Spots on one of four seedlings + slow growth, Genetic or disease?

[jER]

Yeah I thought 4-5" seemed pretty low too although it only took a couple days for the roots to reach the water and even with the 4" gap the bottom inch or two of hydrotron stays pretty saturated. I think they designed the system that way in order to fit all the water from the 4 buckets in the control resevoir. That way you can mix up the nutes and do all the ph adjustment before sending the water to the buckets. It is pretty convienient that way. If they had a larger control rez they could have probably raised the water level in the buckets a little higher, but the way it is they are still able to overgrow the 3'x3' tent pretty easily. When you keep your 30gal of water sitting do you mix nutrients in the tank and store it ready to go or just let the water sit and mix as needed?

 

[Beerhunter CDN]

Yeah I need to get a TDS meter and Ph too, just using the GH liquid drops for ph right now.

I’m a new grower also but running coco. I think you need to get those meters as soon as possible otherwise it’s all a guessing game. From what I understand these are required tools for DWC. Don’t forget calibration solutions for them as well and use them regularly. Best of luck in your grow, I’ll be looking in on it from time to time. :smoking:

 

[jER]

Over the holidays I built myself a 100L storage tank for holding water, I put a submersible pump in the corner that cycles the water to the other corner and T's to a valve to the main control rez. I put a couple airstones in as well to pre- bubble the water for a couple days before water changes. I bubbled the water for a day and then adjusted the Ph and kept it bubbling away until I got the Ph to stabilize around 6. I did a water change this morning and used the water from the tank. Drained the old water and mixed the new water and nutes in the control rez before sending it out to the buckets. Ph held perfect at 5.5 and didn't climb back up to 7.5 over a few hours like it was doing before!
As for the air gap between the net pots and the water, it only took a couple days of hand watering for the roots to hit the water and they are finally growing like weeds. Last week I had a bit of an algea problem which clogged all the airstones up. I think I had some tiny light leaks into the buckets because I didnt fill them all the way up with hydrotron. I wanted to be able to still feel the top of the cube to see how moist it was while they were still being top watered. Fixed that up and cleaned up the airstones and the algea is at bay. I am starting to feel more on top of things now. My plants are growing fast, but also staying quite short, i am at 7-8 nodes and the plants are only 5" tall. I turned off the bloom spectrum on the light and just stuck with the veg setting for a couple days and they seemed to stretch a little. I am thinking I should do some lst to give the new branches some light as they are pretty heavily shadowed by the large fan leaves. One question I have been thinking of is whether it would be best to bend the main stems towards the center of the tent or away from center, or in a circle? I guess maybe I should start a journal....

 

[lunarman]

Thanks Chro,
We have pretty hard water here (Calgary, AB) around 250pm according to the city's water quality report. It comes out the tap over 8 Ph. I am hesitant to add additional calcium and I think having to add so much Ph down to get it to 5.5 is messing with the nutrient balance as it is. Once spring comes I will probably collect rainwater and blend it with the filtered tap water, My mother grows orchids and that is what she does.

Nix the tap water 100%. I mixed calgary tap with filtered RO for a long time but you just can't get rid of the hardness even at a 50% mix with clean water. Had lots of build up in irrigation lines etc. once i switched 100% RO water, the build up has gone done a lot. Plus with RO (or I guess rain water) you have a full open license to use the proper nutes for the occasion. Case in point now you can use real calmag at the right amount.

If your water consumption for growing is not that great, you can get 15 gallons of RO water for $8 in Calgary. I used to do that at a place on Mcleod. But after seeing what RO can really do and how much I use when I want to do it all in, I had to get my own RO filter setup. Solid growing investment for sure. Saves a lot of money where you get payback quickly and you get to give your plants the best there is.

 

[lunarman]

Yeah I need to get a TDS meter and Ph too, just using the GH liquid drops for ph right now.

those drops suck and will make your grow suck big time if you aren't an expert at using them. There isn't enough granularity or precision. And like I mentioned you might get misled and make a mistake with where thought PH was.

 

[lunarman]

I’m a new grower also but running coco. I think you need to get those meters as soon as possible otherwise it’s all a guessing game. From what I understand these are required tools for DWC. Don’t forget calibration solutions for them as well and use them regularly. Best of luck in your grow, I’ll be looking in on it from time to time. :smoking:

Hey my friend. This is the YYC thread. Three Calgarian peas in a pod or I mean beans in solo cups.

 

[jER]

Hey guys, I finally got around to posting a journal for these Jack Herer Autos. You can find it here:
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/jack-herer-auto-rdwc.69400/#post-1996121
Thanks again for all your help! Things are running relatively smooth now and the girls are starting to flower. Currently around 16" tall and bushy as hell.

 

[Garage_Grower]

A bunch of us reppin’ the 403 [emoji41]


Easy Smoking! [emoji869]

 

[RivetGrrl]

Nothing to add here other than I'm kickin' the shit in rural Alberta an hour north of y'all
Water up here is OK, I can't afford to buy a RO unit for the house yet so I deal with it, I gotta add CalMag tho.
I'll check out your journal jER & "locals"