Complete Setup - Need Help and Advice

[4leaves]

Hi All. This is my first time growing. I'm now on my 12th day. I would first like to walk you through my complete setup and show you some pics from Day 8 before I get current because I had some major problems like limping, curling and a little yellowing too. Since then I made a few adjustments and I see some improvements but I just want to make sure I'm making the right adjustments. So I'll do this by answering the questions provided by Hick (thanks Hick). I will break this up into several threads since I there is a size limit on pics.

Day 8
Question 1 - How tall are your plants now? There around 1 to 1.5 inches tall

Is this height OK for Day 8?

 

[4leaves]

How far from the lights are the tops of your plants? Is this a constant distance or have you changed it recently? A constant distance of about 18 inches. Although, I did move them closer on day 6 to about 16 inches. This is when I first noticed problems with yellowing (only 1 plant though) and limping on another plant (severe limping in my opinion but this is my first time growing so I’m not sure if this is even considered limping). On day 7 I move the lights back up to 18-20 inches. I have not seen in more yellowing on other plants but I do see other plants starting to limp. See Pics below. I have been running the lights 24 hours.

How old are they? The plants are 8 days old

What strain are they? Don’t know got them from bag weed(some pretty good weed though)

 

[4leaves]

Seed. I started with 14 seeds in the starter plugs. 11 germinated. Out of the 11, 9 survived the germination period and have grew it’s first 4 flowers. I’m not sure why the other 2 that germinated died.

NOTE: All this happened before I added any Nutes. I was using just plain tap water. I did notice that my water level was a bit low so the fogger didn’t appear to be reaching the roots. Not sure if this caused the problems. So on Day 7, I added more water (in addition to some nutes… see the question related to nutes below for how much)

3 are limping. 1 of 3 limped so severely that the plant is completely leaning on the reservoir. See pic 1 below. So I used a straw to hold up the plant(adjustment... not sure if this was the best thing though). Pic 2 with the straw

 

[4leaves]

I forgot to mention Plant 1 from the previous thread actually limped the opposite way... I forced it to the other side.

Here are plants 2 and 3.

What I suspect caused the limping is the amount of drips I was giving the plants... I later noticed that all the plants limped away from the dripper. I descreased the dripper and I saw major improvement...not sure if this adjustment fixed the problem though.

 

[4leaves]

Plant 1 the yellow is covering most of the leaf. The other 2 have a spot of yellow.

notice the yellowing on the big leaves... I also notice water drops on the leaves too. I think the fogger is causing the water to pop out onto the plant… so I closed that hole today which is why u see blue wrap in other pics

 

[4leaves]

1 spot and this plant also has the leaves curling too

 

[4leaves]

well...this girl might turn male after all this suffering

 

[4leaves]

no, i'm not high i'm just never low...But anyway...

What type of containers are you using and what size are they in gallons?
14 Plant Hydroflora System. 23 1/2"L x 16 1/4"W x 12 1/4"H. holds up to 66 quarts/...as you seen from the pics above

What type of grow do you have? Hydroponic...as you can see

What type of Hydroponic system do you use? The Cool Cab system. so far no complaints...although they forgot to ship my keys...hmm i wonder why???

Some light leaks through cracks at bottom and top of cabinet in front and through the ventilation fans in the back. Is this too much light leakage? See pic2 below

Pic 1 - inside of the cabinet
Pic 2 - Front of cabinet with all the lights off

 

[4leaves]

more light leakage...is this too much light leakage? if so, how do you suggest i fix this?

 

[4leaves]

Here are the remaining specs of my system

14 drip nozzles (fully adjustable) .
1. Drip irrigation system to each netpot
2. ULTRASONIC FOGGER
3. Air pump with check valve, airstone, and tubing
4. Hydrokorrels (the red clay rocks) for each netpot
5. 14 Organic Starter Plugs for each seedling (pre-soaked with germination aides)
6. 66qt. reservoir which fits perfectly into your caddy
7. 185 gallon per hour mag driven water pump (heavy duty)
8. High output ultrasonic fogger with float/ac adapter for lightning fast root growth (replacement disks available). Automatic fill valve with included 1 gallon reservoir for complete self automation!
The drip nozzles sit directly on the starter plug and drip at a rate of 1 drip per second...
I actually stuck my hand in the water to move this fogger from splashing water onto the top of my plants and it shocked me...this is shocking :-(nope wasn't high just not low... I notice this fogger is now splashing water on the roots of one of my plants too... Is this bad?

