonopCh]

Yea, I was asking because I had trouble with AN nutes in coco. I grown in soil before and never checked pH - works great because of buffers in soil. But it's different song in coco, as I said.

So if I understand right... you adjusting to 6.2 in hydro and keep it at 6.2 when dropped/raised?
What about airstones - they raise pH I read... with AN nutes too?