What type of media do you use? hydrokorrels
What type of lights do you use? 400 WATT METAL HALIDE BULB

Ballast, is it digital or analog? Magnetic Sun Ballast. Brand new 400 watt Digital Conversion Ballast

Is it remote or in your grow area? The ballast is on the back of the cabinet

 

[4leaves]

What nutrients are you feeding your plants? Flora Nova Series. Flora Grow, Flora Bloom, Floralicious Plus.

I mixed 2 teaspoons of FloraGrow and ½ teaspoon of Floralicious Plus on Day 7. My PPM before I mixed the nutes was 187. After I mixed the nutes, it is around 350 PPM. The PH is between 6.5-7.0. I’m not sure because it’s hard for me to tell which color on the chart it matched. I filled the vial halfway. Added 2 drops of PH indicator. Shook the vial. The color turned light green. It look closed to 6. So I added another drop just to make sure I had enough PH indicator and it turned to darker green. Close to 7. Man, it’s hard to tell though. See pic 1 below and let me know what you think.

Hydroponic? What brand? What mix? What strength? ORGANIC STARTER PLUGS, hydrokorrels

Do you use ventilation for your indoor grow? Ventilation system (800+ CFM of aircooling)

If so, what do you use? 2 Fans. 2 200 CFM Rear Cooling Fans. I also have a fan blowing directly on the bulb...this setup came this way. Question. I have the fan blowing on the backside of the bulb through the ventialion ducts. Should the fan be blowing the front of the bulb? I have the option to do either or.

Temperature? The temp inside is generally between 77-80F. Although, Day 1 (and maybe even Day 3) the temp got up to 95F for several hours because I left the closet doors closed (comes with never being low ). Since then, the temp has been constant. Do you think this had an adverse affect on the plants turning yellow or limping?

Humidity? Not sure. But the cool cab is in a decent size room


Is CO2 being introduced? Yes, I began using it on Day 7. What method? CO2 Injection system. I’m not sure how to use it though so I’m trying a few different ways. I tried putting the tube directly behind the fan so the air can blow in the entire cabinet. Since I’m impatient (I know I shouldn’t be) and a little nervous. I moved the tube directly over 1 plant. remember the pic of plant that has a severe limp... well that was the tube over top of it... I thought this would help it heal... btw, this plant is now a lot heathier too. Which method is best... directly on the plant or blowing behind the fan?

Odor Control Method (carbon, ionizer, ozone gen)? Carbon Air Filter with the Ozone Generator built-in. I have not started using this yet. No ordors yet. See pic 2 and 3.

Do you use LST? HST? I don’t think so but I’m not sure what LST or HST is though.

 

[KADE]

I'll be honest.. i'm not reading through all of that... but from what I skimmed through.... the basics are... that is too much light... get a fan on those plants to get the stems stronger. LST = low stress training = tieing plants down
hst = high stress training = topping or pinching

 

[StOnEd-On-NL]

having read most of that novel, looks to me like you might be drowning them. Have the roots grown through the cube yet. If you have a constant drip on those cubes without the roots growing through your roots wont get any oxygen. As for the light i suggest running them on 18/6 as apposed to 24 hours a day, this amount of light is unnatural and can damage or stress a young seedling. Get a timer and put it on 18/6

Hope this helps, StOnEd...

 

[jaz1873]

having read most of that novel, looks to me like you might be drowning them. Have the roots grown through the cube yet. If you have a constant drip on those cubes without the roots growing through your roots wont get any oxygen. As for the light i suggest running them on 18/6 as apposed to 24 hours a day, this amount of light is unnatural and can damage or stress a young seedling. Get a timer and put it on 18/6

Hope this helps, StOnEd...

If u have a young cutting how often do u have the timer to come on in a NFT hydroponic system Stoned on NL??

 

[StOnEd-On-NL]

i dont know about the timimngs of an NFT system but if your rockwool cubes are saturated with water your seedling wont get any oxygen. keep the cube moist but not soaking until the roots have grown through, then it should be fine

 

[4leaves]

Here are some updated photos from Day 12.

 

[4leaves]

Plants 1 is still showing a lot of yellow...do you think this might be a certain type of strain cause i'm not sure why this one is showing so much yellow and the others are not...Plant 2 is looking real good now...Plant 3 seem to be recovering...Somehow the dripper stopped dripping and the starter plug became dry as sht. Any ideas how I can help plant 1 and 3.

 

[4leaves]

Plant 4 appear to have recovered from the limp

 

[4leaves]

Plant 7 through 9 seem to be doing pretty good...Plant 7 is not limping anymore

 

[4leaves]

Is it ok for the roots to be in the water? I noticed a few of the plants roots have streched and are constantly in the water. Plants 5 and 8 have very long roots. The plants seem to still be growing ok so i'm not sure how or if this is affecting it. The roots have off-white color so they appear to be heathly but i'm not sure